Archive for category: Education

Information and stories on education.

Education in Latin America

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There are many challenges facing education in Latin America.  Many schools are not properly equipped with current textbooks or any lab equipment.  Even worse, some schools do not even have proper infrastructure, and students are forced to attend a schoolhouse with a leaky roof or holes in the wall.

These physical problems are directly responsible to the startling statistics about students in the region of Latin America.  According to the Inter-American Development Bank, only 10% of the region’s poorest students are performing at their grade level.  Only 40% percent of students graduate from secondary school, and according to the Brookings Institution’s Center for Universal Education, international comparisons have Latin America ranked near the bottom in education.

What is being done to combat these trends?

One method of change to education in Latin America are initiatives to upgrade outdated curriculum models.  Docente al Dia is an online platform that seeks to give teachers access to new curriculums and lesson plans.  It also acts as a social media community, a Facebook for teachers.  This will allow Latin American educators to collaborate on ideas, and connect the education system in a way not previously possible.

The Central America Foundation for Rural Education Development (CAFRED) is an organization that identifies rural communities lacking proper schooling facilities and builds healthy, safe, and sustainable schoolhouses.  CAFRED also sponsors a variety of education initiatives to create an environment of learning often denied to rural communities in Latin America.  One example is the “Professional Teacher Development Program” which provides much needed professional development for rural teachers by giving lessons in sensitivity and Individual Education Programs.

A positive statistic for Latin American students is that by 2015, 30 million students should have access to an electronic device to support learning.  This is one of the many projects and topics championed by the Inter-American Development Bank.  The Bank endorses five ‘dimensions of success’ in education: high expectations for student learning, students should enter the system ready to learn, all students having access to effective teachers, schools having adequate resources, and all graduates having the skills necessary to contribute to the labor market.

Access toeducation is a necessary component for producing global citizens and engaged consumers.  Stimulating education in Latin America should therefore be a top priority for world leaders.

– Taylor Diamond

Sources: Inter-American Development Bank, Brookings Institution

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Global Education Motivators

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What do Mr. Rogers, Jane Goodall, and the United Nations all have in common?  They are all close supporters of Global Education Motivators (GEM) one of the oldest initiatives for advocating the importance of global education in American schools.

Founded in 1981, GEM has worked tirelessly to promote global issues in the American classroom through engagement with UN educational programs, leadership conferences, and workshops. One of the initiative’s foremost programs is “United Nations Day,” where young students work together, mock UN style, to provide solutions for issues such as human rights, environmental sustainability, education, and food security.

“Believing that international communication exchange is the key to future world peace, the inclusion of cross cultural perspectives has become an integral part of GEM’s global learning programs,” according to GEM’s mission statement.  “Global awareness is closely tied to global responsibility.”  This commitment to cross cultural perspectives is evident in the initiative’s distance learning courses. These courses are geared for K-12 students. African Folk Tales, Conflict in Sudan and Nuclear Awareness are some of the highlights of the courses available.

GEM also boasts partnerships with the African Studies Center at the University of Pennsylvania and the project for Nuclear Awareness. Additionally, the group has a presence with the United Nations’ education initiative, UN Academic Impact.  At UN Academic Impact’s Third Annual Conference, youth members of GEM presented about the program and the importance of empowering other youth to stand up for global issues through community involvement, arts and education.

While the organization most certainly embraces the mantra of “think global,” acting local is just as important for GEM. Based out of Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia, GEM is a close partner with local Philadelphia schools and Philadelphia-based programs, like the Greater Philadelphia Global Education Network. Involving local communities and schools with issues of global development is an important part of inspiring larger movements for global education.

– Taylor Diamond

Sources: United Nations, Global Education Motivators
Photo: Dreamstime

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4 Children’s Books on Global Issues

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Children are the future. Today, our youngest generation has the ability to learn about global issues through reading. Check out the educational books below:

1. Clean Water for Elirose by Ariah Fine

This book tells the story of Maria and her friends who love all kinds of different drinks. When they learn about a girl their age who doesn’t have clean water to drink they set out to help her find access to what she lacks. Literature review site goodreads.com describes it as a “[…] children’s picture book about the lack of clean drinking water in the world and how we can help.” All profits from this book go to support clean water projects.

