Tag Archive for: Education

Posts

, , ,

5 Outstanding Advocates for Women’s Education

Malala Yousafzai is a brave Pakistani advocate for young women’s education and the youngest ever Nobel laureate. An attempt was made on her life when she was shot in the head by militants, and she has faced many other obstacles. Yousafzai is one among hundreds of advocates around the world fighting for women’s education. More than 63 million girls are still not enrolled in school, and fewer than 10 percent of teenage girls finish secondary school. Here are five more outstanding advocates for women’s education.

  1. Neelam Ibrar Chattan
    Chattan has advocated for peace for young women in Pakistan since she was a teenager. She grew up in the same town as Yousafzai. While Yousafzai was being attacked, and the Taliban were taking over Pakistan, Chattan launched a campaign called Peace for a New Generation, promoting education and extracurricular activities for girls and boys. Even though she and her family face various threats, she remains fearless in helping children and young adults get the education they need.
  2. Michelle Obama
    The former First Lady, along with her husband, former President Barack Obama, launched the Let Girls Learn organization in March 2015. The organization works with communities and leaders of third-world countries to promote girls’ education. She has also visited Africa and raised $27 million in funding for young women’s education in Liberia. Michelle Obama hopes that more people will continue fighting for young women’s education.
  3. Graca Machel
    Machel has fought not only for young women’s education, but also against childhood marriage. She acknowledged that women and children “pay the highest prices” from war in Nigeria. Her hard work has led to the Graca Machel Trust.
  4. Angelique Kidjo
    A Grammy-nominated West African singer and songwriter, Kidjo is also a UNICEF goodwill ambassador and the founder of the Batonga Foundation. She uses her talents as a singer and her passion for young women’s education to effect important change. She continues to work with the Batonga Foundation, supporting secondary and higher education for girls in Africa by improving school infrastructure, increasing enrollment, granting scholarships, providing financial support for families, and spreading community awareness.
  5. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
    As the first female president in an African country, Liberian President Sirleaf has been a huge supporter of general women’s rights, including women’s right to vote and women’s right to education. She has used her power to expand the quality of education in preschool and primary education by joining the Global Partnership for Education in 2007. Despite dealing with the Ebola crisis in 2015, she worked hard to reopen schools and provide quality education for all students.

In the face of widespread and systemic adversity, millions of women around the world do not have education as a birthright. These five advocates of women’s education are advancing an agenda of equality that will empower and uplift communities forever.

– Emma Majewski

Photo: Flickr

,

Education in Poland

Education in Poland
Over the last two decades, public education in Poland has been seriously reformed, and today it is one of the best-performing educational systems in Europe and across the world.

Education in Poland began changing in the late 1990s after Miroslaw Handke took on the role of Poland’s minister of education. Amanda Ripley reports that Handke publicly announced his plans for change, stating, “We have to move the entire system — push it out of its equilibrium so that it will achieve a new equilibrium.”

Through a modernized core curriculum and regulated standardized testing, allowing school administrators to recognize areas of improvement and identify struggling students, this new equilibrium was achieved. Teachers were granted more freedom in implementing their own curricula and choosing textbooks, so long as they tailored their courses to meet national requirements.

Also, the transition of students into vocational schools was delayed by a year. This places a stronger focus on the general curriculum compared to specialized skills. Reading, writing and arithmetic are the focal points of education, as well as studying a foreign language.

There has been a change in jurisdiction from central government to local government in regard to education. This provides local authorities with increased control over budgeting. The development of new schools resulted in increased learning opportunities for more students.

Today, Poland ranks 13th in reading, 18th in mathematics, and 22nd in science worldwide, according to a 2015 OECD education report known as PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment). Student performance in these subjects has significantly improved since 2003, when the country either matched or fell below the OECD average.

Surprisingly, Poland has been able to accomplish all this by spending only five percent of its GDP, or roughly $5,000 per student annually. The U.S., by contrast, spends about three times as much, yet still ranks below Poland.

