Posts

Ready, Set, Action: Global Citizen Festival for Global Education

Global Citizen Festival
Now in its fifth year, the popular and innovative online campaign of the Global Citizen Festival has called upon music fans to win political support in tackling issues including global education. The festival’s ongoing goal is to eradicate extreme poverty by 2030.

The Global Citizen Festival kicked off its advocacy season by mobilizing fans to complete a number of tasks on their online platform. Strategically aligned with the U.N. General Assembly dates, users were encouraged to sign their name on poverty-related petitions, tweet photographs to world leaders and mobilize friends.

As an incentive, participants earned the chance to attend the Sept. 24 concert in NYC’s Central Park, which showcased a line-up of famous performers such as Rihanna, Selena Gomez and Metallica. Most importantly, participants felt like a part of a coalition that shapes poverty awareness, policy-making and the overall conversation of global poverty and inequality in international affairs.

On their website, Global Citizen explains, “The effects of small actions are not always obvious, but by working together specific and tangible outcomes are achieved.” In previous years, the organization has highlighted various initiatives to help mobilize support and successfully secure international funds for poverty-related issues such as sanitation, food resources and education.

In 2014, Global Citizen successfully mobilized 40,000 participants to sign a petition to support the Global Partnership for Education as well as send 2,284 tweets to Raj Shah, Administrator of USAID. This mobilization not only doubled the budget to $40 million for the 2014 financial year but enabled further commitment of $45 million in 2015 and an additional $70 million in 2016.

This year, one of Global Citizen Festival’s featured campaigns is Education Cannot Wait, which is timely as the fund launched in May and more pledges from world leaders are needed. The Education Cannot Wait Fund is a government fund for global education for children in emergencies. The fund strives to ensure that education is not disrupted for children in humanitarian, war and refugee crises.

According to the Education Cannot Wait Fund, approximately 75 million children ages 3 to 18 are currently out of school due to wars, natural disasters and other emergencies. Moreover, Evelyn Rodriquez-Perez, director of USAID’s Office of Education in Washington, D.C., states that the world is facing the worst humanitarian crisis since World War II, as conflicts in Syria and 35 crisis-affected countries disrupt education for 43 million children.

In a U.N. article, Special Envoy Gordon Brown stated, “We believe that this fund will offer young people hope because when we ask ourselves what breaks the lives of once thriving young children, it’s not just the Mediterranean wave that submerged the life vest, it’s not just the food convoy that does not arrive in Syria, it is also the absence of hope; the [..] certainty that there is nothing ahead to plan […] for, not even a place in school.”

With less than two percent of humanitarian aid going toward global education, hope for children and the significance of education in humanitarian crises as they help them recover from trauma, provide normalcy and rebuild their futures will continue to be disparate.

In acknowledgment, The Global Citizen Festival has called fans to advocate for the fund, asking citizens to reach out to world leaders from France, Switzerland, Canada, Kuwait, Finland, Germany and Denmark to commit to a pledge. These mobilizing efforts of the Global Citizen’s campaign will not only assist in securing more funding and increasing pledges by world leaders but will hopefully continue to make a big difference at future U.N. General Summits.

– Priscilla Son

Photo: Flickr

 

Education in Sierra Leone: Gender Inequality After Ebola

Girls' Education in Sierra Leone
Schools in Sierra Leone reopened in April 2015 after the world’s worst recorded Ebola outbreak. The country’s government, with assistance from the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), made efforts to improve education in Sierra Leone since then. However, the issue of gender inequality and its effects on educational opportunities still needs to be addressed.

When Ebola struck Sierra Leone in 2012 and schools were closed for nine months, approximately $1.45 million from GPE was utilized for Ebola-related efforts. These funds helped provide emergency television and radio school programs for children to watch and listen to while out of school. Approximately 600 hours of radio programs were broadcast. GPE funds were also allocated to ensure the availability of safe learning environments when schools reopened. 900,000 students benefited when 2,700 schools were disinfected and 5,970 schools received hand-washing stations and supplies.

To mitigate the loss of educational opportunities due to the nine-month hiatus, the government of Sierra Leone, assisted by the International Rescue Committee (IRC), also implemented two shortened academic years with accelerated syllabi. Despite this progress toward recreating a stable education system in Sierra Leone and improving learning opportunities, gender inequality persists, creating educational discrimination and barring opportunities from pregnant women.

