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5 Facts about Education in Uzbekistan

Education in Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan, at 30 million, is the most populous country in Central Asia. Uzbekistan was once a part of the Soviet Union, but since the Soviet Union’s dissolution, Uzbekistan’s economy has been challenged by the sudden transition to independence. Due to the economic and social challenges caused by this transition, access to education in Uzbekistan has been difficult. Here are five facts about education in Uzbekistan:

1. The population of Uzbekistan is 26.5 million. Twelve percent of Uzbekistan’s Gross Domestic Product is spent on education. This is the highest spending on education in Central Asia.

2. In 2006, a study focusing on education in Uzbekistan was given to a sample of students and it was discovered that only 30 percent were considered proficient in mathematics and 30 percent proficient in literacy.

3. Education in Uzbekistan is compulsory between the ages of 6 and 18. The average enrollment rate in Uzbekistan’s primary schools is 97 percent while the rate of transition from primary to secondary school is at 100 percent.

4. There is no gender gap in Uzbekistan’s schools — boys and girls are offered equal access to education in Uzbekistan.

5. Despite the social and economic turmoil in Uzbekistan following the collapse of the Soviet Union, while re-building the country, the Uzbekistan government has made educational reforms a priority.

In the future, Uzbekistan is seeking to further improve the education it offers its citizens. Planned reforms for education in Uzbekistan include providing greater access to education for all children in Uzbekistan, improving  school evaluations and working conditions for teachers, instating a better program to keep track of which children are and are not enrolled in school and developing “second chance schooling” for students who drop out but then return.

 — Lily Tyson

Sources: Euroeducation, The Guardian, UNICEF
Photo: Flickr

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10 Facts About Poverty India

According to the World Bank, India is one of the poorest countries in the world. Some of the main issues responsible for widespread poverty in India are poor health services, child malnutrition and inadequate education and training. Almost half of India’s population drops out of school by the age of 13 and only one in 10 people receive some form of  job training.

 

Top 10 facts about Poverty in India

1. India is estimated to have one-third of the world’s poor.
2. In 2012, 37 percent of India’s 1.21 billion people fell below the international poverty line, which is $1.25 a day, according to the Indian Planning Commission.
3. According to 2010 World Bank data, India’s labor participation rate (for those individuals over the age of 15) totaled 55.6 percent; however, the percent of wage and salaried workers of those employed only equaled about 18.1 percent.
4. According to the World Health Organization, it is estimated that 98,000 people in India die from diarrhea each year. The lack of adequate sanitation, nutrition and safe water has significant negative health impacts.
5. Families can’t grow enough crops to feed themselves each year due to the lack of new farming techniques, difficult weather conditions, poor storage conditions, misuse of insecticides and lack of water.
6. A third of the world’s malnourished children live in India according to UNICEF, where “46 percent of all children below the age of three are too small for their age, 47 percent are underweight and at least 16 percent are wasted.”
7. India has the highest rate of child marriage in the world, where one in three girls become child brides. Many girls are married off at an early age, become servants or even prostitutes just to survive.
8. The poorest parts of India are Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal.
9. According to the World Bank, in 2009 an estimated 2.4 million were living with HIV/AIDS, with children (less than 15-years-old) accounting for 3.5 percent and 83 percent making up the age group 15-49 years. Around 39 percent of those infected were women.
10. Men are more than twice as likely as women to hold salaried jobs in the large and medium-sized towns that are increasingly important centers of economic life in the Indian countryside. As such, in 2013 women only earned 62 percent of a men’s salary for equal work.

However, it is possible to end poverty in India. The first step would be to help the poor create their own businesses so that they may develop their own incomes. The second step is to create jobs that would allow those in poverty to increase their incomes through wages or salaries. Lastly, selling products to those living in poverty would help them earn or save money.

 – Priscilla Rodarte

Sources: Huffington Post, The Telegraph, BBC, The Wall Street Journal, UNICEF 1, Inter Press Service News Agency, The World Bank 1, The World Bank 2, UNICEF 2, Catalyst, Rural Poverty Portal
Photo: U.N.

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How Education Prevents Poverty

Education is a key factor to reducing and preventing global poverty. Many countries around the world are beginning to realize the importance of education and are investing in it significantly. Making education available to 100 percent of people around the world is one way to ensure that poverty declines. Let’s look at the three most significant ways education prevents poverty.

