Education

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Senegal: Maison des enfants Keur Khadija: le rêve d’education au coeur de Gorée

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Africa/Senegal/25.09.18/Source: www.au-senegal.com.

L’instruction et l’éducation des enfants au Sénégal est une grosse équation qui secoue les acteurs. Beaucoup se démènent pour apporter une contribution à une situation préoccupante. À l’instar des bonnes volontés de Keur Khadija qui ont construit une maison d’accueil sur l’île de Gorée pour recueillir tous les enfants qui traînent dans le coin.

Il s’agit d’un prolongement de l’école et de la famille, une sorte de réplique à la rue qui fait grandir le rêve des mômes et naître l’espoir.

À première vue, c’est une bâtisse à l’apparence classique, comme toutes ces vielles maisons nichées sur l’île et qui sont les symboles de la vie paisible qui y règne. Mais, derrière les murs peints en rose, s’élèvent des voix d’enfants et s’écrit en même temps une histoire…celle de Khadija, petite fille altruiste et ambitieuse dont la vie, emplie de rêves, s’arrêta net un matin de juillet 2015. Son aventure, comme une légende, est contée par un père déchiré par la séparation, mais qui a préféré être digne ; l’artiste Fallou Dolly, par ailleurs directeur des lieux, s’est pris d’affection pour tous ces enfants en souvenir de son unique enfant. Son histoire est la somme de toutes les péripéties vécues par ceux qui n’ont que leur innocence et leurs rêves à offrir dans un environnement en pleine mutation.

UNE ÉDUCATION DANS LE SOUCI DE NE PLUS TRAÎNAILLER À TRAVERS LES RUELLES DE GORÉE

Cet après-midi de septembre, en pleine vacances scolaires, les pensionnaires de la « Maison des enfants Keur Khadija » sont conviés à un cours de secourisme avec l’équipe du sergent sapeur-pompier Nicolas Biaye, autre fils de Gorée, expatrié en France et qui retrouve toute son énergie auprès des enfants. Pour Amélie, bibliothécaire de la maison, c’est une aubaine pour les enfants et ils se battent, au quotidien afin de contribuer au mieux à leur éducation. Une première à Gorée qui montre les contours d’un projet ambitieux.

« Keur Khadija est un outil qui vise à aider les enfants dans leur évolution humaine et sociale, également dans leur parcours scolaire. Le programme, conçu sur un volet social, prévoit d’améliorer l’éducation sous toutes ses formes », explique Fallou, cet originaire de Gorée qui, après un long compagnonnage, porte un regard reconnaissant et beaucoup d’estime sur l’œuvre de sa collaboratrice et co-fondatrice de la maison, Valérie Schlumberger. Cette dernière se consacre à la cause sociale depuis près de 40 ans au Sénégal.

Ensemble, ils mènent leur combat. Avec une équipe d’animateurs et de pédagogues, mais aussi de stagiaires et bénévoles. Keur Khadija, ce sont des activités d’animation diverses, autour de l’éducation citoyenne, notamment avec du jardinage et autres activités liées à la protection de l’environnement, dont le nettoyage de l’île, à côté de sorties pédagogiques, d’ateliers de peinture et de répétitions scolaires. Les enfants y retrouvent tout ou presque, jusqu’aux soins médicaux dont ils auraient besoin quand leurs parents, pressés par les aléas du quotidien, sont le plus souvent hors de l’île, à présent moins soucieux devant l’ampleur du travail de Keur Khadija.

Entre sécurité et commodités, les enfants rejoignent désormais de façon spontanée cet espace dédié. « Le matin, un peu plus tôt pendant les vacances, dès 8 heures, pour ne rentrer que le soir !  » …après un bon goûter servi généreusement par Sophia et Marième.

« Le rêve de Khadija était une maison qui puisse aider tous les enfants à vivre chaque étape de leur existence en toute quiétude, en donnant corps à leurs capacités et leurs rêves, un foyer qui leur permet de partager leurs idées et donner le meilleur d’eux-mêmes. En plus des activités d’animation, séances de divertissement, les sorties et le goûter, la maison engage des répétiteurs et collabore avec les élèves de Mariama Ba pour leur apporter un soutien scolaire. C’est une manière de les suivre et de combler toutes leurs insuffisances  », rapporte le plus âgé des pensionnaires, l’artiste qui, aujourd’hui, est fier de sa performance.

Au cœur d’un quotidien que rien ne semble perturber, même pas les difficultés de la conjoncture sociale qui pourraient lasser les responsables. Sans aucune subvention financière, ils se démènent autour de leur projet.

Keur Khadija, c’est aussi un centre d’informations, de l’autre côté de l’île, dédié aux plus grands. Devant les résultats scolaires qui s’améliorent, il y a de quoi être fiers pour ces « parrains » qui rêvent de voir s’ouvrir d’autres maisons d’accueil à travers le monde et donner ainsi donner aux enfants la chance de réaliser leurs rêves. Pour l’heure, le projet Keur Khadija a noué un partenariat avec l’Empire des enfants à Dakar.

Source of the notice: http://www.au-senegal.com/maison-des-enfants-keur-khadija-le-reve-d,15468.html?lang=fr

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Nepal: Barries to Inclusive Education

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Asia/Nepal/25.09.18/Source: www.hrw.org.

Children with disabilities in Nepal face serious obstacles to quality, inclusive education, Human Rights Watch said today.

