Quality Education

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Indonesia’s teachers need a smarter education system

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Asia/ Indonesia/ 28.10.2019/ Fuente: www.eastasiaforum.org.

Indonesia’s education system is paralysed by its macro-policy coordination.

Take teacher management, for example — Indonesia’s public school teachers are civil servants first and teaching professionals second. This curious employment arrangement means that they must prioritise loyaltyto the central government before students

Law No. 23/2014 on Local Government stipulates that the recruitment, payment, training, deployment and promotion of teachers across district and provincial boundaries fall under the central government’s jurisdiction, while local governments are only tasked with deploying teachers within their administrative boundaries.

But despite the central government’s more muscular administrative powers, it is not clear which ministry is in charge of managing Indonesia’s public school teachers. Under the current system, the Ministry of Education and Culture (MoEC) is responsible for non-religious education-related matters, while regulating state teachers in madrasa institutions falls under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Religious Affairs (MoRA). But there has been a recent push to place public school teachers under the management of the Ministry of Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform (MoABR) — the ministry responsible for recruiting Indonesia’s civil servants.

The reason behind this push is that teachers’ qualifications need re-certification — the financing of teachers’ salaries is separate to the financing for curriculum development or administrative management. But this push is insensitive to Indonesia’s administrative peculiarities.

Indonesia’s public school teachers are divided into tenured and honorary positions, and honorary teachers account for a third of Indonesia’s 3.3 million educators. Tenured teachers’ salaries and retirement packages are paid out of the national budget. But pay for honorary teachers falls in a budgetary no-man’s-land. Some districts and provinces pay honorary teachers out of local budgets; in others, schools pay for honorary teachers out of their own pocket. Overall, honorary teachers’ take-home pay is lower than the stipulated regional minimum wage and is paid irregularly.

How can we ensure equality in teaching standards if there is no clear line of responsibility for managing Indonesia’s educators?

Prioritising a higher quality of education is crucial. The MoEC is mostly concerned with equalising opportunities and resources between every province and district rather than cultivating a generation of quality educators or amending its curriculum to be on par with global standards. As a result, education policy usually concentrates on ways to equalise opportunities in varying local contexts. The latest example is the nationwide shift in school admissions for public secondary schools from competitive exams to geographic zoning which was first implemented in 2017.

Indonesia’s public schools are stratified based on academic performance — better test scores attract more students with stronger academic aptitude, as well as bigger budgets. This competitive-entry system entrenches ‘favourite schools’ known for supposedly producing smarter graduates. Parents compete to send their children to such schools, as this can open pathways for further scholarships and opportunities.

The zoning policy was introduced with the explicit aim to desegregate public schools and to give studentsequal opportunity for quality education. But its execution was deeply flawed.

The MoEC air-dropped the zoning policy on local governments without any detailed guidance on how to implement it. Chaos ensued — teachers complained that they had to quickly change their teaching style to accommodate a more academically diverse cohort, parents were furious that their children were no longer eligible for favourite schools and students were shocked by the diversity of their peers.

The MoEC simply ignored these concerns and insisted on local government compliance — lest local officials be demoted or exiled. While local governments have the ability to determine their own goals and set local agendas, they are still tied to the MoEC when it comes to education systems overhaul.

Still, some areas successfully adapted the zoning policy. In Yogyakarta, for example, this was achieved by breaking admissions into tranches based on zoning, academic performance and special circumstances. But Yogyakarta is a rare case because its community places particularly high social value on education.

Add to the mix a more educated community, competent policymakers and a public willing to experiment for better education policy implementation, and there was strong local support for Yogyakarta’s municipal government to adapt the zoning policy to suit its needs. Few local governments have the will or the capacity to take such initiative.

Indonesia’s education policy will not be rectified simply by paring back central government control over local jurisdictions. But relying solely on central government intervention could undermine current good practice, because no two provinces, districts or cities are alike. Instead, the centre must build human capital in the provinces and give them sufficient resources to carry out their local agendas.

The MoEC must begin by improving its teacher recruitment and deployment system. Indonesia is still lacking teachers. Teachers are not deployed evenly across the country. But focusing on quantity alone risks creating an oversupply of under-managed teachers.

The MoEC should also look at overhauling its teaching quality assurance system to make sure teachers are well-qualified for their position and are provided with sufficient support for continuous professional development. Current programs that monitor teaching quality often miss the mark because their training curriculum tends to contradict monitoring requirements. This leads to policy implementation confusion at best, and at worst, millions of undereducated Indonesians.

