Education and Paideia in many other languages are expressed with the same word, as for example with the word: Education in English, éducation in French, educazione in Italian, Bildung in German, educación in Spanish, educação in Portuguese.

In Greece, fortunately, we still distinguish Education from Paideia. We say Ministry / Minister of Pedia and higher / medium / elementary Education.

But what is the difference between Paideia and Education? The use of the two terms is it random or expresses, or even expressed in the past a significant difference? In what follows an answer to this question is attempted.

In the Dictionary of Modern Greek Language by G. Babiniotis: Education is defined as the systematic process of transmitting knowledge and skills on a specific object. (Technical, vocational, education …), and Paideia is defined as the process providing systematic knowledge, for the upbringing of someone’s intellectual level.

The above definitions describe the difference between the two terms. A clearer and more understandable definition of the two words was given by the late Cornelius Castoriadis in his book “The ability of an autonomous Society»[i]. Here is a small excerpt, related to this topic:

“Education is not the teaching: The issue is not to teach them arithmetic. The arithmetic is necessary to live, but education is what the Greeks called Paideia; that is, education and, mainly, skilling for the transformation of the young child into a real man with the full meaning of the word; namely into a man free, responsible and able to make decisions . It is obvious that education aimed at freedom (what the Greeks call Paideia, Παιδεία), cannot be done but only through the exercise of freedom. In other words, educating citizens in a democracy should produce all the conditions for its exercise. ”

There may be other definitions for the education and the Paideia, which we do not know, because our education and experiences are not relevant to the topic. However, based on the experience of an ordinary citizen, we concluded that:

(1) Education means the process of acquiring knowledge and skills on a particular subject,

(2) Paideia means to transform young people into free, responsible and able to make decisions for the good of all citizens; for people with genuine democratic culture.

Besides that, this class of education, which the Greeks call Paideia, is acquired through the exercise of freedom and of real democracy and not through teaching, as most believe. The teaching of freedom and democracy without ensuring their effective exercise is not Pedia; it is verbosity and sometimes training in absurdity, in immorality and in selfishness.

Today Paideia in Greece, in the sense defined above, does not exist. The current “paideia” in Greece, intends to transform the young people into followers rather than to ‘people free, responsible, and able to make decisions’, ie to citizens. Education today became a vehicle to create party followers, which decides for them without their consent.

The cause of this distortion lies in the perception and practice that Paideia is provided by “progressive” teachings and not through the exercise of youth for freedom and true democracy. But still worse is the perception that the training of the young people for this transformation must be done in the way that each political party understands the freedom and the democracy. But freedom and democracy are unique and not as many as the political parties.

Today we do not have Paideia. Unfortunately we have training for the transformation of the young people in blue, pink, black, siklamen, green or red fans.[ii]

It is a fact that in other countries, the top choice of the Education is related to the provision of materials and services to improve the lives of people and not education/paideia as defined above. The education/paideia in the countries of “Western Civilization” is not a primary but a second option, which primarily is provided mainly through the teaching and secondarily through the exercise. This strategy results to the deterioration of culture and to the degradation and education. Many thinkers and experts consider that the deterioration of culture made the current education blind; an education without basic vision and goal.

This view was expressed by the famous philosopher and poet T. S. Eliot (1888 – 1965), who in his essay “The current Education and the Classics,” writes: “An educational system is meaningful only within a given social system. If education today is lacking, if it seems that is chaotic and meaningless, it is because we have not stabilized and satisfactory constitution of society.”

Similar views especially for those who are responsible to provide education to ordinary citizens, expresses the father of Quantum Mechanics Erwin Schrödinger (1887 – 1961), who in his book Science and Humanism[iii] writes: “The majority of educated people is not interested in science and does not realize that the scientific knowledge is a part of the background to the ideals of human life. Many – in their complete ignorance of what science really is – believe that science’ main goal is to invent or to contribute to the invention of new machines to improve their living conditions. These people are willing to delegate this task to the experts, just like supplying hydraulic hoses to be repaired. If the future of our children is decided by people of this mindset, the result will necessarily be what I have described previously.