Despite progress in law and policy, the government segregates most children with disabilities into separate classrooms. It has yet to train teachers to provide inclusive education, in which children with and without disabilities learn together. Tens of thousands of children with disabilities remain out of school.

“Despite several new policies to promote disability rights, including for access to education, many children with disabilities in Nepal are not getting a quality, inclusive education,” said Alpana Bhandari, disability rights fellow at Human Rights Watch. “Public schools should provide adequate support for children with disabilities to learn in classrooms with other children and not segregate them.”

Based on research conducted in May 2018 in 13 public schools in five districts across Nepal, Human Rights Watch found that segregating children with and without disabilities has denied many children with disabilities their right to education. Human Rights Watch interviewed 80 children with disabilities, their families, representatives of organizations for people with disabilities, teachers, principals, government officials, and United Nations staff.

Human Rights Watch report “Futures Stolen: Barriers to Education for Children with Disabilities in Nepal,” which found many children with disabilities in Nepal faced barriers in accessing schools and obtaining a quality education. Since that time, Nepal has improved laws and policies regarding access to education for children with disabilities, and some children have benefited. Thousands of children with disabilities continue to face significant obstacles to education, however.

Based on UN and World Health Organization estimates, Nepal has 60,000 to 180,000 children ages 5 to 14 with disabilities. In a 2011 report, Human Rights Watch estimated that at least 207,000 children in Nepal have a disability. In 2016, UNICEF found that 30.6 percent of children with disabilities, or approximately 15,000 to 56,000 children, ages 5 to 12, did not attend school.

Very few mainstream public schools enroll children with disabilities. Out of more than 30,000 schools in Nepal, just 380 have what they call “resource classes,” where children with a particular disability, such as children who are blind or who have an intellectual disability, are grouped with others with a similar disability. In the schools Human Rights Watch visited, children in resource classes ranged in age from 7 to 17, with some even in their 20s. Children often remain in these classes for years, although some may move to mainstream classrooms in the higher grades, with limited support.

Nepal has no academic curriculum for children with intellectual disabilities, including children with Down Syndrome. Those who do attend school learn only basic skills, largely focused on self-care. Denying education based on a child’s disability is discriminatory, Human Rights Watch said.

In 2010, Nepal ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), which guarantees the right to inclusive, quality education. Children with and without disabilities should learn together in classrooms with adequate support in an inclusive environment. Research shows that an inclusive approach can boost learning for all students and combat harmful stereotypes of people with disabilities.

“Sunita,” 15, who is deaf, attends a resource classroom in a public school in Lalitpur. “I have never been to a regular class,” she said. “I want to learn together with others. It is more fun learning together with friends.”

Most mainstream schools visited also lack teachers trained in how to use accessible learning materials, such as braille and audio equipment, and how to make testing accessible. The classrooms lack accessible infrastructure.

A principal at a public mainstream school in the Gorkha district in western Nepal said that one former student with a physical disability crawled on his hands and knees to get from one classroom to another for the seven years he attended the school, because the school was not wheelchair accessible.

Since 2011, the Nepali government has introduced reforms to strengthen the rights of people with disabilities and to expand educational opportunity. The 2015 constitution says that education is a fundamental right and provides for free and compulsory primary education and free secondary education, as well as the right to free education through braille and sign language.

In 2017, Nepal adopted the Disability Rights Act and an Inclusive Education Policy for Persons with Disabilities. The policy says that children should be able to study, without discrimination, in their own communities, but also allows educating for children with disabilities separately.

The government is also developing an inclusive education master plan to create disability-friendly educational infrastructure and facilities, improve teacher training, and develop a flexible curriculum by 2030. However, the government has yet to articulate in law or policy a clear understanding of what quality, inclusive education in line with international standards requires and how to provide it.

Nepal’s major education reform, the School Sector Development Plan for 2016 to 2023, covers pre-school through high school education. The budget for the first five years is estimated at US$6.46 billion. Eleven percent of the cost is provided by international donors, including the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and the European Union. The program builds on a previous reform plan, which the government acknowledged did not do enough to ensure education for children with disabilities.

The government should ensure schools are accessible for all children, children with disabilities are taught in mainstream classrooms, and all teachers are trained to provide inclusive education, Human Rights Watch said.

 

The overnment should also provide reasonable accommodations to support individual learning. This can include braille textbooks, audio, video, and easy-to-read learning materials; instruction in sign language for children with hearing disabilities; and staff to assist children with self-care, behavior, or other support needed in the classroom.

“Nepal’s government and its international partners have made education a clear priority, including for children with disabilities, but they need to do much more to make this vision a reality,” Bhandari said. “Support for children to study in mainstream classrooms, teacher training, and a flexible curriculum are essential to make sure children with disabilities aren’t left behind.”

Nepal’s Education System for Children with Disabilities

Until early July 2018, mainstream schools could apply to the Education Ministry for funding to teach children with disabilities. As of August 28, schools apply to local authorities instead. However, funding is only allocated if a school has a set minimum number of children with a specific type of disability. Because of the funding structure, children are compartmentalized into classrooms based on their disability. And if a school has funding for one type of disability, it may not have the resources to teach children with other disabilities.

Problems of Grouping Classes by Disability

The principal of one school in the Gorkha district told Human Rights Watch that his school has a resource classroom for children with intellectual disabilities and is not physically accessible, nor can it accommodate children with hearing and visual disabilities. Similarly, the principal of a public school in Mahottari, which has a resource class for children who are blind or have low vision, said that his school cannot enroll students with intellectual or hearing disabilities because the school does not have the necessary accessible learning materials, sign language interpreters, or trained teachers.

