Child Education

The place to discuss issues being debated in the 2009-2010 school year -- briefs, legislation and debate.

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EWang

Child Education

Post by EWang »

Model United Nations
Topic: Child Education
March 17th / April 21th


Guys, there's not that many meetings left on the year. Let's really put some time and effort in discussing the child education topic, both on the forum and during the two meetings. Like I mentioned in the brief, child education is absolutely crucial, so important that it is actually one of the eight Millenium Development Goals. Education is probably related to almost every single issue that the United Nations faces. Hopefully, through good research and critical thinking, we will be able to come up with comprehensive solutions that help spread and enhance the quality of child education all across our world.

Introduction
Perhaps no single debate topic is more important to the development of the world than child education. Compulsory education, for at least the primary level, is a characteristic that almost all the developed countries in the world share. The United Nation’s 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaimed that “everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages.” Furthermore, the Convention on the Rights of the Children, ratified by more than 120 country states as legally binding international law (although the United States has notably not ratified the Convention), sets standards for basic education and achieving universal primary education is Goal 2 of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. Child education is of the utmost importance to both the United Nations and the world at large.

Benefits of Child Education
There are numerous benefits to child education for the individual children, for the local communities, and for the entire world. First of all, education helps end cycles of poverty. Education opens the door for vocations that are less manually based and pay more money. Furthermore, it is has been proven through many studies that basic child education is extremely beneficial towards public health. Educated children are far less likely to acquire certain diseases, become malnutrition, and spread HIV/AIDS than those who have never received basic education. Furthermore, the economic benefits for the local communities are very important. With educated individuals earning more than uneducated people, the purchasing power of the entire community increases in an upward spiral (i.e. service industry earns more money, which is then spent purchasing more things, etc.). Finally, education benefits the world as well, building more tolerance and friendship towards fellow human beings and garnering respect and appreciation for human rights, stability, and democracy.

Obstacles to Universal Child Education
Poverty and gender inequality are perhaps the two biggest obstacles to child education. In impoverished regions, children may be needed to help support the family and are not able to attend school, if there is even a school in the vicinity at all. Although poverty exists in even the most developed nations, there are many sectors of the world that have particularly high poverty rates, including sub-Sahara Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, South Asia, and Eastern Europe. These regions, along with other sensitive areas, should be given particular attention in terms of aid for educational purposes. Another obstacle to child education is gender inequality, particularly in Islamic and indigenous cultures. Traditional and outdated thinking in these cultures prevent millions of women from receiving proper education. Incidentally, goal 3 of the Millennium Development Goals is to “eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferable by 2005, and at all levels by 2015.”

UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization is an agency of the United Nations that was founded in November of 1945. One of the three strategic objectives of UNESCO is to promote education as a fundamental right. In 1990, UNESCO launched the Education for All movement to support educational opportunities for everyone by 2015. UNESCO’s 2008-2009 approved budget involved spending $105.8 million directly towards educational programs (out of $631 million total approved expenditures), although over half of the total budget was spent in support of the various programs.

UNICEF
The United Nations Children’s Fund was established in 1946 following World War II. One of UNICEF’s essential goals is “to ensure that ever child – regardless of gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic back ground or circumstances – has access to a quality education.” In 2007, UNICEF spent 20.3% of its $2.782 billion budget towards promoting basic education and gender equality.

Conclusion
Because of the importance of education on the world, the United Nations must redouble its efforts to promote child education and meet the Millennium Development Goals. The International Monetary Fund published an essay that estimated the cost of providing primary and secondary education for all children by 2015 would range from $23 billion to $69 billion. Naturally, lack of funding for the United Nations creates lots of obstacles and new innovative measures must be conceived to raise money for education. One potential source of funding for the United Nations is to intensify pressure on nations that have not met the 0.7% of GNP commitment to development assistance, which is a pledge that the various members of the United Nations has continuously affirmed over the past three decades. Furthermore, cooperation with non-government organizations, such as the International Save the Children Alliance, is extremely beneficial to the cause. The American Academy of Arts and Sciences have found that based on the current degree of international commitment, roughly $115 million children will still be without primary education and nearly twice that amount will still be without secondary education by 2015, the target date of the Millennium Development Goals. The United Nations must take concrete actions to get the world back on track in terms of education.

