Contextualising teaching and learning in rural primary schools: Using agricultural experience - Volume 1 - Education Research Paper No. 20, 1997, 64 p.

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3. The state of primary school education in developing countries

3.1 The benefits of primary schooling
3.2 Trends in primary education provision
3.3 EFA and gender
3.4 Spending on primary education
3.5 Recent donor strategies for primary education
3.6 Constraints on primary education provision
3.7 Educational innovations
3.8 The focus of this research

3.1 The benefits of primary schooling

In 1990, at the World Conference on Education for All, a declaration was adopted to reaffirm the international community's commitment to ensuring the right to education for all people (UNESCO, 1996):

"Every person - child, youth and adult - shall be able to benefit from educational opportunities designed to meet their basic learning needs".

This declaration was made in response to international concern over the deterioration of education systems in previous years. In 1995 an estimated 885 million adults (aged fifteen plus) were illiterate and 110 million children were out of school. Concern has arisen over this deterioration because of the widespread belief that primary education, the main, formal delivery system for the basic education of children outside the family, is a vital component of the development of every nation and its citizens. According to the World Bank (1995);

"Education - especially basic (primary and lower-secondary) education - helps reduce poverty by increasing the productivity of the poor, by reducing fertility and improving health, and by equipping people with the skills they need to participate fully in the economy and in society".

The World Declaration on Education for All, Article 5, declared at the World Conference on Education (1990), states that primary education must be universal, ensure that the basic learning needs of all children are satisfied, and take into account the culture, needs and opportunities of the community. The Article defines basic learning needs as both the 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.

Universal primary education is a goal common to most national education policy statements; it is emphasised often that basic education should correspond to the needs, interests and problems faced by the learners, and that the curriculum should be relevant and link scientific concepts, literacy and numeracy skills with the life experiences of the learners. It is believed widely that young people are most responsive to learning during the early years of childhood, and that cognitive and non-cognitive changes occur more rapidly among younger children (8 years old and less). Hence many countries state the intention to provide primary education for the early years of all children and, in some cases, pre-primary education.

Education is identified also by most nations as being critical for economic growth and poverty reduction. Key priorities for education are to meet the growing demands of national economies for adaptable workers who can readily acquire new skills and to support the continued expansion of knowledge. Primary education is now becoming valued more highly because its social returns appear to be higher than those at higher levels of education. Private returns are higher than social returns, since the provision of primary education is funded, generally, by the government. Moreover, the social returns and the productivity of primary education have been more influential outside the formal sector of the economy, which has generated even greater interest. There is growing evidence that primary schooling which results in literacy and numeracy enhances productivity in both rural and urban self-employment. Lockheed et al (1980) showed that 4 years of schooling can increase agricultural output by 8%, a higher impact than the same years of schooling in a "modernising" environment, by leading to:

· increased effectiveness of the individual worker, increasing output with given inputs by using basic skills of numeracy and literacy

· more effective input allocation

· more effective input selection

For many children, primary education will be the only formal education they receive (Elstgeest, 1987). During this period they are presented with the opportunity to become literate and numerate, to develop inquiring minds, and to gain an awareness of the broad social values advocated at a national level. In fact, the official primary education curriculum is remarkably similar world-wide; overall, 35% of available time is spent on literacy and 18% is spent on numeracy.

Although the benefits of primary school education are discussed frequently, Colclough and Lewin (1993) qualify these by pointing out that other factors will affect the development of individual children, regardless of the type of primary education they receive. Results suggest, however, that the lower the per capita income of the country and the weaker the influence of socio-economic background, the greater the effects of school and teacher quality will be on student achievement (Fuller, 1987). Heyneman and Loxley (1983) found that school effects are indeed significant determinants of achievement in a sample of countries which included 16 developing and 13 industrialised ones.

