Durban- As the world marks the United Nations’ International Day of Education on Friday South African unions have said there were many challenges that needed to be looked at to make education accessible and relevant for children.
In a statement, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation said there were 258 million children and youth who did not attend school across the world.
“... 617 million children and adolescents cannot read and do basic math; less than 40% of girls in sub-Saharan Africa complete lower secondary school and some four million children and youth refugees are out of school. Their right to education is being violated and it is unacceptable,” UNESCO said in the statement.
Nomarashiya Caluza, Sadtu KwaZulu-Natal provincial secretary, said what was needed was for children to be taught relevant material that would be helpful for their future. She said school governing bodies needed to understand the role they played in ensuring children received a good education.
If this was done, it would help to alleviate the poverty and unemployment that is gripping the country.
Allen Thompson, president of the National Teachers' Union (Natu) said government needed to ensure schools in rural areas were given enough resources so that there would not be a need for children and their parents to migrate to urban areas.
He said there was still work to be done on addressing the challenges faced by schools which was a result of apartheid.
Kwazi Mthethwa, KwaZulu-Natal Department of education spokesperson, said there was not much the department could do in terms of ensuring people did not migrate to urban areas.
He said the department had made various attempts to encourage people to stay in the rural areas like giving teachers rural allowance.
This initiative proved to be unsuccesful though. Mthethwa said the department could not stop people from exercising their right of freedom of movement. The department has also provided scholar transport and school nutrition to ensure children were able to go to school and not go hungry at school.