Links
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education# ... _education
http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/
http://www.unicef.org/
http://www.unesco.org/education/
http://www.worldbank.org/education/
EWang

Re: Child Education

Post by EWang »

The work session for this topic is actually next Wednsday, March 17th.
bromano

Re: Child Education

Post by bromano »

France believes that across the world, every person, be it a child or an adult, should have the opportunity to an eductation. After all, we never know what that child will become. They might become the next Napoleon in France, or the next George Washington in America. If these people don't receive the correct educ ation, they are not able to expound on these talents. As the United Nations, we need to call in the help of every one we can so that we can successfully educated these children. 10 years ago, when we took on a huge burden as a group, and promised to fufill the Millenium Development Goals by 2015, we undertook a HUGE task. But now that the deadline of 2015 is begining to approach, we need to work even harder to make sure that these goals are fufilled.

The world already has made several steps toward acheiving this goal. Between 1999 and 2005, there was a extra 5 million kids entering primary schools across the world (6.4%), and in Sub Saharan Africa alone, there was a 36% increase of kids. But this is still not enough. Between all of the 1st world countries, we should be able to help our 2nd and 3rd world neighbors into increasing their school attendance. These countries are plagued by weak governments, inability to enforce laws, and lacks of necessities of life. The UN needs to be able to show these countries that by educating their youth, they should be able to maintain control. An educated population should be much easier to control. Even though some countries don't want an education population because of a fear of revolt, if the people don't like the government, then the government should be willing to change so that these people can become educated, and from there, they can influence thier neighbors, and their government. John F. Kennedy's words seem to describe it all, as he describes the possibilty of a peaceful revolution, saying, "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." We need to make sure that these governments are receptive to the education of their people, so that we can avoid a violent revolution as much as possible.

Another aspect that France would like to see fixed about child education is the elimination of fees for primary schooling, at the least. At the moment, many of these countries are stuck with out the funding for the schools. Because of this, only the aristocrats of the society, the already educated ones, are able to afford education for their children. We need to be able to establish some way for these countries to be able to fund their public schooling system. In most 1st world countries, the public schooling system is funded by taxation. But as I previously mentioned, these countries are poor enough, with an even poorer population. So France proposes that we utilize NGO's to make sure that these countries do have effective schooling systems, with properly educated teachers. Already, between 2004-2007, some 14 countries have abolished primary school fees. But again, the world as a whole needs to work together to eliminate even more, if not all of these fees. Even in 1st world countries, the price of schooling, especially college, is skyrocketing. Through worldly efforts, France would love to see these prices go back down to affordable prices, seeing as these prices are often what is keeping people from being educated.

France would also like to see the opportunity to educate children not only on typical school subjects, but a variety of other things also. Throughout almost every topic we debate, we mention some form of education, be it of the general public or not. But France believes that if we attack the problem at the roots, and make sure that the younger generations do know how to do certain things, be it conserve water, grow better food, be healthy, or a variety of other things, we will eventually make sure that every one in these countries knows about these things, phasing out several other issues in the process. Several other debates we have had, both this year, and last, focus on education in general. Child Marriage will slowly phase out if the general population becomes more educated, and the normal population who is educated is older. Also, Infectious Diseases would also be less of an issue. Because these people would be attending school, we would then have a localized area to either distribute supplies, or even educate about the vairious diseases, issues, or other "hot topics" of the time.

