USAID Impact Photo Credit: Nancy Leahy/USAID

Archives for Education and Universities

Photo of the Week

Posted by  on Wednesday, June 27th 2012     
Nigerian schoolchild with a pencil.

In Nigeria, one in three school-aged children are is not enrolled in school, and few of those who are enrolled will go on to secondary school. These statistics are even worse in the country’s predominantly Muslim North, where primary school attendance and academic achievement remain far below national averages. To improve education in this marginalized region, USAID supports public Islamiyya schools, which integrate reading and math into the traditional Qur’anic curriculum. These efforts will help ensure that all northern Nigerian students have access to high-quality basic education. Photo: USAID

Learn more about USAID programming in Nigeria.

The Path to Peace Starts with Embracing Diversity for Sudan’s Youth

Posted by  on Thursday, May 17th 2012     

Sudan is often described as a country rich with many different ethnic groups, languages, religions, and tribal affiliations.  I recently witnessed how true this is when I attended a USAID-sponsored session for young women from different areas of Sudan, held at the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum.

The students visiting the temple at Naqa, a ruined ancient city of the Kush Kingdom, north of Khartoum. The exchange included field trips to great Sudanese historical sites to teach the students about their common identity and culture. Photo Credit: USAID/Sudan

The session focused on the options available for graduate study in the United States, but I took a different message away.  As I listened to where these women came from and what they were studying, I realized how different they all were in background, and yet how similar they were in their aspirations, hopes, and desires.

These young women are students at several Khartoum universities, as well as Assalam University in Babanusa, Southern Kordofan state.  They were brought together as part of a USAID program that is enabling Sudanese to tackle issues of identity, history, and culture in their country.  The exchange was designed to help these young women leaders explore and better understand the rich cultural plurality in Sudan and to engender a sense of strength from the diversity in Sudanese culture.  Issues of identity and ethnicity have proved highly divisive in Sudan over the last two decades, and still pervade Sudanese society in the post-war era.

Over the course of the week-long exchange, students began to grow a greater appreciation for the many cultures present in Sudan.  They discussed common history and identity across different groups and got to touch their history first-hand through trips to local historical sites and museums.

Throughout the exchange, the students became increasingly aware of their own tendencies to stereotype certain groups.  One young woman stated that she and others once “unconsciously, practice[ed] social exclusion,” but after the 5-day training, she now “knows what it is and will stop.” Another participant commented, “I used to hate history. After visiting the historical sites and knowing how great my history is, I now love it.”

The students concluded the workshop determined to carry what they learned back to their communities. Several participants stated that they would hold discussions with their peers at their universities on both the commonalities that exist between cultures in Sudan and the rich diversity that they represent. By the last day of training, the participants, most of whom met only five short days earlier, were referring to one another as friends.  The students from Babanusa even hope to host the Khartoum students at their university for future events to foster further understanding.

Some of the most important work that USAID does in Sudan, in my opinion, works to address intolerance and exclusion in a country with such strength through diversity.  I hope that many more Sudanese will get to experience the diverse cultures within their own society, as these young women did.  Such experiences will very likely be the foundation of healing in a country that has had a painful past.

 

Expanding Access to Quality Education and Improved Health Care in the West Bank’s “Area C”

Posted by  on Wednesday, May 16th 2012     

I recently had the opportunity to visit a construction site in Jalazone, just outside of Ramallah in the West Bank, where the U.S. Government is partnering with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), in cooperation with Palestinian and Israeli officials, to build a school that will provide a safe and vastly improved learning environment for more than 1,100 girls.

Once completed, the school will provide an enhanced learning environment for more than 1,100 girls. Photo Credit: Lubna Rifi

Jalazone is located in what is known as “Area C,” an area that comprises approximately 60 percent of the West Bank and is under Israeli administrative and security control, in accordance with the terms of the Oslo Accords. The expansion work on the Jalazone School, which includes building 23 new modern classrooms, science labs, vocational training rooms, and all the facilities of a functioning school, is part of U.S. efforts, underway for some time, working closely with the Palestinian Authority and Israeli officials, to improve access to essential services for Palestinians living in “Area C.”