A teacher at a different public school in Mahottari said that the school has 10 students with visual disabilities. One girl is blind and has a mental health disability, which causes the student to frequently move around the classroom. The teacher said that she did not have the training and skills to teach this student, who was not making academic progress as a result.

If a neighborhood school doesn’t offer instruction for a child with a particular disability, the child may be forced to study and live in a school that does, in some cases as far as 500 kilometers from their home.

Ten-year-old Sita, who is blind and attends a school in Mahottari, said:

I live in a hostel … I go to school… I miss home, but I love school. There is no school near my home [that can educate blind children]. My mom says you cannot learn anything at home, and I must go to school to learn.

Shyam, who has cerebral palsy, attended a neighborhood school near his home in Kathmandu in the early grades. However, at the end of sixth grade, the teachers encouraged his parents to place him in another school because seventh grade and other upper grades were on upper floors. Shyam now travels with his father up to two hours each way by bus to attend a public mainstream school in Jorpati that enrolls children with cerebral palsy, Down Syndrome, and physical disabilities.

Segregation

Some schools that Human Rights Watch visited had children in different grades together in one resource classroom. Others had children in different grades in separate resource classes. In resource classrooms, children with hearing disabilities learn sign language and children with visual disabilities learn braille.

Human Rights Watch interviewed children who expressed their desire to study with children in mainstream classrooms, rather than to remain segregated. Sunita, the 15-year-old girl who is in a resource classroom for deaf students in a public school in Lalitpur, said:

I study in grade 5 … I have never been to a regular class. I want to learn together with others … It is more fun learning together with others. After grade 6, I would want to study together with friends. I [would] get a chance to teach sign language to other kids in the regular class and I can communicate with them. I want to be a teacher when I grow up because I want to teach children with hearing disabilities.

An Education Ministry official involved in developing an inclusive education policy said resource classes should be preparatory environments for younger children who should move to a mainstream classroom around grade six. However, based on interviews with principals, teachers, disability rights advocates, and parents of children with disabilities, children do not consistently move into mainstream classrooms as they get older, due to the lack of accessibility and reasonable accommodations.

Some older children remain in resource classrooms for their entire basic education, through grade 8. Some parents said that when their children did not move to the older grades in mainstream schools, they felt compelled to place their children in other segregated environments, such as a special school or vocational training program. Few older children studied in mainstream classrooms in the schools Human Rights Watch visited.

Gita, who is 16 and attends school in Lalitpur, was able to move into a mainstream classroom. She said: “I am 16 years old. I am in grade 10. … I am deaf. I joined the regular classroom in grade 7. I like studying together with others because learning together becomes fun, and we learn from each other.” A sign language teacher supports Gita’s learning in the mainstream classroom.

Lack of Physical Accessibility

Most schools visited had limited physical access for students with disabilities, including at school entrances, classrooms, and toilets. In some cases, this means that children who use wheelchairs cannot remain in school. The father of a 20-year-old man with cerebral palsy who uses a wheelchair said:

I enrolled my son in a public secondary school [in Kathmandu] for one year and he     passed grade 6. But then the teachers said, “Your child is disabled, your child does not fit         with children without disabilities. Take your child to a               school where children with disabilities attend. The seventh grade is on the third floor, and your child will not be able      to reach it.

Out of the 13 schools that Human Rights Watch visited, including two that were recently constructed after the 2015 earthquake, only one, in Jorpati, Kathmandu, was accessible for children who use wheelchairs. The school has an accessible entrance, no internal stairs, an accessible toilet, and a flat playground that allowed children who use wheelchairs to move freely. The school has 354 students, of whom 27 use wheelchairs. The principal said the school does not provide specific, individualized support for children in the classroom, such as an aide who can provide direct support in personal care, moving around the school, or other tasks. Instead, teachers encourage other students to support their peers who have physical disabilities.

Disability rights activists confirmed most schools lack physical accessibility. A disability rights activist and representative of the National Federation of the Disabled Nepal, who lives in the Gorkha district, said he is not aware of any public schools out of roughly 450 primary and secondary schools in the district that are accessible for students who use wheelchairs.

Under international human rights and Nepal law, public buildings – including schools – should be accessible for people with disabilities based on Universal Design principles. Universal Design means the design of products, environments, programs, and services should be usable by everyone to the greatest extent possible, without adaptation or specialized design. This should include assistive devices for particular groups of people with disabilities, as needed. Nepal’s Disability Rights Act of 2017 establishes accessibility standards for the construction of buildings, including educational institutions, housing, workplace, road, and transport facilities that are intended for public use, while the National Building Code requires public buildings and facilities to be accessible for people with disabilities.

The 2015 earthquake destroyed or damaged 92 percent of public schools, leaving many children, with and without disabilities, out of school across the country, according to a 2017 Asian Development Bank report. Newly built or renovated schools should adhere to Nepal’s National Building Code and Accessibility Guidelines and comply with accessibility obligations under the CRPD.

However, the two newly built schools that Human Rights Watch visited did not comply with national building codes and universal design principles. One, in the Gorkha district, had stairs at the entrance and no ramp or lift, and stairs inside as the only way to reach upper floors. In Lalitpur, the principal of a public school admitted the school does not meet national physical accessibility standards, and an additional building under construction is slated to have only an entrance ramp and only stairs internally to reach the upper floors.

