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Monday, November 26, 2012

7TH GLOBAL YOUTH SUMMIT STARTS IN LONDON TODAY!

Young people from across the world have converged in London to take part in this year’s Global Changemakers Global Youth Summit. The Summit has started today, 25th November and ends on 1st December, 2012. Global Youth Summit is a British Council’s Global Changemakers initiative which brings together young social entrepreneurs, social activists and volunteers to share ideas and best practices in their field of work. In addition, the summit offers the changemakers an opportunity to work on projects that directly impact the lives of those in their local communities.


This year’s changemakers (ages16-21) were selected from over 3400 applicants from across the world. This week, the new changemakers will be engaged in social entrepreneurship, learning Global issues, best practices in project management and later have a round table discussion with some officials of the British Parliament. Key global issues like human rights, climate change, poverty reduction, education, and HIV/AIDS will also be duly addressed.

Abdulie Badji from The Gambia considers himself as one of the luckiest young people to be attending this summit. He believes in networking and added that “Sharing best practices and information will help to see how best we can turn our ideas into activities to create the change we all hope to see”.

Armin, from Canada thinks this summit offers the best platform to bring about change on the international scale through inspiration and collaboration.

Global Changemakers, since its inception in 2007 has partnered with and participated in Global events like the World Economic Forum events, the Clinton Global Initiative, the Global Humanitarian Forum, various UN initiatives (including UNESCO Peace Ambassador programs, UNFCCC and COP, and the G20. Global Changemakers, as a global network, currently has over 800 social entrepreneurs, social activists and volunteers (ages 16-25) in 126 countries world-wide.




Saturday, November 3, 2012

EXTRA CLASSES: A BOON OR A BURDEN?



In recent times, I have observed with keen interest the time at which some pupils in my neighbourhood return from school. These pupils usually leave home as early as 6:00am and return home at 6:00pm. As they hastily leave for school, they will tell you the kind of punishment that awaits a person for not attending extra classes. This situation leaves them with virtually no time for house chores and even much time to review their school notes. 

Perhaps, you might have also observed a similar situation in your neighbourhood. Pupils of upper and even lower primary schools are made to attend extra classes. Some of those who close before 5pm sometimes have special teachers at home. I feel in some circumstances, some of these arrangements deprive children of a sufficient leisure time- a component crucial for a child’s development.

Extra classes were evident in many basic schools I visited; especially those being managed by private individuals. From my interaction with some pupils, I understand school formally closes at 3:30pm  after which extra classes follow and ends at 5:00pm. “Super-Extra-Classes”, as some of the pupils described it continues from 5:00pm to 6:00pm. That notwithstanding, some of them attend classes on Saturdays and even during vacation. 

Reasons given for this kind of arrangement in some schools seem really interesting. Some teachers argue that time and duration for teaching is not sufficient to fully cover the syllabus within a term. According to some teachers, extra classes offer the platform for students to be better prepared for terminal and external examinations like the Basic Education Certificate Examination (B.E.C.E.). Fees from extra classes, they explain, supplement their seemingly insufficient salary. From what I gathered, some teachers would deliberately reserve certain crucial topics only to be taught during extra classes. This is used as a measure to compel students to attend the extra classes. The unfortunate part is that, those who can’t afford to attend therefore miss out on those topics and are even punished for that.

Extra classes, I believe are necessary. Children deserve to have the best start in life. As such, giving them special attention in their education is crucial. My worry, however, is the growing trend of commercializing and exploiting the education system. In doing this, children from modest background, whose parents cannot afford an additional school fees are deprived of full benefits from school work. This I must say runs contrary to what legal frame works on children’s welfare really states. Articles 28 and 29 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, for instance, stipulates that children have the right to quality but affordable education and the need for them to benefit from school work.

The Ghana Education Service and the Association of Private schools must step up their supervisory role to ensure that schools under their outfits do not take undue advantage of children under the pretext that such students deserve special attention. I have known teachers who identified poorly performing students in class and were willing to help them without even charging them any fee. Even if fees would be charged for extra classes, it should be within the reach of low income parents. I want to see children graduate with distinctions but certainly not at the expense of learning basic life skills.