Introduction
The overview points discussed were the importance of children’s education, factors affecting children’s rights towards education and suggested solutions to improve children’s education. The points were under the roles of families, governments, UNICEF, and Civil Society Organizations towards children’s rights to education. The importance of children’s education was mentioned as a powerful tool of transformation especially in this century. Child labor, early marriages, corruption, under developed children do not get due attention were considered as factors affecting children’s rights towards education. Solutions we come up with are families to collaborate with Civil Society Organizations, provide free education, recreational activities and finally also the parties should work together to ensure that Children’s have their rights towards education.
The process
During the Introduction to Civil Society tutorial, we were told to form a group of five members. From the five members, we will have one moderator and four panelists. Later we were told to come up with a topic that we are going to discuss. At first we chose poverty but later we changed the topic to be Children’s rights to education since we witnessed how these have been forgotten. We thought about the people involved in children’s rights to education and found four roles. They are families, governments, UNICEF and Civil Society Organizations. Finally we agreed on who to take which role as follows:- Mr. Hamdun – Family. Mr. Mohammed Ali – Civil Society Organization. Mr. Jahid Hassan – Representative of UNICEF. Mr. .Biplop Hussein – Government
After that agreement we decided to have a meeting to discuss on this topic. Every member went to do some research based on their roles assigned. We did three rehearsals in two days which made our panel discussion nearly to perfect. Points of arguments were three. First when deciding which topic to choose. Some suggested poverty and others suggested women empowerment. Each of us disagreed on women’s empowerment since we were not comfortable to discuss it. Later we came up come with another topic which was children’s rights to education which was the resolution too. The second argument was changing the private sector to UNICEF so that we can make our discussion more real. Some suggested that private sector is same as UNICEF since it is independent but later we opted to change to UNICEF which will create conflicts with government therefore, the panel discussion will be more interesting. The final argument was whether to ask questions to each panelist at once or we do it in sessions. Some preferred to be asked at once but later we thought that in order to make our panel discussion not kind on presentation, its better we ask questions in sessions which we had two sessions
The Implementation
Every member showed his devotion and commitment towards this activity. The members were critical thinkers even though they read articles they came up with their own solutions to ensure that children’s rights towards education are taken seriously. They were also punctual when set the date and time of the meeting. I like them more because they are not guys who are too complicated. Furthermore, they are people who understand. No dissatisfaction since everyone did his part and no one was forced to do certain role. There was democracy and since our topic was about rights we manage to give each other the right to do what’s suits him.
Learning/Reflection of the panel discussion
It was my first time to be a panelist. Therefore, it was a great experience of integrating ideas and statistics to discuss on issues that bugs the society and coming up with the solution. For the other members, it was a great honor working with them. Listening to their ideas and their perception on this topic and how it affects their own countries. Questions that were asked by the audience was challenging and debatable. One of the audience asked me how the parents can monitor their children on their education. I tried to make him understand that parents are loving and caring. Whatever happened to them cannot happen to their children. All the questions asked we manage to answer them which satisfied the audience.
Conclusion
In conclusion, putting into account that we are in the world of globalization, education is a very powerful and important tool to every human being. Every child has the right to have access to education and every country should ensure that they provide free education. Panel discussions can come up with solutions at the end of the discussion and they are useful to societies to understand issues affecting them.
References
(n.d) Retrieved from http://www.unicef.org.au/Discover/What-we-do/Convention-on-the-Rights-of-the-Child/childfriendlycrc.aspx (n.d) Retrieved from http://www.unicef.ca/sites/default/files/imce_uploads/UTILITY%20NAV/TEACHERS/DOCS/GC/Childrens_Rights_in_Education.pdf (n.d) Retrieved from http://www.ci.org.za/depts/ci/pubs/pdf/general/gauge2008/part_two/education.pdf (n.d) Retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0015/001548/154861e.pdf (n.d) Retrieved from http://www.unicef.ca/sites/default/files/imce_uploads/UTILITY%20NAV/TEACHERS/DOCS/GC/Childrens_Rights_in_Education.pdf (n.d) Retrieved from http://www.sangatsindh.org/Reports/Seminar%20on%20Child%20Rights%20Nawabshah.pdf (n.d) Retrieved from http://www.cesr.org/downloads/Civil%20Society%20and%20School%20Accountability.pdf (n.d) Retrieved from http://www.crin.org/docs/Advancing%20Children’s%20Rights%20-%20CSO%20Guide%20to%20the%20ACERWC.pdf (n.d) Retrieved from http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/sep/20/70m-get-no-education (n.d) Retrieved from http://www.unicef.org/protection/57929_58008.html (n.d) Retrieved from http://razvimirza.blogspot.com/2011/07/steps-taken-by-indian-government-to.html (n.d) Retrieved from http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_the_steps_taken_by_the_Indian_government_to_promote_education (n.d) Retrieved from www.nise.go.jp/kenshuka/josa/kankobutsu/pub_d/d…/d-292_10.pdf (n.d) Retrieved from www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/crc/docs/…/CRC-C-BGD-5_en.pdf