Author: Informe GEM: Informe de Seguimiento de la Educación en el Mundo

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Los actores no estatales están influyendo en la profesión docente: ¿cuáles son las implicaciones?

Informe GEM: Informe de Seguimiento de la Educación en el Mundo

Por Amita Chudgar, Universidad Estatal de Michigan

«Cuando las escuelas vuelvan a abrir, voy a abrazar a la maestra de mi hijo y agradecerle … «, me dijo un amigo por teléfono solo tres días después de un bloqueo impuesto por Covid-19. Ahora, varias semanas después de la crisis de Covid-19, no es exagerado que nuestro mundo haya cambiado de manera fundamental, incluida quizás la forma en que vemos el trabajo de los maestros. ¿Los maestros son fácilmente reemplazados por la tecnología? ¿Alguien puede ser maestro? Me imagino que al menos unos pocos de nosotros pueden haber cambiado sus perspectivas sobre estos debates.

Los debates y las discusiones sobre los docentes y la enseñanza reúnen consideraciones de economía y educación como pocos otros temas educativos. Los maestros son fundamentales para la provisión de educación, son los trabajadores de primera línea, a quienes se les confía directamente la responsabilidad de crecer y nutrir las mentes jóvenes. La compensación docente, por otro lado, es central para los presupuestos educativos; En la mayoría de los sistemas educativos, la nómina de docentes es el gasto anual más grande.

El enfoque en los actores no estatales en el próximo Informe de Monitoreo de la Educación Global 2021 nos invita a participar en los debates sobre los docentes y la enseñanza a la luz de la creciente oferta de educación basada en el mercado. Utilizando el caso indio, muestro cómo los actores no estatales están moldeando la vida profesional de los docentes de tres maneras.

Los actores no estatales brindan capacitación docente

El sector privado desempeña un papel destacado en la formación del profesorado en varios países de ingresos bajos y medios. Al trabajar junto al gobierno, los institutos privados pueden contribuir a aliviar la escasez de maestros capacitados. Si bien el impacto más amplio de la formación de docentes no estatales en la profesión está poco estudiado, puede estar muy por debajo de las expectativas, como lo demuestran experiencias como la que emerge de la India.

El sector de formación docente ha sido difícil de regular en la India. Después de los esfuerzos recientes para revisar el proceso de acreditación de los institutos de capacitación docente, el Consejo Nacional para la Educación Docente(NCTE) ahora indica que hay 17.244 institutos de formación docente ‘reconocidos’ en toda la India, que ofrecen 17 tipos diferentes de cursos aprobados. Unos pocos clics en el sitio web de NCTE producen una lista estatal de institutos ‘reconocidos’, que puede ser un recurso valioso para un aspirante a maestro para confirmar que se está inscribiendo y pagando grandes sumas de honorarios a un programa de capacitación legítimo. Sin embargo, con una letanía de nombres genéricos como ‘Instituto de Educación y Gestión’ y ‘C – Impact Institute’ e institutos con nombres y direcciones similares, con una variación menor en la ortografía (por ejemplo, ‘Springdale Institute’ y ‘Springdala Institute’) , navegar por estas listas puede ser abrumador.

Mientras trabajaba un poco tratando de comprender mejor cómo identificar efectivamente los institutos ‘reconocidos’, me topé con una pequeña industria artesanal de ‘expertos’ en YouTube . Ofrecen asesoramiento en hindi y lenguas indias regionales a futuros maestros sobre cómo seleccionar un instituto de formación docente, evitando al mismo tiempo ser víctimas de institutos y títulos fraudulentos y costosos.

Unos años después de la revisión de NCTE, estos comentarios de YouTube no son la única indicación, sin embargo, de que no todo está bien con el sector privado de capacitación docente en India. El Capítulo 5 del borrador de la Nueva Política Educativa de 2019 , el Capítulo 5 señala que ‘… la educación del profesorado es muy deficiente y, de hecho, está en crisis en el momento actual. Hay aproximadamente 17,000 instituciones de educación docente en el país, de las cuales más del 92% son de propiedad privada. Diversos estudios en profundidad … han demostrado que una gran proporción de estos colegios de enseñanza ni siquiera intentan proporcionar una buena educación; en cambio, muchos funcionan como tiendas comerciales donde ni siquiera se cumplen los requisitos mínimos curriculares o de cursos, y donde los títulos están esencialmente disponibles por precio«. El documento de política continúa afirmando que una gran mayoría de estas universidades son «independientes» y, por lo tanto, «… generalmente no tienen la capacidad de proporcionar educación docente que incluya … una sólida formación pedagógica y práctica».

Los actores no estatales son empleadores importantes de maestros

A medida que la provisión de educación no estatal a nivel de educación primaria y secundaria ha crecido rápidamente, los actores privados se han convertido en importantes empleadores docentes, configurando la compensación docente y las condiciones de trabajo. Solo en la India, entre 3 y 4 millones de docentes trabajan en el sector privado. El consenso general es que los maestros del gobierno reciben salarios más altos que los maestros de las escuelas privadas. Pero más allá de las comparaciones salariales, tenemos una comprensión limitada de las condiciones de trabajo de los docentes en el sector no estatal.