Greece, where Paideia was once born, has not simply adopted the above strategy of the West, but outperformed the distortion and degradation of Paideia, developing a modern “pedia” model that the only relation with the ancient Greek one is the name.

Everyday we see the results of this “modern Greek paideia” with the vandalism of school buildings, the destruction of educational equipment, we see it in the “culture” of the people to whom the ‘paideia’ provides asylum, as well as to the controversial teaching material and the questionable authority of teachers.

Worst of all, however, is the current public opinion that this is the right way to educate young people in Freedom and Democracy!

The conclusion of an ordinary citizen who does not have the education and experience of a political person, of a trade unionist and of an expert, is that in Greece we do not have Pedia; we have education that is crippled by the lack of Pedia.

Sources

[i] Κορνήλιος Καστοριάδης, Η ΔΥΝΑΤΟΤΗΤΑ ΜΙΑΣ ΑΥΤΟΝΟΜΗΣ ΚΟΙΝΩΝΙΑΣ, Εκδόσεις: Στάσει Εκπίπτοντες.

[ii] The colors / symbols of political parties in Greece.

[iii] Erwin Schrödinger, ΚΟΝΤΑ ΣΤΟΝ ΑΝΘΡΩΠΟ. Εκδόσεις: Π Τραυλός – Ε Κωσταράκη 1992

A new paper launched today by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) Education for All Global Monitoring Report shows that half of the 57 million children out of school live in conflict-affected countries and that urgent action is required on several key fronts to address their needs.

Globally, the number of children out of school has fallen from 60 million in 2008 to 57 million in 2011. However, the report underscores that the benefits of this slow progress have not reached children in conflict-affected countries; they now make up 50 per cent of children who are denied an education, up from 42 per cent in 2008. More than half of those struggling to get an education in conflict-affected countries are women and girls.

The paper is being released in partnership with Save the Children to mark the 16th birthday of Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl and education rights activist shot by the Taliban in October 2012. The day has is being commemorated as “Malada Day,” and, in her first major public appearance since the incident, Ms. Yousafzai is set to address the UN General Assembly in New York as keynote speaker of the world body’s Youth Assembly.

The paper, Children battling to go to school, shows that 44 per cent of the of the 28.5 million children affected live in sub-Saharan Africa, 19 per cent in South and West Asia and 14 per cent in the Arab States. The vast majority – 95 per cent – live in low and lower-middle income countries. Girls, who make up 55 per cent of the total, are the worst affected, as they are often victims of rape and other sexual violence that accompanies armed conflicts.

“Education seldom figures in assessments of the damage inflicted by conflict,” said Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO. “International attention and the media invariably focus on the most immediate images of humanitarian suffering, not on the hidden costs and lasting legacies of violence. Yet nowhere are these costs more evident than in education.”

The UNESCO chief said that across many of the world’s poorest countries, armed conflict continues to destroy not just school infrastructure, but also “the hopes and ambitions of a whole generation of children.”

While the 2011 Global Monitoring Report exposed the hidden crisis of education in war zones, two years later, the new paper declares: “The crisis of education in conflict is no longer hidden: there is no excuse for not helping to bring it to an end.”

The 2013 paper also shows that the share of humanitarian aid for education has declined from 2 per cent in 2009 to just 1.4 per cent in 2011. Not only does it receive a small share overall, but it also receives the smallest proportion of the amount requested from humanitarian aid of any sector: in 2010, of the modest amount requested for education in humanitarian crises, just over a quarter was actually received, leaving a funding gap of around $220 million.

“The decline in humanitarian aid for education is especially bad news because funds are needed more than ever,” said Pauline Rose, Director of the Education For All Global Monitoring Report.

