Yemen Campaign Encourages Students To Go Back To School

Yemen’s education officials faced a two-pronged crisis. Political instability and street protests caused parents to doubt that schools would open in September, compounding an existing problem of low levels of enrollment, particularly among girls.

As the new school year approached, the Education Ministry asked Counterpart and other non-governmental organizations to help with a back-to-school campaign informing parents that the academic year would start on schedule.

“We’re on the side of children and ensuring that they continue their studies, despite the country’s political crisis,” says Abdul Karim Alaug, Counterpart’s Deputy Country Director.

The nonprofit is implementing a three-year, U.S. Agency for International Development-fundedResponsive Governance Project (RGP) in Yemen. USAID agreed to dedicate a portion of Counterpart’s grant to supporting this direct-response initiative.

With only four weeks before the first day of school, Counterpart and other groups rushed into action. Joining in the effort was one of Counterpart’s Yemen-based civil society partners, the All Girls Association, as well as UNICEF, CHF International and two local media companies.

Together, they produced a series of three television commercials, including one that features famous Yemenis, religious leaders and political figures who encouraged children to go back to school on Sept. 17. The campaign launched on Sept. 7, with the television spots airing four times a day.

The television public service announcement features a variety of voices that promote the value of education, with one person saying: “Everyone has the right to learn,” followed by children saying “It is my right to learn.”

After a few days into the new school year, education officials were relieved that children were going back to their classrooms – despite the ongoing political struggles. In a few cases, attendance was up. Even with the early success of the initiative, the campaign will continue through Oct. 17.

Education for girls

The back-to-school initiative also gave the nonprofit groups and ministry officials an opportunity to drive home two additional messages to parents – children are better off in school than working and that girls should be educated.

“It is an unfortunate fact that many parents either do not send their daughters to school or remove them from classrooms after only a few years of formal education,” says Mehboob Karim, Counterpart’s acting Country Director in Yemen. “The campaign seeks to break the cycle of illiteracy and poverty. Educating girls is good for their families, their communities and their country.”

More than 82 percent of boys were enrolled in elementary school, compared to only 67.9 percent of girls, according to UN figures for 2008.

Because of low attendance levels, it is estimated that more than 60 percent of adult females in Yemen are illiterate, compared to 29.6 percent of adult men, according to the UN.

The ideas of educating young girls and sending children to school instead of making them work were each addressed in separate public service announcements on television.

In one TV spot, a husband and wife watch as two neighborhood girls enthusiastically walk to school. Seeing that their neighbors are educating their daughters, the couple is convinced that they should send theirs as well. They happily place school supplies into a backpack, pull the girl out of the field and the father proudly hugs her before she leaves. Once inside the classroom, their daughter is fully engaged in the instruction and shows her eagerness to learn.

The other message – promoting early education instead of putting children into the workforce – was well produced and powerful.

The television public service announcement shows an older man watching children enter school. He thinks back to his childhood that was cut short because he was sent to work. He returns to his workshop where a boy is laboring with adult-sized tools. The man gives the child a backpack and sends him to school.

The television spot ends with a voice over that says: “It is my right as a child to learn, not to work.” At the end, the text reads: “Back-to-school campaign. Let’s enroll our children in school.”

The back-to-school campaign, including education for girls, is an addition to the USAID-funded RGP initiative, which started in 2010. The RGP works to strengthen government institutions and improve the delivery of public services, which continues to be the primary focus of the group’s work in Yemen.

It also seeks to enhance its policy formulation, analysis and implementation capacities, as well as working with key agencies to promote accountability and strengthen government financial management and accountability. The initiative also helps civil society organizations and citizens to play a role in public policy development and monitoring.

Counterpart implements RGP together with the Research Triangle Institute (RTI) and the National Democratic Institute (NDI). The Yemeni government is a partner.

Student turnout for exams

Counterpart was invited to work on the back-to-school campaign after its success with a national initiative to convince students to take their standardized tests. Given once a year, these exams determine whether a student will advance to the next grade.

"These exams are vital to a student’s academic progress and educators were afraid that the political crisis would overshadow this critical moment,” says Karim.

Set for June – at one of the peak moments of the political turmoil – the Education Ministry estimated that fewer than 50 percent of students would show up to take the standardized exams. Approximately 560,000 students were eligible for this year’s exams.

Officials reached out to USAID and the Counterpart-run RGP team in the capital of Sana’a to help with an awareness initiative.

Counterpart and other partners collaborated in a seven-day campaign with the message “Let’s work together for the successful completion of national exams.” That message reached more than 8 million people via mobile phone messages, display ads in newspapers, two national television stations and radio stations.

It worked: 85 percent of students sat for their standardized exams.

“Through these education-focused campaigns, we were able to unite people to support activities that directly affect their children’s future,” Karim says. “At the same time, we were able to give our civil society partners an opportunity to develop and carry out sophisticated campaigns.”

By Michael J. Zamba