News and Views About Education
Nepal
January 26, 2009—Universal primary education by the year 2015 is one of the Millennium Development Goals, and recently, there's been some progress toward achieving it.
In Nepal, a shift toward community-managed schools (management of 1 in 5 schools has now moved to communities) has led to higher graduation and lower repetition rates than in public schools.
The program has also helped to increase primary enrollment rates for the country's most disadvantaged children, for example those belonging to the group known as Dalits.
Watch the Nepal Schools video to get an inside look at the fun and learning going on at these schools.
Africa
In 22 African countries, the number of children enrolled in primary school increased by 15.2 million between 2000 and 2006, according to a recent World Bank story.
These countries have been supported by a program called the Education for All Initiative Fast Track Initiative, which is a global partnership between developing countries, donor countries and the World Bank, UNICEF and UNESCO.
It's not just education in Africa that's important—education on Africa is also something to think about, according to Obiageli "Oby" Ezekwesili, who is vice president of the Africa region at the World Bank.
In a powerful presentation she recently made at Teach Africa, Oby spoke about why we should be optimistic about Africa, her hopes and dreams for the continent, and why it's important to move past existing misconceptions about Africa. Teachers should encourage students to see themselves as part of the solution, she said, and not just think of Africa as some distant place.
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"There's no distant place anymore," Oby said. "It's one tiny world. You can't erect borders. It is better that we train our children to be global citizens, so that they care about solutions to global problems."
Oby also spoke about how, growing up, her teachers impacted her life in both positive and negative ways. It made me think back to which teachers impacted my life. Mostly, I came up with a succession of monstrous math teachers, which perhaps explains my numeric abilities (or lack thereof) today. Still, the exercise also reminded me of the teachers who made learning fun and who believed in me.
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