Why Education is the new global currency

Bitcoin may have been getting all the hype, but there is growing evidence that in a world without borders it is not virtual money that is the global currency, but a university education.

As national borders become increasingly permeable, it is becoming clear that more and more graduates will be competing in an international jobs market. And many consider that the best asset they can have is a degree from the ‘right’ university.

Figures released this month show that record numbers of children are studying at international schools. Data published by the UK-based International School Consultancy (ISC) group shows that 3.6 million children aged 3-18 attended international schools in the 2013/14 academic year, up from 3.3 million the previous year.

These schools usually provide internationally-recognized qualifications, as well as a degree of elitism, but most of all they offer an English-speaking education.

And according to ISC chairman Nicholas Brummitt, a key reason why parents forked out $36 billion dollars in fees for international schools last year is that they want their children to get into an English-speaking university.

The biggest growth for international schools has been in Asia, where enrolments have risen by 65% over the last five years. The UAE leads the way in the numbers of students at international schools (389,000), followed by Saudi Arabia (209,000), China (150,000), India (142,000), Pakistan (137,000) and Qatar (107,000).

But it is not just international schools. In a previous post, I wrote about the number of students coming to U.K. schools from outside the E.U., with access to universities both in the U.K. and the U.S. a core motivation. I also recently spoke with a U.K. school principal who told me that one of the biggest trends among his students over recent years is the increase in the number applying to study in the U.S.

The result is that around one in 10 undergraduates at U.K. universities come from outside the E.U., according to figures published by the Higher Education Statistics Agency, with another 5% from E.U. countries.

In the U.S. the number of international students reached a record high last year, with an increase of 7%, although they still make up less than 4% of all students.

The allure of these universities of course is their international reputation. Whatever the standard of education, the reality is that certain universities are seen as more desirable than others. At Cambridge University, 17.5% of first degree students are international students, while at Oxford the equivalent figure is 13.8%.

According to university rankings specialist QS, the growth in international enrolments is particularly marked at leading universities, rising by 9% last year at its top 100 ranked institutions, compared with 6.5% among the top 400.

International rankings underline the dominance of English-speaking universities. Out of the top 20 in the Times Higher Education rankings, only one is outside the English-speaking world, while in QS’s rival list there are just two.

But while English-speaking universities are having it their own way now, it may not last long. Universities outside the English-speaking world are fast catching up, and themselves becoming international hubs.

QS reports that international student numbers at the 10 Chinese universities ranked in its global top 400 rose by 38% last year, the majority from Russia, Japan and South Korea but significant numbers coming from the U.S. and Europe.

Academics may dispute the validity of international comparisons – or even of ranking universities at all – but there is no doubt that they matter to the people who matter: students and their parents.

And the reason they matter is that a growing number of people realise they will be competing for jobs around the world with people from around the world. And if an education from a particular university can give them an advantage, then that really is a currency worth having.

India needs to address education issues if it is to become a global leader

The last Indian general election transformed Prime Minister Narendra Modi from an international pariah, accused of human rights abuses, to a superstar and raised hope that India had turned a corner. Prime Minister David Cameron praised Modi, saying he “got more votes than any other politician anywhere in the universe,” and investors and political strategists have India back in their good books.

But this new optimism is at best unfounded, and perhaps completely wrong. Even if we take Modi at his word — that he is a reformer more interested in building high-speed train systems than temples — it is unclear if the Indian people have the will to lift themselves out of poverty and disease. The case study of education reform, an area in which I have worked for more than a decade, is instructive.

India has over 400 million school- and college-age citizens, more than any country. Yet it has an educational system that has failed its people and simply has not taken steps to redress the issue. For example, when India last participated in the global PISA test, a standardized test of math, science and literacy designed to compare school systems across the world, it came in second to last among more than 70 participating countries.

Teacher absenteeism is 25 percent in government schools, even though teachers often receive the highest salary in an Indian village. The deficiency of public schools has created the largest private school system in the world, with some private schools costing less than $100 per year and producing outcomes far better than those from public schools.

