Archive for category: Education

Information and stories on education.

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US Spends Millions on ‘Ghost Schools’ in Afghanistan

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Since 2001, enrollment numbers for education in Afghanistan have increased due to international aid for ‘ghost schools’ from the U.S. as well as other world governments. In 2013, USAID reported that attendance reached eight million students—an immense increase from the 900,000 students in 2002.

So far, the U.S. has spent $769 million on education and ghost schools in Afghanistan in order to increase the number of schools, teachers and students. However, recent reports show the number of students enrolled may be exaggerated, causing many people to question if taxpayer dollars are being wasted.

Canada is not concerned with the allegations and believes the aid makes a difference in enrollment numbers along with the construction of new schools. So how many ‘ghost students’ are attending school?

John Sopko, U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, reported that Afghan officials counted absent students for enrollment. According to Sopko, the number of absent students in 2014 listed as “enrolled” was 1.55 million students, which means enrollment figures have still increased since 2001.

Despite the allegations or possible exaggerations, aid to education in Afghanistan is still an effective way to increase primary school enrollment numbers.

The U.S. has only spent one percent of its total rebuilding budget in Afghanistan on education. In that time, more than 13,000 schools have been built with the help of USAID and other donors. More than 180,000 teachers have been trained to support higher enrollment for school-aged children. Literacy rates in Afghanistan have increased by five percent since 2008 and about 38 percent of the population above the age of 15 is literate.

Any allegation about false data in the enrollment numbers for education in Afghanistan needs to be taken seriously, but not without recognizing the many successes created in Afghanistan’s education system.

There are many challenges to setting up an efficient educational system in Afghanistan that is sustainable. Due to low economic output and U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan, it is a more difficult environment to work in.

USAID and the World Bank have been working with the Ministry of Education to improve data reliability and improve education policies. The National Education Strategic Plan III that runs from 2014 to 2020 strives to improve education through areas such as General Education, Science and Technology and Teacher Education.

In order to protect investments and the improvements of education in Afghanistan, USAID and other organizations committed to education need to improve the way that data is reported. Also, Aid needs to continue in order to help rebuild Afghanistan and improve the lives of school-aged children within the country.

– Donald Gering

Sources: Globe and Mail, NBC News, NPR, Social Progress Imperative, USAID, Vice News
Photo: The Huffington Post

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Schools in Kenya to Receive Free Internet

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Wananchi Group, the leading organization in terms of providing connectivity for the middle class in East Africa, is helping to install high-speed Internet at schools in Kenya.

Partnering with the Kenya Education Network, or KENET, and the County Government of Nairobi, the group is helping to give over 2,700 schools in Nairobi County unlimited access to the outside world at no cost.

The 15-month pilot program began in April 2014, with 245 schools receiving access to the network. Wananchi Group used the first three months to install the high-speed Internet at schools in Kenya, with the next 12 months being used to evaluate the progress of the program.

The group invested $2 million to provide Internet to the schools, most of which are private. The expectation is that students will be able to use the network to retrieve information from different parts of the world.

Wananchi Group will also provide a digital set top box to each school, which can be connected to a television that can deliver audio content to students. Pre-primary kindergartens will also be provided with a television to go with the digital set top box.

The initiative came after the Kenyan Government launched the National Broadband Strategy with the hope of making a “digital Kenya.” The strategy is helping to create a knowledge-based economy in the East African nation.

– Matt Wotus

Sources: IT News Africa, Wananchi Group
Photo: OPIC

How an Education Boom is Causing an Economic Boom in Africa

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Though millions of African children still attend school in run-down, shack-like buildings, rising income across the continent of Africa has created a new consumer class— one that is willing to pay for a better education.

Sub-Saharan African countries consistently rank among the lowest in the world for the overall quality of their education system, according to the World Economic Forum. Though increasing numbers of children are attending school, the lackluster curriculums leave many prepared for little more than manual labor.

But as incomes rise, more and more African families are willing to pay, sometimes thousands of dollars, for their children to receive a high quality education at a private school.

According to Reuters, the private education sector in Africa has advanced at breakneck speeds over the last two decades, with some investors more than tripling their initial investments. Private schools can range in cost anywhere from $2,000 to $16,000 annually, says Reuters.

A report by South Africa’s Centre for Development and Enterprise released last month found that over the last 15 years, private or independent school attendance in South Africa has doubled. Though the price tag is high, the dramatic increase shows a demand for better education in Africa.

