Education in South Asia and the Indian Ocean Islands 9781474244299, 9781474244329, 9781474244305

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Education in South Asia and the Indian Ocean Islands

Available and forthcoming titles in the Education Around the World series Series Editor: Colin Brock Education around the World: A Comparative Introduction, Colin Brock and Nafsika Alexiadou Education in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific, edited by Michael Crossley, Greg Hancock and Terra Sprague Education in East and Central Africa, edited by Charl Wolhuter Education in East Asia, edited by Pei-tseng Jenny Hsieh Education in Eastern Europe and Eurasia, edited by Nadiya Ivanenko Education in Non-EU Countries in Western and Southern Europe, edited by Terra Sprague Education in North America, edited by D. E. Mulcahy, D. G. Mulcahy and Roger Saul Education in South-East Asia, edited by Lorraine Pe Symaco Education in Southern Africa, edited by Clive Harber Education in the Arab World, edited by Serra Kirdar Education in the Commonwealth Caribbean and Netherlands Antilles, edited by Emel Thomas Education in the European Union: Pre-2003 Member States, edited by Trevor Corner Education in the European Union: Post-2003 Member States, edited by Trevor Corner Education in the United Kingdom, edited by Colin Brock Education in South America, edited by Simon Schwartzman Education in West Central Asia, edited by Mah-E-Rukh Ahmed Education in West Africa, edited by Emefa Takyi-Amoako Forthcoming volumes: Education in Mexico, Central America and the Latin Caribbean, edited by C. M. Posner, Christopher Martin and Ana Patricia Elvir

Education in South Asia and the Indian Ocean Islands Edited by Hema Letchamanan and Debotri Dhar

BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP, UK 1385 Broadway, New York, NY 10018, USA BLOOMSBURY, BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC and the Diana logo are trademarks of BloomsburyPublishing Plc First published 2018 Paperback edition first published 2020 Copyright © Hema Letchamanan, Debotri Dhar and Contributors, 2018 Hema Letchamanan, Debotri Dhar and Contributors have asserted their rights under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Authors of this work. Cover design by www.simonlevyassociates.co.uk Cover image © iStock All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc does not have any control over, or responsibility for, any third-party websites referred to or in this book. All internet addresses given in this book were correct at the time of going to press. The author and publisher regret any inconvenience caused if addresses have changed or sites have ceased to exist, but can accept no responsibility for any such changes. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Letchamanan, Hema, editor. | Dhar, Debotri, editor. Title: Education in South Asia and the Indian Ocean Islands / edited by Hema Letchamanan and Debotri Dhar. Description: London ; New York : Bloomsbury Academic, 2017. | Series: Education around the world | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2017008515| ISBN 9781474244299 (hardback) | ISBN 9781474244312 (epub) Subjects: LCSH: Education–South Asia–Case studies. | Education and state–South Asia–Case studies. | Education–Islands of the Indian Ocean–Case studies. | Education and state–Islands of the Indian Ocean--Case studies. | BISAC: EDUCATION / General. | EDUCATION / Multicultural Education. Classification: LCC LA1144.5 .E386 2017 | DDC 370.954–dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017008515 ISBN: HB: 978-1-4742-4429-9 PB: 978-1-3501-3285-6 ePDF: 978-1-4742-4430-5 ePub: 978-1-4742-4431-2 Series: Education Around the World Typeset by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India To find out more about our authors and books visit www.bloomsbury.com and sign up for our newsletters.

Contents Series Editor’s Preface Notes on Contributors Introduction: A Regional Overview, Hema Letchamanan

1 Bangladesh: Generation, Education and Nation Nasir Uddin 2 Bangladesh: The Institutionalization of Women and Gender Studies in Higher Education Nafisa Tanjeem and Aditi Sabur 3 Bangladesh: The Use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Education Mahfuz Ashraf 4 Bhutan: Politics, Culture and the Modernization of Education David Johnson 5 India: Trajectory and Transitions of Education Ch. Radha Gayathri 6 India: Madrasas as an Enduring Space for Muslim Girls’ Education Rekha Pande 7 India: Education for Children in Kashmir Anub Mannaan and Tanveer Ahmad Dar 8 India: Young Children with Disabilities and Early Childhood Care and Education Aanchal Jain 9 Nepal: Between the ‘Local’ and the ‘Global’ of the National Education Uma Pradhan 10 Nepal: A History of Higher Education from Urban Elitism to Global Aspirations Andrea Kölbel 11 Sri Lanka: An Overview Sujata N. Gamage 12 Sri Lanka: Revitalizing Higher Education to Develop Twenty-First Century Graduates Gominda Ponnamperuma and Vishaka Nanayakkara 13 Sri Lanka: Contemporary Issues Raja Gunawardhane 14 Comoro Islands: An Overview Charif Abdallah Ben Mohadji 15 The Maldives: An Overview Ibrahim Lirar

vii viii 1 13 29 47 69 87 107 133 149 165 183 203

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16 Mauritius: Unlocking the Hidden Value of Educational Sustainability Kumar Dookhitram, Chandradeo Bokhoree and Hemant B. Chittoo 17 Mauritius: Theory and Practice of Education for Sustainability Anneloes Smitsman and Gilberte Chung Kim Chung 18 Seychelles: Education Reforms Marie-Therese Purvis 19 Zanzibar: A Small Island in a Global Arena Cathryn S. MacCallum Index

293 305 327 347 369

Series Editor’s Preface This series comprises nineteen volumes, between them looking at education in virtually every territory in the world. The initial volume, Education around the World: A Comparative Introduction, aimed to provide an insight into the field of international and comparative education. It looked at its history and development and then examined a number of major themes at scales from local to regional to global. It is important to bear such scales of observation in mind because the remainder of the series is inevitably regionally and nationally based. The identification of the eighteen regions within which to group countries has sometimes been a very simple task, sometimes less so. Europe, for example, has four volumes and more than fifty countries. National statistics vary considerably in their availability and accuracy, and in any case date rapidly. Consequently the editors of each volume point the reader towards regional and international datasets, available online, that are regularly updated. A key purpose of the series is to give some visibility to a large number of countries that, for various reasons, rarely, if ever, have coverage in the literature of this field. This book includes the second largest country in the world in terms of population as well as several of the smallest. Pakistan is often placed with India because of their historic unity prior to 1947, but here it is placed alongside other countries of West Central Asia with which it has more in common. Consequently India inevitably dominates this book, but the majority of chapters deal with some of the smaller countries of the world, both landlocked such as Bhutan, and maritime like the Comoros Islands. Madagascar is in the volume on Southern Africa. I am most grateful to Hema Letchamanan, the lead editor, and Debotri Dhar for all the hard work and collaboration they have put into this project, despite having never met. Both are former Oxford students of mine and I am proud of their achievements, especially as they are each engaged in very time- and energyconsuming projects. Debotri is a celebrated novelist, while Hema is completing her PhD at Cambridge after a tough year of fieldwork in India. Colin Brock, University of Durham, UK

Notes on Contributors Mahfuz Ashraf is Lecturer at the University of New South Wales, Australia, and draws on a diverse background to address socio-business problems at the intersection of technology adoption in resource-poor settings. Mahfuz’s works have been recognized at Singapore Internet Research Centre, Singapore, and International Development Research Centre, Canada, UNESCO Chair in ICT for Development and Research Division, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) and Government of Bangladesh. Mahfuz holds a doctorate degree in the areas of ICT for development and a master’s degree in information systems management from the University of South Australia, Australia, and the London South Bank University, UK. He also has a bachelor’s degree in marketing from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Mahfuz is researching the conceptual and practical understanding of social business principles in the precincts of sustainable health practices. Chandradeo Bokhoree is presently Head of the Department of Environment, Science and Social Sustainability within the School of Sustainable Development and Tourism at the University of Technology, Mauritius (UTM). He has a bachelor of science degree from the University of Mauritius, Mauritius, and obtained his PhD from Loughborough University, UK. He was also a research scholar at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, United States, before joining UTM. His research interests focus on sustainable development and environmental sustainability, through the development and application of modelling techniques. He has worked on several projects in collaboration with a wide range of stakeholders, both private and local governmental institutions (Ministry of Local Government & Outer Islands, Mauritius Research Council, Indian Ocean Commission, UNDP, UNIDO and Shell Mauritius Ltd). He was also the principal investigator of numerous consultancy projects geared towards sustainability in Mauritius and other African countries. At UTM, Chandradeo is also the programme director for the master’s programme in sustainable environmental management and in sustainability for business, society and environment.

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Hemant B. Chittoo holds a first-class degree in management studies and is a gold medallist from the University of Mauritius, Mauritius. He holds an MA in economic and social studies from the University of Manchester, UK, and a PhD in management. He has worked in the private sector, as a lecturer at the University of Mauritius and a training coordinator for the Mauritius Institute of Public Administration and Management, and is presently an associate professor at the University of Technology, Mauritius (UTM). He has served as the head of the School of Business, Management and Finance for 3 years and as the acting director general of the UTM for more than a year. Hemant has taught master’s and PhD programmes and has supervised several PhD candidates. He has been a visiting lecturer for the University of Swansea, UK, the University of Queensland, Australia, and the Botswana Institute of Public Administration, Botswana. He has published several journal articles and book chapters on several countries including the United States, Australia, India, China and Europe. Hemant has also conducted several consultancies for organizations like UNESCO, the Commonwealth Secretariat, the World Bank, the Government of Cape Verde and the Government of Mauritius. He has contributed to several national-level reports. He is also very active in community service in different economic and social spheres in Mauritius and has served on several boards. Gilberte Chung Kim Chung (BA, Université de la Réunion, Reunion; PGCE, Mauritius Institute of Education, Mauritius; MA, Université de la Réunion, Reunion; MEdL, Australian Catholic University, Australia; EdD, Liverpool Hope University, UK) is Executive Director of the Service Diocésain de l’Education Catholique-SeDEC (previously Bureau de l’Education Catholique), Diocese of Port-Louis, Republic of Mauritius. She has been a secondary school teacher, deputy principal and school principal in four Loreto secondary schools as well as a project manager/technical adviser with the Ministry of Education in the field of special education needs. In 2010, she was awarded Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques, République de France. Since 2007, as the director of BEC (then SeDEC), she leads a network of forty-six primary schools, eighteen secondary schools and one technical school in the Republic of Mauritius. Her fields of interest are in early childhood, special education needs, inclusive education, educational leadership, education policy, education for sustainability and adult education. Tanveer Ahmad Dar holds a master’s in social work from the University of Kashmir, Srinagar, India, and an MPhil in public health from Jawaharlal

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Nehru University, New Delhi, India. He has previously worked with Supreme Court Commissioners on Right to Food, New Delhi; National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, Government of India; and ActionAid Association. Tanveer has led many programmes in Kashmir on the issues of mental health, education, livelihoods, children’s rights and disaster responses and has been actively engaged in many initiatives on governance and people’s rights there. Tanveer has also focused on research to understand the complexities of public health, education and food security in the context of the long-term conflict in Kashmir using a social determinants perspective. He has also authored a report, ‘Hunger in the Valley’, for Supreme Court Commissioners on Right to Food, New Delhi, which looked at the implementation of food and livelihood programmes of the government of Jammu and Kashmir. He has also published articles on education and food security issues in Kashmir. Tanveer is currently working towards understanding the complexity of changes in socio-economic conditions and health status in Jammu and Kashmir since the beginning of the conflict. Kumar Dookhitram holds a PhD in computational mathematics and a firstclass bachelor’s degree in mathematics, with honours, both from the University of Mauritius, Mauritius. He is also a recipient of an MBA with specialization in consulting management. In addition to being a gold medallist from the University of Mauritius, he has also been the recipient of several awards and scholarships. Kumar is currently an academic at the University of Technology, Mauritius, in the Department of Applied Mathematical Sciences. He has nearly 10 years of teaching experience in the tertiary education sector, with research interest ranging from computational and applied mathematics to sustainable development. He has published in several impact factor journals and presented in reputed national and international conferences. He is currently serving as reviewer and editorial member in many international journals, and is also a member of the organizing committees of several conferences. Kumar successfully contributed to two national consultancy projects and served as member on numerous bodies of the government of Mauritius. Sujata N. Gamage is Team Leader of the Human Capital Research (HCR) Program at LIRNEaisa, a think tank based in Colombo, Sri Lanka. She is a public policy analyst specializing in policy formulation, planning and evaluation with a focus on educational institutions and education systems; integration of ICT in education; scoping studies and systematic reviews; and taking research to policy.

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Previously she served as a teacher and researcher in universities in Sri Lanka and the United States, as a strategic planning specialist at the Ohio State University, United States, and the director general of the Tertiary and Vocational Education Commission of Sri Lanka. Her recent work includes a systematic review of strategies for integrating ICT in classroom and an evaluation of policies and planning for ICT for development at higher educational institutions in the Asia Pacific. Sujata holds a PhD in chemistry from the University of British Columbia, Canada, and a master’s in public administration from the Ohio State University. Ch. Radha Gayathri is Research Officer at the Educational Records Research Unit, Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India. She teaches undergraduate courses and has presented papers in various national and international conferences. She is the author of Female Medical Education in Colonial India (2008) and co-editor of Education in Colonial India: Historical Insights (2013). She is currently working on two books: Nationalist Education Movement in India, 1920–47 and Medical and Technical Education in Colonial India. Radha’s research and publications are in the areas of history of education, medicine, healthcare systems and gender studies. Raja Gunawardhane obtained his BA from the University of Ceylon, Peradeniya, and MA in education and PhD from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. He served as a research officer, senior lecturer and professor in the Faculty of Education, University of Colombo, where for nearly 30 years he taught courses in measurement and evaluation, and research methodology to postgraduate students. He has also held the positions of head of Department of Educational Psychology, director of Institute of Human Resource Advancement and the dean of Faculty of Education at the University of Colombo. After his retirement, he served as an international consultant in the Primary Education Development Program in Bangladesh. Raja has also contributed a chapter on teacher education in Sri Lanka for the International Handbook of Teacher Education World-Wide (edited by Karras and Wolhuter, 2010). Aanchal Jain completed her MPhil in education from the University of Cambridge, UK. She was awarded the prestigious Commonwealth Scholarship for the same programme. Currently, she works as an independent consultant, undertaking research projects in the field of education, disability and child rights in India. She works both with the government and the non-profit

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sectors, expanding her sectoral knowledge and thus contributing to the existing education system of the country. She has published and co-authored various papers in the past. David Johnson is University Reader in comparative education and Professorial Fellow of St Antony’s College, University of Oxford, UK. He studies the educational systems of countries in South Asia and Africa – among others, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, South Africa, Sierra Leone, Rwanda and Sudan. David is a chartered psychologist and is interested in children’s learning and the political and institutional factors that constrain learning opportunities. In Sierra Leone he is conducting a longitudinal study of learning in adversity and is tracking changes in adolescent perceptions of learning, and in India he is examining the relationship between child-centred learning and problem-solving. Andrea Kölbel is Research Associate in human geography at the Freie Universität Berlin, Germany. Her research interests include social and spatial (im)mobilities, imaginative geographies, social theory and participative research methods. Before joining the Freie Universität Berlin in 2015, Andrea completed her doctorate at the School of Geography and the Environment of the University of Oxford, UK. She has conducted extensive research with university students in Nepal. Based on this rich empirical material she has written about the changing nature of higher education and geographies of youth. With her research into young people’s lives and persisting social inequalities, Andrea also builds upon her professional experiences as an education expert working for the UN Refugee Agency in countries in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Middle East. Hema Letchamanan is a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, UK. She also holds an MSc in comparative and international education from the University of Oxford, UK. Her research interests include inclusive education in South Asia and Southeast Asia, gender studies, queer theory and urban poverty. She has done extensive research on educational needs of refugee children in Malaysia. Hema has also previously taught in schools and university in Malaysia and Nepal. Her current research focuses on gender nonconforming children in Tamil Nadu, India, and in what ways schooling can offer positive support to those who challenge conformity to gender dualism.

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Ibrahim Lirar is currently completing his associate’s degree in business management at Maldives Academy for Professional Studies, Maldives. He has extensive experience in the Maldivian hospitality industry as an educator and a marine researcher. For the past 2 years, he has been working for Manta Trust, a UK-based charity which studies and researches manta ray species in the Maldives and elsewhere. Part of his role as the education and outreach coordinator in the organization is to create and conduct an education programme for local schools. During his free time, Ibrahim works to help the local communities in many ways – from controlling dengue fever mosquitoes to collaborating with resorts to implement waste management systems in both resorts and local communities. More recently, he has worked extensively with young students from outer lying atolls in the Maldives. Cathryn S. MacCallum is Co-founder and Director of Sazani Associates, an NGO that focuses on sustainable livelihoods through education and training in small states. She is also Principal Social Scientist with SRK, an international consultancy that works within the natural resource sector. Cathryn is an experienced and skilled socio-economist with a PhD in sustainable livelihoods and global learning from the UCL Institute of Education, UK, and an MSc (Econ) in international development planning from Swansea University, UK. For more than 25 years she has developed integrated approaches to diversifying sustainable livelihoods and has provided extensive technical support and advice to education and poverty reduction projects across Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa. Much of her academic research and work with Sazani Associates has focused on enabling sustainable change and adaptive capabilities in Zanzibar, a small island, semi-autonomous state in the Indian Ocean. Anub Mannaan is a PhD student at the University of Cambridge, UK. Her area of research is on impact of schooling on young Kashmiri migrants during years of conflict. She completed her MPhil in education research at the University of Cambridge, UK. Her research used the social ecological model to explore the impact of conflict on education across generations in the conflict-affected Kashmir Valley. Before going to Cambridge, Anub worked as an independent consultant in the field of human rights and child rights in India. As a consultant for the Pilot Program for Protection of Children’s Rights (PPPCR), an initiative by the National Commission of Protection of

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Child Rights (Govt. of India) and the government of Jammu and Kashmir, she examined the education policy and practices in the Kashmir region. She has worked as a consultant for the public, private and voluntary sectors covering a range of topics, which include children in conflict with law, skill development for the underprivileged, children in conflict-affected areas and the need and impact of human rights awareness programmes. Anub also holds an MSc in international employment relations and human resource management from the London School of Economics, UK, and a BA in psychology from the University of Mumbai, India. Charif Abdallah Ben Mohadji holds a master’s degree in education from the University of Bordeaux II, France. After returning to the Comoros in 1987, he was recruited by the Comorian public administration and occupied various positions within the Ministry of National Education of Youth and Sports. He was elected as a deputy in 1992 and served as vice president of the Comorian federal assembly before joining the government in 1997 as a minister, first, with Agricultural Production and the Environment, followed by Equipment and Energy, and then Public Service and Justice. He ended his service in 2003 as minister of national education for the culture of youth and sports and the French language. Since 2006, he manages projects funded by the European Union which provide financial and technical support to the Comorian education system. Charif also concurrently teaches psychology at the University of the Comoros in the Department of Teacher Training and Educational Research (IFERE). His current research focuses on girls’ education in rural areas in the Comoros. Vishaka Nanayakkara is Senior Lecturer and Chairperson of the Centre for Open and Distance Learning at University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka. During her tenure at the University of Moratuwa, she has served as a consultant, adviser and a resource person in many national-level education and ICT projects. She was the head of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the university for 6 years. Her research interests are technology-based teaching and learning, assessment in higher education, performance modelling and analysis, e-Governance and ICT for development. As an academic who is committed to producing highly employable graduates, Vishaka works very closely with the Sri Lankan IT industry. She is very passionate about expanding and improving the skilled IT workforce in Sri Lanka. In 2015, she was awarded the ‘Female ICT

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leader of the Year’ award by the Computer Society of Sri Lanka. She has served as co-chair of many conferences and has been a key initiator and resource person for many training programmes and workshops for quality enhancement of higher education. Vishaka is also a board member of Lanka Software Foundation and LIRNEasia. Rekha Pande is Professor and Head of the History Department, and joint faculty at the Centre for Women’s Studies, University of Hyderabad, India. She was the founding member of two Centres for Women’s Studies: one at Maulana Azad National Urdu University, India, and the other at the University of Hyderabad, India. She was the chair of the Women’s World Congress in 2014, organized for the first time in India. Her work is in the interdisciplinary area of history and women’s studies. She has to her credit twelve books and more than one hundred and fifty articles in national and international journals and book chapters. She was the editor of International Feminist Journal of Politics (IFJP) and Foreign Policy Analysis. She is also a visiting professor at the University of Arras, France; international visiting fellow at the School of Policy Studies, University of Bristol, UK; academic fellow at the University of Buffalo, United States; and international visiting scholar at Maison De Research, France. She is the member of Board of Studies in several universities in India. Gominda Ponnamperuma is Senior Lecturer in medical education and currently Head of Department of Medical Education, Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. After obtaining his basic degree in medicine from the University of Colombo, he obtained a master’s degree and a PhD in medical education from University of Dundee, UK. He has served as an adviser, visiting professor, fellow and consultant for several academic institutes and educational projects. He is a postgraduate tutor, examiner and resource material developer for national and international medical education courses. Gominda has served as an invited speaker and resource person in many international symposia and conferences. He is also the author of several journal articles and books, and a peer reviewer of many international journals. He sits on the editorial boards of two international medical education journals. His research interests are on assessment (including selection for training), and curriculum development and evaluation. He is the founding co-chair of the Asia Pacific Medical Education Network (APME-Net), an organization dedicated to promoting scholarship and excellence in medical education.

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Uma Pradhan is Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Department of Education Anthropology, Aarhus University, Denmark. She holds a DPhil in international development from the University of Oxford, UK. Her research focuses on education inequalities in South Asia, with an emphasis on Nepal. Her work has been published in Contemporary South Asia, HIMALAYA Journal (forthcoming) and Education and Ethnography (forthcoming). She is currently working on ‘An Anthropological Study of the Dynamics of Public Resource Flows and Usages in Nepal’s School Education’. Marie-Therese Purvis is presently an independent consultant, mainly in education. Up until 2011, she worked for the Seychelles Ministry of Education as principal education officer in the office of the Principal Secretary for Education. Prior to that, she held a number of key positions in the Ministry of Education, including that of coordinator for higher education, director of the National Institute of Education (the only teacher training institute in Seychelles) and director of the National Curriculum Development Centre. She worked for the Ministry of Education for 25 years, and is still involved in many of its activities. Aditi Sabur is Assistant Professor of women and gender studies at the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh, where she teaches undergraduate courses on feminist theories, women, society and culture, gender and family, and women and religion. She holds an MPhil in gender and development from University of Bergen, Norway, and MSS and BSS degrees in women and gender studies from the University of Dhaka. Her main area of interest includes gender and construction of identities, masculinities and fatherhood, intersectionality, feminist theories and methodologies, gender, religion and minority issues and so on. Currently, she is working on construction of fatherhood in Bangladesh. Anneloes Smitsman is a published author, researcher, innovator, social entrepreneur, coach and trainer with a focus on transformational change, innovation and leadership. She has more than 20 years of professional experience and has lived and worked in four different countries. She is founder and CEO of EARTHwise Centre since 2015. She was co-founder and director of ELIAEcological Living in Action Ltd from 2006 to 2015. She is a PhD candidate at the International Centre for Integrated Assessment and Sustainable Development (ICIS), Maastricht University, the Netherlands. She holds a master’s degree in law and political science from Leiden University, the Netherlands, and

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conducted 2 years of PhD research on institutional design for an ecologically sustainable society at the Australian National University (ANU) from 1998 to 2000. Anneloes was instrumental in the development and implementation of the Education for Sustainability programme for the Catholic Schools network in Mauritius since 2011. In 2012, she developed the main methodology for the 2012 Rio+20 Global Dialogues, which was adopted in nine different countries. Since 2007, she has been actively supporting local stakeholders in the management process for Le Morne Cultural Landscape, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Nafisa Tanjeem is Assistant Professor in Global Studies at Lesley University, the USA. She holds a BSS from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh, an MA from the University of Toronto, Canada, and a PhD from Rutgers University, the USA. Nafisa’s research and teaching interests include transnational feminist theories, transnational social justice movements, globalization and feminist politics, comparative political economy, critical race theory, and South Asia Studies. Before joining Lesley, Nafisa taught at Rutgers University, the University of Toronto, and the University of Dhaka. She has been actively involved in community organizing and social justice activism. As Community Organizer of Council of Agencies Serving South Asians (CASSA), she designed and implemented local campaigns aimed at promoting poverty reduction, gender equity, and youth engagement among South Asian immigrant communities in Toronto, Canada. She was also an organizer of United Students against Sweatshops in the USA and “Meye” (Women) network in Bangladesh. Nasir Uddin is a cultural anthropologist based in Bangladesh and Professor of anthropology at the University of Chittagong, Bangladesh. He studied and did research in the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh; Kyoto University, Japan; University of Hull, UK; Delhi School of Economics, India; Ruhr University Bochum, Germany; VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Heidelberg University, Germany; and the London School of Economics (LSE), UK. He has received many prestigious fellowships including the Japanese Government Scholarship (MEXT), British Academy Visiting Fellowship, Canadian Social Science Research Council (CSSRC), Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Fellowship and the LSE Visiting Fellowship. His research interests include indigeneity and identity-politics, education and social change, peace and conflict studies, notions of power and the state in everyday life, migration and refugee studies, (political) Islam and secularism, the Chittagong Hill Tracts

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and South Asia. He has published extensively in the form of monographs, journal articles and book chapters. He has also edited a couple of volumes on anthropology, indigeneity and refugee issues. His recent books include Life in Peace and Conflict: Indigeneity and State in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (2017) and Indigeneity on the Move: Various Manifestations of a Contested Concept (edited with Eva Gerharz and Pradeep Chakkarath) (2017).

Introduction: A Regional Overview Hema Letchamanan

In discussing education in South Asia, it is probably best to begin with the definition of the region.1 With asymmetrical foreign policy orientations and ideologies of its constituents, and no clear-cut geographical perimeter, it is often debatable which countries encompass ‘South Asia’. Modern definitions of the region are consistent in including Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Maldives as its constituents. Some scholars have included Myanmar in this list, whereas others have argued for its exclusion – claiming it is part of Southeast Asia. A similar dilemma confronts us when we examine Afghanistan and Pakistan. During the pre-Soviet intervention in Afghanistan in 1979, the dominant view among scholars was to include the country as part of South Asia (Ghosh, 1995). Hence, Joseph E. Schwartzberg included Afghanistan in his book Historical Atlas of South Asia, which analysed the geographical, political and cultural elements of the region. However, almost all academic literature produced after 1979 considers Afghanistan as part of Southwest Asia/Central Asia, although many international reports and country case studies still include Afghanistan when presenting data and statistics on South Asia. For cultural, historical and geopolitical reasons, Pakistan is not included in this volume (to read on education in Pakistan, please see Education in West Central Asia in this series). This book, therefore, comprises of chapters on Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka, followed by the Indian Ocean Island chapters – Comoros, the Maldives, Mauritius, Seychelles and Zanzibar.2 The aims of this book are twofold: (a) first, to highlight issues which are underdiscussed in wider academic literature – as can be seen in the chapters on India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, and (b) second, to remedy the dearth of literature on education in the smaller countries/island countries. To this end, I would like to express my sincere thanks to all the contributors of this book for ensuring that it provides a rich tapestry of the state of education in South Asia and the Indian Ocean Islands. In this book, there are ten ‘first’ chapters which provide an overview of education in each of the ten countries, followed by a second chapter

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(or even a third and a fourth chapter for the larger countries) which discusses a myriad of education-related topical issues including but not limited to religion, economy, conflict, technology and development.

The state of education in the region – challenges and opportunities Some 1.3 billion people live in this region, which makes it home to half of the world’s poor. The low learning levels highlighted by international organizations such as World Bank, UNESCO and UNICEF3 in the past decade indicate there are many challenges faced in the region that inhibit the progress of education. Although access to schooling has improved vastly in countries like India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka,4 there remains a large population of children excluded from education. One major issue confronting all the countries in this region is poverty, and child labour as a result of it. Indeed child labour, particularly among older children, is widespread in Bangladesh, India and Nepal. In fact, the proportion of child labour is highest in Asia and the Pacific compared to the rest of the world. Parvathamma (2015, p. 25) reports that more than 16 million children aged between eight and fourteen are employed in various industries in India; from hotels and restaurants to factories, commercial firms and agriculture. In Nepal, a child living in the poorest division is estimated to be six times more likely to be out of school compared to a child from a wealthier division (UNICEF South Asia, 2015). Education, although ideally viewed as the single most potent factor in eventually bridging the gap between the wealthy and the poor, in reality, is not readily accessible (in all ways) to children living in poverty. There is also a high rate of infant and child malnutrition and micronutrient deficiency in the region which proves to be a major problem when children enter school. UNICEF in 2014 estimated that there were 78 million stunted (too short for their age) children, and almost 24 million children suffer from severe wasting (massive loss of body fat and muscle tissue) in South Asia. Stunted growth has a direct impact on educational performance and cognitive impairment. In addition to that, an increase in urbanization means more children in slums in urban India and Bangladesh are likely to stay out of school. Many urban schools, especially those in the vicinity of these slums, face problems such as shortage of qualified teachers, insufficient funds and high student-teacher ratio. This

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condition is exacerbated by the toll of poverty on both the children and their parents – not being able to afford stationery, books and uniform, and children being forced to earn money to provide financial support for the family. Children in rural areas such as in India, Bangladesh and Nepal also tend to be excluded from schooling and are three times more likely to drop out compared to children living in other areas (UNICEF, 2014). India has one of the largest rural populations in the world with almost 118 million children (aged zero to six) living in rural areas, where at least half of them are not likely to enter school (UNICEF South Asia, 2015; India National Census, 2011). The neglect in focus on education for rural children will lead to high unemployment and poverty rates in rural communities. The unique characteristics of rural communities and how they play an integral role in education should be discussed by states when planning for education for these children. Equally important is the sustainability of small rural schools in terms of funding, resources and teachers. In terms of gender parity and equal access to and in schooling, countries such as Bangladesh, India and Nepal have reported vast achievements in the past decade whereas Sri Lanka has maintained a good level of gender equality in the same period. In Bangladesh, the Maldives and Bhutan,5 although girls slightly outnumber boys in school, this has not matched social and political empowerment of women (UNICEF South Asia, 2015; Chitrakar, 2009). While gender parity has improved in this region, there are still barriers to overcome in ensuring all children, especially girls, have equal access to schooling and are able to complete the schooling cycle. These inhibitions include, among others, gender-based violence and poor sanitation. The stigma surrounding menstruation, for example, is detrimental to girls’ education. Due to the taboo often associated with menstruation, girls in many parts of the region are still forced to be excluded from activities such as cooking, praying, eating the same food as others in the family and attending school. Moreover, girls in many parts of the region are still expected to stay at home and look after the younger siblings. The lack of female teachers and separate toilets and distance to school can all act as deterrents for girls to be schooled. Also, girls from disadvantaged socio-economic background and minority groups and those with disabilities are often the first to be forced to stay out of school. Opportunities to enrol and continue education in state-funded (and state-aided) schools are limited for these girls – something that is still overlooked in educational policy planning in many countries.

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Other excluded children who are still under-represented in the wider academic literature and more marginalized than others are those with disabilities, those belonging to ethnic and religious minorities, scheduled castes and tribes, those living with HIV, and refugee and LGBT children. It is also equally important to highlight the educational challenges and opportunities available in small island states. The Indian Ocean Islands covered in this book are part of the Small Island Developing States6 (SIDS), a group of developing countries7 facing specific environmental, economic and social vulnerabilities (Pantin, 1999). They are also home to a distinct and vibrant culture and heritage. Comoros, the Maldives, Mauritius, Seychelles and Zanzibar are all heterogeneous states with differences in economic progress, population size, political orientation and land area (Pelling and Uitto, 2001). The educational needs of children in these countries are in many instances similar to those in the South Asia region, especially when discussing the issues of access and attainment levels. Yet, they are also vulnerable and at high risk of natural disasters and climate change – a situation unique to small island states. Therefore, educational responses in terms of decision-making, policy implementation, and teaching and learning should focus on innovative education practices that meet those needs. At the forefront of emerging issues in SIDS is sustainable development. Island sustainability amidst global environmental change requires an education system that strengthens the capacity of young people by considering the limitations and opportunities (UNEP, 2014) without compromising traditional island values and local knowledge. There is a wealth of indigenous and local knowledge in SIDS that could potentially be tapped into and integrated with modern science. School curriculum should encompass these elements to ensure islanders could well cope with (and recover from) natural disasters as well as undertake work on sustainable development. In many of these island states, steps have already been taken to break from economic dependency and build resilience from vulnerabilities through a revised education system. Globalization and modernization in SIDS have gathered momentum in recent years. It remains exceedingly vital that these island countries adopt a curriculum that is reactive and in line with global developments, yet still caters to the needs of children. Island countries are at increased risk of youth suicides, and one way to prevent this is to ensure that the curriculum recognizes the issues that island youths face and addresses this at the onset of schooling. Focusing on traditional values and showing how these values can be a bridge to

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modernity and globalization will provide a clear vision for island youth as they seek out better educational opportunities elsewhere. An equally vital aspect that cannot be neglected is technology and this can be addressed only by investing in computers and ensuring that the youth have access to the internet. There is a plethora of learning materials freely available online but having a computer and an internet connection is a prerequisite. It is equally certain that the jobs of tomorrow will utilize technology in different ways; hence it is imperative that these youth become acquainted with technology early on. A curriculum that emphasizes coding and app development affords youths opportunities to not only better themselves using education but to also explore opportunities for entrepreneurship. This book, as mentioned earlier, endeavours to provide an overview of education in South Asia and the Indian Ocean Islands while highlighting and discussing contemporary and topical educational issues. These topics are not all-encompassing, but a distinct effort has been made to include as wide a perspective as possible. Collectively presenting these educational topics in one book is an attempt to show the interconnectivity of issues, some of which are endemic to the particular country, while others are more relevant and applicable to most of the countries in the region. The first chapter of this book by Nasir Uddin provides a detailed overview of the Bangladeshi education system since independence. Uddin analyses the various education policies which have been instituted in Bangladesh and evaluates their effectiveness. In particular, he highlights the different types of schools – the madrasas and military, technical and vocational institutions – and their present status in Bangladesh. The provision of tertiary education and the challenges the public and private universities face in meeting the demands of the modern society are also discussed in this chapter. Uddin substantiates his analysis of the education system of Bangladesh with a qualitative study that provides a fuller story on how the average person is directly impacted by the education policies. This is followed by a second chapter on Bangladesh by Nafisa Tanjeem and Aditi Sabur. Tanjeem and Sabur focus on higher education, and specifically on the institutionalization of Women and Gender Studies in the country. They point out that the privatization of education and the implementation of neoliberal policies have resulted in certain jobs being considered privileged. This has led to an over-representation in certain degrees that Tanjeem and Sabur argue serves the needs of the corporate environment. They further

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extend the argument and discuss how Women Studies took root and developed subsequently with the formation of Women and Gender studies as a separate discipline. Mahfuz Ashraf focuses on the National ICT Policy and National Education Policy in the third chapter on Bangladesh. Both policies are catalysts for creating a digital Bangladesh by 2021. Ashraf provides a comprehensive list of ICT-related education projects in the country; from the government projects implemented by the various public organizations to private and NGO-run projects, as well as public–private partnership projects. His in-depth analysis of all the initiatives and their outcomes serves as a useful tool to measure the effectiveness of the policies and more importantly to show which policies were most effective and how it can be translated onto other less successful initiatives. David Johnson examines the education of Bhutan, a cloistered nation high up in the Himalayas which is grappling with modernization and how it directly affects the populace. Bhutan struggles with what Johnson terms as conservation and extension or simply put, the struggle in finding the middle ground between tradition and new knowledge. In order to understand how this dilemma manifested, Johnson traces the evolution of education in Bhutan as it transformed from a theocracy, where monastic education was given utmost importance, to a monarchy whereby the British blueprint was used as a model. The continued use of borrowed models led to the realization that Bhutan needed a model that uniquely met the needs of its people and this had to be in line with its own emphasis on traditional values and ethics. The Bhutan chapter is followed by chapters on India, which form the biggest section of this book. India being the largest country in this region has a multitude of complex educational issues, challenges and opportunities. Ch. Radha Gayathri’s chapter provides a comprehensive overview of India’s educational systems from ancient times to the present day. She highlights the salient points of each epoch and succinctly identifies key themes and concepts. Gayathri discusses in detail the landmark education commissions and policies that have played a key role in structuring and shaping the Indian education system to what it is today. Her overview chapter sets the tone as her discussions of religion and social norms dovetail with the other Indian chapters. In the second chapter on India, Rekha Pande traces the historical beginnings of the madrasa education system in India. She looks at the development of the madrasa system and how it has catered to the marginalized Muslim community with a special focus on Muslim girls. Pande takes a microcosmic view by focusing

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on how madrasas operate in Hyderabad and their function as an institution for teaching and learning. She has presented a neutral view on madrasa education, which is important in analysing its ideologies and role in modern society. This chapter is especially relevant in present-day India where tensions between Hindus and Muslims are mounting. Anub Mannaan and Tanveer Ahmad Dar’s chapter on Kashmir discusses how the ongoing conflict has disrupted the education process. The chapter is divided into three sections; the political context of Jammu and Kashmir, the scale of conflict and its impact on education, and the role of government in not only restructuring the education system, but providing quality education to all children in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Their analysis shows how education has been severely affected in this area due to the prolonged conflict, and how children will continue to be left behind unless measures are taken immediately to restore some semblance of normalcy for local schooling practices. The final chapter on India, by Aanchal Jain, focuses on the educational needs of children with disabilities in New Delhi. She provides a brief but comprehensive overview of early childhood care and education in India. The policy and legislative frameworks relevant to education for children with disabilities are also discussed in this chapter. Her work is qualitative in nature and looks at the Integrated Child Development Scheme in great detail to understand its inclusivity for children with disabilities. Jain also highlights the dilemmas faced by government officials, parents and society in choosing between mainstream and special education for children with disabilities. Her findings reveal shortcomings that will prove useful to educators and policymakers. In the overview chapter of Nepal, Uma Pradhan analyses the education system in Nepal and discusses the ideas of ‘local’, ‘national’ and ‘global’ which have significant importance in the present system. Pradhan examines the complex sociopolitical machinery that has underpinned Nepali society from the twentieth century onwards, and how attempts to untangle politics and educational priorities have been fraught with instances that were advantageous to wealthy recipients at the expense of the economically disadvantaged. Nepal’s participation in the global workforce and its ability to compete both locally and internationally are also areas that are discussed in this chapter. Andrea Kölbel’s chapter examines the many complex issues that have tormented the educational system in Nepal for the past 200 years. Self-serving monarchs, British influences, lack of vision and change of political regimes have all contributed to an inconsistent education policy which in turn has resulted

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in Nepali youth struggling to cope with the demands of globalization. Kölbel argues for an urgent need to reform the education sector especially given that inequality is institutionalized and only the privileged class has access to better education, and this too in Kathmandu, as there is a distinct lack of resource and manpower outside the capital. Kölbel further argues that the reformation requires state actors and other stakeholders to dismantle existing power structures and replace it with a system that levels the playing field for those who come from economically impoverished backgrounds. Sujata Gamage provides an overview of the Sri Lankan education policy by tracing the historical background of Sri Lanka before focusing on the current socio-economic climate. She highlights the high literacy rates and secondary enrolment rates that have led to a higher human development level in Sri Lanka. Though similar to its neighbouring countries in many aspects, Sri Lanka faces unique challenges, an important one being the ethnic tensions and how this is reflected in the education system and schooling process. Gamage also examines the overarching education gaps in Sri Lanka – primary to secondary to tertiary progression, access to quality education, and supply and demand. This chapter provides a comprehensive analysis of primary and secondary education, vocational and technical education, tertiary education and the interconnectedness of issues between these sectors. In the second chapter on Sri Lanka, Gominda Ponnamperuma and Vishaka Nanayakkara grapple with the modern problem of equipping the workforce to meet current and future needs. They highlight the challenges that higher education faces in producing graduates who are employable both locally and globally. They contend that the Sri Lankan education system needs to be innovative and critical in order to imbue its students with the necessary competencies that would enable them to adapt in any environment. Ponnamperuma and Nanayakkara’s chapter also looks at re-conceptualizing the current system and altering it to suit the needs of the labour market which would have a direct effect on Sri Lanka’s economic competitiveness. Raja Gunawardhane provides an in-depth look at the Sri Lankan education system by analysing the education policies and providing an overview of the various reforms that have been undertaken over the years. His critical insights are valuable in understanding the education policies and their impact on the various stakeholders, especially the need to revamp teacher education and to bring it in line with global practices. In this chapter, Gunawardhane also critically reviews the various measures taken by the government of Sri Lanka

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to provide compulsory, free and (to an extent) equal education to all children. He cautions against revamping any one segment of the education system as the issues and challenges are interconnected, and therefore a more holistic approach should be taken by the government. The chapter on overview of education in Comoro Islands is the beginning of the chapters on education in small island countries. Charif Abdallah Ben Mohadji’s chapter looks at the socio-economic development of Comoros and the beginning of institutionalized education practices which were implemented following independence in 1976. This four-decade overview provides key facts on the education growth and development before ending with further recommendations. Mohadji also discusses access to education for all in the Comoros against the backdrop of the Millennium Development Goals. This chapter provides rich information on education in the Comoros, where existing literature on the subject is very much limited. Ibrahim Lirar provides a comprehensive overview of Maldives and traces its educational system from Islamic times when a more traditional religionbased system was in place to the advent of the nineteenth century when outside influence forced Maldives to rethink its approach. As a British protectorate, English became essential and was reflected in the curriculum. This marked the beginning of a more organized system of learning and the country slowly transitioned to an English medium. Lirar highlights that Maldives, like other island nations, tussles with finding the right balance between its tradition, religion and modern education system that will prepare its people for the future. The first of the two chapters on Mauritius by Kumar Dookhitram, Chandradeo Bokhoree and Hemant Chittoo traces the growth of the educational sector from postcolonial times until the present. This chapter showcases the various educational initiatives taken by the Mauritius government to ensure that all levels of society have equitable access to education and that the educational requirements are complemented by the country’s economic and environmental needs. In particular, it highlights the language policy, the introduction of new subjects in schools to meet the socio-economic demands, and sustainable education which is of particular importance to island countries. In the second chapter on Mauritius, Anneloes Smitsman and Gilberte Chung provide detailed accounts of Education for Sustainability (EfS). Key concepts and theories of EfS are discussed to understand the process of learning for sustainability. Smitsman and Chung present a rich case study on EfS by focusing on a Systems Dynamic approach which is later translated into a practical case

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study. The case study looks at secondary schools which are part of the Catholic schools network and at how transformation can take place with proper alignment of systems and strategies. Smitsman and Chung also highlight the challenges in implementing EfS within the conventional system of education. Marie-Therese Purvis’s chapter on Seychelles serves a twofold purpose. First she traces the historical development of education in Seychelles by providing a concise look at how Seychelles evolved from a former British colony into an independent island nation. Purvis then narrows her focus by evaluating the various educational reforms which have been implemented by the Seychelles government over the past thirty years. She also examines the extent to which the issues targeted in these reforms have been resolved. Her conclusion and recommendations prove to be insightful and relevant not just to Seychelles but also to other island countries. The final chapter in this book deals with education in Zanzibar. Cathryn MacCallum contextualizes Zanzibar’s current socio-economic environment by first referring to its complex evolution before focusing on its current issues as an autonomous island state. MacCallum then presents an overview of the education system and the challenges faced and shows how innovative programmes, such as the setting up of a professional learning community, can be beneficial to rural communities that lack the necessary resources for quality education. She also highlights the works of Sazani Associates, a UK-based NGO, in fostering positive social change by focusing on teachers and student engagement. The establishment of a professional learning community and the emphasis on continuous professional development has ensured that educators are being trained critically in order to ably impart knowledge to their learners.

Notes 1 The term ‘region’ is used in this context and throughout this chapter to refer to the collective states that make up South Asia (excluding Afghanistan and Pakistan) and the Indian Ocean Islands. This term should not be viewed in the context of international relations as to what ‘region’ or ‘regionalism’ means. 2 These are the island nations in the Indian Ocean. Zanzibar is a semi-autonomous part of Tanzania. Madagascar, the only other island nation in the Indian Ocean, appears in Education in Southern Africa in this series. 3 See, for example, reports by UNICEF (2011), Disparities in Education in South Asia; Dundar et al. (2014), Student Learning in South Asia – report prepared for World

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6 7

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Bank; UNESCO (2015), Status, Trends and Challenges of Education for All in South Asia; and UNICEF South Asia (2015), Educate All Girls and Boys in South Asia. Do note that these reports include Afghanistan and Pakistan in their statistics for South Asia. Data on access, enrolment rate and drop-out rate in the Maldives and Bhutan are lacking. The 2007 Bhutan Quality Learning Survey, a national school-based survey, showed that girls outperformed boys by a small margin of difference in English and Dzonghka, but not in mathematics. Zanzibar is not part of SIDS because it is a semi-autonomous state part of Tanzania. These island states are divided into three geographical regions: the Caribbean; the Pacific; and Africa, Indian Ocean, Mediterranean and South China Sea (AIMS).

References Chitrakar, R. (2009). Overcoming Barriers to Girls’ Education in South Asia: Deepening the Analysis. Issues Paper. Kathmandu: UNICEF ROSA/UNGEI. Dundar, H., Beteille, T., Riboud, M. and Deolalikar, A. (2014). Student Learning in South Asia: Challenges, Opportunities and Policy Priorities. http://documents. worldbank.org/curated/en/554381468294334286/pdf/882670PUB0978100Box38520 5B00PUBLIC0.pdf [accessed 30 November 2016]. Ghosh, P. S. (1995). Cooperation and Conflict in South Asia. New Delhi: Manohar Publishers. India National Census (2011). Population Enumeration Data. http://www.censusindia. gov.in/2011census/population_enumeration.html [accessed 30 January 2017]. Pantin, D. A. (1999). ‘The Challenge of Sustainable Development in Small Island Developing States: Case Study on Tourism in the Caribbean’. Natural Resources Forum, 23, 221–33. DOI: 10.1111/j.1477-8947.1999.tb00911. Parvathamma, G. L. (2015). ‘Child Labour in India – a Conceptual and Descriptive Study’. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Invention, 4(1 January), 23–32. Pelling, M. and Uitto, J. I. (2001). ‘Small Island Developing States: Natural Disaster Vulnerability and Global Change’. Global Environmental Change Part B: Environmental Hazards, 3(2), 49–62. DOI: 10.1016/S1464-2867(01)00018-3. Schwartzberg, J. E. (1979). Historical Atlas of South Asia. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. UNEP (2014). Emerging Issues for Small Island Developing States. Results of the UNEP/UN DESA Foresight Process. Nairobi, Kenya: United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

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UNESCO (2015). Status, Trends and Challenges of Education for All in South Asia (2000–2015) – A Summary Report. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/ images/0023/002349/234967e.pdf [accessed 30 November 2016]. UNICEF (2011). Disparities in Education in South Asia – A Resource Toolkit. file:///C:/ Users/102922/Downloads/Disparities%20in%20Education%20in%20South%20 East%20Asia-%20A%20Resource%20Tool%20Kit%20(1).pdf [accessed 30 November 2016]. UNICEF (2014). Global Initiative on Out-of-School Children – South Asia Regional Study. https://www.unicef.org/education/files/SouthAsia_OOSCI_Study__ Executive_Summary_26Jan_14Final.pdf [accessed 13 February 2016]. UNICEF South Asia (2015). Educate All Girls and Boys in South Asia. https://www.unicef.org/rosa/EducateAllGirlsandBoys-UNICEF_ROSA.pdf [accessed 13 February 2017].

1

Bangladesh: Generation, Education and Nation Nasir Uddin

Introduction The latest education policy in Bangladesh, which was prepared by an education commission headed by the late professor Kabir Chowdhury in 2010, started with its first passage: Education is the key to a nation’s development. Education is the principal means to achieve the goal of poverty alleviation. A properly educated nation, which is modern in genius and intellect and forward-looking in thinking, can only put the country at the zenith of its development. That’s why education is the backbone of a nation.1

Education has always been understood in Bangladesh as the key to development (see Khan and Islam, 2010), the means of poverty alleviation and thereby the backbone of the nation, which is reflected in the latest national education policy. In fact, education is popularly represented in Bangladesh as ‘the backbone of the nation’ as it is believed to support and uphold a nation based on quality education, which leads to the building of a knowledge-based society and a prosperous Bangladesh (see Unterhalter, Ross and Alam, 2003). Therefore, the policy and practice of education manifest a nation’s strength and weakness as well as its problems and potentials. This is what David Carr (2003) calls ‘making sense of education’ to comply with the rapidly transforming global economic and political reality. Given the context of Bangladesh as one of the promising economies in the world, which recently became a lower middle-income country from a lower-income one,2 the education policy remains a priority and a major revamp is required at all levels to achieve a recognizable global standard.

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It is important to note here that the primary source of information used in this chapter is the author’s seven-month-long fieldwork conducted intermittently between 2008 and 2016 in a village in southern Bangladesh, which the author calls Malum Para.3 During this fieldwork, twenty-five stakeholders in the education sector were interviewed. These include guardians, educators, politicians, government employees, policymakers, public representatives, rights activists and students of various colleges and universities. In addition, the author’s personal observation of the existing educational system has also been a major inspiration behind the writing of this chapter.

Brief overview of Bangladesh education system The education system in Bangladesh is divided into five levels: (1) primary level, years 1–5; (2) junior level, years 6–8; (3) secondary level, years 9–10; (4) higher secondary level, years 11 – 12; and (5) tertiary-level degree, years 13–15, 16–174 for master’s or honours, years 13–16, 17 for master’s. At all levels of schooling, students can choose to receive their education either in English (not English medium) or in Bengali. In most cases, private schools and colleges tend to make use of an English-based curriculum while government-sponsored and state-owned schools predominantly use Bengali as the medium of instruction. Very recently, the Bangladesh Education Ministry introduced a translated version of the national curriculum in English and accordingly some schools in big metropolitan cities and semi-urban districts have taken necessary steps to implement this system by recruiting new teachers who have strong Englishlanguage proficiency. Under general education, schools, colleges and universities offer education at primary, secondary, higher secondary and tertiary levels with a common national curriculum. There are four public examinations to be taken before one can join a university for an undergraduate course. These include (1) Primary School Certificate or PSC examination in the fifth grade, at the end of the primary level5; (2) Junior Scholar Certificate or JSE examination at the end of the eighth grade; (3) Secondary School Certificate or SSC examination at the end of the tenth grade; and (4) Higher Secondary Certificate or HSC examination at the end of the higher secondary level. After completing and passing the HSC, students generally enter the university for a bachelor’s degree (with or without honours), followed by a master’s degree. Students can obtain

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engineering or medical science degrees under this general education system. After HSC, they can enter medical colleges and engineering universities to become graduates in medical science and engineering respectively. Under general education, Bangladesh has thirty-seven public universities6 (including medical colleges, engineering universities and agricultural universities) and eighty-five private universities7 (including medical colleges and engineering universities) where students can study for graduate and postgraduate degrees. Most of the leading public universities offer master of philosophy (MPhil) and doctor of philosophy (PhD) degrees in social sciences, medical sciences, humanities and engineering. The madrasa education system mainly focuses on religious education, teaching all the basics of education and adhering strictly to Islamic principles. The madrasa syllabus is designed and taught in Arabic and students in some areas also serve the local mosques. Students are required to complete all the courses from the general education system. Most madrasas are fully residential – providing food and accommodation to all students. Many privately licensed madrasas also take in homeless children and orphans and provide them with food, shelter and education free of cost. There are two systems in madrasa education: one is called ‘Kaumi Madrasa’ system which is run according to the Deobandi system of Islamic education, and the other is called ‘Alia Madrasa’ which follows the general education system with the addition of Arabic. Students who pass the Alim level (twelfth grade equivalent to the HSC) can enrol in a year-long programme. Upon reaching the Fazil level (fourteenth grade or equivalent), to graduate without honours, they can further their education by doing a two-year programme to reach the Kamil level (sixteenth grade) degree. According to statistics, Bangladesh has about 5,400 Kaumi madrasas with 1.5 million students and about 7,000 Alia madrasas8 with approximately 2 million students. The technical and vocational education system has been designed with courses related to various applied and practical areas of science, technology and engineering and focuses on specific areas. The course duration ranges from one month to four years. The students who study at vocational institutes mainly comprise those who dropped out along the way and those who passed their SSC but were unable to obtain admission for their HSC. There are also students who passed their HSC certification but were unable to get a place in a university and therefore pursue a vocational education as a recourse. In the technical education system, after obtaining a diploma like a graduate degree with honours from any

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polytechnic institute, students can further pursue their education by obtaining a master’s degree from an engineering and technology university. Bangladesh has fifty-one polytechnic institutes which offer diplomas in engineering and it usually takes between two and a half and three years for students with a diploma to obtain a bachelor’s degree; however, in some cases, students take more than three years to complete their bachelor’s degree (undergraduate degree) (sixteenth grade) in engineering. They can then enrol for postgraduate studies. Bangladesh also has a substantial number of NGO-run non-formal schools, which accommodate mainly the dropouts of the governmental and non-governmental primary schools. A study (Ahmed, Ahmed and Ahmed, 2007) shows that Bangladesh has a high rate of dropouts at primary and secondary levels. Very few NGOs, however, provide education for the full five-year primary education cycle because after completing their two- to three-year non-formal primary education in NGO-run schools, students normally re-enter governmental/non-governmental primary schools at higher classes. Since the rate of child labour in Bangladesh is very high in South Asia (see Kabeer, Nambissan and Subrahmanian, 2003), NGO-run non-formal education is sometimes very effective in bringing children under the umbrella of primary education. NGO schools operate mainly in areas where schooling is not provided either by the government or private schools (see Ardt et al., 2005). They usually follow an informal approach to meet the special needs of children from these vulnerable groups. NGO-run schools do not have any school management committee (SMC). The style of management differs from that of general education depending upon differences in policies pursued by different NGOs. Some are centrally managed within a highly bureaucratic setup, while others enjoy considerable autonomy. Besides NGO-run schools, there are several non-formal education (NFE) centres funded by the government. The largest NFE programme is run by BRAC, an internationally reputed NGO.9 However, all who complete NFE schooling do not continue onto secondary school. Finally, an overview of the Bangladeshi education system would be incomplete without a brief mention of cadet colleges which are very important in the education system of Bangladesh. All cadet colleges are administered by the Bangladesh military, and run based on military principles. Faujdarhat Cadet College was the first such college in Bangladesh, which was established in 1958 in the district of Chittagong. At present, there are twelve cadet colleges, including three for girls. Students studying in cadet college obtain special privileges, such as becoming a second lieutenant at the time of recruitment in the Bangladesh Military Academy (BMA).

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Bangladeshi education policy Bangladesh became independent in 1971 and started its journey with the existing system and policy with a renewed nationalist political philosophy. Therefore, many rules and regulations and state institutions are still regulated by British law though things have been changing gradually in the past couple of decades (see Lewis, 2011; Ahsan and Bernip 2007). In order to introduce its own education policy, the first education commission of the newly independent Bangladesh was formed in 1972, headed by the educationist and scientist Professor Dr Qudrate-Khuda. The commission submitted its report to the government in May 1974. The report was formulated and based on the socio-economic and political state and cultural heritage of the country. The perspectives of the education system of the contemporary world were also taken into consideration. The Qudrate-Khuda Commission report reflected the fundamentals of the newly framed constitution of Bangladesh. The commission suggested some major changes in the primary, secondary and higher secondary stages of education. According to the report, primary education would be for eight years (first grade to eighth grade) and secondary education for four years (ninth grade to twelfth grade). As for higher education, a combined degree course of four years and a oneyear master’s course would be offered in universities. With regard to curriculum, syllabus and textbooks, the commission suggested a uniform curriculum for the primary level based on competence (for details, see Asadullah, 2007). The commission gave special emphasis on an improved assessment system and suggested letter grading in the assessment of student performance in all stages of education. After the publication of the Qudrat-e-Khuda Education Commission report, some of the recommendations were implemented while the rest remained unimplemented. In light of the recommendations of this commission, a committee for developing a national curriculum and syllabus was formed in 1976. This committee consisted of forty-seven eminent educationists from the country, headed by Professor Shamsul Hoque. The national committee advanced a detailed procedure and mechanism for developing a national curriculum and syllabus. In order to achieve its target, the National Curriculum and Syllabus Committee (NCSC) formed ten subcommittees and twenty-seven subject committees. The NCSC submitted its report to the government in seven volumes in 1976, 1977 and 1978. In 1979 the government felt the need to review the report. Interim Education Policy Recommendations were published and the reports of the Mofiz Uddin Commission were brought to light in February 1988.

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An expert committee headed by Dr M. A. Bari was formed in 2002 to identify immediately implementable reforms in the education sector. The committee suggested several interventions in the sector which were later considered by the Education Commission in 2003. In order to improve the quality of education and initiate a set of reforms to develop the sector, the government undertook several actions, of which the formation of the Education Commission in January 2003 was one of the major initiatives. The commission submitted its report to the government in March 2004. The report consists of three parts and suggests 880 recommendations on all education sub-sectors. The Education Commission-(2003) recommended the establishment of a permanent education commission in the country. As part of my research on education in Bangladesh, I interviewed many educationists to obtain ‘expert opinions’ on the current state of education at various levels in the light of different commissions’ reports. S. M. Monirul Hasan, a professor of sociology at Chittagong University, explains, ‘Many commissions were formed and hundreds of thousands of pages were written for the improvement of education system in Bangladesh but these were not implemented accordingly. Suggestions and recommendation remained in pages but not in practice’ (interviewed on 12 February 2015). In fact, Professor Hasan’s comment reflects the findings of my empirical study at the grass-roots level of the society. As stated in the web portal of the Ministry of Education,10 the functions of the permanent Education Commission are ‘initiatives for implementation of the recommendations of the Education Commission; identification of the problems in education sector and recommendation for solutions through continuous research; and exploration of new thoughts in education and implementation of the same’. After a couple of Education Commission reports, the latest education policy was constructed in 2010 based on the report by the late professor Kabir Chowdhury. The Education Commission was formed on 6 April 2009. Like in all other education policies, some very eye-catching agendas, enlightening sentences and morally valued phrases are found in the current education policy. However, these are not in practice as the entire education system is highly uneven, and explicitly unequal to a point that it cannot ensure quality education for all, irrespective of class, gender, ethnicity and social backgrounds. According to Professor Hasanuzzaman Chowdhury (formerly a sociologist at the University of Chittagong), ‘Bangladesh education and education system is highly heterogeneous in a largely homogenous society’ (interviewed on 22 December 2014).

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Education for the poor and the rich Although the education policy contains many normative gestures and positive motives in ensuring quality education with equity, the reality is quite different because the Bangladeshi education system is largely unequal for students from different socio-economic backgrounds. It starts from primary education and continues to tertiary education. At the primary level, students are divided into three categories in their schooling: government primary schools, private kindergarten schools and madrasas, and what Professor Hasanuzzaman Chowdhury terms ‘linguistic division’ – Bengali (government primary school), English (kindergarten) and Arabic (madrasa). Students from economically lower class and lower middle-class families are enrolled in government primary schools because they cannot afford otherwise, while students from upper middle class and upper-class families are enrolled in private kindergarten schools, which demand high admission and tuition fees. Students who cannot afford resort to madrasa-type schools for education. Mr Kamal, a farmer and the father of a madrasa student in Malum Para, of Potia, Chittagong, explains: I am a landless farmer. I don’t have enough money to send my son to regular school. Therefore, I have sent my son to a madrasa where he stays in, as madrasa authority provides him with food and lodging free of cost. It helps me in two ways; it reduces one family member whom I don’t need to feed and my son is at a safe place and is going to be educated without my incentive. Most important thing is that studying in madrasa in Arabic curriculum is indeed a sowaber kaj (work of piety). My son is learning both knowledge and earning sowab (piety). (Interview conducted on 15 June 2014)

Mr Kamal’s narrative reveals that rural poor and landless farmers11 send their children to madrasas mainly due to economic reasons. But, religious motivation also plays a part as madrasa education uses Arabic as the medium of instruction which is also a practice of what the villagers think of as ‘sowaber kaj’. This narrative shows three important dimensions of primary education: first, primary education system is not equal for all which contradicts with the state’s education policy; second, economic factors and family background determine the education and future of children, and not the state policy; and third, religious motivation also contributes to the choice of school. Government primary schools mainly use Bengali as its medium of instruction while private kindergarten schools use English and in most cases, rely on a British curriculum (see Imam, 2007). Admission fees, tuition fees, exam fees and many

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other regular/irregular fees in private schools are exorbitant and so the poor, lower middle and even middle-class families cannot afford to send their children to these schools. The same disparity can be found in junior high, high school and higher secondary levels. In addition to this existing stratified schooling, there is another system of education called ‘cadet college’, which I discussed briefly in an earlier section. Cadet college education starts from the seventh grade and continues until the higher secondary level. These cadet colleges are highly subsidized by the state funding even though the entire managerial part of this schooling system is fully supervised and monitored by the Bangladesh military authority and not by the state. Cadet college education follows the national curriculum, but has its own training module that exists alongside the state education system to make the cadets regimented. One’s social position, family background and financial solvency determine the type, opportunities and quality of education whereas the state absolves itself of any responsibility of educating the new generations with equity (see Ahsan and Bernip, 2007). It also implies that what is written in the education policy is somewhat a textual projection since the ground reality heavily contradicts it in practice. Inequality is not only evident in terms of economic status, family background and social position, but also in terms of gender. Though officially girls’ education is encouraged, but early marriage, social stigma of co-education, socially constructed religious obligations, discouragement at family level, absence of social security, ‘veiled sentiments’ and lack of opportunities in peripheral areas present serious obstacles in the path of girls’ education (see Arends-Kuenning and Amin, 2001). Therefore, the education system in Bangladesh is not only uneven in the dichotomy of rich and poor but also in gender. Even at the tertiary level, opportunities are dichotomized – there are public and private universities. Students from poor, lower middle class and middleclass families rely on public universities whereas students from wealthy families attend private universities (see Alam, Haque and Siddique, 2006). Studying in private universities is expensive so much so that students who are not from wealthy families cannot afford it. Admission fees, semester fees and exam fees are extremely high and even upper middle-class families struggle to educate their children at such universities. One of the respondents of my study was Mr Ruhul,12 whose child studies at a private university in Dhaka. I asked him why he sent his son to a private university. His reply was: First, my son tried Dhaka University but he didn’t get a chance to get admitted there. He got a chance in Chittagong University but I wanted my son to study

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in Dhaka because it’s the capital of Bangladesh. Finally, I decided to admit him in a renowned private university. It is very expensive and even I being a rich man in the village have to struggle to provide his three semester fees in a year, apart from the expenditure of his lodging and food to stay in the capital. But I want my son to be educated at the expense of my wealth. I didn’t show interest in public university because all public universities have long-year sessionjams, frequent political unrests, extortion of student leaders of ruling political party and low quality education whereas private universities themselves are deliberately kept from session-jam and political unrest. (Interview conducted on 6 April 2015)

Mr Ruhul’s narrative gives a comparative, though in part, picture of public versus private universities whereby education has gradually become a profitable commodity in Bangladesh, and is quite often thought in relation to the rights and entitlement of the people. It has also been observed that if a student cannot obtain admission to public universities due to huge competition as seats are limited, they end up waiting for another opportunity. Moreover, it is common for students to drop out of private universities as they find the fee structure unaffordable.

Education in the centre and periphery The Bangladeshi education system should also be understood in the framework of centre13 and periphery14 to draw a clear picture of its quality, opportunities and scopes which are determined by the location and relocations of educational institutions. Almost all good and reputed educational institutions – schools, colleges and universities – are located in big metropolitan cities and divisional towns such as Dhaka, Chittagong, Rajshahi, Sylhet, Rangpur, Barishal and Khulna. However, countryside and rural areas are full of schools, colleges and madrasas with relatively poor quality education and largely less-qualified teachers. Hence, the educated class of the society who live in big cities due to jobs, business and other white collar professions can educate their children in better educational institutions leaving the large portions of students in countryside and rural areas with a comparatively inferior level of education. Therefore, higher education is easier for people who live in centres whereas difficult for those who live in peripheries. There is also an inequality in scopes and opportunities of education between the centre and the periphery in the country. As the late H. K. S. Arefeen, professor of anthropology at the University of Dhaka, said:

22

Education in South Asia and the Indian Ocean Islands Everything in Bangladesh is capital-centred and thereby everyone tends to move to Dhaka for various reasons including the education for their children. Therefore, living aside the quality of education, all scopes and opportunities in education sectors are increasing in Dhaka and other big divisional cities, however, decreasing in rural areas and countryside in Bangladesh. Therefore, the entire education system is becoming quite uneven between centre and periphery. (Interview conducted on 6 June 2015)

This kind of institutional educational arrangement also triggers the rural–urban migration. Upon achieving financial stability, people who live in rural areas and in the countryside tend to migrate to urban centres for the sake of their children’s education. Besides, many government employees, medical doctors, engineers and professors who are officially posted in rural areas and in the countryside also request to be transferred to urban centres for the interest of their private business as well as their children’s education. Therefore, the rural areas of Bangladesh are gradually becoming resource-poor and lacking in quality education and other educational services. Although there is a sizeable number of teachers who live in the villages, their way of teaching is orthodox and traditional and therefore students are unable to perform well in the public examinations unlike their counterparts in the larger cities. Sometimes new teachers, typically fresh graduates, are sent to villages for their first posting but over time become frustrated by the lack of infrastructure and facilities. They eventually move to urban centres. This sort of migration increases the opportunities of good education in the centre and decreases the scopes in the peripheries (see Angus, 2005). After undertaking a year-long research on the importance of teachers in education, Christopher Day (1999) suggested educating and developing teachers is instrumental in ensuring a quality education. This is also reflected in the study done by David Turner (2005). In essence the migration of teachers from the periphery strengthens the centre and directly weakens the periphery, thereby ensuring that the periphery remains underdeveloped.

Production of educational institutes and human resource development Not only in Bangladesh, but globally, education is placed at the centre of development and is directly related to the development of human capital (see Thapan, 2006; McMohan, 2002; Lynch, Modgil and Modgil, 1997). Likewise, educational institutions, in particular universities, are perceived as the centres

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for human resource development. Accordingly, the Bangladeshi education policy is designed to guide the education system but it hardly dictates and directs the ongoing practice and system of educational institutes in Bangladesh. The government under the Ministry of Education only conducts public examinations, publishing results and sometimes regulates admission in colleges while the entire examination systems in various classes are regulated by the rules and laws of the respective institutions. While the government is responsible for the curriculum of primary, junior, secondary and higher secondary education sectors, the tertiary education sector is almost fully designed by the respective universities. Although the University Grants Commission (UGC) was set up in 1970s to regulate and monitor tertiary education, including private and public universities, it limits its functions and operations to budgeting and budget allocation to different public universities. The UGC recently launched a programme called HEQEP (Higher Education Quality Enhancement Programme)15 funded by the World Bank where different universities have been undertaking research, but it has also produced nothing substantial that could contribute to the local scholarship in Bangladesh. Tertiary institutions are not producing graduates that have a direct impact on the job market. Even though there is a year on year increase in the number of graduates, the quality of these graduates has not been adequately benchmarked. There needs to be a focus on producing quality graduates but this cannot happen if the focus remains solely on teaching. It is equally important to ensure that the entire university system is able to support research initiatives to produce original and quality research. Resource allocation to conduct original and advanced level research is also inadequate. For example, Dhaka University, the best university in Bangladesh, has allocated only 1 per cent for research in its fiscal budget for 2015–16.16 Therefore, universities are not producing good researchers, scientists or trained resource personnel. As such, the universities in Bangladesh cannot be seen as centres for human resource development but instead as a factory producing hundreds of thousands of graduates every year. The 1973 Act of regulating public university gave limitless freedom to the university faculties and university authorities which also helped accelerate the culture of nonaccountability in many public universities. Mushrooming private universities to some extent are one of the obstacles towards building scholarship in the country. A large number of academics in the public university are also teaching in private universities. These universities have the means to pay lecturers well and have resorted to hiring academic staff from public universities to complement their existing workforce. This is counterproductive as public university lecturers are

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not giving their full attention to their own classrooms and private universities are relying on a stopgap measure of hiring part-timers instead of investing in more lecturers and staff (see Alam, Haque and Siddique, 2006) As part-timers, faculty members are more financially motivated as opposed to building a university as a centre of excellence. Professor Mahfuzul Hoque Chowdhury of the University of Chittagong (Political Science Department) commented: In fact, public universities run the private universities in Bangladesh because most of the private universities function with part-time faculties of public universities. It is indeed harmful both ways because excessive involvement of faculties from public universities in the academic activities of private universities hampers the function and operation of public universities, and private universities are also not becoming ‘real’ universities without the fulltime faculties. At the end of the day, both forms of universities are losing. Besides, most of the private universities are not indeed universities in terms of their campus, library facilities, research activities and extracurricular activities. Therefore, most of the private universities have become certificate producers rather than the producers of human resource. Unfortunately, public university faculties are also contributing to this production. (Interview conducted on 15 May 2015)

Despite the negative depiction, there are some positive achievements in our tertiary education. It is also equally true that many universities including Dhaka University, Chittagong University, Jahangirnagar University, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) and some private universities including North South University, BRAC University, Independent University, East-West University, and the University of Liberal Arts (ULAB) are conducting high-quality research. Thus, they produce trained graduates who are contributing to various sectors including the civil services, science, technologies, medical sectors, pharmaceuticals, chemical sectors, shipping, industrial sectors, garments, education, lawyers, corporate houses and media houses. The graduates from these universities are also contributing at the policy level, and in NGOs, politics, research and consultancy, and in various forms of activisms and humanitarian works. Graduates from these universities are also contributing in many internationally reputed universities, research centres and international organizations across the world. All in all, it can be said that many universities, though unfortunately not all, are producing trained professional human resource which is bringing Bangladesh closer to its new goal of being an upper middle-income country by 2021, and developed country by 2041.

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Conclusion During my stakeholder interviews, to my surprise, I found that almost all interviewees responded negatively in terms of the current state of education in Bangladesh. Almost all are of the same opinion that (1) the quality of education has been declining over the past couple of decades; (2) education is no longer creative and innovative but more luck-oriented, calculative and non-creative since the system of multiple choice was introduced; (3) education from primary to tertiary levels is highly unequal and it produces inequality in society; (4) examination and evaluation systems are not standardized and foolproof to judge the merits of the students; and (5) the moral autonomy of teachers and students have been reduced. When juxtaposed with the empirical data that I gathered at Malum, we can sum up the main issues as follows: (1) lack of focus on the method of teaching and learning; (2) lack of various facilities and logistic support that are needed for quality teaching and learning; (3) irrelevant course curriculum; (4) lack of evaluation of teachers’ and students’ performances; (5) educational institutes not being scientifically organized; (6) absence of good libraries, research and e-journals; (7) flaw in teachers’ recruitment process where partisan quality becomes more important than merit and intellectuality; (8) lack of training for faculty development; (9) flaw in examination and evaluation system of students’ merits; and (10) absence of accountability due to lack of monitoring, proper guidance and charismatic leadership. Bangladesh is already sixty-six years old and has made tremendous development in various sectors including education but it is still not up to the mark when compared to its neighbouring states like India and Sri Lanka. Education is often presented as the most important sector for the country’s holistic development. Therefore, many policies have been implemented and many experiments have been conducted during different periods of time under various governments over the past four decades. However, where it stands now is not quite helpful for producing what is called human resource since the Bangladeshi education system still lacks key aspects to ensure and maintain its quality. Orthodox bureaucracy, administrative corruptions, lack of monitoring, systematic irregularities, scarcity of good teachers, inequality in centre and periphery in the scopes and opportunities of education, absence of gender equity, presence of preferential treatment between the rich and the poor in education, disparity in the system of education and finally the lack of professional commitment among the stakeholders are the factors

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leading to education in Bangladesh being underdeveloped and to some extent substandard. Furthermore, education is not seen as a priority in the state policy and development planning of the country and thereby support from the state is limited in this sector. Education is always presented as the backbone of a nation but to keep the backbone straight and strong, proper and regular nourishment is essential. Therefore, the discourse of backbone has become a myth as education over generations is following the same stereotype without any meaningful, innovative and creative endeavours.

Notes This chapter is primarily based on the author’s personal experience as a faculty member working in a public university, and his proactive engagement in shikka andolon, an education movement to remove inequality in education and ensure education for all as the right and entitlement of the citizens of Bangladesh. Besides that, the author’s active involvement in different educational institutions in different capacities, as an examiner, educational module designer, adviser to several educational institutions, guardian of a student, initiator of various extracurricular programmes at different educational institutions and a regular contributor to leading national dailies on education systems, policy and regularities and irregularities in the education sector in Bangladesh, has also been responsible for the wealth of information in this chapter. 1 http://planipolis.iiep.unesco.org/upload/Bangladesh/Bangladesh_National_ Education_Policy_2010.pdf (accessed 6 June 2015). 2 See the World Bank Report, http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/pressrelease/2015/07/01/new-world-bank-update-shows-bangladesh-kenya-myanmarand-tajikistan-as-middle-income-while-south-sudan-falls-back-to-low-income. 3 Malum literally means ‘knowing’. Villagers’ answers to many questions tend to be two words, ‘Allah malum’ (Allah knows). They have an unshakeable belief in Allah and hence whenever they cannot solve a problem or explain something very confidently and concretely, they say, ‘Allah malum’. It is a phrase used quite often in everyday conversations in villages. That is why the author preferred to name the village ‘Malum Para’. 4 For graduation, Bangladesh has two options; four-year bachelor’s degree with honours and three-year bachelor’s without honours which is called pass-course. After graduation, four-year graduate with honours students need one year to do their master’s course whereas three-year graduate without honours students need

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5

6 7 8 9 10 11

12

13

14 15 16

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two years. The system was introduced to equalize the education year for both categories. For details, see Andaleeb (2003). The government of Bangladesh has decided not to hold the PSC examination from 2017 onwards; therefore the primary education will be from the first grade to the eighth grade. Students will sit for the first public examination at the end of the eighth grade. Source: http://archive.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2016/jun/21/ no-psc-exams-year (accessed 17 January 2017). See http://www.ugc.gov.bd/university/?action=public (accessed 2 July 2015). See http://www.ugc.gov.bd/university/?action=private (accessed 2 July 2015). The Guardian, 21 May 2011. For details, see http://www.brac.net (accessed 2 July 2015). See http://www.moedu.gov.bd (accessed 1 July 2015). I use landless farmers deliberately because many landlords send their children to regular schools or private kindergarten and even to big cities including Chittagong and Dhaka for their education. Only landless farmers and the poor section of the rural people tend to send their children to madrasas. Mr Ruhul is financially well-off and has a huge cultivable land in the village. He was once an elected member of Union Parishad, local government body, member of the local council in 1990. By ‘centres’, I mean the capital city of Bangladesh, Dhaka, and the trade and port city Chittagong along with other major divisional towns like Rajshahi, Khulna, Sylhet, Rangpur, Barishal and so on. By ‘periphery’, I mean the rural areas, countryside districts, hill areas like the Chittagong Hill Tracts and semi-urban areas of Bangladesh. For details, see http://www.heqep-ugc.gov.bd (accessed 5 July 2015). The Daily Prothom-Alo, 18 June 2015.

References Ahmed, M., Ahmed, K. S. and Ahmed, R. (2007). Access to Education in Bangladesh: Country Analytic Review of Primary and Secondary Education. Dhaka: Institute of Education Development, BRAC University. Ahsan, M. T. and Bernip, L. (2007). ‘Inclusive Education in Bangladesh’. Australian Journal of Special Education, 32(1), 61071. Alam, M., Haque, S. and Siddique, S. (2006). Private Higher Education in Bangladesh. Paris: International Institute of Educational Planning with UNESCO. Andaleeb, S. S. (2003). ‘Revitalizing Higher Education in Bangladesh: Insights from Alumni and Policy Prescriptions’. Higher Education Policy, 16, 487–504.

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Angus, L. (2005). Education, Inequality and Identity. London and Washington: Falmer Press. Ardt, K., Hastings, C., Hopkins, K., Knebel, R., Loh, J. and Woods, R. (2005). Report on Primary Education in Bangladesh: Challenges and Successes. Dhaka: Bangladesh Bureau of Education Information and Statistics (BANBEIS) and Bangladesh Ministry of Women and Children Affairs (MWCA). Arends-Kuenning, M. and Amin, S. (2001). ‘Women’s Capabilities and the Rights to Education in Bangladesh’. International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society, 15(1), 125–40. Asadullah, M. N. (2007). ‘Return to Education in Bangladesh’. Education Economics, 14(4), 453–68. Carr, D. (2003). Making Sense of Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy and Theory of Education and Teaching. London and New York: Routledge. Day, C. (1999). Developing Teachers: The Challenges of Lifelong Learning. London and Philadelphia: Falmer Press. Imam, S. R. (2007). ‘English as a Global Language and the Question of Nation-building Education in Bangladesh’. Comparative Education, 41 (4), 471–86. Kabeer, N., Nambissan, G. and Subrahmanian, R. (2003). Child Labour and the Right to Education in South Asia: Needs versus Rights (eds). Delhi: SAGE Publication. Khan, A. M. and Islam, I. (2010). ‘Education and Development in Bangladesh: A Study from Spatial Perspective’. Journal of Bangladesh Institute of Planners, 3, 1–16. Lewis, D. (2011). Bangladesh: Politics, Economy and Civil Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Lynch, J., Modgil, C. and Modgil, S. (1997). Education and Development: Tradition and Innovation. London: CASSELL Press. McMohan, W. (2002). Education and Development: Measuring the Social Benefits. New York: Oxford University Press. Thapan, M. (2006). Life at School: An Ethnographic Study. Delhi: Oxford University Press. Turner, D. (2005). Theory of Education. London and New York: Continuum Press. Unterhalter, E., Ross, J. and Alam, M. (2003). ‘A Fragile Dialogue? Research and Primary Education Policy Formations in Bangladesh, 1971-2001’. Journal of Comparative and International Education, 33(1), 85–99.

2

Bangladesh: The Institutionalization of Women and Gender Studies in Higher Education Nafisa Tanjeem and Aditi Sabur

Since the adoption of structural adjustment policies in the 1980s, Bangladesh has been experiencing increasing corporatization, privatization and shrinking government control. The higher education system in this country also bears the brunt of neoliberal economic policies. Privatized higher education is currently flourishing, and differences between private and public institutions of higher learning are gradually disappearing. Against this backdrop, the institutionalizing process of Women and Gender Studies as an academic field of study in higher education presents an interesting case study that reveals unique ways to negotiate neoliberal power politics. This chapter is divided into three sections. The first section explores ways through which neoliberal economic policies have transformed the nature of higher education in Bangladesh since the 1980s. The second section situates the history of institutionalizing Women’s Studies in higher education against the backdrop of neoliberalism and international development discourses on women. The third section discusses strategies that the institutionalizing process followed in order to collaborate with as well as subvert what Rubin (2005, p. 205) calls ‘institutional-disciplinary order of transnational capitalism’.

Neoliberalism, privatization and the context of higher education in Bangladesh With the emergence of a knowledge economy in a globalizing world, developing countries such as Bangladesh have realized the significance of higher education

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more than ever before. The growing demand for highly skilled human resource and expert knowledge is driving the expansion of higher education in Bangladesh. There are thirty-eight public universities (thirty-seven currently operating) and eighty-five private universities (eighty-two currently operating) in this country (The University Grants Commission of Bangladesh, 2015, p. 28 and 33). The regulatory and granting authority of universities, carefully observes the way economic-social-cultural globalization has changed the world context for higher education. It acknowledges that investing in or sponsoring higher education is necessary for national development. It also examines how many developed countries are reconstructing their education system and adding international components pertinent to national aims and goals. Considering the local context and global concerns for higher education, UGC aspires to ensure and expand opportunities for education and research in institutions of higher learning in Bangladesh (The University Grants Commission of Bangladesh, 2013). Despite UGC’s multifarious initiatives, higher education, which is also known as ‘tertiary education’ in Bangladesh, faces unique constraints. The education sector receives only 2.1 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) of this country and tertiary education receives 0.12 per cent of this total allowance. Lack of funding makes research, teaching, publishing and training very difficult. According to a World Bank (2014) report, basic and applied research in universities is being greatly hampered in the absence of an appropriate and sustainable funding mechanism. The context of Bangladesh is not an exception. Neoliberal economic policies, which had been integrated in various economic sectors including agriculture, industry, finance and banking since the 1980s in Bangladesh, suggest distinct ways to address resource constraints in higher education. Bangladesh was one of the thirty-five countries to first receive structural adjustment facilities from the International Monetary Fund in 1986 and 1989 respectively (Bhattacharya et al., 1999, cited in Kabir, 2010, p. 620). In the 1980s, the lowering of import barriers, denationalization of state-owned enterprises and increasing investment by multinational corporations led to the subsiding role of the state and public universities. The corporate job market created a heightened demand for market-oriented courses such as Business administration, English, Computer Science and Engineering, and ICT. There was also a growing demand for privatized higher education from students who were frustrated with session jam (university closures due to unexpected external factors) leading to their taking more than five to six years to complete a threeyear undergraduate degree course, higher opportunity costs and lower quality of university education. Many of these students, who could afford private funding

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or manage need/merit based financial assistance, used to go to developed countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia for higher studies. The state-controlled public higher education system seemed inadequate and unable to fulfil the growing demands for market-driven higher education (Alam, Shamsul Haque and Fahad, 2007, p. 17). Against this backdrop, the government of General Ziaur Rahman started connecting with potential non-governmental and philanthropic organizations interested in establishing private universities or centres of excellence for higher education in the private sector. Later, the government of General Hussain Muhammad Ershad followed the path of the previous government and expanded privatization further. His government announced the New Industrial Policy (NIP) that introduced fundamental changes in the industrial policy environment and accelerated the pace of private sector industrial growth. In 1986, the government revised NIP and introduced Revised Industrial Policy (RIP) which fostered a deliberate denationalization programme (Ahmed, 2000). The autocratic regime of Ershad (1981–90) was overthrown by a mass movement and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), headed by Begum Khaleda Zia, formed the new government in 1991. The BNP government also continued following the path of privatization and passed the Private University Act in 1992, opening the door for a new kind of privately managed profit-driven higher education in Bangladesh. The government approved the establishment of North South University, the first private university in the history of Bangladesh, in 1992. During the regime of BNP, sixteen more private universities got their approvals. After coming to power in mid-1996, the Awami League government initially halted approval of new private universities and instructed the UGC to evaluate performance of already existing universities. The UCG found that weak infrastructural development and management were lowering the quality of education in most of these universities. The government introduced some revised requirements, such as increasing the deposit money to Taka 50 million and obligation to publicize teachers’ salary scales and tuition fees. Nevertheless, the government approved twenty more private universities during its five years of rule (Alam, Shamsul Haque and Fahad, 2007, pp. 22–3). Widespread privatization of higher education in Bangladesh is not a unique case. India, for example, began privatizing its higher education sector in the 1980s. At present 43 per cent of institutions and 30 per cent enrolments belong to the private sector. Many public universities have started offering self-financed courses to generate revenues (Agarwal, 2008, p. 17). In Pakistan, public universities now

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depend less on the government. They raise 41 per cent of their revenues from nongovernmental sources, for example, from affiliation (12 per cent) and tuition fees (11 per cent). During the post-2000 period, there was also a noticeable upsurge of private universities in Pakistan (pp. 25–6). At present, there are sixty-four private universities in this country, most of which are in national and provincial capitals where average income levels are high. Sri Lanka and Nepal are exceptional cases in South Asia since these two countries have strongly resisted privatizing trends in higher education so far (The Economist and Intelligence Unit, 2013). Extensive privatization, which was a predictable outcome of the broader implementation of neoliberal economic policies in Bangladesh, did always have a rosy outcome. Over time the World Bank became actively involved in shaping policies and priorities of higher education in this country. In 2006, the UGC finalized a twenty-year strategic plan for the higher education sector, a project known as ‘Strategic Plan for Higher Education 2006–2015’ (SPHE) and prescribed and funded by the World Bank. The project was an outcome of prolonged persuasion by the World Bank and collaboration between the World Bank and different bodies of the government. In 2009, the World Bank approved $91.5 million International Development Association (IDA) credit for improving quality of teaching and research in higher education in the next four years under the theme ‘Education for the Knowledge Economy’ (EKE) (Kabir, 2012, p. 4). Based on the Interim Impact Assessment Report, World Bank later granted an additional 125 million USD and extended the project till 2018 (The University Grants Commission of Bangladesh, 2015, pp. 7). Since the World Bank is an active proponent of neoliberal economic policies, it prioritized designing higher education in a way that serves the needs of capitalist global markets (Kabir, 2012, p. 5). Ariful Kabir (2012, p. 2) argues that implementing neoliberal policies in higher education mimicked the legacy of colonialism in South Asia. According to a UGC study, degrees that promise higher salaries in the growing corporate sector such as a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) or a Master of Business Administration (MBA) attract more students (UGC, 2010, cited in Kabir, 2012, p. 8). Nevertheless, these market-oriented fields are becoming saturated because of the limited capacity of these sectors to employ graduates. As a result, many graduates remain unemployed even after pursing a degree which supposedly had a high demand in the job market (Kabir, 2012, p. 8). A profit-driven pro-capitalist and pro-bourgeois higher education system is less interested in developing what Kabir calls ‘ethical, logical, and indigenous ways of critical thinking’ skills and more interested in producing human resources that serve corporate and capitalist needs (Kabir, 2012, p. 12). Roberts (1999, p. 80) argues:

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When tertiary education is defined purely as a form of (self-interested) private investment, goals such as promoting a love of learning, fostering public debate, and enhancing democratic citizenship disappear from the agenda. (Cited in Kabir, 2012, p. 12)

According to Kabir (2012), Roberts’s insights about privatized higher education and its aftermath are very pertinent to the context of Bangladesh. Privatized higher education in this country ascribes very little value on critical understanding of humanistic knowledge, for example, philosophy, history or national and international politics. A trend like this denotes an alarming situation where democratic values start to be shaped by neoliberal market ideologies (ibid., pp. 12–13).

Emergence of Women and Gender Studies as an institutionalized field of study in higher education Against the backdrop of burgeoning market-driven and often sexist higher education policies in Bangladesh, the history of emergence of Women and Gender Studies as an institutionalized field of study in higher education is a fascinating example of how feminist academics and activists negotiated power relationships with neoliberal capitalism and sexism. In 1971, Bangladesh started its journey as an independent nation after nine months of liberation struggle. During the post-liberation period, the country received a lot of attention and support from the international community (Mannan, 2010, p. 29). The time frame coincided with the US Congress passing the Percy Amendment in 1973. The amendment, for the first time, recognized the role of women in development. It instructed US bilateral assistance programmes to prioritize women’s integration in national economies and required the state department to consider prospects of women’s participation while making decisions about funding international organizations such as the United Nations or the World Bank. As a result, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) started the Office of Women in Development with a view to guiding USAID field-level projects to be more women inclusive (Sharma, 2005). The year 1975 was also announced as the ‘International Women’s Year’ followed by the declaration of 1976–85 as the UN Decade for Women. NGOs in Bangladesh actively responded to the mandate of United Nations and its affiliates to integrate women, an approach which became known as Women in Development (WID), in development policies and programmes (Karim, 2012).

