Inclusive Education
ActionAid’s 30 years of work around education has proven the importance of including the understanding of the various unique challenges poor and excluded communities face while addressing poor communities’ access to education.
ActionAid’s work in education addresses needs and realities that go beyond a traditional understanding of education. ActionAid listens to communities and builds our programs around the needs identified which would best serve the community. We run programs addressing adult literacy, create informal education centers, provide vocational training and create curriculum with the communities.
Children with disabilities, former child soldiers, very poor or homeless children, working children, and street children are denied access to education in most countries ActionAid works with governments, community groups, parent teacher associations, and local schools to give these children access to an education. This work puts thousands of previously excluded children in school every year.
Adult Literacy
Literacy is essential to every aspect of the war on poverty. Today, one out of every seven people in the world cannot read in spite of the fact that literacy was recognized as a basic human right by the United Nations more than 50 years ago.
It is hard to get information about or assert your rights if you do not know how to read. There is also a clear link between illiteracy among adults and the long-term welfare of children in the community.
ActionAid’s award-winning community-focused Reflect approach – a system that allows participants to put the information they are learning into their local context – is one of our most effective tools for increasing literacy.
During the Reflect process, participants create maps, calendars, and diagrams that analyze their local environment and then use these tools to discuss issues within their community. These visuals are used to teach reading and writing skills. By providing real applications for their work, the development of literacy is directly tied to tools they can use to improve their communities – and to outcomes that build confidence and empower previously disenfranchised citizens to take a central role in improving their own well-being.
Many Reflect circles work particularly with women and focus on gender roles. Emphasis is given to improving dignity and self-confidence, as well as resource management, health and hygiene, children’s education, and community participation.
"The mothers are mostly illiterate, therefore no one listens to them at home. But through Reflect, adult literacy and home schools we are equipping mothers to be more confident and influence the fathers of the girl child for sending her to school." Ghulam Nabi Rutamani, Reflect Coordinator, Pakistan
Informal Education
Scarce resources and policies by international lending institutions like the World Bank prevent governments from funding education, meaning millions of children around the world never have an opportunity to receive an education.
ActionAid uses informal centers to provide basic education to the poorest communities. ActionAid’s effort vary according to community needs and include everything from training community members as teachers, adapting materials for local needs, and developing the basic infrastructure for a learning center.
To avoid undermining any formal system that might be brought to the area, ActionAid created an approach that mainstreams this informal education to meld into the formal system when it is available. We work with governments to recognize these informal schools and to convert them into feeder schools. This approach gives poor children, especially girls, in the poorest and most remote communities access to education.
ActionAid also works with governments to integrate local needs into the formal education system when it does arrive. These needs include teaching in a local dialect, child-oriented learning methods, greater parental involvement, flexible calendars and community outreach.
Vocational Education and Training
ActionAid works with young people to help them gain skills that will secure an income for them. Tailoring, handicrafts, veterinary care, dairy management, goat rearing, baking, mechanics, office skills, and farming techniques are taught to targeted groups, such as young women, people with disabilities or farmers. Training is often linked to micro-lending and savings programs, giving graduates access to loans to invest in assets like tools or a sewing machine.
Curriculum
Getting children into school is no help if they don’t receive good information when they get there. ActionAid’s award-winning curriculum development process involves the community in the planning process, ensuring that there is ownership and buy-in for the work plan within the community.
ActionAid develops locally-appropriate learning and teaching materials to support these curricula. In many areas, the community places a priority on materials that relate to the local economy or culture, drawing on traditional knowledge and skills. During regular in-service training workshops, teachers are given time, space and raw materials to produce their own teaching aids to support the curriculum. They are encouraged to use songs, pictures and drama in their lessons. Where possible, parents are involved in producing materials to relate the curriculum to the community.
ActionAid’s programs provide access to education that takes into account the unique challenges which obstruct poor communities’ access to education. We need your help. If you believe that children and adults in poor and excluded communities deserve access to education, please join ActionAid and support our education programs.
