Archive for category: Education

Information and stories on education.

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How Sesame Workshop is Helping Syrian Refugees in Poverty

Syrian refugeesThe Syrian Arab Republic is a country in the Middle East with a rich and unique history that goes back as far as 10,000 years. More recently, political instability led to the Syrian civil war, which has created a humanitarian crisis that extends far beyond its borders. Syrian refugees are now found all around the world, having left their country fleeing the war. This has had a particularly severe impact on Syrian children.

The Syrian Refugee Crisis

Many Syrians have been forced to relocate in order to escape violence and the indiscriminate bombings of roads, schools and hospitals at home. The U.N. estimates that more than 6 million Syrians are displaced outside of Syria, while another 6 million have fled to other parts of the country. In the Northwest region of Idlib, nearly 900,000 Syrians have fled since December 2019.

Although many Syrian refugees have fled to overflowing refugee camps for temporary relocation and safety, others flee to unstable urban settings instead in the hopes of permanent relocation. As many as 70% of Syrian refugees are living in severe poverty.

This humanitarian crisis was recently worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic. Syrian refugees’ need for food, medicine and access to clean water has increased. Delays in importing necessities has reduced refugees’ access to these essential items.

The Sesame Workshop: Helping Syrian Children

Of all humanitarian aid for the Syrian refugee crisis, only 2% goes to education. An even smaller chunk goes to support early childhood education. Considering that nearly half of all Syrian refugees are children, this aid is essential.

In 2017, the MacArthur Foundation provided the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and Sesame Workshop with a $100 million grant to fund a childhood education program for Syrian refugees. The IRC is an international NGO that has been providing humanitarian resources in Syria since the conflict first began. Sesame Workshop, the creators of the Sesame Street educational program for children around the world, partnered with the IRC to create “Ahlan Simsim,” meaning “Welcome Sesame” in Arabic.

The show will reach Syria, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon to provide the refugees in Syria and the surrounding countries with quality education. This new version of Sesame Street is provided in both Arabic and Kurdish.

“Ahlan Simsim” has three main characters. Basma is a six-year-old purple muppet with two pigtails. She loves to sing and dance and is best friends with Jad. Jad is also six years old and is a yellow muppet who just moved into the neighborhood. Finally, Ma’zooza is a funny and hungry baby goat who follows both Basma and Jad on their adventures.

These new characters start with the basics: they teach young refugees about fundamental skills, such as emotions and the alphabet. They help their young audience gain educational skills and understand the world around them in a nurturing way. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the IRC and Sesame Workshop are still providing technological learning opportunities, resources for local implementation and preschool spaces for safe learning and playing. They also continue to advocate for these essential education programs.

Moving Forward

The Syrian refugee population is considered to be the most displaced population in the world. At this point, there are many Syrian children who were born into the conflict and do not know a life without it. The IRC and Sesame Workshop are working to ensure that these children have a stable future in which their lives can be defined by new opportunities.

– Camryn Anthony
Photo: Flickr

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Students Learn Via Radio During Pandemic

Learn via Radio
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, about 297 million students in Africa—and 1.29 billion worldwide—have experienced school closures. These schools must quickly produce and distribute distance learning materials, often through online programs and television broadcasts. Students who lack television or internet access are at risk of falling behind. Therefore, many students from impoverished communities are at a disadvantage. However, according to UNESCO, 75% of all households worldwide have radio access. Similarly, nine out of 10 households have radio access in sub-Saharan Africa. Thanks to innovative groups like the Rwanda Education Board, students are able to learn via radio.

State, private and community radio stations have been airing educational broadcasts to make remote learning more accessible during the pandemic. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Okapi Ecole, a radio network that the United Nations sponsors, broadcasts educational programs for students in primary and secondary school twice a day. Students are also able to learn via radio in Peru; the “Aprendo en casa” initiative uses multiple platforms, including radio, to teach lessons on math, Spanish, art and other subjects. This article will provide more examples of the radio broadcast programs that have emerged to make learning engaging and equitable during the pandemic.

