Education and Sustainability: innovating to build resilience in education
The Covid-19 crisis has exposed the fragility of many of the systems that we live by today. For the education projects supported by Theirworld, it is clear that in order to keep going - to be sustainable - they have had to be even more adaptable and resilient than usual. Given the challenging environments many of these projects already operate in, this has been no small feat.
In 2013, more than 500,000 school-aged refugee children were living in Lebanon and very few were in school due to being displaced by the Syrian war. Theirworld funded a team of experts to work with the Government, international agencies and NGOs to develop a solution. The result was an innovative ‘double-shift school’ system in Lebanon, which saw Syrian refugee children use schools from 2pm onwards, after the Lebanese school day had ended.
Today, Theirworld continues to support the delivery of the double-shift schools, working in collaboration with local NGOs and the Ministry of Education and Higher Education. However, due to political unrest and the Coronavirus pandemic, the 2019-2020 school year was severely disrupted in Lebanon. Parents became concerned their children would enter the next school year ill-prepared. To ensure that children were able to learn during school closures, we adapted our project activities so that teachers and special educators were able to reach children remotely via WhatsApp, with prepared videos and learning materials, and through Covid-19 safe distributions of activity packs at five pilot public schools.
Theirworld’s work to end the global education crisis is present in many countries around the world. For instance, another organisation Theirworld supports is the Youth for Technology Foundation (YTF), which uses digital tools to deliver learning and skills programmes to young people and women in vulnerable communities in Kenya and Nigeria. YTF provides most of its digital skills programmes - such as Code Clubs for girls and Skills for Their Future initiatives - within school classrooms. So the Covid-19 shutdown meant delivering learning in different and innovative ways.
“We were thrown into this new world just like everyone else. We are used to pivoting but not to this scale,” said YTF founder and President Njideka Harry. The organisation’s short-term Covid-19 response included supporting 100 teachers at primary and secondary school levels in Nigeria and Kenya. Professional development workshops showed teachers how to move their class content online and share it with students.
“Our role has changed and the role of the teachers that we work with has changed,” said Harry. “They are no longer the sage on the stage, they are now the guide on the side, as the students themselves have to lead their own learning. When teachers in Nigeria and Kenya go to teacher training college, they are shown how to teach using a pen and paper, with barely a mention of digital. So it is something that many have never seen. Some had never used email”. For all the suffering and disruption it has caused, the pandemic has also provided the chance to give teachers new, sustainable skills.
Amid Covid-19, governments, aid agencies and businesses are facing recession, budget cuts and competing priorities. In response, Theirworld has launched The Key - a comprehensive information resource to help everyone make a clear and robust case for education.
The free digital report is crammed with messages, statistics, taking points and infographics about dozens of subjects where education plays a key role - from climate change and inequality to public health and financial literacy. With education spending under threat, it is more important than ever to protect education and make its provision as resilient and sustainable as it deserves to be.
Please take a look at www.theirworld.org.
BY REBECCA SHARKEY, CAMPAIGN AND ADVOCACY MANAGER, THEIRWORLD, FOR ENGAGE 2020
BY REBECCA SHARKEY, CAMPAIGN AND ADVOCACY MANAGER, THEIRWORLD • May 7, 2021
This week while out and about in Hertfordshire and we visited the British Schools Museum. We discovered the first school opened by Joseph Lancaster, was known as the ‘Poor Childs Friend”, was in 1810. It was his lifelong mission that all children regardless of their circumstances, should benefit from an education. Apparently, Joseph heard a small girl say, “Oh that I could read!” and this inspired him to create a simple education system that eventually would benefit children across the world. Joseph was the tenth son of a poor man himself from South London. His aim was to offer free education for everyone. However, it would be 93 years before the U.K. government finally made education free for all. There are still many countries today where education is still not free to access and it is certainly not compulsory for primary and secondary age pupils. Joseph’s mission really resonates with that of the Foundation, to support access to education for all. We enjoyed our visit and appreciated the tour given by two of the Museum’s volunteers, Angela and Clare. They described some of the challenges faced in the early years of formal education and shared some of the rules that teachers and students had to abide by with us.
Sparks Bristol is a collaborative community project initially envisioned by The Global Goals Centre, (GGC) more of which below. A few years ago, GGC took over an empty Marks and Spencer store and that’s how Sparks was born. Sparks is a department store with a difference, co-created by Global Goals Centre and Artspace Lifespace. On the ground floor is a huge range of shops, installations, events and more. Upstairs is a hub for local artists, it offers affordable studios as well as rehearsal and performance space. The Global Goals Centre is a Bristol-based educational charity inspired by the Sustainable Development Goals. (SDGs). GGC believe the SDG’s or Global Goals as they are sometimes known, can be reached, with imaginative solutions and widespread education and engagement. They work with partners to promote creative solutions and deliver ground breaking projects that work towards these ambitious goals. The Steve Sinnott Foundation supported the Global Goals Centre with seed funding when it first started over 5 years ago. This month we went to visit them to see how they are getting on and we were taken aback by the volume of work they have achieved since they started. It is amazing to see how though working together with other local community groups it has grown into the vibrant centre it is today. All of the creative projects they host are linked to the SDGs. They cover topics that tackle poverty, education, climate change, fashion recycling and upcycling, to name a few.
Spring is definitely here, daffodils, blossom and crocuses are all basking in the bright sunshine. There is still a chill in the air in the shade but it's happening and all the seeds that were sown over the last few months are coming to fruition. At the Foundation, we have been planning the year ahead and our Positive Periods and Prevention of Gender Based Violence programmes got underway this weekend in Haiti and Ghana. These projects will have a long-lasting effect on the lives of the women and girls who take part: tackling the root causes of gender-based violence and enabling girls to attend school every day when they have their period, to feel safe at school and know how to take action when they are faced with violence. These are the first of many projects planned for the year ahead as we continue to work towards Education for All children everywhere.
