Archive for category: Education

Information and stories on education.

Turquoise Mountain Arts

When a country is in turmoil, the arts can be the first thing to go. Fortunately for Afghanistan, Turquoise Mountain Arts is reviving traditional Afghan arts, architecture and crafts.

Turquoise Mountain Arts is an institute that seeks to bring back traditional Afghan art by training artisans in four schools: calligraphy and miniature painting, woodwork, jewelry and ceramics.

Historically, Afghanistan was an important cultural center for a variety of Islamic arts that have unfortunately fallen to the wayside under the various conflicts that have disrupted life in the country. Traditionally, the Afghan arts and crafts industry is a source of pride and a respectable way for a person to make a living.

Turquoise Mountain Arts helps the Afghan community in more ways than preserving traditional art forms. Since the institute was fully established in 2006, nearly 1.5 million dollars of traditional Afghan crafts have been sold, with that money going back to Afghan artisans.

When the institute turns a profit, it reinvests in itself, putting the money back toward artisans and students so that they can continue to learn and produce art. Additionally, the different arts practiced at Turquoise Mountain Arts help keep valuable natural resources, such as wood, precious stones and metals within the country. The institute also “provides education and employment for over 400 students, teachers, engineers, architects, and construction workers.”

The heads of each of the individual colleges are all Afghan citizens, and whenever there is an opening for new professors, representatives from the institute head straight to Kabul’s craft district.

Before Turquoise Mountain opened, there were no schools focused on preserving and teaching traditional art in Afghanistan. However, since its founding, smaller schools and programs have opened up throughout the country.

The apprenticeship style program is highly beneficial for artisans, who are taught for three years before going out on their own, and are given internationally recognized “City and Guilds” accreditation upon graduation.

Graduates also receive support as they go into the craft market to start their own businesses and further preserve cultural heritage by transferring their knowledge to new workers.

With growing national recognition in addition to international markets in Canada, Britain and Arab countries like Qatar, Turquoise Mountain Arts Institute is helping to preserve Afghan culture and art, and provide respectable employment for citizens.

– Cameron Barney

Sources: Turquoise Mountain Arts, Islamic Arts

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World Bank to Fund ACE Project in Africa

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On April 15, 2014, the World Bank confirmed they would be funding 19 Centers of Excellence in Central and West Africa.

These university-styled centers will also be receiving financing for specific research in math, agriculture and health issues, science and technology.

The Africa Centers of Excellence (ACE) is a project that aims to help form scientific and research skills in adolescent Africans. With the addition of these programs, World Bank’s Vice President in Africa, Makhtar Diop, hopes that more jobs will be formed, economic standing in Africa will grow and adolescents will gain an education in areas that are growing increasingly more important, such as disease control.

World Bank has agreed to fund $150 million, with the majority amount of $70 million going to Nigeria. The other government receiving funding are: Ghana, which is receiving $24 million; Senegal, $16 million; Cameroon, Benin, Burkina Faso, and Togo, each of which is receiving $8 million.

In addition, the Gambia is also being given a $2 million credit, and a $1 million grant to go towards training for students and faculty, as well as to provide higher education to students.

During a time when the continent is facing a severe drop in skilled workers and trained health care workers, the ACE is giving hope and a chance for young students to excel in areas that also benefit Africa as a whole. These areas of study will open doors for students and also equip them with skills for jobs that will provide job security because of high demand.

The focus on Health and STEM research aims to relieve the African countries from the struggling “researcher-to-population ratio” that is negatively affecting the overall health care. Africa currently has a very high mortality rates for mothers, which is 500 maternal deaths for every 100,000 births.

The ACE’s funded program will overall benefit young students, as well as alleviate the current problems with researcher-to-population ratio, economics, health care and poverty.

