In the Western world, teenagers celebrate snow days, anticipate scheduled breaks and can hardly be more excited than when summer rolls around; it says so on their social medias. Snapchat stories, spam accounts and group chats of public school students filled with similar messages to, “I hate school,” “School is so boring,” and “Why do I have to learn this?”
One cannot scroll through his or her Instagram feed without someone posting a selfie or meme with a caption that bashes on school. The students posting these messages are taking education for granted.
Education, in the most basic sense, is a service given from one person to another: a teacher giving knowledge to a student. In just that fact alone —students are receiving a benefit from teachers— should influence students to think highly of school. It is a service for them.
Children and teenagers in other nations do not have the same educational opportunities American students do. In developing countries, a United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) report shows economic disparity for families affect ability for children to attend school. It read, “Children from the poorest 20 percent of the population are less likely to attend school than those who are better of, with each successive quintile having a higher average attendance.”
West and Central Africa had the greatest gaps in student attendance based off economical status. In 2016, UNICEF reported less than 40 percent of children from the poorest quintile attended primary school in Guinea, contrasting with 87 percent of children from the wealthiest homes.
CHAMA’ intervention as the community women celebrates !
A rural community in South-Eastern Nigeria “Nda-Aku” had no school for about 100 years. The children walked about 3 hours to and fro the nearest school. CHAMA volunteers and partners intervened to build school for them. Rather writing “I hate school”, the community women and children wrote “we love school” as demonstrated through their dancing,, resting 40 pounds bricks, in a showcase of their joy.
CHAMA challenges the scourge of malaria in Africa through education. According to Bill Gates, “if we must sustainably challenge the scourge of malaria in Africa, education is the foundation”. Let’s give them a better education and they will take care of the rest.