Según la investigación en la que estoy trabajando actualmente con Jutaro Sakamoto en la Universidad Estatal de Michigan, observamos que en la India, los maestros de escuelas privadas no solo tienen menos probabilidades de ganar menos, sino también tener menos contratos laborales formales o recibir beneficios como vacaciones pagadas y pensiones . Las implicaciones de estas condiciones de trabajo relativamente precarias y menos deseables de los docentes del sector privado no están bien estudiadas. Si bien no es del todo aplicable, la investigación sobre maestros contratados por el gobierno (maestros contratados en condiciones algo similares a los maestros de escuelas privadas con salarios más bajos y menos garantías contractuales o beneficios) ofrece alguna indicación de que un mercado laboral de maestros tan bifurcado puede tener consecuencias negativas para la moral de los maestros y desgaste.

A través de las «soluciones» de Ed-Tech, los actores no estatales están dando forma al trabajo diario de los maestros

La crisis de Covid-19 ha puesto de manifiesto varias inequidades inherentes en la búsqueda de soluciones educativas basadas en tecnología. A pesar de estas preocupaciones, a través de innovaciones tecnológicas educativas disruptivas y mágicas que prometen acelerar el progreso educativo, los actores no estatales han estado ocupados defendiendo soluciones educativas basadas en tecnología a escala. Estas intervenciones sustituyen, aumentan, modifican y redefinen los procesos educativos y, por extensión, el trabajo diario de los docentes. Según una extensa revisión reciente de casi 3.000 innovaciones, Las ONG y el sector privado se encuentran entre los principales proveedores de innovaciones de EdTech, y el sector privado y las fundaciones se encuentran entre los principales financiadores de estas innovaciones.

De hecho, la tecnología educativa tiene el potencial de mejorar el aprendizaje, pero también es una oportunidad de mercado lucrativa. Un reciente informe de la industria del sector educativo afiliado al Departamento de Comercio de la India señala: «El país se ha convertido en el segundo mercado más grande para el aprendizaje electrónico después de los Estados Unidos. Se espera que el sector alcance los US $ 1,96 mil millones para 2021 con alrededor de 9,5 millones de usuarios ». La Dra. Francine Menashy en su reciente blog llamó la atención sobre las preocupaciones generales derivadas de la participación empresarial en la educación durante la crisis.. Varias de estas observaciones son relevantes más allá de la crisis también. Es importante destacar que, en el contexto de los docentes, estas consideraciones llaman nuestra atención sobre las formas en que debemos comprender mejor el potencial de las intervenciones de tecnología educativa, muchas apoyadas y promovidas por actores no estatales, para redefinir el trabajo diario de la enseñanza.

En resumen

Volviendo a las preguntas con las que comenzamos, la crisis de Covid-19 ha reenfocado nuestra atención en los trabajadores de primera línea, incluidos los maestros, cuyas habilidades y trabajo ya no podemos dar por sentado. Reenfocar nuestra atención en los docentes requiere que prestemos más atención a las formas en que los actores no estatales, con una variedad de motivos y habilidades, están influyendo en la preparación de los docentes, las condiciones de trabajo y el trabajo diario de los docentes. La presencia no estatal innovadora, concienzuda y sensible al contexto en estos espacios puede complementar los esfuerzos del gobierno. Pero es poco probable que este resultado se logre sin que el gobierno cumpla su función de proveedor y regulador.en el sector educativo. Nuestro estado actual de conocimiento también limita nuestra comprensión del impacto total de los actores no estatales en la vida de los docentes y sus posibles sinergias o conflictos con el sistema público. El enfoque del Informe 2021 GEM en los actores no estatales es un paso positivo que proporcionará a la comunidad mundial una oportunidad renovada para explorar estas preguntas poco estudiadas.

Fuente: https://gemreportunesco.wordpress.com/2020/06/04/non-state-actors-are-influencing-the-teaching-profession-what-are-the-implications/

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The world post-Covid-19 might be the world pre-Incheon – or even pre-Dakar

Informe GEM: Informe de Seguimiento de la Educación en el Mundo

By Sheldon Shaeffer, Chair, Board of Directors, Asia=Pacific Regional Network on Early Childhood (ARNEC)

Post-Covid-19, the world will not be the same for a very long time. Life may be so different that there might not even be a post-Covid-19 world in the sense of ever returning to any form of normalcy. We should spend more time assessing exactly what effect this pandemic is going to have on the feasibility of achieving SDG 4. It is time that we moved past discussions about the logistics of school opening to the policies needed to address the pandemic’s long-term damage. At least four major implications for education come to mind.

First, achievements in virtually all sectors of development will be reversed and even lost.  Maternal, child, and infant mortality; immunisation rates; food security; poverty; and school enrolment and completion rates will be affected.  Parents may no longer be able to afford to educate their children, and child labour may increase.  They may also decide to prolong home schooling in face of successive waves of Covid-19 or other pandemics, while students may decide themselves not to return to school after their extended break.

