On 29 June, at 1pm CAT, TaRL Africa hosted the second webinar for the year, focusing on engaging parents and communities.
During this time, when many children around the world are not able to go to school, organisations and schools across the world are trying to find ways to keep children learning. The COVID-19 crisis has highlighted the importance of engaging parents and communities in children’s education.
The webinar featured three speakers:
- Kunieda Nobuhiro will share experiences from working with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) on community engagement programmes across Africa
- Samantha Friedlander from J-PAL Global will share some of the rigorous evidence behind parental engagement
- Smitin Brid from Pratham will present on his work on Pratham’s Early Childhood Development programmes in India
Resources and further reading
- Webinar slides: Engaging Parents and Communities
Pratham:
J-PAL:
- What have we learned from randomized evaluations that policymakers, practitioners, and funders can use to improve social programs? J-PAL’s Policy Insights, organized by sector, highlight lessons emerging across multiple studies and the mechanisms that help explain the results. J-PAL’s upcoming policy insight titled “Providing Information to Students and Parents to Improve Learning Outcomes” draws on lessons from 23 randomized evaluations to demonstrate that giving parents and students information about their educational performance or options often increases parental engagement, student effort, or both, leading to improved learning outcomes. Providing information is also typically a low-cost intervention. Please check back in late July, when the insight will be posted here.
JICA:
- Hara, M., T. Maruyama, A. Kageyama and N. Kunieda. (Forthcoming). Quality Learning through Community-wide Collaboration: A Methodology to Overcome the “Learning Crisis” in Niger. In M. Nishimura (Ed.). Community Participation with Schools in Developing Countries: Towards Equitable and Inclusive Basic Education for All. New York & London: Routledge.
- Kozuka, E., Sawada, Y., & Todo, Y. (2016). “How Can Community Participation ImproveEducational Outcomes? Experimental Evidence from a School-Based Management Project in Burkina Faso”. JICA-RI Working Paper No. 112. Tokyo: Japan International Cooperation Agency Research Institute.
- Kozuka, E. (2018). “Enlightening communities and parents for improving student learning: Evidence from randomized experiment in Niger.” JICA RI Working Paper No.166. Tokyo: Japan International Cooperation Agency Research Institute.
- Kunieda, N., T. Maruyama, A. Kageyama and M. Hara. (Forthcoming). Educational Development through Community-wide Collaboration: How to Establish a Sustainable Community wide Initiative to Improve Education. In Nishimura. op.cit.
- Promotional movie of “School for All”
- Overview of the “School for All” model
- Training material: Revitalizing school management committees
- Training material: Improving learning outcomes through community participation
- Training material: Utilizing school grants effectively and properly
- Training material: Making a greater impact through the “Forum Approach”
This year, TaRL Africa will host a series of webinars on topics in foundational skills education. We will invite a range of education stakeholders to share their research findings, experiences, and lessons. To stay up to date with webinar news, please sign up for the mailing list.
Photo: Samyukta Lakshman, TaRL Africa
