LearnAsOne

The progress so far

We’re not alone in recognising the importance of education. The UN’s well publicised Millennium Develpoment Goals (MDGs) include a pledge to ensure all children have access to primary education by the year 2015. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights enshrines the expectation that everyone should be able to go to school in article 26, and states unambiguously that “Elemental education should be compulsory”.

At a meeting in Dakar in 2000 a basic framework for meeting the Millennium Goal was drawn up. The good news is that the governments of nearly all developing nations recognise this and are working really hard to improve access to free education at the primary level. There has been huge progress in the last nine years. Across Sub-Saharan Africa, this decade has seen the number of children enrolled in primary school rise from 54% to over 70%. That’s a tremendous achievement.

These statistics hide the fact that people still need help, though. Especially now, when many of the fragile economies of the area have been smashed to pieces by falling commodity prices. Although much has been achieved, governments still lack resources and infrastructure to keep the pace of change up.

Despite more schools, the African educational watchdog, SACMEQ, found that less than 10% of grade 6 children in Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia and Zambia achieved the desirable rate of literacy for a child of their age.

It gets worse. In many countries, high enrollment numbers only lead to high rates of absenteeism and numbers dropping out. Pressure to work or even marry, illness and poor school resourcing all contribute to outrageously high attrition rates in the numbers of pupils actually finishing their basic schooling.

To put it another way, children in France are twice as likely to continue school after 18 than children in Benin or Niger will finish primary school. The 2009 Education For All report projects there will be 29 million children out of school in 2015. In other words, the Millennium Development Goal for education will almost certainly be missed.

The goodwill of governments isn’t going to build schools. That takes money and infrastructure which is all too often not in place. That’s why we are going to Africa. To document the situation on the ground and give you the chance to help.

* Source for all stats - http://www.efareport.unesco.org