News_INCE

The Minister of Education announced that it is now the official policy of the government that all grades from first to last will be taught in the mother tongue, Kreyol. This is significant because INCE Haiti has been pushing for such a declaration from the Ministry for a long time. The declaration comes at the launch of our pilot Mother Tongue Based Bilingual Education (MTBBE) project which is, to begin with grade one in 12 schools within our network of 400 schools. 

Kreyol based education
The highlight of the year for INCE Haiti is that we were able to complete the first training for our MTBBE Pilot. With our partner, L’universite Chretien du Nord Haiti, (UCNH), and Parole et Action (P&A), as well as Mission Baptist Haiti (MBH) we trained 14 teachers, 12 principals, and 3 trainer trainers on the usage of new Kreyol based educational materials, how to supervised classrooms as well as teacher performances, and parental school interactions. We managed this all while the country was going through a gas shortage, gangs limited any sort of travel outside of port au prince, and constant popular protest against the high cost of living. 

Rising violence in the streets
At the moment, life in Haïti is challenging. The insecurity problem seems to be getting worse daily. The gangs are still conducting kidnapping to finance their purchases of illegal arms and to controll the streets of Port Au Prince. It appears that the national police force in particular and the government in general, cannot find a solution to deal with the rising violence in the streets. The gangs occupy all the strategic points to enter and leave Port Au Prince. This means that with the proper coordination, they can stifle the life out of the country’s capital. 

High inflation
As of september, the inflation rate has been estimated at 50%. The situation is getting worse every day for families to feed their households. To make matters worse, the government has decided to discontinue subsidizing petroleum based products. The result of this decision is an immediate increase of 148% in the price of gasoline. Gas is one of the products that have a direct relationship to the cost of goods so, we anticipate that the inflation rate will rise much higher. The government is also proposing an increase on the minimum wages which will also further escalate the high cost of living.

We are already seeing the effects of these changes and the stress on the population with the rise of staple products such as rice, sugar, flour, and beans which have effectively doubled in the past year. So much so, that the country was on lockdown “peyi lock” for 10 days where many businesses were burned and pillaged.

Moving forward
Despite challenging circumstances, the INCE Haiti team is doing everything she can to move forward with our MTBBE pilot. With the strong commitment and hard work of all team members, we are positive about our program and hopeful for the future.

End of August marked another milestone for the Guatemala systems change consortium as the team finalized a draft of our 3^rd phase manual. This is currently being edited and soon will be sent for further graphics and development before printing. This manual will work heavily with teachers on the concept of feedback and professional growth in many classroom and pedagogical topics. Additionally the concept of 21^st century learning skills for the learning community and how to promote these in the classroom are discussed.

The team is reviewing also the 1^st and 2^nd phase manuals to see how the concepts and values which were already introduced which were related to the 21^st century skills framework can be made more explicit.

We believe together that this is also important especially in light of the SDG4 Transforming Education summit which was held mid-September in New York around the UN General Assembly days. Due to COVID school closures a lot of work needs to be done in education, especially also in our region which accounted for several of the longest school closures globally.

RAPID framework
In September the World Bank together with UNCESO, UNICEF, USAID and others wrote a report on moving ‘From learning recovery to Education Transformation’ introducing a RAPID framework. See this link for further information.

The framework calls to: Reach every child and keep them in school, Assess learning levels regularly, Prioritize teaching the fundamentals, Increase the efficiency of instruction, including through catch-up learning and Develop psychosocial health and well-being.

As consortium we are aligned with this call also within our teacher training program which you can see in the picture below.

Investing in future generations
Through our manuals, which are currently serving around 50,000 teachers and to which we hope to add 30,000 more in 2023, we continue to invest through and with teachers in the lives of future generations of Guatemalans.

On 31 May 2022 in Ouagadougou, INCE Burkina Faso was able to impact the Christian education sector in 11 of the country’s 13 regions. This day followed after a week of preparation by Patrice and Emmanuel who visited the Woord en Daad office in the Netherlands to discuss educational change in a country of crisis and political turmoil.

