Hi and welcome to my blog !
I'm Sam Tiwari, the Foundation's Project Manager. On these pages I put up stories about our work and that of others around the world which inspires us to continue campaigning for the Millennium Development Goals for Education.
You may also be interested in a speech I gave to Ministers and other Parliamentarians at a launch event in the UK Parliament on 1st December 2009. Link here
30 January 2012
An absolutely exciting week at the Foundation! We visited our two partner schools and had a brilliant discussion with the children about our work and how they are playing such an important role in supporting it, across the world. St. Paul’s Primary School raised an incredible amount which will help their peers at Laharepipal School in Nepal have a qualified teacher for one year. Berrygrove Primary & Nursery School collected a significant sum for the Foundation during Christmas. Many more schools are joining our cause every day.
We are involved in different ways of fundraising at the Foundation, as most charitable organisations are but I wouldn’t be exaggerating if I said that working with schools is perhaps the most satisfying of all. There are several reasons for this; education for all is the principal goal of the Foundation and nothing serves that purpose in a bigger way than mobilising the education sector in places where the right exists for all, to understand the absence of it in many other parts of the world. Secondly, children championing children’s right to education is perhaps the most powerful tool and the most emotive message in support of universal education. Thirdly, we are an organisation with close links to teachers and which other audience could understand the importance of education more than teachers themselves. All of this makes it very interesting and inspiring to work with schools – the passion for the cause is evident when we meet the children and staff. “What more can we do to help the children in Nepal”, asked a little girl at the assembly in St. Paul’s. The questions from the children were so relevant that Mary and I really had to think hard before answering them! They were totally engaged in the discussion and they had thorough knowledge about the project.
And then I met a number of teachers in Hampshire the other day, who want to get involved with our work. Its so inspiring to see the movement grow. These few years will perhaps go down as a point in history when the movement for education was bigger than ever and there could not be a more exciting time to get involved than now.
15 January 2012
“Unless we show a Global mobilisation involving the private sector, governments and NGOs, we will not be able to put education on the global agenda”, said the Director General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, at the recently concluded World Education Forum in London. I couldn’t agree more with her thoughts on the issue of collaboration among the three.
We have worked far too long on a benefactor-beneficiary model of charity and aid – one that has certainly helped people and communities but one that is not enough to tackle the challenges of growing inequality all over the world. We need greater cooperation on several other aspects of development than a mere giving and receiving of aid. The idea of partnership with the private sector is not new but needs to incorporate much more than a company choosing their charity of the year. As the Director General puts it, the need is for intergovernmental organisations, NGOs and private partners to work together and deliver concrete results. Good to see that corporations such as Intel and Microsoft were present at this forum, actively participating in the idea of a global partnership.
3 January 2012
Hope everyone enjoyed the last few days of 2011. It was an incredibly busy and successful year at the Foundation. In a nutshell - two field projects in Nepal and Sierra Leone, several school partnerships, schools fundraising, 1000 online community members, 155 projects on our online forum and two very successful editions of ENGAGE. As a member of the Global Campaign for Education UK, we have had considerable influence over the International Development Policy of the UK Government, in terms of investment in Education, worldwide. Additional commitment to Education was made by DfID in November 2011 at the Global Partnership for Education’s conference in Copenhagen.
We are looking forward to an even busier 2012 – to adding to our diverse field projects and increasing the level of engagement among our online community members. The year brings us closer to the deadline of 2015, when all the children in the world must have access to basic education and we know that that education coalitions worldwide, will increase the momentum of their work this year.
Let us begin 2012 by welcoming this year’s winners of the Steve Sinnott Young Global Campaigners Award – Eilidih Naismith and Billy Davidson, aged 15, from Hutchesons Grammar School in Glasgow. The duo will travel to Malawi with ActionAid, to meet children who have never been to School and then come back to the UK to engage with Schools, Ministers and various other stakeholders and spread the word about Education for All. We will also involve them and the previous ambassadors, in our campaigns, later this year.
Happy New Year to everyone and watch this space for regular updates and features.
10 November 2011
I again did my disappearing act on this blog but were we busy in the last month!
After months of preparation and endless wait for visas, we finally welcomed thirteen teachers from Sierra Leone, in London, on 31st October. Ever since we met Miriam from EducAid Sierra Leone for the first time last year, we had been working with EducAid to develop a programme to address the most pressing need within the education sector in the country. Not surprisingly, schools in Sierra Leone are struggling with shortage of trained teachers. Miriam lives in Sierra Leone and runs the only free secondary schools in the country. She has a pool of excellent teachers at her schools who are not only qualified but very motivated and passionate about teaching, education and the development of thir country. 
We worked on a project, along with EducAid, to support teachers in Sierra Leone with training and CPD by first organising a ‘Training of Trainers’ course in London with 13 of EducAid’s teachers and then working with EducAid to enable this group to cascade the training to teachers all across Sierra Leone, upon their return.
The one week course, held at the headquarters of the National Union of Teachers, concluded last Friday on an amazingly positive note. Our Education team worked real hard to put together a very high quality programme. I was able to attend for a few days and it was impossible not to be awed by the enthusiasm of these 13 teachers, their high calibre, their passion and their intense involvement in the course. There was incredible energy in the room!
So it all went very well, just as we planned it. The teachers have been visiting schools in the UK since then and we will soon have an opportunity for a debriefing with Miriam and hopefully with the teachers as well.
They had already started approaching schools and head teachers in Sierra Leone, before they arrived here, focusing on rural areas more than urban, with the aim of extending support to teachers based in villages. This particular project will now roll for a year with one training session planned each month at EducAid’s residential teacher training facility in Port Loko. Keep an eye on the website. We’ll post updates soon.
Huge thanks to TGET, NUT, EducAid and to the Foundation’s amazing Education Team!
5 October 2011
“I went to the farm. I worked from 4:00 am til 6:00 pm every day. There were 26 of us children working. I came back home as I wasn’t paid – so the work I did was for nothing”
These are the words of a 16 year old from India, who, like thousands of other children in the country, left education to work and earn money for his family – in this case, on cotton plantations. Not surprisingly, BT cotton plantations are promoted aggressively by Monsanto who probably could not care less about who is actually working on the fields and in what conditions as long as the production costs are low. Child labour in India is estimated at 12 million according to Government figures though child rights activists and civil society organisations claim that the actual figure is between 60-70 million.
There is no legal contract in employing child labour, no obligation for health and safety and no rules about compensation. As this article points out, children on these cotton plantations slept deprived, hungry, overworked and were often abused- physically, verbally and sexually. This gross violation continues unabated in India, for poverty is rampant and the markets flourish with demand and supply of cheap labour. Besides an abuse of human rights, it is a massive loss to the economy, both in terms of taxes and skilled labour. These children that would have been the workforce of tomorrow have lost all opportunities for education today and are working for a pittance in jobs that should actually create revenue for the national economy.
As the article explains, agriculture is not included in the Child Labour Prevention Act,on the grounds that it would prevent children from helping their parents on the farms. However, with 70% of India’s economy still dependent on agriculture, the omission is very easily turned into a tool for exploitation. Right to education can never be fully achieved in India unless the severity of child labour is understood and more importantly, unless people stop justifying it.
20 September 2011
“If the Millennium Development Goals are to be achieved, a serious shortfall in funding must be addressed” – The UN’s MDG Gap Task Force report revealed in its report this month. As the economic crisis forces review of fiscal policies and enforcement of austerity measures across the donor countries, not only are they falling short of meeting their commitments to aid budgets but also erecting trade barriers and tariffs which means that developing countries that are in need of revenue from exports are facing stiff barriers in the market.
Global partnership for development is in itself a Millennium Development Goal and it does not only constitute commitment towards aid (which being as less as 0.7% of the gross national income, has still not been met by most donor countries) but also investment through trade. The report highlights these significant gaps, particularly the reluctance of developed countries to review the duties and quotas imposed on the goods they import, not doing much justice to the Doha negotiations.