The way forward is to learn from local governments’ experiences and tease out elements of success. Asuccessful decentralisation requires leadership from the smallest levels of the government up — not the other way around.

Source of the notice: https://www.eastasiaforum.org/2019/10/18/indonesias-teachers-need-a-smarter-education-system/

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Malaysia: ‘Transform education system to meet UN’s development goals’

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Asia/ Malasya/ 06.10.2019/ Source: www.nst.com.my.

THE education system needs to be transformed to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations.

United Kingdom-based Nisai Group chief executive officer Dr Dhruv Patel said this could be done with education technology.

“Education technology allows us to reach young people who are hard to reach and put learners in a central learning experience.

“Traditionally, you have a teacher and a group of students. Technology allows you to personalise and differentiate the learning experience with good quality teachers,” he told the New Sunday Times at the Malaysian Booksellers Association seminar here yesterday.

Patel said technology had enabled educators to take classrooms to children.

“When we take classrooms to them, their parents will learn as well to improve their productivity and develop skills.

“The rural-urban migration that sees people relocating to big cities stresses the need to formalise online learning so that youth can develop skills from where they are and remain in their communities.”

He said for SDGs to achieve the 2030 target, education transformation needed to take place.

“We are talking about marginalised groups, people in rural areas who are without literacy and therefore unable to get jobs and pursue vocational skills training.”

SDGs are aimed at ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all.

Patel said a cross-curricular approach in education was applicable in the 21st century.

“It is all about project-based learning, covering creativity, critical and high-order thinking skills. These can’t be achieved by ‘silo education’ alone.”

Patel said online learning was ideal for students with special needs.

He said Nisai Group recently signed a project agreement with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s Institute for Information Technologies in Education.

In line with this, Nisai recently launched a six-to-10 week course dedicated to research of SDGs, relating each goal to real-life situations.

In the course, students will identify ways for the goals to correspond with each other and find out how they could impact lives.

New Straits Times group editor Rashid Yusof spoke on the NST Online dealership at the seminar.

Source of the notice: https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2019/10/527412/transform-education-system-meet-uns-development-goals

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Shenzhen is set to be China’s new model city, so why are parents losing sleep over their children’s education?

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Asia/ China/ 02.09.2019/ Source: www.scmp.com.

  • Only 35,000 students out of a total of nearly 80,000 were accepted into local public secondary schools last year for education between the ages of 16-18
  • Beijing’s new ambitious plan is to turn the home of the likes of Huawei, Tencent and DJI into a model city by 2035

Alice Xu’s worries about the education prospects of her nine-year-old daughter have caused sleepless nights over the last few days, and got so bad that the Shenzhen resident took herself to the doctors after hearing that fewer than half the children in the city are admitted to public secondary schools after completing the nine years of compulsory education.

“The doctor told me I’m not alone and that he had seen many patients like me who are anxious,” said Xu, who herself is a middle school teacher, teaching children aged between 14-16.

Her experience, and the experiences of other middle-class parents in China’s hi-tech capital threatens to tarnish Beijing’s plan to turn Xu moved to Shenzhen in 2005 as a young graduate, and has enjoyed the prosperity offered by the city’s rise. She now earns around 200,000 yuan (US$28,000) a year. Like many other citizens, she has always put her daughter’s education at the top of her priority list, given the common understanding that it is the only way to move up the social ladder in a highly competitive Chinese society. That meant paying 720 yuan (US$101) per hour for a one-on-one maths tutor for her daughter.

But despite her best efforts, the reality is that her daughter has more than a 50 per cent chance of failing to gain entry into an affordable and good-quality public school between the ages of 16-18 after completing her mandatory education.

“[We can only] talk and share the worries and depression anywhere and anytime,” she said, echoing the feelings of many helpless parents.

According to official data, only 35,000 students in Shenzhen out of a total of nearly 80,000 were accepted into local public secondary schools last year for education from 16-18, putting them on a path that would allow them to take the rigorous gaokao college entrance exam.

This leaves many forced to turn to expensive private secondary schools, and in some cases overseas establishments, while some leave Shenzhen to attend schools in their parent’s hometown with local authorities tending to focus on recruiting students who are born locally.

But taking into account private secondary schools, the chance of a child earning a place in a public secondary school would only rise to around 57 per cent. That would be just below the national average, but well behind the 86 per cent achieved in Beijing and the 69 per cent in neighbouring Guangzhou.

