Handout: Conflict Sensitive Education Warm-up Questions ......Handout #2B Conflict Analysis in Detail A conflict analysis examines four elements of the environment around the education

INEE Conflict Sensitive Education Training Handouts

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Handout: Conflict Sensitive Education Warm-up Questions (optional activity) Instructions: Explore your own awareness of conflict sensitive education by considering the following questions. Write your answers down and at the end of the training you can reflect on what has changed.

1. Do you think education can contribute to conflict, if so in what ways?

2. This course is about conflict sensitive education. What do you think ‘conflict sensitive education’ means?

3. We can think about different phases of a conflict: acute (when the conflict is at its height); de-escalation (when conflict is subsiding) and latent (when conflict has not yet broken out) in which of these phases do you think we should be conflict sensitive in our approach to education?

4. Before you deliver an education program in an environment affected by conflict, what are some things you would like to know about the conflict context?

5. Can you think of any education strategies you have used that avoided education’s contribution to conflict?

6. Do you know any resources that can help you make education conflict sensitive? If so, what are they?


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Handout #1 Introduction to Conflict Sensitive Education Instructions:

1. Read the following text. 2. Working in groups, discuss the possible answers to the questions. 3. Request one participant to write down the answers on scratch paper.

Conflict in Sonoma In the country of Sonoma public grievance against government oppression and exclusion gained momentum in 2010. Demonstrations broke out in March 2011, sparked by the arrest and torture of a group of teenagers who had spray-painted anti-government slogans on the central square. The conflict grew increasingly violent and militarized. In April the Sonoman army was deployed to control the uprising. The conflict went nationwide, with the most prolonged and devastating bouts of violence taking place in the two largest cities, causing a mass exodus of families to neighboring countries. Conflict and Education in Neighboring Country Rakat The UN estimated that as of June 2013 500,000 registered refugees were living in neighboring country, Rakat. Fifty-two percent of this population was under the age of 18 and in need of continuing their education. The existing education system in Rakat was 70% private and 30% public, which served the poorest population. Initially, the Rakat Ministry of Education issued a mandate to mainstream the refugee children into the public school system’s second shift. Most local community leaders agreed to this national mandate however, as resources diminished, tensions increased. In communities where the second shifts became overcrowded, refugees were denied access to education. Additionally, many refugee parents were reluctant for their children to be taught the Rakati language and curriculum, which they believed would not be useful when they returned to Sonoma, where the language of instruction is Arabic. Rakati teachers, who under the existing public system did not receive consistent compensation, were asked to teach the second shift of refugee students, who were not familiar with the existing curriculum or language of instruction. After the arrival of the refugees, the local Rakati student drop out rate and incidence of school violence increased dramatically. Emergency Response Responding to the crisis were 40 non-governmental organizations, 10 donors, and 1 host government. The actors have a variety of mandates (refugees, youth, early childhood, basic education etc.), program cycles (3-months to 5-years), and target geographic areas (rural, urban, camps, non-camps). You work for an NGO that aims to support education for Sonoman refugee primary school age students living along the rural border area between Sonoma and Rakat. You have just landed in the capital of Rakat and are responsible for the set-up of a 6-month emergency education program.

1. If not done in a conflict sensitive way, how could your education program contribute to conflict? 2. In order to deliver conflict sensitive education, what are some questions would you ask in your conflict analysis? 3. Using the Conflict Sensitive Education Quick Reference Tool on page 43 of the INEE Guidance Note on Conflict

Sensitive Education, identify one conflict sensitive strategy that applies to this situation.


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Handout #2A Good Enough Conflict Analysis Because time for these activities varies by training, the timing is not listed here. Look on the activity slide or ask your facilitator if a time was not given. Instructions:

1. Working in your groups, choose to use your case study (recommended) or the one provided below on Sierra Leone.

2. Reflect on your case study to answer the following questions about the context around the education program or policy.

3. Request one participant to write the answers on flipchart.

Good Enough Conflict Analysis Questions Conflict analysis is the systematic study of the profile, causes, actors and dynamics of conflict. The conflict analysis examines the context around the education program and policy. By providing a better understanding of the conflict context, it serves as the basis to inform and identify conflict-sensitive education strategies. These questions are a small sample selected from a comprehensive conflict analysis. Answer the questions according to the timing and level of implementation of your case study program (e.g. national, subnational, community, or school). For the Sierra Leone case study the implementation level is national.

