Education in Developing Countries

As the saying goes, the children and youths of today are the leaders of tomorrow and quality education is a gateway for children and youths to acquire necessary knowledge and skills that will help them face future challenges in life. Education also helps foster economic growth and gives room for opportunities that will help reduce poverty. The absence of quality education limits children and youths from achieving their full potential. As such, quality education must be a human right and made readily available to all.

Unfortunately, children and youths living in developing countries face several barriers to quality education. Some of the barriers they face include:

Absence of Close-by Schools: In most rural areas, children travel several miles by feet to the closest school which might not even be of good quality. Such circumstance discourages both parents and their wards from trying to get the much-needed education.

The big question is, what can be done to remedy these situations? A lot can be done as individuals, government agencies and private sectors to help alleviate these problems and give our future leaders the quality of education they deserve.

Lack of Trained Teachers and Personnel: Good education requires properly trained teachers and personnel to make it happen. Unfortunately, most developing countries lack these and as a result, children are poorly educated or get no education at all.

Inadequate Classrooms: For children to be properly educated, they need the right atmosphere and the adequate teacher to children ratio in a classroom. This has been a struggle for developing countries and in some cases, children are forced to learn outside under the harsh weather conditions or cramped up in a poorly set up classroom. These have negative effects on the quality of education such children can possibly receive.

Lack of School Supplies: In most developing countries, school supplies aren’t provided and most of the children end up with little or no participation in the classroom because they do not have the required supplies such as writing materials, textbooks, notebooks, etc. to fully participate. Teachers also aren’t provided with the necessary tools/supplies they need to ensure the children get the quality of education they deserve. Some teachers go as far as using personal resources to try to make ends meet.

Discrimination Against the Girl Child: Sadly, girls are still being discriminated from getting basic education in some developing country. There is still a believe that a girl child should be married off as early as possible and that the place of a woman is in the kitchen and not a classroom. Hence, they are denied access to schools.

Malnutrition and Hunger: Many children in developing countries do not have access to good food/nutrition and as such are likely to suffer some deficiency in growth and brain development. This in turn affects their ability to gain the best from the education they receive.

Poverty: In some developing countries, education isn’t free. People live in poverty and are unable to afford education for their children. These children are forced to abandon their education and begin working at an early age in order to support their families.

The big question is, what can be done to remedy these situations? A lot can be done as individuals, government agencies and private sectors to help alleviate these problems and give our future leaders the quality of education they deserve. Some of the things that can be done include:

Making Education Free: With every passing year, the price of education increases and so does the struggle for parents to provide their children with quality education. If governments make education a basic human right and ensure it is free and accessible, that will eliminate the burden of providing education from struggling parents and reduce the need for children to be married off early or made to work at a tender age to support their families.

Financial Aids from Developed Countries: One major problem developing countries face in terms of education is funding. Not so much is allocated for education in their budgets. Receiving financial aids from developed countries specifically for education will help alleviate this problem. With aids allocated specifically for education, more schools can be built to make schools accessible to all, classrooms can be equipped, and more teachers can be employed to reduce the teacher to student ratio.

Free or Subsidized Training for Teachers: Most teachers or aspiring teachers in developing countries are under trained mostly because they cannot afford to get the right training. Making these trainings free or at the worst, subsidized will encourage more of them to get trained properly. This will help them become better teachers to the children.

Donations of Supplies to Schools: To solve the problem of inadequate school supplies, government of developed countries and well-spirited individuals and organizations can take it upon themselves to donate needed supplies such as books, computers, writing material, etc. to schools in developing countries.

Nutrition Programs for Children and Low-Income Families: Government in developing countries should make good food accessible to children and low-income families. Programs like WIC (women, infant and children) can be adopted in such countries to ensure children are getting the right nutrition to aid their growth and development. A hungry child cannot be expected to perform at their best, and so ensuring the child has good meals daily puts such child at an advantage.