Shenzhen’s problem stems from its meteoric growth from a small fishing village of a few thousand in the 1980s to a city of 13 million, fed by a continuous inflow of domestic migrants, with the number of secondary schools failing to keep up with the expanding population.

The problem is also set to get worse as Shenzhen’s preschool system is already straining under the pressure of the city’s high birth rate. So, while Shenzhen is grabbing headlines for its impressive economic growth having grown bigger than neighbouring Hong Kong, and for being the home of prominent technology firms Huawei, Tencent and DJI, it is lagging in providing basic public services such as education.

The city has 344 primary schools, well below the 961 primary schools in Guangzhou, which has a comparable population of 15 million, according to official data. Guangzhou also has more primary school teachers – 44,749 compared to 27,795 – indicating its students are also receiving a better quality education.

A small group of delegates from the Shenzhen People’s Congress, the city’s ceremonial local legislature, have taken the unusual step of speaking in one voice to publicly urge increased investment in education, but the municipal education authority responded earlier this year that there is not enough land available to build new schools, according to local media reports.

Shenzhen’s problem stems from its meteoric growth from a small fishing village of a few thousand in the 1980s to a city of 13 million, with the number of secondary schools failing to keep up with the expanding population. Photo: Handout
Shenzhen’s problem stems from its meteoric growth from a small fishing village of a few thousand in the 1980s to a city of 13 million, with the number of secondary schools failing to keep up with the expanding population. Photo: Handout

One government official, who declined to be named as he is not authorised to speak to the media, said the municipal government does not support building new secondary schools because “it won’t be seen as a political achievement”.

“No district government in Shenzhen is willing to provide free or cheap land to build secondary schools,” the official said. Instead, land is often reserved for property developers or hi-tech projects that can boost local financial revenues and the political futures of the officials who support the projects, he added.

Shenzhen’s problems have been noticed by the central government, who, as part of its plan to make Shenzhen a model city, asked the city to expand its primary education services and to broaden its coverage of secondary school education.

Cici Deng, the mother of a 14-year-old girl in Shenzhen, said the underdeveloped public education services is tarnishing Shenzhen’s reputation as a model city. She added that the financial pressures of ensuring that a child obtains a place at a good public school can also be enormous.

“One method is to buy a flat near the school,” she said, because students living within a particular school district are automatically enrolled regardless of their exam scores.

Both teachers at the schools and other parents urge you to join after class education training programmes. That seems to be a must if a student wants to get a good scoreCici Deng

But that brings with it problems of its own for a middle-income household in the city because a three-bedroom flat can easily cost 10 million yuan (US$1.4 million).

In general, home prices in Shenzhen are broadly comparable with New York and Tokyo, with new homes selling at an average of about 5,100 yuan (US$712) per square foot, while those located near sought-after schools can cost up to 14,000 yuan (US$2,000) per square foot.

Alternatively, children who score in the top 44 per cent of the secondary school entrance exam are automatically enrolled. This is the method favoured by Deng, who is this month spending 12,000 yuan (US$1,675) to send her teenage daughter to a 15-day private tutorial session covering Chinese, maths and English which are the three key subjects covered by the exam.

“Both teachers at the schools and other parents urge you to join after class education training programmes,” said Li Yuchen, the mother of an eight-year-old boy. “That seems to be a must if a student wants to get a good score. Our children are always on their way to a class or going home after class.

“Because most children go to tutoring classes every day, your child would feel very bored at home if he doesn’t go because he won’t be able to find any peers to play with. Now, the situation in Shenzhen is particularly odd, that is, because children can only see friends and have partners in after school classes.

“Half of the mothers of my boy’s classmates quit their jobs and became full time moms to help their children study and score well. I also felt sharp chest pains after hearing that someone bought a house in a school district. It made me feel guilty about [not providing for] my child.”

Only 35,000 students in Shenzhen out of a total of nearly 80,000 were accepted into local public secondary schools last year for education from 16-18 years old. Photo: China News Service
Only 35,000 students in Shenzhen out of a total of nearly 80,000 were accepted into local public secondary schools last year for education from 16-18 years old. Photo: China News Service

Affluent families of primary and junior secondary school students have been paying between 100,000 (US$14,000) and 200,000 yuan per year for private schools that focus on English and internationally recognised diplomas to better prepare them for secondary schools and universities abroad.

But now, even they are worried about the risks of changing government policies after China’s education ministry announced in March its latest measures to prevent primary and junior secondary school students – either public or private – from enrolling in international schools or international sections of regular schools.

