Group items tagged

One result is that they deliberately decided to complement the delivery of the devices with extensive engagement with local stakeholder groups, did a lot of capacity building with teachers and trainers, and tried to help align what they were doing with what was happening in the formal education system.

hat said, there are very real concerns in some quarters that e-book initiatives from the 'West', however well-intentioned, are potentially an important tool contributing to a subtle form of, for lack of a better term, cultural imperialism. Worldreader is apparently working on a platform for African authors and publishers to be able to distribute their works electronically, so that it will be easier for students to read books from local authors, consistent with the learning goals of local school systems.  While not downplaying the difficulties of getting large educational publishers to make their content available digitally for use by students in Africa, this desire to help promote digital marketplaces for African reading materials is perhaps the most ambitious aspect to the Worldreader initiative.

When they went back and asked, "what if content was digitized and made available at $1/book?", many people suddenly got very interested. 

The eLearning Africa 2012 Report Free Download    For more than a decade eLearning has promised a revolution in African education. The opportunity of mass access to world-class learning resources without the barriers of distance or cost has excited educationalists, politicians and learners alike. But has eLearning lived up to this promise? What do African eLearning professionals, practitioners, policymakers, business leaders and teachers think about this? What technologies do they use and which world views inform their work? For the first time ever, the perspectives of eLearning professionals and a range of other stakeholders across 41 different countries on the Continent are reflected in this ground-breaking new publication from eLearning Africa.

Thousands of Ivorian children have dropped out of school because of pillaging and destruction of school buildings, a majority of which are located in economic capital Abidjan.

Out of the 224 attacks on schools during the post-election crisis in Cote d’Ivoire early 2011, more than half occurred in Abidjan. Schools were not spared from the consequences of the struggles, and suffered pillaging and destruction from stray bullets, shelling and arson. In the hotspots of the crisis, some schools were even occupied by armed forces, equipment was damaged and classrooms were ransacked. The crisis caused many schools throughout the country to close for months.

The studies show that certain regions are still hardly hit by a strong dropout rate, particularly in the western portion of the country and in Abidjan, where the fighting reached peaks of violence. In those areas, considerable damage was inflicted by armed forces and pillaging, which greatly struck the schools and prevented children from resuming their education on the school year opening on 24 October. Thousands of children are today still missing from school months after the crisis.

Roots of Empathy is a powerful idea whose time has come. An evidenced-based charitable organization, its mission is to build caring, peaceful, and civil societies through the development of empathy in children and adults. Its vision is to change the world - one child at a time.

Roots of Empathy is considered a model of social innovation and has two evidence-based programs: a flagship program of the same name for children in elementary school (Roots of Empathy) and its "younger sibling," a program for children ages three to five in childcare settings Seeds of Empathy.

Independent evaluations consistently show children who receive Roots of Empathy experience dramatic and lasting effects in terms of increased positive social behaviour (sharing, helping and including) and decreased aggression.

Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan put quite the punctuation mark on what it means to work for peace. Speaking during the International Day of Peace, shortly before the dawn of the 21st century, Annan said that working for peace can be complicated, complex, and messy. But it's quite possibly the most necessary thing we can do, both in our personal lives and around the globe.

Kampala — RWANDA needs close to 1,000 English teachers following the country's switch from French to English as the language of instruction in schools.Rwanda wants teachers from Uganda and other neighbouring countries to support its switch to English.

"The Education Service Commission in collaboration with the ministry of education of Rwanda announced that the government of Rwanda has embarked on a massive recruitment of teachers of English," he wrote. "Teachers (will be sourced) from within and outside Rwanda; including the East African Community region."

owever, other sources say English teachers are needed across the country, giving an estimate of between 500 and 1,000 vacancies."ILMI is ready to hire talented instructors to teach English and/or Business English to government officials and business executives in Rwanda," read an announcement on ESL-Jobs, an online jobmart.

More than 200 participants from education unions have taken part in EI’s seventh African Regional Conference in Brazzaville, Congo, from 29 November to 3 December. The conference theme of ‘Unity for Sustainable Investment in Quality Public Education’ was the focus of out-going EI Regional President Irene Duncan-Adunusa’s opening address.

"Investing in teachers means: investing in teachers' training, investing in teachers' working conditions, and investing in teachers' human and trade union rights. Dear colleagues, now, more than ever, is time for African educators to reaffirm Africa's ability to build a new future for its citizens through education."