Second, young children will likely be the most harmed by the pandemic. Their nutritional status will be damaged, their sense of security threatened, their health compromised, and their cognitive and social-emotional development seriously disrupted.  They will also be more often exposed to toxic home environments – the result of increased domestic violence and poverty – in which many of them will not thrive.

Third, early childhood education and development (ECD) will suffer more than other education levels. Government-supported schools and kindergartens will likely keep their teachers (though perhaps with less pay) during the pandemic and into the re-opening. But many non-elite private schools and community-based ECD programmes have already closed; without a salary, staff may leave and the ECD workforce capacity, enhanced over many years, will be seriously eroded. The slow but steady increase in enrolment in ECD programmes around the world over the last two decades may return to the multiple challenges they were facing a decade ago.

Fourth, existing disparities in access to social services, including education will be exacerbated:

  • Children with delays and disabilities, who often had extra support and targeted services in their ECD programmes and primary schools, will not find them at home and so will fall further behind.
  • Children living in poverty and those living in rural and remote communities already have less access to the tools required to benefit from distance education than their peers; post-Covid-19, their families will be less able to afford the costs of (re-)enrolling them in ECD programmes and schools.
  • Girls in some contexts will likely be more disadvantaged as well – less likely to go back to school, especially from poor families, with heavier domestic responsibilities and increased chances of pregnancy and early marriage.
  • Children of refugees and migrants may face greater stigmatisation as “bearers” of the virus, less access to technology, and education programmes even less well-funded than before.
  • Ethnic and linguistic minorities will also suffer. Those children who were being taught in the national language will fall further behind, and those being taught in their mother tongue likely do not have online lessons nor printed material in this language for use at home.

In addition, education facilities may have suffered from disuse, children’s learning will have been disrupted, and teachers will be demoralised and demotivated; some may have even left the profession. The challenge will be to return to where education was pre-Covid-19 and to become strong enough to progress enough to reach SDG 4.  Current discourse focuses largely on immediate responses to the pandemic and the mechanics of re-opening, and not on addressing its longer-term impact. There has been virtually no discussion of solutions to the challenges mentioned above. But some solutions can be imagined; for example:

  • move the discourse around the opening of schools away from logistical issues to its larger challenges, especially those related to increasing inequities and exclusion resulting from Covid-19
  • assess more exactly the nature and magnitude of the pandemic’s impacts on achieving the SDGs
  • ensure that those most disadvantaged are given high priority as schools and ECD programmes re-open, especially community-based ECD programmes and schools and the most affected families
  • promote education activities (especially those which are low-tech and no-tech) that have proven effective with disadvantaged children during the pandemic; e.g., home based learning kits, supplementary reading materials and exercise books for children without internet access, photos of homework sent to teachers by mobile phone, free educational programme streaming, apps for home based testing and exams, etc.
  • design programmes for disadvantaged and excluded children to guarantee that they resume their education, make up for the disruption they have suffered, and address the gaps that have increased:
    • extra support to children with delays and disabilities
    • extra academic support for students who have not been able to follow mandated online and high-tech distance and online education programmes
    • extra efforts to ensure that girls return to schools
    • psycho-social support to help children better handle the stress, anxiety, and trauma resulting from Covid-19
  • ensure strong support to teachers in recognition of the challenges they have faced (often with no or reduced pay) and encouraging them to give attention to the most disadvantaged children in the transition back to school.
  • provide support to school leaders who will play an essential role in managing the re-opening of schools with special attention to those in schools in poor/remote/disadvantaged areas
  • adjust government budgets to meet the needs of children who have been the worst affected: ensure that any additional funds for re-opening schools are not simply provided per student but are based on the needs of different locations and groups

There is a risk that the losses caused by Covid-19 will take the world back to where it was at the starting point of the Sustainable Development Goals and the time of the Incheon Declaration (2015) or even to Dakar (2000).  The hard-won gains, the momentum towards enhanced early childhood development and a greater focus on successful early learning, and the strengthened commitments of many governments towards achieving the SDGs are at high risk of being lost, especially if the points above are not underlined by all as they build back better in the future.

Fuente: https://gemreportunesco.wordpress.com/2020/05/20/the-world-post-covid-19-might-be-the-world-pre-incheon-or-even-pre-dakar/

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Back to school, back to normality? Dilemmas in high-income countries

Informe GEM: Informe de Seguimiento de la Educación en el Mundo

There seemed no doubt when schools closed earlier this year that closures were a necessary response to the pandemic. The question is whether that reasoning has sufficiently subsided for the opening of school doors to be again acceptable. If groups of 10 people or more are being banned from assembling, how can classrooms of 15 students be allowed? If yesterday we were at risk of possible infection – and fatality – how, today, is it ok for students and teachers to group together in a school where social distancing is particularly hard to control? Policy makers, parents and teachers all have strong but conflicting views.

