USAID Impact Photo Credit: Nancy Leahy/USAID

Archives for Education and Universities

Learning Life Lessons from Soap Operas and Reality TV

Posted by  on Thursday, May 12th 2011     

Parents and teachers have long grappled with the issue of how young people can learn about important life skills and issues.  In the classroom, it’s possible to make science fun; who wouldn’t be enthralled the first time they make a volcano erupt using only vinegar and baking soda?  Shakespeare can come alive when students act out the scenes or are asked to translate the content into a modern rap.  But how can we engage youth on topics like financial management or sensitive issues like sexual harassment?

Entertainment education is a method of engaging audiences to teach, model, and inspire behavior change.  Historically, fables and stories have fulfilled this role.  In today’s times, entertainment education has been exemplified by the Cosby Show, with a focus on parent-child communication skills.   Body Love, an Atlanta-based radio show seeks to reduce racial health disparities.  USAID is leveraging the power of entertainment education to empower youth to lead healthier, safer, and more productive lives.

Fire and Gold Soap Opera Helps Youth Tackle Financial Management

Somalia has a strong story-telling tradition, and a USAID-funded soap opera titled Fire and Gold is building on this tradition to promote financial literacy and help youth plan for the future.  The title refers to themes in the series: Fire represents the problems and the conflicts that break out between newly wedded couples due to poor financial decisions, and Gold represents a pair of gold earrings that play a prominent role in the storyline, as well as the notion of prosperity and success.

A Somali woman stands in front of a promotional poster for a financial literacy soap opera targeting youth. She holds an MP3-enabled mobile phone that receives the program broadcasts. Photo: EDC

The soap opera is broadcast in the Somali language using MP3-enabled mobile phones.  Phones are distributed to provide free access to cellular content for groups of listeners, and offer several advantages over radio due to Somali radio broadcasting restrictions, the possibility of radio station shut-downs, and radio disruptions due to unrest or poor reception quality.

The MP3-enabled devices provide consistently high-quality audio on demand as well as an interactive learning environment.  After the MP3 audio program is delivered,  soap opera characters  ask students to answer questions about the day’s lesson.  The students determine and submit an answer as a group, and immediately receive encouragement for a correct response or additional instruction when needed.

Through Fire and Gold, USAID and implementing partner Education Development Center help youth to acquire the financial literacy skills they need. The project also helps youth network among the Somali business community to gain work experience and job prospects.  In the series, youth are asked to think about what they want to achieve both personally and professionally, and then to create a plan for reaching those goals.

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Mark Feierstein Visits School in Rio de Janeiro

Posted by  on Thursday, May 5th 2011     

Submitted by USAID/Brazil

During his trip to Rio de Janeiro to participate in the World Economic Forum, USAID’s Assistant Administrator for Latin America and the Caribbean, Mark Feierstein, visited a school participating in the Enter Jovem Plus Program. Feierstein went to State School Tim Lopes, to closely observe the youth employability project. The school is located in Complexo do Alemão, one of the slum areas in Rio recently pacified by the police. USAID/Brazil‘s Mission Director, Lawrence Hardy, and HIV/AIDS Program Coordinator, Nena Lentini, also participated in the visit.

Mark Feierstein surrounded by students in Rio de Janeiro Photo Credit: Instituto Empreender

The Enter Jovem Plus program is conducted in Rio de Janeiro by Instituto Empreender, in partnership with Chevron, Rio’s State Government, and USAID. In his conversation with the students participating in the program, Feierstein stressed the importance of offering young people finishing high school professional training with a focus on employability, information technology, and English language. “We work in various parts of the world to foster development. You are very lucky to be here at this school. Enjoy every moment, work hard and have fun,” he said.

The goal of Enter Jovem Plus for Rio de Janeiro in 2011 is to provide professional training for 1,000 students. So far, approximately 700 students from 23 schools are enrolled. In Rio de Janeiro, the program started in 2010 in 16 public schools, and certified 310 students with ages between 16 and 29 years. This year, the priority is the inclusion of schools located in pacified areas. Students receive training to develop social and professional skills, including notions of tourism, quality of service and entrepreneurship. The program also helps students finding job opportunities.

Chevron’s manager for institutional relations, Lia Blower, U.S. Consulate in Rio de Janeiro’s Public Affairs Officer, Mark Pannell, and representatives of State Government accompanied Mark Feierstein’s visit.

To find out more about our programs in Brazil.

