In 2000, the United Nations introduced the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as part of the United Nations Millennium Declaration. The MDGs were established to attempt to improve overall well-being for as many people as possible, and targets issues such as poverty, starvation, and disease. This paper will focus on the development goal of achieving universal primary education, specifically focusing on the country of Ethiopia. Achieving universal primary education is important because it acts as a building block towards the development of counties as a whole. Primary education is not only a necessity, but a right to all individuals regardless of gender or class. Over the course of the last decade, Ethiopia has experienced vast improvements …show more content…
This is due to a variety of reasons, the biggest due to the socioeconomic state of Ethiopia. According to a local Ethiopian advisor, the biggest reason most children discontinue school is that their parents simply cannot afford to pay for their school supplies and transportation. In Ethiopia, children are seen as a resource by their parents, and often times the financial state of the family requires that the child helps work on their farm or provide money for the family by other means (ROOTS Ethiopia). Because the financial stability of the average Ethiopian family is so fragile, a variety of events such as a drought or death of a family member can necessitate a child dropping out of school and working to make up for losses. Ethiopian children commonly drop out of school because of the lack of quality within the school system. Many of the schools in Ethiopia are lacking in resources. There is an insufficient number of qualified teachers, a lack of learning materials such as books and blackboards, and in extreme cases, some schools do not have enough chairs or desks for every student to have a seat. The USAID performed a study on a small sample of Ethiopian schools. Out of their 46 classroom observations, all teachers and students were present only 24% of the time, some teachers and students were present 57% of the time, and no teachers were present 20% of the time (DeStefano and Elaheebocus). Due to a
* Illness/disability- this can cause a child/children to miss out on a large chuck of the education and struggle to achieve due to them taking
The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, illuminates the essential rights that all children have. According to the Convention, each child has the privilege of education, it is the state 's obligation to guarantee that essential education is free and necessary, to allow distinctive types of secondary training, including general and professional training and to make them open to each child and to make advanced education accessible (United Nations, 1990). But as indicated by UNICEF, an expected 93 million kids on the planet don 't get the chance to go to school, the majority whom are girls. A large part of these children are poor and their families can 't stand to send them to school. They should work to help their families survive. Others, for the most part, young girls don 't go to school since they need to help at home. However, without an education, children and families are forced to lead an existence in poverty (UNICEF, 2015).
Poverty has a large impact on students and their ability to engage in school. From a young age, children are influenced by their family and peers behavior. Basic foundations for school subjects such as vocabulary are often the hardest subjects for children in poverty, with the lack of proper background knowledge from their parents. Children in poverty also develop bad habits such as not eating breakfast which can lead to health issues, and a lack of energy and focus in school. When these children grow up in households full of stress and anxiety the are negatively impacted and tend to develop their own stress which can become so severe that they have lost all hope and optimism. Negative influences from their home life and peers can often impact their growth in school because of their lack of nutrition, small range of vocabulary, and their negative approach to school work.
“These factors include: incidence of poverty, the depth of poverty, the duration of poverty, the timing of poverty (age of child), community characteristics (concentration of poverty and crime in neighborhood, and school characteristics) and the impact poverty has on the child’s social network (parents, relatives and neighbors).” Any one of these factors can contribute to a child not being able to focus in school which can ultimately lead to a child falling behind in their education. With the current trajectory the education system as a whole, not taking into account those disadvantage students that may struggle at school because they have to worry about trying not to struggle at home when the school day is
The proportion of children who are enrolled in primary schools has increased from 49% to 77% in the past decade in sub-Saharan Africa. This increase in enrollment is due mostly to the initiative of the governments from these regions to improve universal primary education. However, much remains to be done because even though enrollment has been made a possibility in a lot of these countries, there are a lot of other variables at play that still prevent children from receiving a quality education. Things such as poverty, cultural traditions, gender violence, and the incidence of early marriage are a major reason for disadvantaged groups, particularly poor girls, not making as much progress in enrolling
Students are at risk of dropping out of school when parents and students do not perceive that additional schooling is worth the investment of time and money, that is, when the costs of schooling exceed the expected benefits. A high rate of dropout could indicate that students are not learning enough, that the quality of schooling is too low to justify student’s time and the direct cost in terms of parental contributions. Other factors can also put children at risk of dropping out of schools. When schools do not offer all the grades of the basic cycle and children therefore have to change schools to attend the higher grades and increase their travel time to get to school. Many schools have either been closed by the government or occupied and damaged by internally displaced people or armed
Schools in Ethiopia are slightly outdated but still offer good learning. They have the k-12 school system and colleges. The school that my dad went to taught English, but when my parents went to school there were no fast and thin computers. Like everywhere before technology the teachers had to work very hard to help students. There was no internet to get help on. It was still landlines and simple electronics. By the time my cousin was born electronics were starting to spread and increase in number. Unlike other schools, physical activities were pretty much-done every day all the way to college.
