Information and stories on education.
Honduras is located in the heart of Central America with coastlines running along both the Atlantic and Pacific. Honduras’ population is nearly 9,750,000 according to World Bank. However, the country has seen a significant dip in population in recent years due to increased gang violence. The country is also recovering from the Presidential election of 2017 in which voter fraud and voter misgivings paved the way for the reelection of Honduras’ unpopular President, Juan Orlando Hernandez. One U.N. report determined that the number of people fleeing Honduras, as well as other Central American Countries, has risen by nearly 60 percent as a result.
Children in Honduras and their struggling families are often overlooked as a demographic. Helping Honduras Kids (HHK) is dedicated “to improve the level of dignity, education, opportunity and health for orphaned, abandoned, abused, and/or neglected and special needs children, single mother and families on the North Coast of Honduras.” Their mission statement alone alludes to the significant impact HHK has on these children’s lives.
Programs to Empower Children
Based in the Honduran city of La Ceiba, HHK’s central focus is helping children grow and develop through encouragement, counseling and education. Several programs help, like the Hogar de Amor (Home of Love), which cares for more than 20 children at a time. Though the first Hogar de Amor opened its door in 2007, HHK moved to a new location in 2010 due to pressure from local gangs. Their new home has been going strong for more than six years.
Another key program is the Jungle School. Founded in 2007, the Jungle School is an eight-classroom facility whose 10 teachers instruct over 200 hundred students in grades K-8th. HHK provides uniforms, school supplies and books along with a meal five days a week. The school also staffs a volunteer nurse who provides the students with medical and dental checkups. The nurse provides regular checkups to single and pregnant mothers. HHK subsidizes a Stay in School Outreach program that encourages kids of all ages to remain in school. 62 percent of the poorest children in Honduras will drop out of school by age 16. Programs like the Jungle School offer children the possibility for a brighter future in Honduras.
Aid and Impact
In 2007, gangs drove residents of the Campesino village off their land. HHK, along with Amigos of Honduras, purchased land for the displaced villagers in response. In addition, HHK has donated fortified rice, soup and truckloads of ripe bananas to the village. They have also constructed a central building for the village with a concrete floor and roof which will be used for meals and care of the roughly 350 children living in the village.
In a country plagued by gangs, drug violence, and political corruption, HHK is making a real difference for children in Honduras. The Honduran government does not allow adoptions from private orphanages like HHK. This means that many of these children will have the opportunity to take what they’ve learned from HHK and build a better Honduras for tomorrow.
–Henry Burkert
Photo: Flickr
Sri Lanka has shocked the world with its success in its system of education. Within less than forty years of independence, the number of schools has increased by 50 percent. In fact, the number of students has increased by 300 percent. Such substantial growth is exemplified in the following eight facts about education in Sri Lanka.
- Education is a government priority – The government has invested 14.5 percent of all expenditures in education. Provincial councils oversee provincial schools throughout Sri Lanka. Each has their own Ministry of Education and a Minister to who regulates education policies in the province. For example, Minister Akila Viraj Kariyawasam recently released a statement about the standard of primary and secondary school education. He stated that it must be monitored by a committee to ensure the standards of education are being maintained. Additionally, he stressed monitoring the higher-level teaching of future teachers to ensure their caliber is of a high enough quality.
- It has a free education policy – This policy was ratified October 1, 1945, in Sri Lanka’s constitution. The policy states that every child from the age of five to sixteen has the right to free education. This has allowed Sri Lanka’s literacy rate has reached 92 percent. This policy’s success is further demonstrated in the enrollment rates for boys and girls, with 96 percent of girls and 97 percent of boys enrolled in primary school, 95 percent for both genders in secondary school.
- Child mortality is reduced – Education prioritization has resulted in the reduction of Sri Lanka’s child mortality rate. For instance, the country went from 74.3 deaths per 1000 live births in 1968 to 8.8 deaths per 1000 live births in 2017. This is the result of an increase in health interventions. Additionally, the prioritization of education has helped more students learn about health risks and the prevention of harmful diseases than before.