 

3 Ways Education Prevents Poverty

 

1. Health

Education benefits people’s health throughout their entire lives, from a mother’s pre-birth lifestyle to the likelihood of developing diseases later in life. Women with at least six years of education are more likely to use prenatal vitamins and other useful tactics during pregnancy, thus reducing the risk of maternal or infant mortality. Also, the child of an educated mother is twice as likely to survive to the age of 5 than an uneducated mother. Finally, mothers who have received an education are 50 percent more likely to vaccinate their children at early ages than mothers with little or no education.

Later in life, educated people are less likely to contract diseases, particularly HIV/AIDS. At least 7 million new cases of HIV/AIDS could be prevented if primary education were universal. Studies show that AIDS spreads twice as fast in women who have not received an education. In some countries, schooling is considered a “social vaccine” against HIV infection because girls’ attendance at school is strongly associated with avoiding the infection.

In general, education increases people’s knowledge of how to live a healthy lifestyle. Educated people know what kinds of foods are most nutritious, and therefore are more likely to buy those healthier foods for themselves and their families. Educated mothers will know how to cook healthy meals for their families. An education also provides people with knowledge about vaccinations, clean drinking water and fitness. In most cases, an educated person is a healthy person.

 

2. Economic Growth

By educating an entire population, economic growth is a natural effect. Studies show that each extra year of schooling can increase a person’s salary by 10 percent later in life. This means that a country’s GDP can increase by 1 percent annually by providing education to its entire population. Increasing a country’s GDP creates innumerable opportunities for trade and development.

Education also creates more people who are ready for the workforce. More workers in a country means fewer people will be unemployed. Unemployment has a high correlation with poverty; therefore, by employing more people, a country’s poverty rate will naturally decrease.

No country in the world has achieved rapid and consistent economic growth without at least 40 percent of its adult population being literate. Education can motivate people to become harder workers and can give people the drive to move up in the workforce. Increasing the literacy rate in a country can drastically improve economic development.

 

3. Empowers Women and Girls

Education has proven to benefit women and girls at a higher rate than boys. The empowerment that girls receive from an education both personally and economically is unmatched by any other factor. Women who are educated are usually better decision makers and have higher self-confidence. They are more knowledgeable about how to care for their families. Studies show that in Kenya, if female farmers were provided the same amount of education and resources as male farmers, crop yields could increase 22 percent. This idea can be applied globally.

Educated women are also more likely to delay marriage and have children when they are truly ready. This can ensure that the family will be well taken care of because the mother is prepared for the responsibilities of being a parent. Educated women have a higher likelihood of preventing their children from dying from preventable causes.

In poor countries, each additional year of education beyond grades three or four can provide women with a 20 percent increase in yearly salary. This allows families to be completely self-sufficient. The satisfaction that comes from a woman being able to provide for her family is immeasurable.

  — Hannah Cleveland

Sources: Results, World Education Blog
Photo: U.N.

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How to End Hunger Around the World

Currently, around 1 billion people live in hunger around the world. That’s the same amount as the total populations of the United States, Canada and the European Union combined.

Nearly 98 percent of hunger around the world exists in developing countries, and 62.4 percent of people living in hunger live in Asia and the South Pacific.

However, the number of people living in hunger is not caused by a lack of food. The world produces enough food to feed the entire global population, but the people living in hunger have neither the land nor the money to acquire food.

Poverty is the main cause of hunger, just as hunger is a cause of poverty. When people go without food, it causes the brain to lose functionality so that they cannot contribute to their economy and allow it to grow. Providing the additional calories needed by the 13 percent of the world’s population living in hunger would require just 1 percent of the current global food supply.

There has been some development in terms of reducing hunger — the governments of Brazil and Ghana have significantly cut the number of people living in hunger by providing aid to their poor, raising their minimum wage and investing in small farms, especially those owned by women.

There are ways that global hunger can be stopped, though. One way is to prevent land grabbing. One of the negative aspects of the uncertainty of future food supply are wealthy yet small nations, like South Korea or the Gulf countries, gaining land from developing countries to use as additional farms.

Another way to prevent global hunger is to block out speculators from the global market. Since the financial crisis of 2008, money from investment funds have flooded the commodities market. The automated trading systems make it difficult for traditional traders to keep the prices of food stable and prevent spikes.

Producing less biofuel allows for sugar, maize and other food crops to be used as food, thus increasing the amount of food available to the global population and reduces the price on those items allowing for more people to access them.

However, those solutions mentioned above are short term and also hard to regulate. The most surefire way to end global hunger is to increase education. Less than 1 percent of what every nation in the world spends on developing weapons could put every child in the world in school.

An increase of education does not just help to put food in the stomach of one person, but also helps to increase the economy of the town or city the educated person is living in.

