Education

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Education for people in fragile communities

Gerard Tousand Robinson

By: Gerard Tousand Robinson.

 

Education serves as a principal driver of economic growth and mobility in the United States. This is why many scholars, lawmakers, nonprofit organizations and entrepreneurs focus on this area. As research on the topic indicates, completion of high school, postsecondary education or both has significant potential to positively impact individual and societal prosperity. Yet before a student completes high school — and at least 85% did in 2017 — we must consider the other factors at play for her along the way: money and how it is invested in education, the parenting gap, educator recruitment and retentionprograms, public and private choice offerings, and the use of litigation to achieve equal educational opportunity.

Teacher Elizabeth Moguel poses for a photograph with her seventh grade Latin class at Boston Latin School in Boston, Massachusetts September 17, 2015. REUTERS/Brian Snyder

Embedded in any discussion about education and opportunity is student learning. One tool to gauge student progress over time is the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), referred to as the Nation’s Report Card. Since 1969, NAEP has administered the largest national assessment of subject-matter achievement for a representative sample of students in grades 4, 8, and 12 in the United States. NAEP uses the same tests across states and districts, which includes public (traditional, charter, and magnet) and private school students. Given the reach of NAEP and its recognition as a measure of our children’s academic vitality, we should analyze the results to identify our strengths and areas for improvement.

The percentage of students who scored at or above proficient on the most recentassessment of NAEP subjects is not impressive. This quantifiable deficiency is evidence of the necessity for research and reform surrounding educational systems geared towards the needs of individual communities.

Public School Students Only

Subject Grade 4 Grade 8 Grade 12
Civics 26 23 23
Economics – – 41
Math 39 32 23
Reading 35 33 36
Science 37 33 21
Technology & Engineering Literacy – 45 –
US History 19 14 11
Writing 27 26 25

Private School Students Only

Subject Grade 4 Grade 8 Grade 12
Civics 35 38 38
Economics 62
Math – – –
Reading – – 54
Science 48 43
Technology & Engineering Literacy – 60 –
US History 31 31 17
Writing 39 41 –

Creating meaningful change to the current state of affairs in K-12 education initially requires a thorough understanding of the factors underlying the exclusions and limitations that families confront in search of quality education for their children and themselves, particularly in fragile communities. The Center for Advancing Opportunities (CAO) defines these as places characterized by high proportions of residents struggling in their daily lives and possessing limited opportunities for social mobility. Following awareness of these deep-seated and enduring conditions, the next step must be to study the practices and systems through which we can close the opportunity gap.

In April 2019, the CAO released its State of Opportunity in America Report in partnership with Gallup, the Charles Koch Foundation, and Koch Industries. The report contains information about education (among other topics) gathered from 5,784 people living in some of the most challenging socioeconomic zip codes in 47 states, including residents in the northern and central regions of Appalachia.

A sample of those living in fragile communities includes the following: 71% are people of color and 29% are white; 53% have a household income of $34,999 or less, with the majority earning under $24,000 a year; 51% rent their place of residence; and 13% do not have a high school diploma — though 12% have earned a bachelor’s degree or more. Despite economic challenges, many people in fragile communities want their children and themselves to have access to a quality education.

One intention of the CAO report is to present a more nuanced understanding of the barriers to opportunity burdening those living in fragile communities as they relate to education. We accomplished this goal by asking the people living closest to the issue what they think.

We asked individuals in fragile communities several questions about K-12 and higher education. We also gathered data from 1,683 people in Birmingham, Alabama; Fresno, California; Chicago, Illinois; and the northern and central Appalachian region to learn how residents in low-income urban and rural areas view their own circumstances and the options available to them. These communities were selected in part because they represent unique geographic regions in the US, each with its own social, economic and historical influences, as well as different racial and ethnic compositions.

