Project description

Title: Education for social cohesion
Commissioned by: German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)
Country: Sri Lanka
Lead executing agency: Ministry of Education (MoE)
Overall term: 2005 to 2012

Context

The education sector in Sri Lanka is characterised by the poor quality of its teachers. There are also marked differences in access to education between urban and rural areas and between ethnic and language groups. There is a particularly high level of educational need in the areas of the north and east affected by the civil war, since many children were only able to attend school sporadically during the conflict. Moreover, women and children have been particularly badly affected by the economic, social, and psychological impact of the fighting and the resulting refugee situation. There is also a need for improved health services, to provide support, for example, to women and children who have suffered especially severely as a result of the conflict.

Objective

Education measures and psychosocial support enable school students and young people, their families, and their local communities to coexist peacefully in a multi-ethnic and multi-lingual society.

Approach

The ESC project operates at three levels. At macro level, it advises the Sri Lankan Ministry of Education and the Vocational Training Authority of Sri Lanka on educational policy, curriculum development, and teacher training. It also advises the Ministry of Health on developing psycho-social support units and on strengthening cooperation with the Ministry of Education in this area. In the provinces (at meso level), the project works with the provincial ministries of education, the 17 teacher training colleges in the country, and the 92 local centres providing in-service training for teachers. In individual schools (micro level), the effect on learning and teaching of new teaching materials is being assessed in 200 pilot schools.

Educational component: ESC advises the Sri Lankan Ministry of Education and the Vocational Training Authority of Sri Lanka on training policy, curriculum development, and teacher training. The objective is to devise a coherent and consistent concept and a strategy for the sustainable improvement of pre- and in-service teacher training as well as producing national strategies and teaching and learning resources for peace education and the teaching of values, language learning, and disaster risk management.

Psycho-social component: ESC supports the development of a community-based network to provide psycho-social support and care for people with psychological disorders, involving schools, social service providers and the health service.

Results achieved so far

A National Policy on Education for Social Cohesion and Peace has been adopted, which lays out the role to be played by Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Education and its downstream educational bodies in promoting peace. Children are learning to coexist peacefully in a multi-ethnic and multi-lingual society.

Curricula, teaching materials and programmes to train teachers in the two national languages (Tamil and Sinhala) as second languages have been developed. This support enables the national policy on bilingualism to be implemented and is helping to improve the communication skills of both teachers and students.

National standards for school safety have also been drawn up and are being implemented in schools throughout Sri Lanka where they are part of the national disaster risk management measures.

The new national curriculum now includes the concepts of peace education and disaster risk management. This is helping to improve the quality of teaching and learning.

In Sri Lanka’s 17 teacher training colleges and 92 local in-service teacher training centres, courses are being run on disaster risk management and safety in schools, peace education and the teaching of values, bilingual education, and support teaching, especially for disadvantaged students.

An improved range of support for children, their families, and teachers has been created and is being delivered by 70 psycho-social advice centres and by trained support teachers in 380 schools in regions affected by the conflict.

More than 1,000 children whose education has been disrupted as a result of the conflict or of family poverty are taking part in informal education through ‘open schools’, enabling them to complete their schooling and improve their access to vocational training.

Almost 10,000 school students living in camps for former combatants have been helped prepare for their school-leaving examinations by means of specially developed learning materials and teacher training. These measures are improving their chances of being admitted to a further training facility and finding a job.

Over 5,000 school students and trainee teachers have taken part in peace programmes such as the ‘Pals of two Cities’ exchange programme between individual schools and teacher training colleges, cultural programmes, and ‘day of peace’ events. These exchanges between children and young people from differing population groups have had long-term positive effects on participants.

Further information

• Local website of the project
  Education for Social Cohesion
  http://www.gtz-esc.lk