I was very interested in Mickey Flanagan’s post regarding the 4th sustainable goal i.e. “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote learning opportunities for all” as I would like to explore this one too with my 5th class, as it can highlight large disparities in regard to children’s access to and quality of education from a very young age.Project work in groups to explore the child in Global North in contrast to the child in Global South would inform the children of this.Oxfam have a great range of books with these types of facts and I have frequently used the one called “Mo Scoil” which lists examples of children from around 30 countries in the world and how they access school, what facilities they have, the number of children per class etc.It was particularly interesting for the children to see a young child wash her hair in a bucket of water as opposed to taking a shower before walking 10km barefoot to school.
We bring our 6th class to Irish Aid for a talk and to get resources every year as a regular event. We would have the poster on the wall in the classroom and refer to it when discussing situations like Afghanistan and the ban on girls ‘ education.Malala is of course a very interesting and brave example of a young activist for her community and we have learned her story.
Darerca Egan who has outlined her and her school’s partnership with a school in Cambodia, which is a very hands on and vibrant initiative. This is what schools which are in priveleged areas should seek out to encourage their pupils to take an active part in the Global World. This initiative is undertaken by a few secondary schools in our area as regards the Mellon Housing Initiative and some of our pupils will hopefully be a part of it when they enter secondary education.