- Bilingual teaching – Another piece in the list of facts about education in Sri Lanka pertains to teaching. Many schools are introducing bilingual teaching strategies. These strategies have resulted in stronger educational performances. The official languages in Sri Lanka are Sinhala and Tamil. However, schools teach English as a language from grade three onward, to increase international opportunities for students after finishing their education. Furthermore, they can also retain their local cultural concepts and mother tongue. The Deputy Director of Education of the Bilingual Unit of the Ministry of Education, Priyatha Nanayakkara, even stated that the ultimate goal is to provide bilingual education to all students in Sri Lanka. This is to better equip them for the globalized world. Consequently, Ordinary Level (O/L) examination results have increased from a 50 percent pass rate to a 90 percent pass rate. Even more impactful has been the minimization of a social gap between those who are able to speak English and those who are not able.
- They are investing in the future – Since 2011, Sri Lanka has sought out overseas investors to be able to welcome more international students into its system of higher education. In 2017, Sri Lanka received a $100 million World Bank loan to expand their STEM enrollment and research opportunities in their higher education level, as well as improve the quality of related degree programs. The government’s goal is to open up its higher education system to international students by 2020.
- Reduction of gender disparities – The Free Education system has fostered the notion of equal opportunity. In fact, in higher levels of education, women are more likely to complete their education than men. For example, 60 percent of those enrolled in higher education were women in 2015. Of the graduating students, 68.5 percent were female. However, while the education system seems to be promoting gender equality, the political environment of Sri Lanka is still sparse in terms of women, a disparity when compared to their educational success that must be addressed to continue their progress.
- Parental concerns – Next in the list of facts about education in Sri Lanka is parental concerns. A poll between the Business Times and Colombo-based Research Consultancy Bureau recorded the responses of 800 people. The poll revealed the anxieties of students, parents and teachers surrounding the prioritized education system in Sri Lanka. When the respondents were asked if students were being given too much work leading up to examinations, about 70 percent responded yes. Parents argued that the high school system is especially flawed and are urging for a concrete educational plan for future students.
- Disparities Between Urban and Rural Schools – Many rural schools, such as the Sri Bodhi school, do not have access to the internet. This is a huge drawback in teaching methods when compared to urban schools. While education is required for all children to a certain age, attendance in rural classes is significantly less than that of urban school classrooms as well. Flora Thin, a University of St. Andrews student, traveled to Sri Lanka with the organization Plan My Gap Year and visited a school in Ambalangoda. Thin recounted the school she attended was a house with three classrooms with few resources. Yet, many considered it fortunate in comparison to surrounding institutions. This is due to the fact that the school received support from the Gap Year program, while others do not.
Progress in Education
These eight facts about education in Sri Lanka illustrate its tremendous progress since achieving independence. But, it is clear there is still much to do before Sri Lanka has ironed out their education strategy. However, these eight facts about education in Sri Lanka depict the substantial progress made in the past few years as proof that the country is on the path to providing its children with the education necessary to succeed in the world today.
– Adya Khosla
Photo: Flickr
Papua New Guinea (PNG) encompasses the eastern half of New Guinea and its offshore islands, sharing the globe’s second-largest island with Papua and West Papua. The country supports a diverse populace and variety of languages; 8.2 million Papua New Guineans speak 820 distinct languages, giving rise to various local communities and rich cultural histories. But PNG faces a number of challenges including stifling economic conditions and persisting gender inequalities. These two factors, along with others, contribute to low rates of girls’ education in Papua New Guinea.
The Gender Gap
Only 73 percent of primary school-aged and 30 percent of secondary-aged girls attend school in PNG. One can understand these strikingly low numbers in light of the country’s broader educational context; many schools lack quality equipment and while very few teachers receive adequate training, almost all manage overstuffed classrooms, according to Professor Ravinder Rena of the Papua New Guinea University of Technology. As a result, total net enrollment rates for primary and secondary school sit at 76 percent and 33 percent.
