BARRIERS TO EDUCATION

Children are naturally really hungry to learn, but face high barriers to attending school, we are talking here especially about girls. HUMANITY CARE works to address the deep roots of those impediments as a way to increase their learning opportunities.

Among those barriers are hunger, early marriage, lower social status, chores, sanitation and school safety.

HUMANITY CARE implements gender-synchronized approaches: projects may begin with identifying and addressing the unique barriers that keep girls out of school, while at the same time working with boys and men to help identify and address such barriers. Other projects may engage both girls and boys from inception, to build equitable environments through which all students can learn, thrive and grow.

Chores:

Through HUMANITY CARE’s work in undeveloped countries, household and community discussions, supported by HUMANITY CARE’s research studies, identified that girls can have six times higher domestic workloads than boys at the same age. As a result, girls often miss class and/or arrive late to school, missing critical learning hours. Furthermore, they frequently spend daylight hours doing household chores or labor for wages, preventing them from studying while it is light outside (many of them have not access to other light sources than sunlight). Although workload distribution is deeply linked to girls’ overall lower social status in their communities, household and community-level discussions are making a difference.

Early Marriage:

Girls are entering into early marriages at a high rate.  They are often married early to make their families to live better, far before they are ready for marriage physically and mentally.

Lower Social Status:

Because girls generally have a lower social status than their brothers, their education is valued less.  When resources are low, and there are both real and opportunity costs associated with going to school, many families opt to educate their boys over their girls.  Additionally, classroom teachers, materials, and methodologies are often skewed to favor boys.

School Safety:

School safety remains a critical barrier for girls to attend school.  If the journey to school and the school environment are not safe, parents will not enroll their daughters, and girls will not attend.

Sanitation:

Having access to basic clean water and a decent toilet saves children’s lives, gives women an advantage in earning money and ensures a good food supply.

Hunger:

Malnutrition affects every stage of life and has severe consequences that can impact generations. Children born to malnourished mothers are at increased risk for death. Malnourished children face lifelong consequences in reduced mental capacity, lower retention in school and reduced lifetime earnings.

Conflict:

Education can be a life-saving resource that reestablishes a vulnerable child’s sense of normal and builds self-esteem and hope for the future. Many experts consider education an essential humanitarian response to emergencies, closely following food, shelter and water.

facts:

• One additional school year can increase a woman’s earnings by 10% to 20%.
• No education for girls means economic loss.
• Education increases awareness of rights: educated women are more likely to have decent working conditions, resist violence, denounce injustice and participate in political processes.
• Over the past decades, the global increase in women’s education has prevented more than 4 million child deaths.
• In sub-Saharan Africa, more than two million children’s lives could have been saved in if all their mothers had at least secondary education.
• Women with secondary education are more likely to know how to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV.
• Getting all children into basic education, while raising learning standards, could boost growth by more than 2% annually in low-income countries.
• Education improves long term environmental stability, by promoting concern, awareness and new attitudes.
• Environmental skills education leads to environmental sustainability: understanding local environments, designing greener technologies, changing consumption and production patterns and coping better with the impacts of economic and natural shocks are all skills essential to environmental sustainability.

HUMANITY CARE knows that investing in the needs and rights of all children, supporting their access to quality education, healthcare opportunities for safe paid work and freedom from abuse is critical to overcoming poverty.

 

Donate For Children

Donate For Education

Donate For Family