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UNESCO- 10 Things You Must Know
I have talked alot about UNESCO, which stands for United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization.
They have put out a “10 things that you need to know” list. Sine my last “10 things you need to know” list got so many hits, i think you may really enjoy this one too!
Here is the first one… click here for all 10!
1. EFA is a right
In 1945, the countries that founded UNESCO signed a constitution expressing a belief “in full and equal opportunities for education for all.” Since that time, it has been part of UNESCO’s mandate to make those opportunities a reality. Several legally binding instruments enshrine education as a right, beginning with the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights which states that “everyone has the right to education” (Article 26). Today, the aim remains unchanged: to give everyone the chance to learn and benefit from basic education – not as an accident of circumstance, nor as a privilege, but as a RIGHT.
My Solution: Part 2
In my earlier post, i discussed the three factors i believe are needed to provide education for all.
1. Education must have value for everyone
2. World leaders need to be committed to the cause
3. Education must be accessible
Here are some simple strategies sticking to this guideline:
1. “Teachers Without Borders”
Teachers from affluent countries like Canada, USA and Korea already know the value in education and can take this motivation to other parts of the world to teach. By the governments supporting and exchange program like this, it shows that they are committed to the cause and feel a responsibility to making positive changes. This concept would allow teachers to travel abroad and provide free, accessible education.
Unfortunately, one teacher may only be able to teach a classroom of 20 children and can only stay for a limited amount of time. Therefore if no teacher was available to take over, the education for these children may stop. There must also be an incentive for teachers to go- free travel, free accommodation’s, salary, government grants. Also, this idea is not as sustainable as “doctors without borders” because it really isn’t addressing the root problems. Teachers need to be trained in third world countries to end the cycle of poverty and spark economic development.
Currently there is an organization called Teachers without Borders, which focuses on allowing men and women in remote areas of the world to receive their teaching certificates. This is great leap in the right direction, but i propose a hybrid of the two for the time being because teacher commitment in third world countries still lacks.
“Brains are evenly distributed throughout the world;
education is not…
It is our job to connect education to brains”
2.”Commitment and Targets Set by World Leaders”
” Under the leadership of UNESCO and four other UN agencies (the United Nations Children’s Fund, the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Population Fund and the World Bank), the world came together in 1990 in Jomtien, Thailand, to adopt a new vision of basic education. In response to slow progress over the decade, 164 governments and partners met again in 2000 in Dakar, Senegal to re-affirm their global commitment and adopt the six Education for All goals. These goals express a comprehensive view of education, from early childhood care and development to literacy and life skills for youth and adults. Three of the goals are timed: providing universal primary education, increasing adult literacy levels by fifty percent and ensuring gender equality in education – all by 2015.” (source)
We need plans implemented to strengthen commitments that are made like this one. Currently UNESCO has reported that they will not meet their set targets by 2015. In order for political commitments to be accomplished and carried out, there must be checks put in place to ensure promises are being made.
I suggest that governments all over the world MUST allocate a certain percentage of their budget to support sustaining education and building new schools and training new teachers. This would create an enormous impact that would positively change the country in the long run. By developing and building up their education plan on a yearly basis, universal education can be incrementally accomplished. This is not something that we can change over night. Education needs worldwide commitment and governments need to be held accountable to the promises that they make their citizens. This target budget can start low and can be scaled to times of economic prosperity or failure. New schools, new teachers, and “taking education seriously” may seem simple, but if carried out it can create great societal change and will provide a long term solution to more quality education. Obviously this would not be an easy feat. This is where the “value of education needs to be recognized”. World leaders would need to unite and sign a document to say they will take this pledge and commit to it.
Thoughts?
My Solution: Part 1
The goal: universal education for all. Essentially, I do not think that this social problem requires a light bulb idea to be solved. I think the answer is in methods we already use. Through my research and critical thinking I have found that the following three things are necessary for education to reach all corners of the world.
1. Education must have value for everyone
2. World leaders need to be committed to the cause
3. Education must be accessible
1. Education is not highly valued in parts of the world. Children become caught in life cycles of poverty, drugs, illness etc. and never try to pursue education at all. However, by creating awareness of the positive impact one can gain from education this may create the will to learn that never before existed. Government, parents, and teachers lack motivation to care, learn and teach. Currently there are many programs, which visit remote areas of the world to EDUCATE people on HIV/AIDS, pregnancy, mosquitoes, etc. We need the issue of education to attract world leaders attention, to attract the medias attention and to attract every individual to want change.
2. Mentioned in my earlier post- Leadership Matters. Leaders (not strictly politicians) have influence and the money to provide quality education worldwide. Education is on the helping platform for tons of organizations, so why isn’t it on the governments? We are taking a step in the right direction with influential people like Barack Obama and Bill/Melinda Gates, whose foundation aims to tackle the lack of quality education. When our world leaders meet, we need to make sure Education is on the agenda. When funding cuts are made, we need to ensure Education doesn’t take a hit. Political commitment is key in change the state of the world’s education.
3. Education should be a right, not a privilege. It must be accessible to everyone from Alaska to the remote areas of Africa. Education must be free, there must be motivated and educated teachers, and the curriculum must accommodate any language barriers. Along with this we require school buildings and any books or courseware necessary to educate the students.
Solution: Leadership
Who has authority in our society? Who are the leaders of society? Politicians, police, engineers, doctors, nurses, teachers- these people are the elite leaders of society who have a voice. In the following ted talks video, Patrick Awuah discusses how much leadership does matter, which I think is a pivotal aspect of solving the education crisis in the world. After growing up in Ghana, Awuah attended a university, which was very dissimilar to his schooling in Ghana. Through critical thinking he realized that the leaders of Ghana made poor decisions, which brought unfortunate situations to his country. He states that the question of transformation in Africa is a question of leadership.
