Tag Archive for: Education

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The Riecken Foundation: Building Libraries and Stability

Riecken Foundation
The need for educational opportunities in Central America has not gone unnoticed. The Riecken Foundation was established to address this need.  Since building its first library (the first of 65), the organization has paved the way for literacy and access to knowledge in Honduras and Guatemala.

For nearly 20 years, the Riecken Foundation has been building a network of community libraries across Honduras and Guatemala in often underserved, rural areas. Following a unique organizational model, the foundation has found long-term success by establishing libraries under strong community governance.

The foundation was born in 2000 out of the efforts of Susan Riecken and Allen Anderson. In the 1960s, Anderson worked as a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras, and his experiences in Honduras stayed with him over the years. Upon his retirement from venture capitalism, Anderson partnered with Riecken to address the educational needs of Honduran and Guatemalan villages and to promote literacy in developing parts of the world.

Educational opportunity is limited in Honduras and Guatemala and contributes to poverty in both countries. Nearly one in five Hondurans live in extreme poverty, and, for many Honduran students, the chance of dropping out of school or repeating a grade is high. In Guatemala, 23% of the population lives in extreme poverty. Educational quality is poor, and, as a result, fewer than half of students meet national standards by sixth grade.

The Riecken Foundation exists to address these issues and much more. A Riecken community library provides a village with access to books and other free resources, such as technology, youth programs and technical workshops that would otherwise be unavailable.

While other rural libraries might suffer as a result of mismanagement or neglect, a Riecken community library is strengthened by leadership from engaged volunteer citizens who are supported by their municipal government and the Riecken Foundation. It is this collaboration that often ensures the success of a Riecken community library.

For those in rural areas, the library becomes a place to explore diverse ideas and develop community projects. The community is directly involved in the success of their library, and their active engagement in its success creates a sense of prideful ownership over it.

The Riecken Foundation has found that the libraries promote literacy and a better understanding of local government institutions and transparency. It is with this understanding, along with greater access to knowledge and resources, that rural villages in Honduras and Guatemala can begin to move away from poverty and toward a stable environment that fosters growth and prosperity.

– Jennifer Faulkner

Photo: Flickr

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Indonesian Education System for Disabled Needs Improvement

Indonesian Education System
In Indonesia, education is a privilege to which not all children have access. Based on a have-and-have-not system, the Indonesian education system is severely underfunded for those without financial security.

Children from financially stable families have a variety of schools to choose from, including both public and private. However, children from poorer families have few to no affordable options for education. Their available options only include public primary schools.

Because quality education is offered to such a small sector of the population, the knowledge gap is widening between the wealthy and the poor. Unfortunately, a large number of these uneducated Indonesians are students with disabilities.

Disabled students have an especially difficult time accessing education because the Indonesian government provides them two options for education: enrollment at special-needs schools, or schools with inclusive programs that are willing to accept students with disabilities. Both of these options are unlikely to provide a quality education to disabled students.

Special-needs schools do not teach curriculums that cater to students with various disabilities, so students with physical disabilities are taught the same curriculum as students with learning disabilities, even though they are capable of learning at the same pace as their able-bodied peers.

Similarly, not all schools are accepting of students with disabilities. Most of them lack the physical facilities necessary for these students, and many teachers have little to no experience working with disabled children.

Thus, it is important that decision-makers within the education system increase awareness in order to accept students with disabilities currently being denied an education by the majority of institutions throughout Indonesia.

Indonesians with disabilities who do not receive proper education experience unique problems throughout the entirety of their lives. According to a recent study at the University of Indonesia, nearly 70% of disabled children do not receive an education and the ones who do only have a 66.8% chance of finishing primary school.

This is reflected later in life as only 64.9% of people with disabilities have a chance of getting a job. The gap between people who can afford to receive a quality education and people with disabilities continues throughout these people’s lives as the educated obtain successful, well-paying jobs and people with disabilities do not.

Help for these people begins with raising awareness and normalizing students with disabilities in a typical Indonesian classroom setting. Inclusive education is making its way through the Indonesian education system as more and more schools are accepting and tolerant of these students.
By improving the availability of education to students, it becomes possible to obtain jobs later in life, regardless of disability status.

However, inclusive education is accessible to only a small portion of the disabled community, so it is important that lawmakers and teachers alike learn about various disabilities and provide effective education for each individual.

Because disabled students rarely interact with peers without disabilities in the classroom, the two groups become separated and remain so throughout their lives, including in the workplace. Many jobs are unavailable to people with disabilities because employers lack knowledge of disabilities and are unwilling to hire disabled individuals.