An important document for any stakeholder who is committed to the Millennium Development Goals agenda.
13 September 2011
UNESCO is organising an online discussion on 'Teachers for Gender Equality' from 12 - 23rd September, to mark World Teachers' Day, which is celebrated worldwide on 5th October each year.
The e forum is open to all and allows you to express your opinion and share your experiences on gender distribution in the teaching profession and gender equality in education and society : The role of teachers.
The opinions shared on the forum will contribute to the debate on 5th October at UNESCO.
12 September 2011
I have been away from this space for while but some very exciting work has been going on at the Foundation. While project Nepal is on track to meet its targets by the end of this year, our education team has been working on the pre course preparations for the training of trainers that will take place in London in two months time. Twelve teachers from our partner organisation EducAid, Sierra Leone are participating in the programme, gearing up to roll out the training on a much larger scale in Sierra Leone in the next two years.
We are also very excited to begin our school engagement programme, which already has had much success with project Nepal and something that we are keen to scale up. We aim to work with at least 50 schools by the end of next year. Please write to me at sam.tiwari@stevesinnottfoundation.org.uk if you or your school would like to get involved.
Our supporters have grown manifold in the last couple of months, some of whom you can see on the homepage. Also watch this space for the next issue of our magazine ENGAGE. Some fascinating articles on girls’ education and our own work in Nepal and Sierra Leone.
20 July 2011
A great morning assembly at the West Derby School in Liverpool on Monday. Met all the boys who participated in the 3K run last
month and raised money for their partner school in Nepal, a generous amount and an outstanding effort by the boys and the staff.
28 June 2011
A very productive year for the Foundation so far! The website community continues to grow and we are close to starting our next project in Sierra Leone, working with teachers to contribute to their professional development.
Eight partnerships have now been established between schools in the UK and Nepal and a number of exciting events have taken 
place in the last few weeks – both in terms of educational exchanges and fundraising. Five out of these eight schools are supported by our project and efforts continue to raise funds for the rest. In less than a year, we have a brand new school building and two extensively refurbished school buildings in Palpa district. These schools now have new furniture and equipment and afternoon meals for all the children. This has not just contributed to higher enrolment but greater retention as well. The project will support two more schools within this year.
As this academic year concludes on a very positive note for us, we are already looking forward to the beginning of the next term when we will engage many more schools in the UK with our programmes in Nepal and elsewhere.
The last issue of Engage was distributed widely to NUT Divisions & Associations, charities across the world and schools and universities in the UK and abroad. The central theme of the magazine ‘education in areas of conflict’ resonated with the theme of the 2011 Global Monitoring Report and highlighted the stories of success, inspiration and most of all hope for education in parts of the world affected by war and armed conflict. The fourth issue will be available in October 2011, covering yet another key theme of the worldwide education campaign.
10 May 2011
TV presenter Claudia Winkleman was joined by Stephen O’Brien – the Under Secretary of State for International Development, several MPs and the young global campaigners Yasir and Navdeep, yesterday, at the Houses of Parliament as part of the Send My Sister to School campaign, to highlight the crisis in global education, especially for girls.
The Send My Sister to school campaign aims to boost the push to get girls into school this year. By using girls’ stories as the basis for their activities and events, pupils in the UK can learn more about the reasons why is it often the girls that are the ones who are denied their basic right to education. Click on this link for more info [www.sendmyfriend.org]
Navdeep and Yasir’s speech was at the same time forceful and poignant. To think that there are children living in circumstances that they could never imagine has determined both ambassadors to be the ‘voice’ of those children in the UK and globally. Stay updated for their blog on our website in which they will share their experiences in Guatemala, a country which has the highest ownership of helicopters per capita in the world while 80% of people live in poverty and 78000 children have never been inside a school.
I was also quite interested in the points made by Lucy Lake of CAMFED International; an organisation working for girls’ education in several African countries. She said that enrolling girls in schools is just not enough because more than half of them drop out for a multitude of reasons even before finishing primary school. Additionally, overburdened with chores, marriage and pregnancies in adolescence makes it even more difficult for them to access secondary education (A sad but true situation in a number of countries). Monitoring the number of girls who are able to move on to secondary education from primary is an important measure to determine the success of any education system. It follows from this that for the education system to be inclusive; it needs to be sensitive and attentive to the needs of disadvantaged children, within and beyond school. Girls certainly form a massive majority amongst the disadvantaged children.
Quite rightly, as the recent GCE policty report on women and girls education puts it, its time now to move on from rhetoric to results.
02 April 2011
The third issue of our immensely popular magazine ‘ENGAGE’ is hot off the press and an edition not to be missed at all !
Reporting on the achievements of our first project in Nepal and the rapid growth of our online community in the previous months, the magazine carries a special feature on education and armed conflict, close on the heels of this year’s EFA Global Monitoring Report that centres on this theme. The contributors to this feature include former children’s laureate Michael Morpurgo, General Secretary of the Ulster Teachers Union, Avril Hall-Callaghan, Trustee of EducAid Sierra Leone, Rev Mark Wallace and Professor of Education at Leeds University, Audrey Osler.
The magazine will be available at the National Union of Teachers Conference and Ulster Teachers Union Conference this month.
Order your copy now by writing to postmaster@stevesinnottfoundation.org.uk or sam.tiwari@stevesinnottfoundation.org.uk
Suggested donation of £1 for us to cover the printing costs.
11 March 2011
Just to share a very interesting document with everyone. The role of education in achieving Millennium Development Goals
09 March 2011
“Educating 1 billion girls will make a difference to women’s equality”, says Elizabeth King, World Bank Education Director.
A central theme of yesterday’s 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day was empowering women through education. The recent EFA Fast Track Initiative review of girls' education reports that more girls are now going to school in low income countries and the drop – out rate is on a decline. However, there still remains a glaring gender gap in education, which only widens at secondary and higher education.
Out of 796 million adults who lack basic literacy skills, nearly two thirds are women.
Attacks on girls in conflict areas, sexual assault in schools and while going to schools, poor hygiene facilities in schools and lack of female teachers are just a few of the many obstacles in the way of girls’ education, even at the primary level.
Each year of girls’ schooling increases their earning power by 10 to 20 percent, enabling them to fight poverty, diseases and in many instances, violence and exploitation. Investing in women and girls to achieve better educated, healthier and productive societies is ‘smart economics’ that is at the heart of current development rhetoric. Whether investing in women is a smart business choice or a matter of their right is up for debate but one cannot dispute the cascading effect on families, communities and societies.
One can’t deny the crucial role that education has to play in this empowerment process. Not only do we need to address the gender gap in basic and higher education but also close the looming gender digital divide – helping girls and women to access information and technology, to bring about a fair balance in the labour markets.
Attitudes are changing and immense progress has been made so far, yet when I think of little girls in the small villages of North India where I used to work, little girls burdened with household chores and taking care of siblings – makes me feel there is a long way to go. It will require not only more schools and more teachers but working with parents and communities to ensure the support that girls need.
I’ll have some stories of girls from Nepal, to share with everyone soon.
04 March 2011
The launch of the EFA Global Monitoring report on the 1st March in London, was followed by some very though provoking debates on education and conflict. That being the theme of this year’s Global Monitoring Report, we are reminded of the appalling circumstances under which children are living in conflict zones all over the world.
The report calls for tough actions against violation of children’s human rights, the role of education in the peace process and reprioritisation of aid.
Armed conflict currently keeps 28 million children out of school. Besides immediate death and destruction caused by conflict, its prolonged social and psychological effects have the capacity of disenfranchising children and young people and pushing many down the path of violence.
It was interesting to learn from people who have been on the ground, working with children in conflict regions, about the ways to involve young people in long term recovery from war – and the crucial part that education has to play in this.
While I’ll leave the details for you to read in the report, some statistics are worth pointing out. If one were to look at the 1999 – 2009 trend of decline in ‘out of school’ population of children each year, the number of ‘out of school’ children will fall to 29 million in 2015. However, the short term projection from 2004-2009 shows that the number will actually increase to 43 million in 2015. Seven out of 18 low income countries cut their education spending in 2009 and aid to basic education stagnated at the same time.
