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Getting to school in the Mountains
In the mountain villages primary school children can live anywhere between 1 hour to eight hours or more from the local government primary school. Their walk to school consists of tackling steep mountain trails and crossing fast rivers. Due to this many of them never get to primary school at the proper age or ever at all. Therefore they are starting out life at a disadvantage.
Because most villages are too far away from the government schools, currently only between 25 and 50 percent of children are attending school. In some tribes in Yahukimo fewer than 5 percent of girls graduate from primary school and go on to secondary school. Also even when they can attend the government schools teachers are rarely there and classes are regularly cancelled.
In order to increase access to primary education in remote areas Papua Partners partner Yasumat runs 'parallel schools'. These schools are located in areas far from government schools and generally cover grades 1-3. These schools are currently providing education to approximately 5000 children and also several adults who never got the chance to get to school! However, facilities and resources for these schools are poor. Yasumat also run a literacy program with over 35 groups in 5 different local languages.
Even these basic opportunities for education are helping people in Papua discover who they are and find self worth. One young girl teenager who learnt to read in a Yasumat literacy group said that when she learned to read and write she wasn't shy anymore and felt like a real person'.
Education is vital for the future of the Papuans and needs to become a priority in planning and budgeting at all levels. Real solutions need to be found for the currently challenges especially the training, support and monitoring of teachers.
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