Africa Social problems: Cause and Effect on Education
By Ojeyinka Iyanuoluwa
Social problems are undesirable conditions that people believe should be corrected. Social problem can be seen as the general condition that can be adversely affects the society (Best 2013). They include all sort of anti-social behaviour, drug-abuse, insecurity, poverty, economic deprivation, unemployment, sexual abuse, teenage pregnancy and female gentile mutilation. There are conditions in the society that cause material or psychological suffering for a significant number of people. They prevent members of he society from developing and using their full potential. Which is most applicable to African especially the sub-Saharan part of Africa.
Looking at the current state of Africa, the major social problems are as follows;
-Unemployment
-Poverty
-Insecurity
-Hunger
-Poor Education
-Religious conflict
-Bribery and corruption
Every social problems are connected to each other in one way or the order. Which they all happened as a result of one situation or the other that have impacted the society negatively.
Unemployment:
These occur as a result of inadequate job opportunities. Of Africa's nearly 420 million youth aged 15-35, one-third are unemployed and discouraged, another third are vulnerably employed, and only one in six is in wage employment. Youth face roughly double the unemployment rate of adults, with significant variation by country. Which are caused by;
Labour demand and supply mismatch. There is a seemingly huge skills mismatch between skills provided by the education system and labour market needs, which has contributed to a situation where many young graduates cannot be absorbed by the mainstream economy. The economy is also shifting to a more skill-intensive position, although its youth are lacking skills of a modern economy. The primary cause for the country’s widespread unemployment is a structural mismatch between the skills the modern economy demands and the skills it supplies. It was viewed that: the youth are low skilled, and the skill mismatch that applies to the broader economy applies particularly to them. The principal reason given by employers for their low youth employment rate is that with schooling not accurately indicating skill levels, unskilled inexperienced workers are seen as risky to employ, thus increasing their real cost.
Low labour absorption capacity of the economy. Labour supply has grown faster than the economy’s absorption capacity. Economic growth has occurred largely in skills-intensive sectors, such as the financial and business services sector although the majority of Africans (especially the sub-Saharan part of Africa) have been denied high-quality education. One frequently cited explanation for sustained and rising unemployment is workers’ lack of skills.
High-skill technology labor market. In line with global trends is a movement away from labour intensive to capital intensive production processes, and from primary and secondary industries to tertiary or service sectors. This results in fewer employment opportunities, especially for unskilled workers The sub-Saharan African countries have a non-labour-intensive labour market that remains highly dependent on high-skill technology, contributing to the exclusion of many young people, particularly those in rural and semi-rural areas.
Low entrepreneurship levels. Entrepreneurial participation is in short supply. Management and leadership skills needed to initiate and support economic growth, through innovation and entrepreneurship, are also lacking.
Slow pace of transformation. The slow pace the government has adopted to transform the economy has not created enough job opportunities for the young generation.
Poverty
The state of one who lacks a usual or socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions. Poverty is said to exist when people lack the means to satisfy their basic needs. In this context, the identification of poor people first requires a determination of what constitutes basic needs. Poverty has been associated, for example, with poor health, low levels of education or skills, an inability or an unwillingness to work, high rates of disruptive or disorderly behaviour, and improvidence. While these attributes have often been found to exist with poverty, their inclusion in a definition of poverty would tend to obscure the relation between them and the inability to provide for one’s basic needs. Whatever definition one uses, authorities and laypersons alike commonly assume that the effects of poverty are harmful to both individuals and society.
Africa has the richest natural resources and yet it is poor and stagnant in growth and development. In other words, in spite of all the wealthy resources including human and material in its possession, Africa is the world’s poorest continent. What are the causes?
In Sub-Saharan Africa, the main factors that cause poverty include: inadequate access to employment opportunities; inadequate physical assets such as land, capital and minimal access by the poor to credit even on a small scale; inadequate access to the means of supporting rural development in poor regions; inadequate access to markets where the poor can sell goods and services; low endowment of human capital, destruction of natural resources leading to environmental degradation and reduced productivity; inadequate access to assistance for those living at the margin and those victimised by transitory poverty and lack of participation. That is, failure to draw the poor into the design of development programmes.
Yahie (1993) believes that the factors that cause poverty include: (i) structural causes that are more permanent and depend on a host of exogenous factors such as limited resources, lack of skills, locational disadvantage and other factors that are inherent in the social and political set-up; and (ii) the transitional causes that are mainly due to structural adjustment reforms and changes in domestic economic policies that may result in price changes, unemployment and so on. Natural calamities such as drought and man-made disasters such as wars, environmental degradation and so on also induce transitional poverty ( Narayan et.al. 2000a, 2000b).
