[00:00.00]From VOA Learning English,
[00:02.80]this is the Education Report.
[00:05.78]Recently, there have been efforts
[00:08.72]to make sure children in Africa
[00:10.80]get a good strong education.
[00:13.93]But a new report says governments
[00:17.06]are losing about $129 billion every year
[00:22.33]on poor quality education.
[00:25.73]As a result, about one in four students in poor countries
[00:31.52]cannot read a complete sentence,
[00:35.48]that represents about 175 million young people.
[00:41.78]The report comes from UNESCO -
[00:45.13]the United Nations Educational,
[00:48.23]Scientific and Cultural Organization.
[00:51.27]It says poor teacher training and spending cuts
[00:56.07]are just two of the reasons for underperforming school systems.
[01:01.71]Pauline Rose, an education specialist directed the report.
[01:08.29]She says more teachers are needed across Africa,
[01:13.35]especially in countries south of the Saharan desert.
[01:17.87]She says the area would need about 225,000 additional teachers
[01:24.53]a year to guarantee a primary school education
[01:28.83]for all boys and girls by 2015.
[01:32.79]Miss Rose says governments like to save money
[01:38.30]by using contract teachers.
[01:40.78]These educators are not government employees
[01:45.19]but work under a special agreement.
[01:48.70]Contract teachers can be easily dismissed
[01:52.98]if found to be underperforming.
[01:55.36]They also earn far less money than teachers working for the government.
[02:01.01]Contract teachers represent more than half of
[02:05.77]the teaching work force in many West African countries.
[02:10.93]Pauline Rose says teachers need to have a strong desire
[02:16.41]to help children learn.
[02:18.38]She says they should want to be in the classroom
[02:22.68]instead of doing other jobs.
[02:25.48]In recent years, financial support for education
[02:31.26]has gone down or stayed the same in many countries.
[02:36.44]The UNESCO report says governments
[02:40.79]will need to increase spending on education.
[02:45.51]Miss Rose says governments can do better on collecting taxes
[02:52.91]and making sure everyone pays their fair share of taxes.
[02:57.59]She says governments could also offer good housing
[03:03.09]to make sure impoverished areas have enough teachers.
[03:08.70]The report says South Africa gives six times more money
[03:15.23]to students in areas with low education levels and high unemployment.
[03:21.76]Malawi is creating teacher colleges to train new candidates
[03:28.44]for teaching positions in skills for rural areas.
[03:33.97]And Ethiopia is urging mentors and supervisors
[03:39.94]to help support teaching candidates.
[03:43.00]And that's the Education Report from VOA Learning English,
[03:49.84]I'm Mario Ritter.