Yesterday marked the 18th World Book and Copyright Day, first introduced by UNESCO in 1995, in celebration of books, authors, and the joys of reading. It’s also an occasion to reflect on the importance of education, especially as a driver of poverty reduction. The link between education and economic empowerment is undeniable; accordingly, governments, civil society, and the international donor community have made notable efforts to increase school enrollment and improve literacy rates around the world.

While literacy rates have improved vastly over the past decade in Cambodia, improvements in functional literacy are more uncertain. Photo/Karl Grobl

Despite advancements, an estimated 250 million children are still unable to read and write, and in some developing countries, 25-50 percent of students who have graduated from primary school cannot read a single sentence, according to the World Bank.

Unfortunately, Cambodia is no exception. While literacy rates have improved vastly over the past decade – according to the 2008 National Population Census, currently at about 78 percent among those aged 15 years or older – improvements in functional literacy (the ability to read, write, and calculate beyond basic skills) are more uncertain. In 1999, functional literacy was just 37 percent, in comparison to the basic literacy rate of 68 percent. Unsurprisingly, a third of Cambodians live below the national poverty line, which is 61 cents. Moreover, Cambodia’s improvement in literacy has not necessarily been equitable, with girls, the rural poor, and minorities still facing the most significant challenges.

The Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) has been committed to expanding educational opportunities and is party to several international initiatives, including the Millennium Development Goals and UNESCO’s Education for All. Nationally, the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport (MoEYS), as part of its Education Strategic Plan 2009-2013, has prioritized expanding early childhood education, non-formal education, technical and vocational training, and access to secondary and post-secondary education. To address disparities in literacy rates, MoEYS has designed and implemented inclusive policies such as bilingual education in provinces like Rattanakiri and Mondulkiri with a large minority population, scholarships for girls and students representing other vulnerable groups, and non-formal education opportunities for youth and adults that are not integrated into the public school system.

While these initiatives have had positive impact, Cambodia’s education system still faces numerous hurdles, including issues related to governance and quality of services at subnational levels. Cambodia also faces growing demand for a labor force fluent in English. In 2008, only 5 percent of the population had working knowledge of the English language. Inadequate resources, such as textbooks and facilities, contribute to the problem. With the formation of the ASEAN Economic Community in 2015, which will establish a free trade zone among ASEAN member countries, English-language proficiency will be even more critical for Cambodia’s growth and development.

The Asia Foundation’s Books for Asia program, in partnership with the RGC and a network of NGOs, has distributed over 900,000 books and other educational materials to Cambodian universities, primary and secondary schools, NGOs, government ministries, and public libraries. Read more about Books for Asia in Cambodia.

Cham Soeun is a program officer for the Books for Asia program and Lisa H. Kim is program officer for The Asia Foundation in Cambodia. They can be reached at scham@asiafound.org and lkim@asiafound.org, respectively. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the individual authors and not those of The Asia Foundation.

The Asia Foundation’s Wendy Rockett (left) and other Beyond Access team members meet with Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Burma MP Aung San Suu Kyi.

“We want Myanmar to be a knowledge-based society, a learning society. One that is very open, one where everyone is treated with respect.”

With these words, Dr. Aung Tun Thet, senior adviser at the United Nations Resident Coordinator’s Office in Myanmar, kicked off Beyond Access’ salon in Yangon with this vision for the country’s future. Although Myanmar has a high literacy rate and the number of news outlets has exploded since the dismantlement of state censorship, school drop-out rates are high and access to information remains a challenge, particularly in rural areas. Electricity is often unreliable, even in Yangon, and only 1 percent of the country has internet. In order to identify new ways forward, a wide coalition of people ranging from librarians and community groups to international NGOs and aid agencies to technology, publishing, and education professionals gathered at the National Museum on Tuesday to discuss Myanmar’s pressing information needs.

