Archive for category: Education

Information and stories on education.

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Ghana Code Club Helps Educate Students After School


As the world grows increasingly connected and technological, the tide of calls for people to work in the technology industry grows every day. In fact, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 70 percent of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) jobs created in 2015 were in computer science – almost seven million of them.

With this in mind, it is easy to understand the push for more students to learn coding and other computer science-related skills. Even the U.N. Secretary General has called for “greater investments in computer science.” Investments in these occupations also present a great opportunity for developing countries to move forward technologically and socioeconomically.

One organization in Ghana helps increase the number of students interested in computer science and teaches children coding. In 2016, the Ghana Code Club began in order to teach children in Accra computer programming skills. Because the school curriculum in Ghana does not include technology, this club addresses the learning gap through after-school programming. Ernestina Appiah, the club’s current CEO, founded Ghana Code Club and also organizes the activity at multiple schools.

After working as a secretary in IT, Ernestina Appiah realized how valuable basic coding skills could be. Then, she learned how to design a few of her own websites. Soon after, she founded the organization as a project in partnership with the iSpace Foundation. Now the Ghana Code Club serves students between the ages of eight and 17 in different areas of Ghana after school.

Students who participate in the after school program gain valuable skills they can use in any career path. From building and designing websites with HTML to game creation using Scratch, students who participate in the after school activity can explore all of their interests. Girls, especially, have the opportunity to gain a foothold into the world of technology.

Programs run by trained volunteers and ICT teachers operate in 13 schools across the country. IT professionals train volunteers and primary school teachers who have no prior coding experience. Teachers and volunteers then team up to teach participants. Young children who participate get an early introduction into the world of computers, while older children learn Python, HTML and CSS. All students have the opportunity to learn and work with Scratch.

The Ghana Code Club also cycles through different schools, community centers and libraries to further expand its reach. With its dedicated CEO, team and board, it shows no signs of stopping.

By helping students gain important skills by promoting coding in Ghana, the Ghana Code Club increases the competitiveness of students entering the workforce. As the program expands, more and more children will have the opportunity to impact their communities and make a better future for themselves by learning these invaluable skills.

– Selasi Amoani

Photo: Flickr

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Iran Improving Medical Education in Iraq

Medical Education in IraqSince the conclusion of the Iraq War, the relationship between border countries Iran and Iraq shifted into a new era of close diplomatic and economic relations. In a recent press release, Iran agreed to construct Iraq’s first foreign University of Medical Sciences after nearly two decades of destruction.

The relationship between the two countries has not always been cordial. Turmoil severely increased during the Iran-Iraq War from 1980 – 1988. During the Bush administration, United States Special Operations Forces conducted cross-border operations within southern Iraq. The demise of Saddam Hussein in 2003 created civil conflict and political unrest, severely affecting the medical education in Iraq and causing conflict between neighboring countries.

The tension between Iraq and Iran further increased in 2007, when the U.S. Congress agreed to fund up to $400 million for increased covert operations designed to destabilize Iran’s religious leadership and gather information about the country’s nuclear-weapons program. Iraq was unintentionally caught in the dispute between the US and Iran.

The Iraqi government depended on the 140,000 US troops stationed throughout the country, but its Kurdish and Shia leaders had strong alliances with Iran. Frequent threats and deadly attacks caused a mass departure of senior medical professors from Iraq. The exodus of Iraq’s healthcare workforce adversely impacted the medical training programs, leadership, and mainly, educational system. By the end of 2011, U.S. military forces were completely withdrawn from Iraq, officially ending the Iraq War.

Seven months after U.S. influence declined, Syria, Iraq and Iran signed a natural gas agreement which allowed for the construction of a $10 billion pipeline connecting Iraq and Syria directly to Iraq’s natural gas fields. The pipeline took six years to build and was officially completed in 2016.

Recently, Iran publicly announced its agreement to begin exporting natural gas to Iraq for $3.7 billion per year. The relationship between the two countries continues to strengthen as U.S. involvement decreases.

