CORPSAFRICA
  • Home
  • About
    • About us >
      • The Model
      • Human-Centered Design
      • Impact
      • Development Partners
      • Junior CorpsAfrica
    • Team >
      • Staff
      • Board of Directors
      • Advisory Council
    • Join the Team
    • Press
    • Videos
    • Testimonials
    • Contact us
  • Countries
    • Morocco
    • Senegal
    • Malawi
    • Rwanda
  • Volunteers
    • Meet the Volunteers >
      • Morocco Volunteers >
        • Group 1 Morocco
        • Group 2 Morocco
        • Group 3 Morocco
        • Group 4 Morocco
        • Group 5 Morocco
      • Malawi Volunteers >
        • Group 1 Malawi
        • Group 2 Malawi
        • Group 3 Malawi
        • Group 4 Malawi
      • Senegal Volunteers >
        • Group 1 Senegal
        • Group 2 Senegal
        • Group 3 Senegal
        • Group 4 Senegal
      • Rwanda Volunteers >
        • Group 1 Rwanda
        • Group 2 Rwanda
    • Featured Projects >
      • Dzaleka Basketball Court
      • Kitchen Gardens
      • Coronavirus Awareness
    • Featured Volunteers
    • Alumni Association
    • Apply
  • Events
    • Events >
      • PROJECTing Resilience
    • All Country Conference
  • Blog
  • Donate
    • Donate to CorpsAfrica
    • #GivingTuesday
    • Pay It Forward Campaign
    • Holbrooke Campaign
    • Corporate Council for CorpsAfrica
    • Planned Giving
    • Amazon Smile
    • Volunteer Photo Store

Quality Education??

4/19/2016

0 Comments

 
Written by Emas Potolani, CorpsAfrica Volunteer in Malawi
Reposted from eMas' Korner

On March 12, 2016, I made a pledge through the AIESEC YouthSpeak Initiative (you can make yours right here: https://aiesecmalawi.typeform.com/to/y4iD6a). My pledge is about quality education. To be honest, I was motivated to make this pledge by my pupils in my class and of course at my school. 

These kids motivate me so much. Many of them come to school without eating anything at home due to the hunger crisis that has hit my community and many other communities in Malawi. Many of the kids if not all, come to school with very dirty clothes and some come without any writing materials. Yet all of these challenges among the unmentioned ones do not stop these kids from coming to school every week day.
Comrades, these innocent souls keep hoping for a better future. This is what keeps me going and motivates me to stand in the gap and sacrifice all I have in order for the children in my community to be able to attain a brighter future.

Now, as regards to the pledge I made, it is in alignment to the Sustainable Development Goals which were agreed upon by World leaders in Rio last year, 2015. I will not explain much on the transition from the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to the current Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), but you can spare some time and read here: http://www.sdgfund.org/mdgs-sdgs.

However, let me highlight that the pledge I made is in line with SDG 4 which talks about ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education as well as the promotion of life-long learning opportunities for all. Yes, "inclusive and equitable quality education as well as promotion of life-long learning opportunities for all." Now, here is the thing, my standard 3 pupils in the picture below are part of the "ALL" being talked about in the SDG No. 4. 
Picture
The two teaching classrooms we have
Picture
Picture
Picture
My standard 3 pupils in class
They too indeed rightly deserve quality education. But then how do we make such dream become a reality to the many innocent children who are learning in such unfavorable environments? If you can ask me I will quickly respond by telling you my thoughts that, we should first of all improve these learning environments, construct well-designed classrooms, then give our kids enough learning materials and resources and provide well-trained teachers. Our goal on teachers must not be on quantity but rather quality of the personnel. Providing a well and conducive learning environment will eventually end up encouraging many children from developing countries to stay in school and we are going to narrow and ultimately close the illiteracy gap.

In addition to this, I personally believe that achieving access to education and providing quality education as is the goal of the SDG 4 is an essential catalyst in eradicating poverty in the long run. But then this sounds paradoxical in a way. Imagine this; it is due to high levels of poverty that a lot of children are systematically denied access to education. For instance, families that are unable to provide food and basic resources for their children will make it harder for their children to attain education. Children who come to class with hunger spend much time thinking about food than what is being taught in class.

However, I feel like governments, various Non-Governmental Organisations (Local or international), communities and individuals are obligated to join hands in helping make access to education and quality education available to the people in developing countries like my country Malawi. Instead of heavily investing in fighting hunger, we must all invest in the future of our children. For this is how we are going to deal with the root cause of poverty as we also aim at ending poverty of all forms everywhere according to the SDG No. 1.

I will continue to write, I will continue to be part of the solution, I will continue to help these little children access quality education. Let us join hands as we try to achieve a common goal, a better world for everyone.
Picture
My students in Standard 3
Picture
Picture
Picture
These are standard 2 pupils, who unlike their friends in Standard 3 have somewhat a decent environment for classes (only standard 1 & 2 occupy this classroom block)
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Support
    Welcome
    ​to the CorpsAfrica Volunteer Blog! 
    Get an inside look at the experiences of CorpsAfrica Volunteers in the field.

    Archives

    March 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    August 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016

    RSS Feed

Picture