School in Guinea
Schooling in Guinea is compulsory for six years. However, it is unclear what age this applies to, namely from 5, 6 or 7 years. In school, the children wear a school uniform. Often these are beige in Guinea, girls often wear red or blue and white checked dresses. The classes are often very large, sometimes there are 200 students in one classroom!
In Guinea, a country located in Africa according to getzipcodes.org, however, only 76 percent of children go to school. The proportion of boys is significantly higher (86 percent) than that of girls (71 percent). However, significantly fewer children finish primary school: 58 percent of boys and 49 percent of girls. That is why there are particularly many illiterate people in Guinea, i.e. people who cannot read or write. Only 30 percent of adults can read and write.
A big problem in Guinea is that many children work (see Children in Guinea). Some children also have such a long way to school that they would not even be able to get to school. After all, some parents cannot afford to buy school uniforms or exercise books.
The Ebola outbreak in 2014 also caused problems in education as schools were completely closed to prevent the disease from spreading. The schools only reopened in January 2015. The students missed a lot of the subject matter that they had to catch up in the time after. Sometimes parents still don’t send their children back to school for fear that they might get infected. However, the longer a child does not go to school, the greater the hurdle becomes to go back at all.
Children and their problems in Guinea
Many children in Guinea are not doing as well as you are. They are poor, have to starve, get sick or have to work.
poor
35 percent of the population in Guinea live below the poverty line and have less than $ 1.90 a day to live on. Many people don’t have enough to eat.
Ill
In Guinea, three out of 100 newborns die, more than six out of 100 year olds and ten out of 100 five year olds! There are many reasons for this: not all of them have clean drinking water and then get sick. A particularly large number of children die from diarrhea. There are also diseases, especially malaria, from which children die.
Child labor
24 percent of children in Guinea work. These girls and boys mainly work in agriculture: they often have to toil on plantations, especially on cashew nuts, cocoa and coffee. But they also help out in their parents’ fields or tend the cattle.
Others earn money as shoe shiners or maids, work in the gold or diamond mines. There are also children who are forced to beg, for example the Talibés (see Senegal). Other children are sold to other countries (for example Senegal, Mali, Nigeria, Ivory Coast or Benin), where they are then exploited and forced to work.
Street children
Many children live on the streets. They too beg or steal or collect rubbish. Many of them are orphans and have lost one or both parents.
Marry young
Another problem is that some girls are married before they are 15 years old. In Guinea this affects 19 out of 100 girls. For those who were married at the age of 18, the proportion is even 51 percent!
Naming in Guinea
There are first and last names typical of the country in Guinea. However, the naming is also related to ethnicity and religion. The Kissi people in Forest Guinea, for example, call their firstborn son Saa (sometimes written as Saah or Sarh), which means “first son”. The second son is called Tamba. A firstborn girl is called Sia, the second daughter Kumba and the third daughter Finda. What would you have been called if you had been born a Kissi child?
The Kpelle call their daughters, for example, Gorpue, Konah, Suah, Gormenh, Zoe, Gborlormenh or Kehper. Boys are called Kpangba, Kparsi, Manhtee, Toimu, Togba, Flomo, Siakoh, Dolo or Wamah. Typical girls’ names among the Mandinka are, for example, Fanta, Aminata or Binta. Boys are often called Lamin.
Typical Islamic names for boys are Souleymane, Ibrahima, Oumar, Mamadou, Abdulaye or Ismael. Girls are often called Fatoumata, Mariam or Aissatou.
Names have also been preserved from the French colonial period, for example Pascal, Jean, Claude or Guy. Girls are called Simone, Roxanne or Audrey.
Typical surnames in Guinea are Diallo, Konaté, Keita or Touré.