According to the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA), approximately 18,000 teenage girls became pregnant during the Ebola outbreak. Researchers have identified rape, abusive relationships and prostitution as factors contributing to the spike.

Sierra Leone’s education ministry has decidedly barred pregnant girls from attending school, suggesting that they would be unable to perform well in class. The ministry believed that exposing pregnant girls to classmates would both humiliate them and encourage others to become pregnant.

According to Business Insider, only 15% of girls reach secondary school in Sierra Leone, and only six out of 10 girls aged 15 to 24 are literate, compared to three out of four boys in that age range. The ministry’s band will only worsen the gender disparity prevalent in Sierra Leone’s education system. The United Nations and UNICEF have both launched classes for pregnant students, hoping to relieve gender inequality. In addition to this, UNICEF has initiated programs to educate the community about teenage pregnancy through awareness and training.

The Ebola crisis has been a testament to the resilience of Sierra Leone’s citizens and has given the government an opportunity to reorganize and strengthen the country’s educational programs.

However, this crisis also highlighted the system’s gender inequality and weaknesses. Providing women with educational opportunities has been proven to raise countries’ GDPs. Narrowing the gender gap in education in Sierra Leone, therefore, should be a priority.

– Priscilla Son

Photo: Flickr

Circle of Sisterhood: Global Impact

Circle of SisterhoodCircle of Sisterhood is an organization comprised of college-educated, American sorority women working together to provide educational opportunities for girls and women around the world.

Circle of Sisterhood was founded in 2010 by Ginny Carroll. She was inspired by the best-selling book, Half the Sky, which focuses on women’s education around the globe. The Circle of Sisterhood website quotes the aforementioned book which states, “one study after another has shown that educating girls is one of the most effective ways to fight poverty. Schooling is often a precondition for girls and women to stand up against injustice, and for women to be integrated into the economy.”

Carroll saw the Greek community as perfect volunteers for her mission as “they’re already organized, they already understand philanthropy, they already give millions of dollars a year to domestic work… the vision was, this was a way for all sorority women… to have a global effect.”

Sorority chapters on college campuses around the nation who choose to participate as volunteers for Circle of Sisterhood raise funds to build schools and create scholarships for girls and women around the globe. Chapters may opt to host a bake sale, trivia night, or any other fundraising event to collect donations from fellow students. Many campuses even host screenings of the documentary version of Half the Sky to inspire more women to volunteer.

According to Circle of Sisterhood website, “as college educated women, we know the value of achieving an education… every girl in the world deserves the opportunity to go to school.” Considering that only around seven percent of the world’s population currently holds a college degree, many sorority women feel it is their duty to try to spread their educational good fortune.

As of 2015, Circle of Sisterhood had already impacted 17 countries and built five new schools, such as Ethiopia, Kenya and others. The organization has also raised almost $500,000 in grants.

After six years, sorority women involved in Circle of Sisterhood have continued to show their gratitude for their own educations by helping other women and girls to achieve the same.

– Carrie Robinson

Photo: Flickr

House Passes Education for All Act of 2016

Education for All Act

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Education for All Act of 2016 on September 7 — five days after it was initially listed on the House Schedule. This bill, which promotes quality universal basic education, now moves on to the Senate.

In July, Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL) introduced near-identical companion legislation to the Senate which is currently being considered in the Foreign Relations Committee.

This low-cost, bipartisan bill aims to amend the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, asserting that multilateral education aid to developing countries is essential to protecting U.S. national security interests.

The bill requires that the United States government develop a comprehensive strategy, beginning with the designation of a Senior Coordinator of U.S. Government Actions to provide basic education assistance within USAID. This position will coordinate international resources in order to promote universal access to education.

If the Education for All Act continues its momentum, once signed by the President, the bill has the potential to change the lives of millions of children.

Currently, 59 million primary school-aged children are not enrolled in school. Furthermore, 250 million children who do attend school are unable to read, write, or do basic mathematics. Many drop out before the fourth grade.

Gender discrimination, conflict and extremism continue to limit the educational growth potential for at-risk children.

Guided by coordination, sustainability and aid effectiveness, the Education for All Act will support national education plans in developing countries worldwide, creating specific indicators to measure educational quality.

Additionally, the bill focuses on the equitable expansion of education in marginalized or conflict-affected populations, in an attempt to keep schools safe from violence.

“An education is a fundamental tool with which boys and girls are empowered to increase their economic potential, improve their health outcomes, address cultural biases, participate in their communities and provide for their families”, said Nita Lowey (D-NY-17), the original sponsor of the House bill.

