[In this essay some of the facts that i discuss in the latter sections of this essay are written based on
the information gathered from an experience academic personal, Mrs. L. R.
Malagala. She was a teacher, in service advisor for 13 years, contributor of
designing the educational materials and
also has worked as a director of education of the ministry of education and
after her retirement is currently working as an external resource person for
the OUSL, Nawala]
Before move on to my topic of the day, I thought it is
god to refer some data published on the sources of Internet. I thought it is easy for me to talk even about
a minor corner of this massive subject called education. Again it is no easy to talk about education
systems or structures of the entire universe and thought to limit my discussion
only to the region of the SAARC
Lets have a look at the following table that I prepared
extracting some data from a huge data grid published on internet, sources of
information mentioned below.
Literacy rates of the SAARC Region Countries
|
Country
|
Literacy
Rate
|
Male
Literacy
|
Female
Literacy
|
Criteria
|
|
Mighty
Maldives
|
99
|
99
|
99
|
Age
15 and over can read and write ( 2006 census)
|
|
Beautiful Bhutan
|
52.8
|
65
|
38.7
|
Age
15 and over can read and write ( 2005 est)
|
|
Polite
Pakistan
|
55
|
67
|
42
|
Age
15 and over can read and write
|
|
Near
and Dear Nepal
|
66
|
75.1
|
57.4
|
Age
15 and over can read and write (2011 census)
|
|
Brave
Bangladesh
|
57.7
|
62
|
53
|
Age
15 and over can read and write (2011 est)
|
|
Attentive
Afghanistan
|
28.1
|
43.1
|
12.6
|
Age
15 and over can read and write
|
|
Incredible
India
|
74.4
|
82.1
|
65.5
|
Age
15 and over can read and write ( 2011 census)
|
|
Sincere
Sri Lanka
|
91.2
|
92.6
|
90
|
Age
15 and over can read and write ( 2010 Census)
|
According to the above chart the literacy level of the
SAARC region is satisfactory yet dear Afghanistan has to pay
more attention towards level of literacy of the people of their country and I
guess the data in the table provides us a picture of certain areas that they
need to be focused on improving.
Compared to yester years women are now
in a good position or shows satisfactory improvement with regard to their levels
of literacy specifically in the region that I focus today. The region that I particularly discussing today,
was known as a region where you find unsatisfactory level of literacy in the grids
and lists of the past, prepared by various let’s say organizations worldwide
other than their own country sources.
Levels of Education was one of the main criteria that
the analysts used to identify, or discuss the entire picture of a country,
region with regard to their levels of development. I guess the terms that I am
specifically using here in this essay, are not strange terms to any learner or
a scholar I believe such terms added to the vocabularies of the world analysis
based on some of the criterias such as levels of achievements of Education ,
including
Third World Countries, Developing countries, Under
developed countries, keep these words in
your ,mind for a moment
According to my knowledge it is not only the per capita
income, inflations, levels of debts and credits, number of projects implemented
or succeeded, situations of import and export of the country or the situations
of economy if you give it a one specific word, that they considered when
categorizing or divisioning world in to various classes such as ‘rich countries’,
poor countries etc or in to categories, some mentioned above but also the levels
of education is one of the main criteria used.
I guess as a region, the achievements with regard to
education is satisfactory when compared to different eras of the history of the
region for instance, Pre or post Colonial period
According to the chart above, mighty Maldives is on top
I guess, attentive Afghanistan joined the
SAARC community recently and I believe all the members of this community has a certain
role to play, indeed, to help their members of the community
to enhance their abilities and shapes and sizes of the fields that require more
attention similarly like the other areas such as economic and social arenas of
the country as immediately as possible, reason is ‘education’ is one of the
best routes that can be used as sustainable methodology, that is towards
development. And through education the Afghanistan can link
with other members of the community of this regional organization in order to
maintain a good relationships with the members
and become economically and socially uplifted
Thinking of the history
of the country, it is true that outsiders or the country members themselves can
justify the figures and data in the table given above but it is not always they
can use as an excuse. Slowly and strategically they need to improve and develop
each and every sector of education. No! I am not trying to view the entire
system of education of the attentive Afghanistan just by reading the data above
yet i believe I am not totally inaccurate. And we have to understand the
country’s cultural and social framework as well before trying to analyze the
figures related to education or levels of literacy.
According to the above details Beautiful Bhutan also
needs to pay
more attention towards levels of literacy of the female without knowing or understanding
the inner picture of the country I am less confident to give my justifications
as a learner.
I also like to share my personal views on some other
sides of improving the levels of literacy and level of education as a whole.