By allowing students with and without disabilities equal opportunities in the Indonesian education system, the workplace becomes much more abundant in job opportunities for Indonesians with disabilities. This is because people become more aware of disabilities and more accepting of them in the workforce.

Education conditions for Indonesians with disabilities continue to improve, but the opportunities remain slim. With significant effort, it is likely that disabled individuals will one day have access to the Indonesian education system leading to greater opportunities in the workplace.

– Kassidy Tarala
Photo: Flickr

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The Importance of Free and Compulsory Education in the Congo

education in the congo
Situated in central Africa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is home to people belonging to over 200 African ethnic groups, with the majority identifying amongst the Bantu peoples. Though only comprising 2.25% of its GDP, education in the Congo remains a significant priority. In fact, education maintains such significance that the country’s constitution provides for free and compulsory primary school education.

Since 2007, the Congo has experienced massive growth in the number of students completing their primary school education. Although only 52.9% of young children completed their primary school education ten years ago, through rapid improvement and additional funding, the nation secured 66.8% of the population’s completion in 2013. In fact, much of this change related to girls’ access to education: while only 42.8% of girls completed primary school in 2007, that rate climbed to 60% by 2013. Essentially, then, education in the Congo prioritizes the needs of all students, regardless of their gender.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has assisted the Congo in implementing the BEAR Project. The project’s overarching goals are to help young people receive technical vocational education and training in order to enter the job market and to improve equity and access to educational opportunities. Dividing $10 million amongst five African nations, the BEAR project, which lasted five years, ultimately had a tremendously positive impact on the Congo; it actually managed to reach over 200 young people there, ensuring that they had access to basic educational necessities.

The Congo provides students with a variety of opportunities in terms of their education. Though all students begin in primary school, students can ultimately decide whether to pursue a secondary education or a vocational education. This sort of choice allows them to decide whether they would prefer to explore trades or academia, giving them a tremendous amount of intellectual freedom.

The structure of education in the Congo is further conducive to higher education. Though the nation maintains many privately and publicly funded polytechnic colleges and specialized universities, there are four main state-run institutions: the Universities of Goma, Kinshasa, Kongo and Lubumbashi. The oldest—the University of Lubumbashi, founded in 1955—prides itself on offering courses in departments such as agronomy, economics, medicine, law, psychology, medicine and commerce.

Clearly, the Congo prides itself on maintaining quality education for students and for striving to provide its young people with equal opportunities. Though the system itself remains imperfect, continued funding and an emphasis on education will undeniably have significant economic and social benefits.

– Emily Chazen

Photo: Flickr

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New Strides in Girls’ Education in Saudi Arabia

Girls' Education in Saudi Arabia
With the first private school for girls opening in 1956 and the first public school opening around 1960, the history of girls’ education in Saudi Arabia is relatively brief. And though some gender disparity remains in the country’s adult literacy rate, the education gender gap is rapidly closing due to new kingdom-wide objectives.

Though just 91.84% of women are literate versus 96.95% of men, the disparity is significantly smaller among the youth population, with both male and female literacy hovering around 99%—an astounding rise from the two percent female literacy rate in the 1970s.

Primary, middle and secondary schools are free and open to both boys and girls. Though boys enroll at a slightly higher rate than girls—99% versus 96.35%—the education system is well on its way to gender equality, in spite of the kingdom’s reputation for severe treatment of women.

Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 plan drives these advancements. Implemented under King Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, the plan aims to structure the kingdom’s social, political and fiscal future—and recognizes women’s potential to bolster the workforce. Many citizens have adopted this point of view, as well as the idea that all children, regardless of sex, gain greater opportunities to contribute as adults when they have access to quality education.

In service of these values, Vision 2030 aims to foster an educational environment congruous with the demands of the evolving job market. Schools also now prioritize students’ ability to meet personal goals.

Though public schools are divided by gender, leaders strive to improve and diversify the educational system for both girls and boys. The upcoming school year will bring an exciting new opportunity for girls in Saudi Arabia: physical education classes.

Some citizens of Saudi Arabia oppose women’s access to sports, as they are considered masculine activities, but many others are satisfied with the development. Hatoon al-Fassi, a Saudi women’s historian, anticipates that the motion will help girls to build bodily autonomy.