Making an Impact in Education

Posted by  on Thursday, May 5th 2011     

David Barth is the Director of the Office of Education at USAID.

As USAID moves towards implementation of a new education strategy, we need to pause to consider whether our core assumptions are valid, not just in theory, but in practice.  Our recent education policy colloquium, co-hosted with the World Bank and the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab, highlighted the fact that there are no automatic solutions, and no silver bullets.  But by using the wide range of available evaluation tools such as econometrics, randomized control trials, rigorous qualitative studies, and the knowledge that we accumulate with our local partners, we can increase the probability that funds invested in education will yield greater results.

Young students in Pakistan. Photo Credit: USAID/Pakistan

Our USAID Administrator, Rajiv Shah, has challenged us to relentlessly pursue high-impact development.  To accomplish this, we need to revisit past practice.  We need to learn what has worked and what has failed.  Most importantly, we need to set goals that speak to impact and results.  What this means in education is that we must ensure that children actually learn.  At the end of the day, the number of teachers we train, the classrooms that get renovated, and the textbooks that get delivered are ineffective if they cannot be shown to result in children learning.  We know that merely supplying inputs is insufficient to the task.  Recent testing in several partner countries revealed shocking numbers of children in sixth grade that cannot read even a simple sentence in their native language.  Imagine the opportunity cost in not finding out until sixth grade that the system is failing.  Those problems need to be identified and corrected far earlier.  These principles are what guide our new education strategy and the rest of our development agenda.

Focus.  Scale.  Impact.  Selectivity.  Our job as practitioners is to translate these words into practical investment decisions.  In Basic Education, we will focus on fewer aspects of the learning cycle.  In particular, we want to apply resources to learning in the early primary grades.  We want to help learners gain access to school in environments where conflict and fragility have made that impossible.   The numbers are staggering.  70 million children worldwide do not have access to education.  Hundreds of millions of children may go to school but learn almost nothing when they are there.  This will mean that USAID will only invest in programs that have the potential to go to scale – we cannot afford interesting pilots that consume time and money but cannot ultimately affect larger numbers of beneficiaries.  This means ensuring that there are appropriate metrics to measure learning and school system effectiveness.  Where countries lack adequate testing regimes, we will help develop low-cost ways to understand what their children know.  We will encourage them to start in the primary grades.  And we will be selective.  We will work in countries and communities where we have willing partners.  As President Obama put it so memorably, we must be both soft-hearted and hard-headed.

This is a time of renewed commitment, collaboration and focus in the education sector.  With the World Bank launching an ambitious new strategy, DFID developing new approaches to investing in education and with the Education for All – Fast Track Initiative undergoing significant reform, we have the ability to align our development programs and coordinate assistance in a way never seen before in our sector.  Our partner countries are showing openness to reforming systems that for too long have failed children.  There is a growing recognition of the impact of education on economic growth and peace and security.  Together, focused on impact and guided by data, we can ensure that the coming decade will be a decade of new opportunities for learning for all.

Please find our new strategy here:  USAID Education Strategy

Let’s Make it Learning for All, Not Just Schooling for All

Posted by  on Tuesday, May 3rd 2011     

Cross-posted from the World Bank.

Submitted by Elizabeth King, Director of Education for the World Bank. Elizabeth blogs on Education for Global Development, at blogs.worldbank.org/education.

What a thrill I had this past Friday listening to (windows media) our World Bank President Bob Zoellick launch the Bank Group’s new Education Strategy 2020: Learning for All (pdf, 1.27mb). Having spent nearly 18 months traveling the world to consult with our partners (government, civil society, NGOs, development agencies) about the best experience and evidence of what works in education and about the role of the Bank Group in the next decade, I feel somewhat like I’ve given birth, in this case to a global framework for education which we believe is the right one for the coming decade.

What will our world look like in 2020? It’s anyone’s guess. But we must prepare our youth today for the world we hope to realize: A world in which people can escape the bonds of deprivation and disadvantage to become their own agents for development and prosperity. To get there, we know that investments in education must focus not just on inputs like new classrooms, teacher training, textbooks, and computers, but also on all the policies, incentives, and financing that make education systems work. To ensure that developing countries can be competitive in today’s global marketplace, we must equip the next generation with the essential cognitive skills and the skills for critical thinking, teamwork, and innovation. Knowledge and skills can expand the horizons of our youth and enable them to take advantage of emerging opportunities. We must also measure what students learn, and hold governments and educators accountable if they don’t.