The booming private sector has drawn the attention of foreign investors from around the globe, including Britain-based Pearson and Dubai-based Gems Education. With so many of the schools already in place and pulling in large profits, Gems Education said they plan to open additional low-cost schools in an interview with The Guardian.

Private schools help meet the educational demands when the governments of impoverished regions cannot afford the investment. Though the overall school attendance in Sub-Saharan Africa is among the lowest in the world, in the last two decades, even the most impoverished regions have seen school attendance nearly triple, according to The World Bank’s “world development indicators.”

However, the boom isn’t restricted to the education sector. As more and more young Africans are receiving higher education, the demand for better paying jobs is on the rise and the growing availability of skilled laborers leaves the door open for investors interested in expanding into new regions. For example, Facebook recently announced it will be opening an office in South Africa this year. In this way, the education boom is sparking an economic boom in Africa.

– Gina Lehner

Sources: Reuters, The Guardian, The World Bank
Photo: The Guardian

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Why Brain Drain Hurts a Developing Nation

Why Does Brain Drain Hurt a Developing Nation

There is a general consensus that developing education is an incredibly important factor to reducing poverty. After an individual receives their education, that person may stay in their home country for a while, but if the economy is too depressed, they may move abroad to work. When this happens, countries are said to have experienced a “brain drain,” or “the migration of health personnel in search of the better standard of living and quality of life, higher salaries, access to advanced technology and more stable political conditions in different places worldwide,” according to the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine.

While brain drain, or human capital flight, usually consists of health personnel, it can also include any person in any highly skilled field.

Brain drain has its benefits for individuals and drawbacks for the developing nation that the individual is leaving. For the worker, leaving for a more developed country has proven to have great benefits. That worker tends to have higher productivity, can usually research and publish more in their field, earn a higher salary, and even send money back to any family in their native home. In short, the individual has used his or her training to move out of a poverty situation and create a better life for their family.

However, for the nation that is left, brain drain results in many gaps in vital industries.

Puerto Rico is suffering from a cycle of poverty that brain drain has helped perpetuate. The migration of skilled workers did not cause the economic problems, yet the problems are more difficult to solve when highly skilled professionals, especially healthcare workers, leave the country.

Haiti has also seen a shortage of workers after having a brain drain: “Healthcare is a contributing factor to brain drain because the pay to healthcare professionals such as doctors and nurses, who are lacking in accessibility, is lower than in other countries. Another contributor to brain drain is education, because the education system is poor—not only do few individuals acquire a post-secondary education, there are few opportunities to advance in specialized fields of interest and conduct meaningful research.

Even more developed countries are seeing the effects of healthcare workers leaving unstable economies. Greece is currently feeling the results of brain drain as more and more healthcare workers are leaving for Germany in the wake of economic unrest. If this continues to spiral, there will be a massive healthcare shortage.

What can be done to stop brain drain? Well, it may never completely stop until economies, schools and healthcare facilities are made better in developing countries. Unless healthcare professionals and other skilled workers are given a financial or educational reason to stay, brain drain will continue to occur.

Some good is being done to stop brain drain in Haiti through the work of the University of the People. They are working to help some students gain education with the hopes that those students will stay in the country and become leaders.

Developing nations need more initiatives like this to help keep skilled workers from leaving.

– Megan Ivy

Sources: Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, New York Times, U.N., University of the People, University of Maryland
Photo: TheAtlantic

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Good School Toolkit Reduces Violence in Uganda

Good School Toolkit Reduces Violence in Uganda-TBP
In the Luwero District of Uganda, the nonprofit organization Raising Voices has implemented the Good School Toolkit in local schools in the hopes of combating violence in educational environments. It was developed as a direct response to the fact that 60% of schoolchildren in Uganda experience continuous violence at school.

The toolkit consists of three packages to guide schools through steps to establish safe and nurturing learning spaces. These packages include information about what it means to be a good teacher, strategies for positive discipline in lieu of the traditional corporal punishment and methods to develop a healthy school culture for all children.

It is accessible and effective because it does not require any monetary expense. The kit relies on the determination of students and teachers to improve the school environment; without their motivation and effort, little to no improvement will be seen. A few of the tools include posters and cartoon booklets that explain how to discipline children in a positive manner to avoid a culture of violence.

The followup study of this program indicated significant changes in the 450 schools that have used the toolkit. There was a 42% reduction of the risk of physical violence by teachers and staff against children. In addition, children were more likely to associate positively with their school, with increased feelings of safety and belonging.

