Education and social development.

The importance of education is widely known and its value extends from an individual to members of the individual’s community. What the children learn trickles down to others as well in their communities.

Even before a child reaches a higher level with his or her studies, there are always numerous fruits of her schooling no matter how few the years of schooling are. For instance, most children in Malawi learn a lot about issues of health and hygiene tips from school and in the process, this knowledge also trickles down to their friends even to other family members.

Education is a right as enshrined in our Constitution on Section 25 (1) where it stipulates that ‘all persons are entitled to education’.  Further to this, the right to education is internationally recognized as defined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Every child has the right to education but a lot of children and young people out there fail to access it. Education does a lot to an individual and denying some children this important tool is indeed killing their future. A person who is educated is more likely to be aware of his/her rights and an educated person is always in a better position to stand up for his or her rights. Thus, education makes people more aware of their rights and they easily detect someone’s attempt to infringe up on their rights. People who underwent formal schooling always demand their rights when they are being denied.

Education also opens up a window of opportunities and instills in them confidence and enthusiasm to create and utilize the opportunities.

There are so many reasons why many children are failing to go to school and the reasons include the following;

Firstly, there is an issue of lacking financial support to pay tuition fees and the prohibitive costs of uniforms and other school materials do not help matters either. Due to poverty, some young boys and girls find jobs so that they can support their parents. Furthermore, due to limited financial resources some parents put their emphasis on the education of boys than girls. When they do not have enough money to send both a boy and a girl to school, they prefer to send to school a boy than a girl. This sex preference on whose education to support always put girls at a disadvantage and this eventually fuels early marriages between adolescent girls and older men.

Secondly, long distances to and from school is another major setback in the effort of ensuring that children are getting proper education. Some families keep their children at home if they feel the journey to and from school is too long or that it is dangerous for children to walk.

Emergencies, conflicts and civil wars as well as natural disasters prevent a lot of children around the world from acquiring some education.

Education being a very important tool for the well being of an individual, there is need for deliberate efforts to deal with or safeguard our children against things that prevent them from going to school.