Plz plz help me to complete questions and answers of chapter- Education and the British Rule (class-8)
Answers
PREFACE
Education is one of the six mandated areas of the United Nations Permanent
Forum on Indigenous Issues and an area on which we have much to say.
The Third Session of the Forum in 2004 will devote a good deal of time to
education and culture, in addition to human rights, and this publication will
make an important contribution to that debate.
I was an indigenous child myself once – a long time ago. I would like
you to come with me on a journey and to imagine the life experience of the
indigenous child. You arrive at school with a rich cultural background only
to find out that there is an expectation that you should have already accessed
pre-school education. But of course you had no access to such things – even
access to basic education is a luxury.
On your first day you discover that the teachers do not speak your
language, in fact, they don’t even want you to speak your language. You may
even be punished for doing so. The teachers know nothing of your culture;
they say ‘look at me when I speak to you’, but in your culture it may be
disrespectful to look at adults directly. Day by day you are torn between two
worlds. You look through your many textbooks but find no reflection of
yourself, your family or your culture. Even in the history books your people
are invisible. They exist only in the shadows – or worse, if they are mentioned
at all it is as ‘obstacles to settlement’ or simply as ‘problems’ for your country
to overcome.
But children are tough and somehow you survive in this environment.
However, you notice as you reach secondary school that many of yourindigenous brothers and sisters have dropped out. Did they fail school or
did school fail them? By senior high school you are the only one left. The
teachers say ‘but you are not like the others’, but in your heart you know
that you are.
All too often this is the educational experience of indigenous children
– those who have the luxury of access to formal schooling. Many do not. In
the Second Session of the Permanent Forum in 2003, many indigenous
representatives discussed common education issues including poor retention
and attainment and graduation rates throughout the compulsory and non-
compulsory years of schooling. Many also discussed overt and systemic
racism and marginalization as root causes of educational underachievement
faced by indigenous young people. Some representatives emphasized the
link between access to and success in early childhood education and ongoing
success in later schooling and life.
Indigenous communities face many challenges in education. We live
in a world that is increasingly multicultural, and the traditional understand-
ing of the content of curricula and ways of teaching, even for those states
that are organized on the assumption that they are culturally homogenous
(Rodolfo Stavenhagen has coined the term ‘ethnocratic’ for these kind of
states), simply does not work anymore. The world is more uncertain than
ever before, as observed both by the World Commission on Culture and
Development (the De Cuéllar Commission) and the International Commis-
sion on Education for the Twenty-First Century (the Delors Commission).
Furthermore, indigenous peoples and minorities are largely ignored in most
countries in both the design of curricula and the organization of teaching.
In fact, in many countries the basic principles of multilingual and multicul-
tural education as established by UNESCO have been barely implemented.
And lastly, there is always the question of resources. We are poorest among
the poor. Even in developed countries, indigenous communities are not able
to offer their children adequate education – and especially not an education
that meets the aspirations of the peoples themselves.
But indigenous peoples do not come only with problems that need
solving – we come with our own answers and ask your assistance in ensur-
ing these solutions are systematically and fully implemented. Quality in
education is not an absolute and static concept, because education relates
to the culture and community it is supposed to serve. The aspirations of the
world’s indigenous peoples in the field of education is so far best reflected
in Article 15 of The United Nations Draft Declaration on the Rights of indigenous people
Answer: Do it yourself
Explanation:
Or you will fail