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Bangladesh, which used to be known as ‘East Bengal’ before 1947 and ‘East Pakistan’ between 1947 and 1971, has a rich tradition of women’s movement. The local interest in and initiatives for addressing women’s concerns were furthered by adoption of WID philosophies by Western donor agencies who channelled funds to NGOs for designing and implementing women-centric programmes in a newly independent war-torn country. Thus, the decade of the 1970s observed a surge in research, often sponsored by international donor organizations, government or research institutes, on different issues related to the lives of women in Bangladesh (Chowdhury, 2010; Mahtab, 2007; Islam, 1994). Most of the studies done in the first half of the 1970s were conducted by non-Bangladeshi scholars, most of whom were from the Global North, and examined the role and status of women in family and society (Islam, 1994, pp. 9–10). Bangladeshi feminist scholars initiated a collective approach to undertake feminist research for the first time in 1973. That year, several women professionals, most of whom were academics trained in different disciplines, established Women for Women: A Research and Study Group. Women for Women was a pioneer non-profit and voluntary research group which played an instrumental role in inaugurating research, advocacy, networking and public educational programmes aimed at improving the status of Bangladeshi women (Islam, 1998). Bangladesh Institute for Development Studies, which was founded in 1974, was also crucial in promoting studies on women’s experiences in development economics, demography, public policy and social welfare (Chowdhury, 2010, p. 156). Since many donor agencies implemented WID policies in their programmes, international funding for pursuing research on women became increasingly available. It is important to keep in mind that WID was rooted in modernization and Western liberal feminist perspectives. Even though it supported many early research projects and programmes on gender issues in Bangladesh, it never questioned the capitalist, technocratic and top-down development in which women were encouraged to be integrated. It was supposedly destined to empower Third World women but eventually its co-optation by neoliberal ideology resulted in further marginalization of many women and exacerbation of class disparities among them (Lindio-McGovern and Wallimann, 2009, p. 6). Karim (2012) argues that the rhetoric of WID conceptualized the Third World woman as ‘autonomous, sovereign subject who freely made rational choices in the market’. There was a shift in research focus from women’s role in family, household and society in the early 1970s to women’s labour force participation, education and reproductive rights in the late 1970s (Islam, 1994, p. 10). The shift is

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reflective of the transition from a WID to a WAD (Women and Development) approach. The emergence of WAD coincided with the worldwide growth of export processing zones where women from the Global South dominated lowpaid labour-intensive jobs of global assembly lines of transnational corporations (Lindio-McGovern and Wallimann, 2009, p. 6). The international trends were noticeable in Bangladesh too. For example, the government of Bangladesh adopted Food for Work (FFW) programme in 1975 in collaboration with World Food Program and USAID. As a direct outcome of the 1973 Percy Amendment, the FFW programme became interested in exploring options of employing women since 1976 (Marum, 1981, p. 1). Such unconventional role of women garnered interest among researchers who eventually produced a wide array of publications that investigated the different dynamics of the Bangladeshi women’s labour force participation in the early 1980s. Most of the research was focused on rural, poor and working-class women’s experiences (Islam, 1994, p. 15). Research on women in Bangladesh in the 1980s was heavily influenced by several historical milestones. The tremendous growth of the garment industry, which employed many women workers, started in the early 1980s. Implementation of the neoliberal structural adjustment policies in addition to the Multi-Fibre Arrangement (MFA) imposing quotas on the amount of textile and garment products developing countries were able to export to developed countries and the government’s commitment towards export-led growth resulted in a booming garment industry in this country (Dannecker, 2002, p. 11). The early 1980s is also the time when Grameen Bank started capitalizing on Bangladeshi rural women as its beneficiaries. The international turn towards integrating gender in aid programmes, as epitomized by the US Percy Amendment and the declaration of UN Decade for Women, encouraged the bank to choose women as primary lenders of micro loans instead of men who were difficult to work with and not available to attend mandatory weekly meetings. The bank started operating as a formalized bank under the banking rules of Bangladesh in 1983 (Karim, 2011, p. 71). New identities of women as workers in export-led industries and as individual entrepreneurs in micro-finance industries generated interests among researchers to study women’s unique experiences. The interest was further honed by the Gender and Development (GAD) perspective that became prominent at the beginning of the 1980s. GAD’s origin could be traced back to the Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN) network which originated in India and

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was officially recognized in the third UN conference on women in Nairobi in 1986. The conference reflected on how the adverse impacts of the debt crisis and structural adjustment polices suggested by the IMF and the World Bank continued to marginalize women in the Global South (Rowan-Campbell, 2004, p. 245; Beneria, 2003, p. 48). Many governmental and non-governmental organizations such as National Institute of Local Government (NILG), Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development (BARD), Rural Development Academy (RDA), Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC), Ain O Shalish Kendro (ASK – Center for Legal Aid and Mediation), Bangladesh Unnayan Parishad (BUP – Bangladesh Development Council) and Narigrantha Prabartana (the Feminist Bookstore) also carried out issue-, policy- and project-oriented researches. Most of the research done on women during this time consisted of papers, articles or reports prepared for seminars, conferences or evaluation projects. Najma Chowdhury (2010) argues that those researches were mostly descriptive and narrative in nature. The findings were often based on micro level surveys or case studies. A conceptual framework that analyses how exploitation of women is deeply rooted in historical forces and social processes was initially absent in the literature. There was also no institutional platform in higher education to systematically support teaching and research on women’s issues (pp. 156–7). The integration of Women and Gender Studies as an academic field of study in higher education officially began in 1986 (Mahtab, 2007, p. 1). A group of feminist faculty members of the University of Dhaka, most of whom were actively involved in research on women and women’s movement in Bangladesh, designed a proposal for establishing a ‘Centre for Women’s Studies’ at the university. However, the proposal did not receive complete support from all the faculty members, and instead the administration of the university informed the initiators of ‘Centre for Women’s Studies’ that the project file had been ‘lost’. Failure of the initial attempt led the group of faculty members to introduce Women’s Studies courses in respective departments such as Departments of Political Science, Sociology and Public Administration in 1987. By the early 1990s, a few other departments such as Departments of Geography, Law and International Relations introduced additional courses on gender issues (Mannan, 2010, pp. 30–1). This alternate strategy of integrating courses on women and gender issues resembles the 1970s strategy of opening Women’s Studies programmes and offering courses in colleges and universities of the United States (The History of Women’s Studies Program). There was nonetheless

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a growing tension about whether Women’s Studies should operate as an autonomous unit or try to transform liberal arts curriculum by offering courses across US university campuses. Many scholars recognized the importance of the 1970s strategy of designing a variety of Women’s Studies courses while arguing for the establishment of autonomous and separate departments. Sandra Coyner (1983, p. 67), for example, wrote: We cannot establish women’s studies as an academic discipline overnight, and must be prepared for a period of mixed models – perhaps a long period given economic conditions. … What I am suggesting at this point in our history is a new option, the specialist in ‘pure’ Women’s Studies. (Cited in Froines, 2004, p. 11)

The group of Bangladeshi feminist faculty members from the University of Dhaka prioritized the necessity of working autonomously as a department since working as an independent unit would no longer subject them to terms, considerations and politics of other departments that enrol students for their courses. They also felt the need for a formal mechanism through which they would be able to bring desired reforms in curriculum instead of individually inspiring MPhil or PhD students to work on women’s experiences (Chowdhury, 2010, p. 157). They continued lobbying for establishing the Department of Women’s Studies and received support from the male-dominated university administration this time. Chowdhury mentions that the support was extended merely as a matter of courtesy to female colleagues, and epistemological considerations did not play a vital role in the decision-making process of the university administration (ibid., p. 157). The proposal for Department of Women’s Studies was approved by the university syndicate on 23 March 2000. The fourteen-year-long journey that started in 1986 with a view to institutionalizing Women’s Studies as an interdisciplinary field of study in higher education finally ended with the inauguration of a separate department (Mannan, 2010, p. 32).

Women’s Studies negotiating the ‘institutional-disciplinary order of transnational capitalism’ The background history of institutionalizing Women’s Studies at the University of Dhaka unravels an interesting relationship between feminist academics and neoliberal globalizing forces. To understand this relationship, it is

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important to first explore the transnational dynamics of and debates around institutionalization of Women’s Studies. In both the United States and Europe, institutionalization of Women’s Studies in higher education began as a response to, and in connection with, women’s movement in the 1960s and 1970s. The degree of institutionalization of Women’s Studies widely varies across European countries. For example, the Netherlands, Germany and Finland have achieved a high degree of institutionalization whereas the degree of institutionalization in countries such as France, Italy and Hungary could be considered as low (Silius, 2002, cited in Griffin, 2005, p. 91). Institutionalization also carries different meanings in different contexts. The UK, for example, awards more bachelor’s, master’s and PhD degrees in Women’s/Gender Studies than any other European countries but it does not offer endowed chairs or endowed studentships in Women’s Studies as offered in countries such as Germany or the Netherlands. France and Italy both experience a low degree of institutionalization because of anti-institutional positions of many feminists in these countries. The Ministry of Education in France reviews university curriculums every four years allowing very little scope of autonomy for bringing radical reforms (Griffin, 2005, p. 91). It is, therefore, very important to examine contexts and involved actors to understand multifarious dynamics of the institutionalization process of Women’s Studies in higher education. Reviewing processes of institutionalization of Women’s Studies and complexities that arose as a result, Ellen Messer-Davidow (2002) claims that feminism’s journey from ‘streets’ to the ‘university’ contributed to disciplining its political purpose (cited in Rubin, 2005, p. 249). David Rubin (2005, pp. 249– 50) criticizes Messer-Davidow by arguing that although there were moments when institutionalizing efforts had to abide by nationalist and capitalist projects, the rich history of collaboration between Women’s Studies and US feminist activist projects proves the contrary scenario. Chowdhury (2010) echoes Rubin’s trend of thoughts in the context of Bangladesh. She argues that the impetus for doing Women’s Studies work did not flourish in ‘high-profile’ academic practices in institutions of higher learning in this country because access to higher education was limited only to a privileged few. It emerged from everyday unstructured grass-roots struggles and women’s movements (ibid., p. 158). Following Messer-Davidow’s analysis, Rubin (2005) further argues that it is not only institutionalizing forces that discipline feminism. Globalizing forces, for example neoliberalism, privatization, institutionalization of non-profit sector feminist activism, weakening welfare states and emergence of NGOs as shadow

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states also constrain Women’s Studies within what Rubin calls the ‘institutionaldisciplinary order of transnational capitalism’ (ibid., p. 250). It would certainly be an interesting project to examine how institutionalization of Women’s Studies in higher education in Bangladesh negotiated with the institutional-disciplinary order of transnational capitalism. Early architects of the institutionalization of Women’s Studies as an independent department at the University of Dhaka were working in a context characterized by complex forces of an official process of Islamization, expansion of market economy and flourishing international women’s movements. General Ziaur Rahman and General Hussain Muhammad Ershad, the two military dictators, massively used religion as a tool of political control in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s. At the same time, women’s labour became a key component in the export-led economy that resulted in what Hossain (2006) calls ‘proletarianization of women workers’. Women also became the prime target group of bourgeoning internationally funded NGOs and various programmes such as micro credit and population control initiatives. Against this backdrop, feminist faculty members of the University of Dhaka followed some unique strategies that helped them carry on with their long-term vision of institutionalizing Women’s Studies in Bangladesh. Many of these faculty members were holding important positions in different powerful institutions, for example, the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs of Government of Bangladesh, donor agencies, Women for Women Research and Study Group, and the University of Dhaka.1 Several of them conducted research and evaluation projects that played an important role in reforming public policies towards women (Chowdhury, 2010, p. 158). Existing strong networks helped these faculty members in negotiating with not-so-welcoming bodies such as UGC and the university administration. Connection with transnational alliances and social movements also helped feminist faculty members in devising organizational strategies. Many of these faculty members were educated in different universities in the Global North and were exposed to students’ movements on college campuses. Civil rights movements in the United States and women’s rights movements in both the United States and Europe in the 1960s and 1970s inspired them to explore similar possibilities in Bangladesh. Various meetings of Non-aligned and other developing nations promoted teaching and research on women’s issues in educational institutions in different countries during that time (Mannan, 2010, p. 30). The 1985 Nairobi Forward-Looking Strategy specifically called for

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partaking in research on women’s experiences and facilitating gender policy analyses. It encouraged governments to compile gender statistics and support local research initiatives on women’s concerns. It urged for the incorporation of women’s issues in the general curriculum and for the strengthening of Women’s Studies in research institutions (Chowdhury, 2010, pp. 154–5). UNESCO meetings of feminist scholars in New Delhi and other international symposiums also offered an opportunity to exchange views with international groups (Mannan, 2010, p. 30). Najma Chowdhury (2010), for example, presented a critical reflection paper at a preparatory symposium for the Fourth World Conference on Women in 1993. In this presentation, she traced the evolution of Women’s Studies in Bangladesh, shared unique constraints and challenges that the institutionalization process was facing in the 1980s and 1990s and explored how Women’s Studies could serve as a strategic instrument for social transformation in this country. A series of other pivotal UN conferences held in the 1990s, for example, Environmental Summit (1992), the Human Rights Conference (1993), the International Conference on Population and Development (1994) and the Social Summit (1995), stimulated conversations around women’s rights in the international context (Visvanathan et al., 1997, cited in Mannan, 2010, p. 29). The government of Bangladesh responded to the growing international focus on gender equality by endorsing the National Policy for Advancement of Women in 1997 and National Action Plan for Women’s Advancement in 1998 (Mannan, 2010, p. 31). All these factors played a tremendous role in creating a supportive environment for institutionalizing Women’s Studies at a public university like the University of Dhaka amid numerous initiatives of privatizing higher education and shrinking government funds for public universities in Bangladesh. At the beginning of the institutionalization process, early architects of the department were determined about not taking any kind of financial aid from donors. Their motto was: ‘Whatever we do, we will do it by ourselves’. Full-time feminist faculty members from other departments started volunteering their time teaching part-time at the Department of Women’s Studies. Twenty faculty members committed to serve in the course development committee. In absence of any allocated room on campus for the department, Dr Najma Chowdhury, the first chair of the department, let her office at the Department of Political Science be used for meetings and administrative purposes. It became difficult over time to adhere to the motto of self-sustainability since the university administration approved the proposal for the Department of Women’s Studies on the condition

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that the department would not receive any financial support from the university and, therefore, should seek external assistance. In fact, most of the newly established departments and institutes at the University of Dhaka were encouraged to obtain donor funds (Mannan, 2010, pp. 32–3). The university policy was reflective of the World Bank supported ‘Strategic Plan for Higher Education 2006–2015’ (SPHE) which was officially adopted by the UGC a few years after the establishment of the Department of Women’s Studies. Instead of providing state funds for teaching and research at public universities, SPHE calls for internal revenue generation. Many public universities are now responding to the call by offering evening and commercial certificate programmes, leasing campus spaces to local businesses and increasing student fees. Implementation of SPHE is gradually shrinking the difference between public and private universities (Haq, 2015). The Department of Women’s Studies initially received some short-term funds from different transnational collaborative initiatives. For example, it collaborated with Queen’s University, Belfast, under the British Council Higher Education Link programme with DFID fund from 2000 to 2003 and with Virginia Polytechnic Institute and University of California – Davis from 2001 to 2005 with USAID fund (Mahtab, 2007, pp. 9, 24). However, the department needed a stable and long-term support for building infrastructure necessary for institutionalization. With this aim in view, it circulated a proposal for ‘Institutional Development of the Women’s Studies, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh’ to donor agencies. The proposal received a grant from the Netherlands Embassy. The five-year project (2004–9) was implemented through tripartite collaboration among the Netherlands Embassy at Dhaka, the Institute of Social Studies (ISS) at Hague and the Department of Women’s Studies at the University of Dhaka (Mannan, 2010, pp. 33–5; Mahtab, 2007, p. 23). The Dutch grant was different from usual donor funds because it went beyond usual donor support and provided for technology transfer, exchange programmes, curriculum building, conferences, and seminars. It also offered fellowships to faculty members and students for pursing advanced degrees in the Netherlands and financial support for faculty recruitment (Mannan, 2010, p. 35). Several faculty members of the Department of Women’s Studies informed us that even though there were terms and conditions that faculty members had to abide by, they were granted a lot of flexibility to negotiate these terms and conditions in order to address contextual needs.2 In addition to teaching students and promoting research on women’s issues, the Department of Women’s Studies gradually became engaged in various collaborative efforts with the government and NGOs (Mahtab, 2007, p. 23). A

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good number of its graduates began to be gainfully employed in the burgeoning NGO sector in Bangladesh. As an outcome of increasing connection with the international development discourse and its manifestation in government and NGO projects, the department became attentive towards adopting new tools and terminologies (Chowdhury, 2010, p. 159). One such example is the change of name of the department from ‘Department of Women’s Studies’ to ‘Department of Women and Gender Studies’. The department officially said it responded to demands from students who felt that the name ‘Women’s Studies’ often gives the broader public an impression of a ‘Women’s only’ programme, thereby discouraging male students from entering the programme. Some also argued that since development practitioners in Bangladesh had adopted the language of ‘gender’ in place of ‘women’, the change of name would expand the department’s contextual validity and integrate its graduates within the developed discourse in a more effective way (Chowdhury, 2010, p. 159; Brochure, 2006, cited in Mannan, 2010, p. 35). However, there were questions on whether the new focus on gender would weaken emphasis on women as the central subject of analysis, obscure their experiences and disassociate ‘Women’s Studies’ from its long political tradition to end oppression of women (Chowdhury, 2010, p. 159; Mies, 2007, p. 666). Shirley Yee argues that continuing with the name Women’s Studies keeps the scope of addressing social justice concerns of feminists of colour open (Kennedy and Beins, 2005, p. 6). Those who support the transformation from ‘Women’s Studies’ to ‘Gender Studies’ or ‘Women and Gender Studies’ or ‘Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies’ argue that it indicates a move towards recognizing intersectionality of experiences, which would eventually encourage thinking about gender in terms of other axes of differences such as class, race, sexuality, ethnicity, ableism or nationality (Jakobsen, 2005, p. 136). While the change of name of the department from ‘Women’s Studies’ to ‘Women and Gender Studies’ surely reached a broader student body and made the field of study inclusive of various fields such as Masculinities and Sexuality studies, the transformation should also be analysed against the context of what Sabine Lang calls ‘NGOisation of Feminism’. According to Lang, NGOization of feminism reduces the scope of feminist organizing within restricted spaces of NGOs. Instead of advocating for structural transformation in societies, NGOs often play the role of mediators and work in alignment with neoliberal globalizing forces (Lang, 1997, cited in Rubin, 2005, p. 251). In the case of the Department of Women’s Studies at the University of Dhaka, changing the name from ‘Women’s Studies’ to ‘Women and Gender Studies’ and increasing focus on coursework pertinent to international

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development discourses3 reflect the department’s priority to equip its students with skills and expertise transferrable to the growing job market in the NGO sector. Whether this prioritization of producing marketable skills shifts focus from radical commitments of women’s movements in the 1970s and 1980s, a period when social movements in Bangladesh were far less dependent on NGO networks and donor funds, and compromises critique of neoliberal development discourses requires critical scrutiny. A critical overview of the institutionalization process of Women’s Studies in the context of Bangladesh unravels an interesting relationship of the Department of Women and Gender Studies with neoliberal globalizing forces. Working against the backdrop of shrinking state funds for public universities and bourgeoning trends of privatizing higher education was never easy. On some occasions, the department had to make strategic choices to collaborate with neoliberal development discourses and capitalist forces that compromised its ideological pursuits. However, we cannot simply argue that the institutionalization process passively cooperated with what Rubin (2005, p. 205) calls ‘institutional-disciplinary order of transnational capitalism’. On many occasions, feminist academics creatively made use of their connections with local and transnational networks of movements, institutions and funds. Till date, only two public universities in Bangladesh offer bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Women and Gender Studies. The lack of interest in this field of study in most of the private as well as public universities reveals sexist and market-driven neoliberal priorities of the higher education system in this country. It is high time to advocate for structural changes in vision, mission and strategies of higher education policies and inquire processes through which Women and Gender Studies as an institutionalized field of study can play a more effective role in addressing social justice concerns in Bangladesh.

Notes 1 Several key people played a crucial role in institutionalizing Women’s Studies at the University of Dhaka. For example, Dr Mahmuda Islam, a sociology professor, had extensive experience of working with the government and donor agencies. Dr Najma Chowdhury, a Political Science professor, was an adviser to the caretaker government of Bangladesh in 1996 and in charge of the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs. Dr Nazmunnessa Mahtab, a professor at the Department of Public Administration, had three-decade-long experience of researching on women’s issues. Dr Sadeka Halim, a Sociology professor, was a fresh PhD graduate from McGill

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University, Canada. Dr Asaduzzaman, a professor of Public Administration and a very important ally, was a Dean of Faculty of Social Sciences and later served as the chair of University Grant Commission (UGC) from 2003 to 2008 (Mahtab, 2010, pp. 22–3). 2 Personal communication with faculty members who were involved in the ‘Institutional Development of the Women’s Studies, University of Dhaka’ project. 3 Under the project ‘Institutionalising the Department of Women’s Studies, University of Dhaka’, a revised curriculum became effective from the academic year 2006–2007. The new curriculum incorporated courses such as ‘Tools for Gender Analysis’, ‘Men and Masculinities in South Asia and Cross Cultural Perspectives’ and ‘United Nations, Human Rights, and Gender Concern: It’s Implications for Engendering National Policies’ (Women and Gender Studies: Academic Programme and Courses – Syllabus for Bachelor of Social Sciences and Master of Social Sciences, May 2009).

References Agarwal, P. (2008). ‘Privatization and Internationalization of Higher Education in the Countries of South Asia: An Empirical Analysis’. Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations. http://saneinetwork.net/Files/08_07.pdf [Accessed 23 July 2015]. Ahmed, M. U. (2000). ‘Privatization in Bangladesh’. ILO. http://www.ilo.org/public// english/region/asro/bangkok/paper/privatize/chap2.pdf [Accessed 23 July 2015]. Alam, M., Shamsul Haque, S. and Fahad, S. (2007). Private Higher Education in Bangladesh. United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization & International Institute for Educational Planning. Beneria, L. (2003). Gender, Development and Globalization: Economics as if all People Mattered. New York: Routledge. Chowdhury, N. (2010). Of Mangroves and Monsters: Women’s Political Participation and Women’s Studies in Bangladesh. Dhaka: Pathak Shamabesh. Dannecker, P. (2002). Between Conformity and Resistance: Women Garment Workers in Bangladesh. Dhaka: The University Press Ltd. Froines, A. (2004). ‘Institutionalization of Women’s Studies Programs: The Relationship of Program Structure to Long-Term Viability’. Graduate Doctoral Dissertation. University of Massachusetts – Boston. Griffin, G. (2005). ‘The Institutionalization of Women’s Studies in Europe’. In Griffin, G. (ed.), Doing Women’s Studies: Employment Opportunities, Personal Impacts and Social Consequences, 91. New York: Zed Books. Haq, F. (15 June 2015). ‘Salary Structure – Insulted Public University [েবতন কাঠােমা – অপমািনত পাবিলক িবশিবদ ালয়]’. Protho্m Alo.

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Hossain, H. (5 January 2006). ‘Women’s Movements in Bangladesh: The Struggle within’. http://www.europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?article1567 [Accessed 8 August 2015]. Islam, M. (1994). Whither Women’s Studies in Bangladesh. Bangladesh: Women for Women. Islam, M. (1998). ‘Women for Women in Bangladesh’. Feminism in Bangladesh. Collaboratory for Digital Discourse and Culture @ Virginia Tech. http://www.cddc. vt.edu/feminism/ban.html [Accessed 3 August 2015]. Jakobsen, J. R. (2005). ‘Different Differences: Theory and the Practice of Women’s Studies’. In E. L. Kennedy and Beins, A. (eds), Women’s Studies for the Future: Foundations, Interrogations, Politics, 125–42. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. Kabir, A. H. (2010). ‘Neoliberal Policy in the Higher Education Sector in Bangladesh: Autonomy of Public Universities and the Role of the State’. Policy Futures in Education, 8(6), 619–31. Kabir, A. H. (2012). ‘Neoliberal Hegemony and the Ideological Transformation of Higher Education in Bangladesh’. Critical Literacy: Theories and Practices, 6 (2), 2–15. Karim, L. (2011). Micro-Finance and its Discontents: Women in Debt in Bangladesh. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press. Karim, L. (Fall 2012/Spring 2013). ‘NGOs, Neoliberalism, and Women in Bangladesh’. S&F Online, 11.1–11.2: 3 August 2015. Kennedy, E. L. and Beins, A. (2005). ‘Introduction’. In L. K. Kennedy and A. Beins (eds), Women’s Studies for the Future: Foundations, Interrogations, Politics. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. Lindio-McGovern, L. and Wallimann, I. (2009). ‘Neoliberal Globalization and Third World Women: Exploitation, Coping, and Resistance’. In L. Lindio-McGovern and I. Wallimann (eds), Globalization and Third World Women: Exploitation, Coping, and Resistance. Farham, UK: Ashgate Publishing Limited. Mahtab, N. (2007). Women in Bangladesh: From Inequality to Empowerment. Dhaka: A. H. Development Publishing House. Mahtab, N. (2010). ‘Women and Gender Studies: The Making of the Department’. Memoirs: A Decade of Establishment and Success (2000-2010) [Sharanika: Protishtha o Shafoller Ek Doshok (2000-2010)]. Department of Women and Gender Studies: University of Dhaka. Mannan, F. (2010). ‘Emergence of Women’s Studies in Bangladesh: A Journey through History’. Memoirs: A Decade of Establishment and Success (2000-2010) [Sharanika: Protishtha o Shafoller Ek Doshok (2000-2010)]. Department of Women and Gender Studies: University of Dhaka. Marum, E. M. (1981). Women at Work in Bangladesh: A Study of Women’s Food for Work Programs. Dhaka: United States Agency of International Development.

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Mies, M. (2007). ‘A Global Feminist Perspective on Research’. In S. N. Hesse-Biber (eds), Handbook of Feminist Research: Theory and Praxis, 663–68. London: Thousand Oaks, London and New Delhi: Sage Publications. Rowan-Campbell, D. (2004). ‘Creating a Commonwealth Sisterhood’. In A. S Fraser and I. Tinker (eds), Developing Power: How Women Transformed International Development, 238–48. New York: Feminist Press at the City University of New York. Rubin, D. (2005). ‘Women’s Studies, Neoliberalism, and the Paradox of the “Political”’. In E. L. Kennedy and A. Beins (eds), Women’s Studies for the Future: Foundations, Interrogations, Politics. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. Sharma, R. (5 October 2005). ‘Women and Development Aid’. Foreign Policy in Focus. http://fpif.org/women_development_aid/ [Accessed 3 August 2015]. The Economist and Intelligence Unit (June 2013). Higher Education in South Asia: Trends in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka – A Custom Research Report for British Council by the Economist Intelligence Unit. ‘The History of Women’s Studies Program’. http://www.umich.edu/~womenstd/ background.htm [Accessed 6 August 2015]. The University Grants Commission of Bangladesh. 39th Annual Report 2012 November 2013 Dhaka: The University Grants Commission of Bangladesh. The University Grants Commission of Bangladesh. 42nd Annual Report 2015. 2015 Dhaka: The University Grants Commission of Bangladesh. ‘Total How Many Universities in Pakistan Public (Government) and Private List’. Studysols, http://www.studysols.com/total-how-many-universities-in-pakistanpublic-govt-and-private-list/ [Accessed 24 July 2015]. ‘Women and Gender Studies: Academic Programme and Courses – Syllabus for Bachelor of Social Sciences and Master of Social Sciences. May 2009’, Department of Women and Gender Studies, University of Dhaka. World Bank (19 March 2014). Bangladesh: Connecting Minds in Higher Education. http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2014/03/19/bangladesh-connectingminds-in-higher-education [Accessed 23 July 2015].

3

Bangladesh: The Use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Education Mahfuz Ashraf

Introduction Over the last few decades, the world has been shifting from industrial to knowledge-based societies. The ability of a nation to use and create knowledge capital determines its capacity to empower and enable its citizens by increasing human capabilities (Anwer, 2006). Easy access to knowledge, creation and preservation of knowledge systems, and dissemination of knowledge and better knowledge services should be core concerns of all countries. Access to basic education is a fundamental human right in all countries. As part of its development aspirations, the government of Bangladesh (GoB) established Vision 2021 and has come up with the National ICT Policy-2009 and National Education Policy-2010 to act as catalysts in the country’s movement towards becoming Digital Bangladesh by 2021 and thereby upgrading its position from developing to middle-income country. Information and communication technology (ICT) has been successfully implemented at primary, secondary, tertiary and even in non-formal education levels across the world. In Bangladesh, ICT deployment for children, especially for the underprivileged ones, is negligible (Rahman, 2006). Most of the ongoing programmes regarding ICT education in Bangladesh are targeted at people who have completed a certain level of education (minimum SSC) but not at children who need it to a greater extent in order to form a capable future generation. The GoB makes a strong commitment to implement the Education for All (EFA) projects by ensuring education for the underprivileged students both in rural and urban areas. To this end, ICTs have become a driving

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force of educational reform for quality education and they have been integrated in national education policies and plans. For instance, electronic versions of books from the first grade to the tenth, along with teachers’ training and other necessary books, ensure quick and easy accessibility to textbooks. A number of NGOs/donor agencies are working on ICT-enabled educational access to enhance student-oriented learning and to develop teachers’ skills and capabilities. The objective of this chapter is to understand how ICT initiatives by several NGOs and governmental organizations are being carried out throughout the country. The information gathered in this chapter will help explore and review the use of technology for education with a view towards guiding the strategic thinking about the use of technology practices in Bangladesh.

Methodology The data (primary and secondary) in this chapter have been collected and analysed keeping in mind the following factors: 1. What/who are the data sources? 2. What types of data are most appropriate? 3. What are the most appropriate methods of data collection? 4. How will the data be analysed and presented in order to address the objectives? 5. What ethical issues are involved in the evaluation and how will they be addressed? The interviews conducted are aimed to grasp the outcome of the ICT implementation and how much improvement has so far occurred and at what costs. Contextual analysis was done by reading various articles written by different donors and NGOs on how they had used ICT in education previously. Sources of data include 1. Organizational websites/online 2. Email communication 3. Interviewing industry experts and government employees in the Ministry of Education (MoE) such as the director general of Directorate of Primary Education (DPE), director of National Board of Vocational Education, officials of Bangladesh Computer Councils, research director/project officer of NGOs and private bodies

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4. Visiting Save the Children (SC) in Bangladesh’s ICT-based education projects in the schools in Meherpur district. The report adopted Rapid Appraisal (RA) (Gibbs, 1995) methodology to identify the process of learning and acquiring relevant information from three schools in Meherpur district where SC has incepted ICT-enabled education programme/multimedia classroom. Interviews were tape-recorded in Bangla, the local language. All interviews were transcribed in Bangla and then translated into English by the researcher. To ensure accuracy, the interviews were also translated by someone outside the research group. In this research, thematic analysis (Boyatzis, 1998) was undertaken to identify the issues or themes that emerged from interview transcripts. The aim of this thematic analysis is to find themes or regularities from data, seek out more data to support or qualify these emerging themes and then draw inference from the links with other new data segments. Thematic analysis enabled this research to identify themes from data which then formed storylines of our findings. Further, we present some case studies derived from our interview data as evidence in support of our findings.

Project limitations This report faced several challenges during its execution period. These challenges were overcome to produce a quality output for the study. The limitations of this study are as follows: 1. Due to the political instability in the country until January 2014, it was difficult for the consultant to collect primary field data. During that phase, research groundwork was conducted to ensure the progress of the project. 2. The consultant needed to communicate with other ICT in Education project officials to gather valuable insights from their practices. After initial contact with the officials, it took several weeks to get an appointment with them. 3. The government officials were also contacted to obtain information on future ICT in Education initiatives and opportunities. It was initially difficult to find the appropriate contact persons who could provide relevant information and materials. Later, the consultant met directly with the higher officials at the Department of Primary Education and gathered substantial insights. 4. The numbers/statistics provided in other organizations’ projects were collected from verbal and email communication and were not verified with published

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documents. That was the reason the consultant was not given full access to the statistics.

Exploring the ICT in Education projects in Bangladesh It perhaps comes as no surprise that different stakeholders in the education sector have come to realize how ICT can help the country to tap its huge potential. The GoB, various local NGOs and foreign agencies have all played a significant part in an effort to maximize the benefits of ICT in the education sector. This chapter provides an overview of some of the projects undertaken by various stakeholders. The projects are broadly classified under the three following categories: 1. government projects run by public bodies 2. projects run by NGOs and private bodies 3. collaborative projects

Government projects run by public bodies The GoB makes a strong commitment to implement education projects to ensure education for underprivileged students both in rural and urban areas. As education is important in continuing further learning, various government bodies are operating development projects in rural and remote areas. Among them is the DPE and Access to Information (A2I) in the Prime Minister’s Office. In this subsection, all ICT in Education projects carried out by the relevant agencies are discussed. 1. Directorate of Primary Education Under the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education (MoPME), DPE is responsible for providing primary education around the country. It is currently running a reasonably big IT infrastructure all over the country. The operational activities of the DPE in the headquarters as well as in the field offices and training institutes are being established with support of the technology. Interventions/activities: The Third Primary Education Development Program (PEDP-3) – this project is currently in operation. PEDP-3 continues many of the quality improvement, institutional and systemic reforms introduced under PEDP-II with an increased

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focus on how inputs are used at school level to improve learning outcomes in the classroom and raise primary school completion rates. PEDP-3 aims at improving quality through reduced class size and improved teaching practices with a focus on ICT literacy. Target audience: Primary school students and training institutes. Outcomes: (a) Several schools were established under the General Education Project and many primary training institutes (PTIs) have computer labs with necessary accessories. (b) Upazila/Thana Resource Centres (URC/TRC) are equipped with laptops, multimedia equipment and internet. (c) The model schools have laptops with multimedia projectors for use in the classrooms. These schools are also provided with internet facilities. (d) Teachers are given computer training. Comments: (a) Despite the lack of infrastructural development in rural areas, for example, limited/slow internet access, DPE-initiated intensive ICT programmes is currently in the third phase of PEDP programme. (b) It is important to now know the actual outcome of such ICT projects, for example, content development by the teachers. (c) Some questions remain unanswered with the DPE projects (PEDP-1 and PEDP-2); how to improve learning outcomes, increase project completion rates and bridge the rural – urban students’/teachers’ performance gap. 2. Access to Information – Prime Minister’s Office A2I has worked in partnership with MoE, Ministry of Primary and Mass Education (MoPME), Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education (DSHE), and DPE to make ICT-enabled education accessible throughout the country. From providing ICT equipment for classrooms to training teachers to use the equipment, A2I has worked tirelessly to implement a holistic approach in using ICT in education. A2I started its interventions by testing the widespread myth about ICT in education – setting up expensive computer labs to provide basic computer literacy and technical know-how.

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Interventions/activities: ‘Teacher-led Digital Content Development’ programme, education blog (teachers.gov.bd) and multimedia classrooms. Target audience: Primary and secondary school teachers and classroom instructors. Outcomes: (a) Multimedia classrooms are established in primary schools, secondary schools and madrasas. (b) Primary and secondary school teachers create and share multimedia content via teachers’ portal. Comments: (a) Maintaining the teachers’ enthusiasm of sharing their content could pose a challenge. (b) All forms of media, especially video content, may be difficult to use in areas with low bandwidth.

Projects run by NGOs and private bodies Non-governmental organizations provide substantial support to rural and urban communities to gain social development. As education is one of the major indicators of social development, it is also a major focus of NGOs. Various local and international NGOs and agencies are constantly working to provide access to education to underprivileged groups. In this subsection, all the ICT in Education projects run by NGOs are discussed. 1. BRAC BRAC, one of the largest NGOs in the world, introduced an ICT-focused education programme in collaboration with local communities. BRAC Education Program (BEP) – inspired by the concept of rural libraries – provides computer training and internet services with a vision of building an ICT-enabled knowledge society in rural Bangladesh. This project targets the rural and semi-urban population of the country, with a focus on engaging women with the process of disseminating knowledge of ICT among the rural people.

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Interventions/activities1: (a) Computer-Aided Learning (CAL) is an endeavour to make the text content easier, interactive and more stimulating. BRAC started the CAL Programme in 2004 where computers are used as a medium of teaching. The main task of the programme is to develop interactive education software based on the national curriculum and thus improve the teaching capacity of teachers and make classes more interesting and exciting for the students. (b) Gonokendro (multipurpose learning centre) started in late 1999 by providing computers to its 10 Gonokendros. Most of the Gonokendros are located in the campuses of secondary schools (grades six through ten), where a primary school is also attached. Secondary schools usually have 400–500 students and primary schools have 200–300 students. (c) Adolescent Development Programme (ADP) was started in 1993 as a subset of BRAC’s school for older children. To retain the literacy rate and life skills that many girls lose after primary schooling, the programme primarily focuses on establishing adolescent clubs for girls (KishoriKendro), developing Adolescent Peer Organised Network (APON/Life Skill based Education), providing livelihood training courses and encouraging communication and creating awareness on relevant issues. Target audience: Students in rural and semi-urban areas. Outcomes: (a) These programmes bring positive changes in schools. (b) Students are more motivated and can learn effectively through ICT-aided study materials. (c) Acceptance and appreciation of these materials among the head teachers, teachers and students is encouraging. (d) The teachers in pilot schools state that they now feel more comfortable in managing a large class. (e) At present, 1,265 Gonokendros are equipped with computers (one to two computers in each centre with printers). Gonokendro members as well as outsiders get an opportunity to take basic computer courses and practise using computers in the Gonokendro and watch different types of CDs.

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Comments: (a) The expense of running the programme is divided between BRAC and the community formed by local people. Thus, the projects become self-financing in terms of covering operating expenses, which goes a long way in ensuring their sustainability. (b) While involvement of other private agencies has the potential of making the projects more effective, the involvement of local communities ensures that not only are the projects sustainable, but also that they have a higher rate of acceptance among local people. 2. British Council One of the unique contributions the British Council has made all around the world over several decades is to provide a platform to share knowledge and capacity-building in educational institutions. Interventions/activities: Schools Online is a project which helps the British Council use ICT in promoting education. This project was designed to improve the quality of teachers using ICT. Target audience: School teachers. Outcomes: Under this project, around 1,300 teachers have been trained. They are also planning to provide training on how to use and implement digital contents to some 8,000+ teachers. Comments: (a) While the project hopes to promote knowledge sharing by connecting teachers from different parts of the world, the applicability of those shared resources may be limited due to cultural differences (particularly with foreign schools) along with potential differences in terms of student and/ or teacher readiness. (b) The project still has a vast potential in bridging the quality gap between rural and urban schools.

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3. Development Research Network (D-Net) D-Net is a not-for-profit social enterprise with a vision for a society where information and knowledge facilitates all stakeholders’ participation in generating wealth and its equitable distribution for poverty alleviation. It pioneered in research on using ICT as a primary means for alleviating poverty, empowerment through minimized digital divide and access to information, civic participation, capacity development and employment generation. Interventions/activities: Smart Class Room (SCR) intends to bring the educational opportunities provided by advances in personal computers, internet, educational CDs and ICT-based interactive learning materials to secondary school students in rural Bangladesh. Target audience: Primary/secondary/higher secondary schools. Outcomes: (a) These audiovisual and interactive learning materials are expected to enhance students’ learning experience, and serve as useful tools for teachers. (b) As of June 2012, 150 SCRs have been established. Comments: Unlike many other projects, this one aims to address subject-specific issues with ICT intervention. Offline materials developed under this project have also mitigated the problem of poor infrastructures in rural areas. However, motivating new teachers to receive training might pose a challenge.

4. Change-Maker Change-Maker aims to address the problems of equity and access to education and quality materials for underprivileged students. Interventions/activities: E-School is a distance learning project meant to bridge the existing quality gap between rural and urban schools. It also attracts volunteers who are college graduates and young professionals to serve as teachers in low-income schools, particularly in rural Bangladesh through digital media.

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Target audience: One thousand students. Outcomes: (a) The project has already started working with 1,000+ students in over 200 schools. (b) In addition to the standardized curriculum, students are also taught about issues like climate change, nature conservation, personal health and hygiene, health care, nutrition, scientific agriculture, composting and organic farming. (c) Legal advice, filling in forms for birth registration, national ID, passport and so on are also offered to parents. Comments: This distance learning project is different from other programmes since it tries to educate schoolchildren on various contemporary socio-economic issues, and therefore has a bigger impact on the lives of the recipients. However, the project is yet to cover larger parts of Bangladesh, and may face infrastructural challenges while expanding.

5. Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication (BNNRC) The BNNRC is a national networking body that promotes the development of community radio in Bangladesh. It also advocates for free flow of information, equitable and affordable access to information, and access to the internet and communications technology for remote and marginalized communities. The BNNRC played a key role in the campaign to establish the first community radio station in Bangladesh. Interventions/activities: Basic English Language for Outreach Radio Audience (BELFORA) utilizes community radio to provide training in basic English. The curricula and episodes are developed for radio broadcasting. They also: (a) engage teachers, students and listener club members; (b) develop teaching handbook on English-language learning; (c) distribute radios to listeners; (d) provide capacity-building training for community radio staffs; and (e) publish English-language learning materials through local newspapers.

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Target audience: Students in secondary schools, school dropouts, members of listener groups, English-language club members and community residence. Outcome: A total of twenty-six episodes (thirty-six minutes in each episode) of radio programme are developed and broadcasted in the project areas. Comments: For people to continue listening, these episodes may need to be translated into local dialects in some areas.

6. Rahimafrooz Rahimafrooz is one of the largest business groups in Bangladesh to promote ICT in Education. Interventions/activities: DigiClass empowers teachers to transform traditional blackboard-and-chalk classrooms into interactive sessions with smart board. The multimedia content enables teachers to better explain complex concepts, which then helps students retain information for a longer period. Target audience: Primary school students in urban and rural areas. Outcome: Syllabus-compliant, multimedia-based interactive content was developed in partnership with Pearson. Around 42,000 content on 2D/3D image, animation, multimedia activities and so on have been developed so far. Comments: (a) Partnership with renowned organizations like Pearson has certainly ensured the quality of the content of this project. (b) However, unlike other projects it is expensive to install, thus limiting the accessibility. (c) Different NGOs working in this sector might provide these materials to schools in rural areas at a highly subsidized rate.

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Collaborative projects Various NGOs, private bodies and government organizations have jointly undertaken ICT in Education projects in order to gain the benefits of crossorganizational resources. These initiatives also portray the endeavour to address common challenges together. In this subsection, all the ICT for Education collaborative projects are discussed.

1. BRAC and British Council The British Council teamed up with BRAC, which already has a network of 8,000 long-established adolescent clubs that teach life skills and English through ICT across Bangladesh, and are attended by a quarter of a million teenage girls. This project aims to redress the gender digital divide and to create job opportunities for girls by breaking down the barriers they face in learning digital skills and English. The project uses portable netbooks preloaded with British Council digital English resources, solar-powered radios and micro-SD cards preloaded with audio for mobile phones. So far, there are 50 clubs in two rural districts and they have trained more than 700 girls aged fourteen to sixteen from low socioeconomic groups. Interventions/activities: English and ICT for Adolescent Girls (EITA) aims to contribute to the prevention of early and forced marriage through economic empowerment. The project focuses on reducing the gender digital divide in Bangladesh by providing improved employment and livelihood opportunities for adolescent girls through access to English-language and ICT skills. Target audience: Adolescent girls. Outcomes: (a) Improved confidence in English and ICT skills (tested through selfassessment and observations). (b) More positive perception and attitudes towards English and ICT skills, as well as leadership skills among the girls. Comments: Sustainability of clubs exclusively for girls may become a challenge once the project gets bigger, and reaches remote areas, due to sociological barriers.

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2. D-Net and Volunteers Association for Bangladesh-New Jersey In 2004, D-Net launched one of its largest programmes – the Computer Literacy Program (CLP) in collaboration with Volunteers Association for BangladeshNew Jersey, United States (VAB-NJ). Interventions/activities: CLP promotes the knowledge and usage of computers among underprivileged students in rural Bangladesh to minimize the digital divide that exists between people from different classes and social contexts in rural and urban areas. This programme intends to foster computer literacy by making personal computers and basic computer training accessible to young people in Bangladesh. Target audience: Students. Outcomes: (a) As of January 2013, a total of 69,680 learners have successfully completed the 40-hour course. (b) As of June 2012, 470 teachers have been trained under this programme. Comments: The project has covered large parts of Bangladesh and has astutely addressed the acute need to solve the power crisis by providing solar panels to many of its centres. It welcomes many private organizations and individuals to donate, and thus is less dependent on donor funding.

3. D-Net and British Council Launched in February 2013 as a pilot programme, After-School English Club is an initiative jointly taken by D-Net and the British Council to both introduce and enhance skill development in the fields of ICT and English. Interventions/activities: ‘Learn English Kids Bangla’ software (developed by the British Council) to teach more challenging subjects to students in a fun and nontraditional way. Target audience: Primary and secondary students.

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Outcomes: (a) Ten centres were established under this project. (b) Around 600 students are members of these clubs. (c) Students have improved their level of knowledge in operating basic functions in computers. (d) They have made significant progress in speaking, learning, reading and listening in English. Comments: (a) The use of a customized software for Bangladesh makes it easier to maximize the benefits of ICT. (b) The ‘offline’ feature of the software also makes the project relatively less vulnerable to poor infrastructure. (c) The opportunity to get certificates upon completion keeps students motivated to learn.

Government strategic perspective In this section, we present the strategy-plan-programmes of the GoB through various interactions with the minister of telecommunications and information technology and key government officials.

Digital Bangladesh The present government established ‘Vision 2021’ with a target to form a modern country or ‘Digital Bangladesh’ through the effective use of ICT. ‘Digital Bangladesh’ does not imply the mere use of ICT; rather it implies the proper use of ICT to ensure that quality education and health are provided, and poverty is alleviated. The government started the process of leadership development to fulfil this vision and launched a number of initiatives which have demonstrated to policymakers and citizens alike the benefits of utilizing ICTs for service delivery. The government has also established a foundation for an enabling environment with an actionable ICT Policy 2009 and Right to Information Act 2009. Project activities or movements that are related to ICT education include:

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development of strategy for ICT use in education, and e-learning materials and Education Management Information Systems (EMIS), ICT equipment, internet connectivity and establishing computer labs in schools.

Strategic vision/GoB programmes on ICT-led education This ICT strategic vision by the GoB sets the direction for use of ICT in the field of management and operation of primary-level educational system in the country. The vision is an enhancement of the GoB’s capability through use of ICT with a view to enable delivery of a more integrated, responsive and targeted information and services, improve functional efficiency and support the national goal of becoming a middle-income country by 2021. To attain the ICT-enabled education vision, GoB considers the following objectives through DPE (DPE, 2013): 1. Providing access to technology-information-communication GoB programmes enrich the ICT services by making sure of not only providing ICT infrastructure to people but also by making it convenient. To accelerate the usage of ICT among rural people, this vision will convert every primary classroom to a multimedia classroom and create online services such as admission, registration, progress report cards, completing exam forms and paying fees for all students. GoB will be developing a Model School as an Information Access Centre with ICT facilities for teachers and students, thus creating a better ICT platform that is simplified and accessible for everyone. 2. Management and sustainability GoB stresses the importance of proper management and operational/financial sustainability of ICT projects. Some of the actions/programmes include developing a portfolio approach to strategic ICT investments, increasing the perceptibility of ICT activities, preparing a proper management for ICT activities and promoting environmental protection using ICT. More specifically, it will address the challenges of improving the administrative processes with greater use of information technology in a more transparent way and thereby speedily delivering the administrative decisions to the officers, teachers and staff, and, at the same time, quickly responding to any queries or complaints from the people. Further, new ICT interventions such as online data collection and processing

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system will be introduced for effective supervision of performances at the school level, including monitoring and evaluation of programmes. (3) ICT human resource development Interventions are planned or designed to provide teachers and staff appropriate trainings on computer and internet literacy, both basic and advanced, including sensitization programmes and using ICT when conducting training on other topics. Such interventions will build ICT knowledge, skills and capacity across the GoB, which will in turn help deliver more prompt and efficient services. (4) ICT security and privacy Attention has been given to the infrastructure and access to ICT when delivering services and improving operational performance. In addition to this, careful consideration will be given to the risks of new technologies in terms of security and privacy. More innovative and strategic use of ICT to ensure internet security and privacy for all the users including teachers and students, in addition to proper arrangement for regular maintenance of the equipment, are some of the upcoming interventions planned by the GoB.

Review of SC ICT projects Save the Children initiated a pilot project to improve the quality of primary education through an ICT-infused education system in government primary schools. With the permission of the DPE at the beginning of 2009, the main objective of the pilot project was to explore the observable changes in the quality of teaching and learning, resulting from the use of technology in the classroom. Since 2010, SC has been implementing ICT projects in rural government school classrooms in Meherpur district, Khulna division, with the aim of increasing student engagement and quality of teaching. Teachers in rural schools use computer-aided technology (multimedia) and e-Content to deliver lectures. This intervention was adopted at the national level. The most significant contribution of this project is greater participation and high interest in ICT-based classroom among the students and teachers in a rural area. The project has the following objectives: (a) improve teachers’ capacity and skills in creating a learner-centred classroom;

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(b) improve students’ English-language proficiency and test scores in key subjects; (c) improve teachers’ skills in keeping computer-generated records and analyse students’ performance; and (d) create strong collaboration and partnership with the government. Features/practices: (a) training the teachers for effective use of ICT in classroom; (b) e-content for students and teachers; (c) School Management Systems; Duration and project area: 2010-cont. (Meherpur). Target audience: School students and teachers. Challenges: (a) implementation in other schools; (b) delivery of the digital content/slides to the students; (c) limited IT resources and support.

Field data The ICT project has been implemented since 2010 by SC in rural government school classrooms in Meherpur district, Khulna division, with the aim of increasing student engagement and quality of teaching. The consultant visited some schools equipped with multimedia in classrooms in Meherpur district and interviewed respondents including teachers, students and guardians. 1. Facilitate learning process ICT facilitates students’ learning process by making learning easier through visual actions, interesting methods and animations. Rana2 is a fourth grade student. According to his parents, he was not very attentive in class but when SC introduced multimedia classrooms in the school, they found him more eager and willing to study at home. Rana said, ‘I find it very easy to understand the class content and teachers. The pictures teachers show us on the projector are interesting and we can understand them easily.’

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2. Student-oriented learning SC’s ICT intervention focuses on student-centric or -oriented learning by providing hands-on training in the use of computer and internet. Now, students are more interested in the classes and they can have practical learning on the use of computers in multimedia classroom. Habibur Rahman from third grade said: ‘We can learn the use of computer and Internet practically in our class. Our teacher imparts student-oriented learning so that we can capture the technique of using ICT very easily.’ 3. Skill development and students’ performance A school teacher emphasized, ‘We benefitted from this project as we develop our IT skills using multimedia and internet.’ His optimistic view continued, ‘Students’ attendances in multimedia class is higher than other classes. … Students willingly participate in question and answer sessions during the classes. This has a significant impact on students’ results.’ Below are two vignettes that demonstrate the successful implication of ICT projects in rural Meherpur.

Title Name of the person recording the story: Region Date of narration Who was involved

Rural school teacher communication during interview Consultant Meherpur Jan/Feb 2014 XXX

What happened? ‘ICT itself is a teacher. Before using ICT in the classroom, I was very concerned about the low attendance rates of the students. In rural areas, most of the students’ houses are far away from the school. It was difficult for me to motivate the students to attend classes regularly. I usually forced them to come to school but I could understand that it was not an effective way. ICT came as a blessing in our education system. After attending the ICT-based training, most of the teachers use ICT to make their classes more interactive. Students are very interested in attending classes where ICT is used. As a teacher, I realized that ICT makes me more efficient to do any work and it also helps me share my knowledge with the students more effectively. At present students’ attendance is not the issue. Now we focus on increasing the quality issue in our education system.’ What difference has it made already or will it make in future? ‘Earlier, teachers of primary school were relatively less efficient in delivering lectures to students. But ICT allows them to prepare lecture materials more efficiently and faster. It helps them share knowledge with students beyond textbooks. In future, I believe teachers will use ICT to ensure quality education is provided to the students.’

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Title Name of the person recording the story: Region Date of narration Who was involved

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Rural school teacher communication during interview Consultant Meherpur Jan/Feb 2014 XXX

What happened? ‘As I am a student of a rural primary school, it was beyond my imagination that our teacher would use ICT in the classroom. Prior to using ICT, our teacher came to class with books and forced us to bring the books every day. I went home and memorized the books very carefully as I might be asked questions by my teacher the next day. I was concerned about memorizing rather than understanding any topic. Our teacher tried his level best to make us learn the lesson. But the problem is with the traditional teaching method. Once our teacher started using ICT to show some videos related to the lessons covered in the class, I could understand the lesson. I realized why I was reading this topic and the application of this topic in my future life. After that I did not miss a single class.’ What difference has it made already or will it make in future? ICT brings a very radical change in the education system. It was unbelievable that a primary school located in the rural area where most of the modern amenities are missing is now helping students to connect to the global world by proving modern education to the students. Students are now more interested in learning as ICT makes lessons very effective and interesting.

Conclusion and recommendations With all the analysis and strategic objectives that different institutions have, we revealed some factors for successful adaptation and implementation of ICTenabled educational projects in rural Bangladesh. The factors that could be strategic guidelines for SC are operational sustainability, financial sustainability, capacity-building and community development. Without ensuring all these factors are in shape, ICT cannot be properly set in rural areas. For operational sustainability, SC should make sure of selecting operations that the NGOs already have in their activities. For financial sustainability, SC should select a project which is financially stable and promises a proper payback period with proper stability. An unstable project will just divert the project from its real objective. Most importantly, capacity-building and community development should be done collaboratively. Changing the education pattern in a rural economy cannot be done in a day. It is a process that requires training to create development among the learners, which will gradually change the whole educational system into this new era.

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Some recommendations have also been provided as to what steps should be taken to make such projects successful in future: 1. 2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

Give students exposure to computers outside of ‘normal’ lessons – ICT clubs, student-run companies and scientific competitions would all be beneficial. An improvement in student activity – peer mentoring – where one student teaches or mentors another student. Peer mentoring will enable students who are not part of the project learn from those who are. This will assist in spreading the technique of education faster and hence enable it to be more recognized. Daily or weekly assessment can be introduced to check the progress. Develop and improve Monitoring and Evaluation Log frame – Google Docs surveys could be used for students and teachers in order to have more robust ways of evaluating and improving SC ICT projects using volunteers and outside experts. Monthly prize-giving programmes should be arranged for participation, innovation and performance. Make teachers comfortable – not everyone needs to gain the same skills. For some, it is enough to know how to move through a PowerPoint presentation that was created by a colleague. Digital board can be introduced for a cheerful learning system. Readers can manage e-contents in one computer application, including electronic textbooks, class materials and notes, as well as complementary content and reference materials. Despite SC’s continuous efforts to update e-content, it requires very high attention at the policy level. Since most students and teachers are accustomed to paper books, there is a huge tendency among them to go back to the previous mode of education. If the e-content is kept interesting and updated, then the chance of relapse into paper books will be low. The teacher forum should not only be limited to the teachers involved in the project in Bangladesh. The forum should be highly promoted in various countries to get diversity as well as experience of teacher from various backgrounds. Effective leadership in the use of ICT in learning and teaching is important. Schoolteachers should take a leading role in the effective use of ICT in their own teaching. The effectiveness of many of the projects in the field of ICT development and education is seen if they are planned and implemented in a long-term frame through stakeholders/community participation. During information events (presentations, workshops, trainings) strategic, thematic and methodical approaches should be presented and discussed.

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To ensure the operational excellence of ICT-enabled educational projects, they should be planned in such a way that the activities of the projects can be executed properly from the beginning to the end of the project. The operations of the projects must be flexible. The operating environment must be responsive to changes and can make the best use of new opportunities, for example, teacher evaluation, e-learning or mobile-based learning. 9. A minimum ICT competency training is required prior to giving digital content creation/design/delivery training to teachers. Specific attention should be given to the teachers who might face difficulties fitting into their new roles as teachers in a student-oriented system (e-content), which requires them to reposition themselves from instructors to facilitators. 10. SC ICT projects can align with the GoB vision in many aspects. For instance, SC can contribute to technology-related project management facilities and also make the new ICT models adaptable in rural areas by arranging for training workshops. 11. Providing secure access to school networks means students can gain access to digital content and tools through a variety of devices wherever they are, and parents can access tools and information they need to reinforce learning at home. 12. It is important to have a more aggressive approach in pursuing gender balance and equal participation of students and teachers in SC ICT projects. Further, the programme is entitled to get the media exposure that SC deserves. 8.

Notes 1 Extracted directly from an email communication (draft) from Mr Newton, BRAC Education Program. 2 All the names from the fieldwork have been changed.

References Anwer, M. (2006). ICT for Better Society. International Conference on Computer and Information Technology. Dhaka. Boyatzis, R. E. (1998). Transforming Qualitative Information: Thematic Analysis and Code Development. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.

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Directorate of Primary Education (June 2009). ‘First Primary Education Development Program (PEDP1)’. Ministry of Primary and Mass Education: Government of the Peoples’ Republic of Bangladesh. Directorate of Primary Education (June 2010). ‘Second Primary Education Development Program (PEDP2). Ministry of Primary and Mass Education: Government of the Peoples’ Republic of Bangladesh. Directorate of Primary Education (June 2011). ‘Third Primary Education Development Program (PEDP3)’. Ministry of Primary and Mass Education: Government of the Peoples’ Republic of Bangladesh. Directorate of Primary Education (DPE 2013) (March 2014). ‘3rd Primary Education Development Program – ICT strategic Vision and Plan’. Ministry of Primary and Mass Education: Government of the Peoples’ Republic of Bangladesh. Gibbs, C. (July 1995). ‘Strengths and Weaknesses of Rapid Appraisal’. The Participation Forum Workshop, CDIE, Washington, DC. http://www.usaid.gov/about/part_devel/ docs/pdiwksp1.html [Accessed 12 October 2013]. Harris, R. W. (2002). ‘ICT for Poverty Alleviation Framework’. spb.org.ru/gardarika/ design/ci/ci-text/harris.doc [Accessed 12 October 2013]. Khan, A. R., Hadi, R. S. and Ashraf, M. (2013). ‘The Impact of ICT on Education: A Study on Rural School’. Communication in Information Science and Management Engineering, 3 (8), 367–73. Leach, J. (2005). ‘DEEP IMPACT: An Investigation of the use of Information and Communication Technologies for Teacher Education in the Global South’. Researching the Issues (DFID), 58. Martin, W. and McKeown, S. (1993). ‘The Potential of Information and Telecommunications Technologies for Rural Development’. Information Society, 9 (2), 145. Miles, M. B. and Huberman, A. M. (1994). Qualitative Data Analysis: An Expanded Sourcebook, 2nd edn, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Rahman, M. L. (2006). ‘Global Context of ICT Development and Bangladesh’. International Conference on Computer and Information Technology. Dhaka. Save the Children in Bangladesh (2013). ‘Communication & resource Mobilization Department’. www.bangladesh.savethechildrent.net [Accessed 20 January 2013]. Stake, R. E. (1995). The Art of Case Study Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Tinio, V. (2003). ICT in Education. New York: UNDP. Wagner, D. A. (2005). ‘Monitoring and evaluation of ICT for Education: An Introduction’. In D. A. Wagner, B. Day, T. James, R. B. Kozma, J. Miller and T. Unwin. Monitoring and Evaluation of ICT in Education Projects – A Handbook for Developing Countries, 1–18. Washington: World Bank.

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Bhutan: Politics, Culture and the Modernization of Education David Johnson

Introduction Michael Rutland (1999, p. 284), the former tutor to the fourth king, described Bhutan prior to modernization as ‘a virtually unknown kingdom, with no roads, no telephones, no mail service, no airports, and virtually no shops. The economy was almost entirely based on barter. Health care was primitive or non-existent, and schooling was confined to the monasteries’. And those who currently study in Bhutan maintain that despite a degree of modernization, much of its way of life has remained largely unchanged (Crins, 2008; Ueda, 2003). Even with significant levels of improvement to its physical infrastructure, it is still described as ‘a culturally secluded country’ (Balamurugan and Tobgay, 2008; Crins, 2008; Solverson, 1995; Collister, 1988; Sinha, 1998). For some, the pace of change has not been rapid enough, courting the suggestion that Bhutan shuns foreign influence to its detriment; while for others, it is precisely because of its geography and its expressed isolationist policies that its rich traditional culture has developed relatively undisturbed by external influence (Whitecross, 2008). At the heart of the debate is education – in its form, purposes and functions. More precisely, what role does education play in the political, social and economic life of the country. On the one hand, there is a strongly held view that national development and economic progress depend largely on a modern and globally aligned educational system, one that is responsive to a rapidly changing world economy and accommodative of the proliferation of new media and technologies. On the other hand is an equally strong belief that a modernized educational system that mirrors those of more industrialized societies threatens

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distinctly social and cultural ways of learning and the patterns by which deeply held values and beliefs are communicated from one generation to another. One might say, then, that as the education system in Bhutan shapes and reshapes itself, there is a continuing tension between conservation and extension. The enduring question is whether Bhutan can find a way to preserve the modes and traditions through which knowledge is made while at the same time embrace new forms of thinking and new ways of learning; and of course, as it ascribes to the global ‘education for all’ drive, expand the share of its population participating in education. Or will culture and tradition be eschewed completely as Bhutan adopts what seems to be an irreversible pathway towards a modern – and some might suggest ‘Western’ – system of education? This is a dilemma that sits at the heart of Bhutan’s struggle to afford its youth the opportunities associated with modernization and global connectedness while at the same time preserving its rich cultural and social patterns of meaning-making. How then is Bhutan navigating this pathway? Recognizing that educational change over time is anything but linear, this chapter employs a set of metaphors – advent and consolidation, attraction and adoption, adaptation and indigenization, extension and transformation, and differentiation and concordance – to tease out some of the main dilemmas of Bhutan’s modernization project and the key elements of educational thinking and actions throughout different periods, some of which persist from one period to another. The use of metaphors as a heuristic devise for tracing and comparing the trajectories of educational change in various countries builds on the rationale offered by Johnson (2006). Then as now, the argument is that there is limited work in developing countries that documents and analyses swings in educational thinking or in educational policy, and the contemporary or historical determinants that underpin them. A consequence is that many of these countries have limited institutional reference points that hamper their capabilities to make informed policy decisions while leaving them vulnerable to ‘uninformed’ policy borrowing. In the case of Bhutan, as we shall see in this chapter, there is excellent documentation every five years of the most pertinent educational problems, of policy thinking and of policy imperatives (the First to Tenth Five-Year Plans starting in 1960s). It is through an interrogation of these documents and through interviews of policymakers and senior educationalists (see Robles, 2016; Childs et al., 2010), formal consultations (Johnson et al., 2008) and focused group interviews (Johnson and Weber, 2009) that the major paradoxes and dualisms in educational thinking and action are uncovered.

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Advent and consolidation marks the beginnings of a system of formal teachings in the seventeenth century and the consolidation of state, religion and education through most of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The next period, attraction and adoption, is one in which Bhutan first flirts with modernization and develops an interest in the possibilities of a different model of schooling. The period of adaptation and indigenization that follows represents the challenges associated with the imported model of schooling, of revision and reform, but also of alignment to national development goals. Then, extension and transformation symbolizes the attempt to seek alignment between, but also mediates the effects of, culturally unfamiliar ideas on local traditions and understandings. The final period differentiation and concordance represents the current struggles and dilemmas for Bhutan as it attempts to further expand its educational system, but in a way that is distinctive. Fuelled by the notion of ‘gross national happiness’ (GNH), this period is one in which Bhutan cautiously embraces modernization while preserving and making distinctive the values and teachings of the past. In a word, it describes a more confident, more assertive Bhutan that looks to point the way for a model of education that strikes a balance between conservationism knowledge and values achieved through centuries of ‘teachings’ and careful expansionism into a new educational world that promises new opportunities for larger numbers of young people.

The trajectories of educational change in Bhutan Advent and consolidation The earliest forms of education in Bhutan are thought to have been the religious teachings of Padma Sambhava, an omniscient saint from the Swat Valley who visited Bhutan in 746 ad (Dorji, 2008, p. 18). But the development of a more formal monastic system of education is attributed to Zhabdrung Ngonwang Namgyel (1594–1651), a Tibetan abbot (Wangyal, 2006). Under his rule, a Central Monk Body was established for the purpose of providing formal education in ‘Buddhist philosophy, liturgical chanting, dialectics and linguistics’ (Stiles, 2009, p. 61). Monastic education offered its students lessons in philosophy, ritual and meditation techniques, which formed the core of the curriculum (Phuntsho, 2000). Students attained literacy in Chöke, a script used mainly for memorizing religious texts and for authoring legal documents (Gyatsho, 2004; Roder, 2012;

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van Driem, 1994). In addition to learning Chöke, monks also studied written and spoken Dzongkha, which was used for daily communication. The traditional curriculum included training in the arts, such as music and dance, painting, embroidery and carving as well as studies in ‘astrology and astronomy, numerology and mathematics, calculation, book-keeping and accounting’ (Collister, 1988, p. 13). The completion of monastic education enabled monks to perform customary rituals in households and monasteries. But it also involved their ‘offering basic education, healing people, governing the village with village elders and providing moral and ethical guidance based on Buddhism’ (Ueda, 2003, p. 331). But monastic education was restricted – both in terms of what it offered and to whom. Robles (2014) writes that the singular purpose of the monastic curriculum was to prepare a small number of students to become monks. Admission into monastic institutions was not widely available and undertaken mainly by boys from ‘privileged’ families (Wangyal, 2006; Penjore, 2005). So, monastic education was restricted not only to wealthier families but also largely to males. Women were excluded, with the exception of a few nuns; and even then Roder (2012) and Zangmo (2009) argue that the religious training provided to nuns was of a lower quality than that provided to monks. Upon completion of training, monks were considered well educated and held prominent positions in society and were also qualified to undertake roles in the government. By contrast, educated nuns ostensibly held a lower status and were ineligible to engage in religious or political affairs (Roder, 2012; Zangmo, 2009). Monastic education in Bhutan thus assumed a particular form and function and was largely restrictive. But this in a theocracy did not pose any particular social or cultural problem.

Attraction and adoption The political transition in Bhutan from a traditional theocracy to a monarchy in 1907 marked a change in the function of the government away from ‘maintaining the institution of religion’ to guiding the nation towards development and shifting away from decades of self-imposed isolation from the outside world (Aris, 1994a, p. 10). Although the Buddhist ideology of the country remained intact, the primary function of the state was no longer solely religious. But having embarked on the road to national development, Bhutan required an education system that would support this project; and it looked with interest at the British educational model. Modern education started during the era of the first king, Ugyen Wangchuck (1907–26). According to Aris (1994a, pp. 104–5), Ugyen Wangchuck and his

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chamberlain, Ugyen Dorji, were keen to develop modern education for selected boys. In 1914 a school was started in Haa, and in 1915 another school was founded at the king’s palace in Bumthang, especially for his heir and a few other boys. Also in 1914, forty-six boys were sent to a Scottish missionary school in Kalimpong, India. Robles (2014) suggests that the decision to look outside the country for an education system suited to national development goals was steered by His Majesty Jigme Dorji Wangchuck who may have been influenced by his own educational experience as a student in Kalimpong where he was educated in a ‘British manner’. Ura (2010, p. 62) supports this assertion, and writes, ‘His Majesty drew influence from his visits to Scotland and Switzerland and chose elements that were suitable to Bhutan.’ It seems then that Bhutan’s ‘attraction’ (Phillips and Ochs, 2004) towards the ‘Western’ model of education was sparked by the third king’s own experiences and perceptions of education in the West being a pillar of modernization. The first modern schools were established in the late 1950s in the Haa valley (Ura, 2010; Collister, 1988) and were supported by Great Britain. Indeed, they were modelled in the fashion of ‘British independent schools’ (Collister, 1988, p. 13) – their form and content to all intents and purposes British. Interestingly, while the model of British schooling was the attraction, it was the fact that they had taken root in India that provided the impetus to their replication in Bhutan. Indeed, not only were these English-medium schools imported from India, so too were textbooks and teachers. By the 1960s there were several such British Independent Schools in Bhutan but they were not unified by a common curriculum. Robles (2014) in her work points to the role of Father Mackey, a Canadian Jesuit priest who taught the children of King Jigme Dorji Wangchuck, and claims that he had a significant influence on the development of modern education in Bhutan. Mackey drafted the first education policy document in 1963 (Solverson, 1995) and fashioned the content of the curriculum and the medium through which it was taught. He faced two major difficulties. First, that of the selection of a language of instruction. Of over seventeen dialects spoken in the country, Chöke was the only form of language that was written as well as spoken. However, Chöke was reserved solely for religious purposes and it was thus determined to be inappropriate as a medium of instruction in a secular system of education (Phuntsho, 2000). Dzongkha, the national language, was also the dominant language used in the western region of Bhutan; however, if it were employed as the medium of instruction, Bhutanese students would find it difficult to pursue further educational studies outside of Bhutan.

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English was eventually chosen as the medium of instruction in the secular school system, the perceived benefits outweighing the disadvantages. It was seen to be an ‘international’ language used widely in the neighbouring India (Solverson, 1995). Collister (1988) also points out that there were no secondary schools in Bhutan prior to the 1960s and selected groups of Bhutanese students attended secondary school in India. The second challenge for Mackey was the modernization of the curriculum. Mackey chose to use a curriculum borrowed from the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education that included the basic subjects of mathematics, science, history and geography. His reasoning was that this would allow those who completed primary schooling in Bhutan to pursue secondary education in India. Furthermore, the Indian curriculum also prepared graduates to enter Indian colleges. Enabling graduates to pursue further studies abroad was important because Bhutan had no universities in the early 1960s (Solverson, 1995). This being as it may, the problem was that there were no qualified Bhutanese teachers to teach the curriculum or school administrators to run the schools. Father Mackey filled these positions with staff from India (Ueda, 2003; Solverson 1995), thus introducing to Bhutan a wholly foreign model. This was met with some resistance. One of the biggest problems for Bhutan in this period was that many Bhutanese considered the modern system of education alien (Stiles, 2009; Ueda, 2003; Dyenka, 1999; Solverson, 1995) and were sceptical of its social utility (Phuntsho, 2000). It is interesting therefore that the first students were conscripted into schooling. And despite efforts to indigenize the curriculum, many still referred to the system as a ‘colonial relic’ (Tobgye, 2012). It is clear then that the introduction of modern education had far-reaching consequences. Phuntsho (2000, p. 97) argues that the shift from traditional (mainly monastic) to modern education led many people to believe that monastic communities were ‘non-productive’ and ‘social parasites’ in economic terms, and that the traditional education system was ‘a resilient left-over from the past’ (p. 112).

Adaptation and indigenization By the 1980s, a more considerable educational infrastructure had been developed. The foreign model of schooling had been extended more widely and so too the thinking about the utility of schooling. In this period, Bhutan adopted its Fifth Development Plan (1981–86) that included the following objectives:

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To provide educated and trained manpower to meet the growing needs of development programmes; to bring about a modernisation of society by introducing them to science and technology and thereby enabling them to join the mainstream of contemporary civilization; and, to preserve and promote the country’s rich cultural and spiritual heritage, preventing the alienation of the educated from this heritage. (ibid.)

The paradox of modernization and preservation presented itself more sharply in this period. The challenge, it seems, was to adapt the form and content of schooling to suit the national character of Bhutan while recognizing that the country’s broader goals had changed. National development was the watchword and an educated and trained ‘manpower’ the ultimate goal. But not, it seems, at the cost of losing its spiritual and cultural heritage. There was an additional, persistent challenge: of how to adapt the model of schooling imported from Britain via India, teachers and all. By the start of the Sixth Five-Year Plan (1987–92) several successive education reforms had sought to both contextualize the curriculum and orient schooling towards national development goals. Its objectives were justified as follows: Having been structured on the Indian system, the education system in Bhutan needs to be reformed to relate it to the values, environment and the history of Bhutanese people. (Planning Commission, 1987, p. 33)

The educational challenge for Bhutan in this period was to both point the system in the direction of national development and reform it so that it was more Bhutanese in character and outlook. Both the Fifth and Sixth Five-Year Plans emphasized the conservation of traditional Bhutanese heritage and the ‘reorientation’ of the curriculum to make the content relevant to the Bhutanese people.

Extension and transformation Since its First Five-Year Plan, the Royal Government of Bhutan had made significant investments to expand modern education alongside monastic education. Between 1997 and 2007 Bhutan adopted the Eighth, Ninth and Tenth Five-Year Plans. This was a decade that saw rapid social transformation in Bhutan, increased international engagement (Crins, 2008) and an educational system striving to keep up. The formal introduction of television and the internet in 2001 and the shift in state leadership from monarchy to democratic monarchy in 2008 created ‘massive anxiety about cultural change and loss’ (Roder, 2012).

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Indeed, World Bank data shows that internet users rose from 1 per cent of the population in 2001 to 25 per cent in 2012 (World Bank EdStats). Net enrolment in secondary education rose from 34.7 per cent in 2005 to 56.8 per cent in 2012 and unemployment dropped from 3.8 per cent of the total labour force to 2.1 per cent. The rapid growth in work opportunities and the growth in international communications brought Bhutan in much closer contact with the international community than it had ever been before. Participation in education had risen exponentially as had literacy rates. According to the Bhutan Living Standard Survey (2003) the literacy rate in the age group of 10–14 years was 75.3 per cent. Unsurprisingly, the prominence and prestige of English grew as did, perceptibly so according to Robles (2014), the social preferences for Western culture and values. Understandably, the prolific rise in the use of English and its accessibility through both electronic and print media presented a concern to the cultural conservationists. It was seen to threaten the usage of Dzongkha and other local languages (Dorjee, 2006; Wangyal, 2006). But, there was also a wider concern that the rise of English distorted perceptions of what it meant to be a person capable of making a contribution to society – economically, socially or politically. Phuntsho (2000, p. 112) argues that in modern Bhutan, being literate means having fluency in English. And as Dorjee’s (2006, p. 126) study revealed, for most Bhutanese, ‘English is regarded as a language of education, social status, social position, and prestige’ while local languages are seen by some to represent traditional (premodern) Bhutan and as such have little value in modern life. And economically, Roder (2012) suggests that fluency in English is now a requirement for entry into positions in the civil service. But the impact of these social changes on traditional ways of life had not gone unnoticed. The National Human Development Report (Planning Commission Secretariat, 2000), for example, states that the social changes associated with the country’s planned development may lead to conflict as a result of changes in traditional lifestyles, and holds that developing the nation will ‘depend on mitigating the foreseeable conflict between traditional cultural values and the modern lifestyles that inevitably follow in the wake of development’ (18). By the time of the Eighth Plan for Development (1997–2002), the imported model of schooling had been expanded, but it had also ‘largely been localized’ through reforms in the preceding years (Planning Commission, 1997). But what did localization amount to?

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Johnson et al. (2008) in their study of the localization of the science curriculum in Bhutan suggest that localization of the curriculum could not be divorced from the disciplinary basis of that curriculum. They reflect: In our observations of lessons and from the teacher interviews we found students motivated and engaged. The classes had a good deal of student centred learning and the curriculum encouraged localization of science and we did see teachers drawing on examples of science from the locality in their teaching. The textbooks also encouraged this approach. For example, in one lesson we observed students were asked to collect litter from the school grounds. The students did this with some enthusiasm and then, when the students returned to the classroom, they were encouraged to think about grouping and classifying the litter thus developing their skills of grouping and classification. (p. 14)

However, ‘we saw activities successfully carried out with little or no scientific conceptual underpinning accompanying the activity’ (ibid.). Hence, the Ninth Plan for Development (2002–2007) called for a wholeschool approach to integrate traditional values into the school community ‘through exemplary activities, participatory rules and organizational models in classrooms and schools’ (ibid., p. 72). The concept of GNH began to feature more prominently in educational policy thinking. The thinking, it seems, was to re-envision modern schooling – somehow to strip it of elements that were considered alien to traditional values and to redefine its purpose.

Differentiation and concordance The Tenth Plan (2008–13) describes the ‘rapid socio-economic transformation’ being experienced by Bhutan and the country’s cultural heritage is seen as an important tool to balance out the influences of globalization and its attendant pressures and impacts (Planning Commission, 2008, p. 15). Much of the educational thinking in this period struck a note of concordance between modernization and differentiation, the need for a different and distinctive model that was at once aligned to an irreversible tendency towards cultural and economic modernization and cultural preservation. But what was it about the modernization/conservation project that would need to be distinctive? The challenge for Bhutan was to find a balance – importantly, one that did not favour rapid expansion while simply paying lip service to the importance of culture and tradition. In this it was supported by the

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intellectual position that a traditional way of life is not always incompatible with, or in opposition to, a modern curriculum (McGovern, 1999). Robles (2016) found a striking ambivalence among the senior educationalists that she interviewed. For them, modernization and what it means to be modern was tied to Western notions of development (e.g. urbanization, a democratic government and economic development) and popular culture from the West. While, on one level, educational and national modernization was considered by the participants to be a ‘good thing’ for Bhutan, on another level, it was seen to be antagonistic to traditional ways of knowing and ways of life. In support of this position, Robles (2014) too points to the work of Cowen (1996, p. 158) who found that in many countries, education reforms aligned to modernization have allowed for ‘old structures to work in new ways (West Germany with its retention of stratified secondary education) or new structures to work in old ways (Japan with its combination of an American school structure and Japanese examining practices)’. Similarly, Inglehart and Welzel (2005, p. 19), in their revised theory on modernization, find cultural traditions to be relatively independent of economic progress. They explain: Although socioeconomic development brings predictable long-term changes in what people believe and want out of life, the influence of cultural traditions does not disappear. Belief systems have a remarkable durability and resilience. While values can and do change, they continue to reflect a society’s historical heritage. Cultural change is path dependant. (p. 20)

In other words, tradition and culture and ways of looking at the world will continue to exert influence on social changes. Robles (2014) refers to Shipman (1971) who argues that Japan’s education system was deliberately employed to rapidly advance modernization, initially in 1847 and again in 1941. At the same time, schooling was also used to uphold the traditional discipline of society by conveying traditional religious beliefs and instilling national pride (Shipman, 1971). For these scholars, Western forms of education support both the continuity of traditional culture and aspirations for modernity. Inspired by the knowledge that a modern educational system can support a modern agenda while at the same time carry forward traditional values and ways of meaning-making, Bhutan began to assert more strongly the concept of GNH. The Tenth Five-Year Plan (Gross National Happiness Commission, 2009, p. 108) emphasizes that value education should be inculcated in schools as a way to mitigate the ‘erosion of conventional social values due to rapid modernisation’.

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Today, the concept of GNH is gaining increasing international attention in contemporary Bhutan, most recently with its 2012 adoption by the United Nations as an economic development paradigm. What emerges is a clear thrust in policy text and discourse towards Bhutan’s distinctive notion of modernization, which calls for ‘maintain[ing] a harmony between economic forces, spiritual and cultural values’ by positioning GDP equally alongside GNH (Planning Commission Secretariat, 2000).

The effects of educational modernization on culture and society We turn now to look at the effects of educational modernization on the social, cultural and economic lives of Bhutanese people. According to Ura (2010), the early modernization process in Bhutan brought many benefits. There was an onset of a ‘democratic polity’ in which bonded labourers were set free, commodity taxes were converted to cash taxes, a national assembly was established and a series of laws were developed. Robles (2014) suggests that these social and political changes provided the foundations for the First Five-Year Plan that focused mainly on infrastructural modernization. This included the development of ‘roads, power, communication system, transport, agriculture and animal husbandry’, and the building of modern institutions, such as schools (Planning Commission, 1961, p. 1). The early modernization process paved the way for the modernization of the education system and the introduction of schools; but this was met with resistance. Many parents did not see the benefits of schooling and preferred to keep their children at home. The government, it seems, took steps to achieve equitable access to education. One senior politician interviewed by Robles (2014) reveals that in his gewog, a mule track divided the better off from the less well-off. To ensure fairness, one child was selected from above the mule track and another from below to attend school. Students from below the mule track in years to come have, it seems, held equally prominent positions in the government as their counterparts from above the mule track. Despite this, many high-level officials have remained critical of the Western model of education, seeing it as ‘alien’ to the Bhutanese. As we have seen from the discussion above, the modern schooling system, complete with textbooks and teachers, were imported from Britain by way of neighbouring India, the purpose

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being to establish rapidly a modern system of education able to contribute to the goals of the First Plan for Development. So, interestingly, the early modernization period laid the ground for the rapid expansion of modern education that in turn caused a dramatic series of changes to Bhutanese society. We discuss some of these changes here: Culturally and socially, the rapid pace of change in Bhutan drove a wedge between the ‘old’ and the ‘new’ worlds and created a demand for people to make sense of their daily lives with reference to both ‘worlds’. Inglehart and Welzel (2005) offer the example of a parent engaged in agricultural livelihood relying on ‘traditional’ rationales to explain the unpredictable forces of nature, while their son or daughter attends a secondary school in an urban area studying science and technology as the sources of authority on matters of daily life. Living in different worlds can, for instance, be seen in this quotation from Whitecross (2011), who lived with a family in Bhutan while conducting his research: From them I began to learn about and refine my understanding of Bhutanese life, culture and concerns. The youngest nephew was a traditionally trained amchi (doctor) who had completed his studies not in Bhutan but at the Chakpori Institute of Tibetan Medicine in Darjeeling. Initially educated in a small primary school in Dechencholing, a few miles north of the capital, Thimphu, he later attended school in Thimphu before studying at the Chakpori. His older brother after briefly attending primary school entered a monastery at a young age in Bhutan before being placed in a new monastery established near Kathmandu. By his late twenties, he had completed his formal education at a Tibetan monastery in southern India and been appointed as a teacher in the monastery’s philosophy college (shedra). Unlike the brothers, their mother lacked formal education as did her sister. However, their mother recited prayers memorized from being taught orally to her as a child and later by her husband, a gomchen (lay religious practitioner). Their uncle, a former monk from northeastern Bhutan and educated in a monastery was able to read and write in classical Tibetan. His education reflected the typical monastic/religious education that was the only form of education available in Bhutan until the early 1960s. He could calculate and prepare astrological charts, prepare and assist at religious ceremonies and acted as the local gomchen for other Bhutanese families. However, although he received a traditional education and values his understanding and knowledge of Buddhist teachings, Uncle would describe himself as ‘ignorant’ and ‘without knowledge’ compared to both his nephews and to his only daughter, Kesang, a primary school teacher now working in central Bhutan.

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Politically, according to Whitecross (forthcoming), it was the introduction of the secular system of education that readied Bhutan for its transition towards parliamentary democracy. Whitecross uses education as the heuristic to examine and reflect on the political evolution of Bhutan and the role that the current legal system and institutions have played in creating the conditions for democratization. He remarks: The remarkably smooth process of democratisation in the period from 1998 to 2008 built on the foundations created by the development of secular education during the second half of the twentieth century … and the rapid recent transformation of the Bhutanese state reflects the impact of, and the challenges created by, secular education.

Economically, Crins (2011) suggests that there is an emergence of a consumer culture in Bhutan and critiques the role of GNH in this. Gross National Happiness, she argues, ‘is a strategy for social and economic change which should be understood as a process that seeks to maximise happiness rather than economic growth, to seek a balance of spiritual needs and material needs’. Rather, she finds symbols of change associated with capital accumulation and market forces. These are perhaps most clearly observable in the capital Thimphu, which according to her ‘is booming with new buildings, shops and more and more cars’. The changes in Bhutan are steered at present by unprecedented economic growth; GDP grew at an average of 9.6 per cent over the Ninth Plan period between 2003 and 2007, taking into consideration an estimated growth of over 21.4 per cent in 2007. GDP per capita in 2006 was estimated at US$ 1,414.01 as compared to US$ 835 in 2002 (Tenth Year Plan). This view of rapid change is also examined by Fiore (2011) who turns our attention to the changes being brought about by modernization, in particular through the increasing use and availability of ICTs. He questions whether the intergenerational transmission of traditional forms of knowledge – seen as key to empowering sustainable livelihoods and well-being and essential to cultural projects such as religion – are declining in the current climate of social change. He posits that the current re-prioritization of knowledge acquisition is evident in Bhutan, with the practice of rites and rituals performed by gomchhens (lay monks) in danger of extinction. Similarly, Roder (2011) examines the effects of modern education on career aspirations and employment prospects of the youth. She argues that the modern educational system, as elsewhere, has produced what is being described as

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‘the crisis’ of youth unemployment. She argues that current understandings of appropriate aspirations are not only gendered but also linked to assumptions about class and education, and that ‘waiting’ is a career strategy that brings these potential differences into sharp relief. But it is Ueda who probes the impact of education in the rural regions of Bhutan and offers us a glimpse of the multiplicity and scale of the impact that school education has had in society. In Bhutan, as in other developing countries, tensions may arise when the aims of formal schooling are incongruent with the realities of the job market. In rural societies, schooling often engenders shifts in students’ expectations for employment. She quotes one of her respondents as saying that education cannot be considered entirely successful because ‘it only encourages people to leave their farm land’. As Roder (forthcoming) also found, one of the most pressing issues in the education sector is that young people cannot find a suitable job after leaving school, but are not coming back to their villages either, and more and more land is being left uncultivated. Educationally, the modernization of the educational system has also had an impact on teachers and teaching. Robles (forthcoming) studied the extent to which shifts in curriculum emphasis, with a focus on traditional knowledge, were mediated in the classroom. She found that for some teachers it was easier to discard traditional knowledge in favour of ‘modern’ scientific explanations. For others, it was important to strike a balance – to provide both explanations – but this was time-consuming; and for others still, there was an attempt to fuse knowledge so that both traditional and modern explanations were taught. An examination of the discourse at the political and policy levels is provided in Robles’s chapter, whose findings indicate a number of tensions stemming from the conflicting aims of education – that is, the imperative of education to advance socio-economic development while, at the same time, conserving and promoting ‘traditional’ knowledge and values. Her chapter shows a variety of complex, fuzzy and overlapping perspectives on the modernization of the education system. Many teachers reported that Bhutanese ‘traditional’ knowledge – or particular aspects of it – should be ‘diluted’, ‘left behind’, or excluded from the ‘modern’ curriculum. … For these teachers, traditional knowledge was presented as subordinate. The curriculum was perceived to prioritize Western perspectives over indigenous ways of knowing across a range of curriculum subjects. This theme was rendered in high relief in science subjects. (Robles, 2016, p. 33)

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Conclusions The chapter started by asking whether, as the education system in Bhutan shapes and reshapes itself, it can find a way to preserve the modes and traditions through which knowledge is made while at the same time embrace new forms of thinking and new ways of learning; whether culture and tradition can be eschewed completely as Bhutan adopts what seems to be an irreversible pathway towards modernization. The chapter traced the pathways of educational change through different historical periods, each marked by successive five-year plans, and considered the effects of education on the social, cultural and economic lifeworlds of Bhutanese society. We learnt that educational change in Bhutan is inextricably intertwined with modernization and national development; and that the early stages of modernization in Bhutan laid the groundwork for educational modernization, which came to Bhutan in the form of a ‘borrowed’ model. And as with all examples where educational systems are transplanted from one context to another, they court resistance from the local population and challenges that often take years to resolve, if ever. In the case of Bhutan, choices made in respect of the language of instruction, for example, continue to plague educationalists and policymakers. This appears unresolvable save for a major upheaval such as what we have seen years ago in Malaysia or Tanzania, where ‘imported’ languages were abolished in favour of national languages (or other imported languages). This of course led to other difficulties, and is a pathway ill advised. We have seen that an imported curriculum, complete with textbooks and teachers, has led to continuing difficulties in localization. This is even today an ongoing project for Bhutan. We have learnt too that reforms of the educational system in a way that aligns modern education with traditional knowledges and ways of knowing creates extraordinary challenges for teachers, many who have never been trained to mediate between indigenous knowledge and modern ‘scientific’ knowledge in their daily imparting of a subject. The modernization project in Bhutan, including the modernization of the educational system, did much good in improving literacy and educational uptake, with the possibilities of democratic participation. But the project has been harmful for some; traditional values and ways of life are being displaced, and rapid capitalism and rampant technologies are overtaking subtler ways of

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economic life and forms of communications. For some this is inevitable – it is what modernization is. For others, there is hope that the distinctiveness that Bhutan seeks to carve out in its educational system, framed by the concept of GNH, might yet be in time to save the country from being completely subsumed in the wake of that fast-moving juggernaut we call ‘globalization’.

