Education, education, education

After my last post complaining about part of my education I read three articles which made me realise just how many children would be delighted simply to receive any education at all.

An IRIN article discusses a report published by Action Aid (available as a pdf file ). The International Monetary Fund has set wage bill limits causing some countries to restrict the number of teachers recruited. As an example of the need for teachers, Malawi has 72 pupils to every teacher so would need almost double the current number of teachers to achieve a reasonable ratio. Tuition fees have been abolished in primary schools to enable all children to attend, but without additional teachers the experience is unlikely to be positive.

In Somalia Hawa Aden Mohammed has set up an education facility specifically for girls, from scratch. It now has 750 girls enrolled in the primary school, 2,400 in adult literacy classes, and there are also afternoon classes for 830 girls who have to work during the morning. There are not only formal education classes but they also learn about human rights, violence against woman and peace-building. Their education includes teaching them about the dangers of female genital mutilation.

A further project set up by Hawa Aden Mohammed is an outreach centre at the refugee camp in Galkayo where they teach children in two shifts. This may ultimately help Amina Alaman who would dearly love to go to school. She and her siblings have to work to help the family, but she dreams of going to school and becoming a teacher.