Archive for category: Education

Information and stories on education.

Current Education in Kyrgyzstan

Current Education in Kyrgyzstan

Many formerly Soviet-controlled nations struggled to bolster their education systems following the collapse of the USSR. Kyrgyzstan is one such country, having faced significant challenges in its education system after independence while also making steady efforts to improve it.

Kyrgyzstan’s Economy

Before the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Kyrgyzstan’s economy and industry were regulated by Moscow. Since the Soviet disbandment, the nation has transitioned toward a free market economy, one of the first formerly Soviet countries to do so. However, the economy has slowed down a bit in recent years, and many Kyrgyzstanis are suffering as a result. Although only 1.3% of the country’s population lived below the global extreme poverty line as of 2020, exactly one-third of the country’s population lived below the nationality line as of 2021.

Economy’s Effects on Education

Immediately following Kyrgyzstan’s independence, funding for education nosedived due to the break with the USSR. Therefore, the transition to independence caused a significant shock to Kyrgyzstan’s education system.

Furthermore, as of 2020, one out of three children in Kyrgyzstan lived below the poverty line (it should be noted that the pandemic severely exacerbated the issue of poverty). Children often have to sacrifice their schooling to work instead. About 27% of children in Kyrgyzstan have to work, and 14% miss class to work. Poverty in Kyrgyzstan is therefore impeding children’s ability to receive an education, since they often have to worry about providing for their families.

Learning Resources Lacking

Kyrgyzstan does not have enough qualified teachers to adequately educate children on important subjects. In 2025, Kyrgyzstan lacked 947 teachers that were needed by the education system. Many of these vacancies were in the subjects of math and Russian language, two vital subjects that children suffered in due to this shortage.

Furthermore, in 2025, there was a massive shortage in textbooks: schools in Kyrgyzstan only had 50% of the textbooks that they should have had. In lieu of school-provided textbooks, some students had to rent their own.

Solutions to Kyrgyzstan’s Problems

Kyrgyzstan is taking measures to combat the problems it faces in education.

Kyrgyzstan has a program called Programme to Support Families and to Protect Children, which began in 2018 and will continue through 2028. This program provides benefits to children or families in many cases: for example, a benefit is given to any newborn child, and a monthly benefit is given to families whose earnings are below a certain threshold and who have children under the age of 16. 

Furthermore, Kyrgyzstan is trying to bolster the learning resources available to children. In 2025, the Kyrgyzstan government put $8.5 million into printing new textbooks to combat the shortage. Furthermore, the Ministry of Education created an online textbook platform (the “Okuu Kitebi” platform) to allow for easier access to textbooks. Through this platform, the ministry hopes to not only match but actually exceed textbook demand by 2030.

Kyrgyzstan’s education system does face problems, such as students needing to miss school to work and a lack of teachers and textbooks. However, Kyrgyzstan’s government is working to address these issues in order to improve education for children nationwide.

– Robin Lee, Jackson Meyer 

Photo: Flickr

,

Education in Cambodia: A Promising Future on the Horizon

Education in Cambodia
From 1975 to 1979, the uprising of the Khmer Rouge political group upset a previously safe Cambodia where education was not only halted but regressed a devastating amount. Left in ashes over the last decade, education in Cambodia has begun to be re-established, setting in motion a prosperous future.

Cambodia, once considered a safe-haven and “Island of Peace” in the 1950s through 1960s, quickly became a torn country with the rise of the radical political group Khmer Rouge.

The Khmer Rouge’s primary goal was to turn Cambodia into a rural, classless society. To do so, the Khmer Rouge government targeted those most capable of opposing the government. One point seven million of Cambodia’s most culturally intellectual — doctors, teachers, lawyers, accountants, clergy, merchants and engineers — were murdered. As a result, a generation of intellects was eliminated, leaving no one to pass down knowledge to the coming generations.

In an interview with CNN, Khmer Rouge expert Craig Etcheson described how “nearly two generations of young Cambodian men grew up learning little more than how to kill.” So, when the Khmer Rouge was overthrown in 1979, Cambodia had to rebuild from virtually nothing.

