VOA慢速英语:联合国主推学校安全

From VOA Learning English, this is the EducationReport.

A United Nations representative wants international support for programsaimed at helping 28 million boys and girls return to school. The children areunable to continue their education because of wars and crises around theworld.

Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is the UN’s Special Envoy for Global Education. Mr. Brownsays schools were once safe places for children. Now, he says, they are increasingly becoming instruments ofwar. In the past five years, there were more than10,000 attacks on schools.

Mr. Brown told the United Nations recently that theinternational community should spend money to makeschools safer. He proposed creation of an internationalhumanitarian fund for education in emergencies.

“It is our moral duty to make sure that every single child in the world can enjoythe basic right to education - free of terror, free of fear, and with the support of the international community.”

Mr. Brown is thinking about new uses of technology to improve school safety. A pilot program has been launched in Pakistan. Three months ago, thePakistani Taliban killed 140 children at a school in the city of Peshawar.

Pakistani officials are now working with Predictify.Me, atechnology company based in the United States. Underthe “Pakistan Safe Schools” program, schools will usenew computer software to test their safety plans. Theresults of the testing will help school officials preparebetter for emergencies.

Mr. Brown said it is a major step forward in a countrywhere more than five million children do not go toschool. More than 1,000 schools have been destroyedin the past five years in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province,which includes Peshawar.

The technology will make it possible to learn what schools and governmentsare doing to prevent attacks on schools.

The UN representative also called for the release of the more than 200 girlskidnapped by Boko Haram militants. The girls were taken one year ago from aschool in the northern Nigerian town of Chibok. He said more than 10 millionchildren are out of school in Nigeria. Nigeria has the highest number ofchildren who cannot attend school of any country.

The UN’s Safe Schools initiative has collected $30 million for protectingNigerian schools. One way it helps young people get back to learning is bysending students to different schools. Students who attend schools in theareas where Boko Haram is active are moved to schools in safer areas.

The Syrian conflict has kept three million children out ofschool, many for several years. Five hundred thousandof them are refugees in Lebanon.

Gordon Brown is working with the Lebanesegovernment on what has been called a “double shift”plan. Under the plan, Lebanese children would attendpublic schools in the morning and Syrian children wouldattend the same schools in the afternoon.

Mr. Brown said it is time for the international community to wake up and dealwith the problems facing children. He said the world should protect their rightsand stop turning its back on these young victims of war.

I’m Jill Robbins.

VOA’s Margaret Besheer at the United Nations prepared this story. Dr. JillRobbins wrote it for Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

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Words in This Story

pilot - adj. done as a test to see if a larger program, study, etc., should bedone

initiative - n. a plan or program that is intended to solve a problem

shift - n. a group of people who work together during a scheduled period oftime