Profile

1. What is the history of the conflict? What role, if any, did education play? List 2-3 points. 2. What are the social and economic characteristics of the geographic areas most affected by conflict? List 2-3

points. Causes

3. What was/is the conflict about? List 2-3 points. Actors

4. What groups were/are involved in the conflict? 5. What divides these groups (e.g. systems & institutions, attitudes & actions, differing values, differing experiences,

symbols & occasions)? 6. What connects these groups (systems & institutions, attitudes & actions, differing values, differing experiences,

symbols & occasions)? Dynamics

7. Does conflict get worse at any particular time or period (e.g. drought, school year, election dates)?


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Handout #2B Conflict Analysis in Detail A conflict analysis examines four elements of the environment around the education program: actors, causes, profile and dynamics. The purpose of this activity is to become familiar with a mini-analysis of two of these elements: actors and causes. Instructions:

1. Working in groups, choose the case study to use for this activity. 2. Review the two tables below: Actors Analysis and Conflict Causes. 3. Read your case study while keeping a look out for the information necessary

to complete the two tables. 4. Determine at what level the education program/policy will be implemented and fill in the chart accordingly. Be as

specific as possible. Actors Analysis

Level of Analysis: (international, national, local)

List the conflict actors. Consider organizations, people, and groups, including combatants and those affected by conflict.

Interest/Need: What are the actor’s main interests? E.g. Political, economical, religious, environmental, educational

Capacity: What resources does the actor have to influence education either positively or negatively?

Capacity: What resources does the actor have to influence conflict either positively or negatively?

Relationship: What is the actor’s relationship with other actors? connector or divider, or both?

E.g. returned child combatants

-Useful skills to gain livelihoods. -Acceptance from home community.

-Will to access relevant education opportunities -Ability to disrupt education if that expectation is not met.

-If interests are not met, could react with violence or return to armed group.

-Varies by community, could be connector of other returned child combatants but also could be perceived by local community as divisive.

Conflict Causes

Level of Analysis: (international, national, local)

Security Political/ Governance

Economic Social

-Human rights abuses by security forces -Emergence of private militias

-Domination of democratic institutions by one tribe of society, excluding many -Land rights available for only a few

-Rural poverty vs. urban wealth -One region controls all oil wealth, other regions do not benefit

-Colonial language spoken by a few is language of state, minority languages marginalized -Large unemployed youth population


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Handout #2 Conflict Analysis Provided Case Study: Sierra Leone It is strongly recommended that participants use their own case study from their context of work. This case study is provided as a backup. This scenario is informed by multiple sources, including: INEE Guidance Note on Conflict Sensitive Education; Novelli, M. (2011) The Role of Education in Peacebuilding: Case Study Sierra Leone. New York: UNICEF; and the sources indicated below. Background Sierra Leone is located in West Africa, a region that has faced multiple conflicts. Recent conflict in Sierra Leone began in the East (region with highest poverty levels) and was triggered in 1991 with an insurgent movement of the Revolutionary United Front to overthrow the ruling All People’s Congress (in power since 1968). The insurgent movement was motivated by unequal access to economic markets and government services, including education. The war was fought by a combination of state, civil defence forces and UN troops. The conflict is infamous for the use of child soldiers, amputations and rape as a weapon of war. The 10-year war in Sierra Leone officially ended in January 2002. (Map source: http://www.vidiani.com/?p=9787) Education and Conflict Lack of access to secondary education and the lack of employment following graduation from secondary school are among the considered causes of the conflict. The collapse of the education system prior and during the conflict resulted in school closures, absent teachers, lack of payment of teachers, widespread strikes and generalized instability. It also correlated with the forced or voluntary recruitment of angry, unsatisfied, educated and uneducated youth population into armed groups. By the war’s end the majority of schools, including those in Freetown, were either non-usable or required reconstruction/refurbishment. Thousands of teachers and students were killed, maimed, displaced and recruited into warring factions. Education and Peacebuilding Post war, the 2007 UN Peacebuilding Cooperation Framework and the 2009 Joint Vision for the Sierra Leone prioritized security, democracy and markets, rather than wider social transformation and education. The Education Sector Plan and the Peacebuilding Strategy were developed separately; a trend that has continued through subsequent plans. Truth and reconciliation programmes focused on the national level and granted blanket amnesty to the majority of perpetrators. Several NGOs and the Ministry of Education have implemented education interventions parallel to, but not integrated in, UN and international peacebuilding efforts. Current Education A decade after the end of the war, the Education Sector Plan is comprehensive, systems-focused and underfunded with few conflict sensitivity provisions to target the inequity in supply. 50% of education funding is external. Education policy promises free and compulsory schooling up to grade 9 but a shortage of teachers and schools makes universal access impossible, especially for the 62% of the population residing in rural areas. Continuing the inequity that occurred during the British colonial era, education supply is biased towards higher education and the urban, Western region. Teacher training is scattered, sporadic and short-term and remuneration systems are tardy with little incentives for rural hardship posts. Many schools are small and in remote locations making teacher deployment sensitive and difficult. Hidden costs of education are barriers for many in a country where 70% of the population is below the poverty line of 2USD/day and over half of the working population is living off of subsistence agriculture. (Chart source: http://www.audiencescapes.org/country-profiles/sierra-leone/communication-habits-demographic-group/provinces/provinces-315) Current Socio-cultural Context While the population of Sierra Leone comprises about 16 ethnic groups, each with its own language and custom, English is the language of instruction in schools and government administration; the majority population speaks Krio. Commonly held values and attitudes include: respect for elders and chiefs, mistrust of unemployed and idle youth, importance of education for children,