Literacy and Hygiene in Rwanda

Because of COVID-19 related school closures, 3 million students in Rwanda lack the option to attend school in person. In April 2020, the Rwanda Education Board started to broadcast radio learning programs. These broadcasts air for six hours every weekday and aim to improve literacy among students in primary school. Almost all children in Rwanda attend primary school; however, according to UNICEF, primary students in Rwanda “score too low in numeracy and literacy exams.” High-quality and widely accessible radio broadcasts can prevent students from falling behind on their literacy skills. As a result, students will be prepared to return to school. Additionally, UNICEF has partnered with the Rwanda Broadcasting Agency to broadcast literacy and numeracy classes across the country.

A series of radio dramas have also helped educate Rwandans about the importance of hygiene and how to reduce the spread of diseases like COVID-19. Young people wrote these plays and produced them alongside WaterAid, a nonprofit organization. Each of these plays broadcasted to about one-third of the country’s population, reaching millions of people.

UNICEF Funds Educational Broadcasts in Côte d’Ivoire

In March 2020, UNICEF provided Côte d’Ivoire’s Ministry of National Education with $70,000 for distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. With the help of this contribution, the Ministry introduced free educational radio and television broadcasts as part of its “Mon école à Maison,” or “My School at Home,” program. This program contains resources for students in preschool, primary school and secondary school. Unfortunately, gender inequality and poverty are high in Côte d’Ivoire. Programs like “Mon école à Maison” are ensuring that all students will be able to continue their education.

Rising on Air Initiative Reaches Students in Africa And Beyond

Rising Academy Network aims to improve the quality of schools in Liberia and Sierra Leone. The company is expanding its reach and curating its lessons to engage students during the pandemic. They have created a free resource for distance learning materials called Rising On Air. This distance learning tool shares lessons so millions of students can learn via radio and SMS. Rising On Air also provides a free 20-week program of lesson scripts and pre-recorded audio. These lessons are personalizable to fit educators’ specific goals. Lessons are available for students of all ages; there are programs designed for children aged three to five with a “family-child interaction component.” Rising On Air also offers literacy and numeracy classes for students from kindergarten to 12th grade. Furthermore, every lesson begins with a message about health and safety for students and their families.

UNICEF finds that “more than 50% of school-age children” in African countries have the resources to learn via radio. UNICEF also states that radio broadcasts have “an important role to play” in the COVID-19 education response. Rising Academy Network collaborates with organizations across the African continent and beyond. Additionally, Rising Academy Network partners with the governments of Sierra Leone, Liberia, Gambia, Chad and Guinea.

Conclusion

According to UNICEF, although “marginalized children are more likely to be in homes with fewer learning resources,” radio broadcasts have “the potential to reach almost all children, including the poorest.” Higher education rates directly connect to higher employment rates and reduced income inequality, as well as healthier and more democratic societies. Progress towards ending global poverty is at risk of unraveling. It is critical that students around the world have the opportunity to succeed in school. With the help of radio broadcasts, students in impoverished communities can continue to learn during the COVID-19 pandemic and return to school ready to move forward.

– Rachel Powell
Photo: Flickr

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Hugh Evans and His Battle Against Global Poverty

Hugh Evans
One of the most challenging aspects of charity work is getting the word out. Even in the era of social media, it is difficult to reach people and convince them to support a cause, especially during a global pandemic. Yet, music has the power to bring people together during divisive times. Global Citizen CEO Hugh Evans found a way to fuse music and charity together. By hosting concerts around the world, he has raised billions of dollars in the fight against global poverty.

Now 37, Hugh Evans was born in Melbourne, Australia. His goal in life is to eradicate global poverty completely, and he is confident that he can do it. Evans believes that people created poverty and that people can destroy it. In an interview for the Sydney Morning Herald, Evans noted that there are more than 2,000 billionaires in the world. If they each gave as much as Bill and Melinda Gates give, poverty would cease to exist completely. Jeff Bezos, owner of Amazon, “could do it on his own.” But most billionaires are not pitching in enough, or at all. So, Evans calls for systematic change by engaging governments, corporations and ordinary non-billionaires.

Early Inspirations

In 1997, 14-year-old Hugh Evans went on a World Vision trip to the Philippines and saw extreme poverty first-hand. An extremely poor family hosted him. They slept on a concrete roof and had little to offer him besides a straw mat. Lying on that mat, watching cockroaches crawl around him, Evans realized that something needed to change. It was then that he decided to commit his life to ending poverty.

