Archive for category: Education

Information and stories on education.

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Solar-Powered Lanterns Boost Grades for Kenyan Students

Solar Powered LanternsMore than one billion people around the world do not have access to electricity, as is the case in northern Kenya. When the sun sets, many families and health facilities rely on kerosene lamps as a source of light. These, however, are a major hazard, especially for young students who need to be able to study late into the night. Not only do they cause a fire hazard but they can also cause a strain on vision and respiratory problems.

The Panasonic Corporation began The Solar Lantern Project to provide a safer alternative for light in northern Kenya. The company donated more than 2,000 solar-powered lanterns to schools and clinics in the counties of Samburu and Isiolo.

The solar-powered lanterns have become a huge success in the schools of northern Kenya. They are recharged there during the day and are taken home by students at night to allow them to study and complete their homework. Students are not risking their health when they use the lamps.

Parents of students in northern Kenya can save almost two percent of their monthly expenses when their child brings home the solar-powered lanterns. In an interview conducted by Medium, a Kenyan mother stated that she “had to spend 20 shillings on kerosene every day.” Thanks to the solar-powered lanterns, she saves “around 1,000 shillings a month.”

Solar energy has become a popular alternative to electricity in many poor countries. It is accessible anywhere and an alternative source that is sustainable. According to research conducted by the International Energy Agency, “enough solar energy falls on the surface of the earth every 90 minutes to meet the entire planet’s energy needs for a year.”

The environment also benefits from using the Panasonic solar-powered lanterns instead of kerosene lamps. The fumes that come from burning kerosene contaminate the air and only further global warming. If one million lamps are in use by the end of 2018, they are “expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by over 30,000 tonnes between 2014 and 2018.”

Panasonic’s solar-powered lanterns may seem like a small solution, but they are allowing students to learn better and more safely outside of the classroom. The benefits of these lamps will continue to improve poverty in Kenya, slowly, but at least in the right direction.

– Mackenzie Fielder

Photo: Flickr

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Understanding the Causes of Poverty in Cameroon

Causes of Poverty in CameroonAs poverty rates across the globe continue to fall, urban centers continue to grow and people increasingly have access to education, Cameroon seems to be slipping in the wrong direction. Rural poverty, inadequate infrastructure and a struggling school system continue to hinder the lives of people across Cameroon, contributing to a rising poverty rate in the last 10 years.

Cameroon is a country of more than 23 million people. Out of the entire population, 24 percent of people live in poverty, and 55 percent of those in poverty live in rural communities.

Two causes of poverty in Cameroon and reasons for the gap between rural and urban poverty are a lack of infrastructure and an education system that fails to develop alongside shifting labor needs.

As the IMF noted in a 2014 survey, “the country’s infrastructure indicators trail those of regional peers. In spite of a slight improvement in the overall quality of infrastructure in 2013, indicators are low by sub-Saharan African standards, especially for roads, air transportation and electricity.”

This lack of infrastructure, which limits transportation, cuts off  those who live in rural areas. Rural citizens do not have access to fundamental resources and are marooned from diversified labor opportunities.

Furthermore, the education system has failed to develop alongside market demands. As the World Bank found, “the country’s tertiary education continues to focus on traditional academic disciplines and is not positioned to respond to economic transformation.”

In Cameroon, 43 percent of the population has little or no formal and primary education. What’s more, 67 percent of the population that is of working-age has received no further training in developing job sectors, leading to a significantly higher level of unemployment among youth–especially those living in rural areas.

This double-edged sword hits residents in the countryside. They have higher odds of living in poverty because of struggling infrastructure and inadequate educational opportunities. The country must address these issues to combat the causes of poverty and increasing poverty rates.

Indeed, steps are being taken. People are across the country are calling for performance-based financing for educational institutions to drive up competitiveness and quality of studies. Also, many organizations, including Heifer International, an organization that works to end global hunger and poverty, are working to increase jobs in rural areas. Regarding infrastructure, Cameroon recently launched a 10-year development plan focused on massive public investment in infrastructure, including roads.

By understanding the roles of infrastructure and education in the causes of poverty in Cameroon, the country may be able to improve living conditions for its impoverished people.

