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10 Facts About Improving Women’s Education

Improving Women's EducationIn January 2014, former U.S. President Barack Obama stated, “You can judge a nation, and how successful it will be, based on how it treats its women and its girls.” Indeed, educating women throughout the world has proven a pivotal locus for ensuring communities’ and countries’ social and economic success. In order to highlight some of the tremendous growth that women and girls’ education generates, here are 10 facts about improving women’s education.

  1. Emphasizing the need for ensuring the continual empowerment of women worldwide, the United Nations made equal access to education for girls a central focus of its Millennium Development Goals. The U.N. has made the elimination of gender disparities in primary and secondary education its third goal. Furthermore, it sought to reconcile the injustice that limited women’s opportunities for both education and, by extension, employment. Since the completion of the Millennium Development Goals, women have constituted 41 percent of paid workers in fields outside of agriculture. This is a tremendous increase from the 1990 rate of 35 percent.
  2. Educated women are likely to marry at later ages and consequently have fewer children. In fact, by simply providing girls with an extra year of schooling, nations can reduce a woman’s fertility rate by 5 to 10 percent. Limiting the number of individuals present will ensure improved accessibility to resources and better opportunities for all people, particularly in countries struggling with overpopulation, such as Nigeria and China.
  3. Girls who stay in school longer lower their probability of contracting HIV, thereby adding securing their health and wellbeing. In fact, the Girls Global Education Fund has reported that in Africa, children born to mothers who have not received education have a one in five chance of dying before age 5.
  4. Improving women’s education promotes continued education for whole families. In sending women to school, they are likely to encourage their children’s educations. This chain reaction illustrates the ways in which educating a girl improves an entire nation’s access to education.
  5. For each additional year that a girl spends in primary school, her wages increase by up to 20 percent. By continuing with her education through secondary school, her wages increase by 25 percent. Improving education for girls therefore ensures their socioeconomic stability and successes worldwide.
  6. By providing women and girls access to education, the probability of their involvement in the political process increases. Through education, women are more likely to participate in civic engagement and decision-making. Consequently, this promotes a more representative government. In fact, the average proportion of women in parliaments across the world has doubled over the past 20 years. This is a direct result of the success of the U.N. Millennium Development Goals in reducing the gender disparity in primary and secondary school education.
  7. In recent years, young women accounted for 59 percent of the total illiterate population. By providing women and girls with an education, illiteracy rates worldwide will inevitably increase, suggesting the overarching trend of global educational success.
  8. Educational depravation for women and girls has proven costly for the global economy. By refusing to give women and girls education, individual economies suffer as much as a $1 billion loss in revenue. Throughout the world, this constitutes a $92 billion loss each year. This suggests that investing in women’s education is a lucrative decision for all nations to make.
  9. Girls’ education has a tremendous impact on the environment. According to the Brookings Institution, secondary educational opportunities for women remain the most cost-effective investment against climate change.
  10. When girls are educated, communities maintain their stability at higher rates and can recover faster from conflict. By providing women and girls with secondary educational opportunities, nations also reduce their risk of war substantially and secure limitations on terrorism and extremism.

Ultimately, girls’ education holds significant implications for the global community. By improving women’s education, the world thrives both socially and economically. It is critical for nations to invest in women’s education in order to guarantee both individual and global success.

– Emily Chazen

Photo: Flickr

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The 10 Most Important Facts About Education in Malawi

Education in MalawiMalawi has been ranked as one of the lowest-performing nations for literacy in sub-Saharan Africa. Malawi is one of the least developed countries in the world and education is proven as one of the critical pathways to improving living conditions in the country. Here are 10 facts regarding education in Malawi:

  1. Primary school in Malawi was made free in 1994. This policy boosted primary school enrollment from 1.6 million children to three million children. However, with such an influx in students, the educational quality has decreased due to weak infrastructure, poor hygiene and low teaching quality.
  2. Only 35 percent of children in Malawi complete primary school. Such a low ratio can be attributed to multiple factors.
    More than half of the country’s population lives below the poverty line. Many children enroll and drop out of school frequently due to employment responsibilities at home or illnesses. Especially for many young girls, dropping out is common due to young marriage, pregnancy, and contracting HIV/AIDS.
  3. In first grade, the teacher to student ratio is 1:130. While this ratio decreases as the grade level increases, Malawi faces one of the world’s worst teacher shortages.
    This fact is mostly due to the expense associated with hiring new teachers. To be able to attract qualified teachers, rural communities must provide housing, which is a significant cost. Many of the quality issues faced in Malawian schools are due to a lack of motivation by the teachers. They face poor working conditions, weak social amenities and lack health coverage.
    The overcrowding of classrooms is found to be another catalyst of high drop-out rates in Malawian schools. With students not receiving one-on-one feedback and lacking the resources to learn, many lose hope in the educational system.
    Therefore, in order to improve the quality of education in Malawi and reduce drop-out rates, the government must focus on improving teacher salaries and improve facilities around the nation. This policy change will incentivize staying in school and providing quality curricula.
  4. Eighty-three percent of first-grade students are unable to read a single syllable, and 92 percent of these students fail to read a single word. Malawi is ranked the weakest for its performance in English reading and second weakest for mathematics against other southern African countries.
    Such statistics are the result of children being denied the chance to learn under normal conditions. With the massive influx of students in recent years, education in Malawi has incurred a national shortage of classrooms, qualified teachers and basic teaching materials such as textbooks.
  5. Besides primary schooling, the government does not fully fund any other educational levels. For instance, the government encourages communities to introduce preschools into their societies but does not support these facilities financially. Therefore, most preschools are run on a voluntary basis and remain unregistered. Forty-four percent of preschoolers face undernourishment in Malawi and the majority of teachers work for free as they lack the necessary resources to teach the young children.
    Without proper preschool opportunities, children in Malawi are missing the opportunities that create a strong foundation for their future studies. The Global Partnership for Education declares that investing resources in the youngest children is one of the most cost-effective commitments a country can make. A study in 2011 found that, by having 50 percent of the world’s children enrolled in preschool, the global benefit is greater than $33 billion.
  6. With around 4.6 million students enrolled in schools throughout Malawi, only eight percent of them complete secondary school. A major contributor to this low completion is the lack of proper transportation links to the secondary facilities.
  7. Only 14.9 percent of adult females obtain at least a secondary education, compared to 24.2 percent of males. To try and reduce the gender gap in education in Malawi, Rihanna’s organization, the Clara Lionel Foundation, partnered with Ofo to create the 1 Km Action campaign. This program will provide scholarships to help girls across Malawi attend secondary school. For the children who qualify, the campaign will provide the students with bikes to ensure they can get to school.
  8. USAID also provides support to the education sector in Malawi by collaborating with the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology. The United States’ efforts focus on increasing educational opportunities for females as well as boosting the capacity and quality of education in the country. USAID provides nine programs in Malawi to improve the educational standards of the country.
  9. Donors provide 40 percent of public education expenditure. However, in recent years donors have found that much of the money is not funneled into education but is rather stolen by the government sector. This theft has suspended much funding to the country.
  10. Over the past five years, the Malawian government has committed to allocate 18 percent of the national budget toward the education sector. With this commitment, Malawi will have one of the highest education expenditures in Africa. However, when comparing the educational quality with other countries, it can be noted that Malawi does not allocate its funds efficiently.

Experts believe that education is the driving force to alleviating poverty in Malawi and that it can help the country move toward development. With greater government involvement and international organizations supporting the nation, education in Malawi has the potential to improve in coming years.

– Tess Hinteregger

Photo: Flickr

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Developing Countries Are Changing Education

Changing EducationThere are many organizations and companies that are investing in developing countries to better the lives of people that live in them and to also decrease the global rates of poverty and hunger. With all of the focus on helping developing countries, new advancements in these nations often slip under the radar.