An educated person from an underdeveloped town would then have the means to open their own business and then employ others in their town who could then use their pay to invest in furthering their own education.

Education also provides children access to a stable food source and is a “strong incentive to send children to school and keep them there.” By sending children to school, it also allows families in underdeveloped countries to increase their food security in times of famine.

– Monica Newell

Sources: The Guardian, Do Something, Millions of Mouths, Huff Post, WFP
Photo: Jewels Fab Life

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Child Labor Facts

child labor facts
The existence of child labor is a prominent human rights issue in today’s world. The United Nations defines child labor as any work completed by children who have not yet reached the minimum legal age required for either a specific kind of work or any work that is generally viewed as unacceptable for children. Unacceptable work usually involves potential harm, dangerous conditions or physical strain unsuitable for underage youth.

To combat this issue, it is important to understand pertinent child labor facts. This knowledge will allow people to fully realize how many young workers never have the chance to be children:

  • Child labor is incredibly common and internationally practiced, and has affected billions of young lives. During the Industrial Revolution, employers sought out child workers because they could pay them lower wages, use their size as an advantage and benefit from their obedience. For years children made up a large majority of the labor force, and it wasn’t until the Great Depression that labor reforms began.
  • Even though child labor is prohibited in the United States, many other countries still exploit child workers. According to Free the Children, there are approximately 218 million child workers worldwide.
  • Many child workers are forced to work under hazardous conditions. Approximately 115 million children out of the aforementioned 218 million work in unsafe environments according to the International Labor Organization. This type of work is considered to be among the worst forms of child labor, especially since children are at greater risk of injuries and accidents.
  • Many children work out of necessity. In developing countries, it is common practice for kids to find work so that they can help provide for the family. In some cases, children are exposed to slavery, illegal activities and even armed conflict.
  • These children do not receive proper care or education. If there are no child labor laws in place, children work most of the day without receiving necessary nutrients or food and according to Free the Children, approximately 57 million children do not attend school. These limitations hinder children from reaching their full educational potential or advancing in the workforce.

Even though there has been a significant decline in the number of child workers, this is only a moderate decrease compared to the total number of children who are forced to work. As demonstrated by the facts above, this issue is still very present today, and perpetuates the cycle of poverty in developing countries.

– Meghan Orner

Sources: The United Nations, Free the Children, The International Labor Organization, The History Channel
Photo: Flickr

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Latin American Youth Struggle to Find Employment

Latin American youth are finding it increasingly difficult to find gainful employment. Of the region’s 108 million people in the 18 to 24 year age bracket, 21.8 million of them are known as NEETs – not in employment, education or training. In Spanish they are called NiNis – ni estudian ni trabajan (they do not study, nor do they work). NiNis are a stigmatized group, pegged as lazy, unmotivated and apathetic.

To make matters worse, many Latin American youth who do find jobs end up working in poor conditions and lack the protection of labor rights. Six in every 10 young people in Latin America work in unlawful labor conditions, according to a recent International Labor Organization report.

The ILO study, titled Trabajo decente y juventud: políticas para la acción (Decent Work and Youth: Policies for Action), also reported that the youth unemployment rate is three times as high as that of adults and twice as high as the overall rate. Young people are unable to find decent jobs even though the current generation is better educated than any previous cohort.

In Guatemala, 78 percent of NiNis work informal positions doing housework and other menial chores. Yet the hard core of NiNis exists in Paraguay and Uruguay, with 48 and 45 percent of young people respectively neither employed, nor enrolled in an academic institution.

Several causes for youth unemployment exist. Education is key – if the education system is not in sync with an area’s labor market, graduates will not leave their educational institution with the necessary skills to break into and thrive in the workforce. Population growth has also contributed to the existence of such high numbers of unemployed youth around the globe. Additionally, during times of economic hardship, employers are more likely to lay off younger workers who do not represent as significant of an investment as their older, better trained counterparts.

The fundamental problem, outlined by the ILO report, is that not enough opportunities exist for Latin American youth. Guy Rider, director of the International Labor Organization, says that the “lack of access to opportunities for decent work generates frustration and discouragement among youth. There are 108 million reasons why we must act now.”

The good news is that some organizations are acting. Work4Youth, a collaborative project between the ILO and MasterCard Foundation, seeks to match underprivileged youths aged 14 to 24 with local businesses in order to give young people the resources they need to break into the workforce. W4Y has operations all around the globe, and it maintains a presence in Brazil, Peru, El Salvador and Colombia.