Raising Voices, in partnership with the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Makerere University and the Luwero District Education Department, believe that the project created significant change because of shifts in teacher-student relationships, opportunities for student participation and accountability of the school administration.

Moving forward, there is an opportunity for the Ministry of Education and Sports to implement the toolkit in all Ugandan schools. A reduction in violence in schools may correspond with reduced violence in family homes, ultimately fostering healthier, more productive lives in Uganda.

– Iliana Lang

Sources: The Lancet, Raising Voices
Photo: Raising Voices

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With Successes Come Education Struggles

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There have been many successes for girl’s education in the developing world. Challenges remain, however, creating a puzzle for problem solvers around the world.

Girls face many more education struggles than boys do. This is especially the case during puberty. For one girl living in Uganda who wants to be a doctor, lack of proper toilets causes embarrassment and results in missed days at school. “Some toilets don’t have doors and so we fear to enter as people can see or enter the toilets at any time. At the toilets, they don’t have water to flush or wash, and so it’s complicated to attend school when I have my period.”

While some might think this is a minor issue in the grand scheme of things, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization or UNESCO has found differently. One in 10 girls across Africa miss school during their period. Half of girls attending school in Ethiopia miss between one and four days of school a month because of menstruation.

In India, the problem is even worse. Sixty-six percent of schools there do not have functioning toilets. Without private toilets, girls’ health is put at risk. Coupled with the stigma and taboos associated with menstruation and periods, and the result is often that girls drop out of school in the developing world.

Another issue that also affects girls’ education in Africa is child marriage. Every year, 15 million girls 18 or under marry. In Sub-Saharan Africa, 40 percent are married before 18, and 12 percent before they are even 15. In Chad, the number of girls married under age 15 jumps to 29 percent. Even with minimum age laws, marriages still go ahead with parental consent.

This has implications for young women’s education. Once they are married, they are expected to fulfill duties at home which leaves them with them no time to pursue their studies. This begins a vicious circle: without education girls are not informed of their rights and are able to act on them.

Despite these challenges, there have been huge gains in education for girls around the developing world. By 2012, most countries had reached the Millennium Development Goal target of girls primary education parity with boys. For many countries this meant that for every 100 boys, 97 girls also attended primary school.

However, even in this victory lies a caveat – not all countries have actually reached full parity. Sub-Saharan Africa enrollment rate for primary school-aged girls was still languishing at 75 percent in 2010. “Three-quarters of the countries that have not achieved parity at the primary level enroll more boys than girls at the start of the school cycle.” To equalize enrollment at the beginnings of school years would be to achieve parity.

Afghanistan stands out as a beacon of success when it comes to girls’ education, especially with the Taliban influence in the area that discourages girls in school. Girls enrollment in 2014 reached 3.75 million girls. In 2002, only 191,000 were enrolled.

While there are still big problems girls face around the developing world when it comes to attending school, it is important to acknowledge the victories. More work is needed but if progress continues, more successes will come.

– Gregory Baker

Sources: The Guardian 1, The Guardian 2, The Guardian 3, The Guardian 4, The Guardian 5, UN Women
Photo: The Better India

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Michelle Obama Launches Global Education Campaign

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At a luncheon on June 29, Michelle Obama announced the introduction of an international global education campaign called “Let Girls Learn,” focuses on educating adolescent girls worldwide.

To begin her speech, Obama said that about 31 million young girls around the world are not in school. Many of these girls lead difficult lives because of the lack of sufficient education in their area. Girls who are not educated are more susceptible to HIV/AIDS and other life-threatening diseases. They are less likely to build successful lives for themselves without proper education.

Bendu Fafana, a young girl from Bong Country, Liberia, said that attending school was challenging for her because her father was not present in her life and her mother had passed away.

“I dropped from school because I was not getting any support,” Fafana said.

In a video presented by the White House, President Barack Obama said that there are studies that prove that educated girls are much less likely to get married early. Not only will their future children be healthier, but the family will have a better chance at a job that creates sufficient income for the children. This creates a chain of healthy living, which can generate better-functioning societies that lead to greater opportunities for economic growth for both developing and developed countries.

Michelle Obama said that “Let Girls Learn” will provide volunteers from groups like the U.S. Peace Corps to work with local leaders to bring education to girls like Fafana. She also said that “Let Girls Learn” is not only a philanthropic aspiration, but is also vital for foreign policy and international development.

Not only will this endeavor help the U.S. economically, but this opportunity can also help produce worldwide equality. Obama said that economic obstacles are not the only things that inhibit girls from receiving schooling: much of the problem is about views and cultures.

