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Tanzania
Tanzania is one of the poorest countries in the world. A large number of its population are peasants. In the country, schools are always very distant from homes. Children can walk three or more kilometres to school.
Many children help their parents on small farms before they go to school. They wake up early in the morning, go to a field to dig, then wash their face and rush to school. Sometimes, they reach schools very tired, and so learn nothing, but sleep in class. When they come back from school, they just take a cup of porridge and go to the field again.
Other children look after cattle. Such children are the number one victims of the problem of schooling. One said ”I can go to school once or twice a week, the other days I usually look after my uncle’s cattle.” Normally, these children cannot understand the result of not going to school.
The outcome of this is that the rate of illiteracy increases among children of this new generation. The government has seen this and imposed a new policy of education. In January 2002, it decreed that any Tanzanian child who has reached the age of seven must go to school. Due to this policy, the schools have been overflowing. In some areas, a class can contain more than 50 children.
In order to overcome such problems, the Diocese of Mara, in conjunction with some NGOs, has helped in building classrooms in areas where many children were registered.
It is not uncommon to meet children above 9 years old who do not know how to read and write. This is due to bad attendance at school. Some parents and guardians have moved to areas close to schools to ensure good education for their children. To others, if a child does not go to school, it matters nothing to them. There is still lack of community awareness of the importance of school to children.
When children work apart from their families, things like early pregnancy, sexual abuse and harassment face them. They become disturbed. I have witnessed not less that 20 primary school children who have stopped school due to early pregnancy and harassment.
The time has come now for the Church to arise and set children free from hazardous work – not just children who work in their homes and families, but also those who are hired to work for money. The Bishop of the Diocese of Mara has addressed the whole Diocese to regulate the lives of the Church members so that children too may have room in the community to speak about their rights.
Education is one of the children's rights; so parents, guardians and employers must ensure that children are protected from any kind of work that is likely to interfere with schooling. The Church should not keep quiet about this issue, it must help where it is possible.
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