‘At the beginning of April INCE Benin received a notification that its concept note submitted in August 2020 as part of a call for proposal from the Education Out Loud fund, has been approved,’ tells Jean Moise, Grant Developer and Program Director of DEDRAS Benin. The INCE team has been working hard to acquire the grant, so we are very grateful that we are one step closer to work on improving education policies!

The approvement of the concept note is a great success, because after a competitive call for applications in June 2020, 461 concept notes from a variety of organizations were submitted from 53 countries. After a thorough assessment process conducted by a selection panel of global independent experts, INCE Benin is one of the ten chosen organizations!

The call was submitted by the consortium of Dedras, Social Watch Benin and Woord en Daad. Social Watch is a national NGO network promoting citizen control and public action to bring about political changes for socio-economic development.

Improvement of education policies

The proposal focuses on the problem of low citizen participation in monitoring and dialogue on education policies with emphasis on the quality of education and gender. The objective is to improve the transparency and accountability of education policies by strengthening the role of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in national policy dialogue.

Specifically, it is about building the capacity of CSOs to (1) monitor the implementation of education policies and finances, (2) collect strategic data on the quality of education and use this data to hold duty bearers at all levels accountable and (3) to drive policy change. The CSOs will participate in policy dialogue at all levels and use the data to hold decision makers accountable and make suggestions for improvement of policies.

Ultimately, the proposal will have strengthened and engaged 77 associations of parents of pupils, 77 associations of mothers of pupils, 77 forums / associations of young people and children, 3 trade union confederations, 6 NGOs in the monitoring of education policies, the collection of strategic data intended for political changes.

Implementation of the grant

INCE Benin has been engaged in the implementation of the Year Zero of the said grant, which is a six month period to develop the full proposal in co-creation with the EOL. Jean Moise: ‘To make this process a success, INCE Benin took part in a webinar that enlightened teams from organizations whose concept notes were approved on Year Zero content.’ The objective is to do research, stakeholder mappings and test tools, in order to inform the full proposal phase.

‘As a result of this briefing, a Year Zero activities plan and budget were developed and submitted to RMU / EOL West Africa for approval. At this point, there is still a risk of not getting the grant. However, the process of developing the full proposal has already started with the consultation of the parties involved in the proposal.’ INCE Benin will work hard to further develop the full proposal and acquire the grant!

Towards the end of February the academic year in Guatemala will be starting again, most probably in a hybrid form of virtual and blended education, though this will constantly be defined by government regulations and covid-19 statistics. During the start up of the year, the INCE network in Guatemala will launch the teacher training manual for the 30,000 public school teachers in two regions of Guatemala: Quetzaltenango and Guatemala.

Training the facilitators

In the next few weeks the consortium will train either presential or face-to-face a large number of facilitators that will be able to lead the groups of teachers that are going to be working through the manual this year. The consortium is preparing a series of videos that will be developed as a guide for each of the 10 modules, as well as an introduction to the school improvement program and the background of why we have the program.

Igniting a passion

In the midst of seriously affected learning outcomes of students having had a year of virtual home education, we hope to ignite in teachers a passion for teaching and making a difference in the lives and learning of a large number of children.

Proposal declined

We submitted a proposal in January with a foundation in the USA to support our work in 2021 as a way of dealing with a post covid-19 context, but unfortunately our proposal was not accepted. We do continue to work hard in presenting our work in different places to get donors interested in the pilot program!

In 2019, INCE started in Haiti. The general goal of INCE is to structurally improve the quality and governance of education in Haiti through its members, to make education more relevant for students and society. For 2021, the INCE consortium has a new plan!

Looking back on 2019-2020

In 2019, all consortium members were in The Netherlands for the INCE kick-off. We defined a few leverage points: standardization, teacher training, curriculum adaptation, leadership and cooperation and sector governance.

In 2020 political instability and violence was increasing and COVID-19was a big threat.  Despite these difficult circumstances, the consortium established a distance learning program. Now the schools are reopening, the consortium needs a new focus.

2021: working on a literacy program

In 2021, INCE Haiti will be working on a literacy program. Literacy is not just about basic reading and writing. It’s a profound way of understanding, real world comprehension. It’s part of living in a society, of social responsibility, morality. It’s about social justice, compassion, human dignity. So, we are not just pushing literacy but connecting it to a bigger dream of transformational power.