On Thursday, the Iranian Deputy Health Minister Dr. Bagher Larijani and Iraqi medical officials met in Tehran to discuss joint projects. The group achieved initial agreements to collaborate on various educational and scientific programs, This includes the establishment of Iraq’s first foreign University of Medical Sciences. Iran’s Ministry of Health will supervise the project. The Tehran University of Medical Sciences, the largest medical university in Iran, will construct it.

“This project is being pursued in earnest by the educational department of Iran’s Ministry of Health,” Dr. Larijani stated, “(and it is) in line with the development of medical science education in Iraq.”

The Deputy Health Minister also mentioned that the two countries discussed collaborative teacher/student transfer programs and the creation of “joint scientific networks” in medical research and scientific production. The unification between border countries has propelled Iraq into a positive direction after nearly two decades of civil destruction. According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), during the Iraq War “approximately 61 universities and college buildings were war damaged and 101 college buildings were looted.”

Currently, there are 24 certified medical colleges in Iraq, all of which are governmental and operate under the Iraqi Ministry of Higher Education. The medical education in Iraq faces numerous challenges. Both the curriculum and teaching methods are outdated, and there is a lack of suitable facilities. The colleges are focused on increasing student attendance rather than updating old curriculum and forming universal guidelines between medical schools.

Beyond the partnership with Iran, Iraq’s strategic plan to reconstruct and progress the medical education in Iraq is unclear. The Iraqi Ministry of Higher Education has not released a project proposal or curriculum plans yet.

– Madison O’Connell

Photo: Google

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Why Education in Singapore Is So Good

Education in Singapore Good
Education in Singapore has been receiving a lot of praise. When Singapore gained independence from the British, it was a low skill labor-driven market. However, over a period of 50 years, the government managed to create an incredibly advanced education system, where graduates went on into highly skilled jobs. How did this happen?

A Success Story: Education in Singapore

In 2015, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) rated Singapore as having the best education system in the world. OECD director Andreas Schleicher says that students in Singapore are especially proficient in math and the sciences. In English, the average Singaporean 15-year-old student is 10 months ahead of students in western countries and is 20 months ahead in math. Singaporean students also score among the best in the world on international exams.

Education in Singapore is superior because the classes are focused on teaching the students specific problem solving skills and subjects. The classroom is highly scripted and the curriculum is focused on teaching students practical skills that will help them solve problems in the real world. Exams are extremely important and classes are tightly oriented around them.

Authorities in Singapore are also constantly trying to reevaluate and improve the education system. Recently, many students have reported rising levels of overstress and psychological problems brought on by academic rigor. In response, Singapore has stopped listing the top-scoring student on the national exam in order to ease some of the pressure students may feel. The country has also incorporated a strategy called Teach Less, Learn More, which encourages teachers to focus on the quality of education, not the quantity.

Another reason the education in Singapore is so excellent is simply the Singaporean culture. Parents play a crucial role in their child’s education. The “talent myth,” which states that some kids are naturally smarter than others, is non-existent in Singapore. A local newspaper, The Straits, reported that 70 percent of parents sign their children up for extra classes outside of their regular school hours. In local bookstores, over half of the store is dedicated to educational material.

The education system in Singapore is, in many ways, superior to the education system in the Western world. This is largely due to the country’s culture and first-rate educational leadership. Singapore has a lot to teach the rest of the world; if other countries would adopt some of Singapore’s strategies, there would surely be improvement in education around the globe.

– Bruce Edwin Ayres Truax

Photo: Google

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Improving the Education System in Ghana

Education System in GhanaThe education system in Ghana is well known for maintaining the ignorant practice of marginalizing children, especially disabled children, from getting an education. Children who are girls, disabled, of an ethnic minority, and/or of the lower class are consistently neglected by the education system. Approximately 100,000 Ghanaian kids aged six to 14 have a disability. More than 30 percent, or 16,000, of those 100,000 kids are not getting an education.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Ministry of Education, and the Ghana Education Service have created a 45-page document called the Inclusive Education Policy. Launched to combat special education discrimination, its mission statement is straightforward, saying: “inclusive schools must recognize and respond to the diverse needs of their students, accommodating both different styles, rates of learning and ensuring quality education to all through appropriate curricula, organizational arrangements, teaching strategies, resource use and in partnerships with their communities.”

