Quality early educational experience can have a significant influence on a child's ability to perform well in school and later life. A fast-growing regional programme in East Africa is helping under-privileged communities establish and maintain pre-schools that give their children a strong boost up the ladder of educational opportunity.

Access to quality education remains critical throughout the developing world even though the resources needed for its provision are shrinking. Helping parents and communities give their children a fair start has been a major concern of several agencies of the Aga Khan Development Network. They have helped to develop a novel approach to early childhood development that holds promise for under-resourced communities in East Africa and elsewhere in the developing world.

As of January 1998

 
Finding the Key

In the mid-1980s, Muslim leaders from Kenya’s coastal region requested assistance in improving the overall educational attainments of their youth. The Aga Khan Foundation responded first by funding several studies which revealed that the problem of access to education actually began in the early years. Low educational attainment could be traced back clearly to the lack of adequate preparation for primary school. This handicap made it difficult for children to gain access to formal schooling and to perform satisfactorily at subsequent levels if they were admitted to primary school.

The Foundation’s suggestion that appropriate early childhood education might be the key was well received by community leaders, even though the concept of pre-school was not familiar among the poorer coastal communities. The challenge would be to convince parents of the benefits of investing in an early start for their children. Although resources were scarce, physical facilities were available in traditional madrasas - or Qur’ãnic schools - which were largely unused in the morning hours. With motivation, it might be possible for parents to support an early childhood education initiative that addressed their desire to teach their children about religion and culture as well as prepare them for competitive primary school entrance requirements.

Putting the Pieces Together

Recognising the need to work with local educators, community leaders, parents and these existing community schools, the Foundation helped prominent coastal leaders formulate a pilot project to mobilise communities to provide appropriate early childhood educational activities in Mombasa. Their effort grew into a significant regional programme whose popularity is spreading among a variety of Muslim communities throughout East Africa.

The Foundation drew upon its earlier and on-going experience with the Kenya Institute of Education’s (KIE) District Centres for Early Childhood Education (DICECE) programme. The pioneering work of KIE helped communities in many parts of Kenya to provide early childhood educational opportunities for their children. The government programme, supported by Bernard van Leer Foundation, UNICEF and AKF, had already set up training centres for pre-school teachers in sixteen districts. These were developing curricula to pass on, through educationally appropriate activities, stories and songs, the cultural and ethical values of communities as diverse as the Boran in the north and the Masai in the central and southern parts of the country.

Planning in Mombasa advanced with inputs from many educators in Kenya and elsewhere. In 1986, with a grant from AKF, Swafiya Said, a schoolteacher and one of a group of people on the coast interested in finding the right approach to improving opportunities for Swahili children, took up the challenge of mobilising communities to support early childhood education activities. Her task was to concentrate on improving the educational standards amongst the more marginalised communities in Mombasa, and her approach was simple. Working with a traditional school or madrasa, until then exclusively devoted to religious education, she introduced complementary pre-school educational activities.

Demand for these pre-schools soon spread from one to ten madrasas and well beyond the city of Mombasa. AKF agreed to support the establishment of a resource centre to help meet the demand for training pre-school teachers. Staffed by dedicated women educators, the Centre’s mandate includes developing training methodologies, teaching programmes and manuals. It emphasises the use of low-cost, locally available indigenous material, and promotes activities that integrate local motifs and narratives from oral as well as written traditions. These components ensure that pre-school education is economically, socially, and culturally accessible and appropriate.
 

The development of the current madrasa pre-school approach took time. The new programme needed to reflect what was already known internationally about how children learn, as well as what parents in coastal communities wanted and expected them to learn at that age. Recognising that children learn best by relating to the environment – exploring, investigating, experimenting, making links and connections, discovering patterns and interacting with others – it was essential to train teachers who would teach effectively and create such supportive learning environments by making low-cost materials that were attractive, interesting to the children and effective as learning tools.

The Foundation completed an extensive assessment of the madrasa programme in 1994. The evaluation exercise identified positive strengths and recommended that the programme be expanded. It also identified some challenges concerning the financial, technical and organisational sustainability of the madrasa pre-schools.

Strategies to address the challenges were incorporated into a five-year plan, launched in 1995, which marked the beginning of the second phase of programme development.

The current five-year plan is to establish community schools that are well-managed and financially sustainable, thus offering high quality education at costs affordable to local communities. Madrasa Resource Centres in Mombasa, Kampala and Zanzibar will provide support by entering into two-year contractual relationships with up to 200 local communities wishing to set up madrasa pre-schools. The five-year plan has several features, described below, which together constitute a unique early childhood development programme.
 
Madrasa Resource Centres (MRCs)

The first of these features are the MRCs. As the project flourished with increasing numbers of coastal communities participating in the programme, the first of three MRCs was established in Mombasa in January 1990. Primarily a training centre for young women wishing to serve their communities, it also functioned as a co-ordinating and supporting centre for community pre-schools. The Centre concentrated on developing technical inputs, such as curriculum, design of learning materials and teacher training models. In response to requests from community leaders elsewhere, pilot projects were launched in Unguja and Pemba Islands and in Kampala, culminating in the establishment of resource centres in Zanzibar (November 1990) and Kampala (January 1993).