Source: Corbis

Children study inside their classroom after having their free midday meal, distributed by a government-run primary school, in a village in Bihar, India.

How has the Indian government redressed the collapse of the public school system? For starters, India’s bureaucrats declared the PISA test unsuitable for India and withdrew the country from further rounds of testing. Instead of encouraging competition against decrepit public schools, the government has placed onerous operating burdens on private schools through the misleadingly named Right to Education (RTE) Act.

On the surface, RTE is a “pro-poor” piece of legislation as it allocates 25 percent of seats in all private schools for poor students who otherwise would go to public schools. In reality, RTE creates more opportunity for political patronage as the allocation of that 25 percent is influenced by corrupt local politicians in exchange for favors or cash. In short, RTE accepts that private schools are doing a great job by mandating that one-quarter of their capacity be reserved for poor students, while simultaneously punishing them through added regulation.

India Education Facts

• Total Number of Students (Primary and Secondary): 179 million
• Number of Schools (Primary and Secondary): 1.3 million
• Typical School Year: April to March
• Top Schools: Doon School (Dehradun); Cathedral and John Connon (Mumbai); Delhi Public School (Delhi); Mayo School (Ajmer); Welham Girls’ School (Dehradun)

In higher education, the situation is no better — contrary to the impression that India has a quality higher education system given the performance of its graduates abroad. This impression is the result of sample bias: Students graduating from the top 1 percent of institutions (nearly 200,000 students) tend to leave India in search of economic opportunity, masking the reality of the country’s subpar higher education system.

Overall, India has approximately 20 million students in higher education. The government, however, refuses to encourage private investment in higher education by mandating that it remain a “nonprofit” activity.

Meanwhile, private nonprofit colleges, often owned by corrupt politicians, take advantage of the excess demand for higher education by eliciting cash bribes for admission, a practice that is so prevalent in India that locals have invented a term for it: “capitation fees.”

Source: Getty

Students fill out forms during the admission process for the 2014–15 academic session at Daulat Ram College in New Delhi, India.

And what has changed since that last dramatic general election? The new minister responsible for education, Smriti Irani, is a 38-year-old soap opera actress without a college degree (despite her recent declaration that she has a “degree” from Yale based on a six-day course). Her first publicly announced reform to the educational system is a campaign to introduce buttermilk in public school lunches. Not a word against RTE or investment in higher education to build the millions of new seats of capacity we need each year.

How can India get out of this mess without money and develop an improved educational system? The answer lies in implementing Prime Minister Modi’s own mantra of “more governance, less government.” Unlike India’s health care system (the most privatized in the world), its educational system is not deregulated to allow for-profit investment in schools and universities.

The government claims it is loath to allow for-profit education in order to protect students from poor quality. But why is it acceptable to allow a profiteering hospital to perform brain surgery but objectionable to allow a student to take a math class at a for-profit university?

The Indian government should set up the accreditation framework and stand back. Whether the capital comes in the form of for-profit or nonprofit investment should not matter. Presently, the government is tying the hands of investors in the Indian educational system by mandating nonprofit institutions and, in doing so, limiting the amount of capital invested and the quality of education provided. India should learn from the successes and mistakes of other countries such as the U.S., Brazil and China that have deregulated education.

Deregulation is usually opposed because it comes with the threat of job cuts or closure of government-run facilities. But in this case, deregulation does not require government investment or reduced support to existing public educational institutions. It will, however, generate more competition for public schools and private “nonprofit” schools owned by politicians and influential industrialists.

I ask once more: Do the Indian people have the will to move forward? When it comes to education, that is really all it takes to solve the problem. And in a nation of nearly 1.3 billion people, surely there is enough collective energy and willpower to make that investment in the nation’s future.

Read more: India’s Embarassing Educational System | C-Notes | OZY

Egyptian education system doesn’t prepare youth for Jobs

Interview with Salma Wahba, youth and adolescent development officer for Unicef Egypt

How would you describe youth unemployment in Egypt?

