Dear members:
What an innovative idea: offering online courses/degrees to refugees in
a camp on the Thai/Burma border. You may find interesting the article
pasted below from The Times. Are any other universities offering this
type of thing? Thoughts?
Sincerely,
Jenelle Eli
[log in to unmask]
Irish college accepts Burma refugees
July 20, 2008
An Irish college is targeting Burmese refugees. Dundalk Institute of
Technology is offering on-line degrees to Karen students living on the
Thai-Burma border
John Mooney
BURMESE refugees living on the Thai-Burma border are to be offered the
chance to study for online degrees and certificates by an Irish college.
The Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT) in Co Louth is launching a
virtual college for the minority Karen people, who fled to Thailand to
escape civil rights abuses in Burma.
The DkIT will offer online degrees and certificates to some 30 Karen
students in the Mae La refugee camp on the Thai-Burma border.
Students will study modules on politics, sociology and community
development by watching lectures streamed into the refugee camp over the
internet.
Margaret Clarke, a spokeswoman for DkIT, said technology provided a way
for the college to offer individual learning programmes to suit the
Karen refugees. She proposed the on-line course last October after
hearing a talk by Niamh De Loughry, a Dublin woman who has worked with
Burmese refugees for four years.
"The course looks at issues of identity, culture and community," said
Clarke. "We have taken our existing courses and are adapting them for
students who live in Mae La, which has a population of about 50,000.
"There is a well-developed primary and secondary education system in the
camp but there isn't a lot of third-level programmes which have
internationally recognised qualifications. So we are hoping to try and
bring accredited online courses to the camp, which will hopefully enable
the students to help their own community."
Course supervisors in Ireland will check up on students through long
distance calls, virtual tutorials and by e-mail.
"Although the camp has relatively good facilities, it is our hope that
students in the class will all log on together and watch the lectures
simultaneously," said Clarke.
Students who wish to join the course will have to pass an English test
to ensure their language skills are sufficient to pass exams.
Sgaw Karen is the main language spoken in the refugee camp but many
students have English. Staff from DkIT are due to travel to northern
Thailand in September to assess the needs of students.
The Karen National Union (KNU), the Karen's government in exile, has
promised to assist DkIT and promote its courses.
More than 100,000 Burmese refugees, mostly Karen, have fled to Thailand
to escape what they say is ethnic cleansing by the Burmese junta. They
say their villages have been burnt and they have been shot, raped and
tortured by the army.
LINK to the story at The Times Online: The link is
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/ireland/article4364989.ece
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Note: The material contained in this communication comes to you from the
Forced Migration Discussion List which is moderated by the Refugee
Studies Centre (RSC), Department of International Development,
University of Oxford. It does not necessarily reflect the views of the
RSC or the University. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this
message please retain this disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should
include attribution to the original sources.
List archives are available at
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/forced-migration.html
|