Fri, Nov 20, 2009 page2

• Not enough support for rural children: report

  • By Loa Iok-sin / STAFF REPORTER
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  The Children’s Welfare League Foundation yesterday released a report showing serious gaps in support and opportunities for urban and rural children, and urged the government to close the gap.

  “Although we’ve made much progress in child welfare compared with 20 years ago, there is still plenty of room for improvement — especially when it comes to taking good care of kids in remote areas,” foundation executive director Alicia Wang (王育敏) told a press conference.

  The report was released to raise awareness of children’s rights ahead of Universal Children’s Day today. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, both of which were signed on Nov. 20.

  Ministry of Education (MOE) figures indicate that more than 70,000 elementary school children live in remote areas.

  As many as 10.3 percent of these children live with their grandparents — about three times the national average — while their parents work in the cities, where there are more jobs and higher wages.

  However, many grandparents are not able to take care of their grandchildren financially or meet other needs such as helping them with schoolwork, Wang said.

  “We’ve found that 60 percent of children in remote areas do not have a desk, computer or a quiet place to study,” she said. “Around 30 percent live in low-income families. They don’t have their own room or money for ... tutorial classes. Some of them even said creditors would come to their houses asking their families to repay debts.”

  “The government should allocate more resources to [rural] children to bridge the gap and should pay more attention to them,” Wang said.

  The foundation also found that elementary schools in rural and urban areas alike do not receive enough support from the MOE.

  On average, the ministry spends US$2,894 on educational resources per elementary student per year, compared with US$8,415 in Sweden, US$7,949 in Denmark and US$7,811 in Switzerland, the top three countries in this respect.

  Taiwan also lags behind South Korea, where each student receives an average of US$3,379 in educational resources.

  “The MOE is giving more and more money to colleges and universities, but less and less to elementary schools,” Wang said. “Building a good higher education curriculum requires a solid elementary education.”

  Meanwhile, children in rural and urban areas had one thing in common — they all like to stay home in their spare time.

  The study found that only 11 percent of children like to exercise on a daily basis, while 35 percent said they spent more than five hours a day watching TV on days off from school.

  Also, access to resources may not be everything, the study found. About 23 percent of urban fourth to sixth graders said they had thought about suicide and 37.6 percent said it wouldn’t matter if they died. This compared with 10.6 percent and 28.2 percent of their rural peers respectively.

  “Kids in rural areas may have less resources, but they’re happier,” Wang said.
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