There are multiple approaches to opening schools in high-income countries at the moment. In Denmark and Norway, some schools and creches have already reopened. One cost-effective approach to the problem is to teach outside, something that Denmark is doing, as this eye-opening photo series shows. In Germany, the details of how schools will reopen are up to its 16 states to decide, but pupils in primary school are due to return to school in a staggered way, starting next week. France’s pre-primary schools are due to open on May 11 and other schools progressively from May 18.

In Australia, where schools are opening in New South Wales and Queensland, the staggered return will be handled differently by each school, with the hope that children will be able to go back full-time for the third term, which begins on July 20. The Government has said that families with multiple siblings should be prioritised and has suggested organising students by house colours, or alphabetically.

Parents in countries, such as France, have reacted with bemusement. If parents are confused about when their children can start school, so are teachers. The rules, regulations, and opening schedules, hours and provisions are seemingly different everywhere.

The core deciding factors for schools reopening are related to the timing, the conditions and the processes, says a resource paper by UNESCO on ‘Preparing the reopening of schools’. The conditions, however, are not always agreed upon. In France, for example, the government’s scientific committee advised keeping schools closed until September – advice which has not been taken. There appear to be conflicting findings as to whether children are as likely to transmit the virus or not, with some in Germany claiming they are, but others in Australia – cited by the Prime Minister when announcing schools were to reopen – claiming the opposite.

What we do know is that adults face the highest risks of coronavirus transmission, which means teachers are likely most at risk. The Australian Education Union, for example, is concerned by the prospect of schools reopening, saying that the report claiming children were not vectors of the virus “provides little clarity about how governments are going to ensure a safe working environment for teachers, principals and support staff”.

One of the main unions in France is equally as concerned about how this adds up, asking: “How can we avoid a new epidemic flare-up when almost 900,000 teachers and 12 million students are re-assembled in class?” In the United Kingdom, over 200,000 people have signed petition of NEU, the main education union, to “open schools when it is safe” with signatures climbing every day, including those of more than a quarter of head teachers in the country. The NEU also believes that “systematic testing and contact tracing needs to be operating fully and be accessible,” all part of regulated hygiene measures in school that Germany’s main teacher union described as a “mammoth task”.

In the United States, teacher unions are also warning that sending them into crowded schools without widespread testing is an unacceptable risk. The head of the union in New York City wrote last week that it won’t support a return without testing for all students and staff, daily temperature checks, and tracing of those have been in contact with someone showing symptoms. Reportedly 68 education department staff have died in the city. The leaders of the country’s two largest teachers’ unions said they wouldn’t rule out teachers strikes if schools reopened too soon. The head of the American Federation of Teachers, was reported saying that if school doors opened again without regulated hygiene measures in place, “you do everything you can to … use your public megaphones.”

In China, for instance, not only are all students wearing masks, but there are often glass dividers between desks and teachers have proper personal protective equipment. In the United States, teachers are meanwhile commenting on the amount of funds made available to improve the security of schools after the spate of school shootings, but the lack of anything similar in the face of today’s crisis.

In March 2020, UNESCO ran an online survey on education responses to COVID-19, which showed that the majority of MOEs are eager to reopen schools as soon as possible. But the core push-factor for sending children back to school, apart from its core role in helping children learn – and learn on a more equal footing – is economics. Brookings recently did some quick back-of-the-envelope calculations on how much it will cost to keep schools closed for four months, concluding that it would set the United States back $2.5 trillion—12.7% of GDP. No wonder the political urgency.

Although one teacher in France wrote in a recent opinion piece “I am not responsible for the logistical challenges of capitalism,” the fact is that schools are definitely part of the economic motor of society. The deciding factor has to be whether risk-mitigating measures are in place. These are listed in a new framework for re-opening schools produced by UNESCO, UNICEF, the World Bank and the World Food Programme. “The first condition for a successful transition to onsite education is meaninigful social and policy dialogue with educators and their unions,” David Edwards, General Secretary of Education International, told us for this blog. Teachers  are partners, not pawns, in this new phase. To get this wrong will see union movement, and potential further education interruption unfold.

The fear of these past few months as Covid-19 has taken over the world will no doubt take some time to get over. Hesitance to return back to normal too quickly is likely a normal reaction, therefore. Aside from the health factors at play, however, we have a real chance now to build back better, rather than to rush back to normal. It would be a wasted opportunity not to assess how to deliver education more inclusively, starting by a more considered re-entry into school from among the most vulnerable families, rather than on a first-come-first-served basis. The 2020 GEM Report on inclusion and education is prepped to be launched on 23 June. We are excited about sharing its messages with you all – messages that could not come at a better time.

Fuente: https://gemreportunesco.wordpress.com/2020/05/05/back-to-school-back-to-normality-dilemmas-in-high-income-countries/

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Flexible learning during Covid-19:  how to ensure quality higher education at a distance

Informe GEM: Informe de Seguimiento de la Educación en el Mundo

GEM REPORT

By Michaela Martin and Uliana Furiv, respective lead and consultant working at the UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning programme specialist on a project on flexible learning pathways.