Among other documents, the Inclusive Education Policy is anchored in the 1992 constitution of the Republic of Ghana, the Disability Act and the Education Act and will be reviewed every five years. The Inclusive Education Policy calls on parents, teachers, community leaders, government officials and the wider Ghanaian society to reevaluate deep-rooted, misguided ideas. It aims to change systems, create mechanisms, equip schools and perpetuate the beliefs that all children can learn, have a right to learn and learn differently. The education system in Ghana is working to ensure that children with and without disabilities have an encouraging physical, social, emotional and psychological environment to learn in. Despite the Inclusive Education Policy, kids with disabilities are still at risk of stigma, misunderstanding and discrimination in their local communities.

Under the Ghana Education Service, the Special Education Division started implementing Inclusive Education Policy fundamentals in the Greater Central Accra and Eastern Regions. In 2011, the policy covered 529 schools in 34 Ghanaian districts. In the summer of the following year, UNICEF implemented the policy in 14 more schools. In early 2017, UNICEF and the United States Agency for International Development provided 21 kindergartens across 11 districts with child-sized wheelchairs, crutches, complete spectacles, hearing aids, Snellen charts, tossing rings, tennis balls, basic screening materials, drums and assistive devices for assessment centers and schools.

– Tiffany Santos

Photo: Flickr

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Caribbean Education System Seeks Improvement

With a long history of providing insufficient schooling for children, the Caribbean education system is making progress in improving its conditions. According to former Minister of Education Ronald Thwaites, Caribbean countries are in need of “a new kind of school.”

The 13th biennial conference of the Schools of Education of the University of the West Indies took place on June 20 to June 23. During this conference, educators from the United Kingdom, the United States and the Caribbean discussed the changes that are to be made to the Caribbean education system. The theme of the conference was “Envisioning Future Education: Cross-Disciplinary Synergy, Imperatives and Perspectives,” which addressed the importance of improving the state of the Caribbean education system for future generations.

In past years, governments throughout the Caribbean focused on increasing the enrollment rates of primary and secondary schools; however, this improvement in quantity did not have the same effect on the quality, making future education quality a main focus of development.

Caribbean governments are increasing funding for their education systems, as well as developing curriculums to better prepare students for issues facing the economy, climate change, food security and water conservation. They hope these efforts will help make the Caribbean more sustainable.

Also, parents throughout the Caribbean are being encouraged to put greater importance on their childrens’ education by preparing them well ahead of their school years and educating them on prominent concepts and defining features of the Caribbean.

The Caribbean education system has consistently lacked proper safety measures throughout its schools, so Caribbean governments are putting an emphasis on improving safety conditions. The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) has developed a toolkit to test vulnerabilities of schools throughout the Caribbean. Additionally, schools are implementing safety policies and hazard risk data assessments to understand how they might be at risk of damages due to natural disasters and other hazards. Thus, schools will be better prepared in the case of an emergency and staff and students will be aware of these potential threats and how to handle them.

With the precautions taken by CDEMA and the efforts being made by governments throughout the Caribbean, it is expected that the education system will soon see improvements. This “new kind of school” will provide students with a better understanding of the issues Caribbean countries are facing and ways to improve them for future generations.

– Kassidy Tarala

Photo: Flickr

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Education and Reintegration Against Boko Haram

Education and ReintegrationSince 2015, Niger has been subject to attacks by jihadist group Boko Haram. In 2016, Niger launched a new political initiative: a de-radicalization and reintegration program based on education and participation for the captured Boko Haram fighters. This strategy, also known as disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR), can be effective during violent times. It is the means to achieving post-war goals and maintaining order in society.

