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Five Facts on Education in Benin


Centered between the countries of Nigeria and Togo, Benin resides on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean with a population of roughly 10 million. Education in Benin has been free for 10 years.

Benin has maintained a strong, democratic-style government since 1990 when it changed its name to the Republic of Benin. BBC News called the country “one of Africa’s most stable democracies.” Although Benin has a stable government, the country still faces plenty of issues.

Among these issues was the near-collapse of the economy in 1988, a 50 percent currency devaluation that caused inflation in 1994 and devastating floods that destroyed 55,000 homes, killed tens of thousands of livestock and displaced 680,000 people in 2010.

However, education in Benin has proved to be one of the bright spots of the nation’s domestic affairs.

Here are five facts about education in Benin:

  1. Education in Benin was declared free during an educational forum that took place in 2007. With free education, students are able to access Benin’s educational system that operates under 6-4-3-3-4 format. Students are taught in French, the primary language of the country, to start their educational journey by attending six years of primary school, followed by four years of junior high school, then three years senior high school, three years of a bachelor’s degree and finish with four years of a master’s degree. However, for students to pass junior high school, they must take the O-Level exam or Brevet d’Etudes du Premier Cycle: BEPC, and for students to pass senior high school, they must pass the A-level exam or Baccalauréat: BAC, which is the equivalent of a U.S. high school diploma.
  2. Education in Benin follows a numbered grading system. Similar to the letter-grading system, the number grading system ranges from 10 to 20 to determine a student’s level of classroom production. Averaging a 10 is good enough for a passing grade, 12 is a fairly good grade, 14-15 is a good grade, 16-17 is a very good grade and to score a 20 is excellent.
  3. Statistics of education in Benin demonstrate uneven gender enrollment, with the gross primary enrollment rate for boys at 88.4 percent opposed to 55.7 percent for girls, according to a survey conducted in 1996. Male students also maintain a better literacy rate between the ages of 15 and 24, with a 54.9 percent literacy rate, compared to female students who have a literacy rate of just 30.8 percent. The gap between male and female literacy rates worsens out of school, with the overall adult literacy at 40 percent, while only 25 percent of women are literate. Benin also ranks 35th out of 117 countries for having the most girls out of school, with 142,178 females not enrolled in primary or secondary school.
  4. State funding is the primary funding for education in Benin, and yet Benin saw a decline of the national budget towards educational spending between 1993 and 1999 when the percent of the national budget used for education dropped from 21.5 percent to 15.6 percent. However, during that same time span, primary education rose within the education budget from comprising 53 percent in 1993 to 60 percent in 1998.
  5. Education in Benin has also evolved into a variety of educational reforms. One of the earliest reforms took place in 1975 and was named a “new school” system, in hopes to democratize education, add more practical subjects to the curriculum and adapt to local conditions. Although the reform was beneficial for the first couple of years, the new school system reform was impacted by national and social crisis near the end of the 1980s that recorded a dropout rate of 31 percent in 1988 and 1989. Seven years later in 1996, the Government of Benin reconstructed the declaration on population policy. The impact of the revival of the national constitution was intended to support priorities in education, including progressively free-of-charge access to education, guaranteed equal opportunity for all and the fight against dropping out, especially for girls.

With all this said, education in Benin still faces an array of issues such as providing equal opportunity for education to women. Benin has made dramatic attempts to assure educational equality for all and needs to continue to put programs in place to ensure the future success of their educational system.

– Patrick Greeley

Photo: Flickr

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Girl Love: Lilly Singh’s Campaign for Girl’s Education

Girl Love
Girl Love began as a social media campaign by YouTube creator Lilly Singh in December 2015. Singh, along with other successful women like Grace Helbig and Lindsey Sterling, encouraged young girls to spread love, instead of hate, by complimenting other girls rather than insulting them.

Singh’s original video received more than one million views. Within a month of being uploaded, all the profits made from the video were donated to the Malala Fund, an organization which supports education for young women. After a successful first campaign, Singh aimed to do more for women’s issues and decided to take Girl Love further by starting her own fundraising campaign for girls’ education.

