World bank documents

25 Pages·2000·1.22 MB·English

by  World Bank Group

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e e PHREE Background Paper Series
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PP Document No.PHREE/89/23
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AA In Support of Primary Schooling in Developing Countries:
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ss A New Look at Traditional Indigenous Schools
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by
dd Daniel A. Wagner
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riri (Consultant)
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Education and Employment Division
dd Population and Human Resources Department
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ss September 1989
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Thisp ublcauon smin ses as an oule for backgrnind productsf rom the ongoig work progam of policy researcha nd analysi of the
Educationa nd Enqlment DO;ion in heP opulationa nd HumanR esourcesDm of the WorldB ank 7he vwsexpressed are those
of thea whor(s)Aa nd shouldn ot be aurlbutedt o theW orldB ank.
contents
Page
Abstract .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Introduction .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
.
Alternatives chools, alternativet o what? ... . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Indigenousf orms of education. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Islamic schoolingi n the contemporaryw orld . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Learning and instructioni n indigenouss chools. . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Policy issues and options .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Conclusion.. . .. ....... 14
Footnotes. .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
References.. . .. 20
I
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In supporto f primary schoolingi n developingc ountries:
A new look at traditionali ndigenouss chools
Abstract
The present paper provides an overview of educational systems --
termed indigenous schools -- which are primarily descendants of religious
schoolsp redatingE uropeanc olonialism.T he Islamics chool,o ne such indigenous
school system, is described in terms of its social and instructional
consequencesf or childrena nd societyi n certainp arts of the developingw orld.
Since increaseda ccess to primary schoolinga nd the learning of basic literacy
skills are important educational policy goals, it is argued that such
alternativef orms of schoolingm ay be useful in support of governmentp rimary
school institutions.
In supporto f primary schoolingi n developingc ountries:
A new look at traditional indigenouss chools
Introduction
The continuingw orld economicc risish as led most developingc ountries
to reassess their varied educationalp rograms. Some specialistsh ave focused
their attention on the relationshipb etween educationa nd functionall lteracy
as primary forces behind labor productivitya nd economic development (Blaug,
1985; Simmons, 1979), while others have sought to understand the internal
efficiencyo f the entire educationals ystem (Windham,1 986). Still others have
argued that alternative eduicational programs -- beyond those of the formal
public sector -- are the best way to reach those most in need of additional
training and are the most cost-effective (Belloncle, 1984; Coombs, Prosser, &
Ahmed, 1973). These "nonformal"e ducationalp rograms have achieved a certain
amount of credibility in developing countries and have been supported by
internationalo rganizationss uch as Unesco, as well as by various development
agencies.
Within the sphere of optionsf or educationald evelopment,t he present
paper develops three basic themes: (1) alternative and indigenous forms of
schooling are potentially important national resources in many Third World
countries,b ut have generallyb een ignoredb y developmentp lanners;( 2) literacy
instructionh as often been a central feature, and literacy acquisition a
frequent product, of such alternative school systems; and (3) within a
contemporary economic climate of budget constraints, indigenous schools
constitute a potentially cost effective way of reaching more students and
teachingb asic skills.
Alternatives chools, alternativet o what?
Any discussiono f "alternatives chools'n ecessitatess ome reference
to a central system of primary schooling.V irtuallya ll countrieso f the world
have governmentp rimary schools; and, these have continuedt o expand over the
last half-century,s uch that enrollmento f primary school-agedp opulationn ow
3-
averagesm ore that 95% in industrializedc ountriesa nd roughly 50-80% in most
developingc ountries (World Bank, 1988). In spite of the impressiveg ains in
access to education -- primary, secondary and tertiarv -- of the twentieth
century, many countries have encountered major difficulties in trying to
universalizep rimary schooling, retain children in school, and provide basic
skills such as literacy and numeracy. Access to primary schooling and the
provision of basic skills have often been held to be the dual goals of
educationalp olicy plannersi n developingc ountries( WorldB ank, 1987), but the
achievement of these goals has proved to be more elusive than originally
thought. While considerablea ttention has been focused on how to improve
government-operatepdr imary schools through studies of efficiency (Lockheed&
Hanushek,1 987; Windham, 1986), relativelyl ittle attentionh as been given to
alternativef orms of schoolinga s potentialc ontributorst o educationalp olicy.
