Panel on Education for Rural People

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• Panel on Education for Rural People
• EFA Working Group Meeting
• 19-22 July 2005, UNESCO HQs, Paris
• Good Practices and Lessons Learned
• in Rural Education for Development
• INRULEDs Experiences and Perspectives
• Zhou Nan-Zhao
• UNESCO International Research Training Center
• for Rural Education (INRULED), China

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AN OUTLINE

• Education for Rural People a Major Component and
  Top Priority in EFA
• INRULED a UNESCO-Chinese Response to Address
  Rural Education
• Good Practices in Rural Education for Development
• Lessons Learned in Promoting ERP for MDG and EFA
  Goals

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I. Education for Rural People A Core Component
and Top Priority in EFA

• In Chinese case 70 of the population are in
  rural areas. 93 of primary schools and 84 of
  secondary schools, with 160 million pupils, are
  in rural areas Unfinished EFA tasks are
  targeting rural western regions.
• Worldwide, 50 of the population, and over 60 of
  the people in developing countries (3 billion)
  are in rural areas.
• 75 of the worlds poor people are in rural
  areas, and poverty goes hand in hand with
  illiteracy.
• About 82 of the 120 million out-of-school
  children are in rural areas.
• Nearly two-thirds of the worlds adult
  illiterates are women, and 81 of them are in
  rural areas.
• Most of young people/adults in rural areas badly
  need life skills and vocational/social skills
  training for improved quality of life.
• Education and training are among most effective
  tools for empowerment in poverty alleviation.

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Enrolment Ratios in Primary Education National
vs. Rural Ratios in China (1987-2002) Source
based on Educational Statistical Yearbooks, MOE,
Beijing
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Sources the Institute of Rural Education of
Northeast Normal University (2003 ).
Investigation of Rural Education
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30 of rural children in developing countries
are out of school, compared with 18 of those
living in urban areas.
Some 82 of children out of primary school live
in rural areas.
Source Q..Khan, Basic Education in Arab
States. International Seminar on Rural
Education, INRULED, China, 2005
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II. INRULED a UNESCO-Chinese Response to Rural
Education

• Founding 1994, based on an MOU between UNESCO
  and Chinese Government
• Functions
• Developing a global network of experts in rural
  education
• Undertaking and orgnanizing research studies on
  rural education
• Sponsoring training and seminars
• Providing consultancy services

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• INRULED Research Projects, with a network of over
  400 experts from over 20 countries in five
  continents, producing 24 major publications
• Education for Rural Transformation A Conceptual
  Framework
• Case study on adult literacy programmes in rural
  China
• An assessment of quality education for rural
  development
• Comparative study on roles of teachers in rural
  education in different countries
• Comparative study on educational opportunities
  and curriculum development
• Comparative studies on non-formal education in
  rural areas in China and other countries
• Comparative study on environmental education for
  sustainable rural development
• Comparative study on education for rural
  development in Asia-Pacific region
• Study on rural-urban migration and educational
  policies on education of migrant farmers
• Study on effective use of ICT and distance
  education for EFAQ in rural settings

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• INRULED Training Workshops and Seminars
• More than 50 workshops and seminars- symposiums
  sponsored, with over 400 international
  participants from over 30 countries, and 15
  international GOs and NGOs, and more than 600
  Chinese participants. Examples
• International Training Workshop on Rural
  Education for Rural Development
• Regional Meeting on the Roles of Universities for
  Rural Development
• International Workshop on Technical Training for
  Rural Development
• Regional Workshop on Urgent Educational Needs for
  Rural Population
• Seminar on Educational Reform for Rural Areas
• Seminar on Experiments and Strategies for
  Applying EFA
• Regional Workshop on Staff Training of Literacy
  and Adult Educatio
• UNEVOC Experts Group Meeting on Policy Issues in
  Development of TVET Relevant to Rapidly
  Transforming Agrarian and Rural Development
• Sub-regional workshop on Strategies, Policies and
  Approaches for Women and Girls Education in Rural
  Areas
• Training Workshop for Capacity Building of
  African Women Leaders
• International Conference on Turning Digital
  Divide into Digital Opportunities for Rural
  Development
• -