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freedom of religious practice (Islam, Christian, and Indigenous), appreciation of higher classes and titles, allegiance to tribes, importance of village community and dialogue, and belonging to gender-specific secret associations. (See mapping of ethnic groups dated 1969. Map source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Atlas_of_Sierra_Leone) Economic Context Sierra Leone is one of the lowest ranked countries on the Human Development Index. Economic and social development is highly uneven, with wide disparity between Freetown/Western Area, and the rest of the country (see map of poverty levels). Rural-urban inequalities and widespread poverty persist. While it possesses substantial mineral, agricultural, and fishery resources, economic development remains challenged by the limited infrastructure. Diamond mining is the major source of earnings. Nearly half of the working-age population engages in subsistence agriculture. A high number of unemployed, unskilled and illiterate youth resulted from the 70% of the school age population that missed out on education during the decade of war. Underlying tensions between the marginalized youth, including former combatants and the larger political, economic and social systems has persisted. (See map of levels of extreme poverty by district in Sierra Leone in 2003/2004. Source: Woldt et al., 2009) Current Political Context In the past few years, the country has navigated two elections without large-scale conflict. Administration of the state is burdened by a legacy of post-colonial mismanagement and corruption. The national army is the Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces (RSLAF), which took over responsibility for security from the UN in 2005. There are 3 provinces and the Western Area. Independence day is April 27. The four main political parties are: All People's Congress or APC, Peace and Liberation Party or PLP, People's Movement for Democratic Change or PMDC, Sierra Leone People's Party or SLPP and others. International agency presence includes: International Monetary Fund, UNESCO, World Health Organization, International Labor Organization, International Federation of the Red Cross and many others. Environment The topography includes coastal lowlands in the West to mountains in the East. There is a rainy season (May to December), winter dry season (December to April).

Program Description You work for a British non-governmental organization, Education is a Right, which is starting up a DFID-funded, five-year, GBP1 million, junior secondary education project in Sierra Leone. Through partnerships with local NGOs, the project is to be rolled out in phases across 5 rural districts (not yet selected) in the Eastern and Northern provinces. The program operational budget includes three offices, 10% expatriate salaries and 90% local salaries. Reports and communication with the head office and donors must be conducted in English. Once hired, the local staff will make the decisions on additional program parameters regarding: construction, teacher training, administration and prioritization of beneficiaries and districts. You want to help the team by identifying some conflict sensitive strategies to determining the program details.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Atlas_of_Sierra_Leone


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Handout #3A Using Conflict Analysis to Inform Program Design Abbreviated Instructions:

1. Working in your groups, review your respective case study (your own or the one provided on Sierra Leone). 2. Reflecting on the findings from the conflict analysis in activity 2, fill in column 2 below with suggestions on what the team should

keep in mind when determining the program parameters. If you need more space, write your answers on flip chart paper. This set of questions has been adapted from the Do No Harm Tool of Collaborative Development Action. More resources may be found on their website http://www.cdacollaborative.org/programs/do-no-harm/

Education Program Parameter Questions

Relevant Conflict Analysis Findings that Should Be Considered

When determining this… 1. When will the program be delivered?

Why now? How will the schedule relate to local seasons (drought, school year, elections etc.)?

2. Where will the program be delivered? What process and selection criteria will be used? What area will not be served, why?

3. What resources (training, construction/learning materials, staff, office rentals, and cars) will be brought in? How will they affect the local market?

4. With whom will you coordinate and participate? What process and selection criteria will be used?

5. For whom will the program be? What process and selection criteria will be used? Who is left out and why?

6. Who will you hire? What process and selection criteria will be used?

Consider this… 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.


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Handout #3B Using Conflict Analysis to Inform Program Design in Detail This set of questions has been adapted from the Do No Harm Tool of Collaborative Development Action. More resources may be found on their website http://www.cdacollaborative.org/programs/do-no-harm/ Instructions:

1. Working in your groups, review the implementation plan of your respective case study (the one provided for Sierra Leone or your own) and the findings from the conflict analysis in Handout #2.

