VOA标准英语2012--UNESCO Urges Increased Educational Support for Children in Conflict Zones

 

UNESCO Urges Increased Educational Support for Children in Conflict Zones

The young man said the bombers¹ [Russian-supplied Antonovs] targeted schools and villages indiscriminately. “When they saw buildings, they bombed them,” he told the NGO Save the Children.

His account and others are included in the latest version of the UNESCO publication, Education for All Global Monitoring Report. The yearly publication is part of a global campaign to provide universal primary education within the next three years.

It documents the plight² of children from conflict-ridden nations – states that have made the least progress in meeting the Millennium³ Development Goals. They mandate⁴ universal primary education and gender⁵ equity⁶ in schooling⁷ by 2015. 

UN statistics show the effects of conflict behind the lagging indicators⁸ of educational progress, including hunger, disease and trauma⁹, which impair¹⁰ their ability to learn. Experts say in the long run, a country’s failure to educate its citizens reduces economic growth and increases poverty and underdevelopment.

Pauline Rose, the director of the Education for All Global Monitoring Report, said in 35 conflict-affected countries studied, there are 28 million children out of school – 42 percent of the total. She said the reasons vary.

"It’s insecure to walk to school," she said. For young girls, there’s a fear for their sexual safety, of harassment¹¹. In conflict-afflicted countries, rape¹² and sexual violence for young girls are not uncommon¹³."

In some conflicts, all sides adhere to Geneva Conventions prohibiting strikes on public places, including schools and hospitals. But UNESCO says educational infrastructure¹⁴ is a focus of many combatants today.

For example, the UN notes that more than half of Sierra Leone’s primary schools had to be rebuilt after years of war.

In some cases, militants¹⁶ targets schools as symbols of government authority or because they are occupied by troops or security forces, as they are in Yemen and Somalia.

In other instances, schools have been targeted for religious or ideological¹⁷ reasons.

"In Afghanistan," she said, "the idea of girls going to school has been part of the concern of some militant¹⁵ groups [and] is a cause for their direct attacks on girls’ schools. In other parts of the world, schools are caught in the crossfire¹⁸ or militants use them as a base."

Sexual violence and recruitment

Not only does conflict destroy educational facilities, but it also puts both boys and girls at risk of sexual violence. In recent years, the UN has documented evidence of rape against children by armed groups and even the national armies in Chad, Darfur, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Victims often become social outcasts, making it unlikely they’ll keep going to school.

The UN says there’s near impunity¹⁹ for perpetrators. The report says in the DRC, for example, many have been appointed to senior military positions.

School children are also at risk of being recruited as combatants. In some countries, including Sudan, both state and non-state parties have abducted²⁰ children from refugee camps and displacement²¹ centers.

The displaced

Conflict destroys local educational infrastructure and may uproot²² entire communities, whose residents become internally displaced people (IDPs) or refugees.

According to the UN, there are more than 19 million of them worldwide, and about half are young people under the age of 18. 

The UN Refugee Agency says children make up about two-thirds of IDPs in Chad and more than 60% of refugees in Sudan. The UN says countries with large populations recovering from fighting are more likely to have high levels of child labor²³ and lower school attendance because children are kept at home to help their families.

Right to education

Of the displaced, only refugees have the right to education guaranteed under international law. But it’s not always enforced and access to education is uneven²⁴. In eastern Chad, there are only two secondary schools for 270,000 refugees from Darfur. Schools in refugee camps often suffer from a lack of full funding for teachers, equipment and textbooks.

Last year, Rose visited the Dadaab camps in northern Kenya, which shelter more than 250,000 refugees from Somalia. Young people make up about a quarter of the camps’ inhabitants. 

"You have half the children without access to school, classes of over 300 children," she explained. "You just see the conditions getting worse. These camps have been there for 20 years, so it’s not a short-term situation."

"In Dadaab, one of the things I kept hearing from the young men was that because they did not have access to education [and because] there was no work for them, they had seen many friends return to Somali and take up arms. And also with the idleness of youth, there’s a lot of insecurity within the camps themselves as well."

UNESCO notes that increased funding for education remains²⁵ a contentious²⁶ political issue for nearly two dozen conflict states, where military spending exceeds funding for social programs.. Half of those nations are in sub-Saharan Africa.

Defense²⁷ vs. social service spending

The Education for All Global Monitoring Report says the military budget is twice as large as the primary school budget in Ethiopia. In Chad, it’s four times as large, and in Pakistan, seven times greater.

The study estimates if the conflict states in sub-Saharan Africa could cut military spending by 10%, they could educate more than a quarter of their out-of-school population, or nearly three million children. It says one-fifth of Pakistan’s military budget would provide for universal primary education.

One country has succeeded in increasing funding for education, to great effect. For decades, Botswana has channeled its wealth from diamond exports to fund universal primary education and to create a skills base for its thriving economy.

But experts say so far, Botswana is an exception among countries with lucrative²⁸ petroleum²⁹ and mineral resources.

