Archive for category: Education

Information and stories on education.

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University of the People: Free Education for the World

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Education empowers individuals and gives them a chance to escape poverty. This idea is so accepted and powerful that one of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) calls to “Achieve Universal Primary Education.”

However, what is next for those who have achieved primary education? If a person has a primary or even secondary education, are there resources to allow that individual to obtain a higher education?

Often, a young adult may desire a higher education but find that their financial situation will keep them from achieving a traditional higher education without substantial scholarships. Possibly, they are too geographically far from a traditional university or need to work to contribute to the household income.

Fortunately, a global revolution in higher education is taking shape through the work of the University of the People. They have created a business plan that provides free higher education for the world online. So far, they only have four programs, but they are all accredited: Associate of Science and Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, and Associate of Science and Bachelor of Science in Computer Science. The sequence of courses is comparable to any brick-and-mortar education, and are overseen by an advisory board of professionals from several large universities.

Anyone over the age of 18 with a secondary diploma and proficiency in English can apply to the University of the People. Tuition is completely free and course materials are all accessible on the Internet and available to download. There is a small application fee, and each course does require a $100 end-of-course examination. However, the fees have the possibility of being covered through scholarships.

How is all this achievable? Well, the University has partnered with several large names in this endeavor, such as Yale University for research, New York University for applications and Hewlett-Packard for internships. Furthermore, well-qualified instructors and professionals volunteer as course instructors and course developers. People dedicated to the cause of giving everyone access to higher education make this business plan succeed.

Even with such great strides in access to education, those in poverty are still at a disadvantage. A large group of potential students is left out of this revolution because they lack Internet access, working computers or English proficiency.

However, those areas are being addressed. For example, the University of the People pledged to accept 250 qualified Haitians into the program. The University hopes this group of students will help the rebuilding of Haiti by becoming leaders through this educational opportunity. To aid the students, the University of the People pledged to “locate places for students to go to study, furnish these places with computers, ensure electricity and back-up generators and provide satellite Internet.”

The United States can also help with the technological disadvantages that Africa faces through the Electrify Africa Act. This act would establish partnerships and devote financial help to Sub-Saharan Africa, where electricity is wildly inconsistent. By creating reliable electricity sources in Africa, the economy will likely improve, and people will have the ability to escape poverty. If Sub-Saharan Africa had reliable electricity and, in turn, access to the Internet, a large group of potential students would have the opportunity to achieve higher education through the University of the People.

Students lacking English proficiency are also being addressed. The United Nations is working to bring primary education to every child around the globe with the aforementioned MDGs. Once a child is literate in their own language and has passed primary education, educators can start to focus on teaching a foreign language with proficiency in secondary school, thus opening doors for higher education.

The University of the People has rolled out a solid business plan that is already showing results. So many people around the globe that thought they would never be able to achieve a higher education due to finances or distance now have an opportunity to succeed and move out of poverty.

– Megan Ivy

Sources: Congress.gov, University of the People, UN Millennium Goals
Photo: The Positive Approach

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How a New Program is Providing Safer Schools for the World’s Poor

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On April 25, 2015 a 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit Nepal. Two thousand schools collapsed, and five thousand others were damaged, forcing children to abandon their studies.

In the developing world nothing is more important than education, and when an already weak infrastructure crumbles under a natural disaster, it can be devastating for schools and a catastrophic defeat in the fight against poverty.

The Nepal earthquake was not an isolated incident. Every year natural disasters wreak havoc on underdeveloped nations, destroying the lives and property of millions. In 2013 the Philippines was the victim of a destructive typhoon that damaged 2,500 schools and disrupted the critical studies of 1.4 million children. And two years later, in March 2015, Cyclone Pam dramatically affected the Republic of Vanuatu.

The Global Program for Safer Schools (GPSS), recently created to address these issues, is managed by the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR). The new initiative is not only building demolished school buildings but also reinforcing and retrofitting schools at risk in catastrophe prone areas.