After returning from the Philippines, Evans earned a scholarship to study at an international school in India. There, he learned even more about global culture, language and poverty. He spent weekends doing charitable work in nearby slums or at a branch of Mother Theresa’s charity. Evans even took a gap year after high school to work with HIV/AIDS orphans in South Africa. By the time he was 20, he had a much more personal understanding of global poverty than most middle-class Australians will ever have.

Charitable Concerts

In 2006 and 2007, as a university student, Evans organized the Make Poverty History concerts in Australia, featuring Bono, the Edge and Eddie Vedder. Those concerts introduced him to the idea that celebrities could harness real power in the mission to end poverty. Since then, he graduated from Monash University with a science/law degree, got his master’s in international relations and founded Global Citizen. Through this organization, he has coordinated many more concerts around the world, including Together at Home, the live-streamed concerts during the COVID-19 quarantine. Rather than buying tickets, concert-goers must earn them by taking actions as members of Global Citizen. They can do so by signing petitions, contacting world leaders and taking quizzes to educate oneself about global poverty. These may seem like small feats, but advocacy and education are some of the most powerful weapons against global poverty.

Always a hard worker, Evans often endures long days and sleepless nights to organize charitable events, often under short notice. When COVID-19 began reaching countries that already struggle to meet healthcare needs, Evans and his team immediately started planning the Together at Home concert, which they were able to organize in just three weeks.

Inspiring Future Progress

In a world with constantly changing interests and opportunities, nonprofit organizations must work hard to continue attracting attention and fundraising effectively. Hugh Evans’s first-hand experience with poverty has successfully raised billions of dollars towards the fight against global poverty, and he is only 37-years-old. His establishment of Global Citizen is one of the most prominent triumphs in helping impoverished people all around the world. Not only does the organization provide the necessities for survival, but it also gives impoverished communities the tools to bring themselves and others out of poverty. It may have started on a straw mat in the Philippines, but Evans’s optimism and diligence have reached across borders and will continue to support the dignity, compassion and humanity necessary to end global poverty.

– Levi Reyes
Photo: Flickr

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Improving the Health of Children in the Marshall Islands

Children in the Marshall Islands
The Marshall Islands, located in the Pacific Ocean, have high poverty rates. Approximately 30% of the populations of Majuro and Ebeye, the Marshall Islands’ most populated territories, live below the poverty line. Meanwhile, 60% of the populations of the remaining 34 islands and atolls are impoverished. These conditions have left children in the Marshall Islands behind in terms of education, nutrition and growth.

History

Beginning in 1946, the United States used the Marshall Islands as a site for nuclear bomb testing for over 10 years. The 67 nuclear tests left the Marshall Islands with contaminated land areas and elevated radiation levels.

As a result, many residents live in small, overcrowded spaces. For example, in Ebeye, 10,000 of the total 55,000 Marshallese people reside in an area that encompasses less than a tenth of a square mile. This island has become known as the “slum of the Pacific,” but inhabitants fear to relocate due to contamination.

Effect on Children

These poor living conditions have had a large effect on the health of children in the Marshall Islands. According to a study conducted by UNICEF and the Marshallese government, over a third of children below the age of 5 are unable to grow and mature at a rate standard for children. This can be attributed primarily to malnutrition, which inhibits one’s intellectual and physical development.

The study concludes that reducing malnutrition levels within the Marshallese population may provide a series of benefits.  Most notably, these benefits would include the improved health of Marshallese children and improved economic conditions of the Marshall Islands due to a more prosperous upcoming generation.

Foreign Aid

Several organizations, including the World Bank, have made efforts to improve the current conditions that the people of these islands face. In 2019, the World Bank launched the Early Childhood Development Project in response to a request for aid made by previous Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine. The project focuses on improving the lives of children in the Marshall Islands by investing in education and healthcare.

Heine hopes this project will improve the overall quality of life in the Marshall Islands. “By investing in our children and ensuring they are afforded the best opportunities to learn and thrive, we are ensuring a sustainable and rich future for the Republic of the Marshall Islands.”

