Rainbow Bridge is a community education center situated in Batticaloa, on the East coast of the island of Sri lanka.

Sri Lanka is an island racked with the consequences of a 30 year long civil war, which caused a rift between the two main ethnic groups. Education became secondary to warfare, and many young people’s educational development was interrupted.

But peacetime has brought with it many new opportunities for learning from a dedicated group of empathetic educators, both native and expatriate, who are seeking to make up for lost time and give extra classes to children living in areas previously agitated by the conflict.

Rainbow Bridge is a small and unassuming building with a a big and heartwarming mission, which is to bridge gaps between the different factions of Sri Lankan society with education at the heart of it’s mandate. The center offers courses for all levels and age groups in English Language, attracting students due to the increase in tourism in the area. Students are for the first time being confronted by tourists who flock to the area to enjoy it’s beautiful beaches. They therefore see job opportunities within the growing tourism industry, and realize that English Language acquisition is the first step necessary.

The school attracts a number of international volunteers who work as teachers and business developers to try and increase enrollment and contribute to the overall educational effort. Volunteers offer the relatively sheltered community an insight into their country and culture, and design lessons which open students minds and broaden their intellectual horizons.

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Due to this shift in donation rates, the UK is now the largest bilateral donor of educational aid to developing countries. The repercussions of the cuts are predicted to affect some of the world’s lowest income countries, and put great strain on the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) for education which strives for universal primary education by 2015.

Reasons for the cuts in spending vary. For example, the Netherlands are cutting their aid by 30% between 2010 and 2011. This is a result of their decision to phase out education programmes that do not align with their pre-existing foreign policy priorities. In the same time span, a similar wave of decisions occurred in Japan, which has cut its aid by 30%, and Canada, which cut its aid by 21%.

What makes this situation more tumultuous is that it is some of the world’s lowest income countries that are suffering most from the reduction of funds. Countries such as India, Bangladesh, Malawi and Papua New Guinea will witness a severe downturn in the number of students to be granted the basic right of a primary education since support from the EU fell by almost one-third between 2010 and 2011.

The final report of the UN high-level panel on post-2015 development proposed a broad goal for quality education and lifelong learning. It suggested targets to increase the proportion of children able to access and complete pre-primary education, and to ensure every child not only completes primary education but leaves able to read, write and count. It also recommended targets to ensure every child has access to lower secondary education, and increase the number of young people and adults with the technical and vocational skills.

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The Laotian duo Thoummy Silamphan, 26, who lost a limb to unexploded ordinance, and Manixia Thor, a 25-year-old leader of a female bomb clearance team, joined Washington-based nongovernmental organization Legacies of War on its “Voices of Laos” tour across a dozen cities.

Laotians have spent considerable efforts trying to help survivors of UXO explosions. The Cope Center, situated in Vientiane, supports victims and their families by equipping them with prosthetic limbs. Yet although this aid is present, the country needs support from larger nations if it is to deal with the issue in a fast, safe, and efficient manner.

Experts assume that more the 30% of the ordinance dropped on the country failed to detonate, leaving vast areas of the country treacherous to all who live or visit there. The north and the eastern Vietnamese border are the areas most affected, creating hundreds of annual injuries.

“To this day there are 600 living survivors of UXO [unexploded ordnance] explosions and many of them are children, Thoummy told RFA’s Lao Service in an interview last week. “Of the 600 survivors, less than 100 have received any aid and are in desperate need of it,” he said.

The tour around the US has been dubbed ‘ Voices of Laos,’  and began in New York on April 3 when the United Nations marked the International Day of Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action.

Funded by the U.S. State Department, the trip has taken the two young Lao speakers through California, Oregon, Washington, and Minnesota, and culminates in the U.S. capital on April 30—the anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War.

The ultimate purpose of the tour is to raise awareness about the issue, giving lectures and holding discussions about how Laotians lives have been affected. The true source of inspiration for the young travelling Laotians stems from Thoummy’s  realization that he is lucky to have been one of the very few to receive aid. His desire to attain an equal amount of attention for his country men is what has brought him overseas. “I would like Americans to be aware of the UXO problems in Laos and help us out,” he told RFA.

