Empty Desks Need Action
When a young person stops coming to school, an empty desk may be the only visible sign of a much larger struggle. The register records an absence. The teacher notices the chair. But that absence may carry the weight of a household without enough income, a long journey to class, or responsibilities that no child should have to manage alone. The child is not a blank space. That young person still has a future. The Namibian reported in August that 650 pupils in the Kavango West region had left school during the first semester of the academic year. Education officials pointed to economic hardship, long walks, inadequate care, responsibilities placed on children and other pressures that can pull young people away from learning. These are not all the same problem. A student who misses class to…
