Reaching the marginalized: EFA global monitoring report, 2010; 2010

REACHING THE MARGINALIZEDLevelling the playing fieldfor tackling social and cultural discrimination,and poor nutrition. In many countries progresstowards more inclusive education is being heldback by piecemeal, under-resourced andfragmented policy planning.This part of the chapter starts by setting outthe framework for understanding the levels ofintervention required to combat marginalization.It identifies three broad layers explored in thesubsequent sections: policies for improving accessand affordability; the learning environment andfactors influencing education quality; and thebroader enabling environment for tacklingmarginalization in education, including povertyreduction measures and legal entitlements. Theconclusion highlights the importance of joiningup all aspects of these policy approaches into anintegrated framework for tackling marginalization.The analytical frameworkConsider the experience of five primary school agechildren who are all out of school. One is a Hmonggirl living in a remote hill region of the Lao People’sDemocratic Republic. The nearest school is a twohourwalk away and classes are taught in Lao, alanguage she does not understand. The secondchild lives a few metres from a public school undera sackcloth tent in Manila. He spends his daycollecting and selling rubbish to buy food forhimself and his siblings. The third is a young girlin northern Nigeria who has a brother in schoolbut has dropped out herself because she is aboutto be married. The fourth, a Masai boy from Wajirin northern Kenya, tends cattle during a long trekto grazing land. In a small Brazilian town, the fifthchild, who has a severe hearing impairment, doesnot go to school even though there are severalnearby. Local teachers lack training to teach a deafchild and her parents cannot afford a hearing aid.the female half – face restricted opportunitiesbecause of the lower value attached to theirschooling by parents or practices such as earlymarriage. Building a new school in Wajir willnot necessarily help educate the children ofMasai communities whose livelihoods dependon being mobile.One way of thinking about marginalization is toidentify some of the key ingredients for overcomingit. Figure 3.29 presents these ingredients in aschematic outline.Accessibility and affordability. Proximity ofschools to communities is an obvious conditionfor participation in education, especially foryoung girls, as gender disparities in manycountries widen with distance. Schools also needto be affordable. Just as poverty can leave peoplehungry amid plentiful food, so it can lock poorchildren out of education even when schools areavailable. Public policy can ensure that childrenare not disadvantaged by the location or physicalaccessibility of classrooms or by cost barriersto education.The learning environment. Most teachersattempt conscientiously to do a good job, oftenin difficult circumstances. Yet millions of childrenface restricted opportunities to learn in anappropriate language and millions more aretaught by overstretched, undermotivated,Figure 3.29: The Inclusive Education TriangleLearning environment Allocating teachers equitably Recruiting and training teachers from marginalized groups Providing additional support to disadvantaged schools Developing a relevant curriculum Facilitating intercultural and bilingual educationThe inclusiveeducation triangleindentifies threebroad strategiesfor tacklingmarginalizationEach of these children experiences marginalizationin education. Yet the underlying causes vary.Distance to school, the language of instruction,child labour and the affordability of education,discrimination and low expectations, and traditionalcultural practices and beliefs all play a role.Disentangling the forces behind marginalizationis vital, for obvious reasons. Raising teachingstandards in schools in Manila will not help childrenexcluded from those schools by poverty and childlabour. Increasing the overall education budgetin northern Nigeria’s Kano state may not deliverthe intended results if half the state’s children –Accessibilityand affordability Cutting direct and indirect costs Providing targeted financial incentives Investing in school infrastructure Bringing classrooms closer to children Supporting flexible provision Coordinating and monitoring non-state provisionEntitlementsand opportunities Developing poverty reduction strategies Tackling early childhood deprivation Enforcing anti-discrimination legislation Providing social protection Allocating public spending more equitably187