Bamako, the capital city of Mali located in Africa, has been
recovering for some time from serious threats and dangers from Islamic militant
and separatist’s rebels that came about in March, 201. The Islamic militants were removed by French
forces in January but stability has not yet returned to the area. The attacks
from the Islamic militant prohibited the start of school year all over Mali because
of security reasons, damages to the schools and now a shortage in teachers. In
areas such as Timbuktu the government has been trying to get teachers to return
to the area by offering them reason to return by using cash reward from of 500
US dollars. Many feel this is not enough to return back to such dangerous
conditions. The conflict still goes on
today and there are suicide attackers threatening the safety of teachers and
children. The problem is many schools have
decided to re-open regardless of the hazards involved.
The children
of Sahel during the years of 2011-2012 when the conflict and food crisis began
some 800,000 children were kept out of school for a two year period. The conflict was not the only thing causing
poor attendance before the level of education remained low and about 1.2 million
were not attending schools and most of these were girls. The lost years is creating issues because now
that the children have been out of school for so long they may choose not to
return. Timbuktu has returned to school
and have not had any issues other than the fact many teachers are not returning
which leaves the teachers performing double shifts and the calendar for the
year has been disrupted. In areas such
as Gao teachers went on strike because they had not received their return-to-work
grant. Other regions such as Kidal have not even returned back to school
because of control from the rebel groups.
Many schools during the crisis were destroyed and it took some time to
get these schools back up and running.
One teacher by the name, Oumar Touré said, "It is the future of
these poor children that we should consider. They need us."
The attacks
on Mali are creating problems for the children living there, some cannot attend
school while others fear their safety while attending school. The children’s
education is at stake and because of this crisis many will not go back to
school, leaving them to live poor lives while those who jeopardize their safety
may have chances of a better life. A big issue going on right now is the
teacher to student ratio is dis-proportioned this is not allowing the children
to receive a quality education because the teachers cannot give them one on one
attention. Also the teachers are overworked and underpaid which may result in
more teacher dropout rates in the future. The only way this will get better is
to ensure the safety of the country without this many children will remain
uneducated or under-educated.
Date: 11/7/2013
Time: 8:15PM
Name: Sarah Vestrat
http://allafrica.com/stories/201311011252.html?page=2
http://allafrica.com/stories/201311011252.html?page=2
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