Advancements in girls’ education in Saudi Arabia have indeed empowered women to pursue their own potential. Beyond secondary school, many Saudi women earn advanced degrees. Data from 2015 shows that women account for 51.8% of students at Saudi Universities. Around 551,000 women are enrolled in undergraduate programs, with 24,498 in graduate programs and 1,744 pursuing PhDs. An additional 35,537 study abroad in 57 countries.

Women in Saudi Arabia faced many obstacles to get to where they are today. With the continued support of many citizens and leaders, the disparity between men and women is bound to dissolve.

– Madeline Forwerck

Photo: Google

Learn about the Protecting Girls Access to Education in Vulnerable Settings Act.

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The Top 3 Barriers to Education

Barriers to Education
Much of the world is completely unaware of the current global education crisis. Although education is an inalienable right according to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDH), there are currently 263 million children out of school. There are multiple barriers to education that need to be addressed to end this crisis.

Here are the three top barriers to education:

Affordability

The most apparent barrier to education is affordability, even though the UDH states that free basic education is every child’s right. Many developing nations have abolished formal school fees, but informal fees continue to prevent children from receiving an education. Informal fees include required uniforms, textbooks and additional school materials. In developing countries, “children from the poorest 20 percent of households are four times less likely to attend school than the wealthiest 20%.” The inability to afford formal and informal fees perpetuates a cycle of poverty amongst the poor, as children remain home to support their families.

Lack of Trained Teachers

Lack of trained teachers is a barrier to education that affects even those in developing countries that can afford schooling. Not only are there not enough teachers worldwide to achieve universal education, but their training is either poor or nonexistent. In 2016, the U.N. reported that 69 million trained teachers are necessary to achieve global universal education by 2030. With many teachers in developing nations failing to meet national standards, children lack basic education.

Gender Inequality

The UDH states that every child has the right to education, but unfortunately, being the ‘wrong’ gender is a barrier to education. In developing countries, girls are significantly less likely to receive an education than boys. This is due to entrenched gender norms that maintain that households should not educate their daughters. Many impoverished families must make a choice of which of their children to send to school. In this case, households are much more likely to send their sons to school than their daughters because of social norms. Instead of attending school, many girls are sent to work or kept at home to provide and care for the family.

Addressing barriers to education is critical in obtaining universal education by 2030. Towards this goal, many organizations concentrate on establishing specific barriers. Such organizations include CARE, 60 Million Girls, the Global Partnership for Education and Educate a Child. These organizations and others like them work to educate people about the crisis and propose potential solutions. Possible solutions include additional and proper use of funding for education; strengthening educational systems and recruiting and providing training for teachers.

Knowing the barriers to education is the first step to providing every child with their inalienable right to education. The next step is to work together and tackle each barrier one by one.

– Haley Hurtt

Photo: Flickr

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10 Important Facts About Education in Africa

10 Facts About Education in Africa
Between 1999 and 2012, the world saw a decrease in out-of-school adolescents in every region except for sub-Saharan Africa. Although aspects of education in Africa have improved, including more children being knowledgeable about HIV and AIDS, many obstacles remain. Below are ten facts about education in Africa to illustrate the ongoing struggle.

 

Top 10 Education in Africa Facts

 

  1. Africa has the highest rates of educational exclusion in the world. Over one-fifth of children between the ages of 6 and 11 and one-third between the ages of 12 and 14 are out of school.
  2. Almost 60% of children in sub-Saharan Africa between the ages of 15 and 17 are not in school.
  3. Girls are much more likely to stay out of school than boys. Nine million girls between the ages of about 6 and 11 in Africa will never go to school at all, compared to six million boys.
  4. A UNESCO study in 2012 showed that the number of primary-aged children not attending school in Africa accounted for more than half of the global total.
  5. Mom-connect, an SMS texting program based in South Africa, provides educational information regarding health care and health insurance coverage. The platform connects female health workers with other women who may have health questions or concerns about their families. Apps such as this one provide knowledge where gaps exist in the educational system.
  6. In sub-Saharan Africa, only about one-quarter of pre-primary teachers are trained. Upper secondary school teachers have a slightly better ratio: about 50% have training.
  7. UNICEF partnered with the LEGO Foundation to establish an online training platform that reached 150,000 teachers in South Africa in 2016 alone.
  8. The rate of gross enrollment in tertiary education in sub-Saharan Africa is the lowest in the world, sitting at only eight percent as of 2014. This is far lower than the gross enrollment of the second-lowest country, Southern Asia, which is at 23%, where the global average is 34%.
  9. Sub-Saharan Africa opposes Eastern Europe and Central Asia when it comes to gender disparity in education among urban areas. The latter tend to see a higher level of both educational attainment and literacy among females, while sub-Saharan Africa sees the opposite. In a study by UNESCO, men in Ghana had over two more years of education than women.
  10. If every girl in sub-Saharan Africa completed even just primary education, the maternal mortality rate would likely decrease by 70%.