One such achievement is the way developing countries are changing education. Experts are now looking at developing countries’ new initiatives and technology and investigating how these advancements can be applied to schools in developed countries.

There are several ways schools in developing countries are changing education. One way is the use of technology in classrooms. With tech companies such as Dell, which has recently created the initiative Youth Learning that gives students access to laptops for their studies, students in developing countries are learning and using more technology.

William Altman, who is a tech industry analyst at CB insights, says that schools in developing countries are more likely to use online tools in order to stay up to date. Schools in developed countries tend to continue to use traditional techniques because they have enough funding to do so.

For students in developing countries, technology is creating new ways to learn while also providing more opportunities. Jamil Salmi, an education economist and coordinator of higher education professionals at World Bank, discusses the importance of technology for developing countries in an interview for Voices.

He says, “Today, technological innovations are revolutionizing again the capacity to store, transmit, access and use information.” Salmi goes on to say that low cost for technology access is another reason why using technology is beneficial for students.

Another difference in schools from developing countries compared to those in developed countries is the teaching techniques themselves. Since there are such large student populations, some schools in developing countries had to develop ways to teach larger class sizes.

In 2015, the United Nations’ World Population Prospects reported that African countries such as Niger, Uganda and Chad account for all top 10 positions in world’s youngest populations. The result of a large number of students is to find solutions by trying new things and thus finding new ways to teach students.

Educators are now looking at how developing countries are changing education to see what is next for schools. Schools in developed countries are seeing what ways technology can be used in schools and what techniques work to teach the most students. It seems that the more new techniques that schools in developing countries try, the more advanced school systems get.

– Deanna Wetmore

Photo: Flickr

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Four Organizations Providing Free Education in Africa

Free Education in AfricaThroughout sub-Saharan Africa, upwards of five million children are left without traditional education due to poverty, unrest and civil turmoil. Sub-Saharan Africa has the lowest rate of primary school enrollment in the world, with 34 million primary age children living in the region not in school.

Without access to education, these children mature without many options for their future, allowing the cycle of poverty to continue in countries such as Ghana, Gambia and the Congo. In response to this, several organizations have put forth different efforts to deliver quality education where little is available. Across different platforms, including online curricula, these organizations are innovating to establish programs for free education in Africa.

  1. The Vodafone Foundation is a nonprofit that seeks to resolve the world’s most pressing humanitarian challenges using communication technologies. In June 2017, the foundation launched Instant Schools For Africa, a program providing free access to quality education materials online in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Lesotho, Mozambique and Tanzania.Vodafone distributes online learning materials such as specialized tablets, with zero mobile data charges to encourage widespread use of its curriculum. Outside of the Instant Schools for Africa initiative, the Foundation is working with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to connect young refugees to its growing Instant Network Schools program. As part of the mission of delivering free education in Africa, the Foundation aims to help three million young refugees by 2025.
  2. The Children Reach Out Program is a Ugandan organization that provides free classes and workshops to urban Ugandan children, especially those at risk economically. From basic learning skills and hygiene to hands-on career guidance, the Children Reach Out Program goes beyond traditional schooling to help Ugandans in need.Since 2009, Children Reach Out has been an important presence providing education for children living on the outskirts of Kampala and other Ugandan cities.
  3. The Volta Aid Foundation is a non-governmental agency in Ghana that connects volunteer teachers and doctors to children that may be without proper educational opportunities or medical care.In addition to offering orphanage care throughout the Volta region of Ghana, the Foundation teaches math, English, and computer literacy to establish the building blocks for a promising future. In a country where only 65 percent of the adult population is literate, The Volta Aid Foundation is committed to making a difference.
  4. The Africa Hope Fund (AHF) has been providing free, quality education in Africa since 2009. AHF works on several different fronts such as sponsoring poor children to attend secondary school in Zambia, or issuing funding to build new classrooms, libraries and deliver school supplies across the continent. AHF also partners with smaller nonprofits that are just starting out in countries like Zimbabwe and Botswana to help them grow and reach as many children as possible.

