Educating our Future

It is a fact that education is the key to solving tomorrow's problems, and it is the key to breaking the vicious "cycle of poverty" that is confronting millions across the world today.

Some sobering facts:

• An estimated 110 million children -- 60 percent of them girls -- between the ages of six and 11 will not see the inside of a classroom this year. Another 150 million are likely to drop out before completing primary school.
• Two 1999 World Bank studies found that closing the education gender gap in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa would have led to faster economic growth between 1960 and 1992.
• Another 63-country study attributed 43 percent of the decline in malnutrition achieved between 1970 and 1995 to more productive farming as a result of increased female education.
• An extra year of female education can reduce infant mortality by 5 percent to 10 percent.
• In Africa, children of mothers who receive five years of primary education are 40 percent less likely to die before age five than are children of uneducated mothers

These observations are from a stunning piece on PBS - Back to School - that I caught recently. The show tracks seven children in seven different countries as they go to school. The programme reports that the cost for providing universal education has been estimated at perhaps $7.5 billion to $10 billion per year.

I'll leave you to check out the report yourself, but do look at this map that shows the current status of global literacy in the world. 36% of the world's out of school children are reported to live in South and West Asia.

People better than me are doing what they can to help spread education, and here are two instances that caught my attention recently:

• The Ramanujam School of Mathematics is run free of charge by Anand Kumar, 33, a local mathematician, and Abhayanand, 52, a deputy director general of police. This school provides housing, coaching and free lessons to 30 underprivileged children from the state of Bihar. Over the past two years, 16 and 22 students, respectively, out of the 30 have graduated from this school and made it to the IIT's. They expect all 30 to get in this time [full article through Rediff here.]
• At a cost of over $40 million [and counting] Oprah Winfrey, opened the doors to The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa. She interviewed more than 3000 applicants herself and decided on her first batch of 150 students. The academy will offer training in leadership skills as well as traditional academic subjects, and will prepare its students to attend the "best universities in the world". [Report on CNN. I know everyone is busy, but do watch this video on Youtube, and go to 2:30 if you want to skip the early parts. I'll tell you, I was jumping with those girls at the end!]