JOHANNESBURG, Feb 9 (AFP) - Nearly two thirds of children in rural South Africa do not have parents educated enough to help them with homework, according to a report released Wednesday.
The report entitled "Emerging Voices" and drafted by the Nelson Mandela Foundation charity organisation and the Human Sciences Research Council, describes how children in rural schools struggle to cope with harsh living conditions brought about by poverty and AIDS.
It sketches a bleak picture of children forced to deal with many demands that often result in a high drop-out or absenteeism from school.
"One question in the survey asked children if anyone assists them with homework, and, if not, why not. A striking 65 percent of children interviewed reported that no one in the house was sufficiently educated to do so," the report said.
"The answers we received suggest that, on the whole, adult caregivers feel they do not assist children with their homework because of their own poor levels of education," said the report compiled from interviews with teachers and children at nine rural schools in three different provinces.
The document said children also had to cope with problems arising from parents suffering from AIDS and that "ill-health" among family members was cited by 57 percent of parents and guardians as reasons for children missing school.
"The problem is that the primary impact of HIV/AIDS on education is to make existing problems in the system worse...
"HIV/AIDS is not a stand-alone problem; it is subtle, insidious and erodes longstanding cracks in the education system, increasing educator attrition, depressing enrollments."
AIDS affects more than one in five adults in South Africa, with some 5.3 million people living with HIV and AIDS, according to UN AIDS.
HIV prevalence among children between the ages of two and 18 is in the region of 5.6 percent and many children still have to deal with the AIDS scourge on a daily basis.
"Children face many obstacles that prevent their full participation and concentrated attention in school," the report said.
"The distance from school, hunger, school fees and uniforms, ill health and HIV/AIDS, disability and teenage pregnancy all involve direct costs for families," it concluded.
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