– Becka Felcon

Sources: World Bank, Punch, All Africa

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Women’s Education in Violence Prone Countries

In recent days, U.S. Senator Ed Royce (CA-R) announced that on April 3 the Foreign Affairs Committee will hold a hearing on Women’s education in violence prone countries and how it can promote the creation of economic opportunities and counter radicalism. The hearing will count with the presence of three experts on women’s education. In the words of Royce, the aim of the hearing is to assess “how a failure to appreciate its importance can result in missed opportunities for development and counter-radicalism.”

In the last three decades education opportunities have been greatly expanded, yet women are still at a disadvantage. The difference in countries like Pakistan can be as much as 30 points. While 70 percent of men over 15 years of age are considered literate, for women this only reaches 40 percent. In Afghanistan, this difference is even more astonishing where only 13 percent of women can read and write.

According to Royce, the hearing will reinforce the correlation between women and girl’s education and the promotion of economic growth, childhood development and an increase in life expectancy overall. There is strong evidence that connects women’s education and an increase in a country’s GDP. As women enter the labor force they increase the earning potential of their family. Moreover, as women tend to spend their income on children more than men, this helps increase a child’s survival more than twenty times than families supported only by men.

Pakistan is of special interest, which is why, after the hearing, the committee will move on to considering the Malala Yousafzai Scholarship Act (H.R. 3583). In honor of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Malala Yousafzai, this bill would require that 50 percent of the scholarships awarded under it be given to Pakistani women.

This comes at the same time when private donors have pledged to donate 1 billion to Pakistan for the support of educational programs over the next three years. According the former prime minister and now UN special envoy for education Gordon Brown, the goal is to provide education to 55 million Pakistanis over the age of ten who are considered illiterate. Pakistan’s government also wants to dedicate more resources to education in order to eventually achieve universal education. This is good news for women and girls in Pakistan, since one of the major goals of the pledge is to get a step closer to the eradication of child marriage, child labor, and gender discrimination.

– Sahar Abi Hassan

Sources: House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Brown, House Committee on Foreign Affairs

Photo: Glamour

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A Wider Circle: Good News from D.C.

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A hundred million people are estimated to be homeless in the world and the number is only growing bigger with the rise and fall of economies. It is estimated that there are another 100 million “hidden homeless” worldwide, a number which takes into account those living in abandoned houses, cars, or houses and apartments with little to no furnishings.

Dr. Mark Bergel, now deemed a CNN Hero, founded his organization after noticing the very few furnishings in the houses of those struggling to make ends meet.

Bergel started his journey as a professor at American University and eventually took on his vision to help others as a full time job. He founded an organization called A Wider Circle in 2001, a nonprofit devoted to furnishing the homes of families living in poverty, free of charge.

Since it’s founding, A Wider Circle has furnished the houses of over 125,000 people, but Bergel’s mission does not stop there. He is also committed to providing an education for those who have asked for one.

Managers from the Greater Washington Area’s homeless shelters mentioned to Bergel that an education in “life skills” and how to cope with stress would be highly beneficial for the shelters’ frequenters.

So that is just what Bergel did.

He incorporated educational programs into A Wider Circle’s mission to help lift adults and children out of poverty by communicating the importance of life skills and helping to adjust the “whole person.”

“I want to help create the change that will enable people to rise out of poverty and enjoy the freedom and independence afforded to others. Poverty is a human problem, and human beings will solve it,” Bergel explained.

After many community service trips, Bergel came face to face with the truth that many people living below the poverty line often lived without beds, tables and couches. Bergel stated that “most apartments had nothing but a chair… There was nothing that would give these people a sense of hope, [or] a sense of dignity.”

With new furnishings and one less issue to worry about Bergel hopes to give families room to breathe and the ability to start fresh.

Currently, A Wider Circle has two full warehouses complete with donated furniture, toys, clothes and clean sheets. Families are able to stop in and choose what they need from the selection.

Since donating his own bed in 2008, Bergel has been sleeping on his floor or couch. He says he intends to do so until every family in the United States has enough beds for each family member.

