Posts tagged children

Syria: Attacks on Schools Endanger Students (by HumanRightsWatch)

Full report is available on the Human Rights Watch website.

Excerpt:

The 33-page report, “Safe No More: Students and Schools under Attack in Syria,” is based on more than 70 interviews, including with 16 students and 11 teachers who fled Syria, primarily from Daraa, Homs, and greater Damascus. The report documents the use of schools for military purposes by both sides. It also describes how teachers and state security agents interrogated and beat students for alleged anti-government activity, and how security forces andshabiha, pro-government militias, assaulted peaceful student demonstrations. In several instances reported to Human Rights Watch, government forces fired on school buildings that were not being used for military purposes.

“Syrian children have had to face things in the horrors of war that no child should have to bear – interrogated, targeted, and attacked,” said Priyanka Motaparthy, children’s rights researcher at Human Rights Watch and author of the report. “Schools should be havens, but in a country that once valued schooling, many Syrian children aren’t even getting basic education and are losing out on their future.”

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57 million children out of school (by unesco)

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Getting Mauritania’s refugee children back into school (by unicef)

Also see here.

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unicef:

See the child - before the disability
Children with disabilities have a much greater role to play in societies.

UNICEF LAUNCHES STATE OF THE WORLD’S CHILDREN
This year, UNICEF’s flagship publication highlights not just the challenges of the estimated tens of millions of children who live with disabilities, but also the contributions they can make, if allowed to achieve their ambitions. It says that concentrating on abilities rather than disabilities would benefit society as a whole.

“When you see the disability before the child, it is not only wrong for the child, but it deprives society of all that child has to offer,” says UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake. “Their loss is society’s loss; their gain is society’s gain.”

Visit the SOWC Website: http://www.unicef.org/sowc2013/

#thisability

“These children come to school with a deep desire for learning,” says Ali Hujeiri, 55, the school principal. ”They know what they’ve missed and now they appreciate the value of their education.” They have arrived from Syrian towns and cities such as Qusayr, Dara’a and Homs – places that are now battlegrounds. At least one of the boys in the class has seen his home blown to pieces. But somehow the silent walls of school that provide them a place for study also nurture a sense of hope beyond conflict. Here Billal, aged 11, can dream of becoming a teacher. Halid, also 11, aspires one day to be a doctor. Ten-year-old Selieman wants to be a hairdresser. Arsal was once a sleepy town nestled in the hills a few kilometres from the Syrian border. When war broke out in Syria two years ago, the town bulged as civilians, most of them women and children, fled to Lebanon. Soon Arsal grew by 10,000 people – roughly half were children. (via A learning curve for young Syrian refugees at model school in Lebanon | ReliefWeb)

“These children come to school with a deep desire for learning,” says Ali Hujeiri, 55, the school principal. ”They know what they’ve missed and now they appreciate the value of their education.”

They have arrived from Syrian towns and cities such as Qusayr, Dara’a and Homs – places that are now battlegrounds. At least one of the boys in the class has seen his home blown to pieces. But somehow the silent walls of school that provide them a place for study also nurture a sense of hope beyond conflict. Here Billal, aged 11, can dream of becoming a teacher. Halid, also 11, aspires one day to be a doctor. Ten-year-old Selieman wants to be a hairdresser.

Arsal was once a sleepy town nestled in the hills a few kilometres from the Syrian border. When war broke out in Syria two years ago, the town bulged as civilians, most of them women and children, fled to Lebanon. Soon Arsal grew by 10,000 people – roughly half were children. (via A learning curve for young Syrian refugees at model school in Lebanon | ReliefWeb)

reliefweb.int

23 April 2013 – Calling for quick action by authorities in the Central African Republic (CAR), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) today warned that education was becoming another casualty of the months-long conflict, with half the country’s schools shuttered and hundreds of thousands of students at risk of missing out the entire year. At least 250,000 children who started the 2012-2013 primary school year, and 30,000 who were in secondary school at the start of the crisis, could lose the entire school year if schools do not re-open in the coming weeks, the agency said in a news release. (via United Nations News Centre - Children’s education in Central Africa Republic devastated by conflict, UN says)

23 April 2013 – Calling for quick action by authorities in the Central African Republic (CAR), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) today warned that education was becoming another casualty of the months-long conflict, with half the country’s schools shuttered and hundreds of thousands of students at risk of missing out the entire year.

At least 250,000 children who started the 2012-2013 primary school year, and 30,000 who were in secondary school at the start of the crisis, could lose the entire school year if schools do not re-open in the coming weeks, the agency said in a news release. (via United Nations News Centre - Children’s education in Central Africa Republic devastated by conflict, UN says)

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61 million children are yet to go to school. When Will They Learn? (by Education Envoy). More here and here.

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Schools are protected by international human rights law; they should be safe places for children to play, learn and develop. But in Syria, schools have come under direct attack, denying children their right to education in a safe learning environment. An eight-year-old boy from Aleppo refused to talk for more than two weeks after fleeing Syria. When he eventually did speak, his first words were,“They burned my school.” (via Save the Children)

Schools are protected by international human rights law; they should be safe places for children to play, learn and develop. But in Syria, schools have come under direct attack, denying children their right to education in a safe learning environment. An eight-year-old boy from Aleppo refused to talk for more than two weeks after fleeing Syria. When he eventually did speak, his first words were,“They burned my school.”

(via Save the Children)

[SIERRA LEONE] Thousands of children in Sierra Leone are paying for their own education or helping their families make ends meet by working as rock-breakers for the country’s construction industry. Child labour is nothing new in Sierra Leone, but the brutal job of breaking stones with a hammer for hours on end in the baking heat has raised particular concern. […] Education and child labour are often closely entwined in Sierra Leone, where schooling can impose a severe financial strain. Although primary education is nominally free, parents must pay for uniforms, books, pens, transport and in some cases contributions to teachers’ salaries. To send their children to school, therefore, many parents must also send them to work. (via IRIN Africa | SLIDESHOW: Children break rocks to pay for school in Sierra Leone | Sierra Leone | Children | Economy | Education)

[SIERRA LEONE] Thousands of children in Sierra Leone are paying for their own education or helping their families make ends meet by working as rock-breakers for the country’s construction industry.

Child labour is nothing new in Sierra Leone, but the brutal job of breaking stones with a hammer for hours on end in the baking heat has raised particular concern.

[…]

Education and child labour are often closely entwined in Sierra Leone, where schooling can impose a severe financial strain. Although primary education is nominally free, parents must pay for uniforms, books, pens, transport and in some cases contributions to teachers’ salaries. To send their children to school, therefore, many parents must also send them to work. (via IRIN Africa | SLIDESHOW: Children break rocks to pay for school in Sierra Leone | Sierra Leone | Children | Economy | Education)

irinnews.org

[PAKISTAN] Sindh Assembly passes resolution against corporal punishment in schools

The Sindh Assembly in Pakistan has unanimously passed a resolution against corporal punishment in both private and public schools in the Sindh province, after the issue was raised by the news channel ‘Geo News’ in one of their news programmes.