Technology helps bridge Pacific Island education gaps
Technology helps bridge Pacific Island education gaps
2024-06-07
High school students who identify as Pacific Islanders have one of the highest dropout rates in the United States, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Voice of America’s Jessica Stone introduces us to an immigrant teacher in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands who is aiming to change that.
Thirty-year-old Riya Nathrani has yearned to teach since she was a young girl, newly arrived from India to CNMI, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory in the Pacific.
Riya Nathrani
CNMI lead technology educator
I would line up my dolls every day after school and pretend that I was teaching a class of students.”
These days, her classroom is full of other teachers trying to learn how to overcome the barriers of educating students in the Marianas – where 38% of the population lives in poverty – and tropical storms can cancel school for months at a time, even postponing the 2023 graduation ceremony at Marianas High School.
Riya Nathrani
CNMI lead technology educator
They’re not really thinking about education at that time. And then when we finally do get back to school, we have this huge educational gap with where we left off a few months ago and where they’re expected to be by the end of the year.
Nathrani believes technology can help close that gap. Even before the pandemic standardized online learning for grade schools nationwide, she traveled the Marianas, training teachers to develop compelling online courses, implementing distance education to supplement staff shortages on the remote islands, and teaching students to build spreadsheets, create graphics and write resumes.
Jane Mozunder
CNMI high school student
If Dr. Nathrani never became a teacher, she never taught, I don’t know how I would, or how me and my peers would adapt to the ongoing society that we have and the development of technology.
Mozunder will enter college in the fall and is considering a career in education. For Nathrani, that choice is the definition of her own success.
Riya Nathrani
CNMI lead technology educator
Just because we’re from a small island, it doesn’t mean that their opportunities are limited. It’s all about working hard and it’s about being able to see yourself achieving that dream.
Dreams for her students, which are now tied to her own.
Jessica Stone, VOA News.
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美國北馬利安納群島教師 藉科技改善教育現況
2024-06-07
根據美國國家教育統計中心的數據，太平洋島嶼的高中生輟學率高，一位從印度移民到北馬利安納群島的老師，目標正是改變這種狀況。來看美國之音的報導。
30歲的Riya Nathrani 從小就立志當老師，她剛從印度來到美國在太平洋的島嶼，北馬利安納群島。
[[北馬利安納群島老師 Riya Nathrani]]
“小時候每天放學後，我會把我的娃娃排成一排，假裝自己是老師在教學生。”
如今，她的教室裡坐著許多想改善馬利安納群島教育現況的老師，當地有將近四成的人生活貧困，而颱風可能會導致學校一停課就是好幾個月，甚至延後開學時間。
[[北馬利安納群島老師 Riya Nathrani]]
“那時他們並沒有考慮到教育的重要性，當我們終於回到學校，幾個月前的情況以及預計到年底的情況存在相當大的差距。”
Nathrani相信科技可以幫助縮小這一差距，甚至在疫情讓全國小學的線上學習標準化之前，她就走遍了馬利安納群島，培訓教師，開發線上課程，藉遠距教學偏遠地區的人力不足的問題，並教學生製作電子表格、製作圖表和撰寫履歷。
[[北馬利安納群島高中生 Jane Mozunder]]
“如果Nathrani博士沒來當老師、如果她沒有走上教書這條路，我不知道我會變怎樣，也不知道我和我的同學要怎麼適應我們現有的社會和技術的發展。”
Mozunder今年秋天上大學，她也想投入教育領域。對Nathrani來說，這個選擇就是她自己定義的成功。
[[北馬利安納群島老師 Riya Nathrani]]
“來自一個小島並不代表我們機會就比別人少，這一切取決於努力，並看到自己實現夢想。”
而她自己的夢想，現在也成了她學生的夢想。
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