Rethinking the ‘Mainstream’: Liberating Education for Livelihoods

Baela Raza Jamil : Education Specialist Sudhaar ITA Alliance & Save the Children UK UKFIET International Conference Learning & Livelihoods September 15, 2005 University of Oxford, UK Rethinking the ‘Mainstream’: Liberating Education for Livelihoods

Presentation Outline • Conceptualizing Mainstream for learning and livelihoods • Profiling Pakistan • Deconstructing the Mainstream • Implementation of re-conceptualized mainstream in a child labor project • Implications for EFA /MDGs Policies and Strategies

Conceptualizing Mainstream for learning and livelihoods • Education and learning classically conceived as a lifelong non-discriminatory right & entitlement, for human security & spirituality. • Education significant explanation for poverty: income & capabilities • Framework of delivery severely divisive, conceptually & operationally • Non-formal and in-formal education sub-altern categories. Formal has grand images & assumptions of mainstream education • Huge challenge of EFA and MDGs in South Asia 46 Mill out of school children 60 % girls. Public sector quality v. poor. High drop outs, push outs and un-enrolled; mushrooming un-regulated private sector. • High levels of poverty 30-45 % and fragile livelihoods • Interpretation of ‘mainstream’ minimalist, a bridge from NFE to Formal

Profiling Pakistan – Challenges • Population : 152 mill ( PGR : 1.9%); Rural Population : 67.5 % • Federation: 4 provinces 108 district govts./Governance service delivery challenge • Population below 15 years of age : 43.4% • Poverty : 32.1% : 45 million poor - PRSP (2003) • IMR : 91 per 1,000 live births(1998) U5MR : 120 per 1000 • Literacy rate : 52%. Female literacy 29 % • Gross Enrolment Rate (GER) 89% Net Enrol. Rate : 56% to 66% • Full time child labor : 3.3 million (1996 survey ) 75% boys (ILO 246 mill. global) • Under Devolution Education & Literacy separate functions

Profiling Pakistan : Positive Gains • Growth rate : 8.4% and projected to remain so for next 5 years • Per Capita US$ 736 ( top 50% income; bottom 20%, 5%) • Debt servicing reduced from 40 to 30% • Social sector allocations increasing since 2001-02 • GDP Allocation to Education increased from 1.6% to 2.9%; • Education Sector Reforms in place with sector wide focus • Private sector education provision 37 to 40% & incentive based • Women’s political representation one of the highest globally: 33% Local government & 17% National level • Active settlement, peace & healing process : Afghanistan, India, Bangladesh

Deconstructing the MainstreamMainstream – Major Interpretations • Bridge from NFE to Formal • Special Ed: Integration ; inclusion • Gender : systemic integration of gender policy, planning, budgeting, audit and implementation within all sectors • Social Policy : Equality : integration of equal opportunities principles.. and practices into Government & public bodies.. • Entails rethinking mainstream provision to accommodate gender, race, disability and other dimensions of discrimination and disadvantage, including class, sexuality and religion." H( Scottish Parliament Equal Opportunities Committee 2002)

Deconstructing the Mainstream • Linguistic Assumptions - Mainstream : healthy, flowing, standards - Non-Formal : away from ‘form’ or ‘ghair rasm’ (not conforming to custom) • NFE Practices • Negative - Non-Formal and Literacy budgets 3-5% in South Asia - Marginalized in Public policy : NGO-IZATION, low cost primary education option,(teachers salary 50% & less than govt. ) a learning ghetto for disadvantaged • Positive • Non-Formal Education: A space for broad spectrum innovations. Community participation, challenging formal • NFE upgrading itself as a non-elite non-state response to poor formal state schooling & from primary to middle levels

Basic Learning Needs in Education For All Jomtien /Dakar • Jomtien (1990) : Basic Learning Needs comprise both essential learning tools (such as literacy, oral expression, numeracy, and problem solving) and the basic learning content (such as knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes) required by human beings to be able to survive, to develop their full capacities, to live and work in dignity, to participate fully in development, to improve the quality of their lives, to make informed decisions, and to continue learning. Countries and cultures (specific), & inevitably, change with the passage of time… • Jomtien compromise : Article 5: ‘access to primary schooling’. ‘ The main delivery system for the basic education of children outside the family is primary schooling’. • Dakar (2000): Adopted a rights based transformative approach. Basic learning needs for All is an education that includes learning to know, to do, to live together and to be.. (Delors 1996) to improve .. lives and transform .. societies

Transformative and Redistributive role of Education and Learning An overall shift in focus from education to learning and from lifelong education to lifelong learning. LLL is life long and life wide • Education and Learning : Sen and Dreze 1995 • Intrinsic importance: [a] valuable achievement[...] for a person’s effective freedom. • Instrumental personal roles: capabilities and for economic opportunities; adding to a person’s freedom • Instrumental social roles: facilitate public discussion of social needs and encourage informed collective demands • Instrumental process roles: reduce child labour...brings young people together broadens their horizons, • Empowerment (transformative) & distributive roles: increases ability to resist oppression, to organise politically, and to get a fairer deal within, family, society workplace to reduce gender-based inequalities.

