The Anglican Bishop Valentino Mokiwa .
Leonida Monera, a resident of Dar es Salaam is
aware of the negative impacts of sending very young children to boarding
schools but her busy family life has forced her to do so.
The forty-two-year-old business woman last year sent her only
child, four-years-old daughter to a boarding pre-school in Morogoro,some
200 kilometres from Dar es Salaam.
Monera deals in clothes trade that ‘forces’ her to travel to far
off places like Uganda, Qatar and China, leaving little time for her to
stay at home.
Her husband, who is an employee of a private institution company, is often busy equally.
The couple that resides in Mbezi-Makonde suburb of the city does
not have a reliable house girl. During the interview with this reporter
Ms Monera also expressed fear of leaving a child in the care of house
help.
”It is better to send the child to a boarding school rather than leave her to a house girl who can harm her.
”We thus agreed to register our four-year-old daughter to start a
nursery boarding school in Morogoro, Monera told The Guardian on Sunday
this week.
Another parent Grayson Rweyemamu also this year sent his son to
start Standard One at Msolwa Missionaries of Compassion Centre, also in
Morogoro.
Unlike Monera, Rweyemamu, who resides at Ubungo in Dar es Salaam
was forced to enroll the young boy in a boarding facility after marriage
break-up.
He told The Guardian on Sunday that he considered that as the best
option, considering the boy needed security and proper guidance, noting
that the divorce would disturb him too.
The school authority first hesitated to share information on how
they look after the kids but one of the officials told this paper that
they admit very young children because of life challenges like divorce,
death or marriage conflict.
Boarding pre-schools and primary schools started in the country in
the 1990s. Many of the schools have performed well, at least
academically.
However, professional social workers said youth ‘raised without
parental warmth, love, or caring’ are more likely to develop emotional
distress, lower self esteem, schooling problems, drug use, and sexual
risk behaviours.
Mussa Fumu is a senior social work lecturer at the Zanzibar
University and Deputy Chairman of the Association of Schools of Social
Work in the country.
He told The Guardian on Sunday mid this week that studies reveal
that at the tender age guardians are reluctant to educate them on
biological issues including sexual ones.
Fumu said maternal communication is vital in parenting and often
restrictive, saying this moral tone discourages youth from indulging in
immoral activities.
Veritas is a school located at Kimara Bonyokwa in the city.
Currently they are not enrolling children who are under the age of six.
A school spokesperson who preferred anonymity said their matrons cannot
look after very young children.
“Two years ago we used to enroll pupils aged between four and six
years but we observed that matrons failed to give them parental care and
this is why we decided to suspend their registration,”he said.
According to Kampala International University former Dean of Social
Sciences Asia Mwanzi lack of parental communications to youth leads to
secret romantic relationships, cause early pregnancies. She referred to
a study by researchers that involved 700 adolescents that found out
that single mother children or youth being raised by non biological
parents engaged in sexual activity at early age compared to children
raised by both parents.
She said research further proved children without parents are at
greater risk of being involved in drugs use and alcohol. According to
her, children with none parental guidance risk mental illness, suicide,
poor educational performance, teen pregnancy, and criminality.
Sipha Shabaan of the Open University of Tanzania said keeping
children away damages family cohesiveness, allowing peer influence that
results in alcohol and drug use as well as influencing child sexual
abuse.
On her part a senior social worker and administrative manager for
the Association of Schools of Social Work in Tanzania (ASSWOT) under the
American Internal Health Alliance (AIHIA) Stella Mngodo said children
in such circumstances develop high risk of committing suicide at
adulthood due to psychological disorders compared to teens living with
their parents.
For example in 1988, a study of preschool children admitted to New
Orleans hospitals as psychiatric patients over a 34-month period found
that nearly 80 percent came from fatherless homes. The study also
revealed that children living with a never-married mother are more
likely to develop emotional problems.
"Children who don't live with both parents face behavioral
problems such as less cooperativeness and lower intelligence capacity.
“They are disobedient, have poor relationships with their mothers
and fathers and finally they become antisocial and mainly criminals.
Mwajabu Possi, Professor of Special Educational at the University
of Dar es Salaam, told The Guardian on Sunday that taking children to
boarding schools should be the last resort when considering the
children’s future.
She recommended that children should join boarding school at
Standard Five level and better still after completing primary education.
She mentioned the tendency for children in boarding schools to respect teachers more than their parents.
The professor noted that many current boarding schools have fake
life compared to those of the past which taught real life experiences.
The life experiences included farming, needlework, cooking and general cleanliness.
He said the childhood stage is when the parents impart cultural
values to help children grow with good morals as opposed to today’s
boarding school life where they learn a lot about foreign cultures.
Children’s education needs three things: playing, singing and studding; so they need not spend the all day at school.
Meanwhile, according to the Commissioner for Education Eustella
Bhalalusesa every thing about children falls under the Ministry of
Community Development, Gender and Children (MCDGC).
When contacted the responsible minister Sophia Simba replied with
short massage stating: “I’m outside country.” Two religious interviewed
by this paper showed reservations about sending very young children to
boarding schools.
The Anglican Bishop Valentino Mokiwa quoted the Bible verse from
Exodus 20:12 that states: "Honour your father and your mother, so that
you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.”
The bishop said respect among the youth starts from how parents respect their child, without evading responsibility.
According to him some parents dislike bringing up, warning when the
negative changes appear in their children, they should know they have
resulted from their lack of contact with them for a long periods of time
while in boarding schools.
The Mufti of Tanzania Sheikh Issa Shaaban Simba said childhood is
the period of ‘transplant’ but many parents do not use the opportunity
because they are busy leading luxurious lives.
They spend little time with their children so the latter only
‘learn from the street’ on television, in schools and from others
without guidance.
Parents should fear God and respect the right of their children, he stressed.
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