2. Fill out the table below. Begin with one question per box/parameter and work across the row. Then if there is time, move on to do more questions per box/parameter.

3. Do not worry if you don’t finish in time. You may take the table with you and apply to your work context after the training. 4. If you are using the case study program description, remember, a case study does not provide all the information, but neither does real life! Use your good

judgement to make necessary assumptions based on the information available. Answer the questions according to what you would do in the future? For example, instead of “how were staff selected?” you would answer, “how would we select staff?”

Program Design Parameters

Parameter Reflection Questions Pick one question per box, and then if there is time move on to do more.

Answers Consider your conflict analysis findings. In what ways will your answers interact with the conflict?

Example Assuming a Teacher Training Program in a rural, tribal area.

1. How were our staff selected – what were the hiring criteria, and do those criteria differ in different places?

Our current recruitment strategy: -Knowledge of the programming area culture and environment -Committed to working in the specified program area -Technical skills in teacher training

Considering the teachers in the area are male from the dominant tribe, we will also invest in recruiting applicants from the non-dominant tribe and women.

By whom 1. Who are our staff? What language(s) do they speak? 2. What is the proportion of local and expatriate? 3. How were they selected – what were the hiring criteria, and

do those criteria differ in different places? 4. How are we perceived?

For whom 5. How did we choose the beneficiaries? What were the criteria for choosing some people and not others?

6. Who did we leave out and why? 7. If there are already tensions over targeting, what underlies

these tensions? 8. Who are the teaching staff? What are the proportion of men

and women? 9. Who else benefits from our program (those we rent buildings

from, those who print our textbooks etc.)?


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What 10. What are the resources we will bring in? (money, training, vehicles, radios etc.) – be specific: what kind of training?

11. What kinds of resources are appropriate to these circumstances?

12. What language(s) are we planning to work in?

Where 13. Why did we choose this location? What criteria did we use? 14. Why these schools and not those schools? 15. Are we on one side of the conflict line or both? 16. Is there any way our programming could become caught up

in land disputes? 17. Does working with displaced people in this location help

legitimise and make permanent their dislocation? Is it putting them at risk?

When 18. What is it about the current situation that makes right now the right time for the intervention?

19. How long is our intervention going to last? (How will we know when our intervention is finished? What are the criteria? Is there an exit strategy?)

20. Have there been delays? 21. Does the intervention harmonise with the national education

system? Does this national cycle observe the religious holidays and other cyclical patterns of all?

Why 22. What lead us to plan this program in the first place? 23. What do we hope to change through the intervention? 24. Why us? What is the added value that our organization

brings to addressing this need?

How 25. What is our mechanism of delivery? 26. How exactly do we work? 27. What forms of decision-making do we promote with

communities? Do those involved in decision making represent the communities? Are both women and men involved?

28. How exactly do we behave? Is there a difference between local staff and ex-pats?


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Handout #4 Implementation of Conflict Sensitive Strategies for Domain 2: Access and Learning Environment Because time for these activities varies by training, the timing is not listed here. Look on the activity slide or ask your facilitator if a time was not given. Instructions: At each table is an envelope of strips of paper with conflict sensitive education strategies on them.

1. Review the standards for Access and Learning in your INEE Guidance Note on Conflict Sensitive Education pages 25.

2. Working with your group, read each strategy found in the envelope.

3. Write on flip chart paper the INEE Minimum Standards headings: a. Equal Access b. Protection and Well-being, and c. Facilities and Services.

4. Then in discussion with your group, review each strategy and decide which standard it relates to and why.

5. Tape each strategy under the appropriate heading on the flip chart paper.

6. On the blank strips of paper write additional conflict sensitive strategies that support access and the learning

environment. Then add them to the flip chart.


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Handout #5A: Conflict Sensitive Strategies for Domain 3: Teaching and Learning Because time for these activities varies by training, the timing is not listed here. Look on the activity slide or ask your facilitator if a time was not given. Instructions:

1. Count off 1 to 4 and move to the table with your corresponding number and standard.

2. Working in your groups, you have 35 minutes to prepare a 10-minute lesson that covers the following points. You may use any teaching methodology or materials available for your lesson. Be as creative as you can! For ideas, reference the relevant sections in the INEE Guidance Note on Conflict Sensitive Education pages 29 and 46.

a. What are the key words (most meaningful) in this standard? b. What would you need to know from the Conflict Analysis to ensure your education strategies are conflict

sensitive? c. What are some conflict sensitive education strategies for this standard?