Poor Education:
A lack of education can be defined as a state where people have a below-average level of common knowledge about basic things that they would urgently need in their daily life. For instance, this could include basic knowledge in math, writing, spelling, etc. Children living in poverty face many barriers to accessing an education. Some are obvious — like not having a school to go to — while others are more subtle. Like the teacher at the school not having had the training needed to help children learn effectively.
Increasing access to education can improve the overall health and longevity of a society, grow economies, and even combat climate change. Yet in many developing countries, children’s access to education can be limited by numerous factors. Language barriers, gender roles, and reliance on child labour can all stall progress to provide quality education. The world’s most vulnerable children from disadvantaged communities are more likely to miss out on school. This includes young girls and children with disabilities. Here are 10 of the greatest challenges in global education that the world needs to take action on right now to achieve Global Goal 4: Quality Education by 2030.
The major causes of poor education are;
A lack of funding for education: If each developing country invested just 15 cents more per child, it could make all the difference. There is currently a $39 billion gap to providing quality education to all children by 2030. GPE encourages developing countries to contribute 20% of their national budget to education, and allocate 45% of it to primary education.
Having no teacher, or having an untrained teacher: Teacher effectiveness has been found to be the most important predictor of student learning. GPE is determined to fight the global teacher crisis at hand.
There aren't enough teachers to achieve universal primary or secondary education. And many of the teachers that are currently working are untrained. As a result, children aren’t receiving a proper education. There are 130 million children in school who are not learning basic skills like reading and writing.
No classroom: A child cannot learn without the right environment. Children in many countries in sub-Saharan Africa are often squeezed into overcrowded classrooms, classrooms that are falling apart, or are learning outside. They also lack textbooks, school supplies, and other tools they need to excel.
A lack of learning materials: Outdated and worn-out textbooks are often shared by six or more students in many parts of the world. In Tanzania, for example, only 3.5% of all sixth grade pupils had sole use of a reading textbook. In Cameroon, there are 11 primary school students for every reading textbook and 13 for every mathematics textbook in second grade. Workbooks, exercise sheets, readers, and other core materials to help students learn their lessons are in short supply. Teachers also need materials to help prepare their lessons, share with their students, and guide their lessons.
The exclusion of children with disabilities: Students with disabilities have lower attendance rates and are more likely to be out of school or leave school before completing primary education. They are suspended or expelled at a rate more than double the rate of their non-special education peers.
A combination of discrimination, lack of training in inclusive teaching methods among teachers, and a lack of accessible schools leave this group uniquely vulnerable to being denied their right to education.
Being the ‘wrong’ gender: Keeping girls in school benefits them and their families, but poverty forces many families to choose which of their children to send to school. Girls often miss out due to belief that there’s less value in educating a girl than a boy. Instead, they are sent to work, forced into marriage, or made to stay at home to look after siblings and work on household chores. Girls also miss days of school every year or are too embarrassed to participate in class, because they don’t have appropriate menstrual hygiene education or toilet facilities at their school to manage their period.
Distance from home to school: For many children around the world, a walk to school of up to three hours in each direction is not uncommon. This is just too much for many children, particularly children living with a disability, those suffering from malnutrition or illness, or those who are required to work around the household. Imagine having to set off for school, hungry, at 5 a.m. every day, not to return until 7 p.m. Many children, especially girls, are also vulnerable to violence on their long and hazardous journeys to and from school.
The expense of education: In many countries throughout Africa education is theoretically free. In practice “informal fees” see parents forced to pay for “compulsory items” like uniforms, books, pens, extra lessons, exam fees, or funds to support the school buildings. In other places, the lack of functioning public (government-supported) schools means that parents have no choice but to send their children to private schools. Even if these schools are “low-fee,” they are unaffordable for the poorest families who risk making themselves destitute in their efforts to get their children better lives through education.
Solving this social problems are dependent on our responsiveness to social development by proposing possible solution to that attend to this problem like educational development programs that emphasize on the for teachers training and yearly evaluation of Africa educational curriculums that meet the needs of the continent to promote social-economic growth. Which will promote innovation in technology, policy making and help with infrastructural development to eradicate poverty and unemployment.
References
10 Barriers to Education That Children Living in Poverty Face: https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/10-barriers-to-education-around-the-world-2/
Causes of Poverty in Africa: A Review of Literature: https://www.aijssnet.com/journals/Vol_3_No_7_December_2014/16.pdf
YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT IN AFRICA: Capacity Building and Innovative Strategies: https://media.africaportal.org/documents/Occasional_Paper_30_En.pdf
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