Strengthening Education
A USAID-trained teacher in Bangladesh interacts with her preschool class. (Photo: USAID/Bangladesh)
Asia Bureau Education Programs
Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Burma, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Pakistan, Philippines, and Tajikistan
CONTACTS
LeAnna Marr
Education Team Leader
Tel: (202) 712-0451
Email: lmarr@usaid.gov
Rebecca C. Adams, Ph.D.
Education Development Officer, Asia
Tel: (202) 712-0842
Email: rebeccaadams@usaid.gov
Vijitha Eyango, Ph.D.
Senior Education Advisor
Afghanistan and Pakistan Task Force
Tel: (202) 712-1048
Email: veyango@usaid.gov
Overview
Asia's future development depends on the ability of governments in the region to expand access to quality and relevant education. Specific challenges include high numbers of out-of-school youth, declining secondary enrollment (especially for girls), lack of employment readiness, insufficient higher education and training programs, and outdated curricula. USAID partners with governments, schools, communities, and non-governmental organizations in Asia to promote improved learning, teaching, and school administration.
Programs
Improving Basic and Higher Education
USAID supports improvements in primary through post-secondary education. Highlights include:
In Afghanistan, USAID created an accelerated learning program that compresses two years of study into a single year through innovative teaching techniques. This program trained an estimated 10,500 teachers in teaching methodologies for accelerated learning and enrolled nearly 170,000 students, over half of them girls. Due to these efforts, more than 80 percent of the original enrollees have completed up through grade 6.
In Pakistan, USAID has improved access to schools by opening 30 tent schools for 2,000 conflict-affected displaced students from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas' Bajaur Agency in 2008 and rehabilitating 60 schools. These efforts increased school enrollment by 30 percent, benefitting 18,000 students.
In the Kyrgyz Republic, USAID supports a program that provides low-interest loans to students. These loans are backed by USAID loan guarantees, helping to ensure sufficiently low interest rates, and are disbursed by two Kyrgyz financial institutions.
In Indonesia,
the U.S. government's $157 million Indonesian Education Initiative is improving teaching and learning, governance education, community involvement in school management, and public-private alliances. Since the initiative began in 2005, USAID-funded education activities have directly benefitted at least 1,270 schools, 21,060 educators, and 345,980 students.
USAID assisted Cambodia's Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports to improve the quality and relevance of basic education through a new national curriculum that reinforces math, science, social studies, and language skills, and includes a life-skills component focused on agriculture, pre-vocational skills, and health education. In targeted schools using the new curriculum, the number of children continuing on to secondary school increased by 80 percent or more.
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