Clean Cities for Habitat Week

'Clean Cities', a special programme organised in connection with Habitat Week, will be launched in all major cities by the National Housing Development Authority (NHDA) from September 25 to October 2. The Week has been declared by the government to formally implement the World Habitat Day on October 2 on the theme, 'Town - the Attractive Centre of Aspirations'.

The 'Clean Cities' programme will be jointly sponsored by the Central Environment Authority (CEA) and the NHDA; it will be operated under the Urban Development and Water Supply Ministry in collaboration with Local Government bodies.

Some of the activities planned for the Week are new housing projects to be inaugurated in Colombo, Kandy, Matale, Nuwara Eliya, Kalmunai, Gampaha and Matara; activating basic development projects under the existing programmes; and handing over housing projects where the basic facilities have been completed, to the beneficiaries.

An NHDA spokesman said the construction of at least 500 houses in urban areas will commence during the week, while over 1,000 dwellers will also receive the title deeds for housing schemes.

The government expects to obtain the co-operation of these beneficiaries to develop these housing projects through the Community Housing Committees that are to be formed.

The programme includes model villages, 'awakened villages' and pioneer housing projects island-wide, including the North and East, constructed by the NHDA. Shramadana programmes will be conducted with the assistance of the householders throughout the country.

The housing schemes in Maligawatta, Gunasinghepura, Manning Town, Soyzapura and Hantana have been earmarked for the provision of facilities, during this Week.

A special programme has already been implemented to get the maximum participation of schoolchildren for the World Habitat Day programme.

More than 1,000 schoolchildren will participate in an environmental programme implemented by the CEA to commemorate the occasion.

The NHDA has also planned to hold an All Island Art and Essay Competition under the theme, 'Cities - Magnate of Hope' for schoolchildren, island-wide.

The National Conference of the World Habitat Day will be held at the National Youth Services Council Hall, Maharagama on October 2. The first Monday of October has been designated by the United Nations as World Habitat Day. The theme for this year is 'Cities - Magnate of Hope.' Besides the NHDA, the Ministry of Housing and Construction is the main focal institution of UN Habitat.

The Ministry of Urban Development and Water Supply, Urban Development Authority, CEA, the Ministry of Local Government and Provincial Councils and all local authorities will also participate in the Habitat Day programme.

Face-lift for Educational Publications Dept.

The Educational Publications Department, which prints the school textbooks that all of you get, is soon expected to be improved to meet modern day printing requirements.

Accordingly, a policy decision would soon be taken on the printing of school books. Steps would also be taken to update the Department so that students will receive their textbooks on time. The Ministry has also planned to set up a new building complex at the Pattalagedara Vidyapeeta premises to house the Department's printing section.

This is expected to save the large sum of money that is currently spent as rental on the premises. The Educational Publications Department is also planning a face-lift for its bookstall at Olcott Mawatha, which would make it attractive to the reading public; new reading material would be provided to the bookstall as well.

These steps are especially intended to help GCE A'Level students.

Literacy, path out of poverty

You may be able to read and understand this news item because you are literate. But, did you know that over 800 people on Earth cannot read or write?

The world has made vast strides in eliminating illiteracy from all four corners of the globe; adult literacy has improved by 10 per cent over the last 20 years with the world literacy rate, which stood at 70 per cent in 1980, climbing up to 80 per cent in 2000. While four billion are already literate, more needs to be done to close this gap.

Illiteracy is a cause of poverty as well. This is emphasised by this year's theme for the International Literacy Day, which is 'Literacy, the Path Out of Poverty'. The theme focuses on worldwide literacy issues and needs. Illiteracy has a gender component too.

Of the 860 million illiterate adult population of the world, two thirds are women. Over 100 million children also do not have access to education, and of this, the majority are girls. So, the gender imbalance of the issue also needs attention. The International Literacy Day was declared in 1966 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

The idea to celebrate such a day was developed by the World Congress of Ministers of Education on Eradication of Illiteracy, when they met in September 1965, in Iran. September 8, the day the Congress convened, was declared as the Literacy Day.

Many activities are organised by UNESCO and other organisations to observe this Day; the presentation of five literacy prizes by UNESCO is one such activity. The UN Literacy Decade - Education for All is also effective from 2003 to 2012.

The General Assembly welcomed the International Plan of Action for the Decade and decided UNESCO should spearhead this plan on an international level. 'Literacy as Freedom' was declared as the theme for the Decade, which aims to extend the use of literacy to those who currently don't have access to it.

The reasons to launch the Decade for Literacy are: one fifth of the world population over the age of 15 are not literate; literacy was recognised as a human right over 50 years ago in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and it is a crime that some people are still denied this right; a sustained collective effort is needed as the efforts launched so far in this regard have been unsuccessful. The objective of the Education for All programme is to increase literacy rates to 50 per cent by 2015.

The Plan of Action in this regard tackles policy change, flexible programmes, capacity building, research, community participation, monitoring and evaluation.

S-SAARC for the second time

S-SAARC, the children's simulated SAARC Summit was held on August 24 and 25 at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute, and on August 26 at the BMICH. It was organised by teacher-in-charge of the project, R.L. Ellawala and students of Ananda College, Colombo.

Students from Visakha Vidyalaya, Musaeus College, Ladies College, Nalanda College, D.S. Senanayake College, Alethea International School and many other colleges from the Colombo district took part in this event, where Ryan's International School and Amitti International School from India also participated.

The summit was held for the second consecutive year, and according to Ellawala, they hope to organise it every year. Around 200 students participated this year to represent countries such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Afghanistan, China, Japan and Sri Lanka. The aim of organising this kind of event is to improve the diplomatic and leadership skills of students.

Children belonging to the age group of 14-18 years participated in this year's summit; and the organisers hope to open this event to all schoolchildren in the future, so they can all gain from this experience.

According to Vijaya Lakshmi, the teacher-in-charge of the Indian students, they'll be participating in the next S-SAARC Summit as well.

We'll bring you more information on the S-SAARC Summit in next week's Junior Observer.

JA

Snippet: Police test hand-held knife detector

The latest tool in the war against Britain's escalating (increasing) knife culture is being tested by police forces and prisons, after proving a huge success with the American military and police.

A palm-held metal detector, which is considered much easier to use and more sensitive than the traditional wand or airport-style detectors, is able to pick up knives or blades held in shoes, and is sensitive enough to detect a pin held in the mouth.

The Eazysearch device also leaves the user's hands free to defend themselves and can be fitted under a glove for covert (secret) searches.

Twenty-two British police forces are looking at the system, while it was put into public use for the first time at a leisure centre in Aston, Birmingham.

The Daily Telegraph

Kataragama Museum to get due recognition

The Kataragama Archaeological Museum, though not very well known among the public, holds an important place as an informal education centre, and as a cultural centre depicting a glimpse of the history of the Kataragama Devalaya as well as other ancient places in the southern area and the Ruhuna Kingdom. Despite this value, it had been neglected over a long period of time by the relevant authorities, without getting its due recognition.

This however, will change soon. Now, there are plans to convert this museum into an international information centre. The Sri Lanka-Netherlands Cultural Co-operation Programme is expected to provide a sum of Rs. 6.6 million for this project.

The plan includes the construction of a mini theatre and a library catering to the needs of the public, especially foreigners.

A ceremony was held at Kataragama recently to begin the initial work of this project.