References Aris, M. (1994a). ‘Introduction’. In M. Aris and M. Hutt (eds), Bhutan: Aspects of Culture and Development. United Kingdom: Kiscadale Ltd. Aris, M. (1994b). The Raven Crown: The Origins of Buddhist Monarchy in Bhutan. London: Serindia. Balamurugan, R. and Tobgay, S. (2008). ‘A Cross Cultural Comparison’. In F. Rennie and R. Mason (eds) Bhutan: Ways of Knowing, 245–53. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing. Childs, A., Tenzin, W., Johnson, D. and Ramachandran, K. (2012). ‘Science Education in Bhutan: Issues and Challenges’. International Journal of Science Education, 34(3), 375–400. Collister, P. (1988). ‘Bhutan, Yesterday and Today’. Asian Affairs, 19(3), 298–305. Cowen, R. (1996). ‘Comparative Education, Modernity and Perhaps Post-modernity’. Comparative Education, 32(2), 151–70. Crins, R. (2008). Meeting the ‘other’: Living in the Present, Gender and Sustainability in Bhutan. Delft, The Netherlands: Uitgeverij Eburon. Crins, R. (2011). Bhutan: From a traditional to a (post)-modern society. Paper presented at St Antony’s College, Oxford. Dorjee, K. (2006). ‘Cultural Imperialism and Linguistic Change: Impact of Cultural Imperialism on Dzongkha Borrowing’. In Media and Public Culture: Proceedings of the Second International Seminar on Bhutan Studies, 121–37. Thimphu, Bhutan: Center for Bhutan Studies. Dorji, J. (2008). ‘Living by Traditions’. In F. Rennie and R. Mason (eds), Bhutan: Ways of Knowing. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing. Dyenka, K. (1999). Teaching High School English in Bhutan: A Study at the Crossroads of Language, Literature and Culture (Master’s thesis). http://hdl.handle.net/1882/42680 [Accessed 13 January 2016]. Fiore, N. (2011). Information Technology, Education and Modernization in Bhutan: The Cultural Space between Policy and Practice. Paper presented at St Antony’s College, Oxford. Gross National Happiness Commission (2009). Tenth Five Year Plan 2008-2013. Volume 1: Main document. Thimphu, Bhutan: Royal Government of Bhutan.

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Gyatsho, L. (2004). ‘Difficulty in Teaching Dzongkha in an English Medium System’. In K. Ura and S. Kinga (eds), The Spider and Piglet: Proceedings of the First International Seminar on Bhutan Studies. Thimphu, Bhutan: Center for Bhutan Studies. Inglehart, R. and Welzel, C. (2005). Modernization, Cultural Change, and Democracy: The Human Development Sequence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Johnson, D. (2006). ‘Comparing the Trajectories of Educational Change and Policy Transfer in Developing Countries’. Oxford Review of Education, 32(5), 679–96. Johnson, D. and Weber, M. (2009). An evaluation of in-service teacher education in Bhutan. UNESCO. Unpublished Report. Johnson, D., Childs, A., Ramachandran, K. and Tenzin, W. (2008). ‘A needs assessment of science education in Bhutan’. Retrieved from United Nations Education Culture Scientific Organization website: portal.unesco.org/geography/en/files/11198/../ Final%2BReport.pdf [Accessed 13 January 2016]. McGovern, S. (1999). Education, Modern Development, and Indigenous Knowledge. New York and London: Garland Publishing, Inc. Penjore, D. (2005). ‘Folktales and Education: Role of Bhutanese folktales in Value Transmission’. Journal of Bhutan Studies, 12, 47–73. Phillips, D. and Ochs, K. (2004). Educational Policy Borrowing: Historical Perspectives. Didcot: Symposium Books. Phuntsho, K. (2000). ‘On two Ways of Learning in Bhutan’. Journal of Bhutan Studies, 2, 104. Planning Commission (1961). First Five Year Plan (1961–6). Thimphu, Bhutan: Royal Government of Bhutan. Planning Commission (1997). Seventh Five Year Plan (1993-1997). Thimphu, Bhutan: Royal Government of Bhutan. Planning Commission (2008). Tenth Five Year Plan (2008–2013). Thimphu, Bhutan: Royal Government of Bhutan. Planning Commission Secretariat (2000). Bhutan National Human Development Report. Thimphu, Bhutan: Royal Government of Bhutan. Robles, C. (2016). Education and Society in Bhutan: Tradition and Modernisation. London. Routledge. Roder, D. (2011) ‘Too good to teach’: learning to aspire, learning to wait. Paper presented at St Antony’s College, Oxford. Roder, D. (2012). ‘Girls should come up’ Gender and Schooling in Contemporary Bhutan (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database (UMI No. 3505689). Rutland, M. (1999). ‘Bhutan: from the mediaeval to the millennium’. Asian Affairs, 30 (3), 284–94. Shipman, M. (1971). Education and Modernisation. London: Faber. Sinha, A. (1998). Bhutan: Ethnic Identity and National Dilemma. New Delhi: Reliance Publication House.

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Solverson, H. (1995). The Jesuit and the Dragon. Outremont, Quebec: Robert Davies Publishing. Stiles, K. (2009). Navigating Learning in Bhutan, Land of the Thunder Dragon (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database (UMI No. 3371687). Tobgye, S. (15 September 2012). ‘The Blazing Trail of Bhutanese Education’. Kuenselonline. http://www.kuenselonline.com/2011/?p=31031 [Accessed 13 January 2016]. Ueda, A. (2003). Culture and Modernisation: From the Perspectives of Young People in Bhutan. Thimphu: Center for Bhutan Studies. Ura, K. (2009). A Proposal for GNH Value Education in Schools. Thimphu, Bhutan: Gross National Happiness Commission. Ura, K. (2010). Leadership of the Wise: Kings of Bhutan. Thimphu, Bhutan: Centre for Bhutan Studies. van Driem, G. (1994). ‘Language Policy in Bhutan’. In M. Aris and M. Hutt (eds), Bhutan: Aspects of Culture and Development. United Kingdom: Kiscadale Ltd. Wangyal, T. (2006). ‘Ensuring Social Sustainability: Can Bhutan’s Education System Ensure Intergenerational Transmission of Values?’ Journal of Bhutan Studies, 3(1), 106–31. Whitecross, R. (2008). ‘“Virtuous Beings”: The Concept of the Damtshig, and Being a Moral Person in Contemporary Bhutanese Society’. Himalaya, 28(1–2), 72. Whitecross, R. (2011). Transmission, translation and transformation: the lineages of law and the role of education in the democratisation of Bhutan. Paper presented at St Antony’s College, Oxford. Zangmo, T. (2009). Women’s Contribution to Gross National Happiness: A Critical Analysis of the Role of Nuns and Nunneries in Education and Sustainable Development in Bhutan (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database (UMI No. 3359167).

5

India: Trajectory and Transitions of Education Ch. Radha Gayathri

Education has for long been recognized as the single most important instrument for social and economic transformation. It is seen as an essential tool for both improving the quality of life of people and sustainable economic development of the nation. India accorded high priority to providing education to all by declaring in Article 45 of its Constitution in 1950 that ‘the state shall endeavour to provide, within a period of 10 years from the commencement of the Constitution, free and compulsory education to all children until they complete the age of fourteen years’ (Bakshi, 1997, p. 73). However, even after sixty-seven years of becoming independent and despite various and varied state policies from time to time, this goal of achieving total literacy has been elusive. India has a very long history of education spanning more than 3,000 years. Education in India has a chequered history and the current education system has its moorings in its colonial past. The current education fabric of India is a result of weaving of different strands of educational traditions and systems which evolved at different phases of its long history. Whenever a new education tradition was practised and dominant, the older systems were relegated to the margins but continued to exist in parallel. Multiple educational systems, that is, the ancient Vedic and Brahmanical Sanskrit oral education tradition, the Buddhist and Jain tradition of education in Samghas, the Madarsha and Maktab education of Islamic tradition during the Medieval times and the formal institutionalized secular education system introduced by the British administrators continue to coexist. The present chapter is an attempt to trace the trajectory of the development of education from ancient times to the present day and also to highlight, very briefly, some continuities and major transitions it underwent from time to time.

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Before understanding education in India, it is imperative to first understand its social backdrop. Indian society is a vast and complex mosaic of traditions and cultures with its highly diversified religions, languages, geography, caste and regions. Religion has been the rubric of education till modern times and social norms pertaining to class, caste and gender determined one’s entitlement to education.

Ancient The history of education in India is fascinating and can be traced back to 1500 bc. Dr F. W. Thomason, distinguished Indologist, wrote that ‘education is no exotic in India. There is no country where the love of learning had so early an origin or had exercised so lasting and powerful an influence. From the simple poets of Vedic age to the Bengali philosophers of the present day there has been an uninterrupted succession of teachers and scholars’ (Thomas, 1891, p. 1). Vedas (Hindu religious texts) were the nucleus of the education system in ancient India (1500–1000 bc) and thus literature, science and art all originated from the exigencies of religion and served primarily religious purposes. Four Vedas, six Vedangas (auxiliary sciences), Upanishads (Hindu philosophical thoughts) and Aranyakas (texts pertaining to rituals and sacrifices) were the core subjects of education till 600 bc. The immediate objective of education during this period included preparation of individuals for their caste-based vocations and the ultimate objective, ‘self-realization’ and ‘Moksha’ (liberation of the soul). While all the three upper castes, Brahmins, Kshatriyas and Vaisyas, were entitled to education, it was the prerogative of only Brahmins (priestly caste) to teach and conduct sacrifices for others. Sudras, the lowest in the caste ladder, were denied Vedic education. Women were initiated into Vedic study but were gradually excluded. Women of the upper castes sometimes received education in their homes so as to enable them to assist their husbands in discharging social and religious responsibilities (Altekar, 1944). The outstanding feature of the ancient Indian education system was orality and memory, and mnemonics devices were the only methods of transmission and propagation of knowledge. Brahmins were considered ‘living books’ within a Vedic context, and the teaching and learning processes involved recitation and recapitulation, debates (shastrartha) and discussions, lecture method and selfstudy (svadhyaya). The medium of instruction was Sanskrit. Though writing

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was known by 300 bc in India, it was not widespread. In Vedic educational tradition, verbal skills (grammar, debate, logic), ritual techniques (geometry and arithmetic) and metaphysics and introspection (yoga) saw great growth. However, studies related to the physical world or subjects with no religious content (physics, mechanics, chemistry) were left out for craftsmen belonging to the lower castes. Training in business and crafts skills was given by apprenticeship and was often hereditary. One of the most significant features of ancient Indian education was the gurukula system under which a student had to live with his teacher, either as a member of his family or in the boarding house under the teacher’s supervision, till the end of his education. Usually, education started when the child was six years old and went up to the early twenties. A characteristic feature of ancient Indian education was the ‘monitorial system’ in which teachers took the help of advanced and brilliant senior students in teaching the juniors for effective management of the teaching and learning processes. Dr Andrew Bell, a Scottish Episcopalian priest and the president chaplain at Madras, realized the value of this Indian system of teaching with the help of monitors and wrote a book in 1798 advocating adoption of the same system in England. This monitorial or Madras system was instrumental in the expansion of primary education at very low cost in England between 1801 and 1845 ad (Nurullah and Naik, 1943, pp. 15–16). Indian epics and classical literature are filled with descriptions of hermitage and forests schools; this system was followed by the Buddhist and Jain saints in later ages. Learned Brahmins (teachers) were considered educational institutions in themselves, and endowments were made by kings, princes and the wealthy who considered it a sacred duty to help liberally those interested in education. Ancient Indian educational centres were thus mostly residential in character, with small clusters of teachers and students living and working together, in pursuit of knowledge and its creation, conservation and dissemination. Famous capitals like Taxila (Takshashila) and Benares were centres of a number of famous scholars who imparted instruction in their individual capacity. Two great ‘reactionary’ religious movements of Buddhism and Jainism were witnessed around sixth century bc in India against the hegemonic Brahmanical religion which became too ritualistic, complex and dogmatic. These two religions dominated the history of the country for about 1,200 years, that is, till sixth century ad, and continued to flourish till twelfth century ad in eastern India. Unlike Brahmanical educational traditions of individualistic effort, albeit largely defined by the caste system, institutional organization

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became the chief characteristic of education. Viharas (monasteries) became the centres of education, and were open to both men and women of all castes. Like Brahmanism, Buddhist and Jain education also aimed at nirvana (release from the cycle of rebirth and effects of karma) and was based on the religious teachings of Gautama Buddha and Mahavira. Vinay (conduct), sutta (sermon) and abhiddhamma (metaphysics) comprised the curriculum for Buddhist bhikkus (monks) and bikkhunis (nuns). The medium of instruction was local dialects and vernaculars facilitated its wide spread. There was no central regulating or organizational management or state interference in the running of these viharas. Each vihara had its own law and interpretation of precepts of Buddha and there was no uniformity or single rule for all. These were built and maintained from alms, gifts and endowments. Over the years, some of these viharas grew into huge establishments and attracted many scholars from as far as Korea, Tibet, China, Japan and so on. The history of development of higher education in northern India during these times can be pieced mainly from the reports of three Chinese scholars: Fa-Hien (399–414 ad), Huan-Tsang (629– 645 ad) and I-Tsing (673–687 ad) (Scharfe, 2002, p. 145). Takshashila was a great seat of learning associated with Hindu and Buddhist cultures and attracted students from-far off places in India and abroad. Here curriculum included the study of Vedatrayi, Vedanta, Vyakarna, Ayurveda, 18 sippas or arts, astronomy, agriculture, commerce, law and military science (Ghosh, 2001a, p. 83). While Nalanda University was dedicated to Mahayana and Tantric Buddhism, Vallabhi University was dedicated to Hinayana Buddhism. Vikramsila, Odantapuri, Jagaddala, Amaravati and Matipura were other important centres of Buddhist learning and were mostly destroyed by Muslim invasions of early twelfth century. Brahmanical education system continued during this period with some changes and innovations. This period saw the codification, compilation and simplification of existing religious scriptures into sutras (a collection of aphorisms). Some of the subjects which saw spectacular growth during this period were astronomy, grammar, arithmetic, trigonometry, algebra, medicine and law. Advaita Vedanta philosopher Bachaspatimisra of the tenth century describes Adhyayan (hearing of words), Shabda (apprehension of meaning), Uha (reasoning leading to generalization), Suhrutprapti (confirmation by a friend or teacher) and Daan (application) as the five steps for the realization of the meaning of religious ‘truth’ (tatvakatha). From a teacher’s perspective, these correspond almost to John Dewey’s steps, problem and its location, suggested solutions and selection of action, as discussed in his book How We Think (1910) (Mazumder, 1917, p. 77).

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Inspired by the Buddhist monastic colleges and universities, temple colleges were established for Sanskrit education and became prominent from the eighth century onwards. Agrahara (South India) and Brahmadeya (North India) were types of tax-free land grants given to Brahmins as well as temples and imparting education was one of the duties for these endowments. Similarly Ghatika, Brahmapuri institutions represented colonies of scholarly Brahmins specialized in different branches of study which were supported with land grants and other sorts of endowments (Scharfe, 2002). Ghatikas, Mathas, Salai of South India, Tols in Bengal, Bihar, United Provinces and Pathasalas in Punjab were the centres of Sanskrit learning with a private teacher system. Local rulers and landlords sponsored them, and these institutions of learning survived well into eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Medieval The beginning of the eighth century ad marked the advent of Mohammedan invasions in India, and from 1206 ad to 1757 ad India was under Muslim rule. The Arabs and Turks brought many new customs and institutions into India. Along with religion, society and culture, education in medieval India also experienced new perspectives. The Islamic pattern of education was also based on religion like the earlier traditions but differed from them in many respects. It is true that during this period the Muslim system of education became predominant; however, the older systems of education also continued. This period was thus marked by excellent interaction between Indian and Islamic traditions in all fields of knowledge like theology, religion, philosophy, fine arts, painting, architecture, mathematics, medicine and astronomy. Education in medieval India was largely based on Islamic education, that is, teachings of the Quran. Islam attaches immense importance to acquisition and extension of Ulm or knowledge and knowledge is one of the seven major attributes of ‘Allah’. The aim of education in Muslim India was to ‘bring out the latent faculties of the students to discipline the forces of their intellect and equip them with all that was essential for their moral and material improvement … education was regarded as a preparation of life and for life after death’ (Jaffar, 1972, pp. 27–8). Like in earlier education traditions, the state did not interfere or control the educational institutions but it did establish and facilitate them through grants and endowments. In Muslim society, teaching and the promotion

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of educational enterprises are regarded as necessary marks of religious vocation. In fact, it had been a popular practice on the part of Muslim rulers to make arrangements for the construction of mosques and setting up of centres of religious education (i.e. maktabs and madrasas) in the territories that came under their control. Several madrasas, libraries and literary societies were set up by sultans, nobles and their influential ladies through grants and endowments. Unlike earlier times education was open for all and arrangements were made for the free education of poor but promising students. Important posts of the states like those of judges, lawyers, commanders of the army and ministers were filled up from the educated classes. To tap into these employment opportunities, many Hindus were attracted towards Muslim education. Education was diffused through the three conduits of maktabs and madrasas, mosques and khanqahs (adjoining halls in Sufi shrines), and private homes. The medium of instruction was Persian, but the study of Arabic was made compulsory for Muslim students. Education started as the child attained the age of four years, four months and four days. Reading (pronunciation, punctuations, signs of accents), writing and elementary arithmetic were primarily taught besides the Islamic subjects (such as Quran recitations). Madrasa literally means ‘a place for learning and studying’. A madrasa was more like a college or postgraduate school and was usually attached to a mosque with one or more erudite teachers for imparting education. Some madrasas had hostels attached to them, which provided free boarding and lodging. Scholars were taught different subjects using the lecture method supplemented by discussions, and were trained to take up government posts. The content of the curriculum was both manqulat (revealed/transmitted knowledge) and maqulat (rational science) and covered a period of 10–12 years. Monitorial system was followed in the madrasas with a large number of students. The main subjects taught seem to have been religious-tafsir (interpretation of the Quran), hadith (tradition) and fiqh (jurisprudence), that is, the deep study of Quran, Mohammed and his conventions, Islamic laws and Islamic history and so on. Secular education included the study of Arabic literature, grammar, history, philosophy, mathematics, geography, politics, economics, Greek language and agriculture and so on. As there was no religious restriction for entry into madrasas, many Hindus entered these Islamic educational institutions for learning Persian which was mandatory for government jobs. Many Sanskrit books were also translated into Persian during this period and were used as texts for Hindu students attending the madrasas (Ghosh, 2001b; Jaffar, 1972).

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Many ulama (theologians) took up the task of teaching the main subjects of Islamic learning in local mosques. Often it was done voluntarily, as it was considered a noble deed (kaar-i-khair) or a source of divine reward (baithi-thawab). Sometimes their own houses flourished in the form of individual centres of teaching and functioned just like madrasas. Renowned teachers who imparted education were sometimes also hired by the rich and noble classes as private teachers (muallim, muaddib or ataliq) for educating their children at their residence. Although there was Pardah (curtain/female seclusion) system during the Muslim period, Islam did not oppose the education of women. That said, education for girls was the exception rather than the rule and was left to the wishes of their fathers and guardians. Muslim girls of affluent families studied Quranic exegesis, prophetic traditions, Islamic law (sharia) and related subjects at home. Girls were entitled to receive education equal to that of the boys up to a definite age but thereafter their education was stopped. Only the women of ruling class, nobility and other higher classes could afford an expensive private teacher and invariably the other women from poorer backgrounds could hardly do so. Delhi, Agra, Jaunpur and Ajmer were some of the important centres of learning during this period. During the Muslim period, there was provision for vocational, technical and professional education. The institution known as Karkhanas (manufacturing units) provided technical training to those who evinced special interest in and aptitude for handicrafts. It was based on the system of apprenticeship where an apprentice would observe and practice craftwork under the guidance of a teacher who had earned a good reputation in a particular vocation. Muslims had generally followed, in the field of handicrafts and architecture, the traditional Indian system. The continuous line of Muslim rulers for six centuries provided tremendous patronage for Muslim education. This is not to say that the earlier system of education and transmission became obsolete or redundant; it was only the quantum of state patronage to individuals and institutions, in addition to the bureaucratic requirements of the new administrative system and prevalent cultural norms of the society, which made the new system of education more visible. The survival of the earlier system of knowledge depended largely on the inner capacity of the previous tradition.

(Jafri, 2012, p. 8) In a few existing and struggling Hindu kingdoms and temple towns like Banaras, Kanchi, Vrindavan and Jagannath Puri, the transmission of Sanskritcentred studies and the teaching of other Hindu sciences also saw progress.

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Colonial era The modern system of education in India germinated in the attempts of Christian missionaries to spread their religion. The British who entered India for trading purposes through the East India Company undertook no educational activities for nearly one hundred years of its existence. By and large the company focused on trading alone, and Western education was imparted only to the children of Europeans in India. As the company started feeling continuous pressure from different sections like the Christian missionaries, the liberals, the utilitarians and the Anglicists, it finally agreed to take up the responsibility of promoting education. The Charter Act of the Company was renewed (1813) and a new provision was made in Article 43 by which the company was directed ‘to accept the responsibility of the education of Indians and to spend not less than Rs. 100,000 a year for this purpose’. This event was a turning point in the history of Indian education as it laid the foundation of a modern state system of education which is secular, formal, institutionalized and maintained by the state. A general committee of public instruction was set up in 1823 to exclusively look after the development of education in India. Since the modalities of enacting the provision of the 1813 Act were unclear, controversies emerged over several issues related to educational policy including the medium of instruction. The period between 1813 and 1835 was thus a period of discussions, controversies and experiments in the field of education in India (Zastoupil and Moir, 1999). By this time the well-to-do sections of society, especially in Bengal under reformers like Raja Ram Mohan Roy and Radhakant Deb had started believing that it was necessary for them to learn English and Western science. T. B. Macaulay’s famous Minute of 1835 had signalled a victory of the Anglicists, who favoured government schooling in English as a medium of instruction, over the orientalists, who supported the medium of local languages. The system of ‘English Education’ was thereby adopted where knowledge of Western literature and science was imparted through English as a medium of instruction. The schools for Oriental learning were not closed, but support for them was largely withdrawn. During the first quarter of the nineteenth century, native educational surveys and experiments were conducted in the provinces, that is, by Sir Thomas Munro (1822) in the Madras Presidency, Mount-Stuart Elphinstone (1823) in Bombay, William Adam (1835–8) in Bengal and Bihar, and Lancelot Wilkinson in Bhopal. These surveys have illustrated the vibrancy of indigenous schooling and

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the value of instruction in local languages. A decline of the indigenous system of education had already set in urban areas due to lack of patronage. The early part of nineteenth-century India witnessed the rise of a middle class that advocated strongly for English education (Misra, 1963). The gap between the ‘Englisheducated’ urban class and indigenous school-educated rural class thus started emerging. In 1854 Sir Charles Wood, then president of the Board of Control of the Company, issued the pivotal Education Dispatch covering the entire field of education – primary, secondary and university – aimed at bringing education to ‘the masses’. It rejected the earlier downward filtration theory and suggested the adoption of vernacular languages as the medium of instruction at the secondary stage and the inclusion of indigenous schools as the very foundation of a national system of education. As a follow-up of the Dispatch, the Departments of Public Instruction under the Directors were created (1855) and the first universities were established at Bombay, Calcutta and Madras (1857) as examining bodies with powers to affiliate colleges, on the model first adopted by the University of London. The system of grants-in-aid, however, failed to achieve its objective of producing a system of primary schools, and the number of educational institutions managed, aided or inspected by the company remained very small. After the 1857 uprising, the governance of India was transferred from the company to the crown, and in 1871 the Department of Education was transferred to the provincial governments. The symbiosis of East and West of the previous years was replaced by an imposition of schooling models of England and Scotland without adequately adapting them to the educational needs of India. Subservient education officers … focused upon enrolment numbers and classroom building regulations, rather than pedagogy and language sensitivity. The new alignment, between the state and its ICS agents in the field, also detached the arcane knowledge of the regional educator. This resulted in the marginalisation of the thousands of language – and religion – specific indigenous schools in the 1850s and 1860s: schools that collectively represented a deep and irreplaceable indigenous educational heritage. (Allender, 2009, p. 735)

In order to review the progress of education during the period since 1854, Lord Ripon appointed the first Indian Education Commission in 1882, with Sir William Hunter as its chairman. Some of the important recommendations of the Hunter Commission included the entrusting of mass education to local bodies, encouraging indigenous education, normal schools for teachers, grants-in-aid for collegiate education and provisions for

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educationally backward classes such as aboriginal tribes, low castes, Muslims and women. Higher education had great boost in the following years with the establishment of many colleges and universities, but restrained financial flow made achievements fall short of the overall goals. By this time there was a collective willingness among many Indians to embrace English education as per the changing economic and social scenario. However, government and mission schools had become a preserve of the elite and the urban, creating a widening chasm between the larger masses and the state educational system. Government of India Resolution on Indian Educational Policy was issued in March 1904, which laid special emphasis on primary education. The main issues of focus were the importance of primary and mass education, training of secondary school teachers, strengthening secondary education by laying down certain conditions for recognition, funding and affiliation with the examining universities, introduction of diversified courses to meet the demands of industrial development, to improve technical, vocational, agricultural and commercial education so as to make education more practical and relevant to the local needs of the people of India. Against a backdrop of growing population, famines and inflation, literacy could hardly make any progress, especially due to underfunding, undue emphasis on teaching in English and closure of many indigenous schools. Gopal Krishan Gokhale, the champion of compulsory primary education in India, moved a resolution for compulsory education (1910) and his repeated efforts led to the government Resolution on Educational Policy (1913) which provided for sufficient expansion of lower primary schools with a simultaneous opening of upper primary schools. Calcutta University Commission was appointed by the government of India in 1917 to inquire into the conditions and prospects of Calcutta University with Dr Michael Sadler as chairman. In 1919, the Government of India Act introduced ‘Diarchy’ and in 1921, the Department of Education was transferred to an Indian minister responsible for the legislature. These ministers failed to deliver the expected results mostly due to lack of sufficient funds from the government. The continuous pressure for educational improvement resulted in the appointment of the Hartog Committee (1928), which made wide-ranging proposals for development of both general and professional education and suggested consolidating the existing education system rather than opting for further expansion. It aimed at increasing the standards of education and thus stressed on quality over quantity. Despite the worldwide economic depression and the stringent curtailment of funds for

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education, many educational institutions were established in this period due to private efforts. The rise of the National Freedom Movement gave birth to the concept of the National System of Education, which implied Indian control of education, inculcation of patriotism and disregard of Western education. In 1920, the Indian National Congress initiated a boycott of government-aided and government-controlled schools and founded several ‘national’ schools and colleges. While some of these institutions like Banaras Hindu University (1916), Aligarh Muslim University (1920), Gujarat Vidyapith (1920), Kashi Vidyapith (1921), Jamia Millia Islamia (1920) and Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapeeth (1921) survived, many were closed after few years. Mahatma Gandhi published his radical proposals about education in ‘Harijan’ as a series of articles in 1937 and the First Congress of National Education was held at Wardha in the same year. His scheme of ‘Basic Education’ was self-supporting education through craft, agriculture and other productive work, thereby bypassing potentially the need for government funding. The first ‘Basic School’ was established at Sevagram near Wardha in 1938 under Gandhiji’s personal supervision. The outline of the scheme was free and compulsory education for seven years for all children on a national scale with the mother tongue as the medium of instruction. Education emphasized manual and productive work, and was self-financing through the production of necessary material items like khadi, which could pay the cost of both the teacher and the material. However, basic education was opposed by many even within the Congress. To counter the attempts made by leaders of the freedom movement to develop a National System of Education, John Sargent, the then educational adviser to the government of India, published a comprehensive report on ‘post-war educational development’ in the country; this was the first systematic and national-level attempt at tackling the problems of education as a whole. Because of political turmoil due to the freedom movement, the plan could not be implemented. With India achieving freedom on 15 August 1947, this plan became only a matter of some small historical significance. During British rule in India there were more than 500 princely states, and of these, at least 21 had their own state governments. Some states like Mysore and Baroda were very progressive, and education was tremendously promoted. Most of these states acceded to either India or Pakistan after the British left the subcontinent (Bhagavan, 2003).

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Independent India Post-independence India inherited a system of education which was characterized by large-scale imbalances of region, gender, caste, religion and so on. The literacy rate of India at the time of its independence stood at just 14 per cent and female literacy was at a dismal 8.86 per cent. The Constitution of India declared India as secular and all its citizens as equal. Different committees and commissions were set up right from 1948 to frame educational policies and implement them through various acts, schemes, programmes, missions and so on. Considering the exhaustive developments in the field of education in India, only some major landmarks in education policy and the progress in some core areas are mentioned here. Right after independence, the University Education Commission (1948–9) and the Secondary Education Commission (1952–3) were set up to review the problems in education. In 1964–6, the Kothari Commission was established to draw the first national policy on education (NPE) and it recommended education for life and education for all. It was the first full-fledged commission after India attained its freedom, and suggested drastic reconstruction of education with suggestions for both qualitative and quantitative improvements. The Kothari Commission for the first time reviewed pre-primary education and its suggestion of 10+2+3 pattern of secondary education was also accepted nationwide. Other features included the development of Indian languages (Hindi, Sanskrit, regional languages and the three-language formula), vocationalization of secondary education, equality of educational opportunities (regional, tribal and gender imbalances to be addressed) and the development and prioritization of scientific education and research. The commission also emphasized the need to eradicate illiteracy and provide adult education. Kothari Commission recommendations become the basic framework for education policies for decades to come.

The national policy on education, 1986–92 Intending to prepare India for the twenty-first century, the then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi announced a new education policy, the NPE, in 1986. It advocated a national system of education and education for equality on the basis of the Indian Constitution. It therefore stressed the need for removal of disparities by taking constructive steps towards providing equal educational opportunities to the

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hitherto disadvantaged groups – women, scheduled castes (SC), scheduled tribes (ST), certain minority groups, persons with disabilities and so on. It also focused on adult education to eradicate illiteracy in the age group of 15–35. Though the NPE 1986 was not entirely new in terms of ideas and themes, it was definitely ‘new’ in the implementation and directions issued for attaining the stated goals. While the earlier policies by and large remained as guiding principles as they were not so successfully implemented, many of the programmes of the NPE 1986 were vigorously implemented. This policy was further revised and attempted to be brought into effect through the Programme of Action (PoA) in 1992. In the same year, some targets of NPE 1986 were recast, and reformulations made to adult and elementary education. The new emphasis was on the expansion of secondary education, while the focus on education for minorities and women continued. As a result, 205 model schools (Navodaya Vidyalayas) were established, National Core Curriculum was framed, District Institutes of Education and Training were established and schemes for non-formal education, vocationalization of education and technical education were launched. Some other major steps taken as follow-up of NPE were ‘Operation Blackboard’, National Literacy Mission (NLM), District Primary Education Programme, Scheme of Infrastructure Development in Minority Institutions, and Mid-Day Meal Scheme. Education for All (EFA) was a global movement led by UNESCO aiming to meet the learning needs of all children, youth and adults by 2015. It has contributed to the global pursuit of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), especially MDG 2 on universal elementary education (primary education in India) and MDG 3 on gender equality in education. The Dakar Framework for Action (2000) also reaffirmed such commitment. India, as a signatory of this framework, launched its most ambitious education programme, the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) (Education for All Movement), in 2001 aiming at attaining universalization of elementary education (UEE) by 2010, thus fulfilling its MDG towards education. For this purpose, all resources – human, financial and institutional – were mobilized, and an integrated approach emphasizing a partnership between states, local bodies and the community was taken up. It was expected to cover the entire country by March 2002, with a special focus on educational needs of girls, SC/ST and other children in difficult circumstances. SSA has a holistic and convergent approach to implement UEE in a mission mode through micro planning and school-mapping exercises, bridging gender and social gaps. It was to address the needs of 192 million children in 1.2 million habitations.

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Right to Education Act, 2009 In 2002, the Parliament of India through the eighty-sixth constitutional amendment added the right to education, Article 21A, to the Constitution of India, making education a fundamental right of every child in the age group of 6–14. In 2004, education cess was introduced for raising additional financial resources needed to fulfil the government’s commitment to universalize elementary education. Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act was enacted in 2009 and it became operative in the country on 1 April 2010. This development implied that every child has a right to elementary education of satisfactory and equitable quality in a formal school which satisfies certain essential norms and standards. The act also makes it incumbent on governments to provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age group of 6–14. All these policies clearly reflect the concerns and efforts of the Indian government to improve the level of education in the nation. In 1976, education was transferred to the concurrent list of the Constitution and thus the central government makes the national policies and the states follow it. The Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) maintains the coordination between the central and state governments. Education is overseen by the Ministry of Human Resource Development; it has two departments; School Education & Literacy, and Higher Education. The Department of School Education & Literacy is responsible for development of school education and literacy in the country and looks after elementary, secondary, vocational, adult and teacher education. The Department of Higher Education takes care of higher education, that is, university and higher education, technical, language, technology-enabled education and distance learning. About 80 per cent of the funding for higher education is provided by the states and 20 per cent by the centre through various bodies such as the University Grants Commission (UGC). Besides the state, there are many private agencies who are working for the promotion of education in India. Progress in some core areas of education are as follows:

Universalization of elementary education Primary education has been emphasized from the very beginning, and various schemes were launched to increase the access, enrolment and retention in schools. RTE Act has far-reaching implications for elementary education, and the rules of SSA have been modified accordingly. The provision of RTE also

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includes admission of 25 per cent children from disadvantaged groups and weaker sections in the first grade in private unaided schools (Annual Report, 2011–12). The focus of SSA is on girls, children belonging to SC/ST communities, other weaker sections, minorities and urban deprived children. While access to primary-level education has increased literacy rates, in 7+ age group, as per the 2011 census, it stands at 73 per cent (80.9 per cent boys, 64.6 per cent girls, 66.1 per cent SC and 59.0 per cent ST).

Secondary education Secondary education covers children between the ages of fourteen and eighteen years. The Kothari Commission was of the strong view that school education should consist of twelve years – a secondary stage of ten years and a senior secondary stage of two years. The senior (or higher) secondary stage should be vocationalized so as to divert, in the long run, 50 per cent of the enrolment at this stage to the vocational stream. These recommendations of the commission were discussed by the CABE and were approved with minor modifications. The same was by and large accepted in NPE 1986, and the 10+2+3 structure has been accepted in all parts of the country. One of the features of India’s secondary school system is its emphasis on vocational training to help students attain skills for finding a vocation of his or her choosing. Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) launched in March 2009 is the flagship programme in secondary education for universalizing access to secondary education and improving its quality, while ensuring equity. Though the primary-level education enrolments are high, the enrolments are still low for secondary and senior secondary levels. As per 2013–14 figures, the enrolment rates are almost the same for boys and girls at both levels and they stand at 73.6 per cent and 49.1 per cent respectively.

Higher education India’s higher education system is the third largest in the world, after China and the United States. Western higher education began in India with the establishment of Hindu College at Calcutta (1817) and the major universities came four decades later (Calcutta, Madras and Bombay, 1857). As a first step after independence, the University Education Commission (1948–9) was appointed, which recommended rapid expansion of higher education in India on a priority basis. The government of India set up the UGC in 1953 which is liable for coordination, determination and maintenance of standards and release

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of grants. From 20 universities at the time of independence, India now has about 712 universities. Professional councils like the Bar Council of India, Medical Council of India and All India Council of Technical Education are accountable for recognition of courses, promotion of professional institutions, and providing grants to undergraduate programmes and various other awards.

Non-formal education In 1979 non-formal education scheme in India was introduced in ten educationally backward states of the country to address the problems of school dropouts, working children and children from areas without schools. The 1986 NPE built upon this scheme and developed the system of non-formal education, and expanded it to urban slums and other areas beyond the initial ten states. Voluntary organizations were roped in to extend non-formal education at the grass-root levels. While the government of India has been supportive of nonformal education, it is also aware of the limitations of non-formal approaches such as inclusion in mainstream education (Rose, 2009).

Adult education Inspired by the Gram Shikshan Mohim of Maharashtra, National Adult Education Programme (NAEP) was launched in 1978–9. This programme emphasized the correlation between working, living and learning; however, it failed to achieve its goals. In 1988 NLM was launched with a time-bound target of imparting functional literacy to the age group of 15–35 by 1995 with special emphasis on women and rural illiterate adults, as these constituted the bulk of India’s illiterate population. Under NLM, a strategy called ‘Total Literacy Campaign’ (TLC) was adopted for mass mobilization of various agencies including governmental and non-governmental organizations, individuals, social groups and voluntary organizations. In 1990 Ernakulum district in Kerala became the first district in the country to achieve 100 per cent literacy under TLC. Saakshar Bharat (Literate India) was launched on 8 September 2009 to accelerate adult education. As per the 2011 census the adult literacy rate of the country is 69.3 per cent (78.8 per cent men, 59.3 per cent women, 60.4 per cent SC and 51.9 per cent ST).

Women’s education In general, women have been deprived of education through the ages and, on the eve of independence, the education rate for girls of India was at a dismal 8.86 per

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cent. Women’s education has been diverse, fractured and confined to exclusive learning spaces. While the state was wary to enter the ‘inner domains’ of Indians, it was the missionaries, that is, female missionaries, who were able to enter into these exclusive spaces to some extent. Some of the committees appointed to address the problem of women’s education were: National Committee on Women’s Education (1958), the Committee on differentiation of curricula for Boys and Girls (1961) and Bhaktavaslam Committee (1963) to look into the causes for the lack of public support, particularly in rural areas, for girl’s education and to enlist public cooperation. The Education Commission (1964–6) endorsed all recommendations made by the previous committees on girls’ education. Despite constitutional guarantee for equal opportunity of education for both the sexes, women’s education continues to be plagued with bias. By and large there were two views on the purpose of education for women: education to equip them to become better wives and mothers, and education as an instrument for women’s equality and development. In the NPE 1986 an entire subsection titled ‘Education for Women’s Equality’ envisaged three distinct functions of the education system: (1) a positive interventionist role in the empowerment of women; (2) development of new values through redesigned curricula and text books; and (3) promotion of Women’s Studies as part of various courses, and to encourage educational institutions to take up active programmes to further women’s development. Saakshar Bharat also aims at accelerating adult education for women in the age group of fifteen years and above. Mahila Samakhya, National Programme for Education of Girls at Elementary Level and Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya are some of the special schemes launched. The female literacy rate of India as per the 2011 census is 65.46 per cent compared to male literacy rate of 82.14 per cent. Thus the gender gap continues to this day. Besides women, the educationally backward groups of society like some minorities and SC/ST have been priorities for education policymakers. The areas of vocational education, technical education, distance education and teacher training have also been addressed from time to time.

An assessment Despite efforts to incorporate all sections of the Indian population into the education system through mechanisms such as positive discrimination and non-formal education, large numbers of young people are still without schooling. Implementation of policies and their critical entitlements has not been up to the mark. National goals for UEE put a great emphasis on access

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and enrolment; subsequently, the importance of retention, quality, relevance and effectiveness of education got sidetracked. Moving beyond the goal of EFA, a critical and deeper probe into various aspects of education brings out many issues of grave concern like the quality of education, school attendance, teachers and their role, educational institutions’ infrastructure, suitability of education for job market and the ultimate aim(s) of education. One of the main factors preventing target achievement is the financial handicap of the government. The Kothari Commission (1964–6) recommended 6 per cent of GDP for education, but India’s education system has been chronically starving for funds. Huge funds are indeed required for quantitative expansion, improvement in quality, equity, strengthening diversity and other vital aspects of educational development (Tilak, 2006). Much is left to be desired in the quality of education in India today and as mentioned in the World Bank report (2012), the learning levels are alarmingly low (World Development Report, 2012, pp. 113–14). This problem is more evident among the disadvantaged population. The quality standards of Indian education can be gauged from the 2012 Project for International Student Assessment in which India stood 73rd out of 74 countries. Besides this, various disparities in educational system continue to exist, and what J. P Naik, membersecretary of the Education Commission in India, said in 1965 continues to hold true even to this day: ‘The largest beneficiaries of our system of education are boys, the people of the urban areas, and the middle and upper classes. Educational development, particularly at the secondary and higher stages, is benefitting the “haves” more than the “have-nots”’ (Rao, 2000, p. 4181). Going back once again to the age-old education traditions of India, that is, Vedic Sanskrit education, Buddhist and madrasa education have continued to survive even to this day. Most of these centres continue to impart religious education and many of them have also incorporated secular subjects as per the demand of the times. There are many schools and gurukuls which impart Vedic education in the teacher-pupil tradition. To this day music, dance, crafts are imparted in the age-old tradition of the guru-shishya parampara. Many of the Vedic schools have been streamlined into the formal education systems. For example, Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeetha, Tirupati, is a deemed university recognized by UGC which imparts education in sastras and provides training in pedagogical aspects of Sanskrit teaching. Buddhist education by its nature was monastic; with Muslim invasions, it almost disappeared from India except for a few pockets. However, the Buddhist monastic education tradition is still found in some monasteries situated in Karnataka, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh and

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Kashmir. Presently in India, most madrasas follow the Hanafi school of thought. There are two large groups, namely, the Deobandis, who dominate in numbers (of whom the Darul Uloom Deoband constitutes one of the biggest madrasas), and the Barelvis, who also make up a sizeable portion (Sufi-oriented). The government of India proposed in 2009 to establish a Central Madrasa Board to provide for the coordination and standardization of non-theological education in certain madrasas. Though the madrasas impart mainly Quranic education, efforts are on to include mathematics, computers and science in the curriculum. A Scheme for Providing Quality Education in Madrasas (SPQEM) was launched in 2014, which seeks to bring about qualitative improvement in madrasas to enable Muslim children to attain standards of the national education system in formal education subjects. Tracing the trajectory of education in India thus shows that education has been a very important aspect of society and, as per the demands of time, it underwent various transitions even while preserving certain continuities. To conclude in the words of Nita Kumar (2007), ‘Education is always a multi-stranded process occurring at plural sites, not so much contradictory as cumulative, producing results that go beyond the schemes of any one organizer of the process.’

References Allender, T. (2009). ‘Learning Abroad: The Colonial Educational Experiment in India, 1813–1919’. Paedagogica Historica: International Journal of the History of Education, 45(6), 727–41. Altekar, A. S. (1944). Education in Ancient India. Benaras: Nand Kishore and Bros. Annual Report of Ministry of Human Resource Development, Department of School Education & Literacy Department of Higher Education, India, 2011–12. Bakshi, P. M. (1997). The Constitution of India. Delhi: Universal Law Publishing Pvt Ltd. Bhagavan, M. (2003). Sovereign Spheres: Princes, Education and Empire in Colonial India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. Ghosh, S. C. (2001a). History of Education in Medieval India. New Delhi: Originals. Ghosh, S. C. (2001b). The History of Education in Ancient India. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt. Ltd. Jaffar, S. M. (1972). Education in Muslim India (100–1800 A.C). Delhi: Idera Adabiyyete-Dilli. Jafri. S. Z. H. (2012). ‘Education and Transmission of Knowledge in Medieval India’. Intellectual Discourse, 20(1), 79–102.

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Kumar, N. (2007). ‘Mothers and Non-Mothers: Expanding the Discourse of Education in South Asia’. http://www-personal.umich.edu/~nitak/. Reprinted in N. Kumar, The Politics of Gender, Community and Modernity. Delhi: Oxford University Press. Mazumder, N. N. (1917). A History of Education in Ancient India. Calcutta: Macmillan. Misra, B. B. (1963). The Indian Middle Classes: Their Growth in Modern Times. London: Oxford University Press. Nurullah, S. and Naik, J. P. (1943). History of Education in India. Bombay : Macmillan & Co. Rao, N. (2000). ‘Education: Quality with Quantity’. Economic & Political Weekly, XXX V (48), 4181–5. Rose, P. (2009). ‘Ngo Provision of Basic Education: Alternative or Complementary Service Delivery to Support Access to the Excluded?’ Compare, 30(2), 219–33. Scharfe, H. (2002). Education in Ancient India. Leiden: Brill. Tilak, J. B. G. (2006). ‘On Allocating 6 Per Cent of GDP to Education’. Economic and Political Weekly, February 18, 613–18. Thomas, F. W. (1891). History and Prospects of British Education in India. London: George Bell and Sons. World Bank (2012). World Development Report: Gender Equality and Development. Washington, DC. Zastoupil, L. Moir, M. (1999). ‘The Great Indian Education Debate: Documents Relating to the Orientalist-Anglicist Controversy, 1781–1843’ London: Curzon Press.

6

India: Madrasas as an Enduring Space for Muslim Girls’ Education Rekha Pande

Education is an important tool for creating a gender-just society and for empowering women. Unfortunately, if we look at the statistics today, there is a significant gap between the education levels of men and women, especially so of Muslim women and women of other religions and marginalized communities. Though primary education is free in India, because of the low value placed on girls’ education, very few girls from marginalized groups enrol. Among these, not many are able to continue their studies and drop out of school at some point. For many Muslim families, while they are willing to send their boys to private and English-medium schools, madrasa education is seen as important for girls as a space for religious and women’s education. Education is vital for upward mobility and integration into the economy and society, and if most women are left behind, overall development will take a backseat. Muslim families send their children to madrasas for religious study because they believe that Deeni Taleem or religious education for even one member in a household opens the doors of heaven for the entire family. Many families which would otherwise restrict the movement of women do not hesitate to send their daughters for religious education, even if it means sending them to other cities. Hyderabad has several madrasas where various religious courses are offered exclusively to girls. Burqa-clad girls of all ages and different backgrounds can be seen in these madrasas. Urbanization received a fillip after the birth of Islam and the new Islamic cities that were founded had a masjid, madrasa, qila or fort, and a bazar. Among these institutions, the madrasa as a religious and educational space has endured for centuries and this spatiality has successfully negotiated modernity in many countries by a certain set of reorientations. If anyone were to study the history of madrasas over the centuries, the striking

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reorientation is the presence of women in this institutional space. This chapter looks at the enduring spatial aspect of the madrasa in the midst of change by taking up the case study of six madrasas for girls in the Old City of Hyderabad to look at this alternative system of education. We conclude that the lack of an alternate system of education for the large, impoverished Muslim community, especially when formal English education is beyond their reach, makes madrasa education the only hope for millions of children. However rudimentary and outmoded the system might be, it still survives because the state has not done enough for secular education in towns and rural hinterlands. Hence, girls from economically disadvantaged Muslim families are sent to religious schools to equip themselves with life skills. The Sachar Committee Report (2006, p. 17) recognizes that though the madrasa education cannot be a substitute for a regular school it is important for providing basic education, for they serve as an important instrument of identity maintenance for the community. Many a time Madrasas are the only educational option available to Muslim children, especially in areas where no schools have reached the Muslim masses. Very often children go to the Madrasas not out of choice but due to non-availability and inaccessibility of other schools. The context in which we ask questions about education, especially education for minorities in this country, should take into account the following statistics: 1. ‘National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) data, which shows that while 70.3 percent of Hindu children in the age group of six to 14 go to government schools, the percentage of Muslim children in the same age group going to these schools is only 49.5 per cent’ (Gayer and Jaffrelot, 2012). 2. It has also been shown that the literacy level among Muslims is, on an average, 10 per cent lower than the national average (Massey, 1998). 3. In its annual report for 1998–9, the National Commission for Minorities pointed out that the presence of Muslims in general education institutions in the country is much lower than their population ratio. ‘Educational backwardness is both the main cause and the inevitable effect of their (Muslims) under-representation in public employment and resource generating bodies’ (Setelvad, 2005). 4. As per the Census of 2001, only 55 per cent of Muslim men and 41 per cent of Muslim women in India are literate, whereas it is 64.5 per cent and 45.6 per cent, respectively, for non-Muslims. Only one in 101 Muslim women

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is a graduate, whereas one out of 37 women in the general population is a graduate. What is even more worrisome is the fact that the dropout rate for Muslims rises steeply as they move up the pyramid of education. Muslims are 53 per cent worse off as compared to the national average in respect of higher education. The emergence of radical Islamist movements in various parts of the world, the rise and fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan, the 9/11 attacks, widespread vilification spearheaded by Hindutva groups – all these and more have made madrasas a much-talked-about institution. Given the limited access to state-run or state-aided schools, religious schools provide space for Muslim girls’ education and also gives scope for the cultural-religious survival of the deprived, who suffer from poverty, conflict and oppression. Unfortunately, it is not these facts that are discussed in the mainstream media when madrasas come up as a subject. Much of what is taught in madrasas is outdated and unscientific (the Deoband madrasa, for instance, still insists that the sun revolves around the earth, and it has special seating arrangements for invisible jinns). Yet, obscurantism need not necessarily lead to militancy and hostility against others. The Dar-ul-Ulum was set up in the aftermath of the 1857 revolt in 1867 in the town of Deoband in Sultanpur district of the United Provinces. Among the founders of the school were leading reformist ulema such as Maulana Qasim Nanotwani and Maulana Rashid Ahmad Gangohi, who had participated in the 1857 revolt. They saw themselves as engaged in an educated jihad, having realized the futility of armed struggle against the country’s new masters. They saw Islam as being threatened by the British who were bent on its extirpation. Although the founders of Deoband pragmatically accommodated themselves to the reality of British rule, they considered their school as a training ground for the ulema who would take revenge on the British for having overthrown the Mughal rule (Sikand, 2005, p. 70). Arguments for the madrasa reform often miss the point that many Muslims see the madrasa not as an institution for the general education of Muslims, training them for the job market. Rather madrasas are regarded as specialized institutions providing Muslims with specifically religious education and transmitting the Islamic scholarly tradition (Sikand, 2005, p. 141). Critics of the madrasas see them in stereotypical terms, often branding all madrasas as backward and reactionary. They are routinely described by their detractors, Muslims as well as others, as conservative and illiberal. They are, to a large extent, seen as an obstacle in the progress of the community (p. 141).

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Thus, it is not very strange that most of the published material about madrasa education only concentrates on the campaign against them as inculcation centres for anti-national sentiments and goes on to portray these educational institutions as breeding grounds of terrorism. Even the government, which is supposed to be a neutral party to debates, takes such a dangerous stand. Thus, Setelvad (2005) quotes Memo No F3-5/99-D.III (L), written by the NDA government to all chief secretaries and education secretaries of the state governments and union territories to verify the antecedents of the madrasas applying for financial assistance from the government. She quotes: ‘While forwarding the application’, the letter stated, ‘the state government may ensure that the applications of the madrasas it is forwarding are not indulging, abetting or in any other way linked with anti-national activities. The state governments may categorically certify that the applicant madrasas are free from security angle.’ This has become a global phenomenon after the ill-fated 9/11 incident in the United States. For instance, The Washington Times, in its report titled ‘Madrasa Alert’ (2003), says that the US secretary of defence Donald Rumsfeld puts special attention on madrasas, asking: ‘Does the U.S. need to fashion a broad, integrated plan to stop the next generation of terrorists?’ This is the usual stereotype being spread about the educational institutions of the minority community.

Definition of a madrasa A madrasa is an Islamic educational institution. In Arabic, madrasa is simply ‘a place of learning or education’ (Dalrymple, 2005, p. 19). A more formal definition of madrasa describes it as ‘an educational institution offering instruction in the Islamic subjects including, but not limited to, the Qu’ran, the sayings (hadith) of the Prophet Muhammad, jurisprudence (fiqh), and law’ (Armanios, 2003, p. 5). According to Leiden E. J. Brill’s Encyclopedia of Islam, ‘madrasa’ is an institution of learning where Islamic sciences, including literary and philosophical studies, are taught (Brill, 1993). The word ‘madrasa’ is derived from the Arabic word ‘darsun’, meaning lesson. In contemporary Arabic, the word ‘madrasa’ means centre of learning. The word usually refers to a specific type of religious school or college for the study of the Islamic religion, though this may not be the only subject studied.

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Background of madrasas The history of the madrasa extends almost to the origins of Islam. Some Islamic scholars suggest the first madrasa was established near the Prophet’s mosque in Medina after hijra (Arabic for withdrawing or emigration). Called Ahle-Suffa, it educated the followers of the Prophet about Islam. From the beginning of Islam, the mosque was recognized as the first and most important institution of Islamic education. One of the first Islamic schools of higher learning outside a mosque was founded in Egypt in the eleventh century ad. Considered by many scholars as the first madrasa, Dar al-‘Ilm, House of Science, was established in 1005 ad by the Fatimid Caliph, al-Hakim, to teach and propagate the Shi’ite version of Islam. Dar al-‘Ilm did not limit instruction to just religious sciences, but also taught many secular subjects such as mathematics, astronomy, philosophy and architecture (Ahmed, 1987). The Dar al-‘Ilm functioned much like a modern school with a teacher appointed to teach each subject and it possessed a fairly extensive library. According to an inventory taken in 1045, the library consisted of 6,500 volumes of subjects ranging from religious texts to works supporting the secular subjects taught at schools. Unlike mosques, which served as both a place of worship and education, Dar al-‘Ilm distinguished itself by focusing on strictly academic activities (Nashabe, 1989, p. 19). It is important to know that there are more than one kind of religious educational institution among Muslims. Uzma Anzar (2003), who has worked on the history of madrasas, makes a distinction between a maktab and a madrasa. According to her, maktab is a place where ‘Muslim children go to read and recite Quran’, whereas madrasa refers to ‘a bit more organized institutions with classrooms and teachers at different levels’. European colonization of Muslim lands during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries resulted in further decline in Islamic education. The implementation of European secular education systems and separation of religion and civil governance served to alienate Muslims in their own countries (Haqqani, 2002, p. 61). Access to secular education was not universal under colonial rule, which resulted in a ‘dichotomy of the education system – secular education for the elite and religious education for the economically disadvantaged’ (Uzma Anzar, 2003, p. 5) madrasas responded in several ways to the perceived loss of Islamic identity and sought to diminish the social and cultural impact of their colonizers. In the Indian subcontinent, many madrasas removed all secular and earthly subjects from their curriculum to focus solely on Islamic religious education to counter

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the influence of British colonialism. However, madrasas were revitalized in the 1970s with the rising interest in religious studies and Islamist politics in countries such as Iran and Pakistan. In the 1980s, madrasas in Afghanistan and Pakistan were allegedly boosted by an increase in financial support from the United States (Weaver, 1995).

Madrasas in India In India, the history of this institution can be traced to the establishment of the Delhi Sultanate in 1206 ad (Sultanat, 2003). The Turks established the earliest known madrasas in North India in the thirteenth century. In the fourteenth century, there were 1,000 madrasas in Delhi alone. A British traveller visiting Thata (now near Karachi) in the sixteenth century reported that there were 400 large and small madrasas (Hasan, 2003). In the eighteenth century, the Dars-i Nizamiya (developed by Mulla Nizamuddin) became the standard syllabus. It was confined to the purely religious sciences. The Holy Quran was at the heart of the curriculum, and its memorization is the highest scholastic attainment. By adhering to the Dars-i Nizamiya, the seminaries at Deoband and Lucknow sought to maintain uniformity in belief and practice, and determine what is true or desirable in accordance with the Quran and the traditions of the Prophet. In modern times, the history of madrasas in India can be traced to the late nineteenth century beginning with the establishment of the Deoband madrasa in 1867, in Deoband, a town about a hundred miles north of Delhi. The so-called Deobandi tradition itself is much older than the Dar-ul-Ulum at Deoband. The Deoband madrasa brought together Muslims who were hostile to British rule and committed to a literal and austere interpretation of Islam referred to as ‘Deobandi Islam’ (Deobandi Islam). This institute played the dual role of disseminating Islamic knowledge and mobilizing Indian Muslims to participate in the freedom struggle, aimed at expelling the British. Thus, the orthodox ulema accepted the secular policies of the Indian National Congress during the nineteenth century. Another leading Islamic seminary to be showcased is the Nadwat al-ulama founded in 1884 in Lucknow. Some groups made use of Islamic symbolism to mobilize against the colonial power. Others tried to change, reform or conserve religious education which aimed at providing the Muslim community with a legal basis for action (Islamic ally) – the urgency of which was increased by the loss of the so-called Islamic empire to the British once and for all (Malik, 2008, p. 7). At the same time,

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the madrasa system has also played an important historical role by preserving the orthodox tradition of Islam in the wake of the downfall of Muslim political power by generating Islamic religious scholars and functionaries through vigorous religious and political leadership training.

Curriculum of the madrasas Right from the inception in medieval period, both big and small madrasas have enjoyed full autonomy in all aspects of their functioning. They have been independent in framing their own curriculum, and using their own modes of teaching, training and examination. Even in the medieval period, when many of them received grants and endowments from the rulers and nobles, they were never brought under the control of a common regulating or examining body. Their individual madrasa-level certifications were enough proof of a student having undergone a rigorous process of learning and having acquired the desired competency of Islamic and other field of studies offered by them. In the post-independence period, many madrasas decided that their individual certification should also bear a common seal of approval from a recognized body of their own or of the state. This was to assist their students in further education and employment which necessarily demanded a recognized certificate. Some management of madrasas may have also thought of bringing a degree of parity and improvement in the standards of education in their institutions. They may have wanted to voluntarily subscribe to a system of at least partial accountability to a jointly recognized organization, which could hold a common external examination for their students (Siddiqui, 1998, pp. 77–9). Hence, some madrasa boards were formed in different parts of the country, and many madrasas were affiliated to them. These boards also received recognition from the respective state governments. Curriculum is one of the most important components of any education system. There are many internal debates within the madrasa circles itself about changing the present curriculum of these institutions. An example is the interview with Maulana Rabe Hasni Nadwi, the then rector of Nadwatul Ulama Madrasa in Lucknow in 2001 (Siraj, 2001). In this interview, the interviewer and the rector of the institution discussed the century-long plea for the modernization of madrasa education. Another person who spoke about the stagnation of madrasa curriculum was Professor Akhtarul Wassey of the Jamia Millia Islamia University of Delhi. He pointed out that ‘the contribution of Indian madrasas

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to the education of Indian Muslims is beyond doubt. But sadly since the late nineteenth century, these madrasas have failed to evolve in terms of their syllabi and teaching techniques, partly due to the fear that any kind of modernization might lead to the corruption of traditional Islamic learning’ (Noor, 2005). But, there is also a view that madrasas in India have been following a principle of curriculum development ever since their inception and particularly in the post-independence period. There are several examples of improvements and innovations introduced in the madrasa curriculum between the ninth and tenth centuries. Even after independence, there have been efforts to bring about a change in the curriculum in the form of addition and deletion of certain subjects, books and activities, and a shift of emphasis on different subjects in the curriculum. The madrasas in South Asia teach a curriculum known as Dars-i Nizamiya first introduced by Mullah Nizamuddin Sihalvi (1747), who was a reputed scholar in Islamic jurisprudence and philosophy in Lucknow. This curriculum was not the same as that associated with the name of Mullah Nasiruddin Tusi (1064) and the Madrasa Nizamia, which he established in eleventh-century Baghdad. The original Darsi-e-Nizami was changed by the Deoband madrasa to make it into a purely religious curriculum. Almost all Sunni madrasas, irrespective of whether they are of Deoband, Barelvi or Ali-i-Hadith persuasion, follow the same standard Nizami course of studies adopted by the Deoband seminary in 1867. It consists of about twenty subjects broadly divided into two categories: al-ulum-an-nagliya (the transmitted sciences) and al-ulum-al-agliya (the rational sciences). The subject areas include grammar, rhetoric prosody, logic, philosophy, Arabic literature, dialectical theology, life of the Prophet, medicine, mathematics, polemics, Islamic law, jurisprudence, hadith and Tafsir (exegesis of the Quran) (Education System of Jamia Nizamia and Admissions, n.d.). It is important to note that out of the twenty subjects only eight can be considered as solely religious. The remaining subjects are otherwise secular and were included in Nizami curriculum both to equip the students for civil service jobs and as an aid to understanding religious text. Also, facilities to teach all the subjects and books are not usually available in all madrasas, in particular for subjects such as medicine, mathematics, history, philosophy, prosody and polemics. Therefore, the students often move from one madrasa to another to complete their curriculum. This also results in the failure of many madrasas to institutionalize their grading and promotion procedures. However, most of the books taught in this curriculum are very old. Books used in philosophy and logic, for example, were written in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.

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Medicine is taught from an eleventh-century text, which is still considered an authentic study of human anatomy and pathology. The other categories of madrasas in India follow the curriculum of Jamia Nizamia. They have divided their curriculum into five distinct levels. They are ibtedai (elementary), dakhil (secondary), alim (higher secondary), fazil (degree) and kamil (postgraduate). These madrasas teach all the required modern subjects such as English, mathematics, Urdu, science and so on along with the revised version of Darsi-e-Nizami, and are privately owned and managed. In most cases, madrasas are personal enterprises of prominent ulemas. Usually, the founders of the madrasas are of good standing and have a degree of influence in the local community. This enables the respective ulema to acquire land, housing facilities and financial resources for the madrasas. Most of the institutions are registered with the government. Some of the major madrasas have their own board of trustees or executive committees which consists of local business elite, landed gentry and prominent ulema. Major policy decisions regarding doctrinal preferences, curriculum and selection of teachers and students remain as the exclusive prerogative of the ulema. The entire system has been traditionally supported by the community through trusts, endowments, charitable donations and zakat contribution. In the span of about 200 years, between the late seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, three noteworthy changes took place in the madrasa curriculum, which in turn gave birth to three different schools of thought and movements in madrasa education. Thus, at present, three distinct patterns of curriculum are being used in the madrasas of the country and each pattern is being led separately by Darul Ulum Deoband, Nadwatul Ulama and Jamiatul Hidaya (Siddiqui, 1998, pp. 75–6). There are three levels of education in madrasas. First is elementary where reading the Quran is the major goal. The second level looks at selected texts, and the highest level is where a complete curriculum is taught. A madrasa student learns to read, memorize and recite the Quran properly. The graduating students are called Hafez-e-Quran (those who memorize the Arabic text of the Quran) or Qaris (those who can recite Quranic verses with proper Arabic pronunciation). Those with the advanced theological training are known as ulema (religious scholars) or in South Asia, often given the title ‘maulana’. In most of the madrasas, there is no formal admission procedure and the academic schedules are often flexible. Some major madrasas have, however, institutionalized their admission, grading and promotion procedures and established some degree of rigor in their academic schedules. The complete Nizami curriculum runs from 7 to 9 years after the completion of the elementary level.

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The everyday routine of the madrasa hardly leaves any scope for reflexivity, when it comes to students. Coming from economically disadvantaged Muslim families, apart from instilling in them awareness for things Islamic, religious education also becomes the students’ only capital. It is the further transmission of this very capital that ensures their survival in the world. Needless to say, they end up reproducing the world view in which they have been trained at the madrasa. This ideological reproduction lies at the core of the madrasa strategy to reproduce itself (Alam, 2011, p. 206).

Madrasas for girls Education for girls is not an entirely new trend. Even in medieval period we find traces of some rulers having taken similar interest in the education of girls on Islamic lines. Sultan Jalaluddin of Hinawr (1433–56) founded twenty-three madrasas exclusively for girls in his capital. Similarly, Shahjahan founded a big madrasa for girls in Fatehpur Sikri called Madrasa Banat (Siddiqui, 1998, p. 76). The elite women were given education at home through private tutors or through ‘zenana schools’. In line with these views, Muslim reformers set up institutions for girls’ education. Yet, Muslim girls are among the least educated in Indian society. Over 75 per cent of Muslim women in India are illiterate. In India, Muslim girls’ school enrolment rates continue to be low: 40.6 per cent compared to 63.2 per cent in the case of ‘upper’-caste Hindus (Hasan and Menon, 2005). The problems are to do with the indifference of the state to the conditions of Muslim women (reflected in dismal budgetary allocation for their education), widespread poverty in the community, opposition to co-education after a certain level, shortage of girls’ schools and women teachers, and early marriages. Madrasas themselves were and still are not co-educational. The Mujahid group has been at the forefront of Muslim women’s education in Kerala, and in many of their madrasas, girls outnumber boys by a considerable margin. Mujahid intellectuals have written extensively about women’s rights from an Islamic perspective, and Sikand (2005) quotes Zohra Bi, the principal of one of the group’s colleges, ‘Islam is wrongly thought of as a religion of women’s oppression. … Through our work in the college we want to show that Islam actually empowers Muslim women.’ In many madrasas meant for girls, ‘their special needs and their further role in the Muslim society have been kept in view’ (Siddiqui, 1998, pp. 75–6). Thus, the syllabi include housekeeping, nursing, maternity and general medicine.

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The subjects and the activities related to the 8-year course of the madrasas are: Quran (Nazira), Sirat, teachings of the Prophet, history of Islam, fiqh, Arabic, Urdu, English, general knowledge, history, geography, sciences, home science, mathematics, arts, tailoring and sports. After completing this course, the girls may either join the next higher course in the Jamia leading to the degree of Almiat and senior secondary school certificate or they may go to a modern secondary school for further education in modern subjects (ibid., pp. 75–6). Though there is no ban on women’s education or women working outside in Islam, there is a lot of gap between theory and the practice of the Islamic patriarchal society which leads to many disadvantages for women (Ridley, 2006, pp. 20–2). It is true that in some Muslim countries like contemporary Iran and Sudan, women are represented in almost all fields including in the police, judiciary and politics. But this does not mean that the struggles are over and that nothing further needs to be done.

Madrasas in Hyderabad In Andhra Pradesh, there are more than 200 functioning madrasas. Out of these, around 50 are Aqamati where only primary education is given to the children. The total enrolment in the madrasas is between 5,000 and 6,000. The dropout level is 20 per cent and each year there are around 400–500 students receiving the title of Alima from these madrasas (Siasat, 4 July 2006). It was very difficult to collect data on madrasas. The management as well as the students and teachers have a lot of understandable fear and are not open to any evaluation. This does not come as a surprise since these institutions are also operating under scrutiny and in an atmosphere of suspicion under the politically charged circumstances. It is in these appalling circumstances that madrasa education should be viewed and placed. Very often, the free education that is given in madrasas is the only resource for many of the minority students in this country. Our study was conducted in the Old City of Hyderabad which includes areas such as Charminar, Shalibanda, Old Malakpet, Maddanapet, Mallepally and Saidabad.

The Old City of Hyderabad The Old City of Hyderabad, now referred to as the ‘Old City’, was planned by the Qutub Shahis’ nearly 400 years ago, when the Golconda Fort, the

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then headquarters, was not able to contain the growing population. The city was planned on the road running from Golconda towards the east, as far as Masaulipatnam, the famous Andhra seaport on the East Coast. This road was made to intersect a new road running from north to south crossing at a point, where the famous Charminar now stands. The city of Hyderabad was then divided into four quarters by its intersecting main highways. The northwestern quarter was reserved for the royal place, whereas the eastern side was for the nobility. The rest of the city was divided into twelve mohallas spreading over an area of ten square miles, inhabited by common people. The city also had several suburbs such as Karwan, Khairatabad, Bagh-e-Lingampally and Naubat Pahad. Soon Hyderabad grew into an important trade centre. The major exports from here included diamonds, textiles, sugar, iron and spices. The major imports included Arabian horses, pearls, porcelain and carpets. This became the home of Dakhani language and many important writers like Nishati and Khuda rose to prominence. The decline of Hyderabad started after the capture of the Golconda Fort by Aurangzeb in 1687. The Mughals had named Hyderabad as Darul Jahad (battleground). They also made Aurangabad the capital of the six provinces of the Deccan. Consequently, all the nobility shifted to Aurangabad and it became the centre for political and commercial activities. Golconda and Hyderabad were placed under the control of a Qiledar Rustum Dil Khan. The Asaf Jhahis tried to restore Hyderabad to its old glory and it once again became the scene of activity. Today the Old City is divided into three circles, Circle I, II and III. This is a high-density area with a Muslim majority population. The continued increase in population and growing urbanization has caused an overpopulated slum area. The term ‘slum’ as defined by UN Habitat is any area that combines to various extents the following characteristics: inadequate access to safe water; inadequate access to sanitation and other infrastructure; poor structural quality of housing; overcrowding; and insecure residential status (Report, UN Habitat, 2002, pp. 8–9). To these, one might add the low socio-economic status of residents. What is interesting to note is that though a large number of people have got jobs in the Gulf region and are repatriating funds back home, this has not resulted in any improvement to the conditions of the Old City. There are many instances of people migrating and building their houses in the new city of Hyderabad or in new areas around Towli Chowki, Mehidipatnam and so on. As a result, the Old City continues to deteriorate in terms of infrastructure. While Hyderabad

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and Secunderabad have become cosmopolitan, sadly the Old City has remained backward in development.

Objectives of the study The main purpose of this study is to look into the curriculum, syllabi and enrolment patterns of the madrasas and see if it was keeping pace with the changing times. It also aims to study: 1. The reason why many of the parents are sending their daughters to these Arabic madrasas and the perception of the management, staff and students regarding the madrasas 2. The funding agencies of these madrasas and the role of the community in it.

Problems encountered After going around the Old City and getting an idea about the different madrasas that were functioning there, we prepared a list of the madrasas where we wanted to collect our data. However, when we contacted some of these madrasas, the management flatly refused us entry. The other madrasas wanted to find out details about us and why we were conducting this study. Even when we explained that this was a purely academic study, they refused to believe us. Many gave us excuses that their principal was on leave and we should come the following week. Despite three to four visits, we were refused information and permission to interact with the staff and students. Perhaps they feared that we may create problems in the smooth running of their madrasas. At one point, we even toyed with the idea of giving up the study altogether. However, after a long period of refusal, one madrasa came forward and they were very helpful in sharing their data. This encouraged us a lot and after that it was smooth sailing because they then introduced us to the others and the madrasas that were formerly hostile were now cooperative. In fact, once we gained entry, we got a wealth of data from the teaching staff as well as the students, many of whom were eager to interact and speak. The management were slightly reticent in the beginning, but after our repeated visits they gained confidence in us and gradually we received

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permission to collect data from six madrasas. Perhaps the fact that we were from Maulana Azad National Urdu University lent us legitimacy in their eyes.

Methodology The study is mainly based on primary data, which was collected with the help of both structured and informal interview schedules. The schedule consisted of both open-ended and closed-ended question to get complete information from the respondents. Also, the researcher relied on informal discussions with the owners of madrasas, the staff and the students. We had different questionnaires for each of these groups of respondents. The management as well as the teachers were quite insistent that the names of the madrasas should not be disclosed in any public documents. Therefore, for reference, we will be using numbers to indicate them. The madrasas which we studied all belonged to the Sunni sect. Our total sample size was six respondents from the management, twenty-nine from the teachers and eighty-three from the students. The madrasas we studied are located in the Old City of Hyderabad in areas like Shalibanda (madrasa 1 and 2), Old Malakpet (madrasa 3), Madannapet (madrasa 4), Qilwat (madrasa 5) and Charminar (madrasa 6). Data from the management included structured interviews with the principals of the six madrasas along with informal discussions and participant observations of one day in their office. We also collected printed brochures which had information on the aims, objectives and activities of the madrasas (madrasa 1, 3 and 5 had these). Some information was also gathered from unstructured and informal conversations before the structured interviews. All the madrasas (except one, i.e. madrasa 4) provide education for smaller children along with teenage girls. Most of these schools were doubling up as boys’ madrasas in shifts. All the madrasas we visited began in the recent past. The earliest one was established in 1986 (madrasa 1) and the latest in 2000 (madrasa 6).

Management Most of the madrasas in Hyderabad are operated by maulanas or ulema, who are known scholars in the community. They strictly follow the rules and regulations of Islam in the educational process of girls because they believe that women are the future teachers of the whole community. In all the madrasas, the basic thing

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that is taught to girls is how to maintain discipline in the class and in the house, that is, their behaviour towards the elders and towards those younger to them. They also teach the students how to maintain personal hygiene as well as in their surroundings. The management feels these are the basic requirements for a person to become a ‘cultured’ human being.

Enrolment and syllabus Most of the madrasas have more than 500 girl students, which shows that most of the parents are sending their daughters to these institutions so that they get an Islamic education (Annexure, Table 6.1). Most of the madrasas follow the syllabus of Jamia Nizamia, New Delhi. According to the website of Jamia Nizamia, Hyderabad, the syllabus is structured as: 1. In the first stage, a child is imparted primary education from the first to the fourth grade. In this period a student is taught to read and write in their mother tongue, recitation of the Holy Quran, basic principles of Islam and simple mathematics. 2. In the second stage, there are four years of middle school studies, from fifth to eighth grade. During this period, ethics, theology, social studies, Arabic and Persian grammar, and the correct intonation of recitation of the Holy Quran are taught. Besides these, they are also taught mathematics, history, geography and general science. 3. The third stage is the purposeful collegiate studies based on six years of studies which consists of the courses prescribed for Moulvi, Alim and Fazil. Each requires two years of study respectively. This stage includes higher studies in Tafsir, hadith, fiqh, Aqaid Va Kalam, logic and philosophy, Seerat and Arabic literature. 4. The fourth stage consists of two years of postgraduation. Students who have completed the third stage are given admission to complete a master’s degree in any of the specialized subjects, that is, Tafsir, hadith, fiqh, philosophy and Islamic studies. (Education system of Jamia Nizamia and admissions) Described above is the general syllabus. Whether the girls’ madrasas tailor these for their own use could not be ascertained. One madrasa (madrasa 3) follows the syllabus of Jamiathul Salehath, Malagaon. The following subjects are taught in this syllabus: Quran with Tafsir, hadith, Fiqua, Islamic history, Hifz Quran,

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Deniat, women’s issues and their solution under the sharia, Adabe zindagi, minhajul Arabia, qisasun nabi and usul alshashi. Subjects such as mathematics, English, Urdu and environmental sciences are also taught to these girls. Most of the madrasas provide free education to the girls at the initial stage of their establishment. Later, as the strength increases, they start charging fees according to the financial status of the students. In some of the madrasas, approximately 50 per cent of the students had free education and accommodation. Most of the madrasas have their own building, and if they are rented, the owners may be abroad or they have rented the building to the madrasa for a nominal amount. Some madrasas are run in the Wakf (madrasa 6). Almost all the madrasas have small desks for students. These students sit on the mat and write on their notebooks using the desks. Every madrasa has between eight and fifteen rooms in the building with the number of rooms correlated to the number of students. In our sample, only one madrasa did not have a hostel facility (madrasa 6). The hostels naturally were equipped with several toilets and bathrooms based on students and their requirements. It was common for students who were in the higher classes to be teachers of those in the lower classes. For instance, in madrasas 1, 3 and 6 some of the respondents were teaching Alima students while they were simultaneously studying for the Fazila course. Another respondent (in madrasa 4) was studying for Mufti course while also teaching Alima and Fazila students. The hostel facilities included, in all cases, a cook to prepare meals for the students three times a day. The extracurricular activities that are taught to the girls include tailoring, zari work, computer applications, mehndi design-making, fabric painting and spoken English. These skills are taught so that the girls could earn money. Obviously, there is a gendered division of the extracurricular subjects taught to the women. According to Sikand (2006, pp. 3774–6), Winkelmann in her study on a girls’ madrasa in Delhi speaks about the construction of good Islamic womanhood that is happening in the institution. The same can probably be conjectured about these girls’ madrasas too.

Aims of the madrasas The main aims of a madrasa education are spelt out in their brochures. These include 1. Providing free education to the economically disadvantaged Muslim children who cannot afford to study in other schools

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2. Providing technical skills to Muslims so that they can earn in the future 3. Providing education to girls about their Islamic rights and making them aware of their religion 4. Making women aware of their surroundings and teaching them how to behave in the society, that is, good behaviour both towards elders and towards those younger than the student 5. Instilling self-confidence and leadership qualities among the girls by training them in debates, etc. 6. Imparting perfect knowledge of their religion as these girls are the future mothers of the community. Since the madrasas provide free food, clothes, books and even jobs (very often in mosques, schools and other madrasas) they are attractive for the economically disadvantaged. Thus, the madrasas are performing the role of a welfare organization for the society and for the country at large. As most of the students are from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, they cannot express their demands to the society. They feel that a madrasa education gives them the confidence to fight against the oppressive and unjust system in which they live. The education that is provided by the madrasa system has evolved with time; most of the madrasas are now using computers and have institutionalized some of their testing practices. Some madrasas are also running small businesses to support the normal functioning of the institution.

Students In our sample, among girls between the ages of 15 and 20, 7.14 per cent are doing their Hafiz course, 47.61 per cent are studying for Alima – first year, 11.90 per cent for Alima – second year, 11.90 per cent for Alima – third year, 17.85 per cent for Alima – fourth year and 3.57 per cent are doing Fazila course. Most of the students are also doing their degrees from an open university or from universities in Hyderabad via the distance learning mode. They also come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds as indicated in Table 6.2 in the Annexure. The routine of the students is such that they spend the entire day in the class or in special study groups in the hostels. They get some time off to play in the field in the evening but there is no other recreational facility such as television. Radios and tape recorders are forbidden. Newspapers are available only in the teachers’ staff room. There is a rented television to watch sports events from time to time but films and other forms of entertainment are forbidden. There are

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also cultural programmes on important national days like Independence Day or Republic Day where students sing songs and perform plays. Students write and give their views on a wall magazine in a madrasa but to us this appeared more like an exhibition and it was more of a politically correct exhibition rather than a space for creative thinking and freedom of expression.

Teachers Most of the madrasas have a teacher – student ratio of 1:25, which means that students are given more individual attention as opposed to state-run schools. In all the madrasas that we studied there were a large number of teachers as indicated in Table 6.3 in the Annexure. Traditionally, most madrasa teachers acquire teaching experience through the ‘mentoring system’ which has remained, till date, a well-established method of pre-service teacher preparation. Mentoring relationship are voluntary, and age and gender factors are considered before protégé pairs are established. Educators, and particularly teacher educators, make use of knowledge derived from other disciplines and fields in their efforts to design induction programmes for new teachers (Galvez-Hjornevik, 1986, p. 6).We also found this in Hyderabad. According to this method, the senior students of the madrasas are asked by the teachers to teach their juniors and if they are found competent in their ability to communicate, explain, analyse, expand and reinterpret the given subject matter, they are allowed to stay and further their knowledge and once their maturity and knowledge has been proven, they are formally inducted as teachers. However, this system of teacher training has some inherent inadequacies such as absence of any well-recognized curriculum on principles and practice of teaching, and lack of structure in the system. These students invariably end up passing down their own narrow vision to their students. However, it has to be said that many madrasas do not use this or any other method of teaching preparation. Instead they appoint teachers based on academic qualifications. To overcome the weakness of the monitorial system and the shortcomings arising due to the lack of teacher training, some madrasas have begun a few in-service teacher training programmes for their teachers (Siddiqui, 1998, pp. 78–9). We did not, however, find any such programme in Hyderabad.

Experiences of the teachers Most of the teachers in the madrasas are very young. A significant (41 per cent) number of teachers (with an age range of 17–20) have been teaching for

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anything between 2 years and 3 months. These are typically former students who took up a teaching position; 27.58 per cent of the teachers have three to five years of experience, 13.79 per cent have taught for six to eight years, 6.89 per cent of them have taught for nine to eleven years and 27.58 per cent have at least eleven years of teaching experience. This last category of teachers is very often the founder teacher of the madrasa. In fact, we found that many of the teachers who started their life as students in the same madrasa have later become teachers. The teachers had a very limited vision of the world and did not go beyond what was prescribed in the syllabus. They were very clear that they had to produce good women who would be the pride of the home and community. These madrasas were not the only mechanism for propagating the idea of a ‘good woman’. It is also continuously enforced through various institutions such as family, women’s associations and religion. The ‘good woman’ was supposed to be educated in affairs to do with home, her children, Islam, and sometimes, on her special community identity as a Deccani. Hence, we can see the refashioning of Muslim patriarchy through the eyes of these madrasa. Most of the teachers expressed dissatisfaction with their salaries (Annexure, Table 6.4) as it did not cover their expenses. But they were also happy that they were doing ‘God’s work’, and that their payment is given by Allah the Almighty. The salary of the teachers was based on a system which matched their level of experience. The minimum educational qualifications for the teachers to enter the madrasa system was the Hafiz level (those who remember the whole Quran); 13.79 per cent of the teachers were Hafiz qualified and all of them had done their intermediate in an English-medium school; 27.58 per cent of the teachers had done their Alima course, which is equivalent to a degree in the madrasa system; 17.24 per cent of the teachers had done their Fazila course, which is equivalent to a postgraduate degree; and 6.89 per cent were Mufti qualified, which is a PhD equivalent in the madrasa system (Annexure, Table 6.5).

Registration and sources of funds It was very difficult to get any information on the source of funds of the madrasas studied. Almost all the madrasas are registered with the government, but they were not taking the help of the state, financially or academically, in running their madrasas. This is because they did not wish to implement the syllabus followed in government schools and they wanted to maintain their

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freedom. We found that the entire madrasa system has been supported by the community through trusts, endowments, charitable donations, zakat contribution during Ramzan and Bakrid, and fee collected from the students. These madrasas are not affiliated to any universities and refused to take funds from any such source. Some of them, however, receive help from businessmen through their charities.

Conclusion To conclude, as a space of education specific to a minority community, madrasas require special attention, more so the girls’ madrasas. We cannot deny that there is a class angle to the composition among the girls’ madrasas that we studied. By providing education to the economically disadvantaged Muslims almost free of cost, madrasas work for the benefit of the society. Most of the madrasas not only provide education but also offer free meals and provide jobs for their students. It is not true that madrasas are totally backward and use medieval curriculum. For instance, English has been added as a compulsory subject in the primary section, and several madrasas now provide facilities for English education at a higher level as well. Bureaucratization of admission and administrative procedures, and professionalization of management practices, especially in large madrasas, have been undertaken. Personal computers are playing an important role in this process. Most of the madrasas provide some form of IT education for the students to ensure that they remain cognizant of the digital world. Yet, madrasas have their own understanding of a Muslim women’s role in society. They also teach some extracurricular activities to the girls such as tailoring, zari work, hand embroidery, mehndi design, etc. Almost all the students in these madrasas have completed at least seven years of schooling which is comparable to students in state schools. While studying in madrasas, most of the students do their degree or postgraduate course via distance learning from different universities in the city. The fact that most of the students are doing their university degrees via distance learning shows that many people feel madrasa education must be complemented with secular education and degrees. This also indicates that madrasas are equipping them to face university examinations. Girls’ madrasas should be seen as spaces which construct the notion of the ‘good Muslim womanhood’. The madrasas have placed an emphasis on the hadith and

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other transmitted sciences at the cost of rational sciences and have made their courses increasingly focused on the transmission of strict religious doctrines and the notion of a good woman. The curriculum, pedagogy and the purpose of the madrasa have increasingly concentrated on strengthening a doctrinaire Muslim identity. This need to emphasize a separate identity for one community becomes especially complicated if the minority group also has a glorious past – whether real or imagined – to look back to. Then the tendency to look backwards for a model of living life becomes even greater and that happens at the cost of looking at contemporary reality (Gupta, 2009, p. 171). There is a need to change the madrasa curriculum to suit modernity. Efforts should be made by the government to encourage liberal and modern elements within the religious education in the madrasas. Yet, this should not be done in a threatening manner using the state’s mechanisms. Perhaps more trust-building mechanisms should be explored between the state and the community. Girls’ madrasas are important spaces where Muslim femininities are built. These should be given special attention by researchers as well as the government. We live in a competitive world today, where education in general, and professional education in particular, are in great demand. People are aware of the advantages of modern education and even the uneducated aspire for a modern standard of living. India today is a booming and burgeoning economy, moving gradually to the centre stage in the comity of nations. There has been a growing demand for greater flexibility in allowing madrasa students to move across to regular mainstream education in a variety of subject areas. A mechanism must be worked out whereby Dini Madaris can be linked to a higher secondary board so that students wanting to shift to regular/mainstream education can do so even after passing exams in a madrasa. Given the generally low access to girls’ schools in the vicinity, parents are left with the unaffordable option of private schooling or a madrasa education. In the context of overall societal gender bias, this has had a particularly deleterious effect on the education of Muslim girls with economically disadvantaged Muslim parents often opting to send only sons to private schools. Poverty and financial constraints along with the low value placed on girls’ education are the major causes that prevent Muslim girls from accessing modern/‘secular’ education. What these madrasas are doing involves socializing these girls into gender roles that serve to integrate them into the larger gendered society and dull any possible questioning on identity. Class and gender merge here and become mutually supportive.

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Annexures

Table 6.1 Total student enrolment in the madrasas Madrasa Sr. no.

Enrolment at the initial stage Girls

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Boys 150 − − − − −

4 7 50 25 35

Enrolment at the time of the interview

Change in the Years of enrolment establishment

Girls 180 1800 1600 600 700 150

− 30 1796 1593 550 675 115

− 4 16 20 13 14 6

Table 6.2 Father’s income with percentage of respondents Sr. no.

Income of the father per month (in rupees)

Percentage of the respondents

1. 2. 3.

1,000–3,000 3,500–7,000 7,500–10,000

33.33 35.71 30.95

Table 6.3 Number of teachers in madrasas

Madrasa Sr. no.

