Education in least developed countries

http://images.google.pl/imgres?imgurl=http://www.ishr.org/fileadmin/igfm.de/ISHR/images/ishr_country_reports/ISHR-Kenia-scool-038-h.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.ishr.org/%3Fid%3D1078&usg=__MdeuXbr2M5rhTjusAJpot83UUh4=&h=768&w=1024&sz=135&hl=pl&start=1&um=1&tbnid=hlUn7BhGGU-hsM:&tbnh=113&tbnw=150&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dscool%2Bin%2Bkenya%26hl%3Dpl%26lr%3D%26sa%3DG%26um%3D1

We know a lot about education system in USA and UK, we are comparing it with polish one, looking for similarities, discussing about which is better or what should be change.

But did we know anything about education in least developed countries?

How it looks in Africa? What level of education is there, how many children attend school?

Lets check it, following education system in Kenya.

Education in Kenya has been based on an 8-4-4 system since the late 1980s, with eight years of primary education followed by four years of secondary school and four years of college or university. In addition to this there is a large private school sector, which caters for the middle to upper classes and generally follow the British O-level and A-level system after primary school.

Out of all children in Kenya about 85 percent of children attend primary school, 24 percent of children attend secondary school, and 2 percent attend higher institutions.

• Primary education

There are three categories of primary school: Day Primaries, which make up the majority of schools; Boarding schools, divided into low, medium and high cost; and Arid Zone primary schools.

Primary education in government schools became free and compulsory in January, 2003.
Kenya is home to Kimaini Margue, the world's oldest person to start primary school. An illiterate farmer, he enrolled at age 84 when he learned that schooling had become free.

• Secondary education

Students in Kenya's major secondary schools (high schools) take four years to prepare for college. Most students start to shape their future in pursuing subjects that will take them to their careers. Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education are undertaken at the end of secondary education. As of 2008, the government has introduced plans to offer free Secondary education to all.

There are three types of secondary school: private schools, government-aided schools and harambee schools. The government-aided schools are more selective and only one out of four children are accepted into one. Acceptance is based on a child’s score on the Kenya Certification of Primary Education (KCPE). Most of the government-aided schools are boarding schools.

• Middle level colleges

These are two or three year colleges that offer certificate,Diploma and Higher National Diploma qualifications.. These colleges offer Technical hands-on skills in various fields such as Engineering, Medical Sciences, education, computer Science etc. They include Teacher Training colleges (TTCs), Kenya Medical Training colleges(KMTC), Kenya Polytechnic, Mombasa Polytechnic, Eldoret polytechnic, Kenya institute of mass communication and many others. All these institutions are set up by various acts of parliament...

• Public Universities

The leading university is the University of Nairobi. Other state universities include Kenyatta University, Egerton University, Moi University.

How it starts...

In 1963 the Kenyan government promised free primary education to its people. This promise did not take effect until 2003. Citizens are expected to contribute to the education fund by paying fees, taxes, and labour services. After contributing, most parents did not have the money to pay for their children’s education and were subsequently locked out of the school system.

Teachers strike often due to irregular payment of their wages.The teachers were responsible for collecting fees payments from student, with their wages being held until all fees were collected. Many children were forced to drop out of school simply because they could not afford it. Teachers would often send children home during the final exams in order to pressure parents into paying the fees.

Now that education is free, attendance has increased and there is a shortage of teachers and classrooms with children not getting sufficient attention from teachers due to the overcrowding of classrooms. This isa result of both children attending that could not afford to before, and children being taken out of lower-tier private schools in order to take advantage of free education. This has created demand for low cost private school where parents that could afford to pay the fees can send children to learn in a better environment.

Some believe that a solution for the overcrowding in schools is to create more vocational training programs in order to creat alternative routes to employment.

Kenya introduced the current 8-4-4 system in 1985. This means that grades one through eight are in primary, grades nine through twelve are in secondary, and then graduates spend four years in university. The 8-4-4 system was created to help those students who do not plan to pursue higher education. It has helped reduce the drop out rates and help those that leave primary school find employment.

The growth of Kenya's education sector has exceeded expectations. After the first university was established in 1970, five others have been created. The demand for higher education has resulted in the formation of many private universities.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Kenya


As we can see it's similar to European but learning conditions are really bad, what you can see in this video :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ex-EIQ7kUcM (copy address to bar in your internet viewer)

Making Contact (sms and e-mail)







http://www.flickr.com/photos/pieterouwerkerk/706401207/


SMS-Advantages and Disadvantages

SMS is technology that contributed varied beneficial services to the world and is used in different applications. These applications include business and trade, ebanking, as well as social and spiritual applications.

