Archive for category: Education

Information and stories on education.

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Education in the Dominican Republic

Education in the Dominican Republic
Although the Dominican Republic has been known to have one of the most underperforming education systems in the world, efforts are being made to improve education in the Dominican Republic.

Education in the Caribbean nation is split into three stages: preschool, primary school and secondary school. Preschool, or nivel inicial (initial level), includes children from ages 3 to 6. Only the last year of preschool is compulsory. Primary school, or nivel básico, is compulsory for children aged 6 to 14 but is not strictly enforced.

Secondary school, or nivel medio, for students 14 to 18 is not compulsory. Students are awarded a bachillerato, or high school diploma, after completion and may go on to university.

Some of the issues facing education in the Dominican Republic include overcrowded classrooms, poor-quality facilities and outdated curriculums. Dominican law mandates that four percent of the GDP must be spent on education, but only about two percent of the GDP is invested in education in the Dominican Republic.

Teachers are paid so little that instructors cannot earn a living to support themselves or their families. This makes teaching an unpopular vocation in the Dominican Republic, resulting in very high student to teacher ratios in classrooms. Students don’t get the individual attention they need, and a large number of teachers have not fully mastered the material they teach.

About 40 percent of students drop out of school before eighth grade. One in four girls drops out of school due to pregnancy. While the literacy rate of the Dominican Republic is about 92 percent, studies have found that students who complete high school enter university at a sixth-grade reading level.

After teachers campaigned across the country to make education reform a national focus, all candidates running for president in 2012 promised to double the education budget if elected. President Danilo Medina and his administration have made efforts to improve education in the Dominican Republic since then, including building more schools and increasing the school day from five hours to eight hours.

However, these reforms are not fully effective without adequate teacher training and increased teacher salaries. There is still a shortage of teachers for schools that already exist in the Dominican Republic, and children only learn for a small fraction of the time they are in school. Students end up sleeping or talking to peers instead of studying, and some teachers do not know what to do with the extra classroom time.

These reforms are beginning to occur, with World Bank announcing in September of 2015 that the global financial institution will invest $50 million over five years to assist the Dominican Republic government’s education reforms. The loan will be used to train teachers and assess student learning in primary and secondary schools. The funds will also be used to improve preschools in order to increase school readiness, decentralize management of public schools and promote community involvement in education.

– Cassie Lipp

Photo: Flickr

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Kashmiri Students: Refocusing Attention on Education

Kashmiri Students: Refocusing Attention on Education
Kashmir is the only Indian state to guarantee free education to citizens at all levels. However, the legal promises have not translated on the ground, leaving literacy below the national average at only 54 percent. The lagging figure can be attributed to the ongoing insurgency and violence that has become almost characteristic of Kashmir.

The last few months of 2016 saw 25 schools burnt to the ground without any party to blame directly. Strikes and unrest over the statehood of Kashmir led to constant disruption in education as schools were closed and curfews prevented Kashmiri students from attending classes. The closure of educational institutions due to civil unrest is not a new phenomenon; insurgency and military uprisings leading to the burning of schools started as early as the 1990s. As recently as 2010, educational institutions in Kashmir valley closed for over two months, forcing students to leave Kashmir, just another instance of education being impacted by an insurgency.

In a region so rife with unrest and violence, education is all the more important in providing a healthy outlet for dissent and frustration. Without this avenue to channel their energy, the youth in Kashmir is pouring out their frustration with the lack of employment opportunities, governmental apathy and political stagnancy through far more violent means. The lack of access to education is a big factor in the stone-pelting incidents fueled by despair in the valley.

Thankfully, there are many organizations attempting to fill the gaps in education in Kashmir. Local initiatives have played a large role in keeping students in school even when classes are canceled or curfew is imposed. Community-run schools are springing up in the wake of torched institutions. Local teachers are giving unofficial classes in run-down classrooms. There is an atmosphere of hope even when opportunities for education seem few and far between.

The government too is attempting to alleviate the problem of education by partnering with NGOs to rebuild schools. In addition, international NGOs like Mother Helpage are supporting local students while simultaneously contributing to reconstruction efforts. These initiatives are powerful and important, however, they are not enough. Kashmir today is largely viewed as a region of political stability. As a result, the international focus remains on the issue of India and Pakistan, leaving the vast majority of Kashmiri people to fend for themselves. It is only with significantly greater international awareness of the struggles of Kashmiri students and the inadequacy of educational institutions that education in the region can be revived.

