UGANDA CASE STUDY: “EMPOWERING LIFELONG SKILLS EDUCATION (ELSE), WIDENING OPPORTUNITIES FOR EDUCATION TO THE DISADVANTAGED”

...by Deogratius.Lukomwa@actionaid.org 

Anena Faridah

A total of 3, 274 children (1,601 girls and 1,673 boys) are enrolled in the 21 centers of ELSE. However, AA Uganda continues to face inadequate funding for NFE, and the realization of government commitments especially on training instructors, although the steps achieved so far are evident; increased outreach through alternative basic education to very poor children who had no chance and hope to access basic education including the integration of NFE in the basic education framework of Uganda. The children are proud of themselves, as Faridah states:

Anena Faridah is an 18 year old girl who resides in Bweyale (Masindi) with her Aunt after escaping in 1996 from the war in Gulu where she lost both parents. She had no hope of continuing with her education in Masindi because, she says: “we had no cloth, food and no shelter; my Aunt feared that children at school would reject me”.

In July 2006, my Aunt enrolled me in Bweyale ELSE Center because all its learners were disadvantaged children like me. But, I dropped-out because I was pregnant and delivered shortly after. After the death of this child, I re-enrolled and have continued until now when I’m in my second year of study. Unfortunately, I got pregnant again and gave birth to this baby girl (with her in photo). My Aunt takes care of the baby as I go to study but when she is away, I go with the baby to the centre. I have managed to continue with studies because we spend only a short time there.  I then use the rest of the time to sell maize and fruits at the Gulu highway to earn some income for food and other necessities. 

If possible I would like to continue with my education, go up to the University level, and become an Engineer or a Doctor because I want to support the people suffering like me.”                          

CHILDREN ARE STOPPING EARLY MARRIAGES IN PEBANE – MOZAMBIQUE

...by Magda.Burity@actionaid.org

" In 2008, I got a marriage proposal from one of the boys in my village who used to live in town. However, the marriage didn’t last long because of ActionAid and the Junior Parliament´s work in my village. I joined the Girls Club, and it made me realize why young girls shouldn’t get married so young.” – says Manzur Rajab.

It is common for girls in Pebane to get married at an early age, records show that over 1,000 girls between the ages of 12 to 16 are already married. This prohibits girls from continuing with their education and following their dreams.  However there is now hope that child/early marriages will be stopped because of Junior Parliament’s work in coordination with ActionAid and Education Directorate in Pebane district.

“I was studying in Grade 6 when there was the marriage proposal. I stopped going to school because I thought with the marriage I will have a good life rather than going to school. One day my friend Agira who was trained by the Junior Parliament members and Girls Club at the school where I was studying with support from ActionAid, came to my house and convinced me to go back to school. I accepted and informed my mother to cancel my marriage because I wanted to continue with my studying.

I went back to school and I managed to pass to Grade 7. I am now a member of Girls Club formed by Junior Parliament and ActionAid. If we are told about a marriage proposal of a young girl, we try to stop them.

I feel very happy and lucky that my friends helped me and my mother supported my decision to continue my education. I want to be a teacher when I grow up and I want to help other girls to follow the same path.”  - concluded Manzur.

ActionAid Mozambique and Junior Parliament have trained and sensitized 329 girls in only Pebane region, and girls like Manzur have returned to school after being sensitized with their fellow friends on the importance of education.

RADIO AND TELEVISION DEBATE ON “EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION” in RWANDA

... by Rita.Umhire@actionaid.org

Actionaid Rwanda, organized on July 18th, 2010 a Public Radio and Television debate on Early Child Education in partnership with the National Coalition in Rwanda. The debate was part of the global campaign on education plan in our 2010 policy priorities

The panel was composed of the Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion, Director General in the Ministry Of Education, Actionaid was represented by the Head Of Program and VSO representative. The local media both private and government (press and local Radio) were present.

The aim was to mobilize government in particular and other donors in general  on the  financing of early child education in Rwanda that lacks support  to date (only parents are in charge, issues of curricula, inadequate  infrastructures, disparities between town and rural areas,  alarming situation of nursery schools in rural areas).

Teachers and Parents in the rural areas especially from DAs  took the opportunity  to ask questions and challenge the government  about early childhood education by calling through a  telephone given to them;  they raised issues of unqualified teachers in nursery schools, unpaid teachers in nursery schools, lack of government support in the  early child education  (only parents have been given  the whole  responsibilities including technical and financial as well as paying salaries of teachers in nursery schools) . Members of the coalition present in the debate questioned the government representatives about issues observed in the rural area like the  lack of budget in the national port folio in the area of early child education (only  0.2% out of the education budget is planned for trainings on ECD), lack of  curricula ,etc...

