Archive for category: Education

Information and stories on education.

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How Sex Education in Guatemala is Transforming Lives

Sex Education in Guatemala
Guatemala has one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in Latin America. By age 20, 54 to 68 percent of indigenous or uneducated women have married or become pregnant.

This number is raised by a high rate of sexual abuse that boys and girls suffer: 10,000 cases are reported every year. One of the many reasons these statistics are so alarmingly high is a lack of comprehensive sex education in Guatemala. In 2012, only two percent of schools had effective programs; but fortunately, many advocates have worked to counteract these dismal statistics over the past few years.

Comprehensive sex education is incredibly beneficial to children of all genders. The National Survey of Family Growth discovered that pregnancy rates for 15 to 19-year-olds are 50 percent lower for teens who receive comprehensive sex education than for teenagers who received less education.

Guatemalan children need to be taught about contraceptives, STIs, HIV, pregnancy and especially consent. Programs should emphasize the goals of improved gender equality as well as increasing male involvement in family planning. These alterations would allow teenagers to have more control over their reproductive health as well as counteract the dangerous culture of violence and rape.

Fortunately, new legislation has paved the way for improvement. The 2010 Preventing through Education Act calls for comprehensive sex education in Guatemala and increases teenage access to sexual health services.

Sex educator Ana Lucía Ramazzini insists that “sex education cannot be successful in Guatemala without being taught from a feminist viewpoint that addresses consent, assault and the power dynamics and social inequalities between men and women.” Two other laws have been similarly positive — hospitals are now required to report pregnancies for girls under 14, and the marrying age with parental consent has been raised from 14 to 16.

Three years after the Prevention through Education Act, a program with gender equality views was incorporated into nine regions. After the 2010 law passed in Guatemala, the rate of teen pregnancy decreased from 90 births per 1000 women ages 15-19 to 81 births in 2014. While the statistic is not overtly dramatic, the steady decline does indeed bode well for the future.

Ten Guatemalan organizations and a handful of international organizations continue to transform sex education from bill to reality. UNAIDS works to educate people about HIV and decrease the stigma surrounding the condition for the 65,000 people in Guatemala who live with the disease and require treatment. Two Guatemalan organizations in particular, Asociacion Pro-Bienestar de la Familia de Guatemala (APROFAM) and Incide Joven, have done exceptional work in this field.

APROFAM is a family planning organization that serves Guatemala with 27 permanent clinics, five mobile facilities and a large number of community distributors. Their clinics and workshops provide education for both men and women about the effectiveness of contraceptives and family planning services. Using media from comic strips and television shows, they educate the public on both sexual health as well as issues of consent and abuse.

Incide Joven is a similar organization, but its uniqueness stems from the fact that it is entirely youth-run. Like APROFAM, Incide Joven is dedicated to making sex education available for teenagers. Their advocacy was very successful in creating the valuable Gender and Cultural Diversity office as part of the Ministry of Education to oversee new sex education. APROFAM and Incide Joben share sex educator Ana Ramazzini’s ideology by encouraging both genders to take an active role in family planning.

With such high rates of abuse and teenage pregnancy, sex education in Guatemala is a tough job. Fortunately, children are growing more aware of their rights and the risks of young sex. A 10-year-old listing off information about HIV at a UNAIDS event said that “[children] are very young for sex. Ah! And that our body is only ours and no one can touch it.”

The emphasis on consent in sex education in Guatemala not only builds a better-informed public, but it also is a large step in the right direction for female empowerment and youth rights.

– Jeanette Burke

Photo: Bustle

Making Education in Costa Rica High Quality and Accessible

Education in Costa Rica
Education in Costa Rica has come leaps and bounds from its past. The highly-rated education system in Costa Rica continues to lead Central and Latin America by example, striving to provide both highly accessible and high-quality education to all.

Costa Rica’s literacy rate is approximately 95 percent, one of the highest in Latin America. In 1869, the country was one of the first in the world to make primary education mandatory and free. Costa Rica is also one of the few countries in the world without a standing army, and part of the funds that would have been spent on the military is instead redirected to education.

