|
Direkt zum Seiteninhalt...
Overall Objective: Improved livelihood security of at least 13,500 rural households (67,500 beneficiaries) in 9 pilot Districts of Umutara, Kibuye and Gikongoro Provinces.
Specific Objective: 19,000 pupils, their parents and surrounding communities of the 27 pilot schools apply sustainable Natural Resource Management (NRM) and Rural Enterprise Development (RED) methods.
The proposed project objective goes beyond the scope of traditional theoretical primary schooling by giving it a basic vocational or at least pre-vocational practical skills orientation. The rationale behind the objective starts from the fact that schools, as generalised educational institutions, have originated from industrialised countries with highly diversified, formal labour markets, where basic literacy and numeracy, as provided in schools, are normally followed by more specialised vocational training in a variety of institutions. Most sub-Saharan countries and Rwanda in particular, are different. They are characterised by predominantly rural economies, with more than 85% of the population depending on small-scale agriculture for their subsistence, while formal labour markets are highly restricted with limited prospects for expansion.
The majority of primary school leavers do not have any chance of further formal education and vocational training, and depend heavily on farming. Purely "academic" schooling in primary schools is seen as inadequate particularly when the transition rate to secondary school is 37%. This implies that up to 60% of primary leavers terminate their formal education at primary level, and fall back into the rural countryside. Once this literate population of youth leaves school, conscious of NRM/RED approaches, this project will have delivered the message home. It is taking on a curriculum that offers NRM and RED knowledge and skills to the children before they leave school, in order to prepare for life after school.
In order to achieve the project objectives, three basic principles will be applied:
- First, primary school curriculum development – in natural resource management and rural enterprise development – must be flexible enough to allow for selection and adjustment of teaching content according to the school's environment (e.g., in providing for agricultural class projects which might have promising results under local conditions). In this case, the teachers' scheme of work will be based on the seasonal calendar of the chosen crops. Local traditional farming practices could also become an object of analysis, in order to avoid their uncritical replacement with so called "modern agricultural methods" (such as monoculture or the indiscriminate use of agrochemicals), which do not always prove superior to traditional farming.
- Second, the proposed farming techniques should emphasise the conservation of natural resources, e.g. by promoting agroforestry and mixed- & intercropping, organic fertility control (mulching, compost) and non chemical methods of pest and disease control, whenever applicable.
- Third, the promotion of gender equality in education and natural resources management will be vitally important to the success of the project. The provision of education and economic opportunities continues to favour boys, with the result that girls are taken out of primary school or, if they do manage to complete the primary level, are prevented from entering secondary school. And when they do leave school, they have little practical knowledge and skills to apply in the “real world”.
Based on these principles, achievement of the project objectives assumes also that school curricula will play a dominant role in the formation of attitudes among pupils. This can be seen especially among the many primary school leavers who are always deserting the rural areas and migrating to towns in search of jobs without competitive saleable skills on the labour market. A better/adopted education will help to give Rwandese school leavers better means for their future. Pupils shall be prepared to find other/additional means of living besides traditional agriculture thus opening new economic opportunities for them.
This will create hope and positive attitudes towards agriculture and a better rural livelihood as opposed to the past education system that used to give them unrealistic expectations of white collar jobs supposedly available in towns. Those attitudes would lead to the depletion of the rural labour force of able bodied (mostly male) youth and the creation of mass urban unemployment with the feared consequences, such as the increase of HIV/AIDS infection among youth, criminality, political manipulation of the youth, etc.
The other aim of the project will be to contribute to improving rural livelihoods and, specifically, rural enterprise development in the pilot school’s surrounding communities. This will focus on the demonstration effects of a well run school plot, the skills acquired – and passed on in the wider community – by the school leavers (who will be the progress and entrepreneurial farmers of the future), and teachers assuming the role of agricultural extensionists. This means that the project is proposing a gradual change for schools and teachers to adjust their role in society.
01.01.2006 - 30.06.2009
European Commission (EC)
[back]
| 
