Approximately 21,000 Grades 8 to 11 students, half of whom are considered to be marginalized girls in Myanmar, show their great interest in learning via tablets in classrooms. Read more.

The Mini Academy of Science and Technology (MaCTec) from Peru won the 2017 UNESCO Prize for Girls’ and Women’s Education. The co-founder and director of MaCTec, Johanna Johnson, shares about recent developments after winning the UNESCO Prize. Read more. 

Amman and Irbid, 21 March 2018 – On one Thursday morning this month, students in the new digital media course at Yarmouk University’s Faculty of Mass Communication were discussing how to use Piktochart – a free online tool for creating infographics and other visual storytelling techniques. Arwa Alserhan and Amani Al Zureigat, second and third year journalism majors respectively said that they are getting more practical hands-on experience in the classroom. “In the past, everything was about theory; now we can practice some new skills such as how to produce infographics,” added Amani. Read more. 

Magdalena Cox Xum is a modern day hero and role model. She is the first educational coordinator for the UNESCO-Malala Center in Guatemala’s San Andres Xecul, Totonicapán, created as part of the new project supported by the UNESCO Malala Fund for Girls’ Right to Education. Her work for the Center began in March 2018, but her contribution to women´s education started many years ago in her village, Nimasac. Read More. 

“I saw this program as a great opportunity,” says Mustafa Barghouthi, a Syrian student who arrived in Jordan in 2012. He first learned about the UNESCO scholarship programme at Al Quds College in Amman from his friend. Mustafa had not succeeded at Tawjihi, the secondary level examination in Jordan, so he started working doing renovations and construction to earn a living. Read more.

Youth and women’s rights advocate, change-maker, mentor, inspiration – at only 25 years old, Phearong Sdeung is having an impact and living a life that she says is “beyond [her] dreams”. And at the centre of her story is an unwavering pursuit of education in the face of financial and gender barriers that all too often pose insurmountable for young women in her country. Read More. 

UNESCO Bangkok recently visited schools that are part of the pilot three-year Non-Formal Middle School Education (NFME) project in Myanmar, which targets 14 to 16-year-old children who do not have access to formal education. The project, currently funded by the Korean National Commission for UNESCO, is expected to end in May of next year. Here, three student share their stories about being out of school and the importance of hope. Read more.

“Before, I was alone at home,” says Rasha, who was already married at 15 and missed the chance to pursue her education. “Now I have new friends and I feel supported by the other girls and we treat each other like sisters.” Rasha met her new friends at an innovative UNESCO project that is providing practical entrepreneurship and innovation tools to young Syrian and Jordanian women, through technical, income-generating handicraft training. Read more.

Indigenous girls, adolescents and young women in Totonicapán, Guatemala, will assert their right to education in two UNESCO Malala Centers, which will be created as part of a new project supported by the UNESCO Malala Fund for Girls’ Right to Education, set to start in 2018. Continue reading

The Mini Academy of Science and Technology (MaCTec (link is external)) was awarded the 2017 UNESCO Prize for Girls’ and Women’s Education for its “Mobile MaCTec Bus Labs/Mini Academy of Science and Technology” project. MaCTec is a non-profit organization empowering young Peruvian girls in rural areas through quality science education and helping to reduce the gender gap in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. It was founded in 2012 by four Peruvians (one scientist and three young students) and reaches girls from 8 to 11 years old. Continue reading

“Girls have the right to be taught,” says Sompop Jantraka, founder of the Development and Education Programme for Daughters and Communities Center in the Greater Mekong Sub-Region (DEPDC), northern Thailand, one of the two laureates of the 2017 UNESCO Prize for Girls’ and Women’s Education.

Funded by the government of China, the Prize supports outstanding work to advance girls’ and women’s education globally by awarding USD 50,000 annually to each recipient. Continue reading.

Bhawana Bhatta became a mother at the tender age of 14 after her family married her off when she was in grade 8. Although the minimum age of marriage under Nepali law is 20 years of age, UNICEF estimates that one in 10 girls are married before the age of 15. When girls like Bhawana are forced to marry, they often drop out of school, and many will never again set foot in a classroom.

Fortunately, this was not the case for Bhawana. Continue reading.

Two years ago, Chit Ko’s migrant parents decided that at age 11, his schooling was over and it was time for him to work and support the family. Had they not changed their minds, Chit Ko would likely be doing just that – working hard in a field to earn what he could and never to obtain even basic education.

Instead, Chit Ko, now 13, stayed in school and not only is he at the top of his class, he has finished at the top of his entire state’s exams. Recently, Chit Ko received an award to acknowledge his top score on the Myanmar Non-Formal Primary Education (NFPE) examination in Kayin State, Myanmar. Continue reading