The Minister of Gender and Family promotion clearly described how ECD was an important level for building a firm foundation for universal basic education. She enlightened the audience on the stages of child intellect development from 0-6 years of age. She highlighted issues foreseen in the delivery of education to this level which include lack of teacher training, lack of proper facilities, the community being left unmonitored when trying to set up ECD centres / schools (nursery schools). She emphasized the importance of increasing budget for financing this level of education.

The Director General from the Ministry of Education supported the ECD technical adviser, shared information on the policy and the available materials and showed support that some people were not aware of.  Rural areas communities challenged government on early childhood education. The Ministry of Gender committed to establish one model nursery school per administrative sector i.e 416 schools in the country.

    2 weeks later, the technical adviser in charge of Early Child Development in the Ministry of education called ActionAid office to inform of the decision to train all teachers in nursery schools; the process will evolve government and partner’s resources.   News papers and local radio raised the issues of early child education what increased awareness on the issue both for government and private officials institutions.

Education des filles: le vrai probleme

Aujourd'hui, la plupart des discussions autour de l'éducation et du genre sont devenues très banales et dépolitisées. Bien que le monde entier se soit mis d'accord sur la nécessité de promouvoir l'éducation des filles, il semble cependant,que c'est ce même consensus qui fait que  rien ne se passe. On remarque sur le terrain, une absence totale de stratégie dans des actions axées sur l'accès à l'école sans penser assez a ce qui se passe dans les écoles; Comme si on ignorait que trop souvent, les écoles sont des acteurs centraux dans la reproduction traditionnelle des rôles et des relations plutôt que de les contester. Ainsi, les filles font elles face aux mêmes préjugés et a la discrimination aussi bien à l'intérieur qu'à l'extérieur de l'école.comment pouvons-nous gerer tous les défis rencontrés par les filles à la maison, dans la rue et à l'intérieur de l'école.?

A NOTE ON CHILD RIGHTS AND EMPOWERMENT FOR SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION (CREST) MEETING - LONDON: 6TH TO 10TH SEPTEMBER 2010

... by Ravi, S.K. ActionAid India ravi.sk@actionaid.org

A meeting on the Child Rights and Empowerment for social Transformation (CREST) was held in London between 6th and 10th September 2010. If there is anything like a collage of serious discussion, hard-work, high quality professional facilitation of the process; and sharing of knowledge, experience, ideas, insights and laughter – all at one place I think it was in the CREST meeting .

What is CREST?

Child Rights and Empowerment for social Transformation (CREST) is an initiative of Africa Regional programs of ActionAid. It was piloted with a view to facilitate children’s participation in programs and also address rights of children in all policy and program operation of ActionAid. Reason being that children and youth are integral part of poor people we work with. Their participation and issues cannot be missed out in ActionAid’s work – towards getting the constituency of children in the mainstay of fight against poverty and injustice. Issues of rights and entitlement of children cannot just be limited to being seen as cross cutting but it also has to be central to our work. CREST was thus a field test to evolve a framework for working with children. A framework that will talk about Action Aid’s commitment to children, its politics and position for engaging with their rights and engaging them in a meaningfully way to provide complete scope for their empowerment.

Why was this meeting? Over the last ten months CREST has gained experience, initial understanding to develop further a framework for working with children and engaging them in AAI work.

Who all took part? Azuka Menkiti (Lead Education, Nigeria), Dorothy Konadu (Lead Education, Ghana), Elizabeth Nakiboneka (Lead Education, Uganda), Jane Sander (Trustee, AA UK), Julie Juma (Lead Education Malawi), Mike Thiedke (Head of Sponsorship, London), Patricia Cassidy (Junior project assistant, sponsorship program, London), Ravi, S.K. (Program Officer Education and Child Rights and National Coordinator DRRS, India), Saer Sy (Sponsorship Program Manager, Senegal), Tsitsi Choruma (Country Director, Zimbabwe and Lead Education for Africa), Victorine Kemenou Djitrinou (International Education Campaigns Coordinator).

The group largely consisted of education practitioners from across the country programs of AAI.

The meeting was facilitated very effectively by Carrie Pat a consultant on participatory workshop from South Africa.

What happened? The meeting began by understanding milestones of CREST since inception. The germination of idea of CREST, Concept, Strategies, Goals and Purpose for working with children and their rights; and stages in piloting in different African Country programs were discussed. Lessons were drawn from the experience and a framework for working with children was evolved.

The findings of the Child and Youth mapping was shared and this helped to identify best strategies, practices, perspectives, case studies and gaps in national work with children and youth.

CREST Framework: This consists of perspectives, vision, principles for work with children, principles for CREST, Goals and Objectives for CREST, Operational Guidance; and Tools and Technique.