3. Remember your presentation must end in 10 minutes, so please plan accordingly.


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Handout #5B: Conflict Sensitive Strategies for Domain 3: Teaching and Learning Focusing on Curricula Reform Because time for these activities varies by training, the timing is not listed here. Look on the activity slide or ask your facilitator if a time was not given. Instructions: Working in your groups, review the article assigned to you and answer the following 3 questions. Write each answer to #1 and #2 on post-its. When you are finished with all the questions, ask one member to put the post-its with answers to #1 and #2 on the flipchart at the front of the class.

1. Write each conflict sensitive strategy mentioned in the article on a separate post-it note. 2. Write ways the reform could be more conflict sensitive on a separate post-it note. 3. List on your own paper the conflict sensitive strategies mentioned that could be applied to your working context.

If you need help brainstorming conflict sensitive strategies for your answers to questions #1 and #2, consider: the Conflict Sensitive Education Quick Reflection Questions for Domain #3 Teaching and Learning on pg. 33 and the additional strategies listed on pages 48-50 of the INEE Guidance Note on Conflict Sensitive Education. Articles 1 and 2 are below.


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Handout #5B: Conflict Sensitive Strategies for Domain 3: Teaching and Learning Focusing on Curricula Reform Article 1: Shaping education in Bosnia-Herzegovina

News Source: DW Title: Shaping education in Bosnia-Herzegovina Date 07.01.2014 Author Janine Albrecht / db

Editor: Charlotte Collins Permalink: http://dw.de/p/1AmOb In Bosnia-Herzegovina, both teachers and students find it hard to talk about the war, which many of them experienced, first-hand. German experts in designing textbooks are helping teachers find ways to address the topic.

"How can I tell students about our borders without automatically having to talk about the war?" asks Sibela Jevtic. She has taught geography and history in Banja Luka since 1993. Jevtic lived through the civil war here, in the north of what is now Bosnia-Herzegovina, and its absurdities were also apparent in her own family: Her father fought with the Serbs, her three uncles on the Croatian side. "I tell the students about my own experiences," Jevtic says, hoping that this approach will help the young people to keep an open mind. "War is not simply black or white.

The teacher and her students alike have deep-seated, painful memories of the war. Discussing the issue in school is extremely difficult, Jevtic says. But she firmly believes that addressing it is important, which is why she decided to participate in a project offered by Germany's Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research (GEI) aimed at designing new school textbooks that specifically deal with the civil war.

"We began to tackle recent history for the first time in 2008," Katarina Batarilo-Henschen explains. The teaching material doesn't deal with controversial war issues like the concentration camps and the Srebrenica massacre. Instead, it examines everyday life during that period, the GEI project coordinator says. Local authorities unanimously agree that, even today, that's as far as they can go.

Everyday life was the same for Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks during the war, so the students have shared memories. They all experienced what it was like going to school in wartime, or when food became scarce, or there was no electricity. Teachers in Sarajevo come to workshops to learn ways of discussing the war in class.

In cooperation with the German Foreign Ministry, the Braunschweig-based institute has been involved in the project for the past ten years, helping educators like Sibela Jevtic in Bosnia-Herzegovina to address the war in class. The institute cooperates with institutions and textbook authors worldwide to develop school books for crisis regions: for South Africa in the 1990s and, more recently, for the Baltic States, Georgia, Belarus and Ukraine.

GEI experts also helped compile a joint history book for Israeli and Palestinian students. Neither side allows it to be used in schools, but "the fact that the book exists at all, and that Israelis and Palestinians worked on it together, is a success," according to Georg Stöber, who heads the institute's Textbook and Conflict Department.

It's no easy feat to provide for a common examination of history in such regions, the textbook researcher says. Both sides harbor too many prejudices and too much pain. Stöber remembers launching the project in Bosnia-Herzegovina, where Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats sat in separate groups and wouldn't mingle even during short coffee breaks. As the workshops progressed, it was important that they "no longer debated as Serbs, Bosniaks or Croats, but as university lecturers; their professional identities came to the fore. "Bosnia-Herzegovina initiated a textbook reform in 2003. Older teachers in particular found it difficult to allow for different perspectives of the war, Baratilo-Henschen says, adding that they were still heavily influenced by the Communist training for history teachers.

Active learning is an important element of teaching the Balkan Wars in class, says Melisa Foric. The historian and textbook author, a member of the European Association for History Educators (Euroclio), survived the four-year siege of Sarajevo as a child, and has been a part of the textbook reform team since its early beginnings. Foric would like to see a standardized textbook for all students in Bosnia-Herzegovina, but that is not yet on the horizon. The 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement split Bosnia-Herzegovina into many cantons, which led to a heterogeneous education sector with 13 education ministries. "There is no control over what is taught in the classrooms," the textbook author warns. But at least the war is now officially part of the curriculum in every canton but one.