Demographic Characteristics of Fragile Community Residents

Education Total (N=5,784) Birmingham(N=696) Chicago(N=569) Fresno(N=751) Appalachia(N=455)
Less than high school 13% 11% 12% 12% 12%
High school graduate 33% 35% 35% 30% 35%
Technical/Vocational school 12% 10% 10% 13% 14%
Some college but no degree 20% 21% 16% 20% 19%
Associate degree 9% 14% 7% 6% 12%
Bachelor’s or more 12% 9% 21% 19% 9%

Note: 2017 data used for income results. Education and race/ethnicity data from Gallup general population survey, December 2018.

Overall, an analysis of the survey results found the following about the quality of local K-12 public schools, higher education, and confidence about career goals.

How satisfied or dissatisfied are you with the quality of public K-12 schools in your area?

Chicago

35% responded as extremely satisfied or satisfied and 42% were dissatisfied or extremely dissatisfied.

Appalachia

65% responded as extremely satisfied or satisfied and 20% were dissatisfied or extremely dissatisfied.

Birmingham

32% responded as extremely satisfied or satisfied and 37% were dissatisfied or extremely dissatisfied.

Fresno

44% responded as extremely satisfied or satisfied and 33% were dissatisfied or extremely dissatisfied.

What these findings show are significant discrepancies in levels of public satisfaction with the quality of public K-12 schools that vary from one community to the next. Strikingly, individuals in historically disadvantaged communities indicated satisfaction. However, the%age of those dissatisfied remains substantial.

How important is a college education today?

At least 62% of all people in fragile communities reported that college is very important. By subgroup, 45% of whites said college is very important compared to 69% of blacks and 70% of Hispanics. More women than men believe a college education is very important at 69% to 55%, respectively.

How satisfied are you with the availability of high-quality community college and job training programs?

Overall, 42% of people in fragile communities are extremely satisfied or satisfied with the availability of high-quality community college programs in their area, and 28% say the same for job training programs.

How confident are you in your ability to achieve career goals you set for yourself — very confident, confident, somewhat confident or not at all confident?

Each percentage represents people who responded “very confident” and “confident” by education level:

Less than high school = 54% of the people in this cat

Technical/Vocational school = 64%

Some college but no degree = 67%

Associate degree = 73%

Bachelor’s or more = 80%

For individuals residing in fragile communities, education not only allows for increased opportunity — entrepreneurial and otherwise — but has also been correlated with elevated well-being and optimism scores.

Altogether, these figures supply fresh evidence that reflects the major obstacles standing in the way of many families in search of high-quality public schools, higher education and job training. A heightened focus on access to education and fluctuations in the caliber of education across communities has yielded important insights about the sources of particular educational disparities. In order to produce effective amendments within this arena, research-based solutions are necessary. Professors such as Kathaleena Monds, director of the Center for Educational Opportunity at Albany State University, are playing a role in creating a foundation base for an informed understanding of community and individual needs that must be applied and consistently reassessed to incorporate into impactful reforms.

By asking people in fragile communities and scholars alike “what works, why, why not and for whom?” we improve our understanding about the delivery of teaching and learning opportunities, and provide research that can strengthen our country’s commitment to advancing opportunity for all people.

Source of the article: https://www.aei.org/publication/education-for-people-in-fragile-communities/

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Philippines: Recasting higher education

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Asia/ Philippines/ 30.07.2019/ Source: www.philstar.com.

In 1994, the Philippine government signed into law Republic Act (RA) 7722, a law that resolved to “protect, foster and promote the right of all citizens to affordable quality education at all levels and shall take appropriate steps to ensure that education shall be accessible to all.”

Back then, only 22 percent of all Filipino youth had a shot at getting a college degree.

Twenty-five years after, this aspiration remains true for many Filipinos. In AmBisyon 2040, the government’s midterm development blueprint, about 73 percent of Filipino families answered that they want their children to be college-educated. Indeed, a college degree remains centerpiece in any family’s aspiration, seen as the key to a better life.