The Covid-19 outbreak closed universities and other tertiary education institutions in 175 countries and communities, affecting over 220 million post-secondary students. While some institutions moved their classes to online and distance education platforms thanks to their pre-existing experience, many others struggled. In some countries, this lack of preparedness resulted in delays in moving the courses online; in others, governments have halted higher education completely for an indefinite period of time.

In 2018, the UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP-UNESCO) launched a project to help guide countries identify policies and instruments that support flexible learning pathways (FLP) in higher education. The research included a stocktaking exercise of good practices in the field, an international survey, and eight in-depth country case studies to analyse factors for an effective implementation of flexible learning pathways. Many lessons can be drawn for the current context, now that distance learning is a key mode of education delivery, rather than just an add-on to face-to-face learning. 

India offered distance education as a major alternative mode of delivery long before the arrival of Covid-19. The country has more than 15 open universities and 110 Dual Mode Universities, which provide education through distance modes. For the period of Covid-19 outbreak, the government has also allowed top 100 India’s HEIs to provide fully online degrees. In addition, the government even integrated online learning in the New Education Policy currently under review.

One interesting practice India uses to deliver distance learning is with the Study Webs of Active Learning for Young Aspiring Minds (SWAYAM) platform which aims to provide access to Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and other e-learning content developed by various education providers. An important aspect of MOOCs hosted on the SWAYAM platform is their potential to receive recognition by higher education institutions. Under current provisions, a student entering a higher education study programme in a university can transfer up to 20 per cent of credits from relevant online courses completed on SWAYAM – something that one could imagine being a useful model for other countries to follow in current circumstances.

As we are seeing in many countries around the world, many students in rural areas are unable to access online content, and television or radio broadcasting is often more effective. The Indian government therefore created the SWAYAM Prabha programme, which disseminates the audio-visual content developed as part of the SWAYAM-hosted MOOCs through 32 educational TV channels. Within the current context, such platforms can be accessed immediately so that learning continues and is recognised when credits are issued at a later stage.

In Malaysia, the Wawasan Open University (WoU), a private university established by a consortium of Malaysian public universities, mainly delivers distance learning programmes to non-traditional learners, such as working Malaysians who have not proceeded to higher education after secondary education. In a context where most higher education institutions have been forced to close, the pandemic has not interrupted students’ learning thanks to the virtual learning platforms that existed before the crisis: “We are, after all, an Open Distance Learning (ODL)  university!”, reported the Vice-Chancellor on the universities’ webpage.

In Finland, a similarly effective online system has been created. There, the national policy framework emphasises equality and quality education for all and universities and universities of applied sciences in the country offer Open Studies courses that are open to everyone regardless of education and age. The courses are offered by over twenty Finnish universities free of charge and can be recognised in students’ degrees.

Quality assurance of online learning is a challenge

Online distance learning is common in many countries. Findings from our international survey suggest that a majority of UNESCO member states (78%) already had flexible modes of delivery of programmes prior to Covid-19, even if the quality and validation of such delivery modes (e.g., through credit transfer or credit recognition of online courses) is not a straightforward issue for many.

Evaluating students’ learning acquired through distance learning has been a challenge for quality assurance, however, regarded with scepticism by some quality assurance and accreditation bodies, although it is likely that under the present circumstances these will now disappear. One good example to draw from on this point comes from the Netherlands where the Accreditation Organisation of the Netherlands and Flanders (NVAO) has published a memorandum on online and blended learning. This memorandum includes the formal recognition of MOOCs by higher education institutions. Another example comes from the USA, where the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) issued a guidance document intended to provide both institutions and accreditors with flexibility regarding accrediting visits and for distance education.

There is no doubt that there are many challenges to implement and assure quality of online education. In addition to issues of access and Internet connectivity, not all programmes can be supported by online technology, such as lab-based research programmes, for example. And governments need to be aware of the inequalities that online learning can create as students from lower socio-economic strata find it more difficult to access to IT infrastructure and internet packages. There should be a coordinated approach between governments, quality assurance agencies and higher education institutions that addresses not only available resources but also a broader vision of what flexibility of learning can provide. Offering more flexible higher education in terms of delivery and pacing will be unavoidable if the Covid-19 crisis is going to be around for a while, and defining flexible quality standards for it will be indispensable as well.

Fuente: https://gemreportunesco.wordpress.com/2020/05/07/flexible-learning-during-covid-19-how-to-ensure-quality-higher-education-at-a-distance/

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Cómo se pueden usar las narrativas de género tradicionales para abogar por la educación de las niñas y las mujeres

Informe GEM: Informe de Seguimiento de la Educación en el Mundo

Por GEM REPORT//Emily LeRoux-Rutledge ,

Profesora de Psicología Social, Universidad del Oeste de Inglaterra.

“La educación es muy importante para las niñas, las mujeres y para todos. La educación es lo que desarrollará nuestro país, y sin educación, el país nunca seguirá adelante ”, declara una voz en la radio comunitaria, en las zonas rurales de Sudán del Sur. Es la voz de un maestro de escuela primaria, instando a su comunidad a enviar a sus niñas a la escuela. Sus palabras encapsulan perfectamente una narrativa socialmente compartida prominente en Sudán del Sur y gran parte del mundo: la narrativa de la mujer educada , en la que se espera que una mujer que termina la escuela obtenga un ingreso, obtenga seguridad material para ella y su familia, y trabaje para el desarrollo del país.

