UGANDA: Education Expo Gathers 2,000 in Pursuit of Quality Education

February 27, 2009

3 min read

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UGANDA:

Education Expo Gathers 2,000 in Pursuit of Quality Education

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Under the banner of “Education, a Key to Regional Integration,” the Creative Associates-implemented UNITY project along with the Ugandan Ministry of Education and Sports, and other partners, co-sponsored an exposition in Kampala that gathered top education officials from Uganda and Rwanda.

The event showcased opportunities for achieving quality education, supporting public and private sector partnerships, and accelerating the education sector response to HIV/AIDS. Up to 2,000 people attended the December expo, including Ugandan President, H.E. Yoweri Museveni, who officially launched “The Accelerated Response to HIV/AIDS” initiative and gave keynote remarks.

President Museveni also took the opportunity to present the “HIV Readers,” a package of 12 books that are both entertaining and educational for school children (Grades 5 to 7) to help instill messages on preventing and mitigating HIV/AIDS.

The Creative-led UNITY project, supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), is providing the 717,580 books that comprise the “HIV Readers.” The books, have been delivered to 9,980 Ugandan schools in 64 districts, and include age-appropriate messages and a variety of activities to help deliver life skills. In addition, 30,000 Teacher Training Manuals are being distributed to serve as a resource to help teachers use the “HIV Readers” in the classroom.

UNITY is the acronym for the Ugandan Initiative for TDMS (Teacher Development Management System) and PIASCY (Presidential Initiative on AIDS Strategy for Communicating to Young People). The three-year program launched in 2006 is being implemented along with local partners including the Pincer Group, Straight Talk Foundation, Madrasa Resource Center, and Aga Khan Foundation. The project’s overarching goals are to improve the quality of basic education, prevent and mitigate the impact of HIV/AIDS at the primary and post primary levels, and develop a customized educational support program for areas in the north and northeast that have been severely affected by a violent and protracted conflict.

In her remarks at the event, UNITY’s Chief of Party, Renuka Pillay, explained the research and design objectives and implementation strategy of the REPLICA program, which is one component of UNITY. REPLICA, which stands for the Revitalization of Education Participation and Learning in Conflict Areas, is restoring quality education services for the north and northeast regions of Uganda which have withstood a brutal and bloody conflict involving the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) for more than 20 years. Led by Joseph Kony, the LRA has been terrorizing the population, and kidnapping boys and girls to serve as soldiers and slaves.

REPLICA brings six integrated components to rebuild confidence in schools as well as academic performance among pupils: psychosocial care and support; performing arts and learning in schools; girl’s education; community integration; peace education, and leadership and governance. REPLICA is implemented in 13 conflict-affected districts and reaches 1,700 primary schools in the sub-region. REPLICA has been widely recognized in the region as a holistic way to respond to the extraordinary challenges facing students and schools in war-ravaged communities.

“The UNITY Project has a unique opportunity in the implementation of REPLICA Program to make a significant contribution to the post war reconstruction of the North,” Pillay said. Through this education intervention, there is the potential to address in part the scars of the past and HOPE is being reborn in the region.”

Pillay and the UNITY project were commended for their innovation and dedication to education; the project team received two certificates of appreciation from the Ministry of Education and Sports.

— Roseline Tekeu in Washington, D.C. and the UNITY Team in Uganda.

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LIBERIA: ALP PLUS Reading Contest Increases Use of Learning Center Libraries

February 27, 2009

3 min read

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LIBERIA:

ALP PLUS Reading Contest Increases Use of Learning Center Libraries

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Before the Accelerated Learning Program PLUS (ALP PLUS) launched a reading competition in six of Liberia’s most underserved counties, the ALPP Learning Resource Centers (LRCs) were rarely visited.

But thanks to an innovative competition, thousands of Liberians are now using the LRCs, increasing usage by more than 100 percent in just over two months last year. Competition organizers had hoped for a 50 percent increase in users.

The competition also increased parents’ awareness of the LRCs’ resources and motivated them to encourage their children to visit the Centers regularly in the six counties of Montserrado, Grand Gedeh, Maryland, Nimba, Lofa and Bong. The LRCs continue to report a significant increase in visitors to its library and computer facilities. By last October, the LRCs were visited by 6,110 people compared to 2,820 in August.