In addition, schools set up for the children of foreign workers are not allowed to admit any Chinese students, the ministry said.

“The uncertainty over China’s education policies is increasing,” said parent Cheng Li. “My child’s school just added many new Chinese compulsory education subjects to the curriculum to match the policy.

“We feel the climate for education, business, and society is turning conservative. We do worry about the change.”

Fuente de la noticia: https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3024730/shenzhen-set-be-chinas-new-model-city-why-are-parents-losing

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Education for people in fragile communities

Gerard Tousand Robinson

By: Gerard Tousand Robinson.

 

Education serves as a principal driver of economic growth and mobility in the United States. This is why many scholars, lawmakers, nonprofit organizations and entrepreneurs focus on this area. As research on the topic indicates, completion of high school, postsecondary education or both has significant potential to positively impact individual and societal prosperity. Yet before a student completes high school — and at least 85% did in 2017 — we must consider the other factors at play for her along the way: money and how it is invested in education, the parenting gap, educator recruitment and retentionprograms, public and private choice offerings, and the use of litigation to achieve equal educational opportunity.

Teacher Elizabeth Moguel poses for a photograph with her seventh grade Latin class at Boston Latin School in Boston, Massachusetts September 17, 2015. REUTERS/Brian Snyder

Embedded in any discussion about education and opportunity is student learning. One tool to gauge student progress over time is the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), referred to as the Nation’s Report Card. Since 1969, NAEP has administered the largest national assessment of subject-matter achievement for a representative sample of students in grades 4, 8, and 12 in the United States. NAEP uses the same tests across states and districts, which includes public (traditional, charter, and magnet) and private school students. Given the reach of NAEP and its recognition as a measure of our children’s academic vitality, we should analyze the results to identify our strengths and areas for improvement.

The percentage of students who scored at or above proficient on the most recentassessment of NAEP subjects is not impressive. This quantifiable deficiency is evidence of the necessity for research and reform surrounding educational systems geared towards the needs of individual communities.

Public School Students Only

Subject Grade 4 Grade 8 Grade 12
Civics 26 23 23
Economics – – 41
Math 39 32 23
Reading 35 33 36
Science 37 33 21
Technology & Engineering Literacy – 45 –
US History 19 14 11
Writing 27 26 25

Private School Students Only

Subject Grade 4 Grade 8 Grade 12
Civics 35 38 38
Economics 62
Math – – –
Reading – – 54
Science 48 43
Technology & Engineering Literacy – 60 –
US History 31 31 17
Writing 39 41 –

Creating meaningful change to the current state of affairs in K-12 education initially requires a thorough understanding of the factors underlying the exclusions and limitations that families confront in search of quality education for their children and themselves, particularly in fragile communities. The Center for Advancing Opportunities (CAO) defines these as places characterized by high proportions of residents struggling in their daily lives and possessing limited opportunities for social mobility. Following awareness of these deep-seated and enduring conditions, the next step must be to study the practices and systems through which we can close the opportunity gap.

In April 2019, the CAO released its State of Opportunity in America Report in partnership with Gallup, the Charles Koch Foundation, and Koch Industries. The report contains information about education (among other topics) gathered from 5,784 people living in some of the most challenging socioeconomic zip codes in 47 states, including residents in the northern and central regions of Appalachia.

A sample of those living in fragile communities includes the following: 71% are people of color and 29% are white; 53% have a household income of $34,999 or less, with the majority earning under $24,000 a year; 51% rent their place of residence; and 13% do not have a high school diploma — though 12% have earned a bachelor’s degree or more. Despite economic challenges, many people in fragile communities want their children and themselves to have access to a quality education.

One intention of the CAO report is to present a more nuanced understanding of the barriers to opportunity burdening those living in fragile communities as they relate to education. We accomplished this goal by asking the people living closest to the issue what they think.

We asked individuals in fragile communities several questions about K-12 and higher education. We also gathered data from 1,683 people in Birmingham, Alabama; Fresno, California; Chicago, Illinois; and the northern and central Appalachian region to learn how residents in low-income urban and rural areas view their own circumstances and the options available to them. These communities were selected in part because they represent unique geographic regions in the US, each with its own social, economic and historical influences, as well as different racial and ethnic compositions.