The unemployment rate overall in Egypt is 13.4%. Unemployment is one of the most pressing concerns among young people as it affects them the most. According to national statistics in 2013, 55% of all those unemployed are aged 15 to 24, and an additional 23% are aged 25 to 29. The unemployment rate among young women is almost double that of young men.

What are the main causes?

Egypt has been facing three years of serious economic challenges and an unstable political context. This has led to growth stagnation, increased unemployment and poverty.

There is also a significant mismatch between the skills of new labour market entrants and the requirements of the labour market. The education system is not preparing young people with the skills for the modern workplace and career guidance in general, is not available.

In Egypt, youth still prefer to work for the government, rather than the private sector, perceiving it to be a secure job. Many young people are waiting for the job that best fits their qualifications rather than actively seeking employment and accepting jobs that they think are below their level. This is a major cultural barrier among youth in Egypt.

What do you see as the long term consequences?

In a country like Egypt where youth constitute one-fifth of the population, more than 16m people, not dealing with youth unemployment could have serious consequences. It creates frustration among youth about their future and their role in society as productive individuals. It also wastes Egypt’s great opportunity of benefiting from the potential of its demography.

Where should youth unemployment fit into the international agenda?

Youth issues and particularly youth unemployment should undoubtedly feature strongly in the post-2015 development agenda as it is an issue of global concern. It is clear that the post-2015 agenda must give a higher focus on equity and inclusion, and supporting the young generation, particularly the most disadvantaged.

What are the solutions to the crisis?

The most obvious solution is to create jobs for youth entering the labour force. More innovative solutions need to be investigated and put in place such as providing incentives to employers to reserve jobs for youth.

Partnerships need to be developed among government, private sector, civil society and young people themselves to develop and implement an integrated strategy, focusing on those most disadvantaged. Addressing the mismatch between the skills young people have and the requirements of the job market is essential. This could be either through the formal education system or through non-formal education with important distinct skills.

In Egypt, Unicef’s interventions are focused on the skills development of young people, focusing on those most marginalised, through the ‘Building Young Futures’ programme. The programme has demonstrated the importance of focusing on the youth at an earlier stage (15-17 years) before they venture into the labour market. This proved to be very rewarding as they are, in general, more receptive to change and to new modes of thinking.

500 Days for Education

We stand now at approximately 500 days from the initial target date for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals set in 1990.

These goals represent the most ambitious shared aspirations of humanity the modern world ever assembled. As we take measure now of the successes and shortfalls of this global effort, redouble our efforts for real, sustained progress in these final 500 days, and establish the framework for beyond 2015, I am inspired by what has been achieved and worried about what comes next.

Because of the Institute for International Education’s special focus on widening access to higher education and our research on global trends in tertiary academic mobility, we think the post-2015 development agenda needs to be prepared to take account of MDG 1’s success.

More students than ever are going to be ready for secondary and then higher education in the period ahead, but the capacity of most national systems to meet this demand is likely to be quite limited. Per capita investment in tertiary education in many countries is actually declining and only a few countries today have room for substantially more students in their institutions of higher education. Research is also consistently showing that OpenCourseWare and MOOCs are no substitute for university education.

The world will need to build more tertiary education capacity and also be more open. The costs will be high. But the costs of having the generation who benefited so much from the first MDGs join armed militias instead of going on to further schooling will be infinitely higher.

For now, we are heartened by increasing global access to education at the primary level, now at 90 percent enrollment globally. Still, there are nearly 60 million children of primary school age not enrolled. A final 500-day push — essentially two more academic enrolment periods — should raise us to greater than 90 percent, but those last 10 percent will be the hardest to enroll. We applaud the achievement of reaching greater gender equity in primary education, though we lament we are far from such equity beyond the primary level. In fact, it is movement beyond the primary level that is absolutely essential as we consider the next set of MDGs.

In today’s global economy, a primary education is not sufficient to avoid extreme poverty. Secondary and tertiary educations, both academic and technical or vocational, are vital rungs on the ladder leading out of extreme poverty. Educational access at all levels (primary, secondary, higher, and vocational) must therefore be supported. Creating opportunities and institutional infrastructures that will enable students to transition successfully from primary and secondary school to tertiary education must be a central tenet of the global education agenda.