Mardia Warner, Coordinator of ALP PLUS’s Learning Resource Centers’ said: “Teachers have very few resources and the new Learning Resource Centers are one of the first moves to provide a place where teachers and students can learn to use computers and to have access to books.”

ALP PLUS’s successful awareness-raising campaign was developed by Chief of Party, Peggy Poling, whose idea of an innovative reading competition helped generate interest in the Centers and in reading.

Each LRC features 10 computers and a library, which are available free of charge to students and teachers alike, who would otherwise have no access to books or the internet.

After a weeklong radio campaign that promoted the competition, elementary and junior high students registered for the reading and comprehension contest. In Bong County, a total of 100 students (63 elementary and 37 junior high) registered, including 12-year-old Othniel Toomann, a ninth grader, who now visits the Bong County Learning Resource Center to complete homework and to satisfy the love of reading instilled in him at an early age by his parents. Othniel won first place among the 16 finalists in Bong County.

Othniel and the other contestants were provided a four-day orientation that introduced them to the elements of effective speech and helped them prepare answers for the judges’ comprehension skills questions. At the competition, students were allotted 10 minutes to read a passage of their choosing and then answer judges’ questions for five minutes that focused on reading comprehsion. Contestants were also required to read audibly and were judged on the correct pronunciation of words.

Many parents who attended the Bong County contest were pleased their children had this opportunity and noted that it was the first time they had heard of such a competition.

“I have never had access to public libraries before the LRC library opened,” Othniel said. “The LRC library is my first public library and it is a great help to me and my friends because it helps us in so many ways.”

ALP PLUS focuses on providing accelerated learning classes to over-age students 10 to 18, and out-of-school youth ages 15 to 35, to enable them to complete the six-year elementary school curriculum in three years. The project also provides Life Skills training to youth entering the workforce while others are reintegrated into the local school system.

Now in its third year of implementation, ALP PLUS is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development and managed by Creative Associates International, Inc. of Washington, D.C.

— Alexandra Pratt in Washington, D.C. and Mardia Warner, of the ALP PLUS Team in Monrovia.

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National Education Accounts (NEA): Allocating Resources Transparently and Equitably to Meet Education Needs

February 20, 2009

3 min read

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National Education Accounts (NEA):

Allocating Resources Transparently and Equitably to Meet Education Needs

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The Education for ALL (EFA) initiative has led governments worldwide to attempt systemic reforms that will enable them to ensure universal primary education by 2015. Governments striving to increase enrollment, and improve female to male ratios, will necessarily need to confront the challenges of improving the allocation of scarce resources and the effective management of expenditures throughout their education systems.

Creative Associates International has developed a new tool, the National Education Accounts (NEA), to enable governments to measure financial flows in the education sector and compare their spending to policy directions. The NEA, adapted from National Health Accounts, maps the flow of funds from sources to uses, providing vital information on whether a nation is meeting its goals for education. With funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development, Creative has implemented the NEA in countries as diverse as Morocco and Nigeria at the national level and at the state level, known as the State Education Accounts.

A unique tool, the NEA gathers information on all spending, from public, private and donor sources. The data derived from a relational database specifically designed for the NEA provides information in a way previously not readily available to public officials; it also identifies system-wide inequities and allows for a complete understanding of funding impact. With sustainability in mind, Creative trains in-country professionals to implement the NEA, from data gathering to manipulating the database and analyzing information.

NEA in Morocco

Creative assisted the Moroccan government in applying the NEA tool to their education system in 2005.  The major finding of that NEA study was that total expenditures in education were almost twice the amount estimated previously.  The government provided about 60 percent of those resources and families and private foundations provided the rest even though the public schools were free. Poor and rural families bore a heavy burden because of the high cost of transporting students to schools and contributed to the higher drop-out rates in the rural areas. Morocco was the first nation to use the NEA methodology.

NEA Adapted for Nigeria’s Kano and Zamfara States as a State Education Account (SEA)

In Kano, Nigeria’s most populous state, Creative adapted the NEA from a national undertaking to a State Education Account assisting the Kano state education officials to obtain critical information on total government expenditures on education including federal, state and local governments as well as private contributions from investors and households. The SEA was then implemented in Zamfara State and Creative assisted Zamfara education officials to analyze education financing flows. While Kano spent a significantly larger percentage of their State budget on education, Zamfara spent three times as much per child. The findings from Zamfara and Kano have led to a study of non-formal, Islamic education in both states. In addition, Kano state officials are now expanding the information obtained from SEA to gather data on basic education expenditures and forecast the cost of meeting EFA goals by 2015.

