Thursday, February 18, 2010

United Nations Meeting Addresses Education Goals

At the United Nations meeting on January 19th, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon addressed the issue of unequal global education. Ban pointed out that less than 55% of children in developing countries attend secondary school. Although there has been some progress, the recent UNESCO report indicated that countries not only need to increase efforts to reach out to children who are not achieving the UN's education goals, but also need to increase aid efforts. Ban encourages all countries to increase their aid for education so that the UN may meet their Millennium Development Goal for universal education, which states that all children everywhere will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling by 2015.

The UNESCO report on Deprivation and Marginalization in Education (DME) focuses on education poverty (or the proportion of those aged 17 to 22 with fewer than 4 years of education) in developing countries. You can also select specific countries, regions, and economies to compare on the chart. It also points out the issues of education disparities in these countries due to wealth, location, ethnic group, and language groups.

For example, in Niger, the education poverty is 76.04% for the whole country. That means that 76.04% of people between 17 and 22 have fewer than 4 years of education. UNESCO divides the data up into the wealthier class and the poorer class. You then find that the wealthier class in Niger only has 33.9% education poverty, whereas the poorer class has 91.7%. In Niger, the poorest 20% have had on average less than 1 year of education. The richest 20% have had on average 5.5 years of education. The disparities here are too striking not to address.

Thinking about Ban's statements and the UNESCO report, it is apparent that universal education is an issue that needs serious attention. Ban stated that education is "a fundamental human right." The Global Text Project wants to pursue that goal. Growing our open education system can help education move from an "accident of circumstance", as Ban put it, to that fundamental right.

More information on the UN meeting can be found here.

What Do Our Followers Think?
Do you think, with the help of organizations like Global Text Project, that the Millennium Development Goal for universal education will be achieved by 2015?

What other countries did you research on the UNESCO report charts?

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Global Text Project Teams Up With Creative Consultants

The Global Text Project has reached out to the Public Relations Student Society of America at the University of Georgia to assist us with our PR campaign. Creative Consultants, a student-run PR firm, has paired us with a group of PR students: Staci Dale, Account Executive; Koby Kelsey, Junior Account Executive; Mamie Cargile; Cassidy Hoffman; Deena Lipson; and Christine Sawyer. During the Fall 2009 semester, our Creative Consultants group helped us with our logo redesign, our press releases, and other PR materials. They also organized an internship info session, which resulted in four GTP interns!

This semester, our Creative Consultants team has a social media campaign in store, so be sure to keep up with our Facebook, Twitter, and Blogger! Keep an eye out for videos, too! We look forward to engaging with our supporters through our social networks!

What Do Our Followers Think?

Do any of you rely on social media to keep in touch with other nonprofit organizations? If so, which ones do you think are using social media successfully? We'd love to hear your thoughts!