Happy Classrooms Introducing the Scottish Government-funded EQUAPEG Project, implemented by Concern Worldwide with support from boNGO
Concern Worldwide’s EQUAPEG Project (‘Promoting Equal Access to Quality Primary Education for Girls and Most Vulnerable Children in Nsanje District’) has sought both to increase educational access for girls and also to increase the quality of their educational experience in a part of Malawi where the lack of parity in school attendance between the genders is especially grave. Funded by The Scottish Government and implemented in close consultation with Malawian Government structures, it has been rolled out across 25 schools over the past 3½ years. Concern chose to work with existing structures, such as Village Development Committees (VDCs), School Management Committees (SMCs), Parent-Teacher Associations (PTAs), mothers’ groups and Child Protection Committees (CPCs), to address issues that prevent girls and other vulnerable children from attending school. This has included sensitisation on the importance of girls’ education and child protection, to encourage girls both to come to school and also to feel safe once there, in addition to the development of effective reporting techniques that can pick up situations where girls are experiencing problems.
Concern has also recognised that it’s one thing getting young people into school and quite another to instil the belief that they should stay there. One of the project’s aims has therefore been to enhance literacy outcomes. Towards this in more participatory literacy methodologies by the Malawi Institute of Education, while local NGO boNGO was enlisted to create ‘Happy Classrooms’, extensively painted with bright and cheerful learning material such as we see here. Charity Viano, known as ‘Mrs Joe’, is a 3rd Standard teacher at Mpatsa Primary School. This has been held up as a ‘model school’ because its teachers have been doing an especially good job of implementing what they’ve learned. Mrs Joe and Mpatsa’s other ‘model teachers’ now demonstrate what they do to teachers from other schools. “Before, we used to be a little relaxed about our work”, Mrs Joe admits. “The methods we’ve been taught have made it worth striving harder; they’re so enjoyable! I enjoy my work so much in her classroom, and it’s plain to see how she’s transferring this enthusiasm to her pupils.
Blandina Zingapeta, who teaches Mpatsa’s 2nd Standard, explains that before, the teachers were not using many teaching and learning materials. The EQUAPEG Project has encouraged total change in this, Happy Classrooms being only the most obvious of its innovations. Teachers have been taught how to give remedial lessons to those who are slow, and also how to encourage faster learners to keep their progress up. “We did actually do this before”, Blandina adds, “but we used to be a importance”. By her estimate, average attendance in her class has risen by 20% since EQUAPEG began. She sees several factors at play. “Enforcement of girls going to school has improved here, teaching methods have got better, teachers are more friendly to girls now, classes are more enjoyable programme that lures more children to school”. According to Mrs Joe, probably around 80% of the children in Mpatsa’s catchment area are coming now. For her, the single most important factor in this has been the work that Concern has done with the school structures.
Here is another ‘Happy Classroom’, this time at Bwangu Primary School, situated in a remote location deep inside Nsanje’s Mwabvi Game Reserve. boNGO, the catchy short form of ‘based on Need-driven Grassroots Ownership’, conceived the methodology of painting classrooms with brightly coloured learning material, so as to make both teaching and learning a lot more enjoyable. They took material from the books the teachers taught the children from and reproduced it in a massive and durable manner. Now, rather than referring to these books (of which there were never enough to go round) or writing on the blackboard, teachers can point to their walls as Jackson Kupheka is doing here. The drawings relate to different subjects, and differ depending on the class that uses the room.
“Another thing I’ve noticed about having all this material on the walls”, adds Blandina, “is that learners take time to absorb it all and learn on their own, even when there is no teacher present, such as during break times”. She’s found it especially encouraging that pupils are interested enough to help one another in this process when there’s no adult around.
There can be no doubt that the EQUAPEG Project has succeeded not only in encouraging more girls to enrol in school, but also to stay engaged. While challenges remain, such as class sizes that can number 100 learners or more, initiatives such as Happy Classrooms and other participatory literacy techniques have done much to keep these large numbers focused on their teachers and actively participating. Moving forwards, the District Education stakeholders and community partners (PTAs, SMCs) are increasingly taking the reins as Concern phases out its involvement. Lessons learned are being incorporated into the organisation’s new project, funded by the United Nations Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women (UNTF) and titled ‘Ending School-related Gender-based Violence in Malawi’.
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All text written by Robin Wyatt and © Concern Worldwide: www.concern.net