3.2 Trends in primary education provision

3.2.1 Enrolment

According to a recently published UNESCO document on the EFA Mid Decade meeting held in Amman, Jordan (UNESCO, 1996 (1)), the single most positive and significant feature of the mid-decade balance sheet for educational provision is that primary education has largely overcome the significant decline and stagnation in enrolments experienced by many developing countries in the 1980s. The target of achieving Universal Primary Education, so that every child between the ages of 6 and 11 will be provided with a public education, still seems a long way off, however (Lockheed and Levin, 1993). 90% of the nearly three million primary schools in the world are in low- and middle-income developing countries; in these schools some 480 million children struggle to learn. Only about one half of all school-age children in developing countries acquire a complete primary education, with nearly half of those who are enrolled dropping out before the end of the primary school cycle in low-income developing countries. According to recent estimates (UNESCO, 1996 (1)), some 110 million school-age children were out of school in 1995, a significant decrease from the 129 million in 1990. In sub-Saharan Africa, however, the number of children without access to primary education is still growing. Since 1990 the number of out-of-school children in the 6-11 age group has grown by 2 million to 39.3 million. Considering the increase in enrolment ratios¹ as a measure of achievement of the goal of EFA, according to UNESCO (1996 (1)):

"net enrolment ratios have risen in all developing regions. This must be seen as a significant indication of genuine progress towards universal primary education".

¹ Gross enrolment ratios (GER = a total number of pupils divided by the official school-age group); net enrolment ratios (NERs percentage of the official age-group actually enrolled)

In Sub-Saharan Africa, NERs (%) for boys and girls are 65.7 and 56.1 respectively, in South Asia, 75.6 and 55.8 and in East Asia Pacific, 93.0 and 82.0. This means that nearly two out of three school-age children in Africa are enrolled, and it is estimated that NERs in the Latin America/ Caribbean and East Asia/Pacific will surpass the 90% mark before the year 2000. The World Bank (1995), however, believes that unless the pace of enrolment accelerates, the absolute number of children not attending school at all is likely, for the first time since 1960, to increase in the next two decades - reaching 145 million in 2000 and 162 million in 2015. This outcome would be brought about by continued high population growth rates, combined with falling enrolment ratios in some countries.

These statistical figures can only be treated as a guide, however. It would be impossible to obtain accurate figures for NER, for example, as although children may enrol in school, especially when it is a legal obligation, they may never actually attend. It is believed that repetition rates are seriously underestimated in many developing countries, due to the lack of reliable data and the way in which data is interpreted (Amadio, 1995). Average figures for a nation disguise the differences between different parts of the country, or between urban and rural schools, for example.

3.2.2 Repetition and drop-out

Estimates of repetition in sub-Saharan Africa over three grades in primary school are around 20%; that is, on average, one in every five pupils is repeating a grade. In Asia/Pacific the rate varies between 7.1 and 10.9 % (UNESCO, 1996 (2)).

The phenomenon of pupils failing to complete their primary education programme is frequently referred to as "drop-out". According to LeCompte and Dworkin (1991), a "drop-out" is a pupil of any age who leaves school, for any reason other than death, before graduation or completion of a program of studies and without transferring to another elementary or secondary school. Colclough and Hallack (1975) defined drop-outs as those that leave the school at any time other than the established exit points (at the end of the primary, lower secondary, senior secondary or tertiary cycles). Less than three quarters of a cohort of primary entrants typically survive to grade 5 in 28 of 57 developing countries (Berstecher and Carr-Hill 1990: 110). Drop-out is particularly high in sub-Saharan Africa, with one in five children not reaching grade 4.

There is evidence to suggest that repetition affects early drop-out in school. Amadio (1995) gives a number of examples. A study carried out in twelve municipalities and towns of the province of Hebei (China), found that 68.6% of drop-outs had repeated a grade prior to dropping out. The drop-out rate was only 21.6% among children who had not repeated, 31.6% among those who had repeated once, but as high as 82.8% among those who had repeated more than twice. A survey carried out in the early 1980s in Sri Lanka found that 60% of drop-outs had attended classes on an irregular basis; 21% had repeated grades three times, 31 % twice and 64% once. Furthermore, 82% of drop-outs were above-age. LeCompte and Dworkin (1991) highlight a wide range of factors which contribute to "drop-out". They group these into four categories, pupil-related factors, school-related factors, constructed factors and macrosystem factors. There is debate about how important the effect is of each of these factors. Certainly drop-outs are characterised often as being low achievers, poor readers, have discipline problems, are frequent truants, and come from a low income background.

