Overcoming Barriers to Education with Technology
Nowadays, basic education is expected from the government and the law requires citizens to attend school up to a certain level. Education is not only a human right, it is also a duty to fulfil. Indeed, literacy rates and enrolment rates have increased over the years, in which there were 62 million out-of-school lower secondary school children in 2015, a large decrease from 97 million in 2000 (UNICEF, 2019). However, if we really recognise education as a right, then much can still be done since there are still people who are illiterate (according to UNESCO (2017), 750 million people) or unable to attend school. The problem is most prevalent in Sub-Saharan Africa, where in 2015, net enrolment rate was 79% (UNICEF, 2019). This essay will discuss how the lower rates of education in some communities can be attributed to some factors, which are often linked in one way or another.
1. Lack of sanitation and clean water
It is shocking that 1 in 3 primary schools do not have clean water or decent toilets. According to a report by UNICEF and WHO (2018), the lack of clean drinking water is affecting 570 million children and the lack of decent toilets is affecting 620 million children. In fact, a child under the age of 5 is dying every 2 minutes due to diarrhoea caused by dirty water and poor toilets.
In the short term, this increases the risks of children falling ill and being infected by parasitic worms, leading to diarrhoea and anaemia. Recovering from an illness at home means a loss in school days, hindering the learning of children they must spend more time and effort to catch up. Even if the child is well enough to attend school, he might struggle to concentrate. In the long term, since these students are in the phase of life in which they are developing cognitively and physically, it is thus possible that their bodily functions are affected if they fall ill on a frequent basis. The bottom-line is that education does not come as a priority to good health, and health is heavily affected by access to clean water and sanitation.
In addition to the poor toilets, many schools only have mixed-gender toilets. This makes it difficult for girls to go to school especially when they hit puberty and need to clean themselves during menstrual periods. The lack of privacy and unsafe water deters girls from attending school, resulting in greater gender inequality. In the same report by UNICEF and WHO (2018), in 2016, 355 million girls were affected by the lack of facilities to wash their hands after changing sanitary pads.
Kelly Ann Naylor, the chief of water, sanitation and hygiene at UNICEF, puts into words the importance of sanitation and clean water very nicely: “If education is the key to helping children escape poverty, access to water and sanitation is key to helping children safely maximise their education. To neglect this is to be careless with the wellbeing and health of children.”
Possible Solution
To emphasise the importance of toilets in Mozambique, InAGlobe partnered with SNV to seek a collaboration with local artisans (e.g. ceramicists, brick-makers etc.) to design affordable permanent toilets out of locally sourced materials. If these designs can be implemented into schools, it will not only help safeguard the health of the students, it will also encourage job creation and also lower carbon footprint.
2. Opportunity costs for households
Often in developing countries, even if education is free, the costs incurred from transportation, uniforms and textbooks (just to name a few) can substantially increase the cost of education for the family, especially if the family has many children. Moreover, children are often expected to contribute to the family’s income or to stay at home to help with the chores, such collecting water and firewood or taking care of the younger siblings.
This especially affects girls. The fact that girls get married off and become part of her husband’s family does not encourage the families of the girls to send them to school, since the income she gets will belong to her husband’s family. Furthermore, in the short-run, if the family has many children, they might choose to marry their daughters off once they are of age to lessen the financial burden on themselves. Hence, there is little to incentivise the family to warrant an expenditure on education for the girl. As a result of all these, drop-out rates increase, and gender inequality widens. This issue is further reinforced by the increased likelihood of becoming pregnant.
Possible Solution
Although technology might not have the ability to change cultural beliefs and traditions, technology can help reduce the opportunity costs of households. Having water storage systems or agricultural technology means the dependence on physical labour is reduced, which can possibly allow children to go to school. If these systems in place can aid the improvement of family’s income and induce a higher spending capacity, perhaps due to more efficient methods of processing the goods or the production of higher quality products, they might be more willing to send their children (regardless of gender) to school.
3. Crises and Conflicts (and Displaced People)
Crises and conflicts (as well as the aftermath), such as natural disasters, epidemics and political conflict can adversely affect education. During such situations, besides the destruction of schools, there is also the disruption of amenities and infrastructure such as water supply, transportation and electricity. With the lack of water, children are likely to fall ill and are unable to attend school (as mentioned earlier). With damaged roads, the journey to school may be unsafe or unpassable.
Particularly in times of political instability, danger is lurking everywhere. In recent history, it is not uncommon to see children recruited as child soldiers. This definitely disrupts the schooling of these children as now they are directly involved in the conflict, not to mention the underlying psychological effects of extreme violence and the physical legacy of war itself. Moreover, militia leaders often give drugs to the child soldiers to desensitise them against the acts they are carrying out. Child soldiers also take drugs to forget the memories of their former lives and continue to take it after coming out of the army as an act of denial to the acts they performed against their community. This makes it difficult for them to integrate into society because they become addicted and violent, which results in society rejecting them. They feel even more isolated and turn back to drugs, making this a vicious cycle.
Moreover, conflict often leads to displacement, forcing people into refugee camps or even to leave the country. This relocation can mean a change in educational system, language and teaching style for the children.