According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), almost seven percent of the country’s GDP is spent on educational programs. The government has also issued a mandated goal for allocated funds to rise to eight percent by 2018. This percentage of GDP spending on education is exceeded only by Iceland, New Zealand and Denmark.

In the book, “The Ticos: Culture and Social Change in Costa Rica,” it is said that every Costa Rican pueblo is known to have five things: a local store, a football field, a church, a bar and a school. Some schools in the most rural parts of the country only have two students, but regardless of the number of children in the pueblo, they will always have access to education.

While accessible schooling for all children is a noble goal, the quality of education must also be upheld. The smaller the school, the fewer resources the school and its teachers have. Children in rural areas often miss days or weeks of school to work or ultimately drop out to help support their families.

According to the 2015 U.N. Development Programme’s Human Development Report, Costa Ricans spend an average of 8.4 years in school, and only 50.6 percent of the population receives at least some secondary school education.

While the necessary amount of money is being spent to ensure education in Costa Rica is a priority, according to the OECD the gap in educational outcomes based on family income has grown significantly larger in the past 20 years. It is critical that Costa Rica not only increases education funding but also focuses on how that money is spent, specifically by spreading resources more equitably across schools.

The Costa Rican Ministry of Education is working alongside UNICEF and other international organizations to confront the factors contributing to students permanently leaving school and to provide quality education to all.

“Yo me apunto” (“I’m in”) was launched in 2015 with the hope of encouraging students to stay in school and to reintegrate young adults back into school. The program reaches 155 schools and offers educational programs for students living in areas of poverty.

By continuing initiatives like “Yo me apunto” and increasing focus on establishing better educational outcomes, education in Costa Rica will continue to be an exemplary model for the rest of Latin and Central America and beyond.

– Erica Rawles

Photo: The Costa Rica News

Education in Singapore: Methods for Global Success

Education in Singapore
For the first time in history, Singapore has been named as having the top two universities in all of Asia. This includes the National University of Singapore, which rose 14 spots in the World University Rankings since 2012. The method for success goes back many generations, as education in Singapore instructs not only academics but teaches respect for authority and an understanding of the gravity of education.

Singapore, among other Asian nations, neared the top of the international league tables for over a decade. These tables measure child proficiency in reading, math, and science, with high scores showing the success of Singapore’s education system. Singapore’s education method is to approach classrooms with a highly-scripted way of teaching, making teachers ‘teach to the test’ instead of adapting to children’s different needs.

Students in Singapore ‘learn how to learn,’ a generally ineffective method that has been unusually successful in Singapore. Instead of checking the students’ level of understanding, teachers are instructed to check whether students can get the correct answer. The prescribed national curriculum sets the standard by which students learn, with little flexibility or deviation.

Singapore’s universities have been able to compete in the global economy by pouring financial support into research and strategically positioning each university. From the start, students are instructed on their expectations through primary, secondary and post-secondary education.

However, the first lessons students learn are how to know and how to love their country. By strengthening the pupils’ appreciation for their country, they then also appreciate the meaning of receiving an education.

Students in Singapore have been instructed since birth to follow the national and cultural standards that reproduce the instructional regime. Teachers instruct with a type of ‘folk pedagogy’ that reinforces the nature of their instruction, such as ‘teaching is talking and learning is listening.’ However, in recent years these policies have relaxed to lessen student stress.

Despite their unorthodox success, Singapore is realizing that balance is just as important as educational prowess. Education in Singapore has changed to accommodate more stress-relieving activities, such as white-water rafting, since experts in Singapore’s education system now aim to give students a more well-rounded life.

The goal is to move students from being academic-based people to leading emotionally-healthy lives, a change that should positively impact Singapore’s education system. With a combination of previous methods and these new changes, Singapore’s high status in education in Asia and around the globe should remain consistent.

– Amanda Panella

Photo: Pixabay

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Seven Facts About Education in Pakistan

education in pakistan
Proper education is crucial to the development of any country. Countries with excellent education systems like Finland, the Netherlands and Sweden have populations that generally live longer and have less violent conflict and poverty. This is why investment in education is critical for a stable state. While the country has shown improvement over the past decade, education in Pakistan has a long way to go.