In areas where basic amenities such as electricity and transportation are in question, expanding education is necessary to ensure that children have access to learn basic skills to build the foundation of prosperity. In delivering education to areas that lack infrastructure, these organizations are playing a crucial role in fighting global poverty. Through providing free education in Africa, these initiatives help prepare the next generation to take on the challenges of the future.

– Nicholas Dugan

Photo: Pixabay

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Education in Peru Continues to Thrive

Education in Peru
A republic which first gained its independence in 1821, Peru prides itself on its continual promotion of education. Education in Peru has seriously benefited from 1996 government reforms which ensured free and compulsory education for all students between ages 5 and 16. In fact, continual reform led to the establishment of the National Superintendency of University Higher Education (SUNEDU) in 2015; this organization seeks to improve quality standards for higher education.

As a direct result of the emphasis on education, Peru’s adult literacy rate has risen from approximately 40% in 1940 to beyond 90 percent in 2005. In fact, in 2014, the primary school completion rate stood at 95.9%, a significant increase from 63.8% in 1970.

In particular, Peru continues to prioritize the education of women and vulnerable peoples. Since 2000, there has been a minimal difference in the enrollment ratios between boys and girls: in fact, while 76.2% of school-aged boys were enrolled in school, 77.5% of school-aged girls were enrolled. Similarly, the Peruvian branch of CARE, an organization operating in 94 countries to implement sustainable change, empowers Peru’s most vulnerable groups, including women, indigenous people and rural populations.

Beginning with grade one, education in Peru grants students the opportunity to obtain primary, secondary, vocational and tertiary education. Higher education requires three years. The oldest university is the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos. Founded in 1551, the university prides itself on prioritizing social responsibility, creating professional leaders and emphasizing sustainability and environmental protection. In fact, the university offers courses in health sciences, medicine, veterinary studies, pharmaceutical studies, engineering, natural sciences, the humanities and more.

Clearly, education in Peru has continued to thrive over the course of the past few decades. However, significant funding efforts and economic growth play a crucial role in securing educational opportunities for students throughout the nation. Therefore, it is incumbent upon world leaders to provide support for Peruvian education in order to ensure that both the nation and its students succeed.

– Emily Chazen

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Poverty Reduction May Begin in the Classroom

Classroom
The Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality (CPI), a nonpartisan research center, is monitoring trends in poverty and inequality, developing policy and explaining the root causes of poverty. This education begins in the classroom and finishes in the field, such as rural villages in Africa. The Center supports research students and established scholars in the field. All research is published in CPI’s magazine Pathways, which will likely become the new fact-based journal on poverty, inequality, income, discrimination and more.

Since CPI’s beginning in 2006, the Center has received support from the US Department of Health and Human Services, Stanford University, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, Pew Charitable Trusts and others. This type of intellectual approach and curiosity might be the next step needed for a meaningful change in poverty reduction.

Ending Poverty with Technology is just one of many courses within the Center. Stanford students have the opportunity to pick an issue and use the semester to determine how they would better the situation. Sarukkai, a Stanford student majoring in symbolic systems stated, “In the land of opportunity it only makes sense that every human being has access to the same resources and pathways to success—an ideal we are far from achieving.”

As an undergraduate capstone project, one CPI team proposed a web platform and mobile app called “CareSwap.” This app is designed to help low-income families trade childcare within their respected network of friends and family. Although the course has ended, the “CareSwap” team plans to continue to develop and execute its website and app. The ending of a course does not mean the work ends.

The course is simply a place where the inspiration begins—the work ethic and dreams of the Center’s students cannot be diminished by the end of a semester. Poverty reduction begins in the classroom but is carried out during the long hours of the student’s personal time.

“Our idea evolved so much in the last few months after our interviews and conversations with parents and childcare experts,” the students said. “We are excited to develop it further next year. This project has become far more than a class assignment for each of us.” An idea that began in the classroom later developed into an app and website, making thousands of children’s lives easier and safer.