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The program has been  designed to encourage students to foster compassion and respect for animals. The organisation duo are actutely aware of the number of endangered species that live in India and are thus attempting to safeguard the future of their native creatures. The program uses tools and tailor made lesson plans to teach children that animals are feeling, sensitive beings. Although created for children ages 8 to 12 years, the program has been fabricated to suit other age groups. PETA and CBSE have also strived to  encorporate the program into other classes including languages, science, social studies, environmental and values education curricula. Compassionate Citizen is also perfect for use ineco clubs in schools. It will be included in the monthly curriculum as an extracurricular activity day. The CBSE has also given schools the choice to use it as part of a one-day workshop.

The program comprises of a teacher’s guide, a reading unit with adaptations from true animal stories,  reproducible activity sheets and a 28-minute video with remarkable animal footage. It is categorized into four seperate sections that can be used as complete lessons. These individual factions are then used to generate classroom discussion. The chapters include – The Amazing World of Animals, Animals and Their Feelings, Changing Times, Changing Minds, Making Humane Choices.

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Pru Life UK is a proclaimed believer in  the notion that ”prevention is better than cure.” Plan International country director Carin Van der Hor said, ”we are opting to support disaster risk reduction projects instead of carrying out post-disaster relief efforts, which are more commonly practiced by businesses’ social responsibility arms.”

“Approximately 6,000 students and 200 teachers are expected to benefit from our program with the Prudence Foundation,” she said. Such numbers are just among the 100,000 the foundation projects to benefit from the allotted fund.

Van der Hor, whose organization has been working with Prudence Foundation for years, added that the funds will “help ensure that children and youth rights” such as survival, education and safety, are met during disaster situations.

Pru Life UK Philippines chief executive Antonio Manuel de Rosas, citing an average of 20 tropical cyclones hitting the country, also said that such child-centered initiatives aim to help ensure the continuity of classes in schools in high prone communities.

“Being prepared for natural catastrophes is vital for us Filipinos,” de Rosas said.

The company is also aware of the fundamental flaws in traditional volunteerism. Recently visiting the Philippines to launch the foundation, Prudential Corporation Asia chief executive Barry Stowe believes, however, that the money is not the most important contribution of the company to local communities.

“We contribute (in disaster preparations) not just with financial resources. Lots of people can write checks; funding is very important but what is critical is we try to engage in the community.”

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This year the country’s budget will get the first tranche. The total sum is granted for three years. Now, as part of the technical and vocational education development program, over €1 million were spent on renewal of 21 training facilities around 7 provinces. The money is allocated as grant.

In order to implement this, professions that are needed have been chosen at places. So, Belovodskiy lyceum 28 has chosen the following trades: electric and gas welder, tractor driver, seamstress, and cook.

According to some entrepreneurs of Moscow district, “the market is glutted with new technologies, and we have to retrain graduates of lyceums. We keep on teaching them in the old way while it’s computer management everywhere”.

Part of the EU’s grant was spent on purchase of a modern tractor. However, according to Sagynbek Chagarbayev, head of the lyceum 28, they still lack techniques for efficient training.

As part of the project, the lyceum initiated short-term courses for 75 people. The scholarship program offers 80 soms a day.

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The participants that met on Wednesday were mostly religious scholars with weighted concerns for the state of Pakistani children’s educational rights. This anxiety has bred from the series of reported violent  crimes that have taken place over the last six months, including two counts of murder. These deaths sparked international controversy as the victims were teachers who sought to eradicate the gulf between educational rights for boys and girls.

Organised by Alif Ailaan, a campaign to end Pakistan’s education emergency and the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies, the roundtable meeting held here Wednesday brought together 40 prominent religious scholars from all schools of thought. The participants urged political parties to clearly state their policies on education in the run-up to the elections. The President of the Ruet-e-Hilal Committee, Mufti Muneeb-ur-Rehman, said, “Education should be the foremost priority of the next government. Pakistan is facing an education emergency and this state of affairs cannot be improved without political will.”

The conference came to a unanimous decision to fully support the cause of education. They agreed that every Pakistani boy and girl should have the freedom to attain free, high-quality education in a secure environment and that it was the government’s responsibility to ensure that this right was secured. Former Provincial Minister of Religious Affairs, Maullana Ruh Allah Madni, demanded that all candidates work actively to ensure that article 25A of the Constitution, which guarantees a free education to every child in Pakistan, is practically enforced.