Bergel’s foundation is not only helping people in the U.S. to live easier lives, but he is also bringing attention to a global issue — the “hidden homeless.” By helping the lives of the “hidden homeless” in the U.S. Bergel is one step closer to addressing this issue on a global scale, and by publicizing his work, we are one step closer to inspiring others to follow his lead.

– Becka Felcon

Sources: CNN, A Wider Circle
Photo: Brown University

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UNESCO Pushes for Millennial Education Goals

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Former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been a major proponent for global education since his tenure ended. He has made a number of announcements and proclamations in favor of increasing global literacy, yet recently his proposals have gained more steam. The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has agreed to follow through with Brown’s mission statement to put 57 million children in school worldwide by next year. This falls short of the Millennium Goals that were meant to be reached by 2015.

A report from January of 2014 brought on this concern towards the Millennial Education Goals. The UNESCO report said that the goals would not be met until 2086 under current projections. While striving towards these goals 70 years in advance may seem a little optimistic, the statistics used from 2011 showed a 50% drop in out-of-school children since the beginning of the new millennium. This gives hope for a renewed commitment to make an immediate impact.

The most recent statistics on the issue come from that 2011 study, but those numbers showed 123 million young adults (15-24) lacked basic reading and writing skills. The most progress for universal primary education has been in Southeast Asia, in South Korea, India and Vietnam. Afghanistan shows the most immediate promise for the future, even with troops potentially leaving the nation at the end of the year.

The nations struggling the most to achieve universal primary education are those of Western Africa. Senegal, Mauritania, Nigeria and a number of other sub-Saharan countries still lag behind most of the developed world. Particularly for women, there remain few options and little hope for advancement. West Africa will likely be where UNESCO efforts have to focus.

Gordon Brown, as the United Nation’s Special envoy for global education, called these struggles unacceptable. He said in a recent interview, “the inequality of opportunity that they face is unfair… we have seen the makings of a civil rights struggle amongst young people.” Brown hopes that drawing on grassroots campaigns for education around the world will help bring the world closer to universal primary education.

The fight to achieve universal primary education will take on multiple fronts and be supported by different leaders. Malala Yousafzai has become a global celebrity thanks to her courage in the face of opponents of this mission. Yousafzai and Brown have begun work in Lebanon to educate the thousands of school-age children living in Syrian refugee camps. Given the ongoing Syrian conflict it is unknown how long those kids will be living in the camps, and the need is there for education to prevent a “lost generation” of kids.

The Millennium education efforts may have missed their goals by a long shot. However, the emphasis that people like Brown and Yousafzai have placed on primary education brings hope for the near future. Organizations like The Borgen Project support this passion and hope it will be shared by more people around the world. The first step toward ending global poverty will be reaching children as early as possible, and universal primary education is a key method of doing so.

– Eric Gustafsson

Photo: Globalization101
Sources: United Nations, PBS, BBC

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Education in Zimbabwe

Education in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe gained independence from Britain in 1980 and immediately began an educational transformation that resulted in unprecedented coverage for the nation’s young minds.

A residual disenfranchisement of black students remained after nearly a century of colonial rule defined by “white supremacy, racial segregation, institutionalized violence and oppression” of the African majority. A redistribution of social inequality (as manifested in a corrupt education system) was of paramount importance in the first decade of independence.

System at a Glance

Exposure to education in Zimbabwe begins at age 6 in grade one of primary school. By grade three, reading and writing in English accompanies coursework in the mother tongue. Primary education continues through grade seven, when completion is marked with examinations in mathematics, English, science and social studies.

Secondary education is comprised of four “forms,” numbered I through IV. Forms I and II, equivalent to grades eight and nine, develop more involved skills in mathematics, English, history and other practical subjects. Marks earned in Forms I and II determine placement for Forms III and IV (grades 10 and 11,) advanced study years that culminate in subject-specific tests, gatekeepers for university acceptance.

Post-secondary education may be completed at one of Zimbabwe’s seven public universities or four religiously-affiliate universities. Alternatively, the pursuit of a university degree abroad is a viable option for some.

