Whats keeping millions of children away from School Worldwide unesco says its poverty and discrimination and coronaviruses making things even worse so what should be done to secure education for all and cannot get the privileged this is inside story. Hello and welcome to the program im peter girls immigrants ethnic minorities and the disabled just some of the worlds children at risk of not getting any education the United Nations says poverty and discrimination continue to prevent huge numbers from going to school the total was around 260000000. 00 children 2 years ago and that figure will be higher now because of the covert 19 pandemic 40 percent of low and lower middle Income Countries fail to support teaching jurong the global spread of the coronavirus many students were cut off from online courses during School National lockdowns the uns Educational Organization unesco is urging countries to support those left behind as life does begin to creep back towards something approaching normal unesco also found half of the worlds children who dont go to school thats 97000000. 00 live in Subsaharan Africa 95000000. 00 dont go to school in central and southern asia another 17000000 in the arab world and north africa and 12000000 in latin america and the caribbean. Less than 10 percent of countries have Inclusive Educational laws and just 41. 00 out of 195. 00 Countries Worldwide officially recognized sign language the u. N. Says educational systems have failed to take special needs into account. Lets bring in our guests joining us today on inside story from paris we have man else and to ninus director of Global Education monitoring their report from unesco from we have lost and had an International Consultant to the world bank and from kuala lumpur will be joined by a man alkhateeb professor at the Islamic University of malaysia gentlemen welcome to you all but somehow that this is about bridging the gap i guess how do we do it. Well i mean a sound like the report of the unesco report said something very important it said that in low and middle Income Countries of lessons from the richest 20 percent of all households were 3 times 3 times as likely to complete Lower Secondary School as well as those from the poorest homes this is very significant and this is due to due to the fact and that the richest kids have better access generally like to private schools in some situations but also mean they benefit from the capacity of their parents and also of their households to mobilize out of class to a dream and also to social and psychological or from parents on the other hand what we find is that in most Public Schools attended by children temin from or in low income families they suffer from teacher up senses them from lack of adequate teachin infrastructure only with meant it is overcrowded missed most of the sounds and it is for staple of the moment in the sense that the middle class families have moved away from publics was the private schools and so that is like this they all are kind of crisis with regard to these kinds of Public Schools so less interaction between the teachers and of families because i mean for these kinds of searches for these kinds of or children thats why it is this kind of and the performers there is this kind of big gap and the gap is widening actually i mean some in some countries especially in Subsaharan Africa ok well get on to that in more detail in just a moment menace and so 9 acim paris this report identifies 3 overarching issues ability background and identity which of those issues is the easiest to solve. It is not really easy for any society to solve the problem of inclusion related to these 3 aspects of individuals every Society Needs to confront and be frank and honest about addressing this issue what the 2020 Global Education monitoring report does that we launched today is precisely to give it a bit more shape and be of more understanding into what inclusion actually means because all countries signed up to ensure Inclusive Education by 2030 but for many countries inclusion as a deterrent demps tends to be associated just with disability and they report argues that understanding has actually grown because the very same mechanisms that exclude children with disabilities from education and by excluding we mean both that if theyre out of school but also while in School Classroom they dont do as well as their peers the same mechanisms also exclude other children who may be vulnerable because of belonging to ethnicity belonging to some minority. It said of course being poor as very rightly was mentioned before because we should add to this point that its not only that they think times there is just i think there is more likely to complete loss of going to school those who do reach the end of those are going to school the rates are twice as likely to reach that and thats the basic skills so this is compounded of if it is man had in kuala lumpur your region i guess was ahead of the curve when it came to being innovative with virtual classrooms and children learning online but thats only as good as your computer infrastructure so if youve got been or rural areas its a belt and braces exercise is back to basics but in that situation what happens to children who need to be supported through education but theyre not being supported by the school. Yes you are right i said in countries like malaysia for example theyve got to have they done a great good internet infrastructure and nevertheless when the great 1000 hits. The globe we saw a set that hunger areas suffered from lead on such infrastructure. For example i myself have a student who has to travel 1015 minutes away from his home to find. A Good Internet Service a life a service so he can use it to join the online meetings with his colleagues another student in sabah she had to to climb a tree to get stable with egypt a connection and she had to even sleep overnight or spent over night in the jungle to simple online exam. Other countries like indonesia which is the most populous nation in the region were talking about maybe 56 percent of the more than 250000000. 