«Cuando la niña es educada, reducirá el nivel de pobreza …» , continúa, «Digamos que su hija se casa por 30 vacas, y luego una educada se casa por 150 vacas. Eso significa … [la] pobreza que había en esa familia, ella redujo eso «. ¿Ha entendido mal el punto de la educación de las niñas? No necesariamente: ahora está recurriendo a otra narrativa socialmente compartida en Sudán del Sur: la narración de la novia , en la que el matrimonio se produce mediante la entrega de vacas.

Sudán del Sur 3

Este ejemplo demuestra una de las formas en que las personas en Sudán del Sur están utilizando de manera creativa las narrativas de género tradicionales para promover las metas de género y desarrollo, como la educación de las niñas. En un estudio publicado recientemente en World Development, que se basa en entrevistas cualitativas y grupos focales con 94 participantes de investigación en tres comunidades rurales del sur de Sudán, así como en horas de contenido de radio comunitaria, los resultados muestran repetidamente que las narrativas de género tradicionales se utilizan de esta manera, junto con los modernos, para promover los objetivos de género y desarrollo, incluida la educación.

¿Por qué importa esto? En los círculos de desarrollo, existe una tendencia a culpar a los roles y normas tradicionales de género por el lento progreso hacia objetivos como la educación de las niñas. La conclusión siempre parece ser que, para lograr los objetivos de género y desarrollo, las narrativas de género tradicionales deben ser desafiadas y cambiadas. Por ejemplo, un informe reciente de la UNESCO sobre Sudán del Sur afirma: «[Hay] un fuerte sesgo contra la escolarización de las niñas … [Las] mujeres tienden a ser vistas como una fuente de riqueza para la familia como resultado de los pagos de dote y la reubicación de la niña de la familia de su esposo una vez casada «. Pero, como acabamos de ver, la narrativa de la novia se puede utilizar para abogar por la educación de las niñas. Entonces, ¿es la narrativa realmente el problema, o la forma en que se usa a veces?

Para decirlo de otra manera, ¿hay algún daño en usar narrativas de género tradicionales para apoyar objetivos como la educación de las niñas? Quizás. Si las creencias de género no igualitarias son intrínsecas a las narrativas tradicionales, perpetuarlas podría perpetuar la desigualdad de género. Pero evitar u oponerse directamente a las narrativas tradicionales corre el riesgo de ser ineficaz e ignora las formas en que las personas en el terreno pueden desplegarlas creativamente. Los académicos que estudian las formas en que los derechos humanos de las mujeres son perseguidos y promulgados en contextos locales sostienen que deben ser «vernáculos» o enmarcados, en términos de normas, valores y prácticas existentes. Cuanto más exitosamente se hace esto, más tracción obtienen las ideas.

Sudán del Sur 2

Más importante aún, las narrativas tradicionales no necesitan ser utilizadas de forma aislada. Pueden existir argumentos basados ​​en normas, valores y prácticas tradicionales junto con argumentos basados ​​en la igualdad de género. Como muestra el ejemplo de apertura, las niñas en Sudán del Sur pueden ser alentadas en su educación, ya que las hará parejas de matrimonio más deseables y porque las mujeres merecen ocupar su lugar junto a los hombres en el país en desarrollo. Además, si se logran cambios materiales en los niveles de educación de las mujeres, pueden producirse cambios en las actitudes, normas y valores tradicionales.

De hecho, las narrativas tradicionales no son necesariamente estáticas, un error que cometen muchos profesionales del desarrollo. Pueden cambiar con el tiempo, especialmente si se utilizan para apoyar los objetivos de género y desarrollo. En Sudán del Sur, una niña educada solía ser menos deseable como pareja matrimonial, pero un hombre ahora debe ofrecer más vacas para casarse con una niña educada. Por lo tanto, puede ser que la narrativa de la novia en las zonas rurales de Sudán del Sur esté adquiriendo una nueva dimensión, que refuerza el valor de la educación de las niñas.

Es por eso que el artículo de Desarrollo Mundial antes mencionado argumenta que puede ser valioso considerar cómo aprovechar, en lugar de rechazar, las narrativas tradicionales en la búsqueda de objetivos como la educación de las niñas. Puede ser hora de que reevaluemos cuidadosamente la suposición de que las narrativas tradicionales son barreras, y que evaluemos críticamente cuándo el uso de tales narrativas es útil para lograr los objetivos de género y desarrollo. Idealmente, deberíamos hacer esto sin ignorar la posibilidad de que las narrativas tradicionales puedan perpetuar las desigualdades de género, y sin olvidar que los argumentos de transformación, basados ​​en la igualdad de género, pueden usarse simultáneamente.