Additionally, Cambodia had to reconstruct themselves without approximately 25 percent of its entire population, consisting primarily of its educated class. Though democracy was introduced in the early 1990s, strengthening the country has been a glacial process. However, education in particular has been making strides in providing access to schooling and sex education.

Schooling in Cambodia
In 2003, the nonprofit organization Caring for Cambodia was formed to improve education in Cambodia by raising money and building schools for kindergarten through 12th-grade. Thus far, CFC has built 21 schools in the Siem Reap region of Cambodia.

According to CFC’s website, over the course of five years, schools that participate in the program see a 70 percent enrollment increase.  CFC has secured 4,000 financial supporters as well as acquired 250 devoted volunteers to carry out its mission of providing education in Cambodia to an increasing number of children.  Students of higher education are also being given more access to opportunities.

The American University of Phnom Penh in Cambodia has partnered with the University of Arizona to offer Cambodian students a first-rate U.S. education. As of September 2016, as reported by Khmer Times, students attending AUPP are now able to take courses from the University of Arizona and earn a dual degree from the two schools in undergraduate and master’s degrees.

Sex Education
From 2010 to 2014, the pregnancy rate for Cambodian girls ages 15 to 19 increased from 8 percent to 12 percent. In 2013 to combat and reduce this pregnancy rate, Cambodia began a test project throughout schools in nine regions of Cambodia.

This pilot project taught students in primary, secondary and high schools about practicing safe sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, sexually transmitted diseases, and gender-based violence and abuse. According to Cambodia Daily, teachers in Cambodia have attributed previously skipping over such subject matter to parent opposition as well as it being a “sensitive issue.”

Despite some believing sex education to be a taboo topic, the Reproductive Health Association of Cambodia has recommended the government make sex education a core subject in grades five to 12.

As advised, the Ministry of Education in Cambodia will be rolling out the pilot program nationwide by 2019 with the goal of decreasing the pregnancy rate in girls ages 15 to 19 by educating and changing the traditional social norms.

Although the Khmer Rouge takeover presented destructive setbacks for Cambodia socially and economically, education in Cambodia has been making meaningful improvements since the turn of the century and optimistically continues to do so.

– Alex Fidler

Photo: Flickr

,

Education in the Congo

Education in the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo recently began making education a greater national priority. Due to internal tumults and conflicts which ensued since the nation achieved independence in 1960, the financial burden of education in the Congo has largely fallen on families, despite the fact that more than 70 percent of the Congolese population live in poverty.

About 95 percent of school fees, which fund everything from classroom materials to maintaining school infrastructures to teacher salaries, are paid for by families. Therefore, children from poor families are far less likely to attend school than their wealthier counterparts. In fact, about 1.2 million children who are not enrolled in school would be able to attend if these fees were abolished.

Fortunately, in recent years, universal education in the Congo has become a national priority. The DRC joined the Global Partnership for Education in 2012 and has since received two substantial grants to overhaul the Congolese education system.

The first grant of $100 million from 2013-2016 significantly improved national primary school enrollment, restored more than 700 classrooms, distributed 20 million textbooks and teacher guides, trained more than 11,000 teachers, as well as constructed latrines and water points throughout the Kasai and Equator provinces.

There is still much to be done. The next grant of the same amount will be implemented from 2016-2020.

Making education free and universal for Congolese children is fundamental to the DRC’s plan for poverty reduction and economic promotion. However, it is not only accessibility that needs to be improved. Overall educational quality is severely wanting.

Sixty-eight percent of Congolese children in third and fourth years of primary school cannot read, and less than half of fifth-year students exhibit the most rudimentary understanding of French. Likewise, less than 60 percent of fifth-year students are able to meet mathematics requirements.

Now that education in the Congo is a more deliberate national priority, both quality and accessibility of schooling can be better addressed. With the renewed grant from the Global Partnership for Education, the DRC continues to improve supplies to schools and quality teacher training.

Better materials and lower student-teacher-ratios will enhance the likelihood of student successes, and in the long run, reduce national poverty and enhance economic competence in the Congo.