Educational access, equity and quality of education are paramount to ensuring that students can fulfill their full potential.

Access to tertiary education is integral to the success of individual persons and nations in the 21st century. With increasing global labor market demands for specialized knowledge and advanced technology skills, tertiary education will become more important than ever to sustained social and economic development. Higher education plays an essential role in achieving other global priorities: the eradication of poverty and hunger; improving maternal and child health; increasing gender equality and the empowerment of women; combatting pandemic diseases; and ensuring environmental sustainability.

At IIE, we pay close attention to the relationship between higher education and international development. We partner with governments, international development agencies, foundations, universities and corporations, leveraging its international networks to collaborate on sustainable solutions for long-term development. Our work focuses on three things:

1. Educational and technical training and exchange programs.

2. Widening access to education and training of women, especially through science and technology programs.

3. Supporting students, scholars, and higher education in countries in crisis, post-conflict, and transition.

For example, we are now piloting the Higher Education Readiness program to provide 200 girls in Ethiopia with the resources to not only complete secondary education but also to access higher education. With only a tiny percentage of Ethiopian girls now in university, this small pilot has the potential to make a big difference.

We support the conclusions of the U.N. High-Level Panel on the Post-2015 Development Agenda, which recommends the post-2015 framework for sustainable development “recognize peace and good governance as core elements of wellbeing, not optional extras.” IIE was founded in 1919 in the post-World War I era by scholars and statesmen who recognized that opening minds to the world through international scholarships and student and scholar exchanges would increase global understanding and peacebuilding. Over the past 95 years we have supported hundreds of thousands of such scholarships and exchanges in partnership with governments, foundations, corporations and other organizations. We have seen firsthand how these individuals have returned to their countries of origin to build bridges of understanding and improve good governance. Many of these individuals have also contributed to educational excellence and building educational capacity in their home countries, drawing on the knowledge and connections they developed in labs and classrooms in the United States.

The HLP also calls for forging a new global partnership “based on a common understanding of our shared humanity, underpinning mutual respect and mutual benefit in a shrinking world.” We feel strongly at IIE that our model of working with academia, governments, civil society, international corporations and foundations to support greater access to education and training and more international exchange experiences is consistent with this call for a new global partnership. Only a continued, concerted effort by all these partners will be enough to make the final 500-day push significant, and to ensure the post-2015 agenda is responsive to the needs of our new millennium.  In IIE’s experience, increasing access to higher education will be absolutely essential to meeting these needs.

There is much to celebrate. A global reduction of extreme poverty by half in 15 years is a remarkable, unprecedented achievement. Yet, the spirit of the MDGs requires that we make these final 500 days count in whatever sectors we focus our efforts. And all of us, partners in sustainable development, must commit to a post-2015 development agenda that recommits to achieving the as yet unreached MDG targets, and builds on past successes to take us to the next level of sustainable development. The IIE is proud to join these efforts and to do our part.

Education is the best way any of us have to make the world we share a less dangerous place.

Aug. 18, 2014, marked the 500-day milestone until the target date to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. Join Devex, in partnership with the United Nations Foundation, to raise awareness of the progress made through the MDGs and to rally to continue the momentum. Check out our Storify page and tweet us using #MDGmomentum.

Original article by

Allan Goodman President of the IoE, USA.

Teacher Tuesday Week 7: Mosammat from Bangladesh

If someone told you there was a floating school in Bangladesh, you’d immediately begin to questions its logistics and structural integrity. If someone told you there was a floating school in Bangladesh that featured computers with internet access which were powered exclusively by solar panels, you’d think they’d begun to confuse reality with a Terry Pratchett novel.

However, that is exactly what is happening as you’re reading this. Mosammat Reba Khatun is 40 years old and lives in a small riverside village in Bangladesh. For the past ten years she has been teaching Bengali, Maths and English on Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha’s floating school on the Gumani river in the Pabna district in northwest Bangladesh. In total, the school teaches 90 students between six and nine years old. Almost two-thirds of the pupils are girls.

