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UNICEF plans to expand innovative pre-school programme

botadmin — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 20:38:41 +0000

By Chris Niles

NEW YORK, USA, 9 January 2012 – A quality education is the cornerstone of every child’s rights, yet across the developing world millions of children’s futures are stunted because they don’t have the opportunity to learn.

UNICEF is addressing this deprivation with an innovative approach that aims to remove barriers to success in primary school by giving pre-schoolers the knowledge to successfully enter first grade.

Called ‘Getting Ready for School: a Child-to-Child Approach’, the programme is a low-cost way to provide supplemental education to pre-schoolers, especially the most marginalized.

Learning from friends

The programme is succeeding in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the poorest country on earth, and one with an entrenched cycle of exclusion from education. Half of adults there have either never attended school or only completed primary school.

“In class, I love to read, write and sing,” said Mariam, 5, who lives in Kinshasa, capital of DR Congo. She attends pre-school with a handful of young friends.

The unique part about the programme is that Mariam’s teacher is not much older than she is. Child-to–Child builds on the natural phenomenon of children learning from their older friends – in Mariam’s case, her neighbour Nefa Kabeya.

“It’s important to help the younger kids so they can avoid having problems in first grade. If they’re not well prepared in first grade they’ll never ask questions and won’t participate in class,” Nefa said.

© UNICEF video
In Kinshasa, DR Congo, 12-year-old Nefa Kebeya tutors two of her young friends through the UNICEF-supported Child-to-Child programme.

A successful pilot

The Child-to-Child programme was launched as a pilot programme in 2007 in partnership with the Child-to-Child Trust. Six countries participated in the pilot: Bangladesh, China, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Tajikistan and Yemen. It has proven successful in communities with strong community support, such as the Tigray Region of rural Ethiopia.

“The main reason for this is that the programme was designed to work within our culture,” said Maekelech Gidey, a UNICEF education specialist in Ethiopia. “It is our culture that neighbours work, eat and play together. The programme supports this, and that is why people can easily and happily participate in it.

Child-to-Child is filling a critical gap for pre-schoolers, giving them the social and academic confidence to begin their formal education on time and to stay with it. Ba-ati Primary School in Tigray is seeing the changes first hand.

“When I compare this year’s first graders to the last year’s, I can see a big difference. Ever since the Child–to-Child programme started, the children’s understanding has increased,” said teacher Tigist Araya.

In Bangladesh, 30 schools were selected for the Child-to-Child pilot because of their high drop-out and low school completion rates. In 2009, only 23 per cent of children between ages 3 and 5 attended pre-school.

Liton, 10, is making his own contribution to reversing that trend. Once a week he teaches two younger children the basics of reading, writing and counting. Guided by his own teachers, Liton makes lessons fun.

Benefits to students and teachers

But the programme’s benefits go further than getting little ones ready for school. Since he’s been mentoring his young friends, Liton has discovered that, not only are his young charges improving in their studies, he is too.

“Since going into the Child-to-Child programme, I’ve learned a lot. My reading is much better. That’s been very good for me,” he said.

It’s also been good for Bangladesh, which aims to achieve universal primary school education.

“I have seen that enrolment has increased, school drop-outs have lessened in the areas that have the programme,” said Director General of the Director of Primary Education Shyamal Kanti Ghosh.

The programme is simple and cost-effective, which UNICEF and its partners hope will enable it to be expanded into more countries and regions and integrated into other UNICEF quality-education programmes.

“The most important thing for this innovation is that it’s less costly. And it is community-based, so everybody can see the changes. And the attachment of the teachers to the process is very strong,” said UNICEF Early Childhood Development Specialist Mohammad Mohsin.

2011 moments of inspiration (part 4 of 4)

mkamimura@unicef.org — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 21:18:25 +0000

UNICEF education staff share their stories

NEW YORK, 4 January 2012 – We asked UNICEF education staff around the globe to tell us about their most inspiring moment they experienced in 2011. Something that they would not forget and reminded them why they chose this profession. Here are some of their stories.

Lata Menon
Chief Education and Child Development
UNICEF China

In 2009, UNICEF China received a donation to support the building of school playgrounds as part of the emergency relief and reconstruction programme following the Sichuan earthquake of 2008. For over two years, education staff spent considerable time and effort coordination designs, raising supplies and supervising the construction of the playgrounds in ten remote schools that were not part of the governments immediate reconstruction agenda.

