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Towards 9-10 years of “Basic” Education for All: promising practices and strategies. Jacob Bregman, ADEA theme 1 technical coordinator and lead education specialist, Africa Human Development, WB Presented at ADEA biennale, 6 May 2008, Maputo, Mozambique.
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Towards 9-10 years of “Basic” Education for All: promising practices and strategies Jacob Bregman, ADEA theme 1 technical coordinator and lead education specialist, Africa Human Development, WB Presented at ADEA biennale, 6 May 2008, Maputo, Mozambique
“Basic Education for All” makes socio-economic sense African countries: policies / plans to reform and expand primary and junior secondary education into Basic Education for All Growing labor market demand for skilled graduates: necessary for sustainable socio-economic growth Public Funding constraints: private providers growing and demand for cost-efficient “balanced” expansion Diversity between countries: political, economic, income-social, capacity, enrolment, service-delivery, and efficiency Huge social pay-offs of improved quality and expanded access in basic and secondary education Growing demand for 2nd chance opportunities
Country level: moving towards “balanced” implementation strategies for basic education • Africa: good progress on primary EFA goals • Looking for improved quality & relevance of graduates • Most graduates enter the labor market • Pressure points: • modernization of Curriculum & Assessment • certification vs selection raises complex issues • Enrolment pressure and resource constraints • Trends: (i) diversifying funding sources; (ii) use S&T tools, (iii) better resource allocation & use; (iv) improve school performance monitoring; and (v) affordable, relevant “core” curricula • Piloting better Accountability, Equity, and Quality monitoring
Countries’ promising practices & strategies (1) • Structure diversity: Madagascar changing from 5 to 7-year Primary (Kenya 8+4; Mauritius 6+5+2). • Southern Africa: “Life Sciences” / Integrated Science • Botswana, Ghana, SA and Uganda: school-based results amount count in JSE examination marks (20-30%) • SA, Uganda, Gambia: Reducing # of subjects and content overload and adapting assessment mechanisms • Gambia, Mauretania, Burundi: integrating “Madrassa” schools, promoting “community schools”, Scholarship trust funds • Zimbabwe (1990s): ZimSci kits, Zintec teacher courses, per capita Grants to schools, “free” textbooks, core curriculum established, cluster primary schools (upper-top classes)
Countries’ promising practices & strategies (2) • Uganda, Burundi: Local community schools (80% of JSE enrolment in Burundi and 37% of all SE in Uganda) • Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, Mozambique: Open & Distance Learning • Burkina Faso: incentives and support to private providers (operational and infrastructure costs) • Namibia, Botswana and Ghana: teacher resource centers in science, maths, and tech. education • Nigeria: local production learning & teaching materials by Nigeria Teacher Association (STAN) • East-Africa: SMASSE project for teacher training
21st Century challenges in Africa Basic Education (1) • How to move fast into a Basic Education for All strategy at country level (high quality and sustainable)? • “Africanize” Basic Education? How to make learning & teaching more relevant to country priorities? • How to absorb / apply international trends and satisfy better accountability? Asia and OECD best practices? • MinFin requires more efficient service delivery (reduced wastage and lower overall unit costs) • Prevention is best, but growing demand for improved equity and “second chance” opportunities • How can the “Certification vs Selection” challenge be addressed: the quality conundrum?
Continued 21st Century “Basic” Challenges (2) • Can teaching quality be improved rapidly? • School Environment (school grants, infrastructure & maintenance, learning-teaching materials, health) • How to pilot and facilitate non-public providers (PPP)? • How to rapidly integrate new Science & Tech subjects in a basic education “core” curriculum? • How can donor and stakeholder consensus on basic education expansion and reform principles be reached? • “Quality should never be sacrificed for quantity”. But how?