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VOICES RISING
YEAR IV - Nº178
April
21, 2006
content
1.-
GLOBAL ACTION WEEK, 24 – 30TH APRIL 2006
2.- ICAE VIRTUAL SEMINAR
3.-
UNESCO'S NEW INITIATIVE
4.- MOZAMBIQUE: GUEBUZA ON MOZAMBICAN WOMEN'S DAY
5.-
KENYAN SCHOOLGIRLS RAPED ON MARCH
6.-
7.-
PUBLICATION OF THE FINAL PAPER OF THE WORLD ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION CONGRESS
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1.-
GLOBAL ACTION WEEK, 24 – 30TH APRIL 2006
If you can read this, thank a teacher.
GCE Global
Action Week Is Just Around the Corner!
With the GCE Global Action Week (24th-30th) just days away, the GCE
coalitions in over 100 countries along with Education International and
teachers’ unions worldwide have been coming up with amazing ways to mobilise
millions of children and the public to shout out to local, national and
international governments with the message that: ‘Every Child Needs A
Teacher’ if the goal of free quality education for all is to be
realised.
With all the recent global media coverage around the topic of education, and
with such strong endorsement from Nelson Mandela for the campaign:
http://www.campaignforeducation.org/news/news.html
and the remarkable GCE plans taking place globally for Action Week the
leaders cannot fail to hear the evidence and the messages around: 'Every
Child Needs A Teacher'!
Plans for the GCE Global Action Week are focussed around 3 main activities:
·
Creating a
dossier
– where children and adult learners create a dossier on the subject of
teachers in their country
·
‘Officials
Back To School’ Days where officials, political figures and celebrities
have been invited back to schools and other learning facilities to meet
campaigners who have collected evidence in the form of a dossier. The
Officials will be asked to respond to the concerns of the campaigners
·
Big
Hearings
are being put on nationally and locally across the world where the dossiers
created are used to present a national case in support of the issues facing
teachers to education policy-makers.
The Global
Action Week looks set to be truly unique with colourful and innovative
activities taking place in villages, towns and cities across the world. Most
of the events centre around collecting evidence and research on the lack of
teachers, from children producing colourful representations of what their
ideal teacher would look like, through to research carried out nationally to
identify the extent of the problems for teachers and children due to over
crowded classrooms, lack of pay and inadequate training. . Officials are
also going back-to-school to witness the poor conditions that teachers and
pupils endure, and hear the evidence that children and teachers have
gathered which makes the ‘Case For Teachers’. The results of all this
work will be presented in the form of ‘dossiers’ to officials at ‘Big
Hearings’ where politicians and officials will be called to account by
millions of GCE cam paigners demanding they keep their promises to provide
all children with an education.
See below for some more examples of the brilliant events taking place across
the world next week and check-out
www.campaignforeducation.org
for more news of what’s happening during Global Action Week
If you can read this, thank a Teacher.
Albania
Pupils and their teachers will gather in Tirana, on April 27th in order to
showcase in lively and attention grabbing ways the best examples of how to
integrate pupils who are not in school. This integration has been possible
through the special engagement of their teachers, collaborating with school
administrations, parents and the pupils themselves. Present in this event
will be large groups of teachers from the schools with high drop out rates
of pupils.
The message to the Ministry of Education and the Governments will be centred
on solutions helping the more than 10 000 pupils who have dropped out or
are at risk of dropping out of of school.
Teachers’ unions
have joined the "Albanian GCE for:
o
A joint
press conference, on 25 April,
o
A Big
Hearing with parliamentarians
o
A workshop
on the role of civil society on the subject of
GAW-06 "Every Child needs a Teacher"
·
A special
dossier
is being prepared for all of these activities. This will contain
information about children who are not able to attend school, the education
budget and the problems that teachers face. This will be distributed to the
parliamentarians, media and
participants in the activities planned to be organised.
For more information on the union activities please contact: Stavri Liku at
fsash@icc-al.org
For GCE coalition activities: Altin Hazizaj:
crca@adanet.com.al
Bangladesh
An enormous dossier will be created using the hard hitting evidence
from a countrywide sample survey, brilliant sketches of children’s ideal
teachers, along with students’ writing on what kind of teacher they want,
who is the favourite teacher and why, with photographs of classrooms and
other aspects of the school. This will be used for intensive lobbying and
local hearings from the grassroots to national level
The Big Hearing will then take place in the capital city of Dhaka on
25th April 2006.
For more information contact: Rasheda Choudhury:rasheda@campebd.org
Mr Mayeen:
mayeen@campebd.org
Bolivia
Colourful ‘fairs’ have been organised across the 3 main cities in Bolivia.