Unfortunately, in too many countries today, although millions more are going to school, young people are leaving school without the knowledge and skills they need to secure jobs and take care of their families. That’s why our new strategy focuses not just on helping young people go to school, but also to make sure they learn. Our strategy’s premise is simple:

  • Invest early, because the ability to learn throughout life is best acquired in early childhood.
  • Invest smartly, because national, family and donor resources are limited compared to our education mission and must yield results.
  • Invest for all, because learning opportunities must be available to all and not just to the smartest or richest.

If you have just three minutes, please watch our video that captures the main messages. And if you like it, please pass it on. I hope you will join me and my colleagues at the Bank in making this the decade of Learning for All.

Get additional information on the World Bank Group Education Sector Strategy at www.worldbank.org/educationstrategy2020.

Education Strategy 2020 (pdf, full document 1.27MB)
Executive Summary (pdf, 985KB)
Strategy Brochure (pdf, 4.97MB)
Learning for All video

Educating 1+ Billion Girls Will Make the Difference for Women’s Equality

Posted by  on Tuesday, March 8th 2011     

Submitted by Elizabeth King, Director of Education for the World Bank. Elizabeth blogs on Education for Global Development, at blogs.worldbank.org/education.

Photo credit: Arne Hoel/World Bank

Photo credit: Arne Hoel/World Bank

This week we celebrate International Women’s Day and it’s as good a time as any to remind ourselves of the remarkable accomplishments toward achieving gender equality—and of the challenges that remain to ensuring that the 3.4 billion girls and women on our planet have the same chances as boys and men to lead healthy and satisfying lives.

This year’s International Women’s Day theme, “equal access to education, training, and science and technology,” is a powerful affirmation of the many benefits of educating girls, which come from improving women’s well-being, such as through better maternal health and greater economic empowerment. A recent Lancet article concluded that half of the decline in child mortality in low-income countries over the past 40 years can be attributed to better education of girls. Another recent study concluded that countries that have more educated women have coped with extreme weather conditions better than other countries—and  these are just two studies that have found empirical evidence for why investing in girls’ education is smart policy.

Girls’ enrollment in primary education has risen from 79% to 87% in the past decade, and gender equality, as measured by the ratio of girls’ to boys’ enrollment rates, seems almost within sight. Even in rural areas in poor countries, more girls are entering school. But these gains have not been the same across countries or even within countries. Being poor, living in a rural area, being from an indigenous community and being a girl means having much less schooling. According to the 2010 UNESCO Global Monitoring Report, for example, poor Hausa girls in rural Nigeria complete only one-third of a year of schooling as compared with more than 10 years for rich, urban boys and girls. Indeed, in many countries across the world, multiple sources of disadvantage leave girls’ schooling lagging behind that of boys. The uphill battle for these girls in areas torn by conflict is even worse.

Special challenges exist for girls. These challenges may be a heavy workload that takes time away from schooling and learning. In Mozambique, for example, young teenage girls work 50% more hours each week than boys, not only cooking and taking care of younger siblings but also collecting water or firewood for their families. Because they are often not expected to use academic skills later in life, girls and their parents may not place sufficient value on schooling—and probably just as typically, their teachers may believe that it is more important to teach to the boys than to the girls in their classrooms. (Visit USAID’s Frontlines for the story of 11 remarkable women scientists breaking molds in Mozambique)

When I first joined the World Bank 20 years ago, girls’ education was the first issue I worked on. With three other women who were passionate about the issue (two at USAID and one at an NGO), I organized the panel session on girls’ education at the Education for All conference in Jomtien, Thailand. We have come a long way since. We now know more about the effectiveness of programs such as targeted scholarships or vouchers, conditional cash transfers, and removal of tuition fees that influence the family’s demand for girls’ education. We also know that making more people aware of the benefits of girls’ education, measuring gender inequalities, and rallying more voices to speak about those inequalities are powerful ways to remind people of this critical development issue.

Educating girls is a priority for the World Bank and is a fundamental tenet of our forthcoming Education Strategy 2020, which is dedicated to ensuring that all children, everywhere, are afforded the right to learn and reach their full potential.

USAID supports Ministry of Education in Haiti

Posted by  on Friday, February 25th 2011     

When the Ministry of Education building collapsed in last year’s earthquake, people scrambled to pull colleagues from the rubble.

Employees quickly returned to work in donated shelters, with little time to mourn the loss of their friends, family and colleagues. Among those killed around Haiti were 38,000 students, 1,347 teachers and 180 education personnel. More than 4,200 schools were destroyed.

