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Education for rural people in the Caribbean: from elitism to equality.


INTERNATIONAL ATTENTION TURNED TOWARDS the Caribbean region on the eve On the Eve (Накануне in Russian) is the third novel by famous Russian writer Ivan Turgenev, best known for his short stories and the novel Fathers and Sons.  of a regional conference on education for rural people, which took place in Saint Lucia Saint Lucia (sānt l`shə, –sēə), island nation (2005 est. pop. 166,000), 238 sq mi (616 sq km), West Indies, one of the Windward Islands. The capital is Castries.  on 18 and 19 May 2006. Participants discussed a wide range of issues, including food, nutrition, HIV/AIDS HIV/AIDS Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome  and gender.

Representatives of ministries of agriculture, education and health, as well as international agencies, non-governmental organizations and the private sector, attended the conference, which is part of a global partnership launched at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Noun 1. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations - the United Nations agency concerned with the international organization of food and agriculture
FAO, Food and Agriculture Organization
 (FAO FAO,
n See Food and Agriculture Organization.
) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO UNESCO: see United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization.
UNESCO
 in full United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
) to eradicate poverty and hunger. A similar meeting for the African region took place in 2005 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

"Education is essential for the rural poor, many of whom are women. It is also essential for rural children who lose their parents to AIDS. Field schools need to be developed to provide essential skills and knowledge to orphaned children. Educating the rural poor contributes to preventing the pandemic pandemic /pan·dem·ic/ (pan-dem´ik)
1. a widespread epidemic of a disease.

2. widely epidemic.


pan·dem·ic
adj.
Epidemic over a wide geographic area.

n.
 from expanding rapidly in rural areas", says Marcela Villarreal, head of the FAO Gender and Population Division. Worldwide, 100 million children are still being denied the opportunity to go to school and without urgent action they will remain in poverty and at far greater risk of HIV/AIDS infection, according to education experts.

"In the Caribbean region, the impact of poverty, HIV/AIDS and educational deficits is acutely felt in the rural context", according to FAO. It deplores that significant percentages of the population of the Caribbean States are impacted by poverty and highlights the need to exert considerable efforts to reach the UN Millennium Development Goals “MDG” redirects here. For other uses, see MDG (disambiguation).

The Millennium Development Goals are eight goals that 192 United Nations member states have agreed to try to achieve by the year 2015.
 (MDGs) in the region. In the Caribbean, as in Latin America, poverty rates are higher in rural areas than in urban areas. In Jamaica, for example, the rate of rural poverty is three times higher than that of urban poverty, while in Guyana almost the entire rural population is poor. "The education system in the Caribbean evolved from a colonial historical legacy, which was predicated on privilege. Education served as a primary device for social selection and class stratification. With the attainment of independence and the growth of nationalism, mass education became a socio-political priority", the report states.

FAO and UNESCO are working hand in hand towards achieving the first three MDGS, which are eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, the achievement of universal primary education, and the promotion of gender equality and empowerment of women. FAO has been assigned the responsibility of leading the education for rural people initiative.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The conference was organized by FAO and UNESCO with the Italian Development Cooperation office, the Government of Saint Lucia, the International Institute for Educational Planning, the World Bank, the Inter-America Institute for Cooperation in Agriculture, the Caribbean Development Bank The Caribbean Development Bank is a financial institution which assists Caribbean nations in financing social and economic programs in its member countries. Created on October 18, 1969 by a conference of eighteen countries and territories in Kingston, Jamaica, it has its , the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States and other partners.
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Publication:UN Chronicle
Date:Sep 1, 2006
Words:480
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