NEA Builds Capacity

Based on a systematic method for capacity building, the NEA not only provides essential information on the sources and uses of resources, but the process also enables ministries of education and finance to understand financial flows better and to be able to complete NEAs on a permanent, periodic basis.

For more information about Creative Associates and the National Education Accounts, please contact Technical Director Phyllis Forbes at [email protected][/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/12″][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″][vc_widget_sidebar sidebar_id=”sidebar-primary”][/vc_column][/vc_row]

National Education Accounts (NEA): Allocating Resources Transparently and Equitably to Meet Education Needs Allocating Resources Transparently and Equitably to Meet Education Needs

February 20, 2009

3 min read

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National Education Accounts (NEA):

Allocating Resources Transparently and Equitably to Meet Education Needs Allocating Resources Transparently and Equitably to Meet Education Needs

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NEA in Morocco

NEA Adapted for Nigeria’s Kano and Zamfara States as a State Education Account (SEA)

NEA Builds Capacity

NIGERIA: President Names COMPASS-Supported School the Best in the Nation

December 9, 2008

2 min read

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NIGERIA:

President Names COMPASS-Supported School the Best in the Nation

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With help from the COMPASS project, the Race Course Primary School was named the best primary school in the nation when it received the President’s Teachers Schools Excellence Award for 2008.

The award, presented in October, is the Nigerian government’s way of recognizing schools that have shown quality improvement and raised standards and achievements in education.

“The school won the award for its outstanding performance which is a result of compliance to new teaching strategies taught by COMPASS,” said the school’s head teacher, Mansur A. Uba.

Two years ago, the Race Course Primary School in Kano, Nigeria, was much like other schools in the country. It faced many challenges in providing quality education to its 900 pupils: classrooms were inadequate, the library’s book shelves were empty, and the PTA lacked much needed resources including skills for proposal writing, financial management, and advocacy strategies.

In a letter addressed to COMPASS’ state team leader, Uba noted that, “Indeed, the success and achievements were enhanced due to the COMPASS assistance and intervention which made the school what it is today.”

COMPASS — Community Participation for Action in the Social Sector — is a U.S. Agency for International Development-funded project which integrates health and education to improve learning outcomes for Nigerian children in the states of Kano, Lagos and Nasarawa. COMPASS aims to complement the government’s efforts to achieve universal quality education by 2015.

Creative implements COMPASS’ basic education component in collaboration with four international and Nigerian partner organizations and the Nigerian government. COMPASS is led by Pathfinder International.

Race Course Primary counts as a special school for a number of reasons including an active PTA, adequate learning facilities which include a library and computer room. “Above all, it’s the teachers’ determination which is a result of COMPASS’ capacity building and provision of materials,” Uba said.

According to Uba, prior to COMPASS’ interventions, Race Course Primary needed an adequate library, teaching and learning aids and renovated classrooms. Its teachers also needed “skills and strategies for dynamic teaching and learning.”

The Creative-managed basic education component is increasing the enrollment rates of girls, strengthening PTAs, and providing teacher training support in 1,400 public primary and Islamiyya schools. The project’s strong professional development component also includes training new teachers in modern teaching methods at local colleges of education. Through these activities, COMPASS seeks to establish sustainable educational reforms in the communities where it is working.

— Alexandra Pratt in Washington, D.C. with reporting in Nigeria from Nafisa Ado and Yardada Maikano.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/12″][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″][vc_widget_sidebar sidebar_id=”sidebar-primary”][/vc_column][/vc_row]

UGANDA: Education Summit Shows How Change is Possible

August 27, 2008

4 min read

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UGANDA:

Education Summit Shows How Change is Possible

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An education summit held in June with the support of the U.S. Agency for International Development, has created a new dynamic in northern Uganda – a defining moment in the effort to expand education opportunities for children in the region.

After more than 20 years of a debilitating war, the prospect of gathering officials across party lines from northern and northeastern Uganda’s 40 districts to create a blueprint that will transform education in the region, understandably drew some skepticism.

But Creative Associates International’s UNITY program team – working with its subcontractor, the Pincer Group along with the Uganda Local Government Association (ULGA) and the Ministry of Education & Sports – has shown how change can be made possible.