Singh partnered with WE charity, part of the ME to WE organization, a for-profit social enterprise that empowers people to work together to change the world. The WE charity donates 90 percent of its earnings to developing villages to help grow them into sustainable communities. For the Girl Love campaign, ME to WE created the Rafiki bracelet, outsourcing the labor for the creation of the bracelets to Kenya, and now sells the bracelets on the ME to WE online store.

Singh has been most invested in this project, saying how the Rafiki bracelets represent “not only being passionate about Girl Love but doing something about it.”

Today, the Girl Love campaign is empowering women to go to school and helping to build sustainable communities. 14,000 women in Kenya have jobs hand-crafting the Rafiki bracelets. These women use this income to get an education or to send their daughters to school and to afford necessities such as clothes and food.

When Singh visited Kenya and met some of the working women that make the bracelets, she was inspired by the impact that she had created. She spoke of how many people imagine that the problem is too big to fix, but how “when you come here and see the school and you see the mamas making these bracelets, and you hear them say, ‘my daughter goes to school because I’m making theses bracelets,’ then you know the problem is actually not too big to fix if you just start to fix it.”

– Deanna Wetmore

Photo: Flickr

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Education in the Solomon Islands


Education in the Solomon Islands is difficult to access for youth, creating a huge hurdle for the island nation. As a country made up of more than 300 inhabited islands, the challenge of attending school across the islands means around 20 percent of children are out of school. Uneven population distribution makes providing educational services difficult at best, and in the 2003 conflict, many schools were burnt down and teachers and students fled the violence.

As the number of out-of-school young people has increased, the Solomon Islands has seen a parallel increase in political violence as youth have found an outlet for their frustration in riots, crime and violence. A 2005 study by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) found that under-18 youth were being recruited by armed groups. This prompted the creation of a peace education module, a community-based model bringing together educators, young people, community leaders and NGO’s. The program’s purpose is to foster understanding of peace, conflict and good governance. To address the tension and positively re-engage youth, the government and NGOs have increased their focus on education in the Solomon Islands as an impactful way to promote peace measures.

To address the tension and positively re-engage youth, the government and NGOs have increased their focus on education in the Solomon Islands as an impactful way to promote peace measures.

The content of the educational curriculum is being thoughtfully reconsidered, as it is cited as a potential causal factor in the Islands’ conflicts. A perceived divide between traditional customs and skills and colonial Western-style curricula has encouraged educators to innovate, implementing the use of native languages in schools and diversifying teaching materials on history, religion and culture.

In order for the peace modules and curriculum innovations to succeed, school enrollment and completion rates must improve. As of 2012, Education Policy and Data Center (EPDC) statistics show a high enrollment of both young boys and girls in primary school, with a net enrollment rate of 81 percent and a primary completion rate of 85 percent. However, only 72 percent of students were continuing their education in the Solomon Islands and enrolling in lower secondary school.

Since then, the hard work of local actors such as the Solomon Islands’ Curricular Development Division, church organizations and local women’s groups has demonstrated great commitment to making school more accessible. Partnerships with organizations including UNICEF, the New Zealand Agency for International Development and Save the Children have supported these efforts, and these powerful collaborations are rebuilding and innovating current educational structures.

In fact, based off of 2000-2010 education trends in the Solomon Islands, the Education Policy and Data Center predicts a 100 percent enrollment rate for primary and lower secondary students by the year 2025. By engaging every young person, education in the Solomon Islands will hopefully reduce conflict and promote peace. As long as aid funding and the government’s commitment to education continues, delivering culturally relevant, quality education can be a reality for the Solomon Islands in a few years.

– Irena Huang

Photo: Flickr

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10 Facts About Education in Thailand


In Thailand, a Southeast Asian country boasting scenic coastlines and rich religious history, literacy soars while achievement rates remain comparatively low.

Though the government invests generously in public education, the nation at large fails to measure up to global academic standards. Many citizens attribute this phenomenon to governmental bias and call for structural changes.

