Professional Documents
Culture Documents
For social mobilization , how can large number of people in the different
levels of society br brought into supporting educational reforms and
programs?
8. What do you think are the opportunities of the recent 2016 graduates in
various fields in terms of chances of employment?
11.Why is there a need, or say, a must for teachers, educational planners and
administrators to undergo specialized trainings, workshop, seminars, etc. and
above all obtain post-graduate degrees?
(6) collaborating with the community to identify and integrate resources as well as services
from the community in order to strengthen school programs, family practices, and student
learning.
The goal of any kind of activity that attempts to involve community and
families/parents in education is to improve the educational delivery so that more
children learn better and are well prepared for the changing world. There are
various reasons to support the idea that community participation contributes to
achieving this goal. Extensive literature research has resulted in identifying the
following rationales that explain the importance of community participation in
education.
Most governments all over the world have been committed to delivering education
for their children. Particularly after the World Conference on Education for All,
assembled in Jomiten, Thailand in 1990, an increasing number of countries have
attempted to reach the goal of providing education for all. However, governments
have found themselves incompetent to do so because of lack of resources and
capacities. Learning materials as well as human resources are limited everywhere,
particularly in developing countries. The focus has shifted to finding efficient and
effective ways to utilize existing limited resources.
Communities can help identify and address factors that contribute to educational
problems, such as low participation and poor academic performance. This is well
illustrated in the case of the Gambia, in which the techniques of Participatory Rural
Appraisal (PRA) were adapted to education. The work was carried out in order to
understand why girls do not attend schools, to mobilize communities around these
problems, and to assist them in organizing their own solutions (World Bank 1995a).
There are various ways to bring parents and community members closer to schools
which they serve, including: (a) minimizing discontinuities between schools and
communities, and between schools and families; (b) minimizing conflicts between
schools and communities, schools and families, teachers and parents, and what is
taught in school and what is taught at home; (c) making easy transition of pupils
going from home to school; (d) preparing pupils to engage in learning experiences;
and (e) minimizing cultural shock of new entrants to schooling (Cario and Valismo,
1994).
Realizing Democracy
develop this kind of negative attitudes towards schools because they are not
treated by teachers with respect. For instance, those who do not speak the
countrys official language and embrace other than mainstream traditions and
culture feel discouraged in classrooms where teachers dont show respect to their
linguistic and cultural diversity. In the history, there were times when children were
prohibited from speaking their first language in schools and they got severe
punishment when they broke the rule imposed by the school or the government.
This educational environment is unfavorable to parents and children and, therefore,
contributes to these students low participation, poor academic performance, and
high repeat and dropout rates. Involving communities in schools is a way of
reaching democracy through identifying and addressing inequities embedded in
institutions and society as a whole. In addition, it is a strategy to create an
environment in which parents feel comfortable participating in schools.
Increasing Accountability
Realizing Democracy
Increasing Accountability
Ensuring Sustainability
Community participation can contribute to preparing and improving home environment, by encouraging
parents to understand about the benefits of their childrens schooling. A World Bank study (1997) which
analyzed primary education in India, discovered that families aware of the importance of education can
contribute much to their childrens learning achievement, even in disadvantaged districts. It also shows
that students from families that encouraged childrens schooling, by allocating time at home for study,
encouraging reading, and supporting their childrens educational aspirations, scored significantly higher
on tests of learning achievement.
How can community participation improve education?
Community participation can contribute to education delivery through various
channels. The following is a list of ways through which communities can contribute
to the education delivery
garnering more resources from and solving problems through the education
bureaucracy;
advocating and promoting girls education;
providing security for teachers by preparing adequate housing for them;
scheduling school calendars;
handling the budget to operate schools;
identifying factors contributing to educational problems (low enrollment, and
high repetition and dropout); and
preparing childrens readiness for schooling by providing them with adequate nutrition and stimuli for
their cognitive development
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To date, the uses of new technology in the teaching of journalism and mass
communication education can be broken into four main categories: 1)
class instruction, 2) onlinesyllabi/materials, 3) distance learning/online
courses, and 4) technological literacy (knowledge and skills of new media
technologies) within the curriculum.
3. "Distance learning". The virtual classroom is not yet used to its full
potential by journalism and mass communication schools. Although some
schools offer online courses that allow students not to meet in class, many
still require students to live near campus (Arant, 1996). Distance education
is still in the trial process, largely because of instruction methods. The
major hurdle is not the technology infrastructure, but having
effective instruction without a classroom setting (Arant, 1996).
4. "Technological literacy". Panici (1998) describes technological literacy as
"understanding both the why and how of new media communication tools."
