VIPP_Unicef

Curricula development
Connected to training is the use of VIPP in planning and developing
curricula. Usually, curricula development is the domain of experts who
define, often in very rigid ways, what a whole cadre of teachers are to do
with their time and how a whole generation of children will learn.
Sometimes there is poor interaction and feedback between the experts
and those who are interpreting and applying their expertise in the
classroom.
VIPP allows such interaction and feedback to take place. Curricula
development experts can input their expertise through expert interviews,
expert panels and visualized presentations or lectures and can provide
the framework and standards. However, the presence of teachers,
administrators, psychologists and others in the planning workshop will
enrich the input and assist in creating a more useful curriculum.
However, in many developing countries today, the task of achieving
Education for All by the year 2000 has produced broader alliances.
Governments have come to realize that non-formal systems can sometimes
deliver literacy and numeracy programmes more efficiently to population
sectors which are being missed. However, there is often conflict over what
should be taught in what sequence, and how learning achievement should
be measured. Once again, VIPP methods can be used to bring NGOs and
government officials together, arriving at a consensus on these factors.
This will help to avoid controversy and conflict between formal and nonformal
systems.
Village-level development work
VIPP can be used for planning and implementing development activities
at the grass roots. In such processes local technicians or promoters work
with illiterate or marginalized people in suburban or rural areas. Facilitators,
in such cases, will employ several techniques which rely on the cultural
experience of the group, such as drawings or oral expressions. These may
be visualized by the facilitators themselves in the first instance, until local
people gain skill in this.
The principle of dialogue is the same: everybody is considered to be a
resource person for analyzing problems and for contributing to
solutions through development actions. This may be the key point of
VIPP: everybody, rich or poor, is respected and can freely express his
or her opinions and feelings. Realizing their different perspectives and
positions, the facilitator helps to arrive at a consensus on forthcoming
activities which is then shared by the whole group. With the poor, the
facilitators must be very careful to find the correct language and
discussion capacities to motivate a highly interactive process of
planning. The time schedule for local people often is restricted by their
production activities so that spare time for such events must be
identified beforehand by the participants.
THE USES OF VIPP
Group
events
and
VIPP
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