At these gatherings groups there will be popular theatre mime art and
educational shows on the subject of teachers. Exhibited at these will be all
the beautiful work that children have prepared relating to how they see the
education situation in their country and what they would like teachers to be
and be able to do.
For more information contact: Mario Quintanilla Arandia:
iipsbol@ceibo.entelnet.bo
or
marioreinaldo2003@yahoo.es
Cameroon
As well as holding similar events to across the world in the form of
creating a dossier and holding a Big Hearing in Yaounde,
Cameroon Education For All Network is planning a documentary on the
theme of quality education using real life examples. The issues that will be
looked at specifically will be teachers’ pay and the quality of teachers and
their training. This will then go out on national networks and then lead to
a televised roundtable debate with politicians and teachers’ unions.
Chad
The National GCE coalition have this year decided to focus their campaign on
publicising the issues around teachers through rural radio shows and the
national press. Local actors will speak out on the radio on messages that
have first been written by children with responses from parents and then
teachers themselves will give an explanation as to the situation for them
through their eyes. These pieces will then form ‘the recommendations for the
day’. The same activities will be taking place in the different provinces
across Chad and then finally be used in The Big Hearing to a massive
live audience.
For more information on these events contact: Dewa Anasthasie:
foret@intnet.td
Or Elisabeth Solkam:
tetisolkam@yahoo.fr
Egypt
The Big Hearing event will take place on May 7th at the Ministry of
Education in Cairo. Video conferencing coverage will allow teachers,
students, NGO's, Local Task Forces (LTF), educational committees and others
involved in education in various governorates around the country to
participate and communicate with each other to make it a truly national
event.
Students from around Egypt have described what they like best in their
teacher and what they would like their ideal teacher to be, in order to get
the best education possible. These messages from the different governorates
will all be added together, to describe the profile of the best teacher.
Contact: Samiha Fares:
samihafares@gmail.com
Netherlands
A Special Day For Teachers is taking place in the Netherlands on Wednesday
April 26th. This "study day" will consist of 12 different workshops; all
workshops will deal with different aspects of quality education. The goal is
to inform the teachers, but also to work together to formulate
recommendations on how to work on the quality of education. These will then
be presented in the form of a dossier to the Minister of Development
cooperation (Mrs Van Ardenne), who will be present on the end of the day to
receive them. Teachers and their organisations from developing countries
such as Senegal and Ghana and the teacher of the year from India will take
part in the workshops to highlight the issues for teachers.
For more information contact: Justine Bolt at
Justine.Bolt@oxfamnovib.nl
Philippines
Nationwide workshops will take place around the Philippines, organised by
teachers’ groups, to create beautiful artistic representations of teachers
and the challenges they face. In poor urban communities such as Children in
the Railway (Batang Riles) in Manila and in Quezon City there will be Art
Workshops and discussion sessions where school children get to paint
pictures of their ideal teacher. These will then be displayed as photo
–essay exhibitions as well as a Photo Essay focusing on the themes:
“Teachers at Risk” or “One Day in the Life of A Teacher”.
Following a ‘profiling of teachers’ via interviews and focus group
discussions the issues expressed by teachers will be consolidated in the
form of a “Teachers’ Education Agenda” to be presented at the Big Hearing.
All the events will then culminate with a theatre presentation entitled:
Titser ng Bayan ( Teacher of the People) on April 29, 2006.
For more information contact: Raquel D Castillo
secretariat@educ-net.org
Or Flora Arellano:
actphilippines82@yahoo.com
Rwanda
People in Rwanda are already getting excited about The Big Hearing is
going to take place on May 6th in the country’s national stadium in Kigali.
This event will see marches by pupils, students, teachers, politicians, and
a colourful bus signifying Universal Basic Education (UBE) for
Rwanda's education for all.
This bus will be representing all types of children in Rwanda: in-school,
out of school and drop outs! Not surprisingly due to the nature of the event
media coverage has already been secured. Hundreds of children, teachers and
parents will take part their case to at least 50 politicians to make it
truly well noticed by those that matter!
The speeches on the day will highlight teacher issues in relation to every
child having a right to education for 12 years (Primary to lower Secondary).
These include large class sizes, lack of classes, few qualified teachers,
high teacher turn over, quality of Curriculum...etc. The enormous dossier on
these topics that has been made in the lead up to Action Week will be
displayed in the stadium where the event will be taking place for all to
see. A comprehensive media campaign on the issue of Every Child Needs A
Teacher through both radio as the best medium to engage local people as
well as and printed media .
