Improving the quality and access to education in The Gambia

Global Digital Divide: Update on Student Research from Brunel University

The students at the Brunel University have been working on a project to improve the education opportunities in The Gambia. Here is a report of their progress so far. The following is a transcript of the video presentation.

Before we begin discussing the proposed project here is some background information about The Gambia. As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic schools were closed in The Gambia for seven months meaning 700,000 students had a greatly reduced access to education. According to ‘our world in data’ The Gambia has the 17th lowest GDP per world per capita worldwide. The Gambia Bureau of Statistics has found that there is a 69.5% rural poverty rate as of 2016, which is an increase from the 64.2% in 2010. Lower basic education is free however hidden costs such as uniforms stationery and books prevent an estimated 29% of children from attending school.

The area we will be specifically focusing on is the Lower River Region (LRR) which is Rural Area Number 4 of the five administrative divisions of The Gambia. In the LRR there are total of 54 basic lower schools, 6 senior secondary schools, and 7 upper secondary schools. There is no electricity grid within the region, it is sourced through solar panels and generators. Classrooms are very basic and access to resource is limited. The name of the school will be launching the pilot in is the Nema Kuta Basic Cycle School. By the 2013 cencus the region had a population of 82,361.

The problem we have identified is that a lack of resources has led to poor quality of education in The Gambia. We have found through extensive research children in The Gambia are not currently receiving quality equitable and inclusive education in comparison to their international peers, which is a step back in achieving universal access to education SDG 4.

We mapped out a problem tree to try and identify root causes and the effects that poor quality education is having.

A few simplified examples of some of the causes are:

· the outdated and limited textbooks which are limiting the content available because there is a lack of learning resources available as the resources are being allocated elsewhere due to the government prioritising funding to other sectors.

· the lack of Internet access, because there is often no internet signal or coverage due to routers and hubs being few and far between, as there is a lack of technology to make use of the Internet.

· the supply of electricity is often interrupted

· the affordability of accessing learning resources, the internet and electricity for many people.

A few examples of some of these effects are a poor quality education leading to reduced opportunities for learning which leads to a higher drop out rate resulting in incomplete education or no higher education at all, which brings about lower specialisation in industries. Another effect is that if teachers cannot access resources and training the knock on effect is poor quality teaching which leads to reduced opportunities for learning, which results in lower attainment levels among students.

Now we have identified the cause and effects of poor quality education let's look at some of the existing projects in the Lower River Region. The Steve Sinnott Foundation (SSF) has implemented various projects in The Gambia working with various stakeholders including the Gambian Teachers Union.

One project they have documented is the Positive Periods programme, where teachers have been trained to teach women and girls how to make their own reusable sanitary pads from low cost materials. This enables them to go to school while they have their period despite the taboo around menstruation. Impacts of this project involve reduced bullying and harassment of girls due to improved hygiene and maintenance of their periods. This project is already being implemented in schools in the Lower River Region and is proving to be very successful.

SSF have also worked alongside the Gambia Teachers Union to improve access to education during the Covid-19 pandemic the project provided Solar Powered Radios for students in the remote area of LRR to enable access to education through listening to the Gambian governments national broadcast. This helped promote inclusive and equitable education for the regions that had been left behind.

The Steve Sinnott Foundation alongside the Gambia Teachers Union have also started planning the implementation of a Learning Resource Centre which will be located in Banjul. The refurbishment of the centre was been postponed due to Covid-19, but we are now back on track and things are coming together. This will greatly increase the access to learning and research, training and resource provision for teachers. The implementation of new learning devices and the digitalization of education can greatly increase the quality of education available. With circumstances now changing and schools reopening, we have joined forces to look at how we can increase the quality of education provided.

Our initial research looked at introducing Wi-Fi connectivity to the Nemakuta Basic Cycle School in the LRR to increase access to a range of educational information. However, after further looking into it we realised that given the regions environment Wi-Fi doesn't offer a sustainable solution to the problem at large and instead shifted our attention to the classroom learning environment itself.

So we have proposed the following. Simply put the goal is to improve the quality of education delivered in classrooms in the LRR. We define ‘quality’ as a standard of resources, a standard of the curriculum, and a standard of the teaching methods. So, we see that improved resources can facilitate a better teaching method and allow for a wider range of learning materials. Ultimately that will improve resources to ensure that students can expand their skills, their knowledge, and their understanding.

Currently only 10 students in grade 7 achieve above the average of 60% of the assessment marking, while 5 students achieved 75%, so that means that the remaining 30 students fall below the average of 60%. So, in order to reach the goal we set a SMART objective that is specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timely. Our SMART objective is to increase the average grades students achieve in class so that by the end of the academic year all students are achieving at least 60% of marks in their assessments.