Sudán del Sur 1

Esta estrategia puede funcionar. Funcionó para Elizabeth, una mujer del sur de Sudán que estaba extraordinariamente decidida a recibir una educación de niña, tanto que incluso dijo: » Tuve que matarme porque mis padres no me dejaban ir a la escuela «. Primero, explica su ambición usando la narrativa de la mujer educada :

“Si continúo mi educación, entonces seré educado y seré alguien que pueda ayudar … Alguien que está progresando, alguien que se acerca, hay tantas cosas que puede hacer y muchas maneras en que puede ayudar a su país «.

Sin embargo, ella persuadió a sus padres para que la enviaran a la escuela usando la narrativa de la novia , y está extremadamente orgullosa de las vacas que su educación trajo a su familia:

“Mi esposo trajo tantas vacas que mis padres estaban felices … Si no hubiera llegado a la Primaria 7, entonces las vacas con las que me casé podrían no haber sido entregadas a mis padres. Porque sé que, hasta ahora, si eres educado, puedes traer muchas vacas y muchas cosas buenas a tus padres ”.

Esto plantea un punto final: que las mujeres a menudo valoran legítimamente las identidades, los roles y las normas representadas en las narrativas tradicionales, que enfatizan las relaciones familiares cercanas, uno de los determinantes más importantes del bienestar.

Por todas estas razones, puede ser hora de dejar de lado la idea de que las narrativas tradicionales son barreras para la educación de las niñas y las mujeres. El aprovechamiento crítico de las narrativas tradicionales reconocería el hecho de que las narrativas tradicionales son estratégicas para las mujeres, son valoradas por las mujeres y actualmente se utilizan para apoyar algunos de los objetivos de género y desarrollo que la comunidad internacional de desarrollo busca alcanzar.

Fuente: https://gemreportunesco.wordpress.com/2020/04/30/how-traditional-gender-narratives-can-be-used-to-advocate-for-girls-and-womens-education/

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How will Covid-19 affect the internationalization of higher education?

Informe GEM: Informe de Seguimiento de la Educación en el Mundo

Gem Report

University costs. It didn’t take long after universities closed their doors in the United States, for instance, for students to start advocating to get their money back. Twitter is awash with professors concerned about the impact that shutting universities is going to have on their institutions in the long-term. University is one of the biggest investments many people will make in their lifetime. But why do so when you could be paying a fraction of the price to take part in an online course? What about students and professors shut out of the countries where they are supposed to be studying and teaching? The ramifications are complex, and heavily intertwined with economics.

Many universities reduced or suspended fees in some way. The University of Chicago agreed to freeze tuition for the next academic year. Universities in Dubai slashed their fees and fees were suspended in 52 universities in Thailand. Chile also passed a bill on March 27 to suspend all tuition fee payments for as long as the coronavirus crisis lasts.

Stopping fees doesn’t stop interest related to student loans, though. In the United States, loans amount to a whopping $1.59 trillion. A $2.2 trillion stimulus plan, the CARES Act, will give some relief to some students, but with many exceptions. Student Loan Borrower Assistance, an NGO, estimates that around nine million students have at least one loan that doesn’t qualify for relief under the plan.

Even if tuition fees have frozen and some relief is given for student loans, it’s not guaranteed that the cost of this pandemic for universities will not roll over back onto students when term re-starts. Michigan State University, for instance, announced a 4% tuition increase for the upcoming year at the same time as it announced freezing tuition costs.

Student and academic mobility on lock-down

The blow will be particularly hard for those countries that have internationalized their higher education. Half of all international students move to five English‑speaking countries: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. This movement brings money, which is important not only for higher education institutions but the whole economy. In 2016, international students brought an estimated US$39.4 billion into the US economy.

Chinese students, in particular, are a large revenue stream for many universities, reportedly spending an estimated US$30 billion a year on overseas tuition. The University of Connecticut, for instance, hosted nearly 3,000 students from China last autumn and is now bracing for international enrolment to drop by up to 75% next year, equal to a loss of up to $70 million.

Australia is also a major destination for Chinese students, who contributed around $8 million to the Australian economy in 2019. Chinese students make up no fewer than one quarter of all students at the University of Sydney, for example.  As early as February, travel bans prevented hundreds of thousands of Chinese from returning to universities where they were studying or were due to begin courses. This saw some institutions in Australia offering Chinese students $1,500 for travelling in from a third country to get around restrictions. These sorts of tricks might start multiplying if lock downs continue.

Travel bans and restrictions will no doubt linger once confinement periods are lifted. A study of students from Bangladesh, Ghana, India, Kenya, Nigeria and Pakistan has estimated that around 40% of students from are changing study abroad plans since the pandemic.

Just as mobility of students will be affected by travel and economic limitations, so will the mobility of academics. The United States hosts the most transient academics, which made up 25% of new academic positions. At Miami University in Ohio, which is bracing for a 20% drop in new students, officials are drafting plans that would cut at least half, if not all, visiting assistant professorships.

Can universities survive the storm?

