A new nonprofit project titled New Education Highway (NEH) works to provide free and accessible education for students in “remote and rural communities.” The organization, launched in Myanmar earlier this year, connects with existing local organizations to establish free education centers that utilize the aid of electronics–i.e., tablets, laptop computers–with pre-loaded resources to offer educational tools once considered unaffordable and unobtainable to far-reaching communities.
Uniquely, access to most of NEH’s resources do not require internet connection. Additionally, NEH aims to customize their electronic interface and learning spaces to accommodate the particular nature of each local community it reaches.
The NEH completely relies on open educational resources (OER) to supply its curriculum content. The resources, created and contributed by NEH and its partners, are available under Creative Commons licenses. Its pre-loaded materials includes resources on a wide variety of content: comprehensive K-12 curriculum, standardized test preparation, vocational skills, health/HIV education, sanitation, critical thinking, community development, foreign language training, and environmental and agricultural science.
The NEH project may be a significant part of the solution to Myanmar’s cry for greater development in their education sector. Currently, Myanmar universities are networking with prestigious education experts and officials to learn how to further develop their education system. Burmese officials are continuing to call for greater investments in all their schools.
Creative Commons Love: worak on Flickr.com
Written by Melody Chiang