While visiting the construction site, UNRWA’s West Bank Field Director Felipe Sanchez and I spoke with the Principal at the school, Sana Bayyari. She explained how much she and her students and teachers are looking forward to moving from the current school’s overcrowded and run-down classrooms to what will effectively be a fully renovated school by March 2013. These renovations will significantly improve the educational environment at the school, originally built in the 1950s. Principal Bayyari also noted that they are especially excited that they will no longer have to attend school in double shifts as they have been doing for years to accommodate all of the students.

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New Tool to Assess Literacy

Posted by  on Thursday, April 19th 2012     

A free electronic tool is now available to quickly and accurately measure the reading progress of young children in the developing world. An adaptation of USAID’s paper-based Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA), the new tool called eEGRA runs in Microsoft’s Excel spreadsheet software, available free on most computers. The new tool was demonstrated for international literacy experts and policymakers March 13th, at the Washington offices of Education Development Center (EDC) which developed eEGRA.

eEGRA puts valid, reliable reading results into the hands of teachers. Photo Credit: Rojessa Tiamson-Saceda

One of the benefits of eEGRA is that results are available immediately after a student has completed a test, instantly providing the classroom teacher or headmaster with a snapshot of the student’s reading progress. By comparison, data from the paper test can take six months to analyze, and because it is developed at the national or district level, is rarely seen or used by teachers.

In addition, the electronic test automates time calculations and restricts data entry mistakes by eliminating the need to interpret hand-written scores. It also standardizes the delivery of test instructions via audio playback, ensuring all students receive the same information. Because it is in electronic format, eEGRA uses less paper and comes with the capability to back up and save data.

“We are already finding that eEGRA is revolutionizing how we assess the reading skills of young children,” said EDC Vice President Nancy Devine. “It allows teachers to identify whether students have developed key skills for their grade level, and this in turn allows them to identify what remediation efforts, if any, are required. eEGRA directly links assessment and classroom practice.”

First conceptualized in 2009, eEGRA was developed for an Excel platform in the spring of 2010, and then field tested in the Philippines. That field study established that eEGRA scores learners as accurately as its paper-based counterpart and the use of a laptop does not inhibit testing. eEGRA was first presented at USAID’s M4Ed4Dev conference in August 2010 and has been available free and in open-source format since that time. To date, it has been used by development partners to assess student learning in three countries, in three languages.

“We continue to refine the tool with new features and improved performance,” said EDC’s Helen Boyle. “Our ultimate goal is to put reliable, valid reading assessments into the hands of teachers around the globe, enabling them to deliver more effective instruction to their students.”

Click here to learn more or download and begin using the free assessment tool.

Launch of Pakistan’s National Reading Program

Posted by  on Friday, April 13th 2012     

This week in Pakistan, I joined Ambassador Cameron Munter, Senior Minister Pir Mazhar-Ul-Haq of the Government of Sindh Education and Literacy Department and local leaders in launching a National Reading Program.

The program will help improve reading and math skills for nearly seven million children, mobilize communities to strengthen school management and support the development of three and a half million new readers. That means improving educational assessments so that schools and parents can clearly track student progress.  And it means strengthening teach professional development, so that teachers have the opportunity to grow, share their experiences and learn about new approaches.

This support will help Pakistan accelerate progress towards full primary enrollment, which it would not achieve until 2050 at its current pact. Today, seven million Pakistani children including four million girls are not enrolled.  And in Sindh, only 40 percent of children who have completed primary school can read a simple sentence in their native language.

Administrator Shaw at the launch of the National Reading Program in Karachi, Pakistan with Pakistani students. Photo Credit: USAID/Pakistan

The program would not have been possible without Pakistan’s groundbreaking effort to establish a National Education Policy, which provides a roadmap for ensuring every child receives a quality education. In 2010, Pakistan’s Constitution made education compulsory and required the government to provide education without cost to parents.  The provincial governments have also made fundamental reforms key to this effort, including providing scholarships for girls to attend middle school and sending teachers where they are needed most, even if it isn’t where they’d like to go.