How might we conceptualizes uch alternativef orms of schooling?I n New
Raths to learning (1973), Coombs and his colleagues outlined an agenda for
"nonformal education," suggesting that such schooling can fulfill three
educational roles- (1) prepare children for primary schooling through
preschools; (2) complement formal schooling through extracurricularl earning
experiences;a nd (3) provide "continuing"e duoationf or youths and adults who
received little or no schooling in the past (Coombs, et al., 1973, p. 25).
Coombs and others have devotedm ost of their effortst o creatingp rograms that
build on the latter two roles, throught he creationo f nonformalp rogramsb uilt
upon networks outside of the formal school system,b ut often taking advantage
of its infrastructure( e.g., teachers,c lassrooms,a nd so forth). Relatively
little attention has been devoted toward issues of preschoolinga s a way to
enhances choolp reparation( thoughs ee, Halpern& Myers, 1985). Furthermore,t he
large majority of nonformal educational programs have dealt with older
adolescentsa nd adults,w ith little attempt to provide alternativest o primary
schooling. Yet there exist alternative forms of schooling which have been
maintained outside of standard governmentp rimary school institutions,a nd it
is to these that we now turn.
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Indigenousf orms of education
In the history of Third World education, the introduction of
government primary schools by colonial powers has sometimes occurred in an
educational vacuum. In other cases, however, newly established government
schools competedw ith, displacedo r even destroyedt he pre-colonials ystems of
schooling. For the present paper, we will term use the term "indigenous"t o
refer to these pre-colonials ystems of education.I ndigenouse ducationm ay be
defined as any formalized (that is, culturallyc odified, recognized,a nd/or
authorized)s ystem of instructiont hat Is not a direct descendant of modern
European public schooling. During the colonial period of the seventeentht o
twentieth centuries, European education was exported to many Third World
nations, where it came into contact and occasionalc onflictw ith pre-existing
indigenouse ducationals ystems., t These survivingi ndigenouss ystemsg enerally
have been overlookedi n the rush to modernize and Westernizee ducation in the
developingw orld.
Pre-Renaissance European schooling generally took the form of
religious instruction which made extensive use of traditional pedagogical
methods. In Christian as well as Jewish schools, the focus was on memorizing
sacred texts during lengthy periods of study with a single teacher. The early
years of study emphasizedr ote learning,w hile later years included in-depth
understandingo f texts throught he student'sa pprenticeshipt o a given mafter.
Studentsw ere not age-gradeda s in modern primarys chool classroomsb ut, rather,
learneda set of requiredt exts througha tutorialp rocess in which the teacher
provided tasks as a function of each student's abilities and accomplishments
(Wagner, 1985; Wagner & Lotfi, 1980). Such traditional methods are remarkably
similart o those discussedi n recent researche ffortsi n the study of children's
learning through cross-aget utoring (Greenfield& Lave, 1982; Vygotsky, 1978;
Wood, Bruner, & Ross, 1974). In addition, traditional schooling provided
"cultural capital' (Bourdieu,1 973; Eickelman, 1978) or "credentialling"i n
terms of a body of knowledge important for the child's successfulf unctioning
in the society as well as for future social status. In this latter respect,
traditional and modern forms of schooling share much in common.
While European traditional education has declined dramatically over
the centuries,i ndigenouse ducationa nd traditionalp edagogyc an still be found
in many parts of the Third World. Buddhist traditional pedagogy has been
maintainedi n numerousA sian countries( see Guruge, 1985 on Sri Lanka; Tambiah,
1968, on Thailand;o r Yoo, 1958, on Korea). African bush schools, such as those
describedb y Gay (1973) in Liberia, involved the memorizationo f oral rather
than written texts and resulted in similara cquisitiono f cultural capital;t he
skills of literacya nd numeracyt aught in indigenousr eligiouss choolsw ere not,
however, a part of the bush school tradition.