Indeed, mobile phones have made tremendous contributions to society and to mankind. From its inception as a tool of communication used only by deaf or hearing impaired individuals, SMS or Short Messaging Service had turned into a very powerful means of communication. Also, SMS had made the world smaller and much better as people rapidly gain access to mobile phones. Moreover, it created a new way of system of communication all together.


SMS Applications and Advantages:

SMS has countless contributions to the worlds and let's discuss some of them.

• Banking. SMS had contributed so much in terms of transactions like depositing and withdrawing money. Instead of people going to the banks to transact, the latter had instituted various ways so that the customers can perform bank transactions through short messaging service. This makes them complete their financial transactions with out leaving their offices and or their homes.

• Social Aspect. SMS has made old acquaintances and family members become continually in touch.

• Business. SMS allows for the sales and purchase of goods easier. By just sending and receiving text messages, both buyers and vendors of products need not have to meet face-to-face when trading.

• Spiritual Aspect. In religion and beliefs, SMS too had played a significant role in propagating the faith and inspiring the weary soul. Bible verses were now sent through text messages.

SMS Disadvantages:

Like any other technological advances, SMS has its own share of disadvantages. First of all, it is being used by unscrupulous people to blackmail others. Some crooked group of people will send you text messages stating that you have allegedly won in a lottery or promos. Then you'll find out that the aforementioned were not true and will only bribe you some amount of money.
SMS has made some families disintegrate in one way or another. Husbands and wives can be occupied sending text messages to some friends or colleagues. Rather than talking to one another and their children, they'll usually pick up the cell phone and text or play games. Likewise, children are communicating to their peers most often using text messages and lose quality time interacting with their parents. Sadly, their interaction, communication, and even relationship are endangered. Some users also became addicted to Short Messaging System.

Nevertheless, all is not yet lost in terms of getting the full potential of this new messaging tool. We only have to apply it in the way that we can maximize its usage and services. Sending scams, blackmails, and others with the same evil motives should be stopped at once. We can all start sending good and inspiring messages that will enable others to be uplifted and inspired to do what is right. We should not forget to interact with other individuals, as well. While SMS is a great help in communicating to people, face-to-face interaction should not be put aside. Technology like this is beneficial, but abusing it will ruin its true purpose and functions as to why it is invented in the first place.

http://www.articlesbase.com/computers-articles/sms-super-messaging-service-advantages-and-disadvantages-657542.html














Using Email Effectively

Advantages:

Email is an effective means of communication for business and personal use but it also has some disadvantages.
Firstly, the advantages are;
email is effective in providing quick answers to yes and no, type questions. eg. Do you do international delivery?
Email is effective in finding the right person in an organisation or company to answer your question.
Email is good to make appointments for busy people.
Email can distribute information quickly to many people for the time it takes to email one person.




http://www.flickr.com/photos/striatic/101594790/

The disadvantages are;
Email can become timeconsuming for answering complicated questions and misunderstandings can arise because cultural differences in the interpretation of certain words. The telephone, is much better for providing detailed answers or if you feel that the question is not absolutely clear.
Email can compromise the security of an organisation because sensitive information can be easily distributed accidently or deliberately. Email should be entrusted to well trained and trusted staff members.
Email can become impersonal or misunderstood.

Using business email
More and more individuals are receiving more emails than they can digest and because it is physically more difficult to read on a computer screen, email writing is different from other styles of letter writing.
In business it is important that emails do not become so burdensome, that more time is spent answering email that doing work. Emails must be prioritized, and accurate subject lines chosen. Skimming emails is common, so make sure that the major point in your email is handled first. Make a decision whether it is best to divide the email into multiple emails with different subject lines, because this is often easier and quickier to reply to.

Use of Mailing Lists
Email is a highly effective medium of communication but a wise company needs to treat the recipient like a person not a number on a mailing list. Email needs to be personal or else it is regarded as SPAM and sent off to the recycling bin or blocked by the customer.
SPAM is unsolicited mail. Because it is easy and inexpensive to send email, it is also easy and inexpensive to send junk email.
Just because a person joins your mailing list does not necessarily mean that he or she wants to be bombarded with useless information or made feel as you are using the mailing list purely for profit.
Email can look really impressive by adopting a brochure format, but unless the pictures are there for a reason and the email engages the reader by providing useful information, then it is better to send a text based email. If you need to display products, then a link inside an email to the page on your web site where the product is displayed is in my opinion a better option. This leads the person back to your web site. An email formatted like a brochure is uninviting because it resembles advertising but by providing a link, you are giving the customer a choice to view your product. This empowerment is the difference between informative email and advertising. Informative email is inviting, email that resembles advertising is pushy.
Email needs to tread the line of being personal yet business like. It is a way of building good customer relationships.
Email used well can make people feel as though they matter.
Relationships are the key to any business and it can make for a rewarding experience.
If the desire is to serve the customer, you will certainly be well in front of your competition by responding to every email, promptly and politely.

http://www.passioncomputing.com.au/Web-Copywriting/Using-email.aspx



In connection with this presentation I would like to ask a two question about sms and e-mails (to choose)
1 In what kind of situation you use e-mails more often than sms?
2 What do you think about the future of textual communication? Are sms and e-mails have a chance in competition with cell phones or video communication?

