6.1 Malaysia
6.2 Uganda
6.3 Cameroon
6.4 Jordan
6.5 Papua New Guinea
6.6 Sri Lanka
6.7 Tanzania
6.8 Brazil
6.9 Kenya
6.10 India
6.11 Colombia
6.12 Ethiopia
6.13 Zambia
6.14 Guatemala
6.15 Lessons learned
There are many accounts in the literature relating to developments in rural primary schooling. Some of these describe new programmes and educational innovations at the planning stage, and are useful in illustrating the range and diversity of strategies employed and their various locations throughout the world. Other accounts provide a theoretical perspective but, in addition, present a balanced account of positive and negative lessons learned as a result of the experience. This is of great value since the development of future strategies can be made considerably more effective by paying heed to the problems and weaknesses encountered during educational reforms as well as to successes and strengths. A selection of these accounts are presented below. They form only a very small sample of the full range of educational reforms attempted over the last twenty-five years throughout the developing world, but they were selected for their relevance to the focus of this research, the contextualisation of teaching and learning in rural primary schools.
Seymour (1974) described curriculum development in Sarawak, which is primarily an agricultural state. In order to move away from the traditional production oriented approach to agricultural education, a "New Syllabus" was introduced. This integrated the subject matter of the lessons during the first two years, in order to "reinforce the learning of one subject by the learning of another" (p. 281) The syllabus indicated approaches and techniques to make the subjects more relevant to the experience of the student. While the curriculum was not especially designed for rural schools, teachers in training were taught how to use the agricultural and rural experiences of their students to convey scientific laws and processes more clearly. However, many teachers could not understand the value of integrating subjects in lesson units, since this method seemed to make it more difficult to coach the learning of the basic skills. Regarding the agricultural emphasis, teachers seemed to pay lip-service to this, because in their eyes children came to school to become literate and not learn what they already know and try to escape from. Different groups had different perceptions of the purpose of primary education; the administrators wanted to provide education that would assist national development; the teachers wanted to prepare some students for secondary education; the parents seemed to want increased upward social mobility. Teachers appeared to be so focused that even when teaching science and health, which have useful and practical applications in the tropical agricultural environment, they did not use the recommended visual aids, demonstrations and field work exercises. This could be accounted for to some extent by the limited education, abilities and expertise of teachers. Since these participants differed so much in their perceptions of the purpose and process of schooling, there was a problem in achieving a level of co-operation which would ensure that students were taught in the way they were supposed to be. Seymour stressed that since different groups (administrators, teachers, parents and students) share different values, perceptions and experiences and exist as subcultures, each can influence the acculturative process of the school at various stages either directly or indirectly. Different interpretations of educational goals and content among administrators, teachers and parents can influence teachers so that there may be a discrepancy between curricular objectives and instructional activities. This would have broad implications for the effectiveness of using agriculture as a means of contextualising learning.
Massey (1987) describes the Namutamba-'Basic Education Integrated into Rural Development" (BEIRD) curriculum development project in Uganda, which infused agriculture and appropriate technology into the curricula of teacher colleges and primary schools. The main period of the project ran from 1971 to 1979, but it was being revitalised in 1986 in order to address five basic problems: the lack of life-adaptive knowledge and skills among rural primary school graduates; a BEIRD organisational structure at national, district and community level; a curriculum that integrates practical and academic instruction; a BEIRD pre-service/in-service teacher training system and materials; and adequate primary school teaching materials and methods.
Bude (1985) notes that primary schools in the anglophone region of Cameroon have, since the 1960s, attempted to use the local environment for the development of cognitive abilities and also as the animation centre for community development. In the Francophone provinces, early efforts to increase the relevance of the curriculum seem to have foundered, whereas in anglophone provinces "a certain type of community orientation has for decades been an established part of the primary school curriculum and also of school-community relations". In addition to using locally relevant experience, schools have also forged and developed strong links with their local communities by supplying various services, for example agricultural advice to farmers.