As the report rightly points out, education is the ‘poor cousin’ when it comes to humanitarian aid. Only 2% of humanitarian aid is channelled to education, often keeping it on a low priority than needs like health and shelter. It is time that we realised that education can’t wait until the war is over. Just like health and shelter, it is an integral part of the life that children in conflict zones are missing out on. As Archbishop Desmond Tutu puts it, “Enough is enough”.
For me, the key take away from the day long seminar was a deeper analysis of the issue – securitisation of aid. As the report points out ‘aid effectiveness has been compromised by the national security agendas of national donors’. This means that while investment in education needs to be promoted with a human rights perspective, it is the geo political concerns and the security agenda that is taking precedence. Development aid is being increasingly seen as an arm of foreign policy, particularly around the ‘war on terror’ rather than a means to achieve growth with justice. This ends up doing more harm than good, delegitimising development work.
To elaborate this with an example, the PRTs (Provincial Reconstruction Teams) in Afghanistan involve military personnel in building of schools, which then come under attack by the extremists as they are seem symbols of oppression. This has increased the risk of attacks on girls and women specially, with 50 attacks each month on schools in Afghanistan in 2009. Read this guardian blog that reports how the gains made in girls’ education in Afghanistan in the last few years are being thwarted now .
The issues are intense and sensitive but extremely important. If we are to talk about education and conflict, we not only need to push for reallocation of aid with a greater share to education but we also need to understand the political dimensions of aid to conflict zones.
Not only do conflict and war devastate education but defence expenditure takes up the lion’s share of the budget. As GMR 2011 points out, mere 6 days of military spending by aid donors would close the $16 billion gap in financing education for all.
The report brings the world’s attention to the problem and lays down an agenda for change. What we need to do is to find a solution or else ten years down the line, we’ll again be sitting and talking about the devastating effects of conflict on education, without having done much to put education firmly on the map in conflict and post conflict regions.
14 Feb 2011
Things have been really busy at the Foundation since the beginning of the year. Our online community is steadily growing, hosting more than 60 projects from various parts of the world – each of them providing access to education for the poorest and most disadvantaged children. Apart from providing a networking space to the projects and their promoters on our web platform, we have also raised financial & non financial support for some of them.
In Nepal, construction and refurbishment is on at two schools, new teachers have been recruited and mid-day meals have started. Read the latest progress report on our website. Coming up on the site is a new group called ‘Schools partnership’ where we will showcase the work being done by schools in the UK & Nepal under the ‘school twinning programme’ – which has been very successful with UK schools and many more will join the initiative this year.
We are very hopeful about starting next project in Sierra Leone this year and a lot of work has been going on in preparation for that. We are so grateful for all the donations that have been coming from NUT associations all over the country to support our work.
At the moment, we are also busy with the production of the third issue of our immensely popular magazine ‘ENGAGE’ with a number of exciting and inspiring stories in this edition.
More updates as they come !
3 Jan 2011
Navdeep Bual and and Yasir Yeahia ; year 10 students from Seven Kings High School in Ilford, Essex have won the 2011 Steve Sinnott Young Global Campaigners Award. For the last two years the immensely popular award has enabled students in the UK to be ambassadors for the Global Campaign for Education and visit countries where many children do not have the opportunity to go to school .
Navdeep and Yasir will travel to Bolivia in February with the charity Toybox that runs projects for street children in four countries of Latin America. The two will then use their experience to campaign for education and the Millennium Development Goals through the year in the UK, interacting with schools, teachers, charities and MPs.
Read Rachel Williams’ article in the Guardian and visit http://www.sendmyfriend.org//news/2011-campaigners-award for details of the award.
23 December 2010
This December concludes the first year of the Steve Sinnott Foundation. It has been a year of discovering our own potential, of hard work and immense learning and building networks with hundreds of inspirational people and organisations around the world.
An Early Day Motion in the House of Commons in January this year, signed by more than 80 MPs from all the parties was a huge motivator for us as we started our operations. We have been fortunate to receive cross party political support since.
In partnership with the Manisha Child Welfare Foundation Nepal and generous support of TGET, we implemented our first field project in Palpa, western Nepal. The project is now underway and by the end of one year will have ensured access to good quality education to 300 children from some of the poorest families in the region. The project attracted vast media attention both in Nepal and in the UK and has inspired enormous confidence in all of us working towards the objective of quality and inclusive education.
We developed close links with local organisations in Sierra Leone and Haiti and throughout 2010 we were involved in extensive discussions with Education International and a number of teacher unions to identify the challenges faced by these countries in the process of achieving education for all. The groundwork done this year will form the basis of our programmes next year.
We published two editions of our magazine ‘ENGAGE’ covering stories of efforts to achieve education for all from across the world and received immense support from political parties in the UK and leaders of teacher unions from all continents. As a part of the Global Campaign for Education, we have been at the forefront of spreading awareness about the Millennium Development Goals and involving schools and teachers in the process.
With 300 members, our online community is now hosting more than 40 projects from various parts of the world and is serving as an interface between those who need support and those who can offer it. Individuals and organisations are already beginning to make connections through the platform and we envisage a massive surge in these exchanges in the next one year.
None of this would have been possible without the determination of our Directors, the untiring work of our Education Team, the contributions of our donors, the support of people from all over the world and foremost of all, the inspiration of Steve Sinnott.
Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year to everyone. Stay tuned for 2011 !
9 December 2010
Amongst the greatest global challenges of the day is the lack of access to education for 69 million children across the world, said ex-prime minister Gordon Brown at a Global Campaign for Education event yesterday.
While launching his book ‘Beyond the Crash’ Mr. Brown argued that education is the key to sustained economic growth and justice and that education denied to a country’s populace is the greatest waste of resources and potential.
In the wake of the economic crisis and the ensuing spending cuts in a large part of Europe and USA, international aid for education has been sorely hit. The achievement of having sent 40 million children to school over the last couple of years is overshadowed by the bleak prospects for the future if aid continues to decline. Countries like Mozambique and Rwanda have already had their education budgets slashed and the crisis is bound to hit a number of other African countries soon. Given that 1 in 4 children of primary school age are out of school in sub Saharan Africa, we can only imagine how fragile the situation is and how a lack of support at this crucial point could reverse the progress of the last few years.
The Global Campaign for Education is thus advocating for a compact between economically poor and rich countries.
“Justice and dignity must go hand in hand” was Mr. Brown’s core message at the event. It is difficult to imagine a world where everyone would be able to live with both unless their basic capabilities were nurtured (incidentally, the pioneer of the ‘human capabilities’ approach to rights and development, professor Amartya Sen was in a live link-up from Harvard University at the event yesterday). Education is hence, not a matter of charity or a contender for aid; it is an investment for the future. However, with amazing short-sightedness, the international donor community seems to be missing this point in the current crisis.
1 December 2010
UNICEF’s child-friendly school model is now being implemented in several countries, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Egypt, Ghana, Nicaragua and Sudan. The model operates on the principle that ‘Schools should operate in the best interest of the child’. Along with providing physical and emotional safety and protection, they must be equipped with adequate resources and trained teachers.
A UNICEF film series on education titled ‘Rising Voices’ was shot in the above mentioned countries. Each film focuses on personal experiences of children going to the child friendly schools.
The story of 12 year old Elizabeth is set in Northern Ghana, a girl trying to fulfil her father’s dream for her – education and a life free of poverty. Her father works as a subsistence famer, working hard with his wife who straps her youngest child to her back while working in the fields. Both he and his wife had to drop out of school due to their circumstances and were relegated to a life of poverty and back- breaking work. However, Peter Napari is determined to give a different life to his eldest daughter Elizabeth who now goes to the child friendly school in her village. She wants to make sure that she makes her father’s dreams come true.