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III. Good Practices in Rural Education

• 1. National government making stronger political
  commitment to EFA, with concrete policy actions,
  increased financial inputs and NGO participation
• placing rural education high on development
  agenda as top priority among priorities
• developing national locally-specific policy goals
  and strategies for EFA implementation
• promoting public awareness of EFA and MDGs
• Setting up implementation committees at national,
  provincial , county, township and village and
  levels
• Increasing budgetary allocations and special
  project grants
• - 10 billion RMB for building boarding schools
  for rural pupils
• - 7.5 billion RMB for 522 poor rural counties
  for teacher training, ICT, etc.
• - 5 billion RMB for 20,000 rural schools in for
  building
• - city-provided funds for urban-rural twining
  projects
• - millions of RMB donations mobilized from NGO
  and private sources

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• 2. Linking Adult Literacy to Agriculture
  Production, Income Generation and Poverty
  Reduction
• Literacy included in national socio-economic
  development agenda
• Literacy materials made relevant to rural life
  needs
• Literacy staff committed to community development
  and trained in effective teaching methods
• Literacy/education sector represented at
  inter-ministerial/sectorial poverty alleviation
  coordination committees
• Poverty reduction approach changing from
  targeting poor counties to targeting poor
  villages, along with educational development
  strategy shifting to building learning
  communities (at village/township level)
• Adult literacy and basic education tested as
  pre-condition for income generation through
  rural-urban migration as a main means of poverty
  reduction, motivating farmers to be actively
  involved in adult literacy programmes
• RESULTS
• High-rate decrease of Chinas adult illiteracy
  
• Reduction of 100 million illiterate adults
  within 10 years, with adult illiteracy rate
  declining to 8.72 in 2004 (below 5 for young
  and middle-aged adults).
• Drastic decrease of Chinas rural poor
• 250 million (30.7 of rural population, 1978) ?
  85 million (9.4, 1990) ? 30 million (3.2,
  2000)

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Decrease of Illiterate Adults and Illiteracy
Rates (as evidenced by four national censuses)
Source based on national census data and
Educational Statistics Yearbooks, MOE
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Increased Adult Literacy Level of Rural-Urban
Migrant Farmers for Income Generation the case
of China
Source G. Liu, Interna- tional Seminar on
Rural Education, INRULED, 2005
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3. Building Learning Communities through Synergy
between Formal and Non-formal Education Systems

• Conception
• lifelong education addressing not only
  non-literates, neo-literates and school
  drop-outs, but also all members of the rural
  community
• learning needs of the rural community growing
  more diverse and complex and more demand-driven
• the need for synergy between formal and
  non-formal education
• Practices
• Asia-Pacifics years experiences in effective
  implementation of JFIT-funded,
  UNESCOBKK-facilitated Community Learning Centers
  (CLC) in around 20 countries
• Indias Total Literacy Campaign in Tami Nadu,
  India
• Bangladeshs Rural Advancement Committee-pioneered
  Non-formal Primary Education
• Chinas GansuLongnan Prefecture project on
  Community School Work Together
• Thailands ASP-CLC partnership project in
  Thailand
• Senegals TOSTAN project on a rural non-formal
  basic education
• Philippines ANTEP Programme for education
  beyond literacy for rural adults

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4. Shifting Focus of Attention to Relevance and
Quality

• Setting up safe, gender-sensitive
  Child-Friendly-Schools for improved learning
  environments
• Reforming basic education curriculum 35 million
  pupils in Chinese primary lower secondary
  schools began using new curriculum textbooks by
  2003
• -Over 2 million teachers trained by 2004 for new
  curriculum
• -Formation of national Teacher-Education-Network
  Federation for in-service teacher training and
  long-term teacher development
• -East and South-East Asian countries embarking on
  massive curriculum change
• -Chiles push for Quality Education Measuring
  Outcomes and Providing Incentives
• -UNESCO-UNICEF Monitoring Leraning Achievement
  Projects, assisting member countries in carrying
  out assessment surveys to monitor quality of
  basic education, which rural-urban disparities
  are most constant pattern observed.

