In Asia: Weekly Insight and Features from Asia

For three days in December, individuals from a range of industries gathered at the 3rd Annual Big Ideas Fest to explore the future of education. In a venue overlooking the Pacific Ocean, a stone’s throw from Silicon Valley, teachers, administrators, and representatives from policy and advocacy groups, non-profits, foundations, social enterprises, and cutting-edge technology companies discussed the unique opportunities offered by the intersection of education, technology, and innovation.

I registered for the Big Ideas Fest hoping to better understand innovative trends in education and assess their potential application for the developing world. Based on its growing reputation, I knew that Big Ideas would be unlike any other conference I had attended. Challenging from the start, the ice-breaker exercise asked us to reflect on our earliest memories of learning and the most dramatic shifts in our own personal education experiences, and to then share them with all 175 participants, in a span of 15 minutes. I was immediately brought back to my experience as an English as a Second Language (ESL) student. Born in a refugee camp in northern Thailand to parents who fled war-torn Laos, I was very young when we were sponsored to resettle in the United States. Speaking only my mother tongue, Mien, and placed in an ESL group at school, I felt lost and at times ostracized in the classroom. But as I gained fluency in English, I remember the wonderful “aha” moments that occurred as I found a voice in my new environment. As it turns out, my own early memories were about to inform another dramatic shift in my perception of education at the Big Ideas Fest 2011.

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The flooding that submerged one-third of Thailand this year was the worst the country had seen in 50 years. Sixty-five provinces and over 4 million people have been affected, tens of thousands have lost jobs, and nearly 700 were killed. Nine provinces remain underwater. Thailand’s National Economic and Social Development Board slashed its projected 2011 GDP to 1.5, down from its pre-flood projection of as much as 4 percent. The World Bank estimates that rehabilitation costs could reach $25 billion.

Primary and secondary schools were not spared from the destruction. A total of 2,237 schools were destroyed or damaged. According to the Ministry of Education, repairs will cost an estimated $44.2 million.

Floodwaters in Thailand damaged thousands of schools, including Angthong Temple Nursery School above, located on the shore of the Chao Phraya River north of Bangkok. Photo: Angthong Temple Nursery School.

Principals from four of the worst affected areas that I visited recently said students missed 25 or more class days on average, which were made up by staying an hour longer each day and, in some cases, coming in on Saturdays. Also, because their workplaces were flood-damaged, many parents could not work for a month or two, dramatically reducing household income and their ability to provide for their families. Even though tuition, lunch, and uniforms at public schools are free, students must pay for courses not required by the Ministry of Education. Ang Thong Nursery, located on the shore of the Chao Phraya River north of Bangkok, for example, offers computer classes and English and Chinese instruction with foreign teachers, totaling $33 per year. These skills are critical to the future success in Thailand’s highly populated and competitive job market but were disrupted due to the flood damage.

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Sitting at the back of the classroom, with one eye on her mobile phone, Shanti looks like a typical Indonesian high school student. But Shanti is not here to learn; instead, she’s a tutor herself. In a makeshift classroom constructed from two old shipping containers stacked on top of each other, Shanti tutors first grade students at the Master Community Learning Center in Depok, on the outskirts of Jakarta.

Shanti (center) first came to the Master center three years ago after moving from Sukabumi in West Java and now serves as a tutor to the center's students, many of whom spend the day busking on the streets to support their families. Photo by Anne Luntungan.

“It’s a great experience,” the 17-year-old says. “I can contribute to the education of Indonesian children as well as help relieve some of the pressure on the learning center.”

And this center needs all the help it can get: due to lack of funds to hire trained teachers, the sprawling Master center recruits its successful alumni – like Shanti – as tutors. The center is named for its location near a mosque and the Depok bus terminal. (“Master” is a contraction of the Indonesian words for mosque, masjid, and terminal.)

The Master center is one of nearly 50 Community Learning Centers across Greater Jakarta supported by The Asia Foundation’s Books for Asia program. To coincide with National Literacy Day (Hari Aksara Nasional) last week, we distributed 3,250 English-language books to the centers.

