The Right to Education
In the run up to students going back to school in September, GCI discussed the right to Education.
Education is essential for the development of both successful individuals and successful societies. The right to education is enshrined in various international Human Rights treaties, to which Cameroon is a signatory. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Social and Political Rights, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child all state that everyone has the right to free basic education.
According to UNICEF, national primary school attendance rates in Cameroon have improved to 78 per cent. The three northernmost provinces lag far behind the rest of Cameroon in school attendance.
Cameroon 's school system suffers from a lack of resources. A study by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Youth and Sports in 2004 found that elementary schools only had sufficient seats for 1.8 million students, even though 2.9 million students attended school. The study also revealed that the northern provinces were neglected. This was reflected in the fact that teachers working in the three provinces of that region represented only 5.7 percent of all teachers working throughout the 10 provinces in the country. Many schools lack water and sanitation.
In Kumba GCI has recently been made aware that many qualified students are prevented from accessing secondary education because the school authorities demand a bribe in exchange for enrolment. This means that qualified students who cannot afford the bribe will be excluded, while less qualified students whose parents can afford to pay are admitted.
The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) emphasises that girls should have the same rights as boys to primary education. However, figures from Cameroon 's National Institute of Statistics indicate that currently there are 58 percent of girls enrolled in primary school compared to 83 percent of boys.
Girls have fewer opportunities to attend school and are more likely to drop out. The Equal Rights and Opportunity Forum, an NGO based in Cameroon, said in a 2005 report that out of 1.7 million children not attending school, 1.3 million were girls and that half of girls aged 6-11 did not attend school. In the three northernmost provinces half of all girls are out of school.
Enrolment rates drop considerably at the secondary level for both boys and girls. According to UNICEF, the gross enrolment rate is 51 percent for boys and 36 percent for girls. IRIN's figures show that 60 percent of boys complete primary school compared to only 37 percent for girls.
According to UNICEF, there are several reasons why girls do not attend school or are forced to drop out: they often are removed from school and kept at home for domestic chores and preparation for early marriage; The cost of learning materials and other school-related expenses are difficult for low-income families to bear, and boys often receive first priority; and The absence of a birth certificate precludes eligibility to take the final exam at primary level and many children, particularly girls, are not registered.
Low educational levels results in high levels of adult illiteracy. According to UNICEF in 2005 23% if men and 40% of women in Cameroon cannot read or write. This impacts of their ability to get a job, and leads to poverty.
The right to education is crucial to securing other human rights – it facilitates freedom of expression, participation in government, and enables people to understand their rights and to fight for them when they are abused.
To resolve the shortage of teachers the government should implement programmes to encourage people to undertake teacher training. To resolve the lack of resources in schools the government must invest in education. Programmes should be implemented to ensure that this money is spent appropriately and to prevent corruption. To ensure access to education, the government and school authorities must make sure that students are not required to pay bribes in order to enrol in school.
Parents may also be tempted to keep children out of school so that they can do chores in the house or work to earn money for the family. Families who rely on child labour for income will struggle to send their children to school. However, it is important that they realise that poverty will only be alleviated through education, so they must use every means possible to send their children to school. The government should intervene to support families financially to send their children to school.
Parents must be informed of the importance of education. They need to know that this rights underpins other rights, and is crucial to alleviating poverty in the future. Cultural indifference to education, particularly to the education of girls, must be addressed, and change encouraged. Parents must be encouraged to register their children so they all possess birth certificates and are therefore able to sit the end of primary school exam.
Both the government and non-governmental organisations have a responsibility to inform parents of their duties, and to support them to fulfil this right for their children.
GCI has begun a programme to address the issue of corruption in secondary school admissions in Kumba. We are asking anyone who has experienced this discrimination to come to our office and make a statement. We will compile a report and use this to put pressure on school officials to make access to secondary education based on merit, not bribes.
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