Date: April 18, 2005
Level: Harder (Try the easier lesson.)
Downloads: This Lesson (Word Doc) | Class Handout (Word Doc) | Class Handout (PDF)

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THE ARTICLE

Most of the world’s richest nations are breaking their promises to provide funding for primary education for the world’s poorest children. Eight Millennium Development Goals were established by rich countries five years ago; the provision of education in developing countries was one of these. The Global Campaign for Education (GCE) has written “school report cards” on the 22 donor countries and most score badly. The GCE report, “Missing the Mark: A School Report on rich countries’ contribution to Universal Primary Education by 2015”, reveals that 100 million children are receiving no education because of broken promises. “Put simply…[rich] countries are preventing children in poor countries from going to school,” said GCE spokesperson Rasheda Chowdhury.

The GCE graded the quantity and quality of education aid programmes. The USA and Austria are the only two countries that received an “F” grade; Norway and Holland are top of the class with “A’s”. The USA’s report card remarks: “George is making strides to increase basic education funding, although he is not yet living up to his potential.” The GCE document decries as “scandalous” the pledged but unreleased $3 billion needed to keep on track: “For about the cost of four Stealth bombers, we could get 100 million more children into school.” It concludes that when these “children are deprived of education, it is not just a huge number of lives that we are throwing away. We are also throwing away…the best chance we have to put an end to world poverty, and secure a more peaceful and stable future for us all.” 

WARM UPS

1. CHAT: Talk in pairs or groups about: rich countries / poor children / primary school / school report cards / broken promises / Stealth bombers / world poverty / a stable future … For more conversation, change topics and partners frequently.

2. EDUCATION BRAINSTORM: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with education. Share your words with your partner / group and talk about them.

3. MY EDUCATION: In pairs / groups, talk about your own education. Was it good quality? Were (Are) you happy with it? Do you feel lucky to have received it? How could it have been better? Has it afforded / Will it offer… you a good or promising lifestyle? / What were you best at? Who was your favorite teacher and why?
Change partners / groups and inform your new partner(s) of what your previous partner told you. Ask the above questions to your new partner(s).

4. SCHOOL REPORT: Talk about your school reports. How did you do in the following (if you can’t remember, you can assess yourself)?

• enthusiasm
• attentiveness
• homework
• examinations
• participation in class
• physical education
• mathematics
• English
• History
• art

5. GCE REPORT: Read and comment on the following quotes taken from the Global Campaign for Education’s report, “Missing the Mark: A School Report on rich countries’ contribution to Universal Primary Education by 2015”:

a.   At this defining moment in history, we must be ambitious. Our action must be as urgent as the need, and on the same scale. - UN General Secretary Kofi Annan

b.   What you have always declared is that we, boys and girls, are the future. You said it with a lot of enthusiasm, but as soon as you got elected, you forgot about your words. We are not the future, we are the present. -  Dante Fernandez Aguilhar, 13, Peru

c.   To do enough to reach the universal primary education goal, 10 rich countries must meet the target of giving 0.7 per cent of Gross National Income to assist developing countries

d.   Books and teachers, not consultants and red tape, are the priority for poor countries

e.   In 77 of 79 low-income countries, according to a World Bank survey, primary education is not free. Parents have to pay a range of fees and charges to send a child to school, and for the poor these costs are often prohibitive.

f.    Staying in school offers HIV/AIDS orphans the best chance of escaping extreme poverty and keeping themselves safe from infection.

g.   In 2000, a stunningly tiny 3 per cent of total aid to education went towards the core costs of basic education service delivery in Africa

h.   In our community we have no toilets and we have to drink dirty water. There isn’t a clinic. We have to work all the time, even us children, and there is never enough to eat. Those are very hard things. But not getting a chance to go to school: that’s the worst. It makes you feel like your future has already been thrown away. - 12-year-old Priti, who was born into bonded labour in Nepal

PRE-READING IDEAS

1. WORD SEARCH: Use your dictionary / computer to find word partners (collocates), other meanings, synonyms or more information on the words ‘primary’ and ‘education’.