The summit, held June 19 to 21 in Gulu, had been coined the “Renaissance in Education for Northern Uganda” and was heralded as “revolutionary” by the many participating NGO representatives. Falling under the umbrella of the President Yoweri Museveni’s Peace Recovery and Development Plan (PRDP) for the north, the summit aimed to signal that the war-torn region is evolving from a state of emergency and humanitarian crisis to one of recovery.

According to UNITY Chief of Party Renuka Pillay, the event was “one of the project’s most successful and inspiring events to date.” The significance of the event was underscored by the attendance of President Museveni whose closing remarks lauded the participants for identifying education as a PRDP priority that requires urgent attention and collective responsibility.

Northern Uganda is in dire need of education reform and revival. The brutal conflict that has raged for more than two decades has left nearly 50 percent of the region’s schools destroyed and forced nearly two million people from their villages into internally displaced persons (IDP) camps. Although, since 2007, there has been the decongestion of IDP camps and the slow return of communities to their villages of origin, UNICEF estimates that 80 percent of children have never been to school.

The Gulu meeting was remarkable because it fostered a dialogue on accountability, analysis of data, and reports on the education sector among the 280 participants, including many district officials from across party lines.

“It is the responsibility of local governments first and foremost to ensure that their constituencies’ needs are met, thus ensuring that leaders become accountable to their people. The time for portioning blame has ended, the time for reconstruction has begun, and one of the sectors where reconstruction is paramount, is in education,” said Richard Andama Ferua, Vice President of the ULGA. “After all what greater responsibility exists other than ensuring the future of the nation: the children are given a fighting chance to become the future leaders of the country.”

REPLICA – which stands for Revitalization of Education Participation and Learning in Conflict Areas – is a component of Creative’s UNITY program and was showcased at the summit. The REPLICA program provides services to schools in peace education, school management, leadership and governance, psychosocial support and guidance and counseling, educating and mentoring girls, community integration and participation, and performing arts as tools for effective communication, education mobilization, sensitization, and behavior change.

REPLICA is implemented in partnership with the Uganda Ministry of Education and Sports in Uganda’s north and northeast. UNITY is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development.

The REPLICA program was developed as a response to a rigorous assessment conducted by Creative in 2003 of the north’s education sector needs. Currently, operating in 13 districts in the north and northeast, REPLICA is the first program in the region that specifically targets post-conflict recovery from an education perspective. The program was created with the optimum participation of local stakeholders during all phases of research, program design and piloting. Today, the program, which operates in 1,800 schools and has 707 model schools reaches 1,184,032 children, is so successful that both Uganda’s Ministry of Education and USAID plan to expand the program to all 40 districts in the north and northeast. After this expansion, REPLICA will reach 4,215 schools and 3,099,813 children.

Uniquely, the Gulu summit meeting gathered education technocrats as well as administrators and politicians. “The summit structure was a healthy mixture of tough and intensive reflection on issues, advocacy, and exhibits,” said Pillay, adding that the presence of President Museveni and Prime Minister Apolo Nsibambi, including four ministers and other high-level government officials and the Ambassador of Ireland, at a technical Education Summit had been heretofore unheard of.

During the summit, education practitioners and experts presented highlights of their programs and best practices. Discussions addressed the severe gaps in education and proposed measures for improving the sector and concluded with a blueprint for addressing northern Uganda’s education needs. The blueprint, presented to President Museveni during the summit’s closing ceremony, detailed education goals and provided a framework for context-specific action to close the gap between the PRDP region and the rest of Uganda.

President Museveni’s attendance along with his promise of a response to the blueprint within two months also bodes well for the future of children in northern Uganda, many of whom live in camps for Internally Displaced Persons. The Gulu meeting participants also set in motion plans to create a hall of fame honoring famous northern and northeastern Ugandans, as a way to inspire children of the region.

“The blueprint is addressing the recovery and restructure of the education sector in a comprehensive manner. If implemented even at 40 percent, the region will show vast improvements in education,” Pillay said. “The implications are that the government of Uganda, NGOs and donors need to work within the priorities identified in the blueprint to deliver education in a coordinated manner, so that funds can be targeted, duplication reduced and a framework for accountability put in place. This will contribute greatly to enhance education service delivery to the children and to give them HOPE for the future.”