On May 31st, AESEB brought together its regional delegates and INCE advisors for a sharing of the systemic approach. The day was divided into three parts: first, we discussed the systemic approach as a theoretical framework of intervention. Then we talked about the systemic canvas as a practical tool for implementing the systemic approach in the Christian education sector. The third part of the day consisted of a workshop where the participants were divided into three groups to reflect and exchange information and vision. The goal was to identify the means for anchoring the systemic approach in the Christian education sector through the identification of:

1- Challenges of the Christian education sector
2- Strategies (levers) that will enable a systemic change in the Christian education sector
3- The possible common ambition for the Christian education sector

This activity thus lays the foundations for the dissemination and appropriation of the systemic approach in the Christian education sector. Moreover, it initiates the mobilisation of the major actors of the sector for a change of mentality in their approach to the problems of Christian education. It also initiates the harmonised march for the co-creation of solutions based on the needs of the Christian education sector in Burkina Faso. It was a very succesful meeting!

Teachers and consortium

Teachers

1-minute video

The first months of 2022 have been bustling with a variety of activities for the new year. 60,000 manuals are being printed and logistics set in place for these manuals to be distributed to the different locations. The Ministry of Education appointed seven new departments for the consortium to work on, with 30,000 teachers in phase one.

The seven new departments are much more rural departments which will provide the team with the necessary challenges, but will also be a great learning experience to provide rural teachers with the needed and necessary tools to support high quality education for children. And the Ministry is finalizing also the accountability of checking all the diplomas for the first batch of 30,000 teachers to continue into phase two.

Digitalization of our program
The team is furthermore working on digitalization of our program. This year we hope to generate more of a community of learning, encouraging sharing and learning between teachers, so a social community manager will be hired to generate interaction and content sharing within Facebook groups, and most probably also Pinterest which provides the consortium with a lot more tools to track and follow sharing and actual learning content.

This year added value video content will also be developed to go along with several of the modules of phase 2 of the manual. With our consortium partner AMG Guatemala a pilot is being implemented with a mobile phone app, which will push nudges and content to a group of teachers and track their learning as well.

Developing phase three and four of the program
As the consortium works on these tools for phase two we are also busy looking ahead at phase three and four of the program which is also being developed. Several weeks have been taken to reflect on and (re-)build a results framework for the program, based on the initial question: what is the profile of the teacher we want to see after four years of the program.

Year one and two focus heavily on the teacher and their dignity and vision on learning, on self-reflection and on receiving feedback from peers. In year three and four we build forth on that, but also bring much more to the foreground the learning we want to see in students and the learning communities, through concepts such as 21st century learning and social-emotional value-based learning for children.

Energy to make a difference
By making these concepts more explicit and mainstream for teachers, we continue to challenge their growth for sake of Guatemalan children. Naturally in this process we will also take into account the learning challenges of the pandemic and more than two years of closed schools in the region. Many interesting challenges for the consortium as you can read, but even more energy to make a difference together!

INTENT Nepal has reached a great milestone! In February 2022, registration for the one-year bachelor course opened. The recruitment of students has started. This bachelor has been developed in cooperation with our partner ECEC and the Nepal Open University.

In addition, our partner ECEC has continued to improve the so-called model schools where the bachelor students can do their practical training. Several schools in and around the capital have gone through an improvement process and a number of schools in the far east of the country have also joined in.

One-year Bachelor of Education in all regions
We have also made plans for the continuation of this project. We want to make the concept of a one-year Bachelor of Education possible in all regions of Nepal, so that students and teachers can follow this programme in every province of the country. We also want to further expand the network of model schools and gain national coverage.

At the moment, we are focusing on expanding our network in order to involve not only ECEC (which will continue to have a prominent place in this), but also organisations that can contribute to realising these big ambitions.

INCE Burkina Faso has been working on their three principal strategies: connecting sector stakeholders, impacting mindsets for systemic change and developing sector solutions. In the past months there were advancements on all three levels. Patrice Ollé Kam (project manager) and Emmanuel Goabaga (Strategic advisor) have given us an update.

‘We connected with stakeholders in the framework of the national conference organized by the ministry of education. Together with major educational CSOs we organized a workshop to prepare a strategic, coherent response to the main challenges of our education sector. We see that the ministry is struggling to cope with the multiple problems and  have taken a fragmented ‘piece-meal’ approach. As INCE Burkina Faso together with partners we advocated for a more integrated, systemic approach which was well received by the ministry. We hope to pick the fruits of this advocacy later.’