Education advocates have garnered the attention of public officials, but some obstructions still riddle the path to successful reform. Below are 10 facts about education in Thailand, including recent efforts to revitalize the system.

  1. Access to education in Thailand has risen consistently over the past two decades. All Thai children are guaranteed an education under the 1999 Education Act, and children of other nationalities living in Thailand gained the same right in 2005. A 2009 decision increased free education from 12 to 15 years. Between 2000 and 2009, primary and secondary school enrollment increased by nine percent and 17 percent, respectively.
  2. Despite Thailand’s universal access to education and 96.7 percent literacy rate, Thai students scored below the global average on PISA tests in 2014, ranking 35th out of 40 countries. Recent reports from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) also indicate that the country has fallen behind.
  3. In 2015, the government spent 19.35 percent of its yearly budget on education, a greater portion than was spent on anything else. However, Thailand has yet to see cumulative improvements in its schools.
  4. The lack of success might be the result of poorly divided funds. Instead of distributing it equally, the government funnels a large proportion of money toward schools where students already have a high likelihood to succeed and gives less to smaller and more rural schools.
  5. As a result, schools in poor areas must stretch their resources thin. Individual teachers often teach multiple grades and subjects.
  6. Due to these inequalities, students in city schools demonstrate higher rates of improvement than students at rural schools, according to the PISA test.
  7. While funding inequality puts small, rural schools at a particular disadvantage, the outdated curriculum does a disservice to all Thai schools. The system has used the same curriculum since 2008, which itself is only a slightly edited version of curriculum from 2001.
  8. The Asian Correspondent predicts economic problems in Thailand, as this curriculum focuses on outdated industries and skills. Unless the curriculum is updated to better fit the demands of the modern world, the Thai education system runs the risk of producing an unemployable generation.
  9. In 2014, the National Council for Peace and Order resolved to reconstruct the education system but has taken no discernible actions yet.
  10. Tutor schools and “shadow education” systems have emerged at the hands of parents, as there is a widespread distrust of the public education system. However, many continue the fight for better public education, as low-income families have fewer options to teach their children independently.

The future of education in Thailand may appear a bit rocky, but there is potential for improvement. With national attention on schools, and many families so passionate that they’ve come up with ways to combat the issue in their own homes, opportunities for students are bound to continue multiplying.

– Madeline Forwerck

Photo: Flickr

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Kashmir Family Aid Fights for Secular Education in Pakistan


Kashmir Family Aid is an organization based out of Portland, Oregon that recognized the influence that secular education in Pakistan could have in combating extremism. The benefit of increased U.S. national security is an added positive outcome. Founder Sam Carpenter assured that the organization’s ultimate goal is fighting poverty through education.

Education in Pakistan is very much bound up in religion. There are over 20,000 madrassas, or religious schools, in Pakistan. This means that 3.5 million children and young adults are given Koranic teachings as their primary source of education, and, while this is a respected and understood aspect of Pakistani culture, it has increased the threat of extremism to the point of government intervention. As reported by the Washington Post, part of the Pakistani government’s 2015 plan for combating terrorism included “registrations and regulation of madrassas,” but it is still approximated that at least 9,000 are unregistered and that two to three percent have ties to student radicalization.

In the politically divided areas of Pakistan and Azad Kashmir, a 2005 earthquake left over 70,000 people dead and three million homeless. The earthquake destroyed 8,000 of the region’s 11,000 primary schools. Kashmir Family Aid was founded to help the area recover from such devastation.

The organization provides school supplies to the small village of Sarli Sacha in the foothills of a rural area that is nearly inaccessible in winter. They continually strive to provide money directly to schools, such as one in the Langla Village that cannot provide the $30 to $40 USD monthly salaries to its teachers. Fearing that the corruption of local officials has contributed to the misappropriation of government funds and undermining of education in Pakistan, Carpenter insists on paying school administrators and teachers in cash.

After bringing secular education to about 1,200 children, Kashmir Family Aid retreated their physical presence, fearing potential kidnap or arrest. In a country where 89 percent of people see Americans as an enemy, help was not always interpreted as such by local leaders. They now work primarily out of their Oregon office to raise money to be contributed to funds such as the Helping Hands Welfare Association.