— Alexandra Pratt with assistance from Jon Silverstone and Roseline Tekeu.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/12″][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″][vc_widget_sidebar sidebar_id=”sidebar-primary”][/vc_column][/vc_row]

NIGERIA: Dignitaries Help COMPASS’ De-Worming Efforts

August 27, 2008

3 min read

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NIGERIA:

Dignitaries Help COMPASS’ De-Worming Efforts

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The COMPASS gathering that drew 500 people in June from the Gwarzo local government area in Nigeria’s Kano state was no small feat. They included dignitaries who came to witness the administration of de-worming medications to primary students in public and Islamiyya schools, lending the effort legitimacy amid false rumors the medications are harmful to children.

In all, 25 girls and 25 boys from the area’s 37 COMPASS supported schools received de-worming medications from local dignitaries. The symbolism was important in the effort to de-worm an additional 434,560 students in this community.

The dignitaries who attended included Gwarzo’s district head, Alhaji Shehu Kabiru Bayero, the secretary of the Local Government Education Area, Alhaji Garba Sarki, the Local Government Area Community Coalition Forum Chairman, Mallam Abdullahi Sani, and a representative from the Kano State Universal Basic Education Board, as well as the Chairman of the Gwarzo Local Governance Area council, Alhaji Sunusi Muhammad.

Intestinal worms are a scourge on children in developing countries; they cause unimaginable physical pain and are a source of school absenteeism and set backs in learning gains. Yet providing de-worming medications to children in the north of Nigeria requires winning consent from local officials and religious leaders. In the past, efforts to inoculate children have resulted in widespread rumors that children were being sterilized.

“Allowing the dignitaries to give the children the de-worming drugs signaled to the community that local leaders had bestowed their blessing on COMPASS’ de-worming activities,” said Semere Solomon, the project’s director.

COMPASS – the Community Participation for Action in the Social Sector project – is designed to provide interventions to schools that promise the greatest returns for expanding access to basic education for Nigerian students across the three states of Lagos, Kano and Nasarawa. The COMPASS basic education strategy also includes a school health and nutrition component that provides Nigerian students with de-worming and micro-nutrients which promote their physical wellbeing and make intellectual development possible.

Creative Associates International, Inc. of Washington, D.C. implements the basic education component of the COMPASS project along with the Nigerian government and four Nigerian and four international partner organizations. The nine-partner COMPASS project is led by Pathfinder International and supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development.

The de-worming initiative has so far treated all 31,100 children in Gwarzo’s COMPASS schools (17,200 males and 13,900 females). Because the health interventions have been so successful, schools that have not been integrated into the COMPASS network are requesting these benefits as well and COMPASS is meeting those requests.

So far, 6,525 pupils from non-COMPASS supported schools (4,300 males and 2,225 females) have also been treated. Now the Gwarzo Local Governance Authority – LGA – has directed the Primary Health Care Department to submit a proposal to the Gwarzo LGA for the purchase of albendazole to treat the rest of Gwarzo’s school children. The goal is to have over 95 percent of children in the area treated by the end of this school year.

Winning the cooperation of local dignitaries to administer de-worming medications to Gwarzo’s children helped COMPASS kick off the de-worming exercise on a large scale. The de-worming drugs were leveraged from UNICEF; another major development in donor-to-donor collaboration.

“COMPASS and UNICEF have been working on similar areas of interventions in Nigeria,” said Solomon. “It was found essential for the two to coordinate their efforts and complement each other to better impact those who benefit from those interventions.” UNICEF has provided COMPASS with 1.2 million tablets, he said.

COMPASS’ network of health workers, PTAs, and community coalitions were indispensible in getting the medications to students and winning the community’s trust. To date, 311,460 pupils have been de-wormed. An additional 124,700 are expected to be de-wormed soon.

“The de-worming activity in [Gwarzo] Kano is a clear indication of the community sustaining the project’s intervention,” said Nafisa Ado, COMPASS State Education Specialist.

— Nafisa Ado, Education Specialist, Kano Field Office, COMPASS and Alexandra Pratt in Washington, D.C.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/12″][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″][vc_widget_sidebar sidebar_id=”sidebar-primary”][/vc_column][/vc_row]

SUDAN: HEAR Project Takes Crucial Steps to Long-term Development of Children

July 15, 2008

3 min read

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SUDAN:

HEAR Project Takes Crucial Steps to Long-term Development of Children

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The HEAR Sudan project has embarked on a health program which provides vitamin A supplements and de-worming tablets to more than 10,000 children. This simple but crucial measure seeks to reduce the high rates of student absenteeism and lethargy in the classroom.

