Ericsson and the UK government partner to improve girls’ education in Myanmar

• This strategic partnership between Ericsson and the UK Department for International Development has been created through the Girls’ Education Challenge, and will support marginalized girls’ education in Myanmar
• Leveraging the global education initiative Connect To Learn, it aims to connect schools with mobile broadband, delivering educational content and teacher training
• This initiative aims to improve the learning outcomes of over 14,000 marginalized girls in Myanmar within two years

Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) and the UK Department for International Development (DFID) have joined forces to support girls’ education in Myanmar (also known as Burma), by improving access to the internet, delivering teacher training and enabling students to experience a 21st century education.  

Both partners have committed to supporting education in Myanmar as a means of addressing the current global crisis in education recognizing that this will have positive impacts on the health and wellbeing of girls as well as on their families and communities.

DFID is providing approximately £3.7 million in funding which will be matched by the partners through cash and in-kind contributions. The initiative will allow up to 50 secondary schools to be connected to the internet through mobile broadband. The initiative will also deliver a comprehensive in-service professional development program for teachers, and specific educational program for students, using child-friendly computing solutions to improve literacy and numeracy amongst the female student population. Up to 600 scholarships will also be provided to marginalized girls, enabling them to stay in school and complete their secondary education. In total, more than 14,000 marginalized girls are expected to benefit from improved learning outcomes, through this initiative. 

Ericsson will work with UNESCO, the Earth Institute at Columbia University, Finja Five (an innovative start-up at Lund University), Qualcomm Incorporated, through its Qualcomm® Wireless Reach(TM) initiative, and the external evaluator EduEval to deliver this program. This coalition leverages the strengths and contributions of each partner, which includes UNESCO providing teacher and student training, the Earth Institute implementing a community-driven scholarship program and conducting research to support a scalable framework for integration of ICT in resource-poor secondary schools, Finja Five providing child-friendly computing solutions, Qualcomm Wireless Reach initiative’s funding and project management, and EduEval for Monitoring and Evaluating the project.

Justine Greening, International Development Secretary, says: “This initiative capitalizes on the business and technological expertise of Ericsson so that thousands of girls in Myanmar can realize their full potential and build a better future for themselves and those around them. Through better access to the internet, scholarships and continuous improvement for teachers we are giving girls the chance to receive a modern secondary education that would otherwise not be available to them.”

Elaine Weidman-Grunewald, Vice President of Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility at Ericsson, says: “Ericsson is pleased to announce the partnership with the UK Department for International Development. This is our first large scale engagement with a national development agency, and we believe public private partnerships like this can bring scale and impact that would be difficult to achieve by any one partner alone.  It is also an incredible opportunity for Myanmar, a country undergoing rapid social and economic change, to leapfrog into a 21st Century education and become a part of the Networked Society.”

The students of Myanmar will join more than 40,000 students that have already benefited from access to quality educational resources through Connect To Learn, the global education initiative founded by Ericsson, the Earth Institute at Columbia University and Millennium Promise.

NOTES TO EDITORS

About DFID

The Department for International Development (DFID) leads the UK’s work to end extreme poverty. The Girls’ Education Challenge - the largest ever global fund dedicated to girls’ education - calls on NGOs, charities and the private sector to find better ways of getting girls in school and ensuring they receive a quality of education to transform their future. The Girls’ Education Challenge in total will help up to one million of the world’s poorest girls to have an opportunity to improve their lives through education in 18 focus countries, leverage additional resources for girls’ education from the private sector and develop new knowledge on cost effective programming.

Ericsson has been awarded funding through the Strategic Partnerships Window of the Girls’ Education Challenge, which brings DFID and global business together to deliver education solutions for marginalised girls.

About Connect To Learn

Connect To Learn (CTL) is a global education initiative launched in 2010 by the Earth Institute of Columbia University, Millennium Promise and Ericsson to scale up access to quality secondary education, in particular for girls, by providing scholarships and bringing information & communications technologies (ICT) to schools in remote, resource-poor parts of the world. Impacting nearly 40,000 students worldwide today, CTL is pioneering ICT in rural classrooms and charting a course for scalable solutions, driven by a vision that classrooms everywhere, from cities to the most isolated villages, will be transformed in exciting ways with the expansion of mobile broadband networks.

For more information, please go to www.connecttolearn.org

About Qualcomm

Qualcomm Incorporated is a world leader in 3G, 4G and next-generation wireless technologies. Qualcomm Incorporated includes Qualcomm’s licensing business, QTL, and the vast majority of its patent portfolio. Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated, operates, along with its subsidiaries, substantially all of Qualcomm’s engineering, research and development functions, and substantially all of its products and services businesses, including its semiconductor business, QCT. For more than 25 years, Qualcomm ideas and inventions have driven the evolution of digital communications, linking people everywhere more closely to information, entertainment and each other. For more information, visit Qualcomm’s website, OnQ blog, Twitter and Facebook pages.

Qualcomm believes access to advanced wireless technologies can improve people’s lives. The Qualcomm Wireless Reach initiative is a strategic program that brings wireless technology to underserved communities globally. By working with project collaborators, Wireless Reach invests in projects that foster entrepreneurship, aid in public safety, enhance the delivery of health care, enrich teaching and learning and improve environmental sustainability. For more information, please visit www.qualcomm.com/wirelessreach. 

Qualcomm and Wireless Reach are trademarks of Qualcomm Incorporated, registered in the United States and other countries.

Ericsson is the driving force behind the Networked Society - a world leader in communications technology and services. Our long-term relationships with every major telecom operator in the world allow people, businesses and societies to fulfill their potential and create a more sustainable future.

Our services, software and infrastructure - especially in mobility, broadband and the cloud - are enabling the telecom industry and other sectors to do better business, increase efficiency, improve the user experience and capture new opportunities.

With more than 110,000 professionals and customers in 180 countries, we combine global scale with technology and services leadership. We support networks that connect more than 2.5 billion subscribers. Forty percent of the world’s mobile traffic is carried over Ericsson networks. And our investments in research and development ensure that our solutions - and our customers - stay in front.   

Founded in 1876, Ericsson has its headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden. Net sales in 2013 were SEK 227.4 billion (USD 34.9 billion). Ericsson is listed on NASDAQ OMX stock exchange in Stockholm and the NASDAQ in New York.

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