  1. According to the most recent data published by UNICEF, the rate of youth literacy in Pakistan is a little over 60%. Meanwhile, the adult literacy rate is closer to 50% within the country.
  2. The number of terrorist attacks on educational institutions within Pakistan has increased in recent years. The Washington Post reports there were 82 attacks from 2000 to 2008, and 642 attacks from 2009 to 2013. The Tehrik-i-Taliban (TTP), established in 2007, has taken credit for many of these attacks. In 2014, seven gunmen killed over 150 people in a public school in Peshawar. The individuals responsible were found to have ties to the TTP. Through fear, these extremist organizations discourage people from living in Pakistan from receiving an education.
  3. In Pakistan, over half of the adolescents not enrolled in school are female. Young girls face many barriers to education within Pakistan, but none as significant as the threats of violence. In 2012, Malala Yousafzai became the face of Pakistan’s female education problem after she was brutally attacked by a Taliban militant for speaking out against the oppressive regime.
  4. The Malala Fund, co-founded by Malala Yousafzai, is dedicated to helping girls receive an education. The organization helps to rebuild schools and increase female enrollment within vulnerable Pakistani and global communities.
  5. Pakistan’s constitution ensures the right to education for children between the ages of five and 16. However, government expenditure on education accounts for only two percent of the country’s total GDP according to the most recent data. Consequentially, schools are filled with unqualified teachers and crumbling infrastructure.
  6. Families living in poverty often rely on their children to contribute to the household’s income. Unfortunately, this responsibility can impede upon their ability to attend school.
  7. USAID has made a significant impact on education in Pakistan through its aid efforts. In addition to providing scholarships, the government agency has helped to repair over 1,000 schools and train thousands of teachers.

Pakistan continues to struggle with a variety of issues including poverty and national security. The country’s instability has taken a toll on its education system, but with the help of the international community, there is hope for substantial change within the country.

– Saroja Koneru

 

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Gov’t Supports School Programs to Reduce Hunger in Jamaica

Hunger in Jamaica

Hunger in Jamaica has improved tremendously among primary and early childhood students with the various programs and strategies implemented by The Program of Advancement through Health and Education (PATH) and the School Feeding Program (SFP).

The Program of Advancement through Health and Education (PATH) enabled by the Government of Jamaica (GOF) continues to play an integral role in providing free lunches for primary school students with the aim of improving the nutrition of vulnerable children and eradicating hunger in Jamaica with Early Childhood students being the target group.

The Hon. Rev Ronald Thwaites in his presentation of the 2015-2016 sectoral debate revealed the aim of the Ministry of Education to expand the breakfast programs in schools initiated to provide free breakfast for 138,000 students inclusive of PATH beneficiaries.

The Ministry assigned J$2.2 billion to this program. The SFP in partnership with the Nutrition Products Limited (NPL) breakfast solutions ensures that all meals are made from local agricultural products.

Board Chairman of Nutrition Products Limited James E.D. Rawle gave a synopsis of the various products offered in the NPL Annual Report, “Segments of the Early Childhood Cohort, inclusive of hot solution (porridge), sandwiches, muffins, breads, cakes and an improved juice drink, made utilizing locally produced fruit puree”.

The NPL has provided breakfast solutions to 12,000 designated children located in Kingston & St Andrew, St Thomas, St Catherine and Clarendon each day. This initiative has helped to reduce hunger in Jamaica among students in Primary level institutions.

The SFP provides additional Nutribun snacks for these students in line with the strategy Ministry of Education to spend approximately 20 percent of the school feeding budget of J$4.6 billion on locally grown products. The Ministry intends to achieve 50 percent in three years.

The Hon. Rev Ronald Thwaites revealed that 40 percent of children lack proper nutrition and another 30 percent experience hunger on a daily basis.

