Yemen nears one Millennium Development Goal, but still has work to do

from The Yemen Times

Almigdad Dahesh Mojalli Dahesh95@yahoo.com

Although Yemen is on track to meet the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goal of universal primary school enrollment, more work still must be done to keep Yemeni children in school after they enroll.

As of 2006, 75 percent of Yemeni children were enrolled in primary school, according to UNICEF’s December 2007 Children’s Progress report.

Over the past few years, Yemen’s Education Ministry has constructed as many schools as possible nationwide. As Education Minister Abdulsalam Al-Jawfi explains, “The number of schools built annually increased from 200 to 1,200. There are 16,000 schools in Yemen, 80 percent of which contain primary education classes.”

However, according to the minister, the dropout rate increased 10 percent, particularly among female students.

Al-Zubairi School teacher Ismail Zabarah says students drop out for a variety of reasons, including poverty, lack of incentives and the poor quality of the education system. “Students drop out if the school is far from their home or there aren’t enough teachers,” he notes, adding, “They also drop out due to poverty and the need to work.”

“The government built neighborhood schools three years ago, but that’s not enough,” says Jamal Al-Azab from the Khawlan countryside. “Schools may be near three or four villages, but far from two others. Because we can’t provide our children vehicles to pick them up from school every day, we really need more schools,” he adds.

Dropouts begin in fourth grade, when 10 percent of girls leave school and from there, the rate increases in each grade. Minister Al-Jawfi explains that Yemeni families, especially those in smaller villages, often refuse to send their daughters to school when they reach age 11, the age when girls cease interacting with males. Villages have no girls-only schools and mixed schools have male teachers.

Despite understanding the importance of attending class, many students attend only mid-term and final exams. “It’s very important to attend class because some subjects are extremely difficult to understand without a teacher,” points out Yahya Ayid, deputy headmaster at Al-Kibsi School in Sana’a.

Yemen previously was off-track regarding the primary school enrollment Millennium Development Goal, but the Education Ministry concentrated its efforts, resulting in many new projects. “Education in Yemen faces many challenges, but as a result of interested officials within the education sector, we have numerous strategies through which we can achieve those goals,” minister Al-Jawfi notes.

He continues, “It’s now easier for us to reach the targeted children. We’ve redistributed teachers to those districts needing more teachers and gathered parental councils in those districts to give incentives for them to send their children to school. We aim to enroll 95 percent of children in primary schools by 2015.”

Many Sana’a schools provide students all necessary facilities and utilities. For instance, Al-Shaheed Mutahar Zaid School in Sana’a has good sanitation and the number of classes is proportional to the number of students. Headmistress Shafiqah Al-Nizari adds, “We have a complete science lab with instructional aids, a computer lab with internet and all of our school’s furnishings are complete.”

In contrast, other schools are unable to provide books to students and even teachers. Omar Bin Abdulaziz School in Bani Hushaish, located 25 kilometers east of Sana’a, struggles to obtain enough teachers and operates with an incomplete syllabus.

“The toilets are completely destroyed and there’s no science lab,” headmaster Adel Al-Sumaie laments, adding, “[Students] have never seen any instructional aids other than the cartoon posters they occasionally create for themselves.”

Many education specialists agree that city schools generally are doing better than those in rural areas, not only in terms of facilities, but also with regard to their graduates.

“Our challenge is to enable education to reach Yemen’s remote and mountainous districts,” Al-Jawfi points out, “For example, we’ve built 400 schools in Amran within the past two years and the same is true in the other governorates. We’ve now reached the deserts and the far regions of Yemen.”

While the minister knows Yemen hasn’t yet reached its goal of near-total primary school enrollment, he maintains that his department has begun reaching those targeted districts needing the most help.

In addition to constructing schools in most Yemeni districts, Al-Jawfi notes that his ministry has awarded contracts to 1,000 new female teachers from those same districts in an effort to set an example that educated women can get jobs. Additionally, it serves as an incentive for Yemeni girls to attend and stay in school.

Even though Yemen’s enrollment rate is good, there are still problems regarding the quality of education children receive.

As father Mohammed Al-Hammadi complains, “We must re-explain the lessons to our children because some teachers aren’t sufficiently qualified or are only high school graduates.”

Ali Qadi, headmaster of Al- Hayof School in Sana’a governorate, remarks, “In my opinion, the quality of education is weak because of the curricula itself. Many teachers don’t know what teaching methods to use because an education expert hasn’t visited the field to determine a suitable syllabus for students.”

Al-Jawfi responds, “The two main challenges involve quantity and quality. The quantity challenge regards the number of enrolled students, which is still below the requirements qualifying us to achieve the Millennium Development Goal.”

He continues, “Regarding quality, experts have found that 110,000 teachers – both male and female – only possess high school qualifications, which means we must enhance their abilities and qualifications. Consequently, we’ve held numerous training courses for such teachers.”

Although Yemen is working hard to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, there’s still much work to be done, as 25 percent of Yemeni children still aren’t enrolled in primary school.