Improving Education in Pakistan
In Pakistan, only half of the population age 10 and over has ever attended school, and more than 50 million children and adults are illiterate. The reasons are legion, but systemic failures in public education are paramount. Teachers have little training or motivation. Efforts to deliver high-quality education to all socioeconomic groups have failed. The Education Sector Reform Assistance (ESRA) Program was established to assist the Pakistani government in its efforts to create integrated, sustainable improvements in education at the school level. The project concentrates on tangible improvements in local schools and helps develop the abilities of parents, teachers, education officials and locally elected politicians to participate in the school improvement process. ESRA, which began in January 2003, is funded by USAID and is implemented by a consortium of partners, led by RTI and including the American Institutes for Research, Education Development Center, Save the Children and World Education.

Read more at:
http://www.rti.org/newsletter/cid/2005feb/index.htm

Solar Power Kick Starts Digital Era in Rural Cambodian School
In a 600-student primary school in the Cambodian countryside, modern equipment ushers in a new era. With the help of Plan, new computers are up and running on solar power, while a computer teacher gives lessons to eager children. The computer classes provide a chance to learn English, too. Language skills are needed to get a job in the booming tourist industry in Siem Reap town, near the temples of Angkor Wat, where there are few work prospects for people without good schooling.

In a 600-student primary school in the Cambodian countryside, modern equipment ushers in a new era. With the help of Plan, new computers are up and running on solar power, while a computer teacher gives lessons to eager children. The computer classes provide a chance to learn English, too. Language skills are needed to get a job in the booming tourist industry in Siem Reap town, near the temples of Angkor Wat, where there are few work prospects for people without good schooling.

Read more at:
http://www.plan-international.org/wherewework/asia/cambodia/computerpilot/

Rebuilding the Education Sector in Aceh
World Vision has joined with a local community in the Indonesian province of Aceh to rebuild a school that was destroyed four times in five years.  The elementary school, SD Alue Mie in Lamno subdistrict, about 60 kilometres southwest of the provincial capital of Banda Aceh, was burned to the ground three times during the 30 year conflict; in 1999, 2002 and 2003. A year later it was completely destroyed by the December 2004 tsunami. The tsunami killed nearly 50 percent of students in the two schools. Since June 2005, the survivors have been studying in prefabricated buildings provided by World Vision. In addition to constructing the schools, World Vision provided the students with desks, textbooks, stationery, uniforms and sports equipment.  World Vision has made a significant contribution to the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the education sector in Aceh and is building 15 schools and two kindergartens. Besides providing thousands of students with school kits, World Vision has also trained more than 500 teachers as part of the “Creating Learning Communities for Children” education program. This program seeks to actively engage communities in their children’s education and trains teachers to provide more active and joyful classes that motivate the students.

Read more at:
http://www.wvtsunami.org

Improving Education and Providing Job Training in the Philippines
The International Youth Foundation (IYF), in cooperation with an alliance of Filipino NGOs, foundations, and private corporations, has been awarded $4.2 million by USAID/Philippines to assist the Department of Education and the government of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) in their efforts to improve education quality and enhance the life and employability skills of Filipino youth in the southern island of Mindanao. The program--Education and Livelihood Skills Alliance (ELSA)--is a three-year initiative. In addition to addressing the educational and job training needs of out-of-school youth, ELSA partners will provide teacher training, improve school infrastructure, enhance opportunities for employment and entrepreneurship, and assist Philippine national and ARMM government officials in implementing education policy reform.

Read more at:
http://www.iyfnet.org/document.cfm/30/678

Children Get a Head Start in Nepal
In Nepal, 20 percent of children are not enrolled in school. Repeat and dropout rates are especially high in the first two years of schooling. Save the Children is giving Nepalese children, ages 3 to 5, a head start through early childhood development programs in 38 communities in Siraha District. These programs ensure children are ready for school, and schools are ready for children.

Read more at:
http://www.savethechildren.org/education/nepal_ecd_a.asp?stationpub=hp_nepal

Training Refugee Teachers on the Thai-Burma Border
For the approximately 130,000 refugees from Burma who live in refugee camps in Thailand, their resources for education activities are extremely limited. The Consortium of World Education and World Learning, funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), addresses the education needs of the refugees. The project trains refugee teachers and school administrators, and works on curriculum development, special education, adult literacy, and materials development and production. The Consortium, through the Education Assistance to Burmese Refugees project, has worked in five Burmese refugee camps, with populations of approximately 120,000 since 1999.

Read more at:
http://www.worlded.org/WEIInternet/features/thai_refugees.cfm

Building Education Support Systems for Teachers in Afghanistan
War, civil conflict, and repression have inflicted untold damage on Afghanistan for over twenty-five years. During this period, Afghans endured a variety of undemocratic governments, often harshly administered, from an atheistic, Soviet-style, centrally run system to the theocratic, fundamentalist Islamic Taliban. Each regime inhibited Afghanistan’s exposure to, and denied adoption of, modern educational practices, materials and equipment. But over the last four years, the Afghan government has begun the process of internal re-organization, recovery and reform to rebuild the country’s education system.

Read more at:
http://www.caii.com