Transcript Changing Face of Secondary Education in Asia

Progress of Secondary
Education in Asia
Challenges, Responses and Lessons
R.Govinda
National Institute of Educational Planning and
Administration, New Delhi
Context of Education Development in Asia
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Not a long history – the story of building a
modern mass education system spans over
just 5-6 decades
Struggle against many negative factors –
poverty – internal strife and political
upheavals – false starts – carrying the burden
of colonial legacy
Asia-Pacific region accounts for about 60% of
the world population, of which one fifth are
adolescents and over 50% are below the age
of 25.
Context of Education Development in Asia
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A world of paradox – cradle of ancient
civilizations – but host to largest number
of non-literates in the world
Many of them, especially females and
other disadvantaged groups, remain out
of school, living in poverty and other
conditions harmful to their physical and
psychological health; many are at high
risk of drug abuse and HIV/AIDS.
Context of Education Development in Asia
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Despite handicaps and internal contradictions
an objective balance sheet would highlight
the remarkable progress made by the
continent in a relatively short period of time
It is this story of working against multiple
odds and making progress under very
unequal and diverse conditions – that
makes the experiences from Asia very
relevant to the efforts being made to
expand secondary education in Africa
This presentation
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Not a quantitative picture of growth of
secondary education
Illustrations of experiences - challenges
and responses that hold lessons for
reflection
Illustrations from selected countries
from East and South Asia
What factors triggered and sustained
expansion of secondary education in Asian
Countries?
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According to the 2001 World Development Indicators,
the gross enrollment ratio from 1980 to 1997 increased
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In the case of China and Thailand, the ratio increased
over 20% during the same period,
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from 29% to 56% in Indonesia,
from 64% to 78% in the Philippines
from 42% to 57% in Vietnam
From 24% to 49% in India
from 46% to 70% in China and
from 29% to 59% in Thailand.
Almost all countries in the Asia region have experienced
substantial growth in secondary school enrollments over
the past decade
Secondary Enrolment Ratios for Selected Countries
100
90
80
China
70
India
60
Indonesia
50
Thailand
Malaysia
40
Philippines
30
Sri Lanka
20
10
0
1991
1999
2002
2004
What factors triggered and sustained
expansion of secondary education in Asian
Countries?
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In several East Asian countries, growth in secondary
education has taken place along side faster
economic growth – Thailand, Malaysia and
Indonesia – China presents similar but slightly
different scene
In South Asia, success in expanding primary school
enrollment, combined with population explosion, is
generating considerable demand for expansion of
secondary education - this is the case in countries
like India, Sri Lanka ( and the Philippines in East
Asia)
Yet in all countries, faster growth has been
supported by measured steps to increase access by
setting targets for growth
Expanding Secondary Education
Acting on the Policy Front
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Many national governments have taken on
the challenge of making lower secondary
schooling compulsory
 In
1994, Indonesia expanded its definition
of basic education to include nine years of
primary and junior secondary school
 Thailand
did the same initially and in the
latest Educational Policy vows to make 12
years of schooling universal
Expanding Secondary Education
Acting on the Policy Front
India has made 8 years of schooling a
Fundamental Right (universal and
compulsory) and has drawn up proposals
to make secondary education (12 years)
universal by 2020
 Singapore and Korea have achieved high
success in making secondary education
universal without making attendance
compulsory
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Expanding Secondary Education
Acting on the Policy Front
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There is increased feeling among the
leadership that primary schooling is not
enough – it does not equip even with basic
life-skills for the globalised economy and
secondary schooling is essential for any
progress in personal as well as national
development
Balancing Quantity-Quality-Equity
The Elusive Triangle
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Secondary education historically has the
tendency to grow in urban areas and richer
neighborhoods – in many countries it has
been unfavourable to participation of
marginalised groups and girls
All countries have attempted to address this
issue though in different ways and with
different levels of success
Balancing Quantity-Quality-Equity
The Elusive Triangle
Principle 1: Go where you have to –
target specific areas which need attention
the most
Thailand
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Targeted expansion programme in rural areas
- Step taken in 1991 to open lower secondary
classes on a free-of-charge basis in selected
villages
Balancing Quantity-Quality-Equity
The Elusive Triangle
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India
 Programme
of building pace-setting schools
in rural areas
 Building Residential Schools for Marginalised
and Ethnic Minority Groups
 Programme for bringing back street children
and child labourers into school mainstream
through Residential Bridge Courses (Andhra
Pradesh)
Balancing Quantity-Quality-Equity
The Elusive Triangle
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Principle 2: Compensate/Support those who
really need – Direct transfer instead of
subsidizing schools where they study
Female Stipend Program of Bangladesh
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All girls in rural areas who enter secondary
school are eligible for a monthly sum ranging
from Taka 25 in Class 6 to Taka 60 in Class
10 (between US$0.37– $0.88). Girls receive
additional payments in Class 9 for new books
and in Class 10 for exam fees.