2. Little Things Make Big Differences: A Story About Malaria by John Nunes and Monique Nunes

Little Things Make Big Differences: A Story about Malaria, is a story about a young Tanzanian girl named Rehema. The story focuses on Rehema’s battle with one of the world’s most fatal diseases, malaria. When she was a baby, Rehema was infected with the disease but survived because her parents were able to get treatment for her. In the book, Rehema describes what children in rich countries can do to help fight malaria.

3. The Secret River by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

This book depicts how poverty affects families, with a focus on kids. Rawlings’ children’s book tells the story of a girl poet named Calpurnia and her family who worry that they will go hungry because there are no fish left in the river. Luckily, Calpurnia meets a medicine woman in the forest who helps her find the way to a secret river, teeming with catfish, which appears only when desperately needed and disappears when the heart and belly are full. The ending teaches kids that there is always a way to help aid those in need.

4. The Can Man by Laura E. Williams

Laura E. Williams provides a sweet but direct lesson about poverty in today’s society. Williams tells the story of a young boy named Tim who fantasizes about getting the skateboard of his dreams. But Tim’s parents can’t afford to buy him the skateboard for his birthday, so he puts on rubber gloves and starts collecting cans in a quest for cash. Soon he finds himself racing a homeless can collector to gain access to the best spots in the neighborhood for cans. As he gets to know “The Can Man,” Tim learns there are things in life more valuable than any object.

– Stephanie Olaya

Sources: Good Reads: Clean Water for Elirose, Good Reads: Global Issues for Kids, One, Huffington Post
Photo: Clean Water for Elirose

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Children’s Books on Poverty

In America, we often tend to live inside of a bubble, a comfortable space in which we utilize blissful ignorance to the outside world and its problems.

But this bubble has a negative impact on what’s beyond it – the rest of the world. By choosing to live in ignorance, people who need help are unable to receive it. Where that problem begins is in the home – with children.

Being privileged to a comfortable lifestyle as a child, I grew up typically getting what I wanted for Christmas and birthdays. My sister was given an iPod when they first came out, while I eventually came to be the owner of a Gameboy Color, a Nintendo 64 and a GameCube. Then again, sometimes there were disappointments – things I had asked for that were not wrapped up in brightly colored packages under the tree.

It was important to my parents to make sure that my sister and I got gifts we would actually use, but even more important was the lesson that we wouldn’t always get what we want.

That lesson applies in a large scale to the problem of global poverty, and authors are now tackling it. Not only do these lessons come in large, adult books, but they are now being offered in the pages of children’s books.

The following books educate and reinforce principles regarding economic differences, while also validating the emotions of the poor readers. The refreshing part is that these books do not intend to preach; they teach the values of resourcefulness and gratefulness.

