Zimbabwe has been facing an overall economic
crisis which is causing serious issues when it comes to their children’s
education. There are almost a quarter of the children not attending school due
to lack of money. The high rates of dropping out can be also attributed to the
high levels of pregnancy and long distances to school, but the overall absence
of money in this country seems to be the most extreme issue.
They
are trying to fix this by creating new laws to promote education for all
children. They have extended the necessary years of education from seven to twelve
and have reinforced this by giving a fine or jail time to any parents who do
not adhere. A law was also made where a child can not be expelled solely due to
them becoming pregnant or their inability to pay. This would eradicate countless
problems that could occur when trying to educate these children due to the need
for prioritizing money.
Parents are forced to decide whether
they want enough money to pay for food or to send their children to school. This
concept is haunting to me when comparing all the privileges that we have in the
United States. We eat too much and complain about having to go to school at all
when there are children who would not even get that opportunity. It is
extremely humbling when you hear about children not having the basic opportunities
that are so taken for granted that you would not even think about them. As a
child I would have never thought that getting an education and being well-fed
was such a blessing as it really was.
Zimbabwe has worked to make the best of
their situation by creating unregistered schools that reside mostly in the
poorest areas to provide even the least-fortunate with some sort of education. The
conditions of these schools are well below sub-par with no desks and one
textbook for the teacher, yet they are a great stride towards allowing
education for all.
Working through their drought and
economic crisis these new laws and concepts are a great start to prioritizing education.
Adding these laws should be an additive to trying to provide free basic
education to all and they cannot stop there with promoting schooling. Zimbabwe
needs to strive towards a better future where all children of all socioeconomic
statuses can receive a proper education. These new laws that were created to encourage
schooling for children are a great step in the right direction for their education,
yet nothing can be fully fixed until their overall economic standing is more
stable and decent.
Zimbabwe has been to hell and back several times in the last 20 years. Nothing but heartbreak. Glad to see you're shining a light on it here. Sure does put our selfish, self-centered society in context, doesn't it? I guess it's why television news has all but abandoned foreign reporting. It makes viewers feel uncomfortable.
ReplyDeleteSuggestion: Put a line of space between paragraphs. That's the conventional thing to do in online environments.
Even with the recent computer problems, you're in good shape to finish up. Keep going!