报告Building Back Better:
How Your Support is helping UNICEF Restore and Improve Education for China’s Children
The Sichuan Earthquake was the worst to hit China in 30 years, devastating communities in regions from central Sichuan to southern Gansu. The earthquake disrupted the education of some 2.5 million children, destroying 12,000 school buildings in Sichuan Province and 6,500 school buildings in Gansu Province.
UNICEF has worked in close collaboration with the Government of China to support relief and reconstruction efforts in the midst of this massive destruction. The scale of assistance to affected children and families has been immense. In the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, generous donor support enabled us to help restore urgent access to education for children as quickly as possible. As reconstruction and recovery continues, UNICEF is helping to build back better - supporting safer schools where previous infrastructure was not sufficient and improving the quality of education. UNICEF continues to support the needs of affected children and has laid a strong foundation for the reconstruction process that will continue over the next two years.
Restoring access to education
Getting children back into a safe classroom learning environment was an urgent priority in the aftermath of the earthquake. Donor support helped some 280,000 children in the worst-hit areas return to a safe schooling environment with basic teaching and learning materials and sports equipment. Almost all earthquake-affected children in Sichuan Province were able to return to an educational setting in time for the new school year in September 2008, whether in repaired school buildings or prefabricated classrooms.
Making schools safer
UNICEF/NYHQ2009-0259/Jia Zhao
Children, under the supervision of their teacher, read and write in a UNICEF-supported prefabricated classroom in Caoyang Primary School, Xihe County, Gansu Province.
NICEF is actively working with the Chinese government on developing better designs for schools in seismically active zones and to help identify existing school facilities that may need to be up-graded. As the Governments’ physical reconstruction of school buildings proceeds, UNICEF is also working with the Ministry of Education to strengthen policies on school safety and emergency preparedness to ensure children’s safety in the longer term.
Improving the quality of education
Even before the emergency, educational standards in many affected areas lagged behind national levels. This is especially true in Gansu Province, home to some of the neediest communities. The earthquake further impacted the quality of education, and in some more remote areas, children were left to resume school in unsafe buildings or temporarily borrowed spaces. Thirty-nine such schools in the Xihe County in Gansu Province have been identified for more comprehensive reconstruction support and to serve as model child-friendly schools. UNICEF has provided prefabricated classroom units and is supporting the construction of water supply systems and sanitary latrines benefiting 10,000 students at these schools. In the spirit of building back better, particular attention is being paid to interactive learning, student participation, teacher training, school management and community involvement.
Supporting Schools in Xihe County, Gansu Province
The generous donation of C$91,080.89 received through the Love through Education Foundation has been specifically allocated to help improve the quality of education for students in 13 schools in Xihe County – one of the poorest counties in China. One school in each learning district of Xihe County will be supported with necessary equipment and materials to implement an effective teaching learning program using distance education materials.
Schools in this predominantly rural and mountainous county are often located in poor underdeveloped areas without many resources for quality teaching and learning materials. The remoteness of these areas means that teachers cannot take advantage of training opportunities that would require long hours of travel, and schools are monitored and supervised less often, resulting in a poorer quality of education for students.
UNICEF is supporting schools in Xihe with quality teaching aids, library books and sports kits to promote interactive learning, encourage reading habits, and to promote sports and recreational activity. In addition to providing pre-fabricated classrooms and ensuring schools have essential hardware like chairs and desks, UNICEF has also been working to improve the quality of education in schools by working with teachers to implement interactive teaching methods and to institute continuous assessment.
As part of overall build back better school reconstruction efforts in Xihe, UNICEF is supporting a distance education project providing core training in child-friendly teaching practices to teachers and school administration in 13 remote rural schools. The child-friendly school approach will help teachers and principals better understand children’s rights, improve the quality of education and strengthen students’ learning competencies. This approach, adopted by UNICEF in education programmes around the world, addresses the needs of the whole child and provides practitioners with information and tools to create and strengthen positive learning environments for all children in all circumstances. It stresses the importance of child-centred classroom practices and school environments that are safe and protective of children – including safe construction. It also promotes student participation and gender equality.
A key component of the distance education project in Xihe involves establishing a learning environment with digital learning tools. Digital tools will be used to share educational information, to train teachers and to facilitate interactive communication at schools. Computers, multimedia projectors, relevant internet equipment and educational resources will be purchased to facilitate interactive communication at the 13 identified schools in Xihe.
Thanks to your generous support, students in 13 schools in Xihe will benefit from quality, child-centred education in safe and protective classroom learning environments.