The young generation currently entering the workforce is a valuable resource. Some estimates hold that if unemployment among young people were halved, the global GDP would experience an increase of 4 to 7 percent. In the words of 21-year-old Astrid Estefanía Garibay of Mexico: “People think ‘young’ and ‘NiNi,’ and they think about drug addicts and bums.” These young people simply need help connecting with opportunities rather than being stigmatized for their employment status.

– Kayla Strickland

Sources: IB Times, ILO, Pravda.ru, Press TV
Photo: Work4Youth

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Point of Concern: Education in Bangladesh

Education in Bangladesh
With roughly 57,000 square miles and over 150 million people, Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries in the world. It is also firmly entrenched in the rising power narrative that characterizes much of the south Asian region it occupies. For this reason, it is in the context of slow development where education in Bangladesh must be considered.

In 1990, the Primary Education Compulsory Act came into law and primary education became free and compulsory for all children up to grade five. Today in Bangladesh, there are approximately 56,867,000 people under the age of 18, 15 million of which are under the age of 5. There are currently 16 million children enrolled in grades one through five, and only 55 percent of children in Bangladesh who begin primary education make it to grade five. Only 50.7 percent complete all five years. The effects of this low rate of formal education are clear. In the young adult age range of 15 to 24, only 77.1 percent of male and 80.4 percent of females can read.

The many problems of education in Bangladesh can be linked to resources. As of 2009 Bangladesh spent 2.2 percent of its GDP on public education. In that same year the United States spent 5.2 percent. Despite government efforts to prove the contrary, education in Bangladesh remains an area in need of drastic reform. A total of 24 percent of primary school teachers are untrained and the average student-teacher ratio is 49 to one. These figures prove to be debilitating realities for the formative years of youth education.

To right the ship of education in Bangladesh, many private enterprises have lent their assistance. One such organization is BRAC. Formerly known as the Bangladesh Rehabilitation Assistance Committee, BRAC is now the world’s largest non-governmental organization. BRAC concentrates on impoverished rural areas. It also actively seeks female inclusion, often recruiting local women as teachers for their schools. These women receive extensive training and regular organizational evaluations. BRAC provides its education services free of charge and focuses on a unique curriculum that steers clear of the rote memorization techniques utilized in government schools. This innovative approach has proven beneficial, as BRAC students regularly outperform their government school counterparts. According to the New York Times, BRAC now administers “the largest secular non-governmental education system in the world.”

However, education in Bangladesh is still a concern. With high dropout rates and little access available to children in rural areas, the compulsory part of primary education in Bangladesh has not taken hold in the two decades since its legal codification. Potential resources remain untapped and a country of millions remains affected.

– Taylor Dow

Sources: The Financial Express, The Guardian, The New York Times, UNDP, UNICEF(1), UNICEF(2), Worldbank
Photo: The World Bank

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Malnutrition in Mali

Ranking 182nd on the Human Development Index (the 6th lowest ranking on the planet,) Mali is recognized as one of the most nutritionally unstable and under developed countries in the world. About four in 10 children under the age of 5 are underweight, and one in four people are as well. As a study from 2014 indicates, over 1.5 million people are not sustained by a regular supply of food.

This landlocked country is often afflicted by droughts and insect infestations, which deplete the crops upon which they often rely on for food. While malnutrition in Mali afflicts the entire population, it is the second largest killer of children under the age of 5.

In her intensive ethnographic study of Magnambougou, Mali, “Dancing Skeletons: Life and Death in West Africa,” however, Dr. Katherine Dettwyler suggests that rather than poverty, a lack of education surrounding nutrition is the main root of malnutrition in infants and young children. It is the mothers’ misunderstanding that it is not simply enough to give children food, but in the early stages of development, it is crucial to distribute the right kinds of food.

On one of her visits to Mali, Dettwyler examined a little girl with kwashiorkor, of which the primary symptom is swelling all over the body and particularly in the abdomen. The disease is a result of protein deficiency combined with a high caloric intake and often appears when the child cannot sustain the same level of protein intake after being weaned.

The mother who summoned Dettwyler called the disease “funu bana,” meaning “swelling sickness,” and believed her daughter caught it from another child. She begged Dettwyler for medicine to cure her daughter despite Dettwyler’s assurance that all her daughter needed was to have a higher quantity of protein slowly introduced to her diet.

Dettwyler also offers an anecdote regarding misconceptions about nutrition that occurred when she brought her young daughter Miranda to Mali. When the two were eating with some of the villagers and Dettwyler gave her piece of chicken to her daughter, she was immediately questioned. One man explained that good food should not be wasted on the young, because they have their whole lives to eat, while the old should be honored because they will soon die. Dettwyler, however, tried to explain that children should be the ones to receive the better food because they need the protein to fuel their growth.