Lack of Reasonable Accommodations

Human Rights Watch visited some schools where children with disabilities studied in a regular classroom with children without disabilities. However, most of the schools Human Rights Watch visited did not provide sufficient reasonable accommodations to ensure children with disabilities receive a quality education.

Schools do not have a full range of textbooks in braille, or material in audio or easy-to-read formats. Schools lacked adequate staff, such as aides to support children’s participation in mainstream education. The aides, who are not fully licensed teachers, can constructively address behavioral challenges, provide personal care assistance, or take on other support roles.

Typically, schools who teach deaf children only have one sign language teacher, who works in the resource classroom. The instruction is limited to approximately 5,000 words in sign language, a fraction of the spoken vocabulary taught in mainstream schools.

The lack of vocabulary, as well as the absence of visual materials, means that even deaf children in a mainstream classroom may not receive a full education. One sign language teacher at a school that Human Rights Watch visited said,

There are 46 students in the class, one of whom is deaf. It is difficult to teach children who are deaf due to a lack of visual materials and a limited sign language vocabulary. When the teacher teaches in the class and new words come up during a lesson, it becomes difficult to describe and explain the lesson.

Samjhana, an 18-year-old deaf student there, described her experience:

Sometimes it is difficult to understand lessons that are taught in the class. I ask my [sign language] teacher when I do not understand. The teacher tries to explain, but I do not understand the words. The learning is more fun and easier with something you can see and understand.

Children who are blind or have low vision learn braille in resource classes, but a limited number of textbooks are available in braille and very few, if any, materials are available in audio or digital formats. One 17-year-old girl, who is blind, described her experience in a mainstream classroom in Lalitpur:

The challenge I have is that I am not able to see and follow what is written on the blackboard. I depend on other students to understand what is written on the blackboard. Not many braille books are available. In this school, children who are blind do get the opportunity to learn, teachers are helpful and so are my friends.

In Kathmandu, Suman, 14, who is blind, attends a mainstream classroom in a school with a teacher who knows braille to support children with visual disabilities. Suman used technology at home to learn, though, since none was available at the school:

I got my digital tablet from an NGO … I also use my mobile telephone at home. I read books with the tablet. … The app has a voice, and I can read by listening. I spoke with my teachers about digital learning, and teachers say they are hoping to adopt that.

The lack of reasonable accommodations, such as aides, can also place serious burdens on families. Some family members may feel compelled to give up employment and the care of their other children to accompany their child with a disability at school. Hari, the father of an eighth grader with cerebral palsy who uses a wheelchair in Kathmandu, said he had to quit work when his son was 8 to accompany him in school all day. The public school Shyam attends does not provide an aide to help him move between classes and feed him. His father said:

My son is big. Who would care for him? I come to school every day to support my son in the school. The school does not provide assistance to support my child. … He can fall any time.

The school principal said the staff encourages Shyam’s classmates to help him with homework and classwork.

Lack of Reasonable Accommodations for Examinations

The schools Human Rights Watch visited provide few accommodations for students with disabilities during exams, though most are mandatory for passing to the next grade or for enrolling in high school or a university. The accommodations provided – such as a writing assistant for students with visual disabilities – are often ineffective. The assistant is often another child, typically from a lower grade, who is not paid.

In one example, there are no options for children with visual disabilities to take math and science tests in an accessible format. Tests often require description of diagrams or pictures, which blind children cannot see.

Nisha, in grade 10, who is blind and attends a public school in Mahottari, said:

The writing assistant helped me take my tenth grade exam. The writing assistant would read me the questions, and I would answer, and then the writing assistant would write down the answers for me. … I wish I could take exams on my own, not with the help of a writing assistant. It’s difficult to perform math and science exams because they have questions related to geometry and questions with drawings, and I cannot see them.

Furthermore, the family of the student taking the exam must pay for the transportation and meals for the assistant. Teachers and disability advocates said exams are not modified for children who are deaf who have been instructed in a limited vocabulary.

Children with Intellectual Disabilities

Children with intellectual disabilities do not receive an academic education and have few if any opportunities to enroll in secondary education or a university. Under the Disability Rights Act of 2017, a person is considered to have an intellectual disability if their “intellectual development does not progress with their age and therefore has difficulty performing activities based on age and environment.” The Education Ministry’s Curriculum Development Center created a curriculum for children with intellectual disabilities in 2015. The curriculum limits children with intellectual disabilities to learning practical life-skills in resource classrooms or special schools for up to 10 years. It includes tasks like personal hygiene, brushing teeth, going to the toilet, getting dressed, and eating independently. Children who are 14 and 15 years old can learn vocational skills such as candle-making, sewing, or origami.

A teacher in the resource classroom at a public school in Mahottari, said:

The school has not received any curricula for children with intellectual disabilities from the government. I teach children with intellectual disabilities using pictures. It would be possible to teach children with intellectual disabilities by using simplified curricula that suits their learning style.

Lack of Trained Teachers

Nepal’s 2017 Disability Rights Act (section 23.2) provides for special training for teachers who educate children with disabilities to promote their access to quality education, but does not mention training for teachers in inclusive education. Training is focused on developing specialized teachers, rather than training all teachers in inclusive methods that will benefit diverse learners. One mainstream classroom teacher said the only training she had on children with disabilities was a one-week program focused on discipline and classroom management conducted by a non-governmental organization.