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To mark Indonesia’s National Literacy Day on October 21, The Asia Foundation’s Books for Asia program distributed 3,250 books to almost 50 Community Learning Centers across Jakarta. Located in low-income neighborhoods, these government-supported centers play a crucial role in providing free, out-of-school education for the country’s at-risk children. Community members provide after-school tutoring, public school-equivalent lessons for drop-outs, and vocational training to help keep children off the streets. This slideshow offers a glimpse into the important work being done by these vital learning centers.

On September 8, The Asia Foundation commemorated International Literacy Day for the first time in Timor-Leste. The Foundation partnered with the Secretary of State for Youth and Sport, Alola Foundation, Care International, and Timor Aid to host a book fair for primary and secondary students. More than 4,000 books were distributed to schools in Dili. Since 2004, the Foundation’s Books for Asia program has donated more than 115,000 books to schools and other institutions throughout the country, a nation sorely in need of a culture supportive of learning and resources such as public libraries.

Since independence, Timor-Leste has increased literacy levels to 50 percent; an impressive achievement in less than one decade. Above, children with new books donated by Books for Asia during International Literacy Day celebrations.

When Timor-Leste achieved independence in 2002, only 32 percent of the nation’s populace over the age of 15 was literate. Moreover, the violence that ensued after the people of Timor-Leste voted overwhelmingly for independence from Indonesia destroyed 80 percent of the nation’s infrastructure, including schools – making Timor-Leste one of the poorest nations in the world with basic income, health, and literacy levels on par with the nations of sub-Saharan Africa.

Since independence, Timor-Leste has increased literacy levels to 50 percent; an impressive achievement in less than one decade. During this time, Timor-Leste has significantly increased access to primary education (89 %); despite possessing one of the world’s highest population growth rates where the average mother has six children. The country’s National Development Plan sets a clear, ambitious goal that by the year 2020, the people of Timor-Leste will be “literate, knowledgeable, and skilled.” However, many challenges remain and much needs to be done.

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I was in my teens in England when I first heard the Afghan author and educator Idries Shah telling tales to his children, family, and friends. He had collected hundreds of these traditional stories from oral and manuscript sources in and around Afghanistan.

These stories were an integral part of his exuberant recollections about Afghanistan where he often recalled the fruit trees grew the best fruit, where the mountains, flowers, and valleys were the most beautiful and where the men, women, and children were brave, honorable, and wise – or were learning to be so.

Over the next three decades, a career in publishing eventually lead me to the United States where, as director of Publishing for the Institute for the Study of Human Knowledge (ISHK), an educational nonprofit founded more than three decades ago, I developed a line of educational books for middle schools and professionals. In October 1996, I visited Idries Shah in London and asked him what happened to the stories he used to tell his children. So many of his stories had subsequently been published in collections for adults, but I had not seen these children’s stories in print anywhere.

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Stories of Vietnam’s rapid development make headlines in local and international media regularly these days. In 1985, the average per-capita income in Vietnam was $130, making it one of the five poorest countries in the world. Now, with average incomes over $1,000, Vietnam’s highly literate population (over 90 percent) is absorbing and searching for more information to improve their lives, from education and career opportunities to health and business. Although internet penetration is increasing in Vietnam (over 25 million Vietnamese now regularly use the internet) and the region, there remains a great demand for print publications – particularly foreign-language materials.

Despite rising internet penetration throughout Vietnam, there is still a high demand for print books and materials at libraries. Photo by Justin Mott/Getty Images.

Vietnam’s citizens have a longstanding passion for reading – evident on the many street corners and parks filled with people deeply engrossed in the daily newspaper or a magazine. This appreciation for reading is also evident in the country’s extensive and well-established public library system, with nearly 2,000 commune-level libraries, 613 district libraries, 63 provincial libraries, and a national library. Public libraries in Vietnam are free to the public, open for long hours, and employ relatively well-qualified personnel. At the grassroots level, public libraries, if properly maintained, can play an important role in complementing the formal education system.

