Getting to know your international contacts part 3

The conclusion of the Sub Saharan Arica 2012 Education for All Report that was presented in November states that never in African history has so much been achieved in education over such a short period of time and governments are legitimately proud of their achievements. But the gap between the have and have-nots in education remains too large. Across Sub Saharan Africa, there is a general awareness that the last decade has witnessed unprecedented progress in the development of education. Net Enrollment Ratio in primary education had increased from 58% in 1999 to 76% by 2010 and the Gender parity index from 0.85 to 0.93 over the same period of time. Enrollment in secondary education more than doubled from 20.8 million to 43.7 million to grasp the full significance of the dividends yielded by the Education for All effort across the region within a decade. Despite the great achievements however, very few countries in the sub Saharan African region will reach the Education for All goals by the year 2015. The international community set the goals in 2000 during the World Education Forum in Dakar.While the prospects are positive for Universal Primary Education and Gender equality, the challenges are particularly daunting for the remaining four goals, namely early childhood care and education, youth and adult skills, adult literacy and the issue of quality. Here again the figures from Africa speak for themselves: 31 million children are out of school, 35% of the youth has no access to secondary education or technical skills development, and 163 adults are illiterate. 36% of the children in eastern and southern Africa reaching the minimum required level of maths competences against 43% in central and West Africa. 35% of children in west and central Africa acquire the minimum level of reading at the end of primary education against 64% of the children in eastern and southern Africa. “The gaps are simply too large and with the decreasing international assistance to education, resources are just not enough to bridge the differences,” comments Rodrigues. “Urgent action is needed to improve the quality of education in sub-Saharan Africa.

" The scale and diversity of mobile learning projects in the United Kingdom and Denmark indicate that sustained government investment is necessary to roll out large projects which effectively use mobile phones for learning. Secondary school teachers in Europe, beyond using mobile phones to enrich the delivery of education, have recently begun asking students to practice technical and critical thinking skills by designing their own mobile applications. These trends and illustrative projects, among others, are detailed in the newly released papers about mobile learning in Europe. The papers are an essential component of the broader UNESCO Working Paper Series on Mobile Learning. The Series scans the global to provide concrete examples of how mobile technologies, due largely to their availability and affordability, can respond to unique educational challenges in different contexts; supplement and enrich formal schooling; and, in general, make learning everywhere more accessible, equitable, and personalized.

“Stand up for Malala -- Stand up for girls’ right to education!” is the rallying cry of an advocacy event, taking place at UNESCO’s Paris Headquarters on 10 December, the United Nations Human Rights Day. Organized by UNESCO and the Government of Pakistan, the event will accelerate political action to ensure every girl’s right to go to school, and to advance girls’ education as an urgent priority for achieving Education For All.The event pays tribute to Malala Yousafazi, an astonishingly brave 15 year old girl who survived an assassination attempt for her determined efforts to defend girls’ education in Paskistan, after the Taliban outlawed schools for girls in her native Swat Valley. The human rights to education and gender equality were both violated by this action. “Whenever and wherever a young girl is forbidden from going to school, it’s an attack against all girls, against the right to learn, the right to live life to the full; and it is unacceptable,” declared UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova last month in an official manifestation of support for Malala. Indeed, there is no justification – be it cultural, economic or social – for denying girls and women an education. Humanity stands as a single community when united around human rights and fundamental freedoms. Malala’s struggle highlights a devastating reality: Girls make up the majority of the world’s 61 million out-of-school children. They are less likely than boys to enter primary school. Harmful practices such as early marriage, gender-based violence, discriminatory laws, prevent them from enrolling in or completing school. Educational disparities start at the youngest ages and continue into adulthood. Women represent two thirds of the world’s 775 million illiterates. Despite making breakthroughs in higher education, women still account for just 29 per cent of researchers.