Taking an actual example, a study of rural primary education in Brazil (Harbison and Hanuschek, 1992) revealed a number of interesting aspects related to the drop-out rate. If the father is a farmer, for example, there is a high opportunity cost for children going to school as children are needed for farm labour, hence there is a higher incidence of drop-out in rural areas. Another determinant of drop-out is the age of the child. The older the child, the greater the potential labour contribution, and the more likely it is for the child to drop-out; this means that in each subsequent grade in primary school, the higher the rate of drop-out. Another determinant is the education of the mother, since if a mother is well educated, she would like her children to continue their education. Achievement at school is another determinant; the school performance and the learning achieved, via the curriculum, will determine the promotion probabilities, thus the repetition rate, and as a consequence the drop-out rate. The characteristics of the school is also likely to influence the drop-out rate. If there are not enough school facilities provided, the drop-out rate is likely to increase. Available work opportunities also determine the drop-out rate, as does migration which is in turn influenced by the cost of moving.

In another case, a study of village primary education in Pakistan (Pakistan Ministry of Education, 1977) showed that the reasons for the boys' and girls' drop-out had much in common, with poverty heading the list. In the case of girls, social and religious reasons were also cited. In this case it appeared that drop-outs rated lower in health, intelligence, peer relations, social class/caste, self-concept, and work attitudes. Also seen as influential were parental attitudes towards education, relationship between pupils and family, and familial income and stability. Where these were problematic, pupils rated much lower on school success factors, and on basic skills and knowledge, particularly in literacy and numeracy.

A third example, from the experience of one of the authors of this report, comes from a rural primary school in a state in North East India where the drop-out rate is currently 72%. This school has the following characteristics:

· no financial support from government

· a single room without electric light or water

· 55 children aged 4 to 14

· the youngest children requiring medical treatment, feeding, clothing and washing

· textbooks without illustrations, with close print and set at a level far too advanced for the pupils educational level

· pupils writing with chalk and slate (both in short supply)

· no visual aids

· one untrained teacher who, when asked what her main problems were, said that there were so many it was impossible to begin to explain them.

These examples highlight only the main factors which appear to affect drop-out. Those which have the greatest effect will also vary between regions and between schools. The examples serve to illustrate the complexities behind the statistics, however, and emphasise the fact that there is rarely one particular factor which causes drop-out. Drop-out still arises even when children attend school regularly. Restructuring educational or school policy, or simple "quick-fix" solutions will never be sufficient alone in addressing this enduring problem.

3.3 EFA and gender

Gender disparities are a major constraint to achieving universal primary education and the wider goals of Education for All. Girls are less likely than boys to be enrolled in school, and two-thirds of the world's illiterate adults are women (565 million). Educating girls and women is increasingly seen as a key to breaking out of the cycle of illiteracy, poverty, marginalisation and rapid population growth. Girls' share in primary enrolments in the developing regions advanced very slightly to reach an average of 45.8 per cent in 1995, against 45.4 per cent five years earlier (UNESCO, 1996 (1)).

Many factors which affect female participation in primary education have been identified (Brock and Cammish, 1991):

· Geography - spatial disparity and, in some cases, incompleteness of institutional provision relates directly to difficulties of physical access which adversely affect girls more than boys;

· Socio-cultural factors - there are cultural biases in favour of males; girls may undergo early marriage, early pregnancy and heavy domestic and subsistence duties;

· Health - the effects of poverty and malnutrition on the health of school age children has a greater impact on girls than on boys;

· Economic factors - direct and indirect costs of sending daughters to school are perceived by parents to be prohibitive, as well as the loss of vital help at home and on the land; for more privileged classes, especially in urban areas, investment in the education of females may be an advantage in enabling them to "marry well'; this further increases the urban/rural gap;

· Religion - education of boys tends to be found more acceptable in certain religions;

· Legislation - this is an indirect factor; legislation which aims to support gender equality may exist but in practice, in many rural areas, long standing societal rules constraining females are still operative, as is the case with condoning early marriage;

· Political/Administrative factors - the political will to carry through effective policies is weak in the face of severe economic constraints;

· Education - accessibility, lack of resources and low teacher quality and morale are widespread; there is often a lack of female primary teachers in rural areas, and inadequate guarantees of girls' physical safety; organisation of schooling in terms of the daily and seasonal imperatives of local economies usually renders it dysfunctional, and the curriculum is often unattractive in instrumental terms.

The traditional female role model in patrilocal families is maintained in many societies. Women remain at home, have access to a limited range of paid employment, and generally are discouraged from taking advantage of education to the point where the linguistic development of girls is impeded by their role at home and in the community. This means that access to primary schooling will remain more open to boys unless measures are taken to address this imbalance.

