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PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, 31 March, 2010 – You only have to mention the word 'school' and a sparkle comes into Taïma Celestin's dark brown eyes. It's not hard to understand why. The scheduled reopening of Haiti's schools on 5 April will be the first real opportunity for this confident 10-year-old to leave what is today her home – a tiny lean-to covered with a blue tarpaulin in a former sports ground in the suburbs of Port-au-Prince.

During the day, Taïma joins several hundred other children for informal classes run by volunteer teachers inside two large white tents that were provided by UNICEF along with 'School-in-a-box' kits full of learning materials, and a recreation kit.The classes are noisy but good-natured. They pause briefly to allow members of a local non-governmental organization to distribute fruit juice and snacks to the children.

It may be part of the healing process that has led children in the camp to invent their own name for the earthquake. "When we talk about it among ourselves, we call it 'Monsieur Gudoo-Gudoo'," Taïma says, shaking her arms in rhythm to the words, "because that was the noise it made."

Evoke emerged from discussions with universities in Africa who increasingly wanted to find avenues to encourage their students to engage in local communities and develop innovative solutions to local development challenges. The universities were searching for ways to engage students in real world problems and to develop capacities for creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurial action that many believe will be the engine for job creation now and in the future.

Evoke  therefore is designed to empower young people all over the world, and especially in Africa, to start solving urgent social problems like hunger, poverty, disease, conflict, climate change, sustainable energy, health care, education, and human rights.; to collaborate with others globally; and to develop real world ideas to address these challenges.Players will be challenged to complete a series of ten missions and ten quests -- one per week, over the course of the ten-week game.   The "text book" for this course is an online graphic novel written by Emmy-award nominated producer Kiyash Monsef. 

The game's creative director, alternate reality pioneer Jane McGonigal, is debuting the game at this week's TED conference in Long Beach, California.  As she describes the game, "An evoke is an urgent call to innovation.  When we evoke, we look for creative solutions. We use whatever resources we have. We get as many people involved as possible. We take risks. We come up with ideas that have never been tried before. That's what we're asking players to do in this online game. To learn how to tackle the world's toughest problems with creativity, courage, resourcefulness and collaboration."

addressing men is an essential element of efforts to build gender equality

Involving men in gender equality strategies carries risks. For example, attention and funding may be diverted from programmes that support women. However, there are also risks if men are not involved. For instance, working with women only can leave power relations unchallenged, increase women's workload, and reinforce static definitions of men (e.g. as breadwinners) and women (e.g. as carers).

Nairobi — Schools countrywide open a new academic year on Monday as the government released Sh6 billion for the free learning programme. The institutions usher in a year expected to bring sweeping reforms in the management of education under the new Constitution. Also targeted are renewed efforts to lift performance in public schools.

At a time when the underachievement of black boys in the United States can only be described as a national crisis, there is finally some good news. This fall, Baltimore City Schools chief executive Andres Alonso proudly reported that black male teens in his district are staying in school and graduating in higher numbers. The announcement made headlines, and for good reason: It proves that there are successful strategies in approaching this seemingly intractable problem. We urge other cities across the country to learn from Baltimore's creative approach.

We have long known that excessive use of suspension and expulsion results in higher rates of school absence, academic failure and, eventually, quitting school altogether.

Consider: In the 2003-04 school year, fewer than one out of two black male students graduated. Baltimore schools handed out nearly 26,000 suspensions to a student body of just over 88,000 kids. Two-thirds were to boys and, reflecting the city's population, nearly all were to black students.

Responding to the lack of computer training in Mukteshwar’s schools, Veena Sethi, a retired Delhi University professor, set up two used personal computers in the basement of her home with the aim of bringing the basics of computing to school children.

UDAAN, however, moved on. A partnership with Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University made it possible for the NGO to introduce the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) programme in selected schools in Mukteshwar in May 2010. OLPC’s stated mission is to provide a means for learning, self-expression, and exploration to some two billion children in developing countries with little or no access to education.

"The XO machine is ideal for children in remote places where the classroom may be no more than the shade of a tree," explains Satish Jha, who heads OLPC in India. The XO laptop’s wireless connectivity and free, open-source "Sugar" operating system allows children to reshape, reinvent, and reapply both software and content. "The laptops grow with the children," Jha said.

Ms. McBride, who recently returned from three weeks in Haiti, said the children she spoke with who had moved from school tents into semi-permanent structures seemed “really happy to be back at school”. “One interesting thing about this,” Mr. Vasquez added, “is the fact that, believe it or not, children were afraid of going back to schools that were made out of bricks or reinforced concrete because they associate collapse with a certain type of construction.”

“That was also part of our initial design concerns when we were thinking about the semi-permanent schools,” Mr. Vasquez continued, “If you are able to pick on how children perceive space and how do they perceive the disaster, if you’re paying attention as an architect, you should be able to integrate their concerns into your design process.”