Dreams for my daughter – watch Elizabeth’s story on viewchange.org
29 November 2010
Protective discrimination or ‘reservation’ has been a highly controversial issue in India. What may seem rather simplistic has been fraught with difficulties given the diversity of the country and bottlenecks in implementation such as the reserved seats going to the ‘privileged lot’ even amongst the marginalised people.
The arguments for reservation are far too obvious and indeed convincing – both as a tool for fair political representation and provider of opportunity to those who are less fortunate in a society highly fragmented by caste, class and gender. It is an effective legal and constitutional fix to ensure equal progress of all sections. However, might reservation alone be able to achieve equality?
Reservations in institutions of higher learning in India have drawn flak for the fact that they arguably undermine merit and in turn diminish the cutting edge of technology, management and research that these institutions are recognised for. They are also perceived as contravening the principal of equality by favouring one group over the other. The ethos of this argument is forever up for debate as one could very well argue that equality of opportunity has historically been denied to the socially and economically weaker sections of the society and reservation is but a retribution for that.
It seems impossible to draw a definitive conclusion about the imbroglio of reservation in employment or institutions of higher education but one thing is for sure – if children from all backgrounds – irrespective of their caste, class or ethnicity were given an equal opportunity for a strong educational foundation they would definitely have the necessary skills to compete in the higher education or employment market. In this spirit, in 2007, 20% reservation for students from economically weaker sections was made mandatory in private schools in Delhi that were allotted subsidised land by the Government. Several schools have not yet implemented the reservation as revealed by this newspaper article.
My concern extends beyond this though. Reservation for poor students in private schools affordable only by the wealthy will inevitably create an environment characterised by class divide and hostility. Much more needs to be done alongside reservation – least of all sensitising students and teachers towards issues like justice and equality, so that students from economically weaker sections can integrate smoothly in the schools environments.
Reservation seems all to obvious and all too simplistic a solution; not to forget a vote gathering tactics for parties but it’s own nemesis is that fact that it limits agenda of change and the social and political imagination of those trying to bring about that change. It is only one step that needs to be substantiated by many more if equality is to be achieved.
28 October 2010
The World Bank’s recently published Education Sector Strategy 2020 draft discusses at length, the shift in the Bank’s focus from ‘Education for All’ to ‘Learning for All’
What does this imply?
As per the draft, the Bank’s strategy at the beginning of the millennium focused significantly on basic education and early interventions. By 2005, the approach became holistic and more results oriented. This emphasis on results has been reiterated in the strategy for 2020, albeit in terms of strengthening the ‘education system’ as the draft calls it, more than concentrating on enrolment rates. The draft discusses that though enrolment has been fairly successful in the last couple of years in developing countries, the quality of education in many of them is far from satisfactory. The next decade for the bank will be about operational, financial and technical assistance to build a high quality knowledge base in education and enhance the learning outcomes.
An interesting point made in this draft is the Bank’s position on the public-private debate in education. It states that the “new strategy explicitly recognises that learning opportunities go beyond those offered by the public sector and also beyond traditional formal programs”. Much could be read into this, not in the least, the subtle espousal of private education, which has been on the rise, especially in South Asia. However, private education is a broad and often muddled term which includes anything from local community run schools to schools and institutions run by for-profit private corporations – and I may have to agree with another point made in this draft – that “private education not only serves those learners who can afford to pay but is an important provider of education in the poorest communities where national and even local governments do not reach”.
While not all forms of private education are driven by values of fairness and equality, some definitely are( again, depending on the widely stretched definition of ‘private’ and including efforts by local organisations and communities) and they may be crucial in delivery of education to people and places where formal systems will take another decade to reach. The Bank’s recognition of these efforts might be a step in the right direction, but to be taken cautiously of course, as this should in no way discount the importance of a state funded education system.
The Bank has followed a wide consultation process in the formulation of the strategy. Hence, it will be reflective of diverse perspectives and inputs from those working on the ground. The final strategy is yet to be published but the draft does give an idea of the kind of the approach that will govern the Bank’s work on education in the next decade.
7 October 2010
It was a pleasure to talk on the occasion of World teachers’ day at the NUT headquarters yesterday. ‘Achieving Education for All : Investing in teachers’ was the theme for the event and aptly so.
Poverty reduction strategies and programs have drawn criticism for their narrow approaches and for dealing only with the effects of poverty. Investment in education on the other hand is a tool to deal with one of root causes of poverty and no education system can succeed without investing in its teachers. This theme resonated in the presentations and discussions yesterday.
Fred van Leeuwen, General Secretary, Education International pointed out that 1.9 million teachers are required worldwide, each year in order to achieve Education for All and the Millennium Development Goals. Shortage of teachers across the world, specifically in developing countries is due to a number of reasons, ranging from lack of appropriate remuneration packages to lack of training and professional development.
At a time when prices of basic commodities like food have hit the roof in most low income countries, it is a matter of grave concern that teachers, who are expected to teach classes of 80 – 100 students, do not receive salaries for months and sometimes over a year. How are they expected to support their families or even themselves? What implications does this have for the profession? Additionally, poor countries’ education budgets are being cut by $4.6 bn a year (Global Campaign for Education) as a result of the economic crisis, which will have devastating effects on the already chaotic salary and incentive structures in many of these countries.
While there has been immense focus on teacher absenteeism and on introducing strict monitoring mechanisms, there is little recognition of the appalling circumstances in which teachers have to work – without resources, without support, without training and well, without salaries!
The Foundation’s message at the event was that even though monitoring and accountability are important to ensure professionalism and tackle irregularities and corruption, much more focus is needed in providing teachers with quality inputs, support and training that will help them perform better and understand the needs of their students. Investing in teachers is not only about investing in salaries but also investing in the value of the profession and investing in that one factor – motivation .
24 September 2010
An action agenda for achieving the MDGs by 2015 has emerged from the recently concluded MDG Summit in New York. A number of previous international agreements such as the Monterrey Consensus and Doha declaration as well as the Millennium Declaration itself have been reaffirmed.
An event as high profile as this has definitely helped to increase the awareness of MDGs but the challenge lies in transforming the promises into actions amidst the worst economic turmoil of all times. The MDGs have given a direction and time bound targets to the international community and the idea of global cooperation underpins the whole concept of MDGs. The current economic climate challenges this concept and unless we realise the implications of failing to achieve the MDGs, global cooperation is always going to be fraught with problems – such as the debate between domestic and overseas aid at the moment.
The action agenda is a brilliant document in that it acknowledges the achievements as well as failures but along with reaffirming previous commitments, perhaps some thought needs to be given to the model of international development as it is being followed at the moment. The United Nations Research Institute for Social Development released a new report earlier this month – ‘Combating Poverty and Inequality: Structural Change, Social Policy and Politics’. I think its an excellent read to get a sense of some of the reasons why poverty and inequality are persistent across the world and look at institutional and political constraints.
So, the world leaders have united yet again in promising that we need to tackle poverty and its contents. It is good to have that unanimous decision but perhaps at an individual level our role is not only limited to asking leaders to keep their promises but be a part of the change by assuming some responsibility of bringing about that change. Maybe a personal action agenda for achieving the MDGs ?
9 September 2010
The Foundation is proud to announce the beginning of its first Millennium Development Goal project in Palpa, western Nepal. Beginning with three schools and approximately 250-300 students, we will extend it to 16 schools in both west and east Nepal by this year and next, giving over 1000 children access to excellent quality education, infrastructure and resources.
Though the interim constitution of Nepal 2007 provides for education as a fundamental right, the provision has remained unimplemented for a large part of the country. There are striking differences between literacy rates for men and women and for the rich and poor. On UNESCO’s 45th Literacy day yesterday, it was revealed that 4.5 Nepal women are illiterate. Only 51% children in the age group of 5-9 years from poor households are enrolled in primary schools, compared to 87% in the richest households (R. Singh in The Himalyan, 2010)
We need support to get all the 16 schools going and we are working with our local partner to ensure sustainability of the schools and the project itself.
