Leveraging the Enthusiasm of Parents and Caregivers for Lifewide Learning

• In Event: Thinking systemically and sustainably about perennial problems: The UNICEF Think Piece Series on education in eastern and southern Africa

Proposal

Parents and caregivers in every region of the globe enthusiastically support their children’s education, but constraints related to poverty, mobility, doubts about school value or school safety, and myriad other factors can act to limit their positive engagement on a day-to-day basis. While parents’ and caregivers’ enthusiasm for schooling has fuelled the incredible increase in primary school enrolment over the past 25 years, more recent priorities highlight not just schooling, but the need for learning. As the World Bank Education Strategy 2020 notes, “the driver of development will ultimately be what individuals learn, both in and out of school, from preschool through the labour market” (World Bank, 2011: 1). UNICEF’s (2016:46) State of the World’s Children echoes this sentiment: “Education is not just about getting through school; learning is what counts.” This focus on learning throughout life and the enthusiasm of parents and caregivers for education necessitates a new analysis of educational investment using a frame of ‘Lifewide Learning’ , which not only encompasses the concept of lifelong learning but also suggests that children should engage in enjoyable, cognitively demanding activities both in school and their homes and communities.

This Think Piece presentation will utilise a Lifewide Learning framing particularly as it applies to parents and caregivers, as well as consider mechanisms for capitalizing on their enthusiasm to boost learning. The presentation will review the extent of parents’ and caregivers’ influence on learning and review evidence about efforts to implement and proliferate mechanisms for concrete, feasible parent support, such as parent groups, parent training, mobile phone messaging, etc. The presentation will also consider these mechanisms by age group – early childhood, middle childhood and early adolescence and their potential application to the ESA countries and sub-Saharan Africa, more broadly. The presentation will also offer evidence of impact, propose best practices and lay out challenges, particularly as they apply to systemic and sustained implementation.

Author

• Caroline Dusabe, Save the Children