2. TRUE / FALSE: Look at the article’s headline and guess whether these sentences are true or false:

1. School grades in rich countries are worsening.  T / F
2. Rich countries have broken promises to poor countries.  T / F
3. Eight hundred million children worldwide are receiving no education.  T / F
4. Rich countries are depriving children in poor countries of an education.  T / F
5. The USA and Austria got an “F” grade for aid provision in a global report.  T / F
6. George W. Bush is improving on keeping American promises of aid.  T / F
7. Fighter planes are more important than education.  T / F
8. Rich nations are throwing away a chance for a stable future for everyone.  T / F

3. SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article:

(a)	breaking	meet targets
(b)	funding	initiatives
(c)	report	frankly
(d)	donor	realizing
(e)	simply	reneging on
(f)	programmes	lacking
(g)	making strides	contributor
(h)	living up to	aid
(i)	keep on track	improving
(j)	deprived	assessment

4. PHRASE MATCH: Match the following phrases from the article (sometimes more than one combination is possible):

(a)	breaking their	badly
(b)	provide	the class
(c)	donor	and quality of education
(d)	score	simply
(e)	Put	countries
(f)	the quantity	his potential
(g)	top of	light
(h)	making	funding
(i)	living up to	future
(j)	stable	strides

 

WHILE READING ACTIVITIES

1. GAP-FILL: Fill the gaps with the words in the column on the right.

World education missing the mark

Most of the world’s richest nations are breaking their __________ to provide funding for primary education for the world’s poorest children. Eight Millennium Development Goals were __________ by rich countries five years ago; the provision of education in developing countries was one of these. The Global Campaign for Education (GCE) has written “school report cards” on the 22 __________ countries and most __________ badly. The GCE report, “Missing the Mark: A School Report on rich countries’ contribution to Universal Primary Education by 2015”, reveals that 100 million children are receiving no education because of broken promises. “Put simply…[rich] countries are __________ children in poor countries from going to school,” said GCE spokesperson Rasheda Chowdhury.		score donor promises preventing established
The GCE graded the quantity and quality of education ____ programmes. The USA and Austria are the only two countries that received an “F” grade; Norway and Holland are ____ of the class with “A’s”. The USA’s report card remarks: “George is making strides to increase basic education funding, although he is not ____ living up to his potential.” The GCE document decries as “scandalous” the pledged but unreleased $3 billion needed to keep on track: “For about the cost of four Stealth bombers, we could ____ 100 million more children into school.” It concludes that when these “children are deprived of education, it is not just a huge number of lives that we are throwing away. We are also throwing away…the best chance we have to put an end to world poverty, and secure a more peaceful and stable future for us ____.”		get top all yet aid

2. TRUE/FALSE: Check your answers to the T/F exercise.

3. SYNONYMS: Check your answers to the synonyms exercise.

4. PHRASE MATCH: Check your answers to the phrase match exercise.

5. QUESTIONS: Make notes for questions you would like to ask the class about the article.

6. VOCABULARY: Circle any words you do not understand. In groups, pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find their meanings.

POST READING IDEAS

1. GAP FILL: Check your answers to this exercise.

2. QUESTIONS: Ask the discussion questions you thought of above to your partner / group / class. Pool the questions for everyone to share.

3. VOCABULARY: As a class, go over the vocabulary students circled above.

4. STUDENT-GENERATED SURVEY: In pairs/groups write down 3 questions based on the article. Each student surveys class members independently and reports back to their original partner/  group to compare their findings.

5. ‘PRIMARY’ / ‘EDUCATION’: Make questions based on your findings from pre-reading activity #1. Ask your partner / group your questions.

6. DISCUSSION:

1. What did you think about this article?
2. Did anything in this article surprise you?
3. Did anything in this article typical of similar global reports?
4. What do you think of the G8 (previously G7) group of nations?
5. What do you think of global campaigns for this or UN campaigns for that?
6. How important is universal primary education?
7. How was your primary / elementary education?
8. How would you feel about your children having no primary education?
9. Is primary education a human right?
10. Are you surprised so many countries broke their promises on aid?
11. Would you (Do you) give money to help educate the world’s poorest children?
12. What grade (A to F) would you give to your country’s education system?
13. “George is making strides”, but should America be doing more?
14. Why do countries spend so much on war planes and so little on education?
15. What problems are caused by not providing education in poor countries?
16. Will world poverty ever be ended?
17. Did you like this discussion?
18. Teacher / Student additional questions.

