| Business |
A campaign with
guaranteed promises for PNG
By HILDA WAYNE
In 1959 the Declaration of the Rights of the Child was adopted by
the United Nations General Assembly, focusing on a child’s right
to education, health care and good nutrition.
With the government taking the lead and support from development
partners there is an emphasis placed on the need to mobilize for
children’s education, especially girls.
In 1989, countries around the world including PNG committed to a
global vision for peace and prosperity that included the right to
education by accepting the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Almost all countries in the world including PNG again ratified
this Convention in 1993.
There are many challenges in educating girls in Papua New Guinea.
The greatest barrier is school fees, where boys are preferred over
girls while other challenges include security, absence of
sanitation facilities among others.
A girl may have many disadvantages just because she is born a
girl. However the realization that the education of girls is a
sure foundation for development will bring positive change.
To put it more simply, when a girl is educated to her fullest
potential, it will translate into her household. Healthy,
empowered and educated women have healthy, educated and empowered
sons and daughters. When women have equal participation in all
facets of society they are able to overcome not only poverty but
champion the rights of their children and family for better more
rewarding lives.
According to the 1999 State of the World’s Children report, there
is correlation between education and child mortality rates. The
implication for girls’ education is particularly critical.
A 10 percentage point increase in girls’ primary enrollment can be
expected to decrease infant mortality by 4.1 deaths per 1,000 and
a similar rise in girls’ secondary enrolment by another 5.6 deaths
per 1,000.
Educating girls empowers them to grow to their full potential and
to fully develop self-confidence and social skills.
Educated girls and women are more likely to protect themselves
against HIV/AIDS and other diseases, to have safer pregnancies and
healthier children, and to send their own children to school.
To take an example, in the southern Indian state of Kerala, where
literacy is universal, the infant mortality rate is the lowest in
the entire developing world and the fertility rate is the lowest
in India.
Across the developing world, girls traditionally have less access
to school and are kept out of the classroom to part take in
subsistence farming or even married off at a very young age, a
scenario familiar to Papua New Guinea.
Girls make up the majority of the more than 120 million children
excluded from education throughout the world, a fact that
adversely affects all children.
The Children’s report further adds that Cambodia, Myanmar, Viet
Nam and Papua New Guinea have continuing problems of low
completion by school children. People in developing countries
elsewhere have shown that when there is commitment, there will be
change.
“I am ready to make Aster continue up to university because I
understand the value of education. In the old days, girls would be
given to men for marriage. I don’t want Aster to end up that way,”
said Mohammed Kamara of his daughter, who comes from Sierra Leone.
Enlightened parents in this war-wrecked country are pushing their
daughters to complete their schooling and even strive for a place
at university. A growing number of parents are beginning to grasp
the importance of education for their daughters and are realizing
that early marriage simply perpetuates the cycle of poverty.
In Papua New Guinea, families and communities are banding together
for girls’ education and the campaign for girls’ education is
ongoing. Supporting and promoting education for all, especially
girls’ education is a daunting commitment but not insurmountable.
It will need the ‘vote’ of everyone because it is pivotal to human
development and Papua New Guinea’s progress.
In each country, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is
working with governments to mobilise new resources, build broad
national consensus about the need to get girls into school, and
help improve schools themselves to make them more welcoming to
both girls and boys.
In another worldwide campaign, UNICEF and FIFA have been teaming
up since 2001, when they formed an alliance to promote children’s
rights through football.
The 2002 World Cup was dedicated to children - the first time in
the history of the men’s tournament that the games were devoted to
a humanitarian cause.
“When the right to education is assured, the whole world begins.
There is no instant solution to the violations of that right, but
it begins with a simple proposition: that on the eve of the 21st
century, there is no higher priority, no mission more important,
than that of Education For All,” said Kofi Annan, the then
Secretary-General of the United Nations in 1999.
While the campaign for girls’ education has been ongoing for many
years and includes partners from all over the world, the challenge
is for everyone in this country to value the education of every
child especially girls.
This is one campaign that will ensure guaranteed rewards for this
country and redefine the meaning of development so your first
preference for girls’ education is needed for a better Papua New
Guinea now and into the future.
 
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