The power of connecting civil society action into a collective voice for systems change

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

Everyone believes in universal free basic quality education for all children. However, for low to lower-middle income countries (L&LMICs) achieving this isn’t straightforward. Insufficient funding often leads to quality challenges such as large class sizes, inadequate infrastructure, and a growing number of out-of-school children. A recent publication by a coalition of Ghanaian education Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) highlighted the limited public-school infrastructure in urban communities in Accra, where teachers are forced to handle over 120 students and in increasing teaching shifts. Overwhelmed public education has led to an organic response by parents and local entrepreneurs to take the precarious future of human capital into their own hands by turning demand into an alternative education supply. In these countries, where demand from parents for quality education has outpaced the government’s ability to reach the more marginalized populations, communities have responded in the form of independent low-fee private schools. Collectively these schools are a huge part of the affordable non-state sector (ANS), which was created by civil society and now plays a significant role in paving the way to universal access to education.



The share of non-state education provision has been growing fastest in the L&LMICs, with particularly high levels of enrolment in low-income urban settings, or informal settlements, such as Lagos (70%), Nairobi (72%), and Kampala (86%) (taken from Education Markets Impact Initiative by CapPlus), contributing to near 100% primary global education enrolment rates as reported by UNESCO Institute for Statistics. This sector is now made up of millions of locally founded and owned independent schools serving vulnerable populations. They may have responded to stretched public education systems with their boots on the ground, however, due to fragmentation and a lack of support, they are only now starting to find their collective voice to advocate for themselves and hold government accountable for populations not being served by public education.



Given the scale of the ANS, it is important for governments to listen and engage to ensure education systems are inclusive of all learners. National governments have a responsibility to provide public education, but their role extends beyond this to regulate and integrate non-state providers, so that all children can access quality education regardless of their background or school type. Yet the ANS is mostly fragmented and often lacks the cohesion needed to bring a clear collective voice to represent their views and needs to policymakers. The ANS should have a seat at the table when it comes to education discourse and policymaking but there are limited examples where we have seen this taking place. For this reason, the ‘All Hands on Deck’ project was launched in early 2022 to find where the ANS has successfully built coalitions, found a collective voice, and effectively influenced government action. The project is just in its completion phase, and we will take the opportunity to present our ‘hot off the press’ insights from case studies in Sub-Saharan Africa and India at CIES, alongside a toolkit to create collaborative action derived from these initiatives.



The purpose of this session will be to ignite discussion on the role non-state actors play in civil society activism, and where they have been successful in collaboratively pushing for greater and more equitable access to quality education. We aim to explore how the CIES 2024 theme, The Power of Protest - focusing on the sub-theme 3: Theories, Methodologies and Protest - relates to the organic community-based responses by local actors to overwhelmed education systems, connecting the dots between independent action to government engagement. The existence of independent low-fee private schools is civil society organizing itself to provide for communities being left behind by government. The next step is to bring about systems change through the sector’s united voice advocating effectively for itself. For this to happen lessons need to be learnt, best practices shared, and connections made – something that has a been challenge for a sector which is focused on the problem at hand rather than the disconnected system in which it operates. The sector is a collection of students, parents, teachers, and school staff that are operating in predominantly remote areas or urban slums with limited resources. They have been marginalized and are early in the journey of finding their voice. We will bring a few who have shared their stories to the session.



Our panelists will discuss practical ways to engage all actors, state and non-state, in education sector planning, taken from a current project, ‘All Hands on Deck’, which includes case studies of initiatives which have fostered better collaboration between state and non-state actors, including the affordable non-state sector. Through three presentations and an open discussion, we will: I) highlight how communities have responded to overwhelmed education systems ii) hear from practical cases where under-represented voices in education systems have been brought into education planning, and; iii) spotlight ways to build on this work moving forward in order to create education systems that represent and serve all children.

Sub Unit

• General Pool

Chair

• Joyce M Malombe, Collective Rising Leadership Institute

Individual Presentations

• Case Study 2 - Joyce M Malombe, Collective Rising Leadership Institute

• Methods non-state organizations can use to influence government education policies: lessons from 75 organizations in Brazil, Kenya, India, Indonesia, Malaysia - Kathlyn Pattillo, EdWell

Discussants

• Olanrewaju Oniyitan, SEED Care & Support Foundation

• Aashti Zaidi, Global Schools Forum