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Handout #5B: Conflict Sensitive Strategies for Domain 3: Teaching and Learning Focusing on Curricula Reform Article 2: Bad News for New Curriculum (Uganda) News Source: The Independent Title: Bad News for New Curriculum Date: 1 October 2012 14:21 Author: Ronald Musoke Permalink: http://www.independent.co.ug/news/news-analysis/6646-bad-news-for-new-curriculum This is an abbreviated text. A recent move by the National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC) to overhaul the O-Level curriculum and have it in use by 2015 has drawn mixed reactions. Most education experts agree that reforms in the education system are long overdue but they complain that the apparent haste and lack of consultation in this important job — one of the most critical in transforming Uganda— might lead the education sector in a wrong direction.

“By all means, I do support the curriculum reform because we are in an information age; some subjects are more relevant than others, but consultations are very important,” says Fred Masagazi, the dean of the School of Education at Makerere University. He says knowledgeable people within the public and education sector are complaining because they were not consulted about the reforms. To him, curriculum reform means a total change in the education system, and should involve parents, teachers, MPs, political parties, religious leaders, students so that they own the process from the onset.

Masaazi’s views are backed by UNESCO’s International Bureau of Education, which says a curriculum change must involve a diverse range of stakeholders and ensure relevance of the education by focusing on context, and global, national and local perspectives. He is also concerned about the speed of rolling it out nationwide.

Past mistakes

Peter Sibukule, the deputy headmaster of Kololo SSS supports the overhaul of the O-Level curriculum because, he says, the current one has been too theoretical and devoid of skills. “If something new is being introduced, teachers should be able to know to avoid past mistakes.” He recalls how the government recently introduced the teaching of Information Communication Technology and Swahili in Ugandan secondary schools only to be met with a glaring lack of expert teachers. The education ministry then plunged itself in crisis management by enrolling a few teachers for its retooling programme.“ The proposal is talking about learning areas such as science instead of physics, biology and chemistry; but how safe am I as a teacher of these individual subjects? We are not sure about our job security,” he says.

Renowned educationist and MP for Kalungu West, Joseph Ssewungu also believes the problem with Uganda’s education system is not the curriculum. Ssewungu refers to a set thematic lower primary school curriculum that ran into trouble shortly after the National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC) hurriedly launched it in 2007 in a bid to improve reading and basic arithmetic. The thematic curriculum is built around using the mother tongue as the language of instruction in lower primary; P1-P3. Other areas reviewed included physical education, religious education, and the art of writing. It was thought this would improve learning and build the children’s confidence.

Instead, according to a recent investigation by The New Vision newspaper, parents rejected it because studying in the local language weakens the child’s ability to read and write English, which in turn weakens the child’s general learning abilities. The New Vision investigation found that about 50% of primary schools are not using the new curriculum because the NCDC has failed to train teachers and provide related textbooks and teachers’ guides. As a result, implementation of the new curriculum across the nation has been haphazard, with pupils being subjected to both the old and new curriculum.

Mulumba Mutema, the assistant coordinator of the Curriculum Assessment and Examination Programme (CURASSE) at NCDC is responsible for the new curriculum. Mulumba says a number of stakeholders; such as District Education Officers, Principals of national teachers colleges, alongside the team writing the curriculum have been working over the last year. He said public consultations have also been held. He says more sensitization will follow soon and this will target political leaders, NGOs, faith groups, opinion leaders in the education sector, parents and the students. He says fresh ideas on the new curriculum can still be sent to the NCDC.

He says the reform is part of the Universal Post-primary Education and Training Project, which is partly being funded by a US$150 million World Bank loan to the government. It is being implemented by NCDC with technical support from


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Cambridge Education—a UK based education consultancy. The loan is to finance reform of lower secondary education curriculum, examination and assessment. It includes associated teacher education and reorienting the subject content to include pre-vocational knowledge and skills. Interestingly, however, the 40-months project which started in October 2011 ends in early 2015; the time when the new curriculum is actually supposed to be rolled out. Question: Why are the funders of the project not curious to hang around and see the outcome of the labor and funds?