The Health, Education and Reconciliation project, known as HEAR Sudan, is supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by Creative Associates International and its partners, the Education Development Center (EDC) and John Snow, Inc. (JSI). It operates in the Three Areas of Sudan – Abyei, Southern Kordofan (Kauda) and Blue Nile (Kurmuk).

Adopting a holistic approach, HEAR Sudan recognizes that many children suffer debilitating illnesses caused by drinking contaminated water, a problem exacerbated by a lack of knowledge of basic hygiene and insufficient access to vitamin A.

To improve student health and school performance, HEAR Sudan distributed vitamin A and de-worming supplements to children last fall and again in February and March 2008, in Abyei and Kauda. The supplements, supplied by the World Health Organization (WHO), are one of the simplest and most cost-effective interventions for improving a child’s health and, as a corollary, academic performance.

According to the WHO, vitamin A deficiency does its worst damage during childhood and is a major contributor to childhood mortality and illness. In its early stages, vitamin A deficiency causes blindness. In addition, the WHO maintains that vitamin A is also essential for the functioning of the immune system, a fact less well known. Even before blindness occurs, vitamin A deficient children are at increased risk of dying from infectious diseases such as measles, diarrhea and malaria. By taking vitamin A supplements, child mortality can be reduced in at-risk populations by as much as 23 to 34 percent.

Vitamin A deficiency usually coincides with worm infection, which is why HEAR Sudan emphasizes de-worming to help reduce such incidences. Through JSI’s efforts, HEAR Sudan has also distributed de-worming medicines along with the vitamin supplements. Worm infections are associated with a significant loss of micronutrients and can impede the absorption of vitamin A, contributing to retarded growth, anemia and low cognitive performance in school.

“As a result of treating school-age children, we can reduce the burden of disease due to intestinal worm infection by so much as 70 percent in the community as a whole,” said John Boveington, HEAR Sudan’s Chief of Party.

HEAR Sudan’s other components involve providing students with well-skilled teachers and supportive PTAs to ensure they have a safe learning environment. By its scheduled completion in September 2009, HEAR Sudan will have increased the number of school-aged students enrolled and retained in primary school in the Three Areas by 9,000. Expected outcomes include improving the quality of teaching by training 380 teachers; strengthening 180 PTAs and completing 90 community-development projects. Nearly 200 communities and 380 health workers will be involved in strengthening school and health services. HEAR is a project being implemented under the USAID Assistance to Basic Education/Linkages in Education and Health (ABE-LINK) Indefinite Quantity Contract.

— Alexandra Pratt[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/12″][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″][vc_widget_sidebar sidebar_id=”sidebar-primary”][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Creative Senior Adviser Meets with Her Majesty Queen Rania of Jordan

July 8, 2008

1 min read

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Creative Senior Adviser Meets with Her Majesty Queen Rania of Jordan

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At the invitation of the CEO of Jordan Education Initiative (JEI) Haif Banayan, Creative Associates Senior Adviser Nuran Kolan attended the JEI Update Meeting held in Amman, Jordan on July 1, 2008.

In a private meeting, Kolan briefed Her Majesty Queen Rania on Creative’s activities and the potential to partner with JEI in Jordan, the region and the world.

Her Majesty is a keen supporter of JEI and its public-private partnership mechanism established in the area of ICTs in Jordanian schools.

Creative has a long record of working with public-private partnerships and is currently implementing the Technology for Improved Learning Outcomes (TILO) project in Egypt, which has at its core, technology in the classroom with a strong connection to public-private partnerships.

The JEI Update Meeting was also attended by the Minister of Education and Minister of Planning, and the former Minister of Education as well as the Deputy Mission Director, USAID.

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LIBERIA: ALPP Grant Helps Improve a Learning Environment

June 4, 2008

2 min read

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LIBERIA:

ALPP Grant Helps Improve a Learning Environment

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Before the Accelerated Learning Program PLUS (ALPP) provided a school improvement grant to C.D.B. King Elementary School in Monrovia, students struggled to see the chalkboard and their own work. Today, the classroom is awash in light, among other improvements that have enhanced the way students in the ALPP Level II class are learning.

