PUBLICATIONS

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

The following selected publications are available online:

IRAQ:
(1) A Second Chance: Accelerated Learning, Creative Associates International, Inc., Washington DC, July 2004
http://www.caii.com/CAIIStaff/Dashboard_GIROAdminCAIIStaff/Dashboard_CAIIAdminDatabase/publications/ALIRAQ.pdf

(2) Article: Out-of-School Students Get a Second Chance, Creative Times (Newsletter), Creative Associates International, Inc., Winter 2004, Vol2, No1
http://www.caii.com/CAIIStaff/Dashboard_GIROAdminCAIIStaff/Dashboard_CAIIAdminDatabase/publications/ETIMESWINTER0304.pdf

(3) Slide Show: Accelerated Learning
http://www.caii.com/CAIIStaff/Dashboard_GIROAdminCAIIStaff/Dashboard_CAIIAdminDatabase/images/slide_show/slide6.htm
 
AFGHANISTAN:
(1) USAID/OTI Afghanistan Program: Final Evaluation, USAID, Washington DC, August 15, 2005
http://pdf.dec.org/pdf_docs/PDACF383.pdf

LIBERIA:
(1) MID TERM EVALUATION OF INSTITUTIONAL SUPPORT PROGRAMME IN LIBERIA, European Commission, 9 February 2007
http://www.dellbr.cec.eu.int

OTHERS:
(1) Canaries in coal mines: corals on reefs, CRC Reef Research Centre, Queensland, Australia, 1996
http://www.reef.crc.org.au/publications/explore/feat26.html

(2) State Training Profiles: rural vocational education and training statistics and funding issues, Journal of Institutional Research, May 1998
http://www.aair.org.au/jir/May98/Nicolls.pdf



MY BLOG SITE: http://martinasblogs.blogspot.com



ARTICLES


Education SWAP – Bangladesh's Lessons on a Sector-Wide Approach
Martina Nicolls: 23 May 2009

After initial delays and teething problems, the Second Primary Education Development Program (PEDP-II) in Bangladesh, in its fifth year of implementation, is demonstrating the advantages of a sector-wide approach. Practical progress has been made to the benefit of Bangladeshs children.

Background
Since Independence in March 1971, there have been many much-appreciated donor-funded projects supporting Bangladeshs primary education sub-sector. The initial Primary Education Development Program (PEDP-I) covering 1997-2003 was, in reality, an uncoordinated assortment of twenty-seven projects. Recognizing that fragmented, project-based approaches of this kind were unhelpful in terms of long-term institutional development and sustainability, the Development Partners (DPs), comprising eleven donor organizations, and the Government of the Peoples Republic of Bangladesh (GOB) jointly agreed to adopt a program approach to primary education. The Sector-Wide Approach (SWAP) program aims to ensure that external funding supports a single sector policy and expenditure program, under government leadership and adopting common approaches to planning and implementation.

Out of a GOB-led participatory program planning and design exercise under the National Plan of Action, a long, frustrating process stretching more than three years, PEDP-II emerged. It is the largest donor-funded primary education program in the world, and the first genuine sector-wide approach in the history of the Bangladesh education sector. Although PEDP-II was formally launched in September 2004, it did not actualize until 2005, and is scheduled for completion mid-2010.

Progress
Progress to end-2008 against key performance indicators, targets, and primary school level standards documented in the revised Development Project Proforma, generally referred to as the Framework, indicate some successes and a range of on-going challenges. While it cannot be recorded that remarkable progress has been made, given the complexity of PEDP-II with many diverse components and activities, it can be stated that the program is moving in a gradual positive trajectory toward greater access to quality teaching and learning for the Directorate of Primary Education (DPE) and, more importantly, the children of Bangladesh.

Data for 2008 indicate that the gross enrolment rate (GER) has increased from 93.7 in 2005 to an overall rate of 97.9 and the net enrolment rate (NER) has increased from 87.2 in 2005 to 90 Although class sizes are still large, the student-teacher ratio has decreased from 54:1 in the 2005 baseline study to 50:1 in 2008 and edging closer to a target of 48:1. The draft 2008 National Student Assessment Survey indicates a Grade 5 literacy rate of 69, an increase from 66 in 2006, and a numeracy rate of 63, an increase from 44 in 2006.

