The Parental engagement and community structure is an equalizer in improving the learning outcomes of children: Learning from Uganda

• In Event: Education for adolescents: Development of the youth

Proposal

Many nations in developing countries are improving their education systems. However, most communities in those countries struggle to support learning of children due to many hindering factors including poor infrastructures at schools, economic status of parents, little or no services from government and development partners and the recent Covid-19 disruptions. With millions of children out of school, education needs to re-invent itself. During the pandemic, communities used this opportunity of Covid-19 disruption to support children’s education in various ways, including parents taking primary roles in their children’s education and launching of new online learning of children (World bank reports 2021).
The presentation will discuss the parental engagement, social factors, and community structure model as lessons to help communities strengthen their education support systems even beyond Covid-19. The discussion will highlight various models for parents and community participation that could continue in the aftermath of Covid-19 pandemic and reshape education for learners in under-resourced communities. It urges the community interventions and school system to be flexible and incorporate community driven parental engagement with experiential learning. This community driven educational intervention is designed to provide much needed place-based supplementary education opportunities to learners.
This presentation will also present successful engagement of education stakeholders in the learning of children amidst school closures during Covid-19, which reveals the improvement of learning outcomes and competencies of children in the communities. The program is in 32 communities in four districts in Uganda where local leaders such as chairpersons Local Council 1 of these communities have an active role in this community and home-based learning initiative. In the intervention communities, there are organized groups of an average number of 35 village members and parents who set up community learning centers within their communities where each learning centers accommodates averagely 30 children.
The presentation further focuses on the important role of village education committees in the learning of children in each community. The program works in 38 primary schools and 90% of parents of nearby targeted schools have increased the availability of learning materials and provided conducive learning environment for children. There are community groups who are supporting some innovative education initiatives which can be replicated in different context. This presentation paper will also discuss the importance of engaging program alumni and retired teachers to provide learning to children in the communities where 70% of engaged alumni and retired teachers within 12 months, are helping more than 22,134 children in 32 communities in Uganda. This intervention brings out community groups initiative to incorporate education activities in their by-laws which is enabling community members to continuously support education even beyond any external grant.

Authors

• Emmy Zoomlamai

• HARRIET VICTORIA ANYANGO, Foundation for Inclusive Community Help (FICH)