This goes beyond pure technological skills, which are relatively easy to
obtain, to encompass critical thinking skills and key issues surrounding the
new technology-issues such as privacy, intellectual property, and assessing
source reliability. Pavlik (2003) notes that there is
"...something much deeper and more important that our students need to
learn in the context of new media, something that goes well beyond the
qualities of craft and skill. They need to learn about the ways digital
technologies are quietly-and not-so-quietly-transforming the world." (p. 314)
A second trend in curriculum change is toward practical, hands-on training.
Numerous schools are developing multimedia labs, online magazines, and
digital newsrooms-all of which expose students to technologies, practices,
environments that mimic those they will encounter in their professional
lives (Nicholson, 2001). Pryor (2003) emphasizes the importance of this
kind of technical, nuts-and-bolts training, noting that the publishing of
electronic content is inextricably linked to its creation.
As journalism educators rethink curriculum, a number of them are reaching
out to other disciplines. According to Smith (1990), as professors have seen
the need of acquiring new knowledge and techniques of new media
themselves, administrators have responded by hiring new faculty from
computer or information science departments. Pryor (2003) argues that this
sort of interdisciplinary approach is critical to the future success of
journalism education: "On campus, journalism educators will have to make
room for new disciplines and build bridges to schools of engineering,
design, cinema-TV, business, philosophy, linguistics, psychology, and
elsewhere."
5. ICTs in schools provide an opportunity to teachers to transform their practices by
providing them with improved educational content and more effective teaching and
learning methods. ICTs improve the learning process through the provision of more
interactive educational materials that increase learner motivation and facilitate the
easy acquisition of basic skills. The use of various multimedia devices such as
television, videos, and computer applications offers more challenging and engaging
learning environment for students of all ages.4 A study conducted by the
International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD) indicated that 80
percent of its participants felt more aware and empowered by their exposure to ICT
in education, and 60 percent stated that the process of teaching as well as learning
were directly and positively affected by the use of ICT.5 Twenty-first century
teaching learning skills underscore the need to shift from the traditional teachercentered pedagogy to more learner-centered methods. Active and collaborative
learning environments facilitated by ICT contribute to the creation of a knowledgebased student population. Education leadership, management, and governance can
5. Advocacy is the active support of an idea or cause expressed through strategies and methods that
influence the opinions and decisions of people and organisations.
In the social and economic development context the aims of advocacy are to create or change policies,
laws, regulations, distribution of resources or other decisions that affect peoples lives and to ensure that
such decisions lead to implementation.[1]Such advocacy is generally directed at policy makers including
politicians, government officials and public servants, but also private sector leaders whose decisions
impact upon peoples lives, as well as those whose opinions and actions influence policy makers, such as
journalists and the media, development agencies and large NGOs.
By pro-poor advocacy we mean advocacy for political decisions and actions that respond to the interests
of people who directly face poverty and disadvantage. For those pursuing the goal of equitable and propoor ICT access, advocacy as a means to bring about change can be appropriate in a range of
circumstances, including:
(a) Where ICT policies could have the effect of reinforcing poverty and discrimination. For example, egovernment projects that use the internet to improve access to public services may, for those without
internet access, have the reverse effect, unless they are complemented by other measures to enable
universal access to the internet.
(b) When appropriate ICT policy change could be expected to improve poor peoples lives and livelihoods.
For example, the adoption of broadcasting policies that enable community-based organisations to
establish their own radio or television services.
(c) As part of a wider programme of support for pro-poor ICT access. For example, the impact and
effectiveness of investment in public ICT access centres may be improved by advocacy efforts to adopt
and mainstream good practice such as community participation in management or use of free and open
source software.
There is much that has been written on advocacy and how to gain influence. Some of the basic tenets of
the art of persuasion, found in political science and communication studies, appear also in early Greek
and Chinese philosophy.[2] It is widely recognised, for example, that change comes rarely from force of
logical argument alone or from the presentation of irrefutable evidence in support of the changes required.
The latter is most starkly demonstrated by the slow response to climate change warnings. Much depends
on the character, approach and credibility of those seeking change and the receptiveness of those they
are seeking to persuade. Advocacy is inherently political and an understanding of political dynamics is at
the heart of effective advocacy.
Even the most clear-minded advocacy for pro-poor ICT policies can meet resistance for various reasons,
including lack of political will, bureaucratic inertia, and counter arguments from well-resourced interest
groups pursuing their own advocacy efforts. Effective advocacy therefore requires research to map out
the policy terrain, the principal actors, the political relations and the interests at stake. In the ICT policy
field this terrain typically will include government departments, communications regulators,
telecommunications service providers, media organisations, sector associations and growing numbers of
civil society interest groups. Careful planning and a strategic approach are therefore needed if results are
to be achieved.