The 1980s: Dramatic Transformation

The face of education in Zimbabwe changed dramatically between 1980 and 1990. Primary schools and secondary schools sprouted up across the nation, increasing in numbers by 42.5 percent and an unfathomable 662 percent, respectively, during that time. On an aggregate level, student enrollment rose by over 200 percent.
Naturally, the demand for teachers rose with the increasing numbers of young minds. By 1990, 15 teaching colleges (10 for primary school teachers and five for secondary school teachers) were established. The Zimbabwe Integrated Teacher Education Course employed innovative approaches to teacher training, which in turn resulted in an overall improvement in the quality of education in Zimbabwe.

Residual Effects of Radical Change

Strides made prior to 1995 established Zimbabwe as a model for participation in public education. To this day, primary school participation hovers around 88% for both males and females. Retention is relatively stable as well; just over 82 percent of students complete their primary school education (this figure drops dramatically as the secondary education arrives; only 48 percent of males and females participate.)

Zimbabwe’s literacy rate, approximately 90.9 percent for youth and 83.6 percent for adults, is highest in sub-Saharan Africa. The nation also sends the fifth-largest number of students to the United States for continued study.

Areas Needing Improvement

Unfortunately, the apartheid era’s widespread inequality resulted in disparities in education quality. “Group A” schools (formerly white) have access to greater resources and better teachers than their “Group B” counterparts, which are typically government-sponsored. Lack of funding, poorer outcomes and lower pay result in perpetual staff shortages and turnover in B-level schools.

Education access in rural and urban areas is similarly unequal. For the approximately 60 percent of Zimbabweans in rural areas, government-funded schools are the only alternative. Higher-fee private schools are out of reach for agricultural families whose livelihoods allow no room for educational spending.

A post-colonial Zimbabwe embraced education as a human right, a premise that is worthy of emulation by developing nations. That said, education in Zimbabwe has room for growth in terms of quality and equity.

– Casey Ernstes

Sources: OSSREA, U.S. Embassy, UNESCO, UNICEF, World Education Forum
Photo: Flickr

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3 Ways to Volunteer Abroad

There are many different ways to make an impact in the fight against global poverty. Volunteering abroad is one option that offers numerous ways to help.
Volunteer abroad programs offer a variety of opportunities to help global communities. Whether you are interested in teaching children, building schools or helping communities establish cleaner water supplies, there is most likely a program to fit your needs.

Cross-Cultural Solutions

“Cross-Cultural Solutions is a nonprofit working to address critical global issues by providing meaningful volunteer service to communities abroad, and contributing responsibly to local economies.” Cross-Cultural Solutions is a volunteer abroad organization that seeks to do just what its name implies: find cross-cultural ways to combat poverty.

The organization only sends volunteers to locations with established relationships between themselves and local organizations and communities, so when you arrive to volunteer, you’re working with people who are invested in improving their community. In each Cross-Cultural Solutions location, volunteers are housed at a home base that provides them with three meals a day, which is what the majority of the program fee goes to.

Volunteer programs can range from a week to three months, so volunteers have a lot of options even if they’re in school or have a full-time job. Additionally, volunteers have the option to take excursions on the weekends during longer trips, or volunteer in multiple destinations in a row, making travel a part of the program as well!

Global Volunteers

Known as the origin of “the volunteer vacation,” Global Volunteers focuses on short-term volunteer abroad programs, making them a perfect fit for students or anyone who cannot commit to a long period abroad.

Global Volunteers works to “engage short-term volunteers on long-term projects” in countries in Asia, Europe, Africa, North and South America. As volunteers only stay for a short period of time, they are working with existing projects, or projects that will continue long after they leave.

An additional focus of the program is that volunteers “work at the invitation and under the direction of local community partners, and one-on-one with local people.” They only do what they are asked to do and work with and under the direction of local people to find out what’s best from the community from the people who understand it best.