7. WORLD EDUCATION ROLE PLAY: Use the following role play cards in a discussion about aid for education in developing countries. Team up with partners to discuss your roles and “strategy” before the role play begins.

THE ROLES:

Student A
You are George W. Bush, President of the USA. You have an expensive war on terror to fight around the world – especially in Iraq and Afghanistan. You urgently need cash for war planes, not poor kids’ education in faraway lands. You refuse all requests for aid. You refuse to accept all arguments against America. If someone attacks you or your country, say the opposite is true.

Student B
You are  Kofi Annan, General Secretary of the United Nations. For many, many years you have been very polite with the US President. It is now time to stop being quiet. Attack the President for his broken promises and the money he spends on the war on terror. Convince him that the best weapon in his war is educating the world’s poorest children.

Student C
You are Priti, a 12-year-old girl born into poverty. In your community you have no toilets and have to drink dirty water. There is no clinic. You have to work all the time, even though you are a child, and there is never enough to eat. These things are very hard for you. However, not getting a chance to go to school is the worst. It makes you feel like your future has already been thrown away. You have the once-in-a-lifetime chance to plead with the President of the USA.

Student D
Your job in this role play is very simple. Agree with everything the person on your left says and disagree with everything the person on your right says. After the role plays, talk about what you said. Do you agree with the opinions you were expressing in your roles? Now that you have some experience of this role play, repeat it. Change roles to see if the role play moves in a different direction.

HOMEWORK

1. VOCABULARY EXTENSION: Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or Google’s search field (or another search engine) to build up more associations / collocations of each word.

2. INTERNET: Search the Internet and find information on the Global Campaign for Education. Share your findings with your class next lesson.

3. LOCAL CAMPAIGN: Imagine you are head of your “Local Campaign for Education” – an organization that helps children in poor countries. Create a list of ideas that you could do in your community to provide real help in providing education in the developing world.

4. LETTER: Write a letter to your government explaining the importance of providing aid  for education – especially at primary level.

ANSWERS

TRUE / FALSE:

1. School grades in rich countries are worsening.  F
2. Rich countries have broken promises to poor countries.  T
3. Eight hundred million children worldwide are receiving no education.  F
4. Rich countries are depriving children in poor countries of an education.  T
5. The USA and Austria got an “F” grade for aid provision in a global report.  T
6. George W. Bush is improving on keeping American promises of aid.  T
7. Fighter planes are more important than education.  ?
8. Rich nations are throwing away a chance for a stable future for everyone.  T

SYNONYM MATCH:

(a)	breaking	reneging on
(b)	funding	aid
(c)	report	assessment
(d)	donor	contributor
(e)	simply	frankly
(f)	programmes	initiatives
(g)	making strides	improving
(h)	living up to	realizing
(i)	keep on track	meet targets
(j)	deprived	lacking

PHRASE MATCH:

(a)	breaking their	promises
(b)	provide	funding
(c)	donor	countries
(d)	score	badly
(e)	Put	simply
(f)	the quantity	and quality of education
(g)	top of	the class
(h)	making	strides
(i)	living up to	his potential
(j)	stable	future

GAP FILL:

World education missing the mark

Most of the world’s richest nations are breaking their promises to provide funding for primary education for the world’s poorest children. Eight Millennium Development Goals were established by rich countries five years ago; the provision of education in developing countries was one of these. The Global Campaign for Education (GCE) has written “school report cards” on the 22 donor countries and most score badly. The GCE report, “Missing the Mark: A School Report on rich countries’ contribution to Universal Primary Education by 2015”, reveals that 100 million children are receiving no education because of broken promises. “Put simply…[rich] countries are preventing children in poor countries from going to school,” said GCE spokesperson Rasheda Chowdhury.

The GCE graded the quantity and quality of education aid programmes. The USA and Austria are the only two countries that received an “F” grade; Norway and Holland are top of the class with “A’s”. The USA’s report card remarks: “George is making strides to increase basic education funding, although he is not yet living up to his potential.” The GCE document decries as “scandalous” the pledged but unreleased $3 billion needed to keep on track: “For about the cost of four Stealth bombers, we could get 100 million more children into school.” It concludes that when these “children are deprived of education, it is not just a huge number of lives that we are throwing away. We are also throwing away…the best chance we have to put an end to world poverty, and secure a more peaceful and stable future for us all.”