Today, college participation is at 28 percent and with many cards stacked in our favor for the years ahead: there are now more Filipinos completing high school than ever before, and the recently passed RA 10931 or the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act provides unprecedented support to Filipino youth intending to pursue higher education.

Not everyone, however, has an equal shot at making it to college.

In our project, YouthWorks PH — co-implemented by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Philippine Business for Education (PBEd) — we engage youth who are not in education, employment or training (NEET) and have learned much from them. In the past year, we have seen firsthand how many of our youth are not in college because of three factors: family obligations, either to take care of a parent or a sibling; the need to work; or their lack of interest in what is being taught in school.

This means rethinking how classes are organized and taught, from the rigid 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. class schedules, to more inclusive modes such as online learning and work-based training. This is the promise of the Philippine Qualifications Framework, passed into law in January 2018.

Today, the Philippines finds itself in a demographic window: a phase when the country’s working-age population will be proportionately larger than its dependents or those who are either too young or too old to work.

However, reaping this demographic dividend requires that we enable our youth to reach their highest potential through education, and that in parallel, we create quality jobs and provide routes for entrepreneurship. This comes hand in hand.

Looking ahead, the future holds much promise, but to get there, we must abandon traditional notions of how “college” looks like, and innovate on how and where learning can happen. This way, we can make higher education more inclusive for our youth.

Source of the notice: https://www.philstar.com/other-sections/education-and-home/2019/07/28/1938563/recasting-higher-education

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Special needs funding gap in London schools «unsustainable»

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Europe/ United Kindow/ 29.07.2019/ By Jessie Mathewson/ Source: www.times-series.co.uk.

 

Special needs and disability support in London schools is facing “unsustainable financial risk” according to a report from London Councils.

A “dramatic and sustained rise” in demand for special educational needs and disability services (SEND) has led to a £77 million funding gap in the capital, research found.

There are more than 200,000 young people in London with special educational needs or a disability, and almost a quarter have high needs.

Children with high needs often require more support, which may include an education health and care plan. This is a record of the support that a child needs, helping them to access specialist services from their local council.

Demand for health and care plans in the capital has increased rapidly, rising by 31 per cent between 2014/15 and 2017/18. All but one London council now has a deficit in its budget for children with high special educational or disability needs.

Councillor Nickie Aiken, leader of Westminster Council and London Councils’ executive member for schools and children’s services, said the current pressure on council budgets was “unsustainable”.

She said: “When children and families aren’t getting the right support at the right time, the effects can be disastrous.”

She added: “The Government needs to boost investment in children’s services in line with councils’ rising costs. That’s the only way to ensure the sustainability of the high-value, high-impact local services that make such a difference to children’s lives.”

Responding to the report, the London Assembly’s education panel chair, Jennette Arnold, said the Mayor must continue to put pressure on the Government to increase funding in line with demand.

She said: “SEND pupils are more than capable of having a bright future and a good life in adulthood if the resource is made available to ensure the work to make that happens starts as early as possible.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Education said SEND funding for schools had increased from £5 billion in 2013 to £6 billion this year, with an extra £42 million earmarked for London in December.

He said: “Our ambition for children with special education needs and disabilities is the same as for every other child – to achieve well in education, find employment and go on to live happy and fulfilled lives.

He added: “We are looking carefully at how much funding for education will be needed in future years, as we approach the next spending review.”

London Councils could not publish borough-specific budget data, or confirm which boroughs had a deficit.

Source of the notice: https://www.times-series.co.uk/news/17792286.special-needs-funding-gap-london-schools-quot-unsustainable-quot/

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How climate change is taught in Canadian high schools — and how it can improve

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North America/ Canada/ 29.07.2019/Source: www.cbc.ca.

Curricula lack emphasis on impacts, solutions and scientific consensus, study finds

Most provinces and territories are failing to teach at least some of the basic tenets of climate change, a new study has found.

The study, published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Plos One last week, found that in some cases, climate change education is not even consistent with scientific understanding.

«[It’s] a good start, but [there’s] room for improvement,» said lead author Seth Wynes, a PhD candidate in the geography department at the University of British Columbia.

