This is the VOA Special English Education Report.
这里是美国之音慢速英语教育报告。
An international conference took place this week in Dakar, Senegal, to find new ways to get and keep girls in school.
本周，一个国际会议在塞内加尔的达喀尔召开，以寻求促进女孩入学的新方案。
The United Nations Children's Fund says nearly seventy-two million children were not in school in two thousand seven. More than half are girls, and more than two-thirds are in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and West Asia.
联合国儿童基金称，有近7200万儿童失学，其中超过一半是女孩，超过2/3是在撒哈拉以南非洲，南亚和西亚。
School attendance has improved in many areas. But the head of UNICEF, Anthony Lake, says:
很多地区的入学率已有所提高，但联合国儿童基金会执行主任安东尼.雷克称：
ANTHONY LAKE: "Unless we all work harder, there may still be fifty-six million children out of school in two thousand fifteen."
安东尼.雷克：“如果我们大家不更加努力，2015年仍将有5600万儿童失学。”
He says progress and economic development depend on educating girls as well as boys. Educated girls are also at lower risk of violence, abuse and diseases like H.I.V./AIDS.
他表示，进步和经济发展不仅依赖于受过教育的男孩，也依靠依赖于受过教育的女孩。受过教育的女孩在遭遇暴力、虐待和患艾滋等疾病的风险也更低。
The U.N. Girls' Education Initiative organized the meeting of two hundred scholars, aid workers and government officials from twenty-two countries. The initiative was launched in Dakar ten years ago. The aim is to bring primary school education to all girls and boys worldwide by two thousand fifteen.
“联合国女童教育倡议”(UNGEI)组织了这次会议，来自22个国家的200名学者、志愿者和政府官员参加了会议。该倡议10年前在达喀尔发起，目标是在2015年前为全球所有儿童提供基础教育。
In Senegal, the number of public schools has doubled in the last ten years. But UNICEF's Anthony Lake said schools still lack gender equality. He said girls in one Dakar school told him about a lack of bathrooms and textbooks for them, and bullying from boys.
在过去的10年，塞内加尔公立学校的数量已增加了一倍。但联合国儿童基金会的安东尼.雷克表示，学校仍然缺乏性别平等。他说，达喀尔一个学校的女孩们告诉他，女孩们在学校缺少浴室和教材，还受男孩欺凌。
The conference centered on three main problems to getting and keeping girls in school: violence, poverty and poor quality education.
会议围绕促进女孩入学的三个主要问题：暴力，贫穷和教学质量差。
Ann-Therese Ndong-Jatta is education director for UNESCO in Africa. She says donors are pumping in a lot of resources and civil society groups are working on access to education.
Ann-Therese Ndong-Jatta是联合国教科文组织非洲办事处的教育主任。她表示，捐助者提供了大量资源，民间社会团体也正在为（儿童）受教育权而努力。
ANN-THERESE NDONG-JATTA: "But the truth is, seventy-five percent of the children fail."
Ann-Therese Ndong-Jatta：“但事实是，仍有75%的儿童失学。”
The UNESCO official says schools need to modernize and improve what they teach and how they teach it. For example, she says schools should teach African children in their native languages, not simply in English or French.
联合国教科文组织官员表示，学校需要更新和提高他们的教学内容和教学方式。例如，她说，学校应该用当地母语为非洲儿童授课，而不是用英语和法语。
To stay in school, experts say children must consider their education useful -- and so must their parents. May Rihani from the Global Advisory Committee of the U.N. girls' initiative gave an example from a "life skills" program in Mali.
专家称，为了继续就读，孩子们必须学有所用--他们的父母也一定这样认为。“联合国女童教育倡议”全球咨询委会员的May Rihani介绍了一个马里的生活技能课程的例子。
One lesson is about diarrhea. The idea is for children to go tell their mother what they learned. May Rihani says: "The mother would recognize that this education is important to her and to her family and would want the child to continue to go to school."
其中一节课是关于痢疾。目的是为了让孩子们告诉妈妈他们学到了什么。May Rihani说：“妈妈们就会认识到这个课程对她以及她的家庭都很重要，从而愿意让孩子们继续上学。”