Addressing Child Labor through Quality Education for All Disputed Territory Sheikhupura Kasur Implemented in Punjab Province Pakistan Grantee: Save the Children UK, Pakistan

Implementing Re-conceptualized Mainstream Through ACLQEFA - US DoL & SCF UK Education Initiative with Two Pronged Concurrent Approach in Areas with High Child Labor For Expanded Household Choices (4-14 years) Improving Formal Education Establishing Non-Formal Options Literacy / Skills Strengthening District Education Planning & Coordination

Goal Reduce child labor and promote education • Increased local and national level commitment • Strengthened education system in two districts • Strengthened district level institutions and policies • Sustainable resource mobilization through

Access to education and vocational skills for working children • Non Formal Education-260 NFE Centers • Working Children Enrolled 8119 • Non Working Enrolled 968 • Total Enrollment 9087 • Mainstreamed 2122 • Literacy-98 Literacy Centers • Working children enrolled 2140 • Completed Literacy 1200 • Linked with Voc Trg 639 • Major Child Labour Areas • Agriculture, Carpet, Tailoring/Embroidery, Daily Wage Labor, Cottage Industry, Restaurant/Domestic workers, Brick Kilns, Workshops • Govt. Schools for School Support 239

Interventions & Approaches: Formal Govt. Schools & NFE Centres

SEQUENCE OF MAJOR STEPS FOR MAINSTREAMING • Identify Government Schools in target areas of child labor prevalence  • Document admission criteria in govt. schools  • Identify NFE children to be mainstreamed : shortlisting children with 40-60% marks to be mainstreamed preferably in groups  • Develop cost sharing package for mainstreaming with parents/community  • Organize individual motivation meetings with parents and QEFA groups  • Finalize mainstreaming package with each family individually. Costs of books, stationery, school bags to be covered and also in some cases uniforms through the Education Fund.  • Implement mainstreaming with support of government school teachers motivating them to be supportive, child friendly and caring  • Develop and implement follow-up strategies to sustain & track mainstreamed children

Mainstreamed Children based in Community and Govt. Schools NFEs 1269 853 Instead of expected 275 students, 2122 were mainstreamed: 7+ times 60% from government and 40% from community NFEs Children of NFE in government schools far more dispersed across Grades 1-6 than those from NFE in community schools

Monitoring Learning Competencies in Formal & NFE Schools F = Formal ; NF = Non-Formal

Monitoring Learning Environment & Active Teaching in Formal & NFE Schools/Centres F = Formal ; NF = Non-Formal

Monitoring, Community Participation and District Planning • Learning Assessment & baselines of NFE and Formal are strictly maintained with actual results against planned targets. Formal schools have higher baselines and higher learning levels to NFEs. • Classroom environment and interaction records are part of monitoring for both Formal and NFEs. Latter perform better • Sharing best practice is encouraged • Community participation through: i) School Councils, ii) Quality EFA groups and iii) Citizen Community Boards (CCBs) as legal development bodies • To date out of 80 planned CCBs 40 have been registered and trained for accessing district development funds • Three year rolling District Education Plans (DEPs) developed for comprehensive education planning. • DEPs being scaled up for the entire province aligned to provincial and district planning and budgeting cylces

Lessons Learnt ….. • A child labor project became an opportunity for implementing partners, district & provincial govts. to explore gains/ value added from an ‘open holistic’ approach across formal, non-formal and literacy programs, aided by positive policy climate coinciding with launch of a province wide sector reform program for EFA • Schools are optimized as community learning centres. The differences in planning, content, approach and delivery are minor for divisive hierarchies. • Practice of iterative mainstreaming established for NFE. • The financial, human and learning gains more than originally conceived.. resources leveraged through a diversified, systemic & unified approach to education & learning. • Not only have the targets been met and exceeded but where there were shortfalls in learning outcomes and environments, possibilities of making up by sharing and learning across formal and non-formal practices are actively pursued. • Reinforcement of merit by communities, departments of education & NFE of different delivery systems, complementing life long learning, for rights, empowerment, choices & well being.

