DEVELOPING CHILD-FRIENDLY SCHOOLS TO STRIVE FOR A BETTER EDUCATIONAL QUALITY
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SIDA
LUND UNIVERSITY
COMMISSIONED EDUCATION IN COLLABORATION WITH INDONESIA TEACHER ASSOCIATION
PAPER PRESENTATION AT THE INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR
“DEVELOPING CHILD-FRIENDLY SCHOOLS TO STRIVE FOR A BETTER EDUCATIONAL QUALITY
CHALLEGES ECOUNTERED BY TEACHERS IN IMPLEMENTATION OF CHILD FRIENDLY SCHOOLS
(OTHER COUNTRIES’ CONTEXT)
“THE ZAMBIAN CONTEXT”
MR KEZALA KELLY MWALE
DISTRICT EDUCATION BOARD SECRETARY
CHILILABOMBWE DISTRICT
COPPERBELT PROVINCE
ZAMBIA
AFRICA
JAKARTA-INDONESIA
CHALLENGES ENCOUNTERED BY TEACHERS IN THE
IMPLEMENTATION OF CHILD-FRIENDLY SCHOOLS (OTHER COUNTRIES CONTEXT) THE ZAMBIAN
CONTEXT
1.0 RATIONALE
An
educational system to have an effective service delivery must posses certain
values which must be welcomed and appreciated by both teachers and learners for
it to evolve and develop within the rank and file of its population.
The
teachers must be in the fore-front to create and/or establish the value system
that must be in conformity with the much needed skills needed to establish the
development process. Development in any
case is not accidental but a guided process, led by the teachers, even though
there may sometimes be unintended consequences both positive and negative.
Teaching
is a learned and continuing learning process and has immense influence on the
learners. Therefore, the challenge is to
engage in a continuous harmonization of goals and objectives and meeting the
challenges of change with respect to the process of institutionalizing child
rights in child friendly schools in
1.1 SOME CHALLENGES
1.1.1 LACK OF ADEQUATE
INFRASTRUCTURE
In our education system there are
many challenges teachers and learners encounter and face. There are psychological
difficulties brought about by the concentration of large numbers of children in
relatively confine classroom spaces.
The
repercussion can be essentially severe for learners as young people whose
natural energy and adventurousness predispose them to physical movement rather
than to long periods of confinement in
classrooms.
Therefore,
lack of adequate infrastructure is in itself a challenge in implementing
child-rights in a child-friendly school.
1.2
ETHICS AND CULTURAL
EDUCATION FOR A ZAMBIAN CHILD (LEARNER)
How
much do we as educationalists think this new age and highly impressive T.V.
and/or computer generation is or should be educated and distilled in the
Zambian cultural outlook, not in a static but dynamic sense?
How much does the Zambian
school curriculum instill
regarding values of child-rights with regard to a child- friendly school? Many
working parents have little time to look after the spiritual and cultural
dimensions of their children. These need back-up from the teachers in the
education system.
The
curriculum appears weak in this respect
and would need an input by teachers who are held in “loco-parentis” in
order to balance between national interests/goals and the demands of a
competitive global marketplace. This
culminates into lack of adequate
learning and teaching materials vis-à-vis ethics and cultural education in a
child-friendly school. This is a big gap
that needs re-dressing.
1.3
INADEQUATE
PARTICIPATORY APPROACH TO EDUCATION
Although the Zambian education system calls for a
participatory outlook through policy and calling for 30% of the curriculum to
be localized, suggesting a clear sense of stakeholder involvement, this outlook has not been fully embraced.
1.4 LEARNER
CENTRED APPROACH AS ACHALLENGE
The learning methodology is much landed but little is
reflected in the schools. The curriculum
and methodology of teaching despite the policy outlook and the pontificating we
make tends to be teacher-centered. We
need to involve children in much of the learning/teaching process.
This again is yet another challenge by teachers in the implementation of
a child friendly school. Some teachers
feel there is nothing learnable from children which is a wrong concept
altogether.
2.0 RIGHTS
BASED APPROACH AS A CHALLENGE
Although Zambian is a signatory to a number of
international conventions and protocols on the
the child, such as the UNHRC, the African Charter on the Rights of the
Child and others, our education system needs to do more in order to practically
domesticate into the Zambian Law. The
human rights charter in the constitution can make do, to protect fully the
rights of the child to education. This
again is another challenge in implementing children’s rights in a
child-friendly school.