In the coming months, the Haiti consortium, together with a team of international literacy experts, will be working on a literacy definition and framework. Assessment and data collection will be important aspects of this literacy framework.

Starting at 500 schools

Our ambition is to start with a professional literacy program at the (almost) 500 INCE schools. Once we have built a track record, we want to scale up the project and even present it to the ministry of education.

The INCE project in Guatemala has been working on several aspects over the last months. We already wrote about how we are making adjustments towards a virtual education setting. But there’s more news: there appear to be some signs that we will be allowed to pilot our manual with a large group of teachers in the coming school year, which will be an enormous opportunity in reaching systemic change in Guatemala.

Translating into a virtual setting

The COVID-19 situation in Guatemala required the INCE office to think more pro-actively about how we could translate the manual that we developed together into a virtual and online setting. This means adapting the material in such a way that teachers would still be able to receive training in an online environment, while also making sure that the interactive methodology which was designed between teachers could also still be adapted to a virtual setting. A big challenge!

Big step towards systemic change

During these months the manual for year 1 was also presented to the Ministry of Education. We are eager to hear whether we will be able to work within the public system in 2021. There appear to be some signs that we will be allowed to pilot the manual with a large group of teachers in the coming school year, which will be an enormous opportunity in reaching systemic change in Guatemala.

Due to the fact that the government also has virtual platforms they use to provide training, we have been ensuring that our materials can be adapted to these platforms for use online. The consortium developed a proposal for a foundation in the USA to provide resources towards the digitization of our materials in a COVID-19 context. Unfortunately our proposal was not selected for the next round amidst the 500+ proposals. But we will continue to look for opportunities and resources and partners who want to join alongside us to bring a change in Education.

Dreams and plans

Over the coming weeks and months we hope to gain clarity about serving in the public system and we will continue to develop our manuals for year 2-4 as well as underlying elements such as the M&E system and advisory services. In addition, we also hope to develop a fully Biblically integrated manual for the private schools in Guatemala.

As you can see: many dreams and plans for the coming months!

Friday, 19th of June 2020, Boaz Da held his final thesis presentation of his Master’s degree in Learning and innovation – Christian Education at Driestar University. He works for AESEB, consortium member of INCE Burkina Faso, and conducted research on how teachers can integrate values in a government curriculum. His innovation with various tools gave teachers increased awareness, motivation and confidence on how to teach Christian values in their lessons.

Ideas for future improvements

Boaz: “When I discovered the Master’s in Christian Education, I knew it would fulfill all my needs. As it’s an international program, I learnt about different education systems and different approaches to Christian education. I can now compare the system I know in my country to others and reflect on my own system. This gives me ideas for future improvements.”

Biblical values in classroom

At the Alliance Church High School of Ouagadougou, the Master’s student aimed to explore how Christian teachers manage with biblical values in a government (non-Christian) curriculum environment. In addition, his research aimed to improve the awareness of biblical values in the classroom. Boaz suggested a tool for values teaching based on the ‘Teaching for Transformation’ (TfT) framework as an innovative approach of teaching Biblical values. Together with INCE Burkina Faso, he will look for opportunities to scale this innovation.

One of the first graduates

Boaz is one of the first graduates of the Master’s program in Learning and innovation – Christian Education. This Master’s program, which started in 2018, aims to improve Christian education worldwide, and focuses on the backgrounds and practices of education. Boaz: “The modules give you a solid knowledge of general and especially Christian education. We are also learning to support other teachers to develop good practices in Christian education.”

The education system in Haiti is seriously affected by the political unrest of the second half of 2019 and the Covid-19 pandemic. In January the schoolyear 2019/2020 started with a delay of several months. Since September the schools had been closed because of political unrest and demonstrations. After just a few weeks of teaching in 2020, schools were closed again in March in a response to the Covid-19 crisis. Mario André, the local project coordinator, gives an update on the situation:

‘The situation in Haiti is still relatively stable in terms of the Covid-19 pandemic.  Our latest tally of infected citizens are 40 with a reported 3 deaths.  We are still under social distancing restrictions and our ports are closed to travelers. However, goods and material from manufacturers are coming into the country.  INCE Haiti is actively working with a project to continue educate the children with our consortium partners network.  This is a huge challenge because the country is not equipped with the technical resources, such as reliable internet in the provinces, computer access, and smart phones to take advantage of true distance learning.