Despite these advancements, there is still room for progress. The OECD reports indicate an educational gap between students of lower classes and those of higher classes, which could be improved through more early childhood public education programs. In addition, there is a need to strengthen students’ capacity to problem-solve. By building on its achievements, education in Poland will continue to improve, serving as a global model.

– Genevieve T. DeLorenzo

Photo: Flickr

,

Education in Georgia: Strategy and Action


Despite the harsh ramifications from the global economic crisis and major political challenges, Georgia has remained a leader in the Caucasus sub-region for education, specifically in positive student learning. Georgia’s education programs and reforms are recognized worldwide. As of 2014, Georgia has had a secondary school net enrollment of 92 percent, just above the U.S., which sits at around 90.5 percent.

In 2007, Georgia partnered with the World Bank and UNICEF to create the Consolidated Education Strategy and Action Plan. This program ensures early childhood development, preschool education, general education, higher education and non-formal education in Georgia, while simultaneously including education for children with special needs.

Things began looking grim when, in 2008, Georgia was politically challenged by the Russian Federation and suffered internal government issues. Additionally, the Georgian economy was at a low, with almost 60 percent of the population living below the national poverty line and a quarter of the population making less than $2 per day, affecting the education in Georgia.

Nevertheless, Georgia’s government continues to focus on its educational reform. In 2008, the program department of Georgia was established in the Ministry of Education and Science. This agenda prioritizes programs such as the Safe School Initiative and Education Resource Centers. According to the World Bank, enrollment rates have only been improving.

As of 2016, advancement is seen in poverty. Twenty-one percent of the population is below the national poverty line, a staggering difference compared to prior numbers.

UNICEF notes that Georgia likely prioritizes education partly due to the country’s lack of natural resources, which leaves the future of the country dependent on its human capital.

Even still, there are festering problems in Georgia’s system, despite the government working hard to ensure quality education. Severe inequities of the enrollment and attainment rates between the rich and poor persist, likely due to entry fees. Ethnic groups and children with disabilities are lagging behind.

Improvements have been made to make up for this, such as the Education Strategy and Action Plan for Children with Special Needs, but there is still room for progress.

Henry Kerali, the World Bank regional director for the South Caucasus, notes, “Georgia’s prospects to compete in the global economy will largely depend on its ability to produce a highly-skilled workforce via improved teaching and learning.”

– Morgan Leahy

Photo: Flickr

,

Government to Pay for High School Education in Ghana

Education in Ghana
Nana Akufo-Addo, The President of Ghana, ran as a candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), the national liberal-conservative party, in the past three election cycles. He was defeated in 2008 and 2012 by candidates from the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the national social democratic party. Nevertheless, he defeated the NDC candidates in 2016 after accusations of electoral fraud.

In 2016, the NPP campaigned on a promise of free Senior High School (SHS). President Akufo-Addo has since followed through, assuring Ghanaians the government will fund the costs of public SHS education in Ghana for all those who qualify for entry in the 2017-2018 academic year.

The SHS policy assures no cost to students or families for tuition. Tuition, as well as admission fees, library services, science center fees, computer laboratory fees, examination fees, utility fees are all free. The policy also includes provisions for free textbooks, boarding and meals for full-time and daytime students.

The announcement was made in the President’s speech as a guest of honor at the 60th-anniversary celebration of Akuapeman SHS in the Eastern Region. The initiative has been authorized in hopes of improving the quality of education in Ghana.

Akufo-Addo detailed that a society that wants to develop into a modern, profitable and constructive participant in the global market requires an educated pioneering and labor pool. By that logic, he argues, the nation must enact its educational policies swiftly and effectively.

The President believes that education is the factor limiting the nation’s economic development and, for that reason, is committed to providing a free public SHS education in Ghana.

Along the same lines, the government intends to create incentives for a higher standard of teaching. President Akufo-Addo hopes this initiative will motivate hard work at both ends of the classroom.