The Ministry of Education (MOE) faced a monumental challenge in getting the education system back online. Its gradual progress has been impeded by the loss of office equipment.

Last week, employees, who have shared the few working computers, happily welcomed new supplies provided by USAID project PHARE (Programme Haitien d’Appui à la Réforme de l’Education). The donation included 60 laptops, 20 desktop computers, 80 desks and chairs, and 20 printers.

“This will help us accelerate our work,” said Pierre-Michele Laguerre, MOE director general.

Laguerre described the scene when the three-story building crumbled Jan. 12, killing 11 employees.

“We heard a lot of crying and screaming,” he said. “We spent many days trying to save those under the rubble.”

Marie Lourdes Borno (right) and Jacqueline Jasmin call each other "my rubble companion." The Ministry of Education colleagues were injured when their building collapsed in the Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake. Borno wears prosthetic arms after losing both arms at the elbow. Jasmin, trapped for 10 hours until co-workers pulled her out, broke her right arm. Photo by Kendra Helmer/USAID

Those trapped included Jacqueline Jasmin and Marie Lourdes Borno.

A mass of concrete collapsed on Jasmin, whose son leapt from an opening on the first floor as the building pancaked.

“I heard my son crying, ‘My mother is dead!’” she recalled. “I yelled out, ‘I am alive!’”

Jasmin’s son frantically ran for help as colleagues worked by hand to rescue her. Ten hours later, they pulled her out.

When the earthquake struck, Borno had just walked away from Jasmin. Borno lost consciousness and said that upon waking, “I found myself with my arms on me, but they were crushed. I tried to be brave, and prayed to God to have given me life even without arms.”

Her colleagues freed her within 10 minutes, but her arms had to be amputated at the elbow. Jasmin had a metal rod inserted in her broken right arm, which, along with her head, bears multiple scars.

The two share a strong bond, along with a nickname for each other.

“Whenever I see Madame Borno, I hug her and say, “My rubble companion!’” Jasmin said.

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The Role of Teachers and Textbooks in a Democracy

Posted by  on Friday, January 14th 2011     

Submitted by: Diana Harper

“Knowledge will forever govern ignorance, and a people who mean to be their own Governors must arm themselves with the power knowledge gives.”

—James Madison, 1788

This month’s historic referendum will determine southern Sudan’s future, either as an independent country of part of a unified Sudan.  Voting ends on Saturday, January 15, and enormous efforts have been launched by U.S., Sudanese, and international agencies to support a credible process—that voters know how and where to vote, that the Sudanese referendum commission is equipped to carry out referendum logistics, that sufficient ballots and voting materials are available, and that poll workers and election observers are properly trained.

At the same time, the United States has continued to provide development assistance that strengthens democracy as well as demonstrates the benefits of peace.  These efforts include improving health care and access to clean water, building roads and transportation infrastructure, providing microcredit loans to spur economic growth,  and—of particular importance—increasing access to and the quality of education.

Formal education is not a prerequisite for wisdom, but it is a critical part of active participation in the democratic process.  Literacy is crucial for making informed voting decisions and lobbying representatives for change.  The public’s ability to effectively organize and work in groups provides protection against political abuses and dictatorships.  Research supports the intuition that investments in education pay returns in peace and democracy.  (See a related interactive graph.)

In 2005, when Sudan ended its 22-year civil war, only 37% of southern Sudanese men and 12% of women were literate.  Primary school enrollment was low, and girls in particular faced many obstacles to attending school.  These obstacles included high direct and indirect costs, discriminatory attitudes and school policies, and poor access to feminine hygiene products and lack of sanitation facilities.

USAID has worked closely with the Government of Southern Sudan Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology to improve its ability to plan and implement educational reforms, increase access to primary education especially among girls, train teachers, and foster community-wide support for education.

One example of USAID’s work is the opening of a school in the Blue Nile State—a region on the north-south border of Sudan that was a major site of conflict during the civil war.  The Granville-Abbas School serves 120 female students and serves as a model of girls’ education in the region, with three sets of classrooms, a library, theater, and a computer center with internet access.  Better education for girls leads to benefits for their families and communities including increased economic growth, reduced poverty, improved health and nutrition, and better HIV/AIDS control.