“It’s about whether societies cling to laws and traditions that oppress women,” she said.

“Let Girls Learn” will fund a program in North Africa and the Middle East that will encourage the native girls to learn about social issues in their communities and societies. The campaign will also provide a space that will encourage girls to reflect upon human rights and democracy. In addition, the initiative will contribute to organizations against gender-based violence.

With help from USAID, the U.S. Department of State, the Millennium Challenge Corporation and the U.S. Peace Corps, “Let Girls Learn” will increase efforts to produce tactical partnerships and political goals that will help adolescent girls succeed.

Alexa Ofori, a Peace Corps Volunteer in Cambodia, gave her thoughts about one of the goals of “Let Girls Learn.”

“Girl empowerment is for a girl to be able to have the self-esteem and, really, the confidence to be able to feel like they can do anything they put their minds to,” she said.

This education plan includes these programs and at least 24 others that will provide information about proper health and nutrition, prevent child, early and forced marriage, ensure safety for young children and, of course, deliver education to areas without.

Learn more about Let Girls Learn.

– Fallon Lineberger

Sources: My San Antonio, White House 1, White House 2
Photo: Share America

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Should I Sign the Up for School Petition?

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At the time of this posting, eight million people and counting have signed the Up for School Petition. These people want to make sure that children all over the world get an education — a good one. One that will help end the cycle of poverty.

This includes children displaced due to natural disasters or wars. This includes children living in poverty so bad that their parents cannot afford to send them to school, and the children themselves are forced to work. This includes girls who are married off as children or who are unmarried but get pregnant while still of primary or secondary school age or who have their period but no appropriate way to take care of the blood.

Up for School, a petition sponsored by A World at School, demands government leaders to fulfill their promise made at the U.N. in 2000, which guarantees all out-of-school children will be in school before the end of 2015. As Hellen Griberg, A World at School Global Youth Ambassador, reminded world leaders of the Up for School Petition at the Oslo Summit for Education Development on July 7, 2015, “We know that nothing changes without pressure. Therefore, we have been building support in every corner of the world.”

In 2000, 102 million primary school children were out of school. By 2011, the number dropped to 57 million. Progress was being made in developing countries. Primary school enrollment reached 90 percent. Literacy rates were on the rise and gender gaps were narrowing. In 2012, however, the number started rising again to 58 million children out of school. The number is still rising and has now reached 59 million.

Along with this increase in numbers is a decrease in funding. International aid to basic education started falling in 2011 for the first time since 2002. In 2014, only one percent of overall humanitarian aid went to education. Now progress is stalling, placing the 2015 target at great risk.

Yet education is crucial to overcoming poverty. The United Nations Children’s Fund considers education to be critical in achieving all the Millennium Development Goals. Education provides future generations with the tools to fight poverty, disease and gender disparity — all issues that need work in order for the world to improve the environment, the economy and our security. From the midst of today’s primary school children, our future leaders will emerge — our educators, doctors, scientists, economists, heads of state and all the others who will be needed to support a developed world. We may not know them by name now, but one day they will be making decisions about our world.

“Sometimes we wait for others and think that a Martin Luther [sic] should raise [sic] among us, a Nelson Mandela should raise [sic] among us and speak up for us. But we never realize that there are normal humans like us, and if we step forward, we can also bring change just like them,” asserted the Nobel laureate, Malala Yousafzai, on the June 18, 2015 airing of The Daily Show. Yousafzai is the survivor of the Taliban’s assassination attempt in 2012 for openly supporting girls’ right to education.

Why should I sign the Up for School Petition? I cannot think of a reason why anyone should not — or cannot. Most of us may not have had a voice at the Oslo Summit for Education Development on July 6-7, 2015 or at the International Conference on Financing for Development in Ethiopia on July 13-16, 2015. We also will not have the opportunity to speak at the U.N. Summit to adopt the post-2015 development agenda on September 25-27, 2015. What we can do, though, is visit the Up For School Petition website to sign the petition now. I just did. It took three minutes.

– Janet Quinn

Sources: United Nations 1, United Nations 2 UNICEF, UpWorthy, A World at School 1, A World at School 2
Photo: A World at School

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The Global Teacher Shortage Crisis

Teacher-Shortage
There have been huge gains in global education recently. Schools have been built, enrollment numbers have soared and equality has risen. While much of the focus has been on these factors – schools and teachers – there is another that needs more attention.