Teachers at the time of establishment

Teachers at the time of the interview

Difference between initial intake and present intake

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

4 2 1 3 4 3

4 65 45 25 28 7

− 63 44 22 24 4

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Table 6.4 Teachers’ salaries Sr. no.

Salary per month (in rupees)

Percentage of the respondents

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

500–900 1,000–1,500 1,600–2,000 2,100–2,500 ≥2,600

44.82 17.24 10.34 10.34 17.24

Table 6.5 Educational qualifications of the teachers Sr. no.

Educational level

Percentage of the respondents

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 7.

Intermediate + Hafiz Hafiz + Alima (degree) Hafiz + Alima + Fazila (PG) Hafiz + Alima + Fazila + Mufti (PhD) Graduation + Hafiz Postgraduation + Hafiz

13.79 27.58 17.24 6.89 4.48 24.13

8.

PhD + Hafiz

6.89

Note: This study was carried out in 2006–2007, at the Centre for Women’s Studies at Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Hyderabad. The team involved in data collection include Ms Nuzhat Khatun, Ms Viqar Atiya, Ms Mumtaz Fatima and Dr K. C. Bindu. Although this study was carried out from 2006 to 2007, the data is still relevant in discussing how madrasas function as an educational space for Muslim children, particularly Muslim girls from socio-economically disadvantaged families.

Glossary Alim – Higher Secondary Level in madrasa education Aqamati – madrasas which cater to elementary education Dakhil – Secondary Level in madrasa education Darsun – Lesson Fazil – Degree Level in madrasa education Fiqa – Islamic jurisprudence Hadith – The sayings of the Prophet Hafez-e-Quran – One who can recite the complete Holy Quran Ibtedai – Elementary Level in madrasa education Ilm – Knowledge/science/doctrine Kamil – Postgraduate Level in madrasa education Madrasa – An Islamic educational institution Maktab – A place where Muslim children go to read and recite the Quran

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Qaris – Those who can recite Quranic verses with proper Arabic pronunciation Sunna – The knowledge of deeds of the Prophet Tafsir – Interpretation of the Quran Ulama – Community of legal scholars of Islam and the sharia Zakat – Obligatory charity practised by Muslims Zenana – Women’s quarters

References Ahmed, M. (1987). ‘Islamic Education Prior to the Establishment of Madrassa’. Journal of Islamic Studies, 26 (4), 321. Alam, A. (2011). Inside a Madrasa, Knowledge, Power and Islamic Identity in India. London: Routledge. Armanios. F. (29 October 2003). ‘Islamic Religious Schools, Madrasas: background’, CRS Report for Congress. Congressional Research Service, The Library of Congress. http://fas.org/irp/crs/RS21654.pdf [Accessed 9 March 2015]. Brill, E. J. (1993). ‘Encyclopedia of Islam’. Vol VII. In P. J. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C. E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W. P. Heinrichs et al. (eds), E. J. Brill’s First Encyclopaedia of Islam, 1913–1936, 1–564. Leiden: E. J. Brill. Dalrymple, W. (2005). ‘Inside the Madrassa’. New York Review of Books, 52(19), 19. Deobandi Islam (n.d.). Global security Org, http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ intro/islam-deobandi.htm [Accessed 9 March 2015]. Education system of Jamia Nizamia and Admissions (n.d.). http://www.jamianizamia. org/index_files/Page707.htm [Accessed 6 October 2006]. Galvez-Hjornevik, C. (1986). ‘Mentoring among Teachers: A Review of the Literature’. Journal of Teacher Education, 37(1), 6–11. Gayer, L. and Jaffrelot, C. (2012). Muslims in Indian Cities, Trajectories of Marginalisation. London: Hurst & Co. Gupta, N. (2009). Reading with Allah, Madrasas in West Bengal. New Delhi: Routledge. Haqqani, H. (2002). ‘Islam’s Medieval Outposts’. Foreign Policy, 133, 58. Hasan, M. (21 May 2003). The Madrassas in India, The Hindu, http://www.thehindu. com/thehindu/2003/05/21/stories/2003052100721000.htm [Accessed 9 March 2015]. Hasan, Z. and Menon, R. (2005). Educating Muslim Girls: A Comparison of Five Cities. New Delhi: Kali Unlimited. Malik, J. (2008). Madrasas in South Asia: A Teaching Terror?. London and New York: Routledge. Massey, J. (1998). Studies in Educational and Socio-Economic Problems of Minorities in India: A Report of the National Commission of Minorities. New Delhi: National Commission of Minorities.

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Nashabe, H. (1989). Muslim Education Institutions. Beirut: Library of Lebanon. Noor, F. A. (September 2005). ‘India’s Embattled Madrassas’. Far Eastern Economic Review. https://www.zmo.de/pressekit/../Far%20Eastern%20Economic%20 Review%2010_05 [Accessed 26 February 2015]. Ridley, Y. (16–22 July 2006). ‘Women’s Rights in Islamic Framework’. Radiance Views Weekly, 20–2. Report Sachar Committee, ‘Social, Economic and Educational Status of the Muslim Community of India’, 17 November 2006. http://www.minorityaffairs.gov.in/sites/ upload_files/moma/files/pdfs/sachar_ comm.pdf [Accessed 23 March 2015]. Report U.N. Habitat, ‘Expert Group Meeting on Urban Indicators Secure Tenure, Slums and Global Sample of Cities’, 28–30 October 2002, Nairobi, Kenya, http:// www.citiesalliance.org/sites/citiesalliance.org/files/expert-group-meeting-urbanindicators%5B1%5D.pdf [Accessed 23 March 2015]. Setelvad, T. (2005). Communalism Combat, 109–10 (11). Siddiqui, M. A. (1998). ‘Development and Trends in Madrassa Education’. In A. W. B. Qadri, R. S. Khan and M. A. Siddiqui (eds), Education of Muslims in India since Independence, 72–87. New Delhi: Institute of Objective Studies. Sikand, Y. (2005). Bastions of the Believers. Madrasas and Islamic Education in India. New Delhi: Penguin Books. Siraj, M. A (March 2001). ‘Interview with Maulana Rabe Hasni Nadwi’. Islamic Voice. 15, 171. Sultanat, A. (November 2003). ‘History and Role of Madrassas in India’. Review of Encyclopedia of Islam, No 14. New Delhi: Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies. The Siasat Daily (4 July 2006). Hyderabad. The Washington Times (30 October 2003). ‘Madrassa Alert’. Uzma Anzar, P. (2003). ‘Islamic Education a Brief History of Madrassas with Comments on Curricula and Current Pedagogical Practices’. http://siteresources.worldbank. org/EDUCATION/Resources/278200-1121703274255/1439264-1126807073059/ Islamic_Education_Paper.pdf. [Accessed 1 January 2014]. Weaver, M. A. (12 June 1995). ‘Children of the Jihad’, The New Yorker.

7

India: Education for Children in Kashmir Anub Mannaan and Tanveer Ahmad Dar

Introduction In areas of conflict, education requires special policy considerations in light of ongoing conflict for child development, safety, mobility and access. The significance of education in areas of conflict is extremely high for the Indian state. Indian security forces are the ‘busiest peacetime army fighting internal wars’, with almost 50 per cent of the force deployed against its own people (Navlakha, 2000, p. 1713). The range of rebellion against the state has been wide – from Kashmir to Punjab, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Tripura, Assam and Naxals in several parts of India. With education becoming a fundamental right, it is the constitutional obligation of the state to ensure that all its children from the age of 6 – 14 receive education. This can be done only when the needs of children arising from the complex context are taken into account. Each of these rebellions has a different political context, different needs and challenges. In this chapter, we bring forth the impact of years of continuous exposure to violence, in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), on the access to quality education. The first section presents a picture of the political context within which the education system is operating. The second examines the scale of impact on education, throughout the decades of tension. The third contextualizes challenges and discusses the role of govenment, in an effort to achieve primary education for all. The research and data exploring the impact of conflict on different aspects of people’s lives has been limited in J&K as in other conflict areas. This chapter relies mostly on an analysis of the state-level macro-data on a long-term basis to examine the impact of conflict on education in J&K.

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Context: A unique status Jammu and Kashmir was one of the largest princely states at the time of India’s independence. Its strategic location, bordering India, Pakistan, China and Tibet, made it an extremely significant territory. India and Pakistan fought its first war over Kashmir in 1947–8. India approached the United Nations which called for a ceasefire and plebiscite. With the ceasefire coming into effect, the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir was divided and the present line of control (LOC) was established. The northern (Gilgit-Baltistan) and western areas came under the rule of Pakistan. India controlled the central region around Srinagar (Schofield, 1997). This chapter analyses the challenges faced by the Indian administered state of Jammu and Kashmir. India and Pakistan have fought for over six decades, on the battlefield (three wars: 1947–8, 1965 and 1999), and have been at the negotiation table over Kashmir (Schofield, 1997). Disregarding Kashmir as a disputed region, India wants to settle the matter through bilateral talks, whereas Pakistan insists on a plebiscite as directed by the United Nations. From 1989 to 2002, Kashmir faced its worst phase of conflict – Kashmiri armed groups fighting for independence took the centre stage. The state faced massive losses during this period. Futehally and Bhatt (2004) recorded that during this thirteen-year period, more than 1,151 government buildings and 11 hospitals were damaged, in addition to thousands of private houses and hundreds of shops. The state government’s own record says that 401 bridges were damaged due to militancy-related incidents (Govt. of J&K, 2008–2009). It is important to examine the nature of conflict in Kashmir to understand its impact on education and children. The emergence of militancy in 1989 turned Kashmir from an external conflict into both external and internal conflicts. Post-2002, low-intensity incidents of violence were seen in the region. However, this phase too had incidents and years of violent conflict. It is important to understand that the conflict is not over, and it is not a post-war situation. The uprising of 2008, 2010 and 2016 must be taken as a reminder as this was a time during which schools remained closed for approximately one to four months, a scenario similar to that in the 1990s. Even though India does not classify Kashmir as a dispute or a conflict, it maintains a presence of over half a million of military, paramilitary and Central Reserve Police Force, making it the most militarized state in the world (Duschinski and Hoffman, 2011). Militarization can also be seen in the form of

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security-related special legislations, such as the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) and the Public Safety Act (PSA), which give army personnel unrestricted power to carry out operations (Duschinski and Hoffman, 2011). This armed uprising and consequently its suppression has resulted in grave human rights violations (Amnesty International, 2011). Children have been direct victims of conflict and on many occasions have been targeted and killed by security forces (e.g. during mass protest demonstrations in 2008, 2010 and 2016 in Kashmir). There are also many documented cases of children that were arrested and tortured while in detention. The Amnesty International Report 2011 says, ‘In practice, the J & K state authorities appear to treat boys above 16 years as adults and detain them without trial under the PSA and ordinary criminal law, holding them in regular prisons along with adult prisoners’ (p. 23). The Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR, 2011) also observed in their report that children are being detained without trial under the PSA in J&K. Furthermore, cases of sexual abuse of children have also been reported. In 2010, some boys were arrested on charges of stone-pelting and they accused the police in court of forcing them to sodomize each other in custody, while being filmed (Wani, 2010). India’s relationship with Kashmir is defined by Article 370, which was meant to be a ‘temporary provision’ to govern the state of Jammu and Kashmir (Noorani, 2011). Article 370 states that the union government’s right extends to only matters of defence, foreign affairs, finance and communications. The remaining matters fall under the jurisdiction of the government of Jammu and Kashmir. Furthermore, the union government requires the state government’s approval for any other law to be implemented in the state (Government of India, 1952). This implies that the state is governed by a separate set of laws compared to the rest of the country. It carries serious implications for educational policy and practice in the state. Thus, the Rights of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009; The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act, 2000; The National Council for Teacher Education Act, 1993, among others, do not extend to the state.

Scale of impact of conflict on education The questions that arise are: Is the ability of children to access and attend school compromised by the conflict? Does this conflict affect the educational outcomes of the state? To examine these questions, one must investigate the growth or decline

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in literacy levels during this period; and the performance of enrolment rates at different points of time. These are critical indicators of the extent of the problem, and also provide an insight into the efficacies of the current policy framework. The most severe blow to education systems came during the times of armed insurgency in the 1990s. While other states of India were implementing policies to keep pace with the world during the 1990s, even existing structures in Jammu and Kashmir suffered because of the ongoing conflict. As a result, the enrolment rates, an important indicator for tracking the progress of education vis-à-vis any fluctuations, dropped drastically during this time. The data from the state on the enrolment in schools, over this period, clearly shows that there had been a drop during the 1990s and early 2000s – an indication that the access of children to the schools was affected. The decline between 1989 and 1990 was almost 2.9 per cent (1.69 to 1.64 lacs1) (Govt. of J&K, 2007–2008). This trend was seen at middle and higher school levels. In a single year during 1995–6, the enrolment at middle school level declined by 16.29 per cent (4.85 to 4.06 lacs) and at high and higher school levels by 43.67 per cent (4.03 to 2.27 lacs) (Govt. of India, 2003). Overall (in primary, secondary, high and higher secondary schools) enrolment declined during the academic years of 2001–2 and was 31 per cent (19.4 to 13.3 lacs) (Govt. of J&K, 2007–2008). The impact had not only been on enrolment in school education, but also across technical-and university-level education. For instance, the enrolment of students in technical education had declined during 1995–2001 by almost 45 per cent (4,884 to 2,667) compared to a 35 per cent increase during 1985–90 and a 6 per cent increase during 1990–95 (Govt. of J&K, 2007–2008). The decline at university level was 29 per cent in enrolment from 1989 to 1995 (4,139 to 2,950), as against a decrease of 0.48 per cent during 1985–89. Girls were particularly at a disadvantage. Among female students there was no decline in university enrolment in the period of 1985–90. However, from 1990 to 1995 there was a drastic drop of 27 per cent in enrolment, compared to a 14 per cent drop among male students during this period (Govt. of J&K, 2007–2008). Ideally the enrolment figures should show an increase or at least remain static. But in J&K, the macro-data at the state level on the enrolment of students in different institutions over time shows severe drops especially during the 1990s and early 2000s – the peak time of conflict. Such levels of decline in enrolment, however, were never observed from 1960 to 1989 (Govt. of J&K, 2007–2008). Even though post-2001 there has been a steady increase in school enrolments for both boys and girls, there is still a long way to go.

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As further evidence, we can see the impact of conflict on literacy rates. Although the Census was not conducted in 1991, the state’s projected estimates reveal that the literacy rate increased only by 10.5 percentage points during 1991–2001, against the increase of 14.3 percentage points during the earlier decade of 1981–91. The comparative increase at the all-India level was 12.63 percentage points during 1991–2001, against an increase of 8.6 percentage points in the earlier decade of 1981–91 (RGI, 2011), as shown in Table 7.1. Barring the 1991–2001 period, the increase in literacy rates in J&K has been faster than, or almost similar to, all-India rates during any period of time since 1961. These trends in growth of literacy rates clearly demonstrate that the conflict-related processes have affected the educational attainments in J&K during the 1990s. Even with the growth in the number of educational institutions in J&K at a later period, the state’s literacy level of 68.7 per cent keeps it among the bottom six of the country (RGI, 2011). According to the 2011 Census, the male literacy rate is 78.26 per cent and the female literacy rate is 58.01 per cent. Even though gender divide is a national trend, this gap is far more extensive in the state. The argument put forth by the government of India and state educational officials regarding the decline in enrolment and literacy rates during the years of insurgency had been rather simplistic – ‘damage to school infrastructure’ (Tribune, 2008; Govt. of India, 2003). The important questions that arise are: How has it impacted on education? What can the state do to support education? Why are only certain segments of the population victims of the system?

Table 7.1 Literacy in J&K and India over the time (as per Census)

Year

J&K (%)

India (%)

Difference between India & J&K (% points)

1961 1971 1981 1991* 2001 2011

12.95 21.71 33.02 45.00 55.52 68.74

28.3 34.45 43.57 52.21 64.84 74.04

15.35 12.74 10.55 7.21 9.32 5.3

* As the Census was not conducted in J&K in 1991, the figures for 1991 are based on State projections (Govt of J&K, 2008-09) Source: RGI (2011)

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Challenges Access to education depends on both the ability of the child to attend school and the existing structures which provide education. Various factors have an impact on education, starting from the psychosocial needs of the child, right up to macro level factors of educational structures. In this chapter, we concentrate mostly on educational structures, not only because these are important within themselves, but also because they have a strong impact on the student’s ability to continue education.

Infrastructure Perhaps the most obvious and biggest barrier to education lies in the inaccessibility of schools. During the peak of the armed uprising, many government schools were damaged, burnt or occupied, which further reduced the already scarce number of schools. This reduction includes elementary to higher secondary schools. The J&K Education Department reveals that almost 950 schools were burnt/damaged (712 in Kashmir region only), mainly during the 1990s (Govt. of J&K, n.d). Although most of them might have been damaged during 1990–5, the peak years of uprising, even taking 1995 as base year meant a loss of 6.37 per cent of school buildings against a total number of 14,902 schools at that time in the state, due to damage (Govt. of J&K, 2007–2008). Of the number of schools occupied by security forces, there seems to be no exact account; however, a few reports suggest that the numbers of schools occupied were more than what were burnt/damaged (Futehally and Bhatt, 2004). The government of India’s own account also indicates that hundreds of schools were occupied by security forces in J&K. The Planning Commission’s J&K State Development Report in 2003 recorded: The other major problem is that security personnel are currently occupying many school buildings. For instance, in Jammu alone, the figure is around 500. Such schools should be handed over to school authorities, so that they do not have to run schools in open and/or in rented buildings (Govt. of India, 2003, p. 207).

The report doesn’t mention what they meant by Jammu – a region or a district? If it is to be taken as a number for the Jammu district, then the total numbers of schools occupied would run to thousands (there were fourteen districts in the state in 2003). Even if it is taken as a number for the Jammu region (which included six districts in 2003) as a whole, the total number in the state would likely be

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more than a thousand schools, just by adding another five hundred schools for Kashmir and Ladakh regions (though likely to be much more because of more concentration of the security forces in Kashmir than Jammu region). Even by conservative estimates, taking a total of a thousand schools, occupied by security forces at the base year of 1995, it would amount to almost 6.7 per cent of schools. Therefore, a total of almost 13 per cent of school buildings were lost in the state due to either being targeted or burnt (6.37 per cent), or occupied by security forces (6.7 per cent). In a state with an already compromised infrastructure, the occupation of schools added to its woes, especially in the rural areas. Schools with damaged infrastructure were forced to have classes in the open, but inclement weather meant that this was often impossible. Furthermore, the trauma of studying in a space with visible signs of damage also took a toll on the students’ sense of security, well-being and learning. A child does not view a classroom as just a physical study space – attached with it is a sense of belonging and security. In fact, schooling for children is much more important in conflict areas as it helps in normalizing the situation for them through their participation in different activities along with their peers. To get a complete picture of the present situation it is important to look at both achievements and deficiencies. The Sarva Shikhsha Abhiyan (campaign for universal education) was launched in 2001. The scheme was an opportunity for J&K to bridge the gap in infrastructure and improve accessibility to schools. An increase in the number of institutions has improved accessibility and increased enrolment and literacy rates. Educational institutions have doubled in the state from 1981 to 2006 with a notable decrease in the average catchment area per school from 9.87 to 3.90 square kilometres2 (Govt. of J&K, 2008–2009). Although improvement in accessibility is significant, it is far from complete. There are almost 2,735 habitations which lack road connectivity as against the total number of 9,933 habitations in the state and this accounts for 27.5 per cent of the habitations without roads in the state (Govt. of J&K, 2008–2009). Physical accessibility must be seen together with a sense of insecurity and restrictions on movement of the people. Although most of the schools under the occupation of security forces have been evacuated by now, the frequent sightings of fully armed soldiers, barracks, camps, strikes and violent incidents doesn’t make an enabling environment in which to learn or to teach. The presence of security forces at every corner is a perpetual reminder of prevailing conflict. Interviews with students have revealed their fear of travelling to school if they are required to cross military personnel or camps (Mannaan, 2014). Additionally, insufficient and inadequate road connectivity makes school access more difficult. In a

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situation of conflict, where there is a general atmosphere of fear, restrictions on mobility and continuous checks and frisking raise concerns among parents about their children’s safety (especially girls). The longer the travelling time, the more likely it is to be perceived as unsafe and unrealistic for a child intending to attend school. Access to schools remains an important issue in the state and is an impediment for many children and teachers in attending school regularly. The state has also acknowledged that inaccessibility of the majority of the population living in far-flung areas is an impediment in universalizing education (Govt. of J&K, 2008–2009). Other major causes for concern are school amenities and the standard of education. The state government’s own record of facts tells us that there are huge deficiencies in the infrastructure to the extent that a total of 4,830 schools, which accounted for almost 25 per cent of the total 19,043 schools in 2007, were without government-owned buildings. Further, 581 high schools and 363 higher secondary schools (944 in total) which are newly upgraded have underprovided accommodation, and 474 primary schools were found to be dilapidated (Govt. of J&K, 2008–2009). The infrastructural challenge remains a problem in both public and private schools. A 2013 ASER (Annual Status of Education Report) study showed that 52 per cent schools in rural Jammu and Kashmir had no provision for a separate girls’ toilet, 26 per cent had no toilets at all, 38.7 per cent had no drinking water facility and 10.7 per cent had drinking water facility but no water (adding to total 49 per cent without drinking water). Here it is important to point out that these deficiencies in infrastructure are not a result of poor access to finance or poverty in the state. The failure of commitment towards educational needs on the part of the administration can be seen from the fact that thousands of crores under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), which were meant for road expansion (Greater Kashmir, 2013a), and hundreds of crores3 under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), which were meant to be used to build school infrastructure (Greater Kashmir, 2013b), have gone unutilized by the state.

Teacher shortage The valley is filled with anecdotes of the overnight exodus of Pandits with the onset of conflict in 1989. Up until 1990 the Kashmiri Pandits were represented in government jobs in much higher proportions. The estimates on numbers of teachers who migrated vary a lot between different sources, from sky touching

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estimates to a few thousands. For instance, Futehally and Bhatt (2004) recorded that 30,000 Pandit teachers migrated from Kashmir during 1990–92, but the figure is unlikely4; while as Parvaiz and Roul (2011) claimed, based on the data of the Education Department, that more than 1,100 teachers migrated from Kashmir due to the emergence of conflict. Nevertheless, even if just more than a thousand Pandit teachers had migrated, it is significant enough to have an impact on the quality of education in government schools in Kashmir. Also, some schools might have lost all their teachers. The data at the state level have also shown a severe decline in numbers of teachers. The numbers of teachers in J&K universities had declined by almost 44 per cent during 1990–95 (673 to 376), as against 116 per cent increase in faculty during 1985–90. In addition, during 1999–2000 the numbers of teachers had also declined by another 10.5 per cent (495 to 443) (Govt. of J&K, 2007–2008). This overall decline of teachers at various levels seems to be mainly because of the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits, and due to the skewed recruitment process during the 1990s. The shortage of qualified and trained teaching staff was most felt at the school level. Some schools, for instance, had no teachers left overnight. The ongoing conflict, along with the complex and bureaucratic recruitment procedure resulted in years of understaffed schools. In order to correct the dwindling teacher-student ratio up to the SSA requirement, as a means of addressing the massive unemployment faced by educated youth in the state and the unavailability and irregular attendance of teachers in rural and far-off schools (due to strikes and lack of transport) the Rehbar-e-Taleem scheme was launched. The requirements of being a teacher under this scheme are simple – the candidate must have passed the twelfth grade but highest meritorious candidate among the applicants will be selected, be over 18 years of age and belong to the village of present vacancy. There are no other screening methods and only a few lucky ones get some sort of advanced training. While there is no doubting the fact that this scheme has resulted in appointment of more staff (in fact, as of now, the numbers of such teachers are almost double than those recruited through recruitment boards), its impact on quality and learning outcomes is being questioned. Initially with a pay scale of Rs 1500 per month (but revised to Rs 3000 per month now) for a probationary period of five years, this scheme has not only exploited unemployed youth but was also a recipe to dissuade many not to take up teaching. Another important aspect is the teacher’s presence in the classroom. Absenteeism is extremely high among teachers. First, lack of accountability has resulted in what has often been called a ‘relaxed attitude’ towards teaching. Second is the ability of teachers to reach the classroom. Security forces routinely

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barricade roads. There are times5 when each vehicle is checked, especially in rural areas. This along with indefinite strikes, curfews, the frequent occurrence of firings and grenade attacks, crackdown on villages, disrupted transport facilities and restricted movement act as major impediments in commuting to the schools. Consequently, the attendance of teachers declined especially in rural and sensitive areas (Parvaiz and Roul, 2011). Teachers resisted being posted in remote areas (Arshad, 2008). An important insight comes from a discussion (in 2012) with a Zonal-level Rehbar-e-Taleem Teachers Forum at Zachaldara, Kupwara district, which reported that 54 out of a total of 468 teachers were on deployment (working in areas other than their place of posting, usually on plains and favourable areas without any teacher as replacement) in Zachaldara education zone. Therefore, because of all these restrictions, fear and other resultant outcomes the education in rural and far-off areas suffers. Student retention, learning outcomes and well-being are greatly dependant on an enabling atmosphere, where the presence of a teacher plays a crucial role. A shortage of qualified teachers, poor teacher morale due to low pay and absenteeism, and difficulties and fear in commuting to schools are major impediments to student progress. This problem is, naturally, most intense for the poorer students in government schools, but it does not completely exclude private schools. The mobility crisis and poor or no teacher training haunt both private and public schools.

State Education Act The purpose of law and schemes is to contextualize the natural and man-made challenges confronting the education system of the state and provide the means to protect the rights and liberties of various socio-economic classes. In a muchneeded attempt to universalize education, the J&K state enacted a law, the J&K State Education Act in 2002 (seven years before India brought the Right to Education Act6) which mandated the right to free and compulsory education for children up to grade eight, in order to achieve universalization of elementary education throughout the state within ten years. It is almost fourteen years since the commencement of the act, and the literacy rate remains compromised. The gender gap has increased (almost 20 per cent as of now), there are huge deficiencies in infrastructure and the dropout rate remains high. While the state claims that the ‘out of school children’ in the state have considerably reduced

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to mere 2.58 per cent in age group of 6–14 in 2009–10 (Govt. of J&K, n.d), the NCPCR’s (National Commission for Protection of Child Rights) estimates reveal that the ‘out of school children’ were likely to be almost 10.8 per cent in the state in the same age group (NCPCR, 2013). We need to take a closer look at the provisions under this legislation, that is, whether or not it addresses the complex ground realities of the state, to understand these gaps. The act has failed to address fundamental questions and to respond to institutional problems faced by different socio-economic groups in various areas and circumstances. A rather absurd assumption is that of J&K being a homogenous society and that failure to attend school is due to ignorance, carelessness and negligence on the part of parents. The field realities, however, have clearly demonstrated that the reasons for non-enrolment and drop out from schools are multiple and mostly institutional in nature, embedded in the socio-economic conditions of people and the political situation in the state (Dar and Khaki, 2012). Importantly, the act doesn’t recognize how to respond to the problems of access that are faced by children and the education system arising due to conflict in the state. These problems include the deterioration of socio-economic conditions of many families, and therefore the engagement of their children in labour; the inability to afford high expenditures on school fees, uniform, shoes and other educational expenses; mental health issues; fear and restrictions to move freely; corporal punishment; orphan-hood; poor quality education leading to children performing weakly, or loss of interest; no remedial or special teaching/coaching for children who have failed; a failure to implement other government schemes providing a means of livelihood and work for people (Dar and Khaki, 2012). In situations of conflict, poverty is a major constraint, second only to security. As a fallout of the deteriorating economic conditions and increasing unemployment7 due to conflict (Govt. of J&K, 2012–13; 2008–2009; Burki, 2007), field observations have revealed that many children either didn’t enrol or dropped out of school, and those who were out of school were engaged in child labour in a range of sectors (Dar and Khaki, 2012). Becoming educated has become an expensive proposition. First, even though free and compulsory education in government schools is guaranteed, the opportunity costs (such as books, uniform, shoes, exam fee) have resulted in students dropping out (NCPCR, 2013). Some of these provisions (like making education free) have been made in the recently passed Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act (RTE), 2009, in India, but J&K is yet to decide to bring its law on par with this new RTE Act.

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Second is the cost of learning attached to education. For instance, it was found, in both government and private schools, that half of the pupils in the sixth grade could not read a second grade textbook and only 41 per cent could do simple subtraction (ASER, 2013). Schools are characterized by a lack of quality education with learning taking place outside of classrooms. Increasingly, private tuition is becoming an integral part of the education system and the costs associated with this practice are naturally compounding the social inequality based on financial means. Students who received additional input have better arithmetic and language skills. Third, a large part of the act deals with provisions for the setting up of private schools. Private schools have increased in number from 925 in 1990 to 2,065 in 1995, almost a 124 per cent increase, the highest level of increase ever noted in the state (see Table 7.2). ASER report (2013) shows that 43.7 per cent of students in the state’s rural area were receiving private education, which is much higher than the picture in rural India in 2012 (28.3 per cent). Although the commercialization was warranted due to the implementation of neoliberal policies in India in the 1990s, the deterioration of the public education in Jammu and Kashmir, with not much government attention, created a platform for the launch and demand of private schools in huge numbers. The state is increasingly viewing privatization as a viable option for providing education for all. This can be seen from the fact that the twelfth five-year plan also aims to facilitate further Table 7.2 Growth of Private Schools in J&K Year

No of Schools(Up to 12th)

% age increase over last period

50-51 55-56 60-61 65-66 68-69 74-75 80-81 85-86 90-91 95-96 00-01 05-06

192 272 376 437 448 268 287 536 925 2068 2973 3634

_____ 41.67 38.24 16.22 2.52 40.18 7.09 86.76 72.57 123.57 43.76 22.23

Source: Govt of J&K, 2007-08

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private investment on Public Private Partnership mode in education (Govt. of J&K, 2012–13). Therefore, a further commercialization in education is inevitable in the state. Overall, the cost of education has huge implications for the state in the larger discourse. The increasing cost is likely to increase inequalities and division between the poor and rich as access to quality education and learning becomes a luxury. The negative impact on girls’ education is another major fallout. This is because better quality of education is considered necessary for boys rather than for girls. Families often choose to compromise on their daughters’ education for the future breadwinner of the family. This was evident from the fact that the percentage of girls in the age group of 11 to 14 years who were not in school increased from 3.7 per cent in 2011 to 5 per cent in 2012 (ASER, 2013 and 2012). Violence and consistent exposure to traumatic events has led to increasing levels of mental stress, anxiety and depression, which have a direct effect on children’s ability to attend school regularly and on their performance. The study conducted by Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in 2006 reported that 15.5 per cent children were unable to attend the school, and 16.3 per cent reported having problems with studying due to the consistent exposure to violence. The state education legislation is silent on any details of human rights and its protection, compensation from injury, mental health issues, education costs or monitoring methods for schools.

Conclusion It is important to realize that it has become a constitutional obligation of the state to ensure that all its children in the age group of 6–14 receive education. This can only be done when the needs of children arising from the complex context are taken into account. The state faced massive losses after the emergence of armed conflict in 1989. Funds have been underutilized, there is little or no monitoring of schools, and schemes have been put forward without considering the context and needs of the students. Conflict in combination with inadequate schemes and unsupportive structures has created barriers for students at various levels. The government has a lethargic approach towards universalization of education. The plight of children has also been dismal. They have been direct victims of conflict and on many occasions have been targeted and killed by security

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forces. There are also many documented cases where children were arrested and tortured while in detention. In such a scenario, the ability of children to access education was compromised in many direct and indirect ways. This conflict has severely affected educational structures, resulting in a decline in enrolment, high dropout rates and a slowing down in literacy rates in the state. These are important indicators which demonstrate the immediate and long-term impact of the conflict on education. In states witnessing armed conflict, the significance of providing education increases further, for schooling may normalize the atmosphere for children which is otherwise very tense, fearful and insecure. However, what happens in areas of conflict is that education becomes one of the domains of people’s development that is severely affected as well as ignored in the policy decisions. This chapter has considered and analysed the prolonged impact of conflict on the educational system in Kashmir – whether and in what ways conflict has affected education as well as how policy has dealt with the changing scenario and needs of children.

Notes 1 Sometimes written as ‘lakh’ or ‘lac’, it is the Indian unit numbering system which equals to 100,000 (one hundred thousand). 2 The state still lags behind the rest of India, which had an average catchment area of only 2.88 square kilometres per school in 2001–2002. 3 From 2011 to 2013 almost a third of the budget (349 crores) was not utilized. SSA is Government of India’s flagship programme to universalize elementary education. It aims at providing free and compulsory education to children between 6 and 14 years. 4 The total numbers of teachers in the entire state was 55,989 (Govt. of J&K, 2007– 2008), and leaving almost half share for Ladakh and Jammu regions together, Kashmir was unlikely to have a total of 30,000 teachers by 1990. 5 Through the periods of disturbance, the majority of the roads were completely blocked during the night with no access for public vehicles (Dar, 2012). Presently, such incidences are lower than they used to be. A common narrative of those living in areas with political disturbance is the fear of the armed forces. 6 Under Article 21A of the Indian Constitution, education is a fundamental right of every child. The act is known as Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, or Right to Education Act (RTE). However, this does not extend to the state of Jammu and Kashmir.

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7 Many reports including that of the government demonstrate that the conflict has affected many economic activities in the state (Govt. of J&K, 2008–2009; Burki, 2007), which had an impact on the means of livelihood for many families, especially for those dependent on daily wage work, tourism, forestry, livestock and so on and those who migrate to towns and cities on a daily/long-term basis (Dar and Khaki, 2012). Among those families who lost their bread earners, the earning capacity has also shrunk (Schofield, 1997, as cited in Arshad, 2008). The National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) data shows that from 1993 to 1999 there has been an increase in unemployment among youth (3.7 to 7.9 per cent) and educated persons (5 to 10 per cent) in rural areas of the state (Govt. of J&K, 2008–2009). The recent NSSO data on unemployment also shows a dismal picture of the state with 5.3 per cent unemployment rate against the Indian national rate of 2.6 per cent in 2009–10 (Govt. of J&K, 2012–13). NSSO is a department of Ministry of Statistics and Program implementation, Government of India, responsible for conducting socio-economic surveys in India.

References Abdullah, S. M. (1965). ‘Kashmir India and Pakistan’. Council on Foreign Affairs, 43(3), 528–35. Amnesty International (2011). A Lawless Law: Detentions under the Jammu & Kashmir Public Safety Act. London: Amnesty International. Arshad, H. (2008). Education in Kashmir: Historical Overview and Current Analysis. Germantown: KashmirCorps. ASER Centre (2012). Annual Status of Education Report (Rural) 2011. New Delhi: ASER Centre. ASER Centre (2013). Annual Status of Education Report (Rural) 2012. New Delhi: ASER Centre. Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) (2011). Juveniles of Jammu & Kashmir: Unequal before the Law and denied Justice in Custody. New Delhi: ACHR. Burki, S. J. (2007). Kashmir: A Problem in Search of Solution. Washington: United States Institute of Peace. Dar, T. A. (2012). ‘Health Services in Jammu and Kashmir: A Study of Public Provisioning and People’s Access’. MPhil Dissertation, Jawaharlal Nehru University. Dar, T. A. and S. Khaki (2012). ‘Inequalities in Literacy in Jammu & Kashmir’. Economic and Political Weekly, xlviI(7), 73–6. Duschinski, H. and Hoffman, B. (2011). ‘Everyday Violence Institutional Denial and Struggle for Justice’. http://rac.sagepub.com/content/52/4/44 [Accessed 16 September 2015]. Futehally, I. and S. Bhatt (2004). Cost of Conflict between India and Pakistan, 2004. Mumbai: Strategic Foresight Group.

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Govt. of India (1952). Article 370 Temporary Provisions with Relation to the State of Jammu and Kashmir. New Delhi: Government of India. Govt. of India (2003). State Development Report- Jammu and Kashmir. New Delhi: Planning Commission, Government of India. Govt. of J&K (2007–2008). Digest of Statistics 2007-08. Srinagar: Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Govt. of J&K. Govt. of J&K (2008–2009). ‘Economic Survey 2008–09’. Srinagar: Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Govt. of J&K. Govt. of J&K (2012–13). ‘J&K Economic Survey 2012-13’. Srinagar: Planning and Development Department, Govt. of J&K. Govt. of J&K (n.d). ‘Child population, Enrolment and Out of School children’. (http:// www.jkeducation.gov.in/statistics.php) [Accessed 14 September 2013]. Greater Kashmir (2013a). ‘PMGSY: JK continues to show Dismal Performance’. Greater Kashmir, 26 February. Greater Kashmir (2013b). ‘SSA moves at Snail’s Pace in JK’. Greater Kashmir, 31 March. Mannaan, A. (2014). What is the impact of conflict on accessing education as experienced by four families?. (Unpublished Master’s Thesis). Cambridge, UK: University of Cambridge. Medecins Sans Frontieres (2006). Kashmir: Violence and Health. Srinagar: Medecins Sans Frontieres. Navlakha, G. (2000). ‘Downsizing National Security’. Economic and Political Weekly, May 13. NCPCR (2013). Pilot Programme for Protection of Child Rights (PPPCR) in J&K: Annual Report 2012–13. New Delhi: NCPCR. Noorani, A G. (2011). A Constitutional history of Jammu and Kashmir. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. Parvaiz, A. and Roul, A. (2011). ‘On the Way Back’. In G. Stolyarova (eds), Classroom Struggles: Education Reporting and Analysis from Transitions, 51–55. New York: Transitions. Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India (RGI) (2011). ‘Provisional Population Totals of 2011’. http://www.censusindia.gov.in [Accessed 13 September 2013]. Schofield, V. (1997). Kashmir in the Crossfire. New York: Viva Books Private Limited. Tribune (2008). ‘Dropout rate down in Schools’, Tribune, 26 February. http://www. tribuneindia.com/2008/20080227/j&k.htm#11 [Accessed 15 September 2013]. Wani, K. (2010). ‘Interrupted Childhood Disrupted Future’, Kashmir Life, 26 July. http://www.kashmirlife.net/interrupted-childhood-disrupted-future/ [Accessed 20 February 2010].

8

India: Young Children with Disabilities and Early Childhood Care and Education Aanchal Jain

Introduction Early childhood care and education (ECCE) aims to cater to the educational, nutritional and health needs of children in the age range of 0–6 years through the provision of a stimulating environment. Through Education for All (EFA) (UNESCO, 2000a) it has become mandatory for all the countries to ensure that ‘every’ child reaches school. ECCE, in this scenario, holds utmost significance as it deals with the preparatory stage of school. EFA, following the equal rights perspective, also encourages penetration of education in ‘all’ the sections of societies, including children with disabilities. In the Indian context, however, ECCE and inclusion of children with disabilities have seemingly failed to gain the importance that is due in policy, practice or research, thereby putting at risk the right of equal opportunity of education for children with disabilities. This chapter discusses the research carried out as part of my MPhil degree. The research was exploratory in nature and aimed to gauge the perceptions of various groups of stakeholders on the current status and perceptions towards inclusion of children with disabilities within the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) in India. In India, focus on the significance of ECCE programmes can be traced back to the pre-independence period in the Sergeant Committee Report in 1944. ECCE, thereafter, has been understood in its various dimensions and importance, in different reports by the education committees set up to review educational status in India. For instance, the Ramamurti Commission (1990) and the Yashpal

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Committee Report (1992) both acknowledged the significance of ECCE and gave elaborate suggestions to improve provisions of ECCE in the country. The importance of early childhood development encouraged the government of India (GoI) to feed in ECCE in their Five-Year Plans.1 Although this inclusion was evident from the First Five-Year Plan (1951–6), the breakthrough came by the Fifth Five-Year Plan (1974–9) when ICDS was launched as the first public sector initiative for ECCE in India. Adopting the rights perspective (Sood, 2007), the Tenth Five-Year Plan (2007– 12) mentioned that its approach was to reaffirm the commitment of the ‘Development of Children’ with a special focus on early childhood development, not only as the most desirable societal investment for the country’s future but also as the right of every child to achieve his/her full development potential (section: Women and Children, p. 265).

A special mention of early childhood development within the Five Year Plans and elsewhere has also been through the motivation of the international conventions that India has been a signatory of. India ratified the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child (UN, 1989), which globally declared education as a right of every child and mentioned ECCE as an integral part of the education process. More significantly, Article 23 in the convention defines the rights of children with disabilities. It states, ‘The State shall provide all appropriate facilities to children with disabilities and his/her caretakers as per the available resources.’ Similarly, EFA Global Monitoring Report (UNESCO, 2006, p. 3) states: Early childhood is a time of remarkable brain development that lays the foundation for later learning … ECCE supports children’s survival, growth, development and learning – including health, nutrition and hygiene, and cognitive, social, physical and emotional development – from birth to entry into primary school in formal, informal and non-formal settings. ECCE programmes encompass very diverse arrangements, from parenting programmes to community-based child care, centre-based provision and formal pre-primary education, often in schools … ECCE can improve the well-being of young children, especially in the developing world, where a child has a four in ten chance of living in extreme poverty.

Specifically focusing on the rights of children with disabilities, the Salamanca Statement (UNESCO, 1994, p. 33), like the EFA Global Monitoring Report, also valued the role of families and societies and stated that ‘these (ECCE)

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programmes have a major economic value for the individual, the family and the society in preventing the aggravation of disabling conditions’. UNICEF (2007) also supported intervention in the early years as crucial and agreed that it leads to better results in the future. In relation to inclusive education, it stated in one of its reports: Successful inclusive education experiences in numerous countries are also linked to the expansion of EI [early intervention] programmes – guaranteeing an early start for children and families. In addition, important steps are now being taken to initiate inclusive education programmes at the pre-school level (pp. 16–17).

Despite the globally established significance of ECCE for children with disabilities and their families, India seemingly lags in conceptualization and implementation of ECCE programmes that would include children with disabilities as well. Alur (2003) once argued with regard to ICDS and the inclusion of children with disabilities in the programme, ‘a significant factor that may have kept disabled children out of the purview of services is that disabled children did not come up as an issue for discussion during the policy formulation stage’ (as cited in Hagarty and Alur, 2002, p. 23). Despite its claim on universal access to ECCE, children with disabilities have been kept at bay even in the newly formulated 2013 National ECCE Policy (GoI, 2013). The possibility that children with disabilities did not appear to be a part of the discussion at the time of policy formulation clearly accentuates the extent of marginalization that children with disabilities suffer in society as a whole, an inference drawn by Baquer and Sharma (1997) (cited in Klasing, 2007, p. 69). Since ICDS is the established ECCE programme in the country, with known community presence, it was assumed that while focusing on ‘all’ children, the programme should include children with disabilities as well. Considering the lack of research evidence available on how ICDS responds to the needs of children with disabilities, this research was conceptualized with the following objectives: (1) to study relevant policy documents and to investigate the knowledge and perceptions of the people involved in the design and implementation of current ECCE programmes, (2) to investigate the presence and participation of children with disabilities in the ICDS centres, (3) to explore the perceptions of ICDS workers towards the inclusion of children with disabilities in the ICDS, and

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(4) to gather the perceptions and experiences of the service-users/parents of children with disabilities about the ICDS. This chapter discusses the first three objectives focusing on the perceptions of government officials and anganwadi2 workers (AWWs).

Brief overview of the research process As noted earlier, this research was undertaken as part of my MPhil degree with the intention of exploring the perceptions of various stakeholders like the government officials, AWWs and parents involved with the ICDS about inclusion of children with disabilities within the programme. A survey method was therefore employed in this research. Robson (2002, p. 128) said, ‘[Surveys] provide a relatively simple and straight forward approach to the study of attitudes, value, beliefs and motives.’ This research was carried out in the capital city of New Delhi with a total population of 14 million, 1.3 million of which belong to the 0–43 age group (GoI, 2001). New Delhi was selected as the area for study due to my familiarity with the area and language, thus encouraging convenient sampling (Cohen, Manion and Morrison, 2000). Within the current ICDS working blocks in Delhi, two areas, which were most accessible, were selected based on convenient sampling again. However, participants of the study were chosen based on purposive sampling (Robson, 2002). The anganwadi centres (AWCs) and the AWWs were selected based on enrolments or awareness of the presence of children with disabilities in the age group of 0–6 in their community. Parents of these identified children in the community were traced with the help of the AWWs. Additionally, the government officials and the policy influencers were purposively sampled for the study, and were experts either in the field of ECCE, ICDS or inclusion. Inclusion in this study was not limited merely to physical presence of the child in the AWCs; rather, it focused on active participation of the child in the activities of the ICDS centre. Considering the qualitative nature of the study and its emphasis on capturing the perceptions of various people involved in the ICDS, the tools that were used to collect data were observations and semi-structured interviews. Semistructured interviews gave the respondents enough flexibility to express their thoughts and yet kept them focused on the research topic through appropriate probes and prompts (Powney and Watts, 1987).

India: Young Children with Disabilities and Early Childhood Care and Education 153 Table 8.1 A summary of the research sample Sr. no.

Sample

1 2 3

Anganwadi workers Parents of children with disabilities Policy implementers (chief commissioner of disabilities,4 deputy director ICDS,5 district officers,6 child development protection officers (CDPOs))7 Policy influencers (an expert on ECCE and an expert on inclusion of children with disabilities) Total

4

Expected sample size

Achieved sample size

7 7

7 7 6

2

22

The interview schedules for the AWWs and the parents of children with disabilities centred on: awareness about the ICDS programme; views on the inclusion of children in mainstream services; the perceptions about quality of services offered to children; and suggestions for improvement of the overall programme. Semi-structured interviews with the government officials however focused on: (1) information about policy, (2) their general views on the state of ECCE programmes in India, (3) their perceptions about inclusion of children with disabilities in these programmes and (4) new initiatives on ECCE, if any, being planned by the government. Interviews lasted for 30–45 minutes and were audiorecorded by consent. However, tape recording was not allowed in government offices; therefore, ‘head notes’ were later reconstructed and transcribed. Observation was used as another essential tool for data collection. It was useful to take note of the infrastructural facilities, available resource material and accessibility for children with disabilities within the anganwadi set up. This provided general insights on the overall education component of ICDS; more specifically, it focused on the access of the AWC for children with disabilities. Observations of AWC were made along with the interview of the AWW. In many cases, it was both the AWW and the anganwadi helper who were interviewed together, allowing for richer data. Also, in most of the cases, AWWs were interviewed after the anganwadi hours to avoid disruption of their daily routine (BERA, 2004). However, there were also a few occasions where the AWW left the day’s work for the anganwadi helper to finish, in order to assist in this research, raising ethical dilemmas.

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Data analysis included both inductive and deductive analysis. Data were coded using the qualitative data analysis software Atlas Ti. Wolcott (1994) delineates three stages of data management in the analysis of qualitative data – descriptive, analysis and interpretation. In this research, the interview schedules differed for different stakeholders. The code list that was prepared had common codes with varying code definitions for each stakeholder. Themes were later generated from the coded data and arranged to logically interpret the data and thus answer the research objectives.

Research findings As mentioned earlier, this chapter highlights the views of the government officials and the AWWs regarding inclusion of children with disabilities. Discussed below are their responses.

Are children with disabilities included? Government officials as well as the AWWs were aware that children with disabilities should be included within the ICDS programme. Most of them clearly mentioned that the programme is for ‘all’ children and therefore ‘all’ children are welcomed indiscriminately. However, empirical evidence from this research revealed that children with disabilities were not included in the ICDS. Despite expressed intention of not precluding them from the programme, children with disabilities were not on rolls in the AWCs visited. On the one hand, the programme was viewed as ‘all inclusive’ while on the other hand, AWWs expressed their apprehensions about taking care of a child with disability. Voicing such concerns, the AWW 7 (three years of experience) noted, ‘If they can come and sit here, they are most welcome. If parents leave them then my total attention will be on that child. What if the child falls and gets hurt?’ This clearly reflected the lack of confidence training workers had with respect to the care of children with disabilities. Similarly, the deputy director of ICDS said, ‘ICDS has so much work to do. It looks after so many additional things. What all can it do! We do not say no to children with disabilities but they are mostly referred to the hospitals.’ Since the absence of children with disabilities was visible during the research, it was pertinent to explore what AWWs would have done if parents of children with

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disabilities approached them. The common responses for this question mainly included referral to the hospital, providing information about disability camps and encouragement to provide a healthy diet and updated vaccinations, thus emphasizing the medical nature of disability. Attendance and participation of children with disabilities in the preschool component of ICDS, aiming to promote psychosocial development of children, was thus completely ignored.

Should children with disabilities be included? Exploration of ideas about inclusion was interesting and encouraged a debate between mainstreaming and special education for children with disabilities, with the views of government officials and policy influencers on inclusion showing some interesting variations. Some favoured inclusion while the others showed strong opposition to it. If they are children and fall in the age group of 0–6 years then they will get benefits that other children are receiving. We do admit them in pre-schools. We do not have enmity with them. We treat them as other children or we guide the parents to take the child to the hospital. But for education, they should be sent to special schools. That is there where they will progress. In anganwadi, neither there is space nor training (CDPO, Area 1). Obviously special school! What is the point of sending them to regular schools when teachers are not equipped? Also, in the anganwadi, even if the workers are trained, they forget about what they have learnt if they do not have a child with disabilities for two years. It is better to send them to trained special schools (CDPO, Area 2).

On the other hand, the deputy commissioner of disabilities and the district officer were completely in favour of inclusion. They both suggested that ICDS should improve the training of workers so that they are able to more effectively cater to the needs of children with disabilities. The district officer opined that ‘by keeping the children separate, they will not fit in the mainstream. Regular children should also accept that they are like me. Mindset changes for them as well’. Views about inclusion among the AWWs, in addition to mainstreaming and special education, also included views on who should be included. Five out of the seven AWWs agreed that children with disabilities should be included in mainstream schools, while the rest supported special school education. The ones who supported inclusion adopted a child’s right approach and felt that every

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child should be given a chance, while the ones who opposed it pointed to the level of socio-emotional development of the child and expressed concern that children with disabilities would feel inferior to their non-disabled peers. Most AWWs also agreed on the inclusion of children with visual or hearing impairments as they can be taught orally or through sign language respectively. However, there was a clear apprehension towards including a child with an intellectual impairment: If the child is capable enough, is showing some action, is able to understand something, then we can help that child. But, if his mind doesn’t work and neither does his body then what can we do! We cannot even sit and talk to them. It will be wastage of time (AWW 6, 25 years of experience).

Severity of disability was another criterion for including or excluding a child: If the child is severely disabled then we will not encourage that child to come [to the centre]. The one with mild to moderate disability will think that he is as good as a ‘normal’ child (AWW 5, 28 years of experience).

Factors hindering inclusion of children with disabilities AWWs’ own apprehensions about handling the needs of children with disabilities seemed to lead to unintentional exclusion. They were fearful of addressing the needs of a child with disability while staying in direct contact with the child. However, three workers said that they had worked with children with disabilities earlier. When inquired about what activities were undertaken with the children, it was revealed that the children were made to sit separately in the class as the AWWs were fearful about other children hurting the child with disability. One of the workers articulated: I used to keep him away from other children as they might hit him. He was also scared. We also had a fear that the children might mistreat him. He should not feel bad then. Other children tend to get swayed away in their own play and take other children’s material as well especially when they know that the child is such [with disability]. We had to be careful with him (AWW 1, 5 years of experience).

A different viewpoint was presented by one of the workers who herself had a disability. She felt that when a child with disabilities is included, the child could be an object of display for other children:

India: Young Children with Disabilities and Early Childhood Care and Education 157 Handicapped child who comes becomes a toy for other children. If a handicapped [child] is coming, then he is like an interesting object for others. Everyone keeps looking at him. Whatever aids and toys will come for that child, everyone will want to play with those. They [other children] do not understand (AWW 5, 28 years of experience).

Thus, there seemed to be an attitudinal barrier in including children with disabilities, along with the fear of causing harm to the child, resulting in exclusion of the child from the mainstream. Additionally, proper training of the AWWs seemed to be a crucial barrier to inclusion. They were not aware of the nature of disabilities or how to cater to the needs of children with different disabilities. All of them felt that better training would further equip them to respond to the needs of children with disabilities. From the sampled AWWs, four of the seven had received training while three of them were untrained. Even the government officials agreed that the training component in the ICDS is weak. According to the policy expert on ECCE, ‘amongst the listed 15 job responsibilities of the AWW, identification of children with disabilities is one. AWW is weak in doing so and associating children with disabilities with the ICDS’. Speaking about the content of the training module, he said that in the one-month training programme, a single topic covers inclusive education in regard to ‘identifying’ children with disabilities, which is not sufficient. Hence, training of people delivering ECCE services requires greater attention.

Reflections on the findings Many common themes emerged from the discussions, the most pertinent of which were: (1) the medicalization of disability, (2) the tensions and dilemmas between inclusive and special education and (3) professionalization of ECCE. These themes are discussed below.

Medicalization of disability The medical and social models of disabilities are the most well known and the most debatable in the field of disability. In the existing literature on disability in India, these two models are most widely discussed. On the one hand, the medical model sees impairment/disability existing within the person, while the

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social model considers social barriers such as attitudes, infrastructure and access in society as disabling for a person with impairment (Ghai, 2002). Various respondents discussed children with disabilities in light of the medical nature of disability. For instance, the AWWs spoke about the ‘diagnosis’ and ‘treatment’ of a child with disabilities. The government officials tended to focus on ‘prevention’ and ‘treatment’ of disabilities as well. A similar trend was noted in the language of the policy documents, which used highly medicalized terms and attached significant importance to ‘treatment’ and ‘normalization’ of children with disabilities. Ferguson (2002) notes that the stigma attached to disability in the Indian context pushes the parents towards ‘normalization’ of the child, explaining their reliance on medicines and doctors. This further impacts the sociocultural milieu of the child and keeps educational provisions like the ICDS at the periphery in the early years. However, Brisenden (1986, p. 173) argues that ‘the problem comes when they [doctors] determine not only the form of treatment (if treatment is appropriate), but also the form of life for the person who happens to be disabled’. This proves to be detrimental not only for the child with disability but for the family as well.

Tensions and dilemmas between mainstream and special education Issues of mainstreaming and special education are as debatable in the Indian context as in the international forums. Recently, in India, inclusion has been a buzzword at all levels, from policy formulation to implementation. This can be attributed to the recent upsurge of the disability movement which gained further momentum after the Persons with Disabilities Act (GoI, 1995a), and with India being a signatory of disability-related international conventions such as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN, 2008). Vaughan (1997, as cited in Sharma and Desai, undated) points out, ‘The passage of The Persons with Disabilities Act has the potential to change the educational status of more than 30 million children with disabilities who currently do not have access to any forms of education’. Similar dilemmas between special and inclusive education have emerged from this study too. At the policy level, government officials and policy influencers differed in their interpretations of the ICDS policy. Some suggested openness of the programme to all children, irrespective of their differences, while others felt it was applicable only to non-disabled children. The apprehension to full

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commitment to inclusion emerges from the fact that children with disabilities have ‘special’ care and education needs and the programme, unfortunately, is not designed to cater to those needs. Hence, some government officials promoted special schools while others were more comfortable including children with disabilities within the existing setup of the AWCs. Additionally, some government officials seemed unsure about their opinions on inclusion and wavered between inclusion and special education. They wanted to promote inclusion as a concept, on humanitarian grounds (Singal, 2006a), but they were not sure of ‘how’ they could achieve it. Like most of the government officials, the AWWs also stayed away from positively and enthusiastically encouraging inclusion of children with disabilities in their centres. Apart from their apprehensions to cater to the needs of children with disabilities, the lack of need for special resources and an alternative curriculum appropriate for the needs of children with disabilities kept the AWWs at bay. As Singal (2006b, p. 17) noted in her study on inclusion in India, ‘Such a focus [on different curriculum and special training], teachers reflected, leaves little scope for them to respond to individual needs, and hence they argued that children who are unable to function within such a system should be taught elsewhere.’

Professionalization of ECCE ‘Professionalization is normally understood to refer to the process whereby an occupation increasingly meets the criteria attributed to a profession’ (Hoyle, 1982, p. 161). She further discusses professional development where a professional undergoes training and draws on a body of systematic knowledge. Additionally, ‘the acquisition of this body of knowledge and the new development of specific skills require a lengthy period of higher education. This period of education and training also involves the process of socialization into professional values’ (p. 163). Most government officials and AWWs emphasized the need for proper training and the development of professionals for ECCE in the country. Many studies that evaluate the ICDS have suggested a better training programme for the AWWs. The Working Group on Children under Six (2007, p. 14) urged: Major investments in capacity-building and training are required at all levels, all the more so as ECCD is poorly understood. Programmes of such scale and complexity as ICDS cannot succeed without extensive investments in improving management skills and practices.

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In her work with ECCE over several years, Mina Swaminathan (1994, p. 72) said that ‘the absence of training opportunities for workers at the very bottom of the ladder has already been noted’. The need for training of the AWWs to increase their capacity to retain children in the AWCs for two hours was expressed by the policy expert on ECCE. He felt that there is a dearth of resources for the AWWs, leaving them to use their traditional classroom activities of building blocks and puzzles with the children. As these aspects of education are crucial in the upcoming ECCE curriculum, it will be vital for the AWWs to be appropriately trained (Pandey and Gihar, 2009). Further, AWWs generally felt that they would benefit from training to cater to the needs of children with disabilities. Many also agreed with Vennam et al. (2009, p. 20) that the ‘quality of anganwadis is highly dependent on the skills and commitment of the individual AWW who, along with the designated anganwadi helper, is responsible for most aspects of service enrolment and delivery’. However, training remains a highly neglected area across the pre-primary and primary education system in India (Pandey, 2004). National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE, 2005) notes that due to the absence of teachers specifically trained for preschool education, either untrained teachers or teachers trained for other stages of education are recruited to work in nursery or pre-primary centres. ‘This notion is based upon the common perception that special teacher education training is not necessary for teachers of pre-primary and nursery schools as this job simply involves abecedarian projects and handling of novice children’ (Pandey and Gihar, 2009, p. 124). Additionally, with regard to training to cater to the needs of children with disabilities, Singal (2006a) noted that despite the promises made by the government to include children with disabilities in mainstream schools, teacher training is being neglected.

Concluding thoughts Considering the inclusive nature of the ICDS, children with disabilities do find a sporadic mention in the programme document. However, at the level of implementation, attendance of children with disabilities in the AWCs in Delhi is questionable. As discussed in this chapter, the reason for this absence of children with disabilities could be manifold. Predominantly, the perceived medical nature of disability hampers the inclusion of children with disabilities

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in the ICDS programmes and, more significantly, during policy formulation and implementation. The expected result of ‘normalcy’ through interventions in the form of ‘medical treatment’ marginalizes children with disabilities from the available mainstream early childcare programmes, which could simultaneously enhance their overall development (physical, socio-emotional, language, etc.). A change in this approach, however, will be instrumental in reviewing policies where a person with disability is considered a part of the society and changes are made within the society to make it more inclusive rather than just ‘treating’ such a person. Besides medicalizing disability, appropriate training of the ECCE providers is an issue of concern that requires more intensive efforts. Developing a cadre of professionals with appropriate training will make ECCE workers more equipped and thus confident in their work. In addition, it will also make the ICDS more inclusive at the level of implementation as well.

Acknowledgement I am deeply indebted to Dr. Nidhi Singal, Reader, Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge United Kingdom, for her invaluable guidance and support during my MPhil research.

Notes 1 Five-Year Plans: The Planning Commission of India was set up to formulate five yearly plans targeting and prioritizing the needs of development of the country. These five-year plans elaborate the government’s intentions in relation to development of various sectors like food, nutrition, education, land and so on. 2 Anganwadi: Every ICDS centre is called an anganwadi, literally meaning a centre running in the courtyard of a house. Workers managing an ICDS centre are called anganwadi workers. 3 0–4 years: The 2001 Census presents data in bars of 0–4 years and then 5–9 years. 4 Chief commissioner of disabilities: The Office of the Chief Commissioner of Disabilities has been set up under the Persons with Disabilities Act, 1995, to safeguard the rights of people with disabilities. 5 Deputy director, ICDS: It is a post under the Department of Women and Child Development to direct the functioning of the ICDS.

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6 District officers: Delhi is divided into six districts and every district has an officer to look after the functioning of various programmes running in the districts. ICDS is one such programme. 7 Child development protection officer (CDPO): Districts are further divided into blocks and each block has a CDPO to look after the functioning of the ICDS.

References Alur, M. (2003). Invisible Children: A Study of Policy Inclusion. Bombay : Viva Books. Brisenden, S. (1986). ‘Independent Living and Medical Model of Disability’. Disability and Society, 1(2), 173–8. British Educational Research Association (BERA). (2004). ‘Revised Ethical Guidelines for Educational Research’. http://www.bera.ac.uk/publications/pdfs/ETHICA1.PDF [Accessed 24 January 2009]. Cohen, L., Manion, L. and Morrison, K. (2000). Research Methods in Education. London: Routledge. Ferguson, P. M. (2002). ‘A Place in the Family: An Historical Interpretation of Research on Parental Reactions to Having a Child with a Disability’. The Journal of Special Education, 36(3), 124–30. Ghai, A. (2002). ‘Disabled Women: An Excluded Agenda of Indian Feminism’. Hypatia, 17(3), 49–66. GoI (1986). National Policy on Education. New Delhi: Ministry of Human Resource Development. GoI (1995a). The Persons with Disability Act. New Delhi: Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. GoI (2001). Census of India. Retrieved on from. http://www.punarbhava.in/index. php?option=com_content&task=view&id=229&Itemid=537 [Accessed 20 November 2009]. GoI (2013). National Early Childhood and Care Education Policy. New Delhi: Ministry of Women and Child Development. Hagarty, S., and Alur, M. (2002). Education and Children with Special Needs- From Segregation to Inclusion. New Delhi: Sage Publication. Hoyle, E. (1982). ‘The Professionalization of Teachers: A Paradox’. British Journal of Educational Studies, 30(2), 161–71. Klasing, I. (2007). Disability and Social Inclusion in India. Jaipur: Rawat Publication. NCTE. (2005). ‘ECCE teacher education: Curriculum framework and syllabus outlines’. Draft Approach Paper. Pandey, D. D. (2004). ‘In Quest of Distance Instruction Mode of Training to Functionaries of Integrated Child Development Services Scheme: Beginning the Dialogue’. Indian Journal of Training and Development, 34(3), 288–306.

India: Young Children with Disabilities and Early Childhood Care and Education 163 Pandey, D. D. and Gihar, S. (2009). ‘Towards Developing Greater Professional Competence among ECCE Teacher Educators: Perspectives from Context Specificity and Cultural Responsiveness’. In J. Saxena, M. Saxena and S. Gihar (eds), Quality Education, 122–72. New Delhi: APH Publishing Corporation. Powney, J., and Watts, M. (1987). Interviewing in Educational Research. London: Routledge. Robson, C. ( 2002). Real World Research: A Resource for Social Scientists and Practitioner-Researchers. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. Sharma, U. and Desai, I. (undated). ‘Measuring Concerns about Integrated Education in India’. Asia and Pacific Journal on Disability. http://www.dinf.ne.jp/doc/english/asia/ resource/z00ap/vol5no1/measure.html Singal, N. (2006a). ‘Inclusive Education in India: International Concept, National Interpretation’. International Journal of Disability, Development and Education, 53(3), 351–69. Singal, N. (2006b). ‘An Ecosystemic Approach for Understanding Inclusive Education: An Indian Case Study’. European Journal of Psychology of Education, Special issue: Ten years after Salamanca, XXI(3), 239–52. Sood, N. (2007). Cherry picking and the issue of nursery school admissions, Social Change. 37(2), 67–75 Swaminathan, M. (1994). ‘Training for Child Development and Education Workers for India’. International Journal Early Years Education, 2(1), 67–76. UN (1989). Convention on the Rights of the Child. Geneva: UN. UN (2008). Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and other Protocols. http://www.un.org/disabilities/ UNESCO (1994). The Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action on Special Needs Education. Spain: UNESCO. UNESCO (2000a). Education for All 2000 Assessment: Global synthesis. France: UNESCO. UNESCO (2006). Strong Foundations: Early Childhood Care and Education. EFA Global Monitoring Report. France: UNESCO. UNICEF (2007). Promoting the Rights of Children with Disability. Florence, Italy: Innocenti Research Institute. Vennam, U., Komanduri, A., Cooper, E., Crivello, G. and Woodhead, M. (2009). Early Childhood Education Trajectories and Transitions: A Study of the Experiences and Perspectives of Parents and Children in Andhra Pradesh, India. Young Lives Working Paper 52. Young Lives, University of Oxford, Department of International Development. Wolcott, H. F. (1994). Transforming Qualitative Data. London: Sage. Working Group on Children under Six. (2007). ‘Strategies for Children under Six’. Economic and Political Weekly, 42(52), 87–101.

9

Nepal: Between the ‘Local’ and the ‘Global’ of the National Education Uma Pradhan

Introduction Nepal has come a long way since the British historian Daniel Wright (1877) famously remarked that ‘the subject of schools and colleges may be treated as briefly as that of snakes in Ireland. There are none.’ According to the 2014 education statistics of the government of Nepal, there are a total of 34,806 schools in Nepal, of which 29,133 are community schools (state-supported schools) and 5,673 are institutional schools (privately-funded schools). Among them 895 are religious schools, which include 745 madrasas (Muslim religious schools), 78 gumbas (Buddhist monastic schools) and 72 ashram schools (Hindu religious schools). On average, the school-student ratio is 1:179 at the basic level (grades 1–8) and 1:145 at the secondary level (grades 9–12). The net enrolment rate is 87.6 per cent at the basic level and 34.7 per cent at the secondary level. This rapid expansion of mass education in Nepal notwithstanding, the idea and nature of national education has also served as a key site for instituting varying political and development visions of the Nepali state. Many scholars of education in Nepal have pointed out that the Nepali schools have been used as spaces for promoting monarchy and Hinduism as Nepal’s national identity (Caddell, 2007), institutionalizing Nepali monolingualism as nationalism (Eagle, 1999) and inculcating Nepali nationalism through the construction of a history of valour and bravery (Onta, 1996). These ideas of education, as the scholars point out, privilege a particular idea of ‘national’ through gradual and systemic cultural politics in various institutions of education in Nepal (Onta, 1996). However, many other scholars have noted that while the idea of education and the educated person is envisaged, on the one hand, as that of a ‘good citizen’

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embodying the national identity (Skinner and Holland, 1996), on the other hand, the Nepali education system also foregrounds the urbanized and Westernized self as a vision of development (Pigg, 1992) and the idea of education as a process of ‘modernizing’ the self (Valentin, 2011). As Liechty (1997) points out, ‘foreignness’ plays an important role in shaping contemporary Nepali identity. This chapter will analyse education policies in Nepal to explore this dual, and apparently divergent, interest instituted in Nepal’s ‘national’ education system. In the current scholarship on education in Nepal, the ideas of ‘local’, ‘national’ and ‘global’ have received attention as separate dynamics. While this approach allows us to understand each of these phenomena in greater depth, more could be done to understand the interrelation between them. Drawing on the provisions made in different education policies, this chapter will illustrate that the national education system of Nepal has constantly sought to strike a balance between varied conceptions of the ‘local’ and the ‘global’, in an attempt to construct the ‘national’. First, this chapter highlights the juxtapositioning of the ‘local’, ‘national’ and ‘global’, as it is embodied in school education, and how the ideas were used and directed to the specific political ends. Second, it shows how the meanings of these ideas changed and impacted the way the education system has evolved over the years in Nepal. This chapter also highlights the discursive spaces created during the periods of major education reforms in order to reflect on the ways in which these policies have persistently negotiated diverse influence on the education system.

State, schooling and society As the Nepal National Education Planning Commission (NNEPC, 1956, p. 80) stated, ‘Education will be national,’ and ‘there will be only one system of public, government-supported education, an integrated, unitary programme adapted to the needs of our people and society’. The commission proposed that the new education policy be known as National Education Plan, that new schools be known as ‘national schools’ and the new curriculum as the ‘national curriculum’. As an important project of the nation-building effort in the newly ‘democratized’ political system of 1951, the commission saw the prevalent education system as ‘scattered’ which needed to be ‘merged into a strong national unitary effort’ (p. 67). Dr Hugh Wood (1976, p. 155), the education specialist hired to design the education system for newly democratized Nepal, observed:

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As an educational program design specialist, I found a unique situation in 1953 when I was asked to assist in the development of an educational system for Nepal. … An inventory of schools in Nepal in 1952 revealed about a. 50 gompas, b. Sanskrit system including a few primary schools, 3 secondary schools, and a college, c. a British system for the Ranas and a few other elite, which included a few primary schools, three high schools, and a college, d. increasing number of perhaps 100 of vernacular schools near the Indian Border (following Indian prototypes of British schools, but in the local language), and e. few basic schools forgoing Gandhi’s indigenous schools in India.

The main point of departure for the NNEPC was not that it marked a beginning of any form of education in Nepal, but that it set out to consolidate the existing diverse system of education and establish a national education system as an important part of state project. Various rulers in Nepal, till then, did not perceive education as a primary function of the state. Traditionally, education was imparted as religious training by the priests and monks to a select group of people (Sharma, 1990). In the Rana period (1846–1951), in addition to the continuation of these religious institutions, Durbar School, the first Westernstyle school, was established in 1854 as a private English institution for the members of the Rana family. By 1892, this school was transformed into a fully functioning educational institution with an objective of preparing ruling elites to engage with the British in India effectively (Aryal, 1977, p. 123). This school was opened to public in 1902 and during this period, the educated middle class could send their children to Durbar School and to various cities in India for higher education (see Chapter 10 of this book). The absence of a ‘public’ education system has led to this period being popularly known as a ‘dark era’ in terms of Nepal’s education system. However, it was during the Rana period that Prime Minister Dev Shamsher declared free and universal primary education for the first time in 1901. As a result, around 200 Nepali-medium schools (Bhasa Pathsala) were established across the country (Sharma, 1990; Acharya, 1957). While Durbar School embodied the strong interest to emulate the English system of education, the other parallel education systems in Nepal offered a variety of non-Western education to some of its population. Thus, the Ranas’ policy was not so much one of total isolationism but rather, as Liechty (1997) points out, the ‘selective exclusion’ of particular aspects of ‘foreignness’. The British India was an important influence on the Rana state and their vision of governance. On the one hand, the ruling elite were given access to Western education and exposed to Western ideas

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and institutions. This played an important role in the ways in which the Ranas sought to enhance their own position within it and in the region (Caddell, 2007, p. 3). On the other hand, the Ranas ensured that the activists in British India did not ‘contaminate’ the political sentiments and sensibilities of Nepalis within Nepal (Onta, 1997). Thus, even during the ‘stagnant’ period of Rana rule, Nepal carefully crafted its education system under diverse influences. And yet, it was during the Rana period that the need to develop the nationalist education system was first articulated. In a very detailed biography of a wellknown literary figure Balakrishna Sama (1909–81), Onta (1997) draws our attention to his Bintipatra (petition) to Prime Minister Bhim Shamsher that he be allowed to teach Nepali literature and grammar in the Durbar School. During his trips to Calcutta for the examination, he had been acutely aware of the lack of ‘Nepali’ literature and history compared to the continued dominance of English language in education and Hindi/Urdu theatre of the elite Ranas. Onta (1997) highlights that Sama lamented that Nepal needs to move on from a habit of copying the ‘Islamic civilization and culture’ previously and the ‘English civilization and culture’ at present. He warned that this blind copying of other cultures should not be understood as being ‘civilized’. Further in his petition, he requested for Nepali-language-based education, ‘the one in which Nepali history, literature and culture would also be taught’ (Onta, 1997). Similarly, Chalmers (2003) discusses the key role played by Nepalis living in Banaras and Darjeeling in this process of developing Nepali as a unifying language. These cultural discourses, developed in places like Banaras and Darjeeling by small groups of people, were later adopted by the post-Rana and Panchayati states in Nepal for the development of Nepali nationalism. Through the discovery and rediscovery of cultural icons such as Bhanubhakta Acharya (1814–69) by Moti Ram Bhatta (1866–96), Nepali literature gradually developed due to various literary activities (Chalmers, 2003; Onta, 1996; Hutt, 1988). After the overthrow of Rana rule in 1950, the new political system (Panchayat Period, 1962–90) provided the much-needed environment of the emergent nationalist sentiments to prosper through education system. The education system during this period sought to replace the existing ‘hotchpotch system’, as expressed in Wood’s quote in the beginning of this section, and ‘stir up a wave of national feeling’. The newly formed Ministry of Education and Culture centralized all the education system in the country, introduced Nepali as a medium of instruction and utilized education as an important arena for nationbuilding (Caddell, 2007). Even during this period of high nationalism, The NNEPC (1956, p. 2) envisaged that ‘the education programme to be formulated

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should enlighten the very depths of Nepal’s soul and enrich it with the scientific knowledge of modern times to make the country self-sufficient’. The education policy that followed this vision, the National Education System Plan (NESP) of 1971, recommended a complete switchover to Nepali as the medium of instruction, of examination and of textbooks in the school system. And yet, this was also a period when Nepal began to closely associate with the international agencies to support its education system. As Maslak (2002) points out, it shifted the kingdom’s status in the scheme of development from ‘forbidden kingdom’ (isolated from the rest of the world) to a ‘developing country’ (forward-looking nation aspiring to obtain the results of globalization and modernization). The NNEPC report, which provided the basis for Nepal’s first ‘national’ education system, was thus heavily influenced by the ideas from the outside, while it attempted to coalesce the ideas of Nepali nationalism around the ‘triumvirate’ of Nepali language, monarchy and Hindu religion as ‘uniquely’ Nepali. Other scholars (Awasthi, 2004) have also pointed out the parallels between Macaulay’s education plan in India and Hugh Wood’s education plan for Nepal. The need to engage with the international actors was clearly identified as one of the main challenges of the period. We have become a part of the world, whether we like it or not. We can no longer remain isolated; the world has come to us. How can we meet this world without education? Must we, who once were the crossroads of civilization – bow our heads in shame to our worldly visitors? (NNEPC, 1956, p. 74)

The end of Panchayat era in 1990 raised several questions on the ‘effectiveness’ of this national education system. The subsequent education policy, on the one hand, sought to decentralize education through the establishment of various school-level bodies through programmes such as Basic Primary Education Programme (BPEP I, 1992–1997) and BPEP II (1997–2002), EFA Programme (2004–2009), Community School Support Project (CSSP, 2003–2007) and School Sector Reform Programme (SSRP, 2009–2015). On the other hand, it continued to build on the core components of national education system and efforts to internationalize the contents. Building on the ‘Education for All’ consensus from Jomtien, the Education Master Plan 1991 outlined a package of improvements to basic and primary education in which ‘improved curriculum, textbooks and teaching/learning environments’ would ‘produce’ a ‘literate and numerate population ready for further education, but also competent citizens who can deal with problems at home and at work’ (MOE, 1991, p. 7). The newly elected Nepali Congress government constituted a National Education Commission (NEC) in

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1992 which emphasized the need to ‘live in harmony’ with the ‘modern age’ and develop in ways that would not ‘jeopardize the identity’ and ‘national languages, culture, literature, arts and heritage’ (Carney and Madsen, 2009; NEC, 1992).

The changing purpose of education The ways in which various education policies of Nepal negotiated with the ideas of local, national and global also influenced the changing discourse in the purpose of education. During the Rana period (1846–51), as already mentioned in the earlier section, the ruling elite initiated the Western-style education to increase their ability to participate effectively in negotiations with other states, especially British India. The Rana-governed state limited its contacts with external powers because of geographical factors and, most significantly, political restrictions imposed by the Treaty of Sagauli, signed with the East India Company in 1815 (Burghart, 1996, p. 227). The establishment of the Durbar School was therefore an important way in which the Ranas carefully engaged with the external powers. Through the English-inspired education, they tried to make sense of the powerful political force in the neighbouring state while at the same time maintaining the sovereignty by limiting the influence of the external ideas, especially the Indian nationalist and pro-democracy movements. As a response to this, the ruling elites also experimented with sending the youth to Japan where they could learn the ‘modern methods of engineering’, the one that offered the ‘elusive combination of modernization and autocracy in a non-Anglo/European cultural package’ (Liechty, 1997, p. 22). The emergent education system was therefore highly limited in its purpose and carefully maintained the image of an ‘isolated’ country with a ‘pure’ Hindu identity. The Western-style education, though meant only for the elites exclusively, included British history and English literature but did not seek to develop Nepal’s own national history or that of the Indian subcontinent. With the political change in 1950, the new ideas of engaging effectively with ‘democracy’ emerged as a new purpose of education. The significance of the NNEPC (1956) was built on the claim that it sought to change the stated ‘policy of isolation’ that kept Nepal in ‘total darkness, uncontaminated by the present-day civilization’. NNEPC saw that education is the ‘sine qua non of success of democracy’: In order to make democracy a real success, we have to educate our people within the shortest possible time, especially since universal adult suffrage has already been proclaimed. The danger of dictatorship or civil war due to misuse of the right

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to vote must be avoided and this is not possible in a country like ours without proper education. The education programme to be formulated should enlighten the very depths of Nepal’s soul and enrich it with the scientific knowledge of modern times to make the country self-sufficient in everyday (pp. 1–2).

An increased connection with the outside world, as highlighted in the education policy discourse, was also related to the necessity of having a strong national character to the state, with education envisaged as a crucial medium through which this could be disseminated. Writing about the NESP of 1971, Mitchell (1976, pp. 160–1) points out that though the education discourse increasingly used the rhetoric of ‘opening up to the world from closed Rana regime’, the new education plan was ‘clearly slanted towards developing a modern nation with a strong economy relatively unencumbered by foreign commitments’ and the development of citizens loyal to the crown. Thus, as envisaged in NESP the new purpose of education was now to ‘produce citizens who are loyal to the nation, monarchy and national independence’, to ‘expand and extend such learning, science, technology, and skill as may be necessary for the development of the country’ and to ‘preserve, develop and propagate the national language and literature, culture and arts’. By 1990, the Nepali government was increasingly becoming aware of the limits of the highly centralized education system. With the shift in the political arena to a multiparty democracy (from a single-party political system) the education system opened up to the idea of community participation to inject a ‘new sense of social cohesion’ (Carney and Madsen, 2009, p. 197). The new purpose of education was now to ensure community accountability to increase access and equity, enhance quality and relevance and improve the management efficiency of primary education (BPEP, 1997, pp. 97–102). Thus, through the projects such as BPEP and CSSP, a ‘large-scale transfer to schools to local community stakeholders was done’ (Bhatta, 2000). Carney and Madsen (2009, p. 200) identified a new set of semantics such as ‘community’, ‘autonomy’, ‘responsibility’, ‘ownership’ and ‘local’ that shaped the national and international discourses on education in Nepal.

The school curriculum School curriculum and textbooks was one of the areas of education that saw immense changes as the country sought to manage various priorities. In the initial years of formal education in Nepal, the school education was highly

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influenced by the English curriculum. The Durbar School curriculum in 1920 included history of India and Britain, English literature such as Wordsworth’s Lucy Grey and some geography of the world (Liechty, 1997; Onta, 1997). However, there was no attempt to inculcate the ‘educated sense of historical and geographical Nepal as a nation’ (Onta, 1997, p. 77). Though Prime Minister Dev Shamsher made an effort by introducing the first language primer book Aksharanka Siksha, which was published and distributed free by the state, it was later discontinued by Chandra Shamsher (Acharya, 1957). It was not until the cultural activism of intellectuals such as Balakrishna Sama that the Nepali language and literature were introduced into school curriculum. Even till the 1950s, Hugh Wood (1976), the USAID consultant for NNEPC, reports the central role played by the ‘outsiders’ in education. He notes that Nepalis have ‘traditionally relied on the porters for information from the outside world’ (p. 152). Commenting on the formal education, he notes, Ranas used English as the medium of instruction, used English books, adopted English customs and anglicized their trade. However, with the democracy movement in 1950s, the Nepali state sought to reconstruct the idea of Nepal from a country that was closed off from the rest of the world to one that was open to global interaction. The education sector was utilized as a crucial tool by the Panchayat regime. Schools, both as physical spaces and in terms of the curriculum promoted through them, were regarded as a medium through which to propagate a particular vision of the Nepali nation. Onta (1996, p. 214) also traces the making of monolithic historical narrative through ‘self-conscious fostering of the Nepali language’ and the ‘celebration of selective historical icons’. This imagination of the nation and the subsequent idea of identity and modernity had a heavy influence on inter-group and intra-group relations in Nepal. In her study of Panchayat school textbooks, Pigg (1992) shows that the textbooks highlighted the ‘backwardness’ of ethnic, rural and non-Hindu groups and placed them in an inferior position. However, it was not until NNEPC (1956) that the school curriculum in Nepal was systematically institutionalized. With the nationalization of education during the 1950s till the 1980s, the government revised the existing school curriculum. The commission noted that in the primary school, language teaching often occupies 40–80 per cent of the curriculum time. It also pointed out that most schools were devoting an unwarranted amount of time for the teaching of languages (foreign, as well as national and mother tongue) and preparing for final examinations (NNEPC, 1956, p. 40). Thus, the commission recommended that the medium of instruction should be the national language in primary, middle and higher educational institution, because any language which cannot be made

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lingua franca and which does not serve legal proceedings in the court should not find a place. … The use of a national language can bring about equality among all classes of people, can be an anchor-sheet for Nepalese nationality and can be the main instrument for promoting literature (p. 56).

Gradually, the NNEPC made a complete overhaul of the education system (p. 101). It mandated that English and Hindi should not be offered in primary schools (p. 68). The new primary education curriculum included subjects such as Nepali language, social studies, science, arithmetic, crafts, aesthetic art and personal development in grades 1–3 and introduced English as a subject only in the fourth grade. Moreover, it also advised that ‘some of the unemployed educated youth should be put to work translating English, Hindi, Urdu, Sanskrit, Bengali and other materials into Nepali for use as textbooks and other reading material’ (p. 70). This emphasis on Nepali language was reiterated by the NESP 1971. Nepali language now had the greatest importance in school curriculum with the total of 300 marks associated with it, followed by 200 marks for arithmetic, 100 for social studies, physical education and hygiene, and 50 for handicrafts and drawing. Following this, Nepali as an official language was gradually mainstreamed through various public institutions such as state-owned media and by making it an essential criterion for citizenship application and for the official records in Nepal. This overt nationalization of education and disproportionate importance attached to Nepali language was challenged mainly from two quarters. First, English-language teachers began to raise their voices as the government was planning to introduce Nepali-medium education in universities as well. Malla (1977, p. 2) highlighted that 78 per cent students failed their School Leaving Certificate (SLC) exam and most of these failures were due to failure in English. By 1990s, the new political system revised the curriculum and brought English back into primary education. The NEC (1992) recommended the following to respond to the changing context: The following steps should be taken to enable the individual to live in harmony with the national and international environment without putting his identity at risk: a) To give priority to the teaching of the English language as a subject in view of its importance as an international language; b) To expand the scope for teaching the languages of the neighboring countries and other foreign languages; c) To encourage comparative studies of human behavior, culture, and other aspects of human creativity in the national and international context.

Second, the ethnic groups launched the linguistic movement of 1965 against the cancellation of news broadcasting in different languages in Radio Nepal. By

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the 1980s, there were several researches that indicated the ‘systemic exclusion’ experienced by ethnolinguistic groups. These studies primarily criticized the highly centralized and top-down mechanisms in the education system that undermined local realities. As Dastidar (2007) notes Muslim organizations such as All Nepal Anjuman Islah also filed a petition to the Department of Education in 1958 that the Muslim community be allowed to opt for elementary Urdu and Persian instead of elementary Sanskrit in their SLC exam. Ragsdale (1989), in discussing the third-grade test in the Tarai region, demonstrated that the school curriculum and examination had an inherent cultural content. He asserted, ‘Nepal’s small, elitist system of education had been expanded without regard for its suitability to the country’s needs, leading to its functioning as a mere psychosocial adornment’ (p. 15). Similarly, Webster (1994) conducted a study on Nepali proficiency in rural Nepal using the Nepali Sentence Repetition Test. He concluded that ‘those who are uneducated and illiterate are nowhere near as proficient in Nepali as those who are educated and literate’ (p. 45). With the Constitution changes in 1990, the languages spoken as a mother tongue within Nepal were given the status of ‘national languages’ (rastriya bhasa) and Nepali in the Devanagari script retained its position as the ‘language of the nation’ (rastra bhasa) and the official language of government. The Constitution also guaranteed the right to operate schools up to the primary level in mother tongues. The earlier vehement refusal to even consider allowing diverse languages in the public sphere was now reduced, but by no means eliminated. Radio Nepal started airing five-minute news bulletins in eighteen different languages from different parts of the country. MOE (2003, p. 47) announced a three-language policy to remove the language barrier in education and address the rapid language shift among the younger generation of many ethnic groups. This was further taken up by the School Sector Reform Plan 2009–15, which placed a target of 7,500 schools using mother tongues in grades 1–3. Similarly, NNPoA highlighted the objective to develop new policies or reorient the existing ones on inclusion of ethnic, minority, Dalit and females on the development and use of local languages and on cultural flexibility (p. 47).

Education for all? As the country interacted with the global institutions on ensuring universal education, the uneven distribution of education services became even more stark. As discussed in the previous section, the select inclusion in education

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was not new in the context of Nepal. The ‘foreign teachers’ in Kathmandu and education in ‘foreign lands’ were exclusively meant only for the elites during the Rana period, who were disproportionately from the high-caste group. Though some of the population attended Bhasa Pathsalas established across the country, the access to public education continued to remain abysmal (Acharya, 1957). Moreover, the onus for any education provision was placed on the community. Any community that could gather up to twenty-four children and arrange a place could request the government to supply a teacher. Thus, the public spaces such as patis (roadside shelters for the travellers) generally doubled up as schools. However, as Education Ordinance of 1939 required the school management committees to raise funds above the grant of 1,200 per annum, sustaining public education became even less financially viable. Moreover, the schools also emerged as a location where the social and economic power relations became overtly visible. Despite the expansion of education services and a gradual increase in the number of children attending school, Stash and Hannum (2001, p. 376) shows that caste, ethnicity and gender stratification continued to ‘strongly condition entry into schooling’ and attrition in primary schools. Reed and Reed’s (1968, p. 82) observation on the education in a rural village reveals the deep-rooted bias in education: There are the children, who by birth into certain families can profit from education, and then there are other, low caste, children. Education is not needed by these latter, and indeed in the opinion of some Nepalis, education carries dangerous potentialities, such as ruining the lower caste children for their role in life or rousing them to active dissatisfaction.

