The Quality Of School Facilities

Students were given the basic necessities in the intercity schools and the environment in the classes were in horrible conditions for students to be able to pay attention in a classroom. In the podcast “The Problem We All Live with” a reporter named Elisa Crouch followed a Normandy High School honor student and as she went into his AP English class she noticed the horrible environment where the class was being taught, Crouch informs “We went into AP English, and it’s held in a science lab. The classroom across the hall, where it should be held, smells like mildew and the ventilation system doesn’t work” (Podcast 2). The school facility in the Normandy School district was not in good conditions for students to be able to concentrate and learn while being in school. This harms the students because they aren’t given a healthy school facility where they spend most of their day. Marginalized students’ education is harmed in several communities and is not given the opportunity to have a well environment like the students in a rich community have. The intercity students were harmed by the way the school did not provide a well-being environment for them to be able to study and

When children complete their basic primary and secondary education it results in numerous benefits for the children as well as the society in general. Studies show that completing a basic education reduces poverty, increases income by up to 10% per extra year of attending school, saves lives of children whose mothers have a secondary education, reduces the chances of getting HIV and Aids, and increases economic growth and GDP (Jalan & Ravallion, 2000; UNESCO, 2011a). Almost 70 years after the UN’s declaration, and having invested billions of dollars in education, more than 59 million children of primary school age are not attending school and 883 million people over the age of 15 are illiterate (UNESCO, 2015; UNDP, 2015). In light of this, the UN set out the ‘Sustainable Development Goals’ in 2015 where one of the principle targets is that all children worldwide “complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education” by the year 2030 (UN, 2015, p17). There are many difficult obstacles to achieving this goal, and the following section will explain that economic factors, conflict factors, climate change factors, and gender factors, and language factors are the major issues that need to be addressed.

The limited schooling that takes place in lower-income countries reflects the national culture. In some schools there is bullying and violence. Some students do home schooling because they do not like being around hundreds of people or because they do not feel like they learn anything in a class full of students. In some schools, they do not have enough student because of budget cuts or because they are mostly in magnet/charter schools. There is also adult education, as in parents or elders want to continue

Lack of money, health insurance, and other poverty related issues have also led to lower academic performance among children in poverty. In David Berliner’s Letter to The President, he explains how “medical problems are harming student learning in our schools” (252). Since poor children may not have health insurance, or their families may not have the funds to see a doctor, poorer children miss more school due to illness. Also, more children in poverty come from single parent homes, which leaves numerous children on their own after school. In fact, “three fourths of all single mothers are in the labor force” which means there happens to be usually nobody at home to assist poor children with their homework, or help them study for tests

These systemic obstacles that create circumstances that hinder the education attainment of the poor can be changed, their limits lessened, by positive actions to elevate living conditions – given the school system promotes and

There are schools where the conditions are almost too severe for students to attend. Which then could result in a rise of dropout students and a decrease in graduating classes etc. For example, “The unfortunate fact is that one of our most cherished institutions is, by its very nature, failing our children and our society”. Instead of the government paying money to constantly hold standardized test, there should be money being put into actual school facilities and material in order for students to feel comfortable to attend school regularly. For example, “Rotting walls, standing water, mold and crumbling ceilings, are just some of the health hazards”, where the government do not utilize the country’s money to help certain school districts. If a student is attentive to their school work and are pleased with the environment they learn in, there could be a possible drop in students that fail and drop out of school.

For those who live in the United States, some do not see the correlation between poverty and its effects on people’s behavior to their academics. Poverty affects many students at a young age depending on the location they are in as it prevents underprivileged kids to seek higher education. However, with new opportunities [in effect], kids in poverty can have the same education as privileged kids. Poverty stricken students are disadvantaged when trying to obtain a higher education. Children in poverty lose their motivation in school when they do not have the support of their parents. Some other issues students face includes parents not being able to assist their child in school. Another is that the child is not able to go to school because they have to work instead and support their families. Although public education is available to all children, those that live in poverty are deprived of its full potential due to the factors of low family incomes as well as the lack of self-motivation and the importance of having an education.