WorldTeach

As its name suggests, WorldTeach focuses on sending teachers to foreign countries as they “partner with governments and other organizations in developing countries to provide volunteer teachers to meet local needs and promote responsible citizenship.”

Because the program sends volunteers out to teach, its programs tend to run longer than Cross-Cultural Solutions or Global Volunteers. Full-year programs are available in a wealth of countries around the globe such as Chile, Colombia, Guyana, the Marshall Islands and Thailand, just to name a few.

Similarly, shorter summer programs exist where volunteers can travel to countries like Poland, Nepal and South Africa. For volunteers who prefer to spend a semester teaching abroad, there are programs in Ecuador and Namibia. Before applying, WorldTeach requires applicants choose their country and departure date, unlike some other programs.

Volunteers receive support throughout the duration of their work, and have an alumni network that they can access at the conclusion of their program.
Additionally, volunteers have the opportunity to receive his or her teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) certification through professional development and a $350 fee.

The funds for WorldTeach programs come directly from the organization, the volunteer and the chosen country’s host institution. As such, costs for different programs vary, with some requiring a higher monetary commitment, and a few countries paying in full for volunteer teachers.

No matter which program you choose, there are a few things to keep in mind when seeking to volunteer abroad.

Volunteers are working with a community. That means helping local organizations and communities while being humble about your place there and working to understand the new culture in which you’ve immersed yourself.

Volunteering is about helping people, and even though you will find fulfillment and gain valuable experience, the focus is always on working with your chosen community.

Once you find a program that you are passionate about and that works responsibly with organizations within the community, you’re all set to start your volunteer abroad experience!

– Cameron Barney

Sources: WorldTeach, Global Volunteers, Cross-Cultural Solutions
Photo: The Interpreter

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Female Education & Ending Global Poverty

The book “Half the Sky” introduces an idea that education is the key to ending global poverty worldwide. The title of the book comes from the founding father of the Republic of China, Mao Zedong, meaning “women hold up half the sky”; unfortunately, millions of these women are living in poverty.

Women make up half of the world’s population, yet more than half of these women are more likely to have an unequal place in society. These women are more likely to be poverty-stricken in these communities than men and are excluded from the public domain which leads to domestic violence.

Because of the inequality placed on women living in poverty in developing nations women tend to not have access which is a key aspect of society. Humans need to have access to healthcare, job opportunities, and basic human rights like clean water and food. In order to fight global poverty, an emphasis of education and access is key to bring an end to poverty and the pain these communities suffer from on a daily basis.

Accordingly, Ph.D. student Katie Conrad at the University of Tennessee believes that women need access to resources in these developing countries where there is also a lack of education for these women. Conrad is a teaching associate for child and family studies at the university, and has based her research in Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender as well as family studies.

Furthermore, Conrad’s area of interest is creating courses for first-year students on campus designed to educate not just women, but men, about sex, dating violence, alcohol and rape culture awareness. She feels as though teaching women in society cannot be done without reaching women globally and stated “education is the major form of empowerment and is a good place to start.”

In particular to teaching women’s studies courses in these devolving countries, Conrad remarks that “being educated on their culture and maintain cultural sensitivity to understand what issues they face” would be a good place to start to bringing education to women in those areas. Conrad believes that women in developing countries need not just access to basic resources but access to support when in an abusive situation. In particular, community support systems are needed to help cope with domestic violence in their society.

In addition, both Conrad and the authors of “Half the Sky” understand that bringing access to resources like female education can help improve all corners of the world and drastically reduce poverty. Therefore the book introduces three steps to bring access to these areas. The first step would be a $10 billion effort over five years to educate girls around the world and reduce the gender gap in education.

The second step would be for the United States to sponsor a global drive to iodize salt in poor countries to prevent tens of millions of children from losing approximately 10 IQ points each as a result of iodine deficiency while their brains are still being formed in the uterus; finally, the third step would be a 12-year, $1.6 billion project to eradicate obstetric fistula while laying the groundwork for a major international assault on maternal mortality.

