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I am writing
this in my house on Christmas Eve and am looking back on a year that has
been one of the busiest I can remember. The global work of ICEVI continues
to develop at a breathless pace but there is so much that needs to be
done if we are to meet our goals of equal educational opportunity for
children with a visual impairment by 2015.
A key requirement in reaching our goal must be the availability of teachers
who understand the needs of children with a visual impairment. This is
a subject that is close to my heart - I am a trainer of teachers of the
visually impaired by profession. In this edition of The Educator we have
contributions that reflect a few of the developments in personnel preparation
in different parts of the world, however it is only possible to scratch
the surface of this subject in this edition. A visit to the ICEVI website
will give you access to a wider range of resources on this topic, including
a range of papers from last year's ICEVI World Conference on exciting
developments such as the training of teachers through the use of the internet
and satellite technology. A visit to the European section of the website
will provide you with insights into the efforts todevelopment of common
curricula for the training of teachers in the region.
Naturally I want to thank all the authors for their contributions to this
edition, but I want to say something here about ideas triggered by two
articles in particular. The articles from the Philippines and from Uganda
tell such encouraging stories about programmes that are challenging and
turning around negative attitudes towards disability in the community
by ensuring the educational success in local schools of children who are
blind. These achievements have transformed the lives of so many children
and their families and have done so in a relatively short period of time.
But there are worrying undercurrents that threaten to claw back the hard
won gains in education in these regions and in many other parts of the
world.
I have recently returned from a visit to Uganda with our Secretary General
in connection with the ICEVI research project that you can read about
elsewhere in this edition. While I was there I heard and read a number
of news items about the effects of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Central and
Southern Africa. In some countries it is estimated that 40% of the population
is HIV positive. The epidemic affects all level of society attacking particularly
the age ranges that are economically productive and it is setting back
economic and social progress. The average life expectancy in many African
countries has dropped alarmingly since the AIDS outbreak. Even though
it is still regarded as a stigma in some countries and spoken about in
hushed tones, almost everyone has a relative or friend who has died from
AIDS. Schools are losing trained teachers to HIV/AIDS and some of these
teachers are teachers of the visually impaired. In Uganda the fight back
has begun. The issues are spoken about openly and there are successful
new initiatives in public education. The drive to make drugs available
more widely and cheaply in Africa should help to improve matters in Uganda
further, but in other countries the situation remains desperate.
In the article from the Philippines we see a threat to progress of a different
order. Countries clearly need well trained and qualified teachers of the
visually impaired to build up services and reachmore children. But an
inevitable by-product of training is that the better trained and qualified
individuals become, the better become their opportunities for personal
and professional advancement. This advancement often takes them away from
the post for which they are trained and sometimes even away from the country
they were trained in. We can seen how in the Philippines some of the best
teachers of the visually impaired are leaving their country attracted
by the possibility of salaries thirty times greater than that they can
earn at home.
Successful trained and qualified teachers of the visually impaired are
in demand all over the world. The problem is - to put it bluntly - that
rich countries can drain poor countries of an already scarce resource
and set back progress by luring away trained doctors, nurses and teachers
with promises of better salaries. This kind of drain is potentially crippling
to the development of services for children with a visual impairment in
many countries, and a solution is far from clear. Who can blame people
for wanting to advance themselves? What is amazing are the number of talented
people I have been privileged to meet in countries like Uganda who have
decided to spurn the opportunity for social and economic advancement,
and choose to stay in their poorly paid jobs because of their commitment
to the children with a visual impairment they are working with. They are
truly the heroes and heroines of the battle to achieve equality in education.
As the New Year begins let us wish all our teachers and teacher trainers
good luck and success. It will be a struggle to reach our goal of equality,
but let us recognise the threats to our progress but not be dispirited
by them. We have enough evidence in the pages of this edition of The Educator
to justify hope for the future.
Happy New Year
Steve McCall
Editor
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