Popular Participation in Curriculum and Instruction

PoPCI Project Brief (45kb)

Back to Basics in Ethiopia: The Community Tutor

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With support from a foundation grant, World Learning conducted a one-year pilot activity in Ethiopia that successfully enriched the official curriculum with local information and skills and demonstrated the viability of actively engaging local community experts in the design and delivery of local knowledge and techniques within the formal primary school setting. The activity brought classroom teachers together with local experts to create and deliver lessons for primary students on topics such as carpentry, pottery, traditional mediation and agriculture. The PoPCI model, extended to a second year, fosters the growing trend of community involvement in school management by engaging parents inside the classroom. The aim is to heighten both the perceived and real relevance of a formal education, leading to greater student performance, attendance, and completion of primary school, as well as more productive performance after school.

The PoPCI model is being piloted within the programmatic framework of World Learning's Community School Activities Program (CSAP), funded in cooperative agreement with USAID in the Southern Nations', Nationalities', and Peoples' Region. Under CSAP, World Learning has cooperated with the Regional Education Board to provide technical assistance and incentive awards to over 600 primary school management committees (SMCs). Having selected 15 of the more accomplished SMCs for the pilot, a small group of experienced World Learning school development agents are coordinating the efforts of the committee, local community experts, teachers, and primary school supervisors and technical advisors to generate and deliver local knowledge lessons that reflect the priorities and context of the local community. Topics and content for the local lessons are determined entirely by the local community and specific experts. World Learning supports teachers and education advisors in developing the lessons for both oral and textual presentation, highlighting the utility of academic knowledge and skills for the acquisition and mastery of local information and techniques. The model also involves working with teachers to incorporate these local lessons as illustrations and problems within the conventional curriculum lessons. The implementation of PoPCI, by the accounts of all involved - teachers, school committees, experts, students, and education officials - has been outstanding. As the project reveals the various benefits and permutations of managing community involvement in the classroom, the opportunity to deepen the relevance and attractiveness of primary schooling should grow.

Partners: USAID/Ethiopia
World Learning Community-School Activities Program
Project: Foundation Grant
2000-2002
Ethiopia

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