Blog Assignment: Getting to Know Your International Contacts(Alternative)—Part 3

Sad to say the up and down communication with my international contact did not  last.  I was really excited about getting to learn more about the Northern Territory of Australia. After over a few weeks of waiting for her to return my email about the questions in regards to this assignment I never received a response from her again. I pray that all is well with her health as I mentioned previously that she had been ill.

So for this reason I was left with the great option of exploring  another  resource, UNESCO’s “Early Childhood Care and Education”. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural  Organization seeks to  contribute  to the building of  peace, the eradication of  poverty, sustainable development and intercultural dialogue through education, the sciences, culture, communication and information. One of the organizations main objectives is attaining quality education for all and lifelong learning.

Exploring the website, there was so much information to review and discover. Within my  search I  came across the UNESCO Institute for  Statistics which provides cross-nationally comparable  statistics on education, science and technology, culture, and communication for more than 200 countries and territories.

One of our major focuses of this course has been quality child care and educators. In the report Teachers and Educational Quality: Monitoring Global Needs For 2015 chapter 2 discusses teacher training, qualifications and education quality. The report discusses that there are two issues that make the development of cross-nationally comparable indicators of teacher quality difficult, availability of data and uncertainty about the measurable characteristics of effective teachers.  In a number of countries the minimum standard for primary teaching is an upper secondary qualification, typically a specialized program for training teachers which is not designed to lead to studies completed at a university. The entry standards for teaching vary widely across countries.  In a few countries less than one-half of their teachers reach the standard.

The  report  also distinguishes that  many  countries that  have  set  mandates and qualifications are not  meeting  them making  it  difficult to  set cross-nationally comparable. Many countries that are not  meeting their  standards have lowered them to meet qualifications set. Other countries that are meeting  their standards have  raised their  qualifications  with a negative effect that  appears that they are not meeting standards.  This alone has a major impact on the fate of our next  generation as countries are continuously  lowering their standards only  so than can meet them. Another reason that research over the past decade suggests that many developing countries have lowered their standards and qualifications is to control cost.  Many countries are bringing in large numbers of unqualified or less-qualified teachers or by supplementing school capacity with teacher aides and community volunteers. This too has had an effect on lowering the average qualification and experience level of the teaching force. From this report it expanded my knowledge to what  type of education children around the  world receive and why  it  is important  to  continue to  advocated for equity and  equal education for  all children.

 

Reference

http://www.uis.unesco.org/Library/Documents/teachers06-en.pdf  Teachers and Educational Quality: Monitoring Global Needs For 2015, retrieved  June 16, 2012