– Mallika Khanna

Photo: Flickr

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Education in Ireland

Education in Ireland
Education in Ireland is incredibly competitive and important for the future of students. Students are tested on a variety of subjects, including the Irish language, and their scores on one test determines their entire career path.

Education in Ireland mandates that children attend school from ages six to 16. But, most children attend free childcare/pre-school services between the ages of four and five. Then students move on to primary school and then secondary school.

Secondary schools are privately run and therefore are expensive or have a religious affiliation, typically. The secondary school system includes three years in the junior cycle during ages 12 to 14 and the senior cycle of two or three years for 15 to 18-year-old students. In order to move on from the junior cycle and into the senior cycle, students must pass a test that includes all of their coursework from their three years in secondary school.

Once in the senior cycle, students must choose three tracks and at the end of their schooling, they take a test corresponding to the track they chose. There is the Traditional Leaving Certificate, which is for students who plan to continue their education at a university, and the Leaving Certificate Vocational Programme, which applies to technical jobs and the Leaving Certificate Applied.

Students who take the Traditional Leaving Certificate have their future laid out for them from those tests. Students are tested on six subjects and students must score 90% or higher in each subject if they hope to pursue any medical, or law degrees, and so on. Students must get a 70% in order to study history or English literature in university. This test determines what subject students are allowed to study and if students are allowed to even go to college. Students who do not make the correct scores for their dream jobs simply cannot practice that profession anymore.

Because of the recent recession, education in Ireland has changed trends. More and more students are attempting to go to university after secondary school because of the poor job market. And because it is so difficult for students to get into the major of study they desire in universities, there is a gap left that welcomes foreigners to enter and take the jobs that Ireland needs such as doctors and lawyers. Education in Ireland is intimidating for students and encourages others to work in Ireland, but leaves the Irish to fend for themselves.

– Meagan Foy

Photo: Flickr

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Education in Algeria: Past Successes, Challenges and Goals

Education in Algeria: Past Successes, Current Challenges, Future Goals
Since gaining their independence in 1962, education in Algeria has improved significantly in relation to access to and quality of education. The amount of students enrolled in school more than doubled between 1962 to 2000. But with overall enrollment up there was still opportunity to identify subsets of the education system in which enrollment was lacking.

The government reached out to UNICEF for assistance on quantifying these shortcomings. UNICEF and the Ministry of Education partook in the Global Out-of-School Children Initiative (OOSCI) to identify flaws in enrollment and also characteristics of students who drop out. The goal of which was to identify those characteristics so future students fitting that mold can potentially be saved from dropping out.

The OOSCI study found that 33.4 percent of eligible students were not participating in pre-primary education, three percent in primary education, and 6.5 percent in secondary education. The study found that students participating in pre-primary education were less likely to repeat grades, less likely to drop out and more likely to make it through secondary education.

The few pre-primary schools available in the country are privately funded and not available to a large portion of the population. This is something the government plans on improving in coming years.

Adding more primary and pre-primary schools will require more qualified teachers in the country. A UNESCO study estimates that by 2025, Northern Africa is going to need an additional 1.9 million teachers in total which includes 200,000 in Algeria.

Some key metrics have led to doubts about the quality of teachers across the country. In regards to literacy rates, males above the age of 15 fall into the 10 percentile and females above the age of 15 fall into the 20 percentile in comparison to other Middle Eastern & North African countries.

The repetition rate for males and females also fall into the 20 and 30 percentiles respectively compared to similar countries.

The Algerian government will be partnering with UNICEF in 2016 to work on improving these metrics. UNICEF plans on implementing child-centered methods to curriculum planning in their development of current and future teachers.

These future investments in education in Algeria will be costly. This could be problematic for a country where 60 percent of their tax revenues are related to hydrocarbons. Any fluctuation in the price of oil can have serious ripple effects on their economy.

In their 2017 budget, they are using a $50/barrel price point for allocating budget dollars. In order to maintain current levels of funding, they will be raising taxes to avoid any shortfalls that would occur.

Fortunately, with this proactive approach to maintaining levels of government spending on education in Algeria, they will not find themselves overly susceptible to influxes in their main trading commodity.

