Education Cannot Wait

The official launch of the UN Secretary-General's Education First Campaign took place a few days ago. It's really positive to see that quality education in conflict and/or disaster-affected communities is high on the agenda. In the coming days I'll try to post on some of the key points of the Education First vision document. In the meantime below is the related Education Cannot Wait infographic. For more on the Education Cannot Wait - Call to Action, check this out. 

p.s. Thanks to all of the recent new followers on Twitter (despite my lack of recent blogging)! I love to interact with you all, so for those of you who aren't following yet, you can find me at: @GEDBlog 

Neglect of education in slow-onset emergencies

'In Somalia in 2011, school enrolment rates plummeted due to the food crisis and large-scale displacement. The Education Cluster estimates that more than 1.8 million children aged 5–17 are out of school in South and Central Somalia alone – the worst-affected region, due to persistent and ongoing conflict and drought. The current education coverage and response supports only 20% of the school-age population in this zone. The availability of education for internally displaced persons (IDPs) and local host communities has not been sufficient to meet the need.  

Challenges to effectively delivering education in Somalia include:
• the lack of an appropriate curriculum
• inadequate learning spaces
• a lack of trained teachers from affected communities
• insufficient teacher remuneration and incentives for teaching
• the underlying challenge of the absence of a governance structure.  

Scarce teaching and learning materials are not enough to cover even the current low enrolment rates, made worse by the continued lack of funding for education in emergencies. 

In the Dollo Ado camp in Ethiopia and the Dadaab camp in Kenya, resident populations increased significantly during the 2011 crises – from already high levels. More than a quarter of a million Somali refugees arrived at the two camps in 2011 alone. The camps now host more than 600,000 Somali refugees, approximately 60% of whom are children. 

Providing education in the camps is particularly challenging given the chronic lack of services for the host populations in marginalised, drought-affected areas, where many refugees have settled. Many refugee children have had little or no previous access to formal education in Somalia, making it even more difficult to integrate them into the limited formal schooling in host communities. In Dollo Ado, only an estimated 15–20% of children are currently accessing education services.'

As well as East Africa, the report also discusses West Africa. Read the full report here.

One of the most important things we can teach youth

Thanks to a comment on a LinkedIn discussion based on this blogpost, I was pointed in the direction of the work of Kiran Bir Sethi. It got me thinking about what it is that we should be teaching youth particularly in marginalised communities or refugee situations. They are surrounded by negativity of one form or another: stigma, being told they're not good enough, poverty, unrealised dreams. 

What then should we be teaching them? As Kiran suggests, the concept of: I can. Now we've all heard about positive thinking, but somehow we've all assumed this is something applicable to adult life, that kids somehow sail through easily without the doubts and negative thoughts creeping in. Kiran's ideas show how important 'I can' is in youth life and the impact it can have on their lives as well as - and arguably more importantly - that of the society at large, and the community in which they live. 

Here is a link to a TED talk in which Kiran explains the concept much more powerfully than I do. Well worth a watch, if only to see how the word 'infection' can be used in a positive context. 

Interested in Alternative Education?

In light of a previous post on changing education paradigms, the Education Revolution - Alternative Education Resource Organisation website proves an interesting resource on Alternative Education. It is a global network of innovators and resources such as links to information on homeschooling, Montessori schooling, and even job listings for those in the States. There are also a variety of articles on various aspects of Alternative Education.

Check out the website here. 

Recapturing the Narrative of International Development

A recent paper from Sakiko Fukada-Parr, entitled Recapturing the Narrative of International Development. 

'Though it is difficult to assess whether the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have contributed to poverty trends across the world, their impact on the discourse on international development has been powerful and unexpected.  By articulating the complex challenges of development in eight goals with concrete 2015 targets, the MDGs have had unprecedented success in drawing attention to poverty as an urgent global priority. But the narrow emphasis has also led to detracting attention from other important priorities-the complex strategic choices in economic policy-and has simplified development policy debates.   

The MDGs have created a new narrative of international development centred on global poverty as a compelling moral concern. This narrative convincingly appeals to rich country “publics and parliaments” and to new global philanthropists. But the simplification of development to eight goals has reduced the development agenda to meeting basic needs, stripped of the Millennium Declaration’s vision for development with social justice and human rights. The narrative leaves out any mention of equity, empowerment of people and building sustainable productive capacity for economic growth. It has no room for understanding poverty as related to the underlying power relations within and between countries and the asymmetries in the global economy. It leaves out much of the broader policy agendas, including the systemic issues of the global economy that have long been priorities for developing countries in international economic negotiations, and impacts of liberalization and privatization on the poor that have been priorities for the critics of globalization. Goals galvanize concern and action but quantification can oversimplify complex challenges with unintended consequences for the way these challenges are defined.   

While there is widespread consensus on their importance in drawing attention to poverty as an urgent global priority, the MDG framework has generated some sharp criticisms. These include:  

• composition of the targets-what was included and not included, the levels at which they were set or not set, the methodology for measuring implementation progress;   

• reliability of the MDGs as a development framework given their narrow scope and oversimplification, and bias against African and other countries because of failure to take into account initial conditions, and the arbitrary and incoherent methodologies used to set the targets;   

• non-participatory process by which they were formulated by bureaucrats without adequate intergovernmental negotiations nor open consultation with non-governmental organizations (NGOs); and   

• inappropriate application of the goals as national planning targets.'  

