Title: Addressing the needs of rural people through national agriculture, rural development and education f
1Addressing the needs of rural people through
national agriculture, rural development and
education for all plansFAO/UNESCO
seminarBangkok, Thailand, 25-26 May 2004
2What is rural?
- Rural is plural
- Rural is often associated with poverty
- Defining rural may require several criteria
(e.g. Laos) - Rural matters!
3Rural areas require specific strategies
- No rural child will be left behind
- Elementary and secondary education Act, 2001 (USA)
4Bad news
- Rural poverty remains an issue, in spite of
economic growth - Food security challenges remain serious
- Educational rural/urban disparities are often
still significant - Several at-risk-groups are underserved (e.g.
ethnic minorities in China, Laos, Thailand,
children from remote islands in the Philippines,
) - Cost matters spending relatively more for rural
children - Boarding facilities (e.g. Malaysia, Mongolia)
- Feeding programs
- Financial incentives for students (e.g. Vietnam)
- Financial incentives for teachers
- Teachers support mechanisms
- Transportation services
- Smaller schools (e.g. Malaysia)
- Lower pupils/teacher ratio
-
5Good news
- Education for rural people seems to be a
little less marginalized - Increased attention from Ministries of
Education and Agriculture - Specific policy attention to rural areas and to
rural people (China 2003 National Conference on
Rural Education, Indonesia Education Act 2003,
intensive rural education development
model)
6Rural schools (can) have a comparative advantage
- Pedagogy (contextualization, IPM in
Cambodia, Thailand Vietnam) - Linkages with the community
- Rural schools as centers of innovation
(e.g. Trenggalek model in East Java,
Karen villages CLCs in Thailand) - Lessons from rural schools can inspire the
renovation of the entire system (USA, Japan)
7Some directions for planning management and
monitoring
- Improving education relevance, access, quality,
equity - Choosing appropriate approaches for
planning and management - Developing specific targeted monitoring
instruments
8Improving relevance
- Education for what?
- Poverty reduction and productivity yes but
the focus should be on sustainable
livelihoods (recognizing migration patterns,
e.g.China) - Social, cultural and political dimensions
should not be overlooked (e.g. Malaysia
national unity, common curriculum, Indonesia
recognizing local cultures adat-,
localized curricula) - Participatory approaches to needs assessments
- Competency-based curricula
9Improving access
- Developing early childhood education in rural
areas (e.g. Mongolia, Thailand, Vietnam,) - Rural sensitive school mapping
- Small schools often make sense
- Boarding facilities remain an effective response
(Malaysia, Mongolia) - Clustering can improve efficiency
(e.g. Laos) - Multigrade teaching constitute a cost/effective
formula (Cambodia, Malaysia) - Reaching-out through developing linkages between
extension services and community-based
organizations - Distance education programs for rural people
10Improving quality
- The main challenge remains to recruit and retain
qualified teachers - Financial incentives (e.g. Mongolia)
- Support mechanisms
- Improved living conditions
- Certification of NFE
- Building learning pathways
11Improving equity
- Gender equality
- Equity for minority groups
- Targeting
- Positive discrimination (financial support for
target groups e.g. Cambodia, Malaysia for
Orang Asli, Mongolia, Philippines, Vietnam) - Promote (NFE) programs for excluded
groups and adult basic education (e.g. CLCs,
FFS)
12Choosing appropriate approaches for planning and
management
- Promoting integrated (intersectoral) approaches
(e.g. Indonesia) and programs (TSEP-RLI in
the Philippines), linkages between EFA action
plans and PRSPs (e.g. Laos) - Decentralization (e.g. Cambodia, China, Laos,
Thailand) greater relevance and
responsiveness but increasing disparities,
local taxing capacity is a function of local
wealth, there is a need for more central level
support - Reinforcing collaboration between Ministries of
education and agriculture (need for
greater involvement of MoA
in the EFA process) coordinated planning
13Developing specific targeted monitoring
instruments
- At the country level enlargement of
existing EMIS in order to collect relevant data
on ERP and produce targeted indicators
related to specific policy objectives - At the international level including ERP in the
global EFA monitoring process
14 NATIONAL RURAL STAT I S T I C Sthe USA case
(source WHY RURAL MATTERS 20032003, Rural
School and Community Trust)
- URGENCY GAUGE
- Average rural teachers salary
- Ratio of rural to non-rural teacher
- salary
- Percentage of rural students who are free or
reduced-price lunch eligible - Average rural student to teacher ratio
- Percentage of rural teachers using computers
in class - Percentage of rural expenditures on school
administration costs, difference from median - Rural per capita income
- Percentage of rural teachers reporting parental
support - Percentage of rural expenditures on
- transport a t i o n
- Percentage of rural expenditures on instruction
and pupil support - Average number of students per grade
- Percentage of rural schools with declining
enrolments of at least 10
- I M P O RTANCE GAUGE
- Percentage of states population that is rural
- Number of rural people
- Percentage of public schools in rural areas
- Percentage of public school students
enrolled in rural schools - Percentage of students enrolled in rural schools
who are minorities - Percentage of all students attending
small rural schools - Percentage of rural children in poverty
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