Approximately 75 million children around the world have no opportunity to attend primary school. Of the 75 million, most of them are girls due to tradition or parents that hold them back from attending ("Main Navigation"). Other factors that affect children from going to school is because of conflicts and wars that result in schools to be destroyed and families to flee the country. Lack of education is a growing crisis due to many factors in developing countries but it has the power pull a country out of poverty and make them economically stable and attract other countries to trade, therefore it should be seen as a priority. Developed countries are involved to help countries increase their education because every child should have the
Another personal related problem is jobs. Most students are working part-time in order to support themselves and their family which at times will lead to intrusion with school hours, home works, no time for studying especially to major exams and various school activities which otherwise leads to failing grade. Peer pressure is also another factor wherein these students are being led to bad influences such as drinking, drug which causes a major side effect to students (Schwartz, 1995). Schools do this in order to handle their problem. Students from broken homes are also likely to drop out of school due to the stressful situation that they have to go through and thus affect their concentration in school. Furthermore, most students who dropped out of school don't like school to begin with. These students will rebel and do anything against the school rules in order to be kicked out (Schwartz, 1995). They are likely to fail on their subjects, doesn't get along with other students, and have disciplinary problems. Oftentimes, disciplinary actions are taken before they are dropped out.
Educational attainment in middle income countries is restrictive, for most citizens education beyond primary school is beyond their grasp. Although it is well established that one of the strongest predictors for a country’s economic growth is the education level of its population many middle income countries simply can not afford to make the necessary changes to their respective countries education systems. Education reform would require a monstrous amount of funding, with issues like infrastructure improvement, and financial market instability on these countries policy agendas, education reform isn’t the focus. (de Haan, 1996)
In the U.S. children raised in poverty tend to miss school more often because of illness. These
As a result of poverty and marginalization, more than 72 million children around the world remain unschooled. Sub-Saharan Africa is the most affected area with over 32 million children of primary school age remaining uneducated. Central and Eastern Asia, as well as the Pacific, are also severely affected by this problem with more than 27 million uneducated children. In addition, these regions must also resolve continuing problems of educational poverty (a child in education for less than 4 years) and extreme educational poverty (a child in education for less than 2 years) (Omwami & Keller, 2010).
Some of the world’s poorest countries, with some of the highest child labor and illiteracy rates lie in Sub Saharan Africa. People generally associate the region only with poor economic conditions and all of the social disorder that goes along with 3rd World Status. While some of this reputation is deserved, many people are also failing to see the vast potential for this part of the world. There are several factors that African governments should look into if they want to effectively and efficiently revamp this areas quality of life. One way to do so is by improving the more crucial aspects to healthy functioning region, for example, allowing children to possess their natural rights to a decent education. This could influence an increase
It is a common and well known saying that history repeats itself. This saying has more to it than the literal definition of it, it means we need to study it and learn from it, in order to avoid repetition. Often times we have that opportunity to study and learn from history in a way that can impact the future, in a hopefully positive way. In terms of education, improvement and innovation is always a top priority. If we can properly combine the study of other cultures with the study of history, we can have an extremely effective tool for learning ways to positively impact our own generation and future. In this essay, I will attempt to uncover the differences between current education and traditional African education, with intention of learning how to apply it today. The idea behind studying history is that it is a vital part of learning and adopting successful techniques and a good tool for avoiding the repetition of mistakes. If pre-colonial Africa can have success without the resources and technologies we have today, then it is valuable to invest time and effort in mirroring some of their methods.
For several years, donors have been implementing Alternative Basic Education Center’s in Ethiopia as a way to supplement the formal primary education system in the country. Currently the country faces a number of challenges in regards to their formal primary school system including lack of infrastructure, lack of teachers and economical constraints. Many regions in Ethiopia are hard to reach and the provision of formal education is lacking. To supplement this lack of formal primary schools, donors, together with governments have implemented Alternative Basic Education Center’s. These centers are set up differently than formal school as it covers the curriculum of lower primary school, which is traditionally 4 years, and fits it all into 3 years. Upon completion of these 3 years, it is expected that students will be prepared to move into upper primary school (grades 5-8). This set-up alleviates the problem of a lack of primary schools, and by completing the curriculum in 3 years, it allows those children who started late to catch up. (CARE Interview)