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Niños soldados, triste realidad de cada día (+Video)

Noticias

Por:  Zeus Naya*/Prensa Latina 

Historias como la de Matthew, Shaida, Wafa o Abdelkarim marcan cada día al mundo del siglo XXI, con diferentes pronunciamientos en función de protegerlos, liberarlos o reincorporarlos a una vida normal, pero sin la sombra de alguna fórmula precisa para detener a los señores de las guerras.

A mí no me mandan a las misiones, me ponen a lavar ropa, recoger cosas y a vigilar. Un día estaba de guardia y vi a un hombre. Le disparé y él levantó los brazos. Lo llevé ante el comandante y este dijo que era un ladrón, así que le cortó los dedos de una mano’, cuenta en Nigeria el primero, con su gorra camuflaje a través de la cual asoman sus ojos infantiles.

La camerunesa Shaida, por su parte, con apenas 15 años califica de lo peor el amanecer en el que se vio desnuda junto a su pequeña hermana Shaida y, ante la insistencia de ellas, un jefe confesó la droga empleada para evitarles el agotamiento de ‘tanto uso’.

Actualmente un número considerable de menores son explotados como esclavos sexuales, domésticos, utilizados de mensajeros, guardaespaldas, detectores de minas, cargadores, cocineros e incluso fabricantes de bombas, forzados a casarse, robar en las entidades locales, plantar explosivos o efectuar ataques suicidas.

Muchos de estos menores fueron secuestrados; a otros, la pobreza, la inseguridad, la falta de educación, la injusticia personal o comunitaria, la presión de la sociedad o el deseo de vengarse les impulsan a unirse a grupos armados.

DIA MUNDIAL CONTRA LA UTILIZACIÃ’N DE NIÑOS SOLDADOS

Desde su sede en Londres, Reino Unido, Child Soldiers International reveló en un informe reciente que el reclutamiento de niños soldados en el mundo experimentó un aumento del 159 por ciento entre 2012 y 2017.

Según esta organización no gubernamental dedicada a prevenir el fenómeno, mientras en el primer año se contabilizaron tres mil 159 casos en 12 países, en el último se produjeron ocho mil 185 en 17. En el caso de las niñas, en 2017 se registraron 893, cuatro veces más que los 216 de 2012.

A consecuencia de su empleo en labores de apoyo, según Child Soldiers International, las pequeñas suelen quedar fuera de las estadísticas oficiales y pasan desapercibidas para las estructuras de protección, de ahí que se sospeche la cifra podría ser mayor.

Las luchas abiertas en Oriente Próximo, Somalia, Sudán del Sur, República Democrática del Congo, República Centroafricana y otros lugares ‘están dejando a los pequeños cada vez más expuestos al reclutamiento’, denunció la entidad.

Por iniciativa de la Organización de Naciones Unidas (ONU) desde 1998 se instauró el 12 de febrero como jornada internacional contra la utilización de niños soldados, también llamada a partir de 2002 Día de las Manos Rojas, en referencia al símbolo propuesto para denunciar esta práctica.

MÁS ALLÁ DE ESE DÍA

El afgano Abdelkarim, de 16 años, pasó un lustro en plena guerra y asegura vio cosas espantosas: ‘la explosión de un coche bomba frente a mi antigua escuela, allí varios familiares en el suelo y, tras esas muertes, busqué cada día la forma para escaparme, hasta que conseguí llegar al centro de tránsito’.

La representante especial de la ONU para la cuestión de los niños y los conflictos armados, Virginia Gamba, estima importante entender que la reintegración es un proceso y si no se hace debidamente puede convertirse en un círculo vicioso donde puede haber re-reclutamiento de menores de forma voluntaria.

Gamba advierte que ‘estos niños experimentan unos niveles de violencia tan horribles que probablemente tendrán consecuencias dramáticas, tanto físicas como psicológicas, en los adultos en los que se convertirán y es nuestra obligación mostrarles que hay esperanza (…), que pueden vivir en paz y vivir sus sueños’.

