Girls' education: Lessons from BRAC (Bangladesh)

Rosa María Torres

En español: Educación de las niñas: Lecciones del BRAC (Bangladesh)

I learned about BRAC and got in contact with its education programme while working as a senior education adviser at UNICEF's Education Cluster in New York, in the early 1990s. From the start, I became fascinated with BRAC's 'non-formal primary school' concept. This programme, initiated in 1985 with 22 schools, attempted to address the needs of the poorest sectors in Bangladesh, especially in rural areas. The specific aim was to attract girls, who were mostly absent from schools.

I visited Bangladesh twice, in 1993 and in 1995, and had the opportunity to see BRAC's non-formal primary schools in action. Together with Manzoor Ahmed, UNICEF Programme Director at the time, we wrote a dossier called Reaching the Unreached: Non-formal approaches and universal primary education, (UNICEF, 1993). BRAC's non-formal education programme was one of the experiences included in the dossier. BRAC's programme was also included in Education for All: Making It Work - Innovation Series organized jointly by UNICEF and UNESCO right after the Jomtien Conference on Education for All (1990). Dieter Berstecher (UNESCO Paris) and I (UNICEF New York) coordinated the project. (In 2000, 10 years after the Jomtien conference, the series was transferred from UNESCO Headquarters to PROAP, in Bangkok. See issue No.14 dedicated to Lok Jumbish, in India).

One thing that astonished me was the basic and pragmatic wisdom with which BRAC was developing the programme. The first step was conducting a survey to find out why parents were not sending their daughters to school. Three major reasons came out: 1) the school journey was too long (they needed girls to help at home with domestic chores); 2) teachers were mostly men (parents expressed they would feel more comfortable if there were female teachers in the schools); and 3) the school - when available - was too distant from home.

Acknowledging parents' expressed needs, BRAC acted accordingly. The design of the programme adopted three key measures:

1) shortening the school journey (3 hours a day), rethinking the entire school calendar (more months in school, no long holidays), and adjusting the curriculum to fit those time arrangements (the idea is to complete the nation's five-year primary school cycle in four years);

2) identifying women in the local communities and providing them with some basic initial training so that they could act as teachers; and

3) building schools that were closer to home. 

BRAC's non-formal primary schools were the simplest and nicest schools I had seen in poor rural areas. One-room schools built with local materials, with the help of the community. Bright, clean, colorful. Small mats on the floor for the children, a medium-sized chalkboard, posters and visual aids all around.

Children walked shorter distances to school and remained there only for 3 hours a day, so they could continue to help at home.

There were few women in the communities with a teacher certificate, so BRAC selected in each community women with the highest school level (often primary education) and interested in teaching, and trained them. Initially with a 12-day course, later complemented with monthly refresher courses and yearly orientation courses.

This is how BRAC managed to include girls who would otherwise have never attended school. By the time I visited BRAC the NFE programme was already a 'success story' attracting attention not only in Bangladesh but worldwide. Since then BRAC has continued to grow - it is today "the worlds' largest development organization" - and its education programme became a full education system. It remains free of charge. It reached also urban slums, it incorporated e-learning and it includes now a university and a network of mobile libraries. In terms of learning results, BRAC's NFE schools do not lag behind government formal schools; on the contrary, their results are ahead of the country average.

Some data for BRAC's  non-formal primary schools (January 2017):
14,153 schools
389,910 students, of whom 62.17% are girls
5.3 million students completed courses, of which 60.43% are girls
5.55 million students transferred to formal schools to date, of which 60.12% are girls
14,153 teachers

BRAC's education programme has received numerous international awards, one of them the prestigious WISE Prize from the Qatar Foundation in 2011. I was happy to be in Doha, attending the WISE event, when Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, BRAC's founder and director, received the prize.

Girls' education remains a major issue worldwide, starting with early childhood and primary education. The problem continues to pose old and new challenges. Diagnoses and studies multiply, debates and fora repeat often what is already known, there is hunger for more data. In the middle of all that, I often remember BRAC's long and fruitful experience, its pragmatic wisdom, its short, medium and long-term vision, its consultation with families and communities, its permanent interest to connect with local needs and realities.

