[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 21 (Wednesday, February 14, 2001)]
[House]
[Pages H350-H351]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   U.S. DOLLARS ARE WORKING IN INTERNATIONAL BASIC EDUCATION PROGRAMS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Green) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GREEN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, what I want to do is to build a 
little bit on some of the comments that we have just heard from my 
companion and good friend, the gentleman from North Dakota (Mr. 
Pomeroy).
  We did travel together for 7 days in Ghana and Mali and did see some 
very good things and got some great news from a continent that, quite 
honestly, has seen less of good news and more of sobering news in 
recent months and years. The purpose of our brief time there was to 
measure education reform in general in those countries, but also, more 
importantly, to deal with the issues my good friend has pointed to of 
the role of girls' education in those countries and the pace of reform 
in that area.
  We looked at a project called SAGE, Strategies for Advancing Girls 
Education, as it was being implemented in those two countries. That is 
a partnership involving USAID dollars and the expertise of the Academy 
for Educational Development and some wonderful other NGOs in the area 
and, of course, local leaders.
  Now, I am quick to admit to my colleagues, as I was to my traveling 
companions, that I am a skeptic in this area. Twelve years ago, my 
wife, Sue, and I taught high school in east Africa, and we were very 
much aware of the institutional and cultural barriers that exist, 
particularly in the developing world, barriers which all too often 
prevent girls from going to school and finishing their education. I 
readily admit today that I came out a true believer, a great believer 
in the progress that our dollars are making in those countries.
  There are so many heroes that the gentleman from North Dakota (Mr. 
Pomeroy) and I can point to in these educational reforms. Of course, 
the local leaders and the parents' groups, who have to embrace these 
reforms in order for them to have a chance. Also wonderful 
organizations like Save the Children and OXfam. But in the brief time 
that I have, I would like to focus in particular on one program, a 
program involving USAID dollars and the Academy for Educational 
Development and something called the Life Skills Curriculum in the 
country of Mali.
  Through this wonderful program, educators are able to weave 
throughout their curriculum valuable life skills, especially in the 
area of preventable health. My colleague and I watched with great 
interest as teachers would use lessons on, for example, how to prevent 
dysentery as part of their instruction on grammar so that these lessons 
truly were a part of the curriculum at every stage and at every level.
  As I said, I was a skeptic. Those of us who have taught in the 
developing world are often struck by how irrelevant our lessons can 
often be, especially in countries that have an education system which 
is a holdover from a colonial power. Where I taught, we had the old 
English system, the English style, rote learning. But what we are 
seeing in countries like Mali is a new style of education, a new style 
that involves practical lessons day in and day out, and involves 
students talking to each other and building upon their own experience.
  My colleagues can see to my left here a picture. This shows a young 
lady in Ghana. What she is using, because of the shortage of paper, she 
is using a little chalkboard, a little slate board to help her get 
through her lessons. That shows some of the material disadvantages that 
these students often have.
  My next chart shows something which may appear very reasonable and 
normal and everyday to those of us in the West but is a quite 
remarkable characteristic of reform in education in Mali and Ghana, and 
that is having breakout groups, where students are no longer stuck in 
that old rote-learning pattern that is a holdover from the colonial 
days. Instead, they talk about lessons in a very real way, and they

[[Page H351]]

apply those lessons, especially those life-skills lessons, to their own 
experience and they use it to learn grammar, they use it to learn math, 
they use it to learn science. And the beauty of this is, even if these 
children, Lord forbid, are unable to go on to secondary school, unable 
to go on to high school, unlikely to go on to college, they will have 
learned valuable lessons on preventive health care.
  We know these lessons will go a long way in preventing some of the 
great health challenges that we have seen.

                              {time}  1315

  It will pay off in the long-run in these countries. It will pay off 
for America. It is a wonderful thing.
  The good news is our dollars are working. I thank the gentleman from 
North Dakota (Mr. Pomeroy) for the wonderful experience he included for 
me. It was truly a great experience.

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