By the end of 2024, the Early Childhood Development Project aims to have enrolled 1,000 children between the ages of three and four in kindergarten, which is an addition of 762 students from their start in 2019. In terms of health improvements, the project hopes to provide essential health and nutrition services to at least 19,850 people. This is clearly a substantial improvement from the zero receiving similar services in 2019.

Moving Forward

This is only the beginning of helping the Marshall Islands recover from decades of poverty. Moving forward, it is essential that the World Bank and other humanitarian organizations continue to focus on improving the health of children in the Marshall Islands. These efforts are vital to the Marshall Islands’ ability to move towards a more prosperous future.

– Hannah Carroll
Photo: Flickr

Reforming Education in Nicaragua

Reforming Education in NicaraguaReforming education in Nicaragua has been a major focus of rehabilitation efforts over the past few years. Prior to 2015, there were over 800,000 people who were unable to read or write in Nicaragua. Because of the educational barriers that exist in the country, many students were kept from remaining enrolled at their schools or building the necessary confidence to pursue an education. However, over the past five years, Nicaragua’s Ministry of Education (MINED) has worked hard to create superior learning institutions so that Nicaraguan children can have a more accessible, comfortable and innovative education.

The Public Education System

Nicaragua is considered the most impoverished country in Central America. With the unemployment rate rising over 3% in the past five years, the government decided to implement concrete policies that could create enough incentives to keep people enrolled in school and pull them out of poverty.

In Nicaragua, education is not equally accessible to all, even though primary education is compulsory. The government has not yet found the necessary tools to instigate accessible community action and counter the factors that keep students from enrolling in primary or secondary education. Moreover, the struggle to enroll students is not the only obstacle the government faces as over 70% of Nicaraguan children drop out of school before they reach the sixth grade.

Un Ministerio en la Comunidad

The Ministry of Education has been working to improve its participation in society. The ministry’s motto is “un ministerio en la comunidad”, which is Spanish for “a ministry in the community”. The language employed suggests the active role MINED wants to establish in Nicaraguan society, including reforming education in Nicaragua.

In 2017, the government redirected approximately 4% of the entire national GDP to MINED. The repairs that have been done since then directly benefit countless public schools, especially in terms of providing better study conditions to the many children that go to these.

In 2020 alone there have been four reform initiatives focusing on infrastructure reconstruction, student hygiene and health, drug awareness and increasing disability awareness within school institutions and curriculum.

 Initiatives Taken by MINED

  1. Special Education Curriculum Strengthening: For many students with mental and physical disabilities, the traditional classroom setting and curriculum can be overly challenging and discouraging. Because of that many students are left hopeless and unable to learn, making it nearly impossible for them to get a job that pays a livable wage in the future. In February of 2020,  special education directors from Managua to Chontales met and discussed how to implement styling, cooking and music courses into their school curriculum so that disabled students can better adapt to school and to the job market.
  2. My Life Without Drugs Program: Drug use and addiction are one of the leading culprits of high school dropouts, leading many young Nicaraguans to stay in poverty for their entire lives. The Miguel Ramírez Goyena Institute held a drug awareness discussion in March of 2020 for grades nine to eleven, covering the kinds of drugs that are prominent in their community and teaching the students points of prevention.
  3. COVID-19 Health and Hygiene: MINED started as early as March 30 with COVID-19-focused prevention workshops. There have been several health and hygiene panels held to reinforce the awareness of COVID-19 and how to prevent it by washing hands, wearing facial coverings and social distancing students and staff. In addition to that, the Ministry put effort into bringing the digital wave to Nicaragua. According to the official data released, MINED created 23 mobile digital classrooms that help low-income students and educators alike have access to equipment such as tablets, printers, projectors and printers.
  4. Bertha Díaz Educational Center: On July 10, the reconstruction of the Bertha Díaz Educational Center in Managua advanced by 60%. The improved space exhibits a new roof, electrical system and 12 reworked classrooms. The project has taken five million córdobas or $143,856. MINED hopes to have the entire project done by the end of the summer so that the center is up and running for students in the fall.

What’s the Next Step?