It should be noted that gender is not the only inequality which presents a barrier to education. Other disadvantaged groups, ethnic minorities and the poor suffer also in this regard. As the World Bank (1995) states:

"the government's obligation to ensure that qualified potential students are not denied education because they are poor or female, are from disadvantaged ethnic minorities or geographical remote regions, or have special educational needs".

The issue of disadvantaged groups will be addressed further in Section 3.6.

3.4 Spending on primary education

In 1993, public expenditure on education as a per cent of GNP in all developing countries was 4.1%. In the forty seven least developed countries, spending on education amounted to only 2.8% of GDP (UNESCO, 1996 (2)). Relative to the needs of the primary education system and in comparison with other levels of education, expenditure on primary education per student is trivial in many developing countries and the present levels of spending are inadequate to provide meaningful quality education for all.

It is difficult to prescribe a general guideline to how much should be spent by countries on primary education. Percentages of GNP to be allocated are often misleading because the amount spent in real terms will depend on the size of the economy. Colclough and Lewin (1993) suggest that where investment in UPE is between 3% and 7% of GNP, cost-reduction strategies may be needed in order to reduce the financial burden on government, for example by encouraging community participation and integration. Evidence shows, however, that poor, rural people are not always able to provide a substantial number of resources, nor can they meet the direct or the indirect costs of education. Hence, in countries suffering from severe recession, or in regions where incomes are generally low, many children have been unable to attend school when parents have been expected to pay for primary education.

Although much attention is given by education funders to the economic basis for educational reform, It should be noted that there is always a struggle to estimate the returns for any educational investment. Educational cost-benefit analysis is notoriously difficult to estimate and equally controversial (Hough, 1991).

3.5 Recent donor strategies for primary education

For many developing countries the goals of providing basic learning skills to all children, youths and adults, will not be met in the near future, but will continue to be a long-term challenge. At Jomtien, guidelines for implementing the World Declaration on EFA were prepared to provide a framework which could be used as a reference guide for governments, international and bilateral aid agencies, NGOs and others concerned with meeting the goals of EFA. The following areas were chosen to be targeted:

· expansion of early childhood care and developmental activities;

· universal access to, and completion of, primary education by the year 2000; improvement in learning achievement;

· reduction of the adult illiteracy rate;

· expansion of provisions of basic education and training in other essential skills required by youth and adults;

· increased acquisition by individuals and families of the knowledge, skills and values required for better living and sound and sustainable development, made available through all education channels including the mass media, other forms of modern and traditional communication, and social action, with effectiveness assessed in terms of behavioural change (Little, 1994).

In response to the declarations made at Jomtien, some bilateral and multilateral donors have increased their support to the education sector. In Germany for example, disbursements to basic education rose sixfold between 1992 and 1994, representing an increase in its proportion of aid to education from 6.5% to 38%. Drawing attention to the high returns on investment in primary and lower secondary education, the World Bank increased its lending for education from US$1.5 billion to US$ 2.1 billion between 1990 and 1994. The share going to this part of the education sector increased from 24% in fiscal year 1990 to 50% in fiscal year 1993. Between 1993 and 1994-1995, UNESCO increased the weight of basic education in its education programme from 26% to 47%. UNICEF's medium-term target is to boost spending on basic education to 25% of its regular resources from the current level of 10% (UNESCO 1996).

The World Bank recently published its priorities and strategies for education (1995), in which it states that the Bank is now the largest single source of external financing for education in developing countries. Primary and secondary education are increasingly important; in the fiscal period 1990-94 these levels represented half of all Bank lending for education. Bank programmes will encourage governments to give a higher priority to education and educational reform, particularly as economic reform takes hold as a permanent process. Basic education will continue to receive the highest priority in the Bank's education lending to countries that have not yet achieved universal literacy and adequate access, equity, and quality at that level. All projects will pay greater attention to equity -especially education for girls, for disadvantaged ethnic minorities and for the poor - and consequently to early childhood education. The World Bank highlights four major challenges which remain, however. These are the need to increase access to education in some countries, to improve equity, to improve quality and, in some cases, to speed up educational reform. In the case of basic education, the Bank stresses that a more efficient, equitable and sustainable allocation of new public investment on education would do much to meet the challenges that education systems face today.