We have, however, developed a system of distance education that entails the preparation of a distance learning curriculum that enables us to print lessons for the children and distribute them to the schools.  The schools then will have the parents pick up the lessons once a week and take them home to the students.  The students will do the work at home and submit them back to the schools on Friday for correction.  Many parents in the province are either un-educated or under-educated and they cannot provide learning assistance to their children.  So we are asking them to find those family members that have education to help at home but, if this is not possible, the schools will schedule tutoring sessions in groups of 10 students from Tuesday to Thursday where teachers will be available to assist them while practicing social distancing.  Mask and gloves will be required, and everyone must wash their hand prior to entering the classroom.

This is the strategy that we are applying, and we start a pilot in the first week of May. In this stage, 2 classes at 19 schools are involved. With the pilot we reach 1.250 students. If the pilot is succesful, we will implement this strategy at more schools. In our network we have more than 600 schools. The project requires a great deal of collaboration among our partners and the logistics can be challenging, but we have a good plan and we will begin to execute the project once the curriculum is finalized.  CRECH is the organization responsible for the creation of the curriculum.  We understand that distance learning is far different than in-class learning, as such, the curriculum is adapted to a format that incorporate the different aspects of distance learning.  CRECH has 20 plus years’ experience in the creation of curriculum and distance learning.  They also provide teacher training and training for trainers.’

2020 INCE Guatemala is moving from a conceptual development phase towards piloting and implementation of the School Improvement program. Since the launch in May 2019 the team has worked hard on, amongst other things writing a handbook for teachers. The aim of the consortium is to systemically improve the quality of Education in Guatemala. And they’re not alone in this ambition.

Since the start of this year the new government took office, including a new Minister of Education. Ambitions of the government in a fresh start show promising signs of dealing with key challenges which are also pointed out by various stakeholders in Guatemala: improving the quality of the Education system, training teachers to make them well equipped for their job and providing learning-enhancing infrastructure. In general, there is an interest and awareness of the need to invest in the Educational system.

Positive attitude starts change

For various years Guatemala has been dealing with an extremely low annual investment in Education of only a few percentage points. At INCE we believe that change is possible, and we need to effectuate that change step by step. ‘You have to believe you can change the system together with other actors,’ explains Sander Verduijn, project leader at Woord en Daad. ‘We want to start showing small key changes through the program, which will entice key stakeholders to increase investments in the key towards a country’s development; an educated workforce.’ A positive attitude is key.

In the first three months of this year the INCE team will roll out a pilot program on school improvement. This program was written last year. ‘We are looking for opportunities to cooperate with the government and see if they would appoint a region where we can pilot the program. The INCE program builds on recent government co-developed programs and aims to enhance the involvement of other sectors or industries.’

Later this year INCE will organize an official launch of the program, but, as Sander explains, some early results of the pilot must be available first. ‘We want signs of results to start showing, as far as that is possible with a pilot, before we organize the launch. In the end, it’s not about the launch, but about quality education in Guatemala.’

Definitions and data

But that’s not all for 2020. INCE Guatemala will develop year 2-4 of the school improvement program for the coming years. The first year is about generating a clear and common understanding of concepts. Key to systemic change is speaking the same language, so year 1 of the program ensures teachers will discuss definitions for different aspects of school improvement. For example, if we want to improve the school climate, then what do we mean by school climate? Why is it important etc. These discussions are crucial to make sure that everyone is on the same page. Starting from a similar conceptual understanding of school improvement, years 2-4 will then work specifically on the actions that will generate the change at teacher and school level, subsequently demonstrating improved learning results of children and youth.

Good quality education is important and improving the education system in Guatemala is key for giving children more perspective. But how do you measure the results? And how do you prevent the results from being just a feeling that you are on track? INCE Guatemala will invest in a database to collect quantitative data on the performance of the program. In the coming years this database is to be filled with data such as the results of the children, the satisfaction of teachers and other hard data to make sure that within a couple of years this data shows that the work of INCE and its partners was not just another project, but that it without a doubt improved the quality of Education in Guatemala.

New education project INCE in Burkina Faso

‘To change a child is to change a family. To change a family is to change a community. To change a community, is to change a region and to change a region is to change a nation’, said Jacob Jan Vreugdenhil, project manager of Woord en Daad in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso on Monday 4 November. The International Network for Christian Education (INCE), founded by Woord en Daad and Driestar Christian University, was launching a project for better education in Burkina Faso in the presence of the Minister of Education and representatives of various (educational) organizations.