3 September 2010
I came across this video and article on Facebook and I just had to share it. We may have heard of appalling student-teacher ratios but this one just beats it all. A primary school in rural Chattisgarh in India is run and managed by one lone teacher. He teaches all the students from grade 1 to 5. As if that were not enough, he is posted on various government duties such as election vigilance. What do children gain from this education is anybody's guess.
Quite often the benchmark for literacy is being able to write one's name. By these standards literacy rate in the district in which this village is located is 76%. However, this one example reveals the futility of such statistics. There are thousands of schools in the country that struggle with lack of resources and trained teachers every day and despite some brilliant and innovative work by Civil Society Organisations and some government departments, a sizeable number of children still do not have access to quality education.
The larger picture with intensely complicated and intertwined issues of class, caste and corruption sometimes gets very disheartening but the silver lining is to make the difference where possible and make a difference that is sustainable.
27 August 2010
Child labour is a social curse in India, as it is in a number of other developing countries. Recent estimates in India pitch child labour at 8.6 million with the majority engaged in the agricultural sector.
A recently released Save the Children India discussion paper reveals that thousands of children who are out of school run the risk of being child labourers but these numbers go unreported. This 'potential labour pool' of children is 45.2 million.
16 August 2010
It was Tanzania last year and Ghana this year. Moving from Africa to South America, it will be Bolivia next year.
Toybox is hosting the Steve Sinnott Young Campaigners award 2011 and is now inviting applications from 14 and 15 year- olds in the UK. Toybox works with street children in Bolivia and the winners along with their teacher will get an opportunity to go to Bolivia and investigate the barriers to education faced by street children.
You can read more about the award and the achievements of the previous and current young ambassadors on our website as well as Global Campaign for Education website.
13 August 2010
The axe is falling all over again.
This morning brings worrying news for not only for the world’s poor but for all of us and any of us who have been working for achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and Education for all.
It was not long ago that this year’s MDG report stated that post economic crisis, a shadow of doubt hangs over achievement of most goals by 2015. A submission to DfID Ministers circulated yesterday has now but confirmed these doubts. Ministers at the department have been advised to drop around 100 overseas aid commitments made in the past couple of years, despite some of them having a ‘strong public backing’ .Among these 100 projects are the commitments made to double the support to global education, health and fair-trade.
It has also been recommended that the new approach will measure success by outputs and not inputs. This will apply to the existing pledges to support education for 8 million children in Africa and to help 25 million people in Africa gain access to water and sanitation.
Chair of Global Campaign for Education UK, Joseph O’Reilly was quoted in the Telegraph saying that this is going to undermine all the efforts to secure education for all in developing countries.
Though there has not been a clear comment from DfID yet, it might be only a matter of time before these cuts are formally endorsed and announced. At a time when the world’s poor are struggling to recover from the economic crisis (which by the way happened for no fault of theirs) these cuts will not only make that recovery an uphill task but also risk losing the achievements of the last 10 years.
The Steve Sinnott Foundation will work together with the partners in the GCE UK Coalition and other stakeholders to express our concern.
Please go to the discussion forum where this memo is available. Read it and leave your response and comments.
10 August 2010
Came across this fascinating movement in South Africa called 'Equal Education' that is campaigning to uproot class, race and gender linked inequalities in the education system in South Africa. With hundreds of young people as its members, the campaign advocates for a different theme to address inequality in education every year. Last year it was basic standard of infrastructure in schools. This year they are campaigning for one library for every school in the country and their enthusiasm and success is phenomenal
Read about the 'One school, one library, one librarian campaign'
5 August 2010
At a time when post-independence development was beginning to take place in Sierra Leone, the civil war broke out that crippled the country for more than a decade. It was one of the most violent conflicts of the 20th century and took a massive toll on life and infrastructure. Thousands of schools were destroyed and children and teachers were killed during the war. Destruction and displacement took place on such a large scale that that even after eight years of peace and relative political stability, Sierra Leone is struggling to consolidate its economic and social development.
Sierra Leone ranks 180 on the Human Development Index out of 182 countries. Its maternal and under --five mortality rates are the highest in the world. More than 30% children of primary-school age are not enrolled in school and transition rate from primary to secondary and tertiary education is very low. Child marriage is one of the barriers to girls’ education with 62% girls marrying before the age of 18.
The challenges have been evident in the education sector. Even though primary education is free, the enrolment is abysmally low and the transition from primary to secondary education is extremely difficult on two counts – secondary education is not free and many children do not get the required quality of primary education in order to qualify for secondary.
A Save the Children article notes that 1 in 4 children won’t make it to their fifth birthday in Sierra Leone – such is the healthcare situation in the country.
The Steve Sinnott Foundation has chosen Sierra Leone as the next country to work in, for these reasons and many more. We recognise the multiple deprivations that children in conflict affected regions face and just like Nepal, Sierra Leone is home to thousands of children who are eager for education but do not have enough opportunities around them. There are people in Sierra Leone who are fighting hard to change this and the Foundation will be an ally in this struggle in the near future.
1 August 2010
Haiti was all over the news in the first half of 2010. Emergency appeals flooded every website, humanitarian response flowed from every direction and the world united to help Haiti.
More than six months down the line, no doubt much has been done in every way to provide immediate relief but the real task of getting life back on track begins now. Among the many challenges is that of rebuilding an equal and fair education system. The affect of this disaster will be felt for generations to come but in taking a holistic approach that considers education as important an element of recovery as any other, there may be hope for those generations as well.
Recently, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on the ‘Right to Education in emergency situations’. The resolution instructs member states and UN agencies to step up efforts for providing education in emergency situations and integrating it as an important element of immediate and long term recovery.
Writing for the first issue of the Foundation’s magazine ‘Engage’ Claudia Blume, Plan International aid worker in Haiti reported that what children in Haiti miss the most is going to school. When school buildings collapsed in the January earthquake, thousands of teachers and students died. Rebuilding all this will not only involve reconstruction of buildings but also identifying the needs for a quality education system that everyone has an equal access to. Professional development for teachers increased state spending on education and incorporating local knowledge are some of those needs.
The Steve Sinnott Foundation is talking to a number of partners across the world who are committed to education in Haiti. Do get in touch with us if you feel this is an area you want to make a difference in and we will be happy to discuss it further. Education International will be telling us more about the situation and their work in Haiti in the Forthcoming issue of ENGAGE.
13 July 2010
Sometimes, all we need is one goal!
While Iniesta’s one goal changed the world for Spain on 11 July, the 1GOAL campaign brought together 14 million supporters to change the world for 72 million children. Advocacy throughout the World Cup culminated in the Education Summit held in Pretoria, South Africa on 11 July 2010. At the invitation of the Government of South Africa, heads of States and Governments attended the 2010 FIFA World Cup Education Summit and reiterated the commitment made by the international community at the World Education Forum (Dakar, 2000) to ensure quality basic education for all children, young people and adults by 2015.
South African President Jacob Zuma called for global action for education as the legacy of the World Cup and UK Secretary of State for International Development Andrew Mitchell reaffirmed UK’s commitment to Education for All, while urging Governments to reassess their spending priorities so that children don’t miss out on the education.
Meanwhile, in the UK 9000 schools have signed up for the 2010 1GOAL-Send my Friend campaign and 1 million children have been taking part across the UK. Supporter scarves have started arriving at 10 Downing Street. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Ministers such as Vince Cable, William Hague, Theresa May and Andrew Mitchell have visited schools in their constituencies.
Read the amazing stories of what schools have been doing.
The worldwide 1GOAL campaign has ensured that countries and their leaders don’t forget that the most precious goal yet remains to be kicked – Education for All and the right time for that is right now!
8 July 2010
UK has been ranked 6th in the class of 2010. Netherlands has topped the charts and USA is way down below on the 16th position. Denmark and Ireland tie for the 3rd position and Canada struggles at 9th !
Wondering what is going on?
Read the [Global Campaign for Education schools report for 2010] and find out how your leaders have performed in the last one year. Where does each country stand with respect to its commitment to universal primary education.