In 2011, as part of a different donor visit, I visited a remote multi grade primary school. There stood a small non-descript building in the middle of a small but beautifully laid out playground. The playground in fact made the building into a school. The children put up a show for the guests, and after the programme, we were pleasantly surprised to see the young children pick up the litter left by community that had come in to watch the performance.

It was a revealing moment – I realized that sometimes in the course of our larger programmes that focus on policy changes – we do tend to miss the tree for the forest! That is, on the ground we can make the maximum difference to the individual child, that larger governmental efforts often miss the poorest and most remote child and that by focusing on them we were making the largest difference.

Elena Doadrio Rodríguez
Education Officer
UNICEF Mexico

© Elena Doadrio
Mexico, 2011. Indigenous adolescents during the presentation of the book “Voices of Indigenous Adolescents” in Mexico City.

Mexico has one of the highest populations of indigenous populations in the world, with more than 62 ethno-linguistic groups. But more than 87 per cent of children living in the indigenous communities live in poverty.

To raise awareness about the situation of indigenous adolescents, UNICEF sponsored anthropological research called “Voices of indigenous adolescents in Mexico”, carried out in collaboration with the National Anthropological Excellence Research Center (CIESAS) and with the participation of more than 250 indigenous adolescents from 13 indigenous groups from several regions of Mexico as well as one group of migrant indigenous adolescents from the United States.

Through this project I met Maria Bertely and Gonzalo Saravi from CIESAS, both renowned anthropologists in Mexico. They opened my eyes to the cultural diversity of Mexico. I learn to appreciate the different cultures of the country and at the same time recognize the fragility of the indigenous cultures.

I met with adolescents who participate in this research and heard them talk about their rights, concerns and dreams. “We want that society respect us like indigenous and not being discriminated” said someone from Thaihuitoltepec, Oaxaca. “We want to continue our studies so we can support our families. Our families are the ones that encourage us to continue to study”, said someone else. Their testimonies made me realize how special and rewarding it is to listen to their unique voices and how big they are dreaming for their futures.

Denise Robateau
Education Officer
UNICEF Belize

I’d like to introduce you to the Aguacate Primary School, which is unlike any other. This special school has become a center of inspiration for students and parents because it provides quality intercultural education to a variety of ethnic groups. Here, children are taught in their indigenous language and in English. Diversity is seen as a source of enrichment rather than a factor of exclusion.

I met Pablo, one of the youngest students of the school. Pablo comes from a Q’eqchi family. His father has not been comfortable speaking in his native tongue due to intimidation and negative perception toward his language, but for Pablo, things can really change. Pablo is very determined to speak both Q’eqchi and English. He feels that he can now understand the concepts taught at school better because of the bilingual approach. Pablo also loves that his parents are more involved as they now have the opportunity to play a more active role in his education.

The Intercultural Bilingual Education (IBE) approach initiated by UNICEF since 2008 addresses issues of disparity and quality affecting indigenous children. Today, 476 children in three schools are benefiting and 16 Mopan parents received the first phase of literacy training in their own language. Through IBE schools for children like Pablo, UNICEF is bringing equity education to Belize.

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One year after earthquake, schools bring hope and opportunity

ddoogan — Mon, 11 May 2009 20:49:10 +0000

Children under the supervision of their teacher, read and write in a UNICEF supported prefabricated classroom in Caoyang Primary School Xihe County Gansu Province

XIHE, China- Well before dawn, sixth-grader Yang Mei, along with her younger brother Yang Zhen and sister Yang Yamei, leave their home in rural Gansu province for school.

Mei still feels the impact of the devastating earthquake that struck China a year ago tomorrow. The roof of her home collapsed, and her school was seriously damaged. While the school didn’t collapse, its buildings were deemed unsafe for studies.

Temporary classrooms

“We were in the classroom when the earthquake happened,” said Mei. “It suddenly felt like the classroom was moving. We all went outside.”

Mei and the other 250 students at Caoyang Primary School now study in temporary, pre-fabricated classroom buildings installed by UNICEF. They have also received new school bags and hygiene kits, as well as sports equipment for class breaks.