Demographic Characteristics of Fragile Community Residents

Education Total (N=5,784) Birmingham(N=696) Chicago(N=569) Fresno(N=751) Appalachia(N=455)
Less than high school 13% 11% 12% 12% 12%
High school graduate 33% 35% 35% 30% 35%
Technical/Vocational school 12% 10% 10% 13% 14%
Some college but no degree 20% 21% 16% 20% 19%
Associate degree 9% 14% 7% 6% 12%
Bachelor’s or more 12% 9% 21% 19% 9%

Note: 2017 data used for income results. Education and race/ethnicity data from Gallup general population survey, December 2018.

Overall, an analysis of the survey results found the following about the quality of local K-12 public schools, higher education, and confidence about career goals.

How satisfied or dissatisfied are you with the quality of public K-12 schools in your area?

Chicago

35% responded as extremely satisfied or satisfied and 42% were dissatisfied or extremely dissatisfied.

Appalachia

65% responded as extremely satisfied or satisfied and 20% were dissatisfied or extremely dissatisfied.

Birmingham

32% responded as extremely satisfied or satisfied and 37% were dissatisfied or extremely dissatisfied.

Fresno

44% responded as extremely satisfied or satisfied and 33% were dissatisfied or extremely dissatisfied.

What these findings show are significant discrepancies in levels of public satisfaction with the quality of public K-12 schools that vary from one community to the next. Strikingly, individuals in historically disadvantaged communities indicated satisfaction. However, the%age of those dissatisfied remains substantial.

How important is a college education today?

At least 62% of all people in fragile communities reported that college is very important. By subgroup, 45% of whites said college is very important compared to 69% of blacks and 70% of Hispanics. More women than men believe a college education is very important at 69% to 55%, respectively.

How satisfied are you with the availability of high-quality community college and job training programs?

Overall, 42% of people in fragile communities are extremely satisfied or satisfied with the availability of high-quality community college programs in their area, and 28% say the same for job training programs.

How confident are you in your ability to achieve career goals you set for yourself — very confident, confident, somewhat confident or not at all confident?

Each percentage represents people who responded “very confident” and “confident” by education level:

Less than high school = 54% of the people in this cat

Technical/Vocational school = 64%

Some college but no degree = 67%

Associate degree = 73%

Bachelor’s or more = 80%

For individuals residing in fragile communities, education not only allows for increased opportunity — entrepreneurial and otherwise — but has also been correlated with elevated well-being and optimism scores.

Altogether, these figures supply fresh evidence that reflects the major obstacles standing in the way of many families in search of high-quality public schools, higher education and job training. A heightened focus on access to education and fluctuations in the caliber of education across communities has yielded important insights about the sources of particular educational disparities. In order to produce effective amendments within this arena, research-based solutions are necessary. Professors such as Kathaleena Monds, director of the Center for Educational Opportunity at Albany State University, are playing a role in creating a foundation base for an informed understanding of community and individual needs that must be applied and consistently reassessed to incorporate into impactful reforms.

By asking people in fragile communities and scholars alike “what works, why, why not and for whom?” we improve our understanding about the delivery of teaching and learning opportunities, and provide research that can strengthen our country’s commitment to advancing opportunity for all people.

Source of the article: https://www.aei.org/publication/education-for-people-in-fragile-communities/

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Egypt shifts education focus to improving quality

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Africa/ Egypt/ 24.07.2019/ Source: www.al-monitor.com.

 

Malak Abdel Hakim, 15, was doing well at school before her parents forced her to drop out several months ago. The family lives in Mallawi, a city in the southern Egyptian governorate of Minya. Her father works in the Greater Cairo area as a doorman at a residential building in the Giza neighborhood of Mohandessin and barely earns enough money to support his family of nine. He turned a deaf ear to pleas from Malak’s teachers to let her finish her education, and decided it was time for her to stay home and help her mother with chores. Her older sisters had all dropped out of school at even younger ages to get married, and Malak, too, would have to «conform to social norms,» he insisted.

While the legal minimum age to get married is 18 in Egypt, child marriages are not uncommon in the poor marginalized southern communities, where girls are often married at early ages to alleviate their families’ financial burdens. Some families circumvent the law by postponing the registration of the marriages until the girls turn 18. A 2017 census by CAPMAS, Egypt’s national statistics agency, showed that 15% of Egyptian girls are married before they turn 16. But child marriage has been on the decline in recent years, largely due to awareness campaigns about the health implications of early marriage, including pregnancy and childbirth complications and higher risks of domestic violence.

Girls who marry early are also more likely to drop out of school. Yet in Egypt’s rural south, many girls drop out of school to earn daily wages for their families, many times working in agriculture, or staying home to look after siblings. Poor families often choose to invest in their sons’ educations with the hope they will grow up to become breadwinners.