  • The Can Man by Laura E. Williams, illustrated by Craig Orback: Tim’s parents can’t afford the skateboard he dreams of for his birthday, so he puts on rubber gloves and starts collecting cans in a quest for cash. Soon he finds himself racing a homeless can collector to the best spots in the neighborhood for cans. As he gets to know “The Can Man,” Tim learns there are things in life more valuable than any object.
  • Lucky Beans by Becky Birtha, illustrated by Nicole Tadgell: Marshall Loman is sick of beans because he has had to eat them every night since his father lost his job. In this Depression-era story, a bean counting contest at a local shop and one boy’s math-savvy help a family get back on their feet again.
  • The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes, is a classic story about a Polish immigrant girl who is teased for saying she has one hundred dresses, when she wears the same faded old dress every day. It is told from the perspective of the teaser’s friend. I read this story aloud over the course of a week, engaging the children during and after each reading in a philosophical discussion about the ethical dilemma of being a silent bystander.
  • Si, Se Puede! by Diana Cohn, is a bilingual story about the Service Employees International Union organizing drive and janitors’ strike in Los Angeles. It is useful to discuss why and how workers form unions, what a strike is, the importance of community support, and connections between the story of the janitors’ organizing drive and local labor struggles.
  • The Streets Are Free by Karusa, is a bilingual story about children in a Venezuelan barrio who organize and protest about the lack of a playground in their neighborhood and the eventual community action which builds it. Children can retell and then make captioned drawings to illustrate a story of community organizing told by a “guest activist” visitor to the classroom. These can be displayed, then bound into a class book.
  • Shingebiss by Nancy Van Lann, is an Ojibwe legend about a merganser duck who demonstrates the values of persistence, conservation and resourcefulness in order to survive the northern winter. This is a favorite of my students and my own children. Shingebiss is an excellent role model to refer to when the going gets rough. I am often impressed by hearing my students exhort each other to be persistent or praise each other for being resourceful in their problem solving. I start to proudly think, “Wow! Did I teach them that vocabulary?” and then humbly remind myself, “no, they learned it from a duck.”
  • Tight Times by Barbara Shook Hazen, is about a boy in a financially stressed family who really wants a pet dog. Told from the child’s perspective, it describes the boy’s spontaneous adoption of a stray kitten against the backdrop of the father’s anger at his sudden job loss. Children can easily make text-to-self connections with the story as they discuss how a sudden change of circumstances can affect everyone in a family.
  • The Lady in the Box by Ann McGovern, is about two children who notice and then befriend a homeless woman living in their neighborhood.
  • Fly Away Home by Eve Bunting, is about a homeless boy and his father who live at an airport. I use both this book and The Lady in the Box to help children see beyond the “shopping bag lady” stereotype of homelessness, to recognize that people of all ages and circumstances can become homeless for a brief or longer period of time, for a variety of reasons, and that shelters are not solutions in themselves.

– Samantha Davis

Sources: Huffington Post, Scholastic
Photo: Georgina Public Libraries

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Baseball Field or Public Education?

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In the summer of 1996 as an eight year old boy, I was privileged to venture into downtown Atlanta during the Summer Olympic Games. I was amazed at my firsthand sight of the many sporting arenas, housing for international athletes, hotels and other buildings that were built in anticipation for the summer games. At that time I was not aware of the amount of money that was being spent for construction, security, planning and promotions by the city of Atlanta and other private enterprises to stage this worldwide event.

In anticipation for the Games, the city of Atlanta spent $209 million alone on the building of Olympic Stadium, an 85,000 seat stadium that held track and field events and the opening and closing ceremonies of the games. At the conclusion of the Olympics about 30,000 seats were removed from the stadium so that it could be converted into a baseball field, which was a more viable use of the venue. The renovated baseball stadium was renamed Turner Field and became the new home of the Atlanta Braves for the start of the 1997 season.

Since its completion, Turner Field has hosted 81 games each summer for the relatively successful Atlanta Braves and their passionate fan base. At only 17 years old, Turner Field is still newer than 14 of the other 29 ball parks used in Major League Baseball. It is still fully operational and relatively new but the Atlanta Braves are not pleased with the venue. On November 11 of this year, the Atlanta Braves announced that they had partnered with nearby Cobb County, Georgia for the building of a new baseball stadium, set to cost $672 million, of which $450 million is to be publicly financed by the county.

Atlanta’s stadium saga is just one example of municipalities that face the debate of the benefits of publicly financed stadiums. Proponents of them promise an increase in public revenue for the city in the form conventions, sporting events, jobs and retail shopping, but years of outside research has proven to be inconclusive on the economic impact of such projects. In 2017, 20 years after the completion of the once-proud stadium, the city of Atlanta will demolish Turner Field and use the land for another project.