Making communication

COMMUNICATION VIA THE INTERNET.

Communication is the most popular use of the Internet, with email topping the list of all the technologies used. Some of the types of communication technologies used also include email discussion groups, Usenet news, chat groups, and IRC. These are unique to networked computer environments and have come into wide popularity because of the Internet. Other technologies, including video and audio conferencing and Internet telephony, are also available on the Internet. They require more multimedia capabilities of computer systems and are more taxing of network resources than the others. They also are adaptations of other technologies to the Internet.

Most of the technologies that are unique to the Internet require communication to be done in text—letters with some symbols and punctuation. Communicatin effectively involves taking the time, except in informal communications, to use correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation and writing an appropriate message. When replying to a message include the pertinent parts of the message and use an appropriate and interesting subject header in any case.

BE CAREFUL!

-When you’re communicating on the Internet take special care not to give out personal information to strangers and to treat others with respect. Be aware of the risks involved in communicating with people you cannot see and may never meet in person.
- Take time to consider what you write to others, and be careful to avoid humor and sarcasm except with the best of friends.
- You can’t assume that your messages are private, so be careful about what you write.

E-MAILS OR TRADITIONAL LETTERS?

vicariousconversations.com

Ten years ago, e-mails were not very known in our homes, but only in bigger Companies. Our grandmothers, aunts, even mothers communicated with people from other cities by letters. So why now, in XXI century, we – young people, do not know what is better? Let’s see.

-Time is very important for us, sometimes we haven’t got it too much. We can send an e–mail at a time which suits us. We do not have to worry about formal style or grammar.

-Next argument is that we know immediately what it is about from the ‘Subject’ box. We can also send a movie or mp3 in e-mail like an attachment.

-However not everyone checks their ‘Inbox’ regularly so they may miss an important messages [sometimes we can unfortunately delete messages]. And nobody cares about correct spelling. How we hate reading wrong written messages.

-Although almost everyone has Internet, letters are not dead. It is so nice to open a drawer and find old letter from best friend or family. We also learn how to good write in our language, develop spelling.

-Other is one important point, letters will not die, never, because people will remember about them.

-On the other hand, we have to write very clearly so that our friend could read what we had written before. Than we have to go to a Post office, to send it. And we know, how lazy we are.

On balance, I would say that e-mail is a good invention, nevertheless letters are very old form to communicate with somebody else from other city, even country. E-mails will never replace traditional letters. They are just another electronic newness.

Body Language

http://images.channelone.com/img/2005/08/body_language_l.jpg retrieved 5.03.09

“Emotional feelings, instead of finding expression and discharge in the symbolic use of words and appropriate behavior must be conceived as being translated into a kind of “organ language.” - Past Maclean, M.D.

What messages are you sending? Make sure you are sending the right signals. Your voice, expressions, behaviour and movement can say a lot about your attitude. Are people being straight up or is there more to it that’s not being said. Watch, look, observe. Sometimes you can tell more by a person’s body language than the words they speak.

One of the most effective forms of communication involves nothing more than the contraction of facial muscles. Everyone understands what a smile means; or a frown. In fact, it has been shown that facial expressions can be recognised across countries, regardless of language or culture. Something as simple as a hug can ‘speak’ volumes about how much we care for someone. Who needs ‘yes’ or ‘no’ when a movement of the head does the trick? These basic examples show just how powerful body language can be. If we understand how to read and use body language then we can see why it is not always a bad thing to be lost for words.

http://www.cehjournal.org/images/ceh_13_35_044_f03.gif retrieved 5.03.09

Reading body language is a great skill which helps you to understand how people consciously and unconsciously signal their attitudes, desires and innermost feelings with their bodies and actions, often which is more strongly conveyed by their body language than with their words.Here are some easy tips on reading a person's behaviour and habits and how to understand the personality of an individual just by keeping an eye on his or her body language: (click on the picture to enlarge)

http://deltabravo.net/custody/body.php retrieved 5.03.09

Animal communication

Communication is defined as a two-way process in which there is an exchange and progression of thoughts, feelings or ideas towards a mutually accepted goal or direction.

Types of communication:
There are three major parts in human face to face communication which are body language, voice tonality, and words. According to the research:
55% of impact is determined by body language--postures, gestures, and eye contact,
38% by the tone of voice, and
7% by the content or the words used in the communication process.