France would be extremely willing to work with everyone possible to help facilitate the spread of this huge movement. We believe that it is imperative that we work together, because several isolated events are not enough. We need to make sure that these events are NOT isolated, and instead, we need to create a global effort that effects not only the areas plagued by the schooling issues, but effects the entire world, making schooling available to everyone across our planet, to make sure that we ensure the viablity of our planet.
athakker

Re: Child Education

Post by athakker »

Austria agrees that Child Education is a pressing issue that must be addressed. Austria, like France said, has abolished it's primary school fees. College fees of one entire sector of the Austrian education system have been abolished and the government pays for it. Austria also agrees that the use of NGO's is vital is addressing Child Education. Therefore, Austria lists the following NGO's:

Education With Enterprise Trust
Education International
Global Education Associates
Teachers without Borders
SRaghavan

Re: Child Education

Post by SRaghavan »

Canada feels that the most efficient way to properly educate the masses is through several branches of learning facilities that are all closely supervised to ensure that children get the education they need. Teacher to student ratios should be as low as possible, and is relatively easy for Canda to accomplish since land is plentiful and population density is rather low. Canada wants to provide proper education for secluded groups living to the Canadian West. Canada has 19 special sectors devoted to furthering child education, and these sectors are:

•Aboriginal Children's Circle of Early Learning
A bilingual, web portal clearinghouse on Aboriginal early childhood development

•Association of Family Life Educators of Quebec (AFLEQ)
A non-profit professional association concerned with the quality of family life
•Campaign 2000

55 partners working together to end child poverty in Canada

•Canadian Coalition for the Rights of Children
60 national & provincial organizations working to make children’s rights known and understood

•Canadian Partnership for Children's Health and Environment
The Canadian Partnership for Children's Health and Environment is an affiliation of organizations working together to protect children's health from environmental contaminants.

•Centres of Excellence for Children’s Well-Being
Federal initiative whose mandate is to disseminate advanced knowledge on key issues of children's health to those individuals or groups who need it most. There are five Centres: child welfare, communities, early childhood development, special needs, and youth engagement.

•Centre of Excellence for Early Childhood Development
Improves knowledge of the social and emotional development of young children by developing and disseminating scientific knowledge, and making recommendations based on that knowledge.

•Canadian Language and Literacy Research Network A venture that brings leading scientists, clinicians, students and educators together with public and private partners. Its mandate is to generate, integrate and disseminate bias-free scientific research and knowledge that is focused on improving and sustaining children's language and literacy development in Canada.

•National Alliance for Children and Youth
60 national organizations supporting a National Children's Agenda.

All these programs target children's education and their pverall development. Canada strongly believes that a more competitive market will be the situation in the 22 century and in order to better prepare Canadian youngsters for the competitiveness of the future, Canda believes the 19 sectors above will successfullly target the issue of child education.
DGrastara

Re: Child Education

Post by DGrastara »

Honduras, like Austria, believes NGO's play a crucial part when dealing with this issue around the world. Honduras, before 1950 lacked an educational system, until finally implemented in 1957 that primary school is free for ages seven and fourteen. Though other nations may frown upon this, as the government does not enforce education as much as other nations, the help of NGO's can publicize the importance of this topic.

The quantity of schools, the accessibilty and teaching experience should be taken into consideration. More than 40 percent of Honduras' population is illiterate. This is a result from the poor teaching qualifications and conditions in the classroom. Schools are so understaffed that there are up to 80 children in just one classroom. Law enforcement, as well as NGOs not necessarily funding, but supporting the classroom's expansions and supplies, can lead to an effective result.
bromano

Re: Child Education

Post by bromano »

France applauds Canada for the steps taken towards fowarding education in their own state. But the experience Canada had was much different then the issues taking place around the world in places like Africa, and parts of Asia, and other Oceanic states. These places either have high population density, or extremely low density, instead, living in sectional areas. The difficulty of educating these people becomes even more difficult when the people are spread across the nation instead of in several localized spots. We, as the United Nations, need to make sure that our intentioned areas are both the densely populated areas, the easiest to teach, and the least densly populated areas, the hardest to teach.

The densest areas of the world are located in China and India. As countries growing in their economics, politics, and world standings, they are slowly emerging as super powers in the world. They are both over 1 billion people, and together, they are over a third of the world's population. These places are still developing in some areas, and due to this, they have some areas that are urbanized, and contain schools. But you can still find the back country, where people are still living in rural China and India. These people will probably be the easiest to teach, as the population density is so high, that one school can reach a large percentage of the population with one blow. You can have only 1 school and still be able to reach a huge amount of children due to thier proximity to the school, and each other.

