meeting 2

Education Group

“Article 26 of the 1948 UN universal declaration of human rights said that everyone
has a right to education and that this education shall be free and compulsory. It went on to say that education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. If education is viewed as a human right, then EFA implies education for everybody since everybody must have that right. The challenge towards this drive is how to indeed make education available to all and in good quality. As regard to the purpose of that education, this is all about the role of education in peoples’ future’s lives. Education has a great significance for the economic social and cultural development. The aim of educational policy should therefore be to give every person a chance of developing his/her inherent potential. It is that kind of education which will bring about inter alia, accelerated economic growth, more wealth and income, decline in population growth, national unity and political stability (Chimombo pg. 2).”

Our idea for a hands on community center is centered around the basic concept listed above. We want to make sure that everyone is allowed the basic opportunity for an education, for the salvation of the country and the betterment of the individual. The hands on cultural center will provide each person with a unique opportunity to choose what they want to learn. Each person in the community can go to the center and explore different topics at their own leisure. Or younger school aged children can go to the center with a class and teacher supervision. Thorough our group efforts we have fond areas of necessity in a developing world education. These areas include but go beound the basic reading and writing curriculums they are as follows:

1. agricultural science based learning
2. cross-cultural and world-wide learning (which also includes learning about other ideas and innovations from different cultures, to help better themselves.)
3. basic reading writing and math comprehension

To incorporate these ideas we have made a prototype of possible outcomes for our new learning environment. The idea is to have the member of the community learn about a cretin topic in the main room, and then practice it in a specific room designed for that particular topic. In this case we have chosen agriculture. The community member enters the building and is directed by an employee on how to obtain the information in the main room. This may come in the form of a video or a lecture or a special event, either way this will all take place in the main learning room. After they feel that they have a basic knowledge they are lead to the hands on agriculture room where they can study observe and test their own crops. This is a practical application of the things they learned in the previous room. The community member is also open to creating a new experiment or solving a new problem on their own. If for example they are having problems with pests; the community center and the farmer will work together to find a solution to the problem. So the center is more than a learning environment, it is a hands on guide to practical applications.

Other than the basic learning room, and the agricultural room, the center will feature a room for cross-cultural reference, and basic education room. The cross-cultural reference room will show local and global innovations that the community members can test out and improve. The basic education room will be geared toward younger children, and have many hands on experiments.