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In the past 16 years the World Bank has committed more than $2 billion to education in India. Attendance of primary school, which was the first goal, has dramatically improved, however secondary education is still struggling, so India is now turning its focus to that.

This article addresses China's view of education and how it should be implemented. The main political party, the Chinese Communist Party, is attempting to implement a mandatory teachers manual by 2015. The manual gives specific instruction on how and what to teach Chinese students. However, the manual did not experience the same support it did in the Communist party. Heavy criticism of the manual arose from the education Bureau and the students themselves. A hunger strike arose on Friday and a march of 32-90 thousand protesting the manual. The article is important because is it address a nation's view of education and how education should be controlled by politics. The Article also shows how a major political party can not always be the most popular with the people.

Interesting. Of course, China is a communist country, so it is also interesting that citizens feel empowered to protest. Among democratic regimes, France also has a very scripted education program: my understanding is that the daily curriculum for the whole country is set by the Education ministry, so no matter where you are in France on September 4, you will be doing the same thing as all students in your grade everywhere else in the country. Why does this fly there? Why is it much less likely to fly here in the US?

Overview of a project to improve elementary education in India I've looked into. Pretty cool because it mentions increasing accountability a lot as did the MENA article.

I found this topic fascinating because it addresses the internal Chinese conflict of democracy and communism. The general public (those not in the communist party and not in control) is not happy with the governments plan to initiate a national education system. With the national education system teachers and schools will no longer have the choice on how to teach their students. This article questions Communism, Democracy, Nationalism, and Patriotism, all of which are important to China.

"The Story of Catherine's iPod"

The disconnect here is so weird. It begins with people digging in the mountainside with sticks, and ends with a tiny, sleek, lightweight computer that makes images flick past at the swipe of your finger and makes music. It's like magic, except instead of the instead of using "toe of newt and eye of frog" the world is making these products by allowing people to be greatly mistreated. Beyond educating people, as Arshia and Alison said, it seems we must either: find other materials to make electronics out of (although that doesn't strike me as very likely?) or pressure companies (who have the money and the leverage) to enforce better regulation. To follow up on Catherine's video, I put three t's into google and got an article about an investigation into the mining in the Congo (maybe Catherine has already seen this): http://africarising2010.blogspot.com/2009/11/tracing-3-ts-from-congo.html. It says: "Even though they found that it is relatively easy to determine the source of minerals based on different coloration and texture based on the source mine, there is insufficient regulation to make this work....Export companies are required to register with the government, but their method of determining the source of minerals they buy is to merely ask the seller whether their goods are from conflict mines. There is no system of confirming what the seller says."

This presentation kept shocking me. I was surprised to hear that basic parts of the iPod (the Three Ts) originate in the Congo rather than China. I was then shocked (and horrified) by the rape statistics. I had heard the statistics before, but not in relation to the acquisition of the Three Ts and production of products that we use. The story about the woman whose brother was ordered to rape her and then stabbed to death when he refused was particularly awful. I was also In summary, I was appalled at all the crimes that took place in the Congo- before the Three Ts even got to the factories in China that Catherine talked about. When Catherine started talking about the factories in China, I was again shocked at the working conditions- 100 workers sleeping to a room and clothes locked in a bucket with no visitors allowed (to protect the secrecy of Apple's product plans) while workers worked 15 hour days. The suicide reports from the FoxCon (spelling) factories were also shocking, as was the revelation that workers make just half of what they did in the 1800s. It was sad that the factory earns only $4 per iPod sold- while Apple earns $80. This presentation was very thought provoking- I had never assumed that Apple would be one of the "bad" companies with very questionable labor and humanitarian practices (a la Wal-Mart). Thanks for bringing it up, Catherine. I'm now thinking about it in a whole new light.

Before the British colonial government set up hospitals for native Nigerians, Catholic Missions not only set up hospitals but were responsible for the training and education of nurses while many doctors were educated in Europe. The British government set up hospitals but initially these hospitals were only for Europeans, It was not until after WWII that the British government tried to expand medical and hospital access to native Nigerians and medical education. After Nigerian independence a federal republic was set up and ownership of health facilities is distributed between the federal government, the states, and local governments. States hold the largest share of hospital beds at 43% and the federal and local governments at 13% and 11% respectively.

While more children are being schooled and the literacy rate is rising, MENA schools are not sufficiently preparing their students for work, especially considering the GDPs of these countries and the percent of these GDPs they are spending on education.

"Educate a girl. Send a young person to college. Restore a person's sight. By Nicholas Kristof Opinion Columnist"

On Monday, Uganda reopened schools after the longest pandemic-prompted shutdown in the world. Schools have been closed since March of 2020, and despite attempts at remote learning, many students effectively stopped learning after classrooms closed and many students may not return to their education. Certain educators and critics claim the decision may have eroded decades of progress the country has made in regard to education. I'm curious what prompted the government to make such a harsh decision, and what impact it will have on the country's development considering many students are lacking two years of education and may never return to school. (Years of schooling are a part of the calculations for HDI).

I'm also interested in the long term impact of education in the shutdown but also on covid cases and how this move either helped/hindered recovery.

This article briefly overviews the Chinese education system. It specifies on some more recent changes that have been implemented and the corresponding consequences.

Swiss aristocrat founds boarding school for child brides in North Indian villages so that they may finish their high school education before being sent to their husbands.

This article not only suggests that education in excellent public schools is beneficial to end poverty, but learning comes in the form of new ideas in jobs. Workers are able to learn on the job and apply these skills to an even better, more qualified job. Furthermore, the article says that equality is another key to economic success.

Terrific article, Sophia. Did you watch the accompanying video? Pretty darn inspiring!

Uganda has reduced its extreme poverty over the last decade at an unparalleled rate, but still faces obstacles when it comes to non monetary poverty, like access to education or sanitation.