Difference between revisions of "Educational NGOs"

From NGO Handbook
(Brief History of NGOs)
(Civic Education)
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==Civic Education==
 
==Civic Education==
  
A civic education program administered by educational NGOs has contributed greatly to democratic processes and more globally and politically-aware populations throughout the developing world.  With this awareness, people then become trained in administering justice and ensuring democratic processes (CONGAD 2000).  This type of education equips students with knowledge and skills to exercise their rights and responsibilities as citizens.  It also allows for people to build a culture of peace, observance of human rights, and a participatory democracy (HURINET 1999).  Educational NGOs in Uganda, for example, have focused on civic education and experienced positive results.  In the mid-1990s, four separate organizations pooled their resources to develop a civic education manual entitled “Civic Education and Democracy: Towards Free and Fair Elections 1996 and Beyond”, which was later endorsed by six other NGOs (HURINET 1999).  This type of initiative increased the population’s awareness during an election period, and also equipped them with the knowledge and resources to perpetuate the democratic process in the future.
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Civic education programs administered by educational NGOs have contributed greatly to democratic processes and more globally and politically-aware populations throughout the developing world.  With this awareness, people become trained in administering justice and ensuring democratic processes (CONGAD 2000).  This type of education equips students with knowledge and skills to exercise their rights and responsibilities as citizens.  It also allows for people to build a culture of peace, observance of human rights, and a participatory democracy (HURINET 1999).  Educational NGOs in Uganda, for example, have focused on civic education and experienced positive results.  In the mid-1990s, four separate organizations pooled their resources to develop a civic education manual entitled “Civic Education and Democracy: Towards Free and Fair Elections 1996 and Beyond”, which was later endorsed by six other NGOs (HURINET 1999).  This type of initiative increased the population’s awareness during an election period, and also equipped them with the knowledge and resources to perpetuate the democratic process in the future.
  
 
==Closing the Gender Gap==
 
==Closing the Gender Gap==

Revision as of 11:28, 4 August 2008

Overview of Educational NGOs

NGOs are civil society actors. They have a specific agenda for the improvement of society, and act on the desire to advance and improve the human condition (Gallin 2000). In 1990, the decade of “Education for All” (EFA) was launched in Jomtien, Thailand. There were six goals set in Jomtien and in 2000 in Dakar, Senegal, these goals were reaffirmed for another 15 years until 2015 (Torres). They are:

  1. Expanding and improving comprehensive early childhood care and education, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children.
  2. Ensuring that by 2015 all children, particularly girls, children in difficult circumstances and those belonging to ethnic minorities, have access to, and complete, free and compulsory primary education of good quality.
  3. Ensuring that the learning needs of all young people and adults are met through equitable access to appropriate learning and life-skills programs.
  4. Achieving a 50 percent improvement in levels of adult literacy by 2015, especially for women, and equitable access to basic and continuing education for all adults.
  5. Eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005, and achieving gender equality in education by 2015, with a focus on ensuring girls’ full and equal access to and achievement in basic education of good quality.
  6. Improving all aspects of the quality of education and ensuring excellence of all so that recognized and measurable learning outcomes are achieved by all, especially in literacy, numeracy and essential life skills (UNESCO 2000).

Since the Dakar conference, the coordination group has been set up to ensure, in collaboration with UNESCO, that there are follow-up of activities as well as programs and mechanisms for NGOs under the area of “Education For All”. The Coordination Group is composed of eight representatives of civil society organizations, comprised of five regional organizations, two international organizations, and one representative of the UNESCO/NGO Liaison Committee (CCNGO 2001).


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