[child-rights] UNICEF provides out of school youth with new hope

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ANTANANARIVO, MADAGASCAR, 12 August 2004 - At a "graduation" ceremony for
258 out-of-school youth, UNICEF and the Ministry of Education praised the
joint initiative that has helped over 400 young people, over the course of
the past year; attain both basic education and vocational skills.

"I was so glad the day my mother saw the poster advertising this project,
"said William, age 16, who lives in the nation's capital. "I dropped out
of school in the third grade because my father did not have a job and my
family was too poor to send me to school. But due to this initiative, I
can make receipts and even bake cakes!"

William is just one of the many young people; aged 12-18, who is part of
this initiative to deal with the country's estimated one million
out-of-school adolescents.

"While it is true that in the big scheme of things, this is a small
step, it is nevertheless, an important one," affirmed UNICEF's Chief of
Education, Mr. Francisco Basili. "Every child has a right to an education
and it is important that we find these school dropouts understand better
why they are not in school and identify local and national resources to
comprehensively integrate them back into society."

The DESCOL initiative, as it is known, operates in 17 districts of the
Antananarivo region. With the help of UNICEF and the Ministry of
Education, each district identifies local artists who take in the young
people as apprentices and provide them with future income generating
skills in areas such as baking, mechanics, tailoring, etc. The initiative,
which runs for nine months for each group of young people, includes three
months of basic education training ­ i.e. young people learn basic
numeric, Malagasy, French and civic education (including HIV/AIDS
prevention and health issues) ­ followed by a six month vocational
training course.

"Before taking part in the project, I didn't know what my future would be
like, "said Narindra, another DESCOL graduate. "Now, I want to open a
restaurant with other graduates. We still do not have enough money, but we
are full of hope."

UNICEF expects that the lessons learned from the DESCOL initiative will
help inform national policy on out-of-school youth. While Madagascar has
made steady progress in the educational area (net enrolment rates
increased from 65% in 1995 to 82% in 2003), one in every five children
still does not go to school.

In addition, out of a 100 pupils, only 39 complete primary school.
Dropping out of school is particularly common for poorer students. Data
from the Ministry of Education indicates that only 12% of children in
rural areas complete the primary cycle as compared to 60% in urban areas.

In 2002, Madagascar's government, with the assistance of UNICEF, set about
reforming the educational system, both in terms of quality and access ­ a
key element of this reform process was also to ensure the right to
education for out-of-school youth. This is in part what gave birth to the
DESCOL project.

UNICEF Press release


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