Classroom Activities

Targeted at various grade levels, these activities can help your students better understand the issues surrounding GCE-US efforts to advocate for access to quality education around the world. The activities will also help students better understand the plight facing millions of girls and women who are being denied an education.

______    All Grades    ______

Use e-pals (www.epals.com) to connect with a school in a developing country. Have students share information about their community, their school and what they are studying. For older grades, have students interview each other about who attends school and the role of education in their community.

Ask students to imagine what their lives would be like if they had never been to school. Students can share their thoughts in a variety of ways: poem, essay, oral report, video, drawing, etc.

Think about how you spend a typical day. What would you not be able to do or have trouble with if you were not able to read or understand basic arithmetic? Possible answers might include difficulty with:

  • Street signs
  • Store signs
  • Public transportation
  • Following directions on medicine or getting medications confused
  • Selling and purchasing goods for a fair price
  • Counting money
  • Reading nutritional information
  • Reading information about the government, laws and rights
  • Reading the news

What kind of jobs can you think of that require no reading, writing or understanding of numbers?

Have female role models tell a story about their lives and/or have them come in and read a story about another female role model.

Ask students to talk about a woman or girl they admire and explain why. A good resource for middle and high school students is: http://www.vitalvoices.org/vital-voices-women/women

______    Elementary School    ______

Building Awareness 

According to a September 2010 UNICEF report, the following countries have the widest gender disparity that disadvantages women:

  • Afghanistan
  • Benin 
  • Burkina Faso
  • Cape Verde 
  • Central African Republic
  • Cŏte d’Ivoire
  • Eritrea
  • Guinea
  • Mali
  • Niger
  • Nigeria
  • Somalia
  • Viet Nam

In groups, instruct students to locate and color each of the above nations on a world map.  Within their groups have students make deductions about the general location of these nations as well as discuss other patterns they recognize or observations they have.  Then, have representatives from each group share their observations with the class as a whole.

Visualizing large numbers can be difficult for anyone. It is estimated that nearly 70 million school-aged children do not attend school. Help students better understand how large this number is:

Compare the following numbers to 70 million:

  • How many people go to our school?
  • Live in our town/city
  • Live in New York City
  • Live in the United States

How long would it take to count to 70 million?
How many times could you travel around the world in 70 million miles?
Where would you be if you traveled 70 million miles into space?
Pick a nearby sports stadium: how many of them would you need to fit 70 million people?

______    Late Elementary to Middle School    ______

Ask students to think about the following questions and to share their answers either in a journal or verbally:

  • What would happen if you couldn’t go to school?
  • Why do you think it is important to go to school?
  • What do you think you would lose if you couldn’t go to school?

Have students watch videos of girls talking about their education and discuss how their own education is similar and different from the girls in the videos. Some videos to start with:

Have students read and reflect on this quote from Margaret Mead: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever does.” Ask students:

  • Do you believe the statement is true? Why or why not?
  • Can you think of an example that illustrates this statement? What is it?
  • Have you ever been a part of or do you know of a group of “thoughtful, committed citizens” who have worked for positive social or political change?
  • Do you know of a person who was or is active in an effort to improve their community?

______    Middle to High School    ______

Have students work in small groups and select either a region or specific developing country to research. Each group should share basic information about their country or region, the role of education in that country/region, a discussion of whether the education is accessible to all and whether it is of quality, what the major obstacles or struggles are to providing quality education to all, and some recommendations for how to overcome the obstacles. Each group will need to use research, data, primary resources, etc. to provide support for their solutions.

Regional focus would be organized by:

  • Middle East,
  • Central/Latin America/Caribbean/Haiti,
  • Africa (sub-Sahara has the greatest need)
  • Southeast Asia

Some good sites to start with:

Ask students to consider the question: Is the goal of universal education important? Is it necessary? Students should prepare to debate their colleagues on both of these questions. Students will need to be able to defend their answers using data, primary resources and research.
What are the benefits of having an educated citizenry both within the country’s borders and for the world?

Have students read and analyze the differences and similarities found in the following documents (or in the excerpts below):

  • The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
  • Millennium Development Goals
  • The Dakar Framework for Action
  • U.S. Constitution
  • U.S. Supreme Court decisions
  • State Constitution

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights – Adopted December 10, 1948 Article 26.

  1. Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
  2. Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.
  3. Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.

Millennium Development Goals – Adopted in 2000

Goal 2   
Achieve universal primary education
Target 2.A
 Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling
2.1 Net enrollment ratio in primary education
2.2 Proportion of pupils starting grade 1 who reach last grade of primary
2.3 Literacy rate of 15-24 year-olds, women and me


Have students see if they can find educational rights in the United States Constitution http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters or in their state’s constitution: http://www.thegreenpapers.com/slg/links.phtml

The Peace Corps has produced lesson plans, podcasts and an interactive game about educating girls in a developing country:
Educating Village Girls—Peace Corps Challenge Game http://www.peacecorps.gov/wws/educators/lessonplans/lesson.cfm?lpid=2075 Challenge Game: http://www.peacecorps.gov/kids/index.cfm?challenge=7

Use this Poem Lesson Plan from a Peace Corps volunteer. Read her poem about education access in an African village. After reading the poem have students compare their lives with the girl written about in the poem. http://www.peacecorps.gov/wws/educators/lessonplans/lesson.cfm?lpid=1941

In this Peace Corps lesson plan, students will learn about the education of girls in Niger.
Healthy Girls, Healthy Villages http://www.peacecorps.gov/wws/educators/lessonplans/lesson.cfm?lpid=2521

PBS WIDE ANGLE Time for School Series will be a 12-year look at education across the globe. Time for School 1 was released in 2002. Producers returned to schools in 2006 and the latest update took place in 2009. Through a series of videos, viewers can follow students in schools across the world and observe how the foreign student’s education is similar and different from their own. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/episodes/time-for-school-series/introduction/4340

Have students research the Education for All Act of 2010 and prepare a letter for their representative, op-ed for the local newspaper, or a PSA for the local television station explaining what the act is and why it is important that we support its passage.

Identify a moving story (if possible in video form) and send to your congressional representative with a letter explaining that this story shows how important it is for all girls and women across the world to be educated.

“My”cro-enterprise Group Activity:  There is a growing trend of micro-enterprises and micro-financing to empower populations from developing countries economically, practically, sustainably and emotionally. 

Using your newfound knowledge of the problem of limited access to education for women and girls in the developing world, and your understanding of the obstacles that contribute to this gender disparity, develop a model for your own micro-enterprise.  Keep in mind your model must:

  1. Identify a need
  2. Target an organizational or individual customer
  3. Reasonably be expected to make a profit, and most importantly
  4. Its operations must help women and girls in the developing world access basic education. 

An excellent model would also include specific ways in which it utilizes local human resources, local materials and natural resources to pursue its objectives in a way that promotes a sustainable community.

Convincing Congress: One of the most crucial factors that perpetuate the gender disparity in education in the developing world, as well as poor access overall, is a lack of funding.  In addition to developing nations making education a priority internally, many experts call on developed, wealthy countries like the United States to direct more foreign aid specifically for education.  The United States Congress is charged with the authority of deciding how much money the United States will spend on aid, where it goes and how it is used.  To help them with such decisions, they often solicit testimony or advice from experts. 

Using your knowledge of the subject, write a persuasive statement to convince members of Congress that spending more money on educating women in developing nations is 1) a good investment for the world, and 2) a worthwhile investment for the United States.

______    Lessons for All - Contents   ______

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