Good Afternoon Gatherers!
OneWorld United States is pleased to welcome Carolyn Bartholomew to this afternoon's live chat discussion. Carolyn was one of our authors for the last issue of Perspectives on education. Her article, "It All Starts with Education," and the entire edition of Perspectives are available at: http://us.oneworld.net/section/us/perspectives/10/education.
She will be answering questions from you, our members, about educating the world's children.
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Carolyn Bartholomew
Executive Director, Basic Education Coalition
Carolyn Bartholomew is Executive Director of the Basic Education Coalition. Prior to accepting the position, Ms. Bartholomew was a consultant working on policy analysis, legislative and media strategy, advocacy, and issue development and management. She also serves as Commissioner on the United States-China Economic and Security Review Commission.
Previously, Ms. Bartholomew spent 16 years on the staff of Representative Nancy Pelosi, where she served in several capacities, including: Legislative Director and Counsel, Chief of Staff for the San Francisco District Office, Professional Staff for the House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and ultimately Chief of Staff and Counsel. During her tenure with Representative Pelosi's office, Ms. Bartholomew was a member of the first presidential delegation to Africa to investigate HIV/AIDS on children and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations Congressional Staff Round Table on Asian Political and Security Issues. Her areas of expertise include U.S. foreign policy, global AIDS, the U.S. federal appropriations process, homeland security, human rights and international environmental issues.
Ms. Bartholomew holds a B.A. in anthropology from the University of Minnesota, an M.A. in anthropology from Duke University, and a J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center. She is a member of the State Bar of California.
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Basic Education Coalition
The Basic Education Coalition, a group of 20 development organizations, works to increase knowledge about, raise the priority of and increase support for quality basic education for all as a means of promoting economic development and human well-being. Basic education is the foundation for long term, sustainable success in development.
Coalition members, working in more than 100 countries, have decades of experience around the world working with communities and governments at all levels to improve access to quality basic education. In 2001, they formed the Coalition to maximize resources brought to this endeavor, to broaden the reach of their efforts and to share experiences and lessons toward the common goal of enhancing investment in basic education.To keep the conversation going, please review a few tips below that will make viewing the discussion easier.
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Welcome Carolyn! We look forward to speaking with you
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Comments: 27
I will try to answer as many questions as possible during the chat.
I hope that people interested in international basic education or with further questions will visit our website for more information: www.basiced.org On our website, you can also subscribe to our bi-weekly on-line newsletter, the International Basic Education Update.
Hi Carolyn, could you give us one example of an effective program to
promote education for all that you think could be replicated around the
world?
U.S. funding for basic education, while addressing all of these factors, is also characterized by encouraging the development of innovative education programs. These innovations can be taken to scale where appropriate. Some of those innovative programs focus on non-formal learning, an effective strategy for reaching children in conflict situations, where schools simply do not exist and children are forced to be transient. Radio learning programs, for example, can be implemented in the most rudimentary of situations because you don't need books or even a classroom – just a radio and a meeting place. These programs not only have lessons for the students, but incorporate teacher training into the broadcasts. Radio learning programs can be instituted in communities with no existing educational system and where very little infrastructure or money is available, and in that sense are easily replicated around the world.
The international community has been paying more attention to the quality of education at primary school levels. Of course, in many countries, if there is any teacher or books at all, it's a benefit -- never mind having really good teachers and resources. How do you see this problem resolved?
As we succeed in getting more children into schooling, we have got to focus on the quality of what they are receiving while they are there. It is true that for some children, particularly orphans and vulnerable children, there are benefits to being in school even if what they are learning is negligible. School can provide a central and safe place; students can benefit from school feeding programs and from the watchful eye of concerned teachers. However, for many students, being in school takes them away from economically productive activities. If they are not learning, the opportunity cost for their families, particularly from the loss of girls' labor, may be too great if their families see no benefit from their time in school. And, once children drop out of school, they are much less likely to ever go back to school and their siblings are much less likely to ever attend school.
Meeting the financial challenge of the Education for All movement is essential to ensure the maximum benefits – to institutionalize education and to ensure that children reach their full potential. We will not have achieved what we want to achieve if kids are in school and do not learn.
There seems to be very little money available for teacher development
or support in Africa - especially at the secondary and tertiary levels. Am
I right? If so, why is this? If not, who is providing funding for teacher
professional development? I work with teachers in very disadvantaged areas
and it seems impossible to find the resources they need for even the most
basic things.
