Information and stories on education.
The Bezos Family Foundation was established by Jackie and Mike Bezos while working alongside with children and spouses that serve as the directors, and gives a whole new meaning to family tradition. This private and independent foundation has a vision of all people being prepared to achieve their full potential in life.
There are three main areas on which the foundation focuses. They are are: early learning, K-12 education and youth leadership and global engagement. Through these three areas, the hope is that it will give strengths to people in education and in life skills to every age group.
The first main area the foundation focuses on, as mentioned above, is early learning and through this the members look at science approaches to old problems and gives a new approach to basic development brain research. This research is meant to broaden the understanding of how young children learn and develop.
Through the early learning program the foundation partners with many other organizations, one of which is Acelero Learning, first partnered in 2012. The mission of Acelero Learning is to inspire a positive family and child outcomes to help close the achievement gap and build a better future for children and families.
The next main area that the foundation focuses on is K-12 education. Through this program the foundation supports teaching, school and system leadership. As well as the early learning program there are also partners with organizations that bring thoughtful innovations in K-12—with emphasis on STEM education. The vision for students goes beyond high school and the foundation aims to teach the tools needed to excel in college.
One partner through this program is 50 EGGS, INC. A partner since 2013, 50 EGGS INC. is led by award-winning documentary filmmaker Mary Mazzio. The company is dedicated to creating films that leave a positive social impact.
The last area that the foundation focuses on is youth leadership and global engagement. Supporting young and motivated leaders is the goal through this program, which seeks to do so by providing opportunities to expand awareness of global issues.
A partner for this program since 2005 is the Aspen Institute. This organization fosters values-based leadership and provides a neutral and balanced venue for discussing and acting on critical issues. Aspen Institute is a Bezos Scholars Program founding partner and the partnership stimulates youth leadership development and global awareness.
– Brooke Smith
Sources: The Aspen Institute, Acelero Learning, Bezos Family Foundation
The five year Global Education First Initiative (GEFI) was launched in September of 2012. Its goal is to provide all people with an education. The GEFI has three main objectives: putting every child in school, improving the quality of learning and fostering global citizenship. The GEFI doesn’t do everything alone, it has a team of partners behind it to aid in the achievement of the three goals. UNDP, UNICEF, U.N. Women and World Bank are just a few of its partners.
The global community pledged to achieve universal primary education by 2015. The U.N. Country Team in India is supportive of the global initiative and this September has proven to be an important month for India.
India is focusing its joint advocacy and communications on the GEFI and has made some priorities of its own. Elementary school is a fundamental right in India and there has been a lot of focus on increasing school locations and ensuring that these schools have plenty of drinking water. The main priorities for India are universal access to education with equity, quality basic education and global citizenship education.
India plans on providing everyone access to education by focusing on equality, especially as it pertains to girls. The number of schools in India providing a separate toilet facility for girls has increased by 37 percent. This means that around 89 million girls have access to toilets; unfortunately, seven million girls are still denied access.
The second priority for India is improving the quality of basic education. In this one priority there are four sub categories that are imperative to its achievement. Learning the basics, having a child friendly school and system, pupil to teacher ratio and teacher training are all things that are being worked on in India.
Lastly, global citizenship education is important because it will lead to a better environment for all. Currently, about 65 percent of India’s population are under the age of 35. Soon, India will become the youngest country in the world and India has deemed it important to educate its people on social responsibility. The purpose of global citizenship education is to equip each generation with values, knowledge and skills. These are all taught with a foundation meant to respect human rights, social justice, diversity, gender equality and environmental sustainability. These are all meant to empower those who are learning to be responsible and educated global citizens.
– Brooke Smith
Sources: United Nations in India, Global Education First Initiative UNESCO
Photo: Flickr
“Sanuallimu awladana walaw tahta thilli shagarah” means “We will provide education for our children even in the shadow of a tree.” It has been the mantra for many Omanis over the last three decades. It was the dream of Sultan Qaboos bin Said, who in 1970 vowed to make education available to all citizens of his country.
In 30 years, the country went from having three schools educating 909 males to over a thousand schools educating hundreds of thousands of students, both male and female. This great push in education is just one of the many initiatives that has sent Oman forward into industrialization.