Wynes and co-author Kimberly Nicholas of Sweden’s Lund University, studied science curricula and textbooks across the country to figure out what was being taught and how.

They analyzed the documents to look for six essential concepts in learning about climate change:

  • The basics of climate.
  • That temperatures are warming.
  • That climate change is mainly caused by humans.
  • That there is overwhelming scientific consensus about it.
  • That climate change is bad.
  • That we can mitigate it.

«We’d recommend that Canadian curriculum documents ought to cover these basic ideas, these core topics that are important for understanding climate change and also for motivating students and taking action,» said Wynes, who is also a former high school science teacher.

Seth Wynes is a PhD candidate in the geography department at the University of British Columbia. (Submitted by Seth Wynes)

While all provinces and territories teach students about the basics of climate, including topics like ocean currents and the greenhouse effect, there were many gaps across the country.

The researchers found that Saskatchewan had the most comprehensive coverage, teaching all six basic concepts. Ontario, Newfoundland and Labrador, Quebec and Prince Edward Island taught five of the six, Alberta, Northwest Territories and Nunavut taught four of the six, British Columbia, Manitoba and Yukon taught half, and Nova Scotia and New Brunswick taught only one of the six.

The curricula were particularly weak in teaching students about the strong scientific consensus that humans are causing climate change.

«That’s important because if students don’t understand these facts, then they are less likely to be motivated to help solve the problem,» said Wynes.

Waves and debris cover the roadway near Nova Scotia’s Lawrencetown Beach after a storm in January 2018.(Submitted by Allan Zilkowsky)

Manitoba’s supplementary materials, for instance, recommend that students read publications produced by Friends of Science — an organization that believes the sun is responsible for climate change and that opposes the understanding of climate change put forth by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a Nobel Prize-winning UN organization — and tells students «there is significantly polarized debate» on whether humans cause climate change.

However, there is virtually no scientific doubt that climate change is caused by humans, Wynes’s study notes. A 2013 study of 11,944 peer-reviewed climate science abstracts found that of the papers that expressed a view on human-caused climate change, 97 per cent supported that view.

Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island encourage students to debate what’s causing climate change.

Wynes said while encouraging students to be critical, evaluate evidence and draw their own conclusions is important, that’s not appropriate for something that has already been settled by scientists.

«We don’t ask students to decide whether or not second-hand smoking causes cancer in health class. And in the same way, we would suggest that probably climate change is a subject where we need to be communicating with certainty that it is happening.»

During the summer drought of 2015, metro Vancouver reservoir levels dropped to 73 per cent below norms.(CBC)

The study found that some textbooks pointed to «positive» aspects of climate change, such as extended growing seasons and the notion that cruise ships could visit the North «so tourists can follow in the wake of Arctic explorers.»

Another area of weakness across most of the country’s curricula was in teaching students that climate change can be mitigated through action, the study noted.

Wynes said he’d like to see more jurisdictions teaching students how to take action.

«I think the health metaphor holds up,» he said. «If we’re talking about healthy eating, we tell students, ‘Look, here are some options for healthy eating.’ … We encourage providing that information to students. It makes sense that we would do the same thing for climate change.»

Firefighters make their way through a flooded street in May in Sainte-Marthe-sur-le-Lac, a suburb northwest of Montreal. (Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press)

Wynes and Nicholas also examined the curricula in relation to political conservatism and greenhouse gas emissions in each province and territory, but they did not find a relationship between them.

However, they suggest there may be a weak correlation between when the curricula were written and how extensively climate change is covered.

Manitoba’s climate change curriculum was published in 2001, making it the oldest in Canada, with New Brunswick’s 2002 curriculum a close second.

A spokesperson for New Brunswick’s Education Department said staff are in the process of updating the science curriculum, but it may take a few years before changes are implemented. In the meantime, staff are developing resources to help teachers integrate climate change into the current curriculum.