But now lets jump to Central Africa. In relation to land, there is over 5.5 times as much land per person in Africa than in China. This means it will be almost 5.5 times harder to reach everyone in this area. It will require more resources, and more schooling systems to reach all of this, which in turn, will require even more funding, which means we will need even more of a member based help. We can't rely solely on NGO's to solve the world's problems. France does recognize the need for these NGO's to be used, but we can't sit on our hands and let the NGO's do all of the work. We need to help them with their tasks, and make sure that OUR world, not just THEIR world is suitable for everyone in it to live in.

France hopes that every member state present does pledge to help the United Nations in their task of eradicating the absence of Child Education, and through it, Education of everyone in the world. We need to look at the different demographics of the areas we are targeting, be it mainstream China, or backstreets Kenya, and from there formulate several different plans for the several different areas that are our highest concern. After trying to fix the worst of the problems in the 3rd world countries, France implores the rest of the world, be it 1st or 2nd world, France included, to pledge to not only reduce secondary education costs, but to enforce the requirement of primary education, so that everyone in the world has the basic opportunities to work in the labor force, where the basics of reading, writing, and math are almost imperative to any worker trying to advance themselves in the workplace, ensuring a better global economy, something that we will all benefit from.
RLHauss

Re: Child Education

Post by RLHauss »

Andorra also agrees with Spain, France, Honduras, and Austria. Child education is of great importance to further the well-mindedness of future generations. Non-government organizations can be used in the process to promote education in counrties that lack sufficient funding for supplies, teachers and the like. Andorra itself has a literacy rate of 100% as per census taken in 2005. As delegate of said nation, Andorra suggests for developed countries to assist in the education of young students in countries who would otherwise be unable to afford formal or proper education. Statistics comparable to Andorra's literacy rate should be a goal for countries adapting education methods.
EWang

Re: Child Education

Post by EWang »

Resolution 5-1
Sponsors: United States, Slovakia, China, Russia
Signatories: Sudan, Cambodia, Czech Republic, Ukraine

Stressing the United Nation’s commitment to reaching the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015,

Emphasizing in particular Goal 2 and Goal 3 of the MDGs, the pledge to achieve universal primary education and eliminating gender disparity in primary and secondary educational respectively,

Bearing in mind that improving and expanding educational opportunities to people all across the world positively influences efforts to complete the MDGs and help spread economic growth, tolerance, stability, human rights, and democracy,

Noting with deep concern the slow rate of progress for accomplishing many of the provisions outlined in the MDGS,

Be it hereby resolved by the United Nations in General Assembly assembled:

1) Commends NGOs such as the International Save the Children Alliance, Children at Risk, Aiducation International, Room to Read, Deepalaya, Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation, World Association of Children’s Friends, and the Oaktree Foundation in their efforts to spread quality primary education across both the developing and developed world;

2) Recommends that individual governments increase financial and logistical support for:
a) The United Nations Development Programme,
b) The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization,
c) The United Nations Children’s Fund, and
d) NGOs working to improve worldwide access to quality primary education;

3) Strongly condemns countries currently resisting access to primary, secondary, and/or higher education for women in the pertinent countries;

4) Suggests that both public and private developmental aid be frozen for nations which promote gender inequality in education until these nations remove all restrictions for women in education;

5) Urges further investment in the following areas:
a) Improving and building schools in poverty-stricken areas such as:
i) Sub-Sahara Africa,
ii) Latin America,
iii) The Caribbean,
iv) South Asia, and
v) Eastern Europe,
b) Educational programs such as One Laptop Per Child,
c) Secondary and higher education scholarships for lower income children;

Section 6: Decides to remain actively seized in the matter.
vallada

Re: Child Education

Post by vallada »

Shree, what happened to our bill?
SRaghavan

Re: Child Education

Post by SRaghavan »

Note: I can't find the sheet with the countries who are sponsors and signatories, so I will put in names instead of countries. If you are a sponsor or signatory, please tell what country you represent. If I forgot your name/country, tell me.