It may seem like a bizarre and fantastical notion at first but the rationale behind Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha’s floating school is quite logical. Mosammat tells us that “flooding is a major problem in Bangladesh. In the monsoon season, at least a third of the country is affected by flooding which isolates entire communities and means children can’t get to school so we thought ‘if the children can’t come to school, the school will come to the children’”.

Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha was a 2012 WISE Award winner (World Innovation Summit in Education, Qatar). You can find many more details, including videos, about the solar-powered floating schools on the WISE website.

Because the school is mobile, it is able to travel around villages in the remote river basin where it makes port. This means that the teachers within the school can discuss and converse with local parents easily. As if the case with much of the developing world, Mosammat tells us “the children under age 5 are malnourished and infant mortality rate is high. Girls are not allowed to move around freely.  We meet with the parents monthly to encourage them to send their children to school regularly…as a result; the rate of early marriage is reduced” The fact that the school doubles as a means of transport enables wider communication, a truly novel and innovative idea.

The solar-powered nature of the boat means that technology can be used aboard it The latest EFA Global Monitoring Report 2013/4  notes that technology as an excellent means of disseminating information not only for pupils for also for teachers, the internet provides an excellent platform for teachers in developing countries to take a self-guided approach to their development. Macmillan Education have released TeachPitch, a free, global teacher-learning platform for teachers global to continually self-improve.

Despite the yet untold potential of technology and internet in developing communities, it seems there will never be a substitute for a caring, dedicated teacher. Mosammat finished her interview by saying “I decided to become a teacher because I love children and wanted to help them towards developing a better future,” Mosammat told us. “I think teaching is a gift of a lifetime. It has given me immense opportunity to give back to my community, help poor students to access to school, and impart positively on children.”

With the right attitude, a good deal of determination and even more innovation, Mosammat is helping deliver education to children in spite of natural and cultural barriers, she is a paragon of pedagogy and a trailblazer of global education.

Teacher Tuesday week 5: Margaret from Kenya

One of the undoubted dangers of writing about Africa is the potential perpetuation of the ‘single story’, that is, that Africa is more a country than a continent. A great deal of media portrays Africa as a single place with lots of the same problems. This could not be further from the truth, Africa is a continent as complex as any other in the World, perhaps even more so.

Kenya, for example, is excelling in many respects. Kenya’s capital Nairobi is home to the IHub, an institute set up by the University of Cape Town and the Carnegie Foundation to expedite the growth of technology in Kenya by linking scientists in Nairobi to their peers internationally.

Africa’s biggest urban slum is mere miles from this beacon of progress.

Kibera is enormous, home to over 1 million people who generally live in poverty without power or sanitation. However, referring back to the ‘one story’ perpetuation, the immediate assumption may be that Kibera is void of hope but that once again, that isn’t true.
Kibera has a sense of community and group spirit that bonds its citizens together and is helping it flourish. The Economist referred to Kibera as a ‘Boomtown Slum’ in a 2012 article.

One of the true paragons of that sense of community is Margaret, a teacher in Kibera, the following is a routine of Margaret’s day taken from this article:

• “I wake up at 4am, I get the bus in the morning and travel for two hours to my school. I have my regular duties to perform. I’m a class teacher of grade six with 85 children in a class. It starts at 8am, but we normally come early to mark the books. I also take care of the feeding programme so have to measure the food for the day. I have to mark my work. It’s normally a packed day. Today when you called I was issuing textbooks to all the different children. There is a lot of counting to be done and a lot of different activities.”

• “We end at 3.10pm and then the children have prep until 5pm. Between 6pm and 7pm we give an extra hour to some children that can’t do their homework at home because there’s no electricity or space at home. I leave at around 6.30pm. We have to make sure that we clear the compound. Sometime leave at 7pm. Imagine! But when I’m doing it I don’t mind. We work for the children. Five days a week.”

• “There is a persistent shortage of teachers. The government has its own way of doing things, but we are getting forgotten by policies. I am praying the government trains more teachers so we break the large classes into small classes of 50 so we produce the best children from the slum.”