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There are over one hundred examples of extraordinary events such as these
going on all round the world. Keep looking at
www.campaignforeducation.org
for the latest news of what’s happening during Global Action Week.
If you could read this, thank a teacher.
The compilation of news does not necessarily reflect the views of GCE. If
you have relevant news, media coverage, publications, or events that you
would like to share on the GCE website or through e-news please email these
to
alex@campaignforeducation.org
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2.-
ICAE VIRTUAL SEMINAR
Paving the way towards ICAE World Assembly in Nairobi, 2007
Cecilia Fernandez
Although the virtual seminar organised by ICAE betwen March 6 and April 4
has already ended, we really want to share with you all this last comment
sent by Jennifer Chiwela, who refers in a very concise and eloquent way to
the importance that adult education has in the struggle for a just world.
Jennifer
Chiwela
Dear Friends,
Just to add my voice to the virtual Seminar that is going on, and that is
that I find Babacar Diop Buuba's contribution most pertinent, particularly
the definition of Adult Education. These areas are struggles for the
majority of adults in Africa, and talking about democracy is like a mockery
when most of them can neither read nor write nor do they feel confident to
contribut to the decision-making process. Adults are the gate-keepers to
futures of families but without the know-how that may come through adult
education, we can not claim to making any impact on justice in this world.
Jennifer Chiwela
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3.- UNESCO'S NEW INITIATIVE
INAYATULLAH
Pakistan is one of the more than two dozen countries which, according to the
Global Monitoring Report (GMR 2006), will not be able to achieve any of the
targets set at the World Education Forum in 2000.
Pakistan is committed to these targets for 'Education for All' and as a
follow-up of the Dakar Declaration was able to prepare a National Plan of
Action fairly quickly. The implementation of the Plan however has remained
halting and unsatisfactory. The plan, for instance, envisaged the opening of
more than 300,000 literacy centers by now and about 80,000 non-formal basic
education centers for out of school children. But the actual number of
centres on the ground is a fraction of the targets.
The central government's budgetary allocation for literacy has been about
Rs100 million as against the planned more than Rs10 billion a year. Yes
Punjab and NWFP have taken commendable steps. Punjab has a full-fledged
department of literacy and non-formal basic education headed by a
full-fledged cabinet minister and secretary. And the NWFP government has set
up an autonomous foundation for elementary education headed by a dynamic
chairman with considerable funds provided for the literacy projects. Both
the provinces have launched impressive programmes for adult literacy and
non-formal basic education. But these efforts even if successfully managed
will only make a limited contribution towards meeting of the huge literacy
challenge facing the country.
The picture in Sindh and Balochistan is quite bleak. Practically, these two
provinces have yet to prepare provincial and district plans, earmark
adequate funds and work for the creation of appropriate organisational
arrangements to start viable literacy programmes. A ray of hope has come
from the National Commission for Human Development headed by Dr Nasim Ashraf.
The Commission has drawn up a national programme to strengthen the primary
schools and establish thousands of literacy centres all over the country.
Has the Commission the capacity to massively up- scale its operations
countrywide and address the literacy challenge? Will it be able to get the
required funds? Much will depend on the answers to these questions.
With all the rhetoric and tall claims about the need for literacy and
education emanating from the highest levels, the movement towards the
attainment of the goal of a literate Pakistan is painfully slow. It also
needs to be said that the figures given by government about literacy
statistics do not carry much credibility. For quite sometime the post of the
director general of the Federal Statistics Bureau has been lying vacant. Why
this neglect? Is it deliberate as suggested by some critics? It is suggested
that the figures can be engineered with junior officers in-charge.
Now a look at the government figures. According to the Ministry of Education
as many as six million children are still out of school. The Punjab
education minister says that 53 per cent of children joining primary school
still drop out in the first two years. A major reason for this wastage is
poor quality of teachers and an unwholesome school environment. More than 52
million Pakistanis above the age of 10 are totally illiterate. Two thirds of
them are women.
Credit goes to Unesco for keeping literacy centre stage, in its programmes
in Pakistan. But for its spirited support for this cause governments' record
might have been worse. Unesco's latest contribution is LIFE - Literacy
Initiative For Empowerment. 34 countries lagging behind the rest of the
world have been flagged for special help with funds and technical
assistance. Pakistan because of its poor record has been chosen along with
Bangladesh for special treatment.
In December, Unesco Islamabad office held a national consultation meeting on
LIFE in the context of the literacy challenge facing Pakistan. In a Unesco
presentation the issues identified were :a) insufficient political will b)
weak organisational structure. c) inadequate financing and delay in
disbursement . d) low-level of Capacity. e) low awareness of the importance
of literacy. F) lack of monitoring and evaluation system and g) absence of
uniform national curriculum.