“the voice of teachers is critical in ensuring that governments in Africa focus on the quality dimension in education and channel more money towards attaining this.”

But as President René Préval emphasized during my meeting with him, we must be thinking about tomorrow. Haiti, though desperately poor, had been making progress. It was enjoying a new stability; investors had returned. That will not be enough to rebuild the country as it was, nor is there any place for cosmetic improvements. We must help Haiti build back better, working with the government so that today's investments have lasting benefit, creating jobs and freeing Haitians from dependence on the world's generosity.

Haiti's plight is a reminder of our wider responsibilities. A decade ago, the international community began a new century by agreeing to act to eliminate extreme poverty by 2015. Great strides have been made toward some of these ambitious "millennium goals," variously targeting core sources of global poverty and obstacles to development -- from maternal health and education to managing infectious disease. Yet progress in other critical areas lags badly. We are very far from delivering on our promises of a better future for the world's poor.

Quakes are commonplace in Chile; since 1906 and counting this most recent earthquake, Chile has experienced 28 earthquakes [es]—without counting the smaller in magnitude but still frequent seismic activity that is often felt around the country. The three biggest earthquakes that many Chileans can still remember left 30,000 dead in 1939, 3,000 in 1960, and 177 in 1985.

The Chilean government, society, and people should be praised for their readiness in dealing with such a catastrophic natural disaster…as of this writing, Chile has still not appealed for international help even though the death toll has topped 300.

I was impressed with the buildings since most of them where built under strict codes to remain standing during seismic movements. Chileans say that every decade there was a strong earthquake that left the city “la escoba” (like a broom) . That means, the earthquakes turned cities into disaster zones.

With more than a million people taking refuge in temporary shelters, they are at greater risk of violence, including sexual and gender-based violence, Sidibé said. "Programmes are urgently needed to reduce vulnerabilities to HIV and ensure protection."

As Haiti experiences a critical interruption of HIV services and programmes, stepped up support is vital for the country to allow it to regain momentum towards reaching universal access goals for HIV prevention, treatment, care and support.

Haiti’s annual AIDS budget was $132 million prior to the earthquake, and UNAIDS believes that a further $70 million will be necessary to meet the country’s immediate response needs over the next six months.The UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that about 285 000 houses had been damaged or destroyed in the earthquake, and government and humanitarian organisations, as well as engineers, are working to register the displaced and plan relocation sites for those who cannot return to their homes.

Fifty years ago, the strongest earthquake ever recorded in history rocked the city of Valdivia, Chile. On May 22, 1960, the 9.5 magnitude earthquake struck the epicenter near the city of Cañete. However, Valdivia was the hardest hit locality with nearly 40% of its building destroyed and leaving close to 20,000 homeless.

From the city of Valdivia, Betsabé Sandoval (@_Nahra) has been uploading various vintage photos at Twitpic of the destruction from the 1960 earthquake, including this photo of the damage to the Valdivia Cathedral. In total, she has uploaded 10 different photographs.

There are many Twitter users who currently live in the city of Valdivia. Throughout the day, they have been reacting to the developments of the 2010 earthquake and how their fellow residents were affected. The Twitter user @tapeks writes about the current mood of the city: Se ve el temor en la gente, todos andan intranquilos y las calles se ven desoladas, se ve tan raro #Valdivia You can see the fear in the people, everyone walks around restless, the streets are desolate, it looks unusual

It is not possible to predict the time and magnitude of an earthquake, but certain places on the Earth know they are always at risk from big tremors. Chile is one of those places.It lies on the "Ring of Fire", the line of frequent quakes and volcanic eruptions that circles virtually the entire Pacific rim. The magnitude 8.8 event that struck the country at 0634GMT on Saturday occurred at the boundary between the Nazca and South American tectonic plates, just off shore and at a depth of about 35km (20 miles).

The Nazca plate, which makes up the Pacific Ocean floor in this region, is being pulled down and under the South American coast. It makes the region one of the most seismically active on the globe. Since 1973, there have been 13 events of magnitude 7.0 or greater.

French and Chilean seismologists had recently completed a study looking at the way the land was moving in response to the strain building up as a result of the tectonic collision. Their analysis suggested the area was ripe for a big quake. "This earthquake fills in an identified seismic gap," Dr Roger Musson, who is the British Geological Survey's Head of Seismic Hazard, told BBC News.