With the installation of new toilets and washrooms, the temporary school will soon enjoy proper sanitation as well.

In Gansu province and other parts of the quake zone, UNICEF is training teachers to introduce a child-friendly school approach that addresses the needs of the whole child.

Poorest areas affected

Though Gansu didn’t suffer the widespread devastation that the earthquake inflicted on Sichuan province, it saw more than 6,000 school buildings damaged beyond use – and the province has few resources of its own to deal with the problem. In Xihe county, one of the poorest in China, all 334 schools were affected by the disaster.

The earthquake also damaged water supply systems, so that villagers – including children – had to fetch water from unprotected valley streams or collect rainwater from rooftops or plastic sheets.

Over the past year, UNICEF has provided about $20 million in assistance to earthquake areas in Sichuan, Gansu, Shaanxi and other affected provinces. That aid has been delivered, in cooperation with national and local government agencies, in 29 counties and districts across three provinces covering a population of 2.5 million children and 4 million women.

Child-friendly schooling

During the emergency phrase, in the immediate aftermath of the quake, UNICEF rushed medical supplies, ambulances, tents, educational materials, mobile toilets, water-purification units and tablets, and other supplies to the affected areas.

In the reconstruction period, UNICEF has been working with communities to provide safe water to children and their families, ensure quality education for students, help children recover from the psychological impact of the disaster, rehabilitate health-care services and provide micronutrient supplements for children and pregnant women.

Sixth-grader Yang Mei (right) and her classmates outside the prefabricated classrooms that have temporarily replaced quake-damaged Caoyang Primary School in Xihe county, Gansu province.

In Gansu province, UNICEF is also training hundreds of teachers to introduce a child-friendly school (CFS) approach. The CFS model, which is currently being rolled out globally by UNICEF, addresses the needs of the whole child and provides practitioners with information and tools to create and strengthen child-friendly learning environments for all children in all circumstances.

CFS programmes stress the importance of child-centred classroom practices and school environments that are safe and protective of children – including safe construction. They also encourage democratic participation and gender equality.

‘We want her to study’

For young people like Mei, education makes a vital difference. She suffers from congenital heart disease and underwent expensive heart surgery last year. Her family is determined to help her stay in school so that she can have the same opportunity as her brother to choose her own future.

“Aren’t they all the same?” laughed Mei’s father, Yang Jianguo. “Mei, she is really clever and her body is not in good health, so we want her to study.”

A year after the earthquake, aid for schools is helping girls and boys in rural China finish their studies, regardless of disaster or disability

Watch the UNICEF YouYube Channel Video

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDwaQA9u5ho&feature=channel_page 310 255]

Watch the video in RealMedia

Click here to watch the video

Preventing Education Crises

unicef — Fri, 15 May 2009 22:38:49 +0000

A boy raises his hand, seated with fellow students in a large temporary classroom at a camp for people who have been displaced by the earthquake, in the city of Mianyang in Sichuan Province. The city is in one of the worst-affected parts of the province" title="China-earthquake_May_2008" width="300" height="200" class="size-medium wp-image-2645" />

© UNICEF/NYHQ2008-0460/Adam Dean
A boy raises his hand, seated with fellow students in a large temporary classroom at a camp for people who have been displaced by the earthquake, in the city of Mianyang in Sichuan Province. The city is in one of the worst-affected parts of the province

In China, on 12 May 2008, a massive earthquake struck Wenchuan County in Sichuan Province, damaging more than 12,000 schools – 40 per cent of all schools in the province – and another 6,500 schools in neighbouring Gansu Province. It is estimated that thousands of children died.

Disaster struck Pakistan in 2005, and again on 29 October 2008, when an earthquake hit Balochistan Province, damaging about 300 schools in the worst affected districts – 85 per cent of all district schools – as well as 124 schools in the neighbouring Quetta district. More than 31,000 students were affected.

Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar on 2 May 2008, leaving floods and destruction in the Irrawaddy Delta, affecting 2.4 million people, causing 84,537 deaths and destroying more than 4,000 schools.

On 7 November, more than 90 children and teachers perished in Haiti after their school collapsed because of poor infrastructure. Hurricanes and tropical storms that pounded the country in August and September damaged nearly 1,000 schools. The following week another school collapsed, fortunately with no fatalities.

