Let us Enable Children Right to Education with ICT

In the face of emerging global challenges including climatic change, heath, economic crisis and cultural issues, education remains the foundation for innovation and the advancement of human kind. Hence it is important for us to respond to these crucial problems to provide access to education by all. 

[ Lahugala Village Youth in a class room listening to a teacher]

Theoretically this idea sounds wonderful and inspiring, but how many children in the world have access to quality education and how many have not? The answer is not easy to find as many nations do not have clear statistics of children who do not have access to even primary education. We don't have to run to deep African or Asian villages to find the graveness of this problem; we can see, feel and hear it around the corners of our cities.

United Nations Millennium Goals has put much weight on achieving universal primary education by 2015. Looking at my own village I am not convinced that primary education alone could help children, the youth of tomorrow to get Employed. Nations already acquired much of this goal need to look beyond Millennium Goals to train their youth.

It is accepted that the basic necessities of humans are food, clothing and shelter. "These basic necessities only can help a person live like an animal who only wants to live another day" said my teacher when I was little. In my view, to live in a civilized society education is a not a want, but a basic need that adds to food, clothing and shelter. I believe access to education should be a human right. With this right enabled rest of the rights will follow.

An educated many may not beat his wife like an uneducated person in most cases. so women are empowered. An educated man shall protect environment, promote peace and empower others unlike a person without right education. I belive education as the fundamental solution to address most of the global problems.

However, the question remains how we get our yuth to have a good education, as we agree that it can be the answer to eradicating poverty, developing a healthy society, and bringing communal harmony and peace to the world.

While we understand the depth of this problem, we also need to develop new ways of thinking to solve this problem. It's commendable that many developing nations have put much effort into rural education development, but their problem remains with many children dropping school early and hence not being able to attain 21st century skills.

We need to think and act fast to find better ways of education. Those new ways can not be just improvements of existing systems, which are mostly and currently unjustified. We need to think radically and liberally to bring newer solutions and means of delivering education to all children in the world by considering it as a critical need of the human kind just now!

We need to think beyond our vision, obstacles and break barriers with breakthrough thinking and innovation to change existing paradigms to ensure children right to quality education. It's not a one way, but only way of making our world sustainable and survivable in the face of emerging challenges. It is only education which can develop children to be future saviors of planet earth and it's human civilization.

In a far village of Sri Lanka, where we work for education development with Telecentres, a parent said "I am trying to feed my child and find water for my farm, how am I supposed to take him to school everyday?", an expression of a typical problem faced by rural children in continuing their education. It's hard for us to bypass their day to day issues in our solutions.

It simply tells us that we need to change the system and find ways to bring education to young people. It may not be fair for us to only criticize the problems in education delivery to children without at least pointing a direction for solutions that can be implemented in a sustainable manner. One way we can try to solve this global problem is to use technology in innovative ways.

E learning/Digital learning and Mobile learning, for example, offers simpler and better solutions that ensure youth and children right to education. I think the time is quite right, it is only our commitment which is needed to make it happen. If I am given one wish by Almighty , it would be to deliver quality education to all the children that are currently isolated from the knowledge of the world. Since it's not yet happening though I wish, I would try use Telecentres to achieve my wish to deliver a quality education as it simply works.

[ Youth using Shilpa Sayura to learn media editing at Lahugala Nenasala Telecentre, Sri Lanka]

Two Sri Lanka projects reach finals in the Global Telecentre Awards 2013

Telecentre.org Foundation and Spark (the 4th Global Forum on Telecentres) organizers, in cooperation with the regional telecentre networks, conducting the of the first ever Global Telecentre Awards (GTA). Shilpa Sayura and Suriyawewa Nenasala of Sri lanka are among 18 semi finalists of the first Global Telecentre Awards 2013 of telecentre.org. 

Shilpa Sayura in the finals of The Best Telecentre innovation category while Mrs. G. A. Deepika of Suriyawewa Nenasala has reached finals in the Best Telecentre Manager category. Both Shilpa Sayura and Suriyawewa Nenasala are children of e Sri Lanka projects implemented by ICTA during 2005- 2006. The GTA conducted under 6 main categories of Best Telecentre, Best Telecentre Manager, Best Telecentre Network, Best Telecentre Initiative, Best Telecentre Innovation and Best Information Access Center.

GTA 2013 received 266 entries and underwent a pre-screening process, and the top 3 entries in each category constituted the pool of semi-finalists who shall proceeded to the next phase of the competition – Community Voting and Final Judging.

The Community Voting is a one-month public voting process that will be carried out via the TCF community sites, and the emerging winner in each category will be proclaimed the Global Community’s Choice Awardee for that category. In the Final Judging stage, a special panel of judges composed telecentre and ICT for development experts shall evaluate the semi-finalists to determine the major winners in six categories of Best Global Telecentre, Best Global Telecentre Manager, Best Global Telecentre Network, Best Global Telecentre Initiative, and Best Global Telecentre Innovation. 

The Global Community’s Choice Awardees shall each receive a Certificate of Recognition, a plaque, plus visibility, meanwhile, winners of the 5 major awards shall receive a travel grant of 2,500 USD to attend the awarding ceremonies SPARK 2013 event in Spain.

The Community Voting for selecting 6 winners for Global Community’s Choice Awards is now on at www.telecentre.org. Telecentre.org invite telecentre and ICT for development professionals and general public to vote on their favorite projects. The ends 15 may 2013. 

More Information

http://community.telecentre.org/profiles/blogs/tcf-bares-1st-global-telecentre-awards-semifinalists

http://www.telecentre.org

http://www.shilpasayura.org

Urban Shelters - Everyone needs a home

Sense of place characterizes authentic human attachment and belonging to a place. This media piece was done for Adobe Youth Voices Training as an AYV educator. Location Colombo Sri Lanka. June 16 2012.

