mentoring4u

Kategorie: Overseas

  • Vier Fäuste schlagen sich für eine Schule – fight4peace: Box-Gala des Jahres

    fight4peace: Box-Gala des Jahres findet am 15. November  zu Gunsten eines Guten Zwecks statt. Journalist und Afghanistan-Blogger fordert WBO-Internkontinental-Meister Hamid Rahimi heraus.

    Hamburg/Köln. Am 15. November dieses Jahres fliegen unter dem Motto „fight4peace“ in Hamburg die Fäuste, und zwar zugunsten eines Guten Zwecks. Dazu hat der Journalisten und Afghanistan-Blogger Boris Barschow den WBO-Interkontinental-Meister Hamid Rahimi für einen Schaukampf herausgefordert. Warum lässt sich der Box-Novize überhaupt auf diesen offensichtlich ungleichen Kampf ein? „Der Erlös dieses außergewöhnlichen Boxkampfes geht in den geplanten Bau einer unabhängigen Journalistenschule in Afghanistan“, sagt der Herausforderer. Dafür riskiere er gerne eine „dicke Lippe„.

    Für die Schule in Kabul übernimmt die Deutsche Journalistenschule München (DJS) die Patenschaft
    Ähnlich wie in München möchten die Initiatoren des Projektes einen Kompaktkurs an der zu gründenden Afghanischen Journalistenschule anbieten, als auch kombinierte Lehrgänge mit dem Studiengang Journalistik. Zusammen mit der Deutsch-afghanischen Universitätsgesellschaft e.V. in Bonn, die bereits 5000 Euro gespendet hat, wollen Hamid Rahimi und Boris Barschow mit dem Schaukampf Mitte November die notwendige Aufmerksamkeit auf das Vorhaben ziehen und somit die Spendenbereitschaft der Menschen ansprechen.

    Und das Programm hat es in sich.
    Neben dem Hauptkampf über zehn Runden zu je drei Minuten soll es noch „einen attraktiven Vorkampf“ geben, wie die Veranstalter verlauten. Ein weiteres, besonderes Highlight des Abends: Der afghanische Superstar Jawid Sharif wird erstmals mit einem seiner Hits öffentlich in Deutschland auftreten. Weitere prominente Gäste hätten sich zudem angekündigt. „Der gesamte Abend wird daher sehr wahrscheinlich auch live im afghanischen Fernsehen ausgestrahlt“, sagt Barschow. Hierzu hat er einen Sponsor finden können, der einen Übertragungswagen inklusive Satellitentechnik zur Verfügung stellen will.

    Sponsoren dabei …
    …um den spektakulären Kampf überhaupt austragen zu können, haben Rahimi und Barschow bereits eine Vielzahl von Unterstützern und Sponsoren gewinnen können. Angefangen vom bekannten Boxtrainer Rüdiger May, der den Journalisten in den vergangenen zwölf Monaten intensiv auf die Begegnung mit Rahimi vorbereitete, über Harley-Davidson Germany GmbH (stiftete ein hochwertiges Motorrad, das nach dem Kampf zugunsten des Fördertopfes versteigert werden soll) bis hin zum Austragungsort Messe Hamburg Schnelsen.

    Die Geschäftsführerin der Messe, Steffi Kranawetter, zeigte sich von Beginn an vom Charity-Konzept überzeugt. „Für uns stellte sich nicht die Frage, ob wir das Projekt unterstützen, sondern nur, wie wir bestmöglich zur Umsetzung beitragen können“, betont sie. Für Boris Barschow ist Kranawetters Einsatz vorbildlich. „Die Messe Hamburg Schnelsen stellt uns nicht nur die Räumlichkeiten zur Verfügung, sondern bringt sich auch maßgeblich ins Marketing mit ein“, freut sich der Journalist.

    Guter Zweck und wo es Tickets gibt:
    Die Organisatoren hoffen auf viele Besucher, um möglichst viel Geld für die geplante Journalistenschule zu sammeln. Über die Onlinepräsenz der Messe sowie über funke-ticket.de können Interessierte sich bereits ihre Karten in vier Preiskategorien – vom Stehplatz bis zur VIP-Karte inkl. Speisen und Getränke – sichern. „Darüber hinaus bietet sich der Kampf auch als Firmenevent an“, betont Barschow. So könne ein Unternehmen mit dem Kauf einiger Tickets auch seiner Belegschaft eine Freude machen.