It is not surprising that when the National Education Planning Commission started its preparatory work in 1951, the literacy rate was less than 9.5 per cent (male: 17.8 per cent and female: 1.3 per cent). The report noted that ‘98 percent of the people are illiterate; only about 300 complete high school each year in all of Nepal and only about 100 complete college’ (NNEPC, 1956, p. 23). As the government of Nepal opened up to the idea of modernizing education system with the help of international experts, the concern over the universal reach of education increased. As a response, NNEPC mandated the local-level bodies to actively increase the number of students. ‘Education must be universal’ and ‘compulsory’, so that it is not ‘reserved only for the minorities’ (p. 75). This active interest in making education universal did show some positive effects. By 1970 the literacy rate had climbed to what was optimistically reported as 32 per cent. And yet, as Mitchell (1976, p. 160) points out, the ‘balance tips in favor of those

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who live in Kathmandu valley or near the larger towns such as Pokhara’. With the Education Act of 1971, the government launched a national-level reform of the education sector where all the public schools would be free, and the school facilities, teachers and other education-related materials were provided by the government through the Ministry of Education. However, as mentioned in the earlier section, the centralization of education was highly criticized for maintaining the dominant group’s advantage that resulted in a huge disparity in access to education. Through projects such as BPEP I and II, the Nepali government did make an attempt to fulfil the Education for All commitments, and the literacy rates of Nepal had increased to 49 per cent in 2001 (from 2 per cent in the 1950s), but the education statistics also reveal huge gaps between various social groups. According to the 2001 Census, literacy rates among some lower castes were as low as 10 per cent, whereas among highstatus Brahmins the rate was over 70 per cent. Yadava (2007) cites school-level educational statistics compiled in Nepal in 2005, and shows that the dropout rate for ethnic minority children in the first grade was 50 per cent, which made them significantly more at risk of academic underachievement. Similarly, Muslims also had a very low literacy rate of 34.72 per cent in comparison to the national literacy rate of 53.7 per cent (Census, 2001). These disparities came into spotlight even more with the declaration of People’s War by the Communist Party of Nepal – Maoist in 1996. During the ‘People’s War’, the Maoists routinely attacked school buildings, not only as symbols of state institutions, but also as icons of ethnic subjugation and discrimination (Pherali, 2011). The interconnection of educational issues with political issues became quite evident in the grievances articulated by the Maoists. Before declaring the People’s War, the Maoists presented a list of forty demands that included issues such as universal education, mother-tongue education and closure of non-profit education (Pherali, 2011; Shields and Rappleye, 2008). Thapa and Sijapati (2004) also point out that approximately 3,000 teachers were displaced and this drove the student-teacher ratio up to 70:1 in some areas. In order to address this issue of education disparity, the decentralization of education was seen as an important strategy, not only as a response to long-standing challenges to education but also ‘to enable schools themselves to address … equity, efficiency and quality’ (World Bank, 2001, p. 27). Scrutinizing this trend on decentralization, Carney, Bista and Agergaard (2006) report that these programmes have been motivated by the rhetoric of empowerment rather than by a genuine commitment to greater inclusion and therefore have remained highly ineffective.

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Moreover, the emergence of private education has given rise to another dimension of inequality in education. International donors, such as the World Bank, have been prompting private schools to increase enrolment in schools. However, other authors have noted that private schools have been key in reproducing class and geographical inequalities. English-medium instruction, usually offered by private schools, is fast emerging as a key dimension of ‘the selling of dreams’ (Caddell, 2006). Schools, through their medium of instruction, are implicated in the reproduction and production of advantage in society. Schools that offer access to a high-status language are seen as offering better life chances for those who can take that language. Burnett’s (2012) study of different schools in Kathmandu has also highlighted the perceived role of English for greater chance of success. Bhatta and Budakothi (2013), in their study on privatization of education in Nepal, concur that use of English in the schools is one of the important factors in their popularity. English proficiency is simultaneously seen as ‘the key to a better future, an index of social capital, and a ticket out of Nepal’ (Liechty, 2003, p. 213). Therefore, the socially and economically advantaged groups increasingly prefer to send their children to private schools. Though the education statistics show a gradual progress in the education statistics, the disparities in education continue in different forms.

Managing education As the idea and practice of public education began to assume importance, the Nepali state also initiated various institutional arrangements to manage educational provisions. The main concern of the ruling elite during this period was to contain any influence of the nationalist movement in India while ensuring that the ruling elite received a Western education. The function of the central educational institutions was therefore to maintain state control over the educational provisions at the local level while carefully guarding them against any foreign influence. The Department of Education, established by Jung Bahadur Rana in 1858, is one of the earliest records of an attempt towards a systematic management of Western education delivered in Nepal. He appointed one of his sons, General Babbar Singh, as the director and was entrusted to oversee the Durbar School. However, as more Nepali educational programmes such as Bhasa Pathsala were established, several attempts were made by the Nepali state to centrally manage the disparate educational services provided

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in Nepal. The early records of national and global education were attempted by Chandra Shamsher in 1902 through Bandobasta Adda (the Controller’s Office). The office had the responsibility of ensuring quality control under two sections: the Nagari Phant (Nepali Section) and the Angrezi Phant (English Section). Later the Siksha Istihar (Education Ordinance) of 1939 decreed that all the schools seek permission from the government, all the school headmasters and officials register with the civil service and the headmasters report all the decisions regarding the school management to the Department of Education, thus bringing both administration and finance under the purview of the state. Therefore, the main function of the Office of Inspector of Schools was to report on any political activities (Sharma, 1990). After the overthrow of the Rana rulers, the new government continued with the centralized management of education while sharing some administrative functions with the local bodies. The Nepal National Education Commission of 1956 saw the Ministry of Education as the ‘organizing force’ to provide ‘uniformity’ and ensure ‘minimum standards’ but it also mandated that ‘each village must take the major responsibility for education in its area’. Each village was required to have an Education Committee to ‘organize and supervise education in general’ (p. 84). Several tax measures were also suggested to cover the cost of education from the internal revenues and through the funds raised at the local level. With the adoption of NESP in 1971, the government established a comprehensive framework for universal education and centralized all the community-based schools. Mitchell (1976) commenting on this education policy notes that NESP created a ‘paradoxical situation’. The emergent education management system, on the one hand, recommended decentralization through the Education Directorates at five development regions and seventy-five district education offices. But, on the other hand, it also launched a ‘centralized top-down management’ in the place of community-oriented management for education reforms’ (p. 167). Increasingly, all educational institutions and educational services were gradually brought within the central government’s control to ensure a ‘national’ character to all the educational provisions. By 1990s, there was a general disenchantment with the centralized education system. The NEC of 1992 thus identified the Ministry of Education as the potential impediment to the goal of Education for All. The NEC recommended that the ministry’s role be ‘limited’ to the national-level tasks such as drawing up policies and ensuring the regular assessments of the programme. The local-

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level bodies were entrusted with the implementation of the programme (p. 15). The BPEP I and II embarked on the project of strengthening the capacity of MoE to plan, manage and monitor education programmes, while at the same time emphasizing on building the institutional or managerial capacity at the school, cluster and district levels for the promotion of efficient and quality basic and primary education. The need for increased decentralization of education became even more paramount due to the ‘high degree of mismatch between the people’s growing aspiration and the government’s available resources for education’ (Khanal, 2013, p. 60). Since BPEP, the Ministry of Education has continued to emphasize on the transfer of administrative functions to district education offices and of monitoring functions to the locally elected bodies. This has been reiterated in National Plan of Action (2003) and School Sector Reform Programme (2009–15). While BPEP I and II were the major programmes to formally institute the centrality of ‘local’ in the management of education, they were also the ones that attracted a high level of donor funding. Thus, during this period the government also introduced the unified financial system ‘to channel donor support’ and a single set of monitoring, reporting, financial tracking instruments ‘so as to ease the coordination by the Nepali government’ (BPEP, 1999, p. 52). As the education sector continues to attract highest donor funding, the Ministry of Education (2009) continues to facilitate interagency collaboration through its Foreign Aid Coordination Section.

Conclusion This chapter has presented an overview of the various education policies in Nepal to argue that Nepal’s education system ‘is a response to multiple realities’ (MoE, 2009, p. ii). On the one hand, the emerging social and political changes inside the country have underpinned the agendas for transformation and development in education. On the other hand, the international contexts and commitment to global education goals have equally influenced the process of change. Nepal’s education system thus embodies the challenge of promoting a particular vision of national identity, while managing the inclusion of its diverse population and responding to the varied donor interests simultaneously.

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References Acharya, B. (1957). ‘Nepalma Sikshako Bikashkram. Navin Siksha’, 1(4), Kathmandu, Nepal: Bureau of Publications, College of Education. Aryal, K. R. (1977). ‘Education During Rana Regime’. Nepal Digest: Nepal Education Special 1977, (1), 121–30. Awasthi, L. D. (2004). ‘Exploring Monolingual School Practices in Multilingual Nepal’. PhD Thesis. Copenhagen: Danmarks Pædagogiske Universitet/Danish University of Education. Basic and Primary Education Program (BPEP) (1997). Basic and Primary Education Master Plan 1997–2002. Kathmandu: His Majesty’s Government, Basic and Primary Education Program. Basic and Primary Education Program (BPEP) (1999). Program Implementation Plan (Main Report). Kathmandu: His Majesty’s Government, Basic and Primary Education Program. Bhatta, P. (2000). ‘Community Mobilisation in Primary Education’, Studies in Nepali History and Society 5(2), 201–216. Bhatta, P. and Budakothi, S. B. (2013). ‘Understanding Private Educationscape(s) in Nepal’. The Privatisation in Education Research Initiative (PERI) Working Paper, Open Society Foundation. Burghart, R., (1996). The Conditions of Listening: Essays on Religion, History and Politics in South Asia. Delhi: Oxford University Press. Burnett, R. G. (2012). ‘Mother Tongue Education: Nepal’s Educational Dilemma’. Dissertation submitted to Special Studies for Honors, Franklin and Marshall College, USA. Caddell, M. (2006). ‘Private Schools as Battlefields: Contested Visions of Learning and Livelihood in Nepal’. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 36(4), 463–79. Caddell, M. (2007). ‘Education and Change: A Historical Perspective on Schooling, Development and the Nepali Nation-state’. In K. Krishna and J. Oesterheld (eds), Education and Social Change in South Asia, 251–84. New Delhi: Orient Longman. Carney, S. and Madsen, U. A. (2009). ‘A Place of one’s Own: Schooling and the Formation of Identities in Modern Nepal’. Globalisation, Comparative Education and Policy Research, 3, 171–87. Carney, S., Bista, M. and Agergaard, J. (2006). ‘“Empowering” the “local” through Education? Exploring Community-managed Schooling in Nepal’. Oxford Review of Education, 33, 611–28. Chalmers, R. (2003). ‘Language, literature, and the formation of a Nepali public sphere in India, 1914–1940’. PhD Dissertation . School of Oriental and Asian Studies (SOAS), University of London. Dastidar, M. (2007). Understanding Nepal: Muslims in a Plural Society. New Delhi: Har Anand Publication.

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Eagle, S. (1999). ‘The Language Situation in Nepal’. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 20(4–5), 272–327. Hutt, M. (1988). Nepali: A national language and its literature. New Delhi and London: Sterling Publishers and School of Oriental and African Studies. Khanal, P. (2013). ‘Centralization and Decentralization Reform in School Education in Nepal: Tracing the Swing of the Pendulum’. International Journal of Research Studies in Management, 2(2), 53–66. Liechty, M. (1997). ‘Selective Exclusion: Foreigners, Foreign Goods, and Foreignness in Modern Nepali History’. Studies in Nepali History and Society, 2(1), 5–68. Liechty, M. (2003). Suitably Modern: Making Middle-Class Culture in Kathmandu. Kathmandu: Martin Chautari. Malla, K. P. (1977). English in Nepalese Education. Kathmandu: Ratna Pustak Bhandar. Maslak, M. A. (2002). ‘The “SWAP”: One Financial Strategy for Educational Development in Nepal’. Current Issues in Comparative Education 3(2): 89–98. Ministry of Education (MoE) (1956). The Five Year Plan for Education in Nepal. Kathmandu, Nepal: Bureau of Publications, College of Education. Ministry of Education (MoE) (1971). The National Education System Plan for 1971-76. Kathmandu, Nepal: Government of Nepal. Ministry of Education (MoE) (1991). Basic and Primary Education Program Master Plan. Kathmandu: Ministry of Education. Ministry of Education (MoE) (2003). Education for All 2004-2009: Core Document. Kathmandu, Nepal: Government of Nepal. Ministry of Education (MoE) (2003). National Plan of Action (NPoA). Kathmandu, Nepal: Government of Nepal. Ministry of Education (MoE) (2009). School Sector Reform Plan 2009-2015. Kathmandu, Nepal: Government of Nepal. Ministry of Education (MoE) (2015). Education for All: National Review Report. Kathmandu, Nepal: Government of Nepal. Mitchell, E. (1976). ‘The New Education Plan in Nepal: Balancing Conflicting Values for National Survival’. In C. J. Calhoun and F. A. Janni (eds), The Anthropological Study of Education, 159–72. The Hague: Mouton Publishers. National Education Commission (NEC) (1992). Report of the National Education Commission. Kathmandu, Nepal: National Education Commission. Nepal National Education Planning Commission (NNEPC) (1956). Education in Nepal: Report of the Nepal Education Planning Commission. Kathmandu, Nepal: Government of Nepal. Onta, P. (1996). ‘Ambivalence Denied: The Making of Rastriya Itihas in Panchayat Era Textbooks’. Contributions to Nepalese Studies, 23(1), 213–54. Onta, P. (1997). ‘Activities in a “Fossil State”: Balkrishna Sama and the Improvisation of Nepali Identity’. Studies in Nepali History and Society, 2(1), 69–102. Pherali, T. J. (2011). ‘Education and Conflict in Nepal: Possibilities for Reconstruction’. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 9(1), 135–54.

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Pigg, S. L. (1992). ‘Inventing Social Categories through Place: Social Representation and Development in Nepal’. Comparative Studies in Society and History, 34(3), 491–513. Ragsdale, T. A. (1989). Once a Hermit Kingdom: Ethnicity, Education and National Integration in Nepal. New Delhi: Monohar Publications. Reed, H. B. and Reed, M. J. (1968). ‘Nepal in Transition: Educational Innovation’. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press. Sharma, G. N. (1990). ‘The Impact of Education During the Rana Period in Nepal, Himalaya’. The Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies, 10(2), Article 6. Shields, R. and Rappleye, J. (2008). ‘Uneven Terrain: Educational Policy and Equity in Nepal’. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 28(3), 265–76. Skinner, D. and Holland, D. (1996). ‘Schools and the Cultural Production of the Educated Person in a Nepalese Hill Community’. In B. Levinson, D. Foley and D. Holland (eds), The Cultural Production of the Educated Person: Critical Ethnographies of Schooling and Local Practice, 273–99. Albany, NY: SUNY Press. Stash, S. and Hannum, E. (2001). ‘Who goes to School? Educational Stratification by Gender, Caste, and Ethnicity in Nepal’. Comparative Education Review, 45(3), 354–78. Thapa, D. and Sijapati, S. (2004). Kingdom under Siege: Nepal’s Maoist Insurgency, 1996–2003. London: Zed Books. Valentin, K. (2011). ‘Modernity, Education and Its Alternatives: Schooling among the Urban Poor in Kathmandu’. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 9(1), 99–113. Webster, J. (1994). ‘Nepali Proficiency in Rural Nepal’. Nepalese Linguistics, 11, 43–5. Wood, H. (1976). ‘The Agents of Education and Development in Nepal’. In C. J. Calhoun and F. A. Janni (eds), The Anthropological Study of Education, 147–58. The Hague: Mouton Publishers. World Bank (2001). Nepal: Priorities and Strategies for Education Reform. Report No. 22065-NEP. Washington, DC: World Bank. Wright, D. (1877). History of Nepal. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Yadava, Y. P. (2007). ‘Linguistic Diversity in Nepal: Perspectives on Language Policy’, International Seminar on Constitutionalism and Diversity in Nepal CNAS, 22–4 August 2007.

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Nepal: A History of Higher Education from Urban Elitism to Global Aspirations Andrea Kölbel

Since the mid-1990s, efforts are being made to reform the higher education sector in Nepal. At the centre of the reform projects stands Nepal’s national university, Tribhuvan University. Founded in 1959, Tribhuvan University initially catered to just over 1,000 students (Skerry, Moran and Calavan, 1991, pp. 65–6). Over the course of the past thirty years, however, Tribhuvan University has grown into a mega-university and is currently ranked among the ten largest universities in the world by enrolment. At the same time, it remains up to 90 per cent financed by the government. Educational reforms therefore primarily attempt to decentralize the university system and to move towards a more sustainable model for financing higher education in Nepal. More specifically, plans have been made to give autonomy to the university’s constituent campuses and to establish new regional universities. In addition, a cost-sharing scheme has been proposed, according to which more affluent students will be required to pay full tuition fees, while students from economically and socially marginalized groups will receive financial support in the form of tuition waivers or full scholarships. Together, these reform plans aim to improve the quality, relevance and equity of higher education in Nepal. The rationale behind this emphasis on tertiary education is the central role that knowledge is assumed to play in the world economy of the twenty-first century. The digital revolution has been accompanied by a decline in low-skilled jobs and simultaneously has spurred the demand for highly qualified employees. A degree is now a basic requirement for most skilled jobs. The creation and circulation of new knowledge is also critical to the long-term viability of a country’s competitive advantage. In this context, concerns have been raised that without a well-trained labour force and a robust higher education system,

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poorer countries will be unable to sustain economic and social progress and may fall further behind (e.g. Bloom and Rosovsky, 2007; Task Force on Higher Education and the Society, 2000). Moreover, it is very important for Nepal to improve the efficiency of its university system. Nepali society has long been struggling to overcome the country’s political and economic deadlock and to improve social cohesion. International donors, most notably the World Bank, therefore strongly advocate a timely implementation of educational reforms in Nepal. But other stakeholders, including faculty and students, are more sceptical and some try to resist or circumvent the realization of the proposed changes to the university system. The third round of the Higher Education Reforms Project (2015–20), which has a volume of USD 795 million, is therefore at risk of constituting merely the continuation of a farce (Uprety, Onta and Parajuli, 2015). This chapter reviews the positions of the various actors involved in the provision of higher education in Nepal. In particular, it traces the role of different interest groups from the outset of university education in 1918. In so doing, it contributes to a better understanding of existing power structures and of the challenges involved in reforming the higher education sector in Nepal.

Higher education as a threat to and a prerequisite for political rule (1918–51) The Ranas, who ruled Nepal from 1846 to 1951, are notorious for their wary attitude towards education. Particularly illustrative is the rule of Chandra Shamsher, the fifth prime minister of the Rana Dynasty. Shortly after Chandra came into power in 1901 hundreds of schools throughout the country were closed down under the pretence that they provide a seedbed of treason (Bista, 1991, p. 119). Most of these schools had been opened by Chandra’s older brother, who was deposed by his relatives and sent into exile to India precisely because of his more liberal rule. At the same time, Chandra’s most visible legacy is the first Western-style institution of higher education in Nepal, the Tri-Chandra College (Whelpton, 2005, p. 64). The college was founded in 1918 and named after Chandra and King Tribhuvan, who then was merely a titular sovereign. With its white clock tower Tri-Chandra College is iconic of the influence of British India on Nepal’s higher education system and remains an important landmark in Kathmandu to date.

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Chandra’s apparently contradictory approach to the provision of education needs to be understood in relation to Nepali foreign politics under the Ranas’ oligarchy (see also Caddell, 2007; Liechty, 1997). In order to avoid any resentment against their absolute power, the Ranas sought to limit people’s access to information. For the same reason, they also severely restricted educational opportunities for the elite, let alone the wider society. At the same time, the Ranas recognized that education was a prerequisite for negotiating at least nominal sovereignty over a country located at the periphery of the powerful British colonial empire (Bista, 1991; Aryal, 1977). Since the mid-nineteenth century children of the Nepali nobles, including Chandra Shamsher, were being sent to India, where they received a British education (Liechty, 1997, p. 22). Not least because of these educational experiences, the Ranas were staunchly pro-British. The English writer and journalist Perceval Landon (1928, p. 2), who travelled to Nepal in 1908, quotes Chandra Shamsher as saying: ‘I am convinced that the prosperity of Nepal is bound up with the maintenance of British predominance in India.’ The rise of the Indian independence movement was consequently viewed with great concern in the Rana palaces in Kathmandu. On the one hand, those few young men from the urban upper-caste elite, who enjoyed the privilege of attaining an education, came to hold important positions in the administration. As a result, formal education was increasingly seen to guarantee employment, prestige and power. On the other hand, the Ranas were alarmed that Nepali students were likely to return from their studies in India with a new political consciousness. Thus, education also bore the risk of undermining the authority of the ruling family. Chandra Shamsher tried to address this predicament by giving some scope for intellectual development in Nepal. The establishment of a college, which was based in Kathmandu but affiliated to the university in Calcutta, predominately served the purpose of allowing Nepal’s political elite to take Indian university exams without being exposed to the increasingly radical atmosphere on university campuses in India (Whelpton, 2005, p. 83; Sharma, 1990). The Rana family then also kept a tight grip on the governance of the college. The office of the directorgeneral of public education and the college principal were essentially impressivesounding titles with little responsibility. Instead, the prime minister’s office oversaw the curriculum development and budgetary control (Bista, 1991, p. 120). A selected few enjoyed the privilege of continuing their education beyond grade nine. During the first year, only six students were enrolled at Tri-Chandra College and all of them were graduates of the country’s elite school, Durbar High School (Sharma, 1990). With the foundation of Durbar High School in 1892,

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English-medium education was given precedence over more traditional forms of Sanskrit education. The curriculum was based on the English model with the result that the history and geography taught in school was confined to that of the British Empire (Bista, 1991, p. 119). This, however, changed in 1934 when Nepali became the language of instruction at all educational institutions. This new emphasis on Nepali constituted a clear attempt by the Ranas to distance themselves from British rule at a time when the colonial power increasingly came under attack from the nationalist movements in India (see also Caddell, 2007). Despite such measures, it was difficult for the Ranas to keep Nepal isolated from the political upheavals occurring in the neighbouring country. In 1947, several college students studying in Kathmandu dared to openly criticize the Ranas for limiting the curriculum to Sanskrit only. Initially, the authoritarian rulers submitted to the students’ protest and allowed for courses in mathematics and natural science to be included in the educational programme. However, when students continued to demand for other modern subjects to be added to the curriculum, the Rana regime ordered raids on the campus and endorsed further repressive measures against college students (Snellinger, 2005; Hoftun, Raeper and Whelpton, 1999). Subsequently, many Nepali students were forced to go into exile to India, where some of them participated in Mahatma Gandhi’s Quit India Movement (Hoftun, Raeper and Whelpton, 1999). Inspired by India’s struggle for democracy, the exiles organized themselves into political parties and started a revolution which put an end to the Ranas’ rule in 1951. These events have gone down in history as the first organized protests by students against Nepal’s political leadership. To date, the Nepali Congress, the Communist Party of Nepal (UML) and the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), all of which claim descent from the political parties founded by Nepali students in India, are major players in the country’s politics.

Higher education and state modernization (1951–71) After the change in the country’s political leadership in 1951, the need for a system of higher education was felt acutely. Formal education was perceived to form an integral part of the ‘open door’ policy adopted by the new government. In a report, the newly appointed minister of education wrote: ‘We have become part of the world, whether we like it or not. We can no longer remain isolated; the world has come to us. How can we meet this world without education?’

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(MoE, 1956, p. 2). While the small number of enrolments at post-school level probably did not justify the establishment of a university in Nepal, the decision was made to set up Tribhuvan University in 1959 (Lal, 2000). Few months before the official opening ceremony, the Nepali Congress Party had won the first ever parliamentary elections held in Nepal with a two-third majority. The development of a national system of education therefore also marked a clear break with the previous regime (Caddell, 2007). In fact, this opposition against the Rana rulers and against their approach to educational provision was perhaps the only basis for consensus between the royal palace and the Nepali Congress Party. The tussle for power between these political forces came to a head in 1960 when King Mahendra suspended the constitution, dissolved the parliament, imprisoned the leaders of the Nepali Congress and instituted the Panchayat regime, a ‘partyless’ system which concentrated the ruling power in the hands of the monarch. These political hostilities significantly obstructed the development of public infrastructure. Established in 1951, the Ministry of Education quickly developed into an inefficient bureaucracy, which mainly concentrated on staffing decisions and general administration but largely failed to plan and to monitor the establishment of a national education system (Madsen and Carney, 2011; see also Caddell, 2007). Consequently, most of the colleges that date back to the 1950s were initially set up not by the state but by private actors or through community-based initiatives. It was the members of the urban upper castes who mobilized the necessary resources, mainly because they wanted their children to attain the educational credentials needed to qualify for high-status positions in the government administration. A bachelor’s degree was required to work as a government officer. For lower clerical jobs, it was sufficient to pass the School Leaving Certificate at the end of the tenth grade (Bista, 1991, p. 122). As a result, half of the twenty-one colleges, which were operating in Nepal in 1959, were located within the Kathmandu Valley (MoE, 1970, pp. 30–1). These developments further consolidated the role of formal education as a marker of caste differences and spatial disparities. Prior to the establishment of Tribhuvan University, colleges in Nepal were affiliated to Patna University situated across the border in Bihar, India. The educational institutions in Nepal were therefore essentially teaching centres, while Patna University oversaw the development of curricula and the conduct of examinations. Continuing with the same model, colleges maintained their own autonomous governing bodies even after Tribhuvan University was founded.

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Therefore, from the very beginning, the role of the university was reduced to planning the curriculum, administrating examinations and awarding degrees (see also Lal, 2000). This setup hampered the emergence of a research-oriented academic community in Nepal. Most Nepali scholars were therefore trained abroad at universities in the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan and India. In this way, higher education became increasingly associated with the opportunity to live in countries often perceived to be more sophisticated and developed than Nepal.

Higher education and its role in promoting national unity and development (1971–90) In 1971, the Ministry of Education launched a comprehensive reform package, the National Education System Plan (NESP). The plan was part of the normal five-year planning cycle which had been followed since the early 1950s. The NESP, however, was of particular political significance. The initiative for educational change came from King Mahendra himself who sought to relegitimize the Panchayat regime. It was understood that educational institutions constituted an important site for the indoctrination of a national culture, which rested on the three tenets of the Nepali nation-state: the monarchy, Hinduism and the Nepali language (Onta, 1996; Shah, 1993). Simultaneously, Nepal’s policymakers sought to accommodate to shifts in the agendas of foreign aid agencies, which began to place a stronger emphasis on vocational training. The NESP therefore set out to bring the education system in line with the demand in the local labour market (Caddell, 2007; Whelpton, 2005, p. 126). In a first step, all community-owned or privately managed colleges, including Tri-Chandra College, were turned into constituent campuses of Tribhuvan University. In this way, the provision of higher education was placed under the administrative control of a National Education Committee, which was appointed by the King (Lal, 2000). The centralization of the provision of higher education ousted private investments in the education sector which led the university and its constituent campuses to rely entirely on the treasury. This in turn caused higher education institutions in Nepal to suffer from chronic underfunding and resulted in a deterioration of educational quality. In order to reach the standard of a European or North American bachelor’s degree, students had to study up to master’s level at the central campus of Tribhuvan University (Whelpton, 2005,

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p. 166). The vast majority of students, however, discontinued their education either at Intermediate Level, which was equivalent to sixth-form study in the United Kingdom, or two years later at Diploma Level (Wood and Knall, 1962, p. 54, table 19). In addition to the low quality of education, the university curriculum was seen to cause problems for the country’s social and economic development. Graduates increasingly struggled to secure jobs according to their educational qualifications, mainly because academic programmes had been designed and implemented without regard to their suitability for the local labour market (see also Ragsdale, 1989; Wood and Knall, 1962). A UNESCO Mission to Nepal in 1961 called for immediate actions to be taken in order to address this ‘wastage in higher education’ (Wood and Knall, 1962, p. 53). In line with the recommendations made by the international education experts, a more selective admission procedure for university was introduced and the annual examinations were replaced by a semester system. In parallel, attempts were made to limit the number of graduates in arts and commerce and to give greater priority to the training of technical skills and agricultural science. With the launch of the National Development Service (NDS) in 1971, for example, it became mandatory for students studying for master’s degrees at Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu to spend one year working in rural areas of the country as part of their course requirements (Shakya, 2008; Messerschmidt, Yadama and Silwal, 2007). The aim of these educational policies was to bridge the divide between the rural and the urban areas and to integrate developmental discourses into the formal training of the younger generation. However, the approach taken essentially implied a strong dichotomy, with the developed city, on the one hand, and the underdeveloped rest of the country, on the other. The centralization of the provision of higher education furthermore meant that established ties between previously independent colleges and the local community were cut. The restructuring of the higher education sector therefore did not only have far-reaching implications for the provision of university education in Nepal but was also of great significance for the relation between the state and its citizens. Over the course of the 1970s and 1980s, people came to be increasingly dissatisfied with the Panchayat system, not least because of the educational reforms. In particular, Kathmandu’s urban elite strongly opposed the changes made to the provision of higher education. The reforms were seen to put up new barriers to obtain an academic degree and hence threatened to undermine the possibility of (predominately male) educated youth to secure their privileged

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social standing. For this reason, the NDS programme was particularly unpopular. The work placements in villages across the country had little to do with the salaried employment urban middle-class youth had come to aspire to (Caddell, 2007; see also Messerschmidt, Yadama and Silwal, 2007). Most of the wealthier families therefore preferred to send their children abroad for their education with the result that much-needed financial resources were channelled into educational institutions outside the country (Whelpton, 2005, p. 167). At the same time, the university campuses in the Kathmandu Valley came to play an important role in the formation of the opposition against the ruling regime. In the late 1960s and early 1970s several student organizations were established in affiliation with the political parties, which were officially banned but continued to operate underground (Snellinger, 2005). Initially, the ruling regime tried to thwart the growing influence of the political parties on the student community by setting up the Rāstrabādi Bidhyārthi Mandal (National Student Forum), which enabled pro-Panchayat students to contest a seat in the Free Student Union. Later, the government even made an advance to outlaw independent student organizations. This move, however, was stopped by the Supreme Court, which declared that student organizations could not be constitutionally banned, precisely because they were not political organizations. This ruling created a legal loophole which allowed student organizations to serve as the legal wings of the banned political parties (see also Snellinger, 2005). Political student leaders therefore no longer only fought for matters of direct concern to the students they were supposed to represent, but increasingly incorporated the political programmes of the national parties they were affiliated to (Snellinger, 2007). Agitations by both students and teachers soon became a routine part of academic life in Nepal. Because of the lack of support by these important stakeholders in the higher education sector, it only took about a decade for the newly introduced educational policies to disintegrate. The NDS was discontinued after a student strike in 1975, because it was feared that the presence of students in rural areas would lead to social unrests across the country (Caddell, 2007). After student protests had turned violent in 1979, entrance exams to the university were discontinued and the pro-Panchayat Rāstrabādi Bidhyārthi Mandal was abolished. At this stage, however, the protests were no longer only about the education policy of the Panchayat regime but were increasingly taken up by the political parties as a way to further their popular base (Burghart, 1996). Consequently, what initially started off as campus-based protests

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eventually grew into a mass movement demanding the restoration of multiparty democracy. At the movement’s peak in early 1990, an estimated half million people participated in public protests organized in the centre of Kathmandu (Snellinger, 2005; Hoftun, Raeper and Whelpton, 1999, p. 131). This democratic movement, which is now known as Jana Āndolan I (First People’s Movement), succeeded in overthrowing the Panchayat regime.

Massification, privatization, regionalization and internationalization of higher education (1990–2015) Eventually it became difficult to accommodate for the growing demand for higher education, especially because until 1990, Tribhuvan University was the only multidisciplinary university in Nepal. In order to better cope with the intensified admission pressure, entrance examinations were reintroduced for courses offered at the university’s central departments. At the constituent campuses, however, departments of social sciences, humanities, education and management continued to admit any prospective student who had passed the qualifying lower degree (see also Kölbel, 2013). In the absence of adequate vocational training opportunities, academic studies therefore constituted the most direct and easily accessible option for young Nepalis who wished to continue their formal education after completing secondary school. This led to the number of secondary school graduates to increase tremendously. Whereas in 1983 less than 10,000 students successfully completed the School Leaving Certificate, more than 80,000 students passed the tenth-grade examinations in 2003 (Bhatta, 2004, p. 295). In more recent years, some 180,000 students graduate from secondary school each year (Ghimire, 2014). The proliferation of mass education at primary and secondary school levels made structural adjustments at the tertiary level imperative. In response, national and international policymakers agreed to open the education sector to private investments, especially since government funds had proven to be insufficient to meet the growing demand for quality education. In 1980, Tribhuvan University began to provide affiliations to a number of newly established private and community colleges. By 1996, 140 affiliated colleges had been set up (Tribhuvan University, 1996). In contrast to the sixty constituent campuses, affiliated colleges do not receive any state-financed subsidies but largely rely on tuition fees as a source of income. Affiliated and constituent

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campuses of Tribhuvan University, however, have in common that they follow the university’s curricula and examinations and often, though not always, employ the same teaching staff. The new system of affiliations allowed for the private education sector to grow exponentially post-1990. To date, more than 1,000 private colleges have received affiliations with Tribhuvan University. In addition, three new universities were founded since 1991: a private one in the Kathmandu Valley and two community-managed universities in the cities of Pokhara and Biratnagar, which are located in the west and in the southeast of the capital city, respectively. The attempt to move towards a more inclusive and decentralized higher education system signified a change in the political agendas of Nepal’s national leaders and international donor organizations. During the period of the Panchayat regime, discussions about caste, ethnic or religious differences were largely suppressed, in the name of national unity. Consequently, development initiatives were not designed in such a way as to specifically target ‘backward groups’ (Shneiderman, 2013; Gellner, 2007). Instead, it was often the established political elite (mostly urban, upper-caste men) who managed to use their connections and educational advances to reap the benefits of foreign aid in order to reproduce their social privileges. By contrast, the 1990 constitution explicitly referred to Nepal as a multiethnic and multilinguistic country. Data on caste and ethnic groups was collected on a national scale for the very first time as part of the population census in 1991. The census data raised awareness for the social inequalities that existed with regard to people’s gender, caste/ethnicity and geographical origin. Pramod Bhatta and his colleagues (2008) have analysed the nature and the extent of unequal representation in Nepal’s tertiary education sector by comparing census data with enrolment figures they obtained for the academic year 2005–2006 from twenty-six public campuses located in different parts of Nepal. They found that upper castes living in the Kathmandu Valley and the surrounding hills constitute 68 per cent of the student body, but account for only one-third of Nepal’s population. In comparison, less than 13 per cent of students belong to one of the country’s ethnic groups, which together make up more than a third of the total population.1 Dalits, who under the Hindu caste system were considered to be ‘untouchable’, account for almost 13 per cent of the population but are hardly represented among the student community. The study furthermore revealed that women are largely underrepresented at the university level. These findings give reason for concern, as it seems to be unlikely that

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exclusionary practices in other fields of social life – be it the government sector, media or civil society – can be overcome unless people have equal opportunities to access higher education. Ethnic differences, in particular, have acquired increasing political salience in Nepal since the 1990s (Gellner, 2007; Onta, 2006). In 2004, the Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities (NEFIN) announced a new five-tiered classification scheme to categorize fifty-nine of Nepal’s officially recognized ethnic groups as ‘endangered’, ‘highly marginalised’, ‘marginalised’, ‘disadvantaged’ and ‘advantaged’. For the purpose of developing this framework for affirmative action, NEFIN, which serves as an umbrella organization for the country’s ethnic and indigenous communities, has received substantial funding from the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (Shneiderman, 2013). The categorization system tries to account for a range of criteria, including geographical, cultural and economic indicators. For this reason, it was particularly well received by the international donor community and is likely to be used as a basis for the allocation of need-based scholarships which are supposed to be introduced as part of a cost-sharing scheme in higher education (World Bank, 2014; see also Sijapati, 2005). However, if this approach is followed through, it runs the risk that the most disadvantaged groups will be forgotten. Dalits and Muslims, who are the poorest and most deprived groups of all, are not included in the NEFIN categorization (see also Gellner, 2007, p. 1827). The question of whether ongoing efforts to make higher education more inclusive will be successful also depends on the ways in which the problem of geographical coverage is being dealt with. A survey conducted in 2003–2004 revealed that in most rural areas gross enrolment rates at post-secondary school level were close to zero, when, at the same time, tertiary enrolment rates within the urban Kathmandu Valley were more than 30 per cent (CBS, 2004, p. 76, table 5.16). These geographical disparities can be largely attributed to the fact that the education policies which allowed for an opening of the education sector to private investments failed to introduce regulatory mechanisms simultaneously. The private education sector has therefore expanded in a rather uncontrolled manner over the course of the past three decades. Most of the new colleges and educational programmes were set up within the capital city, mainly because private providers sought to target the comparatively resource-rich urban population (Bhatta et al., 2008; Sijapati, 2005). In this sense, the education policies that were expected to increase access and equity, in practice, further reinforced geographical inequalities and intensified the social competition.

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It is therefore no coincidence that the heartland of the Maoist movement, which started to gain in power in the early 1990s, was in those areas which had long been neglected by the government. The guerrillas were highly aware of the fact that rural youth severely lacked opportunities to attain a good education and factored it into their political goals (Pherali, 2011; Zharkevich, 2009; Pettigrew, 2007; Ghimire, 2005). In February 1996, the Maoists presented their demands for state reforms related to ‘nationality’, ‘democracy’ and ‘livelihood’ in the form of a memorandum to the national government. Among the forty points listed was the right to mother-tongue education, universal education and the closure of all for-profit schools (Shields and Rappleye, 2008; Thapa and Sijapati, 2003). The government’s failure to respond to these demands provided the catalyst for the Maoists to declare the ‘People’s War’ in 1996. The civil war was to last for an entire decade, at times severely disrupting students’ daily routine. In particular, private colleges were consistently targeted by the Maoists and some were even bombed. Faced with such threats, many of those educational institutions which were located in the conflict-affected areas had to shut down completely (Amnesty International, 2005). Concerned about their children’s safety, those parents who could afford it sent their children abroad or migrated with them to the country’s urban centres (Valentin, 2012b; Poertner, Junginger and MüllerBöker, 2011; Ghimire, 2010). The outflow of educated young Nepalis is unlikely to ebb in the near future. Despite the fact that peace was restored in 2006, it is still highly uncertain whether and how the educational standards of Nepal’s colleges and universities can be improved. Plans to grant autonomy to some of the larger colleges of Tribhuvan University and to make the whole system more efficient and manageable have been in place since the early 1990s. The World Bank-funded (first) Higher Education Project (1994–2001) set out to implement a cluster-oriented system whereby constituent campuses of Tribhuvan University located in different parts of the country would serve as ‘seed’ infrastructure for the establishment of new regional universities. Instead, a succession of different governments under the leadership of the two main parties in Nepal passed acts to establish separate universities, thus undermining the initiative of unbundling Tribhuvan University (Uprety, Onta and Parajuli, 2015; Lal, 2000). Under the Second Higher Education Project (2007–14) Tribhuvan University has provided autonomy to a few of its own constituent colleges and in return has received donor funds for its physical and academic developments. In addition, the government passed three acts in 2010 promulgating the establishment of three additional universities in the far-western and southern regions of

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the country. Five years later, however, the allocation of funds for these new regional universities was still pending, because the administration of Tribhuvan University refused to allow for some of the university’s affiliated and constituent campuses to be integrated into the three new regional universities and insisted on being compensated for the transfer of property. Meanwhile, problems related to the state-centralized system of Tribhuvan University remain unsolved with the result that the academic schedule is frequently interrupted, exams are often delayed for months and teaching materials and laboratory facilities are left in an obsolete state (Kölbel, 2015). The continuous debate about the ineffectiveness of state-provided higher education in Nepal has benefitted private providers of educational services. Private colleges (some of which brand themselves as ‘international colleges’), private tutors and education consultants thrive on people’s hope to attain educational qualifications which will allow them to secure a respectable job and enhance their social standing (Adhikari, 2010; Sijapati, 2005; see also Thapa, 2013; Caddell, 2006). In this context, it is important to note that the division between public and private, poor and good-quality, low-cost and highcost education is much less clear-cut than prevailing opinion suggests. There exists now a huge variety of private education providers in Kathmandu. At the lower end of this range institutions are not necessarily better equipped than government colleges. In addition, most private colleges only offer a narrow range of educational programmes. According to a complete list of affiliated colleges which were operating in the urban Kathmandu Valley in 2011, only 44 out of these 246 private institutions offered courses in the natural sciences, engineering, medicine or law, and only 47 ran master’s level programmes (as cited in Kölbel, 2015, p. 127). These figures illustrate that most private education providers seem to stop short of starting more capital-intensive courses in the natural, technical or medical sciences, for which substantial investments in laboratories and specialized equipment is necessary. The training of much-needed technical personnel and the development of future research staff therefore remains to a large extent the responsibility of state-financed education institutions, and above all Tribhuvan University’s. In the public debate, however, a more nuanced assessment of the benefits and disadvantages of governmental and private educational provision does not commonly surface, not least because this would be against the interests of more privileged social groups (see also Caddell, 2006). For Kathmandu’s middle class, investing in their children’s education has in fact become a question of prestige and a way to distinguish themselves from the increasing number of educated

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youth from less privileged backgrounds whose emergence represent a potential threat to the established social hierarchy (Liechty, 2003). In more recent years, this kind of investment strategy for social reproduction is increasingly being played out at the global level. Processes of internationalization of higher education have opened up new and somewhat more affordable opportunities for young Nepalis to attain a foreign degree. Several countries have launched new education initiatives and immigration regulations with the aim to become more established on the global education market (Valentin, 2012a; see also Baas, 2007). Figures available for the year 2012–13 suggest that Nepali students have migrated to sixty-three different destinations (as cited in Ghimire and Maharjan, 2014, p. 5). In the United States, for example, students from Nepal were the eleventh largest group of international students during the academic year 2010–11 and, in Japan and Australia, they were even the eighth largest (IIE, 2012). Whereas previously only children of the urban elite were able to obtain an education at foreign universities, international migration from Nepal in the early twenty-first century seems to resemble more of a kind of ‘the Nepali exodus’ (Sharma, 2010). Questions related to the potential implications of international student migration for Nepali society have been subject of much debate in recent years. On the one hand, international migration promises to be a way for young Nepalis to build a better future life for themselves and their families. Apart from contributing financial remittances, it is hoped that young migrants will also contribute to the country’s development upon return by drawing on the knowledge and skills they have acquired abroad (Ghimire and Maharjan, 2014). Some local commentators have even proposed that it may be more effective to sponsor students from Nepal to attain an education abroad as opposed to continuing to invest in attempts to resolve the muddled situation in which the country’s higher education sector finds itself at present (KC, 2009). Critics, on the other hand, have warned against the heavy costs associated with ‘brain drain’, as Nepal’s youth are seen to be primarily contributing to the wealth of other countries (Khare and Slany, 2011). Such concerns have gained a new urgency in recent years as a growing number of student migrants prefer to permanently settle in places outside Nepal. In addition, evidence suggests that most of the young Nepalis who go abroad on a student visa come from a more affluent family background (Sijapati and Hermann, 2012; Valentin, 2012a). Consequently, there is a real risk that the quest for an international education perpetuates social hierarchies both within as well as outside of the country’s borders.

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Conclusion The various interest groups which hold a stake in Nepal’s tertiary education sector generally agree that higher education plays a critical role in the future development of the country. But there remains much confusion with regard to the way forward in realizing the potential of higher education to open up opportunities for Nepali people to improve their lives and to participate in the global knowledge-based economy in a productive manner. Some local observers have argued that the unwillingness of university lecturers and employees to work and live in places outside the Kathmandu Valley is the root of the persisting problems (Lal, 2000). Others suspect that politically active academics and student politicians try to resist reform efforts in fear of losing control (Uprety, Onta and Parajuli, 2015). International donors are being criticized for exercising too much influence and are left to acknowledge that higher education reforms in Nepal are a highly sensitive undertaking as they involve the privileges and interests of numerous competing parties (World Bank, 2014). In order to overcome persisting challenges in the higher education sector, it is important to unpack the relationships between the government and higher education institutions, between public and private actors and between social equality, educational quality and different forms of educational provision. This chapter has contributed to this complex problem by tracing in a systematic manner the involvement and interests of various stakeholders throughout the history of Nepal’s higher education sector.

Note 1 These figures exclude Newars, who are also officially recognized as an ethnic group, but are generally in a better socio-economic position than most other ethnic groups.

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Baas, M. (2007). ‘The Language of Migration: The Education Industry Versus the Migration Industry’. People and Place, 15(2): 49–60. Bhatta, P., Adhikari, L., Thada, M. and Rai, R. (2008). ‘Structures of Denial: Student representation in Nepal’s higher education’. Studies in Nepali History and Society, 13(2), 235–63. Bhatta, S. D. (2004). ‘Disparities in School Performance in the SLC Exams’. In P. Bhatta (ed.), Studies in Nepali History and Society, 9(2), 293–343. Bista, D. B. (1991). Fatalism and Development: Nepal’s Struggle for Modernization. Hyderabad: Orient Longman. Bloom, D. and Rosovsky, H. (2007). ‘Higher Education in Developing Countries’. In J. Forest and P. Altbach (eds), International Handbook of Higher Education (Volume Two), 665–87. Dordrecht: Springer. Burghart, R. (1996). The Conditions of Listening: Essays on Religion, History and Politics in South Asia. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. Caddell, M. (2006). ‘Private Schools as Battlefields: Contested Visions of Learning and Livelihood in Nepal’. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 36(4), 463–79. Caddell, M. (2007). ‘Education and Change: A Historical Perspective on Schooling, Development and the Nepali Nation-State’. In K. Kumar and J. Oesterheld (eds), Education and Social Change in South Asia, 251–84. New Delhi: Orient Longman. CBS (2004). Nepal Living Standards Survey 2003/04. Statistical Report (Volume 1), Kathmandu: Central Bureau of Statistics, Government of Nepal. Gellner, D. (2007). ‘Caste, Ethnicity and Inequality in Nepal’. Economic And Political Weekly, 42(20), 1823–8. Ghimire, A. (2010). ‘Caught between two Worlds: Internal Displacement Induced Dilemma in Nepal’. European Bulletin of Himalayan Research, 35–36, 91–106. Ghimire, A. and Maharjan, K. (2014). ‘Student Returnees and their Reflection on Contribution to Nepal: Use of Knowledge and Skills’. Migration and Development, (ahead-of-print), pp. 1–18. Ghimire, B. (2014). ‘SLC success Rate Stagnates’. eKantipur, 14 June. http://www. ekantipur.com/2014/06/14/top-story/slc-success-rate-stagnates/390848.html [Accessed 29 May 2015]. Ghimire, K. B. (2005). ‘Social Movements and Marginalized Rural Youth in Brazil, Egypt and Nepal’. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 30(1), 30–72. Hoftun, M., Raeper, W. and Whelpton, J. (1999). People, Politics & Ideology: Democracy and Social Change in Nepal. Kathmandu: Mandala Book Point. IIE (2012). Project Atlas: Atlas of Student Mobility. New York: Institute of International Education. http://www.iie.org/Research-and-Publications/Project-Atlas [Accessed 20 August 2012]. KC, S. (2009). ‘Reversing Brain Drain’. Republica, 30 November. http://www. myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=18712 [Accessed 27 February 2013].

Nepal: A History of Higher Education from Urban Elitism to Global Aspirations 199 Khare, S. and Slany, A. (2011). The Dynamics of Employment, the Labour Market and the Economy in Nepal. Geneva: International Labour Office. Kölbel, A. (2013). ‘(De)valuing Higher Education: Educated Youth, Generational Differences and a Changing Educational Landscape in Kathmandu, Nepal’. Comparative Education, 49(3), 331–43. Kölbel, A. (2015). Youth, Aspiration, and Mobility: Young People Debating their Potential Futures in Nepal. Unpublished doctoral thesis. University of Oxford. Lal, C. K. (2000). ‘Continuing Confusion in Nepal’, Indian Seminar Series. http://www. india-seminar.com/2000/494/494 c.k. lal.htm [Accessed 16 May 2015]. Landon, P. (1928). Nepal (Volume Two). London: Constable. Liechty, M. (1997). ‘Selective Exclusion: Foreigners, Foreign Goods, and Foreignness in Modern Nepali History’. Studies in Nepali History and Society, 2(1), 5–68. Liechty, M. (2003). Suitably Modern: Making Middle-Class Culture in a New Consumer Society, Princeton, NJ and Oxford: Princeton University Press. Madsen, U. A. and Carney, S. (2011). ‘Education in an Age of Radical Uncertainty: Youth and Schooling in Urban Nepal’. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 9(1), 115–33. Messerschmidt, D., Yadama, G. and Silwal, B. (2007). ‘History and Significance of National Development Service (NDS): Creating “Civic Space” and Commitment to Service in Nepal during the 1970s’. Occasional Papers in Sociology and Anthropology, 10, 174–207. MoE (1956). The Five Year Plan for Education in Nepal. Kathmandu: Bureau of Publications, College of Education. MoE (1970). Development of Higher Education in Nepal. Kathmandu: Bureau of Publications, College of Education. Onta, P. (1996). ‘Creating a Brave Nepali Nation in British India’. Studies in Nepali History and Society, 1(1), 37–76. Onta, P. (2006), ‘The Growth of the Adivasi Janajati Movement in Nepal after 1990: The Non-political Institutional Agents’. Studies in Nepali History and Society, 11(2), 303–54. Pettigrew, J. (2007). ‘Learning to be Silent’. In H. Ishii, D. Gellner and K. Nawa (eds), Social Dynamics in Northern South Asia: Nepalis inside and outside Nepal, 307–48. New Delhi: Manohar Publishers. Pherali, T. J. (2011). ‘Education and Conflict in Nepal: Possibilities for Reconstruction’. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 9(1), 135–54. Poertner, E., Junginger, M. and Müller-Böker, U. (2011). ‘Migration in Far West Nepal: Intergenerational Linkages between Internal and International Migration of Ruralto-urban Migrants’. Critical Asian Studies, 43(1), 23–47. Ragsdale, T. (1989). Once a Hermit Kingdom: Ethnicity, Education and National Integration in Nepal. New Delhi: Manohar Publications. Shah, S. (1993). ‘Throes of a Fledgling Nation’. Himal, 6(2), 7–10. Shakya, K. M. (2008). ‘Foreign Aid, Democracy, and Development’. In D. Gellner and K. Hachhethu (eds), Local Democracy in South Asia: Microprocesses of Democratization in Nepal and its Neighbours, 258–75. London and New Delhi: Sage Publications.

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Sharma, G. N. (1990). ‘The Impact of Education during the Rana Period in Nepal’. Himalayan Research Bulletin, 10(2–3), 3–7. Sharma, J. R. (2010). ‘Understanding the Nepali Exodus’. Republica, 31 December. http://www.myrepublica.com/portal/?action=news_details&news_id=26639 [Accessed 28 April 2013]. Shields, R. and Rappleye, J. (2008). ‘Differentiation, Development, (Dis)Integration: Education in Nepal’s “People’s War”’. Research in Comparative and International Education, 3(1), 91–102. Shneiderman, S. (2013). ‘Developing a Culture of Marginality: Nepal’s Current Classificatory Moment’. Focaal, 65, 42–55. Sijapati, B. (2005). ‘Perils of Higher Education Reform in Nepal’. Journal of Development and Social Transformation, 2, 25–33. Sijapati, B. and Hermann, M. G. (2012). ‘Learning Democracy: International Education and Political Socialization’. In S. S. Brown (ed.), Transnational Transfers and Global Development, 148–62. Basingstoke; NY: Palgrave Macmillan. Skerry, C. A., Moran, K. and Calavan, K. M. (1991). Four Decades of Development: The History of U.S. Assistance to Nepal 1951-1991. Kathmandu: USAID. Snellinger, A. (2005). ‘A Crisis in Nepali Student Politics? Analyzing the Gap between Politically Active and Non-Active Students’. Peace and Democracy in South Asia, 1(2), 14–30. Snellinger, A. (2007). ‘Student Movements in Nepal: Their Parameters and their Idealized Forms’. In M. Lawoti (ed.), Contentious Politics and Democratization in Nepal, 273–95. Los Angeles, CA and London: Sage Publications. Task Force on Higher Education and the Society (2000). Higher Education in Developing Countries: Peril and Promise. Washington, DC: World Bank; UNESCO. Thapa, A. (2013). ‘Does Private School Competition Improve Public School Performance? The Case of Nepal’. International Journal of Educational Development, 33(4), 358–66. Thapa, D. and Sijapati, B. (2003). A Kingdom Under Siege: Nepal’s Maoist Insurgency, 1996 to 2003. Kathmandu: The Printhouse. Tribhuvan University (1996). Tribhuvan University: A Historical Profile. Kathmandu: Tribhuvan University. Uprety, D., Onta, P. and Parajuli, L. (2015). ‘The Challenges of Rightsizing Tribhuvan University’. Setopati: Nepal’s Digital Newspaper, 17 April. http://setopati.net/ opinion/6245/The-challenges-of-rightsizing-Tribhuvan-University/ [Accessed 29 May 2015]. Valentin, K. (2012a). ‘Caught between Internationalisation and Immigration: The Case of Nepalese Students in Denmark’. Learning and Teaching, 5(3), 56–74. Valentin, K. (2012b). ‘The Role of Education in Mobile Livelihoods: Social and Geographical Routes of Young Nepalese Migrants in India’. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 43(4), 429–42. Whelpton, J. (2005). A History of Nepal. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Nepal: A History of Higher Education from Urban Elitism to Global Aspirations 201 Wood, H. B. and Knall, B. (1962). Educational Planning in Nepal and Its Economic Implications: A Report of the UNESCO Mission in Nepal. Paris: UNESCO. World Bank (2014). Second Higher Education Project: Implementation Completion and Results Report, Washington, DC: World Bank. Zharkevich, I. (2009), ‘A New Way of Being Young in Nepal: The Idea of Maoist Youth and Dreams of a New Man’. Studies in Nepali History and Society, 14(1), 67–105.

11

Sri Lanka: An Overview Sujata N. Gamage

Introduction Sri Lanka is an island located in the Indian Ocean. It is one of the nine members of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, or SAARC. Other members of SAARC include Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal and Pakistan. Sri Lanka is also a member of the Commonwealth, an association of former British colonies. Although the economic, social and political institutions in Sri Lanka have evolved much since 1948, the year of independence, the country still has much in common with other Commonwealth countries. The education system in particular has much in common with India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, the other Commonwealth countries in the SAARC region. Three issues that perhaps distinguish Sri Lanka from its neighbours are the high literacy rates and higher human development index enjoyed by Sri Lankans (see Table 11.1), the high value Sri Lankans place on formal education and government careers and how tensions among different ‘classes’ or ethnic groups are visibly played out in the education sphere. One manifestation of this tension is the fierce defence of the right to a free-of-charge education from ‘preschool to Grade 13 and beyond to university’ by political parties of Marxist/ socialist leanings, and their objection to any provision of private opportunities. These objections have created a state monopoly in higher education resulting in distortions in the education sector, as we shall see. However, these objections may be on the wane due to ground realities. As stated in the 2014 annual report of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL), ‘The state monopoly on higher education has been challenged and there has been an exponential growth in the number of private providers due to local demand.’

24.2

Literacy rate, female

53.1

29,032,914 0.548 63.9 76.4

Nepal

58.5

156,186,882 0.570 61.5 64.6

Bangladesh

Source: World Fact Book (CIA, updated January 2017); Human Development Report (UNDP, 2015)

33,332,025 0.465 38.2 52.0

Population Human Dev. Index Literacy rate, All Literacy rate, male

Afghanistan

Table 11.1 Population and human development indicators of SAARC countries

45.8

201,993,540 0.538 57.9 69.5

Pakistan

55.0

750,125 0.605 64.9 73.1

Bhutan

60.6

1,266,883,598 0.609 71.2 81.3

India

204 Education in South Asia and the Indian Ocean Islands

Sri Lanka: An Overview

205

For a country its size, Sri Lanka is quite diverse demographically. According to the census of 2012, Sri Lanka then had a population of 20.5 million of which Sinhalese, the majority community, comprises 74.9 per cent, and the Tamils and Muslims or Moors are at 15.6 per cent and 9.2 per cent respectively. The Tamilspeaking population is further divided into Sri Lankan Tamils, the majority of whom live in the Northern Province, and Indian-origin Tamils, who are concentrated in the Central Province. Another manifestation of the importance of education in everyday lives is now a part of the recent recorded history of Sri Lanka. The rise of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) is partly attributed to the introduction of a language-based quota system in admission to universities in 1972 (Ram, 1989), which reduced the admission rate for Tamils which for various reasons was disproportionately high for the size of the community. The urban-rural divide too is important for understanding education in Sri Lanka. About 77.3 per cent of the population is estimated to live away from urban centres, and they constitute a politically important group. Due to electoral representation rules, they are able to send a relatively large contingent of representatives to the parliament. As a result, government services in education extend to the most remote corners of the island, though the quality of those services may vary widely.

History The history of education in Sri Lanka is best captured across three distinct periods – precolonial, colonial and postcolonial. According to the historical chronicle Mahavamsa, compiled in 400 ad, civilization in Sri Lanka can be traced back to 300 bc, if not 600 bc. If the precolonial period is assumed to begin in 300 bc, the colonial period begins with the invasion by Portuguese in 1505. After successive colonization by the Portuguese, the Dutch and then the English, Sri Lanka, then known as Ceylon, finally received its independence in 1948, indicating the beginning of the postcolonial period. In 1972 the country was renamed as Sri Lanka.

Precolonial period (300 bc–1505 ad) Precolonial education was associated with Buddhist temples. Texts were written on ola or palm leaves and these manuscripts were archived in libraries in Buddhist temples. These temples were seats of learning, called monastic colleges. Two of

206

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the better-known monastic colleges are Maha Vihara and Abhayagiriya, both of which flourished during the Anuradhapura period (300 bc–850 ad). These institutions were primarily for the education of priests but foreign scholar priests and local laity also benefitted from them. The education was also international in scope; Chinese Buddhist priest and traveller Fa-Hien was one of many foreign scholars who visited. Education and scholarship in Tamil, a language spoken by about 25 per cent of Sri Lankans, may have also flourished during this time, but that history is beyond the scope of this chapter.

Colonial period (1505–1948) The colonial period is clearly divided into the Portuguese period (1505–1658), the Dutch period (1658–1796) and the British period (1796–1948). The Portuguese conquered the coastal areas of Sri Lanka in 1505 and remained there for 153 years. Under the Portuguese, the system of education was in the hands of the missionaries who established missionary schools with the sole intention of propagating the Roman Catholic religion. The Dutch, who succeeded the Portuguese, expanded educational opportunities by increasing the number of schools. Their system of education was still based on promoting religion, this time that of the Dutch Reformed Church. In contrast to the Portuguese, the Dutch did not leave education solely in the hands of the clergy, but exercised a fair degree of government control. However, mass education as we see it now in Sri Lanka did not truly emerge until the British period. The colonial government instituted a dual system of schools, with government-assisted English-medium schools which charged fees and free-of-charge government schools in the vernacular language that were open to all. Many of the English-medium schools were initiated by the church; an exception is the Royal Academy, the present-day Royal college. Vernacular schools received grants from the government as well as material support from local philanthropists. At the same time, the Buddhist religious schools, or Pirvenas, existed alongside this colonial education system. The Department of Public Instruction was established in 1869 to manage the vernacular government schools and to regulate the management of English-medium-assisted schools. In 1931, members of the British-led Donoughmore Commission enacted a number of constitutional reforms, including the introduction of a system of semi-autonomous government that paved the way for a new era in education in Sri Lanka. Policy formulation and implementation were carried out through

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207

a system of executive committees in the legislature. The chairman of each committee also served as the minister in charge of each educational subject. Under the chairmanship of Dr C. W. W. Kannangara from 1931 to 1945, the executive committee on education enacted major reforms in education. Also during this period, the Education Ordinance No. 31 of 1939 was enacted, requiring that all schools (except those that wished to be independent of the government) provide education free of charge to all. In just a matter of a few years, from 1945 to 1947, the English-medium schools which were previously limited to a few major cities were expanded across the island, reaching fiftyfour exemplary schools, with two per district for the twenty-five administrative district plus four additional. This school system, popularly known as Central Schools, were residential schools open to the best and brightest from each district. The principals and teachers were hand-picked, and adequate facilities were provided to make them exemplary. These schools brought English-medium education to many children from rural families and they later went on to become part of an influential educated class of Sri Lankans with rural roots.

Postcolonial period Sri Lanka gained independence in 1948 but remained a dominion in the British Commonwealth of Nations until 1972 when the country was declared a Democratic Socialist Republic. The education reforms begun prior to independence continued to be updated and expanded to suit changing times, but the Sinhalese youth rebellion of 1970, the ethnic conflict with beginnings in the 1980s led largely by Tamil youth, and a second rebellion by the Sinhalese youth in 1988 led to soul-searching among policymakers regarding the content and delivery of education to children and youth in Sri Lanka. Upon identifying the need for restructuring and reform in the education system, the National Education Commission (NEC) was established in 1991 to advise the government on an overall policy covering all aspects of education in the country. As an initial step the NEC conducted an in-depth study on various aspects of education, collecting information through interviews with the public, students and educationists. The recommendations of the 1992 Report of the Commission has served as the basis for educational reforms even to this day. The implementation of major educational reforms commenced in 1998 with the introduction of school-based assessment process to complement the system of formal examinations conducted externally by the Department of

9,662 15 n.a. 330,448 113,391 20,069 93,322

9,410 15 n.a. 330,000 108,620 20,846 87,774

2009 9,685 15 n.a. 333,000 104,703 21,547 83,156

2010 9,714 15 n.a. 331,000 97,946 22,016 97,924

2011

9,905 15 n.a. 339,000 140,395 28,908 111,487

2012

10,012 15 519 342,451 136,767 24,198 112,569

2013

10,121 15 531 339,554 112,189 25,200 86,989

2014

Source: Annual reports 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015 (CSSL), respectively, except for data on ‘new admissions, public, technical & vocational institutes’ sourced from the Labour Market Information Bulletins 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 (TVEC).

Number of schools, public Number of universities, public Number of technical/vocational institutes, public New admissions, schools New admissions, tertiary public, all New admissions, public universities New admissions, public, technical and vocational institutes

2008

Table 11.2 Number of public sector education institutions and their new admissions, 2008–14

208 Education in South Asia and the Indian Ocean Islands

Sri Lanka: An Overview

209

Examinations. In addition, schools were allocated an additional budget line called Quality Inputs to procure additional materials and facilities needed for teaching and learning. The efforts to expand the network of quality schools started by Dr Kannangara (fondly known as the Father of Free Education) in the 1930s continued through several projects funded by the World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB), two intergovernmental organizations with a presence in the education sector in Sri Lanka. Three of the major projects undertaken with substantial funding from these agencies are the Navodya schools programme (1999), 150 Isuru Schools programme (2009) and the 1,000 Mahindodaya schools programme (2014). However, these efforts to bring about a quality education accessible to all have largely failed to overcome the pressures of inequalities in the larger society seeping into the schools. Some of those issues will be discussed in a later section of this chapter.

Recent trends and statistics Structure In Sri Lanka education is provided through four levels of schooling – primary (grades 1–5), junior secondary (grades 6–9), senior secondary (grades 10–11 leading to the GCE (O/L) examination) and the collegiate years (grades 12–13 leading to GCE (A/L) examination). In 2013, the public school system in Sri Lanka consisted of 10,852 schools with a total enrolment of 4,231,422 students from grades 1 to 13. Classroom student-teacher ratios are on average 18 students per teacher, a considerably low ratio for a developing country. There is an emerging private sector in the school system in Sri Lanka, but as of 2014, its enrolments only comprise 6 per cent of the total. As such the private sector does not play a determining role in school education in Sri Lanka, and for the purposes of this chapter we shall present only the data pertaining to public sector schools. The number of new entrants to grade 1 in the public schools in 2013 was 342,450 students (see Table 11.2). The number of new entrants has increased from around 320,000 in the 1990s, to 330,000 in 2000, slowly reaching 340,000 in the decade starting in 2010. This slow growth is commensurate with population

210

Education in South Asia and the Indian Ocean Islands

trends, including a low birth rate, reduction in the child-adult ratio and an ageing population in Sri Lanka (deSilva, 1997). The tertiary education sector is less well defined than the general education sector. Despite political pressure from parties that are remnants of Sri Lanka’s socialist past for 100 per cent state provision of all education, private universities and educational entities run by professional associations are becoming increasingly important in the tertiary education sector. A survey of all degree or degree-equivalent qualifications carried out in 2010 by LIRNEasia, an Asia-wide think tank based in Colombo, identified forty-six private institutions in Sri Lanka that offered degree programmes under the jurisdiction of foreign universities, with twenty-seven of them producing 2,733 graduates in 2011–12. In addition, a myriad of schools run by professional associations contribute more than 1,000 graduates with degree-equivalent qualifications and/or professional charters per year to the job market. As only the government institutions are tracked in a systematic manner, in this chapter we shall focus only on public sector tertiary institutions. In addition, since most of the youth, particularly those from less advantaged backgrounds, do not look beyond the government for their tertiary education and training, the focus on the public sector is justified.

Public tertiary education The fifteen public universities together admit about 20,000–22,000 students each year through a highly competitive process. The technical and vocational institutes under the purview of the government recruited an additional 86,989 students in 2014, for a total intake of 112,189 to public tertiary institutions in 2014. These seem like reasonably high intake rates for tertiary institutions for a country with about 325,000 youth turning eighteen every year, because if we use 325,000 as the base, the tertiary education participation rate in the public sector alone would make up about 35 per cent of the age group. However, the actual ratio is estimated to be less than 15 per cent, since many youths remain as secondary students and continue to retake the university entrance examination up to the maximum allowed three attempts.

Expenditure Public education expenditure as a proportion of the GDP is much lower in Sri Lanka (Table 11.3) than in other countries in the region (Table 11.4). For

Sri Lanka: An Overview

211

example, the allocation for education is around 4 per cent of GDP in India, 2.4 per cent in Bangladesh, 3.4 per cent in Nepal and a high of 7.5 per cent in the Maldives. In Sri Lanka, it was only 1.75 per cent of GDP in 2013. In 2014, the Federation of University Teachers of Sri Lanka went on strike demanding better wages and an increase of education funding to 5 per cent of GDP. The wage increases materialized but without an increase in overall spending on education. With the government burdened with about 6 per cent of the population already on the payroll as government employees as well as a commitment to other welfare policies, anything more than an incremental change in education spending is unlikely to occur in the near future. On the plus side, the output of education spending such as the Human Development Index and Literacy are better in Sri Lanka than in its neighbours, with the exception of the Maldives.

Enrolment Sri Lanka can be proud of its enrolment rate of 100 per cent in primary grades, with 99 per cent of these students continuing into the sixth grade. Various welfare schemes, beginning with the midday meal programme first offered in 1946, free provision of textbooks starting in 1980 and culminating in the provision of free school uniforms beginning in 1993, are important factors in these enrolment outcomes. At the tertiary level, enrolment data in the public sector is deceptive because there is no official count of the private and professional opportunities available. As described earlier, the fifteen public universities together take in about 20,000– 22,000 students a year through a highly competitive process which is strictly based on the results of GCE (A/L) examination. Admission to programmes offering professional qualifications in health professions such as medical, dental, veterinary sciences and engineering programmes are particularly competitive. Even well-to-do parents try hard to get their children into these programmes because they are 100 per cent tuition-free. Those who fail to get into these programmes may take and retake the GCE (A/L) examination before opting for other degree programmes. Those who can afford it take up foreign degree programmes, the costs of which can run into hundreds of thousands of dollars. Entrance to arts and humanities, science or management programmes are also highly competitive, although the employability of the graduates in these fields is decreasing, with only 32 per cent of arts graduates reporting that they were employed at the time of their convocation, which occurs several months after graduation. In contrast, 95 per cent, 71 per cent and 66 per cent

100,083 10.0 2.27

100,506 8.4 2.08

2009

3.7

Nepal

Source: World Fact Book (CIA, Updated January 2017).

As a % of GDP 3.4

Afghanistan 2.2

Bangladesh

Table 11.4 Expenditure on education by country, 2015

2.7

Pakistan

Source: Annual reports 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015 CSSL, respectively.

Total education expenditure, Rs.mn As a % of total govt. expenditure As a % of GDP

2008

Table 11.3 Expenditure on education in Sri Lanka, 2008–13

7.4

Bhutan

104,248 8.1 1.86

2010

3.8

India

121,369 8.5 1.86

2011 136,202 8.8 1.80

2012

5.7

Maldives

151,801 9.1 1.75

2013

2.2

Sri Lanka

212 Education in South Asia and the Indian Ocean Islands

Sri Lanka: An Overview

213

Table 11.5 Net enrolment ratio at different levels of education, 2009–14 (all values in %) 2009 2010 Primary (5–9 years) Secondary (10–14 years) Tertiary

2011 2012 2013

2014

99 99 96 98 98.51 n.a. 97 99 99 99 94.78 n.a. 16.35 15.24 17.16 18.94 19.29 19.80

Source: Annual reports 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015, respectively (CBSL); Tertiary data are from UNECSO Institute of Statistics as reported in http://data.worldbank. org/indicator/SE.TER.ENRR?locations=LK; Tertiary enrolments include all post-secondary enrolments. No age range given.

graduates in engineering, science or management, respectively, reported that they were employed (MOHE, 2012). An interesting phenomenon in the arts and humanities fields is that over 80 per cent of entrants are now women, with the young men voting with their feet to leave these tuition-free but ultimately hollow opportunities for higher education. Table 11.5 shows the enrolment rates for four different age groups. Although students make the transition from primary to secondary grades in large numbers, the 10–12 per cent who drop out prior to the GCE (O/L) examination, along with a failure rate of 40 per cent at the GCE (O/L) examination itself, means that only 54 per cent of cohort students successfully complete their schooling in grade 11 or move on to grade 12. Of those in the 19–35 age group, only 15–17 per cent go on to tertiary education, which is ultimately the percentage of youth with tertiary qualifications in any given age group in recent years.

Labour market In 2008 the unemployment rate for those with GCE (A/L) qualifications was 10.5 per cent, more than double the rate for those with only grades 5–9 education (Table 11.6). The gap narrowed in 2012 and 2013 but the unemployment rate for those with higher qualifications remains high . Within the GCE (A/L) and above group, those with a university degree and in the 15–29 age group fare equally badly as those less educated in same age group. However, in the 30–44 age category, they fare worse than those less educated in the same age group (Chandrasiri, 2006, p. 3; Table 11.3). These poor employment outcomes despite higher education indicate that a 15–17 per cent tertiary education attainment rate may be more than adequate for Sri Lanka at this stage in its development.

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Education in South Asia and the Indian Ocean Islands

Table 11.6 Unemployment rate by education level (all value in %)

Below Grade 5 Grade 6–10 GCE (O/L) GCE (A/L) and above Overall

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

1.2 4.5 7.8 10.5

1.3 5.0 8.5 11.2

0.7 3.6 6.9 11.6

n.a. 3.3 5.2 9.0

0.6 3.2 6.0 7.5

1.0 3.4 5.9 8.6

0.9 3.4 5.9 8.1

0.7 3.4 6.4 9.2

5.4

5.8

4.9

4.2

4.0

4.4

4.3

4.7

Source: Sri Lanka Labour Force Survey - Annual Reports 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015 (CSSL).

The distribution of the workforce among different job categories (Table 11.7) corroborates this claim. According to the data, 64–66 per cent of the workforce is in the category of ‘other skilled’ personnel which includes clerks, proprietors and managers of enterprises, sales and service workers, craft and related workers, and plant and machine operators and assemblers. Associate professionals are low in comparison at only 5 per cent, while elementary workers comprise the second largest category at 21 per cent. A previous analysis comparing Sri Lanka’s distribution of occupations to the distribution in Malaysia, a country which is at a higher stage of development, indicates that as Sri Lanka develops, it needs to acquire more associate professionals and fewer elementary, or other skilled, occupations (Gamage, 2007). This analysis again supports the argument that Sri Lanka does not need more university graduates filling professional categories, but rather, more individuals with intermediate qualifications to fill associate professional category occupations. These are the kinds of labour market issues that need to be monitored in order to set education policy in Sri Lanka.

Recent trends in education Two themes that recur in the academic or the popular literature on education are the right to education and the purpose of education. The purpose of education has been debated since the classical era. It is theorized in multiple ways from the utilitarian ideas of Plato to the more idealistic notions of Rousseau and his contemporaries in later years. Dewey, Vygotsky and others have brought these utilitarian and idealistic ideals closer together. The idealistic notion that

4,540 (64%) 1,620 (23%) − 68 (1%) 7,139

Other skilled Elementary Armed forces Unidentified All

4,640 (64%) 1,642 (23%) − 66 (1%) 7,236

512 (7%) 376 (5%)

2010

Source: Labour Market Information Bulletins, December 2012 and June 2013 (TVEC).

4,618 (64%) 1,576 (22%) − 44 (1%) 7,173

539 (8%) 372 (5%)

2009

Professionals 537 (7%) Associate professionals 398 (6%)

2008

Table 11.7 Distribution of the workforce by occupational categories, 2008–13

4,893 (66%) 1,541 (21%) − 58 (1%) 7,430

572 (8%) 366 (5%)

2011

4,815 (66%) 1,485 (20%) − 37 (1%) 7,335

588 (8%) 410 (6%)

2012

4,944 (61%) 1,790 (22%) 57 (1%) − 8,117

858 (11%) 468 (6%)

2013

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education should be about creativity, critical thinking and socialization seems to be on the rise over the utilitarian notions of readying youth for citizenship, the workplace and the realities of living in a larger society. The fact that the most watched video within the global series of TED talk conferences is a presentation by the English education adviser Sir Ken Robinson titled ‘Schools Are Killing Creativity’ exemplifies this growing emphasis. Even more support for idealism in education is given by the work of Nobel prize winner, economist James Heckman, and supported by the research of Linda Duckworth and others from the University of Pennsylvania, who have brought forward the concepts of ‘grit’ and creativity as indicators for success in later life. ‘Growth mindset’ by Carol Dweck is another concept that is widely quoted. In contrast to the debates on the purpose of education, the notion of a right to education or equal opportunity for all is a relatively new concept which has risen out of the growing appreciation of fact that now, more than ever before, an individual’s level of education is directly correlated to the quality of life he or she will have in the future (OECD, 2008). In fact, the idea of equality of opportunity has been enshrined and propagated through Article 13 of International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which came into effect on 3 January 1976 ensuring the right to free education at primary education level, and progressive introduction of it at secondary and higher education levels. In the thematic section of this chapter we shall explore these concepts within the Sri Lankan context, first presenting the equality of opportunity issues in the form of the question: ‘How equal is opportunity for participation at each level?’ followed by a more traditional approach to education which asks what kind of knowledge, skills and attitudes are perpetuated through the Sri Lankan education system.

How equal is opportunity for participation? Even before Sri Lanka changed its name to the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka in 1972, ideas of equity had been a part of its social psyche as far back as the early 1940s, when a group of educated Marxists returned from their studies abroad ready to spread socialism in the country. They took to politics and propagated their ideas through grass-roots level action in both urban and rural communities, particularly among groups who were discriminated against on the basis of caste or class. Dr N. M. Perera, Dr Colvin R. De Silva, Philip Gunawardena and others are some of the more famous individuals from this

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group. Dr C. W. W. Kannangara, the chairman of the Education Executive Committee during the transition from colonial to independent status in Sri Lanka, would have been influenced by this environment permeated with socialist ideals. The 1948 Report of Executive Committee on Education, more popularly known as the Kannangara report, outlines its equity vision as follows: The society we have in mind is a democratic society in which all men are looked on as equals. … The aim of education accordingly is to help every boy and girl achieve the highest degree of physical, mental and moral development of which he or she as an individual is capable of as well as to help them to be able and willing to work for the common good (p. 11).

As stated earlier, even before the Kannangara policy of free education for all was put into practice, there existed within a free education system, a set of schools that were more equal than others, with superior instruction provided in the English medium. These schools were meant for the elite and merit-based scholarships awarded to a few. In fact, Kannangara himself gained entry to an elite school through a scholarship. Kannangara’s reforms broke down the distinction between elite schools and others and established one education system which contained a subset of network of exemplary schools offering instruction in the English medium throughout the country. Ironically, despite efforts by succeeding government to revitalize this network of schools, education in Sri Lanka has come back full circle, with more than 10,000 schools organized in a hierarchy where 100 or so ‘popular’ schools are sustained at the apex while thousands of schools face a downward spiral of diminishing demand and resulting closures. As Gamage and Banda summarized in a policy brief published in 2010: Today in Sri Lanka we have come back full circle to a situation where a substandard education in Sinhala or Tamil medium is available free to all, but, access to better learning opportunities with exposure to English is limited to a few who are privileged with access to 100+ ‘Top Schools’ concentrated in major metropolitan areas. If the Grade V cut-off marking scheme published by the ministry of education for 2007 is any indicator, there are 106 schools that are coveted by those successful at the scholarship examination. These ‘top’ schools are located in only 33 out of 93 education zones in the country. The Grade V scholarship examinations offer a mirage of hope for all, but, since most of these popular schools admit children from Grade 1 based on non-

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merit criteria, the places available to scholarship holders at Grade 6 are limited. Furthermore, the issue of admission to Grade-1 at Top Schools has led to some disturbing social phenomena. For example, parents forge bundles of documents to ‘prove’ that they live within the stipulated distance from the schools of their choice and children are trained to memorize and utter blatant lies to cover up that crime at the interviews, where they are debriefed by teachers and principals to check whether their parents are lying! (Supreme court decision S.C.(FR) 10/07, 11/07, 12/07, 13/07)

The grade 5 scholarship is a peculiar phenomenon. It has the stated objective of selecting talented students from disadvantaged families to award financial support for continuing onto secondary education. In practice, it has become a stiff competition for the prize of only a few thousand positions in popular schools for which all of the full student body of 325,000 or so in grade 5 in Sri Lanka is ‘pushed’ by social pressures to compete. To make matters worse, the Ministry of Education annually publishes the cut-off marks for admission to about 120 of the more popular schools, in essence, a public acknowledgement of the inequities in the public education system and endorsement of pushing ten-year-olds into preparing for exams. In the final analysis, instead of being a vehicle for equality of opportunity, the grade 5 scholarship examination has become an obstacle to equity in education that has blinded parents to the fact they should look to the improvement of their neighbourhood schools rather than playing the lottery on admission to the nationally popular ones. The division of the school system into popular and less popular schools may be a largely social phenomenon. Parents from all walks of life want their child to enter either a medical or engineering school, become a respected professional and ultimately lift the family into a higher economic and social status. In this climate, perhaps policy prescriptions can do little to alleviate the situation, and only a sea change in society brought about by rapid economic growth or other external factors may change parental attitudes. These parental aspirations are played out in the higher education sphere as well, where the availability of alternative tertiary education opportunities in the vocational or professional sectors means little for the majority of students who repeatedly sit for the GCE (A/L) examination to gain admission to coveted medical and engineering faculties. In the eyes of the public, there can never be enough places in coveted medical and engineering fields. Hence, access to higher education in Sri Lanka will continue to be seen as less than desirable in the short term, no matter how many more tertiary education opportunities are made available.

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Is the knowledge up-to-date and relevant? New approaches to education emphasize the teaching and learning process, with the cultivation of creativity, critical thinking and other attributes deemed as important outcomes. However, our experience in working with teachers in Sri Lanka has shown that, for teachers, the availability of a well-defined curriculum and good textbooks that expand upon the prescribed curriculum are essential for the success of their day-to-day teaching. In effect, we must pay attention to the actual content of education as well as the process. Sri Lanka has a dedicated institution to develop and update the curricula and provide the guidelines for the training of teachers. The National Institute of Education was established in 1986 to undertake educational research, curriculum development and training of teachers and educational administrative personnel and the provision of postgraduate education for the same clientele. In 1987, an expanded set of Colleges of Education were established to provide preservice education for new recruits to the teaching profession to establish an all graduate teaching profession. Curricula are revised periodically and textbooks are commissioned, with the printing and distribution of textbooks and teacher guides carried out by a department set up for the purpose. Although problems of inefficiencies and delays exist, the overall structure and processes are adequate. However, the key problems regarding content or the subject matter prescribed by government education is one of overload, where a large quantity of material is added to curricula every year. The evidence of this practice is largely anecdotal, the best example being the design and distribution of special backpacks by the Ministry of Education to reduce the strain on schoolchildren who have to carry a heavy load of books back and forth. More rigorous research is needed on the quantity of subject matter introduced to schoolchildren in Sri Lanka.

What skills are imparted? The 1992 report of the NEC was the first comprehensive report highlighting the importance of a holistic education in Sri Lanka. The report identified nine national objectives of education, along with five competency categories that should be imparted to all students through the school or university curriculum. The five competencies were further expanded to seven competencies relating to: communication; the biological, physical and social environment; personality development; the arts, sports and leisure; ethics and religion; learning to learn; and finally, readiness for the world of work. Curricula, textbooks and teacher guides

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consistent with these objectives have been developed and made widely available. Unfortunately, in practice, rote learning of core subject matter is the norm, even in primary schools, and the seven competencies are paid lip service only. In primary grades, for example, the life skills and competencies identified by the NEC are woven into the curriculum and teachers’ guides, specifying that chalk-and-talk teaching should be minimized and more time devoted to activity-based learning. In fact, a maximum of about 30 per cent desk work is recommended for grade 5, with lower levels of desk work prescribed for each successively lower grade. However, it is common to see 100 per cent of the time in school dedicated to desk work and rote learning. In lower secondary grades, citizenship and life skills are offered as a separate subject, but, in practice, life skills and citizenship has become another examination paper for which children repeat what they have learnt from the teacher about the topic. The suggested learning activities are ignored. The reason for this behaviour is very clear. It is the extreme competitiveness of three national examinations – grade 5 scholarship examination, the GCE (O/L) conducted for those completing grade 11 and GCE (A/L) for those completing grade 13, the highest grade in the school system.

What attitudes and values are perpetuated? After a strife-ridden set of decades, starting with the 1970 youth insurrection through to the last thirty years of ethnic war, Sri Lanka is just beginning to recover. As Professor Sasanka Perera argues eloquently in his essay ‘Sri Lankan Education System as a Reflection of Society’s Ruptures: A Conceptual and Theoretical Exploration’ (2004), the social impact of this ruptured society is manifested in the education system. While the seven basic competencies identified by the NEC are further delineated at the lesson planning level with an emphasis on empathy and other noble values, Perera argues that schools have not been able to inculcate such values in children. He notes a tendency to resort to violence and extreme competitiveness and a dismantling of the creativity and imagination of students as manifestations of societal issues within the education system. His arguments are based mainly on anecdotes, although he agrees that more systematic research is needed to understand these phenomena. For example, concerning ‘the issue of violence’, he suggests: During and after the final day of the General Certificate in Education (OL) Examination in December 2002 marked one of the most violent periods of time

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in recent years involving young students. According to the Police, at no previous time such a large number of violent incidents involving students over such a short period of time had been reported. The reports of this phase of violence came from numerous parts of the country such as Hali Ela, Welipenna, Kandy, Nugegoda, Dalugama, Wellampitiya, Panadura, Ratnapura, Peliyagoda and Nawagamuwa (Divayina Irida Sangrahaya, 22 December 2002).

As if to defy all logic, there were no connections among these areas or these incidents, and the only common denominators were the involvement of students and the perpetration of a very high degree of violence. The example for violence within the education system that he cites certainly points to a need for a systematic documentation of incidents from the incident in 2002 to date to establish that violence has become a way of life in schools, and to determine if there have been any trends downward or upward. Research on the topic is urgently needed. Säfström et al., capture the roots of extreme competitiveness as follows: Another aspect of the system itself, which engenders a winner take-all competitiveness among students beginning from the most tender age. The system of examinations and promotions, the rigid even archaic disciplinary frame, and the pressure to move to better (more privileged and prestigious) schools, all contribute to a violence that distorts and retards childhood development as well as the promotion of egalitarian social values (extreme competitiveness) (2001, P.2).

In regard to the ‘dismantling of creativity and imagination’, Perera traces the problem from its roots in primary and secondary education to culmination in the universities: In a recent document authored by the University Grants Commission’s Standing Committee on Humanities and Social Sciences, it is observed that students in the arts, humanities and the social sciences in the universities need improvement in a number of areas. Among the areas identified are: creativity and initiative and conceptual, analytical and critical thinking (UGC, 2002, p. 5).

The assumption then is that by the time students make it to universities these skills have already been dismantled in the schools. But this is not merely a problem for students who come to universities to specialize in the arts, humanities and social sciences only. Since all students are part of the same process of knowledge acquisition, a part of which has been described in the earlier section, these weaknesses are displayed by most students in universities irrespective of their areas of specialization. However, since the universities and other institutes of

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higher learning are a logical extension of the highly competitive school system that has been described above, that same examination-centred, unhealthy competition is continued in the universities as well. What this means then is that students who go through this combined system of primary, secondary and higher education systems are not systemically exposed to any of the creative and critical thinking and the initiatives that the document referred to above talks about. It is in this context that they are in fact discouraged from creativity or imaginative work. The reforms he suggests take into account the interconnectedness of issues in the three sectors – primary, secondary and tertiary. Perera correctly identifies the competition for the 20,000 free-of-charge places in the public university system by an age cohort of 320,000–340,000 students every year as the root cause of competitiveness in the education system. This competitiveness for the few spots at the tertiary level trickles all the way down to the competitiveness to gain admission in grade 1 to ‘popular schools’. He suggests an extensive system of community colleges as a buffer between school and university as one solution to alleviate the problem: As part of ongoing education reforms, attempts should be made to transform the existing system of unhealthy and extreme competition prevailing in the overall education system to a more humane one. One way of doing this would be by opening more opportunities of career advancement to the large number of individuals who are not successful at competitive examinations. One possibility would be through a system of Community Colleges that would through a detour system of education open the way to universities or technical colleges depending on a person’s interests. These alternative systems of education also need to be affordable. One of the problems at the moment is the extreme expenses involved in alliterate means of education, which means that only the relatively affluent would have recourse to such options (Perera, 2004, p. 18).

Concluding remarks Through this overview, I have attempted to present a snapshot of education in Sri Lanka through statistics on educational and workforce outcomes, followed by a fleshing out of four different themes (equality of opportunity, relevancy of knowledge, teaching of skills and teaching of values) using the same statistics and more. The thematic section relied heavily on the work of Professor Sasanka Perera, who was formerly at the University of Colombo and currently is the dean

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of the Faculty of Social Sciences in the South Asian University in New Delhi. Unfortunately, we have not been able to uncover further research to illuminate his arguments. Perera’s paper stands out from the existing research made available through the NEC of Sri Lanka in its incisiveness and boldness. To truly understand and provide appropriate policy responses, the three ills identified by Perera needs to be researched further. In addition, the available statistical data needs improvement. The tertiary enrolment figures are particularly weak, because the World Bank definition does not make it clear whether the full complement of tertiary opportunities from internal degree programmes, external degree programmes, open university opportunities and myriad of other professional qualifications currently available to school leavers in Sri Lanka have been fully captured.