To assist with community mobilisation and to support those wishing to start pre-schools, staff of all three MRCs include Community Development Officers (CDOs). Their job is to explain the terms of partnership under which the Madrasa Pre-School Programme is willing to help communities to set up, fund and manage their madrasa pre-schools. The madrasa programme demands considerable commitment, management and investment from members of elected school committees. Communities which join the programme are informed of these terms of partnership before contracts are signed between regional MRCs and community leaders. The terms include participation from community leaders and members who must elect a school committee, identify motivated young women for training and provide a physical structure to house the school. Once a contract is signed, CDOs train members of school committees to manage finances, cater to the needs of madrasa teachers and maintain school buildings. Communities often realise the benefits of community-based and managed initiatives, and subsequently, mobilise themselves - independently - to meet other needs.

Teacher Training Programme

Motivated women, with basic education (an average of 10 years of schooling) are selected by their communities to train as ECD teachers. Often this is the only career training that is open to women of their level outside the domestic sphere. Teacher training programmes last two years and provide a combination of centre- and site-based training, extensive supervision and feedback as well as opportunities to work with peers. The sustained MRC support to teachers while they are learning to implement the curriculum creates an environment conducive to active learning that is rare in community schools in Africa.

Developed by MRC educators, the integrated curriculum grounds itself firmly on what is known about active, developmentally appropriate and culturally relevant early childhood practice. It gives to these generally accepted educational principles a distinctly local expression by the choice of low-cost learning materials and the understanding of curricular goals set by East African Ministries of Education. Perhaps most importantly, the curriculum is highly responsive to parental expectations that children be socialised into the cultural mores of the community. As such, it introduces children to stories and songs from different cultures, art activities which incorporate Islamic motifs and patterns, narratives from the Qur’ãn, as well as adab - the rules of etiquette, courtesy and cleanliness rooted in East African culture.

During the 1980s, a number of AKF grants were made to early childhood educators in developing countries of Asia and Africa to develop cognitively stimulating teaching and learning materials from low-cost, locally available materials. MRC staff benefited from the results of these successful experiments, quickly understanding and valuing the educational uses of seashells, coconuts, seed pods, soap boxes, bottle tops and scrap paper for creating appropriate materials. They added their own knowledge and appreciation of Islamic and African motifs from their surrounding environments. Thus, the average pre-school is full of brightly coloured toys, posters and flannel boards that help create a stimulating and cheerful setting for children’s early learning experiences.

The madrasa programme is experimenting with an innovative concept to supplement fee income to support community schools. It proposes to communities the establishment of mini-endowment funds for each school, the annual income from which will supplement the school’s finances and lead to more regular payment of teachers’ salaries. The funds will be centrally managed for maximum efficiency. However, each endowment is expected to consist of funds raised by the community, matching grants from the madrasa programme and a grant awarded to each school that successfully completes a contractual two-year relationship with a MRC. During this period, the candidate schools and their management committees are expected to demonstrate ability to maintain both educational quality and financial accountability.

The achievements of the programme thus far have been quite remarkable. Hundreds of teachers have been trained in active-learning methodology and over 4,800 children have benefited from the curriculum. More significantly, increasing numbers of communities are coming forward to take charge of their pre-schools and the responsibility for sustaining them. Their willingness to do so demonstrates that community-based initiatives can indeed provide quality, affordable early childhood education, thus dramatically improving later access to formal education. The programme has shown that it is possible to work with and through traditional institutions such as madrasas to integrate secular and moral education. Communities’ acceptance of this approach indicates that learning rooted in cultural norms and ethical values (whether or not faith-based) can be successfully imparted in conjunction with secular education in whichever societies and environments children live and grow to adulthood. The popularity of short courses delivered by the MRC in Mombasa to educators from non-madrasa pre-schools, private and government-funded alike (and that are open to students of all faiths), points to the wide applicability of this approach.

 The World Bank views the Madrasa Pre-school Programme as a promising model for community-based early childhood initiatives and is seeking to promote the approach elsewhere in Kenya. The Government of Kenya has awarded the Aga Khan Foundation $1 million to help fund the programme in Kenya along with other early childhood initiatives that are exploring ways to sustain community involvement. The Governments of Tanzania and Uganda are also following with keen interest the progress of the MRCs, which are now nationally registered non-profit organisations in all three countries.

It is 5.30 a.m. on the spice island of Zanzibar, off the east coast of Africa. Five-year-old Zulfa wiggles up from under warm covers to face her window - a little hole in the concrete wall of her house. Barely lifting her eyelids, she filters in the bright glare of the morning sun, rubs her eyes clear of sleep and crawls off her sleeping mat. A new day, but will it be any more exciting than the day before?