In times when everything seems to start from scratch and anything can be considered an innovation, it is essential to look back and learn from experience.

Related texts in this blog
» Aprender a lavarse las manos
» WISE Prize for Education Laureates: Bottom-up Innovators
» Kazi, the graceless | Kazi, el sin gracia
 
 

What is youth and adult education - today?

Rosa María Torres

Silvio Alvarez - Brazilian artist

En español: ¿Qué es educación de jóvenes y adultos, hoy?

In an event held in Quito in December 2016, with the participation of education specialists and members of social organizations in Ecuador, I was the only one mentioning youth and adult education.

The objective of the event was to (re)think the national education agenda, in the proximity of national elections leading to a new government.

Everyone made contributions. At the end of the day, the wall was full of coloured cards covering all possible topics and all levels of the education system. Adult education, however, was not there. Relatively absent was also early childhood and initial education, which is also and mainly adult education since it implies educating parents and caregivers in dealing with young children. 

The fact is that those located at both extremes of the education system - young children, and adults - have always been sidelined in the big picture of education.

In the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) the right to education (Article 26), even if focused on the perspective of children and young people, referred to everyone. It mentioned elementary and fundamental education, technical and professional education, and higher education.

Article 26.

(1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
(2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.
(3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.

Today, the right to education continues to focus on children and youth. The conceptualization of the right to education applied to adulthood has not advanced.

The Right to Education Project

In an era of expanding life expectancy and of a proposed Lifelong Learning paradigm, national and international education agendas are far from including adults as legitimate subjects of education and of the right to education. Adult education remains the Cinderella of education policies and is not in the mind of most people and most organizations when they refer to education. However, the phrase 'lifelong learning' has been adopted in educational rhetoric worldwide and the education goal (Goal 4) within the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDG, 2015-2030) speaks of "Ensuring inclusive and quality education for all, and promote lifelong learning". 

Lifelong Learning has been introduced and is being promoted as a new education paradigm for several decades now, especially by UNESCO. However, education mentalities and policies have not changed accordingly, and specifically in relation to the education of young people and adults. One may be surprised by:

a) The persistent association of education with childhood, education with education system, and education with schooling.

b) The persistent understanding of youth and adult education as compensatory and second-chance education, addressed to the illiterate, the semi-literate and, in general, those 'lagging behind' in terms of school experience and completion. 

c) The continued association of youth and adult education with non-formal education.

d) The absence of policies and strategies dealing with family education, community education, and citizen education, which imply trans-generational approaches.

e) The use of the term 'lifelong learning' without fully understanding its denotations and connotations, and without a real commitment with the paradigmatic change it entails for the education field.

Lifelong Learning means - literally - learning from the womb to the tomb. Adopting Lifelong Learning as a paradigm implies accepting and understanding that learning begins at home and in early childhood, that childhood is not the only age to learn, that education is much wider than schooling, that formal, non-formal and informal learning complement throughout life, that life is expanding and thus the length and importance of the adult age, that youth and adult learning and education are a fundamental and unavoidable element of any modern education policy today.

Related texts in this blog

 » Sobre aprendizaje de jóvenes y adultos ▸ On youth and adult learning (compilation)
 » Términos discriminadores que mejor no
 » Aprendizaje a lo largo de la vida (ALV)
 » "Rethinking education" and adult education

 » Formal, non-formal and informal learning

 » Objetivo 4: Educación - Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible ▸ Goal 4: Quality Education - Sustainable Development Goals

¿Qué es educación de jóvenes y adultos, hoy?

Rosa María Torres

Silvio Alvarez - Artista plástico brasileiro. Collage. Brasil

In English: What is youth and adult education today?

Es común que en publicaciones y eventos sobre el tema educativo no aparezca la educación de adultos, o que esta aparezca apenas como un saludo a la bandera. A menudo me encuentro en situaciones en que soy la única que la menciona. Tampoco hay muchas personas que se acuerdan de la educación inicial (0 a 6 años), aunque ésta viene siendo reconocida cada vez más.