Still, Papua New Guinean boys are much more likely to enroll in school than their female counterparts. According to the U.N.’s Gender Parity Index, PNG’s most recent ratio of girls to boys in school was .91 for primary education and .76 for secondary education. This gender gap undermines Papua New Guinean girls’ access to crucial literacy, numeracy and social skills. In turn, the bulk of the country’s economic opportunities, especially in the formal sector, go to men.
Reasons for the Gap
For PNG women, economic disparities exacerbate other debilitating gender inequities. Tragically, a majority of PNG women fall victim to rape or sexual assault during their lifetime and the country’s police forces neglect most of their cases. Moreover, traditional, gender-based expectations often mean scant autonomy for females in PNG, where almost a quarter of all girls marry before the age of 18.
This subjugation of women directly relates to girls’ education in Papua New Guinea. As Carolyn Benson, Professor of International and Comparative Education at Columbia University, argues, “The need to move away from home to enroll in schools partially explains lagging rates of female enrollment, as many families fear their female children will become more vulnerable to sexual assault by moving away.”
The need to be at school, in the midst of potentially predatory teachers and male classmates, discourages families from allowing female children to pursue an education. Finally, norms encouraging and/or enforcing early marriage lead to the rigidification of traditional views that disvalue female education. Thus, girls’ education in Papua New Guinea is caught in a vicious cycle since the gap between female and male rates of enrollment contributes to the continuation of oppressive gender relations, which in turn makes the task of getting girls in school even more difficult.
The Solutions on the Table
Many are challenging this vicious cycle. Indeed, girls’ education in Papua New Guinea is a central focus in a number of recent policy initiatives.
One example is the PNG government’s decision to join the United Nations’ campaign to end violence in schools. In so doing, the PNG government will raise awareness around violence against its school attendees and encourage schools to take protective measures. If adequately resourced, these measures may make families feel better about sending their girls to school.
Another initiative is the PNG government’s comprehensive National Education Plan (NEP), which passed in 2015. The NEP has six major goals, including the improvement of teaching quality and the strengthening of local school systems. If the government reaches the former goal, it will probably experience an uptick in overall school enrollment. If it reaches the latter, female enrollment rates will likely receive a special boost, since local schools represent a safer choice for PNG families choosing where to send their daughters. The most exciting feature of the NEP is that gender equality is a cross-cutting theme throughout, meaning that the NEP will implement gender equality into each of its six goals.
Evidence suggests that rates of girls’ education in Papua New Guinea will continue to rise considering that the net rate of female primary enrollment rose six points from 2012 to 2016. If the government’s recent policies are successful and if international organizations continue to help along the way, those rising rates of enrollment will be met with better, safer schools. Thanks to the help of many, the path to gender equality in Papua New Guinea is finally coming into view and it starts with girls’ education.
– James Delegal
Photo: Flickr
Since 2015, approximately 4 million people have fled Venezuela. For those who have not left the country, food, water and jobs are scarce in the wake of a collapsed economy and hyperinflation. Perhaps the most victimized of the population are children who are unable to find basic access to education in Venezuela.
Why Are Children Not Attending School?
As Venezuelans struggle to afford basic necessities for survival, many children in Venezuela have stopped attending school. For families facing severe hunger, the extra cost of school supplies and uniforms is a price they often cannot afford. Students are unable to perform at school without proper nutrition or clothing. Many parents decide that their children should stay home where they have a chance at a meal.
More than 3 million of the country’s 8 million students have dropped out of school. Some of these students have emigrated with their parents, while others have quit to work and adopt caretaker roles within the family. As Venezuelans face widespread malnutrition, the educational needs of the children in Venezuela remain secondary. It is estimated that 1.1 million children will remain in need of basic education in 2019.
Although education was a hallmark of President Maduro’s campaign, the government can no longer afford to supply schools with proper maintenance and lunches. Public education previously provided a food bonus with a healthy lunch for students. That food program no longer functions, and students cannot rely on meals. In addition, with prices doubling every other month, the transportation system has failed, and both schools and parents struggle to afford bus fares for students.
