As part of Global Education Week, I wanted to highlight that Columbian pop star Shakira spoke to NPR yesterday after testifying on the Hill for the Education for All Act. You can listen to the interview here. Shakira explains that in order to enroll boys and girls in schools, we need to do at least four things: Hire qualified teachers, provide uniforms and text books, abolish school fees and provide school meals. She says: “I grew up in a country where unfortunately education is sometimes seen as a luxury, as a privilege, and not as a human right. This always bothered me. So this is personal to me. In the developing world, people who are born poor will die poor, and that is because of the lack of opportunities, opportunities that come from education. Education can actually save lives.” If the Education For All Act passes, it would increase U.S. funding from $465 million to $3 billion by 2012 and help 77 million children around the world have access to education.

Madhya Pradesh is far away from achieving the United Nation's Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015, if one takes into account a mid-term evaluation report prepared by a voluntary group, Triple 7 Report. The report --- christened as `Mid-term status of Millennium Development Goals in Madhya Pradesh - A Peoples' report' makes a telling commentary as to what extent the state lags behind on eight development goals as set by the United Nations over seven years back.

The UN on September 8, 2000 made a declaration for the millennium which stated that by 2015, eight goals of development vis-a-vas removing extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, empower of women and increasing gender equality, reducing infant mortality, improving health of mothers, fighting against diseases and protection of environment and its development would be achieved.

A mid-term evaluation report on these goals in Madhya Pradesh, said that 44.77 lakh families in the state lived below poverty line, while 15.81 lakh families came in the circle of extreme poverty (quoting M P Economic Survey report 2006-07. The report quoting the National Sample Survey organization report, said that poverty in Madhya Pradesh declined from 37.43% to 21.4 per cent, which is far more than decline in poverty at national level from 26.1% to 21.8%.

As per the latest report of the union government till July 2007, works towards strengthening livelihood of 1.15 lakh families in Bihar, 2.93 lakh families in Rajasthan, 95000 families in Andhra Pradesh had been undertaken but not families in Madhya Pradesh was getting this benefit.

As per the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, which provides guarantee for employment of 100 days per year to labourers, the state government as against issuing job cards to 43 lakh families, provided employment to merely 25.48 lakh families.

The UN under its second millennium development goals had envisaged to increase enrollment of children in primary schools to 100 per cent by 2015. However, going by the present status of enrollment in Madhya Pradesh, it seemed unlikely that the state will achieve its goal by the given time period. A survey undertaken in 10 districts of the state under M P Shiksha Abhiyan in 2006-07, revealed that that the net enrollment ration of children in primary schools was at 84.5%. The report also said that 32% primary schools in the state had one primary teacher, while in 33.75% primary schools, there was no female teacher at all.

The MDGs envisaged to reverse the trend of child mortality under five year by -3rd by 2015 but on this front also, the situation in Madhya Pradesh is far from satisfactory. The infant mortality in state stood at 76/1000 live births. Similarly, 2.4% of the children aged 12-24 years were not immunized against all prevalent diseases. The report also revealed a substantial drop on state government's expenditure on health which declined from 5.1% of the total budget in 2000-01 to 3.4% in 2004-05. The target to bring the infant mortality rate down to 53.14% hardly seems to be achievable. The report quoting National Family Health Survey III, said that the status of malnuitrion in Madhya Pradesh increased by 6.3%, going up to 60.3% the highest in the country. Similarly, the maternal mortality rate in the state stood at 379/1000, one of the highest in the country. As per the millennium development goals, the MMR and IMR in the state are essentially to be reduced to 220/1000 and 62/1000 respectively by 2011.

“Everyday we see on television victims of violence both in Brazil and around the world. However, many more people die because of hunger, which is also a form of violence.”

These words were written by 9-year-old Nicole Ribeiro Ferreira. The 3rd grade student at the Municipal School Padre Manuel de Paiva in Brazil won the Hunger Essay competition run for schools in the district of Guarulhos in the State of São Paulo. Schools all over Brazil included hunger in their lessons as part of Walk the World.

Nicole and her teacher Rosana Mio da Silva, 39, won a trip to visit the World Food Programme in Rome, Italy to meet the FightHunger.org staff.

One year after the Government of Southern Sudan launched its “Go to School Initiative”, enrollment has increased to over 850,000 and more then one third of all students are girls. During Sudan’s civil war, only 1 percent of girls completed primary schools but girls like Suku Jane Simon, 16 (center) are beginning to change that –she will graduate from secondary school next year.

Through a local chapter of Girls’ Education Movement (GEM), Suku also hosts a weekly call-in show at Southern Sudan Radio. “I advise all children, girls and boys – to go to school,” she says in the microphone. “Education is the key. When I see a girl who does not go to school, I say to her, ‘My sister, let us go to school, for you are poor in mind.’” Suku loves this work and hopes to become a journalist.  

No matter where you come from, grandma cooks best, cares best, and above all, knows best. Why shouldn’t her wisdom be put to use in maternal and child nutrition, health and development projects?

While many of these projects focus on younger groups, The Grandmother Project empowers grandmothers, increasing the success of maternal and child health projects in Senegal, Mali and Laos. Now the FAO also acknowledged the power of grannies.

“At least 30 million children will still be out of school in 2015 - most of them in poor, conflict-affected countries," says Simon Cowell, Acting Secretary General of the International Save the Children Alliance. 2015 is the target year for education for all and the Millennium Development Goals, a roadmap for ending poverty by 2015.

I'm at the Games for Change conference in New York.  The conference brings together people from nonprofits and the private sector to discuss the future of serious or educational games.

Most of the discussion boil down to how twitter or social networking are changing "the digital landscape" but there have been some interesting talks about how best to have more user interaction with games. 

As far as I remember, as soon as I could distinguish my ABC's from my XYZ's I was reading. Though English wasn't my first language, reading came fairly easily to me, which may explain why I grew so fond of books. Culturally, I was still learning the ins and outs of American classrooms- but with books, I could be whoever from wherever.