– Robin Lee

Photo: Flickr

, ,

The Rise of Online Education in Developing Countries

Online Education in Developing Countries
In 2012, Battushig Myanganbayar, a boy from a Mongolian village, became one of only 340 students out of 150,000 to earn a perfect score in an MIT Circuits and Electronics class. That class was the first Massive Open Online Course — a free mode of accessible international online education offered at MIT.

Stories like Myanganbayar’s are certainly inspiring, but access to online education in developing countries isn’t the norm. Most MOOC users are educated, wealthy and employed. However, MOOCs present incredible opportunities to students around the globe. Consequently, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and EducationUSA have taken the initiative to raise awareness about and increase access to MOOCs and online education in developing countries.

USAID partnered with Coursetalk in 2014 for the Advancing MOOCs for Development Initiative (AMDI) to raise awareness about MOOC opportunities in populations that could benefit from them the most, such as unemployed and uneducated women. Through establishing relationships with NGO, college, university, business or foundation communities, USAID will work toward increasing enrollment in MOOCs in developing countries.

The Technology and Social Change Group (TASCHA) at the University of Washington’s Information School and nonprofit development organization IREX are also involved in the initiative to help conduct research in Columbia, the Philippines and South Africa.

Another organization called EducationUSA — a network of student advising centers to support higher education around the world — is bringing educational opportunities into the classrooms of students who wouldn’t have access to them otherwise. Through the support of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, EducationUSA has hosted impactful MOOC camps hosted by Fulbright alumni and U.S. embassy staff. MOOC camps are free, open to the public and occur in more than 60 countries.

MOOCs have pros and cons. The largest complaint about MOOCs is that it could be considered “cultural imperialism” that stunts the growth of a country’s organic progress. Some argue that bringing elite education from the developed world offers a short-term solution to a select group of people in the developing world. As a result, MOOCs inhibit the progress of the long-term goal to improve a country’s education system.

Despite the obvious downsides to MOOCs, one might consider them a temporary necessary evil. One key example where this is true is Kepler University in Rwanda that combines online learning with in-person seminars. Eventually, graduates from Kepler will go on to be the well-prepared educators for the next generation as well as innovators and politicians who are integral to the development of Rwanda.

In support of online education in developing countries, Bill Gates has said that he believes in a “future in which world-class education is only a few taps away for anyone in the world.” With the rapid growth of MOOCs and the support they are receiving from U.S. foreign aid programs, it looks like the future is now.

– Sabrina Yates

Photo: Flickr

, ,

Education Provided to Syrian Refugees in Hosting Countries

Education Provided to Syrian Refugees in Hosting Countries
When the Arab Spring began in 2011, the Middle East’s future became unclear. Since its advent, nearly 300,000 people have been killed and 11 million have been displaced externally. Syrian refugees have taken refuge in Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Turkey, Greece and Germany.

Even though the countries have granted them asylum, many young children do not attend school. Of the 11 million displaced Syrians, nearly 2.5 million are school-aged children. Attending school is a difficult task for these children. As an overarching issue, the education system cannot sustain the thousands of Syrian refugee children entering their classrooms.

Another major issue is that Syrian refugee children are behind in the curriculum and don’t speak the language. Many children, especially young boys, have to choose between working and schooling. Their families cannot afford to send their children to school. These obstacles contribute to the fact that 80% of Syrian refugee children in Lebanon are not attending school. As a result, many children end up dropping out, contributing to the 56% of refugee children who are not enrolled in Jordanian schools.

Since 2012, the Jordanian Government, Ministry of Education and Higher Education have either covered Syrian children’s fee or waived them. Even if the children can afford to go to school, parents do not think it’s safe for their children to be journeying a long way. To overcome these barriers, War Child Holland in Lebanon created a walking bus. Instead of children walking alone to school, they walk together in one large group.  In Jordan, UNICEF provides buses to take children to school.

To accommodate those who are not attending school or who have dropped out, the Lebanese NGO Iqra runs Classroom in a Bus whereby students and teachers are trained and taught in the town. In Turkey, students now do not have to show any identification, they can enroll for free and are taught in a Syrian Arabic curriculum. These adjustments coupled with the collaboration between Turkey and UNICEF to build seven new schools is a contributing factor to the 30% increase in enrollment. As a global initiative, donors and host countries have pledged, as the Human Rights Watch states, “more than $11 billion in multi-year support to meet goals including universal school enrollment in refugee-hosting countries by 2017.”