Although each religious scholar who attended the meeting agreed upon the common goal, each attendee felt strongly about individual issues. The manager of Jamia Sattaria Islamia, Karachi, Moazzin Mohammad Salfi, stressed the need to improve the quality of education, while Mufti Mohammad Zahid, manager of Jamia Imdaadia, Faisalabad, talked about the importance of a favorable learning environment in schools. The Head of the Islamic Studies Department at Peshawar University, Dr. Qibla Ayaz, shed light on the problem of eligibility in the selection of teachers, adding that postings and promotions should be based on merit and ability rather than nepotism. Dr Syed Muhammad Najasi, Professor and Manager Jamia-tul-Muzhzar, Leader Wifaq-ul-Madaaris Al-Shia said that the lack of education has many negative effects on the society which would only worsen unless the education system is adapted.

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Curro Serengeti Academy in Johannesburg opened just over a year ago, and is already targeting 2,000 pupils in the next decade from around 900 now, building a huge auditorium and classroom extensions.

A growing demand for private schools like Curro Serengeti from a burgeoning African middle class is creating the conditions ideal for private equity deals in the continent’s education sector. Firms specializing in private equity can expect handsome returns of anywhere between 25 to 30 percent, if they manage to take up a long-term investment of up to 12 years and adjust to possible shifts in legislation unscathed.

Development Partners International is one company with their eye on the continent. It is currently working on two opportunities in the sector, partner Eduardo Gutierrez said. Additionally, emerging markets firm Actis, which has made investments in Chinese and Brazilian education companies, is also considering investment in the continent.

“Education is a really important sector for us globally,” said Simon Harford, its co-head for Africa. “Education in Africa needs to be funded and developed and advanced and we would love to play a part in that.”

 When asked, a senior private equity executive stated, ”There are a lot of rich people in Nigeria, in Dar es Salaam, Nairobi, Accra, who would like their children to get a great education.”

For those who are earning upwards of $5,000 per year, education is a high ranking obligation. Therefore, many private equity firms are catching on to this gap in the market and are coming forward to offer their expertise. “If we had the right partner we could put up 20 great private schools in African capitals in three years,” the executive continued.

Yet, investing in African educational endeavors can justifiably be viewed as a risky pursuit. Firstly, Africa is a continent where legislation has been known to change overnight. Political instability is rife and thus investment of any sort is never a fail-safe decision. ”Regulations in Africa can sometimes be relaxed, but there is still the exposure to possible sudden changes in legislation,” said Karan Khemka of consulting firm Parthenon Group, who has seen some emerging market countries ban fee increases overnight.

“We’ve seen very tight regimes become very relaxed. We’ve seen very relaxed regimes go to ultra tight,” he said.

Although these notions must be taken into consideration, private equity firms are maintaining their pursuits due to their belief that Africa needs to invest in education if it is tackle it’s unemployment problem.

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Mr. Adjei-Boakye advised the Ghanian National Assocation of Teachers (GNAT) in an address at the Sekyere East branch Quadrennial Delegates’ Conference at Effiduase in the Ashanti region. He spoke about how this plan should take into consideration the country’s socio-economic needs, and must be based on the Vision 2020 policy document. Vision 2020 is a projection which aims at acheiving nationwide literacy for every Ghanaian, enabling them to become efficient producers through the acquisition of basic skills in science and technology.

The main content of the conference was based on: “Separating Education from Politics”. As in many countries in Africa there is a tendency to utilize educational institutions to project political messages. Therefore Mr. Adjei-Boakye insisted that such a policy document must be the basis for formulating national policies on formal education and must be strictly followed by whichever political party in government. From that point, the education sector should be driven by professional educators and researchers.

Mr. Adjei-Boakye had noticed that one of the major setbacks to Ghana’s progression of formal education is that emphasis has been placed on leadership characteristics rather than expertise.  Due to their high status and memorable faces, members appointed to either school boards or Education Committees are mainly politicians who lack sufficient expertise.

Looking to the future, Mr. Adjei-Boakye stepped aside from the political aspect of Ghana’s needed educational reform to stress the urgent need for government investment in educational infrastructure and resources.

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