Despite their terrible loss, Fawzana and her family seem to have found a measure of comfort and stability in their daily routine. Fawzana’s father helps cut bread for her breakfast while she sleepily brushes her hair and gets her books ready. Then he drives his daughters and their friends to school.
The Zahira school has been rebuilt. It now has high, protective walls and an effective electrical system, which the old building lacked. In one new room, rows of computers wait for children to start working the keyboards. Zahira, which serves 500 students, is now equipped with modern, separate toilet facilities for girls and boys.
Zahira is one of 35 new schools UNICEF has been helping to build in Sri Lanka following the tsunami. Next door, builders are hard at work on a new secondary school.
In Hambantota, as elsewhere, a school has an importance beyond its bricks and mortar.
“In the aftermath of the disaster, you have to consider the psychological factor,” says English teacher S.M. Risham. “You know when the students get back to school they have the opportunity of sharing their experience. At the same time they can get a valuable education so that they’ll be able to stand on their own feet.”
A new startFawzana and her classmates haven’t forgotten the tsunami. She’s still afraid of the sea at times, especially if it’s rough. But she is also beginning to turn her mind to the future. “I want to be a teacher because I want to follow my mother. I want to see other children studying and I want to help them do that in the future.”
Back on the seafront, new fishing boats form a colourful arc, a strong sign that the local fishing industry is being restored. And just as Hambantota’s fishing fleet is a vital economic lifeline, its schools are anchors for the whole community.
For Fawzana personally, the revival of the Zahira school represents a new start and new hope.
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CBC News Indepth: Afghanistan - 1 views
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When 1.5 million children went back in school in Afghanistan in the spring of 2002, a tough lesson was waiting for them. While the country welcomed some semblance of peace for the first time in years, war remained very much a part of its classrooms. Afghanistan's teachers tried to erase war images from the textbooks, images that got there in the first place due in large part to Cold War policies in the United States.
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This is very important because it shows that the war that is going is affecting both countries. When we think of the war we think of only who it affects us but it affects our troops and the troops' family but not most of our schooling systems. This should make us think and do somthing to help them,
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Some children bring their own chairs to school, if they have them. The school was almost destroyed by war.
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this just shows how this war is highly affecting them more then this war has been affecting us.
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A student learns to add and subtract bullets Math teachers use bullets as props to
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this shows that these kids willl grow up with the idea of war stuck in their back of thier heads this will affect them and their lives in the long run
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m has been the best place to indoctrinate young people with their duty to fight. Government-sponsored textbooks in Afghanistan are filled with violence. For years, war was the
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teach lessons in subtraction. This isn't their idea. During decades of war, the classroo
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only lesson that counted.
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So, at that time, there was a lot of militaristic thinking."
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Rashid loves school but he says he and the other boys don't understand why their books are filled with war.
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these kids just want to learn things that other children around the world are learniong without the idea of war in their heads
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The pleasures of childhood are so simple. A kite to fly, a friend to share your dreams with, maybe a good storybook. In Afghanistan, a child's pleasure is simply an end to 23 years of war.
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its really sad how these kids cannot dream like other kids they have to worry about a huge war.
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"INDEPTH: AFGHANISTAN Back to school in Afghanistan CBC News Online | January 27, 2004 The National | Airdate: May 6, 2002 Reporter: Carol Off | Producer: Heather Abbott | Editor: Catherine McIsaac When 1.5 million children went back in school in Afghanistan in the spring of 2002, a tough lesson was waiting for them. While the country welcomed some semblance of peace for the first time in years, war remained very much a part of its classrooms. Afghanistan's teachers tried to erase war images from the textbooks, images that got there in the first place due in large part to Cold War policies in the United States. Textbooks are full of guns, swords and other images of war At a public school in Kabul, students and teachers are anxious for some kind of normal routine. Some children bring their own chairs to school, if they have them. The school was almost destroyed by war. There's no electricity. It's colder inside than out. The cement floor is freezing. But the students don't mind. The young women and girls at this school are back in the classroom after five years of banishment by the Taliban. Women in their 20s have returned to Grade 11. But they're not bitter, they're happy. Getting children back to school is a number one priority in Afghanistan's post war government. But the big question is: what will they learn? A student learns to add and subtract bullets Math teachers use bullets as props to teach lessons in subtraction. This isn't their idea. During decades of war, the classroom has been the best place to indoctrinate young people with their duty to fight. Government-sponsored textbooks in Afghanistan are filled with violence. For years, war was the only lesson that counted. The Mujahideen, Afghanistan's freedom fighters, used the classroom to prepare children to fight the Soviet empire. The Russians are long gone but the textbooks are not. The Mujahideen had wanted to prepare the next generation of Afghans to fight the enemy, so pupils learned the prop
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Please tag this schools. Also, can you highlight passages that help you create an image of what schools look like?
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Building Schools in Afghanistan: Not as Simple as ABC -- Politics Daily - 1 views
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It's part of an intricate theory of counterinsurgency warfare that involves big money and grinding hard work for a long shot, distant payoff: that kids will grow up in a stable, moderate society not wrenched by extremist violence.That's our exit strategy from the Afghan war.
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This shows that everyone is realizing what a big affect that the war has had on the community of Afghanistan, and how it is affecting the children and thier future of living in Afghanistan.