Badran, Baydoun and Subbarini (1987) describe how, in 1978, agriculture (production-oriented) disappeared from the school curriculum as a separate subject, followed by a subsequent disappearance of related topics from the science syllabus. More recently, reconsideration of the place of agriculture in the curriculum has brought about the realisation that the objectives of science education can only be attained by relating science to real, concrete situations, involving particularly the interaction of humans and the environment. Agriculture thus provides an ideal area from which pupils can acquire an understanding of scientific concepts and develop scientific skills and attitudes. A framework has been suggested which attempts to integrate agricultural education as a major element of the science syllabus in the Jordanian elementary school system.
Goelenboth (1987) describes "village orientated topics" in Papua New Guinea primary schools. Since most students do not proceed to secondary education, schools use agricultural related topics in order to provide students with skills which will assist in direct material improvement of village life after their graduation. It was proposed that education could be enhanced if there was a concentration on the key topics which are relevant to the agro-ecological conditions in the appropriate region. Such programmes appear to have shown that it is possible to improve conditions in the villages and thus encourage young people who have acquired relevant skills to remain there after completing school.
Peiris (1976) and, more recently, Baker (1988) described an integrated approach to curriculum development in primary education in Sri Lanka. The basis of the curriculum was that children should carry out activities related to their own experience, using subject content as and when necessary in their work (through a project approach, planned well in advance and focusing on identified knowledge, skills and attitudes). Ideally the children would need no external pressure to work because the nature of the work itself would generate an enthusiasm producing an internal self-discipline. As a result they would be made more responsive to their own environment. Imitation of the work of others in classrooms and attempts to walk along well-trodden paths would be firmly discouraged, whilst creativity in all spheres of physical and mental activity would be positively fostered. A new curriculum was devised, therefore, setting up general guidelines for each content area. This involved listing experiences for primary-level children and placing them in relevant blocks of a cube, the three dimensions of the cube standing for time, place and human needs. A Teachers' Handbook for grades 1 and 2 were devised, which attempted to help the teacher to organise integrated learning through project work, at the same time paying attention to building up basic skills, e.g. language and mathematics. A child development studies project was set up to find out how the children develop concepts in mathematics. A spiral curriculum was devised to accommodate the needs of the teachers and the students in small rural schools, where a teacher was in charge of more than one grade. Although the preparation of the overall curriculum was centrally controlled, flexible guidelines were provided, and teachers were given freedom to draw up their lesson units and teaching sequences using the materials available locally. A problem noticed was that discovery-learning, advocated as a crucial component, was hampered by the fact that literature and materials available for children did not meet the requirements of variety or suitability. To fill this gap, a new project was introduced to produce resource reading materials which would meet the needs of the new curriculum.
Elstgeest (1987) notes that primary education in Tanzania is the only formal education some children will get. The purpose of primary education is, therefore, to provide and use experiences and to exercise skills which enhance the growth of understanding. In order to achieve this, children must be faced with problems that they can handle (according to their developmental level). By asking questions based on their own experience, the children can respond positively and build on their confidence and, therefore, their motivation. An example is given of the fifth grade class in Kigururnyembe, Tanzania, where children used equal amounts of soil, using washers and nuts as units of weight. They then translated their findings into a picture, and proceeded to establish what amount of water their soils could carry. Another example was of children counting the number of seeds in a cob of maize to assist them in developing skills in numeracy. When the children set out to count the seeds, they were surprised that there were 470 seeds, as many of the children had a vague idea of large numbers. Elstgeest notes that the children can learn that by manipulating and controlling the environment they can influence and control the response and behaviour of living things in certain ways; this demonstrates a particular value of agriculture as a contextualising subject.