Zulfa lives in the tiny village of Paje under coconut trees on the eastern shore of Unguja, one of the two islands which, with

Pemba, make up Zanzibar. Her day begins at 6:00 a.m. when she is sent to fetch water. Returning with a heavy bucket, she finds her little sister awake and crying with hunger. Her mother, gathering her sisal baskets, rushes for the beach where she will spend the morning collecting seaweed. The village women cultivate it on plastic strings provided by the processing plant further up the coast. The tide won't wait.

Zulfa sighs and begins her daily chores. She feeds her sister the porridge prepared the night before, and then sweeps the floor and washes the dishes. For one so young, she has many domestic tasks.

At noon, her mother returns discouraged with the small amount of seaweed she was able to harvest before the tide came in. Zulfa listens patiently to the worried monologue, but as soon as she can, she darts out of the house. She longs for someone to play with, but the sand lanes are empty. All the children have chores to do.

As she watches her child run away, Hamida is aware that the challenge she and her husband face is similar to that of many other parents on the coast. How can they ensure that their children receive some form of education to prepare them for the future? When seaweed is the main source of income, it is no wonder that parents dream of other jobs for their children.

Hamida and her neighbours shared their concerns. Determined to secure better opportunities for the next generation, the villagers of Paje held a meeting. After much discussion, they agreed that establishing madrasa pre-schools, similar to those in the villages of Unguja Ukuu and Uzi some 25 kilometres away, could be beneficial.

The community formed a committee, elected officers, restored an old building and selected several motivated young women, who had completed high school but were unemployed, to train as teachers. The community thus put together all the elements needed to join the Madrasa Pre-school Programme run out of the MRC office in Zanzibar town.

Today, in addition to the traditional madrasas attended by all the children in the village after school, Paje has two well-developed pre-schools. The schools are managed and financed solely by the community. There are currently 104 children enrolled, and seven teachers have completed their training.

When one visits Answariya or Muawanet pre-school in Paje, one hears laughter. Calls to friends fill the courtyard as children come running in, accompanied by parents or other caretakers. Pupils greet their teachers confidently, obviously eager for the morning routine to begin. Early arrivals play on outdoor equipment made by their fathers or with home-made balls. Others jump rope, sing in small groups, or sit in circles discussing what they will do during free play that morning.

Once class begins, the sound turns to a purposeful hum. Children are absorbed in painting, shaping objects with wet sand, pretending to cook or talking on the "telephone", made from string with plastic ice cream containers for receivers. Such learning experiences, as emphasised during in-service teacher training sessions at all three MRCs in East Africa, result in children growing more active, enthusiastic and confident.

The pre-schools in Paje have meant a new beginning for Zulfa and her friends. Zulfa still rises early each morning, but to bathe, get dressed and breakfast before school. Despite the additional chores, her mother's spirit is lighter. Like the other parents, she knows the importance of education for her children. And for Zulfa, for whom every day is still a new day, the new days are new beginnings - steps forward to a brighter future

The Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) is a group of agencies working to improve living conditions and opportunities in specific regions of the developing world. Their individual mandates range from architecture, education and health to the promotion of private sector enterprise and rural development. Members of the Network include the Aga Khan Foundation, the Aga Khan Health Services, the Aga Khan Education Services, the Aga Khan Building and Planning Services, the Aga Khan University, the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development and the Aga Khan Trust for Culture. Inspiration for the creation of these agencies, some of them over one hundred years old, derives from the Muslim ethic of compassion for the most vulnerable in society. Network agencies draw on the Ismaili community's traditions of philanthropy, volunteerism, self-help, education and social welfare. In every country, they work for the common good of all citizens, regardless of their gender, origin or religion.

The Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) is a private, development agency founded by the Aga Khan, spiritual leader of the Shia Imami Ismaili Muslims. Its mission is to promote creative and effective solutions to problems that impede social development in certain low-income countries of Asia and East Africa. AKF encourages initiatives in health, education, rural development and local institutional capacity-building that have the potential to promote the well-being of less fortunate people in the developing world. Grantees are selected without regard to race, religion, gender or political affiliation on the basis of their ability to address important issues related to the improvement of the quality of life in their communities.

Established in 1967, the Foundation spans four continents. With headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, AKF has branches in Bangladesh, Kenya, India, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Tanzania and Uganda, as well as affiliates in Canada, Portugal, the United Kingdom and the United States. With roots in Africa and Asia and supporters in Europe and North America, AKF co-operates with over 50 national and international agencies to finance programmes primarily in developing countries.

The Aga Khan Foundation branches in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda are now co-operating on a number of regional programmes. When AKF began working with young children in Kenya, it was one of only two donors that explicitly funded early childhood care and development programmes (the other being the Bernard van Leer Foundation).

Today there is much stronger interest in investment in early childhood development, a tendency that AKF units are encouraging strongly through participation in World Bank-funded seminars and advocacy work with governments, particularly in Kenya and Uganda.

Aga Khan Education Service, East Africa
Bernard van Leer Foundation
Canadian International Development Agency
European Commission
Ford Foundation
Governments of Kenya, Uganda and Zanzibar
Rahimtulla Trust
World Bank

© AKF 1998
Photos: Jean-Luc Ray
Printed in Switzerland