Local organizations highlighted the difficulties faced by rural communities and suggested ways in which libraries could be revitalized to play a central role in educating and informing remote communities. Daw Cho Cho Aung, a representative from the Bayda Institute, pointed out there is a lack of books in the Myanmar language. “English books are very precious. But those who live in rural areas cannot read them, which is why Myanmar books are needed.” U Htoo Chit, director of Thabyay Education Foundation, added, “We need not only books, but we need to also raise awareness about the importance of reading.”

The library at Sint Gu, a remote village outside of Mandalay. As is typical in rural Burma, a community leader funded the construction of the library and a volunteer acts as the librarian. Photo/Wendy Rockett

May Moe New, managing director of the Myanmar Book Center, emphasized that libraries need to address the specific needs of the communities they serve: “If it’s a normal public library, people are not so interested to come. What we can do is provide everyday, up-to-date info in Myanmar language to these community centers in rural libraries at grassroots level.”

Technology was a hot topic of conversation. Martin of Kant Kaw Education Center suggested that equipping rural libraries with computers and internet access be prioritized. He pointed out that villagers often have “little or no current information on what’s happening inside Myanmar.”

Ed Anderson, The Asia Foundation’s program manager in Myanmar, suggested: “Instead of focusing library by library, book by book, we should look at the bigger picture.” He urged the group to “think beyond the building” and examine how libraries use technology to provide enhanced services. iG Publishing’s Dr. Aung Maw agreed: “We need to think about ways and means for access. Libraries are one of them. Radios and call centers are another means of accessing information.” He also suggested collating information central to people’s lives, such as news on agriculture, business, and health, from Myanmar’s numerous news journals and distributing them to remote communities via DVD. Journals are one of the main sources of information in the country. Other topics discussed included the importance of open government initiatives and public-private partnerships.

Monika Elbert of EIFL neatly summed up the main challenges facing library development in Myanmar, identified as the 5 c’s: connectivity, computers, content, competence of librarians, and community needs.

Editor’s note: This version has been edited slightly from the original.

Asia Foundation delegation meet with President of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar U Thein Sein in Nay Pyi Taw.

Also during this trip to Burma, in a ceremony at the Parliamentary Library in Nay Pyi Taw, senior representatives of The Asia Foundation delivered a special collection of more than 600 volumes to the Burmese Parliament secretariat. To mark the donation, Mr. Arnold made a presentation to U Khin Aung Mint, Speaker of the Upper House and Thura U Shwe Mann, speaker of the Lower House of the Parliament, along with U.S. Ambassador to Burma Derek J. Mitchell and Dawn L. McCall, Coordinator for the Bureau of International Information Programs at the U.S. State Department. The event was attended by many members of Parliament, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who serves as chair of the Rule of Law Committee and who recently visited the Foundation in San Francisco. Dr. Soe Yin spoke words of appreciation as the president of Parliamentary Library and E-Library.

The Asia Foundation’s gift of books and periodicals focused on governance, democratization, and parliamentary procedure; it complements a U.S. Embassy in Rangoon donation of 200 titles. The Foundation and the U.S. Embassy donations to the parliamentary library are in response to a special request from the Burmese Parliament. The books will provide Burmese parliamentarians with information about key democracy and development issues facing the country.

The Asia Foundation’s Asian American Exchange unit and Books for Asia are currently conducting a 10-day observation program around northern California for 14 librarians from nine Asian countries. While in San Francisco,

It has been said that despite five decades of near-isolation, the culture and appetite for education and reading is still very much alive for the people of Myanmar. Can you talk a bit about this culture, and how this has changed throughout the years?

Mr. Ye Htet Oo:  The reading culture was established many years ago in Myanmar. Before we had formal schools, we had monastery school education, which is all about reading and also teaching religion. This is still very much alive in our society. In addition, due to a long period of isolation, we haven’t had many other forms of entertainment and even then, it’s too expensive for the majority of people. Most people still read books or other publications in their leisure time as they aren’t able to spend much on internet or computers, and some places don’t even have electricity yet. People in Myanmar read to give their minds an outlet. This has helped to preserve our reading culture.