El secretario general de la ONU, Antonio Guterres, en una de sus últimas exposiciones sobre el asunto aseguró estar ‘más convencido que nunca de que la organización y los Estados miembros deben seguir dando máxima prioridad a la protección de los pequeños afectados por conflictos armados’.

Su difícil situación debe ser la causa primordial para no empezar un conflicto y para acabarlo, remarcó en 2018; mientras, el pasado Día de las Manos Rojas desde el Vaticano el Papa Francisco llamó a detener esta plaga que, dijo, involucra a cerca de 240 millones de menores en zonas de conflicto.

De acuerdo con el Fondo de Naciones Unidas para la Infancia, unos 300 mil niños soldados participan en más de 30 guerras en todo el planeta, desde Iraq, Israel/Estado de Palestina, Siria, Chad, Uganda, Yemen, Benín, Níger hasta Myanmar.

Ante tales historias, números, reclamos, los magnates de la industria guerrista debieran detenerse; sin embargo, esta realidad les sobrepasa cuando saben bien que sus políticas solo agravan el problema, causan más desastre y víctimas.

Distintos expertos abogan por propuestas de paz, piden suspender la venta de armas, instan a los medios a una información responsable y exigen control en las redes sociales para que no inciten a la violencia.

La complejidad del fenómeno requiere una acción global coordinada, planes de desarrollo para las regiones afectadas, establecer corredores humanitarios como salida del teatro de operaciones, ayudar a crear entornos protectores para los infantes, entre otras.

A la altura del siglo XXI, los menores merecen una infancia digna y propia de su edad, que todos, cada día, sean niños, no soldados.

*Periodista de la Redacción Europa de Prensa Latina

*Fuente: https://www.prensa-latina.cu/index.php?o=rn&id=263376&SEO=ninos-soldados-triste-realidad-de-cada-dia-video

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Nigeria: Ekiti begins mass recruitment of primary school teachers

Noticias

Africa/ Nigeria/ 07.08.2019/ Source: www.pulse.ng.

The Ekiti State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) on Monday commenced the process of recruiting teachers into public primary schools in the state.

A statement made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ado-Ekiti by the Executive Chairman of SUBEB, Prof. Francisca Aladejana, said the planned mass recruitment was sequel to the approval of Gov. Kayode Fayemi.

According to her, the governor has directed the board to fill vacancies in public primary schools in the state without delay.

She said that application forms would be distributed free to applicants at the SUBEB headquarters in Ado-Ekiti on Tuesday and Wednesday between 8 am. and 4 pm.

Aladejana stated further that only applicants with verifiable credentials would be allowed to obtain the application forms.

She advised interested applicants with prerequisite qualifications to visit the SUBEB headquarters to collect their forms which must be submitted in person at the same venue on or before Friday for processing.

According to her, qualifying examination will hold on Aug. 17 at Ado-Ekiti, Ikere-Ekiti, Ikole-Ekiti, Ido-Ekiti, Ijero-Ekiti and Ode-Ekiti.

The SUBEB chairman warned that the board would not accept application forms submitted late .

Source of the notice: https://www.pulse.ng/communities/student/ekiti-begins-mass-recruitment-of-primary-school-teachers/rkc16mg
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New NZ digital curriculum set for 2020, are schools ready?

Noticias

Oceania/ New Zealand/ 06.07.2019/ Source: www.rnz.co.nz.

The Education Review Office last year slammed the way schools and the Education Ministry were preparing for the introduction of the new digital technologies curriculum in 2020, a just-published report shows.

It shows the office warned the ministry in December that many schools would fail to meet their obligation to start teaching the curriculum in January next year when it becomes mandatory for children in Years 1-10.

The Education Ministry told RNZ things had improved since the review office surveyed schools last year and all schools would be ready to start teaching the subject.