Harbison and Hanushek (1992) describe the introduction of the Northeast Basic Education Project (EDURURAL), set up in 1980 as an integrated educational programme. It was financially supported by the World Bank and the government as a single-purpose educational programme, which was aimed to target the least developed areas, and besides other things, assist in the development of curricula especially designed to the poor rural environment, where drop-out, repetition and non-attendance rates were very high. Only 40% of the primary school teachers had themselves completed primary school. EDURURAL was an ambitious social programme that sought to raise achievement by providing standard packages of incremental learning resources to a large number of schools. It was designed to expand children's access to primary schooling, to reduce wastage of educational resources inherent in grade repetition and dropout as children progressed through the system and to increase achievement by improving the quality of instruction. The EDURURAL project succeeded in the final two years of evaluation in improving delivery of the desired inputs, at least in two of the three states, but the change was only modest when comparing the inputs of the rural areas with these of the urban areas. In particular, wastage declined more rapidly in EDURURAL schools but there is no evidence that the EDURURAL project improved pupil flows as promotion rates did not increase. The programme contributed in setting up new schools and expanding others. Overall, however, there is little evidence that EDURURAL contributed directly or indirectly to school survival.
Black et al (1993) describe the Kisumu School Improvement Project. This was launched in 1990 in response to increasing doubts in the 1980s over the relevance of the school curriculum, imbalances between supply and demand of educated manpower, widening gaps between urban and rural standards and participation and a concern about the education of girls. Developments in this case were to come from the "bottom" and were to be creative; the strategies and teaching styles were to be appropriate and stem from the teachers and the identified needs of the children; they were to be classroom based (since the reality of the classroom must be the measure of success or failure); they were also to be holistic, with learning activities covering the whole range of children's emotional, physical and cognitive needs. Some of these activities were agriculture-based. The results appeared to be an improvement in children's attitudes and motivation and led to higher attendance rates. Although there was an initial intention to allocate differentiated tasks to the individuals and to encourage group work, Black et al (1993) note that this did not happen to a great extent; still the children did appear to gain self-confidence. There was, apparently, a surprising lack of involvement in projects or in work which integrated subject topics, this being explained by the rigidity of the Kenyan curriculum. It was also noted, however, that although the same pre-set curriculum was followed, teachers felt less obliged to stick rigidly with it. The positive results observed may have been influenced by the relatively high level of resources made available to the schools, and this does then raise questions regarding reproducibility and sustainability, although not all the schools within the Kisumu group received the same resource inputs.
Sifuna (1993) describes the development of the Kenyan "8-4-4" system during the 1980s, and notes that, although there is a tendency for teachers to teach towards examinations (due to pressure on children to qualify for secondary school), "teachers were of the opinion that, using the environment in teaching-learning situations enables children to appreciate and understand the world around them". This is encouraging, since it is noted that there appears to be a grass-roots belief in the value of basing learning on the experience of children. The emphasis placed by policy-makers on entrance examinations and academic progression, however, and the subsequent stress this places on schools, results in less effort being made to capitalise on community and pupil experience. Passing examinations and coaching for this goal takes precedence.
a) Black et al (1993) describe the Bombay School Improvement Programme which began in June 1989. This aimed to find concrete ways of addressing the problem of children's learning difficulties, to reduce the drop-out rate and improve community contacts in order to enlist the understanding, support and interest of the community; it was hoped that this would encourage children's motivation to learn. The overall aim was to foster child-centred learning, envisaging a move away from traditional textbooks towards curriculum materials developed by the teachers. Much of the advantage of such a move is predicated on the assumption of a rich resource alternatives for pupils both in the school and in the home. Some teachers thought, however, that this meant a move from textbooks to no textbooks at all; in fact it was intended that this child-centred teaching method could be introduced without replacing traditional textbooks. Moreover, parents were concerned that their children would not be able to learn in more traditional environments in the future if new methods of teaching were introduced in the primary school. At the end, the main difference in the teaching style was the greater emphasis on groups or individuals. The project has broadened the opportunities to develop higher-order skills as well as personal and social skills, and the children seem to have developed these to a greater extent. Black et al (1993) note that child-centred learning does have resource implications; there should be enough space and resources within the classroom as well as outside it. This particular program involved one school in Bombay, which received resource inputs sufficient to allow the initiative to be tested and evaluated. Whether the results observed would be reproduced in schools where very few resources were available would be a matter for further investigation. In order to develop this type of improvement programme, teachers need also to receive thorough guidelines on how to implement the school curriculum and good materials to support their teaching. This has implications for teacher training. There are difficulties in adopting child-centred methods; teachers have to learn how to teach and children have to learn how to learn in the context of interactive groupwork. There is, however, ample scope to produce teaching materials which are more supportive of child-centred teaching methods than the traditional textbooks.