Balancing Quantity-Quality-Equity
The Elusive Triangle
Malaysia - Poor Students Trust Fund
(KWAPM)
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The Fund was created to assist parents who
face difficulty in putting their children in school
– children have to be from Below Poverty
Line families
Matriculation and Post-Matriculation
scholarships for Scheduled Caste children
in India
Facilitating Transition between and
within Secondary Cycle
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Transition between cycles is fairly high – around
80% - this represents high aspirations among
parents and children
But grade transition within the cycle is relatively
low in some countries - In some countries
around 50% children entering the cycle do not
complete the lower secondary cycle
 Inability to adjust to the academic demands
 Failure to pass annual examinations
 Cost
considerations – opportunity cost of schooling
Facilitating Transition between and
within Secondary Cycle
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Overcoming Structural impediments
 Should
lower secondary be attached to primary or be
made part of secondary schools?
 The former is likely to improve easy transition to
secondary classes. But what are the cost
implications? And what is the impact on quality of
infrastructure provisioning and teacher supply?
 Needs careful school mapping exercise – perhaps
there is no standard solution for all regions even within
a country
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Asian countries present too varied a picture
What Kind of Education?
Orchestrating Secondary Curriculum
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In general, lower secondary is not seen as a
terminal stage of schooling.
One of the aims is to ensure that as many
students as possible continue into the upper
secondary phase, even though a substantial
proposition of children do not pass the school
final examination and therefore move into
working life.
What Kind of Education?
Orchestrating Secondary Curriculum
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What about diversification? - General trend is to
have common general education programme for
a longer period of time – India follows a common
curriculum for all till grade 10th
East Asian countries have introduced some
diversification as well as vocational content at
the lower secondary stage - yet this is not
significant particularly at the lower secondary
level
Vocational Component in Secondary Enrollment
40
35
30
25
Total
20
Upper Secondary
15
10
5
0
China
India
Indonesia
Thailand
Malaysia
What Kind of Education?
Dilemma
of Modernisation and Internationalisation
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Science and Mathematics study occupies prime
place – about 50% of teaching time is devoted to
these subjects
Computer literacy forms an integral part of
secondary education in all countries though with
different levels of skill expectations
How to update and modernize curricula while
preserving national identity? - A deep concern
to develop curriculum fostering respect for,
and preservation of, cultural traditions and
indigenous values and ways of life
What Kind of Education?
Dilemma
of Modernisation and Internationalisation
Citizenship education is firmly built into the
curricula of the majority of the countries;
 Value education is also emphasized in
most countries of the region
 Recent curriculum reform in India has
introduced peace education as an
important component
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Who will teach in the new schools:
Supply of Qualified Teachers
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Need for subject specialisation? University
based courses? It is not just fixing the TPR
A mixed bag
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India, generalist teachers at early part of lower
secondary to university trained specialist teachers
during the latter part of lower and upper secondary
 China has the tradition of subject specific teachers
even during the primary stage
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This is an important issue impacting supply of
teacher with adequate and possessing officially
specified academic and professional
qualifications
Who will teach in the new schools:
Supply of Qualified Teachers
Need for lead time for proper expansion
linked to capacity of pre-service teacher
education system
 Problem of science and mathematics
teachers is almost universal
 Demand for English language teachers is
also expanding
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Who will teach in the new schools:
Supply of Qualified Teachers
Alternate Measures during lead time
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Setting up of a statutory body for monitoring
teacher quality and their certification
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Accelerated preservice teacher training
Relaxation of teacher certification requirements
Contract teachers with at a lower monthly salary
Use of Distance Education for Pre-service training
National Council of Teacher Education in India
There is also a downward linkage of tertiary
education influencing the growth and supply
of teachers for secondary education – the
case of Karnataka science stream in India
Making the School work
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What the Developed Countries do, we can also do
(– overcoming ‘We are a poor country’ syndrome) but
in our own way
New methods of quality monitoring – establishment of
independent Quality Assessment and Monitoring
Agency is one such – Thailand and Malaysia
Attempts are being made for empowering School
Management Committees to introduce School
Improvement Planning as a standard feature of
Secondary schools in Karnataka in India
ICT based School Governance Network for
Educational Improvement in Northwest China
Making the School work
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Improving Information system for monitoring school
functioning for Greater Transparency
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Setting basic norms of school provision benchmarking
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In India, a School Report Card is posted on the internet for
every school in the country
Physical infrastructure, academic facilities
Teacher-pupil ratio and teacher qualification
sufficient numbers of textbooks
…..
