JICA Shikoku; Ensuring quality learning opportunities for all children - "School for All" connects community, school, and government -

Utilize for a course in Graduate School of Education, Naruto University of Education

The lecture in Graduate School of Education, Naruto University of Education in January 2020.

Graduate School of Education, Naruto University of Education in Tokushima prefecture, where many participants of JICA long term training program are learning, have been offering a course to deepen understandings of Japanese-style education. In this course, I had an opportunity to introduce related JICA's technical cooperation projects.

59 million children in the world (about 10% of primary school-age children (UNESCO2020) cannot go to primary school now and 380 million (about50%) are not achieving minimum proficiency in reading and mathematics (UNESCO 2017).

In order for those children to receive better education, it is necessary not only to enhance teachers' ability, but also to provide an adequate learning environment and to give support to children in cooperation among teachers, parents and community. In this course, teachers and education officers from developing countries were participating. I was trying to see how the participants could understand more deeply the importance and possibility of community-wide collaboration for better education. That is the reason why I utilized JICA-Net multimedia-based learning materials "'School for All' opens the way to the future".

"The 'School for All' Project" being carried out by community, school and government together.

In an achievement test conducted in Niger, the percentage of correct answers raised amazingly after the project

"'School for All' opens the way to the future" (external link) introduces a JICA-supported technical cooperation project "The 'School for All' Project" in Niger, where primary school enrollment rate was as low as 52% in 2004.

This project, which has been aiming at education development through close collaboration between the community and the government, improved the access and the quality of education. Since the outcomes of the project was recognized widely, the model of "School for All" was introduced into about 40,000 schools in Africa.

The material consists of 6 parts. "DREAM 'School for All' opens the way to the future" gives an overview of the goal and the result of the project for general public, "The 'School for All' Project aiming at education development where community and government work together" explains the outline of the project concisely. The other 4 parts are intended to be practical training materials for specific models, namely "Revitalization of School Management Committee", "Minimum Package for Learning Quality" (community-based learning improvement), "Model for Effective Use of School Grant", and "Forum Approach" for region-wide education development.

For solving the problems of their own countries.

Classrooms constructed by community members. Participating in school management strengthens their perceptions for education.

I think the advantage of this material is not only introducing successful examples of education development by community participation, but also introducing the process to realize educational outcomes. Furthermore, local people are speaking with their own words of how their perceptions have been changed, from their respective positions as parents, community members, teachers, and students.

Although the participants of this course are from various countries in Oceania, Asia, Africa, etc., their countries and regions have common challenges such as a lack of trusting relationship between school and community.

When the participants watched the material, they expressed, by raising their both hands, their appreciation of the project results realized through school-community collaboration. One participant said "Regarding school management by community participation, we have a system but it is not working well like the cases in the movie." They talked each other about the situations of their own countries and prospects for improvement. It seemed that they found some clues and thus got more motivated to solve problems that their respective countries are facing.

As a good example for development by community participation

I was a member of "The 'School for All' Project" in Senegal as Japanese expert and had an opportunity to accompany the shooting process for the material. I used this material for introduction of Niger's experience to Senegal and also for nationwide scale-up of the pilot model.

I think cooperation between community and government under the existing administration system is a challenge for all sectors, not limited to education, so this material will be useful for those who hope to discuss the possibility of community-based development with government officers from developing countries.

Yukari Nagata
Coordinator for International Cooperation
Tokushima Desk, JICA Shikoku

*The Material(s) mainly applied

"School for All" opens the way to the future

This material explains the "School for All" project. It looks at three basic aspects: the why ("objective"), what ("focus") and how ("approach") of JICA's cooperation with partner countries. And it consists of two contents, one is public information, the other is training materials for who are interested or start the school for all project.

The first material of school for all project was publicized in 2007. However different approaches has been developed since then so that this edition version was created to renew the contents and to promote global learing in how to improve the quality of education through school based management. Suggested uses for this material include symposiums, seminars, university lectures, development and international relations courses, and training sessions in Japan and abroad.

• YouTube (external link)