“Before our classroom was very dark, at times the teacher asked us from the back row to the front of the classroom to see what the teacher had written on the board,” said Aminata Kamara, a 10-year-old girl in the ALPP level II. “But, now, I can sit anywhere to participate in class.”

Another student, 11-year-old Lorenzo Johnson, an ALPP Level II student, said: “The white paint on the walls and dividers in the classroom have made the entire class brighter and given me freedom to sit in any part of the class and be able to copy from the blackboard.”

Separated into three sections by dividers, the classroom serves 337 ALPP students from levels I, II and III. ALPP provides over-age and out-of-school youths with the chance to obtain a sixth grade education in just three years. ALPP is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by Creative Associates International in collaboration with Liberia’s Ministry of Education.

ALPP is designed to serve 54,000 over-age youth throughout six counties in Liberia. A total of 270 ALPP schools are serviced through six Learning Resource Centers, which act as hubs for ongoing teacher training, materials development and grants management, among other activities.

ALPP small grants program promotes youth leadership in schools undertaking community activities. Part of the ALPP Service Learning curriculum, these activities enhance learning and improve educational facilities and also involve community members in supporting the school.

At C.D.B. King Elementary, community members provided in-kind support to the project and painted the walls and dividers with a bright white and blue that enlivened the classroom. Twelve newly installed transparent roofing sheets allow more natural sunlight into the room that benefits the students sitting far from the windows.

“The room was once dark but the small grant has improved the learning environment for the students,” said Anthony Nelson, the school’s principal. Today, the students are flourishing.

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Pinckney, Michigan students learn Algerian ways

March 19, 2008

2 min read

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Pinckney, Michigan students learn Algerian ways

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By LEANNE SMITH

The Ann Arbor News

High school students in the Algerian province of Blida don’t know much about fast food and drive-through restaurants. Most of them don’t even have cars.

Then again, Pinckney Community High Schoolstudents don’t know what Berber tribal music sounds like, and most of them don’t speak two or three languages.

By the end of the school year, teenagers in both places will know a lot more about each other and where they live because of a unique interactive social studies lesson developed by Michigan State University‘s College of Education.

“I tell my students that the best learning is done through travel,” said Pinckney High social studies teacher Shane Clary. “In a way, that’s what they’re doing.”

Instead of using planes, trains or automobiles, juniors and seniors in Clary’s western world history class are visiting their Algerian counterparts this semester via computer, video-conferencing and Internet blogging.

“It’s an awesome and unbelievable opportunity to be able to talk directly with kids from another country,” Clary said. “It’s easier than learning from a textbook, and it’s much more interesting.”

Pinckney is one of several Michigan schools participating in E3Link, a program originated by the U.S. State Department‘s Middle East Partnership Initiative in 2005 to help develop an understanding of culture, community and country among students in the United States and the North African country of Algeria.

“It’s important to do this,” said Jenna Craft, a junior in Clary’s class. “As Americans, we think we’re the best. This makes us see what other countries don’t have and that makes us more grateful of what we do have.”

U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Brighton, visited Pinckney High when students from both countries connected for the first time in a video-conference get-acquainted session. There were a few technical difficulties, but the experience was eye-opening to students in both places.

“I have to admit that I really don’t know anything about Algeria or Algerian people,” said Pinckney senior Ashley Peapples. “I bet I’ll learn a lot.”

Students in both classrooms shared brief descriptions of their communities with each other. They talked about what they liked to do in their spare time and the differences between their music and parties and celebrations.

“I think they’ll discover as they go along that they have a lot more in common than they don’t,” Rogers said.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/12″][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″][vc_widget_sidebar sidebar_id=”sidebar-primary”][/vc_column][/vc_row]

NIGERIA: Communities, Schools Buy-in to COMPASS Teacher Training

February 29, 2008

4 min read

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NIGERIA:

Communities, Schools Buy-in to COMPASS Teacher Training

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Having witnessed the qualitative impact of COMPASS’ teacher training program in Nigeria’s primary schools, communities and teachers outside of the project’s target areas are replicating COMPASS best practices at their own expense.

The Community Participation for Action in the Social Sector (COMPASS) project, provides face-to-face teacher training popularly known as Professional Development Days (PDDs) as well as Interactive Radio Instruction (IRI) to improve the quality of classroom instruction across three Nigerian states: Lagos, Kano and Nasarawa.