– Brian Faust

Photo: Flickr

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Pakistan Reading Project

Pakistan Reading Project
Muhammad Baligh Ur Rehman, Pakistan’s Minister of State for Federal Education, spoke this month of the fundamental importance of reading, citing the first word taught in Quran, ‘Iqra’ which means ‘read.’ The minister’s statement came in response to an education workshop hosted by the Pakistan Reading Project and USAID.

The four-day workshop gathered educators from provincial groups across Pakistan to frame individual Reading Improvement Strategies (RIS) to be finalized and applied to their respective provinces as part of official educational programming. This workshop was just one of many that the Pakistan Reading Project has organized to provide support for provincial and regional departments of education throughout Pakistan. The primary focus is the enhancement reading instruction strategies for children in grades one and two. The $165 million, five-year project is, through such workshops as these, promoting the adaptation and implementation of sustainable policies to improve teaching and education standards.

The Pakistan Reading Project’s strategy is threefold: improve learning environments for reading in the classroom, advance policies and systems for reading instruction and rally community-based support for reading. In doing so, the project intends to reach 1.3 million students in grades one and two with reading interventions, not to mention training more than 23,000 teachers in reading instruction and developing reading curricula for more than 100 collegiate teaching programs.

From scholarships and grants for students pursuing teaching degrees to mobile bus libraries that bring books directly to children and their communities, the Pakistan Reading Program aims to comprehensively integrate reading into the lives of Pakistani children. The holistic approach of incorporating reading into both the institutional and communal lives of Pakistanis ensures the sustainability of the project’s efforts. In this way, children in Pakistan will be developmentally prepared for educational challenges they will face throughout their lives and consequently better able to pursue their goals and break from the cycle of poverty.

– Robin Lee

Photo: Flickr

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Global Education in 2016

Global Education in 2016
Global education in 2016 has seen many successes and many challenges. Advances in technology have increased many children’s access to education and educational materials, but the ongoing refugee crisis has created an education crisis for children in much of the world. Above all, two landmark pieces of legislation, the Education for All Act and the Protecting Girls’ Access to Education in Vulnerable Settings Act have aimed to expand and protect access to education for those all over the world.

While many parts of the world suffering from poverty have limited access to resources such as textbooks and other school supplies, technology has been making strides to replace these things in countries all around the world. E-readers, smartphones and online libraries have been used in places like Sub-Saharan Africa and Haiti, and these advances aim to make education more accessible to children in impoverished regions.

This year has been notable for the refugee crisis, with 2.1 million Syrian children among the many global refugees. School enrollment rates for Syrian children remain lower than those in Sub-Saharan Africa, and refugee children remain five times more likely to be out of school than non-refugee children. This has been a serious challenge to global education in 2016, and it will likely continue well into 2017 and beyond.

Male students globally remain more likely to receive an education than their female counterparts, and this problem is what the Education for All Act hopes to solve. This bill is a bipartisan effort to advance and encourage basic education for all while prioritizing groups who have been marginalized or denied an education due to conflict.

Another effort to improve girls’ access to education worldwide is the Protecting Girls’ Access to Education in Vulnerable Settings Act. This legislation hopes to protect girls who are in danger from conflict or who are refugees by improving their access to education. When they are not enrolled in school, refugee girls are especially vulnerable to dangerous situations such as trafficking, child marriage and underage labor.

Global education has seen both improvements and increased challenges in 2016. While the refugee crisis has seen an uptick in children who are not enrolled in school, the Education for All Act and the Protecting Girls’ Access to Education in Vulnerable Settings Act aim to combat this problem and improve access to education for the most vulnerable and stigmatized.

– Eva Kennedy

Photo: Flickr

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Girls’ Education in Cameroon: Nurturing Opportunity and Choice

Girls’ Education in Cameroon: Nurturing Opportunity and Choice
Education in Cameroon, although constitutionally guaranteed, falls short in execution. Undeniable disparities hinder educational access for poor, disabled, indigenous and refugee children, particularly disadvantaged girls. Issues ranging from sexual harassment, unplanned pregnancies and early marriages to domestic chores and socio-cultural biases proliferate a trend in which fewer girls attend primary schools than boys. Incongruences between male and female education in Cameroon exacerbate the growing movement of students leaving the country to study and live elsewhere that has been termed the “brain drain.”

Rectifying this gender discrepancy can boost individuals’ capacities for financial autonomy as well as improve the state of the nation overall.

Less than 50 percent of Cameroonian girls attend primary school, and the average adult has only 5.9 years of education under his or her belt. There are many, however, who are working to change that.