Feel like a discussion on the report? Go to the GCE UK forum and start a discussion or contribute to an ongoing one.
30 June 2010
Two years of economic turbulence, devastating earthquake and wars later, it is kind of expected that the recently released Millennium Development Goals Report 2010 is a document containing dark and shocking facts and figures.
It reveals the massively negative impact that the economic crisis world over has had on the progress towards achieving MDGs. Deterioration of the labour market has stepped up unemployment while pushing many into precarious and vulnerable jobs. When we were to be heading towards 2015 with extreme poverty and hunger reduced by half, it turns out that many more families have been forced back into extreme poverty. A Reuters report recently stated that 100 million more Indians are now living in poverty than 2004. An ironic fact considering that South Asia was supposed to have beaten poverty and hunger better than other parts of the world and countries like India are posed as the next superpowers!
Another shocking fact is that hunger may have spiked in 2009, world over – a reminder to us again that we cannot talk about education when children go hungry for days and come to schools on an empty stomach. When the Steve Sinnott Foundation was developing its project in Nepal, an absolute requirement was that we will have one meal per day for the children in all the schools.
An alarming fact for all of us who are working to achieve Education for All is this one sentence in the report ‘Hope dims for universal education by 2015, even as many poor countries make tremendous strides’. Education remains elusive for girls in many regions with poverty being the biggest barrier, especially for older girls. With 42 million people affected by conflict, the odds are even higher against education.
The MDG report 2010 is no less than a call to action. Don’t miss reading it !
25 June 2010
MP Pamela Nash questioned the Prime Minister in the PMQs on Wednesday 23 June about the Send My Friend campaign and Government's commitment to Spending on the Millennium Development Goals for Education.
Watch the programme on BBC iplayer. The question is at the 14th minute http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00sw4w6/Prime_Ministers_Questions_23_06_2010/?from=r
23 June 2010
At a time when most of us were gripped by the action and frenzy of the World Cup in South Africa, Lazarus Chidumwa made a dangerous journey across the border from Zimbabwe to South Africa, leaving behind the life he knew and hoping that he could escape the poverty and misery that surrounded it. When his school closed down in Zimbabwe, he left for South Africa in search of an education.
While Lazarus was lucky to end up in the safe hands of DFID-Save the Children Musina project, many of his peers are not. If they make it to the South Africa soil safely (after negotiating their way with barbed wires and crocodiles) they often land into trouble in the border town of Musina where theft and abuse is common. Thankfully, the Musina project has been able to rescue many and provide them with food, shelter and opportunity to go to schools. They shouldn’t have to put their lives at risk to fulfil their dreams in the country next door. However, do they have a choice?
21 June 2010
As a part of preparations for the UN summit in September 2010 in New York, the UNDP has recently compiled a study titled ‘What it will take to achieve the Millennium Development Goals' after an economic assessment of 50 countries. UNDP administrator Helen Clark admitted that the recent global turmoil has ‘complicated the road to 2015’. The study takes stock of achievements and failures till date and concludes that progress has been quite uneven.
The global economic crisis has not only resulted in increasing poverty and unemployment in the already poor regions but has also effected the Official Development Aid (ODA) commitments made at the Gleneagles G8 summit in 2005. Some activists have compared these to the recent bank bailouts by the governments in the USA, UK and Europe. The point as we understand is that banks were not allowed to fail at any cost but the same principle is hardly being applied to MDGs that may fail in several countries.
While civil society organisations today operate in an increasingly 'deadline-oriented' environment where quantifiable targets have to be achieved in a certain period, it is but a matter of grave concern that world leaders, International Financial Institutions, Donors and governments that collectively promised to deliver on MDGs by 2015 might just miss the deadline !
14 June 2010
As the World Bank education strategy consultation takes place in London tomorrow, RESULTS have produced a paper on education financing trends at the World Bank. The paper identifies three main areas of concern; over half of all IDA funding for education in the past decade has gone to only three countries- India, Pakistan and Bangladesh while allocation to Sub Saharan Africa is very low, education loans are being managed by boards rather than the education sector and finally that IDA is withdrawing funding for education from Catalytic-Fund approved countries for EFA Fast Track Initiative.
These are worrisome trends given that the World Bank is developing its new education strategy now. Read the complete study on the discussion forum
9 June 2010
'Education for All' will be the lasting legacy of the World Cup 2010 in South Africa. Top footballers, celebrities, politicians and activists all over the world have come together under the banner 1GOAL and are promoting the campaign worldwide. South African President Jacob Zuma has announced plans for an international summit before the end of the world cup. 1GOAL aims to make the campaign's voice heard loud and clear at the summit and hence wants supporters to write notes on special 'yellow cards' that will then be given to the world leaders at the summit. You can prepare your own yellow card on 1GOAL's website
Meanwhile in the UK, '1GOAL-Send my Friend' campaign has reached 8000 schools. Giant supporter scarves are ready to go to Downing Street !
8 June 2010
A few months ago, in our discussions on issues around education in developing countries, violence against children in schools was identified as a growing menace. Quite obviously, girls form majority of the victims. It sounds shameful, almost pathetic that when girls finally get an opportunity for education after fighting odds like poverty, domestic responsibilities and discrimination, they are confronted with violence in schools that should ideally be safe havens for them.
In a UNGEI audio, Judith Bruce, Senior Associate and Policy Analyst with the Population Council stresses that fear of violence greatly limits girls’ participation and learning. Girls are most unsafe in countries with highest incidence of HIV/AIDS. A recent population council study found that abuse and rape is common at home as well as in schools. The issue is not one- off and is inextricably linked with lack of awareness, ill-managed education systems, poverty and corruption. Talking about violence in schools is bound to open Pandora’s Box of troubles, but the vicious cycle will continue if the silence is not broken.
Read about gender based violence in schools on UNGEI website
3 June 2010
Distance learning is emerging as a powerful tool for education with growth in technology. In the near future it will not only be limited to university education but primary and secondary education as well. It is also being explored as a tool to provide teacher training and professional development in countries where the demand for trained teachers far exceeds their supply.
Learning International Networks Consortium (LINC) is a consortium set up by Massachusetts Institute of Technology and comprises of educators across the world who are committed to promoting distance learning technology. While this is mostly pertains to university education, a sub initiative within LINC, called ‘Blossoms’ aims at developing free video modules for high school Maths and Science. These videos are produced by teacher volunteers and are an open resource that can be freely used for learning. The USA, Pakistan, Jordan and Lebanon are the four partner countries in the initiative at the moment.
However, lack of access to computers, internet technology, digital divide and lack of software in local languages still remain some major hindrances in promoting distance education for all. ‘Blossoms’ though consists of video modules that can be played on any Tape/DVD player if schools can provide for one, and of course, if there is electricity!
2 June 2010
Yesterday we were out and about spreading our message among educators again. Our magazine, ENGAGE, was widely distributed at the University and Colleges Union Annual Congress in Manchester. We're gathering great support along the way as we begin to make important contributions directly in the field.
28 May 2010
Read 1GOAL's recently launched ten point policy manifesto here
Making Education for All a reality 1GOAL
26 May 2010
The Steve Sinnott Foundation welcomes the new Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove as well as the new Secretary of State for International Development Andrew Mitchell. The Foundation has had a cross-party political support ever since its establishment and we look forward to working with the new Government and Ministers in the near future.
We appreciate Mr. Mitchell’s emphasis on sustainable international development. Our own approach to promoting education across the world is guided by the principle of sustainability, deeply embedded in the values of local participation and indigenous knowledge. Additionally, we believe that monetary aid on its own is not sufficient to address the larger-than-life questions of poverty, illiteracy, conflict and discrimination that we face in varying intensity and proportions across the world.
