As children all around the United States are in their last days of school, counting down to summer vacation, there are refugee children across the world who are desperately hoping to get back to school and learning.
While setting the stage for the topic of this blog post, Education Governance, I considered the frequent use of the terms “sunset” and “new era” to describe the transition away from the MDGs and the undertaking of the 2030 Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals. I wondered what exactly we are leaving behind in the sunset and what exactly has changed in this new era.
The problem is not just the amount of funding for education, but how the available resources are being spent. In the past decade, tertiary education consistently received the highest proportion of education aid of any education sector, beating out even primary education year after year. Moreover, during this period, seven of the top fifteen donors to education increased the portion of their aid allocated to higher education and consequently decreased the portion to basic education.
Further, this aid to tertiary education isn’t being spent sustainably. A large percentage of growing funds to higher education have been used not to strengthen university systems in recipient countries but rather to provide scholarships for students to attend higher education institutions in donor countries. In 2012, for example, “for every US$1 disbursed in direct aid to early childhood care and education, the equivalent of US$58 went to support students from recipient countries at the post-secondary level in donor countries.”
During a recent trip to spend time with early childhood professionals in China, I worked to master the skill of eating with chopsticks, and I was amazed by how much I had to learn. While I was no stranger to chopsticks—in fact I’m quite proud of my ability to use them when eating sweet and sour chicken in DC—it struck me how, in China, my use of chopsticks took place in an environment in which I worked to finesse this skill at an entirely new level. I learned to grasp the food more precisely as it circled by on the customary rotating round table that supports communal sharing of a meal. This was not just about my practicing the skill, but also about the influence of the place and the culture in which I was immersed—an illustration of the importance of context in learning.
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!
We recognize that 2015 is a particularly transformative year for the global education community as we reflect upon the progress made toward meeting Education for All and the Millennium Development Goals and work to position education as central to the emerging Sustainable Development Goals. During this era of rapid change in education at the global and local levels, it is important to promote approaches and initiatives that advance not only educational equity, access, and quality, but also the education sector as a whole.
This year’s United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW59) marks the 20th anniversary of the landmark Beijing Platform for Action which laid out a roadmap for progress for girls and women worldwide. I’ve just returned from the United Nations where I was a part of the Education International delegation to the 59th UN Commission on the Status of Women (UNCS59). Our Education International delegation at the UN included 20 educators from 12 nations – we were present to advocate on behalf of women educators and girls in the USCSW59 and Beyond-2015 agenda.
The opportunity to access something as basic as education shouldn’t be political. Yet, 2014 bore witness to more attacks on schools than any time in the past 40 years and global emergencies like Ebola and conflicts in the Middle East forced millions of children out of school. Never has the goal of getting kids into school and keeping them there safely been more important.
With Education for All as our over-riding goal, The Nobelity Project is celebrating ten years as a non-profit, a decade of telling inspiring stories and working to take inspired actions. With a full-time staff of just two (my co-founder and Executive Director Christy Pipkin and a Program Coordinator), we are constantly searching for avenues with a relatively large impact on both education issues and real-world results.