“Providing nutrition in schools is adding value to the lives of our young children and the brightening of their prospects,” said Thwaites. This step towards improving the nutrition of Early Childhood students via proper victuals is a resourceful means by the GOF to improve hunger In Jamaica.

– Shanique Wright

Photo: Flickr

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The Success of Public Education in Georgia: Is It Enough?

Education in Georgia
In the years following independence from the Soviet Union, the country of Georgia faced a variety of challenges from natural disasters to political unrest. Times were tumultuous for over a decade, but in 2003, the year of the Rose Revolution, a new dawn broke for the nation. A new government arose and enacted many new programs — some of which address the ever-present issue of public education in Georgia.

Although the national plan for education in Georgia direly needed a make-over by the turn of the twenty-first century, the system had not yet become a hopeless case. All age groups within the country were evaluated with over 98% literacy, but it was usually only basic literacy with very few individuals making it to higher levels of education.

This phenomenon of widespread but low-level education can be attributed to the inefficiency and low quality of the public education programs. Ultimately, families did not feel that it was worth their time to put their children through more than the minimum required years of education.

After primary education, the government would no longer support the entirety of a student’s tuition; thus, to continue on in education, the child and his or her family would need to pay a good portion of tuition — funding that few families had to spare.

Shortly after the Rose Revolution, the newly appointed government developed a plan that would allow for the growth of a more efficient and cohesive education system.

The bill passed through the Georgian legislature was dubbed the Law on General Education, and it opened up services that the Georgian public had previously been unable to access. This new law established equal treatment for ethnic and linguistic minorities, ensuring that all could receive a free education to the newly raised requirement of the ninth grade. It also gave more local power to families to elect the principal of their child’s school, and be privy to other rights that had previously been unavailable.

With this new focus on issues surrounding public education, the government has improved many services, such as vocational training and higher education, which are now also more readily available to the public.

A great number of children enter the fifth grade, but there are unfortunately many students who do not make it past the primary levels of education. Generally, due to poverty, two percent of primary-aged children are compelled to drop out of their educational endeavors before completing their primary education.

Many see the drop-out rate due to poverty as a self-perpetuating problem. The Bertelsmann Stiftung’s Transformation Index (BTI) states that, “Households in which adults have better education are less likely to be poor.”

The key drivers of social exclusion include “low education attainment levels among household members, unemployment, lack of land ownership, lack of access to health care, lack of access to loans or credit and lack of social assistance.”

To address this prevalent issue, and to better retain and educate its students, the Georgian government has increased its spending on public education by 43% over recent years. The effort is commendable, but the BTI argues that improvement needs to increase even more in order to keep up with prevailing economic issues and bolster the educational infrastructure of the country.

With an increased amount of students graduating from secondary education, the government will soon need to provide stipends to graduates for further education in institutions of higher learning.

The issues facing the growing sector of public education in Georgia are many, but various international organizations are optimistic for the emphasis placed on education reform by the Georgian government.

With its limited resources, these global figureheads agree that it is key that Georgia puts a high priority on developing its human capital, and in this way, secure the long-term progress of the country.

– Preston Rust

Photo: Pixabay

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4 Influential Humanitarian Athletes

Humanitarian Athletes
Athletes spend numerous hours during the week training and preparing for their next matches, games and adventures. Through their unmatched hard work, they are able to capture titles while simultaneously building a career and global fame.

Going above and beyond, many athletes use their popular status and successful careers to improve the world around them. These four humanitarian athletes utilize their fame and the small amount of free time they have to contribute to global charities.