Despite this very dramatic change in Oman, recent numbers show a decrease in the number of students taking advantage of the Oman education system. According to the Times of Oman, “31,608 seats in government educational institutions were available for students this year. However, 4,312 seats, 14 percent of the total, remained vacant at the end of the registration process on July 26.”
Education in Oman is free and it is not mandatory, so why would so many youth forgo the opportunity to bettering themselves and their country? Dr. Richard N. Rutter and Dr. Awadh Ali Al Mamari, educators at Sohar University, offered up quite a few concerns about the Omani education system: “Currently, Oman is still having to import vital technical and academic skills from abroad, rather than being able to develop its own base of domestic expertise.”
Another problem facing Oman higher education is the lack of Key Performance Indicators, or KPIs. These are a set of values measured over time, and they are used to compare institutions with one another. With the education system expanding so rapidly and no KPIs in place, students and parents are becoming increasingly confused as to which institution will provide an appropriate learning and research experience.
The Omani government has taken notice of this alarming decrease and the reasons for it. That is why they have announced a moratorium on approvals for universities over the next three years. This necessary pause is so the Education Council can investigate the current standards of the universities.
The government has also decided to raise the bar further so that Omani students are on the same level as other countries. The budget allocations for 2014 show that the government is investing 2.6 billion rials in education. This is a little over 18 percent of the country’s total budget.
While Dr. Rutter and Dr. Ali Al Mamari were critical of the current standards of education in Oman, they did offer this silver lining: “Oman has the chance to learn from the drawbacks of established KPI regimes and to institute league tables which truly reflect the goals of the country’s education strategy.”
– Frederick Wood II
Sources: Global Arab Network, Times of Oman, Zawya
Photo: Oman Medical College
Since gaining independence in 1991, the government of Uzbekistan has committed to reforming the education system and making this system a national priority. Free compulsory education for all children, as well as over 60 schools of higher learning, has lead Uzbekistan to achieve one of the highest literacy rates in the world.
Located in Central Asia, Uzbekistan has a population of over 26 million people. As the region’s most populated country, the government has taken significant measures to ensure high quality instruction for all children.
The Law on Education, established in 1997, states that all citizens have the right to education in Uzbekistan. After minor revisions, the law also encompasses that citizens are required to attend nine years of primary and secondary schooling. Students are then allowed to either continue with higher education for three years or seek vocational training, education that prepares children for a specific career path.
The Ministry of Public Education and the Ministry of Higher and Secondary Specialized Education are responsible for all pre-school, general education schools, higher learning establishments and vocational education. Together, they have been working to improve state educational standards and curriculum, reconstruct school buildings and strengthen teachers’ capacities at all levels.
Research shows that access to primary and secondary education in Uzbekistan is above average for the sub-region. The net enrollment rate for primary school is 97 percent, compared to the lesser 92 percent average of the Central Asian countries. Students also have a 100 percent transition rate to secondary school, indicating that the gap in access between primary to secondary school is virtually non-existent.
However, the Government of Uzbekistan does struggle with early childhood education. Only 20 percent of children aged 3 years old to 5 years old are attending preschool, a figure that was much higher prior to independence. The limited access to preschool and primary school for the 130,000 children with disabilities remains an area of primary concern.
Although methods such as homeschooling are available for these children, they have proven insufficient in meeting the educational needs of this young population. There are few schools and teachers with the necessary supplies and training to deal with children with severe disabilities and learning difficulties. Thus school quality has been a recent target for improvement. In 2006, a learning assessment given to a small group of Uzbek students illustrated that only 30 percent of children were considered to be competent in basic mathematic skills. Likewise, a mere 30 percent of children scored above a proficient level in the literacy assessment.
Many attribute the basic levels of math and literacy to the shortage of teachers. Although teacher salaries have been raised, a large gap exists between teacher wages and the average salary in Uzbekistan. Schools not only find it extremely difficult to recruit new prospects, but also to keep experienced teachers.
