What is back to school programme?
Back to school programme is an initiative where children who have never been to school and school drop out children are identified by the School Attendance Committee and are directed to non-formal education classes. These classes are conducted for few hours in the afternoons in identified schools usually for a period of 3 months. After the orientation for schooling and literacy the children are integrated to schools.
Why back to school programme?
In order to reduce school drop outs, government has introduced various policies and programmes. Under the Education Ordinance of 1940, education and attendance at school were made compulsory for every Sri Lankan child aged between 5 and 14 years. Sri Lankan education system provides many provisions to ensure free education. These include free education, free text books, free uniforms, school feeding programmes.
Yet there is a considerable number of children who never been to school or who have dropped out of school. 14% of children between 5-14 are not schooling (Ministry of Education: 2010) and there are about 60,000 school drop outs in Sri Lanka. (IOM:2009)
Role of the school attendance committees
One of the responsibilities of the school attendance committees is to identify children within the age of 5-14 who are not schooling and enrol them in back to school programmes.
School attendance committees were appointed to ensure proper implementation of the compulsory education act. As the committees initially established at the Divisional and Grama Niladhari levels based on the 1998 regulation were not functioning properly, the responsibility of School Attendance Committees was given to non formal division of the Ministry of Education since 2005/6. (Jayaweera, S. and Gunawardena, C. 2010) The performance of the school attendance committees depends greatly on the commitment of the officer in charge of non-formal education in the Zonal Education Department. Study conducted by Jayaweera and Gunawardena also points out that there is an uneven performance. (2010)
Issue of back to school programme
Not having a specific curriculum or trained teachers to conduct these classes were seen as issues by teachers who are in charge of back to school programme. Also the time frame of 3 months seems not realistic. Most children who have never been to school or who have dropped out of school long time ago find it difficult to master literacy and social skills in three months.
Children are not schooling or are dropping out of school mostly because of their socio-economic vulnerability. Without addressing socio-economic issues of these children, they will not be able to continue schooling. Some children are the breadwinners of their family, while some others are in-charge of nurturing their younger siblings. Some cannot afford the travel expenses and expenses for school equipment.
Children who were integrated by back to school program had to face many marginalization by fellow students in classes, teachers and parents. Reasons for marginalization include, being slow in school performance, family background, not possessing proper school uniforms, shoes and school equipment, etc. There aren’t anyone assigned to provide counselling for children in back to school programme and to ensure smooth reintegration process.
Recommendations
- Develop a Curriculum for back to school programme
- Train teachers on conducting back to school programme
- After reintegrating children in to schools continue after school educational support program until children are up to the expected standard in school.
- Period of the back to school program should depend on the skill level of children in the programme, if and when it is necessary the programme should be extended.
- Get the community involved in ensuring compulsory education.
- Identify schools with children in similar socio-economic backgrounds to implement back to school programme.
- Address socio-economic issues of school drop out or non-schooling children
- Provide counselling facilities
- Create awareness among children, parents and teachers on why back to school program is necessary and how to treat the children of back to school program in an empathetic manner.
- Provide educational equipment to children who are re-integrated after the back to school programme..
- NGOs could get involved in supporting back to school programmes in a more organized manner.
Compared to other Developing nations SL is far ahead in its equal education I suppose. But as you mentioned it requires many restructuring, organization and a complete different outlook. If you take a gross root important cause the teachers, that aspect alone needs a lot of focus. Even in colombo schools teachers does the bare minimum required so it will make it necessary for the students to seek private tution classes. I think govt should first eliminate private tution systems, and reward teachers with different compensations along his/her performance. Without this cause there won't be any change.
ReplyDeleteI am happy to see that government has introduced new policies and programmes to reduce school drop outs. There are many children who are not going to schools and there are also many of them who are going schools too but not getting proper education due to lack of educational material and study systems. Changing the mind towards textbooks or traditional education, is also another problem in the children, as u can see. We need to use new technologies that will help students to make study easy and understandable. Government can use digital solutions in their schools as this is the best way to increase interest, intention into the students.
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