Frustration of EFA Goals in Papua New Guniea - Essay Example

FRUSTRATION OF EFA GOALS IN PAPUA NEW GUNIEA By Student’s Name Code + Course Name Professor’s Name University Name City, State Date FRUSTRATION OF EFA GOALS IN PAPUA NEW GUNIEA The paper is on two Educations for All goals which were not achieved in Papua New Guinean. It touches on the factors that caused these goals not to be achieved and how this affected the society and economy of the country. The choice of the country in reference; Papua New Guinea to analyze the achievements of the Education for All goals is based on the country’s strive in achieving the millennium goals which most were not achieved. On the other hand I decided to go with Papua New Guinea due to the economic and social conditions in the county which revealed that there was a dire need of achieving of these goals in order to improve the level of living of its citizens. Education for All goals is concerned with improving comprehensive education and early childhood care for the vulnerable and disadvantaged children. In line with these goals they ought to ensure that by the year 2015 every school going child in Papua New Guinea is getting a quality education despite their family’s financial status or any physical and financial disabilities. The failure to achieve the Education for All goals in Papua New Guinea has been a result of various factors which have come into play in the articulation of this goals and the pursuit to achieve them. Therefore, this paper focuses on discussing the frustrations of education for all goals in Papua New Guinea. In the year 2015 then government of New Guinea reported that the country’s goal which is in line with that of Education for All (EFA) initiative on the improving comprehensive early childhood education, especially for the vulnerable and disadvantaged children was not achieved as planned. This proved to be a huge dent in the Papua New Guinean educative system since it revealed that it was still lagging behind despite the major improvement in the education sectors in the West African countries (Nenty, 2008). Despite Papua New Guinea enjoying 35 years of independence the government has not actually made any significant strides towards bettering the countries education system. It is estimated that up to 2 million elementary- and primary-aged children do not get access to quality education. This school going children face a lot of challenges despite the effort of the government to make elementary education free. Previous studies also revealed that quality education in this country has deteriorated over the years with most schools lacking basic social amenities, teachers and classrooms. This has resulted in children losing interest in education leading to the huge figure on the illiteracy levels in the country (Barcson, 2015). The extreme poverty levels present in Papua New Guinea have also been a huge contributor to the declining level of education in the country. Poverty levels have driven school going children away from the classrooms. These children prefer going to help their parents or guardians in their various economic activities in order to boost the daily income. With evidence that this area is rich in agriculture, the drop out cases of school going children who go to the farmlands to help in manual labour has been the order of the day. The huge population of Papua New Guinea was another contributor as to why the 2015 Education for All goals were not achieved. The estimates population of this particular country is 7.5 million people with an annual growth rate of 8.7% these reveals that a significant portion of this population comprises of the children (Brown and Gilbert, 2014). With the current deprived economic level of Papua New Guinea, it is difficult for the government to provide basic amenities to the children, therefore, explaining the current low-quality education in the country. The fact that the country’s economy is categorised in the lower-middle-level income reveals that poverty level is dominant in this particular country which has hampered the development of the education system. Hunger and Malnutrition is another problem that relates to poverty which has also hampered Papua New Guinea effort of improving the quality of education in the country. It is estimated one out of every six children in Papua New Guinea suffers from malnutrition. In another recent report released by FAO, it is reported that one in every three children is underweight. This reveals that malnutrition is another major deprivation of growth and development in the education industry in these countries. Malnutrition has been claimed to drive an estimate 700 children away from class in each school in Papua New Guinea. With over three-quarter of Papua New Guinea’s population being under the poverty international benchmark of $1.25 per day it is extremely difficult for these children to have a balanced diet in each meal (Gibson and Rozelle, 2003). Therefore, this has prevented these children from attending the school where they opt to remain home and help their parents in their economic activities in order to ensure that they get at least a meal a day. Lack of enough qualified teachers has also been a significant problem hampering the growth of the quality of education in Papua New Guinea. A recent government report claimed that the community schools in this country faces lack of enough qualified teachers which has led to the education sector in the country opting to employ unqualified candidate pursuing higher education in an effort to solve this problem. However, as proven; this was a huge gamble which has not paid off; the quality of education in these schools is still lagging behind with the employed candidates having a hard time offering professional teaching services. This has led to the claims that the education system in this country is likely to face another some couple’s years lagging behind from that of the neighbouring West African countries (HUTTON, 2014). The government efforts in administering education in vernacular languages in the schools seemed like a possible effort to solve the poor quality of education in the country. However, on the global scale where English is an international language; this has done more harm than good to Papua New Guinea education system. There was no possible good that came out of this action of the government; in fact, it further dented the countries education quality. The other factor affecting the attainment of the first goal for the Education of All 2015 goals in Papua New Guinea is the recent Moody disillusionment in the current education system, The countries perception of its current education system has been criticized for having shifted from the earlier postcolonial euphoric confidence in education to the current moody disillusionment in education which seems to have no purpose. As claimed by the critics no education system in the world can be implemented with no purpose or goals behind it (Jha and Dang, 2010). A county cannot invest alot of finances in a particular education system without having a purpose for doing so. However for the current education system there seem to be no purpose behind the massive investment made on the countries education system. This has led to the education strategies suffering from dissolution and doing very little towards the improvement of the countries educations system. The current education system in Papua New Guinea has been blamed for being somewhat