Education: Have parents given up on their own children?

It’s almost coming to a month after schools were fully reopened. However, if you observer judiciously on the streets of Kampala, and its suburbs, you realize many children of school going age have not reported back to school.

The Kampala Child Protection Ordinance 2019 criminalizes children loitering in public places, begging or soliciting, vending or hawking.

Then there is the category of those who are just moving aimlessly, either individually or in groups during school hours.

This leaves me wondering, when parents stop valuing their children’s education. Back in the day, lots of parents/guardians would do whatever it took to ensure their children went to school. Not because they were rich, or had no financial struggles. They valued education. Children who deserted school would be reprimanded and chased back to school by folks who were not even their parents.

One incident rings a bell.

 I grew up with my grandparents, and education was such a big deal. One morning while in primary-four, I didn’t want to go to school. I dressed up in my school uniform, left home as though headed to school, and hid in our neighbor’s passion fruit garden. My plan was to return at 1pm just like any pupil. Unfortunately, luck wasn’t on my side. The neighbor’s wife found me, and questioned why I wasn’t at school. I tried to ‘cook’ up lies, but she wasn’t having any of it. She took me home and reported me to my granny. Grandma acted cool. I thought she wasn’t bothered by what I had done. Oh no! She had a plan. She waited for my grandpa (RIP) who was a teacher in the same school, and asked whether he had seen me that day. He said no. I received a few strokes, and serious warnings of what would befall me if I ever missed school again. It never happened again.

Today, things have gone south. Few people or none cares whether a child who is not their own goes to school or not. And for parents whose major responsibility is supporting their children attain an education, some simply don’t care or are not trying as much.

Last week, I watched news in which Mukono Municipality law enforcement officers rounded up over 40 children from the streets and markets in an ongoing operation aimed at ensuring the kids return to school, and reduce cases of absenteeism in schools, child labour and street children. According to these officials, parents of these children were supposed to show up and explain why their children are not in school, while the homeless were going to be handed over to the Police Family and Protection Unit for resettlement.

Ever since schools reopened, school administrators in different schools are decrying the reduced numbers of learners.

A lot has changed and we may not go back to raising children as a village, but we have to find ways to ensure the children attain basic quality education.

The World Literacy Foundation (WLF) (2018) reported that illiteracy and low levels of literacy have estimated to cost the global economy approximately £800 billion annually. And of course this presents other challenges such as poorer employment opportunities and outcomes, lower income for the illiterate as well as reduced government tax revenue and productivity, higher levels of crime in society and the country at large.

As we ponder on how to address the problem of many children out of school, one of the approaches Ministry of Education and Sports could embrace would be that used by the Mukono Municipality law enforcement officers to have these children sent back to school. Parents also need to be sensitized about the value of their children’s education. A law can also be introduced whereby if a child is found out of school during school time, their parent(s)/guardian(s) is/are penalized. Something has to be done!

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