Although education in Uzbekistan has seen great improvement over the years, a lot more can be done in order to see the country succeed. According to UNICEF, the Government of Uzbekistan has to increase educational access to children in remote areas and those with special needs. In addition, school infrastructure must be structured to accommodate students with disabilities as well as create a safe and workable environment for teachers and students alike. With these changes, there is great hope that children in Uzbekistan will have a bright future ahead of them.
– Leeda Jewayni
Sources: Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency, UNICEF, UNESCO
Photo: UNDP
Concern regarding Ebola has reached all corners of the globe. This year alone, the epidemic has contributed to the deaths of at least 2,400 people in the West African region. The World Health Organization also estimates around 79 health workers have been killed.
As the death toll escalates, authorities struggle to keep up with the rising number of people needing care. Clinics do not have enough workers—or even enough beds—to successfully treat everyone affected. Patients are being turned away, and as a result are bringing the virus back with them to their communities.
Despite the growing international response, with the U.K. and the U.S. promising to open new treatment centers in the region, there is still a heavy demand for health workers to come to the region. With an inability to keep the situation under control, public education has become a crucial component in addressing the epidemic.
Consider West Point, an impoverished neighborhood in Liberia’s capital Monrovia, where residents stormed an Ebola holding facility as a protest. The government responded with an overnight lock down on August 20. The quarantine ended 10 days later, after a number of additional protests.
The event is an important example of how shifting the community culture is crucial to addressing the disease. Many West Point inhabitants realized after the quarantine the true seriousness of the epidemic. A number of communities were convinced the epidemic was a government hoax, but now acknowledge the reality of the disease and have rallied against it.
Tan Tan B and Quincy B are Liberian hip-hop artists who try to convey the reality of Ebola through meaningful lyrics like “Ring the alarm, turn on the sirens. I see my people dying, but nobody’s firing.” Similarly, another popular song called “Ebola’s In Town” tells people to avoid touching friends to limit spreading of the virus. “Di Ebola Song” is a hit in Sierra Leone that encourages people to seek early medical attention.
Music can’t save a dying person, but community education efforts combat the spread of disease. Dr. Ibrahim Wadembere, a public health consultant in Uganda, explains the importance of community awareness for Ebola outbreaks in the region. He writes that community empowerment spreads awareness of how the disease is caught and spread, but also creates morale and prevents public panic.
As the world faces a clear lack of resources in addressing the epidemic, the importance of public education only grows. We may not be able to immediately create more clinics and find more doctors, but we can educate communities on disease prevention.
The community is the root of the disease’s spread, and prevention, intervention and control measures can only be implemented through the community. Making the ideas accepted and understood by community members will help maintain safety as the world scrambles to find ways to put a stop to this deadly outbreak.
– Fabeeha Ahmed
“If you educate a man, you educate an individual. When you educate a woman, you educate a nation,” goes one African saying. Indeed, women are a rare sight in African schools, but they shouldn’t be: 90% of what a woman earns, she will reinvest in her community.
But while 60% of the education population should be women, it is a goal that is missed. Getting girls into these schools is difficult for a couple reasons. The first part of the problem is a shaky economy. The second is that the African continent has only recently been taking the needs of girls seriously.
Social customs illustrate how men are considered more valuable all across the continent. Women are expected to feed men first and give them the best food, and women are also expected to work menial jobs.
A glimpse into the life of girls in school can also demonstrate why women think hesitate to send their daughters to school. Girls who are barely teenagers often voice their fears of being sexually abused when they use the latrine. At a primary school in Enjolo Village, a “cleansing” initiation involves the teacher having sex with young girls. The man could be in his 40s and 50s while the girl could be as young as 10.
The practice caused an influx of young pregnancies and also spread AIDS at an alarming rate. A group of mothers were able to halt the tradition in Enjolo and now girls drink a glass of herbs but elsewhere, the sexual cleansing continues.
While it is not as horrifying as a sexual cleansing tradition, there is another problem that symbolizes the battle women wage in schools. In many areas of the continent, schools are not equipped with latrines or other sanitation that only girls need. They lack the basic facilities that would allow the girls to not miss days of school.
With all the problems barring girls from school, research suggests that the old African saying is true when it insists that it is worthwhile to be educating women.
