The challenge
As the number of out-of-school children and youth reaches a staggering 300 million world-wide, the need for realistic solutions to the education crisis has never been greater. While many countries have made great progress in achieving universal access to primary school, many young adults still lack access to educational opportunities. Many youth drop out before completing primary school, and school curricula itself is often irrelevant to the practical livelihood and employability needs of the world’s young people. The implications of these demographic trends are disturbing and far-reaching: with so many millions of children and youth denied access to basic education, life skills, and livelihood training opportunities, let alone school degrees, all of these young people are denied access to their full potential. The communities, countries, and world in which they live are all poorer as a result.

In recent years, numerous studies have documented the reasons why children do not go to or stay in formal schooling. Among the causes most often cited are: lack of available schools in their communities; the need for children to contribute to their family's economic survival strategies; the cost of school fees and related costs such as uniforms, school supplies, and transportation; the lack of attention being paid to the needs of female students; and the lack of instructional relevance.

The solution
It is no surprise that providing some form of alternative basic education for these large numbers of out-of-school children and youth remains one of the greatest challenges facing the global Education for All movement. The rise of complementary education programs has sought to remedy the great educational challenges of the twenty-first century and provide disadvantaged youth with learning opportunities outside of formal classroom settings. These complementary programs are often referred to as nonformal education. Today, nonformal education takes on a variety of educational roles, including basic literacy and numeracy, life-skills trainings, technical/vocational trainings, and apprenticeships/on-the job training. Nonformal education programs are often noted for their versatility and adaptability as they address the many weaknesses that linger from traditional, formal education programs.

Our Approach

EQUIP3 works to provide complementary education alternatives to the world’s most disadvantaged young people. EQUIP3 has expertise in the areas of Literacy and Flexible Learning Systems for out-of-school youth. Our nonformal basic education programs are integrative and holistic in nature. Our programs:

• cater to individual learning needs;
• provide youth with multiple and interrelated education and livelihood skills;
• allow young people to practice and use their emerging skills in a variety of arenas; and
• prepare youth to become active contributors to their families and communities.