    Die außergewöhnliche Boxnacht wird am 15. November 2013 um 20 Uhr eingeläutet
    Eine Stunde zuvor werden sich Rahimi und Barschow statt des „Offiziellen Wiegens“ im Zuge einer Pressekonferenz gemeinsam Afghanistan und die Potentiale des Landes diskutieren. Hier wird Boris Barschow seine Erfahrungen als Afghanistan-Experte mit einbringen. In den vergangenen Jahren war er jeweils unabhängig voneinander mehrfach als Bundeswehroffizier und als Berichterstatter im von Krisen zerrütteten Land im Einsatz.

    Weitere Infos zum Charity- Event gibt es im Internet unter www.fight4peace.afghanistan-blog.de oder auf der Facebook-Fanseite unter www.facebook.com/boxcharity.

    Zu „fight4 peace“:

    Der Begriff „fight4peace“ wurde 2012 durch Hamid Rahimi geprägt, als er seinen WBO-Interconti-Titel in Kabul errang. Rahimi schaffe es, den ersten Box-Profikampf nach über 30 Jahren in das vom Krieg geschundene Land zu holen. Dieser Kampf fand vor weit über 4000 Zuschauern statt, die sich im „normalen Leben“ wahrscheinlich umbringen würden. „Sportler sind bessere Vorbilder als Soldaten“, sagte Rahimi damals. Er wolle künftig seine Boxeinsätze mit dem Friedensgedanken seines Heimatlandes Afghanistan in Verbindung bringen.

    Weiterer Artikel zu Boris Barschow auf Mentoring4u:

    Humanitäre Hilfe für Afghanistan ausgezeichnet

    (Autor: daniel hopkins  provoke media / Quellen: www.fight4peace.afghanistan-blog.de , www.facebook.com/boxcharity ,de.wikipedia.org, www.harley-davidson.com/de, www.djs-online.de, www.daug-online.org/, hamid-rahimi.com/,www.messe-hamburg-schnelsen.dewww.jawidsharif.info/)

  • Critical Analysis of Higher Education Sector in Libya / Part 4

    1. Discussion and Policy Implications

    The claims by the previous regime over massive spending and investment in education may have been valid, but certainly not over the period under this study. Over the period 2002-08,  on average, between 3 and 4 percent of GDP was allocated to education. Moreover, as shown earlier, per-capita spending in this sector was by far the lowest in the overall economy. Years of under-resourcing and poor management has now left the Libyan education sector in a dire position. Coupled with corruption and injustice, the overall quality of education provision is now seriously questioned. The findings from our survey questionnaire have clearly shown that low wages and unfair promotional schemes have led to lack of incentive and severe decline in innovative teaching and research. In particular, in our sample of 200 teachers/instructors and lecturers in higher education institutions, over three-quarters stated that they had produced no new teaching material; and nor have they attempted any enhancement in their teaching delivery.

    These findings are compatible with those of Saad (2012) which reports that lack of innovative Libya was run as a closed economy for well over 40 years until November 2011. Those years of isolation led to severe decline in provision of quality in all aspects of the economy; and education was indeed of no exception. Quality education, like any other commodity, whether offered by the state or the private sector, cannot be maintained unless factors of production – here being teachers/lecturers and capital – are directly and fairly rewarded. Particularly since the early 1980s, under payment, widespread corruption, and banning of teaching of foreign languages from schools had led to serious lack of incentives, hence decline in quality of education delivery.

    Paulwip / pixelio.de
    (Die Mona Lisa, Paulwip / pixelio.de)

    As for policy implications arising from this research, two main issues are worth noting here. First, low public pay is a main source of bribery, poor service quality and corruption. Particularly, in the light of gradual rising of prices of basic commodities since the uprising of 2011, it is vitally important for the policy-makers to review and to index wages in accordance with projected inflation rates.

    Introduction of efficient and fair monetary reward system is 14  one of the fundamental bases for improved productivity and hence enhanced quality teaching. It should be borne in mind that decisions on building new schools or colleges in different corners of this massive country is justified, if and only if adequate facilities and quality human resources are made available. Second, policy-makers must make every effort in introducing an effective, transparent and workable national promotion mechanism for appreciation of quality service in teaching and research. To ensure that corruption has no place in this new system, constant supervisory quality enhancement procedures, preferably conducted by independent watch dogs supported and monitored by the end consumers, must be implemented and supported.