Lo real es que quienes se ubican en ambos extremos del sistema educativo - niños pequeños y personas adultas - siguen teniendo escasa visibilidad e importancia en el panorama educativo nacional y mundial. Sigue pensándose, de hecho, que la educación se inicia en la escuela y que ésta termina con la educación superior.

En la Declaración Universal de los Derechos Humanos (1948) el derecho a la educación (Artículo 26), si bien pensado sobre todo desde la perspectiva de niños y jóvenes, habló de toda persona (everyone) y se refirió a educación elemental y fundamental, educación técnica y profesional, y educación superior.

Artículo 26.

(1) Toda persona tiene derecho a la educación. La educación debe ser gratuita, al menos en lo concerniente a la instrucción elemental y fundamental. La instrucción elemental será obligatoria. La instrucción técnica y profesional habrá de ser generalizada; el acceso a los estudios superiores será igual para todos, en función de los méritos respectivos.
(2) La educación tendrá por objeto el pleno desarrollo de la personalidad humana y el fortalecimiento del respeto a los derechos humanos y a las libertades fundamentales; favorecerá la comprensión, la tolerancia y la amistad entre todas las naciones y todos los grupos étnicos o religiosos, y promoverá el desarrollo de las actividades de las Naciones Unidas para el mantenimiento de la paz.
(3) Los padres tendrán derecho preferente a escoger el tipo de educación que habrá de darse a sus hijos.

Hoy, el derecho a la educación continúa centrado en niños y jóvenes. No se ha avanzado en la conceptualización del derecho a la educación desde la perspectiva de la edad adulta y más allá del sistema educativo formal.

The Right to Education Project

El hecho es que, en una era de notable alargamiento de la vida y de adopción del paradigma del Aprendizaje a lo Largo de la Vida, la educación de adultos sigue siendo la Cenicienta de las políticas educativas y sigue no estando en la mente de la mayoría de personas dedicadas a la educación. Esto, incluso entre los organismos internacionales que promueven el 'aprendizaje a lo largo de la vida'. Esto, pese a que el objetivo referido a la educación (Objetivo 4) en el marco de los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible (2015-2030) habla de "Garantizar una educación inclusiva, equitativa y de calidad y promover oportunidades de aprendizaje durante toda la vida para todos".

Sigue asombrando:

a) la persistente reducción de educación a infancia, de educación a sistema educativo, de educación a escolarización.

b) la continuada comprensión de la educación de jóvenes y adultos como educación compensatoria, de segunda oportunidad, destinada solamente a personas analfabetas, con poca escolaridad y, en general, afectadas por algún tipo de 'rezago educativo'.

c) la continuada asociación de educación de jóvenes y adultos con educación no-formal.

d) la ausencia de políticas y estrategias de educación familiar, educación comunitaria, educación ciudadana, que por su propia naturaleza transcienden las edades y suponen, justamente, enfoques trans-generacionales.

e) el uso de la frase 'aprendizaje a lo largo de la vida' sin que se entienda y asuma sus denotaciones y connotaciones, y sin un compromiso real con el cambio paradigmático que esto implicaría al mundo de la educación. 

Aprendizaje a lo Largo de la Vida significa, literalmente, aprendizaje desde el nacimiento (e incluso desde la gestación) hasta la muerte. Adoptar el Aprendizaje a lo Largo de la Vida como paradigma para la educación en el siglo XXI - como ha propuesto la UNESCO - implica aceptar y entender que el aprendizaje se inicia en el hogar y en la primera infancia, que la infancia no es la única edad para aprender, que la educación es mucho más amplia que la escolarización, que hay aprendizajes formales, no-formales e informales y que todos ellos son necesarios y se complementan a lo largo de la vida de las personas, que la vida se alarga y con ella la edad adulta, que la educación de jóvenes y adultos es, hoy, elemento fundamental e ineludible de cualquier moderna política educativa.