Important reading in light of goals such as the MDGs resulting in a disproportional global focus upon primary education. Fukada-Parr covers ten critical issues that need to be addressed in redesigning development goals - these include: adapting targets to national contexts; clarifying the purpose; and acknowledging inequality within countries.

You can read the full paper here. 

It seems this is actually predicated on the assumption that global development targets are a good thing though. I'm not sure I'm entirely convinced. Thoughts? Are there better alternatives?

Was the current system of education designed for a different age?

One of the important questions Sir Ken Robinson answers in this must-watch video on Changing Education Paradigms.

Sir Ken Robinson suggests that children have been 'anaesthetised' to get through schooling, and instead we should be waking them up to discover what is inside of themselves. If this is the case then, the question is: at what stage do children learn what is inside themselves under the current education norms?

He also mentions that we need to go in the exact opposite direction of standardisation - I do agree, however struggle with how this plays out in practice. Is this why more and more people are turning towards homeschooling? Are schools currently stifling the critical - or divergent, as Sir Ken Robinson calls it - thinking abilities of children? It would be great to hear your thoughts.

Quick note: The video constantly refers to education, however I think that Sir Ken Robinson is talking about schooling. For more on the difference between schooling and education, take a look at this previous post. 

Madaar - volunteers needed!

Madaar - Open Islamic Curriculum is a project I am involved with, and we're currently looking for volunteers. If you have some time to spare - no matter how much - then get in touch, or please forward on to someone who might be interested.

Check out why you should help us here. For more about the project, take a look here. 

Has the time come for freely available academic journals?

In light of posts on Open Courses, I thought this article on academic journals being gated - and the need to change this - warranted posting. I originally read the piece over at the Aidnography blog.

I'm sure we must have all been there: you need access to a paper, but you've forgotten your Athens password, or your institution doesn't subscribe to that particular journal. Apart from this 'first world problem', the more important issue is that in theory, academic research is carried out in order to influence practice. However, you don't need me to tell you that the reality in the development and humanitarian sector can be completely different. Academic research tends to - with I'm sure a few exceptions - remain just that: in the realm of academia. If research is to do what it is meant to then, and actually change the way we do things in the field, is it time we moved towards openly available journals? At a time of various Open Source learning opportunities online, is the concept of gated papers, and therefore knowledge hoarding a little dated and contradictory in light of advocacy for free education?

Would be great to hear your thoughts - get posting in the comments box below.
 
P.S. Did you know you can follow the blog over on Twitter?

Report: Protecting Education from Attack

A recent report from the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack entitled Study on Field-based Programmatic Measures to Protect Education from Attack.

Protecting higher education from attack

'Attacks on higher education may occur in countries where there is not an ongoing armed conflict, but when 

national governments, opposition groups, or other non-state actors fail to respect the ‘neutrality’ of education. 

It is therefore worth considering responses to attacks on education beyond situations of armed conflict in countries 

in which education is repressed, polarized, or highly politicized. 

Attacks on academic staff can often 

occur for publishing research as well as undertaking teaching.  

The negative consequences of attacks on higher education affect not just universities, but also primary and 

secondary schools that depend on quality teachers trained at the tertiary level and on research that informs 

pedagogy and curriculum at all levels. Attacks on higher education institutions and personnel also cause a 

‘brain drain’ as threatened scholars flee or are killed, diminishing the quality of education overall. The situation 

for scholars in Iraq is an extreme example: over 460 Iraqi scholars have been assassinated from 2003 to 

December 2011. 

Many more have been kidnapped and their families targeted or threatened in great numbers,

leaving them with no option but to flee. 

 

Overall, those assisting higher education personnel indicate that they are assisting those that have fled from 

many countries in almost every region of the world. Scholars and academics who face persecution work in many 

different disciplines - sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities - meaning that attacks on higher 

education are not always just about silencing the political opposition, but also about controlling ideas and knowledge in society.' 

The report takes a look at attacks on education from the perspective of: protection, prevention, advocacy, and monitoring and reporting. The end of the report provides several relevant country profiles. The sections on conflict sensitive policy and curriculum reform are worth reading. Check out the report here.

P.S. Did you know you can follow the blog on Twitter?

How do we achieve poor quality education?

No, the title isn't a typo. I thought I'd take a look at the flip side: rather than trying to propose ways we can achieve good quality education (something which has no doubt been covered better elsewhere), how about how we end up with poor quality education?

Language of Instruction: Learning in a language that isn't your mother-tongue has a hugely negative impact upon learning outcomes. I've highlighted the importance of focusing upon it in earlier posts. Various studies have been done that prove how bilingual or multilingual models can have a positive impact upon students' learning, and how such models can lessen the potential for conflict. Despite all of this, the language of instruction issue has yet to be mainstreamed in educational development. Of course, in countries where there are hundreds of languages (including dialects) it is perhaps not a straightforward area to reform. 

Standardisation: Seems an obvious one, but just because an educational model has worked in one country, it does not necessarily mean it will work elsewhere. A curriculum needs to be relevant to the context in which it is taught. Let us not forget the importance of context to a relevant and quality education.

Teachers: Poor pay. Lack of professional development. Large class sizes. Difficult conditions. Low status in comparison to other professions. Does this combination really sound conducive to a quality education?

Poor management: Even if teachers do remain positive and wish to be agents of change, this can often be thwarted by poor management and leadership. 

There you have it. It's not an exhaustive list, so now it's your turn: can you think of other areas which lead to poor quality, irrelevant education? Do you think there is one particular area which requires our immediate attention? Share your thoughts in the comments box below.