Rethinking the Schoolhouse: Arguments for a New Approach to Education Changu Mannathoko Senior Education Advisor; UNICEF, New York Email: [email protected].

Rethinking the Schoolhouse: Arguments for a New

Approach to Education

Changu MannathokoSenior Education Advisor; UNICEF, New York

Email: [email protected]

Education for All Goals -Capacity of Traditional Education models to Adapt

• Early childhood care and education• Universal primary education• Learning needs of young people and adults-Non

Formal Education programmes• Adult Literacy• Gender• Quality• Increased participation, equity & quality

promoted, together with financing all goals.

Key Guide: the traditional

schoolhouse-in the child’s best interest?

• Multiple threats to social-community-family systems include: deepening poverty; political instability and conflict situations; recurrent drought; food insecurity; ill-health and the impact of the HIV and AIDS pandemic

• The school as an institution of learning is under siege• Traditional education systems & schools fall short of

providing education for marginalized populations • The relevance & sustainability of the education & learning

to the learners rights weak• Schooling not contextualized and unable to provide the

learners with the necessary livelihoods that their life situation require.

Key Guide: the traditional

schoolhouse-in the child’s best interest?

• The dominant language used as a medium of instruction , undermines the performance of children from marginalized social groups.

• The mobility of some populations is not compatible with the traditional school e.g. the nomads

• A standardized national curriculum appears irrelevant and does not respond to learners' talents.

• Out of school children and youth have strong expectations for acquiring vocational skills to enhance their livelihoods but the traditional school system in developing countries may not have the resources to provide these facilities.

• Traditional school cannot adequately relate to child labourers, HIV and Aids orphans, children with special needs, gender violence, teacher education, pedagogy, material etc).

The Total Quality Approach:Child Friendly Schools/Learning Spaces

Pathways to Education for All- EFA• Inclusion-out of school

children• Community Links• Quality with Equity• School/ Learning

Environments-NFE• Teaching/Learning• Management/Ethos• Monitoring & Evaluation• CFS-LS/TQA: The Total Quality

Approach

Whole School Approach• Whole School Approach ensuring Access to

relevant and high quality education through the Child Friendly Schools pathways to quality.

• Holistic education system to be flexible, contextualized and diversified in order to meet the rights of learners.

• The school has to provide Learning Plus services for children (water & sanitation, community, psycho-social support, disaster risk reduction, environmental education, LSBE & complementary education)

• Education for All cannot be achieved only through the formal school system, nor only by government.

Linking Schools and Communities

• Getting Communities to Participate in and identify with Schools serving them

• Making Schools more Responsive and Accountable to their Communities

• Linking the Home and the School for the best interest of the Child

• School AS a Community and School IN the Community (Fencing in / out)

Pedagogical Quality and Equity Concerns are critical

in CFS/LS• Curriculum Relevance/Variety• Effective Classroom Practices• Efficient Learning

Management• Gender and other Equity

Issues• Predictable Resource Flows• CFS and Sustainable Quality• Setting Standards: Why & How• Measuring Performance• National & International Goals

Gender and other key Equity Concerns matter in CFS/LS Models

• Education & school systems have to become truly gender focused not just girls focused.

• Consequently use frameworks that help to take into consideration the evolving gender dynamic in varies regions .

• “Poor ethnic minority rural girls with disabilities and illiterate mothers”

• Mainstreaming Parity and Equality in Child Friendly School/Learning spaces Models

Transitions: School readiness-primary education-NFE-post primary education

• Accelerate putting in place interventions for transition to post primary education taking into consideration the needs of large numbers of adolescents and their right to employment.

• Comprehensive strategy that includes innovations to provide education for adolescents out of school through non formal education, technologies and talent academies.

Complementary Education & Scaling Up Adaptive Approaches

• Inform and influence policies mainstream CFS/LS in education sector plans, FTI and legal frameworks

• Challenges for scaling up and identifying the approaches suitable

• Assess the role of NFE with regard to formal education and their complementarity. How Formal/NFE can mutually benefit each other

• Learning achievement should also focus on developing a framework for providing children and parents feedback on their performance.

• This issue is an entry point in the debate on national accountabilities, quality standards the monitoring of budgets.