Through donations, global workings and Human Rights Watch projects, there are expansions, “to address other barriers.” Some of these include issues of documentation, NGO roles, addressing dropouts and reducing child labor. The NGO, government and global initiative contribute to UNICEF’s strategy, No Lost Generation, which ensures all Syrian refugees are provided with adequate educational opportunities.

The Syrian Crisis is one of the worst humanitarian crises. Yet, there is an admirable level of determination to help Syrian refugees adapt and provide them with equal opportunities.

– Kristen Guyler

Photo: Flickr

,

Factors Driving Lack of Access to Education

Access to Education
Education remains an unreachable right for millions of children around the globe. Currently, upward of 72 million children in the primary education age (five to 12 years) are not in school and 759 million adults are illiterate. There are a plethora of reasons why such a large number of children in lower income countries do not receive the adequate education at the primary school level. Below are just some of the factors driving a lack of access to education:

  • There aren’t enough schools. Many of the poorest countries in the world do not have access to the adequate financial resources necessary to create schools. Providing schooling materials along with recruiting and training teachers cost money, and aid from fellow countries generally is not sufficient enough to establish an education system for all children.
  • There is a low value of education. Many times in remote areas of the world, children who belong to the indigenous population are more trained at finding food and livelihood for themselves rather than focusing on education. Due to this, they are never taught the value and importance of education.
  • The geographical location is not ideal for schooling. This includes things like severe weather conditions, rough terrain and lack of transportation. For example, children in the Philippines have to walk miles before they can reach the nearest primary school. Some areas in India meanwhile are just too stiff to climb and for transportation to pass.
  • Many families cannot afford school and are oftentimes forced into child labor. Over 300 million children between the ages of five and 17 years are engaged in employment worldwide. Most of these children work to financially support their families making child labor a significant contributor to high numbers of them being out of school. Parents, as well as governments, are more concerned about other important things like finding food, shelter and water for the families.
  • Minority groups are often excluded or forgotten. Specific groups find themselves marginalized while their children are deprived of education opportunities. This tends to happen either because of passive underinvestment by the government in particular geographies where the ethnic minorities are concentrated or because of active discrimination.
  • Conflict within a country overruns the opportunities for education. Children in war-ridden countries don’t have a chance to go to school and be educated. Child refugees caught in war and conflict spend the majority of their young lives in refugee camps. Instead of spending time in a classroom learning, they are caught in the middle of chaos which they do not deserve.

Access to schools is the first step toward increasing the right to an education for all children on a global level. Taking steps to resolve the hindering factors driving the lack of access to education will be crucial in overcoming education’s inaccessibility to so many young minds.

– Keaton McCalla

Photo: Flickr

,

Basa Pilipinas: Childhood Literacy in the Philippines

Basa Pilipinas: Childhood Literacy in the Philippines
The United States Agency for International Development and the Philippines Department of Education collaborated over the last three years to improve childhood literacy in the Philippines through a program called Basa Pilipinas, or “Read Philippines.” Basa Pilipinas aims to enhance reading skills in English, Filipino and other mother tongues for one million children in grades one through three. Begun in January 2013, the $39.7 million program is scheduled to conclude on Dec. 31 of this year.

On Oct. 26, 2016, Trey Hicks of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee visited several Cebu elementary schools to reiterate a commitment to childhood literacy in the Philippines. Hicks led reading activities for the children and was joined by USAID Office of Education Chief Brian Levey, who remarked: “Education…set[s children] on a path towards making informed and healthy decisions and taking advantage of limitless economic opportunities.” As Basa Pilipinas draws toward a conclusion, its effects on children and education will continue to evince themselves.

Operating at the classroom level, Basa Pilipinas expands access to reading materials. Roughly 8 million copies of teaching and learning materials, including teacher’s guides and textbooks in both English and local dialects, were distributed throughout the Philippines in the last three years.

Likewise, Basa works to improve reading delivery systems. The program assists the Philippines Department of Education in setting valid early grade reading standards and regulating teacher training in the school systems. Providing hands-on professional development to teachers ensures newly established reading standards are met. Modifications such as these at the systemic level establish achievable literacy goals for students and teachers alike.

