KONGOME, Niger (AlertNet) - Officials and aid agencies are warning the food crisis in Niger could set back development in the West African country because children's education is being disrupted by migration.
At a government-run school in the village of Kongome, around 90 km from the country's second-largest city Zinder, children aged 10 are taking French lessons. But some who have missed classes as their families struggle to get enough to eat find it hard to keep track.
"Three children from this class have abandoned school - two boys and one girl...they have followed their parents to Sudan," teacher Salissou wana Fanna Kaou told AlertNet. Within five months, more than 40 of the school's 238 students have left.
In drought-hit areas, five schools have closed down, and more than 19,000 children have stopped attending classes as they accompany their parents in search of food, water and pastures for their livestock.
"It is a disturbing prospect that we are faced with but the parents cannot leave their children behind, as community solidarity is hard to maintain when no one has food," said Boukar Kolomi, director of education services for the region of Zinder, where 37 percent of primary-level pupils have quit school.
At least 7.8 million people, or nearly 60 percent of Niger's population, will be threatened with severe food shortages this year in the wake of failed rains.
Niger is bottom of the U.N. Human Development Index, and has a school enrolment/attendance rate of about 38 percent and an adult literacy rate of 37 percent, according to the U.N. ChildrenÂ?s Fund (UNICEF).
The United Nations says providing food aid to families would allow them to stay in their villages, keeping children in school.
The country's ministry of education is trying to organise food distribution programmes in places where children have left, hoping this will encourage families to return.
"Priority will be given to pupils who are taking their entrance exam into secondary school to ensure that they complete the school year and take their exams," a U.N. statement said.
U.N. agencies have advised the government to include the education ministry in units that are managing food insecurity and disaster risk reduction programmes.
Aid agencies say that, besides the long-term damage caused by poor or incomplete education, children who are displaced by a crisis like that in Niger are often victims of exploitation and abuse, including forced labour and early marriage.
"Families who have lost their harvest and livestock and go to Niamey...send them to beg on the streets or to work," Guido Cornale, UNICEF country representative in Niger, told AlertNet.
Video in French
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