A report by the International Commission on Education for the twenty-first Century (Delors et al, 1996) focuses heavily on what is termed "The Four Pillars of Education: learning to know; learning to do; learning to live together and learning to be". Together these pillars should interact to form the total learning experience, so that education is regarded as a total experience throughout life, dealing with both understanding and application and focusing on both the individual and the individual's place in society. The report emphasises that changes in education should start with changes in the aims of education and the expectations that people have of what education can provide. A broad encompassing view of learning should aim to enable each individual to discover, unearth and enrich his or her creative potential. The desire to develop imagination and creativity should result also in higher regard being paid to oral culture and knowledge derived from the child's or adult's experience.

3.6 Constraints on primary education provision

From the discussion above, it becomes apparent that although primary education offers a huge number of benefits, the capacity of many countries to provide access to all eligible young people is severely limited. During a seminar on innovative measures to overcome socio-economic obstacles to primary school attendance (UNESCO, 1992), participants composed a list of the problems surrounding enrolment, retention/completion and achievement in developing countries in the Asia Pacific Region. Analysis of these problems suggests that they could be attributed to many countries and primary schools, although some problems are likely to be more applicable to rural schools than urban schools and vice versa. The problems may be divided into five main groups:

Home factors

· children have to work to supplement family income;
· children have to help in household work including looking after siblings;
· failure on the part of parents to understand the value of education;
· poor economic condition of the family
· broken families
· illiterate and poorly educated parents
· lack of facilities at home for learning.

School Factors

· inadequate facilities (furniture, textbooks etc.) in the school to educate the children;

· unqualified teachers

· a low level of competencies amongst trained teachers who are unable to interest students in school work;

· unreliable teachers' attendance due to their own earning activities outside the school, and transport problems;

· overcrowded schools;

· lack of special schools and teachers for handicapped children;

· a curriculum that is unrelated to life skills;

· inaccessibility of schools;

· poorly motivated teachers, resulting in low professionalism and misconduct;

· lack of teachers, especially female teachers, which inhibits the school attendance of girls;

· dissatisfaction and low morale amongst teachers who are forced to work in isolated areas against their will;

· non-existence of suitable educational facilities for overaged children and for those who are employed;

· unattractive school facilities and teaching-learning programmes which repel rather than draw children to school;

· lack of teachers' understanding of parental backgrounds;

· little direction or opportunity for professional development amongst teachers;

· irregular monitoring of teachers' work and performance by more experienced teachers or schools inspectors.

Community Factors

· migration of families;

· lack of motivation to send children to schools;

· prejudice against females attending school;

· lack of adequate up-to-date population statistics due to the non-registration of births, which means that the schooling needs of the community are unknown;

· rivalry between different tribal groups

· few awareness programmes to inform parents about the potential, value and nature of primary schooling.

Management factors

· organisation of the school in a way that divorces it from everyday life;

· authoritarian management styles that frighten and intimidate children;

· inadequate training of school administrators in management skills, and poor leadership on the part of head teachers who are not able to adequately supervise staff;

· no adequate management procedures adopted to ensure that once children are enrolled, they continue to come to school;

· an insufficient number of schools and inadequate infrastructures;

· unrealistic policy making;

· "non-functioning schools", where although schools are established they do not actually operate;

· a lack of collegiality and support amongst school staff;

· inadequate handling of community and parental concerns.

Child Factors

· lack of readiness on the part of the child to cope with entry to school;

· children with disabilities who cannot take full advantage of what the school has to offer;

· school phobia due to a fear of teachers and examinations;

· frequent illness resulting in high levels of absenteeism from school;

· malnutrition of children;

· overaged and underaged students;

· language problems;

· different expectations and emphasis on the part of the home and school regarding what is acceptable language; for instance, parents may believe that the local language should be the medium of instruction, while the school may choose to adopt a different language;

· the gender of children;

· poor academic performance;

· early marriage or pregnancy.

