Addressing the needs of rural people through national agriculture, rural development and education f

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Addressing the needs of rural people through
national agriculture, rural development and
education for all plansFAO/UNESCO
seminarBangkok, Thailand, 25-26 May 2004

• Concluding remarks

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What is rural?

• Rural is plural
• Rural is often associated with poverty
• Defining rural may require several criteria
  (e.g. Laos)
• Rural matters!

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Rural areas require specific strategies

• No rural child will be left behind
• Elementary and secondary education Act, 2001 (USA)

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Bad 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

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Good 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)

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Rural 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)

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Some directions for planning management and
monitoring

• Improving education relevance, access, quality,
  equity
• Choosing appropriate approaches for
  planning and management
• Developing specific targeted monitoring
  instruments

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Improving 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

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Improving 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

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Improving 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

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Improving 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)

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Choosing 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

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Developing 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

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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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