Bridging the Gap Between Education Policy and Practice

Nicole Rodger – Program Manager, ECCD and Education, Plan International Australia

Dr Mary Kimani – Senior Program Manager, ECCD and Education, Plan International Australia

Catherine Johnston – Senior Education Advisor, Save the Children Australia

Heidi Peterson – Cambodia Programs Director, Oaktree

What’s the Problem?

1. Beacon School Initiative

Country: Cambodia

Sector Focus: Secondary school governance

Context and Issue:

• Education quality is generally poor despite substantial aid investment; Cambodia ranks second last in ASEAN countries for education outcomes

• A major issue is poor school governance, corruption and mismanagement

Partnerships: Oaktree, KAPE and Cambodian government

1. Beacon School Initiative

Project aims:

• Long Term Goal: to create educational development models that lead to the emergence of a new generation of Cambodian public schools, which exemplify good governance, high professional standards and high quality learning standards.

• Immediate Objective: to introduce effective governance principles used in the private sector to the public school system by using a public-private partnership management model, that would in turn promote sustainable child friendly learning environments of exceptional quality to the rural and urban poor.

2. Bangladesh Inclusive Education

Country: Bangladesh

Sector Focus: Basic Education Policy Implementation on Inclusive Education

Context: • Inclusive education is a priority for the Bangladesh government with their

Inclusive Education Framework • One of the world’s largest primary education systems, >20 million students

Issue: • Reaching the 6 – 10% highly excluded and marginalised children • More than 50% of out-of-school children have a disability • Schools and teachers lacked practical classroom strategies for inclusion

Partners:• Access and Inclusive Education Cell, DPE; DPOs

2. Bangladesh Inclusive Education

Project Aim:

• Bridging the gap between the Inclusive Education Policy Framework already in existence but absent in practice

• To develop a demonstrative model of inclusive education in Bangladesh through mainstream primary school that could be scaled to a national level by the government

• This would create an opportunity for all children to be included in the mainstream school system

3. Bougainville and Solomon Islands ECD

Country: Solomon Islands

Context: Early childhood in the Solomon Islands and PNG

• Typified by ambitious policy

• Curriculum frameworks and standards designed with best practice in mind but without proper field testing

• Weak implementation planning

• Inadequate resource mobilisation

3. Bougainville & Solomon Islands ECD

Project name: ECCE in ARoB (Bougainville)

Partnerships: Provincial Education Authority, Provincial Department of Community Development, Catholic Education Office

Aim: To support the ARoB in contextualising the national ECCE framework and strengthen the competency of ECCE teachers in delivering child-focused curriculum

Project name: Play to be School Ready (Solomon Islands)

Partnerships: Communities in Western Province, Choiseul, Malaita & Guadalcanal, local ECD providers

Aim: To increase access for children aged 3-5 to quality community- based ECD and make sure they are school ready and going to school on time at the right age

What triggered this work?

Save the Children

What triggered this work?

Bangladesh Inclusive Education

What triggered this work?

Beacon School Initiative

What happened in the project?

Bangladesh Inclusive Education

What happened in the project?

Beacon School Initiative

What happened in the project?

Save the Children

What were the results and lessons learned?

Bangladesh Inclusive Education

What were the results and lessons learned?

Save the Children

What were the results and lessons learned?

Beacon School Initiative

Summary

• NGOs engaged in the education policy reform process

• NGOs helped bring about change in education systems

• NGOs used relationships and connections from government to community level

• NGOs have developed and implemented models for education delivery that have been adapted and scaled up