CREATING A CHILD-FRIENDLY APPROACH TO EDUCATION

The implementation of the UNICEF-COL Child-Friendly Schools initiative has reached an advanced stage in many of the participating countries. The activities seek to mainstream “child-first” concepts, principles and models into the pre-service and in-service teacher education curricula of 10 selected countries: Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Trinidad & Tobago and Zambia. To date, 1,800 teacher educators in seven countries have participated in Child-Friendly Schools training.

Developed by UNICEF as a response to growing global concerns about the poor quality of basic education, the Child-Friendly Schools model promotes a rights-based concept of quality that goes beyond good teaching methods and learning outcomes to include health, safety and adequacy of schools facilities and supplies.

The agreement between COL and UNICEF, signed in 2008, includes two areas of co-operation: integrating the Child-Friendly Schools model into pre-service and in-service teacher training curricula, and strengthening the roles of Teacher Resource Centres to promote Child-Friendly Schools.

Key activities have included:

• Identifying partner institutions: COL worked with partners throughout the Commonwealth, including government representatives and UNICEF offices in each country, in finding key teacher-training institutions with good partner potential.
• Identifying partner Teacher Resource Centres in the selected countries.
• Developing Child-Friendly Schools materials: Teacher educators in each country developed learning materials that adapted Child-Friendly Schools concepts and models to the culture, educational policies, practices and realities of their respective countries. Materials were also developed to train managers of Teacher Resource Centres, head teachers and other education personnel. Individuals or institutions interested in accessing these materials are invited to contact Ms. Rebecca Kinakin, COL’s Project Manager, Child-Friendly Schools, at rkinakin@col.org.
• Capacity building workshops: To date, 60 workshops have been held for pre-service and in-service teacher educators, Teacher Resource Centre managers, head teachers, school managers, education officers and education ministry staff. The workshops have focused on mainstreaming Child-Friendly Schools concepts through standards and curricula review, sensitisation and advocacy, materials development and training of teachers.
• Web presence: A page on the COL website (www.col.org/cfs) serves as a platform for information and knowledge sharing. Child-Friendly Schools learning materials and reports are freely available for download and use. Project partners also use Basecamp, an online collaboration tool, to share information and documents.
• eLearning package: Child-Friendly Schools manuals in the Sinhalese and Tamil languages are being developed for teacher education programmes through open and distance learning (ODL) in Sri Lanka.

Partner institutions in Botswana, Lesotho, Nigeria and Swaziland have completed delivery of their Child-Friendly Schools training workshops. The other countries are continuing to implement their Work Plans.

ENSURING LONG-TERM SUCCESS

“The Child-Friendly Schools initiative has exceeded our expectations in several ways,” said Dr. Abdurrahman Umar, COL Education Specialist, Teacher Education. “The enthusiasm and commitment demonstrated by teacher training institutions and ministries of education will help ensure the sustainability of these efforts beyond this initial capacity development partnership.”

Partners in several countries have made significant financial and in-kind contributions including time, supplies, venues, transportation, facilitator fees and accommodation to ensure the project reaches more teacher educators. Some partners are integrating the work into national education and institutional planning processes. At the University of Limpopo in South Africa, in collaboration with the South African Department of Education, the Advanced Certificate in Education – Life Orientation (ACELO) programme, an upgrading certification for in-service teachers, has already been revised to incorporate Child-Friendly Schools principles, concepts and approaches.

Plans for mainstreaming and sustaining Child-Friendly Schools are underway, particularly in Botswana, Lesotho, Nigeria and Swaziland. In these countries, governments are showing their support for adopting revised curricula and standards that are based on Child-Friendly Schools approaches.

IGNITING PASSION

In addition to building skills and knowledge, the Child-Friendly Schools workshops have created a passion for a new approach to education, as can be seen in testimony from participants:

“The workshop has succeeded in enlisting an army – a willing and informed army – of child rights drivers. It has empowered us to appreciate our roles and has forged a new attitude in us that we can, indeed, do so many things that we previously thought we couldn’t.” (Teacher educator, Nigeria)

“We may not be able to change everything, but we can change ourselves. It starts with us. It starts with me.” (Pre-service teacher, Lesotho)

“The template, the CFS philosophy, the new skills in development materials – this workshop changes everything.” (Teacher educator, South Africa)

RADIO EXTENDS REACH TO NOMADIC POPULATIONS

The Child-Friendly Schools initiative has sparked several exciting new developments including the use of radio to educate nomadic primary school teachers in Nigeria about Child-Friendly Schools. The Interactive Radio Instruction initiative harnesses ODL in its best way – by targeting and benefiting some of the world’s most marginalised groups.

The nomadic population in Nigeria numbers more than nine million people, including three million school-age children. This learning programme focuses on more than 400 teachers in 110 nomadic schools in the State of Adamawa. Once the radio programmes are developed, piloted and produced, they can be easily replicated and re-used to promote Child-Friendly Schools concepts among nomadic teachers across Nigeria and other countries with nomadic populations, such as Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.

Over the next year, the remaining participating countries will complete their capacity building workshops, and COL will continue to oversee monitoring and evaluation of the Child-Friendly Schools project. Meanwhile, educators in all regions of the Commonwealth are beginning to embrace a “child-friendly” approach to education that will provide significant, long-term benefits for generations to come.

www.col.org/cfs

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