It is hard to know whether life will return to normal or not once this phase is over. But, just like any company that has been frozen during the lockdown, it is likely that some private higher education institutions will simply not survive this lock-down. The Council of Rectors of Chilean Universities, which represents 27 state and private universities in the country, said that suspending tuition fees would have a ‘serious and insurmountable impact, especially on regional universities’, while the rector of the Universidad del Desarrollo in Chile was a bit more direct, calling it ‘a hair-brained idea’.

The losses for some individual institutions are not insubstantial: Bucknell University in Pennsylvania says it has lost $150 million from its endowment after recent investment losses. Michigan State University has put the cost of the outbreak already at $50-60 million.  The $2 trillion rescue bill in the United States includes $14 billion for higher education, but the American Council on Education, an association of college presidents, called it woefully inadequate saying that $50 billion was needed.

What the future will bring

International higher education is only a small part of the sector: just over 2% of students are mobile. But it is a part that is taking an almighty hit during the pandemic with potential knock-on effects on some host countries’ higher education systems, notably Anglophone countries and those in the Gulf, which increasingly rely on foreign students’ fees. These countries but also others, such as Japan, may spend less time trying to strategise how to recruit international students, as many have been doing recently.

Depending on where you sit, the plight of roughly 2% of the global student population with the luxury of international higher education is not something that should be a priority. Especially when the concerns are mostly about a wobble in a money market associated with education, which has been a worrying growing trend over past years. However, to this we should also remind ourselves of the vital purpose of higher education in society, and the gains in global citizenship we get from student and academic mobility. A wobble in international higher education will ripple across into the higher education systems reliant upon those funds as well, which is a worry for millions of students. Higher education is critical for countries plans for economic and social recovery; it is more than ever essential to invest in research and student collaboration that can help find the answers we need to live in such unstable and uncertain times and now would be a good time for governments and higher education institutions to make that point.

Fuente: https://gemreportunesco.wordpress.com/2020/04/21/how-will-covid-19-affect-the-internationalization-of-higher-education/

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“Every child is like any other” – Robert Lumu wins Inclusion and Education photo contest

Informe GEM: Informe de Seguimiento de la Educación en el Mundo

Por Gem Report

Robert Lumu’s photograph of 9-year-old Jemba John, sitting and reading with his peers at his school in Central Uganda, where Albinism is still considered a curse, is the winner of the 2020 GEM Report photo competition on inclusion and education. The competition was calling for photos that capture either the essence of inclusive education or help depict some of the key challenges standing in its way, illustrating different interpretations of inclusive education from around the globe and influencing the way people think through images.

The caption to Lumu’s photo speaks for itself. “As the first term of 2019 began on 4 February, amongst the learners who reported at Kanziira Islamic primary school in Kiboga district was a young, zealous and courageous young boy, Jemba John. Now ten years old, Jemba lives with his grandmother in the villages of Kanziira. He is a happy young boy living with Albinism.

In most rural areas of Uganda, children living with disabilities or with Albinism still face big challenges of discrimination by both their immediate relatives and communities at large. They are considered to be a curse in the family. Discrimination towards people living with Albinism in particular is one of the major issues in Uganda and some other African countries that needs special attention. Children living with Albinism need a lot of protection.

In an effort to promote inclusiveness in education and protect children living with disabilities and Albinism, an NGO called Building Tomorrow champions this cause in the hard-to-reach communities of Uganda where I served as a fellow for two years between 2018 – 2019. I joined an initiative to include Jemba, a boy living with Albinism who was side-lined in class for years due to his skin appearance. I worked hand-in-hand with the different stakeholders including Jemba’s grandparents who are his guardians, the school administration, school management committee, and community education volunteers.

In February 2019, Jemba was admitted into the Kanziira Islamic primary school in Kiboga district, Uganda, in primary one class where he was made to share a desk with other pupils. This served as a clear indicator that every child is like any other. Within a few weeks, Jemba had many friends and they could read books together and play together. Jemba could narrate stories better than any of the other children which made him popular throughout the entire school.

Jemba is currently one of the happiest learners at school, although he still has challenges getting necessary skin protection supplies which are expensive for him and his grandparents to afford. Sometimes, especially during hot sunny seasons, this makes his life difficult as he is highly affected by the sun’s heat on his skin and light on his eyes. He needs protective sun lotions and glasses to help him move at the same pace as other learners”.

The 2020 GEM Report, due out on 23 June 2020 will cover inclusion in education, addressing all those excluded from education with disabilities, such as Jemba, but also looking at the exclusion of girls, the poor, migrants, those in rural areas, refugees, ethnic and linguistic minorities, LGBTI communities. Pictures speak louder than words when it comes to explaining the way inclusion in education works in practice. This is why the GEM Report launched an international photo competition to seek out new and original images to complement its innovative findings and analysis. As with every year, the winning photographer was chosen by a panel convened by the GEM Report, received a prize, and the chance to have their photographs featured in the 2020 GEM Report.

We will be featuring the top finalists’ submissions on our @gemreport Instagram page in a photo series over the coming weeks.

Fuente: https://gemreportunesco.wordpress.com/2020/04/10/every-child-is-like-any-other-robert-lumu-wins-inclusion-and-education-photo-contest/

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