Some of the proposed projects may even be adopted for further development by the Stanford Poverty & Technology Lab, an initiative dedicated to developing technology-based solutions to rising inequality in the United States. Currently, the lab is developing an app, under Bill Behrman, director of the Stanford Data Lab, for “mapping” poverty in California. The app has the potential to help government agencies and nonprofits better target certain demographics by delivering estimates of poverty, unemployment, income and other indicators for very small geographic areas of the state.

Innovative and creative thinking are both necessary to tackle any complex topic, particularly poverty. In the classroom, both attributes are present, as well as the ability to look at the situation from various perspectives. The communal feel and global mindset of Stanford are felt in every classroom of the Center on Poverty and Inequality. “It’s not about a professor teaching and the students learning,” one student said. “We’re all just part of the same team trying to build products that work to reduce poverty.”

Reducing poverty encompasses so many different aspects of society. However, like anything truly successful it should begin in the classroom. Poverty reduction can better the quality and longevity for millions of people worldwide, as academics and students studying to better the world—it only makes sense to tackle poverty from inside the classroom through innovation and creative thinking.

– Danielle Preskitt
Photo: Flickr

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5 Things to Know About Pakistan’s IDP Problem

 

Pakistan's IPD Problem
In recent years, Pakistan has become home to one of the world’s largest population of internally displaced persons (IDPs). A decade-long militant insurgency; many military operations in the northwest and natural disasters have displaced millions of people from their homes. As a result, Pakistan’s IDP problem is the greatest humanitarian crisis in the country’s history.

According to the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), “a total of 5.3 million people in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) have been displaced as a consequence of counter-terrorism operations since 2008, some of them multiple times.” Of these, 4.8 million to have returned, and the rest have yet to go back to their homes.

The state of Pakistan, with the help of international humanitarian groups, has responded to the crises. However, it has not fully met the post-displacement challenges of the displaced and returnees. Particularly, five things about Pakistan’s IDP problem warrant the immediate attention of national government and international aid agencies:

  1. Education: Tens of thousands of displaced children have their education disrupted as a result of religious militancy and military operations in FATA. Large numbers of them were still out of school after displacements because the state had no proper arrangements to help them resume their education. Before the start of operations, non-state armed groups (NSAGs) had destroyed many schools in the region. They only left behind madrassas (religious seminaries). Girls’ education was particularly affected. In 2012, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan’s (TTP) attempted the assassination of teenage education activist Malala Yousafzai in Swat valley, aiming to scare girls away from school. The need for education after IDPs’ return is only greater, as most schools have been either destroyed or used as home shelters that need repair.
  2. Lack of Basic Necessities: A quarter of IDPs did not have access to basic necessities, such as food, clean drinking water and shelter. Most of them lost around a third of their food supplies during the displacement. Poor strategy and coordination have made it worse for relief operations to provide for the basic needs of IDPs. Moreover, the state’s rehabilitation services, as most IDPs have returned or are in the process of returning to their homes, are less than encouraging. The state provides a resettlement allowance that surely helps, but not enough to repair the destruction left behind. Most importantly, FATA is the poorest region in Pakistan. The area needs a comprehensive development plan, as it has been historically ignored.
  3. Second Class Citizens: The IDPs not only faced harsh circumstances in camps, but they have also received a very unwelcoming attitude from some host communities. In the recent past, the provinces of Punjab and Sindh have opposed the entry of IDPs from FATA because of the alleged fear of terrorists among them. Moreover, once the IDPs entered and settled temporarily, some host communities and even security agencies in Punjab labeled them as a potential threat of terrorism. The alienation of one of the largest ethnic groups, Pashtuns, only made it more difficult for IDPs to find work and live in peace. This double standard regarding the treatment of refugees is striking to watch; many in Pakistan are angry at the West for its treatment of refugees from Muslim lands.
  4. Health: Healthcare in Pakistan is the holy grail for the poor in normal circumstances. Mass exodus due to conflicts and insecurity have made it impossible for displaced persons to attain basic health care. The most common problems among IDPs are malaria, skin infections, diarrhea and colds. Very few mothers and children received assistance to fulfill their nutritional needs. Health services, though available in the area, already overstretched before the IDPs’ arrival.
  5. Insecurity: Instability and recurring violence is another challenge of Pakistan’s IDP problem. Despite the army’s claim of clearing the region from militants, the events on the ground indicate a different reality. Many FATA locals are suspicious of the army’s role in eliminating militants. The U.S. has also blamed Pakistan for playing a double-game by supporting groups like the Haqqanis as its long-term ally in Afghanistan where Pakistan considers the increasing Indian influence as a threat to its territorial integrity. Insecurity has also made it difficult for aid agencies to reach out to the affected people. The government requires most NGOs to get NOCs in order to function in the FATA.

