Africa's Heath and Education | Page 53

Education lonial authorities and upheld by different African governments after colonialism , it is now being willingly and happily spearheaded by families and communities in many parts of the continent . Across many major cities in Africa , it is no longer uncommon for babies as young as 3 months to spend a minimum of 9 hours a day at daycare centres . At these institutions , the language of instruction is usually the national or regional languages , which are often colonial languages . These babies grow up interacting with their caregivers , who soon metamorphose into teachers as the babies get older . Tired and worn out after a hard day ’ s job , parents pick up their children with little energy and patience left for long , idyllic , drawn-out interactions in local languages . While some parents make an effort to speak their mother tongues to their children , many do not see any need for that , opting instead to sustain conversations with their children in their “ teacher tongue .” Among many other reasons that have been advanced , parents claim that speaking to the children in their “ teacher tongue ” would make it easier for them to thrive at school .
In instances where a parent stays home longer than the average few months of parental leave , they are often in a hurry to enroll their children in “ nursery ” schools in order for them to “ start learning early .” These well-meaning parents are often unaware that the most important education for a child under the age of 3 is social-emotional learning , which is best provided within the family setting . Fidgety at the fact that their child is lagging behind the working mother ’ s child , “ staying-at-home ” moms also hurry off their children to “ school ,” truncating the children ’ s social-emotional learning , bonding and security .
Psychologists have established that early exposure of young children to the rigours and stress of an overly academic curriculum
leads to stress and mental health challenges , causing them to drop out of school at an early age among other ( even more serious ) mental health , emotionally debilitating and physical ill-health consequences . Lilian G . Katz , Professor Emerita of Early Childhood Education at the University of Illinois , explains : “ While early formal instruction may appear to show good test results at first , in the long term , in follow-up studies , such children have had no advantage . On the contrary , especially in the case of boys , subjection to early formal instruction increases their tendency to distance themselves from the goals of schools , and to drop out of it , either mentally or physically .”
At the surface level , Africa copies and longs for what the West has today : the technology , the economic power , the political system and the educational infrastructure and resources . However , as far as following the principles that earned the Western world its place

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