According to the bill text, the legislation would promote and contribute to an overall increase in economic growth for underdeveloped countries, improve democratic institutions of government, encourage empowerment for women and young  girls while “ensuring that schools are not incubators for violent extremism.” As such, focusing on improving access to education across the globe would promote U.S. national security interests.

Congressional Budget Office estimates indicate that the Education for All Act is low-cost initiative, requiring less than $500,000 per year. Enacting the bill would neither increase net direct spending nor budget deficits in the future.

The Borgen Project applauds the House for passing this important legislation and urges readers to call and email their Senators to support the Education for All Act of 2016. Let’s get this bill to the President’s desk and give millions of children access to quality education.

– Larkin Smith

Photo: Flickr

 

Learn about the READ Act.

 

,

Amazon Inspire Seeks to Empower Educators Around the World

Educators Around the WorldAmazon, a large internet-based retailer, recently launched Amazon Inspire. The website provides an online marketplace for educators around the world, but with one key difference: all of its products are free.

Marketed towards K-12 educators around the world, Amazon Inspire has tens of thousands of free online resources, such as lesson plans and apps available for download. Educators around the world can browse the site by subject matter or grade level, and teachers can download and edit lesson plans to better fit their own personalized courses.

Other features of Amazon Inspire that distinguish it from other educational resource databases include:

  • Collections, which allow educators to group resources on the Amazon Inspire site. These collections can then be shared with other teachers on the site, so everyone has easy access to similar information.
  • An intuitive upload system, wherein it’s easy to drag and drop files on the site, as well as add content to the site to share with fellow teachers.
  • Teachers can also rate and review resources on Amazon Inspire, helping their colleagues select the best resources for their needs.

Earlier in 2016, Amazon also signed a multi-million dollar deal with New York City public schools to help provide more digital books to the schools’ students. This agreement indicates how Amazon is no stranger to the power of funding education and programs that will contribute to making education more accessible to all students and teachers, regardless of location.

These free resources will help teachers in a multitude of ways. Not only will Amazon’s provisions help educators transition into an ever-more digital age of teaching, but they will do so without having to pay an exorbitant amount of money or spend ludicrous amounts of time searching Google for free scholarly resources.

However, since Amazon Inspire is an online resource, countries with limited or no Internet cannot benefit from its resources. While Amazon Inspire is a great site, it is important to remember that not all countries are as privileged to have nationwide Internet coverage as the United States. There is great potential in this field to not only connect more teachers to students but to connect and educate more people globally.

– Bayley McComb
Photo: Flickr

,

7 Global Book Distribution Organizations Improve Literacy

Global Book Distribution Organizations
Global literacy rates have risen in recent years, with adult literacy at 84.1 percent and the youth rate at 89.5 percent. Roughly 896.7 million people cannot read or write. Two-thirds of these people are female, and a majority live in sub-Saharan Africa and southwest Asia. Reading and writing skills are valuable for continuing education and defeating poverty, thus making global book distribution organizations invaluable.

Room to Read’s website shares the chilling statistic: “A child born to a literate mother is twice as likely to survive past age five.” In order to improve global education and literacy, a plethora of organizations have emerged to provide books to disadvantaged areas. These global book distribution organizations are all working to raise literacy with unique approaches to best serve their target community.

1. Book Bus
The Book Bus was started by publisher Tom Mascher in 2008. The program began in Zambia but has since grown to Malawi and Ecuador. It emphasizes providing relevant books to both the age and reading level of its recipient. It delivers books and directly teaches children as well. Mobility is a huge asset to this program; because literacy rates are lowest in remote areas, the Book Bus can travel to disadvantaged communities and schools.

2. International Book Bank
This organization is more academic than many of the other global book distribution organizations. The International Book Bank supplies large quantities of new, single title books for classroom use to improve global education. Since its first shipment to Jamaica three decades ago, it has sent books for every age group all over the world. By allowing communities to choose the books they need, and providing enough copies for the entire class, the International Book Bank ensures that schools have the appropriate resources.

3. Book Aid International
Book Aid International has been around since Lady Ranfurly set up a library in the Bahamas in 1954. She continued the program in the U.K., where it grew to send books to more countries. Currently, Book Aid International provides books for education establishments, refugee camps, prisons and libraries in Palestinian territories and twelve African countries. For nomadic people, the organization has built mobile libraries. It has reading materials and spaces that can be transported via truck, camel or horseback.