1 bombers   

n.轰炸机( bomber的名词复数 )；投弹手；安非他明胶囊；大麻叶香烟

参考例句：

• Enemy bombers carried out a blitz on the city. 敌军轰炸机对这座城市进行了突袭。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Royal Airforce sill remained dangerously short of bombers. 英国皇家空军仍未脱离极为缺乏轰炸机的危境。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 plight   

n.困境，境况，誓约，艰难；vt.宣誓，保证，约定

参考例句：

• The leader was much concerned over the plight of the refugees.那位领袖对难民的困境很担忧。
• She was in a most helpless plight.她真不知如何是好。

3 millennium   

n.一千年，千禧年；太平盛世

参考例句：

• The whole world was counting down to the new millennium.全世界都在倒计时迎接新千年的到来。
• We waited as the clock ticked away the last few seconds of the old millennium.我们静候着时钟滴答走过千年的最后几秒钟。

4 mandate   

n.托管地；命令，指示

参考例句：

• The President had a clear mandate to end the war.总统得到明确的授权结束那场战争。
• The General Election gave him no such mandate.大选并未授予他这种权力。

5 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

6 equity   

n.公正，公平，（无固定利息的）股票

参考例句：

• They shared the work of the house with equity.他们公平地分担家务。
• To capture his equity,Murphy must either sell or refinance.要获得资产净值，墨菲必须出售或者重新融资。

7 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。

8 indicators   

（仪器上显示温度、压力、耗油量等的）指针( indicator的名词复数 )； 指示物； （车辆上的）转弯指示灯； 指示信号

参考例句：

• The economic indicators are better than expected. 经济指标比预期的好。
• It is still difficult to develop indicators for many concepts used in social science. 为社会科学领域的许多概念确立一个指标仍然很难。

9 trauma   

n.外伤，精神创伤

参考例句：

• Counselling is helping him work through this trauma.心理辅导正帮助他面对痛苦。
• The phobia may have its root in a childhood trauma.恐惧症可能源于童年时期的创伤。

10 impair   

v.损害，损伤；削弱，减少

参考例句：

• Loud noise can impair your hearing.巨大的噪音有损听觉。
• It can not impair the intellectual vigor of the young.这不能磨灭青年人思想活力。

11 harassment   

n.骚扰，扰乱，烦恼，烦乱

参考例句：

• She often got telephone harassment at night these days.这些天她经常在夜晚受到电话骚扰。
• The company prohibits any form of harassment.公司禁止任何形式的骚扰行为。

12 rape   

n.抢夺，掠夺，强奸；vt.掠夺，抢夺，强奸

参考例句：

• The rape of the countryside had a profound ravage on them.对乡村的掠夺给他们造成严重创伤。
• He was brought to court and charged with rape.他被带到法庭并被指控犯有强奸罪。

13 uncommon   

adj.罕见的，非凡的，不平常的

参考例句：

• Such attitudes were not at all uncommon thirty years ago.这些看法在30年前很常见。
• Phil has uncommon intelligence.菲尔智力超群。

14 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

15 militant   

adj.激进的，好斗的；n.激进分子，斗士

参考例句：

• Some militant leaders want to merge with white radicals.一些好斗的领导人要和白人中的激进派联合。
• He is a militant in the movement.他在那次运动中是个激进人物。

16 militants   

激进分子，好斗分子( militant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The militants have been sporadically fighting the government for years. 几年来，反叛分子一直对政府实施零星的战斗。
• Despite the onslaught, Palestinian militants managed to fire off rockets. 尽管如此，巴勒斯坦的激进分子仍然发射导弹。

17 ideological   

a.意识形态的

参考例句：

• He always tries to link his study with his ideological problems. 他总是把学习和自己的思想问题联系起来。
• He helped me enormously with advice on how to do ideological work. 他告诉我怎样做思想工作，对我有很大帮助。

18 crossfire   

n.被卷进争端

参考例句：

• They say they are caught in the crossfire between the education establishment and the government.他们称自己被卷进了教育机构与政府之间的争端。
• When two industrial giants clash,small companies can get caught in the crossfire.两大工业企业争斗之下，小公司遭受池鱼之殃。

19 impunity   

n.(惩罚、损失、伤害等的)免除

参考例句：

• You will not escape with impunity.你不可能逃脱惩罚。
• The impunity what compulsory insurance sets does not include escapement.交强险规定的免责范围不包括逃逸。

20 abducted   

劫持，诱拐( abduct的过去式和过去分词 )； 使（肢体等）外展

参考例句：

• Detectives have not ruled out the possibility that she was abducted. 侦探尚未排除她被绑架的可能性。
• The kid was abducted at the gate of kindergarten. 那小孩在幼儿园大门口被绑架走了。

21 displacement   

n.移置，取代，位移，排水量

参考例句：

• They said that time is the feeling of spatial displacement.他们说时间是空间位移的感觉。
• The displacement of all my energy into caring for the baby.我所有精力都放在了照顾宝宝上。

22 uproot   

v.连根拔起，拔除；根除，灭绝；赶出家园，被迫移开

参考例句：

• The family decided to uproot themselves and emigrate to Australia.他们全家决定离开故土，移居澳大利亚。
• The trunk of an elephant is powerful enough to uproot trees.大象的长鼻强壮得足以将树木连根拔起。

23 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

24 uneven   

adj.不平坦的，不规则的，不均匀的

参考例句：

• The sidewalk is very uneven—be careful where you walk.这人行道凹凸不平—走路时请小心。
• The country was noted for its uneven distribution of land resources.这个国家以土地资源分布不均匀出名。

25 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

26 contentious   

adj.好辩的，善争吵的

参考例句：

• She was really not of the contentious fighting sort.她委实不是好吵好闹的人。
• Since then they have tended to steer clear of contentious issues.从那时起，他们总想方设法避开有争议的问题。

27 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

28 lucrative   

adj.赚钱的，可获利的

参考例句：

• He decided to turn his hobby into a lucrative sideline.他决定把自己的爱好变成赚钱的副业。
• It was not a lucrative profession.那是一个没有多少油水的职业。

29 petroleum   

n.原油，石油

参考例句：

• The Government of Iran advanced the price of petroleum last week.上星期伊朗政府提高了石油价格。
• The purpose of oil refinery is to refine crude petroleum.炼油厂的主要工作是提炼原油。