b) Seshadri (1993) describes the Comprehensive Access to Primary Education (CAPE) project, launched in 1979 and implemented in 17 states in 1987-88, linked with the Primary Education Curriculum Renewal (PECR) programme. PECR has "developed relevant local specific learning experiences through decentralised curriculum planning. The learning experiences are drawn from the child's environment and the curriculum is directed to the attainment of certain essential competencies by the child". Also noted is the UNESCO project "Teaching of Science and Technology in Rural Areas", developed at the Regional College of Education, Mysore, which is "based on the rural child's knowledge of traditional science and technology in the socio-cultural context of rural areas of India". Seshadri stresses the importance of building on the strengths of rural children, rather than maintaining a "patronising" attitude towards them because they are thought of as disadvantaged.
Colclough and Lewin, (1993), and Colbert et al (1993) describe the development of primary school education in Colombia. In the 1980s, the urban primary NER was about 90%, whereas that in the rural areas was around 65%, with only 1 in 5 children in rural areas completing primary education. Cost units per child in the rural areas were much higher than those for urban schools, which meant that there was low internal efficiency of rural education directly related to the paucity of resources available to rural schools. Academic schedules were rigid and were reported not to take account of the special needs for rural pupils to help with agricultural and other chores. In the early 1960s, the Unitary School Programme conceived by UNESCO was initiated. One teacher was required in each school to help children to teach themselves, children were allowed to advance at their own pace, teaching materials were designed in order to help the teacher work with many groups of students, the key elements were instructional cards or subject guides which gave more autonomy in learning to the pupil. Children could then leave for agricultural work and then come back and work at their own pace. The problems, which made it impossible to generalise the programme throughout the rural areas in Colombia, were that although it dealt with the learning process at the level of the child, the programme failed to address the fundamental concurrent changes needed in the national curriculum, in teacher-training methods, and in the local supervision of the system, for the programme to be a success. "Escuela Nueva" then began in 1975, building upon the experience with Unitary schools. The new curriculum allowed the possibility of teachers to make their own adjustments in line with local circumstances. This provided practical problem-solving experiences. The criterion for advancement was the ability to apply knowledge within the community. Links between the community and the schools was emphasised, and the use of local materials was advocated. Teachers were given training and material incentives. Central authorities retained responsibility for the design of the programme and for providing practical support, whereas the training and implementation became the responsibility of regional and local officials; in practice this meant that curricula especially designed for rural areas could be more easy to introduce when teachers were trained locally. Escuela Nueva had 4 major aims: to provide a full 5-year primary course in all rural areas through multigrade teaching methods; to improve the internal efficiency of rural education with increased relevance, flexibility and new evaluation procedures; to reduce drop-out and repetition; to improve human and material inputs and reduce expenditure. The Escuela Nueva students scored higher in academic achievement tests. Teachers also believed that it was superior, and it enhanced their participation in community activities. Nevertheless, despite improvements, the quality of schooling was still lagging behind that in the urban centres.
The Ethiopian Institute of Curriculum Development and Research (ICDR) (1993) described the development and trial of the "general polytechnic curriculum" in 70 pilot primary schools. The environment and experience of the pupils is supposed to be integrated into all subject areas. The use of local, agricultural examples to facilitate learning in mathematics provides an illustration of this. Problems faced include language difficulties (trying to establish Amharic as the medium of instruction), shortage of resources (books, teaching aids, tools, water and electricity) and availability of teachers trained to use the new methodology required of them. This innovation is no longer in operation, however, under present government policy.