Although the exact percentage of influence may differ from variables such as the listener and the speaker, communication as a whole strives for the same goal and thus, in some cases, can be universal. System of signals, such as voice sounds, intonations or pitch, gestures or written symbols which communicate thoughts or feelings. If a language is about communicating with signals, voice, sounds, gestures, or written symbols, can animal communications be considered as a language? Animals do not have a written form of a language, but use a language to communicate with each another. In that sense, an animal communication can be considered as a separate language.


Animal communication is any behaviour on the part of one animal that has an effect on the current or future behavior of another animal. Of course, human communication can be subsumed as a highly developed form of animal communication. The study of animal communication, called zoosemiotics' (distinguishable from anthroposemiotics, the study of human communication) has played an important part in the development of ethology, sociobiology, and the study of animal cognition. This is quite evident as humans are able to communicate with animals especially dolphins and other animals used in circuses however these animals have to learn a special means of communication. Animal communication, and indeed the understanding of the animal world in general, is a rapidly growing field, and even in the 21st century so far, many prior understandings related to diverse fields such as personal symbolic name use, animal emotions, animal culture and learning, and even sexual conduct, long thought to be well understood, have been revolutionized.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communication
http://www.flickr.com/photos/y-its-mom_pics_of_wyatt/2604951424/

Here you can see dolphins communication. How mother teach her child to live in Ocean, and you can hear dolphins voice. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nsk4u0IMmTE&eurl=http://video.google.pl/videosearch?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&hl=pl&rlz=1T4GZHY_plPL229PL229&q=dolphin

I think it's very interesting, there are so many way to communication, and in fact not only human can communit together. I suppose, everyone who has got some animals at home, can read their emotion. Am I wright? I almost always know when my cat want to play, or eat. Animals can show it. :)

The benefit of laughter

Research has shown health benefits of laughter ranging from strengthening the immune system to reducing food cravings to increasing one's threshold for pain. There's even an emerging therapeutic field known as humor therapy to help people heal more quickly, among other things. Humor also has several important stress relieving benefits.

Stress Management Benefits of Laughter:

• Hormones: Laughter reduces the level of stress hormones like cortisol, epinephrine (adrenaline), dopamine and growth hormone. It also increases the level of health-enhancing hormones like endorphins, and neurotransmitters. Laughter increases the number of antibody-producing cells and enhances the effectiveness of T cells. All this means a stronger immune system, as well as fewer physical effects of stress.
• Physical Release: Have you ever felt like you "have to laugh or I'll cry"? Have you experienced the cleansed feeling after a good laugh? Laughter provides a physical and emotional release.
• Internal Workout: A good belly laugh exercises the diaphragm, contracts the abs and even works out the shoulders, leaving muscles more relaxed afterward. It even provides a good workout for the heart.
• Distraction: Laughter brings the focus away from anger, guilt, stress and negative emotions in a more beneficial way than other mere distractions.
• Perspective: Studies show that our response to stressful events can be altered by whether we view something as a 'threat' or a 'challenge'. Humor can give us a more lighthearted perspective and help us view events as 'challenges', thereby making them less threatening and more positive.
• Social Benefits of Laughter: Laughter connects us with others. Also, laughter is contagious, so if you bring more laughter into your life, you can most likely help others around you to laugh more, and realize these benefits as well. By elevating the mood of those around you, you can reduce their stress levels, and perhaps improve the quality of social interaction you experience with them, reducing your stress level even more!
  

http://stress.about.com/od/stresshealth/a/laughter.htm

Perfect joke

"Past research into humor has revealed important insights into brain functioning," says Richard Wiseman, a psychologist at the University of Hertfordshire near London. About this time last year, he created a project called the Laugh Lab. Its mission: Find the world's funniest joke.

Wiseman's quest for the perfect joke began with a call for jokes put out over the Internet. After his staff weeded out obscene submissions and edited away racial epithets, he recorded the most popular jokes and posted audio files on a Web site. Visitors were asked to rate what they heard. Last fall, a computer picked the joke that was most appealing to both sexes, in all age groups, in all countries. It was submitted by Gurpal Gosall, a 31-year-old psychiatrist from Manchester, England. Perhaps you've heard it. The joke goes like this:

A couple of New Jersey hunters are out in the woods when one of them falls to the ground. He doesn't seem to be breathing, his eyes are rolled back in his head. The other guy whips out his cellphone and calls the emergency services. He gasps to the operator: "My friend is dead! What can I do?" The operator, in a calm, soothing voice, says: "Just take it easy. I can help. First, let's make sure he's dead." There is a silence, then a shot is heard. The guy's voice comes back on the line. He says: "Okay, now what?"

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/health_medicine/1281101.html

The most viewed funny video ever