WORK, TRAINING AND EDUCATION...2
EDUCATION
Primary education is funded by the UNHCR and run by welfare agencies, which vary from camp to camp and include Save the Children, the Salvation Army, World Relief and International Social Services.
Some staff are individually sponsored. ISS education coordinator Adrie van Gelderen describes himself as "a gift from the Dutch government" which pays two thirds of his salary to ISS.
There is no fixed curriculum in the schools, and few qualified staff. Among 29 foreign and Vietnamese staff at Chimawan camp, only one is fully qualified.
Children receive no qualifications because schools do not meet government standards such as space per child and qualified staff per child. Teachers urge that the government, which is responsible for school buildings, make every effort to bring conditions up to scratch or to waive some specifications for accreditation of camp schools.
Fazlil Karim, UNHCR chief in Hong Kong, told reporters in March 1988 that the agency had presented the government with proposals to integrate camp children into Hong Kong's educational system.
Teachers support these proposals, saying that it difficult to make teaching socially relevant for children who have little or no experience of life outside the confines of the camp.
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