Education is a resource that is often taken for granted by those who benefit from it, but for children in nations lacking public school systems it is a glaring disadvantage. Education is the systematic first step for the rest of any person’s normal functioning life, but many people are living without ever having any form of public education. Without public education children must only rely on local teachings and customs that limit the opportunities available to them. Without that crucial introduction to learning, many of these children will never be enrolled and be subdued to a cycle of ignorance and poverty.
Examples
Without institutional intervention, a boy in Angola drops out of school at age 11 to help support his family, however, due to never learning a skill or trade, he is unable to provide a reliable source of income for them.
A young girl banned from ever attending school never receives a proper education and is forced into working remedial jobs with long hours and low pay.
Without ever learning about safe-sex precautions a girl in the sub-Sahara contracts aids from unprotected sex.
Scale
There are currently an estimated 93 million (15%) primary school-age children who are not in school. [1]
775 million people are illiterate, and 2/3 of them are women and girls. [2]
31 million primary-school students worldwide dropped out of school in 2012 [3]
50% of people in the continent of Africa are illiterate. [3]
If you are a girl in a developing country, your chances of being denied schooling are one in five (20%). [5]
Drivers
Cost
The building, staffing, and maintaining of school systems are not only time consuming but are also expensive. Without a strong and wealthy government, the cost building of schools is passed on to donors or charities that can only do so much. Because of the cost of staffing and maintaining the school can be so high, many struggling schools require students to pay for their own textbooks and uniforms. This forces poor families to keep their children out of school while only the privileged children benefit. In Nigeria poor women from rural areas receive an average of 2.6 years of education while wealthy women from more urban areas receive on average 9 years of education. [1]
Gender
Many countries where school systems do exist frown-upon, or in some cases prohibit, women from attending school. Families with multiple children living in poverty will often choose to send the boys to school and have their girls stay home to do house work or to watch the younger children. In many developing nations girls are sent off to marry at 12 or younger, missing the opportunity to receive a decent education. Recent estimates show that 1/3 of girls in the developing world are married before age 18, and 1/3 of women in the developing world give birth before age 20 [4]. In Pakistan, the Taliban banned girls from attending school and bombed more than 100 girls schools killing over 1,000 in the last 3 years. By preventing girls from educating themselves, they continue the cycle of subservience and dependence. Girls who receive a proper education are less likely to marry early or die in childbirth and more likely to send their own children to school.
Resources
Even in areas where the government can afford to build and maintain schools it can be hard to find building materials for a reasonable price. Many schools built in developing nations are poor quality and don’t follow safe building codes. They’re often unsanitary and generally unsafe for students. This can be a serious problem in nations in war zones as militia or terrorist groups looking for hostages or to make some sort of statement often target schools. Another valuable and hard to find resource are teachers. Qualified teachers can be hard to find and even harder to pay. Without a proper budget for wages many schools are forced to hire unqualified teachers or rely on teachers working for charity.
Approaches
Build Africa is a charity that helps builds schools in Uruguay and Kenya. They believe in not only building the schools but also making sure it is properly staffed and operated to provide the most effective learning to children and to help end the cycle of poverty and ignorance.
UNICEF has a focus in childhood education, especially for girls. They help support school systems and other charities working directly with students with donations as well as using their world-wide influence to make changes in law and government in developing countries.
The Basic Education Coalition works with U.S. policymakers, partner organizations, and the general public to increase support and funding for quality education around the globe.
References and Resources
[1] http://www.unicef.org/education/bege_61657.html
[2] http://www.basiced.org/key-issues/girls-education/
[3] http://www.dosomething.org/tipsandtools/11-facts-about-education-around-world