This destruction and damage to schools and communities, and many of these fatalities, were preventable. But due to poor construction, outdated and unsafe buildings, and in some cases government corruption or lack of supervision, communities suffered the loss of their most precious and promising citizens.

“Whether caused by poor construction or natural catastrophes, school collapses invariably have disastrous effects on children,” said Cream Wright, UNICEF Global Chief of Education. “Schools must be safe places where children can learn and thrive.”

The role of architecture

Long before the disasters mentioned above made headline news, humanitarian aid agencies, led by UNICEF, embarked on setting architectural standards that governments can abide by and enforce to safeguard students and teachers. In some of the most challenging areas of the world, architecture is rapidly gaining attention in humanitarian relief and education service delivery. The urgency to design and build safe schools has become paramount for some architects and international humanitarian educationalists.

Carlos Vasquez, an architect working with UNICEF’s education section, came to the organization with a background in socially conscious design and construction.

“Most of my past experience concentrated on low-income housing, community health clinics for single mothers with HIV, urban interventions to improve living conditions of communities, and school construction,” he said in his office in New York.

Architecture has long been focused on problem solving. As international humanitarian aid and development communities are increasingly asked to address root causes of conflict and crisis, UNICEF has increasingly emphasized architecture as a means to alleviate chronic issues in schools – the first and foremost being safety.

During the past several years, Vasquez has travelled to a number of areas in Africa and Asia hit by natural disasters. Underlying his approach to humanitarian work is a basic participatory method. Vasquez makes sure his work adopts models that fit local solutions and materials, and that these methods instil community ownership.

Part of that attitude reflects a larger ideal in international development that encourages moving away from the piecemeal solutions of emergency work in countries affected by natural disaster and conflict.

“Investments in the communities, and in schools in particular, need to move from emergency support to development and sustainability,” said Vasquez.

While advocates in humanitarian aid have had to ‘sell’ schooling as a key component to the first line of emergency aid delivery, the recent school collapses have taught the global community that school design and construction are not optional services on the menu of first response.

Impact of climate change

During a recent education meeting at UNICEF in New York, Vasquez made an important inclusion of climate change, naming three things that should be done for education: make climate change part of the curriculum at schools; evaluate how far from a water source a school should be built; and reassess existing schools to prevent future collapses.

“Climate change affects schools,” he stated. “When you have deforestation as high as 80 per cent in some countries, you have a problem. Without materials, how do you build schools?”

New construction also considers sustainability of the environment and of materials used. Climate change will have an enormous impact on what can and what should be used.

Safe construction is an essential component of child-friendly schools (CFS) and learning spaces, which have the overall aim of ensuring a quality education for all children. Under the CFS model, school environments must be safe, healthy and protective – and endowed with trained teachers, adequate resources, and appropriate physical, emotional and social conditions for learning.

To help countries get onto the right path, UNICEF will launch the Child-Friendly School Manual this year. The manual is a practical guidebook intended to help countries design and implement child-friendly schools that are most appropriate to their circumstances.

In a world made increasingly volatile by climate change, civil conflict and a deepening financial crisis, innovative school design and construction can save lives.

Natural Disasters and School Construction

unicef — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 15:53:10 +0000

A girl cries during a commemorative gathering for students who were killed when their school collapsed during the earthquake in Sichuan Province, China.
© UNICEF/ HQ08-0551/Dea

NEW YORK, USA, 25 June 2008 – With an estimated 10,000 child fatalities from school collapses in the Sichuan earthquake in China, safe school construction has become a central issue for parents, governments and the international development community.

Are such catastrophes easily preventable? Why do some schools collapse and not others? Is it simply a matter of better construction?

Earthquake experts, architects and humanitarian aid workers have been working to set higher building standards – especially where children are concerned. What more can they do to ensure communities that their children will be safe at school?

About this Podcast

Discussion on natural disasters and school construction, with a focus on the recent earthquake in China and the experience of the 2004 Asian tsunami, featuring these guests:
Kate Stohr, co-founder of Architecture for Humanity and co-editor of the book, ‘Design Like you Give a Damn’; Dr. Brian Tucker, founder and President of GeoHazards International; and Dr. Gianfranco Rotigliano, UNICEF’s Representative in Indonesia.

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Natural Disasters and School Construction – Podcast 8

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