00. Population have access to the internet their meaning. But i call it the 4 percent suffering from lack of of having accessibility to the internet so having to devise and learn is that its really something. To have stable and then good Internet Connection is very crucial for providing. A learning individual space so i think that is kind of the challenge where. The government the governments in general have to look into. Closing this gap providing. Proper internet. Devices services for the students to be able to cope with their colleagues no matter where they are less and how to add in when we talk about closing the gap here could the situation actually be worse than we know because the data the numbers of children who arent getting any form of education the data comes from the schools therefore its passed on to the relevant Education Department its not gathered say in a census situation where people from the government are knocking on doors and saying how many children live here therefore how many children are not going to school properly. Yeah me and i think the problem of they really really important and the floor of the countries that unless they are a label it exists and i think most this disc was actually it would do did they tell what needs to be done is actually like have a census and then in relation to that census you can competitive data that and just who is in order to see the difference in those kinds of quests wasters but even they even discords themselves they are not equipped to do the day type rectally and also that is a problem with the quality of they said that its got it in so many schools of course that our programs and some of them are supported by International Organisations in order that through the data quality that is that is gathered by schools and also to improve the skills of the School Principals and also the School Administration with regard to that but i think theres a lot of that that i believe that a lot of children not reported especially those who do not show up because we dont know the like of any of those exists and out of that and also because theres not much that cystic spitter got to disappear so all of g. E. Of an area not that competitive. And also the level of willie thats a very important question and i think that needs also to be addressed and there are different ways in its it can be dressed and one of them also has to have force or example like a social registering in which all of the the i mean like all the citizens are registered with their children and also that to be updated with when relations of the birth certificates and then have made that i mean look compare that to would be to the registration that exists within schools i mean that we can have read if i may let the bible statistics with regard to the student and also to go to school and it does not go that out in some situations where people like that. That is not a very well and i know it and im going to watch you there because thats thats a very full answer but there are other areas within our discussion i would like to move towards if im a man or censor ninus in paris lest we think this is a universally depressing aspect of being a Primary School or 2nd risk pool there are some some Success Stories here some schools in kenya they teach in 21 languages now that doesnt come down to Internet Access it doesnt come down to Rural Infrastructure it doesnt come down to children having to sleep in a jungle overnight because they want to go and take an exam thats one of the examples that the report identifies that comes down to cultural flexibility so why is it some schools this one particular school in kenya can teach in 21 languages but a school 10 miles down the road cant teach in so many languages. Well it is really a very important question because the issue of inclusion sometimes is not just about money often people say inclusion cost actually no it doesnt cost if you plan in advance to be inclusive for example starting from a School Building if youre planning a glance to make the building accessible to seniors with disabilities then that will make hardly any difference to that at all cost if you try to explore straight up or act or the things that were not properly that makes the cost very high and if you look at the classroom as you said its often just a matter of a gesture an inclusive teacher it took was prepared to listen to every students needs and address them properly doesnt need to do much often he said matter of opening to them the way that the 2 groups that children in the classroom the way their teacher uses the language that is respectful of all children there are so many ways that dont necessarily cost yes its true just to bring it back that they have discussions it will be quite costly for countries to find out. Exactly what is happening and that will require perhaps the support of National Organizations but when it comes to being inclusive it is a matter of a commitment its a commitment that goes all levels just talk about this call the teachers the School Leaders are of course important how we engage with the community how they reach out to them to make sure that their voices are also heard and then going up to the administration how d responsive and how responsible a geisha officials feel at the county level at this particular book all the way d up to the center level were different government officials because were talking about inclusion of talk about multiple overlapping social problems how the department of education and health and social protection and the local governments that are supposed to provide these services are talking to each other ok thats the most of just how you move on some on how to please men us and tonight us in kuala lumpur man coming to you how does an Education Authority however or a school if a country is flexible enough to teach Primary School children and 2nd School Education to teenagers i guess in multiple languages or different dialects that keeps them does it not perhaps tethered to staying in the country so if you look at an indian state like edition which some people contribute in its report of basically saying thats the Gold Standard for teaching in india especially at a Primary School level but if you teach them in their own language so many indians move around the globe for work so they get the education but then they maybe dont have the Language Skills that they need to go into a University Degree or to go and live and work abroad when they say hit their early or mid twentys. Years the language actually is quiet. In this. Open globe where Job Opportunities are not limited to your country anymore language is a very. Important factor in education. In malaysia for example. And generally most of the countries there medium of instruction in their schools is in their Mother Tongue language. And that that kind of. Is positive in the sense that when you learn from it was a no no mother done that gives you a better opportunity to understand what you are learning and it will facilitate learning much. Easier to that of the learners however when it comes to looking into the Global Markets and. The ability of of these students to learn to be. Employed using International Firms it would be quite challenging in the militia for example we see this kind of situation where it goes and militia schools are actually opened according to ethnic necessity for example the National Schools are teaching in International Language there was a mission and we have some schools which are chinese schools i teach in it in chinese and Indian Schools are teaching in tandem then. Among