2.1
HIV AND AIDS
As
we are already aware of the devastating effect of the scourge of HIV/AIDS, this
could act as an inhibiting factor to the teacher in the way of attempting to
implement child rights in a child friendly school. For instance, issues guidance and psycho-social
counselling are needed for both the teacher and the learner. If this is mishandled it can become a
toll-order in the education system.
2.2 OVER-ENROLMENT
OF LEARNERS
The teaching staff in
institutions of learning often hold different views and expect to be able to
have considerable autonomy on the basis of their professional qualifications
and standing. A class that is
over-enrolled will have little or no teacher-pupil attention. Marking of say composition and /or other
lexical items in any language exercise becomes a torturing experience to the
teachers who has say 80 pupils and above. In fact this is one of the biggest challenges
in
2.3 POOR
TEACHER-PARENT RELATIONSHIP
A very genuine complaint has arisen regarding
poor-teacher-parent -relationships. An
observation shows that some parents have
not taken personal responsibility in re-inforcing pupil discipline in
rife. Some of the parents with
problem-children do not help in ensuring pupil-discipline at home, thus leaving
it solely to teachers is proving to be a hurdle in implementation of
child-friendly schools.
2.4 APATHY
AMONG SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS
When
we talk of management and administration of Educational institutions, we in
ernest talk of quality leadership.
Management is not just on account of operational matters, while
administration is not just relating to routine tasks. These concepts are often used
inter-changeably. Leadership is a group
of functions regarding influence, interaction, sustainability of a system and
others.
It has been observed that among the many impediments
of child-friendly schools are the school administrators who at times feel
challenged by the paradigm-shift regarding learner participation in a more
collaborative manner. On account of
democratic participation of children in the management and administration of
child-friendly schools.
2.5 DISCOMFORT
AMONG SOME TEACHERS ON INCREASED CHILD RIGHTS AWARENESS
As a result of increased
awareness regarding child rights some teachers have become stumbling blocks by
attempting to frustrate the efforts of link-teachers, in as far as implementing
children’s rights in child-friendly schools is concerned. They feel threatened and challenged on
account of children’s democratic participation in their respective
schools. This trend ought to be nabbed
in their bud to curtail churning out of our school systems children who would
not be user-friendly in adulthood.
3.0 APATHY
AMONG SOME PARENTS AND SOME CHILDREN
THEMSLEVES
Some parents feel discomfort
on ethics matters. They feel that
children must be mostly tied to certain cultural values rather than expose too
much to what they perceive to be westernized cultural values. In certain instances some children feel
inhibited to participate fully owing to fear of the unknown linked to cultural
norms and values too. This acts as a big
barrier to an evolving system of a child-rights and its implementation in the
Zambian context.
3.1 BULLDOZING
CHILD RIGHTS CLUBS BY BULLIES
This is yet another challenge
that some schools are encountering in the implementation of child-friendly
schools. Some bullying children have
dominated debates and ideas of such a process leaving the perceived weaker ones
in a big challenge to the teachers, some
pupils and administrators and must be curtailed to promote harmony in such
schools.
3.2 DIRECT
FUNDING TO SUSTAIN CRC PROGRAMMES IN SCHOOLS
Some link-teachers have raised
a very genuine complaint that inspite of some government funds filtering
through to cover most educational programmes.
There is a hiccup by some sections of administrators who are paying
little or no attention to the sustainability of such important programmes that
promote child friendliness.
4.0 CONCLUSION
By way of conclusion, i wish
to state that the views herein expressed in this paper are not exhaustive but
merely suggestive. For challenges of
implementation of child-rights in child-friendly schools to be achieved and
perhaps adhered to the managers and
administrators of our education systems must have impeccable leadership qualities.
They must act as professional people. They must be willing to work hard, have
capacity for abstract thought, be enterprising and ent husiastic to accommodate
new ethos of child rights in their schools.
The must be dynamic, objective, well-organized and to a certain degree
intelligent. They must have imagination,
foresight, optimistic, flexible and self-confident. For the teachers in
collusion with strategic stakeholders like school managers/Headteachers they
must be able to win the confidence of both pupils and parents. They must be empathetic and sympathetic to
current trends in child-friendly schools.
They must be good communicators and be able to meet challenges and
unpleasant situation without panicking.
For
the children, they must demand albeit problems their inalienable rights without
panicking. A combination of a conducive
atmosphere will characterize a different dimension of child-friendly schools.
Thank
you
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