  1. Cristiano Ronaldo (Professional Soccer Forward)
    Ronaldo is known as one of the most generous athletes in the world. He often donates his bonus checks and portions of his salary to various charities and countries in need of reconstruction and help. For example, he donates millions of dollars to foundations like UNICEF and “World Vision,” which aim to enhance the lives of children in impoverished countries through the enhancement of health and education. When he’s not sweating on the field, he also takes time to physically participate in fundraising campaigns.
  2. Serena Williams (Professional Tennis Player)
    When Williams isn’t grinding on the court winning grand slams, she’s looking to improve the status of the world’s poor. She was named a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 2011 because of her commitment to helping the youth around the globe. In 2010, Williams announced the New Schools for Asia Campaign under UNICEF, which looks to provide children in the Asia-Pacific area with schooling. Around the world, there are 67 million people who are not enrolled in school. Of those 67 million people, 26 million live in the Asia-Pacific area. UNICEF’s executive director talked about Serena, explaining that she “isn’t just a tennis champion, she is a champion for children—and a passionate advocate for providing every child with a quality education.”
  3. David Beckham (Professional Soccer Midfielder)
    Beckham was also appointed a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. His focus under UNICEF is the Unite Against AIDS campaign. After visiting Sierra Leone in 2007, he said, “In Sierra Leone, one in four children dies before reaching their fifth birthday – it’s shocking and tragic especially when the solutions are simple – things like vaccinations against measles or using a mosquito net to reduce the chance of getting malaria.” Beckham hopes to draw attention to the safety and health of children through his global presence.
  4. Jessica Watson (Sailor)
    Watson is known for circumnavigating the globe solo at the age of 16. Now at the age of 23, she continues to the explore the world as a representative for the World Food Program. This humanitarian athlete focuses her time and energy on Laos, saying, “At age 16 I achieved my dream. I want the school children in Laos to be able to achieve their dream. And stopping hunger is the first step in that process.”

Watson works with the School Meals program, making sure that kids in school are able to eat a nutritious meal every day. Global hunger affects 1 out of 7 people in the world. Jessica Watson, along with the World Food Program, aims to help 80 million people in 80 different countries combat lack of food.

These four humanitarian athletes have been able to use their global status to make a positive difference. By representing various foundations, they are not only able to raise awareness of global crises to fans around the world, but their use of fame also makes fighting global poverty a little easier.

– Casey Marx

Photo: Flickr

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Inheriting Poverty and How Education Can Break the Cycle

Inheriting Poverty

Thanks to the global push kick-started by the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals to eradicate poverty by 2030, 1 billion fewer people live in extreme poverty than 20 years ago. However, the high probability of inheriting poverty is a major obstacle in the effort to cultivate a poverty-free generation.

According to Eurostat, the transmission of poverty is higher than the transmission of being able to rise above poverty, with transmission rates of 68.9 percent and 55.9 percent respectively.

While having low-income parents and experiencing material deprivation play a significant role in determining poverty transmission, complex social and health conditions are also leading causes of lowered investment in children’s futures and, consequently, higher child poverty rates.

Inheriting poverty is particularly common in the developing world where high fertility rates and infant mortality rates lead to lower investment in children’s health and education, according to a report by Save the Children U.K.

Additionally, the immediate economic pressures on low-income households often lead to reliance on children to leave school and enter the labor force at an early age. As a result, attaining higher education is devalued which further contributes to the cycle of poverty and low academic achievement.

Currently, half of all countries have no data on child poverty but looking at primary school enrollment may be the key to identifying those most at-risk of inheriting poverty.

In one survey of primary school enrollment in Bangladesh, researchers found that nearly one-fifth of all children had not enrolled in school at all — the majority of which consisted of children from poor households.

Boys from low-income households were the most at-risk of leaving school early or not entering at all due to the perception of school as an indulgence that is only afforded by the very young and “those whose labor is of little alternative value,” according to Save the Children U.K.

Beyond Bangladesh, analyzing enrollment rates is a useful indicator of child poverty that can be applied globally to allocate education resources in regions that need them most.

A parent’s level of education also has a strong influence over their children’s highest level of education. According to Eurostat, the transmission of a low level of education is 34.2 percent, 59.2 percent for a medium level and 63.4 percent for a high level.

Although the transmission rate of a low level of education is the smallest of the three education levels, respondents in the studies that had a low level of education were more likely to have also had parents with a low level of education (34.2 percent) in contrast to those who had parents with a high level of education (3.4 percent).

Increasing parental income may be one solution to lowering the transmission of low educational attainment. Research by Barnardos reveals that for every 1 percent increase in a parent’s income, their child’s math and reading scores increase by 4 percent.