Policy change rarely happens overnight and is often linked to broader change in the political environment.
Effective advocacy requires long-term as well as short-term thinking, an understanding of the points of
resistance and the means to gain traction, the readiness to form alliances, and the flexibility to seize
windows of opportunity.
This overview describes some of the more commonly used advocacy techniques, from critical
engagement such as policy monitoring and policy dialogue, through organised campaigns for policy
change, to pathfinder and demonstrator projects that can inform and influence future policy making. It
highlights the importance for people facing disadvantage to be able to assert their own needs and
interests. It explains step by step how to devise an effective advocacy strategy for ICT policy reform. It is
accompanied by case examples and signposting to further tools and resources.
2.
Strategic engagement in policy dialogue on pro-poor ICT access can also be gained by taking, as a
primary focus, areas of mainstream development policy education, health, rural livelihoods, and so on
and contributing to more strategically framed development policy making such as the preparation of
National Development Strategies.[5] This perspective can assist in gaining traction for a pro-poor ICT
access agenda across a broader political and policy-making spectrum. It can also assist better
understanding of the real world policy choices that politicians and their constituents face cleaner water
or faster connectivity, more clinics or more ICT access centres and better articulation of the role of ICTs
in poverty reduction.
For effective pro-poor ICT policy dialogue, engagement on both fronts may be the most productive
strategy: ensuring that ICT policy making is informed by a pro-poor perspective and strengthening that
position by building support across government, especially those most engaged with poverty reduction
and pro-poor development.
Campaigns for policy change
In India, in 1996, the National Campaign for Peoples Right to Information (NCPRI)[6] was founded by
social activists, journalists, lawyers, professionals, retired civil servants and academics. Its goal was to
campaign for a national law facilitating the right to information. Its first step was to produce, with the Press
Council of India, a draft right to information law. After years of public debate and the passage in several
Indian states of right to information laws, the government of India passed the Freedom of Information Act
2002. The Act was weakly drafted, subject to widespread criticism and never brought into force.
[7] Continued campaigning and a change of government led eventually to adoption of the Right to
Information Act 2005.
Civil society campaigns for policy change rarely achieve rapid results. They require patience, tenacity,
courage and conviction. There is no blueprint for success, but there are some common denominators to
almost all successful advocacy campaigns.[8] It is essential, for instance, to maintain clarity in
communications: goals should be clear and achievable; messages should be compelling for those to
whom they are intended; calls to action should be specific and concise. Good planning and organisation
must combine with the ability to mobilise broad coalitions of public and political support towards a
common goal.
Policy campaigning is goal-oriented advocacy in which civil society groups and coalitions aim to set the
policy agenda rather than simply to monitor or respond to government policy making. It involves taking
action and initiative. It can be exciting and empowering for those involved, but it can also be hard work,
frustrating, and ultimately unsuccessful. Before adopting a campaigning orientation it is worth asking
whether the goals could be better achieved by dialogue or quiet negotiation.
Campaigns for policy change draw on a wide range of tools and tactics, including public demonstrations,
protests, letter writing, lobbying, use of media and the internet, and legal action. Campaigning is often
confrontational in nature. After all, a campaign would not be needed if the government or private company
was receptive to the policies being advocated. Conversely, it is often the dynamic of conflict that gives a
campaign momentum, spurring media attention and recruiting public support.
Campaigns are often built in response to particular opportunities or threats arising in the context of the
process of policy change. For example, the transition from analogue to digital distribution systems for
television is moving ahead rapidly worldwide, with only limited time for civil society organisations to gain
guarantees of access to the new channels. In Uruguay, a law first drafted in 2005 by a coalition including
community broadcasting activists, journalists and labour unions was adopted in 2007, guaranteeing an
equitable distribution of frequencies between private, public and civil society organisations. The law has
ensured that civil society groups have a legal entitlement to use part of the digital television spectrum.
