Wednesday, November 14, 2007

UN Millenium Development Goal 2: Achieve Universal Primary Education


by Tiina Mustakangas-Laukka

There are altogether 100 million children in the world who can’t go to school even if they wanted to. Almost all of them live in developing countries (e.g. most countries in Africa, Central America, and much of the Arab World). There are even more young people, 133 million, who can’t read or write. In many countries, education is not free and it’s an obstacle for many children. It is especially difficult for girls to attend school, because, in many countries, they need to help their mothers in their household work, and they don’t have the time and the possibility to study. If the amount of money spent on education each year was increased by the amount of money that is used on ice cream in the USA in half a year, the second UN Millennium Development Goal could be achieved.

If primary education in your country was chargeable and you could go to school only one day a week, which subjects would you study? Why would you choose those subjects? Why is it important that all children can go to school? Do you find studying important? How would you cope with your life if you couldn’t read or write? How can you help all the children of the world to achieve primary education?
(The Ministry for Foreign Affairs. http://www.vuosituhattavoitteet.fi/)

10 comments:

medinahaukipudas said...

By Arto Henttunen

If primary education in my country was chargeable and I could go school one day a week I would study math, Finnish and English. I would choose those subjects because I think math is very important and everyone needs it every day for shopping and calculate things and stuff, Finnish is important to me because it’s my native language, so I need to know how to read it, talk it and write it, English important to know because it’s usable in many county.

It’s important that every child can go to school. I think school is foundation of good life. If everyone could go to school, well children in would become something better something meaningful and, with good luck, World could become little better.

Niko Karonen said...

I think all boys and girls should complete a full course of primary schooling. Because they learn useful skills: such as reading and writing. Many of those children help their parents, work for money and support their parents by working. Many of those children should get education so they get better jobs and can support their parents easily. But many of those children’s parents have disease such as Aids and they can’t work. Then their parents should get social support so that child’s can go to school.

heidi said...

It is important go to school because there we learn to communicate with others.Without school there is so many wrongways where you can totally lost.In School I have learn what is wrong and what is right.And ofcourse usefull skills.If I could go to school only one day a week I would study finnish,english and geography.Maybe history.

Britt said...

Last year in my history class we did a project on a global problem, and i did mine on the lack of education in Africa. The results i got shocked me, and made me very compassionate on this subject. I think that it is very unfair that the kids in Africa and other countries cannot get a good education. I think everyone should have an equal opportunity for education. If i could only go to school for one day a week i would study language arts because i need to know how to use proper grammar, math because i need to know how to add things, and science because its my favorite subject. I think that more schools should do what Medina does and have an Africa week, because it could really help the country out.

medinahaukipudas said...

Thank you for your comment Britt! Could you please tell us what is an Africa week exactly?

Tintti

Beth said...

If primary education in your country was chargeable and I had to choose subjects to learn it would be math language arts and maybe some history. I would choose these subjects because math helps people work with numbers and helps with problem solving skills. Language Arts is the main reading and writing class that helps with proper grammer and understanding situations with reading. I also think history is rather important because you learn about the mistakes or problems that governments and countries have and us, the highschool students, will be the future of the world and if we know what has already happend we can help prevent it from happening again. I think to help the children of the world achieve primary education we should help organizations become more public and let more of the world understand that people should atleast have a chance to be educated.

Kaitlyn A. said...

I could not imagine life without school, but if I had to imagine only attending once a week, the classes I would choose to take would be English, math, and one or more art classes. I selected math and English because both are extremely important for life in the United States. It would probabally be impossible to get a decent job without being educated in either of these two areas. Secondly, I chose to take an art class because I love to draw.

I think it is important for all children to have some type of education, because without it, they may not be able to communicate well or at all. Life without an education would be miserable. Could you imagine not being able to write or even talk effectively? If I were unable to do such things, I would probabally end up teaching myself some made up language.

Finally, I think we can help other children around the world to develop an education by helping them raise money for school supplies or by sending people over to foreign countries to help teach. Personally, I believe that teamwork could play a large role in all of this. I think that if everyone worked together, we could help all the children in the world to develop a primary education.

By: Kaitlyn Andrew (Mr. Robert Thompson's student)

Lauren Gunner (Mr. Robert Thompson's student) said...

I feel that the world wide lack of education is one of our primary problems we are facing today. Being that so many young children are unable to recieve a proper education, that leads to our other problems. For example, if there was a higher percentage of primary and secondary education rates then they would have a better chance of making more money and becoming involved with fighting property. All of our problems that the globe is facing today can be improved if education rates were higher.

I do realize that it is hard for students in some areas to receive education due to insufficient amounts of schools and teachers. I feel that if the UN were able to help finance the growth and construction of more schools in low percentage areas.

Another addition to my statements is that perhaps the educational percentages would increase if the children had an incentive to do so. Many children stay home to support their families, however; If the kids had an incentive such as free lunches, then most likely more children would attend.

Sean D. said...

This should be at the top of the UN’s Millennium Goals. If we could get the world to a point where everyone has an equal opportunities for education, than a lot of the other issues would be partially resolved. People who don’t know about STDs would gain the knowledge to protect themselves. People would be more aware of the environment and how to keep it clean. People with better educations could get good jobs and be successful, partially eliminating poverty. Remember…Knowing is half the battle!

enni said...

Life without school would be so different that I can't even imagine it. Besides learning to read and write at school, you'll also learn a lot of skills that are important in life, for instance you learn how to take care of your health. Without education it is almost impossible to get a good job, and that increases poverty in developing countries. If you don't get a proper job because you haven't been able to go to school, it is unlikely that your children will get an education either. If primary education was possible for everyone there would be few problems less this world.

If I could go to school only once a week because primary education was chargeable, I would probably study Finnish, math and English. I think I would do quite well if I knew how to read and write Finnish (my first language). Also math and English are important because you need those almost every day.