Publicly Financed Stadiums are a risky bet for municipalities that could use the same funds for other more noble investments such as infrastructure improvements and education. Ironically Cobb County is the same county that is currently facing a $78 million deficit in its school system but is willing to fund $450 million on a baseball field. Time will tell if the diversion of funds for education towards a new stadium will be a wise investment for the community of Cobb County.

– Travis Whinery
Sources: ESPN, CHICAGO TRIBUNE, USA TODAY, THE MARIETTA DAILY JOURNAL

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Education in Pakistan and Why it Matters

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Poverty in Pakistan has allowed the Taliban to flourish.  By promising food security, shelter, protection, and education, the Taliban has been able to gain support in this region. But the Taliban’s presence has had a detrimental effect on Pakistani schools, a strategy that has kept the region impoverished and under Taliban control.  “Education is a prerequisite for development,” said Shakil Ahmad, author of “The Taliban and Girl’s Education in Pakistan and Afghanistan.”

Education is also the key to releasing Pakistan from the grips of the Taliban. When a population does not understand basic politics or economics, it is easy to manipulate them. As a result, most Pakistani schools have either been bombed or taken over by Taliban members, who turn the schools into recruitment programs, where students are taught extremism and trained for terrorism.

For women, the Taliban’s crusade against education is especially damaging. Taliban rule means a strict interpretation of Islamic and Pashtun customary law, which states that women are not allowed to work outside the home, go unveiled, or leave the house without a male family member.  Religious police roam the streets, handing out harsh punishments for anyone in violation of Pashtun.  All girls’ schools were outlawed in January 2009, and  the Taliban threatened that anyone caught educating a girl or any girl receiving an education would be blown up or attacked with acid.

By now, most of the world knows of Malala Yousafazi, the teenage girl who was shot in the head by the Taliban while on her way to school.  This was not a random incident; she was targeted for speaking out in favor of girls’ education.  Today she has fully recovered, and now leads the Malala Fund, an organization to improve education for girls in the developing world.  The mission is a simple one with seemingly insurmountable challenges—educate girls where education is outlawed.  However, Malala believes in taking small steps: her mantra is “One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world.”

– Stephanie Lamm

Sources: Lund University Department of Sociology, Malala Fund
Photo: Center for Economic Research in Pakistan

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Adolescent Girls, Bearing the Brunt of the Burden


“I am 17 years old. In the relief camp, when I was sleeping in the night, I was raped. I did not know what had happened to me. I do not know the face of the man. I had heavy bleeding…now I see some disturbances in my body and when my mother took me to the hospital, I was told I am pregnant”.

This is what a young girl from Tamul Nadu in India experienced after a tsunami devastated her hometown. Like her, millions of other girls in developing countries are the hardest hit by disasters in comparison with other segments of the population. Not only do women receive non-preferential treatment during emergency rescues, but they are also at a greater risk of sexual exploitation, child marriage, and being deprived of an education.

According to a report released by Plan International, a child rights NGO, girls fare far worse during disasters than the rest of the population. Given their gender, age, and humanitarian status, girls and women experience a triple disadvantage during crises since pre-existing inequalities and vulnerabilities are exacerbated.

In this way, a 14-year-old girl in a slum will experience a flood or an earthquake differently from a 14-year-old boy in the same situation. Such is the case of a son and a daughter who were swept away by a tidal surge in a cyclone that hit Bangladesh in 1991. The father of these children is cited as saying that he could not hold on to both and had to release his daughter because “his son had to carry on the family line.”

In other cases, adolescent girls and women are driven to sell sex because they have no alternative to feed themselves and their children. “I don’t work. I don’t have parents to help. So, for around a dollar, you have sex just for that…it’s not good to do prostitution, but what can you do?” said Gheslaine, who lives in a camp in Croix-de-Bouquets in Haiti.