DDR, now seen as a useful tactic to countering violent extremism, has become a political strategy, one that supports education and vocational training rather than violence and imprisonment. Rather than fighting violence with violence, the idea is to stimulate peace by instilling conventional development goals for society. Despite the de-radicalization classes and vocational training in the DDR camps, jobs are scarce and poverty is still rampant, making extremism more attractive to civilians.

Structural issues in the prison system and reintegration issues in society create more obstacles for the government in maintaining peace. Niger lacks the proper legal mechanisms or sorting criteria for prisons and the DDR program. No set standards exist for distinguishing between the detainees and escapees sent to prison or to the DDR program. Without these legal processes, the Boko Haram ex-insurgents are still legally terrorists. The U.N. excludes Niger and refuses to provide them with international assistance; the U.S. also does not grant them foreign material aid.

There is a need for supporting this method at the community level as well. Many ex-insurgents find it hard to reintegrate into a society that rejects them. People need to understand that in order to thwart the threat of extremism, it is necessary to destroy the ideology and punish those who spread it, not those who were a product of it.

This initiative has been pioneered by the southern town of Diffa. Diffa governor Mahamadou Lawaly Dan Dano has requested that the University of Diffa help build the community for those in the program. With 150 people in the program, including fighters’ wives and 28 young boys, conditions in Diffa became poor. After an escape attempt, it was relocated to a refugee camp in Goudoumaria where it can expand. They now have food, water and even a small infantry.

Despite not having schools until the 1990s, this region is now receiving 12 EU-funded vocational training centers and is set to put this into action. Another DDR program is working with this effort to release some of the 80 minors detained on both sides of the border to transit and orientation centers in Diffa.

Limiting risk through a national acceptance of the larger enemy and incentivizing peace through a collaborative systematic process are how education and reintegration could save Niger from Boko Haram.

– Tucker Hallowell

Photo: Flickr

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Menstrual Hygiene and Girls’ Education in Uganda

Education in UgandaEducation, especially for girls, is one of the best ways to increase a developing country’s welfare. A nation’s GDP can rise by three percent when the number of girls in school increases by 10 percent. On an individual level, every year a girl stays in school, her potential income increases by about 15 to 25 percent. These numbers show that education in Uganda is, just like everywhere else, an ever-important issue.

In Uganda, girls have a low track record of completing their education. Studies show that only 22 percent of Ugandan girls are enrolled in secondary school, contrasting the 91 percent enrolled in in primary school.

Analysts have often pointed out that early marriages and social stigmas keep girls from receiving a complete education in Uganda. But there’s a simpler, more intimate reason behind those causes: menstruation.

This topic remains uncomfortable and awkward in developed countries, but Ugandan girls face this problem on an entirely different level. Many developed countries, including Uganda, have myths and stigmas surrounding periods that shame girls when they menstruate. As a result, most girls have no understanding of what is happening to their bodies or how to take care of themselves.

Adding to this difficulty is the lack of availability of feminine hygiene products. Drugstores that carry disposable pads, tampons and other products can be more than 40 minutes away. Even then, these products are usually imported and are too expensive for most Ugandan women to afford.

Desperate to stop the monthly flow, Ugandan women often resort to using pieces of cloth, shreds of foam mattresses, toilet paper, newspapers, banana plant fibers and even leaves. Not only are these options ineffective and uncomfortable, but are also extremely unhygienic, putting girls at risk for diseases.

About half of Ugandan girls skip three days of school every month because they do not have any feminine hygiene products and do not want to stain their clothes. As the absences stack up, many girls find it too hard to continue their education and eventually drop out. Social stigmas also place pressure on girls to marry once they get their periods and not remain in school.

However, despite the struggle, many girls want to stay in school and complete their education in Uganda, and they’re getting help from several international organizations to do so. Wateraid, a nongovernmental organization that seeks to provide clean water and sanitation efforts to developing countries around the world, started hygiene clubs in Ugandan schools. At these clubs, girls learn about menstruation and how to make their own pads and products.

