Wednesday, August 27, 2008

School...

The funny thing here is that the literacy rate for the older generation interior is better than the one for the newer. It doesn't usually go that way. However, the older generation here, particularly in the interior, had the benefit of being able to attend "M" run schools. But a number of years ago, the gov of this country decided that they would take over and put up schools and medical clinics (clinics were also previously run by "M's"). What has happened is that they "set" up schools interior but too often there was no clinic. No teacher wants to live where there is no clinic. Plus teachers have to get their pay cheques from cities fairly far away and need to pay lots of money for transportation to get to the city. So they go there and stay there for a while and then maybe go back to the village for a bit. So there is effectively no school system interior and there is no accountability either. There are many families who live interior who've decided to simply move back to their original place of living in the jungle instead of staying in the village as there is no reason for them to stay in the village. No clinic, no school... The end result is a generation of illiterate people. I don't think that was the idea....
There is an elementary school near our house and I often see the kids going home from school wearing their white shirts with red bottoms, at 9:00 am. Just the time when most Western kids are starting out the day...

1 comment:

Sarah DeSalvo said...

Hey there! I don't know how it is with your internet down in Sentani, but all of a sudden we can get on Blogger sites up here in Wamena! Try it, if you haven't already =) Wouldn't it be nice not to have to get on dial-up to update your blog? =)

Hope you all are doing well. Sure enjoy the pictures you post!