• “The children share books, one to three children per book. The government sends the books but they get destroyed in their bags and sometimes the children sell their books at 50 to 100 shillings to buy food in the slum. 100 shillings, it’s about US$1.5. Children go out campaigning to get other children to come to school.”

• “There is a big difference between rural and urban school because they’re not densely populated. The way we do things in urban areas is different. In rural areas teacher to student ratio is 1 to 40, here is 1 to 70/100.”

• “There is no training for how to teach in slum schools! We’re given training to teach anywhere where there are children — not even in a school! Even if there is no school but there are children, you teach under a tree!”

As Margaret points out, the local and national government does have policies and legislation in place including the fact that every child is free to attend school and that no child can be turned away from a place of education. Of course these may be effective at a national level but in an locale as densely populated as Kibera, it results in overcrowded classrooms that don’t have enough resources.

Due to the lack of resources/infrastructure in Kibera, there is no formal structure for teachers to be employed/nominated and they are largely self-appointed. This is echoed by what Margaret says about children going out, campaigning for and recruiting other children into school, with Kibera being left behind at a national level, they are taking a pro-active stance and attempting to resolve issues for themselves.

Margaret mentions that her school provides meals for pupils which she has said ‘noticeably improves concentration and quality of learning’.

Kibera faces many of the same issues as other developing communities in Africa, inequality, lack of resources etc. but it is the community spirit of its children and exemplum like Margaret that are sustaining its educational structures and highlighting how highly regarded and important education is to its residents.

Teacher Tuesday Week 4: Mohammed from Syria

For many children, school is a safe, happy environment that means education and friendship. It is generally accepted that a happy school environment is contusive to quality education and learning. However, for many children in Syria, school has come to symbolise a place of fear after their places of learning were destroyed by direct attacks and bombings.

This week’s teacher is Mohammed, who teaches in Zaatari refugee camp in Syria. Mohammed has a university degree and 12 years teaching experience. The school and village he taught in was destroyed by conflict between groups, Mohammed described how ‘They bombed the whole village that time and they destroyed the school because it was in the area’, after this, Mohammed went to Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan.

Zaatari houses 25,000 children who are of school age, some of whom have missed up to 3 years of education because of conflict in their native countries. Sadly, this is a trend for children from countries affected by conflict, half of the 57 million children globally who are out of education come from countries affected by conflict. When conflict arises, education is often overlooked and pushed aside.

Mohammed says ‘Zaatari is a massive, massive place. It takes a couple of hours to walk across the camp.’ Naturally, providing resources for a camp this size is a struggle and that is Mohammed’s primary concern regarding education within the camp ‘Our main problems are the shortage of text books, we need boards and markers…The school doesn’t look like a school. I want a yard where children can play. We want our school to look like other schools.’

Being able to play and having sufficient resources would help the children who have been affected by conflict would not doubt ease the trauma and psychological damage that they have suffered. Mohammed points out that there are ‘many aggressive students because of the situations they faced during the crisis’. There are centres established to help children deal with the trauma they have suffered but Mohammed has said ‘we still need more support’.

Mohammed hopes to himself and his children back to Syria soon but has stated that if they are staying in the refugee camp for the foreseeable future then more aid is needed to improve conditions.

Teacher Tuesday: Esnart Chapomba from Malawi

Today marks the start of the EFAReport’s 10-week campaign that has been dubbed ‘Teacher Tuesday’. Every Tuesday for the next 10 weeks, a teacher from a different part of the World will be discussing the issues that they face and what they feel needs to be done to improve education globally.

This week, it was Esnart Chapomba from Malawi‘s turn. Malawi has had a free education policy since 1994 and is currently working toward ensuring there are no more than 60 children per class around the country. Esnart discussed what affects him as an educator, including certain problems you may not have known about or expected.