School Closures without Teachers
Because of low enrollment, hundreds of schools have closed, and thousands of teachers have left their jobs. According to the Venezuelan Teacher’s Association, 176,000 of the country’s 860,000 registered teachers have quit. With wages amounting to about $8 a month, instructors of both private and public schools can no longer afford to work.
Many struggling schools only operate three days a week. Additionally, students from various grade levels are often combined into one class. These schools are desperate to keep the children in Venezuela from dropping out and missing years of formative education under harsh circumstances. Due to the teacher shortage affecting Venezuelan schools, parents are taking on teaching roles, despite a lack of experience or education. Parents believe that any schooling is better than none. As Maria Carmona, a mother-turned-teacher says, “Our children must learn, so I became their teacher.”
Efforts to Help Children Receive An Education in Venezuela
Nonprofit organizations, such as Cuatro Por Venezuela Foundation and Pasión Petare, offer places of refuge and free meals for students. Cuatro Por Venezuela Foundation has provided school supplies for more than 350 families and sent 58,000 pounds of food. Pasión Petare uses soccer to motivate children to stay in school and provides a daily meal for 2,000 students.
Catholic relief organizations like Fe y Alegria and Caritas also raise money to provide food and school supplies. Fe y Alegria provides free education to 170 schools across the country and has implemented a food program for school children. The organization also began a campaign called “A Notebook for Fe Y Alegria,” which raises funds to provide school supplies that most families can no longer afford.
Because President Maduro recently conceded to requests for foreign aid, there are more opportunities for organizations such as the U.N. and Red Cross to offer assistance for Venezuelan schools. UNICEF has partnered with Fe y Alegria and reached more than 100,000 people through radio communication with information on how to help children continue their education. UNICEF and its partner organizations have also provided educational kits for 150,000 children and supply food and water for children in schools. This motivates children and parents to send their children to school.
The Venezuelan government continues to deny problems with their country’s education system. If not for the herculean efforts of international relief organizations, private charities and hands-on assistance from parents and local volunteers, hope would not remain for school children in Venezuela. Children face a bleak future and are vulnerable to exploitation without education. With less than 2 percent of all humanitarian aid allotted to education, it is vital to continue calling for assistance amid the rising crisis. As Susana Raffalli, an advisor to Caritas and renowned nutrition expert, says, “We need our children back in school, because that’s one of the few care and nutrition spaces left.”
– Christina Laucello
Photo: Flickr
Former First Lady Michelle Obama has dedicated her life to her own education and the education of others. From growing up in the slums of Chicago, to going to Princeton University, Obama’s hardwork and determination is truly inspiring.
After her time at Princeton, Obama traveled back to Chicago to work with the mayor as an assistant. Then, in 1993, she became the exclusive director for the Chicago office of Public Allies, a non-profit organization that helps young people develop leadership skills. Her resume is extensive and includes many different titles, but Obama has kept one thing consistent: her desire to better the lives of children.
Whenever she is giving a speech, Obama makes a point to speak about education and giving back to the community. These Michelle Obama Quotes demonstrate her commitment to focusing attention on the issue of girls’ education around the world.
Michelle Obama Quotes Girls Education
- Obama’s initiative Global Girls Alliance, which helps women around the world receive an education, was inspired by a conference she attended in the U.K. in 2009 to speak to a group of schoolgirls about education. In the Penguin Talks U.K., an interview series with Penguin Publishings’ most influential authors, Obama answered questions about her life and her work in bettering girls’ education around the world.
“The visit (in 2009) set my course in one of my initiatives: to work on girls education,” Obama said. “It was after that visit that I went back and said ‘we have to find a way to have these conversations around the world’ because meeting with the girls here and the girls at Mulberry just reminded me of how much talent and how much courage and how much hope there is in our girls who are struggling to do everything right, when they have so much working against them.”
- In an interview with The Chicago Tribune, Obama was asked about the initiative she announced on the Today Show. The initiative is a clear indication of the type of platform the former First Lady wishes to take: girls’ education worldwide.