 

The Education Ministry’s Center for Education and Human Resource Development, formerly the National Center for Education Development (NCED), is responsible for teacher training. The agency’s deputy director, Upendra Dahal, told Human Rights Watch the government provides one month of professional development training to special education teachers who work in resource classes or in special schools. He told Human Rights Watch the center is currently not offering the five-day refresher training that exists. Occasionally, the agency holds training sessions of a day or two for specific disability-related topics, such as teaching children with autism.

Human Rights Watch found some resource teachers had received less than a month of training. Kumar, a resource teacher for children with intellectual disabilities at a public school in Gorkha, said:

I have been a resource teacher for three years. I only received nine days of training from the Department of Education [Now the Center for Education and Human Resource Development]. Otherwise, I have received training from the local nongovernmental organization, Blind Association Gorkha. I do not know how to teach children with intellectual disabilities. I want to teach these students, but I do not know how to impart knowledge to them.

Monitoring

Until early 2018, federal, district, and regional authorities were responsible for monitoring schools. In mid-2018, with the decentralization of education funding to municipal and village authorities, local education offices will have that responsibility.

An Education Ministry official said monitors examine schools’ budget implementation, student attendance, teaching methods, uniforms, school sanitation, food quality, and quality of accommodations in residential schools.

For schools with resource classes, monitoring also examines whether schools have met requirements for a resource classroom. Those include the presence of a full-time, permanent teacher and of the required minimum number of children, and the “minimum enabling conditions,” which include a separate classroom, separate toilet for girls, a ramp at the school entrance, and a disability-friendly classroom, although there is no clear definition for this.

Recommendations

The government of Nepal should:

  • Guarantee quality, inclusive education for children with disabilities in community mainstream schools on an equal basis with others, in line with the CRPD
  • Ensure maximum inclusion of children in mainstream classrooms and avoid segregation of children with disabilities in separate classrooms. Education should be delivered in the most appropriate languages and modes and means of communication for the individual, and in environments which maximize academic and social development, in line with the CRPD.
  • Ensure reasonable accommodations for children with disabilities, based on individual learning requirements. These can include braille textbooks and other materials; digital, visual, audio, and easy-to-read learning materials; instruction in sign language for children with hearing disabilities; and aides to assist students with behavior, self-care, and other considerations.
  • Ensure children who require individual support, or support for small group coursework, are fully included in the school environment with other students.
  • Ensure all schools are physically accessible. Ensure all schools renovated or newly built adhere to Nepal’s building codes and Universal Design Principles.
  • Ensure the examination and assessment system is flexible and responsive to the needs and academic progress of individual learners, based on their individual learning requirements.
  • Mandate the Education and Human Resource Development Center to provide adequate pre-service and ongoing training in inclusive education for all teachers, including on how to address all children’s diverse learning needs.
  • Ratify the Marrakesh Treaty, which permits the reproduction and distribution of published works in formats accessible to people with visual disabilities.
  • Strengthen monitoring and oversight to ensure children with disabilities are enrolled in school and they receive reasonable accommodations to receive a quality education on an equal basis with other children in mainstream classrooms.
  • Collect data on the total number of children with disabilities in the country, including the number of children in and out of school, disaggregated by disability-type, location, and other demographic markers. Formulate educational policies, plans, and programs based on data.

Multilateral and Bilateral Donors should:

  • Ensure the government of Nepal prioritizes the inclusion of children with disabilities in schools across the country and provide adequate resources to ensure they can study in mainstream classrooms with flexible curricula, reasonable accommodations, and trained teachers and other staff
  • Support the government to improve systematic data collection on children with disabilities by age, gender, d

 

Source of the notice: https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/09/13/nepal-barriers-inclusive-education

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Belarus, Kyrgyzstan agree on stronger cooperation with Pakistan in education

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Asia/Pakistan/25.09.18/Source: www.thenews.com.pk.

Islamabad: Belarus and Kyrgyzstan on Wednesday agreed to increase cooperation with Pakistan in the field of education.

The agreement came as ambassadors of the two countries separately called on Federal Minister for Education and Professional Training Shafqat Mahmood here. Education secretary Arshad Mirza was also in attendance. During meeting with Ambassador of Belarus Andrei Ermolovich, the education minister said Pakistan and Belarus enjoyed good relations in the field of education and professional training.

«Our government’s top most priority is the promotion of education. We would like to promote our cooperation with Belarus in this field,» he said. The minister said though a number of memorandums of understanding and protocols had been signed between them, the two countries needed to work on their rapid implementation and further strengthening that cooperation.

Source of the notice: https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/370849-belarus-kyrgyzstan-agree-on-stronger-cooperation-with-pakistan-in-education

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Embracing tech in early childhood education

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Asia/Vietnam/25.09.18/Source: vietnamnews.vn.

Learning is fun: Kids at the Lùng Vai Kindergarten in northern mountainous Lào Cai Province during playtime. Experts advocate initiatives to draw resources from both the public and private sectors to promote equity in education and ensure access to learning opportunities for all children, regardless of their age, gender, residence, ethnicity, social status. VNA/VNS Photo Thanh Hà

When Minh Hạnh’s five-year-old daughter Mai told her she had a class presentation about her favourite pets later that week, Hạnh knew just what to do.

She gathered all the photos and videos she had of little Mai with the animals her great grandparents have in Hải Phòng City, 100km from Hà Nội. There were photos of a cow, a dog and a mother pig with her herd of adorable newborns. After making them into a short clip, she used Google Photos to share it with Mai’s teacher.

She asked the teacher to help screen the clip for the class when it was her daughter’s turn to present.