Delayed and slow schooling eventually leads to low productivity, which is an economic hurdle. Further, crises and conflicts are especially problematic given that priorities shift from making investments towards the future (such as with education) towards immediate survival-driven decision-making (such as fleeing), and subsequently upon the end of the crisis, the reconstruction of infrastructure rather than education.
Possible Solution
These events can cause great trauma to the children, affecting their ability to learn. This makes schools even more important as it can induce a sense of normality and also aid in the restoration of their lives, counteracting the psychological impact of the trauma.
Since the destruction of infrastructure is a common sight after a natural disaster, we can research into building materials that are stronger and at the same time affordable such that buildings like schools stay strong and stable. Also, these buildings can also serve the purpose of being a refuge place, reducing the need for people to relocate.
We can also make use of the internet cloud to store teaching materials to ensure nothing gets lost during emergency times and schools can resume more smoothly once things around stabilise. Mobile phones can also play an interesting role in the education of children in times of conflict. Viamo (formerly known as VOTO Mobile) uses interactive voice response (IVR) technology in a mobile device to deliver education. The material is related to the lesson content on radio, in which students can participate in live-polls or quizzes by dialling the hotline or through text. Xavier Project (a humanitarian organisation) collaborated with Eneza Education (a mobile course provider) to provide children in Kenya primary education using short messaging service (SMS). Besides receiving explanation on why the answer is correct or wrong, other services come with the SMS study tool such as Auto-Quizzes and live Ask-a-Teacher feature, enabling them to direct their questions to a qualified teacher.
4. Social Stigmatisation
In many places, stigmatisation arises as a result of deep-rooted religious and cultural beliefs or due to the lack of awareness and hence lack of tolerance. However, do note that this attitude is not necessarily uniform across the community.
Developing countries contain 80% of the population of children with disabilities. These children are often excluded from education because of the lack of appropriate resources and expertise to teach them. However, false beliefs on disabilities also contribute to the inaccessibility of education for such students. Some beliefs include: a punishment from God (or bad karma), a demonic possession, and an ancestral curse. This results in not only rejection of school admission for these children, but also parents protecting their children from negative perceptions by keeping their children away from social activities. According to the United Nations, 38% of caregivers of children with disabilities in Cameroon, Ethiopia, Senegal, Uganda and Zambia reported doing the latter action. Even the children of disabled parents suffer from the same fate even if they do not have any disabilities.
Children with albinism are one such disadvantaged group. According to Standing Voice (accessed in 2019), the prevalence rate is higher in Sub-Sharan Africa, with 1 in 1,400 people suffer from albinism in Tanzania compared to the global average of 1 in 18,000. There are misconceptions that children with albinism have a shorter lifespan, hence communities are not keen to devote resources to their education. Moreover, besides being bullied in public which can affect mental health, people with albinism are believed to possess magic powers and hence are often abducted or killed and mutilated for their body parts. With these dangers, families would rather protect their children at home than to send them to school.
Myths and superstitions extend to girls menstruating as well. In Nepal, Chhaupadi is practiced, in which Hindu women who are menstruating are not allowed indoors, including their own homes. This is because they are considered to be impure. This inevitably results in the loss of school days. It should be noted, however, that the Nepalese government is taking steps to stop this practice, in which they banned the practice in 2005 and criminalised it in 2018. Knowing that it is a long-running tradition, the government also stops giving state support to families that practices this act and families that stops their daughters from going to school.
Besides cultural beliefs, the lack of awareness also prevents the education of children in some communities. The high prevalence of HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa is no less amongst children. 1.9 million out of the 2.5 million children, age 15 and under, living with HIV/AIDS are in Sub-Saharan Africa (Medscape, 2018). They experience a degree of stigmatisation that prevents them from attending school at times. This is fostered by the incorrect belief that the virus can be transmitted through human contact rather than fluid exchange.
Possible Solution
Realising that proportionally, there are many forms of disability that are more prevalent in countries that cannot afford current assistive technologies such as teaching aids, affordable tailored technologies have immense potential towards creating inclusion. Due to the focus of both the Department of Bioengineering at Imperial College London, and Jaime’s previous focus of humanitarian work and engineering, InAGlobe has a special focus on assistive technologies, collaborating closely with the Kilimanjaro Blind Trust. Through technology, we can lessen the burden of disability and increase the inclusiveness of society, playing a part in ensuring that every individual gets a chance in school, eventually contributing actively in the economy and hopefully, reduce the burden of stigma.
These issues are multi-faceted and there is not a single solution that can solve all of them. Although many of these problems are social problems and technology might not be able to change human mindsets, innovative technological solutions can be developed to alleviate some of these problems. We need to constantly question ourselves: How can technology play a role in, directly or indirectly, increasing education rates? Who is not being included in the current system, and how can this be changed? At InAGlobe, these are the kinds of problems we want to raise to higher education institutions to inspire them to come up with innovative solutions. By raising awareness, we hope to play a part in global education to empower the lives of individuals and communities.
Written by Jaynell Ng (22/06/2019) – Outreach Volunteer for InAGlobe Education.
References:
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