The Gambia Teachers Union are also developing other objectives that can be measured so that we are not just focussing on grades; such as attendance, creativity and positive attitudes to learning and engagement.

The proposed project that we have outlined is a pilot project in the Nemakuta Basic School with the aim to improve quality education by digitalising the classroom, using sustainable energy. This will provide a solar powered TV screen along with two to four laptops. The solar panel will charge the battery, and the battery can then charge the TV screen and the laptops used in class. The quality of education will be improved through providing pre-recorded content to be shown to students during class the concept will be organised by the Gambia Teachers Union, who will train teachers from the Lower River Region on how to design the learning materials and deliver the lessons effectively.

In the context of our project inclusivity comes from the interactiveness and engagement that allow students to work together. It will allow students to be introduced to digital technology, a wider range of learning materials, along with visual aids. So for the proposed project this will involve 45 grade 7 students at the school along with the teachers of the school.

So how are we going to measure this? At the end of the academic year with a digitalised classroom students achieved grades would be compared to the grades of the previous year to measure the effect of the digitalised classrooms and students learning abilities. The newly achieved grades can be compared with other schools in the region. As education is meant to allow for individuals to access a range of future opportunities our proposal also sees students receiving a holistic education that expands future job opportunities into multiple sectors.

The impacts of our proposal for increased engagement and increased average attainment grades of students, the digitalised classroom environment and technology creates an educational experience that offers a wider range of subjects which can also serve as inspiration to students. Finally an alleviation of the overall burden of the higher student to teacher ratios which will allow for teachers to work more closely with the students.

Our project proposal has a variety of inputs and outputs. Some of the material resources include the TV screen, the solar panel, battery, cables and extension cords, wall mount for the TV, laptops and laptop charges. The human resource includes, purchasing, installation, delivery, research and training. The financial resources are related to funding. The outputs are solar powered energy circuit that powers the TVs and laptops. As well as a digitalised classroom.

The overall timeline of our project plan, we've already executed phase one which saw us conducting a situational analysis to identify the causes and potential solutions. Phase two is expected to run between now and December 18^th (2020). We intend on conducting further research into the most viable options so we are looking at which types of devices are most suitable for the classroom environment. Additionally, we're going to begin looking into identifying potential risk and uncertainties about the project proposal.

Phase 3 is set to run from 11th of January to the 2nd of February 2020. Here we will explore ways to mitigate the risk and uncertainties that we would have identified in previous stages. We will also work in partnership with the Brunel Engineering School to set up a mock trial of the solar powered units, to gain an insight into what the teachers and students experience will be. After that we will identify and establish potential costs for the overall project and consult with any experts in the fields where necessary.

Our 4^th and final phase is dedicated to refining our project proposal and will conclude the presentation of our overall findings.

The stakeholder analysis - we have a number of stakeholders here on the board. First the grade seven students in the Nemakuta Basic Cycle School these children will be impacted greatly as the first cohort with access to these modern learning devices and also of course if our project is successful then it can be replicated and future students of other schools in the area will benefit.

Next the teachers in the LRR, will have the digitalised resources to provide a different way of learning. The Gambia Teachers Union will be an important part of the project and train teachers on how to use these devices. The Steve Sinnott Foundation who is supporting this project and of course the families of these students.

In summary, our proposal works towards sustainable development goal #4 quality education but also works on sustainable development goal #7 affordable and clean energy. By introducing digital devices that are powered through solar, we hope to see improvements in the quality of education provided, through the digitalization of learning using modern sustainable technology. The pre-recorded content enhance the school curriculum; students will receive information that is more up to date, easy to understand, and not limited to printed materials or textbooks. Additionally, the TVs will alleviate the burden of the low teacher to student ratios in classrooms thus allowing teachers to create a more personalised learning environment.

If successful this can be replicated in schools across the Gambia's region 4, Lower River Region, giving students access to quality and critical education and enabling access to lifelong learning opportunities for all. We'd like to thank you for your time and are there any questions?

Please leave them in the comments below.

Also here are a couple of videos explaining the challenge of accessing education online, and internet access statistics.