We’ve also made key changes in our approach to education. Instead of measuring success by the number of children we help enroll or the number of teachers we train, we’re going to measure it by the number of children who can read and add by the time they leave school. And instead of measuring success based on anecdotes, we’re going to work with the government to ensure sophisticated monitoring and evaluation mechanisms that hold all of us accountable.

We’ve also launched All Children Reading: A Grand Challenge in Development to generate breakthroughs in childhood literacy, whether they are mobile apps that help measure student progress or affordable e-reads that bring the world’s libraries to mudbrick schools and rural villages. Before long, these cutting-edge proposals will help transform the way children learn from Pakistan to Ghana.

Building on a long-standing history of cooperation between our two peoples, we’re committed to helping the students of Pakistan, and easing their path as they become the world’s next generation of scientists, teachers, engineers and entrepreneurs.

U.S. – Afghan Women’s Council – Celebrating 10 Years of Progress

Posted by  on Monday, March 26th 2012     

Carla Koppell, Official PhotoThis week we celebrated the 10th anniversary of the U.S. – Afghan Women’s Council (USAWC). Created during the Bush Administration, the Council has stimulated an extraordinary array of public-private partnerships to elevate the status of Afghan women and girls. As I listened to commemorative remarks by Secretary Clinton and former First Lady Laura Bush, I recalled my own visit to Afghanistan in December 2011.

While in Kabul, I had the enormous pleasure of speaking with a group of female students and recent university graduates currently working in USAID-supported internships. These women are among the first generation of girls who were educated in post-Taliban Afghanistan; many of them represented the astonishing 25% of Kabul University female graduates.

Similarly inspiring was my visit to the American University of Afghanistan (AUAf), where a beautiful campus hosts a student body that is approximately 22% female, enrolled in undergraduate programs such as Business, IT, and Political Science.  There’s also been a dramatic increase in female enrollment.  While the Senior class is only 6% female, the Freshman class is over half.  Even more heartening is the 36% of women now enrolled in a college prep program.

The American University of Afghanistan is one of many critical efforts USAID has proudly supported as a U.S. – Afghan Women’s Council partner. The Agency’s assistance has actually supported myriad efforts of the Council. In addition to AUAf, USAID has worked with the Ministry of Education, the International School of Kabul and the Women’s Teacher Training Institute. But support has not been limited to the education sector. In partnership with USAWC partners, USAID has developed and implemented programs for children, women’s leadership, women’s entrepreneurship and women’s health care.

The results of the U.S. Government’s support for Afghanistan’s women are visible and impressive. Programs like the REACH are offering midwifery training have helped lower child and maternal mortality rates by over 20%  in the last ten years; over 3000 midwives have been trained, about half of them with U.S. support. Additionally, I’m thrilled to say that today over three million Afghan girls are in school; almost no girls were being educated while the Taliban were in power.

The US-Afghan Women’s Council should be applauded. It has delivered concrete results for development while maintaining crucial support in the U.S. for the needs of Afghan women. The Council has stimulated a dazzling set of projects and programs involving an impressive set of partners from the private sector, foundations and NGOs committed to ensuring expanded opportunities for women in Afghanistan..   As we mark a decade of progress through the Council, I’m reminded of Secretary Clinton’s remarks on Wednesday when she said, “The women of Afghanistan are a valuable and irreplaceable resource, and their rights must be protected, and their opportunities for them to contribute must be preserved.”

