2% of children sans formal education
The United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) has come out with recommendations to encourage more children to enter the education system, as latest findings revealed that about 2% fail to go through formal education.
The series of recommendations include a strict implementation of a prohibition on the levy of school admission fees and donations.
Simultaneously, the Education Ministry is campaigning to draw back school dropouts into the education system to ensure that the 2% who fail to enter into any formal education system, receive formal or non-formal education.
Sri Lanka is targeting a 100% literacy rate by 2015.
UNICEF, along with the Education Ministry and Australian AID, has identified 2% of Sri Lanka’s children drop out or refrain from going to school, as a result of poverty, parent’s attitude towards education and poor health and malnutrition status.
The report by the UNICEF and UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) shows that poverty affects the secondary school age children, more than the primary school age children.
According to the Education Ministry’s Non Formal and Special Education Director H.P.N. Lakshman, most of these children are from families where one or both parents are working abroad, with less economic support and disability.
“The ministry has taken the initiative to encourage these students to return to school. For this, the ministry has implemented technical classes in village temples, churches and other institutions, to give these students a head start and gradually prepare them for school,” he said.
The ministry has also started awareness programmes for parents, to encourage them to send their children to school.
The ministry has also increased the age limit for school students to 16 years.
“We have done this because, when students drop out at age 14, they haven’t even finished their Ordinary Level education, which makes it hard for them to secure jobs,” said Education Minister Bandula Gunawardena.
“The Education Ministry’s Compulsory Education Committee will monitor and provide necessary facilities and funds to students who are going through hardships. Among the committee members are the Grama Sevaka of the area and the school principal who are directly involved with the student and the family members,” Mr Lakshman said.
According to the report, poor health conditions also play a vital role in irregular school attendance and school dropouts. Thus the illnesses most commonly found in school students include colds, weak eyesight, asthma, earache, fever, headaches and stomachaches.’
The report also revealed that in-school students who are also engaged in household work, are at a higher risk of dropping out of school. Thus students who spend five or more hours per day in household work is 38.4%, where female students tend to engage in such work more than male students.
The report also makes known that parents’ and children’s attitude towards education has an impact on school attendance. Accordingly, lack of parent’s encouragement to attend school and lack of interest has affected children’s education.
“The need for children to look after younger siblings, the absence of adequate study space and a disturbed or violent home environment were also cited as probable causes,” the report stated.
The mostly likely grades for students to drop out of school is from Grade 6 to 9, while male students, more than female students, are more likely to drop out in Grade 10 to 11, the report noted.
In addition, the most common reason for students never having enrolled in a school is lack of financial support and schools being located far from home, and transport difficulties.
“The Education Ministry is to allocate funds for each district, for the betterment of students, and through this, the ministry has allocated Rs 10 million for the Western province, Rs 5 million for the Central province, subject to their needs,” said Mr Lakshman.
| UNICEF Recommendations:
- Strict enforcement of policies prohibiting the levy of school admission fees/donations |
- Aanya Wipulasena
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