As noted above, there are numerous types of religious indigenous
schools,a nd considerables imilaritiesa mongstt hem. Indeed, it is probably not
by chance that the great religioust raditionsa lso made use of literacya s a way
of maintaining continuitya cross generations,a nd in order to go beyond the
limits of human memory. With its geographicala nd cultural diversity,t he most
widespreadc ontemporarye x4apleo f indigenouse ducationa nd traditionalp edagogy
in the world is almost certainly that of Islamic -ducation.
Islamics choolingi n the contemporaryw orld
°Ilamic,o r Quranic, schoolsa re among the least-studiede ducattonal
institutionsi n today's world, even though millions of children in dozens of
countriesa ttend such schools for eitherp art or all of their formal education.
In a comparatives tudy of Islamics choolingi n Indonesia,N orth Yemen, Senegal,
Morocco, and Egypt, substantiald iversity was found in these schools, both
across and within societies (Wagner& Lotfi, 1982, .983); Table 1 provides a
schematico verview of Islamics choolingi n each of the five countriesc ompared.
In spite of an emphasiso n the study of Quranic texts,w hich provides a similar
focus for Islamic schoolinga cross the world, Quranic schools have adapted to
a variety of cultural constraintsw ithin each society, leading to important
differencesi n Quranic schooling in differentc ountries.F or example, Islamic
schooling in Indonesia (which,w ith over 100 million Muslims, is the world's
most populous Islamic society, and sends over 20 million children to Islamic
schools each year) was superceded an earlier Buddhist system, yet still
maintains some of its features, includinga long-terma pprenticeshipa nd the
attribution of mystical powers to the religious teacher (Jones, 1983). By
contrast,m ost children in North Yemen go througho nly three to five years of
Quranic schooling, and the Quranic teacher, beyond instructing children, often
serves as a legal arbiter in his village because he is the single literate
person who can read documents to adjudicate legal disputes (Messick, 1983).
Also importanti s the fact that Quranic schoolsc an vary dramatically
within societies, primarily as a function of the last several decades of
modernization. In Morocco, where almost 80 percent of all children now attend
Quranic schools for some period of time, the traditional schools for older
children are disappearing, while the "modernize," Quranic preschools, which
sometimese mploy teachersw ith public high school diplomas,a re attractingm ore
young children than ever before. One importantr eason for this increase in
attendance is the participation of girls, who were once excluded from such
schools. In Senegal, where girls have often attended Quranic schools (in
contrast to Yemen), modernization has led to significant changes in pedagogy
and curriculum. Rather than emphasizing rote learning of Arabic texts, which
are not understood by children who speak only Senegalese languages, many Quranic
school teachers are now trying to teach spoken and written Arabic as a second
language. Changes such as those found in Morocco and Senegal are taking place
in many parts of the Islamic world, as people adapt to changing societal
pressures. These changes have also placed Quranic schooling in more direct
competitionw ith the governments ecular school systemsi n some Muslim societies
(e.g.,S enegala nd Indonesia),s ince the modernizedQ uranics choolsn ow provide
a culturally and religiouslyv alued alternativet o modern schooling (For a
sampling of studies of Quranic schooling,s ee Brown & Hiskett, 1975; Eisemon,
1987; Erny, 1972; Genest & Santerre,1 974; Kuku-Gimbil,1 983; Lecourtois,1 978;
Wagner, 1985).
ContemporaryI slamic educationp rovides perhaps the most important
example of indigenouse ducation in today'sw orld. The Islamic school system,
which remained relativelys tatic over many centuries,h as now begun to undergo
significant changes, which vary from society to society. The point to be
emphasizedh ere is that Islamics chools,l ike other indigenoilssc hools,c ontinue
to attract very large numbers of children, many of whom never attend
governmental secular schools. Such indigenous schools may be seen as an
important educational resource. This is so, at least in part, because the
"reach'o f indigenouss choolingp enetratesm ore effectivelyt han many government
systems into the poorest,m ost traditional,a nd least accessibler egionso f the
countriesc oncerned. Indeed, it is preciselyd ue to the difficultyo f gaining
access to these same populationsw hich bas protectedt he indigenouss choolsf rom
serious competitionb y the state.