The Nicaraguan government has a powerful Ministry of Education that is taking the broken Nicaraguan infrastructure by the horns and pushing full force for a brighter future for the young population. Out of the 6.1 million people living in Nicaragua, 40% of citizens are under the age of 15. Children are the future of Nicaragua and MINED knows that. Each week, new efforts are pushed by those in power towards reforming education in Nicaragua to help bring students to the top of their educational and mental potential. Additional financial support from outside nations will only help bolster the potential for Nicaragua’s students and allow the country to work its way out of poverty.

– Nicolettea Daskaloudi
Photo: Flickr

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5 Facts About School Fees In Africa

School Fees in AfricaSchool fees are a major barrier to widespread, effective education in Africa. Many children in impoverished families simply cannot afford to pay the required fees to attend school. As a result, they never receive a proper education. It is important to know basic facts about the issue because the first solutions that come to mind are not always the best ones. For example, removing fees altogether isn’t necessarily a solution because that can lead to overcrowded and underfunded schools. Here are five facts about the complicated topic of school fees in Africa.

5 Facts About School Fees in Africa

  1. School fees have been common in Africa since the 1980s. Structural adjustment programs in the 1980s urged schools to move to “user fees” to fund many public necessities, such as education, instead of paying for these necessities through taxes. Not long after fees were implemented, poor families began struggling to send their children to school. A 1986 study found that in 33 of 63 developing countries, the poorest 40% of families would have to spend over 10% of their yearly income to send two children to primary school. This statistic shows the harmful effects of the implementation of school fees on poor families in the 1980s. However, school fees in Africa today are still too high for many families to afford. Many children in Africa are not getting the education they need. For example, one out of every five children between the ages of 6 and 11 are out of school in Sub Saharan Africa. Between the ages of 12 and 14, the proportion increases to about a third. School fees contribute heavily to education exclusion. When fees are eliminated, African schools see a huge increase in pupils. For example, Kenya eliminated primary school fees in 2003 and as a result, enrollment rose by 2 million students.
  2. Yet, abolishing fees can cause further problems. When schools abolish fees, the immediate results are a drastic increase in students, as occurred in Kenya. This increase can be counted as positive. On the other hand, it can leave many schools without enough funding to support the new pupils. Space, supplies and teachers face the most stress from the increase in students. A 2015 study found that primary schools in Sub Saharan Africa that had fees also had a smaller student to teacher ratio. In many African countries, tax bases are small and the government alone is unable to financially support education; thus, the abolition of fees leaves some schools drastically underfunded. Dr. Jay Kaufman, who worked on a study about school fees in Africa, spoke to The Borgen Project about some of the issues that eliminating school fees caused. “Basically, in many countries that removed fees, there was no further investment in the educational system. So the result was classes jam-packed with students, many students sharing a single desk and therefore no successful education whatsoever,” Kaufman stated.
  3. Fees are only part of the problem. There are many more financial barriers keeping students out of schools in Africa. Many African schools require uniforms, and procuring them can be too high a cost for many families. The cost of books, school supplies and transportation can impede children seeking education as well. Additionally, having students in school and not in the workforce can put a financial strain on families, especially once their children reach their teens.
  4. COVID-19 could spark increased fee rates. Many African countries had high gross enrollment rates in the 1960s, 70s and early 80s. However, many of these rates had fallen by the mid-1990s due to economic downturns. Based on this trend, economic crises pose a threat to students who may already be struggling to pay fees. Given the economic fallout caused by the pandemic, many countries in Africa may struggle to maintain the same rates of funding to education. This could potentially result in increased fees. This, along with families’ inability to make money during the pandemic, could subsequently result in more students dropping out of school.
  5. Nonprofit organizations can provide long-term solutions. Aid For Africa is an alliance of NGOs working to support elementary school students financially in Burundi, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda. BEADS For Education sponsors girls in Kenya from fourth grade through college, easing the financial burden on their families. Currently, the organization sponsors over 300 girls. The Maasai Girls Education Fund focuses on getting girls from the Maasai tribe in Kenya into schools. The organization provides these girls with scholarships to assure that they have the means to attend school.