Overall, the goal is to provide all children with equitable and accessible education in Ghana.

– Jaime Viens

Photo: Flickr

, ,

10 Facts About Education in Bahrain

Education in Bahrain
The island country of Bahrain, officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, is known primarily for its small size and successful finance industry. However, Bahrain also has a progressive and highly valued education system. Here at 10 facts about education in Bahrain:

  1. Bahrain’s public school system was founded in 1932 and is the oldest in the Arabian Peninsula. The average person in Bahrain will receive 6.1 years of education.
  2. While Bahrain has a number of private schools, public education in Bahrain is free until secondary school for both boys and girls. Education is also compulsory for kids aged 6-14.
  3. The majority of the country, 95.7 percent, is literate. Bahrain also has the highest female literacy rate, 93.5 percent, in the Arabian Peninsula.
  4. Bahrain does not spend much on education relative to other countries. Approximately 2.6 percent of the country’s GDP goes toward education costs, meaning Bahrain ranks 153 out of 173 countries on education spending.
  5. Prior to the 20th century, Quranic schools, which were dedicated primarily to Qur’an studies, were the only type of school in Bahrain.
  6. Education in Bahrain is changing in order to better prepare students for careers. The country is splitting secondary education into two tracks, unified and vocational. The unified track is aimed more at university preparation while the vocational track is meant to prepare students for technical careers directly after finishing school.
  7. In Bahrain, girls are educated at roughly the same rate as boys. Approximately 97 percent of girls and 98 percent of boys are enrolled in primary school, while 91 percent of girls and 87 percent of boys attend secondary school.
  8. Approximately 25.2 percent of Bahrainis will go on to post-secondary education. Of these students, the majority are women, as Bahrain has one of the highest university gender parity indexes at 2.52.
  9. Despite women receiving roughly equal education to men in Bahrain, the number of women in the workforce is low. Only 32 percent of women aged 15 and above are in the workforce, compared to 85 percent of men. This is significantly lower than the rest of the world, as globally 52 percent of women are active in the workforce.
  10. Many Bahraini students participate in exchange programs, such as the U.S. government’s Student Leaders Program, a summer program where Bahraini university students study at U.S. universities.

Despite Bahrain’s small size, high literacy rates, mandatory schooling and a push for higher education reveal how education in Bahrain is continuing to strengthen and grow.

– Alexi Worley

Photo: Flickr

, ,

Education in Uruguay: Ending Gender Bias in the Classroom


Supporting the education of women and girls around the globe is often a key component in efforts to end extreme global poverty. Statistics show that educated women marry later. This results in fewer child marriages and reduces fertility and infant mortality rates. Educated women are also more likely to go to work. When a woman receives regular pay, she can give back to her community, and when the working population in a community doubles due to female education, the cycle of poverty ends. This is why the World Bank Group (WBG) is focusing on ending the gender disparity in education in Uruguay.

Educating girls and women is WBG’s main goal in their fight to eradicate poverty. In Uruguay, women and girls face gender-based violence that discourages them from attending school. Gender bias and stereotyping is a long-standing issue in Uruguay that extends beyond the classroom. Recently the government in Uruguay has prioritized addressing the gender bias. They teamed up with WBG to implement the Improving the Quality of Initial and Primary Education in Uruguay Project to end gender-based violence and discrimination in schools.

The project is a part of the $2.5 billion investment in global education that WBG President Jim Yong Kim announced at the Let Girls Learn event in April 2016. Improve the Quality of Initial and Primary Education in Uruguay is a $40 million project that will implement teacher training to make educators aware of the gender disparity and equip them with the knowledge and tools to address it. The training will focus on social norms regarding masculinity versus femininity. In the process, WBG will direct a study of gender equality that will inform the Gender Equality Action Plan from 2017-2020.