On-going challenges
The gross enrolment rate, while increasing overall, lags behind for boys, at 92.8 compared with 102.9 for girls. Similarly, the net enrolment rate also lags behind for boys, at 87.8 compared with 94.0 for girls. There is also considerable variation between districts, with urban areas increasing at a greater rate than rural areas. The repetition rates show insignificant improvement from 2005 to 2008, the dropout rates show no improvement after four years, and the student completion rates to Grade 5 indicate a slightly negative trend.

Despite figures for boys lagging behind those for girls, and despite geographical variations and some concern regarding the reliability of the basic demographic information, it appears that both the GER and the NER indicators will be achieved. The planned percentages of students achieving acceptable level of literacy and numeracy in Grade 5 appears likely to be achieved, although such data should be handled with care. 

The student completion rate to Grade 5 in PEDP-II schools is likely to be well below the indicator. Repetition rates have yet to improve significantly and, despite stipends and quality enhancement, the coefficient of efficiency target is unlikely to be achieved. Similarly, the dropout rates are far higher than those targeted. The aim of reducing the average class size to 48 by 2009 was unrealistically optimistic. Filling of staff, non-teacher vacancies at all levels has proved much more difficult and time-consuming than anticipated and this remains a serious challenge.

The experiences of both PEDP-I and PEDP-II provide bitter experiences with regard to capacity development with the training and curriculum agencies. Almost all the professional personnel are seconded on temporary arrangements from other departments who stay for uncertain and often short periods.

Lessons learned
Due to the complexity of administrative, procurement and other procedures, there was a considerable gestation period until funds become available before commencing PEDP-II implementation. The initial program design was ambitious in terms of DPEs capacity to implement the abundance of diverse activities. The initial lack of an educational management information system (EMIS) and monitoring capacities created problems in reporting program information to Development Partners and the wider Government.

However, the sectoral program is now fully under way, well understood by those involved, and producing increasingly positive and sustainable outcomes. Several real and practical advantages over the previous project approach are becoming evident and it is clear that the SWAP is increasingly producing:
 

Harmonized and improved management, planning, accounting and reporting arrangements throughout PEDP-II have enabled focused and coordinated interventions in the sector. Harmonization among donors has reduced transaction costs (in terms of both time and money).

Into the future
Most of the development activities of the primary education sub-sector are being undertaken through PEDP-II and, after this program concludes, there will be an unquestionable on-going need to continue the development activities and, accordingly, a follow-up programme is considered essential. The Government of Bangladesh is committed to achieving the Education for All goals by 2015. To achieve Universal Primary Education it is necessary to sustain, consolidate and improve further the progress and achievements of PEDP-II.

Moreover, the Government intends to pursue a holistic framework incorporating the activities of both the formal and non-formal systems. The Government of Bangladesh is fully committed to the enrolment of all primary age-group children by 2011, their retention up to the completion of the primary cycle and the eradication of illiteracy from the country by 2014.

The GOB indicate that future primary programming will be developed and implemented following SWAP, the Sector-wide Approach, building upon PEDP-II experiences and embodying development partner harmonization in accordance with the Paris Declaration. Therefore, the considerable investment in time and money made by GOB in learning how to manage a SWAP must not be discarded. Decentralized systems, school-level improvements, activity-based learning, community participation, increased student contact hours in the classroom, smaller class sizes, information-based and research-guided policy-making, and a national curriculum are all challenges for the future. However it is considered that, in practice, the structure of future programming should be more flexible than that of PEDP-II. Inevitably, as a major program unfolds, new challenges emerge. Procedures that allow for participative, reality-based program modifications should be built into the future management and financial administrative arrangements of any future program.

Dr Martina Nicolls is an independent consultant for the European Commission in Bangladesh. Information in this article was adapted from the Directorate of Educations PROG3 Concept Paper, 7 May 2009.