“There are more refugees now than there have been since 1994; children make up half of those who have been forcibly displaced. Nowhere is this more painfully visible than in Syria today,” she said, adding that those girls and boys “face a disruption of their learning process at a critical time – and the risk of a lifetime of disadvantage as a result.”

The UNESCO panel compiled testimonies from a few young boys and girls to vividly illustrate this point, including a 16-year-old Syrian refugee living in Lebanon who has been unable to graduate because of the war raging in his home country. Aware that schools are being targeted and children are being killed on their way home from their classes, he says in the report: “Now students do not go to school because when they did, there were shells… this war stopped me from graduating and now my future is destroyed.”

Republished from HRW.org

This week, reality struck home for Afghanistan over the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). Ratified by Afghanistan in 2003 during the early heady post-Taliban days when it seemed like a bright future for women was inevitable, CEDAW is a treaty that requires/demands gender equality in access to education, health care, and political participation. It is the basis for global efforts to end violence against women. The Afghan government is failing in many ways to live up to the commitment it made by signing on to CEDAW.

When you ratify a convention you don’t just get a pat on the back and then a pass on your obligations. CEDAW compliance is overseen by a committee of 23 experts, who spent hours Wednesday grilling the Afghan government delegation who showed up in Geneva to defend the government’s efforts on women’s rights. Committee members pointed out many of the issues Human Rights Watch highlighted in our written statement including that now, 10 years after CEDAW was ratified, numerous Afghan laws explicitly discriminate against women, including in one case a law passed since CEDAW was ratified – the Shia Personal Status Law. They also pointed out that even where the laws on the books are good, there are major failings in their implementation, including a majority of girls not in school, physical assaults including murder against women in public life, lack of accountability for violence against women, and on and on. Not to mention a real risk of backsliding as international support and interest dries up as the end-2014 international troop deadline approaches.

The Afghan government delegation answered some questions but dodged and downplayed many others (including refusing to address question of why the marriage age is lower for girls than boys, and rebutting the suggestion that women have no meaningful access to divorce by saying women can divorce husbands “for bad breath” ). The Afghan chair, Dr. Mohammad Hashimzai, a longtime senior member of the Ministry of Justice, said there is a real commitment across the government to implementing CEDAW. “Afghanistan faces so many challenges,” Dr. Hashimzai said. “But with the continued help of the international community and the help of this [CEDAW] Committee, we will succeed.”

Human Rights Watch will be watching closely to see how deep that government commitment really is – and whether the international community still cares about Afghan women after the military pull-out in 2014.

“Quality education for all is fundamental for a peaceful, democratic and productive society, and UNICEF commends the Ministry of Education for tangible achieved results,” said Carel de Rooy, the agency’s Libya Country Director.

The agreement was signed by Mr. del Rooy and the Minister of Education, Ali Abed, in the Libyan capital, Tripoli.

“We are very pleased to respond to the needs and requests of the Libyan Government and sign this work plan so that this joint plan can be operationalized in the best interest of children and adolescents in Libya.”

The signing of the agreement will kick start action on various policies, including the development of an education management information system, validation of early learning development standards, and the promotion of early childhood care. It will also support teachers’ training, risk education and the establishment of inclusive education mechanisms in schools.

UNICEF has been an important partner of Libya’s Ministry of Education, supporting the first nationwide schools assessment after the revolution in 2011, promoting mine risk education, and training teachers in psychosocial support and positive discipline and classroom management as well as drafting the first standards for early childhood development.

Today’s agreement is a continuation of the initial humanitarian response in 2011, and the 2012 work plan signed for sustainable development cooperation between the Ministry of Education and UNICEF.

In a news release, UNICEF commended the steps taken by the Education Ministry to achieve an effective education system, but warned that there are still many challenges. The agency also reiterated its support, as well as that of development partners to support the Ministry to realize its goals.