Wynes said he wasn’t surprised by the age of some of the curricula, because developing and implementing them can take a long time. But he said he’s optimistic that climate change education will improve as the issue gains more momentum in the media and politics.

What Nova Scotia education officials are doing

Sue Taylor-Foley, Nova Scotia’s executive director of education innovation, program and services, said despite the study’s findings about the province, the Education Department has incorporated environmental stewardship, climate science and sustainability into the curriculum since at least 2000, from Primary to Grade 12.

She said the province will be renewing the curriculum for grades 9 to 12 this fall.

Source of the notice: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/climate-change-curriculum-canadian-high-schools-1.5221358

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David Cohen: The fall of ‘higher’ education?

David Cohen Cohen

By: David Cohen.

 We live in memorable academic times. Higher education in New Zealand is on a definite downward roll

Ministry of Education figures just released show the number of domestic students has taken a significant dip, with just 8.6 percent of adult New Zealanders enrolled in tertiary education last year compared with 12.5 percent 10 years ago and around 11 percent at the turn of the century.

The biggest demographic decline has been among men, whose numbers in tertiary education have gone down from 11.3 percent in 2009 to 7 percent last year.

It wasn’t supposed to pan out like this. For the better part of 20 years now successive governments have aggressively promoted higher education as a way of improving the country’s intellectual capital and seizing the international momentum for discovering and applying new technologies.

‘It’s the knowledge economy, stupid’ or so one academic leader quipped at the time of the much-ballyhooed Knowledge Wave conference in 2001.

The trend was also not seen as being exclusively about students. Institutions of higher learning in New Zealand – especially the eight universities – have long struggled to keep their best scholars from decamping to loftier campuses in Australia, Britain and the United States. The new policy emphasis would put paid to that, too.

No caption

University of Otago Photo: 123rf

Alas, the signs that all has not quite proceeded to plan have been in evidence for some time. Much of the new activity of recent years was about hauling in more and more new, foreign, fee-paying students rather than young locals who in any event would appear to have more of an eye these days for pursuing a trade than a degree.

And why not? A report commissioned last year by the Industry Training Federation showed apprentices earn more, buy houses and contribute to KiwiSaver earlier than their peers with bachelor’s degrees.

What’s more, according to the research from Business and Economic Research Limited, or BERL, those who enter the trades are, on average, in a better financial position for most of their lives.

Another survey conducted seven years ago suggested New Zealand degrees were among the most valueless in the OECD – a reckoning that would particularly apply, one assumes, to qualifications in many of the social sciences and media-related courses.

Embarrassing international comparisons may only be part of the story behind the latest figures. Higher education itself isn’t all it once was for employers, either.

In the United States an increasing number of companies – including IBM, Apple and Google – are now offering well-paying jobs to those with non-traditional education, which is to say, people without degrees.

Partly the move has to do with skyrocketing tuition fees but organisations are also making a point about the need for having different voices and minds rather than just those who have a conventionally dependable educational experience.

«When you look at people who don’t go to school and make their way in the world, those are exceptional human beings,» Google’s former SVP of People Operations, Laszlo Bock, told The New York Times a few years ago.

«And we should do everything we can to find those people.»

In Britain, one of the country’s biggest graduate recruiters, accountancy firm Ernst and Young, has entirely eliminated a degree classification from its hiring programmes. The firm says it has found «no evidence» of a correlation between university success and acing it as an accountant.

Will New Zealand employers follow suit? And how will academic institutions respond to the broader trend? Where will the intellectual culture be in another few years?

It sounds like something somebody should be doing a thesis on.

Source of the article: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/on-the-inside/394522/david-cohen-the-fall-of-higher-education

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Reap: delivering more than rural education

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Oceania/ New Zealand/ 29.07.2019/ Source: www.odt.co.nz.

 

Education is needed to create a sustainable world, write Roger Browne and Mary Ann Baxter.

In 2015, the United Nations General Assembly accepted a set of 17 goals to be achieved globally by 2030.

