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- Convenors:
-
Valérie Golaz
(INED / LPED)
Christian Kakuba (Makerere University)
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- Discussant:
-
Marc Pilon
(Institut de recherche pour le développement)
- Stream:
- Sociology
- Location:
- Chrystal McMillan, Seminar Room 6
- Sessions:
- Friday 14 June, -, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
In Africa, many children are still not able to access primary schooling. This panel looks at the reasons why children are left out of the school system through qualitative and quantitative approaches.
Long Abstract:
Although universal primary education has been on the agenda of most African countries for more than a decade, none has achieved the goal of insuring inclusive and equitable quality education for all as espoused in SDG4. In spite of increasing competition for education, many children are still not accessing primary education. The intensity of this phenomenon varies between and within countries. Some children still grow up without ever going to school while more children drop out before the end of the primary cycle. The primary school systems in place are not always up to standard in terms of capacity and quality, but other explanations for this observation lie in specific individual/community characteristics and family situations. What do we know about out-of-school children? Why are some children never sent to school? Why do others drop out of primary school prematurely?
Quantitative data provides valuable information on schools and out of school children, but indicators drawn from different sources do not always give the same picture. Qualitative approaches point to specific processes side-lining children. This panel will look at the variations in indicators and predictors of school attendance and dropout as well as specific contexts in which children left out of the school system live. Quantitative and qualitative approaches are appropriate to trigger a discussion on the reasons as to why school attendance, retention and completion rates are low.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Friday 14 June, 2019, -Paper short abstract:
In Guinea-Bissau: every child is now enrolled in primary school. However, this overview is misleading as a large group of children are still not engaged in the system: children with disabilities, early school dropout, high failure rate and the acquired skills are limited
Paper long abstract:
Official documents attest that Guinea Bissau is a successful example of the universal enrolment in primary school, as a result of public policies supported by international donors. A detailed exam shows up the omission of different problems that are threating the system: integrating children with disabilities in school; girls' engagement is failing; early dropout; teachers' absenteeism. Disabled children are mainly being taken public care by the CSO that are starting to identify the main needs of this group. Girls engagement is threatened by early marriage and teenage pregnancy. Teachers are unmotivated, and the absenteeism rate is high. The school system is chaotic. Both at a macrolevel as in the class the pedagogical material and methodology are inadequate, based in other countries experiences that are not context sensitives, lacking the knowledge of the African history and culture, as an extension of the colonial school bias. This communication is based in extensive fieldwork in Guinea-Bissau and intends to discuss the main drivers of the failure of the educational system in relation with the international educational policies.
Paper short abstract:
In spite of the 1997 Universal primary education Policy, the last census shows that 6% of children aged 9-11 years have never gone to school. Multilevel modeling shows that a sensible part of non-enrollment issues comes from district level factors.
Paper long abstract:
Uganda universalized primary education in 1997. While this is indicative of government's will to democratize access to education, it was also characterized by an upsurge in primary school enrollments from slightly over 3 million in 1996 to close to 5.3 million in 1997. The primary education sector has equally been characterized by deteriorating indicators of internal efficiency, declining quality and dropouts. The 2014 population and housing census data reveals that about 6% of children aged 9-11 years had never been to school and that this proportion was disproportionately higher for some districts in north and north-eastern Uganda.
We analysed the 10% sample of the 2014 census to try and shed light on the children aged 9-11 years that had never been to school. We used multilevel modelling with the district as contextual level of analysis to study the effect of individual, household and district level factors on the probability of never being enrolled. First and foremost, females were less likely to be out of school than their male counterparts, something novel given the existing literature on sex and access to education in Uganda. Controlling for individual level variations, we isolated district factors that are linked to non-enrollment and most importantly, found supply side factors like distance to school and pupil classroom ratio in a district to strongly influence school enrollment. Service provision is still very much at stake in many Ugandan districts.
Paper short abstract:
The paper discusses the teaching of culturally relevant content for the Juǀ'hoansi of central eastern Namibia, and addresses the challenges for the inclusion of marginalized groups in a multicultural postcolonial school setting.
Paper long abstract:
The Juǀ'hoansi of central eastern Namibia have received increased access to formal education after the country gained independence in 1990. Once nomadic hunter-gatherers, the Juǀ'hoansi now live as marginalized subsistence farmers or squatters at the socioeconomic and geographic margins of society. Education is often seen as one of the main vehicles for their transformation and empowerment. Yet, despite the fact that Namibia has one of the most progressive education policies in the region, and there are many provisions made for the inclusion of the Juǀ'hoansi in the system, their enrolment and completion rates remain disproportionally lower than those for other groups.
The education policy allows for the inclusion of culturally relevant content in primary schools in the country. This paper focuses on the inclusion of such content for the Juǀ'hoansi, based on data collected from eight primary schools in the region. What are the educators' attitudes towards Juǀ'hoan traditional knowledge, and what hinders and facilitates its inclusion in the education system? More broadly, the paper discusses the gap between policy and practice, particularly in multicultural postcolonial school settings.
Paper short abstract:
I examine the relationship between exposure to work hazards and school outcomes for young people(7-17 years old) in South Africa. Using national data results show that young people are mostly exposed to work at night and heavy loads. Also these young people are less likely to attend school.
Paper long abstract:
Children and youth who engage in labour activities are at risk of injury and health hazards. In addition to resulting in sickness and possibly mortality, injury and health outcomes also compromise school attainment. For children and youth who are sick or injured, prolonged absence, compromised ability to complete school work and even dropout are known to occur. However, what remain unknown is the exact health and injury hazards young people who work face and how these hazards impact on different schooling outcomes. This paper examines the 2015 Survey of Activities of Young People in South Africa and found that young people (7-17 years old) are mostly exposed to severe hazards (67%) which include working with heavy loads, night work and exposure to the use of dangerous tools. Furthermore, young people exposed to severe hazards are more likely not to attend school (OR=0.25; CI: 0.24- 0.27) than those exposed to minor hazards (noise, fumes and dust). With these preliminary results in mind, social services in South Africa needs to do more to ensure that young people are not engaging in hazardous work and are kept in school.