The Board of Indianapolis Athens College and its holding company, UIndy International, LLC, have decided to discontinue all undergraduate and graduate academic programs with the exception of the Master of Business Administration (MBA) cohort programme that is provided under special contract. According to an announcement, UIndy Athens will continue to seek to develop similar contract-based programmes.

The college is set to establish a Transfer and Counseling Center, in the building on St Ypatias in central Athens for current students on the Athens campus who have not completed their degree programs. Counselors will help students transition and have offered them options that include online courses or transferring to the Indianapolis campus.

According to a message e-mailed to university staff, faculty members and students by Robert L. Manuel, President of the University of Indianapolis, “the Indianapolis Athens College plans to continue operations in Greece by offering the Master of Business Administration cohort program, and to use it as a model for developing new programs in rebuilding the Athens Campus presence in Greece… This decision to reevaluate the breadth of programs we offer has been difficult because of all of the good work of our faculty and staff over the years.”

Greece is in its sixth year of recession. It  has been kept afloat by rescue loans from European partners and the International Monetary Fund in exchange for harsh austerity measures.

“The new Government must prioritise protection of and investment in the country’s education system, in order to respect and fulfil children’s basic right to education and to provide this generation of children with hope for a healthy future” says Souleymane Diabaté, UNICEF’s representative in the country, where there are over one million children out of school in total.

At least 250,000 children who started the 2012-2013 primary school year, and 30,000 who were in secondary school at the start of the crisis, could lose the entire school year if schools do not re-open in the coming weeks, the agency said in a news release.

Since the Séléka rebel coalition launched an offensive in December, 1.2 million people have been cut off from essential services and human rights violations have been widespread as the rebels, despite a peace accord, gained more territory and overran the CAR capital, Bangui, in late March.

According to UNICEF, the education system in the CAR was “very weak” even before the crisis. The literacy rate for young women is 27.4 per cent and for young men 51.1 per cent. Some 65 per cent of teachers are unqualified parents who have volunteered as teachers.

A major obstacle to school reopening is that teachers who have fled conflict affected areas have yet to return to their communities. In addition, the security situation prevents emergency distributions to schools for fear of pillaging.

UNICEF meanwhile is exploring options to provide safe spaces for children to learn and play in areas as they become accessible and is identifying areas that can be prioritized for resumption of educative activities.

The agency is calling on CAR authorities and all parties to the conflict to ensure safe access of children, parents and teachers to schools in order to enable their immediate re-opening.

The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) is an international mathematics and science evaluation that compares the achievement of 4th and 8th grade students in 63 other countries. The evaluation allows for the collection of extensive data on the quantity and quality of teaching all over the world.

The latest study revealed that UNRWA students in the West Bank scored better than the national average scoring 430 points in maths and 451 in science as compared to their national colleagues, with the national average achievement set at 404 in maths and 420 in science.

According to UNRWA’s education department, the achievements shown in the study are the result of hard work and coordination between students, their parents, school management and teachers.

“2011 was our first foray into TIMSS. We made it a goal and priority to achieve high scores, but high scores were not our only focus”, said school principal Ali Aseedeh. “Rather, the skills that are built in the process is what made TIMSS a central tool in our teaching strategy”.

While the hard work of students is at the heart of the high scores, UNRWA teachers have gone out of their way to help their students, the UN agency says. Maths teacher Ghassan Ismail organised private tutoring sessions in his home, after school and at weekends. School administrators created special maths and science periods every day, giving a focus and attention to the exam that would facilitate the high-scoring trend. The motivation and initiative of school staff provided the students with the support they needed to realise their potential.

“The phenomenon is ongoing and growing,” said regional humanitarian coordinator Radhouane Nouicer. The flight of professionals has affected the bureaucracy, educational institutions and factories – but nowhere is the impact felt more than in the medical sector.

Late last year, the World Health Organization said all of the country’s nine psychiatrists and more than half the doctors in Homs had left the country. Clinics run by the Syrian Arab Red Crescent are short of surgeons and other medical experts.