These facts about education in Africa are only the beginning of the information available. Studies have shown that school enrollment rates in 11 African countries between 1999 and 2012 increased by at least 20%. However, issues continue to remain that result in children dropping out of school. Quality and accessibility of education in Africa must be resolved before the situation can improve. UNESCO warns that “without urgent action, the situation will likely get worse as the region faces a rising demand for education due to a still-growing school-age population.”

– Katherine Gallagher

Photo: Flickr

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Successful Efforts to Improve Education in Cabo Verde

Education in Cabo Verde
Unknown to many people around the world, there is a small country made up of 10 islands and five islets off the west coast of Africa called Cabo Verde. The country has faced and continues to face many obstacles such as a lack of natural resources, drought and poor land for farming. Despite these challenges, the country remains prosperous and continues to see improvements in its education system. Here are some things to know about education in Cabo Verde.

Four Educational Groups
Education in Cabo Verde is broken up into four sectors: pre-primary, for children ages three to five; primary, from ages six to 11; secondary, for students 12 to 17 and tertiary, the country’s version of college. Only education from the age of 6 to 15 is mandatory.

Large-Scale Changes in 1975
In 1975, Cabo Verde gained its independence. Before its separation from Portugal, the literacy rate in Cabo Verde was only at 40%. As of 2015, the literacy rate in the country has doubled to an impressive 80%.

Improved School Attendance
In 2007, about 5,000 children were not attending school in Cabo Verde. As of 2015, that number has gone down to less than 1,000 students out of school. While there are still efforts to be made to ensure that every child attends school, this tremendous improvement in less than ten years is impressive.

Investments in Education
As of 2013, about 15% of the government’s yearly expenditure was going towards education. This percentage is higher than in many countries around the world such as the U.S., which spends about six percent of public spending annually on education.

Providing Necessary Tools
The school system in Cabo Verde does its best to provide all students with what they need to succeed in school. Textbooks are now available to 90% of students in the country. Additionally, 83% of teachers have attended in-service teacher training.

While education in Cabo Verde is not perfect, the country has made impressive advances since its independence in 1975. Almost all children in the country attend school and can read. Additionally, the government works toward improving its education system by providing all that they can. Cabo Verde may be a tiny and unknown nation, but their educational successes make them a great example for countries like them around the world.

– Olivia Hayes

Photo: Flickr

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Google’s Education Expands the World, Shrinks Our Brains

Google's education
Google, one of the world’s most prominent and well-known companies, has massively impacted the world. People can have any piece of information desired at our fingertips, and Google’s education has drastically changed the way children learn.

Google’s education has become so pertinent that the corporation has launched its own app to help teachers in the classroom make assignments, known as Google Classroom. More than 30 million children use Google educational apps such as Google Classroom or Google Docs. The corporation has become so important in schools that Chromebooks (Google-powered laptops) are used by thousands of students and teachers in the classroom. A child in the state of Nebraska has the same access to information as a child in New York, Florida or California. Google’s education has made the world smaller, but it comes at the price of shrinking our brains.

The connectivity of the internet is useful, but some see the internet as a drawback to education as well. Google’s education has made the world smaller, but it comes at the price of shrinking our brains. Having constant access to almost limitless information is not only bad for human discourse; it’s reportedly making us worse at remembering things. And even if we aren’t conscious of it, our brains are primed to think about the Internet as soon as we start trying to recall the answer to a tough trivia question.

Google’s education has transformed education from learning over time into a faster process, one that can easily become a mental-crutch. “Google established itself as a fact in schools,” said Hal Friedlander, former chief information officer for the New York City Department of Education, the U.S.’s largest school district. Before Google established itself in school systems, children would have to research information in textbooks and have to talk to specific adults or mentors about certain topics. Now, the first place students conduct research is on Google.

While students are capable of having research at the touch of a button, teachers are concerned about the newfound capabilities of students’ almost unlimited information resources. Teachers feel that students may be overconfident with their research methods and capabilities. Some teachers believe that students are missing out on the true and somewhat old-fashioned research experience of looking through textbooks and talking to librarians. There’s also the risk of credibility with internet sources. Not every piece of information found on Google is a reliable source of information, and without accurately researching, students are blind to false information versus the truth.