“On the surface of it the children seem very happy at school, learning, playing with their friends, interacting with their teachers, but one particular mother [I spoke with] told me that her children weren’t actually doing so well,” Ms. McBride said. “Her youngest daughter, who was about five,” Ms. McBride continued, “didn’t sleep well at night, they didn’t like to be separated from her for too long, and she, as a parent, didn’t like to be separated from her children.”

Fast Car: Travelling Safely around the World is a racing game that helps you to learn about HIV and AIDS prevention and takes you on a tour of some of the World's Heritage sites. The game aims to provide young people with accurate and reliable information about HIV prevention, intending to educate and entertain as well as promoting healthy behaviour. In this game, the player can race on circuits on five continents, and virtually visit some of the UNESCO World Heritage sites. It also presents images of sites and interesting facts about them as players race by.

“Kids are enrolling in school in much greater numbers than ever before,” she said, “but that really masks the fact that they’re actually not learning very much. One example is that in Uganda, half the kids in third grade can’t read a single word.”

“We know how to train teachers. We know how to put in curricula. We know what the right things to do for kids are to give them all the right skills,” added Mr. Wong. “But the investment required, and the time and the commitment, is not there if you don’t have the political support.”

A Brookings Institution analysis of the wealthiest philanthropic donors in the United States found that global education was a very low priority for them. Ms. Winthrop said she believed this was because a focus on enrolment – which is on track to meet the Millennium Development Goal on education – has “lulled people into thinking that the global education agenda is done, check, we can cross that off the list.”

The educationist was speaking at a ceremony to award certificates to teachers who had attended an in-service training with Teachers without Borders (TWB). The US organisation supports teachers worldwide with professional development opportunities.

In the TWB course, teachers learn how they can enlighten learners and the society on MDGs to fast-track their achievement."One chooses an MDG to focus on. They either teach it in their schools/community or contribute to an existing initiative that focuses on the MDG," said Mr Mathias Osimbo, a representative of teachers without borders.

Osimbo said the course, taught free to teachers at primary and secondary schools, aims at increasing the impact of teachers in society."It makes teachers to be instruments of change beyond the classroom border by working with communities," he said.Michael Ndung’u, a beneficiary of the program says that the course has helped him enrich his teaching skills."It makes one move from being a passive disseminator of information to an active collaborator and inquirer," he notes.Besides MDGs, teachers also train in effective classroom management methods and teaching multi-cultured learners.Members of the organisation are also offered a platform where teachers can interact with others across the world and share experiences.

According to top officials of the state education department, government is all set to effect thorough changes in the curriculum of primary and upper primary education in accordance with the Right to Education Act (RTE). Instead of the current curriculum which focuses more on writing answers, the new syllabus will focus more on activity-based learning.Outdated subjects and chapters will be removed and more informative and knowledgeable ones will be added.

Almost 350 teachers from all over the state will be trained and eventually will be given the responsibility of suggesting changes

The shake-up of the National Curriculum in England's schools should ensure a place for both academic and vocational subjects, MPs have said. A report by the House of Commons education committee says boring lessons fuel bad behaviour and the curriculum should meet the needs of all pupils.

The report by the cross-party committee concluded: "Ministers should bear in mind that if the future curriculum is to have a beneficial effect on standards of behaviour in the classroom, it will need to meet the needs of all pupils and contain a mix of academic and vocational subjects, while being differentiated and enjoyable".

Committee chairman Graham Stuart MP said: "If the curriculum doesn't stimulate children, they will switch off, and the chances are that they will disrupt other children's learning. "The onus is now on the government to draw up a national curriculum which engages all children and meets their aspirations, then let teachers decide how to apply it."

The political upheaval in Côte d’Ivoire is taking a heavy toll on education, especially in the north, illustrating starkly the devastating impact conflict can have on learning opportunities – and the vicious circle in which conflict and education can become trapped.

A teacher described his school in Abidjan, the commercial capital, as much better than others in the city: “There are around 63 students per teacher – that’s a small class; it’s considered good. But there are no tables, no chairs, sometimes there’s no light. Sometimes students take it in turns to come into the classroom to sit on the few chairs.”

This year’s Global Monitoring Report focuses on other ways in which education failures can stoke conflict – such as perpetuating prejudice instead of promoting tolerance, and failing to pass on the skills that children need to escape poverty. The report lays out practical steps that governments and the international community can take to make sure that education builds peace rather than fanning the flames of war.

MUMBAI: Becoming a primary school teacher will get tougher. Beginning from next academic year (2012-2013), the state government is making passing graduation compulsory for those aspiring to be educators.

Admitting that with change in education system such as virtual classes, e-library, internet learning and other hi-tech education methods, it is a need of the hour to change the decade old rules and qualification needed to take up the job of required a teacher. But, the minister refused to reveal details of the department plans on the issue.

Some teachers have supported the move, while few have objected it. "Raising the qualification limit for becoming a primary schoolteacher will not help in improving the quality of education. There is need to change their mindset of teachers in view of Right To Eductaion (RTE)," said Ramesh Joshi, who heads Brihanmumbai Mahapalika Shikshak Sabha, the largest BMC teachers` union.