This month, as the Syrian conflict entered its third year, the number of refugees surpassed one million. Observers worry the “brain drain” will affect Syria’s long-term future.

“These skills are much needed for rebuilding Syria tomorrow,” Nouicer told IRIN.

While Syria has been affected by the departure of educated people for decades due to the lack of economic opportunities and political freedom, the conflict has increased the shortages of doctors, engineers, teachers and lawyers to unprecedented levels.

“One of the most alarming features of the conflict has been the use of medical care as a tactic of war,” the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria wrote in a report this month. “Medical personnel and hospitals have been deliberately targeted and are treated by parties to the conflict as military objectives.”

Many professionals have had difficulty getting visas to Europe and the Gulf states, and have instead ended up in refugee camps in neighbouring countries, where aid agencies are trying to make use of their skills through community mobilization and cash-for-work programmes in the camps’ schools and health centres. Others have decided to stay to try to address the needs in their country.

IRIN spoke to highly skilled professionals both inside and outside Syria about the difficult choice they faced and the impacts of their decisions – both on themselves and their country.

“I used to teach English at a local school to children between six and 12. I was arrested in February 2012 and imprisoned for six months because I was an activist. In prison, they hit me so badly they broke my ribs. I left Syria right after they released me because I knew that if I stayed, they’d come for me again,” Mohamed Alkhateb told IRIN.

“The education system in Syria is reeling from the impact of violence,” said UNICEF’s Syria Representative, Youssouf Abdel-Jelil. “Syria once prided itself on the quality of its schools. Now it’s seeing the gains it made over the years rapidly reversed.”

According to the assessment, one-fifth of the country’s schools have suffered direct physical damage or are being used to shelter internally displaced persons (IDPs).

In cities where the conflict is most intense, such as Idlib, Aleppo and Deraa, children often fail to turn up for class, sometimes attending only twice a week. In areas with high numbers of IDPs however, classes are overcrowded, sometimes hosting up to 100 students.

The assessment, conducted in December, also found that more than 110 teachers and other staff have been killed and many others are no longer reporting for work. In Idlib, teacher attendance is no more than 55 per cent.

Some schools have also been used by armed forces and groups involved in the conflict, making parents reluctant to send their children to school.

“Being in school makes children feel safe and protected and leaves parents hopeful about their children’s future,” said Mr. Abdel-Jelil. “That’s why so many parents we talk to single out education as their top priority.”

UNICEF is currently supporting more than 170 school clubs in Homs, Deraa, Rural Damascus, Tartous, Lattakia, Hama and Quneitra. The clubs allow some 40,000 children to receive remedial education and take part in recreational activities.

The agency is also providing teaching and learning supplies and is rehabilitating damaged schools, but it requires an additional $1 million to keep the clubs open until the end of May.

Funding shortfalls are also preventing the provision of urgently-needed pre-fabricated classrooms, repairs and rehabilitation of learning spaces, and the provision of teaching and learning materials. Overall, UNICEF needs $20 million for its education programmes in Syria during the first six months of the current year, of which it has received no more than $3 million.

Lack of funding for humanitarian activities remains a major constraint. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) today said that of the $519 million requested to respond to the crisis in Syria, only 21 per cent has been received and the $1 billion Refugee Response Plan is 19 per cent funded.

Up to 70,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began in March 2011 and more than 900,000 people have fled to neighbouring countries. In addition, 2 million have been internally displaced and over 4 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance.

Naleba is a rice farmer in the Eastern District of Butaleja in Uganda. He has been growing rice since 1982 at his Lwoba irrigation farm in Masulula village.

“We started with low production,” Naleba says. “Now we are reaching 1.2 tons per acre.”

According to Naleba, the last few years have seen high demand from Sudan. “There’s no rice in Sudan, so this is an opportunity to harness,” he says.

