Education
The value of an education
Learning is crucial for development and is one of the most powerful tools in breaking the cycle of poverty.
Plan invests more in education than any other program area. We work to ensure children, their families and communities get the knowledge and life skills they need to realize their full potential.
Plan’s school improvement program is a major part of our formal education work and delivers:
- Support to every aspect of a school -- essential in creating the best learning environment for children
- Active participation of children and communities in school governance
- Accountability of individual school management for children's enrolment, attendance, learning and successful completion.
More than 58,000 teachers and teaching volunteers have received training through Plan programs.
Reaching out
In addition, Plan actively reaches out to children who have never been to school, or who have dropped out, offering them the chance to receive a quality education.
We also work to break down the barriers that prevent many girls from being educated and have set up projects to help thousands of them enter school.
For example, Plan Cambodia is working with the local authorities in Kampong Cham province to set up village classes for close to 400 children (200 girls), with the aim of eventually easing them into state-run schools. Plan is providing teaching materials and the teachers' food allowance.
Case studies
Plan supports over 100 primary schools in Zimbabwe, by conducting holiday and weekend classes for students, to make up for a teachers’ strike from August 2008 to February 2009.
Thousands of girls in Burkina Faso who would normally never have the chance to go to school are receiving an education thanks to an innovative program led by Plan.