Labor market demands

Uganda’s education system comprises non-compulsory pre-school for three to five-year olds, followed by seven years of compulsory primary education for six-12 year olds. Advancing students aged 13-16 then do four years of lower secondary education (O-Level), followed by two years of upper secondary (A-Level). Successful A-level graduates go to university or to a range of other tertiary institutions while the rest drop-out. Unfortunately, most are not absorbed into the labor market and Uganda has one of the highest youth unemployment rates in the world at over 80%. Uganda’s drop-out problem is big. Despite statistics showing that up to 70% of those who drop-out must find jobs in the agricultural sector, the education sector outside of university puts most emphasis on health, education, commerce, and technical schools. A survey of tertiary institutions reveals 10 health institutions, and only two agricultural colleges.


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Handout #6: Conflict Sensitive Practices for Domain 4: Teachers and Other Education Personnel Because time for these activities varies by training, the timing is not listed here. Look on the activity slide or ask your facilitator if a time was not given. Instructions:

1. Working on your own, explore how effective you are at promoting a bias free education by answering the following questions.

2. When you are finished, find a partner to discuss your reflections. You may use the following questions as a guide for your discussion.

a. How did your perception of your own bias change after finishing the activity? b. How could a tool like this be useful in your work when supporting teachers and other education

personnel? c. Why is it important for both recruiters of teachers and other education personnel to be aware of their own

bias? d. What changes would you make to the tool to adapt it to your own context?

How effective are you at promoting a bias-free education environment?

I haven’t thought about this

I do this sometimes

I do this most of the time

1. Have you recently taken action to increase your understanding of the particular hopes, needs and concerns of students and families from the different cultures that make up school community in your working context?

2. Have you participated in any training opportunities to enhance your understanding of the complex characteristics of racial, ethnic and cultural groups in your working context?

3. Do you try to listen with an open mind to all students, teachers and education actor colleagues, even when you don’t understand their perspectives or agree with what they’re saying?

4. Have you taken specific actions to dispel misconceptions, stereotypes or prejudices that members of one group have about members of another group in your working context?

5. Do you strive to avoid actions that might be offensive to members of other groups in your working context?

6. Do you discourage patterns of informal discrimination, segregation or exclusion of members of particular groups from teacher organizations, parent teacher associations, and your organizations staff?

7. Do you advocate for education materials that reflect the experiences and perspectives of the cultural groups that exist in your education programming context?

8. Have you evaluated learning materials supported by your organization to ensure they do not reinforce stereotypes and that they provide fair and appropriate treatment of all groups in the education community?

9. Is there a question relevant to your specific context of work that you would like to add?


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Handout #7A Conflict Sensitive Strategies for Domain 5: Education Policy Formulation and Implementation Because time for these activities varies by training, the timing is not listed here. Look on the activity slide or ask your facilitator if a time was not given. Instructions:

1. Read the puzzle piece you have been given. 2. Determine which of the 6 principles it is relevant to. 3. Find the other participants with pieces for that principle. 4. Put your pieces in the order they appear on the INEE CSE Guiding Principles. 5. Tape your puzzle together on flip chart paper when finished. 6. Put your group’s puzzle together with the others, in the right order, at the front of the room.


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Handout #7B Conflict Sensitive Strategies for Domain 5: Education Policy Formulation and Implementation Because time for these activities varies by training, the timing is not listed here. Look on the activity slide or ask your facilitator if a time was not given. Instructions:

1. Working in groups, reflect on the context of your respective case study. 2. You are members the Local Education Group (LEG). The Ministry of Education has invited the LEG members to a

roundtable to discuss possible education policy options for the future 5-year plan in your respective case study context. Having just received training in conflict sensitive education you see this as an opportunity to advocate for conflict sensitive education policy.

3. Select 1 of the 6 INEE Conflict Sensitive Education Guiding Principles that is most relevant to your case study. The Guiding Principles are in your CSE Pack as well as below.

4. Write a 2-minute speech you will give at the LEG meeting to advocate for the selected Guiding Principle to be applied in the case study context. In your speech, consider including: a) What are the INEE Guiding Principles for Conflict Sensitive Education? b) Why the selected principle is important? c) How (specific actions) the MOE could implement this principle.

5. As time permits, each group may present their speech and participants can vote as to who is the most convincing. INEE CSE Pack Guiding Principles 1 Assess Conduct an education and conflict analysis or assessment to review:

The broad conflict status or risk of conflict and the historical links between education and conflict

How conflict affects education

How education might contribute to conflict

How education can mitigate the conflict dynamics

Details matter: what, why, who, by whom, when, where, and how 2. Do No Harm Education interventions in conflict-affected and fragile contexts are not neutral; they may reduce or increase the risk of conflict. Ensure that:

Policy priorities, plans and programs are based on a comprehensive conflict analysis

All education providers apply conflict sensitive programming

Programs do not intentionally favor one group over another

Education is not manipulated to promote exclusion and hate

Education does not reflect and perpetuate gender and social inequities

Education programs respond to diverse local priorities and take account of the particular context