Teacher shortages – The most prominent issue Esnart discusses is the chronic lack of teachers in Malawi. He describes how some rural schools, with pupil numbers in excess of 1000, have only 4 teachers. This grossly disproportionate ratio is sadly reflected throughout most of Sub-Saharan Africa, UNESCO estimates 902,000 new primary school teachers will be needed to keep up with Sub-Saharan Africa’s projected population growth.

The poorest being hardest hit – As is the general trend with global education, Esnart points out that it is children in the most rural and disadvantaged communities who are suffering the most. Esnart describes the difficulties of trying to teach a class of 230 pupils and how it simply isn’t manageable or feasible for one person. However, it isn’t just children who are suffering because of teacher shortages but also teachers themselves. Teachers are disenchanted and demotivated because of the circumstances they face, however the Malawian Government is trying to combat this by providing a stimulus for teachers in rural communities to better their lives.

Structures & Resources – Even items as basic as pencils and paper are scarce for Esnart and his colleagues, with up to 10 children sharing one textbook. Also, there are no classrooms big enough to accommodate due to the sheer size of classes which leads to lessons being taught outside which, because of the lack of structure, leads to a distracting teaching and learning environment.

Lack of Quality – This quote is taken directly from Esnart’s speech:

“You will be shocked to hear that some children in Malawi reach grades three and four without being able to add up, read or write. I’ve even seen children as old as 9 and 10 who are unable to read and write their names when clearly they should be able to do this. These children will miss out on good opportunities and will be without the skills they need to have a decent future.”

This only adds impetus to the need for not simply education but quality education which increases life chances and opens doors that otherwise remain firmly closed.

Dropout Rates – Possibly due to the demotivating effects of poor learning environments/lack of quality education, a significant number of pupils will drop out before completing primary level education. The dropout rate is also higher among girls (4% higher, to be exact) which unfortunately is prevalent throughout the developing world. Pupils deserve more conducive learning environments and egalitarian social structures.

All of the issues that Esnart brought up in his speech and more must be addressed if we are to see a truly fair, effective global education agenda in post-2015. This final quote from Esnart perfectly encapsulates the power education wields and the impact it can have in developing countries.

“An education must prepare our children to be productive citizens of our country so that we can lift ourselves out of the vicious cycle of poverty and have a better future.”

ORIGINAL POST HERE

Meet the new addition to the SSF team: Nick Evans

Hello, my name is Nick Evans, I am twenty two years old and am the new fundraising co-ordinator for the Steve Sinnott Foundation. I graduated from Cardiff University in July with a BA in linguistics and have helped run the RNLI’s summer face to face fundraising campaigns in Wales for the past two years.

The RNLI’s summer campaigns have been incredibly successful and are currently undergoing expansion as I leave the charity. I personally raised over £30,000 for the charity over my two summers with them. I am delighted to be bringing the skills I have acquired from such as well-established and reputable charity to the blossoming Steve Sinnott Foundation.

When I initially researched the foundation, I was particularly impressed by its pedagogical workshops with teachers from Sierra Leone, exemplifying the foundation’s ethos of creating self-sustaining educational structures in developing countries, rather than simply giving ephemeral aid.

I personally understand the significance of not simply education but quality education as I would not find myself in my current position without the quality state schooling I received here in the United Kingdom. The thought that there are currently 57 million children worldwide who are deprived  of that same education only spurs me, as I hope it does you, to push for global reform and dedicate all necessary resources to see Millennium Development Goal 2 achieved.

I personally believe that the reason MDG2 is possible and tangible is because we are not alone. We stand alongside Education International, the NUT  and the Global Campaign for Education and its’ coalition members, all of whom are campaigning and pushing tirelessly for global reform.

I will be taking responsibility for the Foundation’s social media so you can expect to see a lot more activity on our Facebook page and Twitter feed; don’t forget to add @SSFoundation! This blog will also be updated regularly with information regarding the Foundation, its projects and MDG2 as a whole so if there’s anything you’d like to see written about, email me at nick.evans@stevesinnottfoundation.org.uk or leave a comment on a post.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. Together we can achieve MDG2, education for all.

Education for All Day 2013

Film created by pupils and teachers from King James’s School in Knaresborough.