But the Principals’ Federation and the Auckland Primary Principals’ Association said many schools were poorly prepared.

The new curriculum includes teaching children as young as five the basic principles of computer coding.

The review office report said schools had made slower-than-expected progress toward introducing the curriculum and school leaders had indicated they needed more time and resources.

It said some schools and principals were not taking seriously their obligation to introduce the curriculum and indicated boards of trustees needed to get tough on their principals.

«The lack of commitment by some school leaders to this compulsory curriculum content is of concern. Boards of trustees should consider including a component in their principal’s appraisal focusing on meeting the obligation to implement the DT [digital technologies] curriculum content from January 2020,» the report said

It said delays in setting up a coherent support programme were to blame for much of the problem.

«Too many schools did not know about the DT curriculum content, where to find the best information, or what PLD [professional learning and development] options were available to them. Too many schools have not started to look at the DT curriculum content, and, of those that have, too few have sufficient understanding, knowledge and skills to start to implement the Digital Technology curriculum content,» the report said.

The report said only 35 percent of schools reported that both senior leaders and teachers knew about the new curriculum and their obligation to start teaching it from January 2020.

«More schools must start to engage seriously with what is required of them if they are to meet their curriculum obligations,» the report said.

The curriculum was introduced by the previous government which committed $40 million to resources and training to support it.

The ministry’s deputy secretary for early learning and student achievement, Ellen MacGregor-Reid, said the ministry improved its support for schools in light of the report and over the past 12 months momentum had grown.

«We think that all schools will be ready to start teaching the digital curriculum and that that teaching will develop over time,» Ms MacGregor-Reid said.

She said teachers were motivated to start teaching the curriculum.

«We know there’s been a growing momentum in them engaging in the supports we’re offering, 12-and-a-half-thousand teachers alone have engaged with the digital readiness programme which is just one of the supports and it’s on that basis that we’re confident that schools will be teaching the digital curriculum from next year.»

The president of the Principals’ Federation, Whetu Cormick, said some schools were not ready to start teaching aspects of the curriculum such as the skills behind computer programming.

«In some schools that won’t be happening because we won’t be ready for it. Schools will do their very, very best to put this in place and I’m sure they will be planning for that next year but we have to question will teachers actually have the skills to do it themselves in every single classroom throughout every single school,» he said.

Mr Cormick said he had doubts about the number of schools that had received training in the new curriculum.

«I know my own school hasn’t and I’ve spoken to lots of school leaders who haven’t participated in any professional development. We’ve even heard reports that they found the application process difficult and they were declined.»

Auckland Primary Principals’ Association president Heath McNeil said he was not aware of any schools that would not introduce the curriculum next year as required.

However, he said schools would have varying degrees of familiarity with the curriculum, which he said should be included in daily teaching rather than taught once-a-week as a discrete subject.

Mr McNeil said the teacher shortage and high degree of churn among staff in Auckland schools had hampered their preparations for the curriculum.

In addition, training for teachers had been under-resourced.

«A compounding factor was that the professional learning and development were contestable rather than if-you-want-it-you-get-it. So if we want two-and-a-half thousand schools to implement something, we need to resource two-and-a-half thousand schools,» he said.

Mr McNeil said the current industrial action being taken by primary and intermediate school principals who belonged to the Educational Institute (NZEI) was also affecting schools’ preparations. The principals were refusing to participate in any ministry initiatives, including training for the digital technologies curriculum.

Souce of the notice: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/395986/new-nz-digital-curriculum-set-for-2020-are-schools-ready

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Japan to toughen eligibility standards for Japanese-language schools

Noticias

Asia/ Japan/ 06.07.2019/ Source: www.japantimes.co.jp.

The Immigration Services Agency said Thursday it will toughen eligibility standards for Japanese-language schools that can accept foreign students, effective Sept. 1.

The stricter standards will require 70 percent or more of the students who complete the courses to proceed to universities, get jobs in Japan or certify through outside testing that their Japanese ability is above daily conversation levels.

