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This chapter reveals the knowledge gap regarding the impact of civil wars on basic education. It specifically focuses on the theoretical stance, conceptual overview, historical overview, an overview of civil wars in AGLR, and empirical studies.

2. 1 Approaches to Effects of Civil Wars

Books, journals, newspapers and papers seem to suggest several approaches that could offer a good explanation on the impact of civil wars on basic education in the African Great Lakes Region with special focus on Tanzania.

The rehabilitation approach

The approach holds that civil wars bring problems to neighbouring countries through refugee activities. Such problems lead to a number of setbacks that call for immediate attention and action (Mwakasege 1995). According to Sanders (1997), the problem of refugees has generated among other things social, economic and political consequences.

Sustainable development approach

The approach addresses problems caused by civil wars but it particularly advocates long-term strategic planning as a way of dealing with problems caused by refugees fleeing civil wars (Mwakasege 1995).

Although the two approaches are relevant, they are subject to critique as they deal with the indirect perspective; that is, problems caused by civil war refugees only. The approaches seem to overlook the direct impact of civil wars.

Humanitarian approach

This approach advocates provision of food to people affected by civil wars. The then President of the United States of America, Bill Clinton, propounded the approach in a bid to rescue starving victims of civil wars in eastern Bosnia (Sullivan 1993). Nevertheless, the approach is subject to criticism because it focuses on food supply and neglects other offshoots of civil wars such as the destruction of social amenities. In addition, it is internally based, as it looks at war victims within the country, ignoring other victims who have taken refuge in neighbouring countries. More specifically, the approach does not seem to care about the native people in the neighbouring countries directly or indirectly affected by the war.

Eclectic approach

The aforementioned approaches are inadequate when it comes to explaining the impact of civil wars on basic education. As such, the eclectic approach is preferred because of its flexibility; it incorporates ideas from other models, making it specific and broad enough to address the topic from direct and indirect viewpoints. As Taneja (1983, 86) puts it,

Instead of being rigid to certain beliefs and ideologies, we have to get inspiration from all philosophies, borrow from each what we feel as functional in the prevailing circumstances and fuse them into a new philosophy suiting the higher values of life.

2.2 Conceptual Overview

Civil wars: There are varied definitions forwarded by different scholars. For instance, Henderson (1999) views civil war as a major, sustained, violent conflict between military forces of a state and insurgent forces composed mainly of residents of the state. On the other hand, Graham and Newnham (1998, 64) view civil war as a protracted internal violence aimed at securing control of the political and legal apparatus of a state. Accordingly, there are three types of civil wars: those arising because of attempts to end colonialism; those resulting from the desire a state to break away; and those resulting from the desire of separated states to achieve reunion. Examples of internal conflicts and the countries affected by each of the conflicts in Africa up to 1998 are indicated in table 1.

Table 1. The United Nations and Conflicts in Africa 1988-1998 by type of conflict and the type of UN involvement (June 1998)

SOURCE: Goulding (1998, 158)

Notes:

1. ‘Peacemaking’ means attempts to negotiate peace settlements.

2. ‘Peacekeeping’ means the deployment of military and/or police personnel either as an interim measure to facilitate peacemaking (traditional peacekeeping) or to help implement peace settlements which have been negotiated by the UN or others (‘ multifunctional peacekeeping’).

3. Excluding minor electoral observation missions.

4. In Eritrea only.

5. Classified as peacekeeping because the UN helped the government to implement the disarmament program after a peace settlement had been negotiated, but not UN military or police personnel had to be deployed.

From table 1, it can be deduced that about 37 percent of all African states faced civil wars in a period of only ten years (1988-1998). This suggests a number of problems on basic education and other social services in the affected countries.

The African Great Lakes Region: Geographically, there are several great lakes regions in the world. However, for the purpose of the study, the Great Lakes Region of Africa refers to the area around Albert, Edward, Kivu, Kyoga, Tanganyika, and Victoria Lakes. Countries covered in the region are Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. Fig. 2 indicates the area occupied by the African Great Lakes Region.

Fig. 2. Area occupied by the Great Lakes Region of Africa

SOURCE: URT (2000).

Basic education: According to the Human Rights Declaration of 1948, basic education comprises of elementary, primary, and adult education. The study focuses on primary education aspect of basic education.

Primary education: Primary education takes different structures in the world. In Tanzanian context, the primary school cycle begins with Standard One (Std.I), the entry point, and ends with Standard Seven (Std. VII) in the terminal year at that level. It consists of seven years of universal and compulsory basic education for all school-age children in Tanzania (URT 1995).

2. 3 Historical Overview

Civil wars have a long history that cuts across time and space. According to Hoogenboom (1998) and Goetz (1985), civil wars date back to as far as the post-medieval era. Europe, America and Africa provide some relevant examples. In Europe, the oldest civil wars include those of Britain between 1642 and 1646; in America, the notable ones involve the famous American civil wars in 1861 and 1865.

According to Conteh (1998), African countries have been experiencing conflicts in varying degrees and intensity since their independence. The oldest ones include the Ethiopian civil wars that started early in the 1960s, which culminated in the secession of Eritrea in the 1990s. In West Africa, Biafrans fought the federal government troops in 1967 to secede from Nigeria (Petras and Marley 1984; Obiozor 1993).

