Asian Education Officials To Explore School Dropout At International Summit

Washington (Antara Bali) -- Education officials from Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Tajikistan and Timor-Leste will join approximately 200 experts and government representatives at a two-day summit here to explore drivers of school dropout and strategies to keep children in classrooms, the U.S. Agency for International Development (www.usaid.gov) and Creative Associates International announced. (www.CreativeAssociatesInternational.com)

The "School Dropout Prevention Summit: Understanding the Causes, Sharing the Solutions" will be held at the Washington (D.C.) Hilton on Sept. 9 and 10. Registration is open to education professionals-as well as the media-at no cost. Space is limited on a first-come, first-serve basis.

    
The Sept. 9 and 10 Summit, which will examine factors that affect dropout in developing and developed countries, has the following scheduled sessions:

   * Overview of Strategies to Address Dropout
   * Early Warning Systems: A Foundation for Action
   * Crime and Dropout Prevention Strategies
   * Dropout Prevention in Conflict Settings, for Girls, and Youth Livelihoods
   * Did It Work? School Dropout Prevention Pilot Research Findings on Dropout Intervention Impacts

An interview-style session called "Tackling Dropout: Ministries of Education Reflect" will be held at the end of the two-day session.
    
Results from 4-country School Dropout Prevention Pilot Program

With support from USAID, Creative led a consortium of partners working on a five-year, four-country applied research project called the "School Dropout Prevention Pilot Program," which explored the drivers of dropout and then engaged government ministries, educators, communities, parents and students in sustainable solutions. The target countries in the program are Cambodia, India, Tajikistan and Timor-Leste.

Findings from the pilot will be shared by the country teams and Ministries of Education during the conference, along with other program strategies and research. The pilot was carried out by CARE International, Kampuchean Action for Primary Education, QUEST Alliance and Creative.

In addition to representatives from the four countries in the pilot, delegates from Egypt, Nigeria, Tanzania, Bangladesh and elsewhere will attend.

"There is not a single, simple solution to preventing dropout," says Charito Kruvant, Creative's CEO. "Different approaches to address dropout have been tried, with varying degrees of success. This is an opportunity to review and discuss these efforts and what countries are planning in order to ensure that children successfully complete their education." (WDY)