    Maren Beßler pixelio.de
    (Stausee, Maren Beßler pixelio.de9)

    One way of achieving this objective may be found by making closer collaboration with institutions in other countries to achieve excellent quality assurance systems and accreditation of educational programmes. In short, education policy must be based on quality enhancement and regular monitoring of teachers/lecturers teaching approaches and students’ satisfaction criteria, and nothing else. This way, the existing massive gap between output and outcome in education is anticipated to be reduced in the medium term.

    Dieser Gastbeitrag ist von Dr. M. Taghavi, London (Vice-Principal, Academic & Executive Programmes, IBEC, Tripoli, Libya, www.ibec.edu.ly).

    Hier finden Sie Part 1, Part 2 und Part 3

    Die Mentoring4u Redaktion behält sich vor, Leserbriefe / E-Mails – mit vollständigem Namen, Anschrift und E-Mail-Adresse – auch gekürzt zu veröffentlichen. Gastbeiträge spiegeln nicht unbedingt die Meinung der Redaktion wieder.

  • Critical Analysis of Higher Education Sector in Libya / Part 3

    4. The Survey Data, Econometric Approach and Estimated Results

    The data used in this study are derived from a survey questionnaire, distributed among teachers/instructors and lectures in five major universities in Libya, in June 2012. By the end of September 2012, out of a total of 320 questionaires distributed, 200 were received fully completed. For the purpose of efficiency and accuracy, a large number of questionnaires were distributed and collected online through skype and email. Prior to this survey, a pilot study of 40 teaching staff of two universities (Tripoli and Gharyan) was conducted in May 2012, aiming to identify the major quality problems with the higher education institutions.

    http://www.ibec.edu.ly/
    (Tripoli, www.ibec.edu.ly)

    Following the findings from the pilot study, the final form of the questionnaire was developed. One of the main issues raised by most participants of the pilot study was that academic research appeared to be either absent or insignificant. However, a small number of staff stated that teaching (quantity and not necessarily quality) may be considered as a means of promotion and higher salary.

    Moreover, the findings from the pilot study reveals that 83% of participants regarded low wages and poor promotion scheme as the two most deterministic factors in their lack of motivation in teaching and cognitive learning development. In the final survey,  for the purpose of econometric application,  the participants were asked to answer the following question, formulating our binary dependent variable:

    Thomas Klauer / pixelio.de
    (Akazie in der Wüste, von Thomas Klauer, Pixelio)

    Have you recently considered to develop or to produce any new teaching methods or material for students?

    In the final part of the questionnaire, the participants were asked if they could rate their perceptions about low wages and poor promotion schemes, based on the Likert scale (between 1 and 5, where 1 being highly dissatisfied, and 5 being highly satisfied). These two variables are therefore considered as our independent variables, as follows:

    How satisfied are you with your current wages?

    How satisfied are you with the promotion scheme at work?

    The summa descriptive statistics relating to these three variables prersented to this table, only 22.5 % of participants stated that they had recently heired students for some form of innovative teaching. Secondly, as for the independent variables, with the means of below 2.0, participants have clearly stated their dissatisfaction with their academic system in so far as wages and promotion are concerned. These estimated means are, according to this table.

    Thus, in the light of our binary dependent variable, the appropriate estimation method is a hill-climbing logistic regression.

    Here you fill find Part 1& Part 2 .

    (Autor: Dr. M. Taghavi (Vice-Principal, Academic & Executive Programmes, IBEC, Tripoli, Libya, www.ibec.edu.ly)

  • Overseas: Libyan Education System: Success or Failure Part 2

    Dieser Gastbeitrag ist von Dr. M. Taghavi, London (Vice-Principal, Academic & Executive Programmes, IBEC, Tripoli, Libya, www.ibec.edu.ly).

    Of the total population of approximately 6 million in Libya, nearly 1.7 million are students. The latest figures suggest that of the total number of students, around 16% study at tertiaryl evel, including those in the higher technical and vocational sector. The number of such students has been growing at a phenomenal rate of 2.5% per annum since 1975. Pre-university schooling is divided into three sections of primary, preparatory and secondary; for which the first nine years of education are compulsory and are known as basic education.

    The primary school is for six years, followed by the two-three year cycles of secondary school. Thus, the basic education consists of 6 years of primary and 3 years of secondary schooling. The basic level then allows students who drop out before completing the full nine years of the opportunity to enrol in vocational programmes of one to three years in length. Intermediate vocational training centres train students for various skills-based professions. Vocational schools offer programmes for 44 different vocations in seven major fields.
    Anguane pixelio.de
    (Durst, Anguane, pixelio.de)

    Higher education in Libya is provided by universities (both general and specialised) and higher technical and vocational institutions. The higher education system is financed by, and under the authority of the state. Policymakers have in recent years allowed the establishment of private institutions of higher education through what are known as educational cooperation. Since the late 1990s, there has also been considerable research into the possibility of developing partnerships between the public and private sectors to finance higher education, which resulted in the establishment of more than five private university colleges and higher education institutes by the early 2000s. Education is free up to end of Bachelor’s Degree, but post-graduate studies are up to 75% subsidised.