Moreover, a large reason for the high child mortality rate due to malnutrition is because adults often have trouble identifying the signs of malnutrition. In her ethnography, Dettwyler notes that “people simply get used to the way children look. If the typical child is mildly to moderately malnourished, then that becomes the standard… normal is what you’re used to” In addition to providing emergency relief, Dettwyler, along with Action Against Hunger, argue that the key to combating malnutrition in Mali is education, and that teaching Malians how to identify malnourished children will be an enormous step in the process.

– Jordyn Horowitz

Sources: Action Against Hunger, Dancing Skeletons, WFP
Photo: Flickr

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Tzu Chi: Compassionate Relief

The Tzu Chi Foundation is a globally immersed Chinese Buddhist humanitarian organization that is originated and based in Taiwan. It was founded in 1999 by the Buddhist nun Cheng Yen and is a volunteer organization that provides aid to roughly 70 nations worldwide.

The foundation is present in all of the world’s five major continents and maintains offices in 47 different countries.

The organization’s website clearly delineates its goals and mission. The group’s four expressed goals are referred to as its “Four Major Missions” of charity, medical help and attention, education and humanity. It also focuses on four other venues: bone marrow donation efforts, environmental considerations, community volunteering and international relief.

Their four goals combine with these considerations to form “Tzu Chi’s Eight Footprints.”

Tzu Chi maintains consultative relations with the United Nations Economic and Social Council. Its members are often referred to as “blue angels” due to their signature blue uniforms. The group has built numerous villages, nursing homes, schools and hospitals across the world. It also maintains the Tzu Chi International Medical Association, which includes professional doctors who travel in times of international disaster to provide medical relief to victims.

The group also acted closer to home than many U.S. citizens may know or think. After Hurricane Sandy devastated parts of New York and New Jersey, Tzu Chi members personally dispersed $10 million total in $300 and $600 Visa credit gift cards to victims in the area.

Its efforts abroad are plentiful and very personalized, illustrating an admirable method of involved humanitarianism. For example, after the 2008 earthquake in Sichuan, China, Tzu Chi members brought blankets, nourishment and medical aid to the disaster-stricken area. The group also focuses on very impoverished areas in China and elsewhere, distributing rice, oil, blankets, clothes and medical services to those in need.

The organization ignores ethnic, religious, national or racial boundaries or restrictions, but instead spreads Buddhist principles of morality, kindness, humanism and selflessness. Furthermore, they provide both instant and long-term infrastructural solutions to community problems throughout the world.

Tzu Chi is making a difference one blue angel at a time.

– Arielle Swett

Sources: Tzu Chi, The Register

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Education and Menstruation in Uganda

Menstruation is a major reason for young girls in Uganda to miss school. Reasons for their absence stems from the stigma associated with “that time of the month,” a lack of sanitary napkins and the limited facilities available to students. Attending school while on their period forces girls to put their health at risk and chance being the subject of humiliation.

In an interview with a Guardian reporter, 16-year-old Lydia from Kampala, Uganda expressed why going to school during her period is difficult. She explained that some of the toilets did not have doors, so that if someone walked in, they would see her. Her school also has only four toilets for 2,000 students.  The toilets’ inability to flush or have water complicates the issue further, making menstruation in Uganda a problem in multiple ways.

In a recent study by SNV, officials report that girls miss between 8 to 24 days of school per year while menstruating.

Some girls attempt to prevent their clothing from being ruined by trying to absorb the blood with old cloth or old t-shirts, but these methods are not particularly successful. In another interview, Auma Milly commented that disposable pads are very expensive and are often not available in the more rural regions. Consequently, she felt embarrassed when she went to school and would soil her clothes so often that she chose not to attend.

In an attempt to address the problem regarding women’s sanitary needs, organizations including Save the Children, WaterAid, the Institute of Reproductive Health and local NGO Caritas Lira have begun to raise awareness and assist the cause.  Representatives from WaterAid commented on the importance of deconstructing the taboo regarding women’s health. The founder of 50 Cents. Period. described the battle as giving girls the basic right to hygiene. SNV and Caritas Lira have gone to schools in order to teach girls how to make reusable, affordable pads. Additionally, female Ugandan government officials have begun advocating for reduced taxes on sanitary napkins and improved facilities so that menstruation does not interfere with education.

– Jordyn Horowitz

 

Sources: The Guardian, The Guardian 2, UWASNET, 50 Cents Period, UWASNET, , SNV
Photo: A Global Village