Ms. Mya Oo: As Ye Htet said, our reading culture has been strong even since the Pagan Dynasty where we have a record of literary works. At the time, there were many scholars in the literary field, and even women were able to be literary scholars. That literary culture has extended for decades until now.

Myanmar’s literacy rate remains high at 90 percent – much higher than many other countries in the region. How has this been maintained, despite its isolation?

Ye Htet Oo: Even though they might not be able to access a formal education, most of the people in Myanmar have learned to read in other ways, either through monastery schools or maybe they went to a church and learned to read from the nuns. That’s why the literacy rate is pretty high even in the rural areas. Even if you can’t go to the schools, there is somewhere for you to go to learn to read. However, there is a need here for more schools. In some larger areas like Yangon and Mandalay, there are sometimes 70 students per classroom. That’s how it was when I went to high school, and that’s too many for one teacher.

Mya Oo: People have long let their children go to the monastery, even in the villages, where children can learn to read and write. Some due to poverty cannot read to the highest standard, but they can still read and write.

In just a year, the Myanmar government has relaxed censorship, and lifted bans on internet access and social media websites. Can you describe what the atmosphere was like before and how this will play a role in people’s access to information and the future of libraries in the country?

Ye Htet Oo: Censorship has its advantages and disadvantages as all things do. One good thing about censorship is that it protects the reader from hateful or false comments. But then, the bad part about that is that the reader isn’t exposed to the other side of the debate. If you see white, you have to believe white, that’s it. Now that censorship has been relaxed, you don’t need to rely on outside media to know about the different sides. We have much more freedom to speak and write now. But it’s also important that people know whether something is biased or not when they read it, and the media need more practice at offering both sides so that coverage isn’t this way. Right now, NLD party leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and President Thein Sein are both in the U.S. However, you aren’t finding news of Thein Sein’s visit in the local papers in Myanmar. This is what happens when you don’t have any censorship at all, and you have to decide what is good and what is bad.

Mya Oo: We should respect each other’s privacy, and the media must have strong ethics. With this shift, we now need to find what level of freedoms and what levels of censorship we need in order to maintain our ethics.

Ye Htet Oo: One benefit of this change is that it has recently become much easier to open a library than it once was. I opened my library in 2009, and I went through a lot to get permission to open the library, and it shouldn’t be that way. Right now, you don’t really need a license, you go to the Ministry of Information and they will help you. People now have greater access to information, and that’s a very good shift. But we still need to encourage people to read more books both in English and in Myanmar language that aren’t just about entertainment and celebrities. Now that the country has started to open its door, a lot of pop culture entertainment content has come in.

Among other Southeast Asian countries, our internet connectivity is low, but still, people use it a lot – you would not believe it. There’s a huge demand for it. However, as a librarian, it could be a scary influence. When you have other forms of entertainment like TV and internet, books will be the last thing young people will want to choose. As a result, our libraries also need to adapt. You can’t wait for people to come and read in your library; you need outreach programs that convince people that libraries are like home again. Of course we need the internet, but we must also find ways to balance it.

What has been the role of libraries in society over the last decades?  What have been the biggest challenges that you’ve faced?

Ye Htet Oo: In past years, the use of libraries was quite high because we didn’t have a lot of other entertainment options. I operate four mobile libraries outside of Yangon, where the poverty rate is much higher than in the urban areas. In colonial times, the library was a place where you gathered around for discussion and to make things happen. But after the colonial era, it became a bigger issue for people to gather in a group. There was worry that if you came together you might talk about politics. That’s why libraries in Myanmar have struggled at times. After I opened my library, this has become less and less an issue, and people have started gathering at libraries to discuss ideas. This is going to continue to get better in the future, but for right now, we need to build more programs to encourage people to come to the library and stay, not just come to the library, take a book, and go back home.