– Joseph Dover

Photo: Flickr

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BISP’s Education Program Graduates Pakistanis From Poverty

Program Graduates Pakistanis From PovertyBenzair Income Support Program’s (BISP) University Poverty Graduation Buddy Program graduates Pakistanis from poverty, improving their livelihoods and investing in their futures.

BISP has reached more than 5.4 million women beneficiaries across Pakistan and contributes to human capital development through primary education conditional cash transfers. Its goal is to increase households’ incomes, skills and capital, reducing poverty across Pakistani communities.

The issue BISP hopes to remedy is that beneficiaries often lack adequate information and opportunities to overcome poverty. Under BISP’s University Poverty Graduation Buddy Program, university students help poor Pakistani women find sustainable solutions to overcome poverty.

In a meeting at BISP headquarters in July, BISP chairperson Marvi Memon stated that the Higher Education Commission (HEC) enlisted universities to nominate 20 students each for the graduation program. Students are linked with a corresponding BISP beneficiary in the area near their participating university. BISP’s education program graduates Pakistanis from poverty by enhancing their skills and providing financial services.

BISP’s skills development and coaching enrich beneficiaries’ lives with training that transforms their present state and invests in their futures. Through the University Poverty Graduation Buddy Program, students help create opportunities for beneficiaries by preparing them with the tools to become entrepreneurs. Students market products made by beneficiaries through E-commerce and showcase the success to a panel of judges who choose the best graduation model. Graduation models are as follows: Training for Rural Economic Empowerment, Microfinance and Interest Free Loans, Employee Guarantees, Comprehensive Coaching for the Extreme Poor, Inclusive Business Cooperation and Households Overcoming Extreme Poverty.

BISP explores the best global practices, graduation models and sustainable solutions to develop poverty-reduction methods in a local context. University students are an asset to BISP’s graduation model development and poverty reduction by helping beneficiaries find inclusive information and access opportunities to overcome their poverty.

With university students’ partnership, BISP continues finding solutions to reduce poverty and improve local Pakistani communities.

– Sarah Dunlap

Photo: Flickr

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Closing the Gap on Education During Crisis

Education During CrisisIt seems that every day, a new crisis emerges in some area of the world. Whether it is a natural disaster, war or a political upheaval, there is a common theme: humanitarian aid organizations are quick to respond, while education during crisis falls by the wayside.

In impoverished countries, education is typically lacking, as the need for food and shelter come first. Conflict is a leading cause of both poverty and the suspension of education.

According to An International Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE), conflict-affected countries have 20 percent of the world’s primary-school-aged children. Unfortunately, these nations also host 50 percent of the world’s out-of-school children.

Access to a quality education is the United Nation’s fourth sustainable development goal. According to the U.N., “When people can get quality education, they can break from the cycle of poverty… Education is also crucial to fostering tolerance between people and contributes to more peaceful societies.”

Many organizations are working to make education during crisis a top priority. One such organization, Education Cannot Wait, is thinking of innovative ways to give children in poor situations a quality education.

In alliance with the U.N.’s sustainable development goal, Education Cannot Wait cites five challenges that need to get conquered for all of the world’s children to receive adequate education by the year 2030. They are as follows:

  1. Lack of prioritization (during emergencies)
    Only two percent of humanitarian aid during a crisis gets given to educational programs.
  2. Poor coordination between humanitarian and development groups
  3. Preparedness in the educational sector is a problem during emergencies.
    According to the INEE, individual sectors should create contingency plans that will help in creating a cohesive procedure for education during a crisis.
  4. Insufficient humanitarian funding
    Currently, $8.5 billion is needed annually to close the education gap. Humanitarian and development efforts have not matched the frequency of crisis.
  5. Lack of real-time data
    As the problem of inadequate education during crisis is often unrecognized, the data collected on the issue is not enough to promote change.

Many people are simply unaware that there is a problem of a lack of education during a crisis. One of the most important tools in counteracting the problem is knowledge and awareness. This is why the U.N. is also working to inform people and give clear ways to help. Here are a few ways to help today:

  • Ask your government leaders to make education a priority in policy and practice.
  • Lobby the government to commit to free, primary school education for all.
  • Encourage the private sector to invest in education.
  • Urge non-governmental organizations to foster the growth of education at the local level.