Providing secular education in Pakistan is potentially one of the most streamlined ways of monitoring and preventing extremism. One of Kashmir Family Aid’s biggest supporters in Azad Kashmir was the prime minister himself, showing that the hope for schools that could produce doctors, educators and community leaders instead of Jihadists is not an American interest alone.

– Brooke Clayton

Photo: Flickr

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Segregated Education in Libya, Post-Gaddafi

Segregated Education in Libya, Post Gadhafi
The entire culture of Libya has changed since the very public takedown of Moammar Gaddafi during a long battle in 2011. Since then, Libyans have lived through free elections, the collapse of their government and an ongoing civil war. The women of Libya, in particular, have been affected most harshly. Islamization imposed on a formerly modernized religious culture through news laws puts women’s access to education at risk, along with their general freedom in society. This is what you need to know about the current state of segregated education in Libya.

Education for Women Once Was Better
When Gaddafi led the Libyan government as a dictator, there was no segregated education in Libya. Instead, there was unlimited access for women to attend school at all levels. As a result, the number of well-educated women in Libya is higher than elsewhere in the region. An almost equal number of women (32 percent) as men (33 percent) hold university degrees, and almost 77 percent of female high school graduates intend to pursue higher degrees.

As a result of the country’s increased Islamization, women are encouraged to stay at home. Because of increasing violence against women, this is slowly becoming a reality.

Even Elementary Education Is Affected
Education until the ninth grade is compulsory for children in Libya. Before the civil war, roughly one million students attended school, but this year, with the civil war ongoing, around 297,000 children have been unable to attend school.

Schools are also shutting down at alarming rates, transforming into shelters for persons displaced during the war. The city most affected by this is Benghazi. Those schools that remain open lack electricity for long periods of time and their access to sanitation is also lacking.

New Laws Affect Women in Universities
Segregated education in Libya was made possible in 2013 when a school in Derma built a wall in the middle of a university campus to keep men and women apart.

In that same year, new laws made it harder for women achieve a normal schooling experience. A 2013 fatwa announced that women could now attend a university only if they attended schools that were segregated by gender.

Segregated education in Libya also requires that women dress in accordance with Islamic tradition. All women are forced to wear some form of headwear that covers their hair. In April 2014, Libya made headlines when a woman who attended a university did not wear her headscarf and was harassed and abused by a security guard on campus.

Ultimately, only the Libyan government can make it easier for women to attend its universities. But with newly segregated education in Libya, we can only hope that things take a turn for the better in the near future.

– Maria Rodriguez

Photo: Flickr

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4 Girls’ Education Organizations That You Should Know About

4 Girls' Education Organizations That You Should Know AboutEducation inequality is an issue all around the globe, with many countries showing a disparity in literacy rates between men and women. The 1990 World Declaration on Education for All mandates gender equality and education as essential elements of an advanced world, but insufficient action has been taken to develop education systems according to these standards. Since then, many female-run, nonprofit girls’ education organizations have sprung up to create opportunities for women in developing countries.

The plight of many uneducated women in developing countries is a woeful one. Many face poverty, female genital mutilation and early marriage. Access to education opens doors for women, empowering them to provide for themselves and their families and enabling them to participate in politics and the working world. Below are four girls’ education organizations working actively to improve women’s lives.