The good news is that national and provincial authorities, military, civil society and community networks are all involved in Pakistan’s IDP problem. The government has made substantial efforts to address IDPs’ needs over the years. Immediate relief has generally included shelter, relief, cash grants, water, etc., but Pakistan has no national policy or legislation to cope with the recurrent crises of internally displaced persons.

– Aslam Kakar

Photo: Flickr

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The Educational Challenges of the Dominican Stateless

Educational Challenges of the Dominican Stateless
The Dominican Republic denies thousands of children access to education due to nationality laws rendering them stateless. The educational challenges of the Dominican stateless, many of them of Haitian descent, are both varied and continuous.

Since the 1990s, many Dominicans of Haitian descent have encountered difficulties proving their citizenship. A court ruling in 2013 exacerbated these struggles by retroactively declaring immigrants and their descendants to be noncitizens from 1929 forward. This left generations of Dominican people unable to receive healthcare, education or employment, most of which require proof of citizenship.

A report from the Georgetown Law Human Rights Institute gathered information about the educational challenges of the Dominican stateless through interviews and analysis of the Dominican Republic’s education policies. According to the report, schools refuse to enroll students or administer state examinations without birth certificates or proof of nationality. Bureaucratic hurdles and arbitrary enforcement of the nationality law stall the efforts to remedy this.

A consequence of the Dominican stateless’ inability to attain an education is a lack of high-quality jobs. The Guardian discusses how many migrant descendants work in menial jobs like domestic work by force. Employers also often subject them to abuse or long hours due to the lack of legal protections.

The educational challenges of the Dominican stateless especially affect young people. Yolanda Alcino, a young Dominican descended from Haitian migrants, told The Guardian how she and other Dominican stateless are “discriminated against, and without education, without work, life is more difficult in almost every way.”

In response to this issue, Dominican stateless have protested for their rights. Young people have met with government officials and developed petitions that implore the government to uphold equal rights.

International governments and organizations have also condemned the Dominican Republic for its actions and inaction. As reported in Refugees Deeply, although the country has adopted the New York Declaration, it has not honored the Declaration’s requirement of providing education to all youth.

The domestic and international response to the educational challenges of the Dominican stateless has helped influence the Dominican Republic to modify nationality laws. According to Refugees Deeply, the country will acknowledge the children of undocumented immigrants as citizens if they have a verified birth certificate or go through the process of naturalization.

Despite this, the processes have the same problems: they require too much time and are arbitrarily applied. With the legal, vocational, economic and educational challenges of the Dominican stateless, the Dominican Republic has a lot to remedy.

– Cortney Rowe

Photo: Pixabay

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3 Reasons Why Contraception Reduces Poverty

Contraception Reduces Poverty
Overpopulation is a growing concern for both developed and developing countries alike. The rate at which the global population is increasing is alarming. While it took thousands of years to reach the world’s first billion people in 1804, it only took 123 years to add another billion and only 12 for the most recent billion. It is imperative to curb population growth now to prevent the spread of global poverty due to overpopulation. This solution should be as efficient as it is effective. Contraception reduces poverty, and it also ensures a more resourceful future that better meets the needs of the world’s population.

