Education Blog

Cai Wu, honorary chairman of the mainland-based China Friendship Association of Cultural Circles, started a visit to Taiwan Thursday to boost cultural exchange between the two sides.

Upon arrival, Cai said he will attend a cross-Strait cultural forum on Sept. 6 at the invitation of the Taiwan-based Sheen Chuen-Chi Cultural and Educational Foundation.

More than 150 experts from both sides of the Taiwan Strait will discuss the development of cultural industries across the Strait at the forum.

The forum is jointly sponsored by the mainland association and the Taiwan-based foundation.

Cai visited the memorial hall of Hu Shi (1891-1962), a noted Chinese scholar, after he arrived in Taipei Thursday.

The European Union (EU) should demonstrate an encouraging policy toward Ukraine, Chairman of Ukraine’s parliament Volodymyr Lytvyn said here Thursday.

“EU should pursue a policy of involving Ukraine in the European space. The interests should be mutual. However, EU seems to approve Ukraine’s bid for its associated membership less enthusiastic,” Lytvyn said at a meeting with former Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga in Kiev.

“The European choice of Ukraine does not mean that we turn our back to Russia as Kiev is looking at all four directions. Ukraine should stay where it is,” Lytvyn stressed.

The Europe will soon serve as a most successful social model for the entire world, he added.

“I mean high-quality education, technology, science and intelligence. Each country, lacking such issues, would fail to develop in the 21st century,” Lytvyn noted.

In July Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovych at a meeting with President of the EU Council Herman Van Rompuy urged concrete steps on an EU-Ukraine association agreement before EU-Ukraine summit in November.

Former Mossad (Israeli intelligence agency) Director Ephraim Halevy was held up due to a numerical mix-up and a possible generational gap during a security check at the entry to the Knesset parliament on Thursday.

Young guards stationed at the security-heavy facility did not recognize the septuagenarian and ninth director of the secretive Israeli spy shop.

Guards detained him after security personnel said his ID card number and entry permit numbers did not match.

“When Ephraim Halevy arrived he was not identified by a young guard, who did not recognize him,” a spokesperson told the Hebrew website Ynet.

“However, the issue was looked into within a few minutes, the guards contacted the committee that confirmed his arrival, and the matter was rectified,” the spokesperson said.

Halevy, who was due for a meeting with the Knesset Education Committee, got help via committee Chairman Zevulun Orlev, who called the Knesset’s security chief to complain – and get Halevy through the metal detectors.

It apparently wasn’t the first time Halevy was detained in such a manner.

“I ask that next time I summon Halevy for a meeting at the committee, please inform the younger guards in advance and explain to them who the former Mossad director is,” Orlev said, according to the report.

Halevy is a well-known figure in Israel and among diplomatic circles abroad. A career Mossad official, Halevy retired from the organization in 2002 after a two-year stint as director.

A once war-ravaged Chinese county in northeast China will build a memorial park on facilities left behind by the Japanese invaders of World War II, to commemorate the invasion and Russian assistance, county authorities said Thursday.

Sunwu County in Heilongjiang Province, separated from Russia by the Heilongjiang River, was the base for more than 100,000 Japanese soldiers.

The invaders left behind 160 war facilities, 24 of which are government-protected cultural relics.

“The park aims to paint a picture of the war through the connection of Sanwu’s scattered war sites,” Zhang Weihua, deputy head of county tourism department, said.

The park will be more than 1,150 square km in size and include barracks, criminal evidence museums, Japanese colony sites, an airport and strongholds. It will be completed by 2020, according to the county’s plan.

The government of Russia’s Amur Oblast offered support for the building of the park, Zhang Xing’an, head of the county’s foreign affairs department, said.

Sunwu County and Amur Oblast planned to build the Shengshan Stronghold in the park and make it a base for patriotic education. About 200 Russian teenagers would visit the stronghold annually, Zhang said.

Shengshan Stronghold, 40 km from the county seat and with an area of more than 100 square km, will be a key part of the memorial park with its well-preserved underground barracks, warehouses and weapon displays.

The United Nations on Wednesday began a three-day conference to review progress made in implementing a milestone convention designed to protect the rights and interests of disabled persons.

The meeting, or the third session of the Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, is convened under the theme of the inclusion of disabled persons by implementing the convention.

The Convention was adopted by the UN General Assembly on Dec. 13, 2006 and then entered into force in 2008. To date, there are 146 signatories and 90 ratifications.

“We gather here today to review progress made toward the Convention’s implementation and to better understand the gaps and challenges related to it,” UN Under-secretary-general for Economic and Social Affairs Sha Zukang told the opening session.

“It is my hope that we will leave this meeting with a renewed commitment to the Convention and to improving the lives of persons with disabilities,” he said.

Sha said that persons with disabilities are more likely to be poor and to lack access to equal social, health, educational and employment services, and that the international community should undertake collective responsibility to address these inequalities.

He noted that some member states have gone beyond ratification and have taken measures that implement the Convention.

For example, some governments have strengthened existing legislative frameworks that protect persons with disabilities. In other cases, new legislation has been created — such as anti- discrimination laws.

Despite the progress, there is so much more that needs to be done, Sha said, noting that fewer than half of all member states have ratified the Convention and its Optional Protocol. “Today I call on the remaining member states to become States Parties to this Convention,” he urged.

Other challenges include the lack of expertise in how to plan and execute government strategies that address disability needs, and how to address disability needs during times of natural disaster and armed conflict, he noted.

“With your assistance — from governments, civil society, the private sector, NGOs — we will succeed in advancing the human rights and economic and social needs of persons with disabilities, ” Sha added.

The UN Convention asserts the rights of persons with disabilities to education, health, work, adequate living conditions, freedom of movement, freedom from exploitation, and equal recognition before the law.

Countries that join in the Convention engage themselves to develop and carry out policies, laws and administrative measures for securing the rights recognized in the Convention and abolish laws, regulations, customs and practices that constitute discrimination.

The UN meeting will include the election of 12 members to the Committee of Experts — the international treaty monitoring body which manages the implementation of the convention and handles complaints of violations under the treaty.

China and Kenya pledged here on Wednesday to enhance exchanges between the parliaments of the two countries in experience of state governing and legislation supervision, and strengthen coordination in international and regional parliamentary organizations.

The move came after Kenneth Marendethe, speaker of Kenya’s national assembly met Chen Zhili, vice chairwoman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s top legislature, late in the day.

During the meeting, Kenneth Marende said his parliament is ready to expand friendly exchanges with China’s NPC in an effort to promote the friendship between the two peoples and the two countries.

Applauding China’s achievements in its social and economic development, Marende said Kenya highly appreciates China’s generous assistance to Kenya’s social and economic development in the past years and will work with the country to expand bilateral cooperation in agriculture, tourism, education and other sectors.

Echoing Marende, Chen Zhili said that China highly values the ties with African nations, including Kenya.

Chen, who is on a five-day visit to Kenya, positively assessed the development of China-Kenya relations since the establishment of the diplomatic ties in 1963.

She said although the international situation has undergone great changes, the friendly cooperation relationship between China and Kenya has been deepened and developed based on mutual respect and mutual assistance, noting that the bilateral relationship has entered a new phase of comprehensive and rapid growth..

The friendly parliamentary exchanges between the two countries have helped cement political and social basis for the China-Kenya ties, Chen said, hoping that the two parliaments would continue keeping the momentum of high level visits and increase cooperation between special committees and friendship groups.

China donated a number of acrobatics props to a Tanzanian arts institute on Tuesday in order to boost cultural exchanges and cooperation between the two countries.

Speaking at the hand-over ceremony held at the Tanzania’s seventh world heritage site in the east of the country, Director of Culture Development of Ministry of information, Culture and Sports of Tanzania Herman Mwansoko expressed gratitude to China’s assistance to his country in the sectors of cultural and education, as the bilateral people-to-people exchanges have been strengthened in the past years.

He added that the donation by China Federation of Literary and Art Circles of acrobatics props, with total value of 11,764 U.S. dollars, would further enrich the Tanzanians’ knowledge about China and its arts and culture including acrobatics.

For his part, Liu Xinsheng, the Chinese ambassador to Tanzania, hailed the cultural exchanges and cooperation between China and Tanzania, which started from the establishment of the diplomatic relations between the two countries in 1964, noting that it has become more frequent and fruitful after the First Ministerial Conference of Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Beijing in 2000.

The Chinese ambassador also commended the Institute of Arst and Culture of Bagamoyo (known as TASUBA in Swahili) for its contribution to the friendship and cultural exchanges between the two countries in recent years with wonderful performances, which made Chinese people more interested in Tanzania and more familiar with its culture.

The Treasury late Wednesday said there is a hole of up to 11 billion dollars (10 billion U.S. dollars) in the Coalition’s costing of its Australian general election promises.

Independent Members of Parliament (MPs) Rob Oakeshott, Tony Windsor and Bob Katter have received Treasury briefings on the budget impacts of the election promises made by both the Coalition and Labor.

The analysis showed the Coalition has problems with its spending plans for the Health and Hospitals Fund, the Education Tax Refund and its Paid Parental Leave scheme.

One of the independents, Tony Windsor, said Opposition Leader Tony Abbott needs to explain.

Abbott had originally refused to submit his costing to Treasury because of a leak. Windsor said the Treasury analysis probably explains why Abbott was cagey with his figures.

Labor said its promises would save the Budget bottom line about 43 million dollars (39 million U.S. dollars) over four years, but Treasury said it would be more likely add 104 million dollars (95 million U.S. dollars).

Windsor said Labor’s election promises were pretty much on target.

The three independents, who also holds balance of power in Parliament to decide which party to form minority government, on Wednesday revealed that their decision on which side of politics to support could take as long as until next Tuesday.

From afar, the tin-roofed mud structure in Mathare, Nairobi looks inhabitable. On the wall are pockets of holes, some tiny and others bigger enabling one see inside the room.

Through a large hole, one sees a young child of about four years playing with another. And as one approaches the door of the structure, the happenings in the room become clearer.

Young children, both boys and girls of about four years are in the class. They are playing with different kinds of homemade toys as a young woman, who is their teacher watches over them.

This is one among of the many informal nursery schools in the slum district, which parents rely on for their children to get childhood education.

Besides the homemade toys scattered on the floor, an alphabetical chart hanged on a wall, the school has small plastic chairs for the children to sit on. “We teach them how to read, write and count numbers,” says Susan Auma, their teacher. “We have enrolled 15 pupils but not all attend the school everyday. Today, only seven have come,” she adds.

The children are in their home clothes. “We allow them to come to school in unofficial clothes since for some of them, their parents cannot afford to buy school uniforms,” Auma says.

The school’s uniform is purple-coloured dress or short, a white shirt and a purple pullover. “The items cost about 10 U.S. dollars. Majority of parents have been able to buy a pair of the uniform, but that is only what their children have. So they cannot put it everyday when coming to school,” she says.

A gathering of the world’s aid and charity groups on Wednesday called on world governments to redouble their efforts for the sake of the “poorest and least politically powerful people”.

A declaration was passed by about 1,600 delegates on the final day of the United Nations DPI/NGO (Department of Public Information/Non-Governmental Organization) Conference held in Melbourne.

According to Australian Associated Press, the document urges world governments to acknowledge “all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights”, while also rating progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which is a 15- year plan to reduce global poverty and improve health standards by 2015.

“The MDGs are basic to human rights, to human development and to equity (so) achieving the MDGs is a moral imperative,” the document stated.

“The MDGs, all of which affect the health of populations, are significantly off-track for the poorest and least politically powerful people, despite progress in many countries and the increased efforts of the international community.”

The document – the NGO community’s collective view and a snapshot of global poverty and disease – warned that one billion people across the world do not have access to adequate and appropriate food.

It also said 2.6 billion people lack access to improved sanitation, almost nine million children die before the age of five and at least 340,000 women die each year of pregnancy-related causes.

An estimated 420 million people in developing countries have a disability while 267 million worldwide have a preventable visual impairment.

Millions of people also die from non-communicable diseases, as well as tuberculosis, malaria and the complications of AIDS every year.

The document also warned of the “short- and long-term health threats” posed by environmental degradation and climate change.

It called for governments to redirect military spending towards “health workers, teachers and infrastructure for the health and education sectors” while free trade agreements should not be favored over “fair trade … that maximizes health and well-being before profits”.

“In conclusion, it is unacceptable that so many children and adults in low income countries continue to suffer preventable illness, disability and premature deaths each year,” the statement said.

“The world knows how to prevent and treat most of the causes and that well focused efforts can significantly reduce levels of suffering.

“The MDGs can be, indeed must be, achieved by 2015.”

World governments will discuss progress on the MDGs at a United Nations summit in New York of U.S. later this month, and the NGOs also said the “urgent needs for financing” of the global aid effort must be met.

United Nations donor countries will meet again in October where they will be called on to replenish the 20 billion U.S. dollars fund that underpins the next three years of work to combat HIV/ AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria globally.