Disasters also lead to an increase in child marriages. Research in Somaliland, Bangladesh and Niger found that child marriage is often used as a community response to crises in which girls are sold for income and food. In Niger, girls are taken out of school, wed and impregnated at the age of 13. Many of them suffer from fistula (a rupture between the birth canal and bladder caused by prolonged obstructed labor) and die.

One of the least prioritized issues during disasters is facilitating education for girls. Although most families would rather continue education for boys rather than girls, girls who receive an education are more likely to be healthy, marry later in life, and survive into adulthood. In fact, it is one of the most important determinants of practically all desired outcomes related to the Millennium Development Goals, from poverty reduction, to reduced infant mortality rates, and to enhanced democratization.

Despite the evidence that confirms that the empowerment of women has a transformative power in all types of societies, this study reveals that the rights to protection, education, and participation are still not granted to most women and girls, especially during crises.

– Nayomi Chibani
Feature Writer

Sources: IRIN, Plan International
Photo: UNHCR

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Female Literacy: The Importance and Reason

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October 17 is celebrated throughout the world as the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. Extreme poverty has many causes and benefactors that have allowed it to become the expansive global issue it is today. Lack of food supply, insufficient amount of suitable water sources and deadly viruses all contribute to the extreme poverty epidemic. However, lack of education is often overlooked, yet it holds as much stock in healing poverty as any other way. Making education a major target is crucial, especially for the female children in these areas.

Children in impoverished areas are not receiving proper education. However, the children that are receiving any sort of education are predominately males, and females are simply left out of the education process. Only 43 percent of secondary-age girls are in school, and 1 in every 5 girls in the developing world do not complete any education beyond sixth grade.

There are several reasons why girls in developing countries do not make it past middle school education. These issues range from having to work to help support the family to being married off at a young age. More than 10,000 girls under the age of 15 are to be married each day in developing countries. However, girls that receive secondary education are six times less likely to marry before the age of eighteen. Additionally, girls who receive at least seven years of quality education tend to make better lifestyle decisions. They average a marriage age of at least four years later than girls who do not receive the same number of years in education, and average two fewer children.

In these impoverished areas, girls have also shown a better tendency to conserve their money and use it primarily or their family. A woman in a developing country who earns an income invests 90 percent of it into her family, a substantially higher percentage than the men boast. However, the money cannot be made without receiving an education. While girls have more obstacles to pass to obtain theirs, even one year of schooling can improve a girl’s individual earnings by 10-20 percent.

The value of an education can change several aspects of life. Studies show that youths in general who receive at least a primary education have as much as a 50 percent reduced rate to contract HIV and AIDS. If a child is taught at an early age ways to avoid these diseases and to treat them, the results could be staggering. Predictions show that up to 700,000 HIV cases could be potentially prevented if more children received a primary education.

Girls have several odds stacked against them. However, receiving an education can obviously impact the lives of young girls in developing countries. By obtaining this education, girls have a much better chance of improving their poverty situation. Programs such as Compassion (found here) allow people to sponsor a child, and through outside aid these children are able to obtain their education. The mission to institute education worldwide is a crucial one; without increased learning, the world will always have the lingering effects of extreme poverty. Fixing the education issue is a fine way to make a difference.

– Zachary Wright

Sources: Compassion Blog, Education Graphic, Compassion Website

Photo: World Literacy Initiative, Inc.

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10 Ways to End Hunger

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There are an estimated 852 million hungry people in the world – an astounding number. However, with some simple ideas, the number of hungry people in the world can easily be reduced.

1. Education

Even if hunger was eradicated right now, it would only be temporarily so if education is not a priority. Educated children are prepared children. A good education equips children to provide for themselves, as well as their communities, in the future. Education ensures that the steps taken in the fight against hunger are sustainable.

2. School meals 

School meal programs are one of the easiest ways to feed lots of children, since the children are all gathered in one place. It is also very cost-effective. For 25 cents per meal, the World Food Program feeds 24 million school children annually.