In Ecuador, the process of adopting a new constitution that began in 2007 under the presidency of Rafael
Correa was seen as an opportunity by civil society groups engaged in media and ICT advocacy to
challenge the existing political economy of the communications environment and to propose a new
communication rights framework. The new constitution adopted in 2008 included the explicit entitlement
of all persons to universal access to information and communication technologies, together with a right to
the creation of social media, including equal access to radio frequencies.[9]
Some civil society advocacy organisations may have several campaigns running at the same time, each
with distinct goals requiring different alliances and strategies. In other cases a single-issue organisation,
or a coalition of like minded groups, may form to campaign towards a single policy goal, as in the example
of Indias campaign for a right to information law. International campaigning organisations, such as
Amnesty International and Greenpeace, have tested their campaigning methods over many years. Some
of the lessons learned are also relevant to ICT policy advocacy.[10]
Building the advocacy capacity of stakeholder groups
As noted in the introduction to this toolkit, poor people face systemic barriers in their access to information
and in their means to exercise their right to freedom of expression. The lack of voice of disadvantaged
groups is a challenge at the core of pro-poor advocacy on ICT access.[11] It is one of the reasons why
advocacy for equitable access to ICTs is important. At the same time, it compromises the ability of
disadvantaged people themselves to advocate for their own communication needs.
This is a critical issue that demands the attention of any organisation engaged in pro-poor ICT advocacy.
We stated earlier that pro-poor advocacy means advocacy for political decisions and actions that
respond to the interests of people who directly face poverty and disadvantage. They are the primary
stakeholders. Their lack of voice can be overcome in two distinct ways. As Drze and Sen describe it:
One is assertion (or, more precisely, self-assertion) of the underprivileged through political organisation.
The other is solidarity with the underprivileged on the part of other members of the society, whose
interests and commitments are broadly linked, and who are often better placed to advance the cause of
the disadvantaged by virtue of their own privileges (e.g., formal education, access to the media, economic
resources, political connections).[12]
There are a great number of pro-poor advocacy organisations that are not, by any means, populated by
people with first-hand experience of poverty. Rather they are run by well-educated middle-class
professionals for whom pro-poor advocacy is a vocation. This is as much a reality in the ICT policy field
as in other development sectors. That such people have chosen to work for and in solidarity with those
who face the daily struggle of poverty and deprivation is, of course, to be welcomed social solidarity is
very often an important component of advocacy and political action but, on its own, it is also a
somewhat undependable basis of authentic representation of the interests of the
underprivileged.[13] Solidarity has multiple motivations, is not always accompanied by shared
perspectives, and may be more effective at attracting support when it conforms with dominant ideologies.
Thus building the advocacy capacity of self-help groups of the disadvantaged and of community-based
and working-class organisations is at least as important as doing advocacy for the poor. Effective propoor advocacy on access to ICTs must include strategies likely to lead to an increase in the voice and
influence of the underprivileged sections of society in ICT and other policy making. This may include, for
example, strengthening the communications capacity of disadvantaged peoples organisations and
support for development of grassroots communication initiatives like community radio. Such strategies
can be effective in enabling people who are disadvantaged and marginalised to speak out directly on the
issues that affect their lives and livelihoods.
The Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication (BNNRC),[14] for example, is a national
network that combines a programme of advocacy in ICT policy areas such as right to information,
community broadcasting and e-governance, with practical support for rural knowledge centres and
community radio stations.
Deccan Development Society (DDS)[15] is a grassroots organisation working with women's sanghams
(self-help groups) in about 75 villages in the Medak District of Andhra Pradesh, India. The 5,000 women
members of the Society are mostly Dalit, the lowest group in the Indian social hierarchy. As part of a
broader strategy in pursuit of autonomous communities, the women of DDS established the DDS
Community Media Trust, including a video production unit and Sangham Radio, the first rural community
radio in India and the first womens radio in South Asia.[16]
The right-to-information movement in India drew, among other inspirations, on empowerment-based
approaches to public accountability pioneered by Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) in Rajasthan,
including public hearings where accounts, including public expenditure records, were read aloud at
independently organised village meetings and local people were invited to give testimony.[17]
Pathfinder and demonstrator projects
New ideas in policy are not always easy to communicate to those who influence or make decisions,
particularly where they involve new or unfamiliar uses of ICTs. It may not be until an idea has been
In this part we look at the practical steps involved in ICT advocacy planning and implementation. The
stages outlined draw on principles of strategic planning and project management combined with political
analysis and communications.[19] For each of the stages we set out some key considerations to be
addressed. At several points we pose questions rather than solutions. There is no single template for propoor ICT advocacy. The questions are intended to assist the process of planning and design.
A.
Preliminary steps
building? What groups or organisations might feel threatened by the proposals? Could this coalesce into
organised opposition? What can be done to reduce the risk of opposition?
