Improving Education for the BOP

I found several events during the course of the weekend particulary interesting due to my interest in education reform and policy. On Friday, I attended a panel titled, “Education: Addressing Development at the Base of the Pyramid.” Personally, I agree with the nonprofit Teach For America in that education inequity is one of the US’s (and the world’s) greatest injustices. UNICEF says that an individual needs at least 5 years of primary education in order to be considered literate, but as one panelist described, this level of education is often not met in impoverished and underdeveloped nations.

One issue that was brought forth in the panel is the problems that face girls in many rural communities. In many cultures, it is believed to be useless for a girl to receive a solid education. To counteract this, many programs and schools have “subsidized” the short-term opportunity cost of a girl going to school each day by providing a cow, sewing machine, etc, to the girl’s program. However, the gains from an education are clear: For each year that a girl is educated, her family can expect a 10-20% rise in income. In order for a family to come on board, many NGOs and schools participate in the “drinking tea philosophy.” In many cultures, sharing tea while discussing an issue brings everyone to a sound solution. In this case, it is the education of a village’s, or just a family’s, girls.

Family expectations are not the only hindrance to education. In Kenya’s largest slum, 75% of students attend a very inexpensive private school because the public education system is a mess. Overall, the panel discussed that there are 3 challenges to universal education:

1) 1. Teachers’ educations are shortened in order to reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

2) 2. By 2015, the world’s schools will be missing 10 million teachers that are needed to educate our children

3) 3. $8 billion USD is missing that is needed to reach the MDGs

The discussion on education continued on Saturday, with the morning’s keynote address given by the Vicky Colbert, CEO of Escuela Nueva, an organization that provides uniquely-structured rural education to students, especially girls. Vicky stressed the importance that in education, one has to be persistent, because results take time. Additionally, she acknowledged that education is far too small a portion of nations' budgets, especially in comparison to other development work and defense.

Vicky described Escuela Nueva’s work at length, and I encourage you all to check out http://www.escuelanueva.org/pagina/index.php?codmenu=2&idioma=2 for more information. In short, the organization uses a unique teaching approach that is child-centered and very engaging in multi-grade schools. The teacher is a facilitator, and does not just provide instruction. This method has proved itself: It was acknowledged by the World Bank as one of the 3 most outstanding reforms in developing countries worldwide. With just a $3 million dollar budget, Escuela Nueva reaches 5,000,000 students.

To be sure, these programs certainly gave me food for thought about how the business, political, social, and education sectors can work together to improve education for the world’s youth.

-Kristina Anderson, Junior, Majors: Economics and Legal Studies