Mya Oo: The National Library is different from other public libraries. After independence, we received most of our special collection from the Bernard Free Library which was established in 1883. Our vision is to be the center of the intellectual heritage of Myanmar. That’s why we have to preserve these special collections as part of our heritage.

We primarily serve researchers and scholars, and we currently can’t meet users’ demand. We rely on government funding, and the rules and regulations regarding the books can be strict. As a result, we have not been able to lend the books to the public to take home. If we take inventory of the collections, if we’ve lost even one book, we will have a lot of explaining to do. However, now, our superiors are starting to understand what we need to do to reach the public. We cannot just wait for people to come into the libraries; we have to go to the people and give them to the people. We are responsible for the risks of loss of the books. If we can’t be responsible for that, we cannot meet our vision. We’ve recently started to lend the books twice a month to a teacher training college nearby, which can’t afford to buy publications, and people can use them there as well.

What role can the international community play to strengthen libraries, education, and access to information in your country?  

Mya Oo: In the past, many of our country’s trained librarians and professors got masters degrees from the West, especially the U.S. This really helped them to gain techniques to teach students successfully. But, later, as a result of sanctions on Myanmar, no one could go to the U.S. and other western countries for scholarship. The U.S. is the best place to learn librarianship. If these countries would allow more scholarship programs, this would help the development of our own librarianship.

Ye Htet Oo: For the community libraries in Myanmar, funding is a big issue. In other countries you might fundraise openly, but in Myanmar, that would still be a problem. We need more funding to come up with innovative ways to make people come back to the library. Libraries and books are welcome and we need more, but we also need support to build library outreach programs – that would be very helpful.

What has been the most memorable and valuable experience from the study tour that you have gained so far?

Ye Htet Oo: This has been a great opportunity for me to come to the United States and explore how libraries work in a developed country. Pop entertainment is now dominating our time, and it is very hard for a library to survive as it did in the old days. So, we need to make and run programs which will help ensure that libraries provide people with relevant information. While here, we’ve visited libraries that offer online job searches and college counseling, which have been some of the most exciting things to see, as it encourages more people to come and participate in the library programs. I also meet volunteers who are in their 50s or 60s, which is interesting, because in my country most of the volunteers are between 16 and 18. I realized that I need to recruit seniors and retirees as well in my library. Getting to know all of the other participants from across Asia has been the most thrilling experience. Many of us come from similar backgrounds and have nearly the same issues, so it’s good to share and learn from each other’s experiences.

The industrial zone of Ashulia, just outside of Bangladesh’s sprawling capital, Dhaka, grabbed headlines in mid-June when hundreds of garment workers demanding higher minimum wages shut down over 300 factories. It was the most violent protests the region had experienced since 2010; the death of a prominent labor activist, Aminul Islam, three months prior in April fueled the unrest that unfolded.

In fact, despite its obscurity internationally, Ashulia is one of the major manufacturing hubs for ready-made garments for export to Western stores like Wal-Mart, Tesco, and H&M. Some 4,500 factories – from hulking concrete structures to one-story buildings that resemble small storefront shops – employ nearly a half a million people. I visited Ashulia in August, just a month after the unrest, to meet with teachers and students from the School of Hope, one of the schools that offers subsidized education (with funds from Wal-Mart) for the area’s garment worker children.

On the outskirts of Dhaka, Ashulia is home to nearly half a million garment workers. Most of them have migrated from rural areas of Bangladesh in search of jobs. Photo by Conor Ashleigh.

The drive from Dhaka to Ashulia can be deceptive: it’s only about 18 miles, but can take hours during morning or afternoon rush hour when workers are commuting to their shifts. The main highway serves as a central artery that feeds employees to the factories, most of which are set back from the main road. The highway turns into a ribbon of humanity – men and women weave through traffic in clumps, spilling out of buses and rickshaws, eventually trailing down paths to different building entrances.