We have great faith in the power of dialogue in challenging discrimination. We believe in the principle of 'engaging'. Engaging the Governments, Professions and larger Civil Society in questioning the roots of poverty, discrimination and illiteracy. As announced recently in the Queen's speech, the quality of aid is as important as the quantity of it. We believe that the wealth of knowledge that is generated through sharing and learning can improve the quality of monetary aid manifold. This is one of the central tenets of our approach and we look forward to engaging the new ministers and civil society with our endeavours.
25 May 2010
A major conference on education for girls was held at Dakar, Senegal from 18 – 20 May 2010, organised by the United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative (UNGEI). Held at the 10th anniversary of UNGEI, the conference aimed at putting girls’ education firmly on the agenda and expand partnerships for girls’ education across the world.
“Primary to secondary transition rates, retention rates, quality education and education of adolescent girls were identified as dynamics that must be tackled if the world is to reach the Education for All and the Millennium Development Goals”.
24 May 2010
Amongst a number of explanations for gender inequality in education, a significant factor is low ‘labour market returns’ for female education. Basically, one of the reasons why education for girls is not encouraged in several regions is that the larger macroeconomic environment is not conducive for them to get an employment. Many a time parents feel that ‘return on investment’ for girls’ education is not high enough and this dissuades them from sending daughters to school. Even when education is free and compulsory, the lack of future prospects holds girls back for the fear that even the time invested in education will not yield any returns.
In principle, even when equality of outcome cannot be guaranteed, the equality of opportunity must always exist. However, diminished outcome is bound to affect opportunity. ‘Gender and the labour market’ is a whole new (and very important!) debate, for another day perhaps but this interesting research from Pakistan makes some crucial points about differential labour market returns to men and women, with a strong impact on educational opportunities for boys and girls.
20 May 2010
The Foundation is now developing its global schools link program, along with the Nepal project. Three schools in Nepal with three schools in the UK will be our first pilot and we are very excited about this initiative, more so because of the enthusiasm on both sides.
We intend to roll this out on a larger scale as well and it will be teachers who will decide on the activities, not us ! If this sounds interesting to you, do get in touch with me as we will need many more schools in the UK to participate and enrich the program with their ideas.
17 May 2010
With the World Cup around the corner, the activities for 1GOAL campaign have intensified and a number of footballers, celebrities and organisations are now supporters of the campaign.
Within two weeks, 7 million people have pledged their support for 1GOAL and the campaign aims to have 15 million supporters by the time the Wold Cup begins. Give your voice to 1GOAL by joining the campaign and spread the word. We will soon have a direct link from our homepage, to sign up for the campaign.
Watch the best moments of 1GOAL here
14 May 2010
One of the most formidable challenges to achieving Education for All is war and conflict. Entire generations lose out on the opportunity for Education in countries torn apart by war. We recently met Miriam who runs an organisation called EducAid in Sierra Leone, a country that has been through a long period of civil strife. Though preliminary steps have been taken in Sierra Leone to prioritise education, there is still a long way to go to establish the highest quality of education at all levels – primary, secondary and university.
Save the Children’s latest publication called The Future is Now delves deep into the issues around education in conflict zones and contains key learning and recommendations to tackle challenges around securing education in conflict affected settings.
We at the Foundation are particularly committed to education in regions that face multiple disadvantages, including poverty and conflict. Steve Sinnott himself worked tirelessly in conflict affected regions such as Ethiopia and Middle East to promote peace and education. We are proud that our first field initiative will be in Nepal where similar challenges loom large and we are confident that our collective effort will bring us success in this region.
13 May 2010
Having written about the unequivocal political support to education the other day, left me with a nagging thought for the rest of the day – Why is there a shortfall in donor aid to education, despite education being accepted and acknowledged as a fundamental tool in the fight against poverty and inequality and as a precursor to a just world? I am yet to meet anyone who in principle disagrees with this fact, even though people may have different opinions on what counts as education and how it should be delivered.
Yet the education sector and particularly basic education receives much less in International Aid than other equally important sectors like health. A paper written by Liesbet Steer and Cecilie Wathne of the Overseas Development Institute for a workshop last year dwells on this important issue, discussing a number of factors that influence donor commitment and the flow of bilateral and multilateral aid. I will put this paper up on our discussion forum and it will be excellent to have comments from teachers and development professionals.
11 May 2010
The Global Campaign for Education UK is setting up an All-Party Parliamentary Group on Education for All, comprising of representatives from all major Political Parties. Achieving the goals for Education was one issue that was unanimously supported by all three parties and endorsed by the three leaders.
The campaign is now trying to sign up as many new and re-elected MPs as possible to the group and despite the shadow of uncertainty over Westminster (which may well be resolved by this evening ! ), there is no uncertainty about cross party support for the cause of Education.
“The new APPG will work with Parliamentarians of all parties to raise further awareness in the Houses of Parliament of the factors affecting the provision of education globally and to support the achievement of internationally-agreed goals on education across the world” says Julia Modern, Campaigns Officer at Results UK.
10 May 2010
The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights prohibits discrimination on grounds of race, colour, sex, language, religion, nationality, property or birth. Yet, amidst a plethora of Human Rights Violations that take place everyday across the world in various situations, denial of the Right to Education on the above grounds and many more is perhaps one of the oldest and persistent forms of violation of Human Rights and specifically The Rights of the Child
Despite International and National charters and laws to uphold the Right to Education, 72 million children still do not have that opportunity and for many of those who do, the quality and impact is questionable. While legislative reform is no doubt a progressive first step, it would take a complete overhaul of values, attitudes and mindsets upon which the education system rests, for it to be inclusive in letter and spirit. It is not only about making small room for the marginalised to be accommodated in a system that is predominantly designed to cater to those who can afford to buy it, but about laying a new foundation on the principle of equality.
There is a very interesting discussion on the Right to Education Project Website on this issue and it is definitely worth reading and reflecting upon.
7 May 2010
‘Financing quality public education’ was the theme of the Global Action Week held last month across the world. As has been noted by Global Campaign for Education we are facing a US $12 Billion a year funding shortfall in donor aid, which is a massive hindrance in the way of achieving Universal Primary Education and the larger Education for All Goals. At the same time, expenditure on public education in a number of developing countries is as small as 2 – 5% of the GDP, as indicated by a five-year research project on public expenditure in fifteen developing countries, implemented by the Global Development Network.
The Global Campaign for Education has also published a number of research reports indicating the impact of IMF policies on education spending. The onus lies both with National Governments and Multilateral Agencies like the IMF to avoid prescribing and striving for stringent fiscal targets at the cost of something as fundamental and critical as education.
5 May 2010
Privatisation is as much a bone of contention in the education sector as in any other, and as much internationally, as in the UK. As revealed in a number of studies, the surge of private education from primary to higher secondary levels in developing countries like Nepal, India, Nigeria and Ghana raises several questions, the predominant of which is failure of the State to provide good quality, subsidised and compulsory education to children.
Many argue that Private sector’s participation is the only way to make up for the dire shortage of quality schools and trained teachers in developing countries. However, the debate is not that simple and straightforward. This interesting article on 'privatisation of education in India' reveals the complicated issues behind the over-simplistic assumption of a directly proportional relationship between privatisation and quality of education.
4 May 2010
While we may remember the 2009 multi award – winning movie Slumdog Millionaire, many of us may not be aware that the movie and the book are inspired by Professor Sugata Mitra’s groundbreaking initiative – Hole in the wall
Dr. Mitra is at present Professor of Educational Technology at Newcastle University UK and also the Chief Scientist, Emeritus, at NIIT, a global education and training company, headquartered in India. Dr. Mitra initiated his ‘Hole in the Wall’ experiment in 1999 in India setting up a kiosk within a wall near a slum and leaving a computer in it, for children from around the slum to use freely. It was found that children had taught themselves to use the computer and internet within that month. The initiative has been replicated in a number of places in India and is an excellent example of using technology in a simple and non – conventional way to inspire learning.
27 April 2010
The Foundation is now ready to make progress with an important component of its strategy – direct participation by teachers in the drive towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals for education. We're offering the worldwide online community website enabling teachers to involve themselves directly in our work.
