| [00:00.00] |
From VOA Learning English, |
| [00:02.80] |
this is the Education Report. |
| [00:05.78] |
Recently, there have been efforts |
| [00:08.72] |
to make sure children in Africa |
| [00:10.80] |
get a good strong education. |
| [00:13.93] |
But a new report says governments |
| [00:17.06] |
are losing about $129 billion every year |
| [00:22.33] |
on poor quality education. |
| [00:25.73] |
As a result, about one in four students in poor countries |
| [00:31.52] |
cannot read a complete sentence, |
| [00:35.48] |
that represents about 175 million young people. |
| [00:41.78] |
The report comes from UNESCO - |
| [00:45.13] |
the United Nations Educational, |
| [00:48.23] |
Scientific and Cultural Organization. |
| [00:51.27] |
It says poor teacher training and spending cuts |
| [00:56.07] |
are just two of the reasons for underperforming school systems. |
| [01:01.71] |
Pauline Rose, an education specialist directed the report. |
| [01:08.29] |
She says more teachers are needed across Africa, |
| [01:13.35] |
especially in countries south of the Saharan desert. |
| [01:17.87] |
She says the area would need about 225,000 additional teachers |
| [01:24.53] |
a year to guarantee a primary school education |
| [01:28.83] |
for all boys and girls by 2015. |
| [01:32.79] |
Miss Rose says governments like to save money |
| [01:38.30] |
by using contract teachers. |
| [01:40.78] |
These educators are not government employees |
| [01:45.19] |
but work under a special agreement. |
| [01:48.70] |
Contract teachers can be easily dismissed |
| [01:52.98] |
if found to be underperforming. |
| [01:55.36] |
They also earn far less money than teachers working for the government. |
| [02:01.01] |
Contract teachers represent more than half of |
| [02:05.77] |
the teaching work force in many West African countries. |
| [02:10.93] |
Pauline Rose says teachers need to have a strong desire |
| [02:16.41] |
to help children learn. |
| [02:18.38] |
She says they should want to be in the classroom |
| [02:22.68] |
instead of doing other jobs. |
| [02:25.48] |
In recent years, financial support for education |
| [02:31.26] |
has gone down or stayed the same in many countries. |
| [02:36.44] |
The UNESCO report says governments |
| [02:40.79] |
will need to increase spending on education. |
| [02:45.51] |
Miss Rose says governments can do better on collecting taxes |
| [02:52.91] |
and making sure everyone pays their fair share of taxes. |
| [02:57.59] |
She says governments could also offer good housing |
| [03:03.09] |
to make sure impoverished areas have enough teachers. |
| [03:08.70] |
The report says South Africa gives six times more money |
| [03:15.23] |
to students in areas with low education levels and high unemployment. |
| [03:21.76] |
Malawi is creating teacher colleges to train new candidates |
| [03:28.44] |
for teaching positions in skills for rural areas. |
| [03:33.97] |
And Ethiopia is urging mentors and supervisors |
| [03:39.94] |
to help support teaching candidates. |
| [03:43.00] |
And that's the Education Report from VOA Learning English, |
| [03:49.84] |
I'm Mario Ritter. |