In 2014, Woord en Daad carried out an evaluation study with partners in Burkina Faso. ‘We were shocked by the results. Many of its investments in educational projects did not lead to real structural changes. Trained and inspired teachers went back to their school and became encapsulated by the ‘systems’ of their local level, as it were. A school-leaver did not always get into higher education as a result. They were also unable to find a job that could support them enough to live a decent life. Many desirable changes were not achieved’, said the project manager at the meeting in Ouagadougou.

It has to change, that was the short and right conclusion of Woord en Daad, and together with Driestar Christian University, the INCE was founded: The International Network for Christian Education. Ready to begin a new chapter in Burkina Faso and bring real change. The quality of education in this African country at this moment is both a major problem and a high ambition. In the meantime, however, the Ministry in the country is convinced that well-qualified teachers and demonstration schools are needed to bring about structural change in the education system.  And this is exactly what INCE can do to support the government.

Entrepreneurial mindset

The INCE project is focused on three areas of interest: the schools itself, the teacher training courses and the government / other stakeholders. In addition to languages and mathematics, life skills and career orientation are important elements in the INCE’s educational programme. Wim Boogaard, INCE project manager at Woord en Daad, said: The students have to consider their areas of interest and what jobs are available, as early as possible during their school years. After finishing school, they must be ready to enter into the labor market with an entrepreneurial mindset’. INCE’s educational programme is part of the JOB BOOSTER programme of Woord en Daad in Burkina, which brings job opportunities in the labor market to the attention of schools.

Parental involvement is also an important priority at INCE: ‘There is a lot of evidence world-wide to support the fact that the involvement of parents in the learning process of their children has a positive influence on the learning results’, explains Wim.

In order to evaluate the quality of education in various areas, INCE has set out to use resources such as scorecards. Based on the results, schools can choose in which areas they would like to improve. The school advisory service will support the local schools in their improvement process.

It is however the teachers themselves who can be seen as the real ‘agents of change’ and a country can be proud of its teachers, said the INCE coordinator.  After all, they play the key role in educating students to become responsible citizens. It is the teachers who are responsible for encouraging their students to have the attitude and life skills that are necessary for their development. It is important that teachers are trained to do this. They also need to know how a young child’s learning process proceeds in order to be able to support them with the right tools.

Tomorrow’s generation

In order to achieve the INCE ideals, close cooperation with the government and other organizations is necessary. Wim: ‘The young generation of today is the work generation of tomorrow, therefore the government is closely involved in education. The government and the education sector work closely together to determine the direction of education. They must also take the right actions together to improve education.’

To support the improvement of education, there are three INCE-services for Burkina Faso: the school advisory service, the accreditation service and a policy influencer/interest representation service. The advisory service is responsible for advising and training teachers to improve themselves on the basis of fundamental competencies, the learning process and the relationship with the parents. If a school works on quality, then it also expects to know where they are on this journey during the process. To make this visible, we are introducing a system of accreditation or certification’, explains Robert Zoutendijk, vice-CEO at DCU. ‘We are also searching and maintaining intensive contacts with the ‘owners’ of the education system, such as local and national governments.’

At the end of this year, the INCE will start the INCE advisory service with with four regional part-time consultants. Zoutendijk: ‘These support services will grow and become national services when the INCE project has developed further. This will also apply to other INCE BF services. From 2019 to 2028, INCE aims to improve 8,800 schools in Burkina, reaching 800,000 children and bringing 300,000 children into the labor market.’

Ambassador

Not only at the local level but also at the wider sector of education, INCE aims to work with so-called demonstration schools. Project leader Wim: ‘This year INCE Burkina Faso has started its work on four schools. These schools were selected strategically through the entire country in order to become INCE model schools through the process of continuous improvement, supported by the INCE school advisory service. In this process, the schools are also involving the representatives of four other schools. These representatives will then become the ambassadors of the INCE and may also participate after one year. This approach has the potential to increase the number of INCE schools from four in the first year, 2019, to more than 5,000 schools in the fifth year.’

However, this does mean that after 2021 they will need a broader consortium and more training as well as advisory capacity in order to facilitate their growth. The program manager Jacob Jan is hopeful for the project. ‘It is now four years since the streets of the capital were flooded with 27-year-olds protesting and demanding change. The new generation is emerging and sees a different future from their parents. This movement is very powerful. We only have to guide them so that they are able to make the changes they believe in. And we are feeling connected with the urge of this movement.’