Schools that fail to meet the requirement for three straight years will not be allowed to accept new foreign students.

The tougher standards are aimed at preventing foreign people from coming into the country with a study visa for the purpose of making money, as well as to improve the quality of Japanese-language education in the country.

The move comes as the number of foreign workers in the country is expected to continue increasing following the introduction of a new visa program in April.

Under the new standards, the minimum requirement for the average student’s attendance rate will be revised from 50 percent or more in a month to 70 percent or more over a six-month period. Schools failing to meet this threshold will not be able to accept new students.

Foreign students will be asked to inform schools about their part-time jobs, and information about students who miss more than half of classes in a month must be reported to the agency.

Japanese-language schools used to have to undergo eligibility checks only when they are established. But under the new standards, they will be checked every year.

The number of Japanese-language schools in the country recognized by the government rose 1.6 times over the past five years to 747 as of Thursday.

Source of the notice: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/08/01/national/japan-tighten-japanese-language-school-standards/#.XUi17OgzbIU

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We ignore our children’s future

Mail & Guardian

By: Mail & Guardian.

Beyond all the noise — the politics and the Twitter spats between politicians — are South Africans who are grappling with serious difficulties and few people are paying attention to their plight.

This week, the Mail & Guardian visited the area near Weenen in KwaZulu-Natal. This is where Sahlumbe village is situated. It’s a village that has been grappling with the violent behaviour of schoolboys who fight dangerously among each other on school grounds and turn these battles into impi yezigodi (faction fights).
The parents were forced to take the hard decision of shutting down Sahlumbe High School for three months. This gave them time to put their heads together to find solutions for the fighting culture among learners that is slowly eating away the good record of the school — the matric pass rate has dropped from 96.30% in 2002 to 32.6% last year.

The school was closed because of children fighting. Let that sink in. In those three months young people, whose only ticket out of that village is education, were starved of it. They loitered on the streets of their village with no sense of purpose. This is three months they will never get back.

The KwaZulu-Natal department of education has essentially washed its hands of this, saying that there is little they can do to intervene in that situation. The school was finally reopened last month, at the start of the third term. But parents, schoolchildren and teachers are on edge; they don’t know when the war will start again.

Have we become a society that is so hardened that we no longer care about the future of our children? Do we no longer care about the marginalised and disadvantaged? Are we willing to watch children kill each other over nonsensical things and we don’t even make noise about it?

Government officials always say that education is a societal issue and that when there is violence at schools those involved need to come together to find lasting solutions. But the people of Sahlumbe are alone in this fight. They have come together as parents and relied on their inkosi for guidance to try to bring stability to the school. The provincial department could bring in social workers to try to understand what issues these learners are dealing with. The department of community safety could also intervene.

Instead, the provincial education department held one imbizo with parents and then drove away, leaving no lasting solutions behind.

Adults also need to do better. It’s true that the violence that plays out at Sahlumbe High and other schools mirrors what is happening in society. When parents use violence to address problems, children do the same in the schoolyard.

When we do react to this kind of thing, it is after the fact. This year it was to a learner who was killed by another child at a Johannesburg school. But learners have been killing each other at least as far back as 2011 in KwaZulu-Natal villages in alleged faction fights.

Why have we not been outraged by that? And why have we not found ways to interrogate this phenomenon in the province and nip it in the bud?

History will judge us harshly for being preoccupied with the battles between elites when our children — the future of this country — perish in front of our eyes.

Source of the article: https://mg.co.za/article/2019-08-02-00-editorial-we-ignore-our-childrens-future%5B3/8

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Labour must be bold, and finally abolish private schools

Steven Longden

By:

 

These schools are core to Britain’s inequality problem. Labour should emulate Finland and integrate them into state education

As a teacher of ethics, philosophy and religion at a Manchester comprehensive school, students often ask me why politicians allow 7% of children in this country to access exclusive schools that enable them to dominate the top professions – schools whose main entrance criteria is the size of parents’ bank accounts. These days, I usually answer, “because the politicians are wrong”.

