VOA慢速英语2012 Education Report - United Nations Report Urges “Putting Education to Work”

 

Education Report - United Nations Report Urges “Putting Education to Work”

From VOA Learning English, this is the Education Report in Special English.

A new United Nations report says over two hundred million young people in developing countries have not completed primary school. The UN says almost one hundred thirty million are in school. But they cannot read or write -- skills they need to escape from poverty. The report urges donors¹ and governments to support ways for young people to get the skills they need for success.

The findings are from the Education for All Global Monitoring Report by UNESCO -- the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

Educators say young people need at least a primary school education and some secondary school to get secure, good-paying jobs. But the report says that is not happening in most developing countries, including ones south of the Sahara Desert. It says about thirty three percent of young people in sub-Saharan Africa fail to complete the first few years of schooling². Millions more do not even go to secondary school.

Pauline Rose is the director of the Education for All Global Monitoring Report. She says some schools are failing to provide a bridge between school and work. She says this means that one in eight young people are unemployed³. And one in four people earns very low wages.

Ms. Rose says young people need strong skills in numeracy and the ability to read and write. She says knowing how to solve problems is more important than learning by rote⁴, a process of establishing something in memory by repeating it. 

She says some groups are successful in teaching the skills necessary to operate a business. 

PAULINE ROSE: “Non-governmental organizations have been working to provide young people with training that gives them skills in managing their finances, in understanding how to use assets whether it’s animals, cows for example, or other types of assets… ”

Pauline Rose says people who leave school need a second chance to get an education. In some areas, distance education – by television, computer or other methods – is helpful. 

PAULINE ROSE: “There are also opportunities to learn through distance education, and we find in countries like Mexico and Namibia that large numbers of young people are reached through distance education systems.”

She says another popular method is the traditional apprenticeship⁶. Young people serve as apprentices⁵, receiving training from skilled workers. 

Pauline Rose says apprenticeships mainly help people who have had some primary school, but who lack job skills. She says the system can be organized so women are included, and that students are recognized for their work.

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Contributing William Eagle

1 donors   

n.捐赠者( donor的名词复数 )；献血者；捐血者；器官捐献者

参考例句：

• Please email us to be removed from our active list of blood donors. 假如你想把自己的名字从献血联系人名单中删去，请给我们发电子邮件。
• About half this amount comes from individual donors and bequests. 这笔钱大约有一半来自个人捐赠及遗赠。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 schooling   

n.教育；正规学校教育

参考例句：

• A child's access to schooling varies greatly from area to area.孩子获得学校教育的机会因地区不同而大相径庭。
• Backward children need a special kind of schooling.天赋差的孩子需要特殊的教育。

3 unemployed   

adj.失业的，没有工作的；未动用的，闲置的

参考例句：

• There are now over four million unemployed workers in this country.这个国家现有四百万失业人员。
• The unemployed hunger for jobs.失业者渴望得到工作。

4 rote   

n.死记硬背，生搬硬套

参考例句：

• Learning by rote is discouraged in this school.这所学校不鼓励死记硬背的学习方式。
• He recited the poem by rote.他强记背诵了这首诗。

5 apprentices   

学徒，徒弟( apprentice的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• They were mere apprentices to piracy. 他们干海盗仅仅是嫩角儿。
• He has two good apprentices working with him. 他身边有两个好徒弟。

6 apprenticeship   

n.学徒身份；学徒期

参考例句：

• She was in the second year of her apprenticeship as a carpenter. 她当木工学徒已是第二年了。
• He served his apprenticeship with Bob. 他跟鲍勃当学徒。