Impacting mindsets
‘We impacted mindsets through working on, strengthening and sharing our systemic change vision for Burkina with various stakeholders. Besides the ministry of education, our own consortium, we are actively engaging with local education stakeholders. While each organisation has its own focus and priorities, we see that the strength of INCE Burkina Faso can be in bringing these together in a systemic vision.’

Training-of-trainers
‘On a different level we are working on several sector solutions based on the needs of the sector. In earlier years we identified that parent-teacher cooperation and communication is a leverage point for quality education. Therefore we started a training-of-trainers in October with 25 participants. Further roll out will be continued in the coming months.

In addition, we are working to developing a Values Teaching Template, which facilitates teachers in integrated values in their day-to-day work and lessons.’

Proposal for multiplier fund
‘In October 2021, our advocacy and networking efforts culminated in the invitation of the minister of education to work on a proposal for a multiplier fund at GPE. Together with partner Children Believe, we are designing a first proposition to be submitted to the ministry very soon.’

Do you want to know more? Feel free to contact Ollé Patrice Kam ollebouhi2006@yahoo.fr or boazda.bd@gmail.com.

From the 16th until the 28th of October, project leader Jaco Ottevanger visited Nepal. During his meeting with ECEC, they talked about the next steps in the project.

Jaco: ‘Right now, we have a one-year bachelor’s program for teachers in Kathmandu, but we aim to roll this program out in all regions of Nepal. In cooperation with other universities and schools in Nepal, we think this must be achievable. This way, we hope to improve the quality of education throughout the country.’

Plans have also been made to link the model schools of the INTENT project to a sponsorship project in Nepal, whereby the poorest of the poor gain access to quality education in schools.

Jaco: ‘It is great to see that we can take these steps, as a result of the experience that our partner Driestar Christian University has built up in recent years. With all the knowledge we have gained, we can now expand our impact and have hundreds of teachers participating in the bachelor’s program in the coming years!’

 

These past three months have been very turbulent for Haiti, but the INCE Haiti initiative has maintained its commitment to providing quality education to the most vulnerable children in the country.  Since January 2020, we have been battling with the Covid-19 pandemic. The disease did not devastate our society as it did other places, but with the grace of God upon us, we managed to continue functioning in a very limited capacity. 

Our schools were closed for the better part of 3 months.  However, because we did not experience devastating hospitalization and infections, we were able to resume school in April 2020 and we completed the school year with some success. During the period of school closure, INCE Haiti partners developed a Distance learning program that ensured that our network of schools continues to educate the children at home.  As a result, our students did not miss much of the school year’s curriculum.

Instability threatens education sector
The country also faces very big challenges from the gang violence that is crippling the very fabric of our society.  Kidnapping and violence are day-to-day occurrences and the population is afraid to send children to school.  This has become a major challenge for the government and for educators.  Our network of schools is working hard to find solutions to keep the children learning and one such solution is our Distance learning program.

Politics is always a major concern in the country and is one of the root causes of our instability.  Nothing could have prepared us for the Assassination of our president on July 7, 2021.  This event not only destabilized our country but it created a void of leadership and this emptiness is felt very strongly within the education sector.  Every time there’s a change in the government, it brings about a change in the Ministry of Education.  Thus, there is a lack of continuity and we do not know what to expect from this new Ministry or what direction they will take with regards to education.

On top of all our other problems, another devastating earthquake crippled the southern parts of Haiti on August 14, 2021.  The number of casualties was not as devastating as in the earthquake of January 2010 where over 350,000 lives were lost and a million homes destroyed, but we still had 2,207 deaths, 13,000 injured, 130,000 homes destroyed, and an estimated 90% of all schools damaged or destroyed.  This poses a severe problem for education in the south.  Indeed, the start of the school year 2021 started on September 21st for most regions of the country except the South where we are hoping for a reopening of classes sometime in late October.

Networking to bring systemic change
INCE Haiti was ready to launch its pre-pilot MTBBE project in September 2021.  However, due to many of the factors mentioned above, we have decided that connecting with more partners is the ideal way to move forward.  As such, we are in talks with AIR Haiti, a USAID funded organization that has been implementing an MTBBE program with success in Haiti for the past 11 years, to see how we can work together to bring quality education to Haiti.  We believe this is the only way to really achieve our system change ambition. This new focus on networking also inspired us to think again about our ambition, our dream and our added value to the educational sector (see picture below).