The recommendations proposed were:
i. Enhance political support
ii. Raise financial allocations for education from 2% to 4%
iii. Earmark 5-8% of educational budget for literacy and non-formal
education
iv. Streamline organisational infrastructure for literacy and NFE- from
national level to district level
v. Set up a National Literacy Authority
This curtain raiser meeting on LIFE was followed by a Regional Planning
Workshop in March. It was attended by Unesco experts from Paris, Tokyo,
Hamburg and Bangkok as well as Indonesia, China, India, Bangladesh and many
other countries. These specialists interacted with Pakistani officials and
NGO representatives to evolve a schedule of need assessment and develop a
strategy for revitalising and accelerating the spread of literacy in
Pakistan. The existing programmes and approaches were reviewed.
Recommendations were made for the formation of a national steering committee
which will plan and oversee project implementation with emphasis on
strengthening institutional capacity, improvement of efficiency of literacy
manages and teaches and the production of need-based reading materials.
Hopefully, the Pakistani government will avail of this opportunity to gear
up its will to build institutional capacity for planning and implementing
literacy programmes. Hopefully the funds to be provided by Unesco for
remedying the flaws and deficiencies in the present efforts and the offer of
technical assistance would not be frittered away by a listless and myopic
approach.. It is not clear if the top leadership has the requisite
commitment to own the cause of literacy. One may hear recall how the baby
was thrown out with the bath water when the much-needed National Literacy
Commission was abolished on the recommendation of a shortsighted economy
committee.
The good news is that the education budget is expected to be raised from two
per cent to four per cent of the GDP. Federal Education Secretary says that
funds would no longer be a problem. This assurance has yet to be tested as
while allocation for education may increase, the amount provided for
literacy may remain inadequate. Equally important is the making of right
policies, programmes and methodologies as well as a practicable
implementation strategy. An essential part of the strategy will relate to
building up of infrastructural and institutional strength. There is much to
learn from the way India has managed to reach more then 65 per cent literacy
rate while Pakistan sits at the lowest rung of the South Asian literacy
ladder.
I close this column with an except from the publication, Literacy-- a Unesco
Perspective: "Literacy is more than reading and writing. It is about how we
communicate in society. It is about social practices and relationships,
about knowledge, language and culture. Literacy contributes to freedom and
equity; it is part of any social project, which aims at a fairer and more
just society. Open and democratic systems of governance require open and
adequate communication channels; no society in today's world can function
without the written dimension of communication- text on paper, on the
computer screen, on the TV, coupled with images and icons of all kinds.
Literacy is an inescapable part of life in today's world. In his book
Development as Freedom, Amartya Sen observes repeatedly that the expansion
of literacy, especially female literacy, has a positive effect on basic
aspirations such as life expectancy and political voice".
E-mail: pacade@brain.net.pk
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4.- MOZAMBIQUE: GUEBUZA ON MOZAMBICAN WOMEN'S DAY
Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique
(Maputo)
April 7,
2006
Posted to the web April 7, 2006
Maputo
Mozambican
President Armando Guebuza declared on Friday, without naming names, that
many countries have still not understood that women play an unquestionable
role in safeguarding the economic life of their communities.
Guebuza was
speaking, at a celebration of Mozambican Women's Day, with a group of
orphaned and vulnerable children in the Maputo neighbourhood of Maxaquene.
He stressed
that those who know what to do to ensure the day-to-day life of a home are
women. They have shown that they possess great management capacity, but
awareness of this fact "escapes many societies". "Fortunately Mozambicans
have discovered the capacity of women in community management", said Guebuza.
"That's why the government has tried to improve the recognition of women in
society".
The
President stressed that the objective of his government is not merely to put
women in leadership positions, but also to make use of women's experience to
develop Mozambique. Earlier in the morning Guebuza laid a wreath on the
Monument to the Mozambican Heroes, where the person who has come to
symbolise women's participation in the struggle for Mozambican independence,
Josina Machel, is buried, alongside others who fell in the battle to create
and defend a free Mozambique, including the founder of Frelimo, Eduardo
Mondlane, and the country's first president, Samora Machel.
In brief
remarks to reporters, Guebuza brushed aside claims made in parliament by
deputies of the former rebel movement Renamo that 7 April is not a date that
represents all Mozambican women, but only those who identify with Frelimo.