Building up your emotional fitness (emotional resilience)

Stress is a part of everyday life. Stress has many sources of stress. Romantic breakdowns, friends changing, loosing a job, parent’s pressure, failing an exam and extraordinary events like deaths, serious illnesses and natural disasters etc can occur without a warning. People easily become frustrated by the pressures created that transform into stress that make you wear out. Here are few tips to improve your emotional fitness.

1. Talk to someone
Communication with someone help you express your innermost feelings and relief the tension rather than keeping it inside. You have to be careful who you are talking to. It should only be someone who you trust and someone has a interest at heart for you. Start with small things that make your sad, end up laughing about difficult experiences. It will help you improve your relationships and to connect with people.


2. Improve your self-esteem
Your self-esteem is the way you feel about yourself. Many things can cause drop your self-esteem. Romantic break-ups, not getting something you wanted or failing in something. Nothing can make you less worth, although you may feel so.
One way to improve your self-esteem is to treat yourself as your best valued friend. Value yourself as your best friend; be honest and never let down your best friend. Think bright side of yours not negatives. What you can do other's can't is your value.


3. Manage your stress levels
You may have lots of stress in your lifestyle. Exams, Schools, Teachers, Parents, Friends and Society may put pressure on you. With a stressed state of mind, it makes it easier for you to overreact or feel negative compared to someone who is relaxed. Managing stress is a gradual process. First look at your lifestyle. Are you involved in lots of activities? Genuinely ask your parents, teachers, partners and friends to help you to reduce work load. Take relaxing activities like yoga, photography and listening to music. Change your working hours. Do regular exercises. Do Breathing exercises for stress.


4. Enjoy yourself
Enjoying yourself is important for emotional health. Watch sports and go picnics with friends. Having a cup of tea with a friend can improve your day. Do something you are good at, such as cooking, singing, dancing, making something or helping someone. Try to achieve something of what you do. It’s better to avoid things that make you feel worse afterwards, such as alcohol.


5. Choose a well-balanced diet
You need to make healthy choices about your diet that can make you feel emotionally stronger. Read about healthy eating.


6. Do exercise
Even little exercise releases chemicals in your brain that lift your mood. It can help you to sleep better, have more energy and keep your heart healthy. 


7. Get enough sleep
Make sure you sleep seven to eight hours in average to make your body and mind to rest fully. 


8. Develop good relationships
Think about each relationship you have with family, friends and your partner. Are you really happy when you are with them? Do they have best interests at heart about you? Do they enjoy their company? Are you happy with the way they act towards you? Start to think about how you can improve your relationships, and then make little changes. You could even drop relationships if it does not really works out.


9. Know the warning signs
Try to recognize when negative emotions start creeping in, whether it’s stress, anxiety or feeling sad. Don't let them take over your mind. Start doing things that help you overcome them. Take a day off, go somewhere, talk to someone or just relax and have a good sleep.


10. Plan your work
Lots of people work without a proper plan for life. Ask yourself; what you would be doing tomorrow, next week, next month, next three months, next year, next three years, next 10 years. What will help you achieve them? What will not? What will you need to be there? Be realistic and Practical try to achieve what you can. 


11. Keep your mind healthy
Negative thinking of your self as well as about others makes your mind ill. Do not plan to hurt someone. Don't think about things someone has done wrong to you. Anything you plan to hurt another person will come back to you as an echo. Avoid negative things, negative activities and negative people. They always bring trouble even they seem so close.


12. Help others in problems
Helping others in their problems will help you understand nature of problems they face. One day it could be yours. The most voluble help you can do is asking whether they need a help. Listening is a good help to anyone. Help disabled people, elders or anyone in trouble. But don't make the problem yours or act as it's yours.
13. Connect With the nature
Plant a tree. Pour water to flowers. Take a walk in environment. Take a photograph of nature and post it online. Enjoy wind, breeze, rain and greenness by taking a trip.



Do you have the Resilient Attitude


Emotionally resilient people are more effective at managing stress as they have a specific set of attitudes concerning themselves and their role in the society. These attitudes help them to cope with issues and problems than their non-resilient peers.


The emotionally resilient people tend to:

• Have realistic and attainable expectations and goals.
• Show good judgment and problem-solving skills.
• Be persistent and determined.
• Be responsible and thoughtful rather than impulsive.
• Be effective communicators with good people skills.
• Learn from past experience so as to not repeat mistakes.
• Be caring how others around them are feeling.
• Caring about the welfare of others in society.
• Feel good about themselves as a person.
• Feel like they are in control of their lives.
• Be optimistic rather than pessimistic.

The new teaching model of the world

The new teaching model of the world incorporates problem based learning, project-based learning and challenge based learning focusing on real problems faced in the real world . It engages students’ curiosity and desire to learn to solve of real problems at the center of the curriculum, and giving students access to 21st century tools, help them to work collaboratively on their own time . In 21st century learning students direct the course of their learning and engage teachers in a supportive role as guides .


Challenge-based learning brings relevance to class work . It gives students the opportunity to focus on a challenge of global significance, yet apply themselves to developing local solutions, challenge-based learning creates a space where students can direct their own research into real-world matters and think critically about how to apply what they learn . It increases their engagement, time spent in learning, creative application of technology, and increases student satisfaction with education . And students master the subject-area of content and developed many of the skills identified as vital for 21st century learners.


in problem-based learning, the teacher’s primary role shifts from dispensing information to guiding the construction of knowledge by his or her students around an initially ill-defined problem . Students refine the problem, develop research questions, investigate the topic using a wide variety of primary source material,
and work out a variety of possible solutions before identifying the most reasonable one . Documentation of the process and a high-quality production of findings further serve to give the process relevance to the world of actual work .