Chelu & Mbulwe (1994) describe the Self-Help Action Plan for Education in Zambia (SHAPE). One of the main aims of the programme is to improve the quality and relevance of education. The programme has tried to improve and strengthen certain types of learning in order to achieve quality and relevance. These are:
· relating science, mathematics and languages more to the local environment;· developing a wider variety of skills, e.g. literacy, numeracy as well as practical problem-solving skills, etc.;
· developing individual potentialities, e.g. initiative, responsibility, creativity;
· developing positive attitudes, e.g. towards work, local cultural traditions, preservation of natural resources;
· developing a healthy balance of learning and working to suit individual interests and future needs.
Little et al (1994) describe a curriculum adaptation process, SIMAC (National System of Human Resources Improvement and Curriculum Adaptation), at a local level which involves the establishment of a close relationship between the school and the world surrounding it. Teachers and pupils, as well as parents and other members of the community, have the right to participate critically and constructively in developing and carrying out effective and relevant learning experiences. SIMAC has been designed to shift the emphasis from a teaching-based curriculum towards a learning-based curriculum and from a content-based curriculum to a process-based curriculum. This integrates academic areas, methods and procedures within the learning process and is closely linked to the needs, interests and problems of the pupil and the community. It relates school life to the world that surrounds the child and teaches the child how to share and live with other people in a responsible, creative and critical way. Pedagogical practices are used which assume that learning, amongst other factors, starts from the reality which surrounds the child (family and community).
These case studies reveal that a wide range of efforts have been made to improve teaching and learning in rural primary schools, and some of the studies (particularly those from Malaysia, Tanzania, Kenya, India, Colombia and Brazil, discussed above) provide considerable insight into the successes and difficulties associated with the development of educational innovations. Some important points to note are as follows:
· approaches to curriculum development vary considerably;· the way in which the curriculum is designed and the way in which it is implemented at school level may be quite different;
· "teacher factors" are of great importance. Teachers seem not to be adequately trained (either through pre- or in-service), or sufficiently motivated (with adequate remuneration and sufficient length of posting) to develop integrated teaching methodologies. The Ethiopian ICDR (1993) expresses this point well:
"Because primary teachers in their one year of pre-service at the teacher-training institute with a 17 subject curriculum receive little exposure to methodology they tend to rely upon their own experience as primary school pupils and teach as they were taught: using rote learning and chalk and talk. Creativity, flexibility, innovativeness and improvisation are talents primary teachers may possess but they are infrequently displayed. Since each teacher teaches only his or her special subjects in several grades the necessary integration of culture and environmental content and concerns across various subjects is quite difficult" (ICDR, 1993).
· a number of other factors seem crucial in order for teaching and learning to be improved:* availability of books and materials developed to meet the needs of an integrated curriculum and the locality of the school;* access to relevant resources (farm, practical facilities, not necessarily owned by the school);
* support by the local community/parents;
* participation between the school, local community members and all relevant stakeholders in the development of educational programmes;
* sustained government support;
* examinations tailored to the requirements of the curriculum.
· curricular reform cannot solve all the problems faced by rural schools; complementary social and economic reforms must go hand in hand with curriculum development;
· contextualisation of learning in rural schools is a strategy which has been attempted in various educational programmes, illustrated by those examples above where an effort has been made to relate the content of the curriculum to the local environment. A number of difficulties are shown to be associated with this, including the constraints placed upon teachers by workload, general conditions and lack of experience as well as the driving force of examination-oriented learning which acts against the introduction of more flexible approaches to teaching and learning;
· some teachers do believe, apparently, that using the environment in teaching-learning situations enables children to appreciate and understand the world around them. In rural areas, therefore, agriculture could provide a unifying theme, since it is familiar to the lives of most rural children.
These examples from the literature reveal a number of benefits, but at the same time there are many critical factors which can lead to the success or failure of the strategies described above. In order to shed more light on these factors, and in an effort to gain a real understanding of what contextualisation means in practice, case studies were carried out by the authors in four countries, Tanzania, Sri Lanka, India and Ethiopia. The findings of these case studies are presented in detail in Volume II of this paper, but an overview of the research process is presented in section 7, in order to provide a basis for the discussion of issues and implications in section 8.
