The growth and impact of community schools in Mali
The following report was found on ELDIS
The growth and impact of community schools in Mali DeStefano, J. / Academy for Educational Development (AED), USA , 2006 This case study examines the overall growth and impact of community schools in Mali during the last decade. It focuses on the Sikasso region, where Save the Children and 16 local NGOs, using USAID funds, have supported almost 800 schools—roughly 90 percent of the community schools in that region. In Mali, community schools are education centres spontaneously started by the community members themselves, almost independent of government participation. The term also encompasses schools supported by international NGOs, usually with substantial external funding and local NGO participation. Some key findings include:
- community schools in Mali have evolved from operating outside the official education system to being recognised components of that system
- community schools demonstrated that basic education could be delivered in locally constructed buildings with locally recruited, less qualified teachers and using native local languages under the management and control of the communities themselves.
Some concerns raised by the case study include:
- the communities previously supported through external funding must now rely entirely on the funds they generate locally to continue to operate their schools
- at no point during its experience in Sikasso did Save the Children address the issue of government funding for community schools. During the course of 10 years’ experience, there was no experimentation with new ways for the Ministry of Education to allocate funds to community schools without subverting the local government authority, which lies at the heart of this model
- available data shows that community schools achieve quality roughly equal to what is obtained in public schools. Evidence suggests that community schools are able to obtain comparable or superior results using teachers with much less education and relying on local management and control, both of which are significant. However, the low level of achievement is clearly still not satisfactory.
The report concludes that the challenge, therefore, becomes greater than just how to assure financial flows so that community schools can continue to operate. Rather, the focus must fall squarely on community school support and improvement so that they can not just produce results comparable to government schools, but provide children in Mali with a solid foundation for future development and learning.
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