(iv)Selecting the advocacy approach
What advocacy strategies are most likely to influence the target audiences? Will it be effective to work
through dialogue and negotiation with policy makers? What is the likely impact of public pressure can it
be expected to lead to a positive response or to resistance? What sort of treatment can be expected from
the media: supportive, hostile, or indifferent? Are there incremental strategies that might be more likely to
achieve results? Through what mechanisms might competing interests be brokered?
(v)Identifying the key messages
In relation to the goal and objectives, what messages are likely to be persuasive with the primary
audience? What about the secondary audience are different messages needed for different audiences?
If the approach taken is public or based on a broad coalition, what key messages are likely to mobilise the
broadest support, gain traction in the media, or have a viral effect, with the audience itself acting as a
multiplier?
D.
Implementation
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6. SOME PURPOSES OF COMMUNICATION FOR EDUCATION
7. Communication is about people creating, learning and exchanging meaning. In
the education sector, one of the goals of communication is to assist each
stakeholder group to make sense of its roles and responsibilities while seeking to
understand and to accept those of others. Successful partnerships emerge when
most of the parties see themselves and the others as moving in the same direction,
working for similar interests, sharing the same meanings about educational issues,
reforms, programs etc. Mutual trust is a basic requirement and outcome for these
relationships. Communication can help build trust. Awareness of mutual interest,
commonalities and building of trust are not givens; they do not just happen,
naturally or spontaneously. They can be the result of planned communication.
8. Communication can serve many functions in partnerships for education, among
them:
Information: providing factual statements and explanations about the common
enterprise and how the various stakeholders relate to it. Examples include: (i) how a
teacher redeployment program will work, who will be affected, when and where it
will be applied; (ii) school enrolments by sex and region; (iii) the performance of
schools on national examinations; (iv) pupil unit cost by region; (v) student-teacher
ratios by region. Such information levels the playing field when it comes to
information used in their dialogue
Dialogue and confidence-building: ensuring that all the various points of view are
expressed, providing clarifications and addressing any hesitations about the issues
concerned. For example, what do mothers feel about girls going to school all day?
Will teachers lose seniority if moved to other locations? Will governments plan of
returning management of primary schools to religious organizations not mean
blocking certain groups from attendance? A communication strategy will provide for
group meetings, person-to-person discussions, workshops, newsletters, etc. to
tackle the various aspects of these kinds of situation, and ensure that major
misunderstandings are removed, so that partners can be comfortable with their
present and future roles.
Consensus: Once stakeholders are informed and have a chance to express their
views, and their worries are addressed adequately, it may be possible to get
agreement on lines of action, on schedules, on division of responsibility etc. For
example, if targets have been set for girls education in a community, who will
ensure that girls actually show up in school? If special resources are required for
this, how will they be made available? What is the role of parents and families, of
religious groups, of education managers in meeting targets? Will they agree to
undertake their roles? If sanctions for non-performance are to be invoked, are they
understood and accepted by all? A communication strategy will seek ways of
effectively managing these issues. It will keep track through monitoring feedback, of
the evolution of understandings and the achievement of commonly-decided
objectives.
Advocacy: Influential individuals and institutions may be unwilling to change habits
of thinking and reacting, and may be inclined to block new ideas, if they consider
them threatening or undesirable. Communication can be a means of engaging
centers of power and influence to encourage them to move with the times; and to
lend their influence to progressive directions. For example, will village traditional
rulers and family elders allow girls to continue in school rather than be married off
at puberty? How can they be reassured, and thus help to reassure other influentials,
that continued schooling will not breed irresponsible wives and mothers? These are
advocacy issues, and some of them can be controversial. There are special
communication approaches for advocacy; for enhancing the support of influential
individuals and groups for proposed changes, which may be in legislation, policies,
regulations, programs, cultural values and behavior.
Social mobilization: How can the large numbers of people at the grassroots and
periphery be brought into supporting education reforms and programs? For
example, how can the EFA movement become acceptable and gain majority
support in communities across nations, rather than remain only commitments that
Ministers of Education made at international conferences, of no relevance to their
people? Communication campaigns and structured programs can be created for
involving people at different levels of society in decisions about proposed education
programs1
CHANNELS AND MODES OF COMMUNICATION 9. From the uses of communication
sketched above, it can be seen that various individuals or groups can initiate
communication, and can also be the recipients in a communication situation.
Ministries of education often feel that it is their responsibility and role to initiate
ideas and programs about education programs for which they would need the
areas; and their use has been experimented in rural areas for social change
programs
Depending on what is to be communicated, mass media content may be factual (as
in news and documentaries) or oriented towards didactic entertainment, to enable
people learn and change, while having a good time. Examples such as Soul City
show how this can be done in radio and television7
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