Educating girls reduces the chances of teenage pregnancy, making them more likely to wait to get married. Education increases earning potential by astronomic figures and by extension improves the economy of the community. Areas with high percentages of educated women are consistently ranked as less dangerous.
There are health benefits as well. Educated women are three times less likely to contract HIV, and they are better informed about nutritional and sanitation habits to keep children healthy.
—Andrew Rywak
Sources: USAID Blog, New York Times USAID Blog 2, CNN
Photo: Flickr
Last month, the creators of #GirlWithABook, a project advocating for girl’s education, had the opportunity to meet Malala Yousafzai, their inspiration. #GirlWithABook, the hashtag coined by college students Olivia Curl and Lena Shareef, has caught the attention of leaders and advocates worldwide.
Students at American University in Washington, D.C., Curl and Shareef shared the world’s reaction of astonishment and disgust after 14-year-old Pakistani Yousafzai was attacked on her way home from school in October 2012.
Malala Yousafzai survived after she was shot in the head by the Taliban, and when United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon admonished the Taliban in an address to the world, his words stuck with the two American girls. Ki-moon explained that what frightens terrorists the most is “a girl with a book.”
Curl and Shareef decided to start a campaign based on those words. They sent out a call to action, asking their female friends and family to pose for photos with books and flood social media with the pictures accompanied by the hashtag #GirlWithABook.
“Stand with Malala Yousafzai and show the Taliban that there’s no way they can stop us girls from getting an education,” their website reads. “Post a picture of yourself reading a book or holding a sign of support.”
Just a month after the project had begun, hundreds of photos flooded in from notable figures around the world. Ki-moon is pictured reading to his granddaughter, violinist Midori sent in a photo and even scientist Jane Goodall participated in the campaign.
The overwhelming response from women’s education supporters worldwide prompted Curl and Shareef to compile all the photos into a book. The Secretary-General presented Yousafzai with the book on her 16th birthday, when she visited the United Nations headquarters in New York.
A year has passed since #GirlWithABook was published, but the excitement over the movement continues.
Recently, Curl and Shareef were invited to participate in a conversation about the Millennium Development Goals as a part of the U.N.’s 500 days of action. On August 18, the girls spent the day at United Nations headquarters, along with 500 other young people.
They had the opportunity to meet face to face with Yousafzai and her father, who showered the girls with words of encouragement to continue their advocacy efforts.
Lena Shareef speaks on behalf of her partner when she describes the future of #GirlWithABook: “If Malala wants us to keep going, then there’s no question that we will.”
– Grace Flaherty
Sources: UN
Photo: UN
In a report released by ONE, an anti-poverty organization, it is estimated that corruption causes 3.6 million unnecessary deaths and costs poor countries $1 trillion each year.
Using three different methodologies to calculate the cost of corruption, all three measures indicated that the loss was either $1 trillion or $2 trillion.
In what is called a “trillion dollar scandal,” corrupt business practices, “anonymous shell companies, money laundering and illegal tax evasion” all serve to severely reduce the effectiveness of poverty relief efforts.
While extreme poverty has been reduced to half its original level over the past 20 years and has the potential to be completely eradicated by 2030, corruption is putting much of that progress at risk.
While corruption is damaging in almost all countries, it is especially dangerous in poorer and developing countries and mostly affects children. It is estimated that millions of deaths could be avoided if corruption was combated and recovered funds were reinvested in essential fields.
Furthermore, the money that is siphoned out of poor countries is not from international development aid, which has helped make a considerable improvement, but rather directly from businesses in these countries. The money is generated by domestic businesses and illegally extracted out of the country. The largest source of financial drain is the illegal manipulation of cross-border trade.
The organization found that even recovering a small amount of the money lost to corruption could dramatically affect development. In Sub-Saharan Africa, a small amount of recovered funds could provide an education to an additional 10 million children each year; pay for an additional 500,000 primary school teachers; provide antiretroviral drugs for more 11 million people with HIV/AIDS and buy nearly 165 million vaccines.
The report stresses action that serves to end the secrecy that allows corruption to thrive. If specific policies were implemented that increased transparency and combated corruption in the four areas of “natural resource deals, the use of phantom firms, tax evasion and money laundering,” developing countries could considerably stem the financial drain.