Scope = M A I N S T R E A M FRAMEWORK Life Long Learning Options for Households W O R K P L A C E Education ECE/Pri/Mid/Hi/College/Univ.(state and non-state) NFE ECE/Prim/Middle Literacy / Skills/Technical Access to Credit Implications for EFA/MDGs Policies and Strategies- Expanding household choices DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION & LITERACY Shift : From Provider to Financier and Facilitator of a Public Good Linkages w/ Technical Education / Safety Nets & Community Development Depts. Gender sensitive and Inclusive Public ………………& Private Options

Key Policy Recommendations 1. Bring all education planning under one policy umbrella with multiple education, learning and skills windows (from ECD to tertiary) state’s responsibility of education as a public good. Two qualifiers: • a) purging current divisions which consistently fragment and weaken education provision is a critical pre-condition, and • b) design standards of learning which are accessible to all providers and learners for accountability/self-regulation. 2. Enhanced financing and resources for education across the spectrum with fungible and flexible budget lines with state as a financier, facilitator to education provision through partnerships. 3. Expel the notion of non-formal to replace it with life long learning or basic education (inclusive of the current NFE & literacy pre-vocational education). 4. Technical/vocational skills education to have a focused planning and implementation window 5. Set up separate financing windows for school education and post secondary /tertiary education with internally fungible systems, available to state and non-state providers for optimized outreach. 6. Provide maximum support to disadvantaged groups through a diversity of approaches and partnerships for substantive distributive and transformative equity. • ‘Mainstreaming’ an overarching policy framework for education & learning: an inclusive holistic response to life long learning needs for sustainable development & livelihoods

Thank You !

Annexes • Optional support materials

Quality Education Measures & Assessment • Measures • Teacher Training and Follow up support • Remedial Program in NFE centers • Provision of Teaching Kits • School Enrichment Program • Improvement of Class room environment • Project assesses quality education in selected NFE, Literacy and formal government schools thru: • Students Mastery • Teachers Mastery • Classroom environment • Interactive teaching

Facilitate District Government Departments • Education Department • Facilitated in developing District Education Plan • Facilitated in preparing 4100+ School Development Plans • Facilitated in identifying schools for provision of missing facilities under PESRP • Initiated training in IT & Planning for 5 Markaz • Developed software and supported in data entry & reporting for Recruiting Educators in SKP • Developed Primary Examination System Software in SKP • Developed software on school monitoring and jointly monitored 50 schools with Education Department in SKP

Provincial Level • Dept. of Education • Secretary/Special Secretary Schools and Additional Sec. Planning for policy and planning linkages ; software sharing and linkage between formal and non-formal education for mainstreaming • DPI – Elementary Education • Institutional strengthening thru Planning /ICT support • Collaborative Work on School Councils; • Social Mobilization: World Teachers Day, Corporal Punishment • University of Education • PEAS/ Assessment System Peer Review • Sharing of all in-service training materials • Directorate of Staff Development • Sharing of all in-service training materials • District Education Planning in additional districts

Generate local and external resources for education • Contribution by Community Groups for NFE/Literacy Centers • Contribution by three Community Groups in form of land for constructing NFE centers • Contribution by Schools Councils and community members for small infrastructure in government schools • Sponsorship of 16 government schools by local Philanthropists, PCP and expatriate Pakistanis Total contribution >Rs 3.0m • Scholarship linkages to 100 Government School students thru Dist Zakat Committee

Sustainability Options • Community Groups converted into CCBs are able to obtain government funds for continuing education of working children • Construction of NFE Centers with Community and project support to continue education of working children • Conversion of NFE centers to low cost private schools managed by teachers • Working children’s access to NFE centers established by Literacy Department • Sponsorships of schools thru PPP • Linkages with Zakat and Bait ul Maal

Areas of Concerns • Raising Quality of Education • Rethinking NFE System • Increasing Local Ownership • Improvement and institutionalization of District Education Plan • Relevant training of Education & Literacy Departments • Formal Training of Community Groups and School Councils • Linkages of children with viable vocational training programs • Continued education of mainstreamed children • Sustaining child-friendly approaches: changing practices such as corporal punishment • Access of working children to Literacy Dept NFEs • Sustaining project impact

Our Partners • District Governments • Departments of Education, Literacy & Community Development • University Colleges of Education • District Zakat Councils • TEVTA, Sanat Zar • Elected representatives • ILO, UNICEF • Khoj, NCHD, Ali Institute of Education, PCP • Global Campaign for Education Partners • SoS, KEWC • Tannery Association Dingarrh • Bait ul Maal • Local Partners

Rethinking the ‘Mainstream’: Liberating Education for Livelihoods