Enfants du Monde helps to improve the quality of education
In Chad, more than half the children leave school during the first six years and only one in five children can read and write at the end of primary school. In order to help the children of Chad and enable them to receive a quality education, Enfants du Monde is improving the national education system in a sustainable way, on behalf of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.
"Usually the teacher writes A and the student copies A, then the teacher writes O and the student copies O. The child does not try to find things out for himself," a teacher says. "Now, thanks to the training we have received, we have learned to present the pupils with situations and let them solve problems by thinking for themselves".
Our strengths:
About 529,700 children, young people and adults are benefiting from our education project.
Children learn to read and count after just a few weeks of teaching whereas, prior to our involvement, it would take them several months, or even years.
Teaching methods employed by teachers have improved.
The teachers trainers, and those training the trainers, as well as head teachers and school inspectors are all better trained.
The lessons are taught in two languages - the official language and the local language.
The lesson content is tailored to meet the needs and interests of the local population. For instance, two stories ("Papa Vaya" and "The hyena, the monkey and the hare") were adapted and illustrated in French and Arabic. They will be used for the training of teachers so that they can teach their students to write in both languages.
Three pilot schools were opened in nomadic environment and more than 120 children, half of them girls, are benefiting from them.
Enfants du Monde has supported the opening of three vocational training centreers in the Moyen-Chari region, in the south of the country. 90 adults, mostly women, are doing a one-year training course there in sheep and goat farming.
The Ministry of Education and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation are enthusiastic about the first recorded results.
A QUALITY EDUCATION FOR CHILDREN IN BANGLADESH
Enfants du Monde helps lift children out of poverty
Enfants du Monde currently does not have any ongoing informal learning education projects in Burkina Faso.
Enfants du Monde does not currently have an ongoing education project in Bangladesh. However, the experts in our Dhaka regional office can move fast to support new partners in their efforts to improve the quality of education.
From 2005 to 2016, Enfants du Monde carried out different education projects in collaboration with local partners Jagorani Chakra Foundation, Aparajeyo Bangladesh, and the Centre for Mass Education in Science, which have given us ample experience in the country.
We supported many schools that sought to provide access to education to children who had never gone to school or who had dropped out too soon, mostly in rural regions and in marginal urban areas. There was a special focus on girls' education to provide them with the best opportunities in life, all while protecting them from some forms of exploitation and curbing the tradition of forced marriage.
Thanks to our efforts aimed at improving the quality of education, which allows students to acquire not only basic knowledge but also practical knowledge applicable to their daily lives, Enfants du Monde has offered a better prospect to thousands of boys and girls.
Our impact on the ground
In total, around 11 000 children each year benefitted from a quality education, as well as more than 200 teachers and around 30 instructors trained in an active and innovative pedagogy.
Bilingual and intercultural education project in Guatemala
Helping Maya children to learn better
Guatemala has a rich ethnic, cultural and linguistic diversity: while Spanish is the official language of the country, there are also 22 other Mayan languages – such as Q’eqchi’ or Kaqchikel. Although these languages are recognised by the State, the Maya population still experiences severe discrimination and the education system does not take sufficient account of the language and culture of indigenous populations.
In 2001, as part of the Bilingual and Intercultural Education Programme, Enfants du Monde began its intervention in the Alta Verapaz region to improve the quality of education and to train the teaching staff in bilingual and intercultural education. Since then, at the request of the Guatemala Ministry of Education (MINEDUC), the programme has been extended into other areas and linguistic regions: our association works in the municipalities of Cobán and San Juan Chamelco with Mayan Q’eqchi’ communities, and in the municipality of Tecpán, with the Kaqchikel speaking community.
Our impact on the ground
Enfants du Monde is changing the future for thousands of Maya children. These are the expected figures for 2021-2024:
Almost 25,000 schoolchildren benefit from a quality bilingual intercultural education ;
1,005 teachers from 273 schools are trained in Cobán, San Juan Chamelco and Chimaltenango ;
10 school principals and 80 parent members of 10 education councils made aware of the importance of bilingual intercultural education, children’s rights, and education in sustainable development.
Improving the quality of education for Maya schoolchildren
Since the 1970s, the Guatemala Ministry of Education has followed a policy of bilingual and intercultural education and seeks to promote teaching in the mother tongue of schoolchildren. Despite these efforts, many Maya schoolchildren still do not have access to quality education. In order to improve the quality of education in these schools, Enfants du Monde is involved in training the teachers.
The training has helped me improve my level in kaqchikel, to be more aware of the importance of passing on our traditions and our local culture, to be more open to new methods of teaching and learning, to acknowledge the importance of bilingualism and in my school to promote learning in two or three languages at once. The schoolchildren can learn everything at the same time, and sometimes the limitation lies with the teachers or the available resources.
Aby Natalí Jutzuy Santelel, teacher at the EORM Agua Escondida school in Chimaltenango
Involving the community
Until 2020, parents of schoolchildren were made aware of the importance of training and of bilingual intercultural education for their children at education council meetings.
In the past, the children only learned to say a few words in kaqchikel, everything was in Spanish. It’s better for the children to learn in their own language, that they place more importance on their language and culture, on the customs of their village. But this has to happen at home too, families must also use the local language, so they don’t lose it.
Leonor Ajtzac Sapón, mother of two children at the EORM school in Pueblo Viejo
Adapting teaching to the COVID-19 context
In Central America, Guatemala was among the countries most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Schools remained closed for almost 2 years. During this time, Enfants du Monde contributed to the emergency plan Aprendo en Casa y en Clase established by the Ministry of Education to support both schoolchildren and teachers in the introduction and success of learning at home.
The Guatemala Ministry of Education in collaboration with Enfants du Monde and the Directorate General for Bilingual and Intercultural Education (DIGEBI) provided self-learning guides and radio programmes in Maya and in Spanish as well as distance training for teachers.
Helping our beneficiaries in emergency situations
From January 2021 Enfants du Monde provided food aid and psychological help for 400 families with 1,200 children in 14 communities in the Alta Verapaz department following flooding in November 2020 after hurricanes ETA and IOTA. Humanitarian aid organisations are actually few and far between in this region and local governments did not have the capacity to deal with this emergency. That is why, in collaboration with CIPREVICA our NGO partner and the financial support of Swiss Solidarity, Enfants du Monde provided aid for the populations of Alta Verapaz.
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