In Oeganda is een start gemaakt met een nieuw project gericht op schoolkinderen. 50 kinderen in het (voor)laatste jaar van hun middelbare schoolopleiding krijgen via onze lokale organisatie FABIO een fiets. Het gaat om kinderen in het Katakwi district in het noordoosten van Oeganda. Hier wonen veel mensen in kampen vanwege de onrusten in het verleden. De afstand die schoolkinderen hier moeten afleggen naar school is erg groot. En omdat veel kinderen een grote bijdrage leveren in de huishoudelijke taken (zoals water en sprokkelhout halen) is de tijd die ze dagelijks kwijt zijn met het te voet naar school gaan vaak een belemmering. Dit resulteert erin dat een groot aantal kinderen vroegtijdig de school verlaat. En dit is jammer, want een goede opleiding biedt hun een betere kans op de arbeidsmarkt. In dit project worden 50 kinderen geselecteerd op basis van afstand die zij dagelijks te voet moeten naar school afleggen. Zij krijgen een fiets ter beschikking voor de looptijd van het project. Tijdens het project wordt hun aanwezigheid op school en hun resultaten gemonitord. Als ze de school afmaken mogen ze de fiets houden, wat hun tevens een betere kans op de arbeidsmarkt biedt.
This project focuses on the mobility constraints faced by young people in accessing educational facilities, particularly girls. By providing bicycles, it is aimed at decreasing the dropout rate of secondary school students so as to provide a better starting position for better livelihood after finishing school. Given the various challenges faced in Sub-Saharan Africa that include effects of climate change, abject poverty and insecurity, education is key for a bright future for any person.
The bicycle plays a very critical role in terms of access to socio-economic services. To education services, the bicycle bridges the distance gap for students and reduces time spent on the road. It also ensures that the students save more time to assist their parents or guardians with household chores, which is a social responsibility of children; especially the girls.
The Cycle to School initiative will target secondary school students . This is because the schools are fewer and distances greater between households and the school. It is envisaged that this initiative will improve their access to education by improving student-retention in schools and concentration, especially for the girl-child. It is targeting 40 girls and 10 boys (to bear in mind the gender disparities within the region). Being a one-year project, it will target the students in their second year so as to . These are classes where concentration is needed most as students expect determining exams at the end of the year to graduate to other levels; Advanced and Tertiary respectively.
This project will be a pilot and therefore due attention is given to monitoring and evaluation. If the project proves to be a success it is the intention to scale it up (to more students and schools).
The education system in Uganda is composed of both public and private schools from primary level, to University / Tertiary level. Majority of the private schools have ample facilities and the students generally perform better than public schools; but are located mainly in towns and cities and can only be afforded by the well-to-do people. This leaves majority of the students (80% of Ugandans live in rural areas) to attend public schools.
In Katakwi, Primary school enrolment is at 85,465 pupils in 160 schools which are closer to the communities. Performance in Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) is very poor for various reasons. Katakwi has no university or college of higher learning. There are only two vocational training schools. At the same time, the district has only one Advanced level school and the demand for more of such schools is overwhelming. There are eight government-aided Ordinary-level schools with inadequate facilities that impact directly on the quality of education; and four privately owned schools. This therefore poses distance challenges for majority of the students who by the time they reach school, are exhausted limiting effecting concentration in class.
Physical mobility and transport barriers are particularly substantial. Walking, or cycling as noted earlier are the most prevalent. Majority students unfortunately lack access to bicycles mainly due to the high cost given the economic context of the area as elaborated above. In addition, the socio-economic context of this society mainly relies on domestic labor and children play a very big role posing a challenge in balancing household and educational requirements. This accounts for the high drop-out rates and poor performance at Ordinary and Advanced levels.
From experience, Senior Two is the level at which majority of students; especially girls drop out of school as a result of the adolescence stage effects. These include early pregnancies, contracting Sexually Transmitted Infections and early marriages. Girls are specifically gullible to deceit by the opposite sex, taking advantage of the walking distance and time from home to school. This is the gap the initiative intends to address.