The general effectiveness of schools has also been investigated widely. Lockheed and Levin (1993) have identified three groups of factors which appear to contribute to a primary school performing effectively. The absence of some or all of these factors would result in the performance of a school being ineffective, therefore. According to these writers, the curriculum is frequently poor in scope and sequence. Often, the content lacks relation to situations familiar to the students. Instructional materials are in short supply and availability does not guarantee that they will be used, since textbook quality is often poor and/or too difficult for the age-group at which they are aimed. (Recent research of curricular scope and sequence in mathematics and reading textbooks in fifteen developing countries found that the material in both subjects was too difficult at the earlier grades. In the upper grades, the mathematics curriculum was too difficult, but the reading curriculum was too easy and failed to develop problem solving skills appropriately). Time for learning is inadequate, because of very high pupil teacher ratios, extra-curricular demands such as caring for pupils basic needs, and the pull of home commitments. Teaching practices encourage rote learning rather than understanding; teachers are frequently inadequately trained, if at all.

Lockheed and Levin (1993) note also that community-school relationships are often poor and parental involvement and support is limited, non-existent, or at worst, hostile. School-based professionalism is underdeveloped, in terms of principal leadership, teacher collegiality, commitment and accountability. Flexibility in curricula (e.g. encouraging relevance, level and pace to meet local conditions), in organisation and pedagogical approaches is lacking, as is a commitment to create effective schools. This requires vision by leaders at all levels (government, business, parents, community and students), to raise the educational consciousness of the society and hence increase the movement of more resources to the classroom. Decision making is often centralised; however, effective schools appear to require a high degree of school-level responsibility and authority, with accountability to parents and local community.

An important consequence of these deficiencies, apart from poor school attendance, is that many of the pupils for whom primary schooling is terminal appear to have acquired little in the way of knowledge, skills and attitudes which they are able to draw on and apply in their post-school lives, for their own benefit or for the benefits of their communities and nation. Many of them have low levels of literacy and numeracy, even though these are seen as the chief outcomes expected of primary school education. Equally, children who do progress to secondary school often have difficulty coping with the level of studies expected of them there, particularly where the curriculum demands understanding of concepts, rather than rote-memorisation. This "under-education" serves to compound the poor impression of primary schools amongst pupils and parents, and even prospective employers and providers of credit. In turn, this can accentuate the likelihood of drop-out.

Just as the problems which lead to drop-out are many and complex, so will be the root causes of the under-education of any particular pupil. Indeed, many of the factors which contribute to high drop-out rates will also lead to general under-achievement of pupils. In terms of individual pupils, it is of course difficult to know whether any child has reached his or her full intellectual potential at a particular age, regardless of the situation in which they undergo their schooling.

3.7 Educational innovations

The problem of low levels of participation and achievement in primary schooling is not new, and attempts were made to address it during the mid-70s, when a new trend had emerged favouring Basic Education as a parallel system to primary schooling (Colclough and Lewin, 1993). The idea was to concentrate on those aspects of primary education which would lead to the formation of economically useful skills such as literacy and numeracy and add others which might support productive self-employment in primarily rural communities. However, since this scheme did not seem to meet the aspirations of the parents, and it seemed to legitimise existing inequalities, the idea largely faded away.

There are, however, many more examples of innovations which have been introduced in an attempt to deal with some of the problems discussed above. Some interesting examples from the Asia region (UNESCO PROAP, 1992), are as follows:

· Attempts to indicate to parents the importance of schooling (Bhutan, China, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Vietnam).

· Holding of parent-teacher meetings to break down the barriers between home and school (Bhutan, China, Indonesia, Maldives, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam);

· Adoption of a more relevant school curriculum and child-centred approach to teaching

(Afghanistan, Bhutan, China, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Rep of Korea, Thailand);

· Flexibility of the school calendar so that the cultural, work and climatic requirements are met. For instance, vacation periods may occur at crop-planting and harvest time when children are required to work on the farm (China, Lao PDR, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Rep. Of Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam);

· The development of minimum learning levels and the adoption of suitable tools of evaluation to ensure that these are achieved (China, Indonesia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam);

· Development of special policies to encourage communities to send disadvantaged children (such as girls) to school. (China, Malaysia, Nepal, Philippines, Vietnam);

· Establishment of non-formal education and literacy classes for both children and adults, especially women who have a particularly important impact on children's attitudes (China, Indonesia, Maldives, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam);

· Conducting regular in-service seminars, workshops and other programmes on latest innovations to teachers and administrators (Bhutan, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam);

· Establishment of in-service teacher training to encourage teachers to be more child-centred in their teaching methods and curriculum content (Bhutan, China, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Rep. Of Korea, Thailand, Vietnam).