“We want to lift up the grassroots leaders in communities all over the world who are clearing away the hurdles that too many girls face,” Obama said. “Because the evidence is clear: educating girls isn’t just good for the girls, it’s good for all of us.”
- In 2014, Obama gave a speech at the Brookings Institution, an institution that has been helping girl around the world receive an education. Obama not only discusses the importance of girls’ education, but the external forces that prevent girls from participating in education.
“We really can’t take up the issue of girls education unless we are also willing to confront all of the complex issues that keep so many girls out-of-school. Issues like early and forced marriage, genital cutting,” Obama said.
- “A few years ago, when I had the honor of meeting Malala Yousafzai, who was shot in the head just for trying to go to school, this issue got really personal for me… That’s why I decided to work on global girls’ education as first lady: because right now, there are tens of millions of girls like Malala in every corner of the globe who are not in school- girls who are so bright, hardworking and hungry to learn. And that’s really the mission of the Let Girls Learn initiative.”
- At a conference held by Glamour entitled “The Power of Educated Girls” Obama, actress and activist Charlize Theron and Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard discussed the importance of girls’ education globally.
“If we want to end poverty, educating girls is key to all of that. You were able to leave and shine and to learn and to teach,” Obama said.
- Michelle Obama delivered a powerful keynote speech at the Wise 2015 World’s Innovation Summit For Girls’ Education. In her speech, she discussed the importance of girls’ education and the importance of their protection. She explained that getting girls into school is a great stride, but it’s keeping girls in schools and supplying them with resources that poses a challenge.
“We cannot address our girls’ education crisis until we address the cultural norms and practices that devalue women’s intelligence, that silence their voices and limit their ambitions,” Obama said.
These Michelle Obama quotes encapsulate who she is, before and after being in the White House. Her work to better the education of girls all around the world is ambitious but doable. Obama gives everyone hope that making education available to girls everywhere is achievable. By using her platform and her personal story to promote girls education worldwide, Obama continues to uplift and drive girls and women all over the world.
– Andrew Valdovinos
Photo: Flickr
The Republic of Paraguay, one of the smaller South American countries, is in the center of the continent, landlocked by Brazil, Argentina and Bolivia. Although the country’s economy has improved in recent years, the poverty rate in Paraguay was 28.8 percent as of 2017. In rural areas, the figure increased to nearly 40 percent. The U.N. states that educating girls, helping them become empowered, enabling them to work and become community leaders are powerful ways to fight poverty. While girls’ access to education in Paraguay is better than in many other countries, the country still displays disparities in opportunity between male and female Paraguayans. These seven facts about girls’ education demonstrate the barriers to education access that girls in Paraguay face and some efforts to remove these barriers.
Seven Facts about Girls’ Education in Paraguay
- Girls’ and women’s literacy rates are rising. According to UNESCO, the literacy rate among the female population aged 15 years and older has risen from 75.85 percent in 1982 to 93.84 percent in 2016. The female literacy rate remains below the male rate, which was 81.83 percent in 2016, but the gap between them has narrowed over the past decade.
- Illiteracy rates are higher in rural areas than in urban areas. According to the Pan American Health Organization, the illiteracy rate in Paraguay differs between men and women as well as between people living in urban and rural areas. As of 2010, the illiteracy rate was three percent for urban men, 6.8 percent for rural men, 3.9 percent for urban women and 9.5 percent for rural women. While women’s illiteracy rates are higher than men’s in both areas, rural women are at a particular disadvantage.
- As of 2012, 42,490 school-aged girls did not attend school. Girls’ school attendance drops sharply from primary school to secondary school. For both male and female students, the percentage of eligible people who attend school is significantly lower for secondary school than for primary school. Based on survey data collected from 2008 to 2012, UNICEF reports that 83.9 percent of eligible girls enrolled in primary school compared with only 63.4 percent enrolled in secondary school.
- More girls than boys enrolled in secondary school. Despite the drop off in female school enrollment from primary to secondary school, a slightly larger percentage of eligible girls enroll in secondary school than eligible boys of the same age.