These are referred to as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and encompass the physical and social world we inhabit.

The full details are available at sustainabledevelopment.un.org.

Among these goals are many which will be familiar to New Zealanders.

Goal number 12, responsible consumption and production, envisages a world where repurposing and recycling will replace our «throw-away» habits. Avoiding food waste will not just avoid food going to landfills but, through appropriate adjustments to production and distribution, will assist in alleviating hunger.

Energy-efficient appliances will, on a global scale, assist in limiting carbon emissions. Planting trees will support the restoration of native habitats and biodiversity.

Avoiding plastic bags will help protect life in the oceans.

Goal number 13, climate action, states: «Educate young people in climate change to put them in a sustainable path early on.»

What will drive the achievement of the SDGs at the local level?

One key element is education. In rural New Zealand one of the most effective vehicles to deliver that education is the Reap (Rural Education Activities Programme).

There are 13 Reaps in New Zealand, including one in Central Otago. Our local Reap, based in Alexandra, services an area stretching from Makarora in the west to the outskirts of Dunedin, and up into the Maniototo. The Central Otago Reap was formed 40 years ago.

So much has changed in that time. The world population has grown by 75% and the global inflation-adjusted GDP has grown by a factor of almost three. With economic growth comes the growth of waste and the production of carbon emissions.

Globally, waste production is forecast to triple by the end of the century in the absence of any measures to counter this trend.

The United Nations’ SDGs seek to ensure economic growth is channelled towards wellbeing and away from waste.

Achieving this will require buy-in from all sectors of society.

If economic activities continue to be linked to the production of waste then society faces a bleak future.

Understanding the need for change involves education on a broad scale.

Some of this can be driven by central government (for instance, through changes in school curricula) and by local government (for instance, through supporting community-based recycling facilities).

Alongside this, partnerships with education providers at the local level have proven very effective.

Such partnerships have enabled and supported the Central Otago Reap’s well-established track record in initiating and embedding educational programmes on sustainable living across our local community.

The 17 SDGs are central to the way in which the Reap delivers all of its programmes.

Activities such as Plastic Free July are indicative of how Reap’s skilled communicators can be seen to have endorsed and implemented the SDGs ever since our partnership was initiated in 2006.

Skilled communicators in subjects supporting the sustainable development goals are to be valued.

Their message is vital to our future wellbeing.

We live in a part of the country where our regional identity is «A World of Difference».

Our belief that we can and are making a difference together at the local level is vital to our future wellbeing.

Source of the notice: https://www.odt.co.nz/opinion/reap-delivering-more-rural-education

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Nigeria: Free basic education, not Almajiri system

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Africa/ Nigeria/ 29.07.2019/ Source: guardian.ng.

Although the Federal Government has been vacillating over the proscription of the Almajiri system practised mainly in the northern part of the country the directive by President Muhammadu Buhari to governors, the other day, seemed to have made any proposed soft landing for the Almajiri system superfluous. While the suspension of the proscription might have given some respite to supporters of the Islamic education system, the president’s charge to governors to enforce free basic education was an indirect castigation of the obnoxious practice.

It is somewhat curious that within 24 hours, three confusing statements about the same Almajiri and free basic education had hit the public space. While the National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno, suggested that the Federal Government was going to proscribe the Almajiri for security reasons, a quick reaction came from the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, stating that the government had no immediate plan to ban the Almajiri system. In the same breath, the president directed governors to enforce the provision of basic education. What kind of conceptual confusion on public policy is this at the highest level?

Despite confusing statements emanating from the presidency over what to do at the moment about the Islamic education system, it is gratifying that the same presidency was considering its proscription or some sort of overhaul. And perhaps the president’s charge to governors to enforce free basic education might be the way to overhaul that controversial practice.

