Oped»
Our only goal
JUN 26 -
Sabita until recently was out of school. She neither lives in some remote area in far western Nepal nor in some districts of the Tarai still with a high number of out of school children. She lives in Ichangu VDC, a few kilometres from the Ring Road with her single mother and her three sisters. Sabita belongs to a disadvantaged and marginalised Newar community. Her mother does not have a steady income as she depends on subsistence agriculture. Sabita’s mother was not able to pay for the school books charged by the local school management committee which, as per the Education Act, is in charge of providing education at the local level. Despite the proclamation of free education, girls like Sabita are left without the opportunity and right to education.
On June 11, the most extraordinary show in the world kicked off in South Africa. No doubt, it is the biggest global “carnival”, a melting pot of colours and creeds from every corner of the planet. Meanwhile, world leaders joined hands with the best footballers to launch the 1GOAL Campaign, a global movement for better and more quality education for all. In Nepal, the National Campaign for Education (NCE) and the Association of International NGOs in Nepal (AIN) Education Working Group are taking the lead for organising the campaign. The overall objective of this initiative is to gather 30 million signatures from all around the world before the special UN session on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to be held in New York in mid-September.
These signatures are going to be the “leverage” that the organisers of the 1GOAL campaign will use to urge world leaders from the developed and developing countries to substantially increase the resources allocated for education in a double commitment based on the principles of more external aid but also more internally mobilised resources. The 1GOAL campaign strongly advocates a stronger reciprocal commitment for a radical change in the lives of 56 million primary school age children that will be out of school in 2015 if the current trend is not changed.
Despite this alarm bell, to be honest, the global scenario is improving. If we look at the target areas of the Education for All framework, there has been steady progress in many areas. Since 1999, the number of children not attending school has fallen by 33 million. In South and West Asia, the number of children out of school has been more than halved. The gender gap has also narrowed. Moreover, the internal aid industry related to education is undergoing profound changes. The Fast Track Initiative, a multi-donor initiative administrated by the WB, is progressively turning into something similar to a Global Fund for Education; and work is underway to give more voice and representation to the developing and emerging countries and a greater role to “civil society” representatives.
At the same time, the World Bank is preparing a new global education strategy that will focus, on the one hand, on the whole sector and multi-sectoral approach, forging new awareness about the links between education and health, nutrition, labour and employment; and on the other hand, highlight the importance of enhancing the “system” and “governance”, meaning a better understanding of the relationship and dynamics created by a multitude of stakeholders who can determine positive changes in the national educational system.
In Nepal too, the educational outlook seems promising with higher retention data proving the government’s commitment towards implementation of the right to education for all. A majority of the External Development Communities are continuing to extend their support to make the School Sector Reform an opportunity to dramatically change the education scenario. Still, there are thousands of girls like Sabita who are out of school.
Let’s look at some priority work areas to make the education system stronger.
1) The cabinet and the Constituent Assembly have to approve a bill that is currently under preparation by the Ministry of Education to introduce basic education covering grades one to eight.
2) Inclusion: The Ministry of Education and the Department of Education need to take bolder steps to improve inclusiveness with better targeting mechanisms of vulnerable children and a considerable boost in national scholarship programmes. Midday school meals provided by the World Food Programme (WFP) are also a good safety net to bring more children to school. Despite the criticism about the quality of food, entire districts in far western Nepal have been relying on the WFP.
3) Welcome to School Programme: This is a commendable initiative that proved to be quite effective, but there is wide scope for a specific programme targeting big urban areas and designing effective models for non-formal, open education.
4) School Organisational Development: Devolving power to the communities has been very important and could provide even more impetus to make education more effective. At the same time, a bottom-up strong capacity development plan should be introduced at the grassroots level. School management committees (SMCs) must be empowered, adequately funded and their performance strongly monitored.
5) School Improvement Plan and Accreditation System: These tools are already in place, but sometimes they look more like decorative ornaments than effective tools to improve the quality of schools. This is very regrettable. The school improvement plan, annual implementation plan and categorisation of schools in grades based on their capacities, conditions and performance, and mechanisms and incentives to facilitate their upgrading should be encouraged. The issue is not the low number of schools carrying out these tasks but the quality and the level of participation of the communities in these endeavours.
6) Enabling Conditions and Minimum Standards: After a long and rough journey, the guidelines have been finalised and about to be formally endorsed thanks to the great support provided by UNICEF. More efforts will be required to improve the standard in line with the guidelines.
7) School Health Nutrition: This is an incredible example of cooperation between the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health in something that is still a pilot project but gradually to be implemented by the government with external support and by INGOs in the National School Health Nutrition Network. In this case, lots of efforts are being devoted to make this programme streamlined and mainstreamed in national policies. The recent interest of the Nepal Planning Commission is really promising.
These are just some of the issues that deserve attention and reflection. Finally, the key is the designing of a new system of cooperation between the government, its agencies at the district and local levels and the multitude of not-for-profit organisations, national and international, active in the field of education.
Sabita joined a local school a few weeks ago when, almost by chance, she ran into someone willing to pay for her textbooks, pencils and notebooks, the cost of which did not come to more than Rs. 1,500. Current efforts in the implementation of school sector reform need to be praised, but there are many Sabitas out there, not that far from where we live. They will be the first beneficiaries if bolder steps are taken. Let them score their most important goal in life: Let them have the chance to attend quality and inclusive education.
(Galimberti and Shrestha are associated with CCS Italy, an INGO which works for the benefit of children in Nepal)
Buddhiman Shrestha
Posted on: 2010-06-27 09:00
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