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The Steve Sinnott Foundation • Dec 07, 2020

Women and girls education GUPT perspective

By BY DALILA EL BARHMI • 29 Apr, 2024

Women’s and Girls’ Full Participation in Society: “Are Palestinian women reaping the benefits of education in similar ways to the rest of the world?” Palestinian women continue to be some of the most educated women in the Middle East-North Africa (MENA) region. While women’s academic participation is indeed measurable, they are not reaping the benefits of education. Palestinian women, especially educated Palestinian women, are overlooked, and under-represented in Palestinian society. Current indicators reveal that access to education has not significantly improved women’s status in Palestinian society. It is therefore imperative to benefit from Palestinian women’s education and skills in society not only as a social right, but as a development necessity. The percentage of educated women in Palestine is remarkable and one of the highest around the world with a 99.6% in 2020 for completion in primary and upper secondary. While Palestinian women have always been visible in the national struggle, they have limited leadership and decision making-opportunities. Their participation in civil society and the formal government has been restricted. In decision making positions, women comprise only 8.3% of all ministers, 0% of ministerial representatives, and 6% of assistants to the ministerial representatives. Within all ministries women comprise 30% of staff. In the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, women are the majority, comprising 68.1%. Education unions leading by example: Education unions have viewed the education of future generations, with a focus on girls, as a form of protest, resistance to the country and Arab region’s ongoing-conflict, displacement, and upheaval. Accordingly, women and girls’ education has thrived in recent years. COVID 19 crisis a catalyst for transforming education unions: Education unions voiced that an appropriate response to COVID -19 in the education sector should consider the rights and best interests of students, teachers and education support personnel and involve education unions in developing the containment and recovery measures. This response accelerated the transformation process of the largest union in Palestine, the General Union of Palestinian Teachers (GUPT). They want to have a truly representative union and integrate women educators in the union decision making structures. Despite the pandemic, GUPT continued to engage in social dialogue with the government, continued to fight for decent working conditions and welfare for teachers and education personnel and engage in a process of trade union transformation reflecting the realities of the 21st century. The union stepped up during the rapid shift to distance learning, they have developed online programmes, trained teachers on distance learning and supported students to decrease inequality among learners. The union also urged that the transformation should also challenge discrimination and increase women’s involvement in education, in trade unions and in society. This process was a driver to enhance women’s leadership within the union’s structures. From words to action: Mechanisms put in place to enhance women educators’ participation. With the support of international sister organisations, GUPT developed their own strategy to promote women’s participation and leadership within their union and in education. They developed a strategy, and we identified the following objectives: Increase the number of women in key union leadership and decision-making bodies at the regional and national level, through capacity development training on leadership for women. They have also introduced policies such as gender quotas and allocated budgets for their gender equity programmes. Activate the role of their Women’s Committee and prioritise the recruitment of young female teachers. The union is also working to identify and address the barriers to women’s participation in union leadership and decision making. In education the union is working with the Ministry of Education to review school books so that gender discrimination is not inherently written into the curriculum. GUPT is also organising sensitization training for educators so that discriminatory stereotypes are not perpetuated in the classroom. Finally, for the GUPT it is important to secure the right to education for all Palestinian students, especially girls. Teaching and learning must occur in quality, safe environments. Every effort must be made to eradicate the different types of violence that occur all too frequently in and around educational settings.