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• 5. Integrating basic education with expanded
  vocational-technical education and adult
  education
• using primary school teachers and facilities as
  adult education centers
• expanding secondary agricultural schools and
  vocational-technical schools in/for rural
  development
• reorienting vocational-technical education to
  meaningful employment
• Setting up key-point county-level vocational
  training centers for rural youth and adults
• Implementing training programme for large-scale
  migrant work forces from rural areas
• -120 million rural surplus labor potentially
  to migrate
• - life skills/work skills development training
  programmes set 65 million rural-urban migrant
  workers to be trained by education sector alone
  in 2005, with over 100 target-specific training
  materials
• - pubic education policies developed to cope
  with large number of children of rural-urban
  migrant workers
• -

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(No Transcript)
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• 6. Adopting inter-sectoral and inter-agency
  approaches to coordination of education, science,
  agriculture and other sectors
• Setting up inter-sectoral coordination committee
  at national, provincial and county level
• Using nation-wide programme approach for
  large-scale policy implementation the Spark
  Programme, the Harvest Programme
• Literacy awards to non-education sectors e.g.
  women federations
• Popularization of science in literacy and
  community education
• Agriculture technicians involved in teaching at
  rural schools and adult education classes
• Providing common inputs to all key partners
• Sector-specific inputs strengthening common
  objectives
• Each geographical region addressing the same
  development issue in a comprehensive manner
• Mobilizing key partners from different sectors
  (e.g. UNICEFs girls education programme)

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All Children enrolled in and completed school
Multisectoral framework
Outcomes
Outputs
Child Friendly School
Community mobilization
Advocacy

• - Training for teachers /head teachers on CFS and
  gender sensitive curriculum and school
  environment
• Setting up mechanisms on school daily attendance
  statistics and tracking the out-of school girls
• MOE

• Government advocacy for school enrollment
• Resources generated for girls education
• Monitoring of girls school attendance. A
  cooperation between schools and communities
• ACWF/NWCCW

• Social mobilization to raise awareness of
  government, parents and media workers on girls
  education
• MOFCOM

Inputs
Source UNICEF Office in Beijing, International
Seminar on Rural Education, INRULED, 2005
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• 7. Higher education contributing to EFA in rural
  areas through action research, training and
  popularization of science and applied
  technologies for basic education the
  University-Link Programme China, Pakistan and
  Bangladesh
• 8. Developing small industries in rural areas
  with youth and adults as backbones, who have had
  a basic education e.g. in Jiangsu Provinces, the
  output from small industries in rural areas
  accounting for over one third of total industrial
  outputs, and most of the managers and/or owners
  of the small industries are those who have had a
  secondary education.
• -

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IV. Lessons Learned in ERP

• The success of EFA and MDG in rural areas depend
  on three parties National public authorities
  political commitment and policy actions local
  community participation, and international
  communitys technical assistance
• Reflecting Renewed Vision of ERP in EFA
  Strategies/Action Plans and UNESCO Biennium
  Programme as Main Line of Action
• Developing Quality Data Sets on ERP and
  Redesigning EMIS for better informed
  policy-making
• Addressing rural education in coherent holistic
  approach, focusing on the triad of 1) access
  equity 2) relevance quality, and 3) efficiency
  and accountability.

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• Enhancing synergy between formal, non-formal and
  informal education especially in building
  learning communities for EFA goals.
• Making effective use of ICT and distance
  education as a powerful instrument and tools for
  empowerment of rural people and for rural
  transformation
• Closing resource gap in promoting ERP
• Further enhancing international and regional
  partnership and networking in ERP.
• The international coalition of supporters and
  promoters of EFA . has a special responsibility
  to pay attention and move forward for ERT
  agenda.
• -- from Education for Rural Transformation
  Towards a Conceptual Framework, an INRULED
  research series publication, edited by Du Yue et
  al., with contributions from M. Ahmed, B.
  Chatterjee, V. Chinapah, J. Dong, et al. 2004,
  China
• -

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Thank you! zhounz_at_hotmail.comzhounz_at_INRULED
.org