A new report from the World Bank shows how, in addition to produce, this “Pearl of Africa” can export manufactured goods to the region, as well as services like education, tourism and even transit. But, it says, transport and logistics, and non-tariff barriers remain a hefty challenge.

International experience suggests that it is hard for a small landlocked country like Uganda to move alone along the path to economic development. That is the challenge the country faces today, a challenge the World Bank and its government partners are seeking to address in the new Uganda Economic Update, the first in a series of bi-annual reports taking stock of the country’s economy. The report identifies challenges and proposes solutions to facilitate inclusive and healthy growth.

The new study suggests Uganda can earn an additional US$2.5 billion from non-traditional trading partners in the region, and close the trade deficit in the next five years, if it removes trade barriers with neighbors. Other messages;

- To maximize its trade potential, Uganda must look beyond the East African Community (EAC) to all of Sub-Saharan Africa

- Uganda can grow its economy by developing deeper links between its domestic producers and external markets

- To unleash the potential of service exports, Uganda should eliminate restrictions in the strategic sectors of tourism, transport and logistics, and education and professional services

- Uganda should diversify exports beyond food commodities, improve infrastructure and reduce transport costs

The country has performed well over the past two decades, the report says, brushing aside one of the world’s highest population growth rates, to record an impressive seven percent average gross domestic product (GDP) growth, and halving the number of people living in abject poverty from 56% of the population in 1992 to 24% in 2010.

Uganda’s economy has recently faced major challenges. Economic growth slowed to 3.4% and inflation soared and remained at double-digit levels under shocks for most of 2011 and 2012. This contrasted recovery of other economies in the region.

As stability returns, the economic outlook is positive, the report says. Growth will turn around as constraints abate and begin to raise the country’s growth potential, but the key vulnerability remains as Uganda continues to export far less than it imports.

A glimpse of hope to address these vulnerabilities is in regional trade.

According to Julius Onen, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Trade, Uganda has not suffered a significant decline in its trade because over 45% of the country’s commerce is within the regional market, EAC and COMESA, and the demand for the country’s products is fairly steady.

“Uganda’s strategic location at the hub of The Great Lakes region, gives it a comparative advantage in terms of moving heavy goods to the market,” says Onen. “This has also resulted into Uganda attracting investments from the region, particularly Kenya, which feels it has to be nearer to markets like DRC and Sudan.

Uganda has a comparative advantage in the trade of fruits, vegetables juices, grains and cereals, as compared to other countries in the region, but fortunes have been good and bad, according to Godfrey Ssali the Policy and Advocacy Officer of the Uganda Manufacturers Association.

“Good fortunes in that there has been growing demand from South Sudan and DRC,” Ssali says. “In the last 4 to 5 years the two destinations have been good trading partners for Uganda actually overtaking Kenya. The bad fortunes being the civil war and civil strife in South Sudan and DR Congo.”

Musa Waswa, a Ugandan businessman, frequently travels on Gulu-Nimule road from Kampala to Juba, a 24-hour journey that serves as a clear example of how trade can be improved.

“On two occasions, my truck full of fruits and vegetables has overturned along Gulu-Nimule Road,” says Waswa. “My truck overturned when I hit a pothole, the produce covered (blocked) the road. It took me almost three days to get out of there. By then all my fruits had either gone bad or were stolen.”

According to the Uganda Economic Update, Uganda must look beyond poor maintenance of roads and explore the cheaper railway and water transport options that are almost non-existent. Rail and water transport currently cater for only 10 percent of Uganda’s trade.

“To transport a container from China to Mombasa can cost one up to US$1000, but to transport the same container from Mombasa to Kampala can cost up to US$4000 to- US$4500. That shows you the real cost of transport,” says Ssali.

A plausible solution, Ssali adds, is for Uganda to better use the waterways through Kisumu, Mwanza, Portbell and Bukakata in Masaka, which would reduce traffic on the roads.

For small farmers like Hajji, his prosperity and that of future generations depend on it.

Source: World Bank