Introducing National Testing Programme is another
method adopted by some countries to impact on
school quality
Reaching the Unreached through
Alternative Models
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Alternative modes of Delivery tend to have lower
per student costs than conventional schools
even while providing access to populations and
areas that are typically more expensive to serve.
Different models in differing combination are
being tried out: Distance Education; Open
Learning; Non-formal Education outside the
school
Indonesia’s Equivalent Non-formal Education
Programme (Paket B and Paket C) – Transfer to
and from the formal school is ensured through
legislation
Reaching the Unreached through
Alternative Models
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Different countries have adopted Distance Education
model with varying levels of technology - simple postal
correspondence to internet based courses
 The case of National Open School in India –
emergence of State Open School in different States
 Air Correspondence High Schools in South Korea
 The Philippine Nonformal Education Project
 Indonesia – Open Junior Secondary School –
supported by audiocassettes, radio programmes and
TV or video programmes – follows a group-study
model
 Use of dedicated Educational Satellite in India with
several thousand points for downlinking – providing
for interactive learning
Reaching the Unreached through
Alternative Models
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China plans to train during next 10 years, One million
persons with applicable skills in rural areas and with
secondary vocational education diploma. Among them,
there will be 350,000 skilled farmers in crop and animal
farming and product processing; 450,000 skilled in farm
business management and 200,000 skilled in different
disciplines and sciences and technologies of importance
to rural areas.
The Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) of Pakistan
has been running since 1986 the Women’s Secondary
Education Project (WSEP) through distance learning - to
make secondary education available to women who did
not have access to formal high schools after completing
middle-level education (up to Grade 8).
Public Financing of Secondary
Education – How and How much?
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Is there and should there be a role for private
providers in expanding secondary education?
This was not a serious issue in those countries
which have already achieved high levels of
enrollment – they did this at a different time
But in countries which are trying to expand now
– in the present day world of WTO and
economic liberalisation – discourse on this issue
cannot be shut out
Public Financing of Secondary
Education - How and How much?
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The central issue is Not “if public spending on education
has to increase” or “if the State has to take major
responsibility for expansion”
There is fast, almost uncontrolled, expansion of selffinancing private schools in many developing countries Poorer the country more serious is the issue
Questions to explore:
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How to ensure that scarce public resources benefit the
really needy in the expansion process?
 More important - How to attract private resources to public
education?
Lower Secondary
100%
90%
80%
70%
Independent private
60%
50%
Government-supported
private
40%
Public
30%
20%
10%
0%
India
Indonesia
Philippines
Thailand
Upper Seecondary
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
India
Indonesia
Philippines
Thailand
Public Financing of Secondary
Education - How and How much?
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The Indian case is interesting
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should government supported privately
managed schools be the route to achieve private –
public partnership and attract private resources for
public education system?
 Two, there has been a significant increase in
participation of Non-Governmental and Corporate
sector in promoting primary education – could this be
the route for attracting private resources for
secondary education?
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Old models may not be relevant – need for
out-of-the-box thinking
In Conclusion …
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Merely looking within the formal school walls is
not enough – break the intergenerational spiral
of low or no education by reaching out-of-school
youth through non-formal education – create a
literate environment
We are operating in a new world of ICT which
has the potential to change almost every
dimension of school provision – demands new
way of looking at expansion – not merely
building school rooms and appointing teachers
In Conclusion …
Socio-political realities have enormously changed Children are now Growing up in a Pluralistic
World – More than ever before
Expansion should not mean giving more of the same …
Capability and right attitude to ‘live together’ in a
world underscored by cohabitation of multiple
perspectives of religion, culture, language and
ideology are critical requirement for everyone
Secondary Education is the right period to imbibe this
capacity for learning to live together