Educating the Dropouts; the Case of Street Children in Maputo City, Mozambique

ABSTRACT Almost every country in the world is commited to offer primary education for every child in 2015 at the latest yet many children have been left out of school. Mozambique is one of the coutries which is still struggling to get all children through a full course of primary education. The street children are part of this phenomenon. Many of them have once been enrolled to primary school but at some point they have dropped out and are now surviving on the street without basic education. In this study the focus is in the question of how to create the possibility of basic education for a dropout living on the street. The data collection took place in Maputo City, Mozambique during the spring 2008. The material was collected with ethnographic methods from 12 children who have dropped out of primary education and are now living on the street. These children were between 13 and 17 years of age and all of them were boys. When collecting the data observation and semi-structured interviews were used as well as photographs and drawings to supplement the research material. This material was collected in a close interaction with the children while working with them. The research follows the ideas of Paulo Freire and it concentrates on analysing the reality of a street child, their vision of a better future and finding means to achieve that better future. All of the researched children said that the mean to achieve their dream is to get education. This created the vision of a better future which is education for all. The means to achieve this were created together with the children. In order to attend school the street children would require a private place to do their homework, wash their clothes and deposit their personal belongings. The children also need school materials and clothes as well as shoes for going to school. Some of the regulations of schooling need to be modificated, like the possibility to influence on school shifts and the physical place of school. Also huge modifications should be made in the public. The attitudes towards the street children should be changed so that they could sleep in peace, their rights would not be neglected and they would not have to face so much hostility rather they would encounter support, help and kindness. Asiasanat:street children, primary education, dropout, the reality of street children, education for all, Mozambiqu