The state of worlds’ children education(unicef report)

LITERACY DIFFERENCES AND ITS IMPLICATIONS (UNICEF, 2006 REPORT)

Education is a fundamental human right and very critical to development. it a source of power, wealth, knowledge, opportunities, gender equality, a weapon to poverty and a foundation to development. However all the above also are dependent on the quality of education we attain and the factors that facilitate access to education.

In reference to the UNICEF report, countries with lowest female literacy and least female attendance like Afghanistan, Mali, Niger, girls are almost denied the right to enrol even at the lowest level of primary as well as secondary. The implication is that education is only a right only if enforced. Others include girls in Yemen, Iraq, Pakistan etc countries characterised by Islam as a factor that shows more numbers of boys preference to get education as compared to more Christian ones like Philippine with more girls attending school that boys, others include Ukraine, Venezuela.

 Generally least developed countries indicate the lowest literacy levels especially at secondary levels while the developed countries show the highest literacy levels. The developed countries also show high levels of technology and communication. The implication is that children in developed countries have more access to research, skills, electricity associated with internet and phone operations etc. Their world is more technologically advanced as compared to poor African countries like Mali Ethiopia etc were internet as main medium of communication in the global world is zero. Lack of these services have also increased the education gap between the developed and poor countries.

 The statistics also show that the most developed countries have more gender equality in enrolment of boys and girls at all levels so is the attendance. While in most poor countries it indicates children preference in education where the boys are enrolled more than the girls at all levels of education. Discrimination of girls from enrolment especially in Moslem countries like Afghanistan and Pakistan have the lowest girls enrolment. This  can be associated with either religion or cultures that see girls only as mothers in the making and therefore do not require to go to school.

 Reasons for the differences:

Poverty is one of the reasons why not all children go to school especially girls. For instance in Uganda were primary education is free for all and Secondary education, but still the enrolment is higher at the primary level with high attendance but it decreases at higher levels. This is because children at earlier age are not so required to provide labour than when they grow. This is influenced by culture which socialise girls for domestic work and early marriage than others.

The reason for high rates of low attendance in poor countries is due to lack of enough resources and labour for subsistence. While in developed countries child policies on education and enforcement may be more realistic than in less developed countries were child labour if forbidden.

 The other reason could be the advancement in technology in the developed countries where information and education is supported by technology. In most countries with low literacy also have no internet, this in itself goes beyond technology to suggest that there may not be electricity to support computers and phones. There fore low literacy have factors that go beyond attendance.

 We also note that although enrolment is important at the primary level, retainance is another big issue coupled with inconsistent attendance. This in the end affects performance and quality of education. In comparing mostly East African levels of enrolment and retainance, there is a lot of drop outs of children as compared to developed countries which retain their children in the schools to the end.

 This implies that unless children are enrolled, retained and attend lessons can not gain from the education like getting any qualifications to earn a job to eradicate poverty. Because education is an assurance for better wellbeing and critical for one’s own health living and others,  employment is also possible. For example the UNIPID courses are only done on line, this implies that without the internet you can not have the right to study these courses or if you are computer illiterate. This is the true situation of our friends who don’t have internet and no technology in their countries like Ethiopia the table shows zero internet( UNICEF , 2008)

 

Reference

UNICEF(2006) The state of the world’s children 2007. Table 5

Available at  www.unicef.org