Girls are also deprived of education due to gender-based violence. Parents worry their teenage daughters will be subjected to sexual harassment on their way to or from school, and some girls choose to drop out after experiencing abuse at the hands of their teachers.

An education program launched by CARE, an international humanitarian organization that has worked in Egypt since 1957, aims to change this grim picture and ensure safe education for all children, particularly girls.

«Thanks to a strong political will and donors’ contributions, there has been tremendous progress in recent years in closing the gender gap in education,» Hazem Fahmy, CARE’s country director, told Al-Monitor

In 2012, more than 95% of Egyptian children aged between 6 and 18 were enrolled in school, according to UNICEF. The quality of education, however, remained «a major challenge.» Last year, Egypt ranked 129th globally in terms of quality of education, according to the Spectator Index. Five years earlier, a report by the US Agency for International Development found that one in five third-graders in Egypt could not read a single word and 50% of students with five years of schooling were functionally illiterate.

Due to such statistics, the Egyptian government faces pressure to reform the education system. Overcrowding, poor teaching skills and violence in schools are among the problems the government is addressing as part of its plan to overhaul the system.

«The focus has now shifted from numbers to quality education,» Fahmy said. «We want to ensure that all students are benefiting from attending school and to prepare them for jobs and career opportunities.»

CARE has adopted a multifaceted approach to improve the learning environment and promote behavioral change in the Upper Egyptian governorates of Bani Sweif, Minya and Assiut. The program, launched in 2016, seeks to develop the infrastructure of schools, build the capacity of teachers and advance literacy in 32 targeted elementary schools. Engaging the local community in education is also part of the ambitious initiative.

Al Zeitoun Primary School in Bani Sweif, 145 kilometers (90 miles) south of Cairo, is one of 10 schools in the governorate that have undergone renovation financed by the Dubai-based philanthropic organization Dubai Cares, which works to improve children’s access to quality primary education in developing countries. The renovation has included upgrading the school’s electrical system, replacing windows and light fixtures, repairing water pipes and painting the walls and ceilings in bright colors. A fence has also been built around the school to curb truancy and protect students from trespassers.

«Something as basic as having bathroom doors fitted can make a huge difference, rendering the school student-friendly and a safe learning environment for the children, especially girls,» said Fahmy.

«We have also built small kitchens in some of the schools to ensure that the students get healthy meals,» he added.

Of the 1,100 students (half of them girls) at Al Zeitoun, 109 have been identified by teachers as having learning difficulties. They are attending an afterschool class to improve their reading and writing skills. The headquarters of the Community Development Association, a local nongovernmental organization, was chosen by the parents as the preferred venue to host the class due to its central location and proximity to the homes of many of the students. The class is part of a 36-session course that uses engaging reading material and fun activities to build the reading abilities of the students who are third- and fourth-graders. Each class is devoted to learning a single letter of the alphabet and to spelling words that begin or end with that letter.

Eleven-year-old Ne’ma Ali Omar shouts out the Arabic letter «Jeem» as she dribbles a basketball with one hand, getting ready to throw it into the hoop. When she misses, 10-year-old Rahma Farrag steps in and starts bouncing the ball while shouting out words that begin with the letter. She succeeds in throwing the ball through the hoop, much to the delight of the other children who cheer and clap.

«Activities of this kind help boost the children’s self-confidence and teach them team spirit while improving their reading skills. Some of the children were awfully shy and could hardly read or spell any words before attending these readability sessions. Now they come to the school library looking for new books to read,» Mohamed Abul Fadl, an Arabic-language teacher at the school, told Al-Monitor.

«Besides acquainting the teachers with the various methods and tools to improve children’s reading skills, we also gave them tips on how to develop their teaching skills,» Mona Kotb, field supervisor at CARE’s Education Program in Bani Sweif, told Al-Monitor.

«We advise them against using violence of any form to punish the students,» she said.

In remote southern communities where poverty is rampant, some teachers have been known to use violence and other excessive disciplinary measures, including beating children with canes, as a means of punishment. In one case, a teacher in Luxor cut the hair of two 12-year-old schoolgirls to punish them for not wearing a veil to school.

«The creation of school-based child protection committees has gone a long way in curbing bullying and other forms of violence in the targeted schools,» said Ali Khalaf, general manager of the Nasser Education Directorate in Bani Sweif. The directorate, a local branch of the Ministry of Education, has been partnering with CARE to implement the program.

