NN37, May 2006
Special Theme on Education and Training out of Poverty? A Status Report
QUALITY EDUCATION AS THE KEY FOR POOR FAMILIES AND COMMUNITIES?
By Leon Tikly, University of Bristol
Can improving the quality of education experienced by learners from poor families and communities assist in the fight against poverty and gender inequality? This is a central question facing our recently established, DfID-funded research programme consortium on Implementing Education Quality in Low Income Countries (EdQual). The consortium led by the University of Bristol, includes the Universities of Bath (UK), Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), Witwatersrand (South Africa), Cape Coast (Ghana) and the Kigali Institute of Education (Rwanda). We are also working closely with associate partners in Pakistan (Aga Khan University) and in Chile (Universidad de la Frontera). The aim of the RPC is to generate new knowledge to assist governments in low income countries, DfID and the international development community to implement initiatives that will improve the quality of education in ways that will benefit the poorest people in the world and will promote gender equity. The consortium will also aim to create a sustainable resource through supporting African partner institutions to become regional centres of excellence in one or more areas of education quality and through strengthening capacity at government level and within organisations to successfully implement change.On the one hand the evidence as outlined, for example in the recent Global Monitoring Report is unequivocal (UNESCO, 2005). There is a consensus that providing education of a good quality that is considered relevant by learners and their families has a positive impact on enrolments and can lead to pupils staying in school longer with a reduction in drop out and repetition rates. Increased levels of literacy and education are also linked to greater control by women over their fertility and to a reduction in risk taking behaviour associated with the spread of HIV/AIDS. Further, improvements to education quality lead to higher cognitive achievement which in turn is linked to higher individual productivity and economic growth. This is increasingly important in the global era because poverty reduction relies on the ability of education systems to produce the range of skills required for successful global integration and this in turn depends on improving the quality of basic and post-basic education. The processes of learning associated with a good quality education can also assist in achieving wider social goals including social cohesion and conflict resolution, understanding of citizenship and human rights including equal rights for women and girls and respect for cultural diversity.
Scratch below the surface, however, and the issues become more complex. As Sayed (1997) has pointed out, ?the concept ?quality? is elusive and ? frequently used but never defined?. It has multiple meanings that reflect ?different ideological, social and political values?. Understanding must also take account of a changing context in Africa and other low income countries and of a range of regional and international initiatives. For these reasons, developing a conceptual understanding of education quality and its contribution to poverty reduction is a key objective and will, necessarily, be an ongoing iterative process incorporating the views of different stakeholders and grounded in our empirical research in a range of very different contexts. We have, however, by necessity had to determine our own starting points. Our own initial review of the literature (Barrett et al, 2006) has identified two broad approaches to education quality. One links quality to achieving higher learning outcomes within a more efficient use of resources whilst the other emphasises a more capability and rights based approach. We assume that both are important and this is reflected in our research design. For instance the project being led by Bristol provides a secondary analysis of the Southern African Consortium for Monitoring Education Quality (SACMEQ) data set to develop models of school effectiveness and quality indicators relevant for Africa. This will feed into and inform, however, the four African based projects which very much focus on developing the capabilities of of practitioners in areas of concern identified by them through participatory action research techniques. Mixing methods and creating synergies between different approaches seems exciting to us. We also start from a view that education quality issues mediate issues of access and outcomes and we therefore seek to work closely with colleagues in the sister RPCs devoted to these topics to develop common understandings. We believe that an appreciation of education quality means paying attention to learner characteristics including socio-economic and cultural background, gender, ethnicity, urban or rural location. It must also take account of enabling inputs and a range of outputs relating to cognitive and affective goals including achievement in core subject areas, awareness of risks associated with HIV/AIDS and attitudes to work and community.
Our view of the importance and the contextualized nature of education quality has been reinforced by the views of the policy makers and stakeholders who have participated in our national consultative workshops that we have held in each partner country during our recently concluded inception phase. Communicating effectively with different stakeholders is critical not only to determine research priorities but also to assist with identifying the mechanisms that will enable new initiatives to be mainstreamed. The outcomes of the workshops and literature reviews have fed into our ongoing research design. In particular, the quality of teaching and learning has emerged as a key research priority as has the need to address the development needs of large numbers of under qualified teachers. Three of the five large scale projects will, therefore, focus on aspects of teaching and learning, innovations in the maths and science curriculum, the use of ICTs and language and literacy. These projects will all include research into professional development to support improvement. Other issues that were raised are the need to improve the quality of management and leadership at the local and school level at a time of decentralisation including the management of staff (reducing absenteeism and motivation), the mobilization of resources and the procurement of materials and these management issues are also addressed in a large scale project. Smaller scale projects will focus on specific quality issues in early childhood and higher education, the use of distance learning, the built environment and meeting the needs of learners with special education needs, refugees, orphans and other vulnerable children. Given the scope of the quality issues covered by our RPC the need to identify key priorities and a very tight research focus within each project has become paramount as has the need to develop our own capacity and capabilities as researchers. Chief amongst these has been the ability to effectively communicate across national and continental boundaries. Whilst remaining fully aware of the enormous challenges ahead, we are buoyed by our conviction as researchers of the absolute importance of education quality for tackling disadvantage.
EdQual Website http://www.edqual.org/
Email leon.tikly@bristol.ac.uk
References
Barrett, A., Chalwa-Duggan, R., Lowe, J. Nikel, J. & Ukpo, E. (2006) /Implementing Quality Education in Low Income Countries: Review of the ?international? literature on the concept of quality in education/, EdQual paper number one, Bristol, EdQual.
Sayed, Y., /The concept of quality in education: a view from South Africa/, in /Educational dilemmas:debate and diversity, Vol. 4: Quality in education/, K. Watson, C. Modgil, and S. Modgil, Editors. 1997, Cassell: London. p. 21-29.
UNESCO, /EFA global monitoring report 2005:Education for All, the quality imperative/. 2005, Paris: UNESCO.