WUNRN
Kenya
- Nomadic Schools for Mobile Girls
By Joyce Mulama
GARISSA, Kenya, Oct 29, 2008 (IPS) - Five years
after the introduction of free primary education (FPE) in Kenya, the enrolment
of girls in schools continues to lag behind in Garissa, in Kenya's North
Eastern region.
Most communities living in the North Eastern region are
nomadic and semi-nomadic, and depend on livestock for their livelihood.
"The nomadic life favours only boys to be in school.
Parents force boys to go to school and the girls are required to look after the
animals. They (parents) leave the boys under the care of relatives who ensure
they go to school, while girls move around with their parents from place to
place in search of pasture for their livestock," Nur Ibrahim Abdi, the
Deputy District Education Officer of Garissa told IPS.
Eleven year-old Nadia Yusuf is one such girl, who has
dropped out of school permanently to care for the family's herd of 100 goats,
while her three brothers go to school. "My parents and I move from one
water point to the next to feed our animals. If we find a water point dry, we
look for the next and we lodge there for days as our goats drink and
feed," she told IPS from the outskirts of the semi-desert Garissa town.
Most communities living in the North Eastern region are
nomadic and semi-nomadic, and depend on livestock for their livelihood. That
girls' education here is sacrificed for the sake of livestock is a matter that
has come to be of great concern lately.
According to statistics from the Garissa District Education
Office, the enrolment rate of girls is just half that for boys. In 2003 when
FPE was introduced, the total number of boys enrolled in primary schools was
11,397, compared to 5,539 girls.
Successive years have seen enrolment of boys continue to
tower over that of girls. In 2006, the enrolment of boys stood at 13,214, while
that of girls was 7,120. A similar scenario was evidenced last year when 14,867
boys enrolled in schools, compared to just 8,071 girls.
"This is serious. We cannot afford to
continue losing any girl from school in North Eastern at a time like now when
there are all efforts to attain universal education," Abdi said. He was
referring to the second Millennium Development Goal (MDG), which expects
countries to achieve universal primary education by 2015. Certain initiatives are
under way however, to improve enrolment of girls in Kenya's North Eastern
region. These include the establishment of mobile schools to cater for nomadic
children. The schools, according to Abdi, have been established at water-points
where families gather for purposes of getting water and pasture for their
animals. The timetable of the schools is flexible in that the schools move with
the families.
But there are only five such facilities in the vast Garissa
district, with an area of 33,620 square kilometres. The ministry of education
says 10 more facilities have been approved by the Garissa District Education
Board, and will soon be set up.
"This will ensure that children, girls in particular,
access education wherever they are, even as they graze their animals,"
observed Salat Muhammed Adan, the area assistant chief.
It is emerging that it is not only the nomadic lifestyle of
the community that has kept girls out of school, but also early marriages,
which are widely practiced in the area. "This problem is more rampant in
the reserves and some certain parts within the town. Parents pull their girls
from school and marry them off to old men in exchange for cattle and goats.
Some girls are as young as 10 years old," Adan told IPS.
He receives at least ten such cases a month, and has been
using the Children's Act to arrest parents who marry off their young girls, as
well as the 'husband'. The Act, established in 2001 outlaws marriage before the
age of 18. For example, last August, when schools were closed, Adan arrested
parents of a 15 year-old girl who had been married off to a 39 year-old man.
"I found the couple sleeping and when they least expected, I moved in to
arrest the man. I went for the girl's parents too. The girl is now in school."
In determining punishment for child marriages, courts have
typically charged both a girl's parents and her husband, either sentencing them
to community service or a fine.
Early marriage is a long-established practice in the region,
and the law is fighting a difficult battle against an accepted cultural
practice. According to assistant chief Adan, the arrests have deterred many
parents from marrying off their girls.
"There is tangible evidence to this. Initially,
majority of families used to do this a lot and in the open. But now because of
the arrests, the practice has reduced and it is done in secrecy," he
noted.
The problem has prompted local community-based organisations
to team up with the authorities to monitor any violations of the Children's Act
in regard to early marriages.
"This is a problem that has to be addressed seriously.
