Education standards

How Europe compares
France
French primary school education remains tightly focused on facts and basic skills. Spot tests are common, especially dictations to check a child's knowledge of French grammar and spelling.
However, formal testing is relatively sparse. All children are given a national test of basic skills and knowledge at about eight years old. The test occurs – crucially – at the beginning of the third year of primary school, not at the end. There is, therefore, little pressure on the children. The main aim is to check the standard of the school.
Otherwise, most primary schools have internal tests, or contrôles, in maths, French, geography and history, and English at the end of each of the five short terms that make up a school year. A child who is struggling can be asked to redoubler, or go down a year. A brilliant child can sauter, or go up.
There is no national examination to move from primary to secondary education, simply a recommendation by a conseil of teachers and parents.
Italy
Pupils at Italian schools are tested on average about one test per subject per term, which goes towards the continual assessment of their performance, but does not count all that much. But for serious, GCSE-type, make-or-break exams, from the age of 13 to 18 Italian students enjoy a long exam holiday, all the way up to the maturita exam which they take at the end of liceo, the senior schools in the Italian system. On the other hand, the continual assessments can be rigorous, and if students at the top high schools score less than six out of 10 in two or more subjects they run a serious risk of having to take the year again.
Germany
Germany's state-run primary school pupils start their education at the age of five or six. For the first two school years, they are not given marks for their academic performance. Parents are merely handed a school report on their child's abilities and behaviour at the end of each school year.
From the age of seven, pupils are subjected to continuous assessment. Every piece of work, including tests and homework, is marked on a 40/60 per cent oral/ written basis. The marks go towards an annual school report.
When pupils leave primary school at 10 or 11, they are provided with a recommendation, based on continuous assessment, to decide what type of secondary school they attend.

Poverty ,
This is a key issue.Poverty is such a major issue  in our world. There are so many hungry people in the world.I did so much work  this past holiday season with the less fourtunate.It is truly a need in our ociety.We do not know what got them in this situation but we can help support them. This is a real situation.

There was this one little boy that really touched my heart.His family was homeless. They came to the center were I was volunteering.The ime to serve was 4 pm. It was just two. He said ma'ma  can I please get some bread? Isaid sure. I then ask was he  with an adult. He told me yes.I looked aroud I saw no one.I gave him the bread. He came back moments later for more. I asked was everything ok.He said I am feeding my brothers and sisters. I then ask where are they. He pointed to a broken down shack. Another volunteer and i went to the shack. there were a total f six kinds from infant to nine year old. my heartbroke. I explained to the FATHER that we will make sure that the family has a hot meal and a place to sleep. It happned through several of the volunteers. it shows your work never goes undone.

Poverty in Africa


Africa is internationally known as one of the poorest continents on Earth. But what many people may not know are the effects of poverty in Africa—including hunger, disease, and a lack of basic necessities. Here are 10 quick facts about the actual numbers behind Africa’s poverty crisis and the negative impacts:

1. 75 percent of the world’s poorest countries are located in Africa. This statistic includes historically poor regions like Zimbabwe, Liberia, and Ethiopia. For the past two years, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Africa’s second largest country, has also been ranked the poorest in the world.

2. In 2010, 414 million people were living in extreme poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. Extreme poverty is defined as living on $1.25 or less a day. According to the World Bank, those living on $1.25-a-day accounted for 48.5 percent of the population in that region in 2010.

3. Approximately 1 in 3 people living in sub-Saharan Africa are undernourished. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations (UN) estimated that 239 million people (around 30 percent of the population) in sub-Saharan Africa were hungry in 2010. This is the highest percentage of any region in the world. In addition, the UN Millennium Project reported that over 40 percent of all Africans are unable to regularly obtain sufficient food.

4. 547 million people live without electricity in sub-Saharan Africa. As a result, a staggering 80 percent of the population relies on biomass products, such as wood, charcoal, and dung, in order to cook.

5. Over 500 million Africans suffer from waterborne diseases. According to the UN Millennium Project, more than 50 percent of Africans have a water-related illness like cholera.

6. Every year, sub-Saharan Africa loses $28.4 billion to water and sanitation problems. This amount accounts for approximately 5 percent of the region’s gross domestic product (GDP)—exceeding the total amount of foreign aid sent to sub-Saharan Africa in 2003.

7. 38 percent of the world’s refugees are located in Africa. Many of these 13.5 million refugees and displaced persons have lost their homes due to widespread violence and conflict.

8. Fewer than 20 percent of African women have access to education. Uneducated African women are twice as likely to contract AIDS and 50 percent less likely to immunize their children. Meanwhile, the children of African women with at least five years of schooling have a 40 percent higher chance of survival.

9. Women in sub-Saharan Africa are over 230 times more likely to die during childbirth or pregnancy than women in North America. Approximately 1 in 16 women living in sub-Saharan African will die during childbirth or pregnancy. Only 1 in 3,700 women in North America will.

10. More than 1 million African children die every year from malaria. Malarial deaths in Africa alone account for 90 percent of all malaria deaths worldwide. 80 percent of these victims are African children. The UN Millennium Project has calculated that a child in Africa dies from malaria every 30 seconds.

Source borden project.

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