There are a number of resources available for teacher training, including funding provided by the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Of the twenty largest basic education programs run by USAID in Africa, at least eight have a teacher training component.
The World Bank's Fast Track Initiative/Education Program Development Fund is another source of funding for teacher training.
But, experts are recognizing that more emphasis must be placed on teacher training. Last month, a major emphasis of a meeting of education ministers held in Mozambique was how to provide more teacher training. And the basic education program at UNESCO is also focusing on the need to find more resources for teacher training.
If you are interested in trying to find funding for teacher training in specific African countries, it is useful to contact the team leaders of education in the regional bureaus of USAID and/or USAID's Director of Education, Joe Carney. Also, in country, it is a good idea to be in touch with the USAID mission staff, as the only activities which are funded are those projects that fit into the mission/country strategy.
In 1999 alone, an estimated 860,000 children in sub-Saharan Africa lost teachers to AIDS.
In 2004, the Zambian president noted that more than 40% of teachers were HIV-positive in his country. About 1,000 teachers -- of half of those trained annually -- are dying of AIDS each year in Zambia.
In the Central African Republic, AIDS caused 85% of teacher deaths in 2000. And, in many countries, teacher absenteeism, due to illness, attendance at funerals, patient care and psychological trauma, has risen sharply, affecting the quality of education and sector costs.
Education also provides a window of hope in the epidemic. It is a highly cost-effective prevention mechanism. Oxfam estimates that if all children completed primary education, 700,000 new cases of HIV/AIDS in young people could be prevented each year, totalling 7 million cases in one decade. Young people with little or no education are more than twice as likely to contract HIV as those who have completed primary education.
Addressing the HIV/AIDS epidemic among teachers is important both for strengthening education systems and for reducing infection rates among students.
Hi Carolyn,
I am curious to know if Basic Ed. Coalition has knowledge of what language
the majority of the programs are taught in ? I understand this is highly
contextual, but have you any policy on instruction in the official or
indigenous language of a region ?
Thanks, Elizabeth
If I might jump in to add a bit about what has been done around online learning in the developing world. Unfortunately, it is not yet much of a force for change in trying to reach EFA goals, as most places of learning in the developing world still have very limited access to equipment and connectivity. Most of the projects that organizations like the one that I work for (CARE) try to focus on appropriate technology for the contexts in which we work, such as the radio based programming that you mentioned above.
However, there is momentum around online learning in tertiary education in the developing world, where professionals have the opportunity to learn across borders. In Africa in particular, some exciting work has been going on around advanced training for education professionals using online platforms.
The Virtual Classroom
Many have high hopes that, with the increasing spread of ICTs, more and better education can now increasingly be brought to remote, poor, and marginalized communities. Take a project in northern Bangladesh where indigenous boats have been converted into mobile learning centers. They provide educational services, access to technology, and computer training to poor communities. The boats, which anchor at remote villages, rely on generators or solar energy and mobile phones for Internet access.
Read full article at http://us.oneworld.net/article/view/138658
How would a person find "in country" opportunities for teaching?
Reid
I've spent time teaching in primary schools in a muslim village in Senegal and I encountered a very common problem where Muslim school conflicts with general education. there have been attempts form the outside to address this by withholding funds and materials but that seems a bit neo-colonial to me. How do you suggest we address this very serious problem?
Hello Carolyn:
Which agencies that you have seen are having success in integrating basic
education with livelihood development?"
Thanks, Al
Emphasizing Practical Skills
In an ideal world, students would have access to both a well-rounded education including traditional subjects like biology and mathematics as well as modern métiers like ICTs and global economy, but resource constraints in many poorer countries make that impossible. Hence, educational programs in developing countries often focus on teaching vocations like refrigeration, business administration, social work, environmental studies, textiles, carpentry, or mechanics—the skills that can lead to paying jobs. A program in Colombia, for example, offers degrees in rural education and agriculture/animal sciences, aiming primarily to train young people in skills that can be applied in local economies.
Read full article at http://us.oneworld.net/article/view/138659
This Thursday, the World Bank is issuing its annual World Development report, this year with a focus on youth issues called Development and the Next Generation, which will, I think, provide some important information and analysis on livelihood development.
Thank you, again.
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Training teachers affords a great leverage in education as it will have exponential gains.
Cheap and affordable electronic technology can facilitate spread of education to remote areas by providing interactive online courses at community centers in the villages of different parts of the world.
Education is of pivotal importance in creating better societies and in ushering peace and harmony in the world. I hope global organizations like Basic Education Coalition will pursue this goal with zeal and dedication.