Compared to his job at Microsoft, he realized the hardworking and motivated culture that existed. He decided that every society must be very intentional about educating its leaders.
Lastly, he questions: Can we create a perfect society?
The answer: we cannot create a perfect society- but if we can move towards it we will achieve excellence.
Solutions to Education: Free Degrees?
Similar concepts can be seen between my earlier blog post about Sugata Mitra’s “children teaching children” solution to education and Shai Reshef’s recently discussed concept of University on ABC News. He calls it the University of the People or UoPeople. It is the first online and tuition free university. His inspiration came from social networking sites, which are become increasingly popular worldwide. He has applied these concepts within social networking towards academia, which resulted in an affordable, Internet-based University. UoPeople connect students all over the world to teach each other and work collaboratively towards their degrees. It is different from traditional on-line course because it is free, and the professor is removed from the classroom unless needed for assistance. Testing takes place in a physical location where the exam is supervised by a professor to ensure there is no cheating.
What is the catch? This concept is not entirely free because there is between a $10-$15 registration fee and exam fees can be between $10-$100. This is very affordable compared to other universities, but this concept would fail in extremely poor countries that have no computers or access to the Internet (without scholarships). Also, what languages is the curriculum set in? Do the students need to purchase any additional courseware? Yet, Reshef recognizes that the Internet is powerful and can reach and teach more people.
According to Statistics Canada, unemployment rates are lower for individuals of both genders who possess university degrees than for those who don’t. UoPeople has the possibility of impacting millions by providing affordable education to people all over the world (including America) who would have not otherwise attended. This idea can become large in scale with increased awareness of the University. With quality control and appropriate testing of their students, UoPeople has the potential to be the forefather in shaping online education for the future.
Oprah’s Angel Network’s Solution to Education: Build Schools
Personally, I think Oprah is a wonderful human being. The clip above will give you a good idea of one of her more recent large undertakings- a
Leadership Academy for girls in South Africa. The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls is a boarding school for grades 7–12 in South Africa. It is the school of Oprah’s dreams, but to make it a reality, she has to find the perfect students. “This is a school for leaders,” Oprah says. “This is a school for powerful girls who will use their power in service to their nation and to our world.”
Within Oprah’s empire, is a fantastic program called the Angel Network- The Angel Network has launched an online community for people who are making a difference in the lives of others. Within this network is The Creating Schools project which is an innovative solution to the Education Crisis. It focuses on building schools in poor, remote areas of South Africa. Seven Fountains Primary School is the first school built as part of the program. Two others are breaking ground in 2009. You can donate through Oprah.com and funds are given towards school building projects in South Africa. It is clear the Oprah feels that the responsibility of education falls on all individuals of society to assist- either hands on or by donating funds. This solution is quite traditional and obvious, but it isn’t being done as often as it could be. Imagine how many schools could be built if every celebrity felt this strong about the cause. Oprah hopes her donations towards schools will influence the government to see that they too can make these changes.
“The greatest gift you can give is the gift of learning. Education is the path for possibility.” Oprah
Leaders of the World Need the BIGGEST Lesson
The Global Campaign for Education
This Campaign was meant to teach the world the BIGGEST lesson about the lack of education in the world. This short youtube video has young children speaking about how serious this cause affects their lives. This video touches on how education must be a basic right for everyone and that is needs to be free… but this campaign attempts to solve the Education Crisis by a targeting a more influential group of people- Political Leaders. The Global Campaign for Education relies on political commitment as its solution to the education crisis.
CHANGE can come from anyones actions, but by having POLITICAL COMMITMENT for this cause, change can and will take place much more rapidly. Nearly every government have promised education for all its citizens at one point in history. At a global leaders meeting in 2000. there was a deadline set for the promise of universal education for all by 2015. This is an issue that needs to be at the TOP of the political agenda for all world leaders. “Education for all” is something that requires a serious commitment to provide good quality education to change the future.
Essentially, during Action Week in 2008 this global campaign taught the BIGGEST and most important lesson to those who needed it.
With no education, there are no jobs, with no jobs there is no money, with no money there are no business activities causing there to be no social and economic development. A question I saw posted on youtube was “Why have White and Asian countries’ economies evolved and africans’ have not?” The Answer- “No Intelligence” will lead to No Anything”.
BRACs Simple Changes to Education
BRAC is a development organization founded by Fazle Hasan Abed in February 1972, soon after the liberation of Bangladesh, has acted as both the initiator and catalyst for many such innovations and change. They focus on issues such as poverty, education, economic development, human rights and agriculture. Today, BRAC is the largest southern NGO and employs more than 100,000 people, the majority of which are women, and reaches more than 110 million people with our development interventions in Asia and Africa.
They report on their website the tremendous strides they have taken to have a 92% enrollment rate for primary education in Bangladesh. BRAC has opened 22 one classroom schools in Bangladesh for primary education. The primary aim for these schools was to develop a school model for poor, rural children which focuses on basic reading, writing, numeracy and especially life skills.
BRAC made simple changes to accommodate the special needs of Bangladesh children:
- Children are in the same cohort for a four year term
- One teacher classroom
- Flexible school times (according to the needs of the children)
- No fees
- No homework
- No long holidays
- Specialized course subjects (Bangla, English, Math)
These small changes and accommodations, made by the BRAC schools, have resulted positively for the Bangladesh children. There is a higher success of graduation and completion of primary school and a smoother transition into further education. Children living in underprivileged regions of the world are different from the average Canadian or American child. They have different needs, different wants, and different expectations. BRAC truly understands this and has has incorporated this into their schooling model.