References Brick, B. (2005). ‘Changing Concepts of Equal Educational Opportunity: A Comparison of the Views of Thomas Jefferson, Horace Mann and John Dewey’. American Educational History, 32(2), 166–74. Brook, R. (1999). ‘John Dewey (1859-1952)’. Prospects: The Quarterly Review of Comparative Education, XXIII (1\2: 277–91, Paris, UNESCO: International Bureau of Education). CBSL (2008–2015). Annual Report of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka covering years 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015, respectively. Colombo: CBSL. Chandrasiri, S. (2006). ‘Labor Market Observatory. IRQUE Project. Ministry of Education’. In De Silva and W. Indralala (eds), Population Projections for Sri Lanka, 1991-2041. Colombo: Institute of Policy Studies. CIA (updated January 2017). World Fact Book. Washington, DC: Central Intelligence Agency CSSL. Sri Lanka Labour Force Survey. Annual Report. Colombo: Census and Statistics Sri Lanka, http://www.statistics.gov.lk/page.asp?page=Labour%20Force De Silva WI (1997). Population Projections for Sri Lanka, 1991-2041. Colombo: Institute of Policy Studies. http://archive.cmb.ac.lk:8080/research/ bitstream/70130/2802/1/book10.pdf. Executive Committee on Education (1943). ‘Report of the special committee on education, State Council of Sri Lanka Colombo: State Council of Ceylon’. Gamage, S. (2007). ‘Linking Knowledge to Innovation in Economy and Society: The Role of Universities in Asia’, Proceedings of a seminar held in Taj Samura, Colombo, 25 January 2007. Available from https://idl-bnc.idrc.ca/dspace/handle/10625/44793. Gamage, S. N. and Banda, O. G. D. (2008), ‘Education in Sri Lanka: An Economic Perspective’. Sanvada Policy Brief 08. Pathfinder Foundation, Colombo, Sri Lanka.

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MOHE (2012). Graduate Employment Census 2102. Colombo, Sri Lanka: Ministry of Higher Education, National Education Commission (1992). First Report of the National Education Commission, Colombo: Government Publications Bureau. OECD (2008). ‘Ten Steps to Equity in Education’. Policy Brief. http://www.oecd.org/ education/school/39989494.pdf [Accessed 5 May 2015]. Perera, S. (2004). Sri Lankan Education System as a Reflection of Society’s Ruptures: A Conceptual and Theoretical Exploration. National Education Commission: Sri Lanka. Phillips, D.C. and Siegel, Harvey (2004). Philosophy of Education, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2015 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), https:// plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2015/entries/education-philosophy/ [Accessed 5 May 2015]. Ram, M. (1989). The Fractured Island. Colombo: Penguin. Safstrom, C. A., Balasooriya, A. S., Masilamani, S., and Prakrama, A. (2001). Report on Current Efforts to Facilitate Democratic and Pluralist Values Through Primary and Secondary Education in Sri Lanka. Stockholm: SIDA. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2013). Philosophy of Education. http://plato. stanford.edu/entries/education-philosophy/ [Accessed 5 May 2015]. TVEC (2010). Labor Market Information Bulletin, Volume02/10. TVEC (2011). Labor Market Information Bulletin, Volume01/11. TVEC (2012). Labor Market Information Bulletin, Volume02/11. TVEC (2013). Labor Market Information Bulletin, Volume01/13.

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Sri Lanka: Revitalizing Higher Education to Develop Twenty-First Century Graduates Gominda Ponnamperuma and Vishaka Nanayakkara

Introduction Sri Lanka, home to approximately 22 million people, is a small Indian Ocean island with strong traditions in higher education. Although formal university education commenced only in 1942, the commencement of tertiary education, in the form of the first medical school in the country, dates to 1870. The first university, University of Ceylon, first located in Colombo and then relocated in Peradeniya in 1952, was modelled after the Oxford-Cambridge tradition of higher education by the British rulers of the day (Jennings, 2005). Since then, the system has steadily expanded to accommodate fifteen universities (including the Open University of Sri Lanka), coming under the mainstream, state-owned higher education system, governed by the University Grants Commission (UGC) and Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) of the country. Also, three universities under two other ministries have been recently established. Several institutes and campuses are affiliated to these universities. In addition, to cater to the needs of vocational and technological education, the Sri Lanka Institute of Advanced Technological Education (SLIATE) with the seventeen institutes attached to it, and a few other technical institutes coming under the purview of the Technical and Vocational Education Commission are in existence (Coomaraswamy and Abeygunawardena, 2012). These higher education institutes account for 88 per cent of the gross enrolment of students each year. The remaining 12 per cent of enrolment is accounted for by a small but fast expanding private sector, comprising both privately owned higher education institutes and professional educational institutes. Around 10,000 students travel abroad for higher education each year (World Bank, 2009). Due to the sheer

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size and dominance in this sector, this chapter mainly concentrates on the predominant provider of higher education in the country – the public or stateowned free university education system. However, most of what is discussed in this chapter is also applicable to other state-owned higher education institutions. Hence, this chapter first explores the main challenge that the higher education system in this country faces and the reasons behind it. Then it provides an outline of some of the solutions and interventions tried out in the recent past to meet the said challenge.

The challenge for higher education in the twenty-first century The most significant challenge that a modern higher education system faces, the world over, can be encapsulated into one broad theme: the necessity of producing globally employable graduates. This section first explores the implications of this global issue in the Sri Lankan context. Next it discusses the most important reason as to why producing globally employable graduates is a challenge the world over, namely, the uncertainty that surrounds the successful prediction of future needs of the society. Finally, apart from this globally valid reason, the other important contextual reasons unique to Sri Lanka will be discussed.

Producing globally employable graduates In an increasingly shrinking world, geographical boundaries cannot hold back employment opportunities. With advanced information technology (IT), an employee does not necessarily need to reside in a particular country to work. Hence, it is obvious that a young graduate will look for greener pastures for career advancement. Such global employment will also bring in the all-important foreign exchange, thus boosting the economy of the home country indirectly. More importantly, a developing country cannot afford to create employment opportunities for all its graduates. Hence, graduates may sometimes be forced to look for employment opportunities outside their own country. These two compelling reasons make it imperative that a graduate be capable of serving the local societal needs and also of competing globally for employment opportunities. However, to compete for job opportunities globally, graduates should possess broad abilities that are globally recognized as important for job performance. In educational jargon, these broad abilities are called competencies

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or learning outcomes. Fortunately, however, these abilities are similar to those that are necessary to be successful in the local context. So, barring a few exceptions, graduates need not assimilate two types of competencies, one for local employment and another for foreign employment.

Why is producing globally employable graduates a challenge? The reasons for producing globally employable graduates being a challenge can be considered in two broad perspectives: the global reasons and the contextual or local reasons. (a) Global reasons for producing globally employable graduates being a challenge: Although similar competencies are necessary for both global and local employment, abilities necessary for a future graduate are hard to predict. This is even more an acute problem when the higher education institutes must prepare the intellectual workforce for the country and beyond, for at least the next three decades. For example, three decades ago, nobody could have predicted the exact IT requirements that the world of work today demands. Similarly, nobody can predict with any certainty the IT requirements for a world three decades from now. That said, the trends, and only the trends, but not the exact details, of the requirements of an emerging society could be mapped with confidence. So, for example, three decades ago, it would have been possible to figure out that the present world would rely heavily on IT, although nobody could have stated with any certainty in which way this reliance of IT would take shape. Given these considerations, the only rational way of identifying the competencies that a graduate will need in an unknown, future world is to prepare the graduate for uncertainty. To this end, the main competency or learning outcome that a graduate can rely upon to prepare themselves for an unknown future is adaptability, flexibility and dealing with uncertainty. Closely linked to this competency is lifelong learning. These two competencies, which could be viewed as two sides of the same coin, could effectively prepare an undergraduate for the future, as they involve the capacity to learn, unlearn and relearn, to suit the changing needs and demands of the society. It is the American writer and futurist Alvin Toffler (1970) who said that ‘the illiterate in the 21st century will be not those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn’. As such, most higher education programmes world over have incorporated these two competencies in some form or the other into their graduate profiles or outcome frameworks. However, in the Sri Lankan context,

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the uncertainty of predicting the future competencies of a graduate is not the sole reason for poorly meeting the challenge of producing globally employable graduates. There are many other contextual reasons as outlined below. (b) Contextual reasons for producing globally employable graduates being a challenge: The Sri Lankan higher education system has changed little over the years. The world at large, however, has seen dramatic changes all around. So much so, the higher education system of the UK, from which Sri Lanka inherited its higher education framework, has undergone many changes, mainly due to two reasons: ● ●

to align itself to the needs and demands of the modern world; and to benefit the student from the enhanced understanding of and evidence behind how best humans learn.

Why have these two reasons been so forceful? First, the world of work has changed. From an ‘industrial age’, the world has entered the ‘information age’. The repetitive tasks that the industries demanded humans to perform in the industrial age have been taken over by robotics of the information age. Industries of the day demand its workforce to come up with new and innovative solutions to a myriad of consumer problems. Why has there been such a change in consumer problems? Consumers also have been whetted by an increased appetite towards novel and more efficient solutions to their day-to-day chores. Consumers of the day want cameras in their mobile phones and movies in their cars. These consumer demands need a different skill set to that required in the industrial age. Hence, contemporary higher education must produce innovators and problem-solvers. This has been reflected in the way higher education has been organized and delivered, especially in the developed world; however, not as much in Sri Lanka, at least until late. Second, our understanding about how humans learn has enhanced exponentially. Education has come of age as a science. We now know, although there may be controversy surrounding the exact figures, that only approximately 10 per cent of what we read, 20 per cent of what we see, 30 per cent of what we hear, 50 per cent of what we see and hear and 80 per cent of what we do is retained (Chi et al., 1989); and to retain anything more than that we need to do all these activities, that is, read, hear, see and do. The traditional lecture that demands passive listening, thus, has been challenged to its very bearings. Student-centred learning has put forward its case in the strongest possible terms, and theories of active and adult learning have never made their presence

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in the educational landscape more conspicuous. In short, teaching and learning in higher education have been transformed in many of the developed countries. However, the Sri Lankan higher education system, with its roots firmly entrenched in ideological conservatism, did not respond similarly. This resulted in a traditional and stagnant system of higher education – basically an outdated model. Apart from not being purposefully built for the information age, what was really wrong with the old model of higher education? The old higher education system was introduced at a time when higher education was reckoned with elitism. An elitist higher education system catered only to the upper strata of the society. The students from this social class had a good command of soft skills that some of the modern learning outcomes specify. Hence, there was no need to fortify these soft skills within the curriculum, at least to the extent that the modern curricula do. More importantly, an elitist system catered only to a minute portion of the population – the number of students was small. Thus, these students, being small in number, together with their mastery in soft skills and the right social connections that came naturally with their social class, did not find it difficult to secure appropriate employment. However, the massification of higher education that emerged in the latter half of the past century changed all these variables – student numbers became large, many students competed for a small number of teaching and learning resources and job opportunities, and above all, the social background of many of these students failed to equip them with the appropriate soft skills. The old system of higher education, built to cater to a few elite students, could not cope with the massification of higher education. Change in the way higher education is delivered was the only way forward. However, in the face of these imperatives, looming large as ever, the Sri Lankan higher education system has tried to maintain the status quo. Often, resource limitations are being cited as an explanation for this steadfast adherence to the status quo. Although this is true to an extent, there are a plethora of other factors. Chief among those is the mindset of teachers, students and administrators. Most academics, at least in the past, believed that the employment of the graduates should not be a concern of the university. Similarly, academics, parents and students to a greater extent believed that the government was responsible for finding employment for the graduates. This mindset thwarted the development of graduate profiles, curricula with teaching and learning and assessment

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methods that offer the student an educational environment which will turn them into globally competitive job aspirants. Another common reason that some put forward to retain the old system is that since the secondary education in the country is didactic, the products of such a secondary education system may not be able to cope with a studentcentred, outcome-based teaching and learning style. However, the few examples that are there within the system that use modernized curricula with studentcentred teaching and learning methods indicate that this fear of students not being able to cope is ill founded. Yet another factor that impedes any progressive educational reform is the socio-demographic characteristics of the majority of the students, especially in study programmes related to arts and humanities. Around 80 per cent of students in these study programmes are young women from rural communities. Many remote, rural areas in the country do not have adequate educational facilities. Most of these students are compelled to opt for subjects in arts and humanities for their Advanced Level examination, simply because facilities to learn science subjects, such as laboratories and qualified teachers, are not available in the rural schools. Hence, for some, the arts and humanities subjects are not a choice, but the only option. On the one hand, this makes them disinterested learners with low self-esteem. On the other hand, since the rural schools also lack opportunities to learn other vital co-competencies such as IT and English, these students do not possess the skills necessary to access information and learn independently. To compound matters, the rural societies in many parts of the country do not expect females to be competitive in seeking employment, which require working for long hours. In such a sociodemographic backdrop, the academics in the universities must work extra to prepare these students to achieve a complex graduate profile that will equip them with the competencies that the world of work demands. This did not happen in the past, mainly due to two reasons. First, the academia thought that it was too much of a task. There was a dominant view that the task of converting these students to student-centred lifelong learners with the right outlook towards life could not and should not be even attempted. That was supposed to be beyond the remit of the university degree that the academics taught, and the universities were not responsible for the past, low-quality education that these students received. Second, and more importantly, the majority of the academics who taught, especially in arts and humanities degree programmes, were also products of the same system of secondary and tertiary education. Hence, many of these academics did not know any other way to teach their disciplines than in the way

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that they were taught. In other words, they have not been adequately exposed to modern pedagogical methods. Although many of the middle-level and young academics have undergone a compulsory staff development programme that provided the theoretical basis of the pedagogical foundations of modern curriculum development, teaching and learning and assessment methods, such one-off exposure did not offer enough to make the gigantic transformation into delivering student-centred learning in their own specialty. Also, since most senior staff members were not exposed to such pedagogical techniques the environment within the study programme was not very encouraging for a young academic to try out a new teaching and learning method. Hence, a sustained educational support system for academics, not only to equip them with the necessary pedagogical know-how and to show, hands-on, how teaching and learning in their own study programmes could be modified, but also to provide ongoing support while attempting this, is quintessential – if any intervention to trigger a breakthrough from this deadlock is to be successful. Finally, highlighting the inappropriateness of the current educational practice (at least some of it) was not possible as there was no proper monitoring and quality assurance system. Although in the recent past, a quality assurance system was introduced, it is still in its infancy, incapable of penetrating the poor educational practices of the universities. The reasons for this again are multifaceted. At its inception, the initiators of this quality assurance system were more concerned about the staff buy-in of quality assurance, and hence were deliberately lenient in applying stringent criteria to determine the quality of study programmes. Also, since quality assurance was a new concept, many did not know how to review and utilize the reviewer feedback to improve quality. To achieve the latter, an internal quality assurance process within the study programme was imperative. However, only a shadow of such an internal quality assurance process existed in many institutions. In summary, producing globally employable graduates has been a challenge to many programmes the world over, due to the uncertainty in defining the future societal needs and aspirations, to which such globally employable graduates should cater. Hence the necessity to develop a graduate within a comprehensive competency framework, which includes adaptability and lifelong learning skills. Developing such a graduate has been even more a challenge in the Sri Lankan setting due to a traditional system of higher education, with the majority of the academics, students and parents possessing a fixed mindset that hampers progressive educational reforms, poor socio-demographic conditions of the

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students especially those from arts and humanities degree programmes, the inadequate pedagogical know-how of the academia, resource inadequacies and a quality assurance system which is too feeble.

Solutions and interventions to meet the challenge Solutions or interventions to the above issues need to follow two essential tenets. First, the solutions need to be context specific. This implies that just because a solution has worked well for a similar problem elsewhere, it does not necessarily mean that the same solution will be successful in the same way in another context. Hence, while taking every opportunity to learn from success stories elsewhere, the geopolitical, socio-demographic, cultural and economic implications need to be considered when planning and implementing an intervention. Second, a single solution or an intervention, however appropriate and effective it may be, is unlikely to deliver results. Instead, solutions and interventions for a complex problem, such as those described above, with multifaceted geopolitical, cultural, socio-demographic and economic connotations, need to be multiple, continuous and multipronged, rather than solitary and one-off. Closely linked to this contention is that not only do they need to be multiple and continuous, but they also need to be sustainable. With these two basic contentions in mind, the MOHE and the UGC of Sri Lanka implemented the following solutions or interventions to address the above issues, so that the employability of the graduates could be improved.

Defining the competencies of the graduate for the twenty-first century The first step towards developing a globally competitive graduate was to find out the attributes required by the local and global labour markets. With regard to the global labour market, many extensive researches have resulted in lists of competencies or attributes that a graduate needs (Archer and Davison, 2010; National Education Association, n.d). Locally, since such data were not available, a series of workshops and meetings with both academia, professional bodies such as Institute of Engineers, Charted Institute of Accountants and Charted Institute of Marketing, students (i.e. future graduates), past graduates and the industry were held with a view to identify the basic competencies necessary to succeed

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in the workplace. Additionally, outcome or competency frameworks of other countries, particularly Malaysia, which has a somewhat similar sociocultural background to Sri Lanka and a history of substantial success in higher education reforms, were also studied. With these preliminary data, the following twelve competencies were identified as the Sri Lankan outcome framework for higher education: subject/theoretical knowledge; practical knowledge and application; communication; teamwork and leadership; creativity and problem-solving; managerial skills and entrepreneurship; information usage and management; networking and social skills; adaptability and flexibility; attitudes, values and professionalism; vision for life; and updating self. It is pertinent to view the above competencies in light of two considerations. First, these competencies are broad in their outlook, so that the different fields of study could adapt these outcomes by modifying some to suit their speciality better, if necessary. Second, competencies such as adaptability and flexibility, and updating self (i.e. lifelong learning) appear as two distinct outcomes or competencies in the above set of exit learning outcomes. This, as discussed previously, is mainly to prepare the graduates to be competitive. These exit learning outcomes that define the product of higher education have now been clearly communicated to the university community through several workshops and through the Sri Lanka Qualifications Framework (SLQF). The latter clearly spells out how each of these outcomes applies to every study level, from pre-undergraduate through undergraduate to postgraduate degree programmes.

Changing the curricula to incorporate the competencies of a twenty-first-century graduate It is well recognized that developing an outcome framework alone does not necessarily translate a curriculum into an outcome-based model. The chief architect of outcome-based education, William Spady (1993), spelt this out in no uncertain terms: ‘Outcome-based education does not mean curriculum based with outcomes sprinkled on top. It is a transformational way of doing business in education.’ So, to ensure that each graduate attains the above outcomes through the study of their own discipline, these outcomes should be actively integrated into the teaching and learning activities. For this to happen, curriculum development and revision using the principles of outcome-based education is imperative.

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Hence, to avoid programmes using outcomes only as a curriculum entity, the exit learning outcomes need to be operationalized at every stage of the instructional and assessment processes, so that students are provided with the necessary opportunities to assimilate these outcomes. Such operationalization can only take place if the exit learning outcomes identified by the curriculum are delivered using student-centred learning. Hence, there was an urgent need to incorporate outcome-based education and student-centred learning through changes to the existing curricula of degree programmes in Sri Lankan universities. As noted by Spady above, this change would not and should not be an ordinary update of a curriculum that many educational institutions routinely perform. On the contrary, this needs to be quite a radical change in the way the entire curriculum is developed and operationalized in the classroom, in Spady’s (1993) words: ‘a transformational way of doing business in education’. A concise manual was therefore developed entitled ‘Outcome-based Education using Student-centred Learning’ to update the university community on the core-principles of outcome-based education and how to operationalize it using student-centred learning. Then, a series of workshops were conducted both centrally (i.e. academics from all universities brought to a central location to attend workshops) and peripherally (i.e. workshops being conducted in the individual universities).

Up-skilling the teachers to deliver the changed curriculum effectively As discussed above many educational practitioners would vouch that changing the curriculum is one thing, and delivering that curriculum is yet another. Until the introduction of the above-mentioned set of exit learning outcomes, for many Sri Lankan degree programmes, ‘exit learning outcomes’ and ‘graduate profiles’ were alien terminologies. Using those outcomes in an outcome-based education model, hence, was a skill that these degree programmes had never contemplated. Even for those who were aware of exit learning outcomes, the know-how of implementing outcome-based education was non-existent. As Spady’s quotation above indicated, some curricula in the Sri Lankan higher education system that called themselves ‘outcome-based’ had merely identified the exit learning outcomes of a study programme. There was no evidence that these exit learning outcomes were actively delivered so that assimilation of these outcomes by the students were actively promoted. This situation was mainly due to the unawareness of the staff as to how to convert exit learning outcomes into

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action. Hence, there was an urgent need to update the staff on the core tenets of outcome-based education and to up-skill them as to how they could implement outcome-based education. This needed a more systematic approach, when compared with the above measures that had already been taken to introduce outcome-based education such as compiling a manual and conducting a series of workshops to introduce the exit learning outcome framework of the MOHE. As mentioned above, almost every university conducts a compulsory staff development programme for the newly recruited academics through its Staff Development Centre (SDC). However, there have been two impediments to the optimal functioning of the SDCs in universities. The SDCs were non-existent in a few universities, and even in those universities where they were existent, they were poorly organized, under-resourced and underutilized. Hence, the Standing Committee on Staff Development of the UGC took the timely decision to upgrade facilities of the SDCs in universities that already had an SDC, while institutionalizing SDCs in universities that did not have or had a rudimentary SDC. Parallel to this effort, there was a need to formalize the staff development programmes that these SDCs conducted. These staff development programmes, on the one hand, were varying in the topics on which they conducted training. On the other hand, the quality of the programmes that were conducted was different from one university to another. Hence, under the MOHE, a World Bank-funded project named Higher Education for the Twenty-First Century (HETC) initiated the development of a series of training manuals on a pre-identified list of core topics that would facilitate each SDC to deliver their staff training activities effectively. The HETC Project also initiated the training of staff, based on these manuals using a nationally identified group of trainers, as the individual universities did not often have the expertise to deliver the staff training effectively. So, initially, the manual writers were the trainers who delivered the training programmes both nationally, at centralized locations, so that all universities could participate, and peripherally, within each university. Modelled along the principles of cascade training, it was expected that those who received the training from the national pool of staff developers would act as trainers in future training programmes beyond the life of the HETC Project. Hence, in summary, if the UGC provided the physical infrastructure (the so-called hardware) to promote best educational practices to implement outcome-based education through student-centred learning, the intellectual infrastructure (the so-called software) was provided by the HETC Project, to utilize the physical resources provided by the UGC.

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It is also pertinent to note here that the MOHE along with the UGC and the HETC Project rightly identified that outcome-based education and studentcentred learning cannot be delivered only by updating and up-skilling the academic staff. Hence, the aforesaid training manuals were developed not only for academic staff, but also for administrative, technical and support staff of the universities. Institutional leadership is of paramount importance (Bush, 2011), in fact the most important ingredient, in successfully implementing any educational reform, let alone outcome-based education. Hence, leadership training for top management of the universities, namely, the vice-chancellors, registrars and bursars, was initiated to update them on the educational changes that would take place within the universities and how they could contribute to such changes. All the above changes in the curricula cannot, however, be sustained if these changes are not adequately institutionalized. Hence, the MOHE took the visionary step of requesting all higher education institutes to incorporate outcome-based education and student-centred learning in their strategic plans.

Changing the mindset of the key stakeholders As has been observed previously, the root cause of many challenges in higher education in Sri Lanka has been attributed to the fixed mindset of the majority of the academics, students, parents and administrators. Hence, active measures were taken to change the mindset of these stakeholders from a fixed to a growth mindset (Dweck, 2008). Various seminars were held for both academics and students about the value of possessing the right outcomes at the time of graduation. The students almost uniformly welcomed the move to outcome-based education and student-centred learning. For some of the academics, particularly those who have not been exposed to staff development programmes and such pedagogical techniques in other parts of the world, the move was challenging. Thus, as expected, the buy-in has been slow and variable, but there seems to be a constant and sustained move towards implementing these educational interventions. To boost the above efforts, foreign experts were also brought in to conduct seminars and workshops to support the said educational reforms. Finally, for the vice-chancellors and other top management of the universities such as registrars and bursars, special seminars and training sessions were organized involving foreign experts. Such programmes have generally been well received by the higher management. The communication process with parents

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has, in general, not been very organized. Every opportunity to communicate with parents, such as when new students are registered and during graduation and other awards ceremonies, has been used to inform them about the necessity of their children possessing the right competencies at the time of graduation, not only to secure public sector employment, but also to compete for private sector employment both locally and globally.

Strengthening quality assurance Quality assurance has been in existence in the Sri Lankan higher education system for more than a decade. The process consisted of both external and internal quality assurance components. Of these two components, external quality assurance was the emphasis of the implementers in the early years of its implementation. Hence, in most higher education institutions internal quality assurance was rather neglected. Even external quality assurance was based on somewhat less objective criteria. Hence, steps have now been taken to revise the Quality Assurance Manual so that outcome-based education and student-centred learning appear prominently in the quality assurance criteria. Also, the evidence that needs to be produced for each criterion and how objective decisions should be made has now been clearly stated in the new manual. All the above measures are focused on improving higher education in general, that is, across all fields of study, and not particularly focusing on a specific area of study. However, there are special areas of study that have been identified as needing special attention, if the Sri Lankan graduates are to compete for employment globally. These areas are: soft skills, English and IT.

Improving the teaching and learning of soft skills Soft skills include almost all learning outcomes except the first two (i.e. theoretical knowledge and practical knowledge) within the above-mentioned Sri Lankan national outcome framework for higher education. Strengthening of soft skills had earlier been attempted by the introduction of standalone courses on each of these soft skills within the degree programmes. However, such introduction of standalone courses ate into the curriculum time of teaching and learning of mainstream subjects, and hence was not very popular especially among academics. Also, such incorporation of standalone courses rarely gave students sufficient

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opportunities to apply these soft skills throughout their learning. Hence, it was decided that soft skills should be addressed through the introduction of outcomebased education and student-centred learning (Nawaratne, Ponnamperuma and Nanayakkara, 2014). The message that was stressed upon all stakeholders of higher education, including students, teachers and administrators, was not to teach and learn soft skills as separate theoretical subjects. Instead, the need to integrate soft skills into the teaching and learning process, using student-centred learning techniques, was emphasized during all staff trainings. The limitation of resources and large class sizes, prevalent in most Sri Lankan higher education institutes, leading to an unhealthy tutor-student ratio, were often put forward as a difficulty in implementing student-centred learning. Hence, the academics were provided with special techniques to circumvent these barriers. For example, to implement student-centred learning for large classes, pedagogical techniques such as team-based learning (Parmelee and Michaelsen, 2010) was introduced. Similarly, to improve the tutor-student ratio, possibilities such as involving not only mainstream permanent academics, but also temporary lecturers, demonstrators and postgraduate students for undergraduate small group facilitation were suggested. However, although it is a must that English and IT should also be promoted through student-centred learning, these two areas of study need some fundamental basic knowledge before the students could apply them in their day-to-day learning. For example, with regard to IT, the basics of handling a computer must be learnt before the students could use it. Hence, special efforts were made to develop students’ IT and English-language skills. Following is a description of the interventions tried out to address IT and English-language deficiencies.

Improving the teaching and learning of English and IT Teaching of IT and English at the secondary school level is still at a level less than desirable, despite many attempts to improve it. However, the Sri Lankan IT/BPO (business process outsourcing) service sector is increasingly growing. While employers are happy with the competencies of the graduates from the core IT degree programmes, the IT skills of graduates from other degree programmes, especially from humanities and social sciences, have been a source of concern. English-language abilities of students from these degree programmes, apart from those who studied English as a mainstream subject for their degree, have

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also been at a similarly low level. Like soft skills, IT and English-language skills were largely organized in study programmes as standalone courses, mostly in the first year of learning, with very little emphasis on how to apply the said IT and English-language skills to other subjects. Integration of IT into the day-to-day learning process perhaps could be thought as the easiest to accomplish. Initially, the focus was only on providing training to students. However, the initial experience of training students indicated that they required the availability of platforms and resources to encourage and enable them to use IT. The lack of knowledge and use of IT among academics, particularly in arts and humanities study programmes, became a major barrier towards developing IT platforms and resources (Saavedra and Opfer, 2012). This has been partly due to the difficulty faced by the Sri Lankan higher education system to retain academics with IT degrees, as the salary in the outsource-dominant Sri Lankan IT industry is much higher than that in academia. As such, since inadequate numbers of experienced staff are teaching the IT degree programmes, the junior academics teaching the supplementary IT courses for non-IT degrees are often not competent to develop the requisite material to teach the core IT skills. Hence, the approach to address the inadequate emphasis on IT and English-language skills within study programmes in higher education institutes took shape in three forms: staff training, training students using standardized material, and assessing the level of student ability using standardized examinations. (a) Staff training Since it was very difficult to improve the IT skills of academics without getting them involved in learning through using, that is, practice-based learning, the approach MOHE took was to introduce the use of a learning management system (LMS) to the teaching and learning process, while simultaneously training the academics to use the LMS. Since some universities were already using the open source LMS, Moodle, it was selected as the platform, mainly due to its free access and due to the availability of potential trainers both for usage and technical support. The approach used was to encourage academics to start using LMS as a tool to assist students in learning IT skills. Since some of the academics had not used LMS, the training requirements were very demanding. The diverse levels of IT skills among the faculty members also presented a challenge for designing and conducting training. It was very encouraging to see academic staff of different levels with varying degrees of IT skills engaging actively to learn

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how to use LMS. For some very senior academics, this was their first use of an IT application. Nevertheless, recognizing the benefits of such a system for the students as well as for themselves encouraged them to learn how to use LMS in particular and the computers in general. Their newly gained ability to use the computer with confidence would hopefully direct them towards using a range of teaching learning material and tools. The more IT savvy staff were encouraged to use more digital resources, as they now have a common platform to share those resources with their students. Similar staff training programmes were conducted for academics who needed help in conducting at least some parts of a teaching and learning session, for example, a lecture, in English. To this end, the British Council in Sri Lanka was requested to conduct customized programmes to update the English-language skills of the academic staff. (b) Using standardized teaching and learning material Standardized teaching and learning material for both English and IT learning was developed using experts in both fields. How this was carried out to develop and introduce IT-related material is described as a mini-case study below. The severe lack of good-quality teaching and learning material for IT was an issue that had to be addressed. The MOHE, working closely with multinational IT companies such as Microsoft, Intel and Google, identified and used many resources as materials for teaching and learning IT at various levels. The Microsoft IT Academy (ITA) provides academic institutions and their students and staff with not only a digital curriculum and certifications for fundamental technology skills, but also courses critical for the students to be successful in today’s technologically evolving world. The MOHE in partnership with Microsoft Sri Lanka procured the ITA membership for all state universities, enabling the faculty and students to have access to a myriad of resources to improve their IT skills. With the membership of ITA comes free vouchers for certification. These vouchers were planned to be used to encourage academic staff to obtain Microsoft certification in technical competencies such as the Microsoft Certified Educator (MCE) certification. Such certification attests that the educators have the global educator technology literacy needed to provide a rich, custom learning experience for students. Encouraging faculty to follow courses such as Teaching with Technology, 21st Century Learning Design and Digital Literacy would enable them to enhance their teaching and learning process to better cater to twenty-first-century skills.

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(c) Testing students’ ability in English and IT When providing students with the necessary IT and English skills, one of the main hurdles faced by any education provider is the assessment of these skills. As a first step towards the formulation of a skills assessment framework, under the HETC Project, the MOHE designed and conducted common standardized tests for IT and English-language skills. The IT competency test, named University Students’ Competency Test of Information Technology (UCTIT), is modelled after the European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL). The test has now been conducted for two consecutive years. It has two major components: (1) a multiple-choice question (MCQ) paper to assess the theoretical and practical IT knowledge of students; and (2) a practical examination to assess IT application skills of students. The School of Computing of the University of Colombo is the selected consultant to conduct the tests. Sitting for the test is on a voluntary basis. About 13,814 students from eighteen universities and institutes sat for the test when it was conducted for the first time. There were 5,034 male participants and 8,776 female participants. They were from various faculties, reading for degrees in diverse disciplines. First, each student sat for the MCQ paper. Based on the results they obtained for the MCQ paper, the students were filtered for the second phase of UCTIT, the practical test. Although a student needed only to score 50 per cent to pass the test, a score of sixty-four or higher was required to be eligible to sit for the practical test. Of the 13,814 students who took the UCTIT Level I test from the state universities and institutes, more than 67 per cent passed the test. Of the total number of candidates, 3,104 (22 per cent) qualified for Level II, that is, the practical test. The practical test has four components: (1) Microsoft Word, (2) Microsoft PowerPoint, (3) Microsoft Excel and (4) Microsoft Access. Students are also given the option of selecting Open Office. They are evaluated on each tool separately and the marks are averaged to derive the final practical score. Then, the MCQ paper score and the practical test score are averaged to obtain the final score for a student. A student earning a score greater than sixty-four is given a pass grade. Out of the 1,466 students who sat for the practical test, 1,035 students (about 71 per cent) managed to earn this status. This was as low as about 7 per cent of the students who initially sat for the MCQ test. University Test of English Language (UTEL) was designed to evaluate the English-language competencies of the Sri Lankan university undergraduates. This is a national test, which was locally designed and internationally moderated

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by University of Reading, UK. The UTEL evaluates reading, listening, writing and speaking skills of the participants, and is similar to international Englishlanguage tests such as IELTS and TOEFL. Evaluation of each component is quantified using a band score, which scales from 0 to 9, where 0 represents the lowest level of skill and 9 represents excellence in the evaluated component. The UTEL exam is free of charge and open to all students of Sri Lankan state universities. When it was first offered in 2013–14, 13,308 students from fifteen universities took the test and 1,499 students obtained a band score of five or above in all four components. Of these successful candidates, 938 obtained an average band score of six or above. Reading and listening tests are conducted online through Moodle LMS. The speaking and writing components at present are paper-based tests, but MOHE is interested in conducting these as computer-based assessments. These two national-level assessments give the industry a guarantee for the competencies of the graduates joining them. They also help the students to understand the proficiency levels of their English and IT skills, so that they could take early remedial action where necessary.

Conclusion and the way forward Complex problems need complex answers (Clemen, 1997). If the challenge of the higher education system in the country is to produce globally employable graduates, then this being a complex problem, there should be multiple synergistic measures to address this problem. It is clear from the above discourse that such a multipronged approach, firmly based on the local contextual imperatives, has been taken. However, this is still unfinished business. As expected, this signals only the start of a long process. Since the funding from the HETC Project has ended somewhat prematurely and abruptly, an alternative source of funding needs to be found and such funding needs to be channelled towards the right purposes. In addition, if these efforts are to be sustained, at least two more major measures must be taken. First, a centralized independent authority that governs quality assurance, such as the Quality Assurance Council in the UK, should be established. Second, a centralized body that could offer more resource-intensive staff development programmes at a national level to supplement the efforts of the individual universities, similar to the Higher Education Academy in the UK, is a necessity.

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References Archer, W. and Davison, J. (2010). ‘Graduate Employability: What do Employers Think and Want?’ London: Council for Industry in Higher Education (CIHE). Bush, T. (2011). ‘The Importance of Leadership and Management for Education’. In T. Bush (ed.), Theories of Educational Leadership and Management, 4th edn, 1. London: Sage Publications. Chi, M. T. H., Bassok, M., Lewis, M. W., Reimann, P. and Glaser, R. (1989). ‘Selfexplanations: How Students Study and use Examples in Learning to Solve Problems’. Cognitive Science 13, 145–82. Clemen, R. T. (1997). Making Hard Decisions: An Introduction to Decision Analysis, 2nd edn. New York, USA: Duxbury Press. Coomaraswamy, U. and Abeygunawardena, H. (2012). ‘Quality Assurance and Accreditation of Undergraduate and Postgraduate Degree Programmes’. In R. Senarante and S. Sivasegaram S. (eds), Re-creating and Re-positioning of Sri Lankan Universities to Meet Emerging Opportunities and Challenges in a Globalised Environment, 181–200. Sri Lanka: Tharanjee Prints. Dweck, C. S. (2008). Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, 224. New York: Ballantine. Jennings, W. I. (2005). The Road to Peradeniya: An Autobiography. Colombo, Sri Lanka: Lake House Investments. National Education Association (NEA) (n.d.). ‘Preparing 21st Century Students for a Global Society: An Educator’s Guide for the “Four Cs”’. USA: National Education Association. Nawaratne, S., Ponnamperuma, G. and Nanayakkara, V. (2014). ‘K-SAM Graduates for the 21st Century. Abstract P-318 presented at Explaining Leadership and Learning Theories in Asia’, ELLTA Conference, Malaysia, 17–19 November 2014. Parmelee, D. X. and Michaelsen, L. K. (2010). ‘Twelve Tips for doing Effective TeamBased Learning (TBL)’. Medical Teacher 32, 118–22. Saavedra, R. A. and Opfer, V. D. (2012). ‘Learning 21st-Century Skills Requires 21st-Century Teaching’. Phi Delta Kappan, 94(2), 8–13. Spady, W. G. (1993). ‘Outcome-Based Education’. ACSA Report No 5. Belconnen: Australian Curriculum Studies Association. Toffler, A. (1970). Future Shock, 367. New York: Random House. World Bank (2009). The Towers of Learning: Performance, Peril and Promise of Higher Education in Sri Lanka. Colombo, Sri Lanka: The World Bank Colombo Office.

13

Sri Lanka: Contemporary Issues Raja Gunawardhane

As a developing country in the South Asian region, Sri Lanka has created a better performing education system among the other developing nations in the world. It has an impressive tradition of genuine concern for education of children, derived from historically developed religious principles. The Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka guarantees that the state shall promote with special care the interests of the children to ensure their full development, physical, mental, moral, religious and social, and to protect them from discrimination and exploitation. Various measures have been taken by the government of Sri Lanka throughout the past seven decades to provide compulsory general education on a free and equal basis. Providing free school education from grade 1 up to university level, making the mother tongue (Sinhala and Tamil languages) the medium of instruction in schools, bringing all assisted schools under government control and providing free midday meals, uniforms and textbooks to all students are some of the milestones in its attempt to achieve this objective. In addition, the development of a network of upgraded secondary schools resulted in an increase in the educational participation rates of the 5–14 age group. A unified national curriculum was adopted under the 1972 educational reform by making mathematics and science compulsory in secondary grades in all schools. The 1978 Constitution of Sri Lanka states that ‘the complete eradication of illiteracy and the assurance of all persons of the right to universal and equal access to education at all levels’ (Constitution–Article 27) is one of the directive principles of state policy and fundamental duties of the state. The Children’s Charter (1992), Regulations for Compulsory Education (1997) and the National Plan of Action for Children (2004) provide a legal base for children’s right to education.

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In the 1990s, activities under the ‘Education for All’ (EFA) programme appear to have been enriched and accelerated by Sri Lanka’s own reform agenda. ‘National Education Commission’ appointed by the government in 1991 presented a set of proposals aimed at extending educational opportunity and quality improvement in education in schools. Enforcement of compulsory education regulations from 1998 for the age group of 5–14, and the Grade 1 Primary Education Reforms were two major policy changes made by the government to achieve EFA targets. Another important measure taken to improve teaching-learning in school was the introduction of classroom-based assessment leading to the assessment of competency levels of children. As a result of these measures Sri Lanka now has one of the better performing education systems among the developing nations. Sri Lanka’s population has an adult literacy rate of 94.5 per cent (MoE, 2013a), higher than that expected of a third world country; it has the second highest literacy rate in South Asia and overall, one of the highest literacy rates in Asia. Also, Sri Lanka is one of the higher performing nations in the field of human resource development and very much focused on the EFA and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Considerable attention has been given to education in Sri Lanka by successive governments after independence; however, different types of issues and problems still persist in the country. Several empirical studies conducted by various national and international organizations have pointed out the gaps in the achievement of EFA targets and MDGs, the inefficiency in service delivery and the need for democratization of educational governance (ESDFP, 2007). Also, the National Education Commission in Sri Lanka has highlighted the need for promoting quality and relevance in education in terms of social stability, national unity, human values and individual orientation to the world of work (NEC, 2003).

Issues related to equity Equity and efficiency are rather challenging issues to address due to longestablished practices. For UNICEF (2010), ‘Equity means that all children have an opportunity to survive, develop, and reach their full potential, without discrimination, bias or favouritism.’ Provision of basic education on an equity basis can be investigated using two criteria; equality of outcomes and opportunities provided for education. Equal opportunities refer to three aspects; equality of access, equality of outcomes and equal opportunities enabling persons to fulfil their potential.

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As ESDFP (2007) revealed, of the 98 per cent of school-aged children enrolled, 83 per cent continued to secondary school. The Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES, 2012) also reported that 98.7 per cent of children in the 5–14 age group in the Sri Lankan population are attending school and that only 0.7 per cent have never attended. Even though the enrolment rates are rather high and dropout rates very low, when compared to other South Asian developing countries, the country has faced challenges in providing universal access to secondary education According to most recent data of MoE (2010) the gross enrolment rate (GER) as well as the net enrolment rate (NER) in the 5–14 age group in government schools do not show any significant improvement during the period 2006–10. In 2006 the NER was 86 for males and 85 for females, but in 2010 this rate has decreased to 82 for males and 81 for females. Also, the student flow from grade 5 to grade 6 needs to be ensured because the dropout rate is higher at that level. However, there is an increasing trend in the survival rates through grades 9 and 10. In 2010 survival rates through grades 9 and 10 were 92.26 and 87.98 respectively (ESDFP, 2012). It is noteworthy to state that the survival rates are higher for females than for males (females – 94.36; males – 90.34). Due to many reasons a small percentage of students are not enrolled in grade 1 and drop out before completing the compulsory basic education stage. In addition, there are provincial-wise disparities in participation rates. Of the nine provinces in Sri Lanka, participation rate of grade 6–9 in western and southern provinces is 87 but in northern, eastern, north-central and Uva provinces, the rates are below 82 (ESDFP, 2007). The government allocates 10 per cent of the education budget to subsidies such as free textbooks, free uniform material for students, mid-morning meals for students in disadvantaged schools, scholarships given under the Grade 5 Scholarship Scheme and subsidized transport in order to ensure principles of equity and thus promote access and participation in education. Despite these provisions, nearly 15 per cent of students in the junior secondary school drop out before reaching grade 9. It is clear that socio-economic conditions affect non-participation in education. Factors that contribute to students dropping out and to low educational performance of children at school have been indicated by a few studies. MoE (2007) states that poverty and low income affect the children of the lowest income deciles. A study conducted by the National Education Research and Evaluation Centre (NEREC, 2013) reveals that low performance during classroom activities, inability to understand or cope with the lessons taught in

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the class and failing school term tests were the major causes for this situation. Although clear research evidences are not available, it is also noteworthy to state that psychological factors play a part in why students drop out during secondary school. The inability to pass the Grade 5 Scholarship Examination, a nationallevel selection test, causes frustration and it acts as a disincentive for some students to continue education at the secondary level. To achieve the objective, ‘ensure that 95 per cent of children under 14 years of age complete Grades 1–9 compulsory phase of education by 2015’, the following strategies have been proposed and policy initiatives suggested (ESDFP, 2007): 1. Central-level and divisional-level planning to facilitate continuation of learning from Grade 5 onwards 2. Rationalization of schools, delinking grades 1–5 in all 1AB schools, linking small schools with Type 2 and Type 3 schools and networking of a school system including at least one 1AB school per education division 3. Channelling of subsidies to needy students especially in schools in rural areas particularly in the divisions where dropout rate is high 4. Developing school, divisional and zonal profiles and including them in the ‘Education Management and Information System (EMIS)’ 5. Early identification of potential dropouts by monitoring school attendance 6. Use of national assessment results (at grade 5 and grade 8) in monitoring of learning outcomes and planning at school and divisional levels 7. Increase the number of scholarships at grade 5. Suggestions made by ESDFP (2007) have not been fully implemented during this period. Some of these suggestions such as delinking the primary section in popular large schools (1AB schools) is practically intolerable because former students and parents of these schools stringently oppose the implementation of such measures. However, the provision of subsidies to increase the participation rate in secondary school seems to be an effective attempt, although the impact of this measure must be evaluated.

Gender parity at every level Generally, the pattern of performance in relation to gender happens to be that male students are seen to perform better than female students. However, in Sri Lanka, as many studies and examination results reveal, the learning achievement

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levels of female students seem to be better than those of their male counterparts. Sedere (2011) reports that there is gender parity at every level and from grade 1 to GCE Advanced Level (grade 13) the enrolment is gradually higher for girls than boys. National assessments carried out by NEREC in respect of grade 4, grade 8 and grade 10 students’ achievement levels of first language, mathematics and English language have revealed the same pattern as was evident in the two studies in 2003 and 2007. Also, it is noteworthy to state that the survival rates are higher for females than for males (females – 94.36; males – 90.34) (MoE, 2011). All these figures confirm that the pattern of better performance by female students has become an established trend in Sri Lanka. There are many factors affecting this situation. Sri Lankan women exercised universal franchise as early as 1932, and equal access to free education and health services came into effect in the 1940s. In the first half of the twentieth century there were negative attitudes towards girls’ education. In particular, parents in the rural sectors, disadvantaged areas and some ethnic groups did not encourage girls to continue higher education. However, the expansion of educational opportunities and the technological development that took place even in remote areas in Sri Lanka encouraged parents to send their children to schools as well as to higher educational institutions. As Sedere (2011) states, today there are more females entering what was perceived earlier as ‘male fields’ such as commerce and accounting, banking, medicine and law. Entry into the engineering field is also increasing, yet it remains firmly dominated by men. The system of education provides equal opportunity to girls and boys and the co-education system also has enabled girls and boys to compete in the same environment.

Inequities caused by the school system Sri Lanka’s school system is largely a public education system. Several deficiencies in the school system have been referred to by educationists on many occasions. National assessment conducted for the grades 8 and 10 students in Sri Lanka by NEREC (2008) revealed that achievement levels of first language, mathematics and science and technology differ among urban and rural schools in Sri Lanka. The data shows that the mean values of students’ marks for all the three subjects in rural schools are lower than those of students in urban schools. Jayaweera (1989) states, ‘It is apparent therefore that the education system assists in perpetuating poverty and disadvantage, in contradistinction to the goals

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of educational opportunity and mobility from the “humblest to the highest” position as anticipated in the forties.’ All governments since independence have tried to address this issue, but the situation remains unchanged. The establishment of ‘central schools’ (Madhya Maha Vidyalayas) in 1940s was a significant and successful attempt made by the government to reduce inequality. The central schools system was launched in 1943 with the aim of providing a comprehensive education to students selected from a feeder area within a six-mile radius. The central college was a well-defined, self-contained unit both infrastructurally and institutionally. Almost all the central schools had classes up to HSC/university entrance in the three streams, science, arts and commerce, with adequate facilities provided in all three streams. That all central colleges without exception served the purpose for which they were established is borne out by the fact that a clear majority of professionals and other governmental and non-governmental executives in Sri Lanka are the products of these central colleges. In the latter half of the twentieth century the school system changed and at present there is a widespread network of schools throughout the country. The public sector share in primary and secondary education accounts for 93 per cent of schools and 95 per cent of student enrolment. Approximately 4 million schoolchildren are enrolled in about 9,800 government schools including both national and provincial schools (ESDFP, 2007). Among the various types of government schools, the primary school comprises of grades 1–5 and contains about 40 per cent of students of whom approximately 50 per cent are female. The secondary school runs through grades 6–13, and grades 6–11 are considered junior secondary school. Grades 12–13 are considered senior secondary school. Approximately 57.5 per cent of students attend these secondary schools. Of these government schools, about 350 schools with a large student population located in urban areas were upgraded mainly based on political factors and named as ‘national schools’. A national school is a school that is funded and administered by the Ministry of Education of the central government as opposed to provincial schools run by the local provincial council. These schools provide secondary education (some including collegiate), with some providing primary education as well. The classification began in 1985, with eighteen schools being designated as national schools. These national schools are directly controlled by the central government and all the other public schools are managed by the provincial education ministries and departments. The prestigious national schools get more resources than provincial schools. Among the national

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schools, a few schools located in urban areas are very popular and prestigious. The majority of students are admitted into these schools through the Grade 5 Scholarship Examination. Since middle-class parents seek admission to these schools for their children, this examination has become a very competitive one and various types of malpractices in the admission procedure have developed during the past few decades. In addition to the resources provided by the government, these schools receive parents’ support, and therefore, facility-wise these schools are in a higher position when compared with other schools in the country. Teachers too are keen to serve in these schools as it is beneficial for them. The unequal distribution of resources causes inequity in education. Since independence, the distribution of resources was completely under government control and all successive governments have made several attempts to establish equity across the system. Nonetheless, the unequal distribution of resources to schools have continued to exist. Distribution of resources from the MoE to schools is not done properly as some of the functions regarding this subject are managed by the provincial councils. ‘The top-down policy approach, sometimes, may not be workable at the implementation stage and there are large disparities and “disadvantaged schools” across the country’ (ESDFP, 2007). Addressing this issue, NEC proposed to introduce a new school financing mechanism and to delegate power at the school level. This led to the implementation of SchoolBased Resource Management (SBRM). However, SBRM system was not fully successful in distributing resources in an equitable manner.

Disparity in teacher deployment Disparities in teacher recruitment, deployment and availability are serious issues contributing to deterioration of the teaching-learning system. Lack of consistent policies on teacher recruitment, teacher deployment and teacher training has been an important issue that has confronted Sri Lankan education. From time to time teacher recruitment and teacher training policies and the nature of teacher training have changed, particularly after independence. Each government attempted to introduce educational reforms to suit its political and socio-economic ideologies which contributed to a high degree of disorder in the system. During the past two decades, the teacher training programmes were subjected to constant change. These changes were more ad hoc and were decided

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by a few officials at the policymaking level (NEC, 1995b). The need for a national policy was considered and measures were taken by the government in power to review the past, remedy the present and develop a national policy for the future (World Bank Report, 1996). Before handing over the subject ‘education’ to the provincial administration, all teacher recruitments, deployment and training were handled by the central authority–the MOE. Then, prospective candidates were given the option to select three districts, in order of preference, a list of districts in difficult areas, where they would like to serve for a specific period of time (normally three years). The second measure was to appoint teachers graduating from teacher training colleges and colleges of education to schools in difficult areas for a specific period of time (three years). At the end of this specified period they were eligible to ask for transfers to districts of their choice. Third, the teachers serving in difficult areas were given incentives in the form of promotions, salary increment, allowances, government housing facilities, concessions for admission of their children to popular schools of their choice, and convenience and a transfer to a school in a more congenial district after serving the specified period of time. Now that provincial authorities have the final say in the hiring of teachers, the recruitment of teachers has become a political matter and provincial authorities sometimes recruit teachers without adhering to the demand or ground situation. Also, when new teachers are appointed after completing the threeyear teacher training course at National Colleges of Education (NCOEs) they are not efficiently deployed to schools within the province. Within a province in Sri Lanka, there are urban areas with adequate facilities as well as ‘difficult’ areas without minimum facilities. There is a severe shortage of teachers in those difficult areas and there are excess teachers in the urban pockets of the rural areas. Some schools in urban pockets in the rural areas have sixteen teachers for sixty-four students (ESDFP, 2007). However, there are several factors that hinder maintaining a systematic and constant policy. According to MOE statistics (2013b), the pupil – teacher ratio (PTR) has come down to 18, which is below the established norms: 26:1 for primary and 22:1 for junior secondary. Normally it is expected that when the PTR is satisfactory, students’ learning will improve. However, improvement has not taken place, especially in schools in rural areas. Also, there is a deficit of qualified, specialized teachers for some subjects such as IT, physical education, Western music, English literature and other foreign languages.

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Disadvantaged schools Despite the efforts made by successive governments to develop the school system, there are urban – rural disparities as well as facility disparities among different types of schools. As mentioned above, achievement levels of rural school students including students in ‘small schools’ and in ‘estate schools’ are lower than the levels of urban students. According to MOE statistics (2007), there were 258 schools with less than 15 students and 1,525 schools (about 16 per cent of the total number of schools) with less than 100 students in each. Schools without sufficient facilities, underdeveloped and with a small number of pupils may be defined as small schools. For practical purposes a ‘small school’ is defined as one with less than 100 pupils on roll or the ‘single teacher’ school where one teacher functions in the role of school head and is at the same time the teacher of all subjects and all classes in the school (MOE, 1977). Most of these schools are normally situated in isolated villages, cut off from the main road and surrounded by geographical barriers. In 2006, there were 2,941 small schools, which is 30 per cent of total number of schools in the country. The approximate number of students were 300,000 out of a total number of 3.8 million (7.9 per cent) in all schools in the country (NIE, 2013). These small schools are state owned, however, when compared with the other urban schools the assistance these schools get from the government and stakeholders is comparatively less than the support received from the stakeholders in urban ‘big schools’. Also, because of the remoteness of the location there are problems such as difficulty of access, difficulty of coordination of development programmes and supervision. Lack of basic physical resources, unattractive, crowded and noisy buildings dishearten learners. Also, the teachers who are appointed or transferred to these schools do not remain for a long time as they face difficulties in transport and lodging. As a result of the lack of educational opportunities children in small schools face difficulties in examinations and have to compete with students from schools with resources to get selected to universities and other higher educational institutions. Eventually, a majority of the students who complete their education in small schools remain in the same social strata. Several measures have been taken by the government, INGOs and NGOs to uplift the condition of small schools. The MOE in collaboration with UNICEF organized seminars in 1977 and suggested some policy decisions. In 2009, GIZ supported MOE to develop a model for small schools. As a continuation of the same project, again in 2011, GIZ supported the process of developing a resource

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pack for small schools in Sri Lanka. This Resource Book for Small Schools (RBSS) was planned to articulate all learning strategies available, both non-formal and informal, in support of the formal delivery mechanisms. This model, when fully implemented as model planners, is expected to have an impact on the small schools in solving most of the needs of small schools. The role of small schools has become a critical need especially for citizens living in peripheral areas. In addition to the two sectors, urban and rural, there is another sector, ‘the estate sector or the plantation sector’, which is socially and economically disadvantaged, with education outcomes being inferior and school dropout rates being high. Students in plantation schools do not seem to benefit from education as much as they should. A survey conducted on ‘estate schools’ by Transparency International (2009) reveals that lack of interest and support by parents was a major impediment to school attendance and performance. Textbooks, school uniforms and breakfast were all provided as an incentive for learning and attending school. However, a lack of water and sanitation in these schools and a lack of other physical facilities affect student motivation. The conditions in schools were also aggravated by the lack of public transport affecting not only students but also teachers and officials, causing absenteeism, non-attendance and poor supervision. Teachers face further hardship without suitable residential facilities. Several steps have been taken by the government to improve schools in the estate sector. Earlier, these schools were owned and managed by the respective tea and rubber estate owners. The organization of estate schools was given over to these companies with few requirements from the government, and although the Ministry of Education formally took over estate schools in 1966 and gradually became more involved over the 1980s and 1990s, the schools in the estate sector continue to lag.

Issues related to student evaluation and assessment The centrally controlled public examination system in Sri Lanka is a cardinal feature of school education. Three examinations are centrally conducted– Grade 5 Scholarship Examination, GCE Ordinary Level and GCE Advanced Level Examinations. Grade 5 Scholarship Examination started in 1940s as an examination for awarding scholarships to central schools for talented children from low-income families. Later, with the medium change and the state takeover of assisted schools, it underwent a change, and became a scheme for providing a

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means of entry into schools in great demand, in addition to providing financial assistance to children below a certain income level. Providing an opportunity to talented students to get selected to popular schools is the main advantage of continuing the Grade 5 Scholarship Examination. However, many educationists and psychologists have opposed continuing the examination for their harmful effects. The NEC Report on National Education Policy (1995b) states that the present Year 5 Scholarship Examination which tends to distort the objectives of a sound primary education must be restructured to reduce the pressure arising from an unhealthy competition for placement in so-called popular schools. The NEC proposed to restructure the examination and hold a test at school level under the supervision of the Provincial Education Ministry to identify pupils with scholastic potential and those who need financial assistance. The GCE Ordinary Level is mainly a written test conducted at the end of the eleventh school year. The GCE Advanced Level Examination is conducted in the same manner at the end of the thirteenth school year and it functions as an achievement test as well as a highly competitive selection test for university entry. The capacity of these examinations to evaluate a student on a broader perspective had been questioned. The aim of every student is to obtain high grades because there is a severe competition for university admission, especially for medical, engineering and management courses. Students, therefore, take extra coaching classes conducted by private tutors without attending schools regularly. Also, as a result of this preparation for examinations students neglect co-curricular activities in the school and focus more on memorization in order to obtain good grades for selection. The result of this process is a limiting effect on developing non-cognitive skills which are linked to balanced development and also employment-related competencies. In the 1980s an attempt was made by the education authorities to introduce a class-based ‘continuous assessment’ giving the responsibility of assessing students to class teachers. As it was a failure, another attempt was made by the NIE in collaboration with the Department of Examinations to introduce a school-based assessment programme in Sri Lankan schools in the late 1990s. The main objectives of this programme at its inception were to improve teaching and learning in the classroom and thereby reaching the target of achieving higher learning achievement levels among students. Yet again, as NEREC (2007) mentions, within the past few years, this programme too has ended up as a programme collecting test scores for the purpose of certification. Assessment of learning is limited to written tests and skill assessment methods are not used frequently in the classroom. Also, the overall development of a child, as expected

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by the objectives of the school-based programme, has not been achieved. Therefore, a need has arisen to reform and revise the SBA programme in order to meet the objectives of continuous learning assessment.

Issues in teacher education The Sri Lankan teacher development programmes aim to develop a ‘whole teacher’ with appropriate competencies in all three domains: cognitive, affective and psychomotor. The special emphasis made on the affective aspects of education as a whole and psychomotor aspects of education in the primary classes has been an important characteristic of teacher development programmes in Sri Lanka. Value education has been promoted in both schools and teacher education programmes. The importance placed on personal characteristics and ethical standards of teacher education and generally of teachers in the school system has been considered an important strength of the educational system in the country. The great traditions of Buddhist and Hindu teachings on which the island’s 2,500 years of cultural heritage are based on may have had a binding effect on the total school education system and numerous teacher education programmes. A lack of a consistent policy on teacher education has been an important issue in Sri Lankan teacher development programmes. The policy of teacher recruitment has changed particularly in the last decades of the previous century. According to the school census data in 2012, there were 223,333 teachers in government schools. Of them, 43,061 (19.28 per cent) were not professionally qualified. When comparing the various teacher workforce in developed countries, Sri Lanka is much behind in relation to teacher professional qualifications. Successive governments in Sri Lanka have attempted to formulate a constant policy on teacher recruitment and training. ‘No untrained teacher enters the classroom’ is one of the policies that have been attempted by the government in the past decade. However, these policies were not implemented regularly. Different teacher-recruitment methods and procedures have been followed by the MoE and the Provincial Ministries. Sometimes, graduates are selected as prospective teachers to solve the graduate unemployment problem. Proposals submitted by the National Education Commission state the need for an eminent, experienced and qualified education staff to implement and maintain the education policy in a productive and efficient manner. Also, the NEC proposals suggest that the teacher workforce should consist exclusively of graduates.

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Sri Lanka has a variety of teacher training programmes in operation, which can be primarily classified into two groups: pre-service and in-service. Preservice programmes are conducted for prospective teachers, who are not yet in the education service. NCOEs and universities are the main providers of pre-service training. The National Institute of Education, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Departments of Education at provincial and zonal levels, and the universities carry out long-term and short-term in-service programmes for teachers who are in the education service. In many countries, pre-service teacher training takes place largely or exclusively in institutions of higher education. However, in Sri Lanka, the major pre-service teacher training, the ‘National Diploma in Teaching Programme’, is conducted by NCOEs, which are not recognized as university-level institutions. These colleges select promising young candidates who are about to enter teaching and offer a two-year residential training programme combined with a one-year internship period in schools. National Diploma in Teaching, the certificate awarded by the MOE, is recognized as a professional qualification for teaching at primary and secondary levels. Long-standing suggestions have been made for a standard degree-level course as a pre-service teacher training course. The NEC’s proposal that ‘the courses at NCOEs should be extended to four years and they should be converted to a degree course’ (5.1.4, NEC Proposals) has yet to be implemented. In order to implement this proposal, it is recommended that the NCOEs be recognized as university-level institutions, with qualified teaching staff and equipped with modern facilities. The lack of coordination among the teacher education programmes conducted by the Education Faculties/Departments of Universities, NIE and the Ministry of Education has negatively affected the development of teacher education in Sri Lanka. As autonomous semi-government institutions, university faculties/ departments carry out their own traditional teacher education programmes following the teacher education course models used by the Western countries in the mid-twentieth century. There is no authority to coordinate these courses in line with the national requirements. Course revisions are done occasionally by university departments themselves; however, these changes are not effective as they are not wholly integrated. In terms of improvements in teacher training, the World Bank (2005) has suggested that the government establish a ‘Teacher Education Board’ for planning, coordinating and quality assurance of the teacher education system in Sri Lanka. The World Bank’s suggestion has been completely accepted by the

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NEC Policy Proposals presented to the Special Parliament Advisory Committee of Education. However, these policy proposals are still under construction. Policies and procedures relating to teacher education must be changed to achieve the target of developing competent teachers for the future decades. Teachers should be trained to become facilitators of learning. Lecture method is still the most commonly used method for the large majority of teacher training courses. However, there are reasons for not using alternative teaching methods. Time constraints, inadequate facilities and other limitations are some reasons for not practising innovative active teachinglearning methods. It is necessary to transform the teaching force into something better suited to the socio-economic, technological and moral needs of the twenty-first century. For that, it is essential to build a new kind of professionalism among the teachers at large. And that is teaching for creativity, nurturing curiosity, problem-solving, critical thinking and striving for excellence instead of students being mere passive consumers of information. In this context, teachers also should take on the new role of a lifetime learner and develop an ethic of care for students to help them realize their full potential. Universities should produce globally employable graduates, especially professionally qualified graduate teachers to serve in any other country and able to adjust teaching-learning relevant to the needs of the future generations. Therefore, it is high time to revise the structure and develop a creative and innovative curriculum in teacher education courses conducted not only by universities but also by other higher educational institutions. Degree and diploma courses conducted by education departments in the universities and colleges of education should revise their structure, curriculum and assessment systems in order to meet the demands of the present and future societies. Improving the quality of education is really one of the biggest challenges faced by countries in South Asia. The most effective way to improve quality of education is to improve the image of the teaching profession. Teachers are essential players in promoting quality education. What is important is not only having enough number of teachers in schools, but enough number of goodquality teachers who are highly motivated and dedicated to their jobs. One way to do that would be through improved teacher education.

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Conclusion All the issues discussed above are interrelated. Addressing an issue in one sector and attempting to solve only that particular problem without addressing the interrelated factors would be an unsuccessful attempt. For example, attempts made to improve the school-based internal assessment programme were not successful because of the negative attitudes of parents towards an internal classroom assessment done by teachers. Examinations are dominating the teaching and learning process in schools. Changing the examination-oriented learning culture is a great challenge that educationists are facing. Also, as one educationist points out, ‘Structural and organizational deficiencies are however only part of the problem. The major contributory factor for overall inefficiency and ineffectiveness of the system lies elsewhere … that is the extreme politicization that has taken total command of the system’ (NEC, 2004). A need has arisen to construct a suitable system of education for the country.

References Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka (1991). Government Publication Bureau. Constitution of Sri Lanka, ‘Article 27’. Colombo: Government Press. ESDFP (2007). ‘Education Sector Development Framework and Programme’. Sri Lanka: Ministry of Education. ESDFP (2012). ‘Education Sector Development Framework and Programme, Human Capital Foundation for a Knowledge Economy: 2012-2016’. Sri Lanka: Ministry of Education. HIES (2012). ‘Household Income and Expenditure Survey’. Sri Lanka. Jayaweera, S. (1989). ‘Extension of Educational Opportunity – The Unfinished Task’, C.W.W. Kannangara Memorial Lecture, 1989, NIE, Sri Lanka. MoE (1977). ‘Development of small Schools in Sri Lanka, Report of the National Seminar Held in Sri Lanka’, Organised by Small School Unit of the Ministry of Education, and UNICEF, 17–21 October 1977. MoE (2007). Education Sector Development Framework and Programme, Ministry of Education, Sri Lanka. MoE (2010). ‘Educational Statistics’, http://www.moe.gov.lk/english/images/Statistics/ sri_lanka_education_information_2013.pdf [Accessed 20 August 2015]. MoE (2011). School Census – 2011, Ministry of Education, Sri Lanka.

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MoE (2013a). ‘Education First’, Ministry of Education, Battaramulla, Sri Lanka. MoE (2013b). ‘Ministry of Education – Information-Statistics’, http://www.moe.gov.lk/ english/images/Statistics/sri_lanka_education_information_2013.pdf [Accessed 20 August 2015]. NEC (1995a). ‘An Action Oriented Strategy Towards a National Education Policy’, Sri Lanka: National Education Commission. NEC (1995b). ‘National Education Commission Report’. NEC (2003). ‘Proposals for a National Policy Framework on General Education in Sri Lanka’, National Education Commission, Colombo: Piyasiri Printers. NEC (2004). Study series No. 24- Eric J De Silva – Management of Education. Sri Lanka: National Education Commission. NEREC (2008). ‘National Assessment of Achievement of Grade 8 Students in Sri Lanka’. National Education Research and Evaluation Centre, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. NEREC (2013). ‘National Assessment of Achievement of students completing Grade 8 in year 2012’, National Education Research and Evaluation Centre, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka NIE (2013). ‘Education of the Poor and Powerless in Disadvantaged Areas’, A Model Resource Book for Small Schools in Sri Lanka, Department of Research & Development, National Institute of Education, Sri Lanka. Sedere, U. M. (2011). ‘Women and Teaching Profession’, Sri Lanka Country Report Commonwealth Secretariat and UNESCO, unesdoc.unesco.org/ images/0021/002122/212200e.pdf [Accessed 20 August 2015]. Transparency International (2010). ‘Street drama to educate parents in Plantation sector’. Colombo, Sri Lanka UNICEF (2010). ‘Children: equity and development’, http://comminit.com. children/&http://www. unicef, org/ [Accessed 20 August 2015]. World Bank (1996). ‘Sri Lanka Teacher Education and Teacher Development Project Implementation Papers’. Washington, DC: The World Bank. World Bank (2005). Treasures of the Education System in Sri Lanka: Restoring Performance, Expanding Opportunities and Enhancing Prospects. Colombo: Air Investment Ltd.

14

Comoro Islands: An Overview Charif Abdallah Ben Mohadji

Introduction Wishing to preserve high-quality education and to supply the country with high-level infrastructure, the Comoran state has, since independence in 1975, maintained an education system which is aligned with that of France. But very soon, it became evident that this system inherited from colonial times was ill adapted and ineffective to meet the needs of a newly independent country whose main aim was to put in place a strong workable system which would guarantee economic, social and cultural development. Conscious of this objective and of the problems which can weaken an education system, the state, as requested by the Ministry of Education, instituted an enquiry into the future of education through in-depth consultation, which resulted in a five-year plan in 1976. This led to: a reform of the education system to meet the new political and institutional reality of the Comoros; the organization in 1981 of a National Seminar on Education which brought about changes in the law regarding education; a National Conference on Education in 1988; the organization of the General State Education in 1996; and the National Conference on Education in 2013. The different governments which have succeeded each other since independence have each decided to create conditions favourable for the renewal of the system to meet the aspirations of the Comoran people, as the conclusions of consultation with parents, teachers, politicians and civil society have largely been taken into account by the Ministry of Education. It is on this political will, widely declared and reaffirmed, that the law on education adopted in 1994 by the Federal Assembly was founded.

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Documents on the reform process will follow, notably the Education Plan, the RESEN (State Report on the Educational System), the note on educational reform up to 2020 and the letter on the politics of education in the Comoros 2020.

General context The Comoro Islands are a country situated in the Indian Ocean off the coast of East Africa. They are equidistant from Africa and Madagascar. The archipelago comprises the islands of Grande-Comore (Ngazidja), Mohéli (Mwali), Mayotte (Maroé) and Anjouan (Ndzuwani). Of volcanic origin, the islands are essentially mountains surrounded by narrow coastal plains. The archipelago has, in total, a land area of 2,235 square kilometres. The population is racially and ethnically very mixed, composed of Africans, Arabs, Madagascans and others. In terms of religion the Comoran society is strongly Islamic, and also unified by the Shikomori language, which is close to Swahili, and written in Arabic and Latin characters. French is commonly used, especially in education. At the last Census in 2007 the population numbered 710,960, with a density of about 360 inhabitants per square kilometre. Population growth stands at 2.1 per cent, with a birth rate of 4.9 children per mother. Moreover, 53.85 per cent of the population is under the age of 20 creating a high demand for education (Table 14.1). In macroeconomic terms, the economy has grown uninterruptedly since 2009. In fact economic activity has progressed continuously and the rise in GDP reached 3.5 per cent in 2013 as against 1.8 per cent in 2009, a rate of 2.8 per cent for the period of 2010–13. The GDP per capita has risen 0.6 per cent for this period compared with a fall of 1.1 per cent for the period of 2008–2009. The tertiary sector represents on average 48 per cent of GDP. Table 14.1 Rise in school-age population, 2003–15 Population target

2003

2009

2015

Increase (%)

3–5 years 6–11 years 12–15 years 16–18 years 19–24 years

56,896 105,735 60,326 39,036 59,187

56,940 111,502 71,148 48,410 83,088

64,774 116,920 74,315 55,260 102,609

1 1 2 3 5

Source: Demographic Projections, RGPH (2003).

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Education At the nursery level education is conducted in Comoran (Shikomori) and French. Koranic schools teach children the rudiments of Arabic script, and introduce them at the same time to the reading of the Quran. These schools are a vital element for socialization as they provide children with the values and models for their integration into the life of their community. At the primary level, education is solely in French, while at the secondary level, pupils learn Arabic and English as second languages. The University of the Comoros is a recent institution, created only in 2003 to replace a higher education system founded in the 1980s, to train teachers, administrators and a range of technical occupations. In terms of structure the school system comprises: 1. Preschool education for children aged 3–5 years, in three classes 2. Primary education for children aged 6–11 years lasting 6 years, leading to the CEP certificate of primary education 3. College/secondary school education for students aged 12–15 years which lasts for four years. Admission is dependent on an entry examination taken in Year six. It results in the BEPC Brevet d’etudes du premier cycle, certificate of first cycle of secondary education 4. Lycée/high school lasts three years from the second grade to the Terminale, and has three sections, literature, natural sciences and physical sciences 5. Higher education is provided by the University of the Comoros which offers the principal subjects

Pre-elementary education This level of education comprises three main types of schools namely, Koranic, private and reformed Koranic. A Koranic school is a religious institution strongly represented throughout the country; each village has at least one. The mission of this school is to dispense religious education with a view to reinforcing Muslim culture and religion. This institution is completely autonomous and run entirely by the teacher who receives the children at his house and determines its organization outside any official structure. Children can attend from the age of 3 until the age of their ‘spiritual maturity’. The languages of instruction are Shikomori and Arabic. Teaching is not organized in cycles or levels. Lessons are individualized to the needs and abilities of each child.

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A private nursery school is essentially of the Western type and established mostly in an urban centre. These schools receive children from ages 3 to 5 in three sections, youngest, middle and oldest. Lessons are generally delivered in French and are geared to intellectual and psychomotor development, and are thus a preparation for elementary education. A reformed Koranic school is an institution which was founded in 1977 as a nursery school adapted to the Comoran context. It evolved following the model of the Koranic school. This type of education aims to diversify pre-elementary education and to widen access at this level to the majority of children aged 3–5.

Elementary education This level of education is free and compulsory. It caters to children aged 6–11 for a period of six years. It is structured into six levels of teaching organized in three cycles: preparatory cycle first and second years (CP1 and CP2), elementary cycle first and second years (CE1 and CE2) and middle cycle first and second years (CM1 and CM2). Elementary education is provided in 314 public schools. In the private sector the number of establishments continues to grow, particularly in urban settings. Currently there are 136 private elementary schools.

General secondary education First Cycle of Secondary Education: This is provided in two types of establishment, public and private. The public establishments are normally called rural colleges (CR). These establishments constitute the principal structure for children from 12 to 15 years of age, who are admitted through by exams taken in the sixth year. This level comprises fifty-three public colleges. This first secondary education cycle is organized in two cycles each of two years: observation cycle (6th and 5th) and orientation cycle (4th and 3rd). This cycle is completed by the Brevet d’Etudes de Premier Cycle (BEPC), Certificate of First Cycle. Second Cycle of Secondary Education: This receives students from 16 to 18 years of age into ‘Second’, ‘First’ and ‘Terminal’ classes. There are 17 public and 103 private lycées. This second cycle of secondary education consists of two humanities sections (A2 and A4) and two science sections (C and D), a mixed humanities and scientific section (A1) and a vocational economic section (G). This cycle is completed by the baccalauréat and gives access to higher education.

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Technical education and vocational training Admission to technical and vocational education is by examination for those who hold the BEPC. The following possibilities exist: (1) The National Vocational and Technical College (ENTP) at Anjouan; (2) The National Horticulture Centre (CNH) at Grande-Comore; (3) The National Fishing College (ENP) at Anjouan; (4) The National Agricultural College (ENA) at Mohéli which, however, has been closed since 1990.

Higher education and research Higher education is provided by the University of the Comoros across its faculties, institutes and schools, which are located at sites throughout the islands of the archipelago, as follows: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

The Faculty of Arts and Natural Sciences The Faculty of Law and Economics The Faculty of Science and Technology The Faculty Imam Chafiou The Teacher Training and Educational Research Institute The University Institute of Technology (IUT) The School of Medicine and Public Health (EMSP) The University Centre of Vocational Training.

There are also some private establishments and institutes of higher education scattered across the country. In addition, Comoran students continue to pursue their higher education overseas at both undergraduate and graduate levels.

Non-formal or informal education Alongside the traditional education system, there is on-the-job training in the form of apprenticeships in various manual occupations, notably joinery/ carpentry, building, welding, mechanics, fashion, IT, plumbing and for electricians. This training takes place in workshops and informal workplaces and is not recognized by any certificate or diploma.

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Diagnosis of the Comoros Islands education sector The total number of pupils in all public and private educational establishments which fall under the auspices of the Ministry of Education are of the order of 160,000, divided proportionately by sector as follows: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

State and private preschool education: 1.1 per cent Public and private primary education: 71.5 per cent Public and private secondary education first cycle: 17.6 per cent Public and private secondary education second cycle: 8.2 per cent Public higher and technical education: 1.7 per cent

As can clearly be seen above, it is the primary sector alone which educates seven children out of ten, whereas the other sectors cater for no more than a quarter of the pupil numbers of the primary sector. Vocational training in the country is clearly inadequate. An enquiry made by the General Planning, Study and Projects Directorate of the Ministry of Education reveals that the rate of coverage across the levels of the education system is weak: only 52.8 per cent of children and young people from 3 to 20 years of age are enrolled in both private and public educational establishments, from preschool to higher education. This rate is 101.5 per cent at the primary level (due to some repetition), reducing to 9.6 per cent at the higher education level. In between it is 41.9 per cent in the first cycle of secondary education and 28.7 per cent for the second cycle. Pre-elementary education, provided in three types of pre-elementary schools mentioned above, receives children who are already three years old, up to the limit of places available. Traditional Koranic schools, very long established, receive about 7,500 children of school age, of whom 50.9 per cent are girls. These schools receive a large number of children in the age range of 3–5 because of the confidence families traditionally have in this institution which costs almost nothing. Each village has at least one. Traditional schools significantly lack any kind of infrastructure and material means. The programme of instruction is left entirely to the teacher. Reformed Koranic schools were founded in 1998 to promote the development of young Comoron children, especially from the poorest and most vulnerable families. They transmit sociocultural values appropriate for a successful integration into life in society. In this programme children acquire skills in the three official languages of the country, that is French, Arabic and Shikomori. Nursery schools are run on the French model and only in the private sector. These schools are established principally in urban centres and receive children from 3 to 5 years of age, whose families can afford the school

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fees, which are generally considered to be high. Most private nurseries work hard to provide a valuable pedagogical framework and to give good-quality education. Overall preschool education in the Comoro Islands suffers from the high costs that arise as a result of the educational policy. Financing of this sector of education is left exclusively to the families involved. In the elementary education sector, the annual growth in the numbers of children in primary schools is 2.8 per cent. The rate in private schools is 5.6 per cent per year. Given the number of places available in the public schools, the priority in the first year is given to the older children. With regard to gender, the total number of boys in education is greater than girls – 81.5 per cent for boys and 72.4 per cent for girls respectively. Significantly, elementary education suffers from an imbalance between the demand for schooling and the public supply. In fact the school infrastructure and equipment, especially in rural areas, is of poor quality with many schools in an advanced state of dilapidation. This means that three or four pupils share a bench designed for two while others sit on the ground or even on pieces of brick. The rate of repeating the first year is still very high as it is at all levels (26–31 per cent) and the dropout rate is estimated to be on average 7 per cent for each level of school. Analysis of the efficacy of the primary education system shows that it is not at all productive. The dropout rate (2 per cent at the national level in 2009) indicates that this level uses twice the amount of resources allocated for diploma-level education. This conclusion is reinforced with regard to the coefficient of efficacy which measures the capacity of the system to use the available resources to produce convincing results. The resources used are far in excess of the gains obtained, even if only in terms of the number of pupils reaching the end of the primary cycle. At this low level, the coefficient of efficacy at 61 per cent is unacceptable, and shows clearly that very few of the resources are used effectively. This wastage is of course the result of the very high losses, in particular the loss through dropout, as 63 per cent of the total loss is in terms of wasted years. Many Comoran children abandon primary education after a number of repeated years without having acquired even the basic knowledge required to obtain the diploma for this level. Pupils admitted to the entry examination to the college are normally able to acquire the basics necessary to pursue and continue their study at the secondary level. However, the Comoran education system is not adequately resourced for many pupils to acquire this knowledge. This situation has obliged the Ministry of Education to revise the school programmes at all levels of elementary education by the introduction of the Pedagogical Approach to acquiring Competence

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(APC). This aims to adapt teaching programmes to the educational needs of the population, but the outcomes are not yet evident. Access to the first cycle of secondary education requires a minimum of knowledge after six years of elementary education. It is therefore conditional upon the entry examination taken in the sixth year, whose results remain weak (47 per cent). The increase in the numbers in the colleges is remarkable and exceeds 2.7 per cent on average per year. This rapid development of the first cycle of secondary education reflects the growth of primary school numbers. The same performance is seen in private schools, namely, 39 per cent. This kind of schooling is very developed and accounts for more than half of the pupil numbers at this level. The rate of admission is 40.5 per cent with an increase of about 8 per cent per year. The low numbers described can be partly explained by the limited school places and the poor distribution of places for this level, especially in the public colleges. The rate of repeating a year in college remains very high – 18 per cent on average. The rate would be even higher if the private sector did not absorb a good number of these pupils. The dropout rate is also very high, on average 9 per cent. These children, without any other alternatives, each year join the ranks of the unemployed and constitute a seed bed of potential juvenile delinquents. The problems of retention in the first cycle of secondary education affect mostly the pupils in public schools and especially girls. As for the training and qualifications of the teachers, almost all of those in colleges hold at least the Diplôme d’Etude Universitaire Général. The majority of these teachers are graduates of the old National School of Higher Education (ENES at Mvouni) where they received professional training which gave them the necessary skills to teach at college level. Since the closure of ENES at the end of the 1980s, apart from the Institutes for Training and Research in Education (IFERE) which trains primary teachers, no establishment trains the Professeur d’Enseignement Général de Collège. Secondary education lacks appropriate teaching methods across all disciplines, and teacher in-service training remains weak, partly because of a shortage of inspectors. It should be emphasized that most of these teachers, in the private schools as well, in reality work more than a normal weekly timetable, exceeding the regulation twenty-five hours of teaching. The success rate at the BEPC which is at a particularly low level is growing slowly from year to year. The rate of educational achievement and learning is below the required level among those who have completed the first cycle. New teaching programmes have been developed and all secondary establishments, both college and schools, are equipped with these new programmes in all

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subjects. However public school pupils do not have use of these books and specialist rooms and teaching materials are not available which ultimately constrains the levels of achievement.

Second cycle of secondary education Comoran lycées provide a general education through the baccalauréat programme, the diploma which gives access to higher education. The average rate of increase is 10.5 per cent. This expansion is supported by a growth in numbers of the order of 17.4 per cent per year, but the provision of infrastructure and teaching equipment is at saturation point as far as classrooms are concerned. In addition, the student – teacher ratio is weak in the public sector – 21 students per teacher as compared with the ratio across all divisions estimated at 39.19. However, the weekly permitted teaching hours are limited to a maximum of 18. The level of repeating a year in the lycées is higher than in the colleges, 23 per cent on average. In fact, the dropout rate remains more or less the same across all levels of education, of the order of 7 per cent. The rate of loss is 5.2, which shows that the cost of education would be almost five times higher than normal to take a student through to ‘terminale’. Also dropouts account for a large proportion of the losses, 59 per cent across all lycées. The rate of retention of students up to the ‘terminale’ is 33 per cent and it varies greatly between boys and girls. In the second cycle secondary education, teaching is dominated by the humanities subjects, as only 38.41 per cent of teachers are qualified in science subjects. In general the baccalauréat results are very weak. The pass rate varies between 25 and 35 per cent. However, the science examinations often produce better results. As for the training and qualifications of the teachers in the second cycle of secondary education, most teachers possess the academic diploma required to teach in a lycée (doctorate, postgraduate diploma, master’s degree, bachelor’s degree) at this level; but they do not have the necessary teacher training. The problems in training for the second cycle are the same as those listed above for the first cycle.

Technical and vocational education Technical and vocational education is insignificant in the Comoran education system. In fact very few schools still provide this type of education. There is only the ENTP at Anjouan and the CNH at Grande-Comore. Access to these schools is by examination for those holding the BEPC or the baccalauréat. These rare

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schools develop training limited to certain sectors, notably car maintenance, building, welding, plumbing, electricity, refrigeration and horticulture. The principal problems in this sector reside in the level of ignorance of the qualitative and quantitative needs of the job and employment market, the lack of and weakness of the supply of training, the devaluation of the image of technical and vocational education associated with educational failure and unsuitability of programmes which are not adapted to the socio-economic needs of the country. The state provides no mechanism to recognize this kind of training.

Higher education The mission of higher education in the Comoros is to train top-level officials, at both middle and upper levels, in the fields considered to be of a high priority for the country. University research and teaching are relatively recent in the Comoros, because almost all undergraduates pursued their studies overseas with all the constraints that implied. From September 2003, the Comoros has had a university named the University of the Comoros (UDC). It is a state establishment, both scientific and cultural, enjoying administrative and financial autonomy. It brings together all the previous higher education establishments of the country, like the IFERE, the medical school and a number of other faculties. Its principal aims are the following: 1. To promote education and research which bring together the values of the Comoran culture, at the same time as responding to the needs of the population in socio-economic and cultural matters 2. To facilitate the transfer of new technologies through permanent training programmes and the use of human resources 3. To contribute effectively to the entry of the Comoros into the international scientific community The Comoran University suffers the same problems and constraints as the primary and secondary sectors of education which are linked to the economic situation of the country, for example: ● ● ●

● ●

insufficient number and dispersal of sites; insufficient qualifications in management and administration; insufficient university libraries, specialist or multi-use teaching rooms, and science laboratories for certain specific subject domains; professional qualifications which have not received the necessary attention; lack of equipment, recreation and sport areas.

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Certain Comoran students prefer to pursue their studies overseas, notably in Francophone countries. The Ministry of Education has little control over the movement of students or their courses. Most students are exposed to difficult study and living conditions which contribute to a high level of failure and dropout.

Education of young people and adults The education system and therefore Comoran society at large suffer ever greater losses with children leave schooling without having acquired literacy or learning. This contributes to the high level of illiteracy in the Comoros of 32.1 per cent. Almost 68 per cent of the population can therefore read and write in at least one language from the following three: French, Arabic or Comoran. The rate of illiteracy among women remains higher (48.2 per cent) than among men (34.7 per cent). Functional literacy is unfortunately a victim of the absence of a national policy for the development of the non-formal sector of adult and continuing education.

Management and administration of the education system The current administrative structure, marked as it is by the absence of any policy of development or of awareness of responsibility for human resources, suffers greatly from the lack of application of internationally acceptable standards. In addition, the management style contributes little to the development of initiative or improvement of ability. The role of the ministry in charge of education and training is characterized, among others aspects, by the following: ● ●

●

●

●

●

dispersal of qualifications and powers and absence of coordination; a weakness in putting into practice the strategic functions of planning, piloting, analysis, evaluation and follow-up in the education and training system; an absence of mechanisms and effective tools for management of human resources, finance and equipment; insufficient numbers of officials to formulate policies, and lack of qualifications; lack of reform of existing working practices with regard to tasks delegated to different bodies; absence of adequate means of communication within the ministry and between the ministry and the decentralized structures;

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the lack of status of people occupying administrative posts and the frequent changes of those occupying strategic posts; and lack of true partnership.

These weaknesses contribute greatly to the dysfunction of the education and training machine and hamper the work of the administration. Current work conditions do not permit the officers to be productive and above all to accomplish the mission that is given to them.

Administrative management The administrative structure at all levels of the education system suffers from unclear directives, badly defined procedures and insufficient planning. The introduction in 2003 of new institutions within the framework of the large degree of autonomy accorded to the islands has resulted in a progressive decentralization of the services and management of the education system. However the administrative structures and framework are inadequate to achieve their mission through piloting, control and evaluation of the education system because of a lack of training and appropriate resources. The central services do not always provide sufficient resources to follow and control decisions. This means that the management of the careers of the staff, and budget control are neither mastered nor controlled, possibly because the heads of establishments do not have the requisite qualifications. Furthermore, their appointment, which appears arbitrary, places them in a position of authority which creates a feeling of frustration among their subordinates, who are frequently threatened with sanctions. This contributes to a lack of motivation which affects teachers and translates into a high dropout rate and resignation from the profession. In fact one of the major problems of the Comoran education system is the massive exit of teachers due to lack of motivation. This lack of motivation stems from various causes of which the chief ones are as follows: ● ● ● ● ●

pay cuts and delays in payment, devaluation of the status of the teaching profession, mediocre physical conditions, difficulties of obtaining school books, and finally, the absence of a career path and of continuing training.

Among these reasons, pay arrears and late payment are the most important. Also the frequent movement of pupils and teachers during the school year

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obviously does not help the management and administration of the system. This can be illustrated by the operation of the teaching programmes at all levels of the system which are overseen by the structure of the inspection system (IGEN–CIPR) which must train teachers and monitor the application of these programmes. Unfortunately, there is insufficient teacher training at all levels of the system. The recent large numbers of educational advisers and inspectors for the secondary level trained by the University of the Comoros have not been able to cover all the needs of this sector.

Mobilization of financial resources in education Public expenditure on education The education sector, like all other sectors, suffers from the economic difficulties into which the country has been plunged in recent years. Apart from the public investment (infrastructure, buildings, etc.) made by multi- and bilateral partners, the financing of the education sector is provided from national resources which include the state budget and contributions from families, communities and the Comoran Diaspora. The state, through the 24 per cent of the budget allocated to education, supports the operation of the system despite the economic difficulties which have confronted the Comoros for a number of decades. The education budget represents 5.2 per cent of GDP. This effort bears witness to the commitment of the Comoran state and the willingness of public authorities to invest in the development of education and training. However, most of the education budget serves to pay the salaries of staff and the work of the administration. Primary education absorbs the largest part, 48 per cent.