- Many girls stop attending school due to marriage and having children. According to UNICEF data from 2017, 18 percent of girls in Paraguay married by the age of 18 and two percent married by the age of 15. This is a particularly prevalent issue for girls living in poverty. According to Girls Not Brides, a global organization with the goal of ending child marriage, rural girls in Paraguay married before age 18 more than 35 percent of the time in 2017. In addition to high marriage rates for girls, UNICEF data from 2006 to 2010 show the adolescent birth rate to have been 63 births per 1,000 adolescent women and girls. In 2002, 12 percent of girls aged 15 to 19 were mothers.
- Despite girls having some access to education, Paraguay still has a long way to go in reaching equality for women. In 2018, only 10.4 percent of elected mayors in the country and 15 percent of legislators were women.
- The Paraguayan government has presented a plan to advance the cause of gender equality. The plan, called the National Equality Plan, calls for more women in government and a fight against gendered violence. Specifics of the plan include the elimination of gender discrimination in law and the establishment of a governmental body with the intention of preventing and monitoring gendered violence. The plan, which will be supervised by U.N. Women, aims to achieve its goals by 2030.
While these seven facts about girls’ education in Paraguay indicate that gender equality has advanced significantly, girls and women in the country do not yet have opportunities equal to those afforded to boys and men. Some people, however, have worked hard to put a plan in place to work toward a solution. These facts about girls’ education emphasize the work that will be necessary to make further strides toward gender equality in Paraguay.
– Meredith Charney
Photo: Unsplash
The Turkish education system is not much different from that of the U.S; the state governs education, which is mandatory for 12 years and is free. Students may choose to pursue further education at university with more than 70 universities in Turkey to choose from. However, despite how similar it may appear on the surface, girls education in Turkey is still unequal to their male counterparts.
10 Facts About Girls Education in Turkey
- Education is currently the biggest item on Turkey’s government budget. The Turkish Statistical Agency reports that direct and indirect expenses on education have increased by 54 percent between 2011 and 2014 sitting at 113.6 billion liras ($31.4 billion). Of note, education spending as part of Turkey’s overall budget increased by one-third from 8.5 percent to 12.4 percent.
- While the female literacy rate has risen to 93.56 percent and the male literacy rate is 98.78 percent, it is not an accurate percentage of the girls throughout Turkey. About 45 percent of girls 15 and under remain illiterate in the country’s eastern and southeastern regions and women account for two-thirds of adults without basic literacy skills.
- Sixteen million girls in Turkey will never set foot in a classroom for a multitude of reasons such as poverty, geographical information, pregnancy, gender-based violence and traditional attitudes of the role of a woman.
- The lack of a push for girls’ education in Turkey has led to a consistent number of only 39 percent of women being in the labor force for almost three decades. Girls’ families consistently discourage them from continuing school and the girls receive pressure to become homemakers. With little support in their home life, girls follow the life that their parents lead and do not choose to further their education.
- Turkey ranks 130 out of 149 on the gender gap index. The gender gap index reports on the gender gap in the economy, education, health and politics. The large gap that Turkey holds in the global index continues to show that women in Turkey face some of the biggest inequalities in the world based on a multitude of measurements.
- Since 2009, the male to female enrollment ratio for universities in Turkey increased from 12 percent to 14 percent, and since 2005, graduation rates for college students have increased by 170 percent. While attainment levels remain low, only 18 percent of 25 to 64-year-olds have any higher education so the increase in girls’ higher level education in Turkey remains hopeful.
- Fifteen percent of girls under the age of 18 in Turkey enter into forced marriages. Child marriage can be driven by gender inequality, gender norms, poor birth registrations, displacement and violence. When girls become child brides, they are less likely to continue with school and more likely to stay at home and become homemakers.
- With the Syrian crisis, the longer refugees are living in poverty, the more likely they are to marry off their daughters to Turkish men. This then leads to girls in Turkey not being able to further their education.
