Teachers in rural Nepal, where Educate the Children works, are disadvantaged in many ways. They are often undereducated themselves. They are usually paid poorly, particularly in public (government) schools. They routinely suffer from lack of adequate classroom furniture and supplies. Most have few or no professional development opportunities, and tend to be isolated from peers other than those at their own schools.
Educate the Children discusses their experience working with Nepal's rural schools to move beyond rote learning by promoting a well-rounded approach to teaching and the overall educational experience for children and teachers of all grade levels from pre-kindergarten through high school.
The truth is that a highly qualified teacher in a positive school culture can support students to leapfrog grade levels and provide relational and social support. These teachers are invaluable and must be invested in, so that they will continue to grow and will themselves invest in thousands of children throughout their careers.
The theme of this year’s 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence campaign was ‘make education safe for all.’ Over the course of the 16 days, Women Thrive Alliance shared the work – campaigns, capacity building techniques, and achievements – of our Alliance members that work relentlessly on gender-based violence that restricts girls from getting an education. Unfortunately, in many instances, female genital mutilation, forced marriage, and rape were the common culprits preventing a girl from continuing her education. In the case of Afghanistan, however, a girl’s mere chance of being allowed any education at all was the baseline.
A familiar sight: a teacher stands at the head of the classroom with a book or a sheet of paper in hand. Her eyes travel down the page as she reads out loud, pausing every so often to allow the dozens of furiously writing students to catch up. The students will take their notes home for the night. They will study, review, and rehearse until they have memorized word for word the information. And the next morning, one by one, they will stand in front of the teacher and give an oral recitation. The teacher will ask questions. She will write down a final grade. And then she will move on to the next lesson.
Over the last twelve months, WAC-DC has engaged in a twist on educational exchange. Instead of a one-time, single experience, we wanted to see what happened when teachers, their students, and their schools embarked on a year-long, fully immersive duel collaboration where they truly traded spaces.
In 2009, Impact Network began building schools in rural Zambia to bring educational access to some 57 million children who were out of school. Two years later, we handed over 5 newly built schools to the local communities to operate. But as the school year unfolded, we saw that while we had left a structure for the community, we had provided no teachers, no management structure, and essentially no tools to help provide a quality education.
There is a wildfire beginning to rage in public education in Liberia. Without immediate firefighting from many directions, this wildfire could spread elsewhere fast. Unlike other fires that can be dampened and extinguished quickly, a wildfire “differs from other fires by its extensive size, the speed at which it can spread out from its original source, its potential to change direction unexpectedly, and its ability to jump” borders.
The first to spot this explosive fire was the National Teachers’ Association of Liberia; it sounded the alarms. The government of the Republic of Liberia, with leadership of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Minster of Education George Kronnisanyon Werner, has developed the “Partnership Schools for Liberia,” plan for private, for-profit providers to manage all primary schools in the nation by 2020.
In times of crisis, there are always people running towards the problem – not away from it. These are the people who inspire hope in others. And that hope, in turn, is terror’s greatest enemy. This has never been more relevant than today, as the world faces down the largest refugee crisis since World War II, with more than 51 million refugees displaced from their homes by terror attacks and political strife.
Access to quality education remains elusive for many across Uganda, particularly in the rural areas where Building Tomorrow (BT) works. The challenges are numerous and far-reaching: teachers are often isolated with little or no access to a network of peers and professional development; community School Management Committees have not been equipped to effectively carry out their responsibilities; local government officers are severely limited in their time and resources and, perhaps most importantly, parents often see little value in investing in a system that is failing their children. Building Tomorrow has been faced with the question of how to simultaneously affect so many diverse issues. We’ve found the answer in a group of ten extraordinary individuals who now make up the Building Tomorrow Fellows.