In addition to addressing gender inequality, the project will also improve access to quality early childhood education. WBG plans to utilize the teacher training component of the project to focus on emotional and social development in primary schools. Their hope is to create a sustainable, gender-equal education system by implementing these practices from the beginning of a child’s schooling.

In April 2016, WBG President Jim Yong Kim said, “empowering and educating adolescent girls is one of the best ways to stop poverty from being passed from generation to generation and can be transformational for entire societies.” The Improve the Quality of Initial and Primary Education in Uruguay plans to do just that.

– Rachel Cooper

Photo: Flickr

, ,

Seven Facts About Improved Education in the Maldives


In 2004, a devastating tsunami in the Indian Ocean hit the coasts of several countries in South and Southeast Asia, resulting in massive damage and more than 100 reported casualties in the Maldives. With unwavering aid and support from internal communities and UNICEF, the island country has experienced significant achievements in its health, poverty and economic status, but particularly in the field of education.

The Maldives is the first country in South Asia labeled as an ‘MDG Plus’ country by achieving five of the eight United Nations Millennium Development Goals before 2015.

Because early childhood education is obligatory and free of charge, the country’s net enrollment increased from 51.2 percent in 2001 to 99.6 percent in 2016.

Higher secondary enrollment increased dramatically from 2013 to 2016 due to the successful implementation of the No Child Left Behind policy.

Student passing percentage in GCE O’Level 5-subjects rose significantly from 27 percent in 2009 to 56 percent in 2015. Goals have been set for education in the Maldives to achieve the national target of 60 percent in 2017.

As a direct response to the tsunami disaster, UNICEF brought resources to ‘hard-to-reach’ children through Teacher Resource Centers (TRCs), as a part of its Tsunami Recovery Programme. TRCs allow students to access a global e-network of teacher training and educational resources.

UNICEF ensures that education in the Maldives reaches all children with special needs. In addition, Life-Skills Based Education (LSBE) targets secondary school children and includes lessons on HIV/AIDs, civic education and vocational training to prepare Maldivian youth for adulthood.

Since the Maldives unified its education system in 1978, the literacy rate has risen from 70 percent to 98 percent.

The work of teachers and caregivers in the Maldives continues to put improved learning standards in place. Just as the nation’s overall conditions of life have reached a high since the struggles brought on by natural disaster, education in the Maldives will hopefully only advance in the future.

– Mikaela Frigillana

Photo: Flickr

, ,

Reforming Education in Tonga


Education in Tonga is free and compulsory between ages six and 14, and the literacy rate is approximately 99 percent. Roughly 80 percent of all primary schools and 90 percent of secondary schools are run by religious organizations.

Although there are some post-secondary agricultural, medical, nursing and teaching education programs, most young Tongan people pursue their studies overseas. As a result, many young Tongans live in New Zealand and Australia, while 22.5 percent of their peers residing in Tonga live below the poverty line.

Over the last decade Tonga’s Ministry of Education, Women Affairs and Culture has sought educational reform through the Tonga Education Support Program (TESP), which has been segmented into two phases. TESP I addresses three particular areas of improvement identified by the 2003 Tonga Education Sector Study:

  • Improvement of equitable access universal primary education in the first six years of schooling and quality of universal basic education for all children in Tonga.
  • Improvements to the access to and the quality of “post-basic” education and vocational training in hopes of increasing Tonga’s role in the global economy.
  • Improvements to the administration of education and training to facilitate the prior two goals. In particular, this goal calls for cooperation between both government-funded and nongovernment-funded education programs to serve the national interest of education development.

The Ministry also developed TESP II, an adapted form of the Tonga Education Lakalaka 1 Policy Framework, to improve student, teacher and institutional performance rates across all schools.
Australia has contributed AUD $6.5 million to this project, while New Zealand has cosponsored NZD $8.2 million.

Lack of comprehensive reporting has made it difficult to assess whether or not these education development programs have successfully achieved their goals, but from what has been reported, these programs show promise in improving education in Tonga. The Ministry also expects to achieve at least 99 percent access to and participation in formal education programs and 99 percent retention and completion in the coming years.

