Previous to joining this class on international development and educational issues, I had preconceived ideas on education that were developed by the western society I lived in. I believed that children world-wide deserved the right to an education, but I felt that the best type of education was a western-style education. I knew that developing countries had challenges in providing educational services, but I did not know that many marginalized groups such as females in certain countries and the disabled, have difficulty receiving any educational services at all.  Throughout the class, through our assignments, readings, projects, blogs and discussions, my initial ideals on education were challenged and I achieved a more open-minded approach to international educational issues.

One of our assignments was the photovoice project. Initially I was skeptical as to what we would actually be doing and what we would be learning from the project.  We were instructed to take pictures in order to answer the question, “what is education?”  At the beginning of the term, I would have answered with a generic, “school.” However, because of this class, I have come to realize that education is all around us; in our heritage, culture and traditions.  For example, in the documentary, “Schooling the World,” we saw how children in a small village in India are losing important cultural traditions by being instructed in a purely westernized educational system. Education needs to include cultural customs in order to be complete.

Learning about the challenges that developing countries face in establishing their educational policies was eye-opening.  We discovered that they are still trying to figure out how their educational system will look as they become more economically successful. In one case study we learned that in a small town in Mexico, a representative group of citizens were on a school committee that helped employ teachers and develop the curriculum.  We studied many interesting examples of developing countries decisions on the kind of educational system they wanted and those that they did not want to implement.

Reading through the international educational policy blogs was extremely thought provoking. It is inspiring that there are many organizations that are making global education for all a priority. I was impressed that many organizations, like UNICEF and the Global Partnership for Education are able to work with and influence governments to implement educational policies that benefit the children of their countries.

In researching my policy memo for the Country Issue Project, I was able to learn about a specific educational issue in great depth. I chose to investigate the policy of providing an inclusive education to children with disabilities in Vietnam. This issue was close to my heart because I had volunteered at a school for the deaf in Vietnam in 2012. I communicated with the children by signing and their smiles and enthusiasm stole my heart. However, in researching my policy memo, I discovered that these kind of specialized schools are few and far between and that over half of Vietnamese disabled children receive no educational instruction at all. Their best chance of an education is if the government implements a policy of inclusive education so that they can receive an education in their local community school. I plan on returning to Vietnam someday and I believe that I will see disabled children more fully integrated into their local communities.

As a global citizen of the world, I believe that we all need to keep informed of international issues and do what we can to improve the world we live in. I have learned in this class that international education is of paramount importance. As countries are able to implement strong educational policies, their economies will flourish and the quality of life will improve for all of their citizens.

While following the blog, Education in Crisis, I read a very interesting article about using educational aid monies to fund low-cost private schools in extremely poor countries like Nigeria, Ghana and Pakistan. In the October 14, 2013 article, “Should Public Money Be Used for Private Schools?” author David Archer of Actionaid.org expressed his concern that funding low-cost schools has a detrimental effect on educating children in developing countries. Archer brings up an interesting topic regarding the best use of educational aid funds. However, where he believes that aid funds can only be used in one way, to support governmental public schools; I feel that they can be used to support other polices as well, like funding private schools. Archer writes that the British government’s aid organization, the Department for International Development (DFID) is wrong in its current policy of allocating some its publicly funded educational aid monies to low-cost private schools for the following reasons:

• Low-cost private schools are motivated to make a profit so they pay teachers an extremely low wage-20% of what government teachers earn and due to this low wage they employ under qualified teachers who provide a low quality education.
• The schools charge amounts that families living in poverty cannot afford- e.g. in India, $8 per child each month when most families earn a dollar a day.
• Due to the affordability issue, boys are prioritized over girls and children with disabilities.

However, proponents of low-cost private schools feel that they are a beneficial part of an educational policy in developing countries. They cite the following positive reasons to fund these schools:

• They are generally located in areas such as slum settlements that governments do not recognize and so do not provide public schools.
• They are accountable to paying parents which motivates them to provide a better quality education than public school.

Archer feels strongly that eliminating the user fees that governments charge to attend public schools is the better policy to promote. He states in his article, “In recent years, the biggest gains in education occurred when governments eliminated user fees to deliver on the right to education, leading to tens of millions of children enrolling in school for the first time, and supporting low-cost private schools mocks the importance of that evidence.”

I agree that eliminating user fees is the best possible solution but unfortunately we cannot control a country’s educational policies. I feel that providing some aid to low-cost private schools does provide educational benefits. A majority of these schools, since they are located in slum settlements, are the only option that children living there have to receive an education. In countries that do not view educating girls as necessary, parents are able to pay to have their girls educated.  Archer indicates that studies have shown that there is better educational quality in low-cost private schools but he believes the studies are flawed. But what if they are right?  I do not think that they should abandon a policy that appears to working.

I support Archer’s view that educational aid should continue to be used to improve the quality and accessibility of public schools. However, I think it is appropriate for some of the funds to be used to fund low-cost private schools. I believe that the funds should be allocated with some requirements:

• Teachers must be paid the same wage as public school teachers.
• Subsidies must be provided for girls and disabled children so that they meet a certain percentage of enrollments.
• Schools must be accountable to the agencies providing the funding by meeting certain standards of educational instruction.

With accountability and safeguards, a policy of providing funding to low-cost private schools could have tremendous benefits by providing a quality education for extremely poor children living in slum settlements as well as female and disabled children.

http://educationincrisis.net/blog/item/1044-should-public-money-be-used-for-private-schools?