The ShineALight Africa initiative was inspired by one Cameroonian woman, Nsaigha Thecla, who risked her livelihood and security to give her daughter the education she had never attained. Borrowing, investing and selling all she had, her children received an uncommonly good education in Cameroon. Years later, Nsaigha’s granddaughter, Leila Kigha, founded ShineALight Africa in that spirit.

ShineALight Africa mobilizes individual women into a cooperative through which they can sell their farm produce as a group, and the profits are dedicated to keeping local community children in school. Participation fosters the skills to help women gain financial autonomy, which provides previously non-existent options regarding marriage and domesticity.

Self-sufficiency and personal livelihood are certainly not all there is to be gained through more available education. Many claim that national security is at stake when education is inaccessible, for “an educated population doesn’t give away to extremism.” As a military campaign against Boko Haram rages in northern Cameroon, mosques in the south resist the spread of Islamist insurgency by providing girls’ education. The director of the Grande Mosque in Briquerterie, Mohaman Saminou, claims girls are at the greatest risk of being radicalized due to their lack of education.

To that end, his mosque provides free classes to girls every weekend in subjects like computer science, sewing and the Qur’an. Other mosques, like the Yaoundé Central Mosque, follow suit, providing girls’ classes in French, English and Arabic to promote the notion of “bilingualism as a gateway to quality education and sustainable development.” This work should broaden opportunities and choices for Cameroonian girls, consequently decrease the likelihood of radicalization.

Improving education in Cameroon can hugely impact both individual lives and national wellbeing. The ability to make financial and social choices is essential to the welfare of the people and the state to which they belong.

– Robin Lee

Photo: Flickr

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The Unique History of Education in Namibia

The Unique History of Education in Namibia
Real progress in improving education in Namibia did not occur until after their Independence Day on March 21, 1990. The system prior to 1990 was ridden with apartheid generation policies that encouraged institutional racism across all levels of government.

The constitution of the new government guaranteed the right to education for all of its citizens. Specifically, free primary education, grades 1-7, and access to secondary education contingent on the success of the student and ability for that student to pay tuition. Along with guaranteeing education as a right, the new constitution abolished the apartheid-style funding system that had previously existed.

Between 1990 and the early 2000s, the country made great strides in terms of improving education. Enrollment in primary education increased from 60 to 95 percent, there was a 30 percent increase in the teaching workforce, and 3,000 new classrooms were built. But there were still questions about the quality and relevance of the curriculum, the shortage of overall schools, the availability of qualified teachers for those schools, and a lack of enrollment in secondary education due to it being cost prohibitive.

These items were taken into consideration by the government and they responded with the Education Act of 2001 that extended free tuition to all citizens seeking secondary education (up to 12th grade), along with performance standards required to move on from grade to grade.

Even with these increased investments in education, the issue of having quality teachers still was not solved. A UNICEF report that assessed the quality and success of the Namibian education system correlated increasing grade repetition rates to low teacher skills and content knowledge. There is also a lack of consistency from school to school adhering to the national performance standards.

Increasing funding can only do so much, and education in Namibia is at its capacity. It has serious economic concerns that limit the available funding for education spending. Currently, 20 percent of GDP is being spent on education which is far higher than the United States at 6.4 percent or even the top ranked education system in the world, Finland, at 7.2 percent.

Education in Namibia and Namibia as a whole is dependent on economic development. Its economy is not well-diversified and is far too reliant on the mining industry. Global fluctuations in its main commodity exports equate to volatility in the labor market. Unemployment currently sits at just under 30 percent.

A report by the Journal of Economic Structures identifies that Namibia is unique compared to other developing countries, though. It has a positive current account balance, which means there are more savings than investment. Currently, a greater percentage of savings are being exported to foreign markets. The Journal states “if interesting investment opportunities are available, the country has to fund through its own domestic savings.”

The Namibian government is aware of this and wants to use this knowledge to achieve a goal of eradicating poverty by 2025 through investment in local communities. The President of Namibia, Hage Geingob, states this will be achieved through investment in social safety nets, training and skills development, and employment through community development activities.

– Brian Faust

Photo: Flickr

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Rural Education in Peru: Inconsistent but Improving

Education in Peru Rural AreasFrom the mountains to the ocean, Peru is a diverse country, housing some citizens in highly populated cities and others in the most rural locations. While education in Peru has expanded, rural inhabitants do not always have equal access.