– Madeline Boeding

Photo: Google

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10 Facts About Improving Women’s Education

Improving Women's EducationIn January 2014, former U.S. President Barack Obama stated, “You can judge a nation, and how successful it will be, based on how it treats its women and its girls.” Indeed, educating women throughout the world has proven a pivotal locus for ensuring communities’ and countries’ social and economic success. In order to highlight some of the tremendous growth that women and girls’ education generates, here are 10 facts about improving women’s education.

  1. Emphasizing the need for ensuring the continual empowerment of women worldwide, the United Nations made equal access to education for girls a central focus of its Millennium Development Goals. The U.N. has made the elimination of gender disparities in primary and secondary education its third goal. Furthermore, it sought to reconcile the injustice that limited women’s opportunities for both education and, by extension, employment. Since the completion of the Millennium Development Goals, women have constituted 41 percent of paid workers in fields outside of agriculture. This is a tremendous increase from the 1990 rate of 35 percent.
  2. Educated women are likely to marry at later ages and consequently have fewer children. In fact, by simply providing girls with an extra year of schooling, nations can reduce a woman’s fertility rate by 5 to 10 percent. Limiting the number of individuals present will ensure improved accessibility to resources and better opportunities for all people, particularly in countries struggling with overpopulation, such as Nigeria and China.
  3. Girls who stay in school longer lower their probability of contracting HIV, thereby adding securing their health and wellbeing. In fact, the Girls Global Education Fund has reported that in Africa, children born to mothers who have not received education have a one in five chance of dying before age 5.
  4. Improving women’s education promotes continued education for whole families. In sending women to school, they are likely to encourage their children’s educations. This chain reaction illustrates the ways in which educating a girl improves an entire nation’s access to education.
  5. For each additional year that a girl spends in primary school, her wages increase by up to 20 percent. By continuing with her education through secondary school, her wages increase by 25 percent. Improving education for girls therefore ensures their socioeconomic stability and successes worldwide.
  6. By providing women and girls access to education, the probability of their involvement in the political process increases. Through education, women are more likely to participate in civic engagement and decision-making. Consequently, this promotes a more representative government. In fact, the average proportion of women in parliaments across the world has doubled over the past 20 years. This is a direct result of the success of the U.N. Millennium Development Goals in reducing the gender disparity in primary and secondary school education.
  7. In recent years, young women accounted for 59 percent of the total illiterate population. By providing women and girls with an education, illiteracy rates worldwide will inevitably increase, suggesting the overarching trend of global educational success.
  8. Educational depravation for women and girls has proven costly for the global economy. By refusing to give women and girls education, individual economies suffer as much as a $1 billion loss in revenue. Throughout the world, this constitutes a $92 billion loss each year. This suggests that investing in women’s education is a lucrative decision for all nations to make.
  9. Girls’ education has a tremendous impact on the environment. According to the Brookings Institution, secondary educational opportunities for women remain the most cost-effective investment against climate change.
  10. When girls are educated, communities maintain their stability at higher rates and can recover faster from conflict. By providing women and girls with secondary educational opportunities, nations also reduce their risk of war substantially and secure limitations on terrorism and extremism.

Ultimately, girls’ education holds significant implications for the global community. By improving women’s education, the world thrives both socially and economically. It is critical for nations to invest in women’s education in order to guarantee both individual and global success.

– Emily Chazen

Photo: Flickr

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Education in Afghanistan: Lifting the Nation Out of Poverty

Education in Afghanistan
At Mirman, Khajo Secondary School students hurry into class bundled up in their winter uniforms. The school bell chimes. Teachers rush around the room handing out tests. Just a few years ago this wasn’t a reality. The school was recently built as part of the country’s major push to bring access to education to its populace as well as improve the overall standing of education in Afghanistan.

U.S ambassador to Afghanistan Hugo Llorens stated that Afghanistan has made significant educational strides over the past 15 years, but also emphasized that the nation still has a lot of room left for improvement.

According to Asia Foundation’s Survey of the Afghan, people find education is one of the only sectors where the Afghan people feel that the government has made an improvement. The Ministry of Education, with support from USAID, has created a widespread community-based class system, built 16,000 schools and hired and trained more than 154,000 teachers. As a result, enrollment has increased by 60 percent, more than nine million students, 40 percent of whom are girls.