Moving Forward

The exclusionary education caused by school fees in Africa is a complicated, multifaceted issue that does not have a single, clear solution. Nonetheless, it is a pressing issue that affects children across all of Africa. Knowing some key facts about the situation is essential if interventions are to be effective in opening up educational opportunities to impoverished children. Such knowledge is also key to making changes that are sustainable in the uncertain post-COVID-19 era.

– Sophia Gardner
Photo: Flickr

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Poverty in Syria: Paper Airplanes is Providing Aid

Poverty in SyriaSyria has been a center of conflict for years, and with so much unrest, poverty in Syria is an unfortunate given. War has torn the country apart and citizens are paying the price. The percentage of Syrians living in poverty sits at an astounding 80%. The war in Syria has destroyed much of its wealth, infrastructure and workforce. From the beginning of the conflict in 2011 to 2014, the unemployment rate rose by 42.8%, leaving as many as three million Syrians jobless.

It is unsurprising then, that with poverty this severe, many citizens are attempting to escape. After four years of war in Syria, the country’s population has declined by 15%. Syria is second only to Palestine when it comes to emigrating refugees, with as many as 6.8 million fleeing the country. More than three million Syrians have fled to Turkey as it shares a border with Syria. However, there are organizations and foreign governments working to remedy this issue and aid these citizens in their escape from violence and poverty in Syria, including Paper Airplanes.

Humanitarian Aid

Paper Airplanes is a non-governmental organization (NGO)  that teaches refugees English and other skills to help them thrive in places where they have relocated. While poverty in Syria has caused many to become refugees, Paper Airplanes has risen to the challenge of educating these people in order to give them a chance at a better life. Bailey Ulbricht founded Paper Airplanes in 2014 after tutoring some students she met in Syria. Ulbricht then got some people to volunteer and the organization has grown since then with the goal of giving refugees the opportunity to continue their education.

So far, Paper Airplanes has been able to work with 2,411 students. More than three-fourths of the students finish a minimum of one semester. The organization offers several different programs to increase its students’ likelihood of getting a better job and of being able to pursue more advanced education. Refugees from Syria can choose to participate in one or many of its programs. :

  • English Program – English speakers tutor a refugee in the English language over the internet

  • Women in Tech – women are taught coding

  • Citizen Journalism – students are taught how to write strong articles and have them published

  • Turkish – Since many Syrians often find safe haven in Turkey, students can enroll in this program to help them adjust to their new environment

  • Youth Exchange – similar to the English Program, but with high school English tutors

  • Student Advising – volunteers help students with things like their resumes or scholarship applications

Tutoring with Paper Airplanes

This author had the opportunity to partner with Paper Planes for one month in July, working a few hours a week with a student. The student’s willingness to learn was inspiring. The orientation process thoroughly prepares the tutor for tutoring a refugee over Skype and the staff is extremely helpful and supportive. Tutoring a student in English when one has little to no experience can be daunting, but the staff at Paper Airplanes makes people feel very prepared while also allowing them to tailor the semester’s curriculum to the students’ needs.

It is inspiring to see people taking initiative and truly enjoying helping people to better their lives and the lives of their families. While hearing about how so many people go hungry and are affected by poverty, hearing what is solving those tragedies and healing people gives people hope for the future and makes them not only want to be a part of it but to bring it about. Hope truly does inspire people greater than sorrow and fear.

Looking Forward

The extreme poverty in Syria along with the crisis has caused many of its citizens to flee and seek shelter elsewhere. Amid all of the horrors, cultural shock and trauma, some individuals and organizations answered their cry for help. Paper Airplanes gives refugees the tools that they need to succeed, educating and therefore empowering them for their future. Paper Airplanes understands that when you educate refugees, the impact goes far beyond individual students. It sets up the next generation to succeed.

– Moriah Thomas
Photo: Flickr

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Education Reforms in Mexico: For Better or Worse?

Education Reforms in MexicoImproving education has been a consistent focus throughout Mexico for decades. Both the former and current presidents have created, stripped and appealed legislation in efforts to strengthen the education system. Two opposite reform strategies and impassioned teachers alike advocate the importance of progress, but the country’s previous president failed to truly achieve this goal. Education reforms in Mexico remain a top priority for the country, but the new president may fall short in a different way than his predecessor.