Support the Women in our Public Schools on the way to Diversifying Teaching

By BY MARY CATHRYN RICKER • 22 Apr, 2024

Early in my work as the president of my local teacher’s union I was invited to a community leader meeting about reforming the teaching profession. Amidst the discussion of harsher teacher evaluations, raising standards for teaching, creating easier entry into the profession, merit pay for “good” teachers, and more, I brought up the fact that working conditions and salaries hadn’t meaningfully changed since the 1960s. “We’re in favor of paying math and science teachers more so they can be compensated closer to what they’d get in the private sector,” a business community representative replied, offering an idea that was not new to me. Full disclosure: my dad was a career math teacher from that era of math and science majors who answered their government’s call to become math and science teachers who would boost the United States of America’s bench in the space race. I could easily picture how a larger salary could have changed our family’s budget. Teachers’ unions like mine (and my dad’s) addressed pay disparities based on gender that were common a generation earlier by fighting for a salary schedule focused on experience and education. So, I offered back, “If we want to differentiate pay related to the most important job in education, then we should seriously consider paying kindergarten and first grade teachers more than anyone because they teach students to read, which is the rocket science of education,” alluding to an influential issue of AFT’s American Educator magazine from 1999. “Well, I’m sure those teachers are fine but I have volunteered in first grade classrooms and their work doesn’t compare to math and science teachers.” Oh. Interesting. We clearly weren’t going to see eye to eye in our differentiated pay conversation. More so, there are decades long gender stereotypes lurking behind that conversation. In addition to the history of gender based pay inequities, elementary school teachers are assumed to be female while more secondary teachers are male. There has long been a disconnect between the importance communities, elected officials, and countries have placed on education. From local funding efforts to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4: Quality Education, support for education is nearly universal in most communities. That support for education doesn’t always translate to support for educators and, with a majority of educators worldwide being female, that sets a dangerous precedent. Our teachers deserve professional working conditions because teaching and learning begins with their expertise. Additionally, a teacher’s working conditions are a student’s learning conditions and so administrators, public officials, or policymakers mistreating, undermining, or disrespecting teachers sends a message to students that teachers do not deserve respect, fair treatment, or professionalization. In addition to a stubborn lack of recognition of teachers as professionals, a vicious cycle exists around salary. Teachers have historically low wages because it is feminized and because it is feminized teacher’s wages are suppressed. The evidence that belonging to a union, with the ability to negotiate collectively, improves teacher compensation is key in disrupting this vicious cycle. Teaching has been a feminized profession for over a century and, despite efforts to diversify the profession, remains a feminized profession. In fact, the OECD reports that the gender gap increased from 2005 to 2019. In order for our students to have the most representative learning conditions, we need the most representative teachers so we must continue to diversify teaching to represent everyone in our communities, including by gender. Efforts like Black Men Teach, active in my home state of Minnesota, can make a meaningful difference. I would posit treating the current majority female teaching population as professionals—with professional wages, recognizing their expertise in teaching and learning rather than infantilizing them, respecting their commitment to education rather than exploiting it—would both model for students the way to treat women (and thereby model for female students how they can expect to be treated in any profession) and create the conditions for everyone to see teaching as a profession worth pursuing.

‘When we let children leave lessons we devalue education’. Are we missing the point?

By BY SHONAGH REID • 15 Apr, 2024

Recently in the UK, there has been a discussion on twitter about whether or not students should be allowed to leave the classroom once a lesson has started. Some assert that letting a child out of a classroom implies that the education in the classroom is not valued highly enough. To paraphrase, ‘students need to know that the lesson is vital, therefore they have to remain in it’. The conversation then moved on to behaviour of students, specifically the idea that students leaving classrooms may engage in graffiti, vaping and smoking in the toilets. Onward, to the lack of support from school leaders who promote poor behaviour by not dealing with it strongly enough. As someone who has been an Assistant Principal for Behaviour and Attitudes, I fully understand the importance of boundaries and structure for young people to learn in. Indeed, for some children school can be their safe space. Order and calm is essential for them. We know from a range of different sources such as Teacher Tapp and articles in the TES, that poor behaviour is often cited as the reason for poor retention of staff. I can simultaneously hold the belief that order, structure and calm are necessary for good learning to take place, and that young people can generally be trusted to take ownership of that learning and their own bodies. Young people are well aware that their education is vital. I think they know this too well and feel pressured. When I was at school, the world was a significantly different place. Education was different. Industries and jobs were very different. Societal pressures were very different and social media didn’t exist. Technology is moving apace, and the jobs of the future don’t exist yet. So why are we so confident that our current ways of teaching and learning are suitable for today’s learners. Our education system is largely unchanged since the Victorian era. The world, however is completely different. This view that learning has to take place in a classroom, with everyone facing forward, in the quiet is not in tune with our modern lives or modern ways of work. I work with organisations who are purposefully giving staff more agency and trust. They support staff to take breaks when they need to and trust them to get the work done to a high standard. They support flexible working. They are working to challenge discrimination. They listen to staff to create a comfortable working environment because they know that this is key to retention and productivity. Education doesn’t seem to be anywhere near this, and more importantly, it isn’t preparing young people for this way of working. What about staff? Post covid the world is changing and teachers continue to vote with their feet choosing different career paths which are more in tune with modern life and reasonable expectations of a person’s stress and work levels. What are we really doing to make education an attractive work environment (note I didn’t say career)? Teachers expect more. As the exchange on Twitter implies, we are not tolerant. We can’t understand that a young person may need to take breaks from pressure. We don’t seem ready to understand that trauma exists, that this might be a factor in a child’s response to what is happening to them and the stressful environment they are in. There continues to be a failure to recognise protected characteristics and the specific challenges these bring to all stakeholders. What if we were able to create a flexible education system which prepares young people for modern ways of working? What if we replicated those ways of working to meet the needs of teachers? Are we making our young people culturally aware so that they can excel in international collaboration that hybrid working has encouraged? If we look at the etymology of the word, ‘educate’, we might want to reflect on: to what extent we are leading our young people and showing them the way? How are we revealing the outside world to them? How are we nurturing and supporting them? Are we looking after their minds? Do we promote intellectual and cultural development?