GPSS maintains relationships with a wide range of international partners, including the United Nations and agencies such as UNICEF, UNESCO and UNISDR, international NGOs like Save the Children and private sector companies such as Arup. Additionally, it works with ministries of finance, public works and education, integrating risk considerations and investing in large scale education benefits for communities.

The lack of education around the world is shocking, and its effect on poverty are staggering. Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their name. Less than 1 percent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000. Yet it didn’t happen. Based on enrollment data, about 72 million children of primary school age in the developing world were not in school in 2005.

Clearly education is a necessity, playing a vital role in alleviating poverty around the globe, but it is a luxury much of the world does not have, perhaps more so for girls. The state of school facilities in the developing world can be extremely fragile, and protecting them could make an immense difference.

Maternal deaths could be reduced by two thirds in the world if all mothers completed school, saving 98,000 lives. An extra year of secondary school boosts girls’ eventual wages by 15-25 percent. When women and girls earn income, they reinvest 90 percent of it in their families – buying books, medicine and bed nets and ensuring education for their children. Girls who stay in school for seven or more years typically marry four years later and have two fewer children than girls who drop out. And fewer dependents per worker allows for greater economic growth.

As much as 55 percent of the reduction in hunger from 1970 to 1995 can be attributed to improvements in women’s education and their status in society. School-based HIV/AIDS education programs are effective in preventing HIV infection, reducing the burden of this disease on families and communities.

Education can be one of the greatest tools fighting global poverty today. The Global Program for Safer Schools, through rebuilding disaster stricken institutions and retrofitting those at risk, ensures that disadvantaged children around the world have a chance.

– Jason Zimmerman

Sources: World Bank, Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery, Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery, New Internationalist, UNICEF, United Nations
Photo: Plan

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Afghanistan’s Rule of Law and Future Can Flourish

Afghanistan

Afghanistan is one of the most dangerous and impoverished nations in the world. What can be done to help to turn it around?

One of the biggest problems Afghanistan faces is its history of a weak rule of law. The rule of law has to do with the strength of legal institutions, as well as laws themselves. It also applies to how laws are carried out—equally or unequally.

When the rule of law is strong, it provides a basis for a society’s economic development, security, infrastructure and an accountable government. A strong rule of law also improves public health, alleviates poverty and improves education.

Weak rule of law leads to crime, corruption and the unequal application of laws across a society. Afghanistan has struggled with all these things, and improving and solidifying the rule of law is important to secure its future. For a country to flourish, a strong rule of law is needed.

It is a generally accepted idea, that for some, education is a pathway out of poverty. However, without a strong rule of law, which limits the Taliban preventing girls from going to school or corruption from impacting learner’s education, this pathway is fraught with difficulties. Corruption is a massive problem in Afghanistan—the country ranked last for the absence of corruption in the World Justice Project’s 2014 Rule of Law Index.

Sadly, the problem runs deeper than merely educating Afghan girls and boys with hopes that they will escape poverty. For Afghanistan to improve its rule of law and therefore it’s future, it’s legal education system must continue to be developed.

Because of Afghanistan’s five constitutions since 1964 along with Soviet occupation and the Taliban government, the country’s legal system been decimated and fallen behind the rest of the world. The legal education system has failed to produce a capable body of legal experts, instead a group of jurists who have made their best effort in recent times but are woefully unprepared.

Since U.S. military intervention and the fall of the Taliban in 2001, much has been done to try and improve both the university and legal education systems in the county. Strengthening these institutions can lead to fewer instances of land disputes—the main cause of conflict in Afghanistan. They are common because both informal and formal devices used to resolve the conflicts are fragile and weak.

Land disputes are also a perfect example of a weak rule of law because they illustrate an instance where a law says one thing, but in practice, it is not relevant, enforced or practical. The current land ownership law states the need for documents proving ownership of land, however, only 20 percent of land actually has these documents.

