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.
My eyes are wide open, despite landing in Cusco at 1:30 a.m. on a Saturday night. When we reach the city, the streets bustle with activity rivaling New York City. I’m ready to meet Peruvian students, taste (most of) the food, and learn more about the country, all while praying I don’t get altitude sickness. Our group of NEA Foundation Global Learning Fellows is met by the incomparable Victor Hugo (yes, that’s his real name), who will be our guide, savior, luggage locator, etc., for the next nine days. And off we go!
School life at Mattliden School in Espoo, Finland and at Kayole North Primary School in Nairobi, Kenya could not be more different. Each setting includes dedicated teachers, education union members, who support students each day - yet they have very different preparation, education tools, and environments.
Schools on the front line in the fight against sexual abuse in Haiti Gender-Based Violence (GBV) is a significant public health concern for all girls and women in Haiti and particularly in the urban center of Port-au-Prince. One in three women in Haiti have experienced sexual violence and half of all rape victims are under age 17 at the time of the crime (Amnesty International 2008)
Every year, June 16 is the Day of the African Child. It commemorates the thousands of courageous children in Soweto, South Africa, who in 1976 marched to protest apartheid and to demand equal education. The march ended in violence: – hundreds of youth were wounded or killed. Their legacy continues to build a better future for African children.
The Week of the Young Child™ is an annual celebration sponsored by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) to focus public attention on the learning opportunities for young children, their families, and the professionals and educators who serve them.
As UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon noted this week, “Today, there are 57 million children out of school - and most of them are girls.” Teachers and administrators around the globe are struggling to create school environments that are friendly and supportive to both girls and boys. Yet complex gender-based barriers to education remain, hindering girls’, and in some cases boys’, access to school and participation in the classroom. For example, girls are less likely to begin school in many places, but boys are more likely to repeat grades or drop out altogether.
With less than a 1,000 days to meet the MDG Goals, India still has 290,000 children who are not enrolled in school and every year 13 percent of children drop out in Grade 5 alone.
LinkedIn, the international jobs and professional networking site, recently announced that it was going to allow students 13 years and older create profiles on its site. LinkedIn is the latest example of how young students worldwide -- that is, students who have access to the Internet and the educational opportunities to make them aware of the opportunities available on a site like LinkedIn -- can now learn about a world of work that exists beyond the boundaries of their country and city.
In a tight budget environment for education, it is tempting to view ICT equipment and training as a luxury to cut. We can all think of a case where technology for technology's sake hasn't worked: an unused laptop in the corner of an overfilled classroom, an interactive whiteboard at a school without adequate electricity to support its use, a smartphone game developed for a population of youth without access to smartphones.