Natural resources in particular can provide a vital source of funds that could greatly increase economic growth in many developing countries. Corruption concerning natural resources is particularly bad, with approximately 20 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa rich in natural resources but receiving few benefits from these reserves.
Specifically, One calls for mandatory reporting laws for the natural resource sectors and publish open data so citizens are able to track where travels from and to, ensuring that the funds are not lost to corruption.
Published in anticipation of the G20 meeting in Brisbane, Australia in November, the organization stresses the importance for the G20 nations to address the issue. Now that the cost of corruption has been defined in real terms, the fight against corruption can become more directed and effective.
— William Ying
Sources: ONE 1, ONE 2, ONE 3, BBC, The Guardian, ABC News, Yahoo News
Photo: Blogspot
In order to eliminate poverty, the impoverished must be educated. This is the philosophy practiced by Margaret Gullette, co-founder of the Free High School for Adults in Nicaragua. 12 years ago, Margaret, who resides in Newton, Massachusetts and is a resident scholar at Brandeis University, was volunteering in Nicaragua through the Newton-San Juan del Sur Sister City Project when she and another woman, Rosa Elena Bello, decided they wanted to start a literacy program.
“It’s a great story,” Margaret said as she recalled the details. “Rosa was working in a clinic for women and children, and infant mortality rate was not improving.” The two women believed that it would never improve without literacy. It is not enough just to donate money; the people must be educated.
In Nicaragua, one out of 10 people are illiterate, and this figure is even higher among women. The average Nicaraguan has less than five years of schooling and only 29 percent of children complete primary school. Much of this can be attributed to the poverty cycle. Until 1979 a dictator ruled Nicaragua, and dictators rely on ignorance to control the masses. “Poverty and ignorance should always be put together,” Margaret explained. Because many adults who lived under that dictator’s rule and did not receive an education themselves, not only do they not have enough money to pay for school supplies and uniforms, but they often do not value education.
In order to begin the literacy program, Margaret applied for funding to 25 different grants. She received 24 rejections, but the one acceptance was all the two women needed. At first it was difficult to get Nicaraguan women involved in the program because their lives revolved around housework and children, but in the first three years nearly 300 women received certificates for the completion of sixth grade.
High school in Nicaragua runs from grade 7 to 11, so after the success with the sixth grade program, the next logical step was to continue the women’s education into high school. Once again Margaret found funding in America, and the following year (2002) a free high school for adults opened. 12 people graduated that year and the number has been growing ever since. The high school currently has 800 students and 616 graduates.
Eventually the Nicaraguan government took over the building of the schools, and the 12 communities that have these high schools have better overall health and fewer unwanted pregnancies. What makes the Free High School Program unique is the teaching model adopted by Margaret and Rosa. The schools use feminist textbooks and a modified version of twentieth century educator Paolo Freire’s teaching method.
Freire believed that education was vital to the liberation of the oppressed and did not support the method of teaching in which students are simply empty vessels to be filled with knowledge. For basic literacy, Freire believed in teaching language that is meaningful to people’s lives. He did not have a program for women, so Margaret and Rosa adapted his method to teach the women in Nicaragua. The first word the women learn is “fetus,” which Margaret says is a word every woman should know.
The Free High School program has continued to grow with a technical high school that opened in 2006 in which students can specialize in one of three fields: Management of Tourist and Hotel Enterprises, Accounting and Civil Construction. A number of graduates from both the Free High School and the Technical School have gone on to receive university degrees and other accomplishments.
Margaret believes that “there is always something to do in Nicaragua,” pointing to her husband David’s bio-sand filter project for contaminated water as an example. The next steps in the Free High School project are to buy new textbooks and construct an office building for the organization in Nicaragua. Go here (https://sanjuandelsursistercityproject.wordpress.com/) to learn more about the various Newton-San Juan del Sur Sister City projects, including the Free High School.
– Taylor Lovett
Sources: San Juan del Sur Sister City Project, Bless the Children, Interview with Margaret Gullette
Photo: The Random Act