2. 4 Overview of Civil Wars in African Great Lakes Region

The 1970s through 2000 have been years of terrible experiences and calamities resulting from civil wars and strife in the African Great Lakes Region. According to Moosa (1996), the region has recorded the highest statistics of civil of wars in Africa. Writing from the Ugandan civil war experience, Passi (1995) reveals that all aspects of life, particularly primary education, were affected by civil strife.

2. 5 Empirical Studies

Economic parameter: In survey of the casualties caused by the American civil wars of 1860s-1865, Hoogenboom (1998) and Goetz (1985) show that those wars were immensely costly as many resources were wasted during the wars. In addition, the wars had a profound impact on technology as modern weapons had to be developed and this entailed an increase of taxes to support such war efforts.

Similarly, Brand, Lane, and Silber (1993) discovered that the war that turned the former Yugoslavia into pieces caused food shortage in eastern Bosnia; mainly food producers either were involved in the fighting or ran away in search of security. This could be attributed to the destruction of farms and industries, which were sources of food and livelihood for people. Even efforts of international organizations like the World Food Programme (WFP) to supply food were crippled during the fighting.

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has reported that the on-going war in the DRC has greatly affected the economy, community infrastructure, and has become a source of serious violations of human rights in the Great Lakes Region. Equally true is the fact that due to civil wars, international organizations such the United Nations of High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) have been spending millions of dollars to refurbish and build new schools for the war-affected children (Stromberg 1997). When Burundian refugees were allowed to leave the refugee centres, they found their homes, schools and clinics destroyed during the fighting (Wilkinson1997).

In 1999, there were about 29,700 foreign students, mainly refugees, enrolled in primary schools in Tanzania (URT 2000). The enrolment of refugee children in primary schools has economic, social, and political implications to Tanzanians.

Social parameter: According to Kumar (1996), by mid July 1994, Rwanda’s entire health delivery system had collapsed and was in complete disarray following the civil war. It is estimated that over eighty percent of Rwanda’s health professionals were either killed or had fled the country. Djeddah (1996) states that in most civil conflicts, children are separated from their families. Children are abandoned, orphaned, lost, abducted or are recruited as child soldiers. Citing the study by International Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) Coalition in 24 countries worldwide, Malecela (1999, 5) reveals that,

…more than 300,000 children both boys and girls are being used as soldiers, saboteurs, spies, carriers, “wives”, and general camp followers. This is becoming pervasive, as the many civil wars in Africa - ranging from Angola to Uganda and Sierra Leone - have shown.

Reporting on what really happens in the African Great Lakes Region especially in Rwanda, Stromberg (1997) states that when suspected Hutu militants attacked a rural Rwandan school they told children to group themselves according to their ethnicity. When the youngsters refused, the gunmen cold bloodedly killed 17 children and their teacher, a Belgian nun.

Academic parameter: According to Mohamed Salih (1993), because of the war in the Sudan that began in 1980s, education has been highly disturbed in two ways. First, the resource allocation to the education sector is dwarfed as the government's priority is on war; second, instead of using the scanty financial resources of the country are directed towards the destruction of the education sector.

Due to the destruction of schools during the war, the surviving schools are swamped with big numbers of students (Askin 1988/1989). This suggests two things: Firstly, teaching becomes a painful task for teachers as they are now overworked; secondly, overcrowding becomes a problem in the host schools. In addition, academic programmes cease, disrupting education systems. According to Schwab (2001), civil wars were behind the closure of the school system in Liberia.

Psychological parameter: According to Askin (1988/1989), schoolchildren that lived in Resistencia Nacional Mozambicana (RENAMO) captivity for long periods were greatly affected psychologically. This is because children stayed among insensitive soldiers and under brutal circumstances, which exposed them to merciless killings of innocent people. Furthermore, civil wars generate depression, phobia and tension, which contribute to students’ and teachers’ ineffectiveness and inefficiency. As a result, it becomes an uphill task to get girls and boys, psychologically and physically abused by civil wars, back into classrooms, since their minds and their bodies need rehabilitation (Koffa 1999). Similarly, Stromberg (1997) indicates that refugees who returned to Rwanda were still stricken physically and psychologically.

Political parameter: Mhone (1992) and United Nations Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Africa (UNRCPDA) (2000) reveal that civil wars deny school-age their right to education, mostly in the form of their forceful recruitment as child soldiers, sometimes even at the age of eight years. Children are forced to join the rebel group and end up committing atrocities. As Askin (1988/1989) puts it,

Sixteen-year old Fernando (last name withheld by UNICEF) told a hushed and saddened audience at the Harare International Conference Centre that RENAMO gave him an automatic rifle and a hand grenade and ordered him to participate in its October 1987 tanning massacre… where almost three hundred civilians were killed.

From this quotation, it is evident that children are forced into war to suit the whims and political ambitions of few individuals. Dyregrove and Roundalen (1987) confirm that some children, instead of going to school, are used as soldiers in armed conflicts. For example, the use of children was common in the civil war that brought President Yoweri Museven of Uganda to power.

2.6 Summary

In view of the reviewed related literature, the following gaps can be discussed. First, the available studies seem to have concentrated on the internal aspects of the impact of civil wars on education, either completely overlooking or partially covering the impact of such wars on neighbouring countries. Thus, the findings of the study are expected to fill this gap. Second, as most of the available studies on the impact of civil wars are highly general, the study has attempted to elucidate the authentic impacts of civil wars on basic education in Tanzania. Third, although Tanzania has suffered from the impact of civil wars that have been going on in neighbouring countries, very little has been studied about the extent to which basic education in the country has been affected.

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