Teacher training in literacy instruction is perhaps most crucial to the goals set forth through Basa Pilipinas. Almost 13,000 teachers received training on effective reading instruction, and nearly 3,500 Department of Education supervisors and school heads strategized teacher training support and Learning Action Cells facilitation. LACs are a “group-based intervention for improving teaching practice.” Through these programs “colleagues study content and pedagogies together, plan lessons collaboratively, and conduct action research as a group.” LACs are sustainable, low-cost ways to afford ongoing teacher development.

Basa Pilipinas has directly benefitted more than 1.6 million students, and 2 million more have been indirectly influenced. Evaluations of Basa Pilipinas in 2015 revealed the increased fluency of students by an additional nine words per minute as well as a 23 percent advancement in reading comprehension. And because most of the education reforms Basa imposed were on the systemic and teacher-training level, these dramatic improvements should only be the beginning of the progress in childhood literacy in the Philippines.

– Robin Lee

Photo: Flickr

,

Educating Children with Disabilities in Laos

Educating Children with Disabilities in Laos
Currently, there are 1 billion people worldwide who live with a disability, and 80 percent of those live in a developing country. To put things into perspective, 1 in every 7 people on this earth have a disability. It has been shown that poverty and disability are intrinsically linked. Those living in poverty are at higher risk of having a physical or intellectual impairment. This is due to factors such as unsafe living conditions and insufficient access to health services.

Unfortunately, the majority of people with disabilities have difficulty participating as equals in their communities and are oftentimes excluded or shunned. The cycle of poverty and disability can only be broken if the rights and needs of people with disabilities are addressed.

Laos, in particular, is a country that has started taking matters into its own hands. It has traditionally been difficult for international non-government organizations to work in Laos. However, Caritas Australia has been able to partner with the Lao Disabled Persons Association (LDPA), which helps both parents and teachers in developing the skills of children with disabilities in Laos.

LDPA is the most prominent and recognized disabled people’s organizations in Laos. These organizations work directly with and serve as a representative for persons with disabilities. In addition, they aim to educate the public about disability rights.

Due to the negative connotations associated with disability, Lao “society is more likely to abandon, ostracize or even hide children with disabilities.” Families receive little or no benefits from registering children with disabilities in Laos. Families who choose to hide a disabled member from authorities affect the government’s ability to improve legislation and living conditions.

That’s where Caritas Australia comes in. The organization believes that disabilities can be both a cause and a consequence of poverty. They aim to make sure all community development programs are accessible to people with disabilities. The organization also funds initiatives specific to people with disabilities to empower them to actively participate in community development and decision-making activities.

Specifically, the LDPA aims to support around 50 children with an intellectual disability attend a volunteer-run school. In addition to that, the association runs a series of workshops for parents and teachers of children with disabilities, led by specially-trained experts.

The Lao Disabled Persons Association’s main goal is to build the capacity of families and teachers to more effectively care for, educate and influence others on behalf of children with disabilities. Along with that, Caritas and LDPA work with parents and teachers towards providing consistency in areas such as behavioral management, teaching methods and social inclusion. Because very little is know about intellectual disability in Laos, the association is working to develop opportunities for schools and families to build a network for mutual support.

In 2010 the government began implementing the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability. This program is well positioned in order to build a growing awareness of disability issues in the country. Though the program is in its early stages, children, parents and teachers involved have already shown great interest and commitment.

LDPA is the first program of its kind in Laos and is currently limited to the Vientiane Province of Laos. However, the program has the potential to expand to other provinces through its wide network of disabled people’s organizations and its connections with the government.

– Keaton McCalla

Photo: Flickr

,

Rise Up Belize! Advances Education in Belize

Rise Up Belize! Advances Education in Belize
Rise Up Belize! is a nonprofit organization that promotes the educational development of Belizean children. Education in Belize is unique because all schools are tuition-based. Many children cannot afford to continue their education beyond the primary school level. Nearly 40 percent of the Central American country’s residents are under the age of 18. This places great importance on the education of its youngest citizens.