The Hard Truth

Even compared to the most economically disadvantaged children across the world, Mexican children are still academically outperformed—including the few who fall above the poverty line. Ranking last out of the 35 OECD countries in education, children in the Mexican school system have the least proficient math, reading and literacy skills. This trend is not surprising: 20% of schools lack the basic necessities to operate including running water, food and furniture. There are buildings still in ruins from earthquakes dating back to 2015, and these conditions are amplified in the poorest states like Oaxaca.

Despite education being unversially free, up to 13% of children—over one million students—can not afford the supplies and transportation necessary to attend school. Less than 50% of students that attend public school graduate high school and only 60% are enrolled in primary school systems.

Native Mexican children are hit hardest in terms of education. Although the country is home to nearly 1.3 million children speaking native languages, only 55,000 teachers are fluent in these languages. In addition to this stark language barrier, systemic racism conducted by teachers against native children is also a persistent yet largely ignored issue.

Union Corruption

Education reforms in Mexico are at a standstill due to a failing economy, cyclical poverty and corruption. Prior to 2013, the teachers’ union had full control of choosing teachers. Rather than base staff selection on classroom results or experience, hiring was based upon union involvement. The union allowed teachers to sell their positions to anyone with no questions asked and granted life-long job security to teachers with failing grade averages.

Surprisingly, Mexico’s teacher salaries are close to $50,000 per year, making teaching a highly sought after job. The first-ever education census in 2014 revealed that the corrupt union leader Elba Esther Gordillo, who was imprisoned for embezzlement in 2013, allowed 39,000 ‘ghost teachers’ on payroll including teachers who had died, who never appeared in a classroom or who did not exist at all. This expenditure totaled $1.2 billion.

Former Legislation

In 2013 former president Peña attempted to rebrand education reform in Mexico by stripping the unions of their power. Peña gave the power to a body of the government that enacted rigorous assessments and exams. Teachers were subjected to three annual assessments and if they did not pass they were moved to an administrative job or let go. Despite the positive attempts at change, the legislation was met with opposition due to the recourse from poor evaluations and the integration of merit-based promotions.

Yet, none of the approved legislation addressed the needs of the schools themselves. Less than 7% of the GDP funding in 2016 was spent on schools both private and public. There has been no effort to supply teachers with the proper equipment or tools to give basic educational lessons. Only 5% of public spending went into the school systems; both percentages are far below the recommended percentage allocated to schools.

The New Reform

Last year, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador—also known as AMLO—was elected with a platform heavily focused on repealing the old school system. His campaign rallied around education reform in Mexico, placing it at the forefront of his first actions in office. In practice, the new legislation follows the same basic school structure and gives power to the unions that hired teachers; however, it is novel in that it eliminates teacher evaluations. Overall, this new system has received both praise and criticism from the people of Mexico. AMLO’s reformed plan aims to broaden school curricula by adding music, art and cultural studies to classrooms, rather than continuing to focus exclusively on STEM and humanities. Many of Mexico’s constituents believe this expansion of course offerings will remove limitations on children’s abilities to express themselves creatively.

Teachers are the backbone of education. However, without proper funding, resources and training, education reforms in Mexico are stuck in the recurring failures of the country’s leaders. Recent legislation has only shifted power from unions to the government and back to the unions. Without allocating money to the schools themselves, proper education for the children of Mexico will remain out of reach, leaving over half the population with a limited educational experience and overall quality of life.

– Amanda Rogers
Photo: Pulse News Mexico

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The IT Sector in Palestine Can Save Palestinians

Hisham Hijjawi Collage of Technology, representing young people who may enter the IT sector in Palestine
The COVID-19 pandemic has put thousands of livelihoods and careers in Palestine in jeopardy. Experts predict that the Palestinian economy will reduce by a minimum of 7.6% in 2020. Facing these economic hardships, many Palestinian business owners had to close down because they lacked the supplies or training necessary to continue their businesses digitally. Digital technology, as a whole, has been one of Palestine’s main economic shortcomings. A new initiative can help to address Palestine’s current digital ailments as well as provide job opportunities for the Palestinian youth through the IT sector in Palestine.

