Just 9 weeks ago, when I visited our Goducate Learning Centers in Sabah we had about 500 students enrolled (it’s impossible to give exact figures even though we register our students because parents sneak in additional kids all the time and most of our classrooms do not have walls to keep out additional kids!)
Last week week when I visited Sabah again, I heard that the present enrolment is over 1100 students – and expanding by the day. It’s just too painful to turn away mums and their children who have walked an hour in the hot sun!
Goducate had earlier set a target of 1500 students by the end of 2010 but last week we had to re-set our target to 2500 student in 10 centers by the end of this year – if funds are available. There is no shortage of children who want to learn to read and write and no shortage of mums who are willing to be trained to teach their own children. The bottle-neck is funds to pay for school supplies, teacher training, teacher allowances, visas, etc.
2500 students sounds a lot but it is really a drop in the bucket because it is estimated that there possibly 500,000 children who are unable to attend school because they are “undocumented aliens” from war-torn southern Philippines. This is possibly one of the largest unrecognized “refugee” (for want of a better word) groups in the world. Half a million children who grow up without education or discipline will definitely be huge social problem for their host country – and eventually for the neighbouring countries.
Let’s do our part to help these poor people to help themselves.
Goducate believes that every child deserves a decent education and a decent start in life!