International Literacy Day Essay Example for Free

International Literacy Day Essay -Nation Center for Education Statistics- The Arab Republic of Egypt, which is a country located in the North of Africa, one of the most populous countries in Africa and the 15th most populated in the world, with over 84 million people (CIA 2010 est. ) According to UNESCO in 2008, in a 5 year period (2005-2010), after the government had spent 12. 6% of the national GDP on education, the adult literacy rate had moderately raised from 55. 6% to 72. 0%. However, because of population growth, the number of illiterates around Egypt was still very high, with nearly 17 million people. This report was commissioned by the Department of Education in Egypt to investigate into the literacy issue in Egypt. The issue needs to be addressed as soon as possible. This report will now research about the current level of literacy in Egypt, what are the issues that make the literacy rates low and some recommendations to improve literacy rates. 2. Findings 2. 1. Poverty One of the biggest factors that affects Egypt’s literacy rate is poverty. Figure 1. Reproduced from â€Å"Child Labor in Egypt: Research Project submitted in fulfillment of the requirement of B. Sc.in Statistics† (2011) Figure 1 shows that not being interested in school and not being able to afford schooling are the dominant reasons for children to leave school, with 45% of child laborers think that school aren’t important with them, and 29% them cannot afford enough tuition fees. For those who work, they considered education is not important for them; however, what is considered priority with them is work is the best way to get out of poverty area. Because the tuition fees in Egypt are rather high, many families in Egypt cannot afford it, along with additional education costs. According to Suliman and El-Kogali (2000), besides of tuition fees, families have to pay additional costs on text books, school uniforms, tutorial lessons, and transportation if they want their children to continue their education. A report from El Dawla in 2000 shows that â€Å"the average cost of education per child in families with an annual income of less than or equal to $1,028 is an estimated $98 at the primary level and $129 at the preparatory level†. Therefore, poor families receive no education because of their limited household budget. 2. 2. Child marriage Figure 2, reproduced from Why Are The Children Out Of School? Factors Affecting Children’s Education in Egypt, A Paper for the ERF 9th annual conference (2001) According to Figure 2, the number of girls from 6-15 years old who have never attended school is much higher compare to the number of boys in Egypt, especially in rural areas. For example, in Matroh, over 40% of girls have never attended schools compare with 23% of boys, and the rate in Beni Suef and Behera are 37%, 10% and 18%, 6% respectively. A survey published in 2012 by the National Council for Women illustrated the scale of the issue of early marriage in Egypt, in which the result is that 22% of girls were married before they were 18 (El Masry, 2012). Many girls from 6-15 years old are not able to attend and finish school because Egyptian families do not want to spend money on girls who will be involved in early marriages, and they always try to arrange their daughters’ wedding as soon as possible. This is because Egypt’s old tradition that the fiancee tend to give the wife’s mother a lot of prosperities after the wedding. Apparently in 2008, the Parliament of Egypt passed new laws banning female circumcision and setting 18 as the minimum age for marriage for both genders. However, some Egyptian parents still permit their children to get married very early. Furthermore, parents does not either motivate their children to study; or care much about their children’s education, all they want is to preserve their old-fashioned traditional practices; therefore leads to the low literacy rate of Egypt. 2. 3. Dropout rates Figure 3, reproduced from â€Å"Why Are The Children Out Of School? : Factors Affecting Children’s Education in Egypt, A Paper for the ERF 9th annual conference† (2001) There is a similarity between Figure 2 and 3, as both of the charts indicate that Matroh has the highest rate in terms of never attending schools and dropping out, with over 40% and approximately 10% respectively. Suliman and El-Kogali (2000), their survey on mother’s perception’s reason of drop out shows that the main reasons for the significant dropout rate are because education is not important for children (especially girls), and the only thing they must do is to make money to support their families’ wealth. Assaad, Deborah and Zibani (2001) prove that the dropout rate in Egypt has a strong bond with child labor, which is very common in Egypt and many other Muslim countries. This is because children from poor families in those countries are more likely to be forced to work, therefore, it is less likely that they will be attending school, consequently leading to illiteracy. Furthermore, Nadine et al (2011) show that the number of child laborers in Egypt are between 1. 3 to 3 million, with agricultural factor involves up to 78%. Ultimately, this lead to the decision that it is better for children to stop schooling and start working to make money. 3. Conclusion The Arab Republic of Egypt’s low literacy rates, which result from poverty, early marriage and high dropout rate have caused many negative impacts for the countries such as lacks of human resources and affect its economies. Despite the Department of Education had took actions to improve the country’s literacy rate with the help of some non-profit organisations such as UNESCO or World Education, it is still low compare to other countries. The Department should use new methods and approaches in which may result in a higher literacy rate. 4. Recommendations 4. 1. Poverty The Department of Education needs to have more involvement in public education in Egypt. Firstly, the Department should find supports for public schools. Also, the Department can ask for other NPOs or NGOs like UNICEF or UNESCO to supply poor children in rural areas with studying materials such as books or pens. This will decrease the cost burden for the household who have limited budget to invest in children’s education. Along with building more public schools, some regulations need to be executed in order to control the additional costs of schooling. For example, the Department should support transportations for students, or check teachers’ qualifications in order to make sure that every child in Egypt can access education without any obstacles. Therefore, with better facilities and better qualities of teaching, there will be an increase in Egypt’s literacy rate. 4. 2. Child marriage The Department should promote a series of campaigns that help Egyptians to raise their awareness about the importance of women’s education. These campaigns should be organised through all means of media, including radio, television, or even via presentations. If women and children can realize the importance of education, they can have chances to be educated, therefore this will solve the problem of girls’ high rate of child marriage and indirectly improve Egypt’s literacy rate. 4. 3. Dropout rates The Department should create more opportunities to encourage children to go to school by providing free education to children in rural areas. Also, the government can provide students with scholarship to support students’ studying path. Doing this, children will have more motivation to go to school, thus can increase the overall literacy rate. 5. References Assaad, R, Deborah, L, Zibani, N, 2001, â€Å"The Effect of Child Work on School Enrollment in Egypt’, Economic Research Forum, viewed 20 June, 2013. CIA, 2010, â€Å"The World Factbook†, CIA, viewed 20 June, 2013. El Dawla, A, â€Å"Trap for Democracy†, Social Watch, 2000, viewed 27 June, 2013. El Masry, S, 2012, â€Å"Under-reported and underage: Early marriage in Egypt†, Daily News Egypt, December 5, 2012, viewed 27 June, 2013.

