AFRican Education Needs You! By Jackie Tsiga

Wake up, breakfast, school, home, eat, laptop (on facebook whilst pretending to do homework), sleep!! That’s Monday to Friday. Not for me, I’m not that sad but for my little sister. Going to school is a routine operation for her and many other kids living in More Economically Developed Countries. School is seen as a ‘rite of passage’ by many people because it’s what society (and government) expects you to do. The children in MEDCs do exercise their ‘right to education’ why? Because it’s free. I’m not going to say people love free stuff (because they do) but there were days were I did go into school because I had to and to be honest I learnt nothing. But look at me now, I’m writing a blog for AFR Clothing :).

What I’m saying is when you live in rich countries such as England, opportunities are everywhere. It’s up to YOU to grasp it. Why? Because we have been given the ingredients to making a better life so ourselves. A free education, books, a safe environment to learn in and a good education system. What happens if all that was taken away? Well then we’d be back to the Victorian times or worse still we would be in Modern Day Africa. Education in Africa is pretty much non-existent. Yes there are schools but many fall below the acceptable standards of a school. They are overcrowded, really far from home and in extreme cases schools don’t even resemble a school. It is children learning underneath a tree with a chalkboard and teacher standing at the front. If there was a school like that anywhere in America or Europe would you go there or send your children there? My guess is no. So why do these children still walk 6 miles a day to go and learn underneath a tree? Because education is the only way out of poverty.

I grew up in Zimbabwe (A great country in unfortunate circumstances). Like most African countries education is not free. So the ’right to education’ becomes void because a right is something that you’re entitled to which is not the case if you have to pay for it. I went to a mission school were the well off students were mixed with the poorest students. I remember I had a classmate called Blessing. She had four siblings and they all lived at a nearby farm. She had to leave school because unfortunately her mom passed away leaving her to become the breadwinner. There is a burden on education in Africa because they have to pay school fees and many families can’t afford it. I’ve witnessed students being removed from learning because they haven’t been able to pay for their education and they kept on coming back each day because they are determined to learn. It is that hope of a better future that becomes the driving force for the children in Africa. For those who have been lucky enough to scrape enough money for school fees there’s a whole host of problems which must be addressed too; these include the cost of books and uniform.

Blessing became an orphan when she was only 12 years old. She was one of 12million orphaned children because of AIDS. When her mother passed away she basically had to make a choice, ‘work and eat, or study and starve’. This is a decision that many children are forced to make in Africa. By leaving school it meant that she was illiterate and would lack the basic education needed which meant her career had little or no options other than becoming a farm worker. The burden of education in Africa is the fact that education is not free and many families cannot afford to send their children to school. Figures from the United Nations state that 69million school-age children aren’t in education and 39 million of them are in Sub-Saharan Africa. That is almost half of the total figure. What makes it worse is that 24 million girls don’t attend primary school and only 1 in 5 school children are girls. African parents believe that the boys should become educated and the girls can stay at home and look after the family but UNESCOs “Better Life, Better Future, focuses on reaching illiterate or semi-literate adolescent girls and scaling up women’s literacy.

It is widely recognised that investing in girls and women’s education has real potential for breaking the poverty cycle and achieving social justice. Nevertheless, around 39 million girls of lower secondary age are missing out on an education, while the majority – two thirds – of the world’s 796 million illiterate adults are women and 54% of them are in Africa.”

The United Nations has set up the ‘millennium development goals’ which aims to end world poverty by 2015. They have eight goals which are; end poverty, universal education, gender equality, child health, maternal health, combat HIV/AIDS, environmental stability and global partnership.
“Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling”. So far they have actually managed to abolish school fees at primary level in Burundi, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Malawi and Tanzania. This is excellent because it has shown that the millennium development goals are being met one step at a time. Tanzania now has 99.6% enrolment because of this. There are many challenges that still need to be addressed because now the UN has to meet demand. For example teachers are needed, adequate places to learn and also reading and writing materials but were there’s a will there’s always a way. The UN has recruited volunteers from all over the world to come and teach in these countries and there have been fundraisers created to build up funds for books and stationery.

I love Africa, I belong there. It is the second largest continent in the world with 22% of the world’s land mass. The continent has a wealth of resources including diamonds, gold, oil, land for agriculture and wildlife. We have it all; we are the cradle of life. Then why is Africa the poorest continent on earth? The population is just under one billion (the last time I counted) and yet over 40 million people are HIV/AIDS positive. This number keeps growing each day, bearing in mind AIDS isn’t the only deadly disease in Africa. There is also Malaria, dysentery and hunger. Ok I know hunger isn’t a disease but the continent is plagued with drought and floods making the soil infertile causing hunger and famine. Would I go back there? 100% yes. I want to educate people on the challenges faced by young people in Africa who are just like me. I have talked about the burden on education in Africa but despite those challenges faced by these children, they still have the determination and strength to get up every day at 4am to work (in the farm), cook, walk 3 miles to school, learn, walk 3 miles back, work (in the farm), do homework (not facebook but actual homework), cook then sleep. This is the Monday to Friday life of a school child in Africa.

I think the world has increased awareness of the challenges faced by children in Africa each day. Countries are coming together to help each other and improve the quality of life. People in More Economically Developed Countries are doing more and ‘every little helps’ in changing their lives. AFR Clothing is taking strides to help those that cannot afford to pay for education and I hope reading this has inspired you to join the movement by purchasing shirts from AFR Clothing. Not only will you look good but you will feel good too because you are part of the solution. I think the world has increased awareness of the challenges faced by children in Africa each day. Countries are coming together to help each other and improve the quality of life. People in More Economically Developed Countries are doing more and ‘every little helps’ in changing their lives. AFR Clothing is taking strides to help those that cannot afford to pay for education and I hope reading this has inspired you to join the movement by purchasing shirts from AFR Clothing. Not only will you look good but you will feel good too because you are part of the solution.