The interventions aim to improve teachers’ pedagogical skills, help establish foundations for an improved and healthy learning environment and increase pupil achievement, especially in literacy and numeracy, and girls’ enrollment.

“COMPASS has provided the bearing for us to find our way into the future and we shall do just that,” said Kokona Local Government Area’s (LGA) Education Secretary, Ezekiel Wakayi, in Nasarawa state. “Our teachers, parents and other community members are ready for this journey.”

COMPASS works in 265 Nasarawa schools spread across seven local governments. The authorities of Kokona LGA, where COMPASS operates in 26 out of 52 schools, believe that the COMPASS in-service teacher training strategies will help Nigeria meet the Millennium Development Goals of achieving Education For All through the Universal Basic Education (UBE) Program by 2015.

“An African proverb says ‘Gold is sold to one who appreciates it.’ The expressions of administrators, teachers, community leaders and Faith-Based Organizations about COMPASS’ in-service training programs, are true testimonies of the program that is worth their investment,” said Ayo Oladini, COMPASS Senior Education Advisor. “Having been a trained teacher in the primary school in Nigeria, the COMPASS teacher training program is excellent for enhancing pedagogical competence of primary school teachers to becoming mentors to their pupils.”

To ensure higher educational standards in Kokona, the local government provided funding to the Education Department for the training of 307 additional teachers to non-COMPASS affiliated schools. In addition, the local government procured 35 sets of radios for the administration of IRI, so that no school or pupil would be left out from this key component of the COMPASS Basic Education Interventions.

“The method of teaching adopted in the IRI, which is broadcast from the Nasarawa Broadcasting Service, is quite novel and straightforward,” says Chairman of Kokona’s LGA, Solomon Ngharghun. “The IRI program – spiced with health talks – is highly educating. I felt my teachers should benefit from this new method.”

Ngharghun’s enthusiasm for COMPASS prompted him to provide 26 public non-COMPASS Kokona schools with radios and teacher training. “It is only in adopting the COMPASS approach that our teachers will contribute meaningfully to scaling up the expected standard to meet up with the expected goals of education for our children,” he said.

After meeting COMPASS staff on an advocacy trip, Ngharghun saw it as a personal challenge to engage them in training teachers not affiliated with the program and directed the Local Government Education Authority’s collaboration with COMPASS. “My experience at the training made me feel like going back to the classroom to teach,” he said.

The community buy-in to COMPASS’ training interventions is not unique to Nasawara state.

In Lagos state, the project works with 530 public and Islamiyya schools, including two Ansar Ud Deen Society (ADS) primary schools. The ADS of Nigeria is a Muslim faith-based organization which is committed to providing quality education in 11 primary schools. After two of its schools received training from COMPASS, the organization requested that another seven of their non-affiliated COMPASS schools also receive the project’s teacher-training interventions.

According to an Ansar Ud Deen teacher, Alhaji Gbadamosi Suleiman: “The training was innovative and revitalizing.” He noted that though he has taught for 44 years, he learned that “teaching should be pupil-centered which was not what we were used to.”

A five-year project, COMPASS works in partnership with the Nigerian government and is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). It is implemented by a dynamic nine-member team which includes four Nigerian partner organizations and five U.S.-based partners.

As an implementing partner, Creative Associates provides technical assistance in primary education and school health and mobilizes Parent Teacher Associations to improve school infrastructure and develop instructional materials. Since early 2005, COMPASS has trained approximately 19,000 teachers through face-to-face interaction as well as on the radio and this has impacted the education and health of more than one half million pupils.

After a series of planning meetings with the COMPASS team, 68 ADS teachers from seven non-COMPASS affiliated schools in Lagos were trained in a two-day workshop on IRI Facilitation Skills, 3P’s (Presentation, Practice, and Performance ) and Cooperative Learning using the COMPASS training manuals. With funding and logistical support from The ADS Education Committee, the training was facilitated by the COMPASS trainers in five clusters last September.

Given the training’s success with teachers, one ADS school requested further training for an additional 25 teachers in literacy and numeracy strategies for two more days in September.

“The IRI program is highly motivating to students, both the teachers and pupils have learned from it. It has brought variety into our classrooms,” Suleiman said. “We are thirsty for more of the strategies COMPASS has taught us. COMPASS has rejuvenated our teachers.”

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