One of these clubs, located at St. Mary’s School in northeastern Uganda, has taken things a step further. This hygiene club travels to other skills singing, dancing, and even rapping about their periods. This group of girls wants to raise awareness about the stigmas surrounding menstruation and promote education in Uganda.

Despite the work of Wateraid and other groups, many girls in Uganda are still skipping school because they don’t have feminine hygiene products. Wateraid ambitiously plans to supply the necessary sanitation products, from tampons to toilets, for every child and every school in every part of the world by 2030.

On an entrepreneurial level, start-up AFRIpads donates reusable pads to women in Uganda and other areas where women do not have easy access to menstrual products. These organizations hope that soon every girl in Uganda will be able to attend school every day of the school year, whether she has her period or not—and no one will shame her if she does.

– Sydney Cooney

Photo: Google

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Learn about the Protecting Girls Access to Education in Vulnerable Settings Act.

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How Women’s Rights Drive Economic Development

Women's Rights Drives Economic DevelopmentWhen it comes to discussions of economic development, women’s rights are often treated as a happy consequence of development: something that should be fostered and encouraged, but not necessary for a country’s success. However, this mindset drastically undervalues how women’s rights drive economic development.

One of the most important economic impacts of women’s rights is increased labor force participation. Women remain a largely underutilized source of talent and labor. Women currently comprise more than 40 percent of the world’s labor force, but are paid less than men and spend more of their time doing housework and caring for children than men do. Within the developing world, women are often relegated to work on small farms and are more likely to be employed in informal and low-paid jobs than men are.

When legal and social restrictions against working women are dismantled and pay is more equally distributed, participation of women in the workforce increases. As more women enter the workforce, they work more productively, since unpaid labor like childcare and housework is split more evenly between sexes. Women’s participation is also an essential part of economic expansion, which leads to greater investment and job creation. Closing the labor force gap between men and women by just 25 percent would result in 100 million new jobs for women by 2025. In some nations, removing legal obstacles for women entering the workforce would raise economic output by 25 percent.

Programs that focus on women’s education also have high returns on development. For starters, closing the gender gap in early childhood has been shown to be an important step toward closing the gender gap later in life. Educated women are more likely to have fewer children, experience a lower rate of child mortality and provide their children with better nutrition and education. Educational reforms for women ensure that it isn’t just women who benefit but their children as well.

Expanding the role of women in societies also expands the diversity of skills and viewpoints in both economic and political sectors. When women enter the workforce and compete on an even plane with men, there is a greater potential to see creativity and innovation from women. Greater gender diversity in workplace leadership has also been shown to increase organizational effectiveness. In the political realm, international trends have shown that female voters and policymakers are more likely to support policies aimed at closing the gender gap. Reforms to give equal voting rights to women in developing countries can help continue economic development spurred by expanding the rights of women.

The more one looks at the data, the more it becomes self evident that women’s rights drive economic development. The McKinsey Global Institute found that if every country advanced towards gender parity at an equal rate as its greatest-improving neighbor, the worldwide GDP would rise by $12 trillion. It’s an extremely ambitious goal but one that demonstrates the untapped potential of women in fighting global poverty. It should be no surprise that Nobel-prize winning economist Amartya Sen believes focusing on women is key to economic development. If the world continues to fight for gender equity in education, the workforce and government, we will not only see one of the world’s greatest injustices finally corrected for but the erosion of global poverty as well.

– Carson Hughes

Photo: Flickr

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Providing Bicycles to Families in Africa Improves Education

Providing Bicycles to Families in AfricaFor many children living in rural villages in Africa, the most valuable educational tool is not a pencil or a notebook: it is a bicycle. Several organizations are providing bicycles to families in Africa as a means of bringing education, health services and economic stability to entire communities.

In Zambia, children often have to walk miles to get to school. They might arrive late, miss early classes and face an embarrassing punishment from the teacher. This is a particular problem for girls, who are expected to complete household chores before even starting on their journey.

In 2014, World Bicycle Relief donated 100 bikes to students and faculty at a primary school in Zambia. Now that she rides her bike to school, one girl said she can put all of her energy into concentrating in class, and she has time to study in the evenings.

