Finding the teachers of tomorrow
There were several issues raised at this week’s Qatar Foundation-Unesco conference on literacy challenges in the Arab region that struck a chord, but none more so than the need for collective responsibility.
It is simple to play the blame game when dealing with such a fundamental cross-border problem.
Should governments do more?
Should organizations like the World Bank be more proactive?
Should parents be the true guardians of the education system?
Should money be diverted from fighting wars?
Should big business be doing more?
Should computer literacy become a primary goal?
The list could be endless but the one answer to all the questions is, of course, a resounding yes.
Highlighting poverty as the enemy of the illiterate society was also a common theme but tackling both is an impossible burden.
WC Fields was probably not trying to be funny when he said that ‘a rich man is nothing but a poor man with money’. A rich man or woman is someone who has followed a lifetime of learning and recognises that education has to be at the heart of society and handed down through generations.
Much illiteracy around the world is the result of national and international conflict after social structures have literally been blown to pieces. Desperate people often lose the will to live, let alone the yearning to learn.
Tradition and a sense of heritage are often the first casualties of war and without them societies ravaged by conflict tend to fight a losing battle to regain a sense of pride that must accompany the desire to teach and to learn.
The speakers in Doha this week who emphasized that eradicating illiteracy was not just about teaching kids to read and write highlighted the need to look at the bigger picture. Towns and villages need a sense of belonging.
An initiative that deserves attention from all who care about the spirit of community learning has started in Herat, Afghanistan. Called the Turquoise Mountain Foundation, it is not a project with lofty ideals about changing the world but aims to make a significant local difference.
It is the brainchild of writer and former British Foreign Office adviser Rory Stewart. Supported by Aga Khan IV, Prince Charles’ trust and the School of Traditional Arts in London it is building a school for traditional masonry, tile-work, woodwork, and plasterwork.
Turquoise Mountain aims to stimulate neighbourhood renewal in a way that benefits the poorest citizens by training apprentices from the traditional craft communities as well as introducing talented street children and the disabled to the country’s traditional arts.
Trainees will not only work with historical restoration projects and museum conservation, they will also establish links with private sector development and tourism through vocational training.
It will also run short courses for Afghan undergraduautes, architects, designers and engineers.
It is hoped that the Turquoise Mountain project will provide local communities with their teachers of tomorrow because without them, as we heard in Doha this week, society really is in trouble.
Ismailimail 