We are involving the community and informing them of the importance of
education to girls. The communities have started a door to door campaign to
spread this message," noted Fariah Said, chairperson of the Assalam Muslim
Women Forum. Other activities seeking to promote girl child education include
the Desert Run, a yearly event whereby athletes run in the desert North Eastern
region. The purpose of this activity is to among other things raise awareness
on girl child education and raise funds to support education for girls in that
area.
This year's event took place earlier this month in Garissa,
with the poor enrolment rate for girls in schools here being the focus.
"Clearly we need to move fast to ensure as many girls
as boys are in school as the clock ticks closer to the deadline set for
MDGs," Florence Machio, coordinator of Women Empowerment Link, organisers
of the event said.
The world is slightly past the halfway mark of 2015 deadline
of the MDGs. Eight MDGs including providing universal primary education were
agreed on in 2000 at a United Nations summit held in New York. (END/2008)
_____________________________________________________________
Dozens of kilometers away
from the nearest village school, a group of children file into a rusty caravan
parked amidst a sea of Bedouin tents.
This is a mobile school, designed to follow groups of Arab
nomads as they move across the desert. The current encampment where this school
has stopped is 130 kilometers from the city of Al-Raqqah in northern Syria.
“Please, teacher, let me answer this question,” says one of
the children, Sultan Muhammed al-Ijl. “I can tell you where the Arab homeland
is on the map.”
At this, fellow-pupil Yousif Muhammed al-Sahil stands up
angrily to complain, “Sultan has answered most of your questions. Why don’t you
give me a chance, teacher?”
After the class was over, the teacher, 25-year-old Mazin
al-Khidhri, said he continued to be surprised by how passionate his students
were about learning.
“Most people think the Bedouins are a backward people
uninterested in participating in modern society,” he said. “But what is
happening in this school and others like it is evidence that such stereotypes
are unfounded.”
Khidhri is among over 100 teachers assigned to travel with
the Bedouin tribes, as part of a project dating from 1981 to address what were
then sky-high illiteracy rates among then nomads.
Primary school education is mandatory and free of charge in
Syria for elementary-aged children, but Bedouin children used to miss out
because they were never in one place long ago to be brought into the
conventional system
There are now 101 mobile schools throughout the deserts of
Syria, providing education for over 1,100 children. The vehicle-drawn caravans
are divided into three sections – the classroom itself, a separate room for the
teachers, and a storage space.
“Al-Raqqah province still tops the list in Syria for the
number of [Bedouin] tents and mobile caravans,” said Abdul Salam, director of
planning at Syria’s education ministry.
Teachers at the mobile schools complain that many Bedouin
parents do not see the benefit of getting an education.
“Why didn’t you review the lesson at home last night?”
30-year-old Mahmoud al-Khalil asks one of his pupils in frustration.
Khalil says most children are eager to learn, but lack
encouragement from their families.
“Their parents are illiterate and wait impatiently for their
children get home and tend the animals so that they can relax,” he told IWPR.
“That makes pupils unwilling to study because they are stuck between two
contradictory forces – a teacher who wants them to learn and parents who want
them to work.”
One father, Mubarak al-Mhawish, said openly that he would
rather his children did not attend the school.
“If education wasn’t mandatory, we wouldn’t allow our
children to go,” he said. “We care about our livelihoods more than anything
else, and that’s what our children need to focus on, because that is what
awaits them in the future.”
Another challenge facing teachers is the sense of being
underpaid and isolated.
“I initially came here for the challenge and to earn a good
income,” said Khidhri, adding that he was dismayed to learn his salary was too
small for him to afford to go back to his home in the city to visit his family.
Khadija Mansour, who teaches at the same school as Khalil,
said she suffered from loneliness out in the deserts.
“I am so isolated out here,” she said. “I miss the chirping
of the sparrows and the bustle of the city.”
Teachers like Khidhri and Mansour have asked their superior
to recognise that they face far more hardship than those working in more
populated parts of the country.
“Even the kerosene we get isn’t enough,” said Khalil said.
“But when we ask education officials for a better salary or even just a bonus,
they won’t budge.”
One unusual problem facing the mobile teachers is what to do
when the tribe’s migration route takes them into another country.
“We can’t always accompany them because the education
ministry requires us to stick to certain routes,” said Khidhri. “Sometimes they
cross into Jordan, Iraq or somewhere else. We hate abandoning the children in
the middle of teaching, but we have to wait for them to cross back into Syria.”
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