TechStart Project Making Waves

The Technology for Youth and Jobs (TechStart) Project will receive funding from a $15 million USD grant from the World Bank. Its mission is to improve Palestine’s IT sector and create more economic opportunities for the youth in Palestine. The project’s end goal is to help the Palestinian IT sector increase the number of high-quality jobs and establish a sustainable economic market for IT-related positions in Palestine. This project directs itself toward the thousands of yearly IT graduates from Palestinian universities who struggle to find jobs after college.

IT Sector Creating Jobs for Youth

According to Kanthan Shankar, the World Bank Country Director for the West Bank and Gaza, IT development aimed at creating job opportunities for young people in Palestine is crucial. This is especially true considering that the youth in Palestine “constitute 30% of the population and suffer from acute unemployment.”

Moreover, IT jobs offer remote positions. During the COVID-19 pandemic, working remotely from home has been necessary for many to remain employed. Another aspect of the project is to draw in investments from foreign companies. By spreading information about the IT sector’s potential and market opportunities, the project hopes that global tech companies will then invest in Palestinian IT firms (equipment, training, etc.) and foster new business relations with these smaller firms.

Despite the fact that these developments for the IT sector in Palestine received authorization last month, Palestine has been continuing to improve its digital economy every year. This project, however, might be the boost necessary to make IT a priority not only for the Palestinian economy but also for young college graduates looking for IT jobs in Palestine.

IT Sector Becoming More Prominent

More familiar career paths such as agriculture or trade have overshadowed the IT sector in Palestine. However, IT is slowly becoming more prominent throughout the Palestinian territories. Between 2008 and 2010, the IT industry in Palestine increased to 5% from 0.8% of GDP. Palestine’s digital growth does not stop there. By 2017, there were 241 tech startup companies in Palestine that were responsible for the creation of 1,247 jobs.

The IT sector in Palestine is still in its infancy, and it will take some time to realize its full potential as a sustainable economic outlet. However, the future of Palestine’s youth and IT sector are promising. Within at least five years, college-educated Palestinian men and women will have more IT employment opportunities than ever before if the project’s goals come to fruition.

– Maxwell Karibian
Photo: Flickr

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Book Aid International Contributes to Education in Africa during COVID-19


The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically changed lives around the world, affecting economies, living situations and posing the lingering question: what happens next? One of the major aspects of life affected by the pandemic in all communities is education. According to UNESCO, COVID-19 has directly affected the education of 1.06 billion children worldwide as of July 2020. With school closures and cases continuing to surge, the nature of teaching has been forced to shift considerably. In Africa, different countries are determining how to proceed with precautions to keep students, educators and their families safe while still facilitating education. The Ministry of Education in Senegal, for example, is providing educational aid in the form of online learning and resources. For those who may not have internet access, however, this makes receiving education challenging. Book Aid International, an organization providing books to children across 26 African countries, is seeking to correct this challenge by administering online educational tools as well as resources that do not require an internet connection.

Book Aid International

Book Aid International’s central mission is to provide books to children in poverty. The organization accomplishes this goal by organizing talented staff members and garnering donations for its cause. In 2019, Book Aid International was able to provide 1.2 million books to children across 26 countries. Distributing books to those in poverty allows for educational growth and increased opportunities for the future. Not only does this organization positively impact education, but also the healthcare industry. Through partnerships in 2018 with Elsevier and Elsevier USA, over 154,000 medical textbooks were donated to hospitals and schools to aid students pursuing healthcare careers.

COVID-19 and Book Aid International

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Book Aid International is developing an improved vision for the rest of 2020. The organization is continuing with book distributions in areas where it has established partnerships, but is also working toward providing e-resources to various communities. COVID-19 has forced many schools around the world to shut down completely. Some can provide online learning but in rural countries, online access may not be available to every student. However, in areas that Book Aid International has given aid, teachers can provide students with books donated by the organization, helping to close the gap between those with internet access and those without. With these resources, children can learn to read while schools are closed.

Adapting to a new routine can be difficult, especially for educators who want to aid their pupils. Having a book to read at home can inspire and help children exercise their minds and prepare for returning to school as the global situation continues to develop. While COVID-19 has presented several disruptions to this pursuit, efforts like that of Book Aid International can provide students with the resources they need to succeed at home.

– Brooke Young
Photo: Flickr