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| Saturday, 13 December 2003 |
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No schooling for 60,000 children by Anjana Gamage An extensive survey has revealed that more than 57,000 children aged 5 to 14 in Sri Lanka have not enroled in school at all. The survey, conducted last year by the Non Formal Unit of the Education Ministry, also found that nearly 19,000 children of this age group have dropped out from school. The majority of these children are from the North and East provinces- nearly 35,000 non school going children and 12,500 dropouts. However, according to some estimates, as many as 94,000 children in the North-East are out of school. These shocking statistics were presented by Dr. Karunasena Kodituwakku, Minister of Human Resources Development, Education and Cultural Affairs at the launch of the State of the World's Children 2004 report by the UNICEF, at the National Institute of Education on Thursday. According to the Minister, 97 per cent of those reaching the age of five are enroled in schools. Of the children enroled in grade one 98.2 per centcomplete primary education and 82.6 per cent complete the terminal grade of the compulsory education grade span. UNICEF Representative in Sri Lanka, Ted Chaiban said that 97 per cent girls and boys are enroled in primary school in Sri Lanka and the female literacy rate is as high as 89 per cent. "This is an outstanding success story in terms of girls' education in the country," he said. The UNICEF's State of the World Children's Report indicated that every year globally nine million more girls than boys never see the inside of a classroom. In the least developed countries, the female literacy rate is as low as 42 per cent and only half of the girls attend primary school. Minister Kodithuwakku said that the UNDP has identified five 'energizers' of human resource development as education, health and nutrition, environment, employment, political and economic freedom. of them, education is the basis for all the others, which are interlinked and interdependent, he said. The UNICEF report added that international development efforts are short-changing girls, leaving hundreds of millions of girls and women uneducated and unable to contribute to positive change for themselves, their children, or their communities. It points out that strategies needed to get girls in school and keep them there would jump-start progress on the development agenda for 2015, known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Girls denied an education are more vulnerable to poverty, hunger, violence, abuse, exploitation and trafficking. They are more likely to die in childbirth and are at greater risk of disease. |
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