Dataflow Learning

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Rethink the school of tomorrow: Africa as the starting hypothesis Co-written by Stéphan-Eloïse Gras, CEO and co-founder, and the whole Africa 4 Tech team. With 200 million inhabitants between the ages of 15 and 24, Africa is today the youngest continent on the

The Striking Contrasts of Global Education.
Less than 12 hours ago I was discussing the opening of an all-girls school in Boston’s North Shore, an area with an abundance of prestigious private co-ed schools, as well as all-boys schools, but until September 2016, almost no options for parents seeking a girls-only alternative. Necessary? Of course! Although Massachusetts is one of the highest-ranking U.S. states for public education, and the North Shore region is fortunate to have many very good public school districts, some parents and their children want or need something different. Many boys and girls thrive in single-sex education environments, so having those options available to them can only be positive.

The contrast? Dataflow is an Irish / Lebanese education company. We work extensively throughout the Middle East and Africa, developing curriculum and training solutions for education authorities in many countries. This morning I woke up and read a fairly typically article from Africa where a cabinet secretary for education was rightly deriding the fact that the government was funding a 1:1 student to textbook program, yet the reality is that only 1 in 5 students were receiving their textbooks. Meanwhile in the U.S. many schools have already moved to 1:1 tablets, providing some relief to students who were often carrying three to four textbooks at one time in their backpacks.

While many parts of the world, including Africa, are frustrated by their inability to effectively supply the basics, such as textbooks, even their problems pale in comparison to others. This afternoon David Mulville, our Chairman, explained to me in detail the plight of Syrian refugees in Lebanon that he’d witnessed just days ago when he visited one of the refugee camps in the Bekaa Valley. With a view to mobilizing support for initiatives to provide some form of education to the more than 100,000 school-aged children in this camp alone, he wanted to fully understand how dire the situation is for those completely at the mercy of the Lebanese government, the UN and the international community. He spoke with many families. Many had already lost loved ones. Families are often broken. They have nothing. They live in tents, cannot work, and receive little in the way of education. The prospects for the young are grim. One 13 year old girl he spoke with had not received any form of education for over four years. In an environment like this girls fare particularly badly, while boys with no education, no earning potential, and little reason to believe that there is anything positive to aspire to, are easy targets to be radicalized.

Yes, we should give our children at home all of the help, support and facilities we can to let them achieve their potential. But for those of us who really do believe that we should not just be looking after ourselves, there is so much more that we should be doing for others who are victims of the geography of their birth. Without education what real hope is there for the global problems of today to become the lessons learned from the past.

The will to develop is enormous, as is the need for support. Meetings with African education delegations, Uganda.

An important objective every year, but an imperative for 2016 and beyond as a solution for critical global issues, http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/education/

Education - United Nations Sustainable Development Action 2015 - Time for Global Action for People and Planet

Looking forward to meeting with major innovators and decision-makers involved in transforming education in Africa. https://lnkd.in/beuE5Jv

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