The U.S. State Department has played a role in developing the legal system in Afghanistan by bringing young lawyers to the U.S. to study, who have then gone back to their home country to set up legal practices. This is a good step, but improvement in the rule of law via more development of the legal education system in Afghanistan itself could go even further to improve its future as a safer, less impoverished country.

– Greg Baker

Sources: The Hague Institute for Global Justice, The New York Times, United States Institute for Peace, The World Justice Project, U.S. Department of State
Photo: Clarksville Online

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5 Organizations Fighting Poverty in Mexico

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According to a study made by the Mexican government agency, Consejo Nacional de Evaluación de la Política de Desarollo Social (CONEVAL), there were 53.3 million people living in poor conditions in 2012.

This number equates to 45.4 percent of Mexico’s total population.

In Mexico, poverty is strictly linked to the decisions and actions that the government takes. According to a newspaper from Guadalajara, Jalisco, the secretaries of social development from the different Mexican states only invest between the four and five percent of their budget to social programs that do not just focus on poverty.

Education, health care, nutrition, shelter and clean water are some of the aspects that many organizations are working on to bring to the Mexican poor citizens:

1) VAMOS!

This is a non-profit organization based in Vermont that fights to offer education and job opportunities to the poor in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico. The organization also offers basic human services to these people living in poor conditions.

2) Children International

This organization provides assistance to children and families that live in extreme poor conditions. Their mission is to bring real change to those living in poverty. This organization is based in Kansas, and operates in different countries such as Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, India, Honduras and, of course, Mexico. Their agency in Mexico is located in Guadalajara, Jalisco.

3) Flying Samaritans

This is a non-profit organization, based in California, that operates free medical clinics in the state of Baja California, Mexico. The organization counts with different professionals such as nurses, dentists, physicians, pilots, and translators that offer their work at no charge to people in rural areas that have no access to medical care.

4) Project Amigo

This is an organization founded by California businessman Ted Rose based in Cofradia de Suchitlan, Colima. The organization focuses in providing marginalized, disadvantaged, poor children in the state of Colima, Mexico with education. Project Amigo has the belief that education is a powerful key that can benefit the children’s future. The organization provides scholarships, material support, health care and supports the children to continue studying even during a college level.

5) TECHO

Techo is a non-profit organization present in Latin America and the Caribbean that focuses on eliminating poverty. This organization is lead by young volunteers that promote community development by providing solutions to families living in slums, foster social awareness and action, and advocate politically in order to promote changes that could stop poverty from emerging.

All these organizations focus on overcoming poverty and creating a better life quality for Latinos and Mexicans that live in poor conditions and lack of access to some basic needs.

According to CONEVAL, in the years of 2010 and 2012 there was a decrease in the percentage and number of people that had an educational backwardness, lacked access to health services, quality and living spaces, basic housing services, and nutrition.

The results and efforts that these individual non-profit organizations have obtained, each with their own beliefs, missions, and methods, are a big contribution to the Mexican poor community, creating change and providing opportunities to the ones in need.

– Diana Fernanda Leon

Sources: CONEVAL, INFORMADOR.MX, VAMOS!, Children International, Flying Samaritans, Project Amigo, Techo
Photo: Flickr

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What it Means to Educate the World

Educate the World

Teach the world. Fix its problems. Seems like pretty simple logic.

However, advocacy for education around the world may seem like a broad scope, and many times the necessity of “spreading education” comes across so vague that it gets lost in the web of international aid “talk”. In order to understand the importance of education and creating more opportunities for education around the world, everyone should know some of the educational programs being created around the world. Here are a few just to start the long list!

Health Education: Rampant spread of disease is a significant concern in many developing nations around the globe. Many illnesses in poorer regions of the world are preventable and treatable, yet people in said communities continue to suffer. Health education is instilled in many countries, teaching many about general health and sexual health. HIV/AIDS in particular, remains a main focus for many international aid organizations, and by teaching safe sex practices and overall safer health practices, there will hopefully be an end to the spread of these deadly illnesses. To learn more about these kinds of organizations, go to www.planusa.org.