- With goal 5 of the U.N.’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Turkey has committed to eliminating child, early and forced marriages in the next decade. During the 2015 Universal Periodic Review, the government-supported policy recommendations to criminalize child marriage and take legislative and political action to bring an end to this archaic practice. This enhancement in eliminating forced childhood marriages allows for more girls to further their education and have more choices in their life as they go into adulthood.
- Turkey’s involvement in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development also includes its aim to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.” Goal 4 of the agenda includes seven targets including universal primary and secondary education, universal youth literacy and gender equality and inclusion. Turkey’s participation in the agenda is a step forward in the fight to develop girls education in Turkey.
There is a multitude of initiatives in Turkey other than the Turkish government that intends to reduce inequality in the education system. CYDD, a nonprofit fighting for girls’ education in Turkey, has awarded over 100,000 scholarships and created over 50 schools. These 10 facts about girls’ education in Turkey show the issues that are prevalent, but also the ways in which Turkey is addressing them. The initiatives of nonprofits and the government have bettered girls education in Turkey, but Turkey needs other improvements to further bridge the gap.
– Alexia Carvajalino
Photo: Unsplash
As a post-Soviet nation, Turkmenistan has taken strides over the last few decades in building autonomy and developing its social service sectors like public education. Here are eight facts about education in Turkmenistan today.
8 Facts About Education in Turkmenistan
- Turkmenistan has an impressively high literacy rate. Within the last few years, UNICEF has tallied Turkmenistan’s literacy rate at about 99.8 percent for both males and females ages 15-24.
- Public school is only compulsory through 10th grade in Turkmenistan. At this point, students take tests to determine whether they should go to a trade school or enter the workforce immediately. Well-scoring students may continue on for further schooling that is paid for by the state.
- Turkmenistan faces a severe shortage of qualified teachers, especially at the higher education level. This is a result of inadequate educational resources and unrealistic expectations like double shifts and Saturday classes. Of course, as poor conditions drive teachers away from the field, the issue only compounds. The lack of educated teachers is probably the largest threat to Turkmenistan’s education system right now. The government is cognizant of this issue and the last two Presidents have made significant efforts to absolve it with relatively little success. In 2007, President Berdimuhamedow reformed teacher working conditions by raising salaries by 40 percent, reducing class sizes and decreasing number of hours worked. The state also introduced competitions for Teacher of the Year and Educator of the Year to promote quality teaching. Unfortunately, the increase in incentives has found little success. Berdimuhamedow claimed in 2009 that the country would continue to rely on sending graduates to foreign universities until “the country gets fully staffed with specialists with high qualifications.”
- The process for admission into higher education institutions is extremely difficult. With a severe shortage of teachers, universities have room for less than 10 percent of high school graduates. Not only do students need remarkably high scores on entrance exams, but bribery on acceptance decisions is commonplace, which crowds out spots for deserving, lower-income students.
- Turkmenistan now requires that Turkmen be the standard language of instruction in all of its schools although at least four primary languages are spoken across the country. This has led to increased challenges for schools in regions where the traditional language is Russian or a local dialect. Many adults are also pursuing further education to become fluent in the national language, which takes up valuable teacher time.
- Women experience social pressure to start families instead of pursuing higher education. Many girls have become discouraged from finishing higher education due to the cultural expectation that they marry by their 20th or 21st birthday. The percentage of female students in higher education has actually gone down in the last decade, despite rises in female enrollment nearly everywhere else in the world. In 2009, the proportion of higher education students that were female was only 35 percent, a two percent decrease from the prior year.
- There are no private universities in Turkmenistan; all higher education is state-run and strictly monitored. Researchers Victoria Clement, from the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, and Zumrad Kataeva, from the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, posit that this may be an attempt to control the information nationals acquire as a form of protecting the current political regime.
- There is an unequal regional distribution of higher education with all but three institutions located in the country’s capital city. This contributes to cyclical lower income levels for those living in the more rural regions, who have fewer opportunities to attend a higher education institute due to a long commute.