Here are three facts about the relationship between contraception and poverty reduction:

  1. If women who currently lack the means to sexual health information, as well as proper contraception, were allowed access to these reproductive tools, an estimated 35 million abortions and 76,000 maternal deaths would be prevented each year. Given that abortions far exceed the price of standard birth control, these women could instead spend this money to provide for their families and improve their quality of life. Saving women from premature death from unwanted pregnancy due to a lack of reproductive education and resources is not only beneficial in regard to humanitarian measures, but it also strengthens the economic security of the household.
  2. More people being integrated into the workforce, followed by a decrease in the number of dependents, provides a boost to economies worldwide. Populations dense with working-age individuals often live in more developed countries given the surplus of people contributing to the respective economy. Contraception reduces poverty in this sector because adults who either choose not to have children or delay the rate at which they have children have more time and resources to earn better-living potentials when compared to those who must use their income to provide for their families.
  3. While education and international aid offer clear benefits in the fight against poverty, the growth of an excessive population counters these measures. Given the current population’s exponential growth, the economies and civil services of developing countries already lack the capacity or resources to provide for the influx of people to come. The ways in which global poverty is combatted today may no longer be effective in the future if contraception is not accessible.

Family planning means more than just preventing unwanted pregnancies. According to the former executive director of the UN Population Fund, the late Babtunde Osotimehin, “It is a most significant investment to promote human capital development, combat poverty and harness a demographic dividend, thus contributing to equitable and sustainable economic development.” Funding family programming can ensure that contraception reduces poverty, and it will remain effective for generations to come. Additionally, it will help the planet utilize its limited resources more effectively.

– Kaitlin Hocker

Photo: Flickr

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The Impact of the Radio Education Program for Lake Chad

Radio Education Program for Lake Chad
Within the Lake Chad basin of Africa, there is a crisis occurring. This crisis includes the increasing rates of famine, floods and militia groups such as Boko Haram which threaten the lives of individuals across Niger, Chad, Cameroon and Nigeria. This situation has displaced 1.3 million children and has made it difficult for students to access schools. However, a new program initiated by UNICEF and Education in Emergencies is providing a radio education program for Lake Chad that will give over 200,000 children potential access to education.

Conflict in Lake Chad has been occurring since 2009, with Boko Haram leading attacks against civilians and using violence to ban schooling. In the past eight years, Boko Haram has closed over 1,200 schools and has murdered over 600 teachers, as well as forcing 19,000 educators to flee. With many schools destroyed and more facing threats, children have no way to safely access education.

The occupancy of Boko Haram, although the primary threat to students, is not the only challenge when it comes to accessing schools. Children also encounter difficulty in mobility due to the rainy season, which causes flooding. This threat is all in combination with overarching threats of famine and water-borne diseases. These factors work together to make achieving an education almost impossible.

The UNICEF-designed radio education program for Lake Chad is an essential service that will educate children in the most rural areas of the country. This innovative program will feature 144 lessons on literacy, numeracy and other critical information. These lessons will be broadcast in French as well as in the local languages of Kanouri, Fulfulde and Hausa. This tool will reach children that have no other way to access schooling.

A significant aspect of this program is that it will be accredited by the governments of Cameroon and Niger. This point means the children using this program will not fall behind in their schooling and may have the potential to receive a certificate validating their success.

The radio education program for Lake Chad will also be bringing communities together, as UNICEF will be encouraging radio listening groups to help children get the most out of each broadcast. This measure will also ensure that adults will allow children to use existing radios and help with guided listening.

Despite the circumstances that currently prevent children from attending school, humanitarian organizations continue to find a way to keep these students learning. This radio education program will provide quality lessons to children that may have otherwise been denied an education entirely, ensuring that education will remain a priority for even the most vulnerable populations.

– Kelly Hayes

Photo: Google