In the meantime, we continue with the preparations for our Mother Tongue Based Bilingual Education project. All consortium partners will present their vision and their contribution to this project shortly.

On May 18, 2021, a special moment took place in Guatemala: the manual with which 30,000 teachers will be trained this year was officially presented. A great milestone! Thanks to teacher training, tens of thousands of children in Guatemala will receive better education. The training is a joint project of Woord en Daad, Guatemala Prospera, AMG Guatemala and Universidad Mariano Galvez.

Both parents and teachers are two important key figures in the education of children. However, the reality in Guatemala is that parents cannot always be involved in the education of their child. Many children grow up in broken homes. Every day they have to deal with violence at home or on the street. That is precisely why, according to Sander (project leader from Woord en Daad), it is extremely important that teachers are well trained to impart important norms and values ​​to the children. ‘Teachers bare a great deal of responsibility in the development of a child, but at the moment not all teachers have the right training and the right vision on education and learning. This affects the quality of education enormously. ‘

In addition, there are teachers in Guatemala who see a job in education as the only way of income, which has an effect on their motivation. Sander: ‘That is precisely why we want to build on the intrinsic motivation of teachers based on important educational principles. Only then will they be driven from within to provide education that prepares children to build a better, fairer and sustainable future. ‘

Joining forces

Sander Verduijn, as Woord en Daad project leader of the education program in Guatemala, has been closely involved in the development of the training. He sees the collaboration within the consortium as a unique opportunity. ‘We can join forces within the consortium. We make use of the insights and knowledge from NGOs, private actors, academia and the government. In developing the training, we focused on the teacher and the context in which they live and teach. ‘

Our dream? Good education throughout the public sector!

With the manual that was handed over on Tuesday, 30,000 teachers can get started in the coming year to improve their teaching quality. The training takes four years in total, so we are currently working hard to complete the manual for the coming years. We recently received some great news! Sander: ‘The Ministry of Education has expressed the intention that a new group of 30,000 teachers will also start next year. Ultimately, our dream is to serve the entire public sector. In addition, we also want to introduce the training program into private (Christian) education. The start has already been made at our partner organization AMG Guatemala, which will train 177 teachers this year.

Last year, Boaz Da finished his research on how teachers can integrate Biblical values in the classroom. Since then, Boaz has been speaking at various conferences to share the importance of value-based Christian Education. Additionally, he works as an Advocacy and Communication officer at AESEB, the National Alliance for Evangelical Schools in Burkina Faso. As a member of the INCE consortium, Boaz is engaged in policy influencing as well as training for school leaders and teachers. ‘My wife and children have always encouraged me and made sacrifices to make this possible. I am very thankful for that!’

Why did you decide to start studying at Driestar Christian University?

When I started working with AESEB in 2016, I discovered that Christian Education is very important in the Mission of God but is not understood very well by people in my country. When I visited the Netherlands for the kickoff conference of INCE I was touched by the slogan of Driestar: “To Teach is to Touch a Heart”. I was thinking in my heart that I would like to study in such a Christ-centered institution, but I did not know how and when. And then, in 2018, I got the opportunity to start the master’s programme ‘Learning and Innovation -Track ‘Christian Education’’. I started the application process and God willing, I was accepted. God is not limited and nothing is impossible to those who Trust him and who want to do His business!

Why is quality of education important?

Quality of education is all about flourishing and thriving. In quality education the child is equipped to flourish in all aspects of his life: intellectual, spiritual, social, physical, etc. Quality of education is important, because if we miss that, we cannot reach the three social roles of the school: education, socialization and usefulness. In addition, from a Christian perspective we will add that children must be helped to prepare their life for their spiritual destiny. Without quality of education, we cannot talk about flourishing and good social change.

Why is values education an important element in quality education?

