The United Nations’ children’s fund, UNICEF says 115
million children worldwide are still
missing out education, most of them girls. 2005 is the year set by
UNICEF to achieve gender
equality in primary education.
According to UNICEF many countries in South Asia, Africa and the Middle
East cannot meet
the target of gender equality this year. UNICEF is especially concerned
about the situation in
South and central Africa, where, it says emergency measures are now
needed to promote primary
education. Liberia, Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo
have done incalculable
damage to children’s education. In South Africa, Asia, UNICEF says,
progress has been made but
not enough. Forty –two million children across the region don’t go to
school. Afghanistan and
Pakistan have the widest gender gap. For Pakistan to have the same
number of girls as boys in
school by 2015, it would have to increase girl’s school attendance by
over 3% each year.
In eastern and central Europe there is cause for concern, too. The
introduction of fees for
tuition, schoolbooks and uniforms has led to rising dropout rates- and
girls drop out by sooner
than boys. Belarus and Tajikistan will not achieve gender equality,
neither will turkey. UNICEF
says a quantum leap is now needed to achieve universal primary education
by 2015. It insists that
huge effort should be made in this field if poverty is to be eradicated.
Imogen Foulk. BBC NEWS.GENEVA.
SECTION ONE:
A- READING AND INTERPRETING: (8pts)
1- What Type of document is the above passage? Identify the source.
2-Are the following statements true or false?
a -All children in the world go to school.
b- Most of these children are girls.
c- UNICEF wants to stop gender inequality.
d- Education is expensive in some parts of Europe.
e- Poverty is a consequence of illiteracy.
3-Answer the following questions according to the text.
a- What is UNICEF trying to fight?
b- How many children in the world are missing education?
c-Which countries have the widest gender inequality?
d- How can countries fight poverty?
4 – What or who do the underlined words in the text refer to?
5 - Find in the text words, phrases or expressions that are synonyms in
meaning to:
a- all over the world =………….. b- insufficient =…………..
6- Find in the text words that are opposite in meaning to:
a- few #............. b-different #.................