Education For All
Education is the path to self-awareness and sustainable progress, first at an individual level and then at the community level. We have diversified our education program to cater to beneficiaries across diverse age groups and levels.
O INTRODUCTION
Education is the foundation of self-progression and the economic stability of a community. Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have some of the lowest literacy levels globally. On average, one in three adults in Central Africa and three in ten adults in Eastern Africa cannot read and write. Low literacy levels mean that the majority in the community have to rely on someone else to absorb a piece of written information. Low literacy also has a direct impact on regional development as the majority of the community members will lack the tools required to engage in external trade with neighboring communities and countries. Moreover, these communities lag in leveraging ICT for upskilling and driving their personal development initiatives.
At FOPCO Africa, we consider education a priority asset for the sustainable development of communities at scale. The Education systems in Eastern and Central Africa significantly vary. We empower communities to embrace education by addressing the challenges that the state education systems fail to address.
Our student support program targets school-going pupils and students from pre-elementary to tertiary level. The project works closely with local leaders and schools to identify needy pupils and students who require assistance with acquiring formal education.
Under this program, We;
Identify needy students and cater for their tuition requirements
Generally, an average family in Eastern and Central Africa earns between two and three dollars per day from manual labor. The daily wage has to be prioritized between food, clothing, and housing for a family of between five and ten members. As a result, many families lead a hand-to-mouth type of lifestyle without much surplus remaining to cater to other needs such as healthcare, education, and investments. The low wages predispose these families to poverty, a factor that ranks highest among the causes of failure to attend school or school dropout. There are more than 100 million children of school-going age in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) who are currently out of school. On average, one-third of children who ought to be in school are currently out of school in Eastern and Central Africa. The number is even higher for upper secondary, where up to 61% of children in Eastern Africa of school-going age are out of school. Instead, they are involved in numerous low-wage jobs to earn extra income to enable them to contribute to the family basket.
At FOPCO Africa, we strive to accord these children an opportunity to complete their education and uplift their families by securing decent employment or creating more rewarding entrepreneurial initiatives. We work with our partners to raise funds to pay the partial or full cost of tuition. Once a needy pupil or student has been identified and the initial amount paid, we commit to catering for the tuition fee for the remainder of their studies at the level at which they have been enrolled. For a pupil or student to be enrolled, he or she has to be orphaned. Under special circumstances, the project enrolls non-orphaned pupils or students when the parents are incapacitated to support their financial needs for education.
We purchase school uniforms and stationery and offer logistics support
Students enrolled under the FOPCO Africa scholarship are supported with all the necessary materials required for school learning. Each student is supported with three pairs of school uniforms and two pairs of shoes each year. We work with local education departments and school administrations to ensure that we support as many students as possible by leveraging shared materials in the classroom. This ensures that every student can access all textbooks needed but also shares them with their deskmates. We also supply bicycles to support students who commute long distances to school. Bicycles are faster and reduce the traveling time to school by over 70%, allowing more time for homework and private studies. By reducing the time used to commute to school, the student can then leave and return home safely, not having to walk in the dark, which is a significant threat to their safety.
We help students access decent meals
Generally, most families in Eastern and Central Africa consume only two meals in a day. However, amongst the poorest, access to a meal is not always assured. The chances of having breakfast or supper depend on whether a parent or guardian secured a manual job on the given day. With increasing inflation and unemployment in most Eastern and Central African countries, it only means that the few jobs available attract a wide pool of candidates. With no job for the day, there is no food on the table. This translates to hundreds, if not thousands, of students attending school on empty stomachs. As a result of chronic hunger, their competitive academic performance significantly diminishes. Hunger is a leading contributor to school dropouts in Eastern Africa. Naturally, most children will prefer a full stomach to stay in class hungry. Henceforth, the idea of seeking manual labor to earn some income is a common alternative among many. At FOPCO Africa, we take the initiative to incentivize students by offering lunch as a school feeding program. This initiative was pioneered in the region by the World Food Program and fed up to 650, 000 pre-primary and primary-attending children. This produced an admirable impact on class attendance and performance and has henceforth been advocated as a tool for scaling equality against poverty in children’s education. We are replicating the initiatives in other regions with high vulnerability to hunger and subsequent dropouts
We support female students in accessing menstrual hygiene products
According to the World Bank, at least 10% of school-going female students miss 20% of school time in any given year as a result of inadequate access to sanitary towels. In Eastern and Central Africa, up to 50% of female students aged between 11 and 19 miss school for three consecutive days as a result of inaccessibility to sanitary towels. In low-income settlements, almost half the population of female students uses less effective materials such as cotton wool, tissue paper, and ragged cloths. As a result, many students end up staining their clothes, which has detrimental psychological effects. Inaccessibility to menstrual hygiene products among school-going female students can be so desperate among low-income families, and this alone is responsible for over 20% of school dropouts among female students. These staggering figures expound the challenges around regional integration of equality to access education across different genders and the empowerment of women and girls to uphold and contribute to regional economic development. Equality in access to opportunities for progressive development between male and female students therefore needs immediate interventions. We seek to be the reason for one, two, or a thousand girls to stay in school throughout their natural physiological processes. By packaging our menstrual health products with menstrual health and sexuality knowledge at puberty, we foresee creating a progressive community that eliminates shame and psychological stress in female students, bridging the gap to inequitable access to education by ensuring continuous school attendance, and an overall increase in performance among female pupils and students in lower and upper secondary across the region.
POST SECONDARY STUDIES SUPPORT
Eastern and Central Africa have the lowest rate of transition to tertiary level education in the world, with as low as 7% compared to the rest of SSA (9.4%). Some governments in the region offer partial scholarships to students who score a pre-determined set mark in their final upper secondary school level exams to pursue higher education in local universities, colleges, and Technical and Vocational Training Institutes (TVETS). Among these, only 4% of all students pursue degree courses, while the rest join other technical colleges. Students who fail to achieve the target mark are faced with the option of considering private universities or colleges at their own expense. An alternative is terminating one’s dream of pursuing a career of their choice. This has significantly affected skill development in the region and is directly associated with the high rate of youth unemployment.
There are over 65% of students with high school diplomas whose further progress in education cannot be accounted for. The lack of any further specialized education predisposes high school diploma holders to earn, on average, up to 50% less than their counterparts who have secured some form of tertiary education.
Our tertiary education targets needy students who fail to secure government sponsorships at public universities. We come in to support students who have not secured any sponsorship to take up specialized technical courses at national and sub-national TVETs. The goal is to equip these students with market-ready skills that will enable them to earn a decent living by offering services to the general community. While partaking in the training, we partner with relevant industry stakeholders and training institutions to offer 50/50 practical and theoretical training on green energy, entrepreneurship, and the agricultural sector.
ADULT CONTINOUS LEARNING
On average, two in five people in SSA cannot read or write. In particular, one in three adults in Eastern and Central Africa received little to no formal education, contributing to one of the highest illiteracy levels on the continent. Half of the countries in Central Africa and two countries in Eastern Africa have less than 50% literacy levels. This makes it so difficult for regional integration of ICT tools for the betterment of their economies. Something needs to be done to ensure that we don’t leave over 30% of our adult population behind in respect to knowledge empowerment and upskilling. At FOPCO Africa, we work with community trustees to build safe spaces where adults who never had opportunities to secure formal education can advance their learning. We support out-of-school adult learning towards the attainment of basic education and certification at primary and secondary levels. We also ensure that our beneficiaries are trained in life skills, health awareness, social awareness, and economic development