We're working with community based organisations in developing countries and our online community serves as a platform for you to be a part of this work. We're also inviting questions and discussion points in the community forums. Join in and help stimulate these discussions.
19 April 2010
I came across this very interesting not-for-profit organisation in India called 'Going to School'. Their project involves the use of creative media to stimulate learning in children and make the process of education interesting and relevant to their lives. In a series of 9 mini-movies sponsored by a coalition of organisations and individuals including the Novadaya Foundation and the Global Fund for Children in the USA, they depict the lives of children in diverse parts of India and the determination with which children go to school despite adverse circumstances. In a very appealing and sensitive way, the movies show what education means to a country's people and how important it is for national and international community to bridge the gap between the need for education and the access to it, in any country.
The video is hosted on the UK Teachers TV website .
8 April 2010
India enforced The Right to Education Act on 1st April 2010, joining the league of countries that have made education a fundamental right of every child. The historic and much awaited act on free and compulsory Right to Education paves the way for access to basic education for approximately 10 million children in the country.
In his address, the Prime Minister of India Dr. Man Mohan Singh emphasised the role of committed and trained teachers in the process, and requested them to become ‘partners’ in this effort. He also stressed the importance of ensuring a motivating working environment, facilities and resources for teachers to undertake this role.
Unprecedented as the act is, it will definitely encounter obstacles in its implementation. There has already been a furore amongst the ‘elite’ private schools (called public schools in India) on the clause for reservation of seats for poor children free of cost. Additionally, recruitment of dynamic and motivated teachers and supporting them with trainings and professional development is a pertinent issue that will have to be addressed.
However, the obstacles should only strengthen the resolve for universalising elementary education rather than dampening it. As the Prime Minister said in his address, the act has to be pledged to the Nation’s children and the country must make sure that nothing stops a child from realising his or her dreams and aspirations.
6 April 2010
The Easter conference National Union of Teachers a great success for us and we returned enriched and invigorated with the solidarity and support extended by teachers, NUT colleagues as well as international delegates. We welcome the new members to our forums and look forward to their participation and contributions. The generous donations raised at the Conference will take the Foundation a step further towards its goals and enable us to address some of the barriers that children face in getting access to education in economically poor regions of the world.
‘Education for All’ was the theme of the International Fringe Meeting at the conference and I was delighted to share the platform with the Global Campaign for Education UK the General Secretary of the Ghana National Association of Teachers and Vice President of Education International Irene T. Duncan-Adanusa and the Steve Sinnott Award winners, Ronan McKenzie and Rhiannon Kruse-Edwards The presenters touched upon various issues that the Foundation is seeking to address and it was an honour for me to present the Foundation’s work at the meeting. We received a very enthusiastic response from the delegates and I am sure they will involve themselves with our work.
25 March 2010
Talking to girls at Watford Grammar School about the Global Campaign for Education today and their enthusiasm and ideas totally reinforced my belief in the potential of young people to change the world.
Each year, thousands of schools in the UK participate in the GCE UK ‘Send my Friend’ initiative and collectively influence the Government’s policy with their innovative campaigning. This year’s campaign is called 1GOAL , having been linked with the World Cup in South Africa and while the world watches the game in South Africa, schools in the UK will make sure that their voices in support of universal education are heard there as well as at the MDG summit this September.
Be a part of this exciting and challenging time and leave your footprint on the road to 2015.
For details, visit http://www.sendmyfriend.org/
23 March 2010
With the NUT Easter conference round the corner, it has been a busy period at the Foundation as well. Our first publication will be available at the conference and on our website thereafter.
With increase in the number of projects on the website, our involvement in the field in developing countries has also begun and so has the need for your contributions. We recently had a very interesting meeting with colleagues at the Manisha Child Welfare Foundation Nepal (MCWFN) and their dedication and enthusiasm for providing education to children from some of the poorest communities in Nepal is truly inspirational.
Read about this initiative in the [‘Projects’] page of the website. There might be something that you can contribute to this project – volunteering, education resources, networks or donations. There’s nothing too small to make a difference!
9 March 2010
Had a very encouraging meeting today with Mike Foster, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for International Development. DFID’s new education strategy launched on 3rd March amply recognises the current challenges facing the Education sector worldwide and pledges to step up aid effectiveness. The Foundation shares DFID’s priorities and principles and we are excited to work together on common grounds in the near future.
Have a look at the news section on the website to access DFID’s new education strategy document and leaflet. The new policy widens scope for partnerships, campaigns and innovative projects.
18 February 2010
Gender equality in education is an extremely important target under the UN Millennium Development Goals for Education. The second MDG mandates that by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, should be able to complete a full course of Primary Schooling , while the third specific MDG for Gender Equality requires educational disparity between boys and girls to be eliminated at all levels of education by 2015.
Millions of girls around the world are deprived of their right to education because of poverty, domestic responsibilities, violence and rigid patriarchal structures. Within the larger discourse of Gender Equality, education is of paramount importance because it attacks the genesis of discrimination and holds the key to an equal and just world. However, gender equality in education requires efforts beyond increasing the number of schools and teachers. It means working with mindsets and attitudes that disadvantage women, ensuring safer environments for girls in schools and outside and a special recognition of their talents and achievements, to list a few.
Plan UK’s ‘Because I am a Girl Campaign’ is committed to fighting gender injustice in education. The reports released every year under the campaign are an excellent resource. Go to http://www.plan-uk.org/becauseiamagirl/ for details.
Ronan and Rhiannon, two very talented girls who won The Steve Sinnott Young Global Campaigners Award for 2010 will update us on their trip to Ghana next month and I’m sure they will have some very moving and inspirational stories to share. Keep an eye on our ‘projects’ space for some exclusive initiatives for girls in developing countries.
9 February 2010
Mary and I attended the Global Campaign for Education UK’s ‘Education for All : A Call for UK Action’ launch event in the Houses of Parliament last evening.
As you will notice there is a separate group for GCE UK and I have uploaded a brief article about the 1GOAL campaign on the forum. Yesterday’s event briefly summarised the achievements of GCE but warned that we are still way behind the MDG targets. The above mentioned report prepared by the GCE UK policy group, calls for UK action around six key principles: More and better aid for education, A global financing initiative that can deliver Education for All (EFA), Improving educational quality, equity and inclusion, International economic policy reform that supports Education for All and closing the global literacy gap.
Speaking at the occasion, Shadow Minister Geoffery Clifton-Brown and Chair of International Development Select Committee, Malcom Bruce MP endorsed the cause of Education for All and emphasised the need to maintain the current momentum of the campaign while acknowledging the perils of cuts in education spending and stressing on transparency and accountability on the government’s part.
Under Secretary of State for International Development, Michael Foster categorically stated DFID’s commitment to EFA agenda and said that DFID will roll out its 2010-2015 development spending strategy soon.
It was a pleasure to listen to Matar Baldeh , National Coordinator of the EFA Campaign Network in The Gambia, about his group’s efforts in the country, which also sparked off a lively debate on the dynamics of development aid.
There will be lot more news about GCE UK this year.
4 February 2010
We have moved forward quite a bit since the Parliamentary Launch and the New Year brought some more appreciation and recognition of our work and our vision through the Early Day Motion in Parliament. It has been such a strong message of support. Please have a look at the Early Day Motion in the news section of the web site or take a look at the special item. I must add that it is also an important indicator of UK's commitment to Education for All and the Millennium Development Goals.
Our website is now a fully functional facility and I'll be happy to see the number of members grow by the day. You can use this platform to promote your projects, or share your ideas, or a piece of news, or an interesting event or use it for professional networking. There are so many excellent initiatives going on and I'm keen to feature them on our website.
We are also now putting together the first edition of the Foundation's magazine and we will have lots to share about the Foundation and recent developments in the campaigns for promoting the cause of Education for All. I'm looking for some interesting stories and I welcome relevant contributions from everyone. You know how to get in touch with me. Just register on the website and send me an email.
More soon !