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And, according to U.S. strategists, this school and others like it will help keep boys from drifting away to extremist madrassas in Pakistan and falling into the clutches of the Taliban
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In the effort to build schools it is their attempt to make a brighter future for these kids who as of right now have no where to go, they just hang out on the streets which everyone knows leads to trouble.
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Afghans have been building this way for hundreds, if not thousands, of years: rock foundations without mortar. The contractors and workers, some with long white beards, watch Rafaele carefully, waiting perhaps for him to explain this interesting new idea.
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The people in Afghanistan are doing what they have been doing for thousands of years and this is part of the reason that they are trapped in the cycle of war and violence, they have to try new things for the future of schools, but at the same time keep thier culture strong.
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"It's hard to get them to change their ways,'' he tells me later. The problem is "their stuff is over-built. We can show them how to build more efficiently, quicker and easier,'' he says.Construction is not the only problem with schools.
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Once a school is built and filled with kids and teachers, there is a continuing need for paper, pencils, textbooks, desks, chairs -- and no obvious source of supply. As it is, U.S. troops on patrol are routinely asked for school supplies, requests that are often forwarded home to military families and charities in the States to handle.
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That is another big problem, once a school is biult and they do fins students, it brings more problems like supplies and lessons. I know from personal experience that teachers there don't come to school with a set lesson. I f the teacher doesn't show up they students just go back home. Even if they are schools people iN Afghanistan have to put it to good use.
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For full credit, please follow through and use the tagging protocols: Name of Country and schools.
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Can you highlight passages that help you create an image of what schools that need help look like?
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Africa Recovery/UN/14#2.Schools in Africa - 2 views
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As a percentage of gross domestic product, average expenditure on education in 1992-96 was half the level of the mid-1980s. By 1994, primary school enrolment was declining, especially of girls. "Compared with the [IMF] inflation targets drawn up in Washington," observed Oxfam, "the education targets set at Jomtien have been irrelevant. In fact, the design and implementation of structural adjustment in Zambia has destroyed any prospect of the country achieving the Jomtien goals."
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For full credit, please follow through and use the tagging protocols: Name of Country and schools.
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can you highlight passages that help you create an image of what the schools are like?
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Digital Video & Imagery Distribution System - 2 views
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"It is a wonderful feeling we can assist the community and help build the school.
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"We are very happy our people are working together on this school with the U.S. forces. Our people will greatly benefit from this project," said Jasmine B. Asum, the head high school instructor.
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I think it is very nice that the entire community is working together to make a school in their community.
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For full credit, please capitalize proper names such as names of countries.
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Can you highlight passages that help you create an image of what schools look like?
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Ida Strengthens to a Category 2 Storm; Hurricane Watch for U.S. Coast - ABC News - 1 views
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Hurricane Ida has strengthened to a Category 2 storm with winds of up to 100 mph. The National Hurricane Center has issued a hurricane watch for southeastern Louisiana that stretches to the Florida Panhandle. It does not include the city of New Orleans, the hurricane center said. The watch means hurricane conditions are possible in the next 36 hours.
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The hurrican ida had hit the Gulf of Mexico and is possible to hit Florida which cant be good.
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In El Salvador, the Interior Minister Humberto Centeno reported 91 people were dead and another 60 are missing following deadly floods and mudslides.
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In El Salvador the hurricane had left may floods and 91 people had been reported dead.
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For full credit, please follow through and use the tagging protocols: Name of Country and schools.
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How is this article helping you to understand what schools are like?
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shared by PETER B on 10 Nov 09
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Education In Third World - 2 views
www.streetdirectory.com/...education_in_third_world.html
Schools Mexico India Brazil Turkey the Philippines Egypt South Africa Malaysia Thailand much of America and several Persian Gulf Arab States.
shared by PETER B on 10 Nov 09
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"With the daily challenges posed by economic difficulty and other threats, governments in developing countries are working very hard to ensure that their educational institutions continue to provide a standard of education that can make its citizens at part with the educated people in more economically sound countries. To a certain extent, these Third World countries have succeeded in their crusade for quality education. The problem is that a good education comes with a price and it is often a price that many people in Third World countries are not able to pay. So, although quality education is available, it is still unreachable for a large segment of a developing country's population. Certainly, it is impressive to see that developing countries have educational institutions that are world-class and which offer education that can rival that provided by wealthier nations around the world. There is a clear recognition of the role that education plays in overcoming hardship and poverty. However elusive it may be, a good education is still viewed as the best way to a better life. Among the developing countries that have superb educational systems are such "emerging markets" as Mexico, India, Brazil, Turkey, the Philippines, Egypt, South Africa, Malaysia, Thailand, much of South America and several of the Persian Gulf Arab States. Obviously, the poorest of the poor in these countries will have a hard time getting into the best schools in their vicinity. Of course, there are always scholarship programs available but these are few. Besides, people at the lowest spectrum of the economic scale are more concerned with more pressing issues related to their mere survival such as where to find food and money for clothing and shelter. After these basic needs are met, that is the only time that parents can really focus on their children's schooling. In fact, studies indicate that once their basic economic needs are met, the first priority of most poor families is how to s -
For full credit, please follow through and use the tagging protocols: Name of Country and schools.
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How is this helping you get an image in your mind about what the schools are like?
