International | Survival of the bookish

Climate change is harder on less educated people

And covid learning loss has made them even more vulnerable

Kelvin Leadismo (3rd L), 12, and his classmates attend a tuition class at Loltulelei primary school on July 16, 2013 in Kisima township of Kenya's nothern county of Samburu. The class is attended by young shepherds from the Samburu community who are usually unable to attend regular daytime classes when they are tending to their family's livestock at pasture. The school runs a parallel tuition programme to the national curriculum that enables the otherwise illeterate shepherds acquire literacy through the two to three hour tuition courses presided over by volunteer teachers. AFP PHOTO / Tony KARUMBA (Photo credit should read TONY KARUMBA/AFP via Getty Images)
|Basantpur, Nepal; Kitui, Kenya; and Penang, Malaysia

When shadrack lolokuru was “nine or ten”, his relatives put him into a bucket and lowered him into a well. From the murky bottom, he filled the bucket and passed it back up so the family’s cows could drink. No one thought this odd. Among his people, the Samburu of northern Kenya, “a five-year-old is regarded as old enough” to help look after cows, he says; herding them, guarding them and making sure the precious beasts have enough grass and water.

This article appeared in the International section of the print edition under the headline “Survival of the bookish”

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