The activation of student unions in some of the targeted schools is also helping change behavior by boosting students’ self-esteem.

«We have witnessed firsthand the impact the student unions have had on some of the students, giving them a voice and allowing them to communicate their needs to teachers and headmasters while helping develop their leadership skills,» said Khalaf.

Michelle Nunn, the president and CEO of CARE, is confident that Egypt’s education reforms will have far-reaching effects on the entire society.

«Girls’ education is part of the empowerment of women,» she told Al-Monitor after a recent inspection tour of some of CARE’s projects in Cairo, Minya and Assiut. «By accessing education, girls can potentially increase their family’s earnings by up to 20% annually. When women access education, they achieve greater productivity and well-being from a health perspective.»

«I hope that girls and women can realize their full potential and have the capacity to feel their own power in education, health and economic opportunities. There is so much potential still; if realized, it can be transformational for the entire society.»

Source of the notice: https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2019/07/care-tackles-girls-education-in-egypt.html

 

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Mozambique: Education Barriers for Children with Albinism

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Africa/ Mozambique/ 24.06.2019/ Fuente: www.hrw.org.

 

Children with albinism face insecurity and significant obstacles to accessing quality education in the Tete province of Mozambique, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

The report, «From Cradle to Grave”: Discrimination and Barriers to Education for Persons with Albinism in Tete Province, Mozambique is in the form of a special web feature with video and photos. Human Rights Watch found children living with albinism in the central Mozambican province of Tete to be widely discriminated against, stigmatized, and often rejected at school, in the community, and, at times, by their own families. They struggle to overcome barriers such as insecurity, bullying, and lack of reasonable adjustments in the classroom, which violates their right to education. Although the Mozambique government has taken important steps to better protect the rights of children with albinism, it needs to do more to ensure equal access to education.

“Children with albinism have the same right as everyone else to a quality education with reasonable support to facilitate their learning,” said Shantha Rau Barriga, disability rights director at Human Rights Watch. “Yet many children with albinism in Tete are relegated to the margins of the education system, and of society as a whole.”

Human Rights Watch interviewed over 60 people between July 2018 and May 2019 in Tete province and in Mozambique’s capital, Maputo. Interviewees included 42 children and young adults with albinism and their relatives; albinism and disability rights activists; community leaders; teachers and school principals; and representatives of international organizations. Human Rights Watch also met with government officials in May and reviewed relevant national and international legislation and policies.

Albinism is a relatively rare condition caused by a lack of melanin or pigmentation in the skin, hair, and eyes. People with albinism usually have a paler, whiter appearance than their relatives. While albinism affects one out of about every 17,000 to 20,000 people in Europe and North America, it is more widespread in Sub-Saharan Africa, with reports indicating that it affects one in 1,000 people in southern Africa, where Mozambique is located.

Although not everyone with albinism has a disability, the melanin deficit can result in low vision and an increased vulnerability to the sun’s ultra-violet rays. People with albinism living in Sub-Saharan Africa are about 1,000 times more likely to develop skin cancer than the general population.

In 2012, Mozambique ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), which guarantees the right to inclusive, quality education. This entails ensuring that children with and without disabilities learn together in mainstream classes in an inclusive environment, with reasonable accommodations.

Fear of Violence

In late 2014, there was a surge of attacks on people with albinism in Mozambique, including kidnapping and trafficking. At the peak in 2015, the UN independent expert on the enjoyment of human rights by persons with albinism received reports from nongovernmental groups of over 100 attacks that year alone. A belief in witchcraft is one of the root causes of attacks, the independent expert said, with assailants believing that body parts from people with albinism can produce wealth and good luck.

Although the reports of attacks and abductions have receded, the families of children with albinism still live in fear, some keeping their children out of school. The most recent report of an attack was the abduction of an 11-year-old girl in May in Murrupula district in Nampula Province. She was later found dead with her limbs cut off.

Joao, a 19-year-old from the Angónia district, told Human Rights Watch that around 2015, he stopped going to school for fear of being kidnapped during the long walk from home. He said people would sometimes follow him. Others would call him “money” and “business,” referring to his valuable body parts. Joao’s family went to the police after assailants allegedly tried to recruit his friend to help abduct him.

“My dream was to become a teacher,” he said. “It’s good work. I still have the dream but I can’t go to school.” Today, Joao works in the fields with his father, planting beans and corn. The work is hard and painful, because the sun hurts his skin.