I sometimes inform my students of the latest Sutton Trust reports which highlight that 65% of senior judges, 49% of armed forces officers, 44% of newspaper columnists and 29% of MPs are all privately educated. Being a good teacher, I integrate maths into my subject and get them to work out the extent to which private school students are disproportionately represented in these professions. You should see the disheartened looks on their faces.

I tell them not to lose hope and that there is something called “social mobility”, which means that if they work really hard, get to university and then work hard in their careers they might be lucky enough to get one of those remaining top jobs that haven’t gone to the privately educated. They don’t look convinced. The Social Mobility Commission wasn’t convinced back in 2017 either, which is why its commissioners resigned en masse a year and a half ago.

I’d hoped under Jeremy Corbyn that my party would have been up for finishing off what Clement Attlee failed to do after the second world war: phase out private schools. There was a welcome commitment in Labour’s last manifesto to add VAT to private school fees, but the impact of this will be minimal and certainly won’t hasten the demise of private schools.

Labour’s pledge to create a National Education Service is exciting. The party has published a National Education Service charter that commits it to “tackling structural, cultural and individual barriers which cause and perpetuate inequality”. Earlier this year, Corbyn quite rightly pledged to focus on promoting social justice rather than social mobility, but I was bemused by the silence on private schools. How, precisely, does one tackle structural inequalities in England without phasing out private schools? Are we serious about these inequalities or just tinkering?

In the past Labour has missed opportunities to integrate private schools into the state sector – we can’t let that happen again. That’s why we have launched the Labour Against Private Schools campaign. Our first goal is to make the full integration of private schools into the state education system official party policy, by getting a motion passed in support of this at Labour’s annual conference this September.

There are models of excellent education systems that exist without private schools. Finland is often held up as a system that consistently achieves some of the best educational outcomes across Europe and the OECD countries. In Finland, private schools were effectively brought into the comprehensive education system over the course of a decade. It is time England started to seriously plan a school system without private schools, so that in the future teachers like me can look their students in the eye and tell them that this country has removed one of the biggest barriers that the richest people erected to unfairly advantage their progeny.

So I am proud to tell my students that I am a founding member of the Labour Against Private Schools campaign, and that I will do everything I can to encourage the Labour leadership to commit to dismantling the private schools sector that continues to uphold gross levels of inequality in this country.

Source of the article: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jul/09/labour-phase-out-private-schools-britain-inequality-finland

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16 Million Children Out Of School In Nigeria -Adamu, Former Education Minister

Noticias

Africa/ Nigeria/ 02.08.2019/ Source: saharareporters.com.

 

Adamu Adamu, a former education minister, has said the number of out-of-school children in the country now stands at over 16 million.

Adamu, who is also one of the 43 ministerial nominees submitted to the senate for screening and confirmation stated this while fielding questions from senatirs on Wednesday.

The Nation reports that the new figure of 16 million, however, contradicts the 13 million out-of-school children being bandied around.

The ministerial nominee told the senate that the 16 million figure was based on a February 2019 census.

Adamu noted that out-of-primary-school children stood at 10 million, while children out-of-secondary-school are six million.

He blamed the high number on poor funding of education in the country by states and the federal government.

Adamu also said it appeared that more Nigerians are now corrupt despite President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption campaign.

Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, said the legislature and the executive arm of government should work together to get the children back to the classrooms.

Lawan said: “It is our responsibility to get these children out of (the streets). The senate and the executive need to work together to get these children back to the classroom.

“We can’t continue to have them on our streets. It poses a serious security problem and we need to stop it. Maybe that will be through more budgetary allocations.”

Source of the notice: http://saharareporters.com/2019/07/25/16-million-children-out-school-nigeria-adamu-former-education-minister

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