However,a ccess to indigenouss choolingw ould not be consideredt o be
of much utility if one could assume that suclhs chools provided little relevant
instruction of skills thought to be importantf or national development.A s it
happens, many indigenouss choolsp rovide,a s a by-producto f religioust raining,
language, cognitive, and social skills very similar to those which are taught
in the contemporarys ecular school system.
Learning and Instructioni n indigenouss chools
The achievemento f literacyh as been one area of curriculara greement
among contemporarye ducationals ystems.O ften defineds implya s the individual's
possession of and control of the skills of reading and writing, literacy
neverthelessh as been studiedb y specialistsw ho consider its acquisitiont o be
both an individual and social phenomenon.M ore recently, literacy has been
increasinglys tudied in its historical and social contexts (Clanchy, 1979;
Goody, 1968; Oxenham, 1980). In addition, literacyh as been suggested as a
factor crucial to promoting economic development (Anderson& Bowman, 1966;
Harman, 1974; Lerner, 1958). As a consequence,n ational and international
organizations (in particular Unesco) typically calculate the percentage of
"literatep ersons" in each country from the number of adults (15 years and
older) who have attended at least four (or more, dependingo n national census
materials) years of eleventarys chool (see Wagner, in press, for a review of
literacy surveys in developing countries). In some cases, this figure is a
clear overestimationo f national literacyl evels, since schoolingm ay be poor,
attendance low, or skill retention minimal (see Noesjirwan, 1974; Simmons,
1976). In other cases, literacym ay be underestimated,s ince those who calculate
national literacy rates often fail to consider that literacy is acquired in
indigenouss chools.F or example,t he actual adult literacyr ate in Senegalw ould
be considerablyh igher if Arabic as well as French literacyw ere included in
census data on literacy (Wagner& Lotfi, 1983).
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The first major collection of work on literacy acquisition in
indigenouss chools was Goody's (1968) Literacy in traditionals ocieties,w hich
includeda significants ectiono n Islamics chool literacy.L iteracy instruction
has been shown to be an importantp roducto f Quranic schooling,b ut literacya nd
other aspects of instructiona re known to vary substantiallya cross teachers,
schools,a nd societies( Ferguson,1 971; Jurmo, 1980; O'Halloran,1 979; Scribner
& Cole, 1981; Spratt & Wagner, 1986; Wagner & Lotfi, 1982). Disregarding,f or
the moment, the recent changesn oted in the previousd iscussion,i nstructioni n
traditionalQ uranic schoolingh as typicallyi ncludeda numbero f common features
of literacy instruction:o ral memorizationo f the Quran; emphasis on correct
(that is, accurate and aesthetic) oral recitation; training in the Arabic
script; and strict authoritariani nstruction.I n contrast to the primers used
in virtuallya ll,m odern seculars chools,l iteracyi nstructionw ith the Quran as
text provided no opportunity for age-graded vocabulary or grammatical
structures.I n addition,t he illustrationst hat most primers use to facilitate
reading are strictlyp rohibitedf or religiousr easons in Islamics chools.T hus,
it Is hardly surprisingt hat learningt c read by using the Quran as a primer (as
in learningw ith the Bible) was and is not a trivial task for many children.
Nonetheless, both the most traditional and somewhat modernized
contemporaryQ uranic schoolsa lso share a number of commonb asic featuresw ith
modern secular schools. In spite of numerous regional differences,Q uranic
schoolsc an be said to teach childrenh ow to: learn in a structureds etting; (2)
respect the teacher; (3) use language and recite in unison; (4) encode and
decode an alphabet; (5) be a moral person and a good citizen; and (6), more
recently,d o basic arithmetic.E ach of these features,a nd there are others as
well, can be found in a great many secularp reschoola nd primary school settings
in developing countries.F urthermore,t he sacred quality of the text and the
strong motivationo f children and parents towardsQ uranic learningm ay provide
an additional stimulus for learning that many secular school systems cannot
match.
Althoughw e know that literacya cquisitiona nd other forms of learning
take place in Islamics chools,r eliables tatisticsa re generallyu navailableo n
the actual degree of cognitive achievementa mong children in most societies