In Afghanistan, 80 percent of the people own smart phones. This prevalence of technology and internet access further aids education in Afghanistan. The Asia Foundation, for example, has developed an education app designed to improve reading skills in grades one through three. The organization has also developed online mock exams to prepare students for the real ones.

The increase of access to education in Afghanistan has also improved higher education. According to the Afghan Central Statistics Organization, public university enrollment has increased from 7,800 in 2001 to 174,425 in 2015, with 21 percent of those students being women.

While Afghanistan has increased education access, it has not achieved the quality of education. Only 30 percent of Afghan students score high enough on the standardized tests to make it into college. While good private schools exist, many public schools are poorly administrated. Irfan, a 10-year-old Afghan student, claims that in public school there are only two lessons a week and teachers will often chase students out of the classroom so they can listen to music.

In order to lift itself out of strife and economic woes, Afghanistan needs an educated public. The government has done incredible work in creating access to education; now it just needs to focus on monitoring public and private schools in order to improve education in Afghanistan.

– Bruce Edwin Ayres Truax
Photo: Flickr

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No Education for Canada’s Indigenous Population

Canada's Indigenous PopulationThroughout Canada’s history, the Indigenous peoples of the territories have faced extreme racism, colonialism, hatred and violence. Canada’s Indigenous population has been so negatively represented throughout society, and resources that others take as basic rights have been unavailable to Indigenous peoples.

According to the Conference Board of Canada, Indigenous peoples of Canada’s territories fall far behind the national average on several measures of equity and social cohesion. Indicators of their low averages include poverty, crime rates and income distribution.

The problems that Canada’s indigenous population faces stem from the lack of proper education offered to these individuals. According to Markets Insider, improvements need to be made in education accessibility as well as access to healthcare in order for social outcomes to improve for Indigenous peoples.

Because of the territories’ isolated geographic location, education and social service attainment for Indigenous people are very low, and infrastructure gaps create low social outcomes.

Canadian leaders are working to improve educational outcomes and access to healthcare by implementing policies that protect and support Canada’s Indigenous population. Cultural measures are also being taken to improve emotional, social and material support in areas that are more secluded.

People are pushing to improve these conditions for Canada’s Indigenous population at the educational level, including Maggie MacDonnell, winner of the Global Teacher Prize in March 2017.

MacDonnell grew up in Nova Scotia and witnessed racism and hatred toward Indigenous people throughout her childhood. By viewing injustice toward Indigenous people at such a young age, MacDonnell made it her goal to work in support of her Indigenous students at Ikusik School located in an Inuit village in Northern Quebec.

Because Indigenous peoples have been oppressed for much of Canada’s history, it is important for people like MacDonnell to stand up for their right to a quality education. Education systems like that of Ikusik School are a great benefit to improving the future of Canada’s Indigenous population.

Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau acknowledged MacDonnell’s work and the necessity to improve education for Indigenous students. “As a society, we must acknowledge past mistakes,” Trudeau remarked as he highlighted the victims of Indigenous oppression at Canada 150—the 150th anniversary of the country.

Without proper education, Canada’s Indigenous population will be unable to meet the national average in areas including equity and social cohesion. Breaking away from the habitual oppression that has been inflicted on Canadian Indigenous peoples is a tough task, but with the efforts of Trudeau, Canadian leaders and passionate teachers like MacDonnell, it is becoming more feasible for the future.

– Kassidy

Photo: Google

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The 10 Most Important Facts About Education in Malawi

Education in MalawiMalawi has been ranked as one of the lowest-performing nations for literacy in sub-Saharan Africa. Malawi is one of the least developed countries in the world and education is proven as one of the critical pathways to improving living conditions in the country. Here are 10 facts regarding education in Malawi:

  1. Primary school in Malawi was made free in 1994. This policy boosted primary school enrollment from 1.6 million children to three million children. However, with such an influx in students, the educational quality has decreased due to weak infrastructure, poor hygiene and low teaching quality.
  2. Only 35 percent of children in Malawi complete primary school. Such a low ratio can be attributed to multiple factors.
    More than half of the country’s population lives below the poverty line. Many children enroll and drop out of school frequently due to employment responsibilities at home or illnesses. Especially for many young girls, dropping out is common due to young marriage, pregnancy, and contracting HIV/AIDS.
  3. In first grade, the teacher to student ratio is 1:130. While this ratio decreases as the grade level increases, Malawi faces one of the world’s worst teacher shortages.
    This fact is mostly due to the expense associated with hiring new teachers. To be able to attract qualified teachers, rural communities must provide housing, which is a significant cost. Many of the quality issues faced in Malawian schools are due to a lack of motivation by the teachers. They face poor working conditions, weak social amenities and lack health coverage.
    The overcrowding of classrooms is found to be another catalyst of high drop-out rates in Malawian schools. With students not receiving one-on-one feedback and lacking the resources to learn, many lose hope in the educational system.
    Therefore, in order to improve the quality of education in Malawi and reduce drop-out rates, the government must focus on improving teacher salaries and improve facilities around the nation. This policy change will incentivize staying in school and providing quality curricula.
  4. Eighty-three percent of first-grade students are unable to read a single syllable, and 92 percent of these students fail to read a single word. Malawi is ranked the weakest for its performance in English reading and second weakest for mathematics against other southern African countries.
    Such statistics are the result of children being denied the chance to learn under normal conditions. With the massive influx of students in recent years, education in Malawi has incurred a national shortage of classrooms, qualified teachers and basic teaching materials such as textbooks.
  5. Besides primary schooling, the government does not fully fund any other educational levels. For instance, the government encourages communities to introduce preschools into their societies but does not support these facilities financially. Therefore, most preschools are run on a voluntary basis and remain unregistered. Forty-four percent of preschoolers face undernourishment in Malawi and the majority of teachers work for free as they lack the necessary resources to teach the young children.
    Without proper preschool opportunities, children in Malawi are missing the opportunities that create a strong foundation for their future studies. The Global Partnership for Education declares that investing resources in the youngest children is one of the most cost-effective commitments a country can make. A study in 2011 found that, by having 50 percent of the world’s children enrolled in preschool, the global benefit is greater than $33 billion.
  6. With around 4.6 million students enrolled in schools throughout Malawi, only eight percent of them complete secondary school. A major contributor to this low completion is the lack of proper transportation links to the secondary facilities.
  7. Only 14.9 percent of adult females obtain at least a secondary education, compared to 24.2 percent of males. To try and reduce the gender gap in education in Malawi, Rihanna’s organization, the Clara Lionel Foundation, partnered with Ofo to create the 1 Km Action campaign. This program will provide scholarships to help girls across Malawi attend secondary school. For the children who qualify, the campaign will provide the students with bikes to ensure they can get to school.
  8. USAID also provides support to the education sector in Malawi by collaborating with the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology. The United States’ efforts focus on increasing educational opportunities for females as well as boosting the capacity and quality of education in the country. USAID provides nine programs in Malawi to improve the educational standards of the country.
  9. Donors provide 40 percent of public education expenditure. However, in recent years donors have found that much of the money is not funneled into education but is rather stolen by the government sector. This theft has suspended much funding to the country.
  10. Over the past five years, the Malawian government has committed to allocate 18 percent of the national budget toward the education sector. With this commitment, Malawi will have one of the highest education expenditures in Africa. However, when comparing the educational quality with other countries, it can be noted that Malawi does not allocate its funds efficiently.

Experts believe that education is the driving force to alleviating poverty in Malawi and that it can help the country move toward development. With greater government involvement and international organizations supporting the nation, education in Malawi has the potential to improve in coming years.

– Tess Hinteregger

Photo: Flickr

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How to Help People in Iran

How To Help People In IranAlthough Iran is both the second-largest economy and the second-most populous nation in the Middle East with all indicators pointing towards continued growth, the citizens of Iran still face a lot of oppression and human rights violations. Already this year there have been two public hangings, torturing of prisoners, discrimination against minorities, and the lack of important rights for women. Here are a few ideas for how to help people in Iran:

  • Supporting the Center for Human Rights in Iran, a nonpartisan, nonprofit group based out of New York, in their bid to protect the rights of Iranians. The organization has letter-writing campaigns lobbying the 6,000 plus worldwide government officials it reaches to get involved in Iranian human rights. It also produces daily social media content on human rights in Iran that it hopes to have shared across social media.
  • The National Iranian American Council is a nonprofit Washington D.C. organization that seeks to promote the voices of Iranian Americans, and to foster a better relationship between Iran and America through education and increased dialogue. The group provides plenty of material to familiarize oneself with issues affecting Iranians both in America and in Iran. The organization also accepts contributions to aid them in combating human rights abuses in Iran.
  • Educating oneself on the various issues in Iran, particularly those surrounding human rights and poverty, to be able to take an informed stance.
  • Sharing news and facts about the plight of the Iranian people can be another effective way of how to help in Iran, as it helps build awareness and public sympathy.
  • Donating or volunteering with organizations like the U.N. that have programs dedicated to helping countries develop, such as the U.N.’s Educate A Child (EAC) program. The EAC program, implemented in 2012, has given over 700,000 children in Iran and other countries in the Middle East and Africa access to schooling they would not otherwise have had.

The Takeaway:

Although the U.S. and Iran have never had the best of relations, the 2015 nuclear deal that Iran signed onto has helped pave the way to improving relations between the two nations. Even so, the U.S. has maintained sanctions on Iran due to its continued human rights abuses and funding of terrorist organizations. TIME magazine reports that this action is beginning to have an impact.

Though knowing how to help in Iran can be a tricky task, writing to members of Congress and encouraging them to favor the retention of these sanctions and applying pressure to reform their laws, can help have an impact on U.S. policy and potentially help put a stop to human rights violations in Iran.

– Erik Halberg
Photo: Flickr

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Jordanian Education System Struggles to Educate Refugees

Over the past several years, thousands of Syrian refugees have been fleeing their homeland to escape war and heading to Jordan, where the refugee-friendly Za’atari camp resides.

Za’atari opened in 2012 and currently houses 80,000 Syrian refugees, including families in need of a proper education system for their children. Although Jordan implemented a provision in 2016 which provided 75,000 new schools specifically for Syrian refugee children, thousands of these children are missing out on the Jordanian education system.

Among these 75,000 new schools are 50,000 new public schools and 25,000 locations in non-formal school settings, all of which were meant to be designated learning spaces for Syrian refugee children living in Jordan.

Despite the significant number of schools available to Syrian refugees, there is a severe lack of teachers who are adequately trained and qualified to instruct these students. Additionally, Syrian refugee children who enroll in Jordanian schools face social restrictions due to bullying problems.

With nearly 27,000 students in need of education, Za’atari resources, including education, have become very limited, which has led many young people to child labor or early marriage to help their families’ financial situations. With so few of these kids in school, Save the Children has found that almost 50 percent of Jordan’s Syrian population rely on income provided by a child in the family.

However, Syrian refugee children who do not attend school are not the only ones who are facing problems. Those who do go to school are only attending for about three or four hours, as the morning hours get used for other children in Jordan.

Because Syrian refugee children have been missing out on education throughout their time living in Syria, they have much learning to be successful in the Jordanian education system. With such a limited number of school hours available to these children, catching up with the other kids of Jordan is nearly impossible.

As Syrian refugee students struggle to keep up with other kids in Jordan, some are dropping out of the Jordanian education system due to bullying and harassment issues. Girls specifically have been targeted and subjected to this abuse, which leads to these young girls dropping out and being forced into marriage at an early age.

Za’atari has recognized these issues and is working to solve them to make every Syrian refugee feel safe and included in the Jordanian education system. Parents and organizations throughout Za’atari have been seeking resources to better train teachers and obtain higher security in schools.

The efforts being made in Za’atari and other parts of Jordan have been met by an outpouring of support for Syrian refugees through Their World’s #YouPromised campaign.

Their World, a nonprofit working to provide education and necessary resources to children across the globe, started #YouPromised to ensure that the Syrian refugees in Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon receive the quality education that they were promised.

You can get involved with the #YouPromised project to amplify the voices of the Syrian refugee children struggling in the Jordanian education system by sending a message to world leaders.

With the work being done in Za’atari and the rest of Jordan as well as Their World’s #YouPromised campaign, Syrian refugee children are closer than ever to receive the quality education that they deserve.

– Kassidy Tarala

Photo: Flickr