Over much of the last decade, Bangladesh’s economy has maintained a high, 6 percent growth rate. Although the country remains one of the poorest (it ranks 146th out of 187 countries in the UNDP’s latest Human Development Report), experts are generally optimistic about its growth trajectory – recently, the  director general of the World Trade Organization (WTO) said that Bangladesh was “well on track” to achieve its development goals to become a middle-income country by 2021. The garment industry, which makes up 80 percent of the country’s export earnings and employs over 3.6 million people, has played an enormous role in the country’s economic progress. Due to a number of factors but mostly lower working wages, Bangladesh has beaten some of its neighbors like India, Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia to become one of the world’s largest clothing exporters – second only to China. The industry also provides job opportunities to the country’s rural residents, who have typically relied on agriculture (and still do) for their livelihoods, who flock to manufacturing areas like Ashulia. Their income, albeit low, is critical for the livelihood of their families, but the sacrifices that they make are significant.

Sahjahan migrated with his wife, Kanchan, and their two children from northwest Jamalpur to Ashulia seven years ago so that she could find work at a clothing factory. Like most garment workers here, they live in a one-room basti (slum), and share a communal toilet and cooking area. Sahjahan works as a day laborer, collecting and selling rubbish scraps. This type of working arrangement is not uncommon in garment worker communities: 80 percent of the industry’s workforce is made up of women who, like Kanchan, are drawn to factory work to earn an income that would otherwise be hard to come by. Electricity is intermittent at best; the dark, windowless rooms are lit by single tungsten bulbs dangling from the ceiling. [Watch a slideshow of the garment worker community in Ashulia.]

Sahjahan’s 7-year-old daughter, Shanta, attends the School of Hope nearby. While the factory jobs provide much-needed income to families, many of whom are living on $40-50 a month or less, the urge to pull young girls, and boys, out of school to work at the factories is tempting. Despite hardships, Sahjahan, clutching his daughter’s small hand, told me, “I’m never taking my daughter out of school – if she wants to become a doctor, she’s going to have to study hard and stay in school.” In some cases, though, the school must do some hard negotiations with the parents to convince them to keep their children in school.

Shakil, a bright-eyed, “star” student at School of Hope, lives nearby with his parents who migrated from Natore in northern Bangladesh. His mother now works in a clothing factory and his father sells jackfruit. His 12-year-old sister does not go to school, and just recently, his father was nearly forced to also pull Shakil, who wants to become a doctor, out of school to work in the factories. Teachers from School of Hope convinced his father to let him stay for now.

Shakil, a student at School of Hope, lives with his parents who migrated from Natore in northern Bangladesh. Due to poverty, his father was tempted to pull him out of school to work in a factory, but the school convinced him to let him stay. Photo by Conor Ashleigh.

In the mid-day heat, we make our way through the tight footpaths that weave through the residences and come to a row of shops and produce stands. The streets are sleepy and quiet; men rest draped over rickshaws, and older women sit idly under shelter waiting to sell their products. The factories drive the pulse of the community here – at this hour, most residents are working at factories nearby. When their shift ends, they will fight the congestion to make their way back home. They are helping to put Bangladesh on the map – making it more competitive regionally and globally. But, as other countries have learned, the ascent to middle class doesn’t come without sacrifice.

Alma Freeman is The Asia Foundation’s global communications manager and editor of this blog. She can be reached at afreeman@asiafound.org. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the individual author and not those of The Asia Foundation.

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This International Literacy Day, Sept. 8, 2012, marks the culmination of the United Nations Literacy Decade (UILD), an initiative launched in 2003 to increase literacy levels and develop literate environments worldwide. Much has improved over the last 10 years, including literacy solutions and tools that integrate rapid innovations at the intersection of education and technology – many of which were not available at the onset of UILD. These new methods of learning can support nations grappling with illiteracy by providing lower-cost solutions to today’s ever-increasing access needs for information and technology.