Values education completes the puzzle ‘education’. If values are not taken into account in education we really cannot say we are providing quality education. C.S. Lewis has shown the danger of education without values when he said: “Education without morality makes intelligent devils.” Pike (2013) was also advocating for quality of education when he argued: “We do not want children and young people to pass exams and then ‘flunk’ life; we want them to achieve a personal best in both. A good parent helps their child to become a good person. When the child is at school, teachers are in loco parentis (in the place of the parents).” I think Pike is saying that values education is the foundation on which knowledge and skills should be built on if we want the student to really flourish!

Can you give an example of a school with value-based quality education?

I did my research at the ‘Lycée de l’Alliance Chrétienne de Ouagadougou”. This Christian Secondary High School is known to be one of the best Christian secondary schools in Burkina Faso. Two years ago, this school won two awards from the Ministry of Education, for excellence in educational leadership and academic achievement. The principal, staff and teachers of the school are really involved in the character formation of their students. They have initiatives in the follow-up of the children’s behavior and discipline. The spiritual program is rigorous and they even have a program of preparation for life and trades. In a context where indiscipline and incivility are growing among youth in general, this school is a good example of trying to implement quality of Education.

What do you hope for the future? Are you planning to speak at more conferences?

For the future, I hope the results of my research will serve in Christian schools and will also contribute to values teaching in other schools in the country. The framework I designed is easy to use and each teacher who is willing to do more about values teaching in his subject could find the Values Teaching Template (VTT) helpful. I also hope that I will have the opportunity to speak at more conferences. I also have the dream to start a PhD study in Education. The PhD will permit me to teach at University level to share the vision. That would make me more effective in policy influencing ideas as well.

Last December, we received good news: INTENT Nepal can start the first research based teacher education programmes in the country. We will focus on student active learning, both in distant learning and on campus, because although the numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases are decreasing, Nepal is still suffering severely from the pandemic. The government has launched an education campaign te reopen schools in a safely manner.

Education campaign for reopening schools

At the height of nationwide and local lockdowns, the learning of nearly 8.5 million schoolchildren was put at risk by prolonged closures of educational facilities. While schools have begun to reopen in some areas where local governments have deemed the risk of COVID-19 as being low or under control, the persistent risk of infection in many other regions continues to pose a challenge to reopening efforts.

In January the Government of Nepal and partners have launched an education campaign to help children continue to learn safely during COVID-19 pandemic and beyond, through guidance on safe reopening of schools and the use of alternative education modalities. In line with the Government’s framework for reopening schools in the context of COVID-19, the campaign engages parents, caregivers, teachers, school authorities and local governments – as well as children themselves – with information on the standard public health security protocols to prevent the spread of infection in areas where schools have reopened.

Funding for student active learning

The INTENT consortium received good news in December. Their application for funding was accepted by the Norwegian NORHED programme (Norwegian Programme for Capacity Development in Higher Education and Research for Development). With this funding, INTENT Nepal will start the first research based teacher education programmes in Nepal, focusing on student active learning, both in distant learning and on campus. The research and development project is led by NLA University College in cooperation with Nepal Open University (NOU), Gandaki University (GU) and Early Childhood Education Centre (ECEC), and is related to the sub-programme Education and teacher training.

Through competence building of staff and classroom research, the partners will develop programmes and provide learning materials for teacher education and schools focusing on student active learning, in addition to mentoring student teachers and developing local curriculum. New practices will be implemented in development/revisions of teacher education courses at BA and MA level.

Cooperation with model schools to strengthen quality education

The project will develop a triangle for cooperation between universities, educational centres and model schools, to strengthen the mentoring of in-service teacher students undertaking their practical training. Joint research teams will be established and focus on both universities and basic schools. A main outcome is increased competence in research ethics when involving children and marginalized groups.

The triangle will strengthen the universities in classroom research by accrediting model research schools for intervention studies and action research. This NORHED-part of the INTENT project gives a strong quality input to the project and also broadens the organisational foundation by extending the number of consortium partners.

Recently, the members of INTENT Nepal developed the annual plan for 2021. Unfortunately, the plans are highly dominated by the COVID-19 situation in Nepal. When we look back on 2020, some activities could continue online, but to find compensation for the decreasing income of ECEC, the staff salaries had to be lowered.

In October, the World Health Organization mentions a high case load in the Kathmandu District that is contributing to the significantly high level of contribution to the national case load in Kathmandu valley and the Bagmati province.

