Basic Education Sector Programme (BESP) Colloquium

 - MAKE BESP IMPACT SUSTAINABLE -

The Basic Education Sector Programme (BESP), jointly funded by the Sri Lankan and the German Government and implemented through the Ministry of Education and the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) is coming to an end. It evolved in 2001 by merging other education projects supported by Germany. It comprises four units, i.e.

•   Material Development &Training Unit based at the National Institute of Education (NIE) supporting pre-service teacher education.

•  Teacher In-service Project, Central Province (TIP/CP), Teacher In-service Project North East Province (TIP/NEP) supporting in-service teacher education.

•  Basic Education for Children in Affected Areas (BECAre) supporting psychosocial counselling and catch-up education of the affected children.

•  Vanni Education Rehabilitation Project (VERP) supporting the development of lost education of the children in Vanni due to the conflict.

BESP is phasing out in 2005 after completing its activities and making way for the partner institutions to continue with the good work and a new project called “Education for Social Cohesion”. The colloquium MAKE BESP IMPACT SUSTAINABLE was held to appraise the contributions made by BESP to the development of education sector, to critically analyse their strengths and weakness through the various impact studies conducted and to find out ways and means to make BESP impact sustainable in the light of the new education reforms. The colloquium was held at the National Institute of Education under the distinguish patronage of the Secretary to the Ministry of Education, Dr. Tara de Mel and the Director General of the National Institute of Education, Prof. Jagath Wickramasinghe.

The presentations of the Colloquium were done in a national forum entertaining the points of view of the partners namely the Ministry of Education, the National Institute of  Education, the Provincial Ministries of Education and the GTZ on the achievements and experiences of the BESP interventions during its tenure.

The Colloquium was inaugurated with the lighting of the Traditional Oil Lamp by the  distinguished guests. This was followed by religious observances.

In his inaugural address Prof. Jagath Wickramasinghe – Director General NIE – presented an overview of the activities of BESP in the areas of the development of curricular materials and the training of teacher educators in both pre-service and in-service teacher education supporting the national education reforms. He also made a special reference to the psychosocial intervention and Catch-up education initiated in the North & East and the possibility of extending to the other parts of the country. He expressed his great appreciation for the support extended by BESP on the implementation of the national education reforms and its special efforts in strengthening peace and harmony within the country.

Speaking about the background of BESP, Mr. R.S. Medagama – Advisor to the Ministry of Education, traced back to the historical evidence of the ties of Germany and Sri Lanka and the continued support extended by the German Government in many fields and specially in the field of educational development. As ministry official who has been associating all activities of the BESP units he expressed his satisfaction in its contribution to the development of education and his gratitude towards the German Government in general and GTZ in particular for all the support extended and for further assistance already agreed for future projects.

Dr. Gerhard Huck, GTZ