Resolution 5-2:

Sponsors: Canada, United Kingdom, South Africa, Aman
Signatories: Saudi Arabia, Betsy, Daria, Australia

Recognizing that child education affects the economic, political, and social state of societies in the near future;

Acknowledging that the education of children thorughout the globe can be improved drastically by discarding gender bias and improving educational facilities and resources;

Distressed that child education reform is being enacted at an inadequate pace;

Determined that proper education of children will result in globally favorable effects such as improved cultural awareness, greater levels of rationalism, and higher amounts of social stability;

Desiring the succesful enactment of the Millenium Development Goals by the year 2015;

Be it hereby resolved by the United Nations assembled:

1) Deplores nations suffering from high levels of poverty to adopt microcredit loans in order to successfully educate children;
a. Microcredit Loans will boost the amount of opportunities and the expansion of education by making quality education accessible to more children;
b. These loans will be highly flexible so that parents in 3rd World Nations can properly educate their children without having the constant fear of having to pay back these loans;
c. Microcredit loans may be administered by NGOs or well-developed nations.

2)Encourages governments and NGOs to deal fairly towards all children in need of education;
a. Impartiality arising from race, creed, gender, or social status will be condemned;
b. Financial support for institutions harboring any means of prejudice when dealing with child education will be discouraged.

3) Solemnly requests NGOs to continue their efforts in tackling the problems facing child education, such as:
a. 3rd World Network;
b. WIT (World Information Transfer);
c. Educational with Enterprise Trust;
d. Educational International;
e. Global Education Associates;
f. Room to Read;
g. Aiducational International;
h. Deepalaya;
i. United States Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization and associated groups;
j. MAA Educational Foundation

4) Encourages governments and financial institutions to direct greater amounts of money towards improving infrastructure;
a. The development of infrastructure will facilitiate higher quality education through better school buildings and resources, especially in undeveloped nations.

5) Decides to remain actively engaged in the matter.
Last edited by SRaghavan on Sun Mar 21, 2010 11:19 am, edited 1 time in total.
athakker

Re: Child Education

Post by athakker »

I have revised the resolution so that it doesn't sound that redundant. Many of the points were repeated, and like Bert said on another forum, we can explain the sections when we are speaking in the debate. Please leave your comments in which I can revise this in any way.

Resolution 5-2:

Sponsors: Canada, United Kingdom, Austria, South Africa, Argentina
Signatories: Saudi Arabia, Finland, Honduras, Australia

Recognizing that child education affects the economic, political, and social state of societies in the near future;

Acknowledging that the education of children throughout the globe can be improved drastically by discarding gender bias and improving educational facilities and resources;

Distressed that child education reform is being enacted at an inadequate pace;

Determined that proper education of children will result in globally favorable effects such as improved cultural awareness, greater levels of rationalism, and higher amounts of social stability;

Desiring the successful enactment of the Millennium Development Goals by the year 2015;

Be it hereby resolved by the United Nations assembled:

1) Deplores nations suffering from high levels of poverty to adopt micro-credit loans[which may be administered by NGOs or well-developed nations] in order to:
a. Successfully educate children;
b. Boost the amount of opportunities and expansion of education by
i.making quality education accessible to more children;
c. Reassure parents in 3rd World Nations that they can properly educate their children without having the constant fear of having to pay back these loans;

2)Encourages governments and Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) to deal fairly towards all children in need of education by:
a. Condemning impartiality arising from race, creed, gender, or social status;
b. Discouraging financial support for institutions harboring any means of prejudice when dealing with child education

3) Solemnly requests NGOs to continue their efforts in tackling the problems facing child education, such as:
a. 3rd World Network;
b. WIT (World Information Transfer);
c. Educational with Enterprise Trust;
d. Educational International;
e. Global Education Associates;
f. Room to Read;
g. Aiducational International;
h. Deepalaya;
i. United States Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization and associated groups;
j. MAA Educational Foundation

4) Encourages governments and financial institutions to direct greater amounts of money towards improving infrastructure (especially in undeveloped nations) to facilitate higher quality education through:
a. Better school buildings and,
b. Natural and Economic resources

5) Decides to remain actively seized in the matter.
Last edited by athakker on Fri Mar 26, 2010 3:07 pm, edited 4 times in total.
bromano

Re: Child Education

Post by bromano »

