interview with melania cacho
Interview with Melania Cacho
Child Protection Officer, UNICEF Sri Lanka (Galle)
12.04.2006, Galle, Sri Lanka
Child Protection Officer, UNICEF Sri Lanka (Galle)
12.04.2006, Galle, Sri Lanka
While visiting Sri Lanka, it was found to be Sinhalese and Tamil New Year, meaning that all schools were closed for the duration of the stay there. In an attempt to still collect some useful information, an approach was made to the UNICEF office in Galle to request an interview. Melania Cacho is the resident Child Protection Officer, and was available for a discussion regarding the research project.
The main points raised in the interview are as follows:
UNICEF stands for the United Nation’s Child Fund (retaining its familiar acronym for United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund), whose aim is to help build a world where the rights of every child are realised. It has the global authority to influence decision-makers, and a variety of grassroots partners to assist accomplishing its projects [www.unicef.org].
UNICEF’s Galle office opened shortly after the 2004 Tsunami as a base for directing their efforts along the south coast, which suffered heavy damage and losses to the disaster. The majority of UNICEF’s efforts in Sri Lanka are concentrated in the North and East of the country (politically contested territory between the Sinhalese and Tamils), and their activities include a programme of immunisations, improving health-care services, providing nutrition for women and children, and since December 2004, supporting large-scale rebuilding and recovery efforts in the South.
Melania’s role as Child Protection officer is to supervise Early Child Development, the Learning Years, Child Protection, and Health, Water & Sanitation in her region. Dr Aberra Bekele is the Head of Education for the Galle office, but was unavailable for an interview, therefore Melania offered to answer questions to the best of her knowledge.
When asked in which ways UNICEF makes use of the internet, Melania stated that each UNICEF employee has an account which provides them with access to UNICEF’s computer, internet and email facilities, including access to restricted materials on their intranet. Very little use of the internet is made as part of UNICEF projects; its role is as a communications medium within the organisation. In local schools, it is common for only the head teacher to have a computer and/or access to email and the internet.
Melania had limited personal knowledge of how the web could aid the delivery of education resources beyond its current use in her department, although recognised that it is a very effective communications tool, and that this could potentially be applied to an educational context, such as a long-distance communications tool to aid rural schools.
UNICEF, in the Sri Lankan environment, works through the Ministry of Education and with other specialist NGOs in order to aid local schools. “The ministry takes a responsible, pro-active interest in education materials by trialling and approving them. The government has its own, self-developed, training modules and agenda relevant to their context and culture, and UNICEF’s role is to help deliver this programme of study.” International education resources are limited in Sri Lanka, as they may not match the local syllabus content.
UNICEF’s education interests focus on basic education for children, and not on social learning.
From this interview, it could be seen that in Sri Lanka, an internationally-approved, web-based curriculum (as was the proposed concept up to this point) was unfeasible due to the government’s control of the education system. Sri Lanka is a Democratic Socialist Republic, a form a government found in a number of developing countries, and as such it is reasonable to assume that similar barriers to a universal curriculum would be encountered elsewhere. As a result, reference was made back to earlier research in an attempt to identify other areas from which a concept could be developed, whilst retaining the relevance of the most recent progress.
The main points raised in the interview are as follows:
UNICEF stands for the United Nation’s Child Fund (retaining its familiar acronym for United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund), whose aim is to help build a world where the rights of every child are realised. It has the global authority to influence decision-makers, and a variety of grassroots partners to assist accomplishing its projects [www.unicef.org].
UNICEF’s Galle office opened shortly after the 2004 Tsunami as a base for directing their efforts along the south coast, which suffered heavy damage and losses to the disaster. The majority of UNICEF’s efforts in Sri Lanka are concentrated in the North and East of the country (politically contested territory between the Sinhalese and Tamils), and their activities include a programme of immunisations, improving health-care services, providing nutrition for women and children, and since December 2004, supporting large-scale rebuilding and recovery efforts in the South.
Melania’s role as Child Protection officer is to supervise Early Child Development, the Learning Years, Child Protection, and Health, Water & Sanitation in her region. Dr Aberra Bekele is the Head of Education for the Galle office, but was unavailable for an interview, therefore Melania offered to answer questions to the best of her knowledge.
When asked in which ways UNICEF makes use of the internet, Melania stated that each UNICEF employee has an account which provides them with access to UNICEF’s computer, internet and email facilities, including access to restricted materials on their intranet. Very little use of the internet is made as part of UNICEF projects; its role is as a communications medium within the organisation. In local schools, it is common for only the head teacher to have a computer and/or access to email and the internet.
Melania had limited personal knowledge of how the web could aid the delivery of education resources beyond its current use in her department, although recognised that it is a very effective communications tool, and that this could potentially be applied to an educational context, such as a long-distance communications tool to aid rural schools.
UNICEF, in the Sri Lankan environment, works through the Ministry of Education and with other specialist NGOs in order to aid local schools. “The ministry takes a responsible, pro-active interest in education materials by trialling and approving them. The government has its own, self-developed, training modules and agenda relevant to their context and culture, and UNICEF’s role is to help deliver this programme of study.” International education resources are limited in Sri Lanka, as they may not match the local syllabus content.
UNICEF’s education interests focus on basic education for children, and not on social learning.
From this interview, it could be seen that in Sri Lanka, an internationally-approved, web-based curriculum (as was the proposed concept up to this point) was unfeasible due to the government’s control of the education system. Sri Lanka is a Democratic Socialist Republic, a form a government found in a number of developing countries, and as such it is reasonable to assume that similar barriers to a universal curriculum would be encountered elsewhere. As a result, reference was made back to earlier research in an attempt to identify other areas from which a concept could be developed, whilst retaining the relevance of the most recent progress.
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