Sources of finance Parents of pupils and the communities contribute more than 20 per cent to the cost of operating and investing in the education sector. It should be noted also that as well as this effort, communities and families take responsibility for remunerating certain voluntary teachers, as necessary, and the purchase of basic educational equipment. The University of the Comoros enjoys financial autonomy. It often operates from its own income, but compared with its needs, this is insufficient as it comes mainly from entrance fees. State participation in higher education institutions is limited to the payment of salaries.

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Community participation Communities are involved in the management of primary and both cycles of secondary establishments through the medium of school councils and administrative or establishment councils. Theoretically the members of the councils should possess the skills required to play the role which is assigned to them efficiently, following adequate training from which they have benefitted. In practice, there is a long way to go to obtain the desired results in this area. The education sector continues to benefit from the financial support of international organizations, such as the World Bank, UNICEF, UNESCO and the European Union and NGOs. Most of this investment is used for the construction and equipping of classrooms and for continuing teacher training.

Policy and strategies With respect to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the Comoro Islands is committed to trying to reach all, but especially those relating to education, namely: Goal 2 – to achieve universal primary education; Goal 3 – to promote gender equality and empower women; and Goal 7 – to ensure environmental sustainability.

The goal of education for all The Comoros, along with all the other countries on the planet, is committed collectively to deliver the following goals: ●

●

●

●

to expand and improve comprehensive early childhood care and education, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children; to ensure that by 2015 all children, particularly girls, children in difficult circumstances and those belonging to ethnic minorities, have access to and complete free and compulsory primary education of good quality; to ensure that the learning needs of all young people and adults are met through equitable access to appropriate learning and life skills programmes; to achieve a 50 per cent improvement in levels of adult literacy by 2015, especially for women, and equitable access to basic and continuing education for all adults;

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to eliminate gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2015, and achieve gender equality in education by 2015, with a focus on ensuring girls’ full and equal access to and achievement in basic education of good quality; to improve all aspects of the quality of education and ensure excellence of all so that recognized and measurable learning outcomes are achieved by all, especially in literacy, numeracy and essential life skills.

Unfortunately as is the case with many other less developed countries (LDCs) in ‘The South’, none of these goals has yet been realized, and will not be in the foreseeable future. The same is true of the United Nations Literacy Decade (2003–12) which aimed to be a major support for the goal of education for all. The decade aimed to put the focus on the needs of adults, with the goal of enabling every person, everywhere in the world, to be able to read and write, to communicate within the community, in society and further afield in the interests of human and environmental sustainability.

Current trends and goals in Comoran education The present education policy stems from the Education Act of 1996 following the General Assembly of 1994. This law announced the fundamental principles which would guide education until 2015, a year we have now reached. Thus the objectives today need to take into account the following large number of desirable achievements that have not yet been realized. These include to maximize the development of individual aptitudes and to produce people capable, each at his or her own level and according to his or her skills, of participating effectively in the economic and social development of the country. This means that there must be no discrimination in creating equality of opportunity to participate in meeting the needs of a contemporary society that is now globalized. So we must think and plan regionally and internationally as well as nationally. For education to make a meaningful contribution to this end, the quality of teaching at all levels must be improved, and family and community involvement integrated. A beginning from 2015 would be to lead all children of school age to the level of the Diploma of Elementary Education (DFEE) and 30 per cent to the level of baccalauréat, technical or professional, and this must be sustained in the medium and long terms, in addition to a thorough upgrading of all aspects of schooling at all stages, from preschool to upper secondary.

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Technical and vocational education need to be prioritized so that the necessary training for a range of skills is provided. This includes the encouragement of on-the-job training to aid the integration of those young people who have been trained and to improve the skills of those already in work. This will involve action on illiteracy among adults young and old, especially among women, and in relation to informal everyday education as well as in preparation for employment. Significant improvement is needed to make the higher education experience meaningful by creating new courses relevant to new challenges. This in turn requires an upgrading of university staff so that more have doctorallevel experience and qualifications. That will enable relevant research to be undertaken, which would enhance understanding at the local and national levels as well as engaging in more bilateral and multilateral international collaboration and cooperation. Human resources will thereby be upgraded and diversified. It has to be remembered that the Comoro Islands is a very small state. It is also a multi-island state and not part of any regional island cooperative grouping on the scale of those in the Caribbean and South Pacific. Rather it is adjacent to one of the most difficult areas of Africa, but at least there is some realization of the task ahead and some understanding of the role education will have to play if human and environmental sustainability is to be achieved.

List of Abbreviations BEP BEPC CE CEP CIPR CM CNH CP DEA DESS DEUG ECR EMSP ENA

Brevet d’études professionnelles Brevet d’études du premier cycle Cours élémentaire Certificat d’Etudes Primaire Circonscription d’inspection pédagogique régionale Cours moyen Centre National Horticole Cours préparatoire Diplôme d’études approfondies Diplôme d’études supérieures spécialisées Diplôme d’études universitaires générales Ecoles coraniques rénovées Ecole de Médecine et de Santé Publique Ecole Nationale d’Agriculture

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ENAC ENP ENTP EPT IFERE

Ecole Nationale d’Administration et de Commerce Ecole Nationale de Pêche Ecole Nationale Technique et Professionnelle Education pour tous Institut de Formation des Enseignants et de Recherche en Education IGEN Inspection Générale de l’Education Nationale ISFR Institut Supérieur de Formation et de Recyclage IUT Institut Universitaire de Technologie MEN Ministère de l’Education Nationale OFTP Office de Formation Technique et Professionnelle PIB Produit intérieur brut PNA / EPT Plan national d’action de l’Education pour tous UDC Université des Comores UNICEF Fonds des Nations Unies pour l’Enfance

Note 1 The original chapter was written by the author in French. Translation to English was done by Professor Colin Brock.

References Government of the Comoros Islands (1994). La Loi d’Orientation de l’Education. Government of the Comoros Islands (2010). Le Plan Directeur de l’Education 2010-2015. Government of the Comoros Islands (2012a). Le Rapport d’Etat du Systeme Educative Comorien (RESEN). Government of the Comoros Islands (2012b). La Lettre de Politique Educative des Comoros, Vision 2020. Government of the Comoros Islands (2012c). La Note de Cadrage de la Politique Educative a l’Horizon 2020. Government of the Comoros Islands (2014). Le Document de Strategie de Croissance Acceleree et de Developpement Durable (SCA2D) 2015–2019.

15

The Maldives: An Overview Ibrahim Lirar

Introduction The Maldives are situated in the Indian Ocean, southwest of India, and consist of approximately 1,190 coral islands grouped in a double chain of twenty-six atolls. Spread over roughly 90,000 square kilometres it is the smallest country in Asia in terms of land area and population. Composed entirely of live coral reefs and sand bars, the atolls are situated atop a submarine ridge 960 kilometres long which rises abruptly from the depths of the Indian Ocean and runs from north to south. The country is divided into twenty-one administrative divisions (twenty administrative atolls and Malé City) with 200 inhabited islands and 105 tourist resorts islands. The largest island in the Maldives is Gan in Laamu Atoll; it measures 7.8 kilometres in length and 3.4 kilometres in width. Malé is the capital island of the Maldives; the ancient royal dynasties ruled here and power has been centralized here traditionally. The name ‘Maldives’ may derive from the Sanskrit mālā (garland) and dvīpa (island). In ancient times Malé was also called ‘Mahal’, considered to be the origin of ‘Mahal Dvipa’ or ‘Malé dvip’. A study of the names shows that in the ninth, tenth and eleventh centuries, the original Mahal Dvipa became Arabicized by Middle Eastern travellers, to Mahaldib, and later anglicized by the British Empire to emerge in its present form of Maldives. However, throughout its history Maldivians have used the name ‘Dhivehi Raajje’ to refer to their country, meaning ‘The Country of the Dhivehi People’. Buddhism is believed to have been brought to the country during the Maurayan Dynasty circa 300 bc and went on to become the dominant religion of the country. All archaeological remains consist mainly of Buddhist stupa,

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monasteries and iconography. The Maldives had a strategic importance because of its location on the major marine routes of the Indian Ocean. Its nearest neighbours are Sri Lanka and India, both of which have had cultural and economic ties with Maldives for centuries. The Maldives provided the main source of cowrie shells, which were then used as a currency throughout Asia and parts of the East African coast. By the twelfth century ad, trade in the Indian Ocean was largely dominated by Arabs and the whole of Maldives converted to Islam in 1153 ad under King Donei Kalaminja. Little written record from the pre-Islamic era, popularly known as Jaahiliya Zamaan (times of ignorance), survived to the present day. The Portuguese ruled the Maldives for a brief fifteen years, 1558–73 ad and were defeated by local militia. Although the Maldives never became an official colony of any European country it became a protectorate of the British Empire in 1887. The British Empire took no official part in the local matters and the country was left to govern itself based on centuries-old Islamic customs. Maldives remained a British crown protectorate until 1953 when the sultanate was suspended and the First Republic was declared under the shortlived presidency of Mohamed Amin Didi. On 26 July 1965, Maldives gained independence under an agreement signed with UK. In a national referendum in March 1968, Maldivians abolished the sultanate and established a republic. The Maldivian language Dhivehi is an Indo-Aryan language, descendent of Maharashtri Prakrit and closely related to Marathi, Konkani and Sinhalese languages, but not mutually intelligible with them. Many languages have influenced the development of the Maldivian language through the ages. The influence of Arabic language in Dhivehi is the most obvious, especially since Arabic is required in the religious practices of Islam. Others include French, Persian, Portuguese, Hindustani and English. Although Dhivehi is not as prolific as English or Arabic, it too has managed to add itself onto the dictionary. The word ‘atoll’ (a ring of coral islands or reefs) is an Anglicized form of the Maldivian word ‘Atholhu’. Dhivehi Akuru is a script formerly used to write the Dhivehi language. Unlike the modern Thaana script, Dhivehi Akuru has its origins in the Brahmi script and is written from left to right. The main reason why the Dhivehi Akuru was abandoned in favour of the Thaana script was the need for the learned Maldivians to include words and sentences in Arabic while writing in the Dhivehi language. Thaana is the first Dhivehi language script written from right to left. It was inspired by numbers and uses numerals as consonants and adds the diacritical (vowel) marks of the Arabic language. A significant feature of Dhivehi language,

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culture and traditions is the hierarchy within the Dhivehi language. There are three levels of Dhivehi language, which are in accordance with the social stratification of Maldivians. The first level is for nobility – kings, royalty and Malé’ elite. They are at the top of the social hierarchy. The second level is for the lower caste order which is the general Malé populace, island chiefs, atoll chiefs, judges and imams. The third and the lowest level of the pecking order is the rest of the population. This social hierarchy is accepted by everyone and believed to be hereditary. A person living in a local island believes that a Malé person is superior in every way, and the same is felt by the Malé person towards the local island person, who in his eyes is an inferior being. These levels are distinguished within Dhivehi language from the way people talk to one another within society. For example, if one is addressing the king, the words used are ultra-formal with divine reverence. As the levels go down, the words become less and less formal and official. These levels highlight the social stratification of the Maldivian population. This hierarchy resembles that of the Indian caste system. Access to education opportunities were determined according to the pecking order up until the abolishment of the monarchy in 1960s. The geographical isolation, scattered nature of islands and dispersed small populations are formative factors determining all aspects of the Maldivian life, including education. Limitations of travel challenge resource distribution and communication due to the vast distances and great bodies of water between the island communities. Over time some communities develop mastery of certain skills and knowledge, traditions, culture and dialects of Dhivehi language unique to the particular island community or atoll. Crafts such as lacquer work art in Thulhaadhoo, Baa Atoll and mat weaving in Gaddhoo are unique skills that are largely exclusive to these communities. These skills were part of the education and knowledge taught and passed down from one generation to the next.

Local curriculum Maldivians have been always focused on acquiring knowledge, according to particular times and periods. Even in 1153 ad when the country adopted Islam, one could tell that they were bright and intelligent, from the structures built and the tools used. From the twelfth century ad to mid-twentieth century ad, the educational curriculum and the core knowledge, which was passed down from generation to generation, was local knowledge. Curriculum is defined as the totality of student experiences that occurs in the educational process. This

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local knowledge composes the traditions of Maldivian people (‘tradition’ means the sum of all information inherited from one’s ancestor). The Maldivian tradition draws influence from different cultures and is a mixture of different South Asian, African, Middle Eastern and Southeast Asian ethnic origins. The first settlers of the Maldive Islands were Dravidians from South India. The people of Giraavaru, an island located in Malé Atoll (now a tourist resort, after its inhabitants were removed), are considered the first settlers and claimed ancestry from the ancient Tamil people. According to Xavier Romero Frias (2003), there is no written record of the exact date when the first settlers arrived in the Maldives, only conjectures, which he estimates to be thousands of years before the Common Era. Ever since converting to Islam, Islamic education and religious practices have been an integral part of the Maldivian lifestyle, as strict observance of daily religious rituals is an important aspect of the daily life. In the seventeenth century French travellers recorded that Maldivians are immersed in religious duties and rituals. Thus, Islam and religious knowledge has been an essential part of the core information that was passed down from one generation to the next. For this reason perhaps, travelling Islamic missionaries and scholars were welcomed and given both high decree and respect in the Maldives, such as the fourteenth-century Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta, who was appointed as a chief judge at one point. Except for court orders, religious texts, historical records and other official documents issued by the king, written information was not used much. Although the public knew how to write Quranic verses and read the Dhivehi script, writing of the latter was only practised under the authority of the king and by few scholars or educated men. Knowledge of the immediate environment is one of the most crucial aspects of any curriculum. Every island of the Maldives is surrounded by a reef, and tuna fishery has been the lifeline of the Maldivian communities since time immemorial; other knowledge and specialized skills such as navigation, astronomy, medicine (Ayurveda), shamanism (fanditha; folk medicine, charms and black magic), boat building, and coir rope making and masonry (coral) are crafts that Maldivians were proficient and dependent on. These crafts and skills were practised and taught in apprenticeship style, passed from master to students, father to son, mostly hereditary and orally. This encompasses the general traditional core knowledge, which was duplicated and passed along efficiently, generation by generation, well into the twentieth century. The king, being the most powerful entity, ensured that

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everyone had the basic religious knowledge (reading and writing Quranic verses), arithmetic skills and practical skills (including specialized and technical skills). This system was maintained by sending regular court officials, judges and atoll chiefs to local communities to carry out random knowledge review tests of individuals from the public. In this informal schooling model, the teachers were the learned elders of the islands. Even though the king set the minimum religious education standard expected from the public, it was the parents of the children who decided the extent of knowledge and who taught the children. The place where the learned elders used to teach was known as ‘Edhuruge’. Children between the age of 3 and 15 years learned to recite Quran, prayers and other religious education. These Edhuruges were the residence of the teacher; no fee was collected for the education provided by the teacher even though it was practised as a livelihood. In return the parents gladly assisted the teacher’s needs. Often, students participated and helped in household work and chores for the teacher. The success of this localized curriculum can be measured by the way it has sustained the knowledge through the long lines of generations. Even though the curriculum and knowledge led to development, it preserved the tradition and culture of the Maldives. Due to little external foreign influence at that time, the need for a change in the education curriculum was not realized until the nineteenth century.

Institutionalization of local curriculum Maldives was never formally colonized by any European nation. Besides the brief Portuguese invasion in 1558, Maldives has always retained its sovereignty throughout history. In 1887 circumstances changed and the Maldives officially became a protectorate state of the British Empire. This required communication and interaction with the British and the need for English speakers became obvious. External factors have boosted the need for a broader education in the Maldives. This led to the first formal structuring of education with the state directly being involved in the education process. When the Maldives became a protectorate of the British Empire, Maldivians were sent abroad for the first time, for the sole purpose of studying English in countries like India and Sri Lanka (then known as Ceylon) by being sponsored by the state. Meanwhile, the first state-funded school, ‘Madhrasathul Salahiyya’, was opened in Malé in 1927 with sixty-nine students. During the inauguration

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ceremony, the scholar Sheikh Hussain Salahuddin said, ‘Today we commence state provided education officially.’ Indeed, the education that learned elders and scholars provided to students independently was now being provided by the state. Subjects such as Dhivehi, Arabic, theology and mathematics were taught at this school. The future president Mohamed Amin Didi was among this first wave of students sent abroad for English education. Upon his return to the Maldives, he worked initially as the bureau head of education. He formalized a self-sustaining education structure for the whole of Maldives. The Edhuruge remained the first education experience, which covered basic Arabic and Dhivehi reading and writing skills. A new institution called ‘Makhthab’ was created in every island, followed by an ‘Atolhu Madharusa’ (Atoll school) in every atoll. Students who completed these two levels graduated to schools in Malé, which were then Madhrasathul Saniyya (former Madhrasathul Salahiyya) for boys and Madhrasathul Aminiya for girls. Beyond the Malé schools, scholarships were awarded for outstanding students to study abroad in Egypt, Sri Lanka and India. The Makhthab provided the highest education at island community level, followed by an Atolhu Madharusa, which was established in the capital island of every atoll. Both these institutions were under the island chief and atoll chief respectively. They were active participants in the education process. Teachers were pooled from different islands within the atoll if available, and if not, from Malé. Education provided at Atolhu Madharusa was more formal than the Makhthab; classes were scheduled with timetables and examinations, and awards were given to students. However, children did not wear uniforms but instead topi and sash. The highest quality and broadest form of education available within the atoll was provided for the students in Atolhu Madharusa including English language. As children advanced through the levels, the education they received and subjects they learnt were broadened. Subjects such as Urdu, geography, history and English were taught in Atolhu Madharusa (the Atoll Chief Office funded these Atolhu Madharusas). All the subjects and their contents were written in Dhivehi and taught by Maldivian teachers. Books that were used in academia, except foreign-language-oriented books, were largely written by locals and even by President Mohamed Amin himself. Students who graduated the Atolhu Madharusas were transferred to Malé to receive secondary-level education. The government provided boarding for the students, and their respective island community provided them pocket money.

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Teachers who taught in Malé schools were the most educated individuals in the country. Most of them completed their education abroad and the curriculum they taught was inspired by the education they received abroad. However, the curriculum was modified to fit the local realities. By 1940, the minimum education standard was constitutionalized and educational opportunity was granted to both male and female students. It was the structure laid by President Mohamed Amin that enabled the country to achieve its goal set by the constitution in relation to education. Valuing the importance of education, he also opened the first national library in 1945. The new structure of education led to the discrimination of education quality level between Malé and the atoll population. As secondary education was only available in Malé, students had to move there. Furthermore, education in atoll capital islands was given priority over other islands. During President Mohamed Amin’s reign, education was given high priority and he was actively involved in the education work. His vision for an educated modern Maldivian youth leading the future of the country can be observed in the structure he laid out and the reforms he made. However, when his government changed in 1953, the education system in local islands and atolls declined and ultimately came to a standstill, whereas schools in Malé continued and eventually went on to introduce English-medium education for the first time in the country.

English-medium education The political leadership played a decisive role in determining the direction, scope and curriculum of education throughout the history of education in the Maldives. For instance, the concept of Makhthabs and Atolhu Madharusas was first conceived under Mohamed Amin Didi’s presidency. The advent of globalization and the subsequent decolonization post-Second World War saw the Maldives gain its independence from the UK. The president of the new republic (second republic), President Ibrahim Nasir, accomplished this immense mission through decades of negotiations and trade deals with the British amid civil unrest and rebellion in the country. This was a whole new chapter for the Maldives, traditions and customs that appeared as barriers to the progress and modernization of the country were removed and dismantled one by one.

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Civil servants were required to wear trousers and ties to work instead of the traditional ‘mundu’. Government radio channels began to broadcast short news in English. The government started using Latinized Maldivian script for official communication and to teach Dhivehi in schools. Tourism began in 1972. Maldivian economy, previously controlled largely by Indian Borah merchants, was brought back under the control of the government. Further, the first airport was built, the zeitgeist of time headed towards modernization even at the expense of tradition, heritage and cultural identity. Along with these obstacles for development were some of the major important changes the previous regime (President Mohamed Amin) discarded, including the education structure he worked hard to implement. President Nasir brought Sri Lankan teachers and started the Englishmedium education in Malé. All the books, subject curriculum and teachers were brought from outside, except for subjects such as Dhivehi, Islam and environmental studies. Teachers using this new curriculum taught students the glorious and mighty ways of the British Empire. It was traditional colonial era education imported from Sri Lanka (formerly known as Ceylon). However, this curriculum was considered to be archaic compared to the English education standard of the day even if it was similar to the style taught in English schools. There was no Maldivian study or local sense in it and local Maldivians struggled to fully comprehend the somewhat one-sided focus on the colonial viewpoint. This English-medium educational opportunity was only accessible for Malé’s population. Local islands in other atolls did not receive this opportunity until 1978, when the first government school opened in Eydhafushi, Baa Atoll. The Makhthabs and Atolhu Madharusas created by the former regime were ignored, neglected and eventually collapsed. As a result, literacy and education level in other islands outside Malé began to drop sharply. The two government schools, Madhrasatul Saniyya (now renamed Madhrasatul Majeediyaa) and Madhrasatul Aminiya (all-girls school), started GCSE O Level secondary education. The reason behind introducing GCSE O Level education is believed to be mostly economical but the cost of sending students abroad to Sri Lanka was increasing and Sri Lankan schools had by then started Sinhala (Sri Lankan language)-medium education. These new changes gave equal opportunities for the Malé population. The favouritism towards noble families began to diminish. However, students from

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other atolls were severely discriminated against in terms of the opportunities and the quality of education they received. Maldives joined the United Nations in 1978. This required complying with the education resolutions and conditions of being a member state of the United Nations. Funding, consultation and technical assistance to improve the Maldivian education started becoming available. The introduction of English medium allowed Maldivian students to pursuit tertiary education abroad. Maldivian students now have the opportunity for higher education in countries such as Australia, New Zealand, England, France and Japan. International relationships and diplomacy improved as well due to the new policy.

Globalized education The start of the English-medium education in Malé was the beginning of globalized education. This new education was implemented and provided with the assistance of international organizations such as the United Nations. Once again with the change in political leadership, new curriculum and direction for education was decided in the Maldives. Highly educated individuals who received education abroad dominated the Maldivian political leadership. Their vision for education in the Maldives was to create individuals who are deeply rooted in an Islamic Maldivian society, loyal to the nation and capable of practical skills that are required to serve the country. A new unified education curriculum was devised with the assistance of international organization in 1984. The focus of this new curriculum was to improve primary school education and make it accessible to all of Maldives. This meant creating new institutions, training teachers, building schools, creating subject curriculum and in that process, an entire education system. Despite obstacles and shortcomings, all the goals of the first education master plan were achieved. By 1995, the government was administering the new curriculum in fifty schools in the atolls and nine schools in Malé. This new curriculum consisted of globalized education and traditional knowledge. All subjects except Islam and Dhivehi language were taught in English. A new subject, ‘fisheries science’, was created for GCSE O Level using local knowledge and content. GCSE A Level education started with science subjects and then expanded to include business and arts subjects. Although primary and secondary education were now accessible and available for everyone, the quality of education differs very much in the atolls compared to the capital Malé.

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This is due to economic reasons. Famines during and after the Second World War, and an increased debt to Borah merchants drained the government resources. The government carried out education and school management programmes which further strained the government budget. Despite reaching the goals and targets of education master plans by 2010, only 27 per cent of the students passed the GCSE O Level examination.

Outcome-based curriculum The education curriculum was under review again in 2008 with the election of a new, more liberal democratic government. The National Institute of Education’s framework for the new curriculum envisioned creating confident and competent individuals who have a strong national identity, belief in Islam and are motivated to explore and create knowledge to contribute for the good of the country, community and own family. The principles of this curriculum are based on Islam, national identity and culture, holistic development, personal excellence, inclusivity, preparation for life and relevance. It places great emphasis on encouraging young students to adopt deeply held values which are shared within the society. The key competencies targeted for the students are practising Islam, understanding and managing self, creative and critical thinking, relating to people, making meaning, living a healthy life, sustainable practices and using technology and media. The four main phases of schooling identified are foundation, primary, lower secondary and higher secondary. Each phase targets a specific age group and developmental level. The focus of learning and its pedagogy differ from phase to phase, and each one ensures creating positive learning experiences as to foster their holistic development and promote optimum learning. At each phase, the learning outcomes that students are expected to achieve are specified. At primary, lower secondary and higher secondary levels the learning outcomes are further divided into key stages. These key stages enable the categorization of the students’ progress and allow achievable future targets to be set.

Foundation phase The foundation phase caters to the children between 4 and 6 years of age. The aim of the foundation phase is to ensure that young children have access to holistic, play-based learning experiences that support their development of coordination skills, psychomotor skills as well as their aptitudes. At this phase,

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learning should be fun for children and should motivate them to engage in learning. The early years of learning should, especially, protect and promote children’s well-being, and should provide a strong foundation for lifelong learning. The focus of learning at this phase is on experience and play, and does not offer separate subjects. Instead, an integrated approach to learning and development is adopted. Most of the learning in this phase relates to skills rather than knowledge, and learning activities should be planned in a way that children are engaged in experiencing all key learning areas. For a smooth transition from this phase to the next, building students’ confidence and self-esteem is a priority. Likewise, literacy and numeracy should be encouraged. In addition, teachers should observe and record student achievements in various forms. Over time, a portfolio with annotated samples, teacher notes and photographs and the child’s efforts need to be produced as evidence of learning.

Primary phase The primary phase of school education begins at key stage 1 (grades 1–3) and ends at key stage 2 (grades 4–6). The six years of primary education are compulsory. The purpose of primary education is to create a love for learning and to provide a foundation of skills for lifelong learning. In primary school, opportunities will be provided for students to enjoy learning, explore and discover new knowledge, demonstrate different methods of presenting information and creating knowledge. Learning will be focused on them taking risks, learning from mistakes and achievement. They will be encouraged to become independent learners. They will be exposed to a wide range of experiences and activities that develop essential knowledge, skills and values.

Lower secondary The lower secondary education is a four-year phase, divided into two key stages (key stage 3 and 4). During this phase, students continue to develop a range of knowledge, skills, values and attitudes that enable them to become enterprising, productive, creative and law-abiding members of the society who have a firm grounding in moral and Islamic values. This phase of schooling allows students to explore possible career pathways, and prepares them for higher education, for employment and for life.

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Key stage 3 acts as a bridging stage between the primary and secondary phases, with students being offered a balance of subjects from all key learning areas. When they progress to key stage 4, students have a range of electives to choose from, and it is expected that the foundation laid for the different key learning areas in previous key stages will assist students to make the right choices and allow them to understand where their skills and interests lie.

Higher secondary phase The higher secondary phase is the two-year period students spend at key stage 5. These last two years of school education provide a platform for exploring an in-depth understanding of specialized areas that would prepare students for higher education and employment.

Key learning areas There are eight key learning areas which define the knowledge, understanding, skills, attitudes and values that all young people need to acquire in order to be successful, confident, competent, responsible and productive individuals. All these eight key learning areas are essential for a broad and balanced education that promotes students’ holistic development. The curriculum is organized in such a way that all students undertake learning in all eight areas during the two foundation years as well as during the six years of primary education (grades 1–6) and the first two years (grades 7 and 8) of lower secondary education. By the end of key stage 3 it is expected that all students would have a strong foundation in all key learning areas, and be ready to focus on some areas in depth. However, even at this stage, it is recommended that students select their subjects from a range of key learning areas, rather than limiting themselves to a few. The key learning areas are: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Islam and spirituality Language and communication Mathematics Environment, science and technology Health and well-being

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6. Social sciences 7. Creative arts 8. Entrepreneurship This curriculum was rolled out in 2012 and by the end of 2015 completed key stage 5. Certain accountability measures are considered to determine the success of the curriculum: National standard: A variety of assessment methods provide teachers with evidence of what students know and can do, and their particular strengths and weaknesses. The overall academic performance of the students such as endof-year results, results of diagnostic tests and performance on various national measures can be used to evaluate the success of students’ learning in academic and extracurricular fields. Positive behaviour: Students adhering to Islamic principles and displaying positive behaviour in the society are considered as essential components that determine the success of the curriculum. Intentional design and creative and thoughtful planning are essential to achieve this. Better choices: The general choices that students take in life are a mark of their thinking and attitudes towards various aspects of life. This component encompasses all areas of life, including the economic, social and health choices that students make. Contribution to society: This curriculum encourages students to participate in various activities that contribute to the welfare of the society such as voluntary participation in various community activities. Parents and the broader community play a vital role in supporting successful learning experiences and outcomes for children. This framework is about schools engaging with parents and communities to work together to maximize student engagement in society. Further education and employment: A clear indicator of the success of the curriculum is related to the number of students who develop their knowledge and understanding of education, training and employment options, and develop skills to effectively manage their careers and pathways throughout their lives as lifelong learners. Education, its curriculums and methods have changed over the years and will continue to do so to fit the existing needs of the society or to tackle the problems that are faced in the field of education. So far this has been the story of education in the Maldives.

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References Asian Development Bank (2004). ‘Technical assistance to the Republic of Maldives for strengthening the framework of education towards Vision 2020’. Bell, H. C. P. (2002). The Maldives Islands: Monograph on the History, Archeology and Epigraphy. Colombo: Novelty Printers & Publishers. Frias, X. R. (2003). The Maldive Islanders – A study of the popular culture of an ancient ocean kingdom. Barcelona: Nova Ethnographia Indica. Fritz, S. (2002). The Dhivehi Language: A Descriptive and Historical Grammar of Maldivian and Its Dialects. Heidelberg: Sudasien-Institut. Geiger, W. (1996). Maldivian Linguistic Studies. New Delhi: Asian Educational Services. Hogendorn, J. and Johnson, M. (1986). The Shell Money of Slavery. Cambridge: Cambridge University of Press. Ibn Battuta and Gray, A. (1999). Ibn Battuta in the Maldives and Ceylon. New Delhi: Asian Educational Services. Lutfee, M. I. (1999). Divehiraajjege Jōgrafīge Vanavaru. Lutfi, M. (2011). Dhivehi Raajjeyge School Manhajaai Thauleem. Ministry of Education Maldives (2009). ‘Policy Planning and Research Section: School statistic 2008’. Ministry of Education Maldives (2015). ‘National Curriculum Frameworks’, National Institute of Education. Ministry of Finance & Treasury Maldives (2014). National Bureau of Statistics, Population & Housing Census 2014: Statistical release 1. Mohamed, A. M. and Ahmed, M. A. (1999). ‘Maldives: Education Policies, Curriculum Design and Implementation at the Level of Upper Primary and General Secondary Education’. In D. B. Rao (ed.), Globalization and Living Together, 182–93. New Delhi: Discovery Publishing House. Pyrard, F. (1887). The Voyage of Francois Pyrard of Laval to the East Indies, the Maldives, the Moluccas and Brazil. London: Printed for the Hakluyt Society. Shiuna, M. and Sodiq, A. (2013). ‘Improving Education in the Maldives: Stakeholder Perspectives on the Maldivian Education Sector’. www.maldivesresearch.org. [Accessed 20 August 2016] UNESCO (2011). ‘World Data on Education 2010/11’.

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Mauritius: Unlocking the Hidden Value of Educational Sustainability Kumar Dookhitram, Chandradeo Bokhoree and Hemant B. Chittoo

Economic, social and demographic background The Republic of Mauritius, positioned about 5,500 kilometres off South Asia, encompasses a cluster of islands in the Indian Ocean. The main island, Mauritius, is of volcanic origin (The ocean economy: A roadmap for Mauritius, 2013), with a surface area of approximately 1,950 square kilometres, and is situated at longitude 57° 30´ east and latitude 20° 00´ south, roughly 900 kilometres east of Madagascar, and is part of the Mascarene Islands. As per the Constitution of Mauritius, the territory of Mauritius contains the main island of Mauritius; the Agalega Islands situated 933 kilometres north of the main island; the islands of Cardagos Carajos (St Brandon group) positioned about 402 kilometres north of the main island; the Chagos Archipelago, which lies nearly 2,200 kilometres northeast of the main island; Tromelin, to be found roughly 580 kilometres northwest of the main island; and Rodrigues Island, found almost 560 kilometres east of Mauritius. Following the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the Republic of Mauritius has autonomous rights to living and nonliving resources of the waters, the seabed and the subsoil in an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) spreading to 200 nautical miles from the baseline around all islands which form part of its territory; and over the natural resources on the seabed and subsoil of its Continental Shelf. At present, the total area of the EEZ (The ocean economy: A roadmap for Mauritius, 2013) and the Continental Shelf over which the Republic of Mauritius has numerous rights is approximately 2.3 million square kilometres, which includes a 390,000 square kilometre seabed and subsoil area under Joint Management Agreement with the Republic of Seychelles.

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Mauritius, which was a desert island and at no time had an aboriginal population, was first discovered by the Portuguese in 1513. The Dutch settled in the island in the late seventeenth century and abandoned it in 1710. Then came the French, who settled in the island from 1725 to 1810. Throughout the French colonization, the island developed the physiognomies of a civilization and established the economic, educational and cultural configurations. In 1810, Mauritius was occupied by the British who brought together a magnitude of alterations in the island in many arenas and primarily in the education sector. Mauritius converted into an independent sovereign state on 12 March 1968 with a democratically elected government, founded on the Westminster model. In 1992, Mauritius became a republic, with a non-elected president as head of state. The society of the Republic of Mauritius is plural and the population is estimated to be 1.3 million (Statistics Mauritius, 2015). The population consists of immigrants and descendants of immigrants from three continents, namely, Europe, Africa and Asia. Further, the population is categorized into three main groups, namely, the Indo-Mauritians, the general population (Mauritians of African and French descendants) and the Sino-Mauritians. The Republic of Mauritius has a complex language situation due to the diverse ethnic origins. Though English is the official language, French Creole is spoken by almost the entire population. Besides English and French, Hindi, Urdu, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Gujrati, Bhojpuri, Hakka, Cantonese and Mandarin are also spoken. The country has an effective network of mass media. Numerous daily and weekly newspapers are published, mainly in French. The radio and television transmissions are in English, French, Creole and Oriental vernaculars. The island of Mauritius has no natural resources and is vulnerable to climate change. Despite the global economic uncertainties, Mauritius continues to establish a positive growth. Nonetheless, due to the island’s dependency on trade, foreign direct investment and tourists, the economic growth has been affected by the economic slowdown in the Eurozone. In 2014, the gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate was registered to 3.5 per cent, below initial predictions of 3.7–4.0 per cent. This decrease is partly due to the unfortunate performance of the construction sector which dropped by 6.4 per cent. However, over the past decade, economic growth has been sustained by the trade, tourism, financial services and ICT sectors which raised respectively by 3.2 per cent, 4.1 per cent, 5.4 per cent and 6.4 per cent in 2014 (Statistics Mauritius, 2015).

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The Mauritian educational system The Mauritian educational system, inspired by the British education, is based on the ideologies of equity, justice and social inclusion. Education encourages democratization of the Mauritian society whereby each child, including those with special needs and having certain inherent or acquired talents, has an equitable place for individual growth and overall improvement. In addition to the above ideologies, quality is the keystone of all educational activities. With the continuous instabilities at global and national levels, quality education may enable employability of the young Mauritians in new sectors of economy as well as preserving their moral integrity and sense of caring for all the other members of the society. The Republic of Mauritius has a 6-5-2 education configuration (Education and Human Resources Strategy Plan 2008–2020, 2008). The first six years are obligatory primary education from grade 1 to grade 6 followed by a Certificate of Primary Education. The next five years are secondary schooling from form I to form V ending with the Cambridge School Certificate. The last two years at secondary education lead to the Cambridge Higher School Certificate. Following the introduction of the eleven-year schooling from January 2005 onwards, education in the Republic of Mauritius is now necessary up to the age of 16. For the year 2014, the annual expenditure on education and training was around MUR 15,371 million, representing 13.5 per cent of total expenditure.

Pre-primary education sector Nearly all children aged 3–5 attend pre-primary schools which are under the responsibility of the Ministry of Education and Human Resources, Tertiary Education and Scientific Research. There are around 957 pre-primary schools that are legitimately registered with the ministry. Among them, 178 are government pre-primary. In March 2014, a total of 30,142 children enrolled, of whom around 50 per cent were boys. The government has offered aid to the sector through grants to Parent – Teacher Associations, soft-term loans for the development of the schools, equipment and basic kits, setting up of a Preschool Trust Fund, operating resource centres and a toy library, teacher training and making buildings available for the running of pre-primary classes. Furthermore, a monthly support of MUR 200 involving

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a voucher system is prearranged for all children above the age of 3 who are registered in pre-primary schools. The pre-primary curriculum gives importance to the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values that are essential constituents to be learnt and nurtured during the pre-primary years. The learning areas at pre-primary level focus on: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Personal, social and emotional development Communication, language and literacy Expressive, creative and aesthetic development Health and physical development Body and environmental awareness Mathematical and logical thinking

Primary education sector Primary education is free and was made obligatory from 1991 onwards. Till date, Mauritius has 215 government primary schools, 48 private-aided primary schools and 32 private unaided primary schools. The island of Rodrigues has 8 government primary schools and 5 private-aided ones. The Agalega islands consist of 2 government primary schools. As of March 2014, 103,686 students enrolled, of whom 49 per cent were girls. In addition to free primary education, the government offers free textbooks, medical care and training of teachers. Until 1996, with the help of the World Food Programme, the schools also provided meals. Children enter grade 1 at the age of five. Up to 1982, a Primary School Leaving Certificate was attained at the end of six or seven years of primary schooling followed by a Junior Scholarships Examination. Passing the scholarship examination entitled students to assistance from scholarships and admittance to limited seats in a few designated government secondary schools. In 1982, the two examinations were combined into one single examination, now recognized as the Certificate of Primary Examination (CPE). Till 2001, the routine of the CPE was mainly for certification purposes and for ranking students for getting a seat to the higher-rated secondary schools. However, from the year 2002, the ranking system has been abolished and now a grading system is used in its place. Earlier, the curriculum corresponding to the CPE included the subjects: English, French, mathematics, environmental studies (EVS), creative arts, physical education and Asian languages/Arabic. Now, EVS has been divided into science, history/geography. New subjects

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have been contained within the curriculum, namely, arts and Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Physical education has been renamed to health and physical education. To allow the young people of the republic to acquire the basic aspects of ICT, the government introduced the School Information Technology Project in 2002. In June 2003, on an experimental basis, the government launched the Numeracy and Literacy Strategy in all schools. The goal of this strategy was to guarantee that all children completing primary school have learnt basic literacy and numeracy skills. As from the year 2002, the government has developed special educational programmes in some of the primary schools of the republic with the aim of enhancing CPE results in the low achieving schools. The programmes are collectively now known as Zones d’Education Prioritaires (ZEP). These ZEP schools are provided with special support by the government in terms of pedagogical resources, nourishment and incentives for instructors. At present, the republic comprises of thirty ZEP schools. Students who fail the CPE twice or who have attained the age of 12 but were unsuccessful in the CPE are enrolled in a pre-vocational stream, with specific skills-based curriculum.

Secondary education sector Similar to primary level, secondary education is free. Till date, Mauritius has 68 state schools and 103 private schools providing free secondary education. In Agalega and Rodrigues islands, there are respectively one and six private secondary schools. Most of the private schools are granted government funds via the Private Secondary Schools Authority which also offers technical guidance. A loan scheme has also been established to allow the private schools to finance infrastructural development. Presently there are 21 fee paying schools in Mauritius. Total enrolment increased from 87,177 in 1994 to around 110,000 in 2005 and to 114,239 in 2014. Apart from free education, the government offers textbooks to needy students in secondary schools. Before 2015, the government provided assistance to needy students to help pay the secondary examination fees but now this is fully subsidized. Secondary education is divided into lower and upper secondary levels. The lower secondary level is the first five years of studies which leads to the School Certificate (SC). The upper secondary level, after 2 supplementary years of education, leads to the Higher School Certificate (HSC). Both examinations are in collaboration with the University of Cambridge Examinations Syndicate.

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The curriculum has been continuously broadened to take into account more technical-oriented subjects with respect to the ever-evolving societal needs. Students have the choice to enter either the arts, economics, science or technical streams. The pass rate at SC has gradually increased from 65.9 per cent in 1994 to 75.0 per cent in 2013, and for HSC from 63.3 per cent in 1994 to 77.9 per cent in 2013. Based on the Education and Human Resource Strategy Plan (2008–2020) recommendations, the government introduced a National Assessment at form III in 2010 as a pilot project. The pilot project was carried out in 33 secondary schools for only four subjects – computer studies and literacy, English, French and mathematics. The aim of the National Assessment is twofold. First, to evaluate the level of competencies attained by students. Second, to develop proper remedial action so that the transition to upper secondary is as seamless as possible. In 2011, the pilot basis was extended to 139 secondary schools with science as an additional subject. The 2012 pilot consisted of 155 secondary schools, but with the science subject examined as three separate subjects, namely, biology, chemistry and physics. From the year 2013 onwards the National Assessment Form III is being implemented in all secondary schools in Mauritius and Rodrigues. The students are assessed in the same subjects as in year 2012.

Pre-vocational education sector Currently, Mauritius has around 127 secondary schools with pre-vocational streams and Rodrigues follows with 5 secondary schools. The enrolment as in March 2014 was 10,391 students with the boys constituting 65 per cent of this number. The student – teacher ratio was 11.

Technical and vocational education sector In 2013, there were 10,463 pupils enrolled with 43 per cent in full-time courses, 45 per cent in part-time courses and 2 per cent in apprenticeship courses. A polytechnic and a non-engineering polytechnic were set up to provide technical education. The Lycee Polytechnique of Flacq provides middle-level technical training in auto-mechanics, building construction, electronics, electro-technics, maintenance mechanics and production. Two Industrial Trade Training Centres are dedicated for short courses in concrete work, masonry, pipe fitting and plumbing.

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Tertiary education sector Since 1968, the tertiary education sector in Mauritius has achieved significant transformation. Today, the tertiary landscape has expanded with ten publicly funded tertiary education institutions, namely, University of Mauritius, the University of Technology, Mauritius, the Mauritius Institute of Education, the Mahatma Gandhi Institute, the Rabindranath Tagore Institute, Open University of Mauritius, Univeristé des Mascareignes, the Mauritius Institute of Training and Development, Mauritius Institute of Health and the Fashion and Design Institute. The programmes offered in these public institutions are wide ranging and consist of agriculture, engineering, law and management, science, and social studies and humanities. These courses are offered at various levels, namely, certificate, diploma, bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral. The mode of these tertiary courses is quite flexible, which includes full-time, part-time and distance learning. There are also some fifty private institutions that have joined this sector in offering all types of programmes in several disciplines. As of December 2013, the total number of students reached 50,579. Of them, 47 per cent were enrolled in public-funded institution, whereas only 18 per cent enrolled in international institutions.

Political will for the education sector With the upsurge of political movement in 1940, the importance of education in Mauritius began to increase as a means for social mobility and circumventing repressive working environments (Parsuramen, 2001). By the end of 1941, there were fifty state primary schools and seventy-five grant-aided schools, enrolling about 40,000 children. In 1948, with the intensified importance of education, a simple literacy test was introduced for the eligibility to vote. The Education Act was conceived in 1956 which stipulated that no child should be deprived of admittance to primary schools on the basis of race and religion. In addition, the act empowered the ministry to guarantee that education amenities were accessible in all regions of Mauritius. The government developed a grant-in-aid scheme, with a condition that grant-aided schools should be open to all children. Until 1976, secondary schooling was not free. Despite structural adjustment difficulties in 1980, the government continued to invest in education and

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maintained free secondary education. In the year 1991, the gross rate of admission in the 6–11 age group had reached 99.4 per cent with equal participation rates for boys and girls. Primary and secondary education facilities have increased to include an ongoing teacher capacity-building programme. The Master Plan for Education was developed in 1991 to provide short-term, medium-term and long-term approaches for educational growth up to the year 2000. The plan consisted of about 300 policy measures. Among the measures, the first task was the setting up of a National Education Council. Later several blueprints and policy papers (Parsuramen, 1997) were developed on the following themes:

A white paper on science (1992) Blueprint on computer education (1992) Science education – Action plan (1993) School-mapping report (1993) Blueprint on physical education and sports in schools (1994) Programme on project schools (1994) Planning for implementation of quality improvement of project schools (1994) 8. National Education Council report: Review of the structure of secondary education (1995)

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

In 2004, the government implemented several IT projects in all primary schools. Within the same year, a one-off grant was provided to private preprimary schools upgrade their facilities. In 2005, the government introduced a Tertiary Education Interest Support Scheme on loans that was redeemable only on the personal guarantee of the student. In addition, free public transport was provided to young Mauritians attending schools and tertiary institutions. With respect to the pre-primary sector, in 2008, the proclamation of the Early Childhood Care and Education Authority Act succeeded the Pre-School Trust Fund Act. From January 2012, there was also the extension of the per-capita grant to children of ages 3 and above which was initially 4 and above. In the primary sector, there were amendments to the Education Act in 2012 corresponding to additional tuition. By the same year, the government included ‘Kreole Morisien’ as an optional language in grade 1 as well as integration of ‘Bhojpuri’ as a component of the Hindi language. Quality enhancing programmes such as Enhancement Programmes for grades 3 and 4, and Summer/Winter School Project were also developed.

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In the secondary sector, in view of the changes to the economic sector, new subjects, namely, travel and tourism, entrepreneurship education and marine science, were introduced. Physical education was made an examinable subject in SC and HSC. From 2013, students in form IV were given tablet PCs. The government introduced a Student Tracking System as a reinforcement scheme for compulsory attendance up to age 16. There was also the setting up of Mauritius Institute of Training and Development in 2009 in view of endorsing excellence in technical, vocational education and training. Introduction of the National Assessment Form III in 2010 has also helped in monitoring the progress that students make. In view of producing skills at the pace and quantum that the economy needs, the government recently proposed several tertiary education priorities; one such instance was to tailor-make courses in fields with high job prospects.

The hidden values of educational sustainability Sustainable development (SD) has been defined in numerous ways, but the most commonly cited definition is that ‘SD is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’. It contains within it two key concepts: ●

●

the concept of needs, in particular the essential needs of the world’s poor, to which overriding priority should be given; and the idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organization on the environment’s ability to meet present and future needs.

Every definition of SD necessitates that the world is seen as a system – a system that links space and a system that links time. Seeing the world as a system over space, one comprehends that air pollution from Asia disturbs air quality in Mauritius, and that pesticides sprayed in Asia could damage fish stocks off the coast of Mauritius. However, looking at the world as a system over time, one realizes that the judgements made by our past generations on how to farm the land continue to affect today’s agricultural practices. The educational policies of today will have an influence on urban dearth for the next generations. The quality of life is also a system and thus raises the question: It is worthy to be physically healthy, but what if there exists no access to education? The concept of SD is ingrained in this category of systems philosophy. It benefits our understanding of our own selves and our biosphere.

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There are three pillars of sustainability – economic, social and environmental. If any one of the pillars is compromised, then the entire system becomes unsustainable. Social sustainability is the capability of a community, such as a nation, family or institute, to function at a well-defined level of social wellbeing and harmony for life. Complications like hostilities, prevalent poverty, extensive injustice and low education rates are indications that a system is socially unsustainable. Environmental sustainability is the capability of the environment to sustain a distinct level of environmental eminence and natural resource abstraction rates for life. Economic sustainability is the capability of an economy to upkeep a clear level of economic production indeterminately. Here, the Mauritian educational system is being analysed in view of unlocking and demonstrating the hidden values prevailing so far to ensure the sustainable growth of the island, whether directly or indirectly.

Social’s hidden values It is clear that majority of the cost element attached to free education and other facilities offered to all the students in the Mauritian education system are borne by the government. By removing the financial burden from parents and students, this creates opportunity for education for all. This is a significant contribution to social benefit in encouraging our young people to attend school at all levels. Further, the various additional benefits and piggy back services pertaining to those in need also demonstrate social hidden values associated with our prevailing educational system. In addition, the island’s only resource happens to be its human resource. As such there is an increase in the training of the human resource. This has resulted in a massive uplift in the standards of living today.

Environment’s hidden values Mauritius is viewed as a tourist destination and thus preservation of the terrestrial and marine natural environment is mandatory. The inbound tourism figure has always shown an upward trend with 2014 showing a million tourists. One of the success factors contributing to the above relates to our educational system. Students have the opportunity to learn about the preservation and conservation of environment and at the same time be involved in a practical way through extra-curriculum and co-curriculum activities towards keeping a sound and healthy environment for all Mauritians. In addition, students at all levels learn about the constituents relating to the various elements of our flora and fauna.

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Several non-governmental organizations linked to educational institutions provide opportunities for our young people to be inspired by nature-based activities, such as mountain climbing and undersea activities. These activities, either directly or indirectly, create a psychological change among our young people in terms of practising good environmentally sound habits.

Economics’ hidden values The economic performance of Mauritius has largely been assessed in terms of its GDP, though there are other numerous key indicators being used nowadays. The growth rate from 1977 to 2013 fluctuates, but most of the time it is positive. The highest growth rate was in the year 1986 with 9.74 per cent. It is also important to note that during the global recession in 2008, Mauritius was resilient. Among the key contributors towards a healthy economy are the Mauritian educational system and human resource development initiatives. Students have been able to diversify in several disciplines related to the economic sector from primary to tertiary levels, despite Mauritius being a small island. Today, these resources are in various key economic sectors of the Mauritian economy. They are the backbone of the resilience and growth of these key sectors. Alongside this continual growth, the island has witnessed the development of other educational enabling infrastructures to sustain continuous human capital development to meet the expectation of the Mauritian economy.

Conclusion From Mauritius’ colonial and postcolonial history, education has shown its contribution in developing human capital which the island requires till date. The human capital definitely has a share in the success of the Republic of Mauritius in all three spheres of sustainability. The prevailing educational system of the island has no doubt demonstrated its effectiveness in ensuring a sustainable economy through its hidden values.

References Ministry of Education (2008). Education and Human Resources Strategy Plan 20082020. Mauritius: Ministry of Education, Culture and Human Resources.

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Parsuramen, A. (1997). ‘Master plan for education for the year 2000: The Mauritius experience’. UNESCO: International Institute for Educational Planning. Parsuramen, A. (2001). ‘Achieving education for all: The experience of Mauritius’. UNESCO – International Institute for Capacity Building in Africa. Statistics Mauritius. (2015). http://statsmauritius.govmu.org/English/Pages/default.aspx. [Accessed 20 May 2015]. The Ocean Economy: A Roadmap for Mauritius. (2013). Prime Minister Office. Mauritius.

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Mauritius: Theory and Practice of Education for Sustainability Anneloes Smitsman and Gilberte Chung Kim Chung

About Education for Sustainability The Brundtland Commission in 1987 defined ‘sustainable development’ as ‘development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’. Since that time the definition of ‘sustainable development’ has expanded to also include the safeguarding of the earth’s life-support systems on which the welfare of current and future generations depends (Griggs et al., 2013). Education for Sustainability (EfS), commonly known as Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), is becoming a growing priority across sectors globally, as well as in Mauritius, in order to achieve sustainability. According to UNESCO (2014b, p. 122): ESD empowers learners to take informed decisions and responsible actions for environmental integrity, economic viability and a just society, for present and future generations, while respecting cultural diversity. It is about lifelong learning, and is an integral part of quality education. ESD is holistic and transformational education which addresses learning content and outcomes, pedagogy and the learning environment. It achieves its purpose by transforming society.

In December 2002, during its fifty-seventh meeting, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly proclaimed the years 2005–14 as the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD) with the emphasis that ‘education is an indispensable element for achieving sustainable development’. The UN also

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designated UNESCO as the lead agency to promote and implement the Decade. In the recent UN Conference on Small Island Developing States (SIDS) that led to the ‘SAMOA Pathway’, UNESCO (2014a) emphasized that SIDS Nations are highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change and require ESD to empower communities to make informed decisions for sustainable living rooted in both science and traditional knowledge. In 2013, the thirty-seventh session of the General Conference of UNESCO endorsed the Global Action Programme (GAP) on ESD as the follow-up to the DESD. The GAP aims to generate and scale up concrete actions in ESD to accelerate progress towards sustainable development (UNESCO, 2014b). Education for sustainability is commonly mistaken with education about sustainability, which is different in aim, scope and impact. Most of the education related to sustainability in Mauritius would fall under the category ‘education about sustainability’. This distinction made by Sterling (2002) highlights how we perceive the purpose of education. In education about sustainability it is common to select one of the subject areas, usually sciences, to teach children about sustainability challenges in addition to some sustainability projects that focus on development of environmental awareness – for example, school gardening and reducing waste through zerowaste sensitization campaigns. Although these may be useful starting points to introduce sustainability into schools, it will not address the root causes of our unsustainability through education. This can only be achieved if the mental models underlying those patterns of behaviour that drive our unsustainability are transformed through education and action (O’Brien and Sygna, 2013; Senge, 2012). We can only transform society as referred to by UNESCO if we transform the systems that drive our behaviour, as we will discuss in the next section of this chapter. EfS has as its primary goal the transformation of the educational systems by: (1) creating a higher vision and goal for education beyond preparation for the labour market; (2) actively supporting the development of key sustainability competencies, including relational competencies, by using the whole curriculum system in an integrated and synergistic way; (3) preparing young people to become engaged citizens and stewards for well-being and ecological sustainability; and (4) empowering young people to develop their unique skills, vision and wisdom to become real innovators for the future and transformational change agents who know how to work with the systems in society for the transformation of society (Smitsman and Deenapanray, 2014; Sterling, 2002; Morin, 1999; Orr, 1992; Bateson, 1972).

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The need for Education for Sustainability The educational systems of today are geared towards objectives that are often incompatible with the goals outlined by EfS. These goals have been influenced and designed by the dominant socio-economic systems with the purpose of preparing people for a labour market that is consumption based and driven through competition (Sterling, 2002). This raises fundamental questions whether education defined by such systems can deliver the objectives now assigned to it in the transition to EfS, namely, to raise citizens who are ecologically conscious and capable of acting in favour of sustainable development. From this perspective, it should be no surprise that although the quantity of education is increasing, our lack of ecological sustainability is rising in tandem too. As long as learning content and methodologies are designed to keep these extractive socio-economic systems in place we cannot expect education to play a transformative role in our thinking and acting for sustainability (Stone, Barlow and Capra, 2005). EfS requires higher-level goals that include learning how to develop our human potential in balance with the natural ecosystems that sustain our life and those of the future generations (Deenapanray, Smitsman and Chung Kim Chung, 2014). EfS is needed today because we clearly lack the vision, competencies and support systems to achieve sustainable development. Many of the most ‘educated nations’ have the highest ecological footprints (EFs) in the world with the highest per-capita rates of consumption. As long as we continue to believe that the achievement of well-being and happiness can only be delivered through economic advancement we will end up undermining the very foundation on which this rests, namely, the ecosystems services on which our life depends (Kopnina and Meijers, 2014). EfS aims to empower citizens with the knowledge and competencies for transforming the dominant mental models that undermine our sustainability. This, however, cannot succeed if the educational systems responsible for the implementation of EfS remain outside the boundaries of what needs to change. The behaviour of systems is the result of the structure of systems (Meadows, 2008). In that same way, the behaviour of people is influenced by the structure of the systems they form part of, which includes the purpose, goals, rules of the system and the network of relationships and feedback loops between the elements of the system (Smitsman and Smitsman, 2014). UNESCO declared that ‘Education for Sustainable Development allows every human being to acquire the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values necessary to shape a sustainable future’ (2014b, p. 14). This raises the question regarding the

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application of such knowledge, skills, attitude and values if the systems through which we sustain our basic needs are incompatible with these goals. This is further discussed in the section on barriers to implementation of EfS. In order to monitor the DESD process, UNESCO (2012) identified specific competencies that need to be developed by educators working with ESD or EfS. These competencies require a very different kind of teacher training than is commonly provided by mainstream educational institutions in Mauritius. The developments of the kind of competencies that are listed by UNESCO require extensive training in systems thinking and coaching. This either requires the support of external trainers with these competencies or demands implementation of such trainings at the tertiary levels where teachers receive their teacher trainings. One cannot assume that teachers are developing these competencies through their standard education and by merely knowing about it. Systems thinking, for example, is a specific scientific methodology with its own tools and processes that cannot be achieved by merely thinking in terms of interconnections (Meadows, 2008; Sterman, 2000). In Learning for the future: Competences in Education for Sustainable Development, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE, 2011, p. 12) Steering Committee on Education for Sustainable Development, mentions that ‘audit and assessment as well as monitoring systems for educational institutions should be adapted or developed in order to assess the institution’s contribution to sustainable development. Educational institutions should operate according to sustainable development principles as a contribution to ESD and create an enabling environment for the development and practice of the Competences’. Kopnina and Meijers (2014, p. 197), however, argue that if neither the objectives nor the methodology involved for achieving these objectives are critically examined, the evaluation of ESD programmes may lead to questionable outcomes. If the underlying goals for ESD do not address the dominant consumption patterns of society, it will fail to transform the mental models underlying our unsustainability. Sustainable development requires more than the application of renewable technologies and services. It also needs to fundamentally address our relationship with the shared natural resources and ecosystem services and the value we attribute to this (Jackson, 2009). EfS, in order to achieve its objectives of creating ecologically conscious agency, needs to first address our entrapments in a culture of consumer-addiction, and second provide the tools for transforming these addictions into new behaviours for sustainability (Haukeland, 2013, p. 91).

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This raises an even more fundamental question, namely, is behaviour driven by competencies or, as system thinkers would argue, by the structure of the system as a result of the goals of the system (Senge, 2012; Meadows, 1999)? If the answer to this question is that competencies alone are not sufficient for changing behaviour, it raises fundamental questions regarding EfS strategies that only target the development of those competencies as outlined by UNESCO. If the answer to the question raised is that behaviour of systems is determined by the structure of systems, it follows that addictive patterns generated by the systems in which people partake require EfS strategies at the structural level of the systems in which education takes place (Smitsman and Smitsman, 2014; Haukeland, 2013; Senge, 2012; Sterling, 2002). These system entrapments that breed consumption addictions form a major barrier according to the stakeholders of the three EfS pilot schools that participated in the research for identifying barriers to the development of EfS competencies and behaviour (Orr, 1992).

Education for Sustainability in Mauritius Several initiatives for EfS/ESD have been initiated through the government of Mauritius in the public government school system, the Catholic schools networks (Bureau of Catholic Education (BEC) and Loreto schools network) and some private schools. ELIA-Ecological Living in Action (ELIA) started an EfS programme in collaboration with the BEC1 in eighteen Catholic secondary schools in 2011. Since 2013, this programme has been mainstreamed in three selected pilot schools, namely St Mary’s College Rose-Hill, Loreto College Curepipe and BPS Fatima College Goodlands. The case studies of these three pilot schools will be given towards the end of this chapter. The management for the EfS programme was transferred from ELIA to EARTHwise Centre in July 2015.

About the Education for Sustainability programme The EfS programme supports schools to become learning communities for sustainability through a ‘learning-by-doing’ and ‘enquiry based’ approach. Representatives from each of the stakeholders (students, teachers, management, non-teaching staff and parents) are engaged throughout the programme for their input and feedback to achieve whole-school support for EfS. Teachers, EfS

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mentors (teachers) and students receive training in systems thinking, ecological literacy, stewardship, learning and development for EfS, dialogue and visioning, EF analysis and climate change among others. The programme was initially developed by ELIA in collaboration with the BEC following a meeting with the bishop2 of Mauritius Mgr Maurice E. Piat. The programme is open to all schools in Mauritius, including schools that do not form part of the Catholic schools network. The programme was started in 2011 through extracurricular activities and training for teachers in systems thinking, EF analysis, and learning and development for ecological literacy. In 2013, three pilot schools were selected to develop the model for whole-school curriculum implementation of EfS. The learning-by-doing approach allowed critical evaluations in the adaptation and further development of the EfS implementation strategies. This open learning approach has been a key factor for the success of the programme; the evolutionary approach ensured that EfS strategies and trainings developed in response to what was required for the transformation of the systems in which learning took place. Through structured dialogues and multi-stakeholder evaluation sessions using system dynamics tools, the input of the stakeholders revealed the barriers within their educational system that needed to be addressed for sustained EfS implementation to achieve whole-school transformation. An overview of these barriers and the EfS strategies based on Meadows’ (1999) twelve intervention points is given later in this chapter. The EfS programme has gone through three distinct phases. The first phase consisted of an extracurricular project-based approach centred around the EF project (Bangari et al., 2014). The rationale behind the extracurricular approach was simply that intra-curricular implementation was not possible at that time. Relationships and trust had to be developed first. After two years, the green light was given to mainstream EfS in the curriculum in three pilot schools that had demonstrated their commitment and readiness in the preceding phase. Phase 2 started with the strategy to implement EfS in three key subject areas of the curriculum, namely, sciences, human values and social studies. These subjects were chosen after a systems mapping of synergies, and overlaps between the various subjects of the National Curriculum Framework (Smitsman and Deenapanray, 2014; ROM (Republic of Mauritius), 2009). Teachers of these subject areas were trained, starting with form 1 (i.e. the entry level in a sevenyear secondary school cycle) and building up to form 2 and higher forms. The advantage of this strategy was a structured approach to ensure that the three dimensions of sustainability, namely, environment, society and economy, were

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brought together in the curriculum. The disadvantage of this approach was based on a too high rotation of teachers from lower to higher forms and the delays accruing in engaging the whole school community. After a year of trialling, this strategy was changed simultaneously to a whole-curriculum approach (i.e. all subjects) and to all forms. On 19 February 2014, the three EfS pilot schools together with the BEC leadership, the bishop of Mauritius Mgr Maurice E. Piat and ELIA-Ecological Living in Action signed the EFS Charter and Pledge, which outlines the vision, mission and principles for EfS. The proposed actions of the EfS pledge came from the schools themselves via a multi-stakeholder dialogue process involving students, teachers, management and non-teaching staff (Chung Kim Chung and Smitsman, 2014). Phase 3 started in January 2015 with the introduction of new strategies for whole-school curriculum implementation based on extensive multi-stakeholder evaluations that were held in phase 2. These new strategies were created to address simultaneously the various levels of the school system with the aim to create more engagement from students and teachers and provide structural support for the implementation of the EfS objectives. It was decided to create common themes that would change each term. In this way, collaboration between subjects and departments became compulsory and sustainability as an overarching vision ensured that EfS was taken out of the narrow environmental corner to which it is commonly assigned. In the case-study discussion section below, concrete examples are provided for how this was done. The introduction of EfS’ overarching themes also required allocation from management for structured time within school hours for teachers and heads of department to meet and discuss how to work together on the common EfS themes. Whereas previously many subjects were taught in silo, lively exchanges now started to build synergies and bridges between subjects to the benefit of students and teachers. It was also decided that the EfS Charter and Pledge that was designed at the start of phase 2 required a higher-level policy implementation in the school system for it to become more effective. Accordingly, the school’s code of conduct that is communicated to the parents was updated to include sustainability behaviours that were now expected from all members of the school community. An overview of these strategies can be found in Table 17.1. The EfS programme also includes the measurement of the EF of the school as part of the school curriculum activities by the students with help from the EfS mentors. Mentors are teachers who have received in-depth training in EfS, including systems thinking and the use of system dynamics tools. The EF

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is the calculation of the extent to which human beings’ demand of the natural environment’s resources stays within or overdoes the capacity of the biosphere to supply goods and services. It reflects our demand on ecosystems for food production, raw materials, energy, housing and waste processing among others and is represented in terms of the area of land required to meet that demand (Wackernagel and Rees, 1996). The EF provides a useful pedagogical tool for making the need for sustainable development concrete and tangible. It brings to light the social (in)justice issues of society’s conventional economic models when it becomes clear to which extent natural resources are not fairly appropriated by human beings. The EF data also provide useful feedback to the school community regarding its consumption trends. This is used to evaluate whether certain EfS strategies for reducing waste and consumption are successful and lead to new behaviours for sustainability. The EF calculator has been designed by ELIA and is calibrated for Mauritius (Deenapanray and Leste, 2014). The EF calculator is also adjusted in complexity to align with the abilities of the different ages of the students (Bangari et al., 2014). A key component of the EfS programme is teacher training in systems thinking and system dynamics. A significant part of the problem of sustainability is people’s inability to understand the complex interconnections between the causes and effects of actions and interactions. Systems thinking is the practice of enhancing this understanding of how and why social (society and economy) and ecological systems behave in the ways they do by seeing their component parts (or sub-systems) in the context of relationships with each other and with other systems, rather than in isolation (Sterman, 2000). Systems thinking focuses on cyclical rather than linear cause and effect, and is applicable at any scale of human activities and contexts (Senge, 2012; Meadows, 2008). System dynamics is a method to enhance learning in complex systems as well as learning about complex systems. It was created during the mid-1950s by Professor Jay Forrester of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). System dynamics is grounded in the theory of nonlinear dynamics and feedback control developed in mathematics, physics and engineering. It uses a range of different tools for understanding complex systems. The modelling process is used as a feedback process in the context of ongoing activities of the people in the system, like in this case the learning for sustainability process (Sterman, 2000). Through the EfS programme teachers receive training in systems thinking and the basic tools of system dynamics, such as the drawing of causal loop diagrams (CLDs) and behaviour-overtime graphs to describe trends and patterns. CLDs help teachers and students become aware of the complexity involved in addressing sustainability issues

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Table 17.1 EfS focus areas and strategies Focus areas within the school system

EfS strategies

School policy

•

• •

Capacity development

•

• •

Student initiatives

• • •

Multi-stakeholder engagement

•

•

•

Communication and outreach

•

•

Evaluation and acknowledgements

• •

Source: Authors’ elaboration.

EfS Charter and Pledge was developed with and signed by the key stakeholders. EfS Charter and Pledge has been implemented into existing school policies. The school’s behavioural code of conduct now includes guidelines for EfS behaviours at school. The implementation of the national curriculum framework into curriculum activities has been aligned to EfS objectives. Common EfS themes that change each term are implemented across all curriculum subjects, in all forms, to ensure whole-school EfS implementation. Training of EfS mentors (teachers) since 2011 in systems thinking, pedagogy for transformational learning, EfS principles, ecosystems, sustainable development, climate change, social justice, ecological economics, visioning and dialogues, values for sustainability, indigenous knowledge systems and stewardship. Basic EfS training for all teachers in the school, which includes introduction to systems thinking. Training of EfS student Change Agents (through the school eco-clubs) in systems thinking, EF, social justice, visioning, climate change, sustainability challenges and sustainability values. Financial support system for students to initiate EfS projects through the school eco-clubs. EfS retreats. EfS school gardens. Multi-stakeholder evaluation sessions through which existing EfS strategies are evaluated and new ones are developed. The EfS funding agencies are invited to key EfS events and do attend some of the EfS training sessions for mentors to learn more about the programme. Resource persons from the wider community are brought to the schools to extend learning beyond the classroom and the standard learning contents. EfS news, activities and learning outcomes are shared through an online EfS platform with integrated socialmedia tools. EfS articles and updates from the schools are shared through school newsletters. EfS evaluation is currently implemented in the standard evaluation of the lower forms of the secondary schools. EfS award and acknowledgement schemes have been developed by the schools to support the students.

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and they reveal the complexity of the worlds that we live in. It also helps them to become aware of their mental models and where they draw the boundary regarding what they perceive as reality based on their mental model, in comparison to the reality revealed by the system dynamics. Through the CLDs they start to see the unwanted and unintended consequences in decisionmaking processes by highlighting the factors that are not considered when the boundaries of mental models are set too narrow. CLDs and behaviourover-time graphs are also used in the programme for brainstorming sessions and for evaluation purposes. Table 17.2 shows how the EfS programme is aligned with the key focus areas of the UNESCO Global Action Programme on ESD.

Common barriers in behavioural change for sustainability through EfS The EfS programme is now in its fifth year. Due to its bottom-up approach of developing a programme for the systems that required these interventions without prior templates, a rich understanding has emerged concerning common barriers for implementing EfS strategies in mainstream educational systems. The aim of the EfS programme is the transformation of the educational systems by aligning the system to a higher-level vision and purpose and building capacity within the school system for the development of sustainability competencies by using the whole curriculum. Sterling (2002) points out three orders of change. The first order of change is about making adjustments to the existing system. This is simply doing the same as the old but in a slightly more efficient way. The function of this system postreform is still focused on the vocational aspects which look to produce skilled workers for the information economy and the socialization function which looks at measures to tackle social exclusion. This type of first order of change, whereby conventional boundaries are kept intact and the purpose for education is defined by the socio-economic systems, leaves society’s values unexamined. This is what commonly prevails in our societies. Many well-intended EfS projects work at this level and are therefore not considered a threat to the status quo. Transformational change would come from the second order, which seeks to change the educational paradigm. It redesigns the whole system based on more participative values and methods that address the root causes for our unsustainability. This kind of change creates a shift from transmissive to transformative learning as one is made to think about thinking and learn about learning. It thus guides both

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Table 17.2 UNESCO GAP priority actions (UNESCO, 2014b) and EfS strategies GAP priority actions

EfS strategies in line with GAP priority actions

1. Advancing policy:Mainstream ESD into both education and sustainable development policies, to create an enabling environment for ESD and to bring about systemic change

The EfS programme has created a replicable model for EfS implementation into the whole curriculum system with the intention that this can bring to scale across schools in Mauritius and lead to new educational policies for ESD in collaboration with the Ministry of Education. 2. Transforming learning and training Strategies were created that require environments: Integrate sustainability collaboration and exchange between principles into education and training subjects and departments through settings common themes as key conditions for enabling learning environments for EfS. School garden projects and field-trips require learning outside the classroom. 3. Building capacities of educators Training has been conducted for teachers and trainers:Increase the capacities and mentors since 2011 to develop of educators and trainers to more sustainability competencies at whole effectively deliver ESD school level. 4. Empowering and mobilizing Each school has a system of EfS or youth:Multiply ESD actions among eco-clubs where students are given youth responsibilities for driving EfS initiatives at their school. 5. Accelerating sustainable solutions at The EfS programme uses a multilocal level:At community level, scale stakeholder model that brings together the up ESD programmes and multiprogramme funders, local communities, stakeholder ESD networks NGOs and resources persons to expand learning for sustainability beyond the traditional classroom settings.

Source: Authors’ elaboration.

the individual and society as a whole towards a higher level of thinking and builds the competencies for sustainable development. The third order, systemic change, is the ultimate goal of EfS. This kind of change and transformation is characterized by systems that constantly reinvent themselves and are flexible to expanding boundaries. Through input via multi-stakeholder sessions consisting of EfS mentors and rectors from the three pilot schools, and the EfS programme and BEC managers a systematic mapping out of common barriers has started. The purpose of this exercise is to gain more understanding about the system dynamics and their

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praise from management / official recognition at school structural barriers within the level school to enhance capacity

MQA certification of mentorship

good connection with EfS programme + sets negative / conformist mind of teachers, parents, non-teaching staff, studens rewards

lack of motivation of teachers for EFS / change teachers who are too set into their comfort zone

+ +school leadership and ownership for policy change

results driven expectations of parents +

+ school policy for EFS

+ + EFS framework for sylllabus implementation more school community involvement - shared + responsibilities EFS integration in training EFS for exams economics + +

- EFS curriculum - implementation - -+ departments not yet included + human values, economics, business studies

-

+ rigid syllabus upper forms 3-6 + curriculum restriction for EFS + from national educational policies national exams + not aligned with EFS head of departments + should be mentors + + narrow goals set for learning + rectors enforcing training of +

guidelines per department for EFS implementation

+

academic approach to lower ability groups

+

+ -+ committed rectors

-

lack of coordination time for meetings with colleagues for EFS inside curriculum time

lower ability groups +

seeing results

conventional economic system

+ + rat race approach of society (mental model)

heads of department and section as mentors

Figure 17.1 Overview of barriers for EfS curriculum implementation as indicated by stakeholders. Source: Authors’ elaboration.

impacts on the EfS strategies and the learning process for sustainability. Without this identification of common barriers and possible learning traps it is difficult to achieve the second or third orders of change, as identified by Sterling (2002). The CLD of Figure 17.1 represents how participants viewed barriers regarding the implementation of EfS into their educational system. These data will at a later stage of the research be used for the development of a more comprehensive CLD that will also specify the types of positive and negative feedback loops. The evaluation session took place in December 2014 in Mauritius. The barriers that were identified as shown in Figure 17.1 were further analysed by using the twelve leverage points of Donella Meadows. Leverage points are places within a complex system where a small shift in one thing can produce big changes in everything (Meadows, 1999, p. 1). This is summarized in Table 17.3 in descending order of importance, number 1 being the strongest leverage point. By contrasting the identified barriers against the twelve leverage points a better

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understanding can be obtained for how to develop a strategic whole system approach for EfS implementation. Experience in the EfS pilot schools has shown that each strategy only works if this is embedded within a larger integrated approach for systemic transformation. Strategies that are designed in isolation of the systems that require change commonly fail to produce transformative results. The same can be said for a single-strategy approach that is dominant in many sustainability projects characterized by the model ‘education about sustainability’.

Summary of results of the case studies of the EfS pilot schools in Mauritius Three Catholic secondary schools have participated in the EfS programme since 2011: Loreto College Curepipe, St Mary’s College Rose-Hill and BPS Fatima College Goodlands. Since 2013 they have become the pilot schools for EfS implementation in the whole curriculum and transformation of their school system through the EfS strategies. These schools are open to all the children irrespective of origin, creed or religion. The education that is offered is the same as the public education system. It is generally highly academic and competitive; at national level, out of ten children entering pre-school at three years old, five would pass the British Cambridge School Certificate for zero levels and three would leave the education system with the Cambridge Higher School Certificate. The Catholic focus of the schools is aimed at the integral development of the child, and school leadership can take initiatives for the innovation of their systems (Chung Kim Chung and Smitsman, 2014, p. 9). One of the most noticeable changes that have occurred since the implementation of the phase 3 EfS strategies is the increase in levels of engagement across the school community of students and teachers. Before, the EfS implementation was mostly driven by a small group of mentors, whereas now all teachers started to work together for common goals through the introduced EfS common themes. The themes for 2015 are: term 1 ‘Water’, term 2 ‘Soil & Food’ and term 3 ‘Energy’. CLDs were used in brainstorming sessions to bring forth the student’s own interpretation of the importance of the theme they are working with and how this links to all the different dimensions of human activity and our impacts on the planet. As observed by one of the EfS research interns the advantage of working with these system dynamics tools linked to holistic themes is the increase in level of reflective and creative thinking:

Defined by dominant socio-economic system (market-driven interests)

3. The goals of the system

5. The rules of the system

Have been created to support the dominant socio-economic system. Purpose of education as preparation for the labour market

EfS Charter and Pledge led to new code of conduct for sustainability behaviours at whole school level, implemented mentor and champion system for sharing of responsibilities

Effective if applied at the same time with transformation of organizational culture

4. The power to add, change, Top-down hierarchical power structures, New school policies were created that gave more Effective if top management and leadership is on board evolve or self-organize control from the top, negative power to teachers, mentors and students to system structure repercussions for challenging power initiate and collaborate linked back to the EfS Charter and Pledge

Effective if part of an integrated approach that ensures implementation at school policy level and teacher training

Effective medium to long term. This only works if a safe and empowering environment is put in place at the same time

Use of systems thinking and tools to make visible the mental models underlying the consumer addictions and traps and how these mental models are inherited and sustained by the dominant cultures. Applied within the context of an empowering learning environment

Modern socio-economic paradigm (consumption driven), colonial mindset (slave-master relationships), postcolonial mindset (inferiority complex, imitation, corruption, using materialism for sociopolitical gains)

2. The mindset or paradigm out of which the system – its goals, structure, rules, delays, parameters – arises EfS Charter and Pledge has been created for the schools to take the standard goal of education to a higher level aligned with sustainability objectives, in such a way that this enabled creation of new school policies for EfS.

Effective, but it takes time and continuous support. Long-term approach through small groups, difficult at large scale

Creation of an empowering and safe learning environment via mentoring and coaching of teachers based on mutual respect, equanimity and transformative communication practices

Culture and mindset of victim-hood, blame, colonization heritage, consumer addictions and traps

Impact

1. The power to transcend paradigms

Interventions and strategies applied

Barriers identified

Meadows’s leverage points

Table 17.3 Leverage points and strategies to address common system barriers for EfS implementation

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Effective, but takes time and structural changes. Often not possible at final exams if set by Cambridge Very effective, creates more engagement, changes the culture of the system and balances out the success to the successful loops that drive competition

Very effective – it changes the system at the structural level and in the feedback loop system. After these strategies, much more engagement, collaboration and whole system integration

Incorporation of assessment for EfS knowledge and competencies in standard tests. Implementation of continuous evaluation project-based linked to EfS Creation of EfS student clubs that coordinate with EfS mentors for student input into EfS projects and learning tasks. Management support to allow time within curriculum hours for coordination between heads of department for EfS implementation and time for EfS mentors to meet and coordinate Creation of common EfS themes per term that require implementation across all subjects ensures communication and coordination which reduces the delays. Acknowledgement of student EfS activities end of term reduces the delays and creates positive reinforcement

Elite of the best performers gets rewarded by the system, as such promoting competition – success to the successful loops

Students have little power or input to influence learning contents and tasks, lack of structural affordances in the system that enable cooperative and integrated learning within and between subjects and fields

Lack of communication between departments, lack of national policy adaptation to ESD requirements, lack of acknowledgement/rewards for new EfS behaviours

8. The strength of negative feedback loops, relative to the impacts they are trying to correct against

9. The length of delays, relative to the rate of system change

7. The gain around driving positive feedback loops

(1) Effective for expanding and transforming the mental models; (2) helps to create and sustain engagement for EfS actions/changes and for attracting funding resources

(1) EF calculation of the school conducted by the students to show data, patterns and trends about consumption patterns and (2) acknowledgement and reward mechanisms were created, including communication of positive EfS results to wider community via social-media and EfS newsletters

(1) Feedback loops are missing about consumption patterns and (2) feedback loops are missing about positive impacts of sustainability behaviours

6. The structure of information flows

Impact

Interventions and strategies applied

Barriers identified

Meadows’s leverage points

Mauritius: Theory and Practice of Education for Sustainability 319

Size of classrooms, teacher – student ratio, standard Cambridge exam requirements

12. Constants, parameters, numbers

Source: Authors’ elaboration.

EfS funding schemes have been created to create more resources for EfS implementation and enlarge educational budgets of the schools beyond existing means

Lack of EfS funding sources, constraints in educational budgets, lack of EfS resources for teacher trainings

11. The sizes of buffers and other stabilizing stocks, relative to their flows

At the structural level of the system, size of classroom and Cambridge exam requirements, etc. could not be changed. However, implementation of EfS projects and pedagogy required exchange and collaboration between classes and allowed for creating different teams and mixtures of abilities and backgrounds. This had an impact on changing the parameter settings for teaching

Effective to create congruency between vision and objectives. The risk, however, is that too much emphasis is put on environmental factors, which can shift focus away from larger embedding into the whole curriculum and educational system

Through CSR funding green building adjustments and school garden projects have been financed. Through the EfS Charter zerowaste strategies to reduce fossil-fuel dependency have been incorporated in the schools

10. The structure of material School buildings unfit for EfS objectives, stocks and flows lack of infrastructure for nature-based learning, high dependency of fossil-fuel based resources

Effective for building bridges between subjects and promoting higher-level thinking when this is combined with systems thinking tools and methodologies. This only creates impact when it is part of larger strategies for systems transformation that result in new combinations

Effective as long as someone is driving this at the level of the EfS programme. It requires a large amount of time to maintain financial sustainability of the programme

Impact

Barriers identified

Interventions and strategies applied

Meadows’s leverage points

Table 17.3 Continued

320 Education in South Asia and the Indian Ocean Islands

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Since they were told to think, reason and share what they think affect or pertains to the theme of water, they will better understand the map of interconnectedness that they were taught in class as they themselves came up with it. It was not just another diagram to memorize from a textbook written by a stranger. This was the product of their own thinking process, and it was an exercise that expanded their mental models without being explicitly told to do so. That’s the beauty in this approach – it is so subtle in its maneuver that the child is independently developing a more open mental model without making it seem like a task that is being externally imposed upon them (Kritika Treebhoohun, EfS research intern).

In order to create structural changes, which refer to Meadows leverage points 4, 6 and 8 (Table 17.3), a new policy was created in the schools that enabled the student councils of each year group (form) to meet to coordinate how they want to work with the assigned theme. The same was done for the heads of department in each of the pilot schools. The rectors of the schools allocated time and space within school hours for meetings with the mentors to better coordinate the EfS implementation through the common themes in each of the subjects and fields. The result is that a learning community for EfS could now emerge through a shared vision and application beyond what had been agreed to formally through the EfS Charter and Pledge. The creative and visual communication of the students working with the common themes showcased that students could comprehend that an issue like ‘Water’ has many different dimensions, ranging from the most basic ‘health and food security’ to the more spiritual as the womb of Life. These creative and visual expressions are communicated in the form of posters, collective eco-boards for updating the entire school community, paintings, collages, short films, poetry, sculptures and décor objects. During term 1 and the theme ‘Water’ many villages in Mauritius suffered from flooding due to severe rainfall. These real-life issues were incorporated in working with the theme ‘Water’ to create a more meaningful connection between what is happening in the environment and how it is directly impacting their community. Parents were engaged and kept informed via the Parent Committee and have responded positively in the new direction the school is committing itself to. The school’s code of conduct was updated by aligning this with the EfS Charter and Pledge. Accordingly, new sustainability behaviours were added and emphasized to sustain the implementation of behaviours for sustainability. Furthermore, students have been given responsibilities for monitoring and providing feedback to management as eco prefects.

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In one of the schools the mathematics teacher made a real effort to make learning more interactive in his classroom by using systems thinking as a guideline coupled with ecological literacy. Students were asked to explore and collect data about water consumption and compare the price of bottled water in their region (local shops and supermarkets). The students then had to analyse their water consumption household bills to calculate their domestic water consumption and how much it costs them at home. They were asked to explore how they could reduce the consumption of water and reduce their personal cost as well as the cost for the environment. In one of the human values classes students worked around the slogan ‘Religion Divides, Water Unites’, to learn about the concept of global citizenship and how this demands fair allocation and sharing of our planetary resources. By working around this slogan students learnt about stewardship and development of care as key sustainability competencies. This assisted the students in experiencing the heart of sustainability and how development of care for nature in itself reconnects us with nature inside and around us. Care for nature thus grounds us in our own humanity and brings us back to values, aspirations and practices that unite and form the basis for developing sustainable communities (Boven and Morohashi, 2002; Morin, 1999; Bateson, 1972).

Conclusions EfS can provide schools with the opportunity to innovate and transform their systems. In order to live up to this opportunity a systemic long-term approach is required together with the facilitation of a higher-level vision about the purpose for education. If the aim is that education should prepare citizens to become conscious co-creators of their societies and future, it follows that a whole different set of competencies need to be developed than is currently the case in mainstream education. One of the most common remarks people make when discussing transformation for sustainability is that the mindsets need to change. Everybody seems to mention this as the magic key, without ever providing any understanding of how the mind becomes set, to what and why it remains set in those parameters. One of the things that shamans and systems thinkers have in common is that they both know how to work with the invisible systems that set the parameters for what manifests in our world though patterns, behaviours and feedback loops. Competencies for sustainability require understanding and comprehension of the short-term and longer-term impacts of human behaviour across dimensions, fields, spaces and places. By the time these impacts are visible, in terms of ecosystem

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collapse and species extinction, it is often too late and the damage irreversible. If students can learn to pre-empt these impacts and prevent such damage by changing their behaviour and adopting new behaviours aligned with sustainable development, the world will truly start transforming. We are very far removed from that reality and there are many traps and addictions that will need to be brought into the daylight and addressed through a transformative learning approach. The main lessons learnt from the pilot schools through the EfS programme is that learning is relational and the first step is the development of trust by building a learning community. By embarking on this new journey through EfS we will be met by dragons, monsters and all kinds of signs that may discourage. People around us may say it is too much, too difficult, it won’t change anything. This is common for any quest in life, and as always, the treasure is found by meeting the challenges and transforming the barriers. During the past years, the pilot schools met many challenges and they too felt like giving up. But they did not, they were supported to move through this by understanding that those who are innovators and creators of new systems will have to create the pathways that do not yet exist. By embracing this uncertainty at the same time as being open to explore and apply different kinds of strategies, confidence is built in the process of learning itself. This then becomes the greatest resource of the school for progressing further. The pilot schools have undergone many transformations since they started and they are continuing their learning for sustainability as a community approach. They have now reached a stage of maturity that even without the EfS programme and external facilitators they will be able to sustain their commitments on their own and together in a community of learners. By sharing their lessons learnt they pass on the fruits of learning, as this is the way nature shares and sustains itself.

Acknowledgements We acknowledge and thank the Catholic schools network in Mauritius (the BEC) and the EfS pilot schools for their participation in this research and their continuous commitments to EfS. We acknowledge and thank the funders of the EfS programme, Terra Foundation, Investec Bank (Mauritius) Ltd and the Australian High Commission in Mauritius for their financial support for the EfS pilot schools and their belief in the programme. We also like to acknowledge and thank ELIA-Ecological Living in Action for shouldering the responsibilities in starting the EfS programme. Finally, we like to acknowledge and thank Prakash

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N. K. Deenapanray and Ad Smitsman for their substantial contributions in the programme, the many fruitful discussions on EfS over the years and their constructive feedbacks.

Notes 1 In July 2016, the Bureau de l’Education Catholique (BEC) has changed its name and is now known as the Service Diocésain de l’Education Catholique where co-author Dr Gilberte Chung Kim Chung is the Executive Director. 2 In November 2016, Bishop Mgr Maurice E. Piat was nominated Cardinal by Pope Francis.

References Bangari, A. B., Deruisseau, S., Moossajee, S., Deenapanray, P. N. K. and Smitsman, A. (2014). ‘Ecological Footprint as a Tool for Ecological’. Literacy. Studies in Applied Pedagogy, 3 (special issue), 73–84. Bateson, G. (1972). Steps to an Ecology of Mind. New York: Ballantine Books. Boven, K. and Morohashi, J. (2002). Best Practices using Indigenous Knowledge. The Hague: Nuffic and UNESCO. Brundtland, G. et al. (1987). Our Common Future: Report of the 1987 World Commission on Environment and Development. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Chung Kim Chung, G. and Smitsman, A. (2014). ‘The Education for Sustainability Charter and the BEC Commitment’. Studies in Applied Pedagogy, 3 (special issue), 8–16. Deenapanray, P. N. K. and Leste, P. (2014). Ecological Footprint Analysis – a Pedagogical Tool for Ecological Literacy. Unpublished. Deenapanray, P. N. K., Smitsman, A. and Chung Kim Chung, G. (2014). ‘The Philosophical Foundations of the Education for Sustainability Programme’. Studies in Applied Pedagogy, 3 (special issue), 17–36. Griggs, D., Stafford-Smith, M., Gaffney, O., Rockström, J., Shyamsundar, M. C. Ö. P. W., Steffen, W., Glaser, G., Kanie, N. and Noble, I. (2013). ‘Sustainable Development Goals for People and Planet’. Nature, 495, 305–7. Haukeland, P. I. (2013). ‘Homo Consumens, Needless Consumption and Sources of Transformation’. Proceedings of Transformation in a Changing Climate, 19–21 June 2013, Oslo, Norway. University of Oslo. Interactive, pp. 89–96. Jackson, T. (2009). Prosperity without Growth – Economics for a Finite Planet. London: Earthscan.