There is also evidence of other programmes that have succeeded in achieving some of the ideals of EFA. These programmes have focused on the objectives of universalising access to education and the quality of education. Little et al (1994), detail six important programmes chosen for their initiation, successes and failures, ability to change, implementation and most important, sustainability. These programmes are:

· the Andhra Pradesh Primary Education Project in India (APPEP);
· the Active Learning through Professional Support Project in Indonesia (ALPS);
· the Plantation Sector Education Development Programme in Sri Lanka (PSEDP);
· the Self-Help Action Plan for Education in Zambia (SHAPE);
· the National System of Human Resources Improvement and Curriculum Adaptation in Guatemala;
· the Shilsha Karmi Project, Rajasthan, India (SKP).

Other relevant examples described in the UNESCO EFA Innovations Series include:

· the Village Schools of Save the Children/USA, Mali;
· Chile's 900 Schools programme for the underprivileged;
· the Community Schools Project in Upper Egypt;
· the PROPEL project for non-formal education of rural children in India;
· the Hills Areas Education Project in Thailand.

Some innovations have paid particular attention to the duration and timing of schooling. Lockheed and Vespoor (1990) note that attempts have been made by different countries to alter the length of the academic year; in some it has been substantially shorter (e.g. Ghana, 610 hours) and in others, it has been made longer (e.g. Morocco, 1, 070 hours). Actual instructional time is often much less than "official" instructional time in most developing countries, however. Flexible scheduling of school hours has been introduced to reduce student absences by accommodating rural children's work schedules.

Language has also been a focus. Improvements in the English language proficiency of teachers seems to have had an effect on their students' achievement in both language and mathematics where English is the medium of instruction (e.g. in Uganda). Another important feature of innovations in primary schooling in many countries has been curriculum reform. Some 60% of World Bank-financed primary education projects over 1970-83 included a curriculum reform component. In Zimbabwe examinations were localised and the number of subjects and topics in the curriculum were rationalised. Innovative approaches to develop an integrated curriculum design have been introduced in countries as diverse as Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea and Brazil. In Colombia, "Escuela Nueva" developed an integrated, flexible curriculum for early primary grades, which increased achievement and lowered repetition of rural children significantly. Emphasis was placed on the ability to apply knowledge within the community, on school-community links and the use of local materials for teaching purposes.

Some educationalists believe that a much broader, integrated approach should be adopted; this reflects the view of the "effective schools" movement, where lists of characteristics of effective schools have been used as "blueprints" by which other schools could be developed. In addition, the need for improvement of socio-economic conditions and infrastructures, particularly in rural areas, will be inevitable. It may be seen as necessary to reform the entire primary school sector of a region or country.

Although many reforms, such as those mentioned here, have been attempted over the last forty years, most have been piecemeal in nature. They provide evidence that rhetoric and theory can lead to application and reality, but successes have been variable in degree. Some innovations which lead to improvements in one situation may not have the same impact in another. Those which have succeeded less well can still provide lessons which may help with the development of alternative strategies. Little (1994) stresses that for an educational innovation to be successful, the first step in the process consists in identifying, preferably through an active participatory process involving groups and the community, the traditional learning systems which exist in the society and the actual demand for basic education services, whether expressed in terms of formal schooling or non-formal education programmes. Addressing the basic learning needs of all means early childhood care and development opportunities; relevant, quality primary schooling or equivalent out-of-school education for children; and literacy, basic knowledge and life skills training for youth and adults.

3.8 The focus of this research

The discussion above has addressed the issue of primary schooling rather generally in order to highlight current developments and recent innovations. The main focus of this research is, however, rural primary schools. It was noted earlier that many of the problems outlined above pertain to both urban and rural schools, but there are issues which relate specifically to the rural context. The purpose of this research was to explore ways in which teaching and learning processes in a rural environment could be made more effective. Primary schooling in a rural context must first be examined, therefore, in order to explain the value and application of the process of contextualisation.

It is important at this point to stress that a strategy such as contextualisation can not overcome all the constraints mentioned above, and it is useful to observe Lewin's (1993) comment that an analysis such as this "can do no more than point the way towards worthwhile possibilities that need exploration and validation at the intra country level". It will, however, suggest a way in which primary schools, teachers and education authorities can address some of the problems listed above, not by trying to change what may be insurmountable obstacles, but rather by building on the opportunities which are presented by rural primary schools and the environment in which they are located.

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