DECEMBER 2021
As 2021 ends, I'd like to express my gratitude to all of my readers and supporters. Thank you for being here. I wish you all a calm, peaceful, healthy, and wish-fulfilled 2022. - Martina INSIGHTS FROM MY AID DEVELOPMENT CONSULTANCIES WHAT IS QUALITY EDUCATION? To provide funding for education programs, donors state that the implementing partner must provide "quality education." The implementers - such as non-government organizations (NGOs) - must regularly report their progress to the donor. Therefore, they need to measure their results - i.e. they need to measure whether they are providing quality education. However, they start a program without defining what quality education means. Should they measure student results (learning results) - such as how many students pass and how many go onto the next grade? Or should they measure teaching results? Are learning results the same as teaching results? Is quality education and the quality of teaching the same? For example, one implementer that I evaluated aimed to provide quality basic education to primary school children, and measured their progress by "the percentage of learners who demonstrate reading fluency and comprehension of grade level text at the end of grade 2." If a learner can read, does that mean that the learner has received quality education? If 75 percent of the students pass, does that mean that the program has provided quality education? How would you measure quality education? How would you know whether you have achieved success? In Somalia in 2020, I asked 12 teachers, 25 parents, 37 community leaders, and 45 primary school students (119 people) what quality education was. Sixty-five percent said that quality education means the quality of teachers (92 percent of parents, 84 percent of community leaders, 51 percent of students, and 0 percent of teachers). All of the teachers said that quality education means the quality of the curriculum that they are using. When I asked all 119 people what "the quality of the curriculum" means, 59 percent said "interactive and focused on the learner." Eight-four percent of parents said the curriculum had to be "interactive and learner-focused" with 82 percent of students and 54 percent of community leaders saying that it had to offer "literacy and individual development." Fifty percent of teachers said it had to be "good and interesting." I then asked them all to tell me what "successful education" was. All community leaders and all parents said that if going to school gave their children "positive feelings" then it was successful. Most teachers said successful education was "inclusive for everyone." All students said that their education was successful if it gave them "a positive future that led to jobs and respect." I think we should give students what they want.
|
MARTINA NICOLLS
SUBSCRIBE TO MARTINA NICOLLS FOR NEWS AND UPDATES
MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).
Comments
Post a Comment