Though I wasn't present at the meeting, France still believes in the previous comments it made. As such, there are also ideas that France disagrees with.
athakker wrote:1) Deplores nations suffering from high levels of poverty to adopt micro-credit [which may be administered by NGOs or well-developed nations.]loans in order to:
a. Successfully educate children;
b. Boost the amount of opportunities and expansion of education by
i.making quality education accessible to more children;
c. Reassure parents in 3rd World Nations that they can properly educate their children without having the constant fear of having to pay back these loans;
Though France does recognize that need for finanical stability to promote education, France believes that loans will not work. These emerging countries will then have these debts looming over them, no matter how well they educate their students. Even though France said that by educating these students, these countries would be able to rectify themselves, France still believes that they shouldn't have the added difficulty of a huge loan looming over them as they advance in their respective countries. I am sure that we can all agree on the fact that creating these schooling systems is going to be no small feat, and as such, will cost a huge sum of money. France believes that we need to find more sustainable ways to make sure that these countries can maintain the schooling system to make sure that they continue to prosper as nations in the global community. France believes that actually supporting the school, making sure it survives is a much better way. "Sponsoring" a school, similar to what some celebrities have done, is, what France believes, a great idea to help these countries.
athakker wrote:2)Encourages governments and Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) to deal fairly towards all children in need of education by:
a. Condemning impartiality arising from race, creed, gender, or social status;
b. Discouraging financial support for institutions harboring any means of prejudice when dealing with child education
France agrees with this clause completely. France recognizes that in some areas, people of a minority experience racism, females experience sexism, relgions experience a different type of racism, and poorer people just experience the hostilities of the rich. France believes that an even playing field is perfect for the advancement of education. But France would also like to issue a warning about how countries go about this. France hopes that every country can decrease these prejudices, but France also hopes that every country doesn't just shove people into these schools. Affirmative Action, which takes place in the United States, is a good idea there, but in these third world countries, it will be much more difficult to overcome these prejudices, especially because when affirmative action was put into place, these prejudices were already on their way to being overthrown.
athakker wrote:3) Solemnly requests NGOs to continue their efforts in tackling the problems facing child education, such as:
a. 3rd World Network;
b. WIT (World Information Transfer);
c. Educational with Enterprise Trust;
d. Educational International;
e. Global Education Associates;
f. Room to Read;
g. Aiducational International;
h. Deepalaya;
i. United States Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization and associated groups;
j. MAA Educational Foundation
France does like the idea of the using NGO's, but France wants to make sure that this resolution doesn't rely solely on the usage of NGO's. France believes that between the governments around the world, and the help of the NGO's, we can successfully tackle this large issue at our doorstep. France hopes that the United Nations uses NGO's as a gateway, not a pathway, and they are not our entire objective towards fixing this issue.
athakker wrote:4) Encourages governments and financial institutions to direct greater amounts of money towards improving infrastructure for the purpose of:
a. Facilitating higher quality education through better school buildings and resources, especially in undeveloped nations.
France commends this clause much more then the 1st clause, in that it reccomends the improvement of the infastructure, instead of placing a higher burden on these countries that already have enough of an issue with fiscial properties. Because we are helping to improve the infastructure of these countries, we are then able to fix the variety of issues that can and do arise in these countries do to the fact that they have these monetary issues. We, as the United Nations, have recognized many times that many of these issues seem to be located, at the root, around financial and economics. France strongly supports the idea of strengthening these countries economies, especially because of the fact that it might be beneficial to not only these countries, but instead, the entire world. As shown in many years prior, the global economy is linked together. The attainment of another economically stable country might help boost the failing global economy. France is a strong believer in the meshing of the world, in an economic sense.
athakker

Re: Child Education

Post by athakker »

Seeing how France does make a point, I think it is relevant for the sponsors to think about how countries that are extremely poor can afford micro-credit loans. Canada (just because he introduced it, I have nothing against Shree) can afford these loans because they are a developed nations. However, in countries in Africa, where many problems in Education takes place. Will they be able to carry out such new programs? I think this is something for us sponsors to think about.
bromano

Re: Child Education

Post by bromano »

France would like to propose an amendment to resolution 5-2. Strike section 1?
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