U.S. educational programs throughout Sudan helped to increase primary school enrollment from 1.1 million in 2007 to 1.4 million in 2009.  In addition, U.S. programs have trained over 2,300 teachers, including many female instructors who serve as critical role models to young girls.  Beyond bricks and mortar institutions, USAID has also supported radio education to help students study English, math, local languages, and life skills.  In 2009 alone, the radio programs reached over 350,000 youth and adults.

Ethiopia Partners with the U.S. to Put Girls’ Education First

Posted by  on Friday, October 22nd 2010     

Submitted by Thomas H. Staal, USAID Ethiopia Mission Director

First Lady Azeb Mesfin has been steadfast in her determination to collaborate with USAID on the award of scholarships to meritorious girls who would otherwise have to drop out of school. So it gives me great pleasure to participate in the signing of this agreement on behalf of the American people, to provide FreAddis the means to benefit over 1,000 female students.

USAID Ethiopia Mission Director Thomas Staal, First Lady Azeb Mesfin, and US Ambassador Donald Booth participate in an event sponsored by FreAddis.

Education is one of the most effective ways to fight poverty and all its trappings: hunger, disease, resource degradation, exploitation, and despair. Women are the caretakers and economic catalysts in our communities. No country can afford to ignore their potential. We all know women whose lives were transformed through education and who in turn transformed the lives of those around them.

I am pleased to welcome FreAddis as our newest partner in the education sector where we are working with the Ministry of Education to improve the quality of teaching and classroom materials for the greatly expanded numbers of children in primary schools all over the country. FreAddis hopes to eventually expand its reach and support to girls nationwide through funds donated by Ethiopians here and throughout the Diaspora.

In the future we hope to collaborate with more local institutions enabling them to carry out their missions and to make best use of the opportunities provided by the U.S. Government.

Education + Health = Opportunity

Posted by  on Friday, September 10th 2010     

Submitted by Wendy Coursen

This is Education Week at USAID. We work across the globe from Dhaka to Dakar; and Kabul to Kinshasa to promote development and save lives by helping people and societies recover from disaster, escape poverty, and improve health and education.  All efforts are conducted on behalf of the American people – reflecting the care and generosity of our nation that people across the globe admire and respect.

Throughout our nearly 50-year history, USAID has developed robust education programs that have increased literacy, built local capacity to deliver basic education services, encouraged workforce development, and developed generations of leaders through scholarships and access to higher education. On a fundamental level, education empowers societies: It leads to opportunities for economic growth, promotes civic engagement and good governance, and supports sustainable democracy.  In the development community, we often say the same about the benefits of global health; in fact, education and health not only complement, but depend on each other for maximum impact.

Community Health Worker

A community health worker in Nemba, Rwanda, teaches a health education class to women. USAID, with partner Jhpiego, has trained 800 community health workers in Rwanda. Credit: Jhpeigo

For disease prevention and treatment, the communities we serve often need access to commodities like bed nets , antiretroviral drugs, and safe water.  They also need the tools and access to information about critical health concerns and what to do about them. Women who participate in literacy programs have better knowledge of health and family planning and are more likely to adopt preventive health measures or seek medical help for themselves and their children. Family planning also enables women to stay in school longer, which contributes to improved maternal and child survival and increased ability for parents to raise healthy, well-nourished children.  Healthy children, we know, are more likely to learn, more likely to thrive throughout their lives and contribute to their communities as adults.  Early and sustained investments in health and education – for men, women, and children — are truly investments for life.

In the late 1990s, USAID was instrumental in bringing the educational children’s series Sesame Street to South Africa. The country has been significantly impacted by the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and in 2002, the show introduced Kami, the world’s first HIV-positive Muppet. Through Kami age-appropriate HIV/AIDS messages reach millions of children, parents, caregivers, and educators. Her message is also helping to reduce the fear of stigma that prevents many from seeking treatment.

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Zimbabwe’s Students Get the Tools to Learn

Posted by  on Friday, September 10th 2010     

Textbooks for distribution to Zimbabwe’s primary schools. Photo Credit: UNICEF Zimbabwe

Submitted by Cary Jimenez USAID/Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe’s primary school students will soon be able to get a better education, thanks to an influx of new materials and support provided in part by USAID. Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai launched the program on September 8.

Zimbabwe’s 5,300 primary schools will receive over 13 million new textbooks, dramatically improving the current situation of one textbook for every ten students to one textbook for every two students. Schools will also each get steel cabinets where they can safely store the books and other materials.

USAID is working in cooperation with the Government of Zimbabwe and several other international donors on this education fund, which will also help train teachers and school administrators and work to reform policies to allow more poor children to attend school.

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