4. Room to Read
In 2000, Room to Read began delivering donated books to rural Nepalese communities. Over the last 16 years, the program has expanded to building schools and libraries, training teachers, and supporting girls’ education. It works in eight countries and publishs books in local languages. In 2012 alone, Room to Read’s libraries supplied 9.7 million books.

5. International Book Project
The International Book Project is based in Lexington, KY and ships all over the world. It sends boxes of books any size between small shipments and sea containers that can supply an entire school district. In 2007, it launched a unique program called “Books as Bridges”  where schools in Kentucky are paired with schools overseas. Students exchange letters, packages and books to improve both writing skills and cultural awareness. The last school year had 50 participating classrooms from seven countries, with a total of 2,694 students.

6. African Library Project
The African Library Project ships American books to Africa. It matches communities on either end through a substantial network of organizations. U.S. institutions then gather books and funds to start a library. They emphasize sustainability by recycling used books and supporting the new libraries abroad. To accomplish this, libraries are built in places where the community has the manpower, space and enthusiasm to start a library and receives regular check-ups by African partners. This project has started 1,825 libraries in 12 countries.

7. World Literacy Foundation
The World Literacy Foundation has been focused on book distribution since their founding in 1996. Recently, it has increased digital learning as people have more access to technology. On the website, its noble vision is stated simply: “We envision a world in which every one of us can read and write, in which there is free access to education for all.”

While there is still much to be done, these seven global book distribution organizations are making massive impacts on global education.

– Jeanette I. Burke

Photo: Pixabay

,

Girl Rising Works to Advance Girls’ Education

Girl Rising
Girl Rising is a campaign to both improve and bring awareness to global education for girls. One of the primary ways they attract attention to this issue is through storytelling in the form of film.

In 2013, the film “Girl Rising” was released. It follows the stories of nine girls from impoverished countries around the world: Haiti, Sierra Leone, Peru, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, India, Nepal, Egypt and Cambodia.

Each girl’s story has a well-known narrator. According to an article in the Los Angeles Times, the cast includes Anne Hathaway, Meryl Streep, Liam Neeson and Cate Blanchett. Many of the actors involved do separate philanthropic work related to educating and empowering women.

The film was directed by the Academy Award-winning director Richard Robbins, who also came up with the idea for the film. He made sure that the focus of the movie remained on the stories of the protagonists.

To help the girls communicate, Robbins told Huffington Post, he implored the film’s writers to spend time with the girls in order to effectively tell their stories. While the film “Girl Rising” came before the current campaign to spread awareness for girls’ education, Robbins says, over the course of making the film, it became “clear that we needed to build an organization that was capable of working in all the ways the film alone could not.”

Girl Rising now partners with NGOs including CARE and Room to Read in their mission to bring education to girls globally.

In collaboration with the Pearson Foundation, Girl Rising also offers a curriculum that educators can use to bring awareness to the issue of education for girls who have difficulty accessing it on their own. Factors that contribute to this lack of access are poverty, a reaffirmation of a cult of domesticity for women and foregoing education in order to get married and have children.

Girl Rising is also currently carrying out a campaign called ENGAGE, or Empowering Next Generations to Advance Girls’ Education. ENGAGE is a “USAID-supported public-private partnership” which is “working in India, Nigeria and The Democratic Republic of the Congo, pairing storytelling with local social action campaigns.”

The website for Girl Rising offers multiple options for those interested in getting involved in the cause, be it anything from donating money, to using Girl Rising’s curriculum in their schools, to raising awareness by organizing a viewing of the Girl Rising film.

– Katherine Hamblen

Sources: Girl Rising, LA Times, Huffington Post
Photo: Vimeo

, ,

World Leaders Meet to Discuss Global Education Aims

World Leaders in DubaiLeaders from the private and public sectors came together in Dubai on March 12-13 to discuss tactics for improving global education in the fourth annual Global Education and Skills Forum (GESF).

During the two-day event, speakers lectured on a variety of topics pertinent to the advancement of global education. These included such timely topics as the need for education to combat the spread of terrorism, and the lack of access to education for refugees, such as the three million children currently out of school due to war in Syria.

Workshops and debates were also held to challenge attendees to consider the practicality of solutions.

The Varkey Foundation, a nonprofit organization with the goal of improving education for underprivileged children, convened educators, academics, nonprofit leaders and government leaders, including 22 education ministers.