among these 3 we can we can see that. English proficiency is not is not that major issue in malaysia yet it is not in defending to it to the. Workability they must then there might still be a need to work on improving that and in relation has been to the bid on teaching science its vision is that is and let me pick a subject in english it has been done at one time and then the decision was again back to using as a militia so. That kind of this isnt actually is is it depends on the and then in the country itself when im talking about look in the identity of the lives of the ok last and how that seems to me that this is something that has to be achieved as a massive jigsaw and you have to achieve it almost on a school by school or maybe a region by region basis but is it not that this issue is not a top down its bottom up youve got to get Primary School education right rather than get secondary education right as a priority because if the kids arent educated properly when theyre 45678910 years old youre not going to have the properly educated children to then go into the secondary school system. Thats true and what happens is like the quality of education at the primary level ease really fundamental and. Countries which have made lead significant progress in terms of that in terms of generalisations so a lot of Primary Schools i mean all over africa close to the population and thats good the only problem is that in the quality of teaching especially in some remote areas in austin some rural areas its not really conducive to better to the mittens will lead to either school and thats one of the problems like the quality of the infrastructure the quality of teaching and also did a poor conditions in which some of the teachers worked out a face like tremendously the primary education that is offered in. But at the same time elaine those rabbits you like quantitative i mean like access to all kids at the primary level then have faced the other challenge with. The middle school and the 2nd let the middle school i mean it was like more challenges because it cannot be. You know every kind of lays and then because you have primary few there are schools and then you need to have those all and thats in this police not close by so that creates all kinds of problems with like transportation or you have to have lawrence have to have like to different kinds of mechanisms in order to meet an elected to go there and that region problems specially girls and has been mentioned in the report i mean a lot of parents are very wary about lex and the girls on bicycles or for example on chance or to find this finishes or to secondary school or also go into the or its ok that that look at why that is like a very very and that if you meant in terms of i mean like for girls at the secondary level whereas if the gap has been closed that the primary station level it has been a little bit i mean like not close this especially last in areas i just want to head uncertain though the last 5 or 6 minutes of the program roughly menace and tonight us in paris. Some of your contributors on the program today have used the word stakeholder the report makes reference to kind of the idea of Stakeholder Involvement is that report speak short hand talk for governments dont really care or some governments dont really care because literally if youre talking about some of the african countries are you talking about some countries in the middle east you know there are difficult political situations there are wars going on all the time and governments have to they would say i guess stay focused on making sure their borders are breached as opposed to making sure that that 11 year old gets a good education. I think a key word is flexibility and partnership and i think the report also says somewhere that essentially inclusion is an exercise in democracy you have to decide what type of society you want to achieve and education is a key lever for making that happen so when it comes to issues of that kind of course there are so Many Political sensitivities i was mentioning earlier minority issues refugee movements displaced people. Yells and how women are treated and thats not only in terms of putting them in blankets or through cutting across all areas of education Education System like the curriculum. The language of course we cover already but textbooks how do you portray every group you portray every group in the country on equal terms as someone feel their own identity they feel that theyre fairly described if not if children are feeling out there feeling that they ridiculed or that theyre essentially bullets in the textbook then theyre bullet in the classroom and then their opportunity to learn is severely compromised if just let me put my final feeling that hes a man or maybe man has in kuala lumpur a man we talked about Southeast Asia we talked about south Asia East AsiaSubsaharan Africa weve talked touched on other areas in africa as well would it be fair to say do you think that if a country gets this right everyone benefits because we all have a vested interest in having a population that have got either a good basic education or something layered on top of that like a degree level qualification but if a country gets this wrong everyone suffers. You question is the best investment a country can do because educated population will definitely contribute to the economy. To the Health Sector if we look at britain 1000 cases. We see the countries who had good Education System managed to build Good Health Facilities and they managed to cope with with a crisis great very very well and lisha things went very very well the crisis was menaced in a very very good many and it has been globally noticed and definitely militia like for example militias investing a lot of and you cation trying to make indication accessible to everyone and that not only within. The political and the city but even further to the areas there are challenges and where we see challenges and we see lack of services we see issues. Related to implausibility related to contribution to that to the nation so if your kitchen is having proper education having inclusive and you can see everybody is provided with that if you question and accessibility to schools accessibility to new verse it is definitely that will contribute which. They will to to their to the country from all aspects gentleman will have to leave it there for which i apologize it was a compelling but i think generally a hopeful conversation thank you so much for your time today thanks to i guess they were mine also and to minus. The t. V. And thank you too for your company you can see the program again anytime by going to our website c. N. N. Dot com and for further discussion go to our Facebook Page thats facebook dot com forward slash a. J. 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