BBC News Report Dec 2014 with transcript video

Jan 042015

Girl power in Ghana’s schools: Getting a good education is difficult for girls in Ghana.
In this News Report, we hear about a project that is helping them with English, maths – and confidence.

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For young people in Ghana, in West Africa, it’s not easy to learn the necessary skills for work and life. The school system has many problems: the quality of teaching is variable, and sometimes teachers don’t come to work at all.

It’s particularly difficult for Ghanaian girls to get a good education. Normally, they’re expected to leave school when they are young, and get married.

A new education project, called Making Ghanaian Girls Great, is trying to improve girls’ education, by offering extra lessons in English and maths.

The project provides lessons on television, from a studio in Accra. Teachers in the studio can talk to pupils in their classrooms, and the project also offers after-school lessons – called Wonder Women lessons – designed to increase girls’ confidence. In these lessons, girls can ask questions about health, education or careers – and they can also talk to role models.

The project was launched by Nana Ogyedon Tsetsewah, a local leader in central Ghana. Nana says that young people in Ghana are frustrated, and they don’t want to work as farmers any more.

Head teacher Vanderwell Augustt Gordor welcomes the extra lessons. It’s a much more active style of learning, he says, and the pupils like joining in.

Ghana has invested in education, in order to increase national income. “Education is the key to development,” said Anthony Klopka, a local politician. But until now, he says, girls’ education has not received enough attention.

Because of projects like Making Ghanaian Girls Great, perhaps this situation is starting to change.

Vocabulary

quality
how good or bad something is

variable
not always the same; sometimes high, sometimes low

studio
(here) a special room where TV programmes are made and broadcast

wonder
(here) something extraordinary, or amazingly good

confidence
belief that you can succeed

role model
someone who you admire, and who you would like to copy

launch
start something officially

local
from this area

frustrated
annoyed or angry because you cannot do something

active
doing things; influencing a situation

join in
take part; become involved

the key to
(here) the only way or the best way to achieve a goal

politician
a person who works in politics or government

Swiss children used as slave labour: This week’s News Report tells the story of the ‘contract children’ – children in Switzerland who were taken away from their families and sent to work on farms.

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Starting in the 1850s, hundreds of thousands of Swiss children were taken from their parents and sent to farms to work. Now, thousands of people in Switzerland, who were forced into child labour, are demanding compensation for their stolen childhoods.

When children became orphans, when parents were unmarried, or when families were very poor, sometimes the children were taken from their families and placed in foster families. The children were often sent to farms, as agriculture in Switzerland was not mechanized, and so child labour was needed. They were called ‘contract children’.

“They wanted to take these children out of the poor family and put them somewhere else where they could learn how to work,” says historian Loretta Seglias. If the children’s parents objected, they could be sent to prison too.

The use of contract children declined in the 1960s and 70s.

Last year an official apology was made to contract children – and now, campaigner Guido Fluri is trying to get them compensation.

He hopes for about 500 million Swiss Francs (£327m) for the 10,000 contract children estimated to be alive today. However, there could still be many more years of discussion in the Swiss parliament before this becomes a reality.

But Fluri says it is important to remember these “people who suffered for decades.”

Vocabulary

demand
to ask for something strongly

compensation
money which is paid to you because you have been hurt in some way

orphan
a child whose parents have died

foster family
a family which takes care of a child, although they are not the child’s biological family

agriculture
the science or industry of farming

mechanized
using machines to do work

labour
work; particularly, physical work

object
(here) to oppose something; to say that something is not acceptable

decline
(here) to decrease; to become less

campaigner
a person who works, together with others, to try to change something in society

parliament
the group of elected people who make laws for the country

suffer
to experience something painful

decade
ten years

Mushrooms are the business for Burmese migrant: We’ve heard a lot about moving around in this unit, but migration is an issue in many places. And migrants face challenges all the time.
In News Report this time we hear about Than Wai Aung, a migrant from Burma who has moved to Thailand – we’ll hear about his difficulties but also his successes.

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Every day, Than Wai Aung sprays water on hundreds of plastic bags, which are filled with wood. Mushrooms grow on the damp wood, and every two or three days Than collects several kilos of mushrooms to sell.

Than is from Yangon (also called Rangoon), in Myanmar, but he has lived in Thailand for nearly 20 years. He is 45 years old now, and has three children.

“There was nothing for me in Myanmar, no opportunities,” he says.

First he came to live near Ratchaburi, a town in western Thailand. He worked on building sites, and then he had the idea for his business.

“We used to buy mushrooms to use in our cooking,” he remembers, “and I thought, ‘Why not grow them?'”

Learning to grow the mushrooms was difficult. And when he sold his mushrooms in his local area, the price was very low. But he did not give up. Instead, he decided to move to Bangkok.

Thailand’s economy started to grow rapidly in the 1980s. Since then, millions of people have come to Thailand from Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, and other countries, to find jobs. Life is difficult for these migrant workers, and success stories are very rare. But Than is doing well in Bangkok. He grows his mushrooms in sheds, he delivers them to his customers on his motorbike, and he earns between $16 and $32 per day.

And he is still ambitious. “I want to be rich,” he says. “Rich enough to buy a car!”

Vocabulary

spray
spread very small drops of liquid through the air

several
some; more than two

opportunity
chance to do something which you want to do

building site
a piece of land where a building is being constructed

local
in or near the place where you are

give up
quit; stop trying

economy
the system of trade and industry, which can create wealth

rapidly
quickly

migrant
someone who travels from one country or area to another, for a long period

do well
be successful

shed
(here) a large, simple building, normally for making or storing something

deliver
take things (especially goods or letters) to the people who need them

ambitious
determined to achieve goals

Minecraft player builds virtual city: Imagine building a city – how long would that take? Well a student from the USA has done just that and it only took him two years! The only thing is the city isn’t real, it’s something he’s created using the video game Minecraft.