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Kopnina, H and Meijers, F. (2014). ‘Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) – Exploring Theoretical and Practical Challenges’. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 15(2), 188–207. Meadows, D. H. (1999). Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System. Hartland: The Sustainability Institute. Meadows, D. H. (2008). Thinking in Systems: A Primer. Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing. Morin, E. (1999). Seven Complex Lessons in Education for the Future. Paris: UNESCO Publishing. O’Brien K. and Sygna, L. (2013). ‘Responding to Climate Change: The Three Spheres of Transformation’. Proceedings of Transformation in a Changing Climate, 19–21 June 2013, Oslo, Norway. University of Oslo. Interactive, pp. 16–23. Orr, D. W. (1992). Ecological Literacy – Education and the Transition to a Postmodern World. Albany : State University of New York Press. ROM (Republic of Mauritius). (2009). Education & Human Resources Strategy 2008– 2020. Phoenix: Ministry of Education, Culture & Human Resources. Senge, P., Cambron-McCabe, N., Lucas, T., Smith, B., Dutton, J. and Kleiner, A. (2012). Schools that Learn: A Fifth Discipline Fieldbook for Educators, Parents, and Everyone who Cares about Education. New York: Crown. Smitsman, A. and Deenapanray, P. N. K. (2014). ‘The Education for Sustainability Programme’. Studies in Applied Pedagogy, 3 (special issue), 52–72. Smitsman, A. W. and Smitsman, A. (2014). ‘Learning and Development for Ecological Literacy’. Studies in Applied Pedagogy, 3 (special issue), 37–51. Sterling. S. (2002). Sustainable Education – Re-visioning Learning and Change. Devon: Green Books. Sterman, J. D. (2000). Business Dynamics – Systems Thinking and Modeling for a Complex World. Boston: Irwin McGraw-Hill. Stone, M. K., Barlow, Z. and Capra, F. (2005). Ecological Literacy – Educating our Children for a Sustainable World. San Francisco: Sierra Club Book. UNECE (2011). Learning for the future: Competences in Education for Sustainable Development. Utrecht: Programma Leren voor Duurzame Ontwikkeling. UNESCO (2012). Shaping the Future of Tomorrow – 2012 Report on the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, Abridged. Paris: UNESCO Publishing. UNESCO (2014a). http://www.unesco.org/new/en/natural-sciences/priority-areas/ small-island-developing-states [Accessed 11 September 2014]. UNESCO (2014b). Roadmap for Implementing the Global Action Programme on Education for Sustainable Development. Paris: UNESCO Publishing. Wackernagel, M. and Rees, W. (1996). Our Ecological Footprint – Reducing Human Impact on the Earth. Gabriola Island, Canada: New Society Publishers.

18

Seychelles: Education Reforms Marie-Therese Purvis

Background Seychelles is by any measure a small, developing island country, with a population of about 89,9001 and a total landmass of approximately 455 square kilometres. It is an archipelago of 115 islands situated in the western Indian Ocean, north of Madagascar and about 1,400 kilometres from the East African coast. As well as being geographically remote, the islands of Seychelles are highly dispersed, providing the country with an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of 1.374 million square kilometres. Its multiethnic population lives on the four main granitic islands of Mahé, Praslin, La Digue and Silhouette, with over 85 per cent living on the main island of Mahé which also hosts most of the country’s economic activities. The capital, Victoria, also the major port, is on Mahé. Most of the smaller granitic islands and the seventy-two coral islands have no permanent population. The Seychelles islands have been inhabited for just over two centuries, originally by a few dozen French settlers from Mauritius along with contingents of African slaves. The British took over the colony in 1812. After independence from Britain in 1976, the elected government was deposed through a coup d’etat the following year and a one-party socialist government was established by the then party in opposition, the Seychelles People’s United Party. Sixteen years later the country returned to multiparty democracy, with the adoption of a new constitution in 1993. Fundamental human rights and freedoms are embedded in the Constitution of the Third Republic (1993) through a Bill of Rights. Seychelles has also acceded to a number of international treaties - the main ones being the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1976), The African Charter on Human and People’s Rights

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(1981), Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (1979) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Economic and social context Since independence the country has maintained a fairly consistent level of economic growth, reaching a gross domestic product (GDP) per capita of USD 16,186 in 2013 (from USD 800 at independence) and a high human development index of 0.845 in 2013 (UNDP, 2013). Although such indicators mask inequalities in the distribution of human development, significant progress has been made in social development terms, with strong social welfare policies becoming institutionalized over the past thirty years. Practically all of the Millennium Development Goals have been achieved, especially those relating to education, health and social development, including access to ten years of education provided free at the point of use and free basic health care (including universal coverage for essential medicines and antiretroviral therapy). There is almost universal access to safe drinking water and sanitation and good housing provision. It also has a high literacy rate (97 per cent), low infant mortality and high life expectancy at birth. Seychelles ranks among the top ten countries worldwide in terms of gender equality. As the country progressed into the twenty-first century a combination of factors, including substantial reductions in official development assistance, increased borrowing at commercial rates, accumulated debt arrears and heavy reliance on the rather volatile industries of fisheries and tourism, considerably threatened the maintenance of its social achievements. The situation was further exacerbated by other factors relative to small island developing states (SIDS), namely, small size, inability to take advantage of economies of scale, limited capacity for economic diversification, distance from markets and high dependence on imports. The resulting macroeconomic instability up until 2008 was characterized by huge gaps in the balance of payment and a debt crisis requiring major debt restructuring and fiscal reforms supported by an IMF Stand-by Arrangement facility, which was later replaced by an extended fund facility. The main objective of the interventions, started in November 2008, was to promote macroeconomic stability, debt sustainability and viable economic growth. The economy has since stabilized, as evidenced by a muchreduced inflation rate (from about 60 per cent at the end of 2008, as a result of

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the floatation of the local currency, to 5.5 per cent at the end of 2011), falling interest rates and positive rates of economic growth in 2010 and 2011 (IMF/ Government of Seychelles, 2011).

Education Like many other SIDS, Seychelles had already achieved universal basic education and gender parity in primary and secondary schooling prior to the Jomtien era (Crossley and Sprague, 2012). The advantages of scale and strong government commitment to education were important factors in bringing about such achievements. From the mid-1970s education priorities were more concerned with improving education quality, enhancing teacher education and teacher retention, school leadership, promoting curriculum relevance and lifelong learning. Throughout the past three decades the enhancement of quality in education has remained a national priority, with the largest budgetary allocation – between 10 per cent and 13 per cent of national expenditure – being made to education. However over 90 per cent of the education budget is spent on personal emoluments. Generally staffing, budgeting, infrastructural and resource management are centrally controlled by the Ministry of Education. A key strategy for bringing about quality improvement was the School Improvement Programme launched in 1995. It aimed to create a culture of collaborative planning and self-evaluation in schools as a means of improving students’ learning experiences and outcomes. All schools produced three-year development plans which established their own priorities for improvement, and the plans were implemented in collaboration with all partners, including the wider school community. School-based staff professional development was also a key factor in school projects. The programme is still ongoing but with muchreduced support centrally.

Main characteristics of the education system Basic education in Seychelles is characterized by a comprehensive, co-educational school system, available to all children free at the point of use, for 13 years – 10 of which are compulsory. Education is provided on the three main islands through thirty-two crèches (under the same management as primary schools),

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twenty-four primary schools and ten secondary schools. Students can also opt to attend any of the four private schools. In addition to the formal system, early childhood care and education is provided outside the home by twenty-two registered, privately owned day-care centres. Table 18.1 gives details of schooling provision in 2014. All schools are staffed by a majority of certified teachers, predominantly women: all crèche teachers are women; at primary level they make up 67 per cent of the total (742 in 2013). The 13 per cent male primary teachers tend to be in the areas of physical education and arts and craft. There is better balance at secondary level where 60 per cent of teachers are female and 40 per cent are male. As at the end of 2013 almost all primary school teachers were Seychellois but in secondary and post-secondary institutions 25 per cent of the teachers were expatriates. Further and higher education is provided in nine different post-secondary institutions, free at point of source. Courses on offer range from one-year certificates to four-year diplomas in a wide range of technical and vocational areas. Entry into full-time post-secondary education is competitive and generally about 70 per cent of the full year group population (an average of 1,320 yearly)

Table 18.1 Schooling provision in 2014 Institutions and locations

Stateowned

Private

Total

Remarks

Registered day-care 0 centres – in most districts Crèche – district 29 based, mostly within primary school compounds

22

22

5

34

Primary schools – district based

24

4

28

Secondary schools – regional

10

4

14

Their operation is monitored by the Ministry of Education Two years, entry age – 3 years and 3 months, noncompulsory; consistently 98% attendance over the past three decades Six years, compulsory; consistently 100% attendance over the past three decades Five years, 4 being compulsory; 98% attendance since established in 1997

Source: Adapted from EIMS statistics (2013).

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Table 18.2 Qualifications of school leaders in state schools, 2014 School leaders – qualifications – 2014 schools Diploma

Primary Secondary Total

Advanced diploma/HND

Master’s

M

F

M

F

M

F

0 0

2 0

2 0

3 0

1 2

16 8

2

5

27

Source: EIMS database (2014).

gain access to full-time courses. The remaining 30 per cent may join part-time training programmes or seek employment. Seychelles University was established in 2009 and a number of linkage programmes with overseas universities enable students to study at degree or postgraduate levels through split-site or distance learning programmes. Over the past decade, the number of teachers in the school system has remained fairly stable, with an average of about 1,400 teachers for a student population averaging around 20,500 for the past five years. Slow population growth and emigration have contributed to the stability of this situation – during the period 2000–13, total student enrolment in state schools and training institutions decreased by almost one-tenth (22,651 in 2000 to 20,343 in 2013). National statistics indicate an annual growth rate of 1.2 per cent and a gradually ageing population (Seychelles Bureau of Statistics, 2013). The teacher – pupil ratio has been maintained at an average of 13:1 over the past ten years and the large majority of teachers are trained – to certificate and diploma levels at primary, and first degree level at secondary. Almost all school leaders hold master’s degrees in education leadership, as indicated in Table 18.2. Overall only 3 per cent of school leaders are men.

Teaching and learning The content and delivery of school curricula is guided by the National Curriculum Framework and National Assessment Framework, both revised in 2013. Progression through the school system is automatic, with the possibility of moving into alternative learning pathways (mainly for technical and vocational education) at upper secondary (key stage 5), largely based on general

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performance and student choices. However, provision for special educational needs at all levels in the system remains a challenge. According to the Ministry of Education’s language policy, the medium for teaching and learning is Creole, from crèche to primary year two (key stage 1), and English, the main language of administration, from primary year three onwards; French is also taught as a foreign language all through school. While this policy is generally adhered to, observation of classroom practice suggests that there is a good deal of code switching at all levels (Ministry of Education, 2013c). Almost all Seychellois are to some extent bilingual (Creole and English), and about 5–10 per cent are fluent in all three national languages.

Education reforms Reforms of 1978–89 The coup d’etat of 1977 by the main political party in opposition brought a major reorientation of education principles towards comprehensive and inclusive education for all. A five-year Education Development Plan (1978–83) was put in place, aiming primarily at establishing equality of opportunities for all citizens. Guided by the fundamental principles of ‘education for all, education for life, education for personal and national development’ (Ministry of Education, 1984), the main strategies of the reform focused on: 1. The introduction of a zoning policy requiring all students to attend nine years of primary schooling in their respective district schools 2. The adoption of a new language policy which emphasized multilingualism in schools (Creole, English and French became the national languages) and the introduction of Creole as medium of instruction in the first six years of primary school 3. The setting up of the National Youth Service (NYS) – a two-year residential schooling programme at the end of the ninth year of school, aiming to develop ‘the whole person’ through community living and sharing 4. The building of a new school designed especially for the severely disabled 5. The setting up of a centralized curriculum development unit to produce syllabi and instructional materials relevant to the local context 6. The building of new schools and upgrading of existing ones to ensure the provision, initially, of nine years of free and compulsory education for all children

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7. The start of a review of the national assessment system for school education, which led to the development of a new system of home grown national examinations 8. The establishment of the Seychelles Polytechnic in 1983, a post-secondary institution which centralized all the existing technical and vocational institutions and training courses at the time. The Teacher Training College became one of the Polytechnic schools. These reforms thus established the foundations for a free comprehensive education system for all children aged between 3 ½ and 16+. Private schools were abolished, up until the political shift to multiparty democracy in 1993. Relatively large investments in infrastructural expansion, teacher training and the development of locally based instructional resources underpinned the main thrusts of the reforms (Purvis, 2004). Table 18.3 provides a basic indicator of the success of these reforms in terms of literacy rates. It is clear that improvements in the literacy rates were most significant after the reforms of 1978–83. It should be noted that prior to 1977 literacy was considered in terms of English and French only. Creole was then not considered as a language that could be used as a medium of instruction in education.

Reforms of the 1990s The concept of the residential centres – the NYS – in the final two years of compulsory education was modelled on the Cuban secondary school system of the time, which required all students to spend two years in rural residential learning centres, following a curriculum that combined formal classroombased studies with working on agricultural projects for food production. This

Table 18.3 Literacy rates 15 to 24 years-olds (in %) Year

1971

1987

1990

1995

2000

2005

2010

2015

Female Male Female and male

− − 57.3

− − 84.2

87 86 86.5

88 89 88.5

99 98 98

96 96 96

95 94 94

96 95 95

Sources: Statistics Department, Seychelles in Figures 1989, 1991, 1996 and 2003 Millennium Development Goals Status Report: Seychelles, January 2003. Note: Prior to 1995 literacy rates were estimated only for census years and not for single years by the Statistics Department, and this gave overall rates only.

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form of education aimed at developing ‘the whole person’ – ‘the heart and the mind’ through community living and sharing (Ministry of Education, undated, p. 2). While the system was based on sound principles of educational equity and integrated learning, the model used was perceived by many parents as too radical a departure from the commonly held view of ‘normal schooling’ and it eventually succumbed to pressures to shift back to more traditional lines of comprehensive education. Reforms in secondary schooling were therefore introduced in 1990–1 (Ministry of Education, 1991) which reduced the NYS to one year; it reinstated secondary schools but this time on a regional basis and lasting four compulsory years, and the national end-of-schooling assessment reverted to the Cambridge General Certificate of Education at Ordinary level (‘O’ levels) at the end of the NYS. Further reforms in 1998–9 completed the move to more ‘conventional’ styles of schooling with the closure of the NYS, the addition of a fifth year to secondary schools and a broadening of the secondary school curriculum to offer a wider range of subject options at upper secondary (years four and five), including combinations of academic and technical/vocational subject areas. Secondary schools were also encouraged to move away from their traditional practice of rigid streaming on the basis of academic ability to more mixed ability groupings. These reforms coincided with the return to multiparty democracy in 1993. Educational goals were also revised, to place greater emphasis on principles of ‘education for empowerment, education for productivity, education for social cohesion and education for global participation’ (Ministry of Education, 2000b). The related policies focused on the improvement of quality through strategies that aimed to encourage schools to cater for the wide range of abilities which is characteristic of comprehensive school systems (Table 18.4). The strategies included initiatives to introduce development planning at school level (the School Improvement Programme), greater accountability through a process of quality assurance, a review of the national curriculum with major inputs from schools’ middle-level leaders and a review of national assessment strategies. Another objective of the 1998–99 reforms was to raise the profile of the teaching profession and improve the quality of teacher training programmes. A new National Institute of Education was established in 1999, with the mandate to provide both pre-service and in-service training, as well as the leading role in the development of the national curriculum for schools. The convergence of teacher training and curriculum development within one institution intended

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Table 18.4 Summary of the education sector strategic plan (2013–17) expected outcomes Priority programme 1: Crèche and primary education GOAL 1: To prepare students for secondary education through quality instruction and holistic learning experiences. Priority programme outcomes • Pupils leaving P6 have acquired the fundamental competencies set out in the national curriculum. • Schools are functioning in an efficient way. • Head teachers, middle leaders, teaching and non-teaching staff have the right competencies to address the needs of students • All staff are adequately trained in inclusive education. • All crèches are equipped with a trained senior teacher. • All schools are equipped with trained SENCOs. Priority programme 2: Secondary education GOAL 2: To provide students with all competencies and skills as per the requirements of the national curriculum framework in preparation for higher education or the world of work. Priority programme outcomes Teacher conditions • an updated and effective Teacher Training Programme; • an increase in the number of qualified and equipped teachers at diploma level in secondary; • instructional practices improved through adequate teacher training and professional development activities, and enhanced using information technology; • a comprehensive teacher induction programme for both local and expatriate teachers; • teachers involved in reflective practices driven by innovations; • more effective promotion of teaching and marketing strategies to increase local teacher intake and retention. Learning achievements • an increase in the number of students scoring A to C grades at S3 and S5 in IGCSE examinations; • strengthened Careers Education and Guidance Programme; • boys and girls performing equally well in S3 coordinated and S5 IGCSE and DELF examinations. Learning resources/materials • adequate and appropriate textbooks and resources available in schools. Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) • improved quality of TVET at all levels, including instructions and facilities, and responsiveness to the labour market. Special educational needs • improvement in the capacity of secondary schools to address the academic, vocational and social needs of students with special educational needs, through the provision of relevant programmes and resources.

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Table 18.4 Continued Pastoral care and student discipline • reviewed implementation structures; • more effective Personal and Social Education programmes and counselling; • reduction in cases of drug use, poor discipline and suspensions, resulting in a more positive school ethos. Management and leadership • improvement of school management through the empowerment of leaders (middle leaders, head teachers); • effective implementation and use of a documentation and reporting system for student learning achievement. Priority programme 3: Post-secondary and tertiary education GOAL 3: To prepare students to meet labour market needs in different sectors of the economy. Priority programme outcomes • all programmes validated and institutions accredited; • a wider range of training opportunities are available for in-service (external) candidates; • training offer of PSIs is attractive to students and allows them to develop skills that are in high demand in the labour market; • PSIs are better able to deliver on their respective mandates through increased intellectual, management and administrative autonomy; • PSIs promote lifelong learning to meet labour market needs; • learners at PSIs are more responsible and mature with a positive attitude, and display a sense of belonging to the institution; • highly motivated, qualified and experienced staff are employed at PSIs for stability and sustainability; • increased alignment between post-secondary institutions and the private sector is achieved through enhanced partnerships and cooperation; • all post-secondary institutions have modern, state-of-the-art infrastructure, facilities and resources. Priority programme 4:

Sustainability, risk and disaster management

GOAL 4: To develop and maintain a culture of safety and preparedness sector-wide and thus build resilience to disasters at all levels (Draft Education Sector Contingency Plan for Disaster Preparedness, 2011). Priority programme outcomes • School Disaster Management Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and mechanisms are in place and effective. • EDP plans are regularly reviewed and updated. • Schools are built and maintained according to safety norms. • The early warning system and school alert systems are in place and effective. • RDM education and preparedness is mainstreamed in the national curriculum. • RDM education and preparedness is mainstreamed in teacher training programmes. • Training is organized for all stakeholders involved in RDM activities in the implementation of EDP plans and use of manuals.

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Table 18.4 Continued Priority programme 5: Strategic management of the Education Sector GOAL 5: Different types of quantitative and qualitative information are available to decision makers in a timely and regular way to allow the formulation of policies, the design and implementation of necessary reforms and programmes, and the regular monitoring of the performance of the Seychellois Education system. Priority programme outcomes • Decision makers are able to assess the status of Education Sector performance at regular intervals based on quality evidence, with a view to (re)orienting policies and strategies and attaining macro and micro level results. • Decision makers are able to assess the efficiency of use of available resources (financial, human, etc.) against different objectives and therefore to make the necessary trade-offs. • Management in school and institutions is improved (with positive repercussions on student results). • MoE is able to communicate more efficiently on the state of education and related policies in the Seychelles and to fulfil its duty of accountability towards different stakeholders through different means, such as yearly consultations, publications, MoE website, etc.

to optimize the use of the system’s most experienced education professionals and to better integrate curriculum innovations and action research into teacher training. Reviews of training provisions within Seychelles Polytechnic resulted in a decentralization of training programmes, with a number of schools, which were viewed as offering basic level of training, being transferred to related ministries other than education – for example, the schools of agriculture and of maritime studies became attached to the Ministry of Agriculture and Marine Resources and the School of Hotel and Tourism to the Ministry of Tourism. Intake into the Polytechnic was restricted to entry into more advanced level programmes in three main areas: technical studies, business studies and academic studies.

Reforms of 2000–13 The macroeconomic reforms of 2008–09 necessitated further review of the education sector and this resulted in substantial reforms during the period 2009– 10. Some of the recommendations of the IMF interventions were the downsizing of the public service, a move to implement results-based management and programme, performance-based budgeting at government level. An assessment of the Seychelles education and training system was carried out in 2008 (the Nolan report, 2008) partly in response to the launching of Strategy 2017 by the

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president’s office in 2007. The strategy outlined national objectives aimed at doubling the nation’s GDP within ten years. The review led to the development of an Education Reform Action Plan 2009– 10 which was to be implemented within five years. The formulation of this plan was done with very limited participation of the Ministry of Education’s technical staff, a process which isolated them from the start. That this plan was overly ambitious was well acknowledged by all involved in its implementation (Hughes-d’Aeth, 2011). While the timeline was very short, it was also anticipated that this Reform Action Plan would instigate the development of a medium-term strategy (2013– 17 and beyond) for the education sector which was in the process of development with the assistance of UNESCO’s International Institute for Educational Planning and the European Union. Consequently the 2009–10 Reform Action Plan was subsumed into the Medium-Term Strategic Plan, 2013–17. The Education Sector Medium-Term Strategic Plan, 2013–2017 and Beyond provides ‘a roadmap for the further transformation of the education process to achieve quality lifelong education for all and improve national sustainable development’ (cover page). It is considered as part of the ongoing national education reform programme started in 2009, and as such it intends to build on the achievements of that previous plan. However, for reasons of capacity, preparedness and funding, the proper implementation of the Reform Action Plan 2009–10 only started in 2010 and the outcomes have so far been limited to a relatively restricted number of activities, namely 1. The reintegration of school curriculum development within the Ministry of Education headquarters as a separate unit; a revision of the national curriculum framework and the development of a new national assessment framework; and the addition of a technical and vocational education and training programme to the secondary curriculum 2. The introduction of new reading schemes in Creole and English at the early childhood and primary key stages; the reintroduction of a Special Needs unit at the Ministry headquarters and the development of a new policy for inclusion in schools and learning 3. The introduction of citizenship education as a separate subject, instead of it being a component of personal and social education in the national curriculum 4. The enactment of a new tertiary education act which enabled the establishment of the University of Seychelles; the revision of the

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5. 6. 7.

8.

339

government’s scholarship scheme to target priority areas within the economy; the reorganization of other post-secondary education and training institutions, including the transfer of teacher education to the university (the latter decision was reversed three years later in 2012) A change of role of the quality assurance unit of the Ministry of Education, from that of oversight and support to inspection The revision of the teachers’ scheme of service and the development of a new teacher appraisal policy The establishment of School Councils with a view to engaging the community more closely in school management and providing greater autonomy to schools The review of the pastoral care system and the development of a ‘WholeSchool Behaviour Management Policy’ and the production of two codes of conduct for schools.

While several of these activities are still in the process of being implemented, they have now been supplemented by the strategies of the medium-term strategic plan. As noted in an EU-sponsored assessment report of the implementation of the National Action Plan (2009–10) in 2011: ‘The danger is that such an ongoing series of initiatives can also be disruptive to the continuity of the present planned reform actions’ (Hughes-d’Aeth, 2011). The medium-term education sector strategic plan (2013–17) has five goals which are as wide ranging as those of the national action plan, although they are phrased in more student-focused terms: 1. To prepare students for secondary education through quality instruction and holistic learning experiences 2. To provide students with all competencies and skills as per the requirements of the national curriculum framework in preparation for higher education or the world of work. 3. To prepare students to meet labour market needs in different sectors of the economy 4. To develop and maintain a culture of safety and preparedness sector-wide and thus build resilience to disasters at all levels (Draft Education Sector Contingency Plan for Disaster Preparedness, 2011) 5. Different types of quantitative and qualitative information are available to decision makers in a timely and regular way to allow the formulation of policies, the design and implementation of necessary reforms and

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programmes, and the regular monitoring of the performance of the Seychellois Education system. (Ministry of Education, 2014a) For each goal the main challenges have been identified, the expected outcomes are outlined and priority programme targets and priority programme strategies are defined in detail. The proposed activities for programme strategies are comprehensive – 178 broad actions in total – and it is clear that the plan will go beyond 2017. An implementing mechanism has also been proposed.

Issues of education quality While the reforms and restructurings of the past three decades have resulted in some significant improvements in the organization and delivery of education nationally, the expected improvements in student performance have so far been rather elusive. Assessment results at key stages in the system indicate a degree of stagnation throughout: over the past four years only 35 per cent of primary six students (end of primary schooling) scored grade C or above in the national examinations. Almost 15 per cent of students move to the secondary cycle with rudimentary literacy and numeracy skills. About 10 per cent of secondary students – mainly boys – drop out before secondary year four and another 4 per cent at the end of secondary year four (end of the compulsory years). Boys’ underperformance persists throughout the school system. Assessment results at the end of secondary year five (end of secondary schooling) remain below expected standards for all subjects, with mathematics being the lowest at an 8 per cent pass rate. A lack of harmonization prevails between post-secondary programmes and the needs of the labour market, and courses on offer are often gender stereotyped (Ministry of Education, 2014a). Among the many challenges identified in the recent situational analysis carried out in the strategic development process of the education sector mediumterm strategy, using UNESCO’s recently developed general education quality assurance framework (Ministry of Education, 2014b), a number of issues stand out that should require closer examination. They include the inherited school curriculum model, the national assessment system, the language policy, teacher quality, teacher supply and retention, and the development of post-secondary education and training.

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The national curriculum Curriculum implementation in schools remains closely modelled on the concepts of time-tabled academic subjects, inherited from the old grammar school system of the 1800s. This has resulted in a certain amount of mismatch between education policies, the present national curriculum framework, teaching strategies and student profiles. The disparities are especially apparent at secondary level where the curriculum retains a strong tendency towards the traditional academic subjects, with a clear focus on the requirements of international examinations (currently Cambridge International Examinations general certificate of secondary education) which are actually taken by a minority of students. The technical and applied subjects, introduced to provide a broader range and better balance of subjects, are generally considered as being more suited to the less academically abled (the majority) or for students who do not achieve through the traditional methods of schooling (Purvis, 2004). Having adopted a generic model of comprehensive schools which are expected to cater to a very wide range of abilities, the human capacities, mechanisms and structures necessary to ensure successful learning for all are not in place. School leaders and teachers lack the capacity to fully adapt the curriculum to students’ needs; specialist support to help teachers identify and remediate learning difficulties is very limited and the ensuing problems are compounded by the policy of automatic promotion regardless of performance. The various grouping methods used to accommodate the ability range of students may well be a contributing factor to the considerable disparities in the performance of boys and girls in almost all Seychelles schools. The corollary to this is the association of disruptive behaviour and discipline problems with boys (Ministry of Education and Youth, 2002). The language policy, promoting trilingualism and the development of the mother tongue in schools, while generally valued by the majority of Seychellois, has brought about problems of its own in relation to curriculum planning and implementation. The primary school curriculum tends towards language overload, thus limiting the time available for other subject areas and activities. Adequately resourcing mother-tongue teaching with good-quality materials on such a small scale is especially costly and may not always be sustainable in the longer term. Teacher training in first language methodology along with teacher competence in all three languages are long-standing challenges, leading to

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extensive code mixing and code switching – as noted by 80 per cent of recent inspectorate reports.

National assessment The stated objectives of formal assessment in the school system are to assess the whole range of abilities across the full breadth of the national curriculum with the prime purposes of measuring individual achievements and monitoring the effectiveness of learning and teaching, and curriculum implementation (National Curriculum Framework, 2013). The present national examinations system is still largely determined by the international general certificate of education offered by Cambridge International Examinations, and it remains inaccessible to the majority of students at the end of secondary education because of general underperformance. About one-third of the yearly student cohort of approximately 1,300 qualify to sit for four or more subjects. The others may take the national end of secondary five examinations which are primarily for diagnostic purposes. Students also leave school with a certificate of attendance and a formal student profile.

Teacher quality, supply and retention The overall academic ability of teachers, their pedagogical training, content knowledge and teaching experience are crucial factors in the delivery of quality education (Ministry of Education, 2014b). While the number of teachers in the state school system has remained stable until 2012, shortages at both primary and secondary levels are now becoming apparent. This is due to a number of reasons, inter alia, the availability to young people of a wider range of career choices, coupled with the perception of school teaching as an unattractive option, especially for men; perceived limitations in career development in teaching compared to other professions; limitations of the teachers’ scheme of service; the abrupt restructuring of teacher training pathways in 2009 when teacher education moved to the University of Seychelles and the resulting limitations on teacher training options until the end of 2012 (Ministry of Education, 2014b). The Ministry of Education aims to staff all primary schools with teachers trained to diploma level (equivalent to the first year of a BEd degree) and secondary and post-secondary institutions with a majority of degree holders

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but opportunities for achieving this remains limited. While most primary and secondary school teachers are trained to diploma level, 15 per cent of primary teachers have no pedagogical training and only one-third of secondary teachers hold first degrees; 25 per cent of teachers are expatriates on contract, especially in the areas of science, mathematics, history and geography. The 235 teacher assistants in the early childhood key stage in schools have also not received any training. As vacancies become pressing, the tendency is to place them as temporary teachers in charge of classes. Although the teachers’ scheme of service was revised in 2012 it is still considered as lacking in comparison to other public sector salary structures and those of private schools.

Post-secondary education The decentralization of the training programmes of Seychelles Polytechnic in 2000–2002 was done with a view to (1) rationalizing the structure and organization of training programmes as well as the use of scarce resources, (2) enhancing the Polytechnic’s capacity to offer advanced level and industrial response training and (3) reducing national spending on overseas training through the development of partnerships with universities and other higher education institutions. The reorganization was followed by a review of various training programmes. The decision in 2004 to adopt a competency-based approach for all programme development at post-secondary level was made with a view to standardizing courses and programmes of learning. Unfortunately, the fragmented approach taken by the nine training institutions along with limited support centrally have meant that only a few courses have so far been validated by the Seychelles Qualifications Authority. This calls into questioning the quality of training being offered.

Possible way forward The Education Sector Medium-Term Strategy 2013–17 presents a comprehensive framework for consolidating the achievements of the previous education sector plans and addressing the many challenges encountered. It should be implemented within a context of constant monitoring and evaluation that should be built into the national system.

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Post-2015: Education for sustainable development Ultimately the aim of all development efforts is to bring about sustainable improvements in human well-being. This calls for a substantial transformation in approaches to development, one which effectively blends social progress, inclusive and equitable growth, and sustainable environmental management. One of the crucial elements of sustainable development goals must be the provision of quality education for sustainability. Education is a fundamental right, and full access to quality education at all levels and for all is an essential condition for sustainable development and poverty eradication. The education system must be able to respond to the learning needs of all children and young people, providing them with skills for life, work and the means of earning a decent livelihood. They should be guided by teachers who are professionals in their fields and who expect all their students to succeed. As noted in the Seychelles MDG status report (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2013), education for sustainability goes beyond the basic skills of literacy and numeracy. It should enable children and young people to realize their full potential, so that they may become successful lifelong learners with the capacities and values to become active and responsible citizens. Critical and creative thinking, problem-solving, learning to learn and effective communication skills are vital components of quality education that promotes inclusive and equitable growth. As children move to higher levels of education they need to acquire the skills of leadership, entrepreneurship and relating to others through teamwork, as well as develop sound understandings of natural resources, sustainable consumption and production and the effects of climate change. The education and training system should help to produce job creators rather than job seekers, and donor support should promote quality education for sustainability. At the local level, this would require the collaborative efforts of parents, the Ministries of Education, Health, Social Affairs, Finance, along with partners from the private sector and civil society. People being the most important assets of a small island state such as Seychelles, it is imperative that all investments maintain this focus: sustainable development starts with people, and harnessing the capacities and potentials of all people is the only means by which sustainable development will work. It is crucial therefore that the education system ensures that the potentials of all women, men, children and youth are recognized and developed so that they may fully engage in this process.

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Note 1 Seychelles in Figures, 2014.

References African Development Bank (2009). Seychelles – Gender Socialisation in the Home: Its Impact on Boys’ Achievement in Primary and Secondary Schools. Human Development Department: AfDB. Crossley, M. and Sprague, T. (2012). ‘Learning from Small States for Post-2015 for Educational and International Development’. Current Issues in Comparative Education, 15(1), 26–40. Education Information Management Services (2009–12). Education Statistics. Education Management Information Systems (2013). Education Statistics. Education Management Information Systems (2014). Education Statistics. Hughes-d’Aeth, A. (2011). Assessment Report on the Implementation of the Education Reform Action Plan 2009/2010, in Preparation for the Development of a Medium Term Education Sector Strategy 2011-2015 for Seychelles. European Union: Brussels. International Monetary Fund/Government of Seychelles (2011). Public Finance Management Performance Report, Seychelles, 2011. Victoria: Seychelles. Ministry of Education (1984). Education for a New Society. Victoria/Seychelles: Ministry of Education. Ministry of Education (1991). Education for Tomorrow: The 1991 Education Reform. Victoria: Seychelles. Ministry of Education (2000a). Education in a Global Era: Challenges to Equity, Opportunities for Diversity. Victoria/Seychelles: Ministry of Education. Ministry of Education (2000b). Education for a Learning Society: Policy Statement of the Ministry of Education, Seychelles. Victoria/Seychelles: Ministry of Education. Ministry of Education (2000c). School Improvement Programmes in Small States: The Seychelles Model. Victoria/Seychelles: Ministry of Education. Ministry of Education (2000d). Education Strategic Plan. Victoria, Seychelles: Ministry of Education. Ministry of Education (1985–2005). Education Statistics. Victoria: Seychelles: Ministry of Education. Ministry of Education (2010). Education Reform Action Plans 2009/2010. Victoria, Seychelles: Ministry of Education. Ministry of Education (2013a). Inspectorate Annual Report 2012/2013. Victoria, Seychelles: School Inspectorate Unit, Ministry of Education. Ministry of Education (2013b). The National Curriculum Framework. Victoria, Seychelles: Ministry of Education.

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Ministry of Education (2013c). General Education System Quality Assessment & Country Report. Seychelles: Ministry of Education. Ministry of Education (2014a). Education Sector Medium-Term Strategic Plan, 20132017 and Beyond. Victoria, Seychelles: Ministry of Education. Ministry of Education (2014b). Educational for All – National EFA 2015 Review Report. Victoria, Seychelles: Ministry of Education. Ministry of Education and Youth (2002). Gender Differences in the Educational Achievements of Boys and Girls in Primary Schools in Seychelles. Seychelles: Ministry of Education and Youth/Forum for African Women Educationalist (FAWE). Ministry of Education and Youth (2013). National Examination Reports, 1985 to 2013. Victoria, Seychelles: Ministry of Education and Youth. Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2013). Millennium Development Goals Status Report 2013 – Assessing Seychelles Progress towards the Millennium Development Goals. Victoria, Seychelles. National Bureau of Statistics (2013). Seychelles in Figures, 2013 Edition. NBS, Victoria, Seychelles. Nolan, J. (2008). The Seychelles Education and Training System – Does it have the Capacity to Provide the Human Resources to Achieve the Objectives of ‘Seychelles Strategy 2017’? Government of Seychelles, Victoria, Seychelles. Purvis, M. T. (2004). ‘Education in Seychelles: An Overview’. Seychelles Medical and Dental Journal, Special Issue, 7(1), 46–51. UNDP (2013). Human Development Report 2013 – The Rise of the South: Human Progress in a Diverse World. New York, USA: UNDP.

19

Zanzibar: A Small Island in a Global Arena Cathryn S. MacCallum

Introduction This chapter focuses on Zanzibar; a small island state in the Indian Ocean, and an educational programme to support sustainable change across the islands. It deals initially with Zanzibar and its complex sociopolitical history, highlighting the features that distinguish it from other Small Island Developing States (SIDS). It presents an overview of the education system and the challenges faced before introducing an innovative educational programme that utilizes NorthSouth links and the Northern construct of Global Learning to improve the competence and capabilities of the education system through the development of a professional learning community (PLC) and the ‘adaptive capability’ of participants in this PLC to negotiate the global forces and pressures that threaten the island’s very existence. The educational programme discussed has been developed and delivered by Sazani Associates (Sazani), a UK-and Zanzibarbased NGO.

Zanzibar Sociopolitical context Situated in the Indian Ocean, about thirty-five miles off the coast of mainland Tanzania lies the Zanzibar archipelago. It is a semi-autonomous, small island state, with a combination of rural and urban poverty within a relatively small geographical area1 characteristic of much of the global South. Zanzibar, although not acknowledged by the UN as a SIDS because of its semiautonomous nature, faces many of the challenges and opportunities common to

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SIDS in other parts of the world. These common opportunities and challenges include geographical isolation, a concentrated biodiversity and the presence of many endemic species, remoteness, restricted availability of resources, economic dependence on fishing and/or tourism, increasing population density and unemployment, environmental degradation and susceptibility to natural disasters, vulnerability to global developments and a dependence on international trade (Adger, 2006). The climate of all SIDS is influenced by oceanic-atmospheric interactions, which, combined with their particular socio-economic situation, make them extremely vulnerable to global pressures such as climate change and climate variability. Consequently, the sensitivity to those pressures represents a major constraint to the achievement of sustainable development (Tompkins, 2005). Lacking economies of scale, SIDS incur proportionately higher transportation and communication costs than larger non-island states, as well as more expensive public administration and infrastructure. This is accentuated by the declining value of traditional exports, reduced access to land for domestic food production and increase in cost of imported food and petroleum fuels. This results in SIDS having greater exposure than larger states to internal and external shocks and extreme events, which in turn drive social conflict. Ultimately states like Zanzibar present a microcosm of many of the major challenges facing the world today and especially the global South. This is further illustrated by the contrasting complexities of urban and rural existence, of uplands and lowlands, of coastal and inland areas and their respective vulnerability to local and global threats and the rapid degradation and destruction of fragile ecosystems. What sets Zanzibar apart from other SIDS is its sociopolitical history. Its demise from being an independent, prosperous small island state to becoming a protectorate under the British, regaining independence and ending up as a semi-autonomous appendix to a poor African nation allied to the Soviet Bloc. Following the collapse of the Soviet Bloc and African and European responses to neoliberalism, Zanzibar emerged from a ‘single-party democracy’ to a multiparty democracy with two parties, contested elections and eventually coalition government. This contrasts with the colonial history of many other SIDS; pre-independence Zanzibar is widely regarded, by Zanzibaris at least, as the ‘Golden Age’ (MacCallum, 2014). Zanzibar was at the centre of a great East African Muslim tradition and the trading capital of the Indian Ocean at a time when people were ‘learned’ and tolerant, embodied by a flourishing Islamic scholarly debate with various schools of thought.

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This post-independence period of scholarly and economic decline resulted in a paradoxical position in relation to Islam. Zanzibar, with its 90 per cent Muslim population became a secular, semi-autonomous state in line with socialist ideals. This resulted in ‘Islam being reduced to an artefact, a signifier without meaning’ (Turner, 2008, p. 6). The only permitted sect of Islam during this period was Sufism, with its mystical ‘other worldly’ reputation and focus on being able to recite rather than learn the Quran, reducing its threat to the secular domain (Turner, 2008). The perceived combined assault by state socialism on cosmopolitanism, knowledge and Islamic plurality resulted in a demise of Zanzibar’s national identity as a Swahili, mercantile culture of travel, trade and intellectual exchange. The result was that a once thriving, outward-looking island state was reframed as a poor semi-autonomous developmental state oppressed by mainland Tanzania (Middleton, 1994). Zanzibar, as the only semi-autonomous and statistically one of the most densely populated states in Africa, with its complex historical and political backdrop of postcolonialism and devolution with tribalism replaced by a complex and covert class structures based on perceived ethnicity, has a secular government.

Socio-economic context The onset of tourism as a global force simultaneously raised expectations among the political, mercantile and rural people as an alternative source of financial capital. In practice those driving tourism have engaged in an overexploitation of natural capital assets such as water, land, forests and marine resources and an under-exploitation of human capital, with less than 20 per cent of all employment going to Zanzibar nationals (ZRG, 2010). Rural people in Zanzibar remain in extreme poverty despite extensive growth in tourism. Instead of benefitting rural economies, the growth of this single sector global tourism industry competes with local subsistence activity drawing on many assets of the poor – knowledge, natural resources and rural space – while impacting negatively upon their livelihoods and resilience in this vulnerable small island state. Unequal resource allocation and restricted access to credit render vulnerable groups poorly equipped for self-employment or enterprise development. The wide range of negative effects on culture and traditional way of life is, as Peak (1989, p. 124) suggests, ‘a final form of oppression is the modern tourist trade, in which once again outsiders exploit the Swahili’ (as cited in Middleton, 1994). Tourism Concern (2012) identified Zanzibar as the

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most socially unjust location on the planet with regard to access to drinking water, with only 10 per cent of the population having access to electricity in their homes and 55 per cent dependent on drawing water from wells. Some villagers carry water for up to 5 miles passing tourists swimming in freshwater infinity pools overlooking the beach. Research undertaken by Sazani Associates over a ten-year period acknowledges that the local population insist that tourism has increased poverty and has introduced a range of new socio-economic problems that the communities are not equipped to manage. These include environmental degradation, prostitution and alcoholism to name a few. The current Zanzibar government policy acknowledges the need to understand and respect rural coastal community views, for integrative thinking and to involve them in decision-making processes. In the 2010 coastal strategy document, it states, ‘Communities especially those living in coastal areas need to be made aware of the importance of coastal resources to their livelihood and thus their wise use of the resources is so crucial’ (ZRG, 2010, p. 33). Extremely high unemployment, 90 per cent of all school leavers are without gainful employment, is fostering widespread disengagement of rural communities and young people. Unless rural communities are equipped to challenge global pressures such as tourism, climate change and extremism, an undesirable situation will continue to grow that if left unattended could see a return to major social unrest. With close historical, social and trade links to Arabia and nearby Somalia, Zanzibar has seen an emergence of Salafist fundamentalist Islam which is moving the culture from one espousing plural traditions to one of a singular social religious perspective articulated by well resourced, foreign-educated Islamic scholars. As such, Zanzibar provides a ‘development interface’ where the traditional endogenous knowledge of rural, community actors contrasts, and often conflicts with, the external scientific and ‘expert’ knowledge of development professionals, educators and government representatives. As a small island state, its vulnerability to these global pressures and forces necessitates the population to be able to adapt to and/ or mitigate against change. To engage in either of these without an understanding of the drivers of these global pressures and forces is at best reactionary and ineffective.

Education Education in Zanzibar is compulsory and free until the age of 16. The current education system involves staying at school until an individual has completed at least 7 years of primary and 4 years of secondary education. Gross enrolment

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rates and attendance figures vary according to the season. There are certain times of the year when there is a noticeably higher number of girls than boys in school despite the under-20 population being 49 per cent male and 51 per cent female (Ministry of Education, ZRG, 2009). Teacher retention is poor, especially in rural areas, and the quality of provision largely depends on teachers with few formal qualifications and inadequate training. Teacher salaries are low with very few incentives being offered and many of the well-qualified teachers migrate either to private schools or to the mainland. In common with many cultures, education is still seen as a means to have choices, but not to increase knowledge regarding traditional activities. The UNESCO (2000) EFA Progress report identified various problems and issues within the education sector. It revealed that the goal to achieve universal education was far from being reached. In the 2014 EFA report it illustrated that primary school completion rate had improved by less than 1 per cent, from 77.2 per cent to 78.4 per cent. The trend of large school infrastructure projects has undoubtedly contributed to the achievement of this goal as the population of children aged 13 had increased by 6,500, but it can also be argued that building of schools and ITC equipment does not improve the quality or effectiveness of education within these improved facilities. It is generally regarded that despite improved and or maintained enrolment and completion there has been a decline in the quality of education in Zanzibar. According to a VSO (2011, p. 5) study, Teacher competence and motivation were the most commonly cited problem areas for the quality of education in Zanzibar. Yet teachers often work in difficult and demanding conditions, with large classes and insufficient resources. They have many training needs that are not currently being adequately met, so their levels of competence in many areas remain low. This combination of factors often results in low motivation and morale. In addition, teachers are poorly paid and many research participants feel that a salary increase would have the single most significant effect on motivation.

Sazani’s research and work within the education sector has also found that the current education system is not helping to improve the quality of education in terms of basic skills or cognitive skills (MacCallum and Salam, 2014). This is further compounded by the fact that there is little recognition or consideration of the community’s role of schools, catchment dynamics or the pressures degrading the overall standard of rural teachers. A low level of education is one of the factors which limits the extent to which individuals and communities are able to provide a decent standard of living. A

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disproportionately high number of poorer and vulnerable children are left out of secondary schools, 40 per cent of the urban population are illiterate, rising to 60 per cent in the rural areas. Inability of the formal education sector to lower illiteracy levels is having a substantial impact on children and young people’s abilities to secure sustainable livelihoods, increase their income and achieve full and productive employment. The divide between urban – rural knowledge, education and training is a major barrier to eradicating poverty (DFID, 2012). The Government of Zanzibar (ZRG) policy Zanzibar Development Vision 2020 (ZRG, 2009) recognizes that poverty reduction begins with today’s children, and by giving more attention to the quality and scope of education to ensure that young people are equipped with the skills in demand in the labour market, the long-term impact of this project will be to enable them to secure sustainable livelihoods; this will enable them to break out of the poverty cycle. Being a predominantly Muslim island, Islamic studies is part of the curriculum within primary schools with an option to sit out of the classes for the minority of students who are not Muslim. In secondary schools, students are taught about both Islam and Christianity but again the non-Muslims have an option to sit out of the classes teaching about Islam and vice versa. This option to sit out means that most students do not attend classes to learn about their fellow students’ religious beliefs and there is very little knowledge about other less prominent religions here.

Sazani Associates in Zanzibar Educating rural people Sazani Associates (Sazani), a UK-and Zanzibar-based NGO, has been working in the archipelago for more than 10 years. During this time, they have piloted and expanded a reflexive and critical approach to supporting the development of sustainable livelihoods through education and training. This has involved working alongside the Ministry of Education in Zanzibar to contextualize learning in schools in TVET and in basic skills development. This has been combined with building the capacity, capability and competencies of the education system to foster sustainable change. In 2004 Sazani, as an implementing partner to the FAO:UNESCO Flagship ‘Education for Rural People’, carried out a detailed review of the education system in Zanzibar. The review identified the priorities, achievements, challenges and

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constraints of the education system. Through this review, it became apparent in addition to being under-resourced with limited access to basic services such as water and electricity that unless learning and education was relevant to local realities, it would achieve no more than what Freire (1970) would consider to be ‘information banking’. Understanding the limitations of the current education system in Zanzibar, Sazani has focused on the enablers, the deliverers, the teachers and the trainers of teachers. This was grounded in the acknowledgement of the restricted capacity of Sazani Associates as an NGO, without the resources or the will to focus on equipping schools and ministerial offices with artefacts. Across the islands, State Teachers Centres (TCs) exist to administer training for teachers and these became the initial focus of the approach of formal education development. Sazani identified these TCs as the vehicle to provide support in an effective way targeting the main objective of up-skilling teachers in Zanzibar. The beneficiaries from each district/TC were identified through previous work as those who are dedicated and enthusiastic teachers but who lacked the knowledge or incentives to improve the quality of their teaching. This tactile, historically informed approach to targeting effort further enabled relationships to develop with schools, teachers and government and makes the targeted approach more effective and embedded. Furthermore in acknowledgement of the complex tapestry of Zanzibar, its history and the external global forces and pressures it was exposed to, it was evident that for learning to be relevant it also needed to consider not only local realities but also the global context in which they exist (Al Kanaan, 2007). In the UK and much of the Global North, such a construct is referred to as ‘Global Learning’. Simply increasing basic literacy, as it is currently taught in Zanzibar and other countries will not advance a sustainable society. If communities and nations such as Zanzibar hope to identify sustainability goals and work toward them, they must focus on skills, values, and perspectives that encourage and support public participation and community decision making. To achieve this, basic education needs to be reoriented to address sustainability and expanded to include criticalthinking skills, skills to organize and interpret data and information, skills to formulate questions, and the ability to analyse issues that confront communities. (Al Kanaan, 2007, p. 12)

Global Learning and consideration of the other Global Learning is a process of realized critical thinking, a reflective consideration of social, cultural, economic, political and environmental issues

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from a variety of perspectives and contexts (MacCallum, 2014). It sits alongside and overlaps with what Bourn and Brown (2011, p. 257) refer to as the ‘adjectival educations’ and ‘just pedagogies’. These include Development Education, Peace Education, Rights-Based Education, Education for Sustainable Development, Global Citizenship Education and Global Education. As a construct, it has evolved from and is increasingly associated with an interchangeable concept with many of these pedagogies. It challenges parochial and provincial, singleorder attitudes and encourages exploring issues from a range of perspectives to support informed decision making (Scheunpflug, Gogolin and Baumert, 2011; Bourn and Issler, 2010; Bourn, 2008). Global learning, as an emerging pedagogy, seeks to ‘provide learners with the knowledge and skills needed to live in a globalised world’ (Scheunpflug, 2008, p. 18) and is ‘about enabling people to understand the links between their lives and those of people throughout the world’ (Bourn, 2008, p. 3). It seeks to develop learners’ ability to enquire from a critical perspective, assisting them in ‘learning to unlearn, learning to listen, learning to learn and learning to reach out’ (Andreotti and De Souza, 2008, p. 29). Sazani’s work recognizes that educators of children and young people need to acknowledge the ‘other’ and the interactions between identity and difference. Educators need to understand the multiple ways in which they negotiate everyday lived realities and through which they experience their identity in order to understand and value the environment and their living heritage. There is a need for educators to explore and acquire language and concepts to unpack the challenges they and their students face before they can be in a position to lead educational discourse with students. Understanding how one’s own life is framed and interactions between self and other is important, as Spivak (2013) concurs, and so is understanding how identities are constructed, not only within the communities to which they belong but also between different communities. The centrality and importance of identity in securing confidence to consider another’s perspective or situation resonates with the global learning emphasis on the consideration of ‘the other’. Andreotti and De Souza (2008), Bourn and Issler (2010) and Scheunpflug, Gogolin and Baumert (2011) all include local voices and perspectives in their writings, and concur that there are often multiple perspectives to consider. A global learning space can, as Bourn and Issler (2010, p. 255) suggest, provide ‘opportunities for intercultural research and learning based on equality of partnership. … [It] supports international understanding, but also investigation of indigenous cultures and provides a voice for minority and marginalized groups in any society.’

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Global learning, in this guise, becomes a globally relevant construct and one with the potential to liberate education in Zanzibar from trying to pay lip service to Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and other neoliberal ideals and can support it to become an effective mechanism to challenge the social exclusion of rural communities and young people. Learners who actively engage in education enter into a process of socialization that is influenced by larger economic, social and political forces. It has been widely accepted that those most likely to succeed are those who align themselves with, and participate in, other mainstream communities of practice that are congruent with the dominant culture and elites. Those least likely to succeed and most likely to experience difficulties are those who are different and socially excluded, people on the margins, women, ethnic minorities and those who are poor. Global Learning provides a means to actively challenge these exclusions. Through gaining a range of perspectives and engaging in a critical reflection in a classroom or social-learning setting this in turn provides opportunities to cross borders of dominance. Vibrant self-criticism should be coupled with social criticism in order to reject ‘the seductive persuasions of certainty’ (Hussein, 2002, p. 297) and to foster critical positions without becoming intractable or dominant: ‘The role of engaged intellectuals was not to consolidate authority but to understand, interpret and question it’ (Said, 1994, p. 9).

From school links to global professional learning communities At the start of the Education for Rural People project, Sazani Associates was working with three schools in Wales (UK) and three in Zanzibar, coordinating and facilitating a school-linking initiative focusing on curriculum development and global learning. This project sought to develop educators’ competences in using critical literacy to foster peer exchanges between Wales and Zanzibar. From this initial link involving six schools, a network grew with membership of more than twenty schools in Zanzibar and twenty schools in Wales, linked to each other through global schools’ partnerships and committed to promoting and supporting peer and skill share opportunities for curriculum and teacher development in their locality as well as with their international sister schools. The link, by focusing primarily on schools with a rural catchment, has also proven to be an innovative and effective means of retaining teachers in rural schools in Zanzibar. From this school-linking network, a global PLC (GPLC) has evolved.

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A PLC can be defined by eight key characteristics:

(a) Shared values and vision (b) Collective responsibility for pupils’ learning (c) Collaboration focused on learning (d) Group as well as individual professional learning (e) Reflective professional enquiry (f) Openness, networks and partnerships (g) Inclusive membership (h) Mutual trust, respect and support (Stoll et al., 2005, pp. 1–2). Each of these characteristics is clearly compatible with a global learning approach, and together they are noticeably different from the piecemeal approaches to embedding global learning; moreover, their focus on collaborative working should enable a coherent and sustainable global learning strategy, where all are involved and answers come from within, rather than being imposed from the outside. Indeed, one of the most common reasons that education professionals do not integrate the global into the school environment is lack of understanding, or fear of broaching potentially controversial subjects (Blum, 2012, p. 148). This can result from a lack of learning on this subject in the initial teacher training stage, as well as from development of educational resources that encourage simple reproduction (Hopkins, 2007, p. 60). A GPLC, however, can counter this tension between knowledge and learning by enabling shared learning and promoting capacity-building and criticalthinking skills, through a mixture of continuous professional learning and reflective professional enquiry. This should in turn enable the individual to feel confident to tackle global issues sensitively and in a non-biased way by gaining skills in strategic reasoning, insightfulness, perseverance, creativity and problem-solving (Bourn, 2012, p. 11). This approach thus retains the transformative and potent nature of global learning that other approaches eliminate by their very nature. Jackson and Temperley (2006, p. 4) argue that cross-school collaborative learning, underpinned by moral purpose, can be energizing, since it entails four distinct learning processes:

(a) Learning from one another: where groups capitalize on their individual differences and diversity through sharing their knowledge, experience, expertise, practices and know-how;

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(b) Learning with one another: where individuals are doing the learning together, experiencing the learning together, co-constructing the learning, making meaning together. Collaborative practitioner enquiry and collaboratively learning about recent research are good examples of this activity; (c) Learning on behalf of: where the learning between individuals from different schools is also done on behalf of other individuals within their school and network – or the wider system; (d) Meta-learning: where individuals are additionally learning about the processes of their own learning (pp. 6–7; emphases added). By encouraging systems thinking across schools in Zanzibar and between schools in Wales and Zanzibar, teacher and student understanding of the global forces and pressures that affect lives and livelihoods in both localities is strengthened generating a higher level of thinking. The community ensures there are shared learning opportunities for everyone involved which directly feeds into a culture of a shared vision and values as members are able to learn individually, as well as with and from each other, which in turn enables them to take collective responsibility for promoting and supporting each other’s learning. This idea of ‘peer learning’ is an essential component of the global learning community which ensures a collective responsibility focused on global learning. It also is a movement away from paternalistic North-South aid approaches to education, which are still markedly present. Through peer learning Sazani has also been developing partnerships with individuals or organizations to deliver continuous professional development (CPD) sessions to teachers, which have given them the opportunity to learn from a variety of different sources. For example, a CPD session on ‘environmental awareness and climate change’, delivered in partnership with a Conservation and Environmental Education team, provided teachers with new skills and opened up a range of new opportunities for their respective schools. One of the core elements that we are instilling through our Global Citizenship work in Zanzibar is the importance for teachers to develop a global-minded approach to their classroom delivery and general work ethic. Not only ensuring that global issues are an integral part of school life but also that local knowledge and skills are valued and built on. This in turn reinforces the value of building on existing and assets and strengths of individuals and their communities. As an organization, Sazani does this by making use of existing assets or practices set up by the Ministry of Education & Vocational Training (MoEVT)

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or the community. For example, environmental clubs already existed in schools as a ministry initiative and we have utilized this concept to help ensure that these clubs are more active in schools as well as interactive to fuel reflective enquiry and learning for the young people and to increase their involvement in all aspects of livelihood development at a community level. Building on strengths and existing institutional initiatives has been a useful way of embedding change. The skills Sazani is promoting through the learning community are the subject-specific, interdisciplinary and whole-school approaches to teaching and the ability to link learning to lives and livelihoods. It is important to link learning to the need for action and the concepts of risk-taking, creativity and innovative thinking. A key aspect of each CPD session is to make learning and education more relevant and contextualized to local livelihood issues through curriculum enrichment. This is done in tandem with delivering critical-thinking activities that enable teachers to feel confident about delivering sessions on global issues. School visits, sharing curricular topics and the mutual exploration of global issues such as climate change, tourism and poverty has fuelled critical and creative thinking. It has also challenged their perspectives and perceptions resulting from exchange visits. Experience and exposure have helped develop educators’ thinking around the notion of economic, political, social, cultural and environmental issues and how individuals contribute to these issues. Through Sazani’s education project, a learning community has been created which includes not just teachers and students but also school management committee (SMC) members, parents and the wider community. ‘A whole school approach’ has a strong base for inclusive membership, as it includes a mix of individuals who are all valued, contributing members of the learning community, with everyone agreeing that they are part of one large community. Community ownership is crucial for collective action and social change and this has developed a sense of trust between members. This is of the utmost importance when looking at the sustainability of our work with communities and schools.

Healthy and Sustainable Schools framework Zanzibari teachers, when visiting Wales (UK), were impressed by the Health Promoting Schools Initiative and its success in engaging the whole school, so much so that they asked Sazani to support the design and implementation of a similar scheme in Zanzibar: Sazani facilitated this, by securing support and

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arranging a skills share from the Health Promoting Schools team at the Wales Government Public Health Office. Utilizing this support, Sazani worked with district health and education administrators in Zanzibar to adapt and pilot the Healthy and Sustainable Schools framework in their own area. The inspiration and structure they have drawn from the Wales scheme has also strengthened the links with their partner schools, through a focus on shared topics and developing shared curriculum materials. Through the Healthy and Sustainable Schools GPLC project, Sazani is increasing the understanding and awareness of global sustainability issues through education for the whole school. The overall goal of the GPLC is to ensure that children completing secondary education have life skills that link critical thinking and learning to livelihoods with global awareness, enterprise skills, active citizenship, health awareness and environmental literacy. Children who complete secondary education with these skills are better equipped for their involvement in all aspects of sustainable livelihood development. Peer-to-peer learning, as facilitated through the Healthy and Sustainable Schools framework, also enables teachers and students to share ideas and methods on best practice and to discuss how certain issues can be tackled. During monitoring visits to schools, Sazani has been able to garner an understanding of the challenges and successes that various schools have encountered as a result of the pilot projects. Sazani has then initiated peer workshops, allowing the schools involved to discuss these issues and to find solutions together. Sazani packed the programme into a ‘Framework’ which gives processes, clarity and flexibility for SMCs. Understanding culturally appropriate mechanisms for social action and the importance of flexibility has drawn on Sazani’s considerable skill in community development. The Healthy and Sustainable Schools framework focuses on supporting sustainable life and enterprise skills through curriculum enrichment. The framework has a three-pronged approach, driven through the SMC, to develop a whole-school approach to healthy and sustainable living, providing professional development support to teachers through a targeted CPD programme, focusing on nine topical areas and supporting student action groups to engage in healthy and sustainable extracurricular activities linked to these topics. There is an award scheme to acknowledge a school’s commitment to the learning community, to ensure learning takes place and to monitor the level of learning. Schools are encouraged to set up environmental projects, and such mini projects are in essence the schools ‘award’. For schools to be entitled to a Healthy and Sustainable Schools Award, they need to be actively embedding

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topics learnt into lesson plans, making cross-curricular links between topics and achieving a whole-school approach where topics learnt are embedded into the school ethos and into every aspect of school life. The framework ensures that there are shared learning opportunities for teachers and students that in turn support the ongoing school-linking programme, between Zanzibari and Welsh schools. Like all sustainable systems, the process is cyclical. Through being engaged to such activities, it is clear that students are extremely enthusiastic about participating in activities that relate to their realities (MacCallum, 2014). They are pupil-centred and pupil-led, and are clearly effective in terms of student learning. Participating schools in Zanzibar involved in this journey, understanding and awareness of sustainable development and informed choice and decision making, have underpinned a continually evolving CPD programme utilizing a whole-school approach and a range of active student engagement initiatives. This approach to learning is being increasingly acknowledged by the Zanzibar government and the wider international community as an effective means to challenge youth marginalization.

Lessons for a global arena, from a small island A question of criticality An island state like Zanzibar provides a microcosmic view on the complexities of livelihoods and the challenges for education. Understanding local realities, how resilient or vulnerable rural communities are and where the edge of their dissonance or comfort zone is proved to be an essential component of the GPLC. The rural areas where Sazani’s educational programmes have been focused have also been the areas most exposed to tourism and the rise of the ‘Mwamsho’ (awakening) movement, a form of Salafism. The consequences of these two juxtaposed global forces have presented additional challenges to Zanzibar’s education system and from Sazani’s perspective, increased the need for knowledge and understanding to be both critical and reflexive. Young school leavers looking for gainful employment are literally caught between the ‘devil and the deep blue sea’ without the skills to interrogate tourism and compel it to be more responsible towards its host communities or challenge Salafism forcing its exponents to acknowledge and value the rich and varied culture of Islam in Zanzibar.

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Addressing societal concerns about tourism and challenging the emerging religious response, the GPLC has engaged in what Said (1993) refers to as ‘secular criticism’ and worldliness. Global learning, in this context, has presented an extremely relevant response to challenging the ‘alterity’ and uncriticizably intense ‘Manichean theologizing of “the Other”’ (Said, 1983, p. 291). The critical consciousness realized through global learning actively challenges the exclusion of that which is ‘other’ and the notion that ‘what is fitting for us and what is fitting for them’ (Said, 1983, pp. 15–16). The former are designated as superior, the latter as inferior. The importance of such social differentiation of communication and engagement should start with an understanding of people’s perceptions and knowledge of the global pressures and forces that impact on them, if they are to be engaged with in a meaningful way. Through development of the global PLC, global social learning has occurred that has in turn influenced the formation and social construction of values. This has involved creation of a safe space for teachers, as participants, to interrogate their social attitudes and the general cultural orientation, which underpins their livelihoods and approach to learning, opening ‘people’s minds to the realities of the world’ (Bourn, 2008, p. 8). These collaborative interactions provided a starting point for a ‘critical pluralism’ (Said, 2003). They have initiated an integration of different perspectives resulting in an appreciation of vulnerability, interdependence and dissonance.

Participation and empowerment All of the CPD training delivered through the GPLC has been underpinned by participation and participatory methods. They have drawn extensively on Freire’s (1970) approach to generating reflection and critical thinking as a foundation for building and strengthening social change towards informed choice and change. There is a stark contrast with the functional neoliberal notion of participation where engaging with civil society is a valid replacement for consulting with the ‘poor’ or where learning is purely about basic skills development in exclusion of the cognitive skills required to effectively apply learning to a situation. Power can be defined as having visible, hidden and invisible faces that operate in spaces from the household to the international level (Gaventa, 2004). For participation to be meaningful and productive in transforming a situation power should be expanded and this requires a combination of trust, reciprocity, reflexivity and self-scrutiny. Participation and voice are receiving increased

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scrutiny in donor literature with an unspoken assumption that promotion of voice will ensure better lives for the marginalized (Pettit, 2012; Al Kanaan and Proctor, 2008). A key consideration in terms of how the GPLC approached participation was to ensure that it was not just the ‘users and choosers’ who were involved and that throughout the Healthy and Sustainable School topics there were opportunities to strengthen the critical understanding of power and its ability to influence change (MacCallum, 2014; Kabeer, 2005). Without genuine empowerment, participation is reduced to a tokenistic exercise or a way of maintaining power relations. Likewise, without meaningful participation, empowerment can remain an empty, unfulfilled promise (Pettit, 2012; Cornwall and Brock, 2005). To this end, the Healthy and Sustainable Schools Awards fostered whole school approaches and created opportunities for learning, which influenced the school, teachers and students to actively engage in actions to address their concerns and priorities gained from their learning about certain topics. An example was a topic on avian biodiversity in which teachers were supported to deliver contextualized curriculum topics. Students learnt about biodiversity, birds and their habitats, engaged in critical enquiries as to what had changed within their locality and why and how this had affected the bird population, and counted and plotted different varieties. They established student action groups to improve the situation and received support from their SMC in designation of certain areas within the school grounds to create bird-friendly habitats. This vertical integration of local social action planning provides valuable learning experiences for young people in terms of understanding solution-orientated behaviours and social practices. The GPLC involved teachers and SMC members who worked together across disciplines and subject areas to develop cross-curricular whole-school approaches to health and sustainable life skills. These were defined as learning how to engage in livelihood activities that were healthy, sustainable and linked to enterprise. One senior SMC member, during one of these meetings, provided the following analogy: So if our project is the mango tree providing shade and shelter for us to sit and share our ideas, then we the SMC are the roots and our teachers the branches and our learning the leaves. That makes our pupils the mangos, so we must work with you to nurture and fertilize our soil so that we grow strong and can survive if the rains come or not (SMC member, 2013).

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This process empowered everyone involved through the expansion of understanding and choice and ultimately the values that were determined by critical scrutiny and reflection on the situation at hand from a range of perspectives. This is what Sen (1997) refers to as freedom and choice to be and do what you value. This has implications for wider development practice, in terms of the power of identity, sense of place and belonging. As Pettit (2012) suggests, empowering participatory practice should be power conscious and involve engagement in reflective, experiential and embodied learning to complement analytical insights and processes. If this example is related back to local realities and a critical understanding of global pressures such as tourism and Salafism, developing the capability to make informed social and political choices encourages development of cognitive skills and key competences, fostering the individual freedoms associated with participation and empowerment to consider rather than to ‘not question’.

Learning for sustainable change Education in the twenty-first century requires not just a few ‘add on skills’ but attention to the development of competencies, within which certain skills, values, attitudes, knowledge and understanding are required. The idea that learning can lead to profound change in individuals and communities is an important link between cognitive and basic skills competencies because both the notion of competence as we have described it and the notion of personal and social change are historical, contextualized and value dependent: they imply a sense of direction leading towards a ‘desired end’. All of Sazani’s work in Zanzibar has adopted an approach that is learnercentred and the programme has shown that learner-centred guidance, group work and inquiry projects result in better skills and competencies. It demonstrates that interactive forms of discussion and inquiry can lead to a more reflective, deeper and participative learning experience. Learning by doing, inquiry learning, problem-solving, creativity and so on all play a role as competencies for innovation and can be enriched and improved. The project has nurtured new and innovative learning approaches and ensured educators are aware of their potential and supported them in delivering learning, particularly to marginalized groups. Teachers and students through active engagement in activities that were pupil-centred displayed enthusiasm to learn and participate. Building on

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existing assets and strengths, such as ministry-sponsored but often defunct environmental clubs, young people have reinvigorated them as interactive student initiatives, linking learning to livelihoods, global awareness and active engagement. The student-led nature of the activities, ensuring gender equity in relation to positions of responsibility, has also proven successful in linking young people with their wider community on issues related to nutrition, biodiversity, health and sanitation. Relating learning to local realities has focused on the learning process, supported critical thinking, self-reflection and the independent choices of the learner. It is evident that learning can lead to a profound change in individuals and communities; it can increase active citizenship and cultural awareness and expression, building upon knowledge, skills, values and attitudes that lead to effective personal and civil society relationships. It has supported development of an understanding of humanity, global social justice and responsibility. This is similar to Delor’s (1996) four pillars of learning developed for UNESCO, which focuses on ‘learning to live together, learning to know, learning to do and learning to be’. Teachers believe that it is difficult to separate individual from collective thought, as due to peer pressure it can be difficult to find out what individuals really think and how their thinking changes. Working to encourage global learning on a small island in the Indian Ocean which has a unique cultural diversity but which has also seen a huge influx of tourists, it is important to promote cultural values and identity in schools. There is a need to ensure that there is opportunity for the interaction of ideas across cultures to further enrich the island’s culture rather than eroding local cultural identity, traditions and livelihoods. Education needs to develop learners’ capacity to engage in this type of thinking. In a global arena, how can the people of a small island with a complex colonial history and sociopolitical context reclaim their identity and history? How can they challenge the prevailing conflicting and emerging global order to legitimize pluralism and secular criticism? In order to understand these challenges, it is important to understand the interplay between education and sustainable change. In Zanzibar, there were five key considerations:

(a) Realization of what you have was deemed an incredibly powerful tool, while before they would cooperate, participants now referred to collective action and support for their work; (b) Critical understanding and learning to consider other perspectives and reflect on these in decision-making processes;

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(c) Attitudinal change in relation to how they approached issues in their own lives but also in their collective responses to change and challenges; (d) The importance of confidence in sharing and discussing ideas and assessing what changes they would like to see and what they were able to do; (e) Collaborative exposure to others’ ability to challenge collective barriers to practical opportunities (Al Kanaan, 2007, p. 39). What was clear in Zanzibar was that for actions to be collective, there needs to be a flow of information between individuals and groups. There needs to be creation of a safe space for critical reflection. This enhanced GPLC participants’ capability to collaborate and participate in a transformative process. Building on strengths and existing assets fostered a ‘can do’ approach that in part countered the ‘shalt not’ restrictions on culture. Ultimately, understanding of ‘the other’ as a two-way process realized the potential of enabling border crossings (Giroux, 2012). There was an acknowledgement of the importance of learning from others and sharing experiences, together with collaboration and collective action leading to social change. Furthermore, through a deliberative space, participants from different social, political and cultural contexts achieved a shared understanding of their individual and collective strengths and how they could utilize this to inform and influence decision making. This ‘Adaptive Capability’ (MacCallum, 2014) altered the perception of external forces and pressures to something that people had the ability to influence, be it climate change, tourism or resisting the influence of Salafism. Adaptive capabilities are determined by the willingness for collaboration within and between different sectors of society that build on existing assets and strengths. This chapter has focused on a small island state, impacted by all of the global influences and pressures of much larger state. This suggests replicability and viability for expansion and adoption. Taking the Northern construct of global learning out of the Northern classroom and redefining it as a learning process in the global South, it has contributed to the global challenges of plurality and sustainability, to stop making assumptions and to develop adaptive capabilities to be ‘not quite right’ (Said, 2003).

Note 1 Total land area of approximately 2,000 square miles

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References Adger, W. N. (2006). ‘Vulnerability’. Global Environmental Change, 16(3), 268–81. Al Kanaan, C. S. (2007). ‘Education Assessment of Zanzibar ERP Flagship’. FAO: UNESCO Paris. Al Kanaan, C. S. and Proctor, M. (2008). ‘Sustainable Livelihoods Analysis of Youth in Zanzibar’, Unpublished research report Sazani Associates, UK. Andreotti, V. and De Souza, L. M. (2008). ‘Translating Theory into Practice and Walking Minefields’. International Journal of Development Education and Global Learning, vol.1.1, 23–36. London: Trentham Books. Blum, N. (2012). Education, Community Engagement and Sustainable Development: Negotiating Environmental Knowledge in Monteverde, Costa Rica: Springer. Bourn, D. (2008). ‘Development Education: Towards a re-conceptualisation’. International Journal of Development Education and Global Learning, 1(1), 5–22, London: Trentham. Bourn, D. (2012). Global Learning and Subject Knowledge. DERC Research Paper No. 4, London: IOE. Bourn, D. and Issler, S. (2010). ‘Transformative Learning for a Global Society’. In G. Elliott, C. Fourali and S. Issler (eds), Education and Social Change: Connecting Local and Global Perspectives, 225–37, London: Bloomsbury Publishing. Bourn, D. and K. Brown (2011). Young People and International Development: Engagement and Learning. DERC Research Paper No. 2, London: IOE. Cornwall, A. and Brock. K. (2005). ‘Beyond Buzzwords: “Poverty Reduction,” “Participation” and “Empowerment” in Development Policy’, Overarching Concerns Programme Paper. Geneva, UNRISD. Delors, J. (1996). Learning: The treasure within Report to UNESCO of the International Commission on Education for the Twenty-first Century, UNESCO. DFID (2012). Economics of Climate Change in Zanzibar. DFID UK. Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Seabury Press. Gaventa, J. (2004). ‘Participatory Development or Participatory Democracy? Linking Participatory Approaches to Policy and Governance’. Participatory Learning and Action, 50, 150–9. Giroux, H. A. (2012). Border Crossings: Cultural Workers and the Politics of Education. New York: Routledge. Hopkins, D. (2007). Every school a great school. London. Open University Press. Hussein, A. A. (2002). Edward Said: Criticism and Society. London: Verso. Jackson, D. and Temperley, J. (2006). ‘From Professional Learning Community to Networked Learning Community’ %20to%20networked%20learning%20 community.pdf [Accessed 24 October 2014]. Kabeer, N. (2005). Inclusive Citizenship: Meaning and Expressions. London: Zed Books.

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MacCallum, C. S. (2014). ‘A Global Learning Journey from Sustainable Livelihoods to Adaptive Capabilities in a Small State, Zanzibar.’ Ph.D. thesis, University of London. MacCallum C. S. and Salam I. (2014). ‘Making a Meal out of Global Learning’. International Journal of Development Education and Global Learning, 6(3), IOE Press UK. Middleton, J. (1994). The World of the Swahili: An African Mercantile Civilization. Yale University Press. Pettit, J. G., (2012). ‘Getting to grips with power: action learning for social change in the UK’, IDS Bulletin, Brighton: IDS. Said, E. (1983). The World, the Text and the Critic. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Said, E. (1993). Culture and Imperialism. New York: Knopf. Said, E. (1994). Representations of the Intellectual: The 1993 Reith Lectures. New York: Vintage Books. Said, E. (2003). ‘At the Rendezvous of Victory’. In D Barsamian (ed.), Edward Said, Culture and Resistance. Cambridge, MA: South End Press. Scheunpflug, A. (2008). ‘Why Global Learning and Global Education? An Educational Approach Influenced by the Perspectives of Immanuel Kant’. Development Education: Debates and Dialogue. London: Institute of Education. Scheunpflug, A., Gogolin, I. and Baumert, J. (2011). Transforming Education. Largescale Reform Projects in Education Systems and their Effects Umbau des Bildungswesens: bildungspolitische Großreformprojekte und ihre Effekte. Wiesbaden: VS Verl. für Sozialwiss (Sonderheft Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft, 13). Sen, A. (1997). ‘Editorial: human capital and human capability’. World Development 25(12). Ford Foundation. Spivak, G. (2013). The Spivak Reader: Selected Works of Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. London: Routledge. Stoll, L., Bolam, R., McMahon, A., Thomas, S., Wallace, M., Greenwood, A. and Hawkey, K. (2005). What is a Professional Learning Community? A summary. London: DfES. Tompkins E. (2005). ‘Planning for Climate Change in Small Islands: Insights from the Cayman Islands Government’, Global Environmental Change Part A, 15, 139– 149. doi: 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2004.11.002. Tourism Concern (July 2012). ‘Water Equity in Tourism – A Human Right’, A Global Responsibility, Tourism Concern UK. Turner, B. S. (2008). The Body and Society: Explorations in Social Theory. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. UNESCO (2000). Education for All, Country Assessment Report, Zanzibar. Paris: UNESCO. VSO International (2011). Leading Learning A report on effective school leadership and quality education in Zanzibar. VSO International: London.

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Zanzibar Revolutionary Government (2009). The Status of Zanzibar Coastal Resources: Towards the Development of Integrated Coastal Management Strategies and Action Plan. Zanzibar, Tanzania. Zanzibar Revolutionary Government (2010). National ICM Strategies and Action Plan for Zanzibar the National ICM Technical Committee. Zanzibar, Tanzania.

Index Asian Development Bank 209 assessment 17, 66, 103, 104, 195 Bangladesh 13–68 Bhutan 69–86 boys 72, 73, 93, 101, 103, 104, 107, 116, 120, 128, 136, 137, 145, 249, 267, 269, 284, 295, 298, 300, 335, 340, 341, 351 British 9, 34, 97, 109, 112, 165, 167, 168, 206, 285, 348 British Colony 10, 112, 185, 203 British Council 54, 58, 59, 240 British education 72, 185, 295 British Empire 186, 279, 280, 283, 286 British Independent Schools 73 British India 170, 184 British Law 17 British Protectorate 9, 280 British Rule 225 British schooling 73 Buddhism 72, 89, 90, 279 Buddhist 71, 72, 80, 84, 87, 89, 90, 91, 104, 165, 205, 206, 256, 279 caste 88, 89, 98, 116, 175, 185, 187, 192, 216, 281 children with disability 154–55, 156, 157, 158, 160 Christian 94, 352 Christianity 352 colonial 74, 87, 94, 111, 112, 185, 186, 205, 206, 217, 261, 286, 303, 318, 348, 364 Comoro Islands 261–76 compulsory education 87, 96, 97, 100, 135, 142, 143, 144, 146, 245, 246, 332, 333 curriculum 4, 5, 9, 14, 17, 19, 20, 23, 25, 37, 40, 41, 44, 53, 56, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 77, 78, 82, 83, 90, 92, 99, 105, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 119, 124,

126, 127, 159, 166, 169, 171, 172, 173, 174, 185, 186, 188, 189, 219, 220, 229, 231, 233, 234, 237, 240, 245, 258, 281, 282, 283, 285, 286, 287, 288, 290, 291, 296, 297, 298, 302, 306, 310, 209, 313, 314, 315, 316, 317, 319, 320, 329, 331, 332, 333, 334, 335, 336, 337, 338, 339, 340, 341, 342, 352, 355, 358, 359, 362 economy 29, 32, 39, 65, 69, 107, 127, 171, 183, 197, 226, 262, 286, 293, 295, 301, 302, 303, 310, 312, 314, 328, 336, 339 Education for All (EFA) 47, 70, 99, 149, 169, 176, 178, 246 education for sustainability 17, 305, 306, 307, 309, 311, 313, 315, 317, 319, 321, 323, 344 education policy 7, 8, 13, 17, 18, 19, 20, 23, 47, 73, 98, 103, 166, 169, 171, 178, 190, 214, 255, 256, 275 education reform 338 English Language 56, 57, 58, 63, 168, 173, 238, 239, 240, 241, 249, 284 examination 174, 209, 210, 211, 213, 217, 218, 220, 222, 230, 241, 248, 251, 254, 255, 259, 263, 265, 267, 268, 269, 288, 296, 297, 340, 14, 23, 25, 82, 113, 168, 169 gender equality 3, 40, 99, 274, 275, 328 gender parity 3, 248, 249, 329 girls 3, 16, 20, 53, 58, 93, 99, 101, 102, 103, 107, 108, 109, 111, 113, 115, 116, 117, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123, 125, 126, 127, 136, 137, 140, 145, 249, 266, 267, 268, 269, 274, 275, 284, 286, 296, 300, 335, 341, 351 global north 34, 39, 353 global south 35, 36, 347, 348, 365

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Index

Gross Domestic Product 30, 79, 81, 104, 210, 211, 212, 262, 273, 294, 303, 328, 338 higher education 35, 39, 23, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 43, 51, 90, 96, 100, 101, 109, 159, 167, 172, 183, 201, 184, 186, 188, 189, 190, 191, 192, 193, 194, 195, 196, 197 Hindu 88, 90, 92, 93, 97, 101, 108, 109, 116, 134, 165, 169, 170, 172, 188, 192, 256, 280 Hinduism 165, 188 holistic education 219 holistic learning 335, 339 Human Development Index 328, 203, 211 human rights 135, 145, 327 ICT

6, 30, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 294, 297 inclusive education 151, 157, 158, 332, 335 India 87–164 infrastructure 22, 41, 50, 60, 61, 62, 69, 74, 99, 104, 118, 137, 138, 139, 140, 143, 158, 187, 194, 235, 261, 266, 267, 269, 273, 320, 348, 351 Islam 13, 34, 35, 43, 91, 93, 107, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 116, 117, 120, 121, 125, 130, 280, 281, 282, 286, 287, 288, 290, 349, 350, 352, 361 IT 50, 63, 64, 126, 226, 227, 230, 237, 238, 239, 240, 241, 242, 252, 265, 300, 351 Jain 87, 89, 90 Jainism 89 Kothari Commission 101, 104, 98 language policy 9, 174, 332, 340, 341 lifelong learning 227, 231, 233, 289, 305, 329, 336 literacy 51, 53, 59, 62, 71, 76, 83, 87, 96, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 108, 136, 137, 139, 143, 146, 175, 176, 203, 204, 211, 240, 246, 271, 274, 275,

286, 289, 296, 297, 298, 299, 310, 322, 328, 333, 340, 344, 353, 355, 359 madrasa 5, 6, 7, 15, 19, 21, 27, 52, 92, 93, 104, 105, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 129 The Maldives 279–90 Mauritius 293–326 Millennium Development Goals (MDG) 9, 99, 246, 274, 328, 333 medium of instruction 245, 332, 333, 73, 74, 88, 90, 92, 94, 95, 97, 168, 169, 172, 177 migration 22, 196 missionary 73, 206 MOE 48, 51, 169, 174, 179, 187, 246, 249, 251, 252, 253, 256, 257, 337 MOHE Sri Lanka 213, 225, 232, 235, 236, 239, 240, 241, 242 monastic 71, 72, 74, 75, 80, 91, 104, 104, 165, 205, 206 mother tongue 97, 121, 172, 174, 176, 194, 245, 341 Muslim 90, 91, 93, 96, 97, 104, 105, 107, 108, 109, 111, 112, 113, 114, 116, 117, 118, 122, 123, 125, 126, 127, 134, 165, 174, 176, 193, 205, 263, 348, 349, 352 Nepal 165–202 non-formal 16, 47, 99, 102, 103, 150, 254, 265, 271 Non Govermental Organizations (NGOs) 16, 42, 43, 347, 352, 353 numeracy 275, 289, 297, 340, 344 pedagogy 95, 145, 288, 305, 331, 302 physical education 173, 252, 296, 297, 300, 301, 330 poverty 13, 55, 60, 109, 116, 127, 140, 143, 150, 247, 249, 302, 344, 347, 349, 350, 352, 358 privatization 144, 177, 191 religion 2, 6, 9, 39, 71, 72, 81, 88, 88, 89, 91, 94, 95, 98, 110, 111, 116, 123,

Index 125, 169, 206, 219, 262, 263, 279, 299, 317, 322 education 15, 80, 92, 104, 107, 109, 111, 112, 116, 127, 263, 283 school 108, 109, 110, 165, 206 Right to Education (RTE) 100, 144 Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) 99, 139, 140 school-based assessment 207, 255, 229, 231, 234 schooling higher secondary 14, 17, 20, 23, 55, 101, 115, 127, 136, 138, 140, 288, 290 junior 14, 20, 23, 89, 124, 209, 239, 247 junior secondary 23, 209, 247, 250, 252 kindergarten 19, 27 pre-primary 98, 150, 160, 295, 296, 300 primary 14, 16, 17, 19, 23, 25, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 55, 57, 59, 61, 62, 64, 65, 74, 80, 89, 95, 96, 99, 100, 101, 107, 117, 120, 121, 126, 133, 136, 140, 150, 167, 169, 171, 172, 173, 174, 175, 179, 191, 209, 211, 213, 216, 220, 221, 222, 246, 248, 250, 252, 255, 256, 257, 263, 266, 267, 268, 270, 273, 274, 275, 287, 288, 289, 290, 295, 296, 297, 299, 300, 303, 306, 329, 330, 331, 332, 335, 338, 340, 341, 342, 343, 350, 351, 352 secondary 14, 16, 17, 23, 47, 48, 52, 53, 55, 57, 59, 74, 76, 78, 80, 95, 96, 98, 99, 100, 101, 104, 115, 136, 165, 191, 210, 213, 216, 218, 220, 221, 222, 230, 238, 245, 247, 258, 250, 252, 257, 263, 264, 266, 267, 268, 269, 270, 273, 274, 275, 285, 286, 288, 290, 295, 296, 297, 298, 299, 300, 301, 309, 310, 317, 329, 330, 331, 333, 334, 339, 340, 341, 342, 343, 350, 352, 359 upper secondary 275, 297, 298, 331, 334 science and technology 75, 80, 249, 265, 290 Seychelles 327–44 skills assessment 241 socio-economic 17, 19, 56, 77, 82, 118, 142, 143, 147, 247, 251, 258, 270, 307, 314, 318, 348, 349, 350

371

special education 155, 157, 158 Sri Lanka 203–60 sustainable development 4, 301, 305, 306, 307, 308, 312, 313, 315, 323, 338, 344, 348, 354 teacher education 100, 160, 256, 257, 258, 329, 342 teacher training 103, 124, 142, 160, 251, 252, 257, 258, 269, 273, 274, 295, 308, 312, 318, 333, 334, 335, 336, 337, 341, 342, 356 technical 93, 96, 99, 100, 102, 103, 123, 136, 189, 195, 208, 210, 222, 225, 236, 239, 240, 263, 269, 270, 275, 276, 283, 287, 297, 298, 301, 330, 331, 333, 334, 335, 337, 338, 341 technology 15, 16, 24, 41, 47, 48, 50, 56, 60, 61, 62, 67, 75, 80, 100, 171, 226, 240, 241, 249, 288, 290, 297, 299, 301, 312, 335 tertiary education 14, 19, 20, 23, 24, 25, 30, 33, 47, 183, 191, 192, 193, 197, 208, 210, 211, 213, 215, 218, 222, 223, 225, 230, 262, 295, 299, 300, 301, 303, 308, 336, 338 test 174, 241, 242, 248, 255, 299 traditional education 74, 80, 265 UNDP 204, 328 UNESCO 40, 99, 149, 150, 274, 306, 307, 308, 314, 315, 340, 352, 364 UNICEF 2, 3, 151, 246, 253, 274 violence 3, 133, 134, 145, 220, 221 vocational education 15, 48, 93, 96, 100, 101, 103, 188, 191, 208, 210, 215, 218, 225, 264, 265, 266, 269, 270, 276, 297, 298, 301, 314, 330, 331, 333, 334, 335, 338, 358 women’s education 102, 103, 107, 116, 117 World Bank 2, 23, 30, 32, 33, 36, 76, 104, 176, 177, 184, 193, 194, 197, 209, 223, 225, 235, 252, 257, 274 Zanzibar

347–66