Teachers. Love or hate them, they are key to education anywhere. But there is a problem associated with them in the developing world: there are not enough of them in many places. Ninety-three countries around the world do not have enough teachers. United Nations estimates suggested that the world needed four million teachers by this year in order to meet the 2015 Millennium Development Goal of primary education for all. Of this four million, 2.6 million were needed to replace teachers either retiring from or quitting the profession.

Even more teachers will be needed for the next round of development targets set for 2030. Up to 27 million teachers are needed to meet the goal of universal primary education for all by 2030. India alone will require three million new teachers and Sub-Saharan Africa will need 6.2 million.

One issue that comes with the need for more teachers, is that for every teacher trained and put to work, more children are born. This is especially true in Africa, where many country’s populations are expected to explode if they are not already. For every 100 primary school-aged children in 2012, there will be 147 in 2030. This is why out of the 6.2 million new teachers needed, 2.3 million will be completely new positions at schools around Africa. This presents another problem: to pay for all these new teachers, $5.2 billion will be needed for their salaries.

Fueled by desperation for more teachers, many countries fail to train their teachers to the required standards. One in three countries with data available shows “less than 75 percent of primary school teachers were trained according to national standards; and less than 50 percent in Angola, Benin, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Senegal and South Sudan.” This means that for every one trained teacher in Chad, there are 101 students. In the Central African Republic, the ratio is even worse: 138 students for every trained teacher

It could be said that simply training teachers and putting them into school is not actually that daunting of a task. But the real issue at the root of the global teacher shortage is the rate that teachers are leaving the profession. Teaching in the developing world, where survival comes before everything, the pay is not enough. It is for this reason that 24 of the 28 million teachers needed by 2030 will serve to replace other teachers leaving the profession for.

To combat this, countries are trying a whole range of different tactics. In Indonesia and Benin, the governments have raised teachers to civil service status, and in Korea seasoned teachers are enticed to stay with salaries more than double what new teachers make.

Addressing the global teacher shortage is extremely important in the fight against poverty. Education is a gateway out of destitution, but more properly trained teachers are essential for this to be true. “An education system is only as good as its teachers.”

– Greg Baker

Sources: Worldwide Learn, BBC, The Guardian, UNESCO
Photo: The Recruiting Times

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Students Slowly Returning to School in South Sudan

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Decades of conflict have denied millions the right to education in South Sudan. Currently, about one million primary school-age children are not in school, and only 10% of those who enter actually complete a primary school education. Seventy percent of children ages 6 to 17 have never attended school at all, and gender and wealth gaps play a huge role in preventing some children from ever accessing education.

Even before violence broke out across the young nation in December 2013, schools were basic and ineffective. But now, the situation is even more dire—in the worst effected states of Jonglei, Upper Nile and Unity, 70% of the schools have closed. In some counties, no schools are currently open.

Five decades of civil war left a generation of adults who never had the opportunity to attend school in South Sudan. This is one major factor behind South Sudan’s adult literacy rate of 27%—one of the worst in the world. Only 2% of the adult population has completed primary school, meaning that many teachers in South Sudan never received a comprehensive education themselves. This has resulted in poor quality of instruction and a lack of official training in areas such as effective classroom management. Furthermore, schools themselves lacked important resources, from sturdy building materials, to textbooks.

Violence over the past year and a half has worsened the situation. Soldiers have re-purposed school buildings, and there is a deficit of teachers. Some teachers have been killed or forced to flee, while others have become involved in the conflict. 400,000 children have been forced out of school. Many have been displaced due to the violence, and when they fled for their safety, they had no choice but to put their education on hold.

In April 2006, the government’s “Go to School” initiative—one of the world’s most rapid reconstruction programs—enabled more than 1.6 million children to enroll in school, but the conflict has reversed some of this progress. Recent surveys have shown that citizens see education as a top priority, as it could be a path to peace for the country, and many groups are still working to improve the education system in South Sudan.

UNICEF began their Back to Learning Campaign in South Sudan in November 2014, and they have reached 121,000 children so far. They hope to reach 400,000 by December 2015. They are currently running two programs: the Integrated Education in Emergencies program for internally displaced students, and the Basic Education Package, which can be utilized by any child who is out of school.

South Sudan also has an Alternative Education Program, which initially began for soldiers but is now open to anyone. Many adults who never had access to education as children are utilizing the program. Furthermore, aid agencies are encouraging more women to attend school. South Sudan is still struggling in many areas, but with more students returning to school, education can become a means to further developing the nation.

– Jane Harkness

Sources: The Guardian, IRIN Africa, UNICEF 1, UNICEF 2
Photo: SBS