Providing education to girls from remote and rural areas - UNESCO ...

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○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○community. In Viet Nam, China and Nepal, boardingschools provide an environment where poor andminority children learn to socialize with others beyondtheir own community or culture and, thus, acquireskills that serve them in later life, in the broadercommunity, or as a link to the dominant culture andnational language. Malawi research claims thatboarding schools strengthen national unity by housingchildren of different ethnicities together.Provide effective links between the communityand the larger society. Boarding schools provide acentralized location for learning and living that can bean effective link between the remote communities oforigin and the larger society. Children from remotecommunities increase their options for the future bylearning skills that will assist them in contributing totheir own communities, in adapting to the largercommunity, or in bridging the two.Reduce the cost of educating children. Wheresettlements are highly scattered and populations aresparse, it can be extremely costly to establish andoperate full-fledged schools. Studies done in Nepalhave shown that it is very costly to run schools in thehigh mountains, where the average number ofstudents per school is less than 25. Small schoolsare generally not cost effective in a centralizedbureaucracy. Boarding or residential schools can,therefore, be established where it is not feasible toestablish and operate a small community school. TheGovernment of Nepal is considering establishingresidential schools in the mountain districts bymerging very small schools. Analysis shows thatproviding education through boarding schools wouldbe much cheaper than the existing system, whereeducation is provided through very small schoolsscattered throughout the districts. While the start-upcost of a boarding school is relatively high,maintenance costs can be kept in check by usingenvironmentally friendly technologies and supervisedboarding houses in the community.Disadvantagescurriculum alien to the indigenous population.Boarding schools played a major role in the extinctionof indigenous native cultures, languages and religions.Boarding schools cause cultural illiteracy. Somebelieve that children attending boarding schools canbecome culturally illiterate. Being away from home atan early age means being unable to learn manycultural values, beliefs, practices, and customs thatare needed to function effectively in the community.Once these children return to their communities, aprofound loss of identity may result.Boarding schools cause a sense of alienation.Boarding schools are physically and emotionallyisolating from families and communities. Childrenstaying in boarding schools can develop feelings ofnot being loved, wanted or cared for. It can havenegative effects on children’s learning achievementand growth.Boarding schools may increase the risk of physicaland sexual abuse. Some studies 1 have reported thatchildren are at higher risk of abuse in boardingschools. Such incidents of physical and sexual abusemay never get reported, and children live with thepain of abuse throughout their lifetimes.Girls are at risk of pregnancy and dropping out.Zimbabwean and Nigerian research indicates thatgirls in boarding schools are at risk 2 of becomingpregnant and then dropping out of schools. The riskof pregnancy prevents parents from sendingadolescent girls to boarding schools.Children’s growth and learning may be harmed.Where sufficient state and/or local budgets are notavailable to meet the costs of running boardingschools, the health of children is at risk. Under-fundedboarding schools that are not maintained andrepaired can compromise health as children sufferfrom cold, dampness or coal smoke fumes;insufficient or inadequate food; poor attendance ofteachers; and low quality teaching/a poor socialenvironment that leads to a poor education.Boarding schools are not without problems anddisadvantages. Critics charge:Boarding schools contribute to cultural extinction.Boarding schools are viewed as a threat to the child’sculture. In the last part of the 19th and the first half ofthe 20th Centuries in North America and Australia,boarding schools were a key aspect of policiesfocused at assimilating indigenous children into adominant European-oriented society throughlanguage, lifestyle, education and religion.Compulsory education enforced a culture and1A 1999 DANIDA study looking at 25 Distant EducationCentres in Malawi that provide education for up to 70% ofsecondary students reported that the biggest problems citedby all girls interviewed were sexual abuse and pregnancies.Institute of Development Studies researchers report on jointstudies with Ministry of Education officials in Ethiopia, Guineaand Tanzania, “Home Factors: Wary parental views onschooling of girls, risk of early pregnancy” and “Distance toSchool: Parents fear additionally for the safety of girls whiletraveling.”2The use of the word “risk” indicates here perception basedon widely known experience.Policy Brief on Providing Education to Girls from Remote and Rural Areas3○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○○
○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○Eventually parents lose their confidence in the schoolsystem. If boarding schools are not properly staffedand resourced, they can ruin the health, as well asthe schooling, of children.Girls may be discriminated against. Wheredormitories are unsupervised and under-funded, suchas those built by communities and not attached tothe school, girls can be overly burdened by domesticchores. Where girls have to find their ownaccommodation, they risk becoming housemaids tomale students or host families. In these situations, thegirls’ education is compromised.Useful Hintsfor Using Boarding Schoolsas an Educational StrategyEducational planners and policy makers must be fullyaware of the many advantages and disadvantages ofusing boarding schools as an educational strategy.Some useful hints for using boarding schools as aneducational strategy are:Ensure that the school is able to meet the totaldevelopment needs of children. If boarding schoolsare to be used as a strategy for educating children,they should be able to function as extended familieswhere students and teachers live and learn together,and where opportunities are created for children todevelop every aspect of academic, cultural, athletic,and social life. The school should offer an environmentfor students that is safe, academically challenging,diverse, active and fun. Boarding schools should notjust be a collection of children coming from poorhouseholds or underserved groups. Where possible,they should bring together children from differentcommunities.communities or authorities in a timely fashion due todistance and communication difficulties. Children ofminority families may be reluctant to report difficultiesoccurring in the school, and so problems may notreceive prompt action, or any action at all. The needfor good management can not be sufficientlyunderscored.Use boarding schools as community centres.Boarding schools can be used for the development ofthe local community. The school should be open as acommunity centre for meetings, adult education inthe evenings and children’s school holidays. Such aschool is a useful focal point for knowledge- and skillbuildingfor the community at large, and for theintegration of school life into community life.Gain parental confidence. The success of boardingschools depends upon the trust and confidence theyinspire among parents who decide whether thechildren will attend school, which children will go, andfor how long. This will require that the school beperceived as an institution that addresses parentalconcerns, recognizes the language and culture of thestudents, and guarantees adequate information,frequent visits and good medical attention.Ensure frequent contacts between children andfamily members. There is no substitute for the familyin matters of giving care, love, affection, earlyeducation and socialization to young children.Children grow mentally, intellectually and sociallythrough adult contacts in the family and community.Children should not be removed from families forexcessively long periods of time. Schools mustensure that there is frequent contact betweenchildren, families and their relatives. Children shouldbe able to go back to families at regular intervals, andfamily members should be allowed to visit theirchildren in school.Ensure that the school is well-managed. Theatmosphere within the boarding school, both theclassroom and the dormitory, is critical for the physicaland mental health/development of the child. Onlywell-managed boarding schools can provide a positiveexperience for children. School management mustensure that there exists a peer or buddy supportsystem, and that there is good rapport betweenteachers and students, as well as between parentsand teachers. Boarding schools for minorities aregenerally placed a long distance from town centresand, therefore, the staff have considerably moreautonomy than do their town-based peers. If the staffare not disciplined, themselves, the student body cansuffer without the remedial action that might be takenif the school were in a more central location.Misdoings may not be reported to families,Ensure that the curriculum includes local andcultural studies. Centrally prepared andimplemented curricula are notorious for ignoring localcultures, languages, and realities. Rigidity, irrelevanceand impracticality of centrally prepared curricula andteaching-learning processes can hinder local andcultural learning. Curriculum planners must ensurethat children’s right to learn their language and cultureis preserved.Policy Brief on Providing Education to Girls from Remote and Rural Areas4○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○○
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