The need to stress issues like female education are indeed crucial to develop of not only developing nations but our own nation at home.

– Rachel Cannon

Sources: Vialogue, University of Tennessee
Photo: Staci Jae Johnson

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China’s Water School

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Life as we know it owes a great debt to water. We ourselves are comprised of nearly 70 percent water and can’t live without a regular dose. However millions around the world still live without a reliable, clean water source.

As it turns out, our most precious resource is not nearly as abundant in potable form as human demand requires.

In fact, water is so scarce that 780 million people have no access to clean drinking water. In some cases, as with China’s Yangtze River, the poor quality of the water is in part caused by human activity and waste.

Fortunately China is investing in its water security by bringing school children out of the classroom and to the Yangtze in order to promote conservation and sustainable practices.

Since 2008 this experimental school program has focused on education for sustainable development (ESD). The so-called “Water School” is designed to get China’s children active in the protection and safe treatment of their water resources.

UNESCO and other international organizations are praising the program as a revolutionary and fundamental step for the protection of our vital resources. These organizations hope to sponsor similar programs across the globe by spreading awareness of the positive effects China’s water school has produced.

The program has already involved approximately 130,000 students and 200,000 community members, creating a new intellectual base that is deeply in touch with issues of conservation and water treatment.

Part of the program is to build children’s sense of responsibility to the Yangtze’s natural resources, and also to provide them with experiential learning. Tasks like monitoring PH levels and the health and biodiversity of local ecosystems aim to create a more secure future not just for the water, but also for the wildlife and vegetation that also rely on the river.

According to the project website, “The Water School for a Living Yangtze provides opportunities for young people living in different parts of the Yangtze River Basin to link their learning with the indigenous knowledge, traditional practice, and belief systems of local and more distant communities.”

The other major development for the water school is the way it uses the Yangtze, which cuts through the interior of the continent, as a unifying structure between the variety of cultures that live beside its waters. In that sense, the river acts as a vehicle for social development and promulgates shared responsibility for such a critical natural resource.

– Chase Colton

Sources: UNESCO, Water School, UN Water
Photo:

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100K Strong in the Americas Program

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One of President Obama’s most important initiatives in the Latin American region has been the 100K Strong in the Americas Program. This program was launched in March 2011, and seeks to increase international study in the Western Hemisphere. The idea is to foster a common understanding between the peoples of the Americas in the hopes of bettering inter-American relations.

The Department of State has partnered with the Association of International Educators (NAFSA), and Partners of the Americas, a development agency, in order to realize this vision. The program works by establishing a network of partnerships with foreign governments, universities, and colleges, and the private sector to increase foreign student participation in the U.S. and U.S. student participation in the Americas. The goal of the program is to reach 100,000 Latin American students studying in the U.S. and 100,000 U.S. students studying in Latin America by 2021.

In order to finance this venture, the State Department has set up the 100K Strong in the Americas Innovation Fund, whereby companies can donate money to Latin American and U.S. universities in order to improve cross-cultural student exchange. By current figures, 40,000 U.S. students study in Latin America and the Caribbean while 66,000 Latin American students study in the U.S. each year. Clearly there is work still to be done.

One large obstacle is the fact that many Latin Americans from poorer backgrounds do not have the necessary grasp on the English language that is required to succeed at a U.S. college or university. On the other hand, many U.S. students do not understand or recognize the value of studying abroad at Latin American colleges or universities.

It is hoped that the public-private sector partnership through the Innovation Fund will be able to increase the numbers of students studying in the U.S. and in Latin America.

Through the 100K Strong in the Americas program the U.S. hopes to construct a more understanding relationship between Latin Americans and the U.S. Enhancing cross-cultural contact is necessary for a better working relationship within the hemisphere in the future. By promoting this contact between the future leaders of the Americas, the U.S. is ensuring more successful diplomatic efforts down the line.

– Jeff Meyer

Sources: 100K Strong, U.S. Department of State, U.S. Department of State
Photo: US Embassy