Children in Peru are required to be enrolled in school until age 16. After secondary school, however, student enrollment numbers begin to dwindle. As the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) reported in 2010, primary schools have the highest percentage of children enrolled. From primary school to tertiary school, enrollment rates decline about 50%. Despite this decline, 94% of Peruvian adults are literate, which is higher than the world median.

Education in Peru: Urban vs Rural

Children in urban areas have the easiest access to education in Peru. Those living in the Andes, Sacred Valley and other rural areas, however, struggle to reach education levels similar to those of their urban peers. These children are more likely to drop out of school due to family labor responsibilities. As recorded in the CIA World Factbook, of the 2.5 million children in Peru approximately 865,600 children are in the labor force. School life expectancy, or the number of years an individual is expected to spend in school assuming a constant enrollment rate, is 13 years for citizens of Peru.

Rural students’ school experience differs from that of their urban counterparts, as they have to walk several hours a day to get to school in nearby urban areas. Sometimes rural areas have schools, but these schools frequently do not have the resources or support to educate students at different levels. Instead, students of all ages sit in one classroom, making uniform curriculum development a difficult task.

Teachers are being trained to educate rural students under yearly contracts. This training can be challenging, as most rural students do not know Spanish. Teachers have to learn Quechua, the native language of many rural students. Rural and urban teachers alike are faced with an inadequate hierarchy system. Teachers often do not know whether they will be teaching until a week before classes begin, eliminating the ability to plan ahead. These teachers are also unable to get necessary resources, fear being fired and are paid very little.

To overcome these obstacles, Peru’s Ministry of Education developed the Alternate Education for Rural Development program. Since 2002, this project has assisted nearly 3,000 young children in 40 rural schools and 11 regions. The program has been successfully accommodating rural students, as shown in 2012 when about 50% of students were enrolled in tertiary school and close to 70% were simultaneously working.

Other organizations are improving education in Peru as well. Unearth the World (UTW) works with nonprofit organizations in Peru to help provide women, children and teens living in poverty with proper education services. Peruvian Hearts helps Peruvian girls attend secondary school and college by offering scholarships ranging from $500 to $6000 per year.

– Kristen Guyler

Photo: Flickr

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Notre Dame and USAID Team Up to Improve Education in Haiti

Notre Dame and USAID Team Up to Improve Education in HaitiFor many years, Haiti has not only been the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, but also one of the most destitute in the world. Rocked by earthquakes, cholera epidemics and hurricanes over the past few years, the country has struggled to improve many facets of life for its citizens. As such, education in Haiti faces many obstacles, including teacher training, accessibility and funding.

Currently, almost 80 percent of teachers have not been exposed to the proper training prior to their tenure as educators, and half of those working in the country’s few public institutions lack basic teaching qualifications.

Public schools are almost non-existent in Haiti – almost 90 percent of establishments are run by religious organizations and non-government entities. Because these schools are private, they require tuition fees in order to operate, which is often a huge burden for families in a country where the average annual income is roughly $800.

More than half of all children do not attend school, and the development of education in Haiti must contend with the staggering fact that over half of Haitian adults are illiterate, and as many as 50 percent of second graders cannot read even one word.

However, in an effort to improve the quality of life for millions around the world, USAID has teamed up with 6 U.S. universities to develop innovative solutions to a variety of problems. By awarding over $3 million in grants to graduate students across the country, USAID has committed to improving the lives of people across the globe.

As part of this effort, the University of Notre Dame was awarded a grant in December 2012 to take on the challenge of literacy in Haiti. The grant will cover 150 schools and as many as 30,000 children and will work in tandem with the Haitian Catholic Church over the next four years. Additionally, USAID has partnered with Haiti’s Ministry of Education to the tune of $6.3 million to improve early-grade reading and writing skills.

The University of Notre Dame is certainly familiar with the daunting task of improving the lives of Haiti’s young students. In 2014, the university’s Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) launched the “Read to Learn” initiative, aiming to reach 7,000 children in 52 schools by expanding Creole reading programs, the native language of 95 percent of Haitians.

Although recent years have been tumultuous and full of challenges for the country, its people remain resilient and dedicated to improving their communities and the lives of their children. With the help of organizations such as ACE and USAID that are committed to improving literacy and education in Haiti, students throughout the island have hope for better education and a brighter tomorrow.

– Emily Marshall

Photo: Flickr