– Casie Wilson

Photo: Flickr

, ,

Education in Hungary


Hungary offers free state education to all children residing in the country. Education in Hungary is more traditional than other systems and focuses on many areas in various industries in order to prepare students for life after full-time education.

From the ages of five to 16, Hungarian children are required by law to attend full-time education. Most schools are funded by the state, with private schools charging fees that are subsidized by the government. Education in Hungary is based highly on tradition, which lies at the heart of the system. Prior to examinations in the final years of secondary education, there is a famous “Ribbon Consecration,” with a final party at the end of school where traditional college songs are sung. It is compulsory to spend eight years in full-time education and two more years in high school, vocational school, or trade school.

A third of students choose to continue with vocational education after graduating from secondary school. There are three types of vocational schools: technician training, skilled-worker training, and middle vocational school. Students graduate from vocational education with a double qualification and a “Mantura,” meaning university entrance, and qualify as a skilled worker.

Vocational colleges differentiate from vocational schools. Vocational colleges offer more specialized courses, for example, in health or stereography. Each course lasts three years and final exams are taken at the end. If passed, students receive their diploma.

Another post-secondary school option is to attend a trade school. It lasts three to four years, with limited theoretic content, and involves a work placement. Students can only attend trade school if they have secured work placement, provided either by the school or through a specific company.

As a nation, Hungary is known to be very welcoming to refugees and asylum-seekers, accepting more than 480,000 refugees over the past few years. Education in Hungary is offered to any child residing in the country free of charge, according to the Public Education Act, meaning that refugee children have the same rights as Hungarian students. There is difficulty with integrating refugees with students, as there are limited spaces in schools, but this is resolved with special preparatory classes that are offered.

Education in Hungary is easily accessible for all, with every opportunity being open to students of any nationality. Different areas of training prepare students for working life and enable them to learn key skills within industries.

– Georgia Boyle

Photo: Flickr

Poverty in Finland

Poverty in Finland
Poverty in Finland? Regardless of a person’s wealth, social well-being or background, Finland is one of the most successful countries in providing equal opportunities for all citizens. No person in Finland lives beneath the international poverty line due to social benefits for employees, pensioners and young people.

Successfully Fighting Poverty in Finland

As of January, Finland has seen its highest unemployment rate since June 2016, with an increase to 9.2 percent. Although the rate has increased, Finland is currently in the midst of trialing a universal basic income scheme. The country now pays its unemployed citizens £475 per month in place of previous social benefits and will continue to pay this even when citizens find work. This trial aims to not only reduce but bring an end to poverty in Finland.

Although this scheme is intended to alleviate poverty in Finland, it could also push more people below the poverty line. Due to child benefits, housing allowances and national pensions being cut, Finland could see a rise in poverty rates. Already 180,000 pensioners live below the poverty line and this could increase due to the cuts in benefits and allowances that the government previously provided. Even with the government paying unemployed citizens monthly, pensioners will benefit more from social allowances than from this recurring payment.

Education in Finland is designed to provide the best experience for students and to lead them straight into employment. Children do not start school until they reach the age of seven and are not formally tested until they reach 16. With a high graduation rate of 93 percent, 66 percent of students then continue to study at college-level and another 43 percent begin vocational training. The school system is completely funded by the state in order for every child to have the opportunity to receive an education. With a high rate of college and vocational applicants, Finland provides every opportunity for students to head straight into employment.

Healthcare is not free in Finland; it is funded through taxation and patient fees. Facilities determine medical charges based on the patient’s ability to pay for their medication. Nevertheless, healthcare is available to all permanent residents in Finland.

Poverty in Finland is one of the lowest worldwide due to social benefits. Hopefully, this new scheme will prove to alleviate poverty and boost employment rates.

– Georgia Boyle

Photo: Flickr