Providing bicycles to families in Africa also allows them to improve their economic situations. Steel workers and chicken farmers can carry larger and heavier loads to the market. In Zambia, dairy farmers have increased their deliveries by up to 25 percent. Mine workers and door-to-door salesmen use bicycles to shorten their commutes. They save time and energy and are able to afford necessities like food and school supplies.

Women in Sierra Leone and Ghana are responsible for the vast majority of the household chores. As with the men, women use the bicycles to balance heavy materials and travel long distances. For women and girls, however, owning a bike is a form of protection–against sexual assault. Put simply, no man can outrun them anymore.

Despite this, it is far more unlikely for a woman to have access to a bicycle. In places like Sierra Leone, women are discouraged from riding bikes in the belief that it causes them to lose their virginity. Boys and men commandeer the household bicycle, claiming that the women don’t have time to learn how to ride it. However, many organizations are working against this idea: for example, the Village Bicycle Project operates a month-long Learn to Ride program for women and girls in Ghana and Sierra Leone.

Presenting one woman with a bike can improve life for an entire community. In villages in Zambia where HIV is prevalent, taking care of the sick often falls to Community Healthcare Volunteers (CHVs). They care for elderly men and women, orphaned children and those suffering from AIDS. After receiving a bicycle, one female healthcare worker was able to increase the number of patients she visited per day from four to 18.

Providing bicycles to families in Africa not only empowers rural villagers, but it also has positive implications for the environment. The organization Ghana Bamboo Bikes constructs bicycles out of bamboo, an eco-friendly material that, unlike wood, will not result in damage to Ghana’s rainforests.
The bicycles are built to be light, yet stable–good for navigating the roads of rural Ghana. The organization also teaches young men and women with little education how to build the bikes, offering them a job skill that will prove valuable as the demand for bicycles in Africa continues to grow.

– Emilia Otte

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Defeating Human Trafficking in Guatemala

Human Trafficking in GuatemalaEach day, 33 people become entrapped by human trafficking rings in Guatemala. Nearly 60 percent of the 50,000 victims of human trafficking in Guatemala are children, according to a report by UNICEF and the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG). The report estimates the industry to be worth $1.6 billion a year – this number represents 2.7 percent of Guatemala’s gross domestic product.

Guatemala’s pervasive culture of gender inequality – coupled with extensive sexual abuse in the home – promotes trafficking. Often, human trafficking affects families that have already experienced domestic and sexual violence by fathers and stepfathers. The violence they experience prompts boys and girls to run away from home, leaving them prey to sexual exploitation by traffickers. Mothers who sell their children into the sex trade are often victims of trafficking or domestic abuse themselves.

In Guatemala, very few sex trafficking cases are actually detected each year – about 3 percent. Although Guatemala has adopted numerous programs and laws to tackle human trafficking, only two prosecutors work on sex trafficking cases across the country. Therefore, the number of trafficking convictions in Guatemala remains low, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). In 2014, the Guatemalan authorities convicted only 20 human traffickers, according to the 2015 U.S. Department of State report on human trafficking.

Education is a key factor in eliminating human trafficking; in Guatemala it occurs largely due to the absence of family education. Illiterate or uneducated children and adults are more vulnerable to abuse. Traffickers target poor, uneducated and unemployed women and girls, luring them with promises of earning money as a waitress or model. Girls as young as 12 work in brothels and are forced to have sex with up to 30 customers a day.

Just as it plays a large role in preventing human trafficking, education also plays a critical role in helping survivors of human trafficking to escape the trauma they experience after victimization. Instruction and counseling are immense steps toward rehabilitating the survivors and reintegrating them into society. When survivors are provided with education, they gain an opportunity to “reprogram” their lives by increasing their knowledge.

All members of society in Guatemala being more educated and knowledgeable on human trafficking is essential for the defeat of traffickers. Every avenue must be explored on how to raise awareness about the nature of the crime, its causes and the damage human trafficking inflicts on its victims.

– Heather Hopkins

Photo: Flickr