    Supply of free or subsidised higher education has led to massive rise in number of students in both universities and higher technical colleges. Between 2000 and 2010, the total number of higher education students rose from 256,000 to 330,000, representing an average increase of 3% per annum. Examination of other quantitatve indicators published by the World Bank are also indicativeof the fact that Libya had performed slightly better thanthe average MENA in rates of progression from primary to secondary schooling, and pupils/teacher ratio. Table 1 offers a summary of the contributions to health,  housing and education through public service budgets, over 2002-2008.

    Uli Carthäuser pixelio.de
    (Wüste am Morgen,  Uli-Carthäuser, pixilio.de)

    Statistics suggest, in 2002, of the total GDP of 30 billion Libyan Dinars (€18 billion), a total sum of LYD 7.6 billion (25%) was allocated to allpublic service provisions; of which the share of education, being the smallest, is around 17% of total public spending, and just over 4% of GDP. By the end of 2008, however, when the real value of GDP was estimated at just over LYD 97 billion, the public services share of GDP dropped by 10 point percentage compared to that of 2002. The education spending, though increased in nominal term to LYD 3.3 billion, it only represented 3.4% of GDP – a real 1 point percentage drop compared to 2002. Thus, the education section real term has experienced a significant decline in its budget despite the fact that GDP has trebled in 2008 compared with that of 2002. Similar picture is demonstrated in this table regarding housing and health sectors.

    On the whole, the relatively much higher decline in public spending may raise the issue that the regime may well  have squandered the national wealth. In relation to table 1, it can be said that over the same period, literally no or very little privatisation in education took place, having raised the issue that how the government fabricated and managed their data, claiming high spending and investment in education and other public services. On the whole, as reported by IMF (2008), throughout the period of 2000-08, the real fixed capital formation in education was substantially lower than one billion Libyan Dinars per annum, representing only around 1% of GDP, and that being significantly lower than the average MENA of 2.5%. In a market or a quasi-market environment, the budget allocation is justified by the productivity per employee in any given activity, be they public or private sectors. Naturally, it is anticipated, even in the most sophisticated market orientated public sectors, that productivity in the private sector to be higher than the public sector.

    Joujou / pixelio.de
    (Zu Sylvester – Gruß aus der Sahara, youyou, pixelio.de)

    However, the concept of productivity does not apply to the case of Libya, as housing, health, education and most manufacturing activities are and have been owned and controlled by the state. A better concept here to use is the budget per-head, assuming all public sector employees are of similar abilities and productivity. Table 2 presents the latest (2008) data on total workforce in the economy and in different activities of the public sector. Including the non-Libyan nationals, the total employees stand at 1.8 million, with nearly 1 million working in the public services (55% of total workforce).The largest employment is in the education department with nearly half million workers, sharing between them LYD 3.3 billion, making a per capita of only LYD 6,800 – nearly one-third of that of housing; one-quarter of the health sector and less than half of the overall public services employees.


    In short    ,
    the education sector has, for years, been offered significantly lower pay or allocated much smaller capital investment than the rest of the public services. Indeed, it must be borne in mind that such differences in budget per head, in part, may be due to differences in unit costs of the service provision. For example, provision of health care per unit is significantly higher than schooling. Although unit cost differences are critical, the extent of it bound not to be as high as shown in table 2. The findings in table 2 may be regarded as one of the reasons why the education sector in Libya has been lacking incentive, innovation and development.

    Dieser Link führt Sie zum ersten Teil.

    (Autor: Dr. M. Taghavi (Vice-Principal, Academic & Executive Programmes, IBEC, Tripoli, Libya, www.ibec.edu.ly) Bilder: www.pixelio.de)

    Die Mentoring4u Redaktion behält sich vor, Leserbriefe / E-Mails – mit vollständigem Namen, Anschrift und E-Mail-Adresse – auch gekürzt zu veröffentlichen. Gastbeiträge spiegeln nicht unbedingt die Meinung der Redaktion wieder.