PERCEPTIONS; I believe plays and important role when
considering any social or qualitative development of any community. For instance if the parents of a girl child believe
that she should not study more than up to grade 10 and should stay at home
learning how to do household cores, and get marry a person they match make for
her, it is not ethically easy for a government to force any parent by interfering
the decisions of a certain Family though they can policily make some decisions
and get the approval of the entire society
Raising awareness any society, voices, groups can do
without thinking of any barricades face by them. Also it is no easy to change
any structure where social and cultural and religious regulations are very
strict than the regulations or rules of certain policies accepted by any community
that may lead to conflicts of some sort or disharmony of a society therefore careful
consideration and adequate attention is required
Here I am not trying
to say anything against what you socially or culturally trusting but I thought
it is no harmful to share some of my personal views mentioning below. I believe that if you think that women should
stay at home without going to school or they should limit it to certain grades
(I assume) like I discuss in the earlier chapters, I guess you can provide them
certain background or an environment to engage in educational activities within
their chosen, comfortable learning backgrounds. I mean other opportunities other
than the educational institutions like ‘schools’ or pre schools for them to
learn what they prefer while staying at home and while taking care of the
family needs i.e looking after children, cooking , washing I mean household
cores , questions
or issues related to learning can be reduced
According
to the data the Maldives leads the community
with regard to the levels of literacy perhaps ‘sharing their experiences with the
other members would help them to try or design their own strategies to develop
education sector considering their own cultural and social backgrounds of
people also other important factors as the scholars educationists of the world suggests
What we need to understand is we can not use the same
strategies of improving levels education of other countries to improve the same
of a singular country. Further , for instance incredible India is a large
country and the size population and number provincial or district or any other administrative
states are different to the local admin system of our country
So I believe strategies have to be unique and specific
to their own country shapes and sizes , areas that needs to be focused more on
improving but sharing experiences is always useful and important. That is not
just to avoid SELFISHNESS OF EDUCATION that is also to improve COMMON SENSES OF
THE EDUCATION
I believe not only the members of this SAARC community
but also for any other communities or territories, education can be used as a
non harmful weapon to eliminate and face terrorism accurately, intelligently
There are things that we need to consider when measuring
successes and failures of certain structure or a programme . lets take a
country for instance
a)
Socio cultural, political, economic
situation
b)
Demographic
c)
Geographic
d)
Administrative patterns or
strategies of related ministries or
departments
If a certain country faces any inner conflict situations,
inner picture we get of a whole structure is different to the other
countries that face no problems or less problems. If a total number of population of a country is
comparatively high and if the units face administrative issues due to the size
of the population they may obviously face problems. It revels about the areas that
has to be focused, the structures or strategies that have to be considered to
be moderated, that is first and foremost. Or else, if the whole structure is
unable to follow one particular guideline suggested, already promoted, given, evenly,
expected
outcome or the aim can not be achieved easily
Take incredible India for instance, geographically
and demographically she is different to the other members of the
region and to the many other members of the other regions
I believe any can become a prince, princesses, kings
and Queens, emperors and empresses of the Monarch of Education with no
difficulty or barriers if the learners have the desire to do so or have the aim
to learn what is best for them giving more attention towards their routes of
educational interests
Let me move on to what Mrs. L. R. Malagala has to say
about certain things of the child’s education
Our resource personal Mrs. L. R. Malagala suggests that
‘the teacher has to use different strategies to improve the literacy level of
the students specially when they shows some weaknesses in absorbing what you
trying to teach them or direct them learning Alphabets for instance of the
Primary levels.
She says that
‘the academics or the scholars do not suggest teaching letters, A – Z for
instance, during pre school education’ other than the certain patterns that
helps them to identify and improve learning letters of the alphabet and words
w wd we wE
b B W W!
she also mentioned that she uses and
suggest that ‘giving difficult words for them to write and correct them not
just writing the correct word on their exercise books but also the teacher
directly dialogue with the child and explain them
 |
| xlk; |
there are other strategies; giving
different words to each and every child for instance to write them on the board
so that child just can’t watch or copy what their friends are writing and has
to use their own understanding in writing letters or words
Giving them wrongly spelled words and
ask them to choose the right word is also another way to direct the child
towards learning correct ‘writing and reading specific or any words’
Further, she says it is good to use
children’s songs to improve their creative abilities and intervals between each
learning, subject of learning is essential that is why there are periods allocated
after every 45 minutes
Here, the teachers of the schools
given ‘guidelines’ as to ‘what to be done and what strategies should be used to
direct the child specifically in their every learning experience
And the teachers given time periods
when to start and when to finish mentioning the lessons to be completed
The teacher has to use strategies and
methodologies depending on the child and the class, grade of the student
I like to say, that the ‘Infant –
student’ ì<s÷ YsIHhd is
no need to say is required more attention and care specially of the ‘infant-
student’ that shows some weaknesses in learning letters and identify words
So the teacher, the facilitator, the
director has an immensely important role to play that a learner like me can not
suggest or say
Thank you very much sir for the picture courtesy and for the knowledge ->
The pictures were taken from the book written by Mr. S. Sivakumar for the beginners to learn Tamil Alphabet
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