 

Accelerated Learning
Martina Nicolls: May 2004

May 2004 CREATIVE TIMES 

CHILDREN'S EDUCATION: BUILDING SELF-ESTEEM IN IRAQ

Given the impetus and opportunity, communities will join together to help their children achieve success. It begins with their education. And it begins with re-building children's self-esteem.

Few had heard of the USAID-funded Revitalization of Iraqi Schools and the Stabilization of Education (RISE) Project. Even fewer had heard of the concept of accelerated learning in the months after the end of Saddam's regime. News of the Accelerated Learning Program in Iraq spread via three channels: regional directorates of education, community outreach workers, and more importantly by parents, particularly mothers.

The promise of a one-year pilot program to accelerate long-term out-of-school youth to catch-up their schooling by undertaking two years of study in only one year was a second chance at education. Parents seized the opportunity immediately and at once began to promulgate the program. As the program commenced, the children themselves told their friends and wished for them what they were able to participate in themselves. Communities bonded into a cohesive group for the singular aim of seeking access to education for their children who were denied access to regular government schools because they were over-age.

Years of missed schooling meant that students of differing ages were in the same classroom. Here they formed "families": families that provided support and encouragement, free from punitive discipline, free from embarrassment and shame. All students knew that they were there for the same goal – to achieve the success that was not available to them the first time.

With the onset of wars in the early 1980s and an oppressive regime, the education system in Iraq deteriorated from one of high standard and repute in the Middle East to one of the worst in the region with depleted resources, neglected facilities, stagnant curricula, inefficient management, corruption, political influence, and under-trained teachers. Declining enrolment and attendance rates, particularly for girls (with only a 50% attendance rate in rural areas) resulted in poor literacy levels; 24% of girls and 56% of boys are literate (with a total literacy rate of 40% across the country). The high drop-out rate resulted in youth missing years of schooling. With a population estimated at 26 million and a student population of 6 million in 2003, the out-of-school population was believed to be as high as 1.8 million.

Encyclopedic education practiced in oversized classes, promoting chalk-and-talk styles of teacher-pupil relationships, had debilitated skills such as teacher leadership, student leadership, personality development, critical thinking and knowledge acquisition.

Accelerated learning, an umbrella term for a series of practical, student-centered approaches to learning, was implemented across five locations in Iraq. It had the expectation that, when motivated and appropriately taught, all learners could reach a level of achievement which may appear beyond them. A critical, underpinning principle of accelerated learning was to create a supportive learning environment, free from high levels of anxiety and threat. Establishing an atmosphere of safety, trust, friendly cooperation, and appreciation enabled students to be receptive to new ideas, and willing to explore and experiment without fear of ridicule.

In Iraq, during the Accelerated Learning Program, students became more involved in their education and made choices towards their own successes. Students chose not to have breaks between classes; they asked for more homework and were committed to completing assignments. Students and teachers in the Iraqi-Kurdistan Region even chose to work throughout their mid-year vacation. Working together for a common goal, students were more motivated to learn. This resulted, not only in effective cooperative learning, but also in the re-building of self-esteem among the poorest, most disadvantaged youth in Iraq.

With accelerated learning principles in the classroom, students were likely to learn more content and increase their self-esteem, interpersonal communication and teamwork skills.  Attendances increased as they overcame their reluctance to ask for help and the tendency for low achievers to avoid participation.

Dramatic transformations of teaching and learning methodologies were impractical to expect in a one-year program in Iraq after decades of a strict, regimented education system. The way forward was through a continuous, evolving process of design, implementation, and reflection that gradually emerged throughout the implementation of accelerated learning and student-centered philosophies, principles and practices. By applying accelerated learning principles to education within countries in conflict and crisis, students could achieve a sense of fulfillment, enjoyment and shared experiences in a safe, non-threatening environment.

Connecting learning with positive emotions improved the students' learning process. This was evident in the AL Program by the high attendance rate and the willingness of students to achieve their best results. The re-building of self-esteem, "the heart of learning", was the most critical factor in the success of the Accelerated Learning Program across post-war Iraq.