Economic Education: Instead of simply giving money to poor communities, it is important to also teach sustainable and smarter economic practices in order to assure more long-term effects from international aid efforts. Certain education advocacy groups go into poor communities in other countries, teaching small business owners and families more efficient strategies of economics and savings. This not only builds up said business, but also puts more money in the homes and to the families of the small communities, and moreover stimulates the overall economy. To learn more about these types of programs, go to www.trickleup.org.

Women’s Education: Educating and empowering women around the world is a huge objective in many international education programs. Many women in developing nations experience extreme oppression, and in many cases, abuse. By educating women, in particular skills and safer health practices, they are given more of ability to be independent, and are less likely to stay in circumstances in which they are abused. To see more about these types of programs go to www.learningpartnership.org.

Education covers a number of interests and fields, especially when dealing with international aid and relief organizations. By educating the world, we do more than teach people how to read and write. Education is matter of sustainable living, health, success and happiness.

– Alexandrea Jacinto 

Sources: Learning Partnership, Plan USA, Trickle Up Organization
Photo: World Vision

Hope for the Rainbow Nation?

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It has been 21 years since the end of apartheid in South Africa. While the Rainbow Nation has made progress on many fronts, the education system is struggling.

While schools do not aim to disadvantage minorities as they did during apartheid, the quality of education some provide is still severely lacking. The glow of democracy has not spread to the education system, which ranks 140th out of 144 according to a report done by the World Economic Forum. The worst being math and science specifically, ranking dead last at 144th.

Schools are failing for a number of reasons. For one, basic infrastructure is a problem and many schools are without running water or fully equipped bathrooms. Some are built of mud or are otherwise not structurally strong, leading to safety concerns.

Teachers are often absent, leaving classrooms full students with no teachers to educate them. This has been found to be more prevalent in schools located in less social-economically privileged areas. Often, these schools are smaller and have access to fewer resources, disadvantaging learners even more.

In the final year of secondary school, learners must pass their matriculation exam. About 75 percent of students passed the matric exams in 2014, a decrease from the 2013 mark of 78.2 percent. However, to pass matric, students need only 40 percent in three of their classes, and 30 percent in their other four classes.

Most students pass with better marks, however, the standard is low and half of the 18 percent of “matrics” that make it to universities, will never graduate. Couple this with the fact that despite progress in racial equality, Indians and whites possess many more matric and tertiary education certificates than blacks, and you have an education system that is struggling.

What is causing the education system to fail? It is not a lack of funding. In the 2013/14 fiscal year, 232.5 billion Rand, or $21.8 billion, was spent on education. However, money and resources often do not reach schools, instead falling into the hands of corrupt officials or middlemen involved in the purchasing of items such as computers or textbooks.

Corruption is a big problem in South Africa, and within the education sector it is no different. A recent study found that 20 percent of corruption cases reported by the public were related to education, and included things like mismanagement of funds, theft of funds, and tender corruption. Pair this corruption with a general lack of resources, infrastructure and teachers absent from work, and it makes more sense why schools are struggling.

What is the outcome of a poor education system? South Africa’s Minister of Finance Nhlanhla Nene made the connection between high unemployment in the country and a lack of properly educated individuals. Unemployment hovers at 26.4 percent, but rises to 37.8 percent when those who have given up looking for work are taken into account. To combat this, jobs obviously must be created and if the education system is improved, more people will be able to find work and continue the Rainbow Nation’s progress forward as a country.

– Greg Baker

Sources: National Department of Basic Education, South African Government News Agency, Mail and Guardian, Mail and Guardian, Brookings, World Economic Forum,BBC
Photo: Africa Check

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Educating Girls on Feminine Hygiene

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Women face challenges everyday across the globe, from discrimination to sexual harassment. However, their biggest obstacle comes once a month from their own bodies. Women and girls in developing countries find it hard to feel confident and practice proper hygiene. When girls are menstruating, they choose to stay home to prevent embarrassment from leaking. The Huffington Post found that some girls would go days without food or water sitting on cardboard until their period was over.