Although few long-term studies exist, early research suggests that access to mobile technology, more specifically mobile phones and tablets, can improve literacy performance among learners if effectively monitored, updated, and integrated with other literacy tools. A recent pilot study evaluation in Ghana conducted by USAID and Worldreader found positive effects that include increased enthusiasm toward reading, greater access to resources for teachers, and improved technological skills and performance on standardized scores at the primary level. In the U.S., teachers in Chicago, Illinois, and Auburn, Maine, conducted classroom research that showed notable gains in literacy after introducing Apple’s iPad into their lessons. These preliminary indicators linking literacy improvement to mobile learning through tablets hold promise for many countries in developing Asia, particularly as mobile phone and internet penetration increases exponentially. There are already 123 million internet users across the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). In Thailand alone, the internet penetration rate is nearly 60 percent, with nearly 72 million mobile phone subscriptions for the country’s 69 million citizens.

As Thailand prepares for increased regional integration under the ASEAN Economic Community in 2015, the Ministry of Education has major challenges preparing students to compete with thriving neighbors like Singapore and Malaysia. While the World Bank upgraded Thailand’s income categorization to an upper-middle income economy in 2011, some experts, including senior economist Kirida Bhaopichitr, warned that higher levels of education and innovation are essential to continuing inclusive growth.

In early 2012, one bold move to address the challenge of equitable distribution among middle-income economies is Thailand’s One Tablet per Child Initiative (OTPC), which declares that every child in Thailand will have access to tablets to enhance learning and literacy. To date, the project has already delivered nearly 55,000 tablets to first-grade students out of an anticipated 900,000. Each tablet will provide access to as many as 336 learning applications for five subjects including ESL, math, Thai, social studies, and science. The Office of Basic Education Commission (OBEC) plans to train 549 supervisors to help train over 50,000 first-grade teachers to instruct their students in appropriate and effective use of the tablets. An additional 730,000 tablets are slated for delivery to schools in various urban and rural provinces: Chon Buri, Chainat, Chaiyaphum, Chumphon, Chiang Rai, Chiang Mai, Trang,Tak, Nakhon Nayok, Nakhon Pathom, Nakhon Phanom, and Nakhon Ratchasima.

Thailand’s OTPC initiative seeks to provide access to mobile tablets, effective teaching and e-learning materials, teacher training and professional development of mobile tablet technology, and improved high-speed internet access nationwide. However comprehensive these goals may be, the initiative has faced stiff criticism from local and international experts for delayed deployment of the tablets, inadequate teacher training, insufficient planning for device maintenance, and most importantly, lack of robust content. Many of these challenges were lessons learned already through the One Laptop per Child initiative which many viewed as a flawed attempt at transforming education. Nonetheless, the government’s overarching vision to bring educational technology into the classroom to bridge the digital divide and facilitate the next era of education and innovation is courageous. If the challenges can be addressed with intelligent design and execution, Thailand’s new mobile learning initiative holds potential to influence education systems worldwide.

Meanwhile, non-governmental organizations are stepping in to fill in the teacher training and content gap by working at the grassroots level, and attempting to identify scalable models that work. As part of our Access4Asia initiative, The Asia Foundation’s Books for Asia program is supporting the OTPC initiative in Thailand with a training program for Android tablets at an early adopter school. In order to better prepare their teachers for the transition, Anuban Wat Ang Thong School, just outside of Bangkok, has purchased 45 tablets ahead of the government-mandated distribution. The Asia Foundation, its partner Books for Thailand, and the British Council are collaborating to conduct training sessions for teachers on tablet operation and how to effectively incorporate the devices into the curriculum. In addition, we’re also working with Change Fusion to fulfill the content gap by developing locally appropriate apps dealing with English as a Second Language (ESL) and climate change. This first round of app development reflects Thai priorities to increase job opportunities under a unified ASEAN economy by 2015 and raise awareness about climate change issues, the effects of which were experienced in 2011 at Anuban Wat Ang Thong School during the country’s worst flood season in five decades.

