MCC is known for supporting access to education around the globe by paying school fees, supporting vocational training and providing school supplies. What you might not know is that MCC also works with its partners to improve the quality of education that is offered.
From teacher training to involving the community in school management, here are some examples of partners creatively improving education for young people globally:
Teacher training
From left, teachers Janeth Kwamboka, Sophie Anyango and Elizabeth Simiyu share ideas at an EdCamp in Kenya.MCC photo/Jodi Mikalachki
Professional development for teachers is one way MCC helps improve education quality. It’s important that the training MCC supports keeps power in the hands of teachers and community members because improvement looks different in each context.
In March 2016, Learning Ways, an MCC-supported project in Kenya, coordinated an EdCamp – a teacher-driven, crowd-sourced training with teachers from five schools.
The participants voted on more than 20 proposed topics to determine which were most relevant to discuss. The topics they chose included techniques to help slow learners, classroom management, student stress management, non-violent discipline and teaching English and Swahili.
MCC has promoted EdCamps elsewhere, as a way to emphasize the idea that teachers have valuable knowledge to share with each other. This empowers teachers to see themselves as professional educators rather than thinking expertise can only come from outside sources. It also allows them to actually experience participatory learning themselves, which helps them be willing to try this approach with their own students.
School management committees
MCC staff pose with staff of Sansthagat Bikas Sanjal (SBS) in Nepal and a local school management committee. MCC partners with SBS to provide support for school management committees in rural Nepal. MCC photo/Lynn Longenecker
Parent-teacher associations and school boards might seem normal to many, but in some parts of the world, families don’t have the same voice in their children’s education.
MCC is working to change that by encouraging the creation of school management committees. These committees help improve education quality, represent different people involved in schools, broaden decision-making power and improve accountability.
“When you get parents involved in shaping the school, the likelihood of the children’s education being more relevant increases,” said Lynn Longenecker, MCC’s education coordinator. “You help the education become more connected to life in the community.”
Manu Thapa (middle) is a new member of a school management committee.MCC photo/Lynn Longenecker
Manu Thapa, who has two children who attend Janajagriti Higher Secondary School in Nepal, is a member of the school’s management committee. She’s committed to making the school better.
“I’m newly elected on this committee, and by the time my term is over I want to feel like something has improved at this school, like something has changed. I want this school to be a model for other schools,” she says.
MCC also supports school management committees in Zimbabwe, Laos, Zambia, Cambodia and Kenya. Support could include providing training, involving committees in how MCC funds are at the school and facilitating exchanges with other committees.
Model school
MCC partner Tomorrow’s Foundation established this model school in Kolkata, India and is starting to implement the curriculum and teaching methods in 17 other government-run public schools in the city. MCC photo/Lynn Longenecker
MCC’s partner Tomorrow’s Foundation has been operating a successful model school in Kolkata India, for six years. Now the school also will become a resource centre for 17 under-functioning government schools in the city, through an agreement between the foundation and Kolkata Municipal Corporation.
At the model school, the teachers prioritize active learning, group projects and creative, child-focused, practical and relevant education. The administrators and teachers worked together to develop curriculum materials and a child protection strategy. They also have appointed community mobilizers, who work to establish and strengthen school management committees, visit students’ homes and increase parent involvement.
Para teachers participate in training sessions to equip them to better serve other schools. MCC photo/Lynn Longenecker
In the spring of 2017, Tomorrow’s Foundation began sending one highly trained teacher, called a “para teacher,” from the model school to each of the government primary schools to train the teachers. To prepare them for their role, para teachers, pictured above, participated in training sessions led by Tomorrow’s Foundation.
Broadened curriculum
Teacher Lwaboshi Kyuma works with first graders on a French lesson at Ruchunda Primary School in the Democatic Republic of the Congo.MCC photo/Matthew Lester
Sometimes reading, writing and math are just the beginning of an education. Most of the students who attend Ruchunda Primary School, pictured above, in the South Kivu region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, have been displaced by war. So MCC-supported schools are implementing peace clubs too.
Facilitated through MCC’s partner Church of Christ of Congo (ECC-MERU), peace clubs help teach students how to resolve conflicts without violence. Peace club facilitators also learn about child protection, conflict resolution and informal counselling. Peace Club, an MCC partner, was originally established by Issa Ebombolo in Zambia, but its curriculum is now in 650 schools in 14 African countries.
MCC’s partners in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bosnia, Palestine, Colombia and Nicaragua use other forms of peace education in their education programming.
Trauma-informed education
Grade six students at Al Hayat school in Damascus gather to thank MCC for teachers’ trauma training and scholarships for students most in need, including families displaced by war. MCC photo/Doug Enns
When children have been traumatized by war, they can have difficulty learning.
That’s certainly the case in Syria where violence has torn the country apart and displaced millions over the last five years.
In this context, the Syrian Orthodox Church, an MCC partner, is providing trauma-informed education for children still living in the country, to ensure students feel safe and supported in school. They also provide training to help teachers understand how trauma affects children’s behaviour, emotions and learning.