The Disgusted Teacher :: Teachers Teaching Education Writing Essays

The Disgusted Teacher In her paper, a student must not only support her belief in the death penalty, but also present counter-arguments to the readings. In response to an essay which claims that the death penalty is used in a racially biased way, the student writes, "Mostly blacks are given the death penalty because blacks are more violent and commit more crimes than other races." A student's assignment asks whether or not the U.N. should put a stop to infibulation in the Third World. The assignment is couched in and refers back to readings about multiculturalism and respect for other systems of belief. The student bypasses these questions and, as his main argument, suggests that infibulation should not be stopped because women who have had the operation, unlike American women, do not cheat on their husbands. A student comes into the University Writing Center, seeking help with a first year composition assignment on homosexual marriage. Her ideas are unfocused and she has no support for her view that gays should not be allowed to marry. After a half-hour, the student finally reveals that she is having trouble because, like Queen Victoria, she doesn't believe homosexuals actually exist. The frustrated (and gay) tutor bursts out with, "Well, you've been talking to one for the last half hour!" It can happen at any moment, to any instructor, that sudden, unreal feeling when a student voices a view that seems simply wrong. Not unsupported, or badly thought out, but simply, obviously and completely wrong. Women are biologically programmed to be neater than men. Vegetarians are cold all the time and die early because they don't eat enough protein. Children placed in day care grow up to be psychopathic killers. These kinds of views can surface anytime, but they seem to come up more often and to be more of a problem in first-year writing classes. They come up more often, it seems, because first-year writing classes are small, discussion-driven and tend to focus on building arguments by examining such controversial topics as abortion and the death penalty. First-year writing classes also focus on the student's ability to present and defend an opinion, rather than master a set of facts or theories. They are more problematic in these classes than elsewhere because the opinions form the basis of written work.

Primary Secondary Groups

Primary Secondary Groups A primary group is typically a smaller group with very close and personal relationships. While a secondary group far less personal and usually has a function or goal that was in mind while the group was created. Primary groups build on human’s basic need of being social and accepted. This can come from family or even cliques at school. I chose family and military as my primary groups that I have and am a part of that I will analyze my role in these group situations. The secondary groups I chose are the group that was created the first day of this class and an online gaming community.The role I take on within my family can vary depending on each individual and situation. I would say that I have taken on each group task role, group building maintenance role and individual role at least once at some point. I try to stay in a role that is positive such as standard setter. While in a family many roles are filled but while in the military usually there are f ew roles being filled. The roles I filled within my time in the Army were still many but not as many as family. The usual roles being fulfilled for anyone is as a follower when in your first few years of military.Later one can become an orienter and coordinator. As a secondary group a gaming community is very informal. The people within the community though are there for one reason and that is to play games. My role usually within the gaming community coordinator and standard setter. In the group that was made within the class for the group project it was chosen that I am to be the leader so I will be taking on many group task roles especially within this small group. I will be filling coordinator, energizer and initiator-contributor just to name a few.

The Christian Reality - 1003 Words

The Christian reality consists of both a physical and a supernatural world. Men for a long time have been aware of these two realities and yet many times have only looked at just one or the other. The Greek philosophers have held opposing views on what is real. These philosophies are known as idealism or realism. Each hold to truths that are found in Christian beliefs, but also contain beliefs that are opposed to Christianity. Idealism holds to many ideas that can be accepted by Christians. One of these ideas is that there is a reality which cannot be discovered in the material world. According to the Christian faith this world is just a temporary existence that will pass away. The ultimate reality is that all men have a spiritual†¦show more content†¦Idealism has beliefs that contradict scripture. According idealism the universal truth exist inside of man, and he must use reason and logic to find them. This contradicts scripture because man is not able to obtain full truth on his own because all truth is from God. Man is separated from God because of man s sin nature so they are separated from the truth. According to Scripture the only way that man can come to the truth is through accepting the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. Idealism is contradictory to Scripture in its view of matter. According to Idealism matter is just the shadow of an idea and that the idea is what is real. Scripture does not deny the reality of the material world. Scripture does say that Christian are living in a very real and material world. Jesus when he came to save humanity had to come to this material world and become an actual man to redeem the world. Jesus came to a material world to redeem all the creation. When man dies his soul is separated from his body, however when the rapture occurs the body is reunited with the spirit. This shows that God has created man with a dual spirit and body nature. God intends for man to exist within a material world and the coming worl d is a material world. Scripture constantly shows that the material world is a reality. While some parts of Idealism agree with Christian belief some do not, this is also true for Realism.