Google’s education has helped expand informational resources to every person with internet access, but there is also the possibility that this access is making our minds less powerful. There has not been much extensive research on this topic yet, and more will need to be done in the future to better understand how Google’s education affects developing minds.

– Mary Waller

Photo: Flickr

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HP World on Wheels Labs and Underprivileged Children

HP World on Wheels
In November of 2016, tech company Hewlett-Packard announced its plan to deploy 48 digital inclusion and learning labs across rural India. The program, HP World on Wheels, intends to enhance digital literacy, education programming and entrepreneurship training.

At the 2017 Global Citizen Festival in Hamburg, Germany, HP furthered its commitment to underserved communities by committing $20 million in technology to enhance the learning of more than 100 million people by 2025.

“In our technology-enabled world, none of us should accept that 330 million children are not learning basic skills,” HP chief supply chain officer Stuart Pann told the festival crowd. “To break the cycle of poverty, we must not only provide access to quality education but also enable better learning outcomes.”

Each HP World on Wheels lab is supplied with computing and printing technology, software suites and e-learning tools as well as IT literacy classes. They are powered by 10 solar panels and produce the least possible greenhouse gases, making them fuel-efficient and environmentally friendly.

HP has set four targets that will help it build strong communities through education:

  1. Expand HP World on Wheels to other less fortunate communities.
  2. Bring HP Learning Studios to refugees in the Middle East in collaboration with Digital Promise Global, the Global Business Coalition for Education, Microsoft and Intel.
  3. Enroll another 100 million entrepreneurs in HP Life, a free e-learning program, by 2025.
  4. Use the HP National Education Technology Assessment (NETA) to guarantee that the education matches what employers require.

As of 2016, there has been seven World on Wheels “Future Classrooms” utilized in rural India. The initiative to improve digital learning everywhere is in collaboration with the United Nations and other nonprofit organizations that will provide business and tech insight in the United States, Myanmar, Tunisia and many other countries needing help in these areas.

“As we work to create technology that makes life better for everyone, everywhere, we recognize that a big gap remains between those who have access, and those who don’t,” HP chief sustainability and social impact officer Nate Hurst said. “We’re thrilled to take another step forward in helping bridge the divide with HP World on Wheels, bringing quality education, entrepreneurship training, and access to essential services to people right where they are.”

– Madeline Boeding

Photo: Google

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US Helps Girls Receive Education in Malawi

Girls Malawi Education
Girls receive education in Malawi with focused accommodations and investments that improve their quality of life. The greatest obstacles girls face in education are the high rates of child marriages and pregnancies in Malawi.

This month, the United States government announced plans to invest $90 million for the construction of secondary school classrooms for girls to further their education and become successful. The five-year investment is hoped to reduce high HIV rates among Malawian youths and delay marriage.

According to the UNICEF State of the World’s Children report, half of Malawian girls marry before age 18. Girls vulnerable to child marriages and early pregnancies most likely attain a low level of education. Only 45% of girls remain in school past eighth grade. While girls outnumber boys in primary school enrollment, girls are underrepresented in secondary schools. As of 2015, boys outnumber girls by about 23,000 out of 360,000 secondary school students.

The practice of child marriages continues a cycle of poverty and increases girls’ risk of suffering violence, abuse, and maternal mortality, which constitutes 30% of maternal deaths in the country.

In February 2017, Malawi adopted a constitutional amendment that raises the minimum age of marriage from 15 to 18 years of age for both girls and boys. First Lady Gertrude Mutharika appealed to stakeholders to ensure girls receive education in Malawi and are protected from abuse.

Founder of The Beautify Malawi Trust and Girls’ Education Initiative, Mutharika supports girls across the country to become educated and empowered women. According to Mutharika, gender-based violence in marriage is prevalent because women do not further their education, and since they are not financially independent, they tolerate the abuse.

Beautify Malawi constructs girls’ hostels to alleviate the challenges girls face walking long distances to school. “It is our hope that in future the girls we are seeing today will become nurses, doctors and lawyers,” said Mutharika in May as she commissioned a K120 Million girls hostel at Emvuyeni Community Day Secondary School in Mzimba district. The hostels give girls who had dropped out due to early pregnancies or child marriages the opportunity to return to school. Knowing they are protected and supported, girls choose school and avoid abuse and violence.

As Malawi and foreign aid invest money and resources in improving the quality of life for girls, girls receive education in Malawi, are empowered and gain greater opportunities in their future.

– Sarah Dunlap

Photo: Flickr