The Mozambique government should increase efforts to dispel deadly myths about albinism, including through workshops and at outdoor cinemas in the local language, particularly in rural and isolated communities – such as those across Tete – that may not have access to television and radio due to a lack of electricity.

 

Barriers at School

Children with albinism face numerous obstacles at school, including bullying by students and sometimes teachers, little to no reasonable accommodation for their low vision, and requirements to participate in physical education classes outside without proper protection from the sun.

Human Rights Watch found that in schools in Tete province, students with albinism who also have low vision lack access to appropriate learning materials, such as large-print textbooks, extra time for exams, or seating arrangements next to the blackboard.

Fatima, 20, said she dropped out of school in Grade 5 after insensitive teachers bullied her.

When she would try to sit in the front of the class to see the blackboard better, one teacher would yell, “You albino, you stay where you are,” she said. Her father complained to the school, but it only made things worse. “When the teacher would say those things to me, it allowed the students to do the same. There were no consequences for any of them,” Fatima said.

The government should ensure that all teachers in the public education system are sensitive to the needs of children with albinism and trained to adequately provide for their needs. Schools should have resources to meet their needs, including textbooks and exams with larger fonts, and assistive devices to read the blackboard, Human Rights Watch said.

Government Response

In recent years, the Mozambique government has taken important steps to protect people with albinism, including adopting a comprehensive Action Plan in 2015 to deal with violence against people with albinism. The plan includes measures to promote education and awareness of albinism among families and communities. However, human rights advocates in Maputo said that although they participated in drafting the plan, the government has left them out of implementation, reducing its effectiveness. They also remain concerned that the plan lacks a specific budget, which seriously impairs effective implementation.

At the Global Disability Summit in 2018 in Britain, Mozambique pledged to create inclusive education policies and plans, including carrying out a national strategy for inclusive education. The most recent draft strategy for inclusive education was silent on children with albinism, but the Education Ministry has promised to revise it to include language on albinism.

As a priority, Mozambique’s government should also carry out the recommendations outlined in the Regional Action Plan on Albinism in Africa, the first continental strategy to address violations against people with albinism. The plan, endorsed by the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights in 2017, contains a series of immediate to long-term measures focused on protection, prevention, accountability, and non-discrimination.

“By taking steps to make sure that children with albinism can get a meaningful education while continuing to investigate and prosecute those responsible for attacks, the Mozambique government has an opportunity to further show its commitment to ensuring safety, inclusion, and dignity for people with albinism,”  Barriga said.

Source of the notice: https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/06/13/mozambique-education-barriers-children-albinism

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Zambia and UNICEF partner to introduce mobile teaching services

Noticias

Africa/ Zambia/ 10.04.2019/ Source: africandailyvoice.com.

Zambia is set to introduce mobile teaching services, to provide education services to children in remote areas lacking teachers and education facilities, African Daily Voice has learnt.

This was recently disclosed by the Ministry of General Education Permanent Secretary, Jobbicks Kalumba when he addressed teachers in Kapiri Mposhi District during his interaction in the area.

According to Kalumba, the mobile education services will require teachers to set camp in particular areas lacking education services, in order to broaden access to education in the country.

“The ministry has already initiated discussions with cooperating partners that include United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), in order to actualize the initiative,” said Kalumba.

“This initiative is one way of making children especially those that are in areas where we do not have presence and where there are inadequate numbers of teachers to equally access quality education. We will engage teachers who will be specifically employed to carry out mobile teaching services in various schools countrywide.”

Kalumba also revealed that his ministry will next year introduce subject specialisation among primary school teachers, to limit the number of subjects that each teacher will have to teach.

“The ministry is trying to get away from a situation where primary school teachers are compelled to teach over nine different subjects, from grade one to seven, which is creating an overload, thereby making them ineffective and inefficient.

“Primary School Teacher Specialization Policy will afford teachers enough time to prepare lessons, assess pupils and institute remedial measures to help learners having problems in a particular subject.

“It is not practical that a teacher should prepare lesson plans in nine subjects and because of this teachers at primary level are presenting work plans which are not genuine because they have to do that in nine subjects…. this is just compromising the delivery of education in the country and we should reform the system,” added Kalumba.

He further underlined that the policy will not require any resources to be rolled-out adding that affected teachers will be written to be assigned specific subjects they will be teaching.

Source of the notice: https://africandailyvoice.com/en/2019/04/05/zambia-unicef-partner-introduce-mobile-teaching-services/

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