Women and girls in poor countries do not have easy access to sanitary pads, therefore the impact menstruation has on them affects their everyday lives. Indra, from Nepal says “I asked the neighbors to borrow some cloth, and I had to use it for five days without any chance to wash it,” according to Water Aid. In developing countries clean water and private bathroom facilities are another challenge girls face. When girls do not feel comfortable attending school and women refrain working in fields, it sets them back from achieving their full potential.

An important aspect of feminine hygiene is education. “One study found that nearly 70 percent of girls had no idea what was happening to them the first time they menstruated,” according to the Gates Foundation. This means their mothers lacked in educating their daughters on their bodies. With proper sexual education STD’s can be prevented and early pregnancy can be avoided. Girls can also learn to keep track of their cycle and prepare for their period.

Although women and girls face challenges with their bodies, the organization Days for Girls International is fighting to improve the lives of women across the world. Days for Girls sells affordable sanitary kits with reusable pads, travel soaps, panties, and a Ziploc bag for soiled items. The social business Ruby Cup, has innovated a reusable silicon menstrual cup lasting up to 10 years and can be used up to 12 hours.

Every day girls get their period and the struggles girls face in poor countries are sometimes over looked. Businesses making this issue a primary focus will create better lives for girls who are losing a chance at education or income. By 2022, Days for Girls wishes to see every girl around the world access hygiene and education. If women and girls can continue to work in school and on the fields, the world can come closer to ending poverty with their constant efforts.

– Kimberly Quitzon

Sources: Huffington Post, Water Aid, Impatient Optimists, Days For Girls
Photo: Too Little Children

Education Continues in Sudanese Refugee Camps

Sudanese refugee camps
South Sudan is a country that has been torn apart by war and internal conflict for over 20 years, having only brief interludes of peace. The violence continues today, pushing many people to flee to nearby countries like Uganda and Kenya. However, the violence disrupts more than just daily lives. Over one million South Sudanese children do not attend primary school. Many have fled to Sudanese refugee camps where an education is not offered, and for those who stayed, the conditions are too dangerous to hold or attend classes.

The decades of war have damaged several generations of young Sudanese students, denying them an education. As a result, there is a high illiteracy rate in South Sudan. The adult population that grew up under the first waves of conflict, is about 73 percent illiterate. In the age range of 15 to 40, more than two million people are illiterate. Females have a higher illiteracy level because they are less likely to receive an education due to traditional customs of marrying at a young age. About 65 percent of the illiterate youth are female. About 10 percent of children, ages 6 to 17, have never been to school, with the percentage being higher in rural areas versus urban.
 
Several individuals, and an organization known as Project Education South Sudan, are out to give the next generation the gift of knowledge both in the country and in Sudanese refugee camps. Many believe that creating schools and educating the next generation is the best way to heal a war-torn nation. Alaak, a teacher in a Sudanese Refugee Camp in Uganda told the U.N., “Education is crucial in raising a generation of informed and skilled people, and also as a way to help children deal with the horrors they have witnessed… If you give them [children] education, they will grow up with healthy brains.”
By building schools and providing the resources in refugee camps, the teachers hope the education can encourage these students to create a peaceful South Sudan.
 
– Katherine Hewitt

Sources: UNICEF, Project Education Sudan, NPR, UNHCR, World Bank
Photo: Flickr

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Afghan Taliban Pledge Support for Women’s Education

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Historically, the Taliban’s regime in Afghanistan is notorious for its brutal oppression of women. Now, the Taliban has reportedly pledged its support for women’s rights.