Although Thailand’s OTPC initiative is still in its early incubation phase and more analysis is needed on its effectiveness, it does take an important step toward addressing education challenges and preparing Thai citizens for a more technology-driven future where they will be better able to compete within ASEAN and beyond.

*Editor’s note: This version has been edited slightly from the original.

Naita Saechao is operations manager for The Asia Foundation’s Books for Asia program. She can be reached at nsaechao@asiafound.org. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the individual author and not those of The Asia Foundation.

I recently took a trip into the heart of Malaysian Borneo to visit some of the most remote schools that The Asia Foundation’s Books for Asia serves. Borneo is a large island located north of Java, Indonesia. In the spring of 2011, we started a partnership with PACOS Trust, a local organization that works with indigenous communities, to reach schools deep in Sabah’s rainforests, mountains, and coastal plains. Although Malaysia is a middle-income country with the third largest economy in Southeast Asia, a large disparity exists between peninsular Malaysia and the country’s eastern provinces, like Sabah. Sabah is the country’s poorest state with 20 percent of its people living on less than $1 compared to a poverty rate of 4 percent for the rest of the country. Sabah’s literacy rate is 79 percent while the country’s overall rate is 91 percent.

The journey from Kota Kinabalu, the coastal capital of the state of Sabah, to Kampong Minusoh took all day, and the last 43 kilometers were over a muddy, bumpy dirt road. At some point, the power lines ended and palm oil plantations stretched out on both sides of the road. Massive spools of electrical wire dotted the road every few kilometers. I later found out that these spools had been sitting by the side of the road for years despite repeated promises to bring electricity to the adjacent villages.

The journey from Kota Kinabalu, the coastal capital of the state of Sabah, to Kampong Minusoh. Photo by Amir Shariff.

When we finally reached Kampong Minusoh, I noticed satellite dishes attached to a fair number of the homes. The village has no electricity but those who can afford them run generators at night to light their homes and power TVs and computers.

Frustration over the lack of infrastructure was a constant refrain during discussions I had with the villagers. Many told me that while they are eager to keep their communities and traditional way of life intact, they still want and need basic modern amenities like electricity.

“I’d like to see this village prosper,” Wilsten Lawrence, the village chief and our host, told me. “If the level of education in his village improves, the people would be better able to negotiate with the government for the infrastructure and jobs that are desperately needed,” he said. In addition to lobbying for infrastructure, indigenous Sabahans have been fighting for rights over their ancestral land, which puts them in conflict with agricultural companies that have set up vast palm oil plantations in the area.

Wilsten Lawrence (left) with community members at Kampong Minusoh, a village of approximately 800 people. “I’d like to see this village prosper,” he said. Photo by Amir Shariff.

Only two students from the village have gone to university; most become subsistence farmers after graduating high school. Lawrence estimates that in Kampong Minusoh, the literacy rate in Bahasa Melayu, the national language, is 90 percent while in English it is just 10 percent. He added that acquiring better English-language skills is critical for working to improve their village. “English is an international language so to have a profession like a doctor or lawyer you need to know English.”

Education in villages like Minusoh is confined and limited by the poor infrastructure. Students whose families cannot afford a generator are not able to study at night. Due to their isolation, rural Sabahans do not have access to many books. The budgets of school libraries – often the only source of books in the villages – are very small and their selection is limited to a book list provided by the government.

Due to their isolation, students in rural Sabah do not have as much access to books as other parts of Malaysia. Photo by Amir Shariff.

Anne Lasimbang, executive director of PACOS Trust, cites this as one of the reasons her organization partnered with The Asia Foundation to distribute books to the most remote sections of Sabah. “Our children need to be exposed to books,” she told me; beautifully illustrated books, in particular. She said she has witnessed children’s curiosity come alive when reading a picture book with a teacher. Even if the child can’t read the words, it prompts him or her to ask, “What is this?” she said.