He hoped that one day Renamo would come to accept reality.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200604070580.html
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5.- KENYAN SCHOOLGIRLS RAPED ON MARCH
BBC News, World Edition; Tuesday, 28 March 2006
At least 15 schoolgirls in Kenya were raped during a night-time protest
march in the central district of Nyeri.
Hundreds of pupils had stormed out of school in the middle of the night to
go to the district commissioner's office to demand better conditions.
The BBC's Wanyama wa Chebusiri in Nyeri says three of those attacked are
critically ill in hospital.
The victims say as they were marching a gang of local villagers attacked
them, raping at least 15 girls in turn.
"Unfortunately their screams could have been confused with the excited
shouts of protesters," a student on the march told Kenya's East African
Standard newspaper.
Our correspondent says almost 700 Kanguburi Girls High School pupils chose
to make the 10-15km walk at night to disguise their identities.
Police say they are investigating the matter, but no arrests have been made.
The school's headmistress spent much of Monday in an emergency meeting with
local education authorities, our reporter says.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4852182.stm
______________________________________________
Jessie Wanyeki Forsyth
Facilitator, Linkage Program
c/o CUSO-Mozambique
Rua Fontes Pereira de Melo, 98 r/c
C.P. 4252, Maputo, Mozambique
Phone: 258-21-314574
Fax: 258-21-314573
E-mail: jessie.linkage@cuso.org.mz
http://www.cuso.org.mz/linkage/aboutlinkage.html
http://www.cuso.org.mz/
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6.-
newa
newa@ethionet.et
Dear Members,
Partners and Friends:
We send this message to call for action on violence against women. Please
forward this e-mail as many people as you can so that everyone will be aware
of what is going on and do something to stop the violence. We urge you to
send your names to Network of Ethiopian Women’s Associations with the
following addresses.
P. O. Box 27159/1000
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia e-mail:
newa@ethionet.et
Tel.
251-011-662-4948 / 011-661-3503 / 011-618-7213 Fax 251-011-663-8437
We are
collecting petition to be presented to the Prime Minister’s Office, the
Ministry of Women’s Affairs, the Ministry of Justice, the Federal Supreme
and High Courts, the Federal Police Commission and other relevant bodies and
offices. We should raise our voices together to bring justice to the victims
and their families. We also request for your support to collect names of
people who would like to fight such crimes and send it to our office.
In Dire Dawa
Administration 5 girls have been raped and reported within only 2 weeks
time. The criminals are not yet punished for their evil deeds. The cases are
listed below.
1.
A 4
years and 5 months child was raped by a 26 years old man.
2.
A 17
years old 9th grade student was raped by 3 men.
3.
A 19
years old 1st year Law student of Alemaya University Dire Dawa
Campus was brutally beaten and raped.
4.
A 15
years old girl was raped by 2 men.
5.
A 17
years old girl was raped by 2 men.
Among the
victims, 3 were injured severely and they are under medical treatment. The
inhuman crimes caused anxiety and rage on the residents of the city. It is
particularly psychologically distressing girl students of the Alemaya
University and affecting their studies. The circumstance under which the
crime has been committed on the Alemaya student was extremely shocking.
The girl and
her classmates, two girls and two boys, were returning back to school from a
coffee shop when the perpetrators ambushed them. Some of the attackers were
tried to hold the girls while ordering the boys to go to the campus. As the
boys refused to leave the girls behind, the perpetrators beat them so bad.
They boys then ran to school to seek for help. In the mean time the
perpetrators took hold of the victim and took her away from the main road to
the side bushes, and raped her. The girl has lost one of her front teeth and
smashed on the face. The students who were looking for her found her in the
bushes, took her to health centers and finally sent her to Addis to her
family.
Therefore it
is vital to fight these and similar other crimes together. Your voice is
very important to bring justice and to prevent more violence and to
discourage potential criminals. Let’s sign a petition!
We are now
urging for justice and call everyone to fight violence against women. Let’s
all call for action against such inhuman actions.
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7.-
PUBLICATION OF THE FINAL PAPER OF THE WORLD ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION CONGRESS
3Weec Press
listmaster@schole.it
The final paper of the 3rd World Environmental Education Congress is
now available on the web site
www.3weec.org. The Congress
held in Torino (Italy) in October 2005 had the participation of 3,500 people
from 5 continents and 115 countries.
The paper is the result of a careful summary of the work carried out at the
Congress during the twelve thematic sessions and the plenary sessions.
Approved by the international Scientific Committee, it offers a
well-organized panorama of the state of environmental education in the world
today and sets forth the very latest guidelines.
The Proceedings of the 3rd WEEC Congress are also being prepared, which will
bring together the hundreds of papers and posters presented at the Congress.
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