The aim of the Varkey Foundation is involving everyone in producing real-world global education solutions.

“The main topic will be rethinking collective responsibility for public education. This is in the context that there are still half a billion children in failing schools all around the world,” Varkey CEO Vikas Pota told Education Journal prior to the summit.

Sunny Varkey, Founder of the Varkey Foundation, did an interview with the online magazine Teach UAE. In that article he states, “it is not only important to find more money to overcome the crisis, but my belief is that by pooling our creativity, generosity, and persistence, we can collectively overcome this education crisis. If we work together – government, business and civil society – we have it in our power to finally give every child their birthright: a good education.”

Notable among the speakers at this year’s summit were: Tariq Al Gurg, CEO, Dubai Cares, UAE, as well as Sir Martin Sorrel, Group Chief Executive of WPP and Irina Bokova, Director General of UNESCO. According to the UNESCO website, Bokova spoke to the need for stronger education systems and the importance of strong teachers.

Bokova also spoke of the importance of education in combating radicalism. “Education is a vital tool also in the fight against violent extremism, to counter radicalisation‎.”

The GESF summit also featured a Global Teacher Prize. The winner was picked from a list of 50 which were drawn from thousands of nominations from countries around the world. According to the Education Journal, the idea behind this was to nominate an exceptional teacher in order to highlight the importance of educators.

The winner of the prize at this year’s summit was Hanan Al-Hroub, a female Palestinian teacher. The prize includes an award of $1 million.

The MENA Herald reported that The Varkey Foundation initiated three new alliances for promoting global education which met for the first time at the GESF 2016 Summit: the Alliance on Girls’ Education, the Alliance on Teachers and the Alliance on Innovation. Alliance partners include government leaders and representatives from UNESCO, Harvard University and Amazon.

They will produce their findings and recommendations at next year’s summit.

– Katherine Hamblen

Sources: Financial Express, TeachUAE, Education Journal, UNESCO, MENA Herald, The Herald
Photo: Education Journal Me

,

International Aid Organizations Improve Global Education

Global Education

To foster growth in developing countries, there has to be a focus on global education. Many children and adolescents are out of school worldwide, often due to poverty, conflict or financial deprivation. Approximately 24 million children globally will never see the inside of a classroom, according to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics.

Five international aid organizations have stepped up to expand worldwide access to educational opportunities: The World Bank, Global Partnership for Education, United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund, Global Education First Initiative and the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization.

The World Bank currently plays a significant role in providing educational access across the globe. Since its creation in 1944, the organization has invested $69 billion globally in more than 1,500 educational projects.

Recently, the World Bank laid out the “Learning for All” plan, an education strategy focused on ensuring that all children and youth receive learning opportunities by 2020. The organization plans to double its investment in global public education by 2020, spending approximately $5 billion to improve education in developing nations

“The truth is that most educational systems are not serving the poorest children well,” World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said in an interview with Reuters. “With nearly a billion people remaining trapped in extreme poverty today, sustained efforts to improve learning for children will unlock huge amounts of human potential for years to come.”

The Global Partnership for Education works to develop effective and sustainable education systems across the globe by collaborating with national governments and development partners.

“The Global Partnership for Education supports developing countries to ensure that every child receives a quality basic education, prioritizing the poorest, most vulnerable and those living in fragile and conflict-affected countries,” the organization’s website states.

If all students in developing countries received basic reading skills, 171 million people worldwide could be lifted out of poverty, according to the organization.

Created in 2012 by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, the Global Education First Initiative aims to strengthen global education through political advocacy.

The initiative works to reach three priority goals: ensuring that every child is in school, improving the quality of learning worldwide and fostering global citizenship through education.

“Without universal education, in other words, winning the war against illiteracy and ignorance, we cannot also win the war against disease, squalor, and unemployment. Without universal and high standard education we can only go so far but not far enough in breaking the cycle of poverty,” U.N. Special Envoy for Education Gordon Brown said in a statement on the organization’s website.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) was established in 1945 to foster peace, poverty eradication, lasting development and intercultural dialogue across the globe. Education is one of the primary ways the organization aims to reach its goals.

“As a human right in itself, education is also fundamental to realizing other rights, and an enabler for reaching all the Millennium Development Goals. It plays an essential role in reducing mortality and morbidity rates; eradicating poverty and hunger; strengthening resilience to natural hazards and ending abuse, violence and armed conflict,” Olav Seim, Director of the Education for All Global Partnerships Team said in a UNESCO press release.

