Teacher walking to community to distribute lockdown package to pupils. Palabek, Uganda. Photo: Museruka Emmanuel.
Resilient education systems
have the capacity to respond to risks, shocks and uncertainties, such as conflict, pandemics, disasters and other situations of fragility, including threats caused by climate change.
Children and young people should be supported so that they can operate in safe spaces, where they are free from fear, silencing and stigma, to challenge injustice, build better lives for themselves and leave no one behind. Through the provision of spaces, both online and offline, where youth and active citizens can speak freely about wrongdoing and areas that need change, we expose abuse, including negligence, and demand a transformation of the systems that make these possible.
Education systems with proper coverage, data management, appropriate infrastructure and materials, professional educators and community involvement are more resilient and can adapt to change, even in times of crisis or shock, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
Where education systems are fragile, vulnerable, and of low quality with threatening inequality, crises or disasters have serious consequences for learners. They lose out on education with serious long-term implications, resulting in losses to income and opportunities throughout their lives. These consequences affect the most marginalized, who are already negatively affected and unable to find alternatives.
Case story
Teachers’ unions strengthen systems and create policy-change in Uganda and South Sudan
BRiCE, “Building of Resilient Learners, Teachers and Education Systems in South Sudan and Uganda”, is a 4-year project that aims to build quality, sustainable and resilient educational opportunities for refugee and displaced children as well as children in the host communities in Uganda and South Sudan. The project has showed great results in working with established education structures, such as teachers’ unions, Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs) and School Management Committees (SMCs). By building their capacity, resilience of the education system has improved.
A key partner is this regard is UNATU, Uganda National Teachers Union. With a strong mandate through its membership base protecting the rights of teachers, UNATU plays an essential role at the policy level where they have successfully managed to advocate and influence district authorities as well as national level policy.
UNATU convinced the district authorities to include refugee settlement schools in the district education plans and budgets. 8 refugee schools that operate in the refugee settlement were included in the district’s annual plans and budgets. Further, 16 host community schools increased their capitation grants as refugee learners were included in the count of the capitation grant.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, a directive regarding reimbursement of capitation grants was issued by the Ministry of Education. The directive stated that these grants should be returned due to school closure. Through the workers’ representatives, UNATU tabled a petition before parliament against the directive, urging that it was not only unfair but unrealistic as schools continue to bear operational costs despite being closed. The Minister subsequently withdrew the directive.
Furthermore, UNATU plays an important role in brokering; bringing together different education stakeholders to create synergy across the system. For example, they have been leading on a series of consultation and validation meetings regarding the development and sensitization on the Code of Ethics for teachers in Uganda. Based on meetings with members of the Ministry of Education and Sports, as well as teachers, head teachers, SMCs, PTAs, tutors and District Education officers, it was agreed that the revision needs to accommodate issues of emergency education and also include private teachers. UNATU will use its mandate as a teachers’ joint voice to advocate for the review of the document to responsible authorities. In the meantime, they will acquaint teachers with the current code of conduct while highlighting the gaps in it as identified by the review.
With technical support from the global union federation -Education International (EI), UNATU also leads in the capacity building of PTA’s and teachers on international labor standards and framework in both Uganda and South Sudan. UNATU itself has received training in membership recruitment, professional ethics, and leadership, advocacy, lobbying and negotiation to ensure a stronger organization that better responds to, and advocates for, the needs of refugee teachers, children, and young people.
Efforts have been done to establish or strengthen already existing SMCs and PTAs through training in leadership, community mobilization and inclusive dialogue. So far, 80% of the targeted schools and those within the vicinity now have functional SMCs and PTAs.
SMCs and PTAs have succeeded in mobilizing parents to construct grass thatched houses for teacher accommodation and contribute dry ration food, such as maize and beans, for children’s lunch at school, which have dramatically improved their class attendance throughout the day.
In South Sudan, PTAs were involved in COVID-19 health training and how to protect yourself and others from the virus. By disseminating this knowledge, they thereby served as a resource both for the schools and in the communities. Furthermore, PTA and SMC members were trained to support radio learning and community-based learning groups during school closures.
Generally, SMCs and PTAs are advocating for favorable policies for education in emergencies and has successfully advocated for an equal payment of teachers in settlement schools compared to government teachers.
Teachers constitute a key element in the education system, and BRiCE also focuses on developing capacity in this regard through teachers’ and educators’ professional development programs (TEPD). Luigi Giussani Institute of Higher Education (LGIHE) together with UNATU andForum for African Women Educationalists Uganda (FAWEU) successfully co-created and planned five TEPD modules based on the Teachers in Crisis Context teacher training manual. Local education authorities were trained to become teacher trainers and has since facilitated professional training and mentoring of teachers in the project areas, who are now applying gender and conflict sensitive participatory methods in the teaching and management of learners at schools. Consequently, learners and parents have reported positive change in teachers’ attitudes towards learners and their fellow colleagues. This approach is also a way of strengthening the system in a broader sense, since the local education authorities, who now have the skills to train teachers, are responsible for schools outside the project and can use their newly acquired skills here.
All in all, these results provide a great input with regards to how the strengthening of education systems can look like. Working at multiple levels with existing structures, strengthening their capacity and realizing the potential in terms of their unique position can be a gateway to enhance resilience through systems that are effective and can adapt to change.