These eight facts about education in Turkmenistan reveal that while access to quality education in Turkmenistan is significantly better than in other areas of the world, it is not free of flaws. Opening up higher education to more people through increasing admissions, encouraging women to stay in school longer and providing more opportunities to those living in rural parts of Turkmenistan are goals to move toward in the future. Moreover, the addition of private schools would inspire more free thinking within the country that could result in citizens pushing for a more democratic society.
– Olivia Heale
Photo: Flickr
The Togolese Republic (Togo) is a small West African country on the Gulf of New Guinea that borders Ghana and Benin. With a GDP of $4.75 billion and a GNI per capita of $610, Togo is one of the poorest countries in the world. Togo’s education system has faced development setbacks due to various political, monetary and societal reasons yet it remains one of the stronger education systems in Sub-Saharan Africa. These eight facts about education in Togo demonstrate the progress made in certain areas and the need for progress in others.
8 Facts About Education in Togo
- Primary Schooling is Compulsory and Free — Due to its history as the French colony of Togoland, education in Togo follows the French model of primary, secondary and higher schooling. Starting at age six, primary education is mandatory for six years. Prior to 2008, public school fees created barriers for impoverished families to send their children to school, but in 2008, UNICEF partnered with Togo’s government to abolish public primary school fees. Togo’s net primary school enrollment was 90 percent in 2017 which is high.
- Secondary Education Enrollment Rates are Low — In 2017, only 41 percent of the children eligible enrolled in secondary education. This is an improvement from 2000 when only 23.53 percent of children enrolled in secondary schooling; however, the large enrollment gap between primary and secondary education remains due to costly secondary education fees, poor quality of primary education and the lack of access to schooling in rural areas.
- Togo has had Recurring Teacher Strikes — Since 2013, teachers have gone on lengthy strikes numerous times because they were unsatisfied with their working conditions, large class sizes or pay. Teacher salaries in Togo range from $33 to $111 per month while the minimum wage is $64 per month. After months of strikes, the Togo government signed an agreement with trade unions in the spring of 2018, but the future will tell whether this will improve teaching conditions.
- Enrollment Rates Do Not Translate into Higher Student Success — Despite having more children enrolled in school, Togo has had increased amounts of students repeating school years and failing to graduate. Several students (37.6 percent) dropped out of primary school in 2012 and 32.42 percent of secondary school students dropped out in 2015.
- There is a Gender Disparity in Togo Schooling — In every level of schooling except pre-primary, there are 10 percent fewer girls enrolled than boys. The literacy rate for males in Togo is 77.26 percent and only 51.24 percent for women, which shows a large literacy gap between the sexes. Early or forced marriages force many girls to leave school. International NGO’s such as Girls Not Brides are working in Togo to meet its commitment to end child, early and forced marriages by 2030.
- Low Educational Equality for the Rural and Poor — Togo is made up of primarily rural areas and 69 percent of its rural households live under the poverty line as of 2015. Secondary schools tend to be sparse in rural areas with few resources while urban areas tend to have more clusters of secondary schools with more resources. Sixty-eight percent of eligible males and 54 percent of females in urban areas enroll in secondary education while only 45 percent of eligible males and 33 percent of females in rural areas attend secondary school.
- The Literacy Rate is Improving Among the Youth of Togo — Adult literacy is around 64 percent while the literacy of those aged 15-25 is 84 percent in Togo. This fact about education in Togo shows progress within creating basic and more widespread educational services such as free primary schooling.
- Togo’s Education Strategy for 2014-2025 has Four Important Objectives — The government objectives for improving education include developing quality universal primary education by 2022 and extending pre-primary coverage to rural and poorer areas. In addition, it plans to develop quality secondary, vocational and higher education and decrease the illiteracy rate.
These eight facts about education in Togo show that there is still much to improve in terms of greater educational equality, the availability of key educational resources, gender equality and creating a system of quality education levels. Progress, however, is still occurring as school enrollment and literacy rates increase substantially. The combined efforts of the Togo government and outside organizations are helping accomplish Togo’s education goals.
– Camryn Lemke
Photo: Flickr