Community participation is prioritized 3. Prioritize Prevention

Protect teachers and students from attacks and recruitment into armed forces

Protect learning environments from attacks

Focus on safety for students and teachers

Support policies to protect girls and boys, young women and men from abuse and exploitation

Provide alternative education for youth, including life and employability skills

Educate on risks such as land mines and unexploded ordnance

Build emergency preparedness and readiness through Conflict and Disaster Risk Reduction 4. Promote Equity and the Holistic Development Of the Child as a Citizen

Promote equitable distribution of services across identity groups (ethnic, religious, geographic, gender)

Avoid pockets of exclusion and marginalization

Focus on the reintegration of out of school children and youth


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Deliver teaching and learning for peace through pedagogy, curriculum and materials that are free of gender and social prejudices and build competencies for responsible citizenship, conflict transformation and resilience

Provide psycho-social protection for children

Involve parents, communities, 5civil society and local leadership 5. Stabilize, Rebuild or Build the Education System

Strengthen institutional systems; staffing capacity and competencies

Strengthen the process of supplying and training teachers (and teacher trainers)

Strengthen the Teacher Development Management Information System, the Education Management Information System, and teacher salary systems

Ensure adequate number of trained teachers who reflect the diversity of their societies (different ethnic and religious groups, and gender).

Provide safe, relevant, appropriate, continuous education to children and youth in accordance with the INEE Minimum Standards and aligned with national priorities

Favor fairness, transparency and accountability 6. Development Partners Should Act Fast, Respond to Change, and Stay Engaged Beyond Short-term Support

Develop flexible education financing mechanisms to adjust to contingencies

Be ready to adjust assistance programs to eliminate negative impacts on the context and to improve contributions to peace

Respond to changing conditions on the ground such as displacement or attacks

Coordinate with existing education coordination structures (e.g. the Education Cluster and/or Local Education Group)

Respond to national priorities and jointly prepare exit strategies for handing over of emergency education interventions to longer term education systems development

Ensure that existing commitments are respected

Recognize the links between education, development objectives, state-building and security


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Handout #8A Conflict Sensitive Practices for Domain 1: Foundational Standards, Monitoring and Evaluation Because time for these activities varies by training, the timing is not listed here. Look on the activity slide or ask your facilitator if a time was not given. Instructions:

1. Take out the Reflection Tool from your participant packet and your respective case study. 2. Review the below cover page of the INEE Conflict Sensitive Education Pack Reflection Tool, specifically the ‘How

to Use This Tool’ section. 3. Working with other participants from your agency, do steps 1-4 of the ‘How to Use This Tool’ section below. 4. Select the section of the tool that is most relevant to where your case study program is in the program cycle now. 5. Write your answers on your own copy of the Reflection Tool so that you may take the document back with you to

your place of work and use it for follow up.

Handout #8B Conflict Sensitive Strategies for Domain 1: Foundational Standards, Community Participation and Coordination Because time for these activities varies by training, the timing is not listed here. Look on the activity slide or ask your facilitator if a time was not given.


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Instructions:

1. Working in your groups, discuss the following reflection questions. 2. Ask someone to write down your answers.

Reflection Questions:

1. What are some of the ways community participation, or the lack of it, can contribute to conflict?

2. Can you think of some ways to ensure that community participation does not trigger conflict?

3. What are some of the ways coordination, or the lack of it, can contribute to conflict?

4. Can you think of some coordination strategies that will avoid education’s contribution to conflict?


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Conflict Sensitive Education Action Planning Instructions:

1. Working with a partner from your agency, review the Reflection Tool and your responses. 2. Identify the areas for improvement, and then using the table below, make an action plan address each area

identified. Continue on back of paper, if needed.

# Activities By whom When

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

3. If one of your activities is to deliver the INEE Conflict Sensitive Education training, consider this:

Location of training

Target group to be

trained

Possible dates

Which of the 8

CSE modules

would be most

relevant to the

target audience

Module 1: Introduction to Conflict Sensitive Education Module 2: Conflict Analysis Module 3: Interaction Between Program Parameters and Conflict Module 4: Conflict Sensitive Strategies for Access and Learning Environments Module 5: Conflict Sensitive Strategies for Teaching and Learning Module 6: Conflict Sensitive Strategies for Teachers and Other Education Personnel Module 7: Conflict Sensitive Strategies for Education Policy Module 8: Conflict Sensitive Strategies for Monitoring and Evaluation

Documents

Handout: Conflict Sensitive Education Warm-up Questions ......Handout #2B Conflict Analysis in Detail A conflict analysis examines four elements of the environment around the education