Teacher Handout for Activity 4, Unit 5: Poverty & Basic Education

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1. Jamie goes to school in Calgary, Canada. In her class there is a schedule with the names of all her classmates so that everyone gets a chance to work on the computer every week. What she likes best is going to the school library with her classmates. Everyone can borrow up to three books to bring home.

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2. Lang has been in a wheelchair since she was ten. When she lived in China, she got polio and both legs became paralyzed. She has been going to school in Ottawa, Canada for the last two years. There is an elevator in her school so it is pretty easy for her to get around from one floor to another. All the school bathrooms have stalls big enough for wheel chairs to get in. She has made many new friends at school.

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3. Is an Inuit who lives in Taloyoak, a small village in Northern Quebec. There are only 82 students in her whole school. She is in Grade 2. Until this year she has been studying in Inuktitut but starting next year, she will be studying in French. She loves going to the school gym. She is very happy she goes to school because she heard that for her parents things weren't the same- they never went to school.

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4. Maria lives two blocks away from her school in Toronto. She walks to school with her best friend who lives on the same street. They are always teased by the class bully on the way to school. He pretends he has a gun in his pocket and that he wants to hurt them. Maria is not sure if it's just pretend. Things get better once she gets to school since the boy doesn't act the same when he's around the teacher. As soon as school's out - she gets that knot in her stomach again. 

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5. Paul is a ten-year old boy living in Montreal. He loves school. This year he couldn't wait until March when his class got to go on a school trip to Brazil. He has a great teacher who wants kids to learn about how other people live in the world. When he got back from the trip, he had to make a presentation in class about what he learned. He did his presentation using a computer program that let him include pictures that he took on the trip. 

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6. Jean-Philippe gets dropped off at school at 7:30 a.m. every morning. He finds that way too early but his mom starts work at 8:30 a.m. downtown so she has to drop him off early. Monday is his favourite day because there's Italian food in the cafeteria! He can't wait until Spring because that's when soccer practice begins. His favourite subject is language arts. 

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7. Tahera lives in Kabul, Afghanistan. She is one of 3,500 students that go to school in one of the seven rooms that make up her school with no doors. She sits on the floor for her lessons since there are no desks in the classroom. She doesn't have a chair, textbook or a notebook. She can tell that it's tough for her teacher as well. There are close to 100 students in the class. She heard that her teacher doesn't have a place to live because she doesn't make enough money - only 1,800 afghanis a month. Her father says that's not even enough money to buy food. Tahera is sixteen years old but she is in the same class as twelve year old boys. She thinks its unfair that she wasn't allowed to go to school during the years of the Taliban dictatorship. 

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8. Saleh is a 13 year-old girl from southern Bangladesh. Her father thinks it's time for his daughter to get married. But Shanta from the Girl's Club was able to convince Saleh's father that it's better to wait until Shanta is older. She explained that it's actually against the law to marry before 18 years old. Shanta is learning about rights and is developing different skills such as photography at the Girls' Club. Shanta wants to convince Saleh's father to let his daughter join the Girls' Club too. 

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9. When she was only 10 years old, Xiuhua had to leave school to help her parents in the fields. Xiuha lives in Guyuan, in west China's Ningxia Hui autohomous region. Xiuhua's father thinks Xiuhua is better off getting married. He thinks he can save money with Xiuhua out of school. Instead of paying school fees for his daughter's education, he want Xiuhua to work in the fields with her family. 

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10. Ibrahim is an eight year-old boy from Niger. When he was three years old, he got polio, a viral disease, which paralysed his right leg. He has never been able to go to school since it is difficult for him to move around. He walks with his hands and one leg. His parents are worried that he will be teased by his classmates and are not sure how an education could help him.

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11. Amna is a ten-year-old nomad girl from Sudan. She recently started going to a special nomadic school. Her teacher travels with her family and holds lessons in a tent, under trees or in a temporary structure. Her school changes from day to day so she still has time to help with chores and community activities. Amna is very happy; now it's not just her brother who goes to school. He used to travel on camel for 3 km to get to school. Amna's parents thought that was too far for her to travel for school. Now, both children go to school close to home. 

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12. Awa is a 12-year old girl from Côte d'Ivoire, West Africa. When civil war began in her country in 2002, she was among one million primary school children who had to leave school. The same thing happened to 250,000 secondary-school children.

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13. Carlos lives in Ecuador. He is in Grade 5 and likes to listen to the teacher's explanations. But he doesn't like to do the written exercises because he doesn't always have a pencil or paper. When Carlos and his classmates have been nice all day the teacher takes out her one picture book and shows it to the class. All the students huddle around to look at the pictures. 

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14. Jiri is a 10-year old boy who lives in Zimbabwe. Many people in his town are sick or dying of AIDS. He goes to school right now but many of the teachers are also sick and can't come to school every day. When the teachers can't come to school, classes are cancelled. Jiris' father died of AIDS last year and now his mother is sick. Many of the kids eventually get sick and die too. Jiri is preparing himself for when his mother dies, he'll have to take care of his younger brothers and sisters. A nurse came to his school to talk about getting tested for HIV/AIDS and what the kids can do to protect themselves. 

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15. Azibo lives in Niger. He has been in school for the last three years but has to leave now because his uniform is too small for him. His family can't afford to buy him another one. In his town there is only one school and you can't get in unless you have a uniform. People have tried to convince the school to ban the uniform or to let poor kids go without a uniform but the school always says no. Some people think this is a way to keep poor kids from going to school.

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16. You are yourself.

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17. You are yourself.

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18. You are yourself.

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Sources:

• Adapted from the UNICEF Stepping Out activity.
• UNICEF Voices of Youth
• Education for All - Civic, Social and Political Education Resource Pack by the Irish Coalition for the Global Campaign for Education