Game Changing Innovations through New Relationships with Universities

Posted by  on Wednesday, February 8th 2012     

Applications Now Open in Unprecedented Opportunity to Collaborate and Push the Innovation Bar

USAID-related science programs assist in expanding training for women. Photo Credit: Zahur Ramji (AKDN)

We are proud to announce the Higher Education Solutions Network Request for Applications (RFA), which invites higher education institutions to compete to join USAID as new strategic, long-term partners to have a greater impact on development through creative partnerships. From USAID’s start 50 years ago, partnering with universities and research organizations has been part of the Agency’s vision.  Over the years we have worked with partners on sector-specific projects, but today we are pursuing an unprecedented relationship with academic institutions as part of our effort to open the field to a broader range of actors and leverage the assets available through science and technology. USAID’s Higher Education Solutions Network program aims to engage students and faculty and catalyze the enthusiasm on campuses for international development, making it easier to turn advocacy and ideas on campus into action and results in the field.

We are launching the Higher Education Solutions Network in order to reconnect over the long-term with universities and academic institutions for three reasons:

  • We aim to leverage their research assets to provide evidence and analysis that can feed into USAID policy
  • We want to test and scale new models for development which includes developing and creating new technologies.
  • We aim to foster an ecosystem where multi-disciplinary approaches are promoted.

We’d like to work with universities and higher education institutions to understand how students can be empowered to shift from saying, “What’s your major?” to “What’s the problem you want to solve?”

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Harnessing Science, Technology, and Innovation To Promote Global Development

Posted by  on Wednesday, February 8th 2012     

Originally posted on the White House blog

Today at the White House, senior Administration officials announced a series of new initiatives to promote game-changing innovations to solve long-standing development challenges.  Answering President Obama’s call to harness science technology, and innovation to spark global development, the Administration announced initiatives from across the government to generate new development solutions.  Announcements include new partnerships with universities; greater use of scientific breakthroughs through expedited technology transfer of federally-funded inventions; a program to reward inventors who use their patented technologies to address humanitarian needs; and initiatives to leverage advances in Internet and communications technologies to provide new development tools.

In an increasingly globalized world, the Obama Administration recognizes that global development is vital to national security and is a strategic, economic, and moral imperative.  One of the cornerstones of our global development policy is a commitment to investments in game-changing innovations with the potential to solve long-standing development challenges in health, food security, environmental sustainability, and broad-based economic growth.  Innovation can play a key role in building a stable, inclusive global economy with new sources of prosperity, advancing democracy and human rights, and helping us to increase the ranks of prosperous, capable, and democratic states that can be our partners in the decades to come.

Administrator Raj Shah announced that USAID is launching a new partnership with universities and research institutes to define and solve large development challenges.  USAID also announced new commitments to increased utilization of electronic and mobile payments to save on costs and increase financial access; a new effort to make assistance to other governments in telecommunications development more efficient; a new “app store” for development to spur humanitarian apps and software; and new commitments to mobile education technology as part of USAID’s All Children Reading grand challenge for development.

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Photo of the Week

Posted by  on Friday, January 6th 2012     

The Empowerment through Literacy Education Access Project (E-LEAP) helps adult Maasai women learn basic Swahili literacy skills, which allows them to have greater access to essential skills. Currently funded through our Education Sector, this program partners with Mwedo (Maasai women development organization) and began in 2007 with 150 Maasai women. Currently, E-LEAP has empowered over 2000 Maasai women. The program extends beyond basic Swahili literacy skills and trains the women in business skills, HIV education, and land rights. Photo credit: Megan Johnson/USAID

Picture of the Week: Tanzania

Posted by  on Monday, December 12th 2011     

Two Maasai women read the graduation ceremony agenda in Swahili in the Longido district of Tanzania. Photo Credit: Megan Johnson/USAID

In Tanzania, The Empowerment through Literacy Education Access Project (E-LEAP) helps adult Maasai women learn basic Swahili literacy skills, which allows them to have greater access to essential skills. Currently funded through our Education Sector, led by Tom LeBlanc, this program partners with Mwedo (Maasai women development organization) and began in 2007 with 150 Maasai women. Currently, E-LEAP has empowered over 2000 Maasai women. The program extends beyond basic Swahili literacy skills and trains the women in business skills, HIV education, and land rights.

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