EQUIP2 Final Report.pdf - Education Policy Data Center

14
EQUIP2 Leader Award Final Report
recognized that the rapid increase in access was having a devastating impact
on school quality, shifting attention to the issues of retention, completion,
and learning. The global shift from access to quality provides the backdrop
for EQUIP2’s research in this area. From the beginning, EQUIP2 researchers
sought to answer the question: How do alternative education models meet
the education needs of underserved populations in developing countries?
Complementary Education
When EQUIP2 began in 2003, much of the discourse in educational
development focused on the achievement of Education for All. Patterns in
the international data revealed readily identifiable groups that were out of
school, including girls, children in rural areas, AIDS orphans, and others.
Meanwhile, the literature was replete with examples of large-scale, nongovernmental
educational programs that were successfully reaching these
populations in some of the world’s poorest countries. It was this reality, along
with a dearth of studies to examine why “alternative” programs were so much
more effective than government schools, that led the EQUIP2 consortium
to investigate the cost-effectiveness of reaching the underserved through
non-governmental education programs. By examining how such programs
were successfully reaching underserved groups, EQUIP2 would be in a
position to advise governments and donors on cost-effective strategies for the
achievement of Education for All.
However, the label “alternative education” did not appropriately represent
the types of programs the team was reviewing. Indeed, the term “alternative
education,” commonly used in developedcountry
contexts, primarily referred to charter
schools, alternative schools, independent
schools, and home-based learning programs
– all true alternatives to public schools. In
EQUIP2’s research, however, the children
from underserved communities were not
choosing among several school options
because they only had one. Other common
labels for non-governmental education
programs included “community schools”
and “non-formal learning,” but these were
also inadequate monikers to describe broadbased,
NGO-run education programs in areas
that had no government schools at all. The
Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee
(BRAC), identified by EQUIP2 researchers,
was a high-profile example: in 2004, there
“One outcome of the panel session
on complementary education at the
2006 Comparative and International
Education Society (CIES) in Hawaii
was that EQUIP2’s analysis and data
was highly appreciated, particularly
in application to access, completion,
and learning issues. Participants
noted the importance of linking
EQUIP2’s work to sector planning,
collection of sub-national data, and
teacher recruitment, training, and
support. Both Education for All (EFA)
and UNESCO’s Institute for Statistics
(UIS) plan to release data and information
on serving the underserved.”
EQUIP2 Quarterly Meeting Notes,
June 8, 2005