The Taliban put forward this ‘softer stance’ on women’s issues at recent meetings with Afghan officials and activists in Qatar. Taliban representatives at the talks said that should they return to power, they would support not only women’s access to education, but also their right to work outside the home.

Many hope that these talks will lead to formal peace negotiations between the Taliban and the U.S.-backed Afghan government.

After coming to power in Afghanistan in the mid-1990s, the Taliban began a harsh crackdown on women’s rights. The group specifically targeted women’s education. Soon after taking over the Afghan capital, Kabul, in 1996, the Taliban closed the city’s women’s university and prohibited women from studying at Kabul University. In 1998, the Taliban banned all girls over the age of eight from attending school.

It is no secret that women’s education plays an integral part in a country’s economic and social development. It can both lift individual women and families out of poverty and increase an entire country’s GDP. Investing in girls’ education can also lower child and maternal mortality rates and reduce the likelihood of child marriages. By prohibiting women from attending schools and universities, the Taliban effectively ensured that Afghan women would lack the skills needed to participate in society and therefore sink deeper into poverty.

Though the Taliban fell from power in Afghanistan in 2001, its repressive views of women’s right to education are still widespread. In the years since, women have made only gradual progress toward reentering the educational system. World Bank reports show that as of 2014, 36 percent of Afghan girls attend school.

The three Afghan women who attended the talks in Qatar reported that they were pleased with the Taliban’s pledge to not roll back the progress Afghan women have made. Malalai Shinwari, a former Afghan member of parliament, said, “They said they won’t make the same mistakes that they made in the past. They said they would accept the rights we have today.”

However, many women’s activists remain skeptical about the Taliban’s statements. Shaharzad Akbar, a Kabul-based activist, revealed, “My worry is that the Taliban have a very different understanding of women’s right to education and political participation, and that it is based on their view that women are inherently inferior to men.”

Many delegates from the Qatar talks have expressed their surprise over the Taliban’s supposed willingness to compromise on both women’s rights and other political issues. However, whether the Taliban will follow through on its promises still remains to be seen.

– Caitlin Harrison

Sources: Wall Street Journal, Christian Science Monitor, BBC, Global Partnership, U.S. Department of State
Photo: Blogging for Barakat

New Report Ranks Education Around the World

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By ranking school performance in various countries, it becomes clearer which nation’s educational needs are not being met. In a report titled, “Universal Basic Skills: What countries stand to gain,” written by economists Eric Hanushek and Ludger Woessmann, 76 countries were ranked by test scores. Asian countries ranked the highest and the United States trailed behind in 28th place.

Many developing countries were closer to the bottom of the list, with Ghana receiving the lowest score of all 76 countries. As Andreas Schleicher, the Education Director of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD,  points out, “the quality of schooling in a country is a powerful predictor of the wealth countries will produce in the long run.”

Hanushek and Woessmann believe that studying the discrepancies between nations can also lead to finding solutions to these discrepancies.

“This report offers a glimpse of the stunning economic and social benefits that all countries, regardless of their national wealth, stand to gain if they ensure that every child not only has access to education but, through that education, acquires at least the baseline level of skills needed to participate fully in society,” explain Hanushek and Woessmann. They also contend that if poorer countries try to emulate the educational practices of the more successful countries, they could meet the goal of “universal basic skills” within the next decade.

Hanushek and Woessmann also believe that if a country acquires these universal basic skills, poverty levels will decrease and the country will be able to better provide quality health care and technologies.

“Only improved knowledge capital makes these larger social goals feasible,” says Hanushek and Woessmann.

To the economists dedicated to studying this issue, it is not simply a contest to see which nation is smarter. An adequate education affects most, if not all, areas of a person’s livelihood. By prioritizing education, other problems stemming from poverty will consequently diminish, and people with higher education levels will have more resources and opportunities. If these findings gain traction, school systems around the world will benefit as they enact changes to prioritize the nation’s education needs.

– Melissa Binns

Sources: The Independent, OECD
Photo: Unicef