As of 7 October 2020, a total of 90.813 COVID-19 cases were confirmed in the country. All 7 provinces and 77 districts have reported one or more cases since the beginning of the COVID-19 epidemic in Nepal. In the last 14 days, 24.182 cases were reported which constitutes to 26.6 % of total confirmed cases in the country. This illustrates the increasing trend in the numbers.

INTENT activities online

This has resulted in the fact that many activities in INTENT could not be continued. For example, the start of the teacher education course had to be postponed. However, we are grateful that our development activities could continue! The ECEC-office is still closed, but the staff try to continue many activities online.

Risk of infection spreading

In the coming weeks, the imminent festival season and the large volume of travel out of the Kathmandu valley need special attention in terms of risk communication and safe public transport travel arrangements to mitigate the risk of spread of infection. The increasing numbers in the neighbour country India, connected via open borders, mean a threat to the situation in Nepal as well.

Lowering the salaries

As a result of the discontinuation of activities, the ECEC management have had to make a though decision. To find a compensation for the decreasing income of ECEC, the salaries had to be lowered. We are aware that this measurement has an impact on the staff, but sadly the management have no other choice.

We hope and pray that with all the (online) activities it will be possible for ECEC and INTENT to survive in this difficult situation and that soon there will be a change in the situation!

Over the last 4 months, Guatemala has been immobilized through various government restrictions. This has had enormous effects on the whole education community as well. Schools were closed down quite quickly and had to make adjustments towards a virtual education setting. This led the INCE consortium to reflect on a digitalized future, and they have great plans!

Challenges for teachers, administrators and children

Closing the schools meant a number of challenges for teachers. All of the sudden needing to teach remotely, learning to use new virtual tools where possible, dealing with poorinternet connections, while simultaneously running their own households has not been easy. It has also been challenging for school administrations, for parents needing to adjust to a home school environment and perhaps most of all for children, who now needed to follow distance education.

INCE consortium continued working

Right before and during these last months, the INCE consortium in Guatemala has continued engaging through its members with the Ministry of Education to present them with a now finished manual for teachers within the school improvement program which is being developed.

Reflecting on the future: digitization

Understanding the context, the consortium reflected on the future. Whereas previously the Ministry would not be very open to digital products, this crisis situation has opened mindsets around the world about the role of digital products in education and work. And that presents enormous opportunities to join alongside the Ministry to work on products and programs that complement each other and ensure equity and quality in education for students.

Pilot project

The consortium has been working on the digitization of the manual, which they want to develop for a pilot project within the public sector. The pilot would focus not only on making the manual available digitally, but also making sure it is presented in such a way that we achieve the same interaction we would have if it would be printed and would be worked on by teachers in a group setting.

Additionally, the focus will be on having added components which are important in a covid-19 context where teachers cannot interact face-to-face with students. For this pilot project a proposal is being written towards an Education focused Foundation for funding.

Keeping focus on systematic difference

In the meantime, as this pilot is being developed further, the consortium continues working on the following years of the school improvement program. The challenges are there, but opportunities also present itself. The key is to continue being focused on making that systematic difference in Education for future generations in Guatemala!

In October 2019 the consortium members CTF and EFSL from INCE Sierra Leone visited the Netherlands to work on their proposition at the Woord en Daad office. Since then, they have started to look for local partner organisations and they have been working on an INCE business plan for the coming years. Although COVID-19 has an impact on the progress of the projects, they work hard to develop their plans.

List of local partner organisations

The INCE consortium members of CTF and EFSL are currently looking for local organisations that could participate in one of the strategic networks of INCE. The contact persons from EFSL and CTF in Sierra Leone have agreed to make a long list with possible partners to work on advisory services, policy influencing, training of teachers et cetera.

Once this list has been made, an evaluation and further screening will provide a shortlist of possible partner organisations in the country. This shortlist will consist of national organisations with specific added value to support the INCE vision and strategy. Further meetings will further develop the specific roles of such network partners to INCE Sierra Leone.

Working on a business plan

EFSL and CTF staff are also working on a business plan. In this business plan they are detailing income and expenditures for rolling out INCE in Sierra Leone during the coming year(s). Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and restrictions taken by government of Sierra Leone, the INCE partner organizations are working from home and the work has slowed down. We hope and pray that this crisis soon will be over!