Divine chocolate is absolutely delicious and even more so knowing the story behind its fair trade and sustainable production story. Congratulations CEO Sophi Tranchell; you’ve shown the world that business does not have to profit at the cost of the people who matter.
This is a business model worthy of demonstration to students who aspire to be global citizens.
http://bit.ly/1VtOHhU
By Marilyn Snider
“Education is a human right with immense power to transform. On its foundation rest the cornerstones of freedom, democracy and sustainable human development.” Kofi Annan
The Human Right to Education
Quality of life outcomes and social mobility indicators are directly linked to a child’s ability to access quality education. This is particularly relevant for children living in poverty, including those in developing countries.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights, Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) recognise the inherent dignity of each person and set out the conditions for enjoyment of individual rights by all; be they economic, social, cultural, civil or political rights.
These treaties and declarations also encourage international cooperation in matters relating to education, including the promotion of literacy, science and technical knowledge.
Under these binding legal instruments, every child has the right to free, available and compulsory primary education. This right exists alongside a call for the development of different forms of secondary education, including general and vocational education, and for these to be available and accessible to every child. Children also have the right to be disciplined at school in a manner consistent with the child’s innate human rights. And to protect the rights of female students, CEDAW mandates that all appropriate measures must be taken to eliminate discrimination against women and girls in the field of education, particularly relating to access and opportunity.
The second Millennium Development Goal (MDG) aimed to achieve universal primary education for all. At the end of the 15-year MDG program, 58 million children of primary school age (roughly six to 11 years old) remained out of school. These children are a reminder of the broken promise to achieve universal primary education by 2015.
UNESCO INSTITUTE FOR STATISTICS, AUGUST 2014 (HTTP://ON.UNESCO.ORG/OOSC-MAP)
The MDGs were quickly followed by the launch of the Sustainable Development agenda to guide development action for the next 15 years. Education is addressed in Sustainable Development Goal 4: To ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.
But the limited impact of the MDGs on education shows that development goals are not easily attainable. Many issues create obstructions, and most of these are deeply embedded in political, economic, social and cultural systems. The reality is that there limited opportunities to deliver quality universal primary education.
The reasons are many. In most developing country contexts, teachers receive little or no training in the official curriculum or pedagogy. In fact, many teachers may have only a few years more schooling than their students. Teachers are so poorly paid that turning up for work may not be the priority on any given day. There may be pressures of family life, livelihoods, family illness, lack of transport, or unpaid salaries.
For many students affected by extreme poverty, they might be needed to look after siblings or perhaps even a parent, to harvest crops, to work for income, or might themselves be trafficked for income. Schooling then becomes a lesser consideration for those who prioritise that day’s survival over longer term benefits to be gained from education.
War also strikes at the heart of education. Where long-term fighting prevents both students and teachers from safely accessing school, a generation of students is lost, damaging that community’s ability to improve the lives of its members.
“Education, with its immense power to transform, is the platform to impart to students the accountability of humans to themselves and each other, especially to those whose rights are not being met.”
Despite the pessimism, there have been some remarkable successes. The number of out-of-school children of primary school age worldwide fell by 42 per cent between 2000 and 2012. But there are massive problems that still need to be addressed. The UN report Fixing the Broken Promise for All shows the children behind the statistics: the boy pushing a cart in a Kyrgyzstan bazaar to help feed his family; the Yemeni girl pulled out of school to be married off against her will; the Namibian child with an undiagnosed hearing impairment who struggles at school; the Syrian refugee child turned away from one over-burdened school after another.
A Human Rights Curriculum
We must address human rights within the school curriculum, regardless of whether schooling is a daily deliverable – such as in privileged countries – or whether it remains a challenge to provide, such as in countries experiencing extreme poverty and protracted violence.
Human rights awareness underpins social justice, ethical behaviour, intercultural understanding, peaceful conflict resolution and partnerships for development. It promotes critical and creative thinking, and global learning in the classroom delivers these perspectives.
Education, with its immense power to transform, is the platform to teach students about our responsibilities to each other, especially to those whose rights are under threat.
The Australian Human Rights Commission developed a series of educational resources called Rights Ed to help Australian students gain an understanding of human rights and responsibilities in everyday life.
Other resources for students include:
History of Human Rights – video addressing the history of human rights (suitable for secondary students);
What are Child Rights – video suitable for junior primary students in years 1-4;
Children and Young People’s Rights – video suitable for students in years 5-8;
Malala Yousafzai: Warrior with Words by Karen Leggett Abouraya – 36 pages, suitable for students in years 3-7.
For Every Child by Caroline Castle – a beautifully illustrated book about the CRC.
We are all Born Free: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Pictures – picture storybook by Amnesty International celebrating the UDHR.
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Marilyn Snider is a global learning consultant involved in curriculum planning on global issues including human rights, social justice, sustainability and intercultural understanding. She has been a teacher for more than 20 years. Her website can be found at www.bethinkglobal.com.au
Featured image: City of Boston Archives/Flickr
You’ll be surprised!
Those teachers who implement wide ranging global programmes are not influenced by their formal teaching programmes and curriculum influences but rather by these factors
Bethink Global offers a deeper understanding of global education through professional learning and is a support system in the amplification of teachers’ global perspective.
The designs for Victoria’s first-ever ‘vertical school’ in South Melbourne, have been released, providing a sneak peek into the revolutionary learning spaces that will accommodate over 525 students. The most exciting facet of the vertical schools model is the community reach (pardon the pun)
“The school will also offer the community an array of public spaces to be enjoyed by students and locals alike, remaining open after-hours to encourage community interaction and providing spaces that are both community-based and also shared with the school.”