Ensuring equitable and free access to education is the next step to breaking the cycle of inherited poverty. The economic benefits of guaranteeing children from low-income households access to education far outweigh the cost of having an educated population.

As UNICEF aptly stated in a 2012 report, “a commitment to protecting children from poverty is, therefore, more than a slogan or a routine inclusion in a political manifesto; it is the hallmark of a civilized society.”

– Daniela Sarabia

Photo: Pixabay

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UNESCO Education Study: 263 Million Children out of School

UNESCO Education Study

On July 15, a UNESCO education study found that 263 million youth and children worldwide do not attend school.

This group is comprised of about 61 million children of primary school age (6-11 years), 60 million of lower secondary age (12-14) and 142 million of upper secondary age (15-17). Most of these children reside in sub-Saharan Africa, where over a fifth of children of primary school age, a third of children of lower secondary age and nearly 60 percent of youths of upper secondary age were found to be out of school.

Out-of-school rates are particularly high among youth age 15-17 because in many countries, although primary and lower secondary schooling is mandatory, upper secondary schooling is not. Furthermore, youth in this age group are often of legal working age and must choose between employment and education. Those living in poverty often pick the former option in order to provide for their families.

In addition to wealth, other barriers to education include location, armed conflict and sex. Girls are less likely than boys to attend school. The study found that 15 million girls of primary school age will never have the opportunity to attend school; only 10 million boys will face the same predicament. More than half of these girls live in sub-Saharan Africa.

Although the numbers are shocking, they are still better than those from 2000, when 374.7 million children and youth were out of school. Progress has been made, but the results of the UNESCO education study show that there is much more work to be done.

This is especially true considering the pledge that more than 160 countries made at the 2015 World Education Forum in Incheon, South Korea. At the meeting, leaders promised to provide all girls and boys with quality and publicly funded primary and secondary education by the year 2030, a goal that is still far from actualization.

Education has always been inextricably linked to development. Quality education decreases poverty, promotes health and provides economic growth. Improving education is the key to creating more sustainable societies.

– Ugochi Ihenatu

Photo: Pixabay

Focusing on Education for The Day of the African Child

The day of the African child
Since 1991, The Day of the African Child has been celebrated as an opportunity to advance African children’s rights. The day commemorates African students who were killed by police in a 1976 demonstration in Soweto, South Africa to protest education injustice.

The official theme of this year’s celebration, “Conflict and Crisis in Africa: Protecting All Children’s Rights,” recognizes that conflict, natural disaster and disease currently affect 500 million children worldwide. The Day of the African Child (DAC) events have centered on promoting access to education but this year there was a focus on how access is jeopardized by conflict.

According to the UNICEF All in School initiative, 36 percent of the primary-school age children who are not attending school are prevented by their residence in conflict-affected areas. Overall, this accounts for 59.3 million children. The damage to structures and infrastructure makes it difficult for African children who live in conflict zones to attend school.

According to a recent African Union report, Africa remains the most conflict-prone continent in the world. Approximately 57 million children in the world do not attend school and 30 million of those children are in sub-Saharan Africa. Living in a conflict zone not only makes attending school unsafe but also affects children’s emotional health.

The 2016 DAC celebration took place at more than 100 events worldwide thanks to partnerships with organizations like A World at School, which utilizes a network of global youth ambassadors and faith-based groups to accelerate progress in education.

This year 500 young people from around Africa staged a ‘youth takeover’ at Ethiopia’s Africa Union, in Addis Ababa for the DAC. Youth ambassadors played a key role in the celebration and promoting the message.

The African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child provides member states with outlined suggestions for observing the DAC. Their recommendations further push the goals of the celebration by providing outlines of current conflict contexts in Africa, how they impact children and best practice for mitigating the impact.

The importance afforded to three decades of DAC and its worldwide events provides hope for the situation of children across Africa. While the struggles they face are remarkably diverse, more equitable access to education remains a priority.

– Charlotte Bellomy
Photo: Pixabay