4 Girls’ Education Organizations That You Should Know About

  1. Educate Girls: Educate Girls, an organization based in India, works with government schools to develop educational models and access in “educationally backward” areas of the country. Founded by Safeena Husain in 2007, the nonprofit seeks to grow and maintain enrollment rates among girls, partnering with organizations like UNICEF to address issues in specific school districts.The ultimate goal is to provide a quality education to 2.5 million girls, that they may acquire the skills and tools to participate in the workforce as adults.
  2. She’s the First: She’s the First (STF) was founded by Tammy Tibbetts and Christen Brandt in 2009 to help girls in developing countries complete their education. Based in New York City, its team helps girls to graduate high school by helping to cover tuition and boarding costs, as well as offering individual guidance and providing essential resources like uniforms and medicine.STF selects girls to support based on financial need and academic potential. It currently hosts 881 scholars, who, along with their mentors, make up a dynamic network of strong and supportive women.
  3. Camfed: Camfed, short for “Campaign for Female Education,” aims to reduce global poverty via education for girls. Founded by Ann Cotton in 1993, the nonprofit concentrates on rural regions of sub-Saharan Africa and provides support to individuals in need. Nearly two million students in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania, Malawi, and Ghana have attended school with Camfed’s help.Staunchly apolitical, the organization partners with government ministries and other nonprofits to create resources and awareness. In the long term, Camfed hopes to spark systemic change by molding strong female leaders.
  4. Forum for African Women Educationalists: The Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) is a pan-African nonprofit that encourages policy changes to make learning environments more accessible to girls. Partnering with government and private organizations across the continent, FAWE works to create community awareness and ensure equal treatment between boys and girls in school.FAWE has introduced a variety of educational models since its inception, including a 2007 gender-responsive pedagogy model tailored for teacher training colleges in Ethiopia, Senegal, and Tanzania. Their central objective is to seamlessly integrate women into the social and political fabric of their countries.

While there remains room for gender equality in schools to improve, these girls’ education organizations have made significant strides in creating access and increasing the quality of schooling for girls, an achievement that serves to develop the world as a whole.

– Madeline Forwerck

Photo: Flickr

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Girls’ Education in Tanzania Is on the Rise


In Tanzania, a sub-Saharan African country known for its national parks, diverse game and scenic wilderness, approximately two million young people were illiterate in 2011. Girls’ education in Tanzania, in particular, is an issue, as both adolescent and adult women demonstrate lower literacy rates than their male counterparts.

In 2012, literacy among women aged 15 to 24 was just 72.8 percent, while literacy among men in the same age group sat at 76.5 percent. The disparity becomes statistically significant among adults is even wider among adults: 75.5 percent of men and only 60.8 percent of women are literate.

In the country’s poorest areas, it is especially difficult for women to support themselves and their families, let alone further their education. In the northwest Tanzanian village of Kitenga, for instance, there is no running water or electricity, disease rates are high and scarce access to education, all of which are obstacles for girls who want to learn.

Enter the Immaculate Heart Sisters of Africa (IHSA), an organization committed to improving girls’ education in Tanzania. After partnering with the Girls’ Education Collaborative (GEC), which offers financial and logistical support, they launched the Kitenga Village Project. This project aims to raise the community from poverty by establishing basic resources, and, in January, it achieved its central objective when it opened the Kitenga School for Girls to educate girls in the community.

The school opened not only to encourage literacy but also to combat female genital mutilation and early marriage, both problems more likely to be faced by adolescent Tanzanian women without an education.

Currently, enrollment at the school stands at 59 girls from a variety of backgrounds. Having won the full support of the government, the GEC and the IHSA intend to accommodate a larger student body in the future. Plans for expansion include a library and housing for 1,500 boarding students.

The Kitenga School for Girls’ central vision is to provide girls from destitute families with an exceptional range of knowledge and skills. Students will have access to career and leadership coaching, health studies and life skills training, as well as a safe and secure environment.

Though women in poverty continue to face gendered hardships, access to schools creates greater opportunities. With the innovative efforts of organizations like the GEC and the IHSA, girls’ education in Tanzania is likely to continue growing.

– Madeline Forwerck

Photo: Flickr

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12 Facts About the World’s Champion: Malala Yousafzai


Malala Yousafzai, the world’s youngest and most powerful champion for girls’ education, may soon be attending one of the most prestigious schools in the world: the University of Oxford. Back in March of this year, Yousafzai announced that she had received a conditional offer (based on her A Level grades) from Oxford and that she plans to attend the University. She plans to study philosophy, politics and economics (PPE), and work on her organization, the Malala Fund. To commemorate this outstanding individual, here are 12 facts about her life, her achievements and her organization.