  • Overseas: Education in Libya Part 1

    Education in Libya, a critical Analysis of Higher Education Sector. Wir beginnen in unregelmäßiger Folge mit der Vorstellung von Bildungssystemen in der Welt. Dieser Gastbeitrag ist von Dr. M. Taghavi, London (Vice-Principal, Academic & Executive Programmes, IBEC, Tripoli, Libya, www.ibec.edu.ly).
    M. Hermsdorf / pixelio.de
    (Foto: M. Hermsdorf, pixelio.de)
    For over forty years, the previous regime of Muammar Gaddafi had claimed that it had placed education and health on the top of the nation’s list of priorities. Since the early 1970s, education in Libya has been free to everyone from elementary school up to university level, at home or abroad. Schools were deliberately spread out throughout the country, with the policy of education reaching out even to nomadic hard-to-reach areas. Undoubtedly, as supported by the World Bank statistics, the literacy rate of 40% back in 1970, has now reached a staggering rate of 89% and this is significantly higher than that of the average MENA of around 77%.

    Furthermore, according to the UN statistics, over the period 1970-2000 nearly 7-10 percent per annum of Libya’s GDP was allocated to and spent on different education and training programmes. Moreover, on the basis of the estimated measure of welfare, usually referred to as the “human development index”–HDI consisting of a weighted average of life expectancy, adult literacy, and GDP per capita-Libya scores 0.8 out of 1.0, slightly higher than that of the average MENA of 0.75, placing it among the top 50 nations in the world. However, since the opening up of Libya back in the early 2002 and the subsequent fall of the old regime in 2011, the validity and quality of such educational claims have been seriously doubted. Since then, due to availability of more channels of information and general trans-parency, a large number of schools and colleges have been identified as having delivered extremely poor quality of teaching and management of their  resources.
    Uli Carthäuser pixelio.de
    (Foto: Uli Carthäuser pixelio.de)

    Following a thorough investigation, it has recently been reported that between the two poles of primary school and post graduate education, the system is “corroded by corruption, lack of  teachers’ motivation and poor management”. This issue was also highlighted in Porter (2006)  report on Libyan economy, stating that education policy “has failed to provide a job ready workforce, since the education system is disconnected from market demand”. It is further argued that education policy decisions have “negatively affected education inimportant areas for business such as IT and foreign languages.“

    Teaching innovation and pedagogical development has been almost absent, even at the higher education level. This problem has been severely worsened since the early-1980s when the then regime ordered schools to stop teaching foreign languages, hence denying the nation of any progressive methods of teaching adopted by the Westerners.. Moreover, such policy had a detrimental effect on development and publication of academic research across board. In short, closeness to the regime rather than merits has been the main criterion for job security and promotion in public sector; and that had led to general demise of incentives and innovative efforts by teaching staff across the country.
    http://www.ibec.edu.ly/

    In the light of these controversies, this paper attempts to analytically highlight, estimate and evaluate some of the imbalances between output and outcome of the state-run higher education sector in Libya under the previous regime. In so doing, the research has used a survey questionnaire of up to 200 lecturers/teachers/instructors and has applied a hill-climbing logit model to measure the causes and the extent of the poor quality in Libyan education system.

    The article is structured in four parts.  Part 2  addresses some of the main issues relating to Libyan education system,  highlighting, in particular, aspects of budget allocation and productivity. In part 3 we present the survey data, econometric model and analysis of findings. Finally, part 4 offers the final discussion and policy implications of the study. Pinto (2012)5Porter (2006: 72).Suwaed (2011: 23)7. We are very much indebted to Ibrahim Saadfor letting us have access to part of his survey findings. Finally, part 4 offers the final discussions and policy implications of the study.


    Die Mentoring4u Redaktion dankt dem     Centrum für Nah- und Mittelost-Studien مركز الدراسات الشرق أوسطية مرکز پژوهشهای خاور میانه Philipps-Universität Marburg für die Unterstützung.


    (Autor: Dr. M. Taghavi (Vice-Principal, Academic & Executive Programmes, IBEC, Tripoli, Libya, www.ibec.edu.ly /  Bilder: M. Hermsdorf, Uli Carthäuser  / Quelle: Gastvortrag an der Universität Marburg Mai 2013 , pixelio.de)

    Die Mentoring4u Redaktion behält sich vor, Leserbriefe / E-Mails – mit vollständigem Namen, Anschrift und E-Mail-Adresse – auch gekürzt zu veröffentlichen. Gastbeiträge spiegeln nicht unbedingt die Meinung der Redaktion wieder.