With headquarters in Paris and 52 other field offices, including regional bureaus in Bangkok, Beirut, Dakar and Santiago, the organization works worldwide to foster educational opportunities.

The United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) is a U.N. program that aims to provide long-term humanitarian and developmental assistance to children in developing countries.

Founded in 1946, the organization aims to ensure that children have access to quality education opportunities regardless of their gender, ethnicity or life circumstances.

UNICEF works to get children back to school after emergency situations or disasters and provides educational initiatives to give children in remote areas, as well as children with disabilities or those facing social exclusion, access to education.

The organization recently launched the “Let Us Learn” campaign, with the aim of bringing educational opportunities to the world’s most vulnerable children, focusing on Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Liberia, Madagascar and Nepal.

– Lauren Lewis

Sources: Global Partnership for Education 1, Global Partnership for Education 2, Global Partnership for Education 3, Reuters, U.N. Global Education First Initiative, UNESCO 1, UNICEF 1, UNICEF 2, UNICEF 3, UNESCO 2, UNESCO 3, UNESCO 4, UNESCO Institute for Statistics, World Bank 1, World Bank 2, World Bank 3
Photo: Flickr

, , , ,

Remote Learning as Key to Expanding Global Education

Remote-Learning
Remote learning, or the process of acquiring knowledge and skills through a program accessible through mobile or computer technologies, has the ability to expand access to education throughout the developing world.

Provided in the form of online lectures, quizzes and projects, online course material may allow large numbers of students worldwide to gain access to a world-class education that would otherwise be unavailable to them.

The number of students not enrolled in school has been rising in recent years, often due to poverty, conflict or financial issues. According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), 124 million children between the ages of six and 15 were not enrolled in school as of 2013, up from 122 million in 2011. One out of every 11 primary-school-age children continues to be denied the right to education across the globe.

According to the Gates Foundation’s 2015 annual letter, remote learning will revolutionize education for people around the world by 2030 by giving citizens in impoverished areas educational opportunities that were previously inaccessible.

“Before a child even starts primary school, she will be able to use her mom’s smartphone to learn her numbers and letters, giving her a big head start,” Bill Gates said in the letter. “She will collaborate with teachers and other students in a much richer way. If she is learning a new language, she’ll be able to speak out loud and the software will give her feedback on her pronunciation.”

Educational access has always been a significant issue in developing and poverty-stricken areas. Students are limited when it comes to the classes and materials offered at the schools in their own communities. Digital education gives students within these developing or conflict-marred regions the ability to access educational materials.

In areas without significant funding for building heavy infrastructure, children would still be able to access education without traveling hours to schools in nearby communities. A shift to digital materials for use in learning courses also saves a significant amount of money for communities that may be struggling to provide educational materials such as textbooks.

Due to the lowering cost of mobile phones and tablets with online connectivity, technology is connecting students with teachers like never before. While many areas still lack service, Internet access and communications technologies have rapidly been emerging and expanding in developing nations over the last several years. Google Inc. is currently planning to spend more than $1 billion to bring service to these communities and expand Internet access to unwired regions of the globe via small, high-capacity satellites orbiting the earth, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The challenge of keeping children in school after primary school is tremendous, as the costs associated with secondary schooling are much higher, which is often difficult for families with lower income levels to afford. Also, secondary schooling facilities are often located farther away from rural communities, making transportation a challenge. Though online classes will never be able to replace a teacher, the technology may give children the ability to continue their education after primary school, while also pursuing other commitments.

Online education also has the ability to impart literacy skills and market-worthy training to adults who missed out on formal schooling opportunities when they were younger. It allows these individuals to pursue their education in their spare time by fitting in learning after they work a day job, provide for their families or while they are in between jobs or unemployed.

One organization, Lynda.com, an online education site providing e-learning platforms to more than two million subscribers worldwide, currently provides access to over 80,000 instructional videos relating to job skills in areas such as retail, construction and graphic design.

Many concerns remain about the challenges mobile education may pose. The cost of electricity in developing areas, the cost of network use, and the constant risk of theft or damage to the devices the children use are all threats to the sustainability of remote learning. Though these challenges in the current implementation of online education in these communities persist, technological advancement in the field continues to progress.

– Lauren Lewis

Sources: Business Insider, CNBC, CNN, Gates Notes, The Verge, The Wall Street Journal, UNESCO 1, UNESCO 2
Photo: Google Images