3. Food security programs

The World Food Program defines food security as “when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food which meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.” Food security programs aim to meet these needs by training farmers in developing nations through agricultural methods that will provide their communities with food – both now and long-term. The World Food Program reports that it has provided 200,000 farmers with agricultural training since the beginning of its food security programs.

4. Focus on women

It is estimated that women account for 60 percent of the hungry worldwide. If a mother is not able to provide for herself, she will most likely not be able to provide for her children either. This means that hunger is continuously being inherited by children. When women are helped, entire communities are helped.

5. Raise awareness

The simple act of bringing attention to the problem of hunger goes a long way in fighting it. People can’t contribute to a cause they aren’t informed of, and as more people become aware of how hunger affects the poor around the world, more people will engage in the fight against it. It’s that simple.

6. Donate

This is one that tends to be taken for granted. Many people talk about the importance of monetary donations, but relatively few actually donate. This is unfortunate, because donations of any amount can go a long way. There are billions of people in the world that do not suffer from chronic hunger. If all of these people contribute even the tiniest amount that they can afford, hunger will be exponentially closer to being eradicated.

7. Live simply

People in developed nations put so much money towards things they don’t need, while people in the developing world struggle just to get by on a daily basis. Practicing some restraint in spending would free up money that could then be used towards eradicating hunger. This could be as simple as forgoing a cup of coffee each day.

8. Reduce food waste

Excess waste ties up resources that could be used elsewhere in the fight against hunger. It is important for people in developed countries to be mindful of those in developing nations by doing their best to consume only what they need.

9. Be involved in government

Exercise the privileges that come with living in a democratic society in the fight against hunger. Elected officials are in place to represent the voice of the people. If enough people express their concern about global hunger to elected officials, the collective voice cannot be ignored, and action must be taken.

10. Fight for livable wages

It is not enough to simply provide the world’s hungry with food. They must be equipped to provide for themselves. Otherwise, the problem of hunger is not actually solved. Many workers in developing nations are exploited by employers and are not paid nearly enough to provide food for themselves, much less their families. If global hunger is to be defeated, all people must be provided with opportunity to earn livable wages.

– Matt Berg

Sources: YSA, WFPUSA, Huffington Post, World Hunger

Photo: World Food Programme

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3 Things That Will Help End Poverty

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When on the search for a solution to global poverty, activists and politicians come up with various elaborate plans, incentives and government legislations. Often these solutions are built with three very simple ideas that create substantial change to those living in poverty:

1. Education

Constant and good education can change lives. While those in the developing world take it for granted, there are people who live in poverty due to their lack of education. This lack of education is normally a result of the lack of the opportunity or circumstances that require them to work rather than study. The cycle of poverty is such that living in poverty requires the next generation to work to help support the family. The younger children are rarely given a chance to complete their education. The connection between education and poverty, or rather the ability to rise out of poverty, is extremely evident. An education guarantees a job that is better paying, allowing the next generation to continue to be educated instead of working. This breaks the cycle of poverty that rears its ugly head in so many parts of the world.

2. Small Local Businesses

Opportunities for jobs increase with the support and growth of small local businesses. Local businesses don’t only create opportunities; they also bring supplies and resources into a community that would greatly benefit from it. These small businesses range from medical supplies or care facilities to agricultural and technological support. Additionally, such businesses continue to beget more businesses, making the economy flourish and the citizens of the community thrive and follow by example.

3. Technology

Technology can substantially help improve the conditions of the poor. For those working in agrarian communities, advanced technology can yield better crops; technology can help improve education. Internet access can change the face of communications, and mobile phones greatly reduce the damages of natural disasters due to the immediate news they can provide. Access to electricity or any kind of power, would also help bring amenities to those living in poverty that many people take for granted. Finally, technology will significantly improve health care standards in places where it is scarce. The Posner Center for International Development does just this: various organizations come together, come up with ideas that will benefit developing areas in the world, and help bring about these additions that will significantly improve living conditions.

– Aalekhya Malladi

Sources: NY Times, Denver Post
Photo: Foreign Policy