When Mai came home from the presentation, she said all her friends liked it so much that they gave the clip a big round of applause.

“Some of my friends say they have never seen a real cow before,” the little one said happily.

Hạnh used to think that screen time was not healthy for children, as it can easily replace face-to-face socialising. She still holds that belief, but her views have evolved.

“I think modern technology has its advantages here – helping children to better understand what they’re learning,” Hạnh said.

“We are no longer living in a world where it’s practical to prohibit or avoid ‘screen time,’” she said. “Digital technology is certainly here to stay, and most of our children are using a smart phone as soon as they’re old enough to hold one. We can help our children by using technology in a productive way rather than fighting against it altogether.”

Lê Anh Lan, an education officer for UNICEF Vietnam, agrees.

“It is now common to apply technology in every field of life, including early childhood education,” she said. “The period from zero to eight years old is a critical phase in childhood development; a child at this age learns an incredible number of skills and retains a lot of information he or she will need to function throughout life.”

While no official statistics are available on the use of technology in preschools in Việt Nam, Trịnh Thị Xim, head of the Early Childhood Education Faculty at the Hà Nội National College for Pedagogy, said new technologies have been implemented in many cities and provinces across the country.

“We’ve seen the benefits technology brings about for the children – they’re more involved in class activities and more interested in discovering things around them when photographs or animations are presented. Visual aids help them remember better than traditional methods,” Xim said. “With thoughtful guidance, teachers can use classroom technology to help early childhood students learn age-appropriate skills.”

Xim said that while screen time used to have a bad reputation for detracting from social interaction, educators are changing that perception by embracing it as a tool.

“For instance, little kids often find it easier and more exciting to use a touchscreen rather than a mouse or a keyboard. Using tablets allows them to physically interact with the content they’re learning,” she said. Xim added that practising the use of digital tools will serve students well for years to come.

John Jeon Huh is CEO of the Jello Academy in Hà Nội, one of the schools implementing a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) and arts educational approach that is popular in the United States. Huh claimed the application of technology in early education has led to remarkable results.

“The integration of technology into STEM classes has created useful new experiences for young children, enabling them to have fun while discovering and testing the theories they are taught,” he said.

“Parents nowadays actually care more about our approach,” he said. “They welcome the addition of technology and STEM activities into the curriculum.”

The role of technology in early childhood education has long been recognised elsewhere in the world: the UK government sees in computers the potential to improve educational standards, and they have invested accordingly. The 2009 Home Access scheme was designed to promote the educational benefits of home computer and internet access. The Digital Britain report, produced by two UK government departments in 2009, stated that “we need a change in approach in education and training for digital life skills, starting with the youngest students.”

The No Child Left Behind legislation, introduced by the United States government in 2002, shared similar aims. One of its sections, titled “Enhancing Education Through Technology,” was designed to improve student attainment through technology. It also aimed to ensure that every student is technologically literate by the end of eighth grade.

Necessary support

Although researchers do not deny the potential benefits of technology for accelerating language and literacy development in young children, they have said that these gains are reliant on the way specific technologies are applied at home and in the classroom.

Lê Anh Lan said technology in early childhood education and early learning only proves to be effective with good preparation for teachers, parents and child care givers.

“Whether a child can benefit from technology depends largely on how it is applied by educators and adults,” she said.

Trịnh Thị Xim shared this opinion.

“Simply investing in technology or offering training in the use of new equipment will not be enough to achieve the sought-after changes; the education sector should support teachers so they can be confident enough to help students,” she said.

In order to do this, Xim believes policy makers will need to be involved.

“Training for teachers, investment in facilities for schools and the determination for change among education sector officials are critical,” she said.

John Jeon Huh said that a coordinated system is needed to ensure a lifelong foundation for young children.

“We need an educational system in which technology is applied consistently from the lowest level to the highest level – technology application in early childhood is just the first step on a lifelong path,” he said.

Despite great effort from the Government in investing in early childhood education, lots of constraints remain including limited investment for technology, Anh Lan from UNICEF Việt Nam said the state could play a stronger role.

“I also advocate for initiatives that draw resources from both the public and private sectors to promote equity in education and ensure access to learning opportunities for all children, regardless of their age, gender, residence, ethnicity, social status and their perceived capabilities, including informal learning.” VNS

Technology connects parents and teachers

The KidsOnline app was initially designed by a Vietnamese group to keep parents of young children updated on classroom activities. Over the last two years, KidsOnline has become the most popular cloud-based platform for kindergartens in Viet Nam to communicate with parents. It has almost 83,000 users.

The app, available on iOS and Android, allows parents to communicate directly with teachers. It shows what the kids are doing in real time, allowing interested parents to monitor their child’s daily learning progress. Photos of school activities are uploaded by teachers and sent to each parent’s app. It also provides information on upcoming school activities that parents may want to participate in.

Later on, the app evolved to help school managers with administrative tasks. These include managing school finances, healthcare and recruitment. Teachers can also use KidsOnline to receive notes from parents and send feedback instead of communicating with parents solely through paper-based reports, email or face-to-face interaction.

“Of course in-person contact would still be the preference of every parent when it comes to talking with their child’s teacher, and we never hope to replace such an important communication channel,” said Lê Huy Long, CEO of KidsOnline. “We hope to supplement this by providing regularly updated information on how children are doing at school, and keeping a record of all relevant activities.”