Last year, Books for Asia sent about 13,000 books donated by Pearson Education to isolated schools in Sabah. Cut off from the rest of their country and hamstrung by the lack of educational resources, these communities are the very ones Books for Asia strives to reach.

Read more about Books for Asia.

Wendy Rockett is Books for Asia’s communications and outreach program officer and Amir Amir Shariff is a senior program officer in Malaysia. They can be reached at wrockett@asiafound.org and amir@asiafound.org, respectively. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the individual author and not those of The Asia Foundation.

Like many, I was saddened to learn of Neil Armstrong’s death in August. He was 82. When Mr. Armstrong made his “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” I was a 12-year-old boy growing up in New Jersey. Like the other 600 million people around the world who watched Neil Armstrong walk on the moon, I was spellbound as he descended from “the Eagle” lunar module to become the first person to walk on the moon’s surface. But Mr. Armstrong was of course not just an “American hero” (a term he vigorously eschewed), but a global hero as well.

When Mr. Armstrong stepped on the lunar surface, it was a turbulent time in America. The U.S. was fighting a war in Vietnam, which was rapidly expanding into Cambodia and Laos. In addition, America was experiencing great racial tension, the struggle for civil rights, and, just a year prior, the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy. Despite the turbulence, both at home and abroad, Mr. Armstrong’s walk on the moon seemed to serve as a great moment of unification for the country, together honoring the bravery and courage he (and fellow astronauts Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin and Michael Collins) exhibited.

Over the past 34 years, a time when I’ve been living in or traveling throughout Asia, the subject of Neil Armstrong and his famous walk on the moon would periodically come up. Most of the time it was talking with Asian friends about where they were and what they were thinking when Neil Armstrong first set foot on the moon. A Thai friend of mine said she was “thrilled” to have had the opportunity to shake Neil Armstrong’s hand when he visited Bangkok with Aldrin and Collins on their world tour in October 1969. I remember in the 1990s one Malaysian friend telling me Neil Armstrong heard the adhan or Muslim call to prayer, on the lunar surface and upon returning safely to earth converted to Islam. I told my friend that this was not true, but upon looking into this issue more I was surprised to learn that over the decades Neil Armstrong received thousands of requests from individuals and religious organizations overseas to participate in Islamic religious activities, including from Indonesia and Malaysia. Never wanting to offend or show favor to or disrespect to any religion, Mr. Armstrong never did accept any of the religious invitations.

But my favorite story about Neil Armstrong comes from a conversation I had in 2010 on a trip to Cambodia with a group of Asia Foundation trustees. I had the chance to speak with a 15-year-old student at Ksach Kandal High School in rural Kandal province, Cambodia; about 90 minutes outside Phnom Penh, much of it on a narrow, single lane road. In 2009, Ksach Kandal High School received a grant from The Asia Foundation to refurbish its library, and the Foundation donated several hundred English-language books through our Books for Asia program. One of these books was a biography of Neil Armstrong. This young man, who attended a simple school that sat three to a desk, said that he was so inspired by reading Neil Armstrong’s biography that he aspired to become Cambodia’s first astronaut. For someone who comes from a very poor country whose national literacy rate ranks 153rd out of 204 nations, this young boy’s aspirations may seem as far as the moon.

Perhaps the greatest testament to Neil Armstrong’s life was that his story could continue to inspire a boy on the other side of the planet to want to achieve great things 40 years after he set foot on the moon. As we celebrate International Literacy Day this week, let us hope that this young man and millions of other children around the world continue to be inspired by books, as only through a culture of learning can a nation truly embark on a path of sustainable economic activity and participatory governance.

John J. Brandon is director of Regional Cooperation Programs for The Asia Foundation in Washington, D.C. He can be reached at jbransdon@asiafound-dc.org. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the individual author and not necessarily those of The Asia Foundation.

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