When one considers the glaring absence of free basic education in Nigeria, the filthy, disease-prone, unhealthy environments that many children are nurtured, the incessant abuse they face and the absence of food, drinking water and adequate healthcare, one would begin to appreciate the frightful clarity of the bleak future befalling Nigerian children. For Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State, this is calamity befalling the children of the north. The point could not have been better made by one of the leading lights in the region, Governor el-Rufai.

The Kaduna State governor was recently quoted as saying: “Looking at the statistics, Nigeria appears to be a middle income country but if we segregate those statistics across states and zones, you will see that in terms of human development indicators, Nigeria consists of two countries. There is a backward, less educated and unhealthy Northern Nigeria and a developing, largely educated and healthy southern Nigeria.”

No cultural practice captures this grim reality of northern Nigeria than the Almajiri system. In the faith-based education practice, for all the value it portends, one beholds in one clear relief the backwardness this system courts, after all. This system of Quranic education, which stated seven hundred years ago in the Kanem-Bornu empire, is so entrenched in the socio-cultural life of many states in northern Nigeria that it has now drawn government attention. So controversial has the  system been that it has also attained notoriety for being touted as one of those institutional problems financed by the government, just like the wasteful nomadic education project of former education minister, Professor Jubril Aminu.

Whereas in prominent Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, the elite send their wards to the Ivy League institutions in Europe and America, it is interesting to note that Nigeria is the only country where this practice is being promoted in this modern time. It is also paradoxical that some of the elite who support the system have their own wards educated and trained in some of the best educational institutions in and outside the country. This is hypocritical, unjust and callous.

Despite the glaring state of deprivation and abuse being faced by the Almajiris, some academics, supportive of Almajiricin (the Almajiri type of education) due to ethnic bias, have laboured to provide intellectual backing and search out beneficial justification for this practice. Some have argued that this Spartan training of Islamic acolytes have raised up some of the holy Mallams that have become spiritual directors to politicians and business men. Others have argued that the Almajiricin is a school of life that inculcates discipline, self-mortification and religious education. Such pundits have also explained that the value of the extremely austere living condition of the children and somewhat subterranean curriculum of the Almajiricin have been greatly misunderstood by the westernised mind.

Notwithstanding, the northern elite should not live in denial and breed an uncritical mass that would be used as cannon fodder for ethnic bigotry and religious intolerance. They should bear in mind that Nigeria is the only country where this obscure religious educational system is being encouraged. Well-meaning Nigerians, especially those from the north, should hold their state and local governments to ransom, and commit them to enforce free, quality basic education. It is for this reason that political actors from the north should give heed to the counsel of progressive leaders like the former Governor of Central Bank and now an Emir in Kano, Lamido Sanusi, who has consistently decried the poor quality of education of the children in the north, the widespread poverty and widening rich-poor gap in that part of the country.

Therefore, Nigerians should support the government in hastening the proscription of the anachronistic education system not mainly because of the abuse of the children themselves but also because of the consequences that educational disparity between the north and south pose for the security and overall well-being of the country.

If Quranic education is necessary to the socio-cultural wellbeing of its people, stakeholders should call for the establishment of standard educational centres where genuine, positive and transformational values of self-development and national growth could be achieved. They should adapt the models of progressive nations where this form of qualitative education has been adjudged beneficial to the overall development of a country.

Given that free basic education is a right, civil society organisations, faith-based associations and cultural groups should educate parents and parents-to-be on the task of responsible parenthood. Parenting is not only about the capacity to bring forth an offspring; it also entails the demand of parents to be responsible for the choices made. Often, many parents have resorted to religious injunctions and some misunderstood African traditions as justifications for the wanton violation of the rights of children. It, therefore, behoves the civil society to question the social value of such practices when they provide justifications for abuse under the guise of providing moral education.

To this end, government and relevant authorities should effectively enforce the Child Rights Act by ensuring that parents, caregivers and formal guardians who infringe on the rights of children are prosecuted. The right thing therefore at this time is enforcement of free basic education as guaranteed by even the organic law of the land.

Source of the notice: https://guardian.ng/opinion/free-basic-education-not-almajiri-system/

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