Sharing of Resources: Best Practices, Information on Expertise in Child Rights, Methodologies for working with children etc: Case studies, information on research, models, methodologies for working with children, community and children mobilization for addressing child rights, expertise on child participation, advocacy and policy work etc. So that these resources.

Presentation of the CREST Framework to the International Directors, Governing Boards of ActionAid – (Global and National). The Framework of CREST was presented to the International Directors and Heads of Units consisting of: – Adriano Campolino, Ann Jellema, Chris Kinyanu, David Archer, Tennyson Williams and George. This was done with a view to also feed into the International Strategy Review, so that the importance of working with children is recognized in a deeper way.

Final Framework: The child and youth group of ActionAid as well as select representatives of the CREST will finalize the framework by 20th October 2010.

Future Action: A team consisting of Victorine, Debdutt Panda, Viet Anh and Ravi S.K. and others will contribute to evolving next steps for the CREST in Asia. In Africa colleagues have planned a workshop in the first quarter of 2011.

A power point presentation on CREST Framework and a draft report of the meetings are available now for dissemination.

The meeting in true sense meant business – fun – building bonds and camaraderie.

EXPERIENCE SHARING - IET PEER SUPPORT VISIT IN UGANDA

...by Elizabeth.Nakiboneka@Actionaid.org

Uganda CP received a delegation from the international office on August 1st – 10th 2010, to provide support to its education thematic programming and policy engagements. The four member team comprised of two IET staff ie Debdutt Panda, Victorine Kemonou Djitrinou and peers from ESAEN who included Florence Kinyua and Kassaw Checkole. At CP level a number participated in the exercise and these included the thematic lead – Elizabeth Ddungu Nakiboneka, Policy Manager – Paul Ojuman, Building Local Democracy Lead – Rebecca Kukundakwe and the respective DI staffs. The purpose of the peer support visit was to make a rapid assessment of the previous and on-going education interventions in the CP through interaction and experience sharing with AAIU and partner staff, policy makers and implementers both at local and national level and beneficiaries.

The outcomes of the support visit are envisaged to input into the CP’s up-coming new CSP as well as the specific thematic strategy development processes, with the following specific objectives:

·         To review the CP education work to determine progress, outcomes (expected and unexpected)

·         Review national theory of change (methodology under the RBA) and AAIU policy work on education (identify Achievements/strengths, gaps/ weaknesses, opportunities and suggest strategies for improvement) at local and national levels,

·         Review some of AAUI’s partnerships at local and national level and how they have advanced Education work as well as the national external environment and how it affects Education work

·         Identify potential areas for fundraising and provide/ support  linkages to possible funding opportunities

·         Identify and suggest key strategic priorities for the next CSP (2012- 2017),

·         Identify good best practices/case studies for further development and sharing widely,

·         Make recommendations and suggest strategies for improvement.          

While in Uganda, the team managed to make field visits to 2 DIs that focus on the education theme in the Northern Uganda region ie Masindi and Amuru. While in the field they interacted with different stakeholders who included district education officials and leaders. Apart from experience sharing about existing local education issues, planned and on-going local and central government interventions, the team managed to influence the district to commit themselves to taking action to address their education challenges without expecting NGOs to take over government responsibility as the primary duty bearer. For instance in Masindi, the District Education Officer (DEO) had a belief that government can’t afford to feed primary school children. But after a long discussion and sharing of different experiences he actually accepted it as a possible action and a move in the right direction. This commitment to take action and support policy advocacy processes to change the UPE policy towards mid day meals provision by the government still needs to be followed up with education stakeholders in the district while linking up with national level processes.

And while in Amuru in a meeting with the DEO and the District Resident Commissioner (RDC) who is the local president’s representative, the team managed to cause them to commit to taking action about teacher numbers, teacher efficiency through effective supervision and management and teacher quality. The RDC promised to lobby the district council to make enough budget provision to the service commission to be able to recruit teachers to meet the ceiling provided for by the ministry.

At a national level, the team met with members of the national education coalition and the discussion was helpful in paving the way forward for the revival of the coalition secretariat function and participation of coalition members. This has been followed up and there is quite good progress in the right direction for the coalition. Several follow up meetings have been taking place spearheaded by AAIU, SAVE and UNICEF.

 

girls education: the problem

Today, most debates around education and gender have become very bland and depoliticised. Everyone agrees with the necessity to promote girls’ education. However, it seems that because of consensus, nothing happens. Much of the thinking is un-strategic, focused on access to school without thinking enough about what goes on in schools. Too often schools are central actors in reproducing traditional gendered roles and relations rather than challenging them. Girls face the same prejudices and discrimination inside school as outside.
how do we face all the challenges faced by girls at home, in the street and inside the school.?