Source of the notice: https://vietnamnews.vn/society/education/465157/embracing-tech-in-early-childhood-education.html#jRmjP2PyGcI0jlJ8.97

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Kuwait: Qatari teen wonder featured in Qatar and Kuwait school textbooks

Noticias

Asia/Kuwait/24.09.18/Source: thepeninsulaqatar.com.

The Peninsula Online

Ghanim Al-Muftah, often dubbed the Qatari “miracle child” for having overcome the physical limits imposed by rare Caudal Regression Syndrome which impaired the development of his lower spine, is now featured in both Qatari and Kuwaiti school textbooks.

His life journey is study material for 10th-grade life and vocation skills book, which is in Arabic.

In Kuwait his story is published in 8th grade English book. A user tweeted a picture of the lesson and the cover, which was posted on Instagram and Twitter by  Ghanim.
The lesson is titled «My incredible story» by Ghanim Al Muftah.

“Qatari teenager Ghanim was born with a rare disease which stops the development of the lower spine. Doctors told his family he probably would not survive. Ghanim has inspired people around the world by surviving and, incredibly, by becoming an athlete. He shares his story of hope and determination with the world. His dream is to become a Paralympian,” the lesson continued.

«Through my Instagram account, where I have almost one million followers, I want to say that everyone has the right to dream. Social media is a window to the world. It helps us get our message out there faster and we have to use it in a positive and useful way. I want people to understand that people with disabilities are capable of giving and are active in society,” Ghanim said in the lesson.

Thanking the Ministry of Education of Qatar and Kuwait he tweeted (translation from Arabic):

“The Ministry of Education in Qatar has had my profile in grade 10 curriculum of life and vocational skills subject. This was great encouragement, I thank you to all.”

“Today, I would also like to thank the Ministry of Education in the State of Kuwait for their generous initiative to develop a profile in the eighth-grade curriculum. Thank you from the heart and I wish to be a good ambassador of my country Qatar.”

Ghanim al Muftah is an inspiration to many. At an young age, this budding entrepreneur, aspirational Para-Olympian and social media success has won the hearts of nearly 1 million followers on Instagram and practically everyone he’s ever met. Ghanim has only ever confronted his situation with courage and determination. Although still just a teenager, Ghanim has achieved so much in his lifetime, despite his physical impediments.

He has set up his own charities, is active in various sports activities and is also an entrepreneur after setting up his own ice cream shop.

Source of the notice: https://thepeninsulaqatar.com/article/19/09/2018/Qatari-teen-wonder-featured-in-Qatar-and-Kuwait-school-textbooks
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Malaysia: Education, key to protecting our planet

Noticias

Asia/Malaysia/24.09.18/Source: www.thestar.com.my.

MALAYSIA is recognised as one of the top 12 mega-biodiversity countries in the world. Our country is home to a great variety of natural resources that provide for the well-being and economic development of its people.

However, the pursuit of growth at the expense of the environment poses many threats to these resources and the people who depend on them. There has been a continuous and alarming decline of forest cover across Malaysia, and this contributes to flooding problems and the pollution of rivers from fine sediment washed from the land surface.

The loss and fragmentation of natural habitats, made worse by poaching and illegal wildlife trade, have caused a collapse of wildlife populations in our country.

Off our coastlines, unsustainable fishing to feed the demand for seafood has caused fish stock depletion while related pollution and bycatch threaten a range of other marine life. The responsibility to protect the one and only planet we have lies within every individual from all walks of life.

We believe that education is the key to ensuring protection of our planet and its natural resources. Education is the foundation – everything a child sees or learns becomes a part of him or her, and helps shape his or her perceptions and attitudes towards the world. Therefore, an early and well-designed exposure to environmental issues is a critical step towards conservation – it creates good citizens.

Pakatan Harapan’s aspiration to be business friendly and to balance economic growth with environmental protection (Promise 39 of Pillar 3), require a holistic Environmental Education (EE).

There should be a focus on young people, but this education should also be directed at parents, teachers, lecturers and administrators. In short, we believe that EE is fundamental to realising the Government’s promise.

There are four recommendations that we feel strongly about and which could shift the paradigm of EE. Firstly, the formulation and introduction of a policy on Education for Sustainable Development. This will help emphasise that EE plays an integral part of the education system and it needs to be addressed in a holistic manner across all discipline areas. Currently there is no systematic approach to the integration of EE in the classroom – it is taught ad hoc and very much left to the personal efforts, priorities or time available to those involved in teaching and education.

Secondly, we advocate the ministry to establish smart partnership with students, parents, teachers, education advisers, private organisations, research institutions, environmental and social NGOs and business regulators, as well as local communities. This will allow all partners to advance their common interests and learn from each other’s expertise in order to provide mutual support, and to increase commitment to a particular set of decisions they all consider important.

Thirdly, we call on the ministry to harness the network of higher learning institutions, research institutes, environmental and social NGOs to capitalise on their technical expertise and capacity for leadership. Currently, many research outcomes related to EE are not integrated within either curricula or approaches to teaching and learning. Harnessing the expertise available to us is crucial in designing curricula for all levels of education, adopting best practice in teaching and educational approaches.

Finally, we are aware that funding is an essential part of the implementation process; hence, we encourage the ministry to make available the resources necessary for successful delivery of EE, as well as ongoing monitoring of this education so that its success can be evaluated.

It is both imperative and timely that we realise EE is more than information about the environment. EE inspires students to consider and balance environmental issues along with others. It develops their critical thinking and reasoning skills that will in turn enhance their problem-solving and decision-making abilities throughout life.