Last Decade governments and high ranking officials from across the globe came together under the magnanimous principles of The Universal Declaration of Human rights giving birth to the millennium development goals.The 8 goals and 21 targets capture ambitious promises such as eradicating poverty and hunger and achieving universal primary education by 2015. (UN.org) Yet with just a few months away from the deadline this historic chapter will close in tragedy.The setting for this tragic tale is Sub-Saharan Africa where 50 million children and youth still remain out-of-school.Despite extraordinary progress in enrollment stark disparities still remain. Poor children across the region are victims of an insidious “lottery of life” where the family they are born into means everything and nothing. (efa governance matters)For a poor child born into poverty the chances of that child finishing school once they start are slim, and if that child happens to be female she can only dream of what it’s like inside a classroom. Experts have declared Africa’s education crisis a state of emergency as dangerously low completion rates, and poor learning achievement have left an indelible stain on educational goals. Africa’s education crisis is a result strong socio-economic and cultural barriers which have created major stumbling blocks in both access to education and learning outcomes.Consequently millions of of children and youth are being robbed of their futures.

Throughout his paper, Tooley shows problems that the public schools of Africa have. (Tooley 9) He shows the first problem by saying, “An estimated 40 million primary-school-age children in sub-Saharan Africa are not in school and in half of the countries less than 60% finish the full course of schooling.” (Tooley 9) Afterward, He gives the quote, “The United

Children whose parents are struggling financially often live in less regulated environments, which increases their exposure to both health and safety risks and physical and intellectual development. This can result in these children attending lower-quality post-secondary schools or reduced likelihood of attending university or college. Per Forbes, 62 percent of students cannot afford their primary choice school (Lapovsky, 2014). Although these individuals are academically qualified to attend prestigious universities, many are subject to attending a school of lesser quality because of their financial capacity. This shows the severity of income inequality because it creates a barrier to equal opportunity for

Many opportunities are not present in terms of equality when schooling is the topic. An instance of a lack of similar chances can be identified between the high and low-class populations of different countries such as Nigeria or the Congo. These countries are rarely able to provide a consistently adequate learning system, leading to an insufficiency of attaining

Children in poor countries do not attend school unless they are the sire of wealthy parents, thus sealing their fate as impoverished individuals. In many countries no child labor laws exist and therefore a child is seen as a productive worker. Often these children work as many hours as an adult. In all fairness the harshness of life in many countries dictates that having one’s children educated is a luxury they can not afford even if state funded schools exist. The family contribution theory extends even to the children.

Education comes with social benefits as well which can improve the situation of the poor, such as lower fertility and improved health care of children ("Poverty and Education"). "Poor people are often unable to obtain access to an adequate education, and without an adequate education people are often constrained to a life of poverty." - Servaas Van Der Berg. The absolutely poor in developing countries have low education levels. Some may not even have access to primary education or may not have completed their primary education, not realizing that it is important to reduce poverty. Education is often poorly measured, and the impacts do not always show up as statistically significant in cross- country growth regressions (Levine & Renelt, 1992). Africa’s education crisis makes media headlines and analysis by the Brookings Center for Universal Education (CUE) explains why this needs to change. Progress towards universal primary education has come to a halt and learning levels of children who are in school are poor as well. Using a Learning Barometer, CUE estimates that 61 million African children will reach adolescence lacking even the most basic literacy and numeracy skills, this will deprive a whole generation of opportunities to develop and escape poverty ("Poverty, Education, & Opportunity").

Last year, the city of Colchester, England decided to expand the building of a local public school due to a growing population. The land on which the school is built holds an abundant amount of archaeological information relevant to the history of Colchester. This data was only briefly reached in 1911 when amateur archaeologist, Henry Jones, was given permission to quickly excavate the site. This came about after century old human remains were discovered during the construction of the original school. From his excavations, Jones’ concluded that the remains of the three bodies discovered were killed during the Boudiccan Rebellion in 60-61 CE. Due to the circumstances under which Jones’ performed his excavations, he was not able to produce a stratigraphic section of the site. Jones also failed to keep any written record of his excavations and the remaining artifacts and remains have since been lost. With the expansion of the school in Colchester, it is my job to perform a thorough excavation of the site before construction begins.

For years, the Ghanaian Ministry of Education and the Ghana Educational service have experienced successes and difficulties in raising educated people in a country that has just reached middle-income status. These institutions acknowledge that without proper planning of education, a functioning structure and effective knowledge and skill acquisition, the country will not develop with its own efforts and Ghana will be dependent on outside forces to manage its economy. One of the biggest issues that confronts Ghana however is that, due to high costs of education and high drop-out rates, there are still thousands of children who are not able to climb through the ladder of education to the tertiary level. The numbers that drop out after every major stage are alarming and most government policies on education have not been able to solve this. The highest rate of drop that is of most concern occurs between the transitions from Junior High School to Senior high school. For any country, this should be alarming. The reasons every child does not get into a Senior High school is mainly that they either cannot afford the school or they cannot get into the few competitive slots. This paper seeks to suggest why the government may be better off providing vouchers for students to go to private schools that will complement the already existing public schools.