Whether the school spreads up or out, the factors that influence positive outcomes are the leadership, teachers, pedagogy and the ability to listen to the needs of the community.
More…Designing the school of the future — Going up – the future is vertical
PHNOM PENH – “Welcome to our Global Knowledge programme on the Voice of Persons with Disabilities broadcasting from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap province (FM92.25 MHz) and Preah Sihanouk province (FM88.75 MHz).”
From inside a crammed studio on the ground of a Buddhist pagoda, the announcement by Ms. Phoum Leakhena, an anchor, made debut for the first time a radio programme by and for people with disabilities. Its mission is to provide an airwave channel for them to make their voices heard and to promote their rights and opportunities as equal members in the Cambodian society.Radio for Persons with Disability
Disability in Cambodia
Radio by and for persons with disabilities
Also One man’s story
Find more on global learning http://bethinkglobal.com.au
Research and experience tell me that parents, government leaders and business want young people to become active and responsible citizens of the world and to obtain jobs where interaction with people in other countries and from other cultures is productive and economically rewarding. Continue reading
A free cello concert is a draw card. There’s one held on Saturday nights in Siem Reap. At intervals during his concert, the famous Swiss paediatric doctor and philanthropist, Beat Richner, unashamedly tells his story of the five Cambodian Children’s Hospitals that he built and now maintains through the Kantha Bopha Foundation. Continue reading
My daughter once said to me, “Cambodia is about the people” and I know now what she means.
With a genocide in the collective living memory of a people, Cambodians have a remarkable outlook. Forgiveness can be explained by this definition illustrated in a well-known Tibetan Buddhist story about two monks who encounter each other some years after being released from prison where they had been tortured by their captors. “Have you forgiven them?” asks the first. “I will never forgive them! Never!” replies the second. “Well, I guess they still have you in prison, don’t they?” the first says.
In Cambodia there are families who live on less than $1 a day, who live from meal to meal. There are families who grow some rice and during productive seasons, will have enough rice to eat without surplus to trade for money or goods. The Government offers free medical assistance to the poorest families and a discount of 50% to those who have a little rice.
I met a man from the village of Peak Sneng, who had been shot in the spine during the Khmer Rouge slaughter. The stillness of the night and the gentle breeze under the trees were the backdrop to his story. He spent three years in hospital undergoing operations to save his life. He later married, had three children and then looked after a fourth child when his daughter became pregnant after a rape attack. His wife left him and went to Thailand. He now looks after three of those chn, one of whom has cerebral palsy. His oldest boy is at Siem Reap at University. Through the love of sport he has become skilled at soccer. Although confined to a wheelchair, in part held together by some rope, has represented his country in a number of overseas competitions. and is the sport teacher at the local junior high school, which by the way, has no soccer field. We took some soccer balls to the school- a request that came directly from this gentleman.
NEED globally competent teachers“By now you have likely heard the clarion call of global education advocates. The current educational systems are not capable of addressing the new realities of the 21st century. We need to prepare students to live and work in an increasingly interdependent world marked by interactions with diverse cultures, rapid change, and complex global challenges for which easy answers do not exist.” Yumi Kuwana & Dana Teppert
How do we achieve this? ANSWER: Global educators
7 factors that influence globally minded teachers http://wp.me/p6hjhQ-cG
Wanting our children to achieve global citizenship – do teachers have the skills to teach it?http://wp.me/p6hjhQ-bY
Peak Sneng is one of 5 villages in a region that supports some 400 families, around 2000 people. Situated some 30 kms outside of Siem Reap, our group travelled there by bike. Peak Sneng lies on the land that 30 years ago, was one of the killing fields.
By way of portraying the significance of my visit to the village of Peak Sneng let me first take you to the Siem Reap Memorial to the Killing Fields. You’ll get a bit of Cambodia’s history as well.
Wat Thmey is located about 3 km from the centre of Siem Reap along the exit road from Angkor. If you go past the back of the Jayavaraman VII hospital established by Dr Beat Richner, (more of that later) heading out of town, it’s on the left. Most tuk tuk drivers and tour guides know it.
It is a small active Pagoda, with a not-very-inspiring statue of Buddha. The hall it’s in is quite nicely decorated and you could spend a good couple of minutes there looking around. Outside there are the homes for the monks, and a teaching hall. So far so ordinary. There’s nothing here to make you stay more than a few minutes.
However at the side of the Pagoda, is a small, rather gruesome building. Wat Thmey is home to Siem Reap’s Killing Fields’ memorial.
Since the 1400s Cambodia has been a troubled country. First the Thais sacked Angkor in 1432. Then in 1863, at the request of the King in Exile, the French took over. In the 1960s and 70s, Cambodia was subject to violent protests, and civil war. Finally in 1975, the Khmer Rouge took power. They renamed the country Democratic Kampuchea and started clearing people from towns. In a matter of hours, the entire population of Phnom Penh was ordered to leave. Many people died on the road. Everywhere people were put to work. People were killed for the slightest reason – for being too clever, (people who wore glasses were killed) through starvation, illness and the brutality that followed. Most were buried in mass graves, or simply thrown into hastily dug trenches. It is estimated that 2 million people were killed – about a third of the population at the time.
The regime was largely ousted in 1979 but Cambodia was in a state of limbo and run by the Vietnamese until 1993 when the King was restored and power returned to an elected government. Cambodia, as a modern country, is only 22 years old. There are not many old people around.
In Siem Reap, the memorial is a small building at Wat Thmey with glass windows housing the skulls and bones of some of those who perished.
It’s part of the past that many people would like to forget. But, like war memorials in Western Countries, it serves as a warning to future generations.