In 2014, 96.29 percent children of primary school age were enrolled in school. That same year, only 69.33 percent of students of secondary school age were enrolled. This drop of nearly 27 percent can be directly attributed to the fact that secondary school is not affordable for a significant number of families.

Joey Garcia is a writer who lives in Sacramento, California. She created Rise Up Belize! in 2004, after traveling to Belize City for a family funeral. Garcia was born in Belize and feels that the organization allows her to maintain a close relationship with her original homeland.

Each year, Rise Up Belize! selects ten high school girls from Sacramento to take part in an intensive leadership program. Over three to six months the students learn how to develop curricula, manage classrooms, raise funds and run a nonprofit organization. They also study cultural sensitivity and presentation skills.

After completing the leadership program, the girls travel to Belize where they run a week-long academic camp for fourth to sixth graders. The camp is free to attend and at the end of the week, each child leaves with a backpack filled with school supplies. Approximately 150 children attend Rise Up Belize! summer camps each year.

Rise Up Belize! also offers free professional development workshops for teachers. The three-day training program is run by Sacramento area teachers and psychotherapists who volunteer their time and expertise to help teachers in Belize hone their skills. More than 200 teachers in Belize have participated thus far.

Native Belizean students aged 13 to 16 who have completed primary school with a 2.5 GPA may apply for the Rise Up Belize! scholarship program.

Prospective recipients must have either attended a Rise Up Belize! summer camp or be recommended by a Rise Up Belize! staff member. The application process also requires students to write an essay that describes their dreams for themselves and for Belize. With so many young citizens, the future of the country certainly depends on the dreams of its students. Rise Up Belize! helps realize these ambitions by making secondary education in Belize accessible to more children.

– Kate Tilton

Photo: Flickr

Economist Jeffrey Sachs’ Call for Global Education Investment

Global Education
Macroeconomist and Columbia University professor Jeffrey Sachs has been hailed by Time Magazine as one of the 100 most influential world leaders of our time. Best known for his New York Times Bestseller “The End of Poverty,” Sachs recently published a statistically rich article on Project Syndicate calling for the U.S. to increase its support for global education.

Sachs is currently the director of the U.N. Sustainability Development Solutions Network. Sachs once optimistically claimed, “extreme poverty can be ended not in the time of our grandchildren, but in our time.” His call for increasing access to global education is expressed primarily in tandem with his focus on meeting the U.N. Sustainability Goals by 2030.

A Global Fund for Education (GFE), a coalition that would bring together wealthy countries to collaboratively provide financial assistance to countries that need it the most is, for Sachs, the essential key to doing so. Yet, Sachs’ presents startling statistics representing an enormous imbalance in U.S. priorities and an overt militarization in its defense strategy. Moreover, the numbers signal the United States’ negligence. in pursuing a successful strategy towards eradicating poverty.

According to Sachs, roughly $1 billion per year is spent on supporting global education where approximately $900 billion is spent on military-related programs. These military programs included in the sum constitute the Pentagon, CIA, Homeland Security, nuclear weapons systems and veterans’ programs.

Sachs claims that an extra $45 billion per year would guarantee children access to education, one that would allow them to be literate, and minimize risk from joining gangs, drug traffickers and jihadists — all elements that encourage a more dangerous global terrain.

In another article published on Project Syndicate, Financing Health and Education for All, Sachs claims that if the U.S. followed in the footsteps of Sweden, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and the United Kingdom in supporting health and education, the U.S. could add roughly $90 billion per year to global funding. The extra $45 billion per year then, would offer an easy and complete fix to the eradication of poverty by 2030.

The U.S. could also utilize $90 billion of the $900 billion allocated to military projects towards development aid. These steps would promote the U.S.’s national security as well as give the 200 million children currently out of school the opportunity to become literate and contribute to their own country’s economies.

The Global Fund for Education, if implemented, would allow low-income countries to submit proposals for support where if approved would receive both financial funds and monitoring of its implementation.

Bolstering educational systems and the world’s youth in an increasingly knowledge-based economy will increase the U.S.’s national security and alleviate poverty by 2030. Sachs’ optimism then is not misplaced — so long as the U.S. as well as other wealthy countries reform their strategies.

– Priscilla Son

Photo: Flickr