12 Facts About Malala Yousafzai

  1. At the young age of 12, when her hometown of Swat was held by the Taliban in 2009, Yousafzai wrote for a BBC blog critiquing the hardline Islamic movement under a pseudonym, even while she and her father were receiving multiple death threats.
  2. Yousafzai was the first recipient of Pakistan’s National Youth Peace Prize.
  3. Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a world-renowned social rights activist and retired Anglican bishop, nominated Malala Yousafzai for the International Children’s Peace Prize in 2011.
  4. Yousafzai was an international figure by now, and Taliban leaders voted among themselves to kill her. On October 9, 2012, Malala’s school bus was attacked by a gunman. He broke through the door and demanded to know where Yousafzai was. When some of the girls looked her way, she was shot in the head.
  5. Miraculously, the 15-year-old survived the attack. She was flown to Birmingham, U.K., for treatment. Her attack was condemned worldwide, and, after protests in Pakistan, more than 2 million people signed a right to education petition. The petition became a bill later ratified by the National Assembly, making it Pakistan’s first Right To Free and Compulsory Education Bill.
  6. In 2013, Yousafzai and her father co-founded the Malala Fund, an organization that advocates at all political levels to ensure all girls complete 12 years of school.
  7. The Malala Fund currently has programs in Pakistan, Kenya, Nigeria and in various countries for Syrian refugees.
  8. In Pakistan, a country with the second-largest number of girls not in school, the program focuses on getting more girls in school, building schools, providing materials (books, uniforms, etc.) and grants for secondary schooling.
  9. In Kenya, a country quickly evolving into its digital era, the Malala Fund works to ensure girls can take advantage of the technology trend.
  10. In Nigeria, the organization helps girls who have escaped from Boko Haram get an education.
  11. For Syrian refugees in Jordan and Lebanon, the organization opens new schools and funds educational programs in safe refugee camps.
  12. In October 2014, Malala Yousafzai won the Nobel Peace Prize. At age 17, she is the award’s youngest recipient.

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As Yousafzai continues to push for girls’ education around the globe, we should follow in her footsteps and do what we can do alleviate global poverty and ensure global education.

– James Hardison

Photo: Flickr

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Fighting the Denial of Education for Blind People in India


Education is considered a fundamental human right, and yet most blind Indians are denied access to basic education. As a result, teaching professionals in India and nonprofits such as Sightsavers are taking action to ensure that blind people in India get the education they deserve.

India is home to the largest blind population on the planet. These 15 million blind people in India are often denied basic rights, as a majority of them live in poverty. According to experts, blindness is a major contributor to the poverty cycle. It is believed that there are currently more than two million blind children in India who are vulnerable to illiteracy and poverty, but only five percent of them receive any type of education.

The National Association for the Blind (India) states that it is working every day to bring more educational opportunities to blind people in India. In partnership with local volunteer organizations, NAB (India) has been able to initiate education for more than 5,000 children with vision loss. Additionally, NAB (India) tries to provide free Braille kits for blind students and is implementing a training center for teachers of those with vision loss.

Many blind Indians note that proper education has been one of the most important contributors to their success. National Geographic did a piece on an inspiring school in India that prepares blind youth for life. In this piece, the headmaster of a blind school in India states that “most of the visually impaired children come from such families where they are very, very neglected… as they’re neglected, we try to provide them love and affection [and] at the same time a training program to make them contributing to their family.”

A non-profit called Sightsavers is also working closely with schools and teachers in order to optimize curricula for blind children in India. Tools and technology are crucial to the success of a blind child’s education. These include physical aids (white canes, materials in Braille, etc.) and technology that is low-vision friendly. As a member of the Global Campaign for Education, Sightsavers works with local partners, where they help provide proper education materials and revise disability curricula. Sightsavers’ work ranges from one-on-one help all the way to regional advocacy.

Education is not only important to the success of blind people in India, but also a way to end vicious poverty cycles and bring about long-term happiness.

– Morgan Leahy

Photo: Flickr