However, libraries in Vietnam tend to focus only on those people who specifically request their services, rather than proactively reaching out to the general public. As such, the poor and disadvantaged populations are far less likely to access and take advantage of public libraries. In addition, many Vietnamese librarians are well-trained in library science but not trained with skills that would help them relate to their clients and reach out to new groups in the community, such as retirees, housewives, the unemployed, household businesses, and farmers. Often, when I visit libraries here, I find that they are less responsive than they could be to the needs of the communities that they serve. The fact that Vietnam’s extensive public library system is seriously underused suggests a significant lack of public awareness about the system’s resources and potential contributions.

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As the world celebrates International Literacy Day on September 8, The Asia Foundation’s Books for Asia officer in Nepal, Shameera Shrestha, caught up with the director of the American Library at the U.S. Embassy of Kathmandu, Prakash Thapa, on where he sees the future of Nepal’s library system and challenges the nation faces to battle illiteracy.

Just over half of Nepal’s population is literate, with women lagging behind men. As a librarian, what do you see as Nepal’s biggest challenges in its fight against illiteracy?

Poverty is an enormous challenge here – Nepal is one of the world’s poorest countries with 70 percent of its 29.5 million residents living in poverty. Limited access to schools and good libraries are also major problems. That’s why it’s critical that we focus on establishing well-stocked libraries and schools in every corner of the country. Libraries can play an important role because libraries are open to anyone who wants access to information. Through libraries, people can empower themselves. And, libraries don’t have to be large: there are many examples here of villagers in rural areas learning how to read and write at very small “basket libraries,” which are small mobile community libraries run by local groups.

What is the current status of public libraries there?

There are about 1,200 public libraries across Nepal. In fact, most of them are in rural areas. But, most of the libraries in the rural areas do not have enough resources. For example, some libraries have only newspapers, and even then, the newspapers they have are often over a week old. Though the number of public libraries might seem high, the conditions of the libraries are miserable compared to public libraries in developed countries. Unfortunately, the government does not provide enough regular funds to support these libraries, so improving these conditions has been challenging. Also, because of Nepal’s rugged and remote terrain, many areas are simply very difficult to access, and getting books and materials to these far flung locations is arduous and time-consuming.

How did you come to be a librarian?

Right after high school, I enrolled in the American Language Center at the American Library in Kathmandu. That was the first opportunity I had to spend a lot of time at the American Library, or any library for that matter. Back then, the American Library was one of the few libraries in the capital. Around that time in 1986, I had the opportunity to work at the library part time, and my time there inspired me to get a degree in library science so I could become a librarian at American Library.  

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When Ireneo O. Pinzon and his family moved in the 1960s to Isulan, a rural town in Mindanao in the Southern Philippines, not a single library existed. Even 50 years later, the Southern Philippines continues to lag behind the more urban islands to the north. The literacy rate in South Central Mindanao is 10 percent lower than the urban centers in northern Philippines at 87 percent, and in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao, the rate is about 30 percent lower at 69 percent. Access to books and educational materials also lags behind the north. Despite challenges in the region largely brought about by years of armed conflict, high poverty rates, and poor governance, Mindanao has seen great improvement in terms of access to books and education – in no small part due to the determination of people like Pinzon.

Soon after settling into rural life in Isulan, Pinzon was appointed as municipal secretary. His deep interest in education, along with his position in the local government, drove him to write letters to organizations in the United States requesting books, as none were available to the public at that time. Within months, he was pleased to see that the first boxes of books had arrived.

Over a short period of time, Pinzon began transforming his house into a reading and research center open to the community. In addition to the books that he acquired, Pinzon, known in town as the “walking encyclopedia,” subscribed to Reader’s Digest and Time Magazine to augment the library collection.

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In recent years, Afghanistan’s battered education system has seen some progress – including more schools for boys and girls, and better access to critical resources such as books and classroom equipment. Yet, the nation’s literacy rate still remains one of the lowest in the world estimated at 27 percent. To help Afghanistan address this ongoing challenge, The Asia Foundation partnered with children’s book publisher Hoopoe Books to distribute 1.2 million much-needed traditional storybooks in Dari and Pashto as well as in English to schools throughout Afghanistan. Our digital media team recently visited some of the schools that just received books and caught up with students in their classrooms. Watch slideshow.