materialistic and egocentric at the expense of the massive investment from the country. This education system has been criticised for taking up rigid education curriculum that has proven to have little impact in improving the quality of education in the country (Munene, 2015). The antiquated learning techniques and systems of teaching have been criticised of hampering the ability to produce dependent minded individuals which has also contributed to widening the gap between the rich and the poor in the society. The fourth Education for All goals is concerned with significantly improving the level of adult literacy. This objective for this goal ought to ensure that by the year 2015 there is a 50% improvement in the standard of adult literacy in Papua New Guinea through access to basics adult education equal to both genders. Adult Literacy in Papua New Guinea started back in the colonial era when the missionaries came to the country. However 125 years have passed and PNG is yet to achieve the long-sought success in this Education for all goals. In the years 2015, the government of Papua New Guinea announce that it was yet to reach this fourth goal as stipulated in the six Educations for All goals. One major factor that the government is blamed for is its lack of achievement of this particular objective; is the social culture in Papua New Guinea. As evidently seen, the society in this particular county is a rural traditional agriculture based society. Over the years, this particular society has been transforming into a modern democratic society which has been a long transition process judging by the years that it has taken. In this shift, the government has faced significant challenges especially due to development and poverty which has slowed this course (Nudzor, 2015). These problems have called for intervention by both the government and other international partners in an effort to speed up the shift and promote development. These issues have resulted to the government prioritizing on which issues to tackle and in most cases adult literacy has not been a significant priority that always comes first. The countries population is also another challenge which has hampered the government course on improving the level of adult literacy in the country. Out of the entire 7.5 million populations in Papua New Guinea, it is estimated that 85% of this population lives in the isolated rural areas (Rena, 2011). With the country being majorly undeveloped it is hard for the government officials to reach the old individuals in dire need of adult literacy services. This has resulted in the adult literacy programmes to expand unevenly with some areas experience rapid expansion while others were recording close to none. During the recent census, it was reported that Papuan New Guinea’s adult literacy rate is estimated to be 56%. This shows that the country is in dire need of adult literacy programme which is also backed up by UNESCO actions where it identified Papua New Guinea as one of the 35 countries that were in urgent need of attention to improving their adult literacy programmes. Illiteracy levels are evidently high in female compared to the males. It is claimed that one in every three women In Papua New Guinea are illiterate. However, the fruits to try and administer adult literacy programme to them have proven futile to the current gender inequality issues present in the society in this country. Violation of women rights exists in almost the entire country and women are mostly discouraged from attending adult literacy programmes provided by the government and foreign agencies. On the gender inequality index recently revealed by the United Nations Papua New Guinea ranks in the bottom ten countries this shows how this problem is dominant in this country (Shearman, 2010). The adult literacy programmes are mostly attended by the males whereas the women re left at home. This has proven to be a pressing issue for the achievement of the fourth Education for All goals in Papua New Guinea. Furthermore, women are significantly underrepresented in the government positions with the percentage of female representatives in the parliament being a mere 3%. This shows how women lag behind in this country due to the prevailing gender inequality issue in the society which has hampered the strides towards the achievement of higher levels of adult literacy in the country. Papua New Guinea is a country whose resources are mostly unexploited. In this case, development has spread merely to the big cities and town where as the hugely populated rural areas being undeveloped. Natural disaster and heavy rainfall have therefore affected the spread of adult literacy programmes to these regions. It was estimated that a total of 4 million individuals in this country’s rural areas were affected by natural disaster mostly heavy downpour between the years 1997 to 2010 (Sovacool, 2013). With the roads in this areas being dusty roads they might prove to be impassable after rainfall which hampers the spread of the spread of adult literacy programmes. The mountain terrain has also hampered the spread of adult literacy programmes in the populated rural areas. This has proven a stiff challenge for the government ant international agencies to access the adults in dire need of adult literacy programmes. This has led to few individuals benefiting from this programmes which can be attributed to the significantly low level of adult literacy cases in this country. With the strategies adopted to foster the achievement of this Education for All goal now appearing to fail the government of Papua New Guinea should strategies and come up with better strategies for improving the literacy level in this country. With EFA now intending to improve the current literacy level in this particular country from 56% to 70% National Literacy Policy (NLP) should now come up with better measures to ensure this goal is achieved (Tamba, 2014). The civil society and the providers in adult literacy including the foreigners should come together in an effort to ensure that this goal is achieved. On the other hand, the government should ensure that its supportive role is well played by the National Department of Education (NDOE) and the National Literacy and Awareness Secretariat (NLAS). As evidently seen in the essay; Papua New Guinea as a country has failed to achieve the Education for All especially the first and the fourth goal. The education system has continued to lag behind seriously denting the quality of education in the county. In line with the fourth goal in the Education for All goals adult education has been limited to particular individuals and gender which further has further reduced the level of adult literacy. With various factors being blamed on the failure of these goals in Papua New Guinea the government has also received its hare of this blame due to its laxity and negligence in ensuring that these goals are achieved. References Barcson, B. (2015). Challenges to implementing of development plans at local-level government in Papua New Guinea. CJLG, 0(0). Brown, A. and Gilbert, B. (2014). The Papua New Guinea medical supply system - documenting opportunities and challenges to meet the Millennium Development Goals. J Pharm Policy and Pract, 7(1), p.5. Gibson, J. and Rozelle, S. (2003). Poverty and Access to Roads in Papua New Guinea*. Economic Development and Cultural Change, 52(1), pp.159-185. 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