This is in line with the ministry’s aspiration to instil Love, Happiness and Mutual Respect among students.

This open letter to Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik has been prepared on behalf of our members and supporters, who believe that education is fundamental to developing the next generation of leaders for Malaysia – leaders who will push for sustainable development as the country’s main agenda.

We urge you to make Environmental Education a priority.

We thank you for taking the time to read this letter and look forward to your considered response.

Malaysian Environmental NGOs (MENGO) coalition members offer our full support to the development and implementation of a comprehensive Environmental Education system in Malaysia.

Source of the notice: https://www.thestar.com.my/news/education/2018/09/02/education-key-to-protecting-our-planet/

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Desperate parents are bribing priests with muffins – our faith school system must end

Zoe Williams

Por Zoe Williams

Parents pretend to be religious and clerics pretend to believe them. Getting into state-funded church schools encourages hypocrisy all round

Everyone knows how church schools work. It isn’t even fun describing it to foreigners any more, so well known is it that we have a cock-eyed system where state-funded establishments will only educate the adherents of a particular faith, who are so few in number – and mostly retired – that there are probably not enough real ones to fill a single primary school. For a brief window, citizens pretend to be religious, clerics pretend to believe them and all the right children get into the right schools. Somehow, this foundation of mutually acknowledged deceit is really good role-modelling.

It can be subtle: a vicar will write you a recommendation if he knows you, but to know you, he has to see you. But did he see you? Did you sit at the front? Does he know your name? In areas densely packed with Roman Catholic schools, priests haven’t enjoyed this much power since 16th-century Florence. They can’t walk into Waitrose without being given a muffin.

But the more modern way – in which everything has to be measured, because we all love transparency – involves a great deal of counting. In some schools, it is 10 points if you were baptised before you were six months old, five points after. I know someone who ended up serving the eucharist to get his numbers up. How did he even know how to do that? Oh, apparently, it is really easy.

In south-west London, there was a church with a book: you got a mark for attending; 40 ticks in a year assured your child a place at a church school, 20 might get them on a waiting list. It sounds like a manageable number, 40, until you take out hangovers and holidays and realise that means every week. Nevertheless, it was working fine until someone stole the book.

What is a reasonable vicar to do? Clearly, someone needs to set fire to all the parents, as a lesson for the future. Geneva conventions, Geneva schmonventions. There are times when only collective punishment will do. Or lay waste to the school. See how they would like that, having their children educated in the secular tradition that is so poisonous to young minds, even though it seems to be working fine for everyone else.

But what if the theft was not committed in self-interest? What if it was someone protesting that the sublime act of worship had been debased into a set of transactions, a system blatant but not honest, faith-based but not faithful? What if, on the day of reckoning, God agreed with the thief? The conundrum is so unwieldy it is like trying to get a moral duvet into a spiritual duvet cover.

Everything that is wrong with the process is contained within the book, everything that renders us powerless in the face of it is contained within the theft of the book. I would paymoney to know where the book is now.

We should reject faith schooling. Apart from all the nonsense, it is discriminatory. If you are the child of atheists, or people who want to stay in bed, or people who do not understand the bells, whistles, smoke and mirrors, that is not your fault. This system is the opposite of comprehensive and runs counter to all the principles upon which a universal right to an education is founded. Unfortunately, it is not at all interesting until you have a child of four, or 10, at which point all you want to do is give a priest a muffin.

It is not unusual for Boris Johnson and his works to give you an eerie sensation of falling through time, landing in a decade you never wanted to see. His marriage over, journalists are picking apart the character of Miss X as though they are in a 50s knitting circle. (Is she a “party girl”? Sources suggest that she is.) Yet Johnson’s reputation remains untouched. Most people do not care that he committed adultery and find it irrelevant to his fitness to govern. And when I say “most”, that is not a referendum most; that is a real, 72% most, according to a Sky Data poll.

There is an obvious explanation, which is that his reputation for deceit was so well established that it would have taken far more than a simple affair to diminish it; it would have had to be a mega-affair, with the Duchess of Cambridge, or his daughter’s boyfriend, or the entire membership of a branch of the Conservative party, treasurer included. It is not interesting when a snake swallows a mouse; it needs to swallow a football or a Magimix.

While that is plausible, it misses the bigger shift: sexual politics has moved on and left the media behind. Most people distinguish quite well between public and private; more importantly, most people see sex as a crime only when it is non-consensual.

If you take that principle seriously, to bring the weight of your disapprobation down upon two people having consensual sex is diminishing, and not just of your own maturity. You can’t make a strong or meaningful case against sex as an act of violence, an exertion of power, if you think all sex is your business and all of it is disgusting. Johnson’s shagging may be the most mysterious thing about him, but it is the least dishonourable.

A sperm bank in California is offering lookalike genetic material, enabling you to choose a baby that looks like a star. Ben Affleck is a favourite, but you can also choose David Beckham, if what you want is a son who looks like a person who is really good at football. It seems a little shortsighted: what if you ended up with a girl who looked exactly like Ben Affleck? But consider multiple children and the vista cracks open: you could have one Ben Stiller and one Owen Wilson and create a mini-Zoolander when they are seven. I would get a Tony Benn and a Roy Jenkins, give each a pipe (a fake one – I am not a lunatic) and make them debate.

Source of the article: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/sep/12/desperate-parents-are-bribing-priests-with-muffins-our-faith-school-system-must-end

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