Dustyhawk :: Broken Mirror

The big picture

What issues are addressed under child protection?

A lack of protection affects children in many different situations.

Children deprived of their primary caregiver: In Central and Eastern Europe alone, almost 1.5 million children live in public care. Globally, an estimated 13 million children are orphaned as a result of AIDS alone.

Juvenile justice: More than 1 million children worldwide live in detention as a result of coming into conflict with the law.

Forced and bonded child labour: Approximately 246 million children work, with about 180 million engaged in the worst forms of child labour.

Trafficking of children: An estimated 1.2 million children are trafficked every year.

Sexual exploitation of children: 2 million children are believed to be exploited through prostitution and pornography.

Children in armed conflict: At any given time over 300,000 child soldiers, some as young as eight, are exploited in armed conflicts in over 30 countries around the world. More than 2 million children are estimated to have died as a direct result of armed conflict since 1990.

Female genital mutilation/cutting: An estimated 100 to 130 million women and girls alive today have undergone some form of genital mutilation/cutting.

Violence: 40 million children below the age of 15 suffer from abuse and neglect and require health and social care.

Remember now Serge is blogging for Unicef and you can make a pledge here And there’s a contest as well. With every donation made, the above can be reduced.

The single most important factor preventing girls from attending and achieving in school is gender discrimination. Girls and boys both have hurdles to overcome. For girls the hurdles are, for the most part, higher and more frequent—simply because they are girls.

You heard that right, that is probably the main factor why many girls around the globe esspecially in the 3rd world country do not get proper education such as us. You see, in those areas a girl is meant for to do 3 things for the family she was born into and for the family that she will have. 1stly, to cook and to do chores, 2nd; to have sex with the husband to produce offsprings, and lastly; to take care of the offsprings.

Because of cultural believes and what nots, the female gender is considered 2nd class a pariah in it’s own right. Therefore when it comes to education, parents will not give their daughter to a school to be taught as they see this as a waste of time and money. And who will take care of the parent’s other offsprings?

The legal frameworks around education can be weak, and many put girls at a particular disadvantage.
- Compulsory and/or “free” education laws may not exist, or may not be enforced.
- Early marriage and pregnancy are widespread in many countries, yet most have laws and policies that prohibit pregnant girls from attending school or returning to school after the birth of their child.
- Worldwide, an estimated 50 million children are not registered at birth, and the majority are female. In many countries, the lack of a birth certificate can prevent admission to school or block eligibility to take examinations.

Another issue is the safety and security surrounding the school to children esspecially to the Girls.
-If children have to travel long distances to school, parents are less likely to allow their daughters to make the journey because of the risks to their personal safety.
- Physical violence in schools, particularly bullying and corporal punishment, affects boys and girls. Girls are more likely to be victims of sexual violence, including rape.
- The traditional gender divisions of labour are mirrored in school. Girls may be made to do school maintenance tasks at the expense of learning, denied physical exercise, and may endure sexual and emotional harassment.
- There may not be adequate (or any) hygiene and sanitation facilities on or near school premises. This can present a major problem for adolescent girls in particular.
- The lack of female teachers, particularly as role models and possible confidantes, can make female pupils feel less secure in the school environment.
- Gender-based violence, including rape and early pregnancy, forced marriage and the spread of HIV are among the problems for girls in refugee camps and schools.
- Children in situations of crisis and instability are often denied their right to education when they need the routine of schooling the most.

Remember now Serge is blogging for Unicef and you can make a pledge here And there’s a contest as well.

Differentiated Teaching in a Classroom

An interesting article. From serge’s opinion and thoughts of the education in Malaysia, we seem to be people who are looking for paper qualification and not qualification that can improve our livelihood.

education should be an ever-learning process that goes on throughout our life time. It cannot be a process that ends after university.

We need to open up our minds, to allow students to learn at their own pace and style. And not by spoon feeding them with our methods.

As mentioned by the writer in the link above

Teachers should revise their teaching methods - they can’t just teach (read: spoonfeeding) anymore, they must facilitate and moderate.

Humans are not robots, therefore we should not, make that we must not be robotic.

The following was posted in the Malaysian Community at Livejournal by serge’s livejournalist mate Nadira at this post

yesterday was trash. i don’t remember the last time i’ve ever felt so fucking fragile. i had an accident yesterday while during this play i was helping with because i had to pee not even halfway through the play and i had to man the soundboard. it wasn’t the most horrible thing that could happen and i’m lucky i’m thick skinned. my main dilemma is i think that my bladder problem is due to child abuse. when i was in primary school (chinese school) i had this teacher who taught us Malay and we had to read from a sheet of a hundred malay words, all the words, five times each. we did this for 50 minutes straight and this class was always before recess. for some reason, i always had to pee during the beginning of this period and the teacher would never let me leave because recess was next and i had to read the stupid, fucking words. my teachers back then couldn’t even pronounce ‘vegetable’ properly and they wanted us to read those stupid words so we could somehow improve our pronounciation.

You know there is a problem. We can be angry or we can do something about it. Right now what i want to do is become an advocate for children’s rights in Malaysia especially when i realised a few days ago that children have no rights. starting as soon as i can, i will be building a website with articles and maybe (if i’m 1337 enough) a forum. i’ll start writing to the newspapers and if i’m diligent enough (hopefully if i’m diligent enough or if i can get some help) i’ll distribute pamphlets and write to the government about my concerns. With some help this will be successful. I can’t do this on my own.

[mood| infuriated]

about 2 days ago, people of the age of 17+ waited for their results, their SPM results. Many of them laughed at the results which they have gotten, many of them cried for the results which they thought they would get but didn’t and there are even those who were contented with the results which they were not even sure about getting. There was a myriad of emotions which is quite amusing.

What is it about us asians ? why is it that we pin so much hope on results such as this ? Serge does not deny the fact that SPM is important, but to think that it is more important then what the future has for you is basically stupid. Take for instance this article, just because she did not get good marks in 2 or 3 subjects..she thought that her life is ready to be terminated.

Frankly speaking what are good marks ? for him, his spm results were atrocious. He scored 4 E7 and 3 E8 (or was it the other way around). Scoring an F was of course not good all. Everyone has a different set of opinions of what are good marks, scoring C and above is good… others want an A1. And there are some people who wants an A1 and at least 98% in every subject. Which is kinda mad.

Now back to the subject at hand. Why do parents whole in regard that results are all that matters ? Do note that serge believes results are important, but it is just one-third of what is really important in being successful in life. What is important in his opinion, is sociability.

sociability, as in the art of speaking to people making friends with them. Building a social-network. In the company which he is in, part of the criteria to enter is knowledge in computers and internet technology which is about just 30% of the requirement. What is important is sociability. Many of us here (except for some) has literally zero knowledge in this kind of nonsense, but we are here because we know who to socialize.

If you’re going to hire someone, will you hire some handsome PHD filled man who has no sociability and is stubborn to learn or would you hire someone who has a grade 6 education but is sociable and willing to learn ? Serge is not sure about you but he’ll take the one willing to learn. Of course if he fins someone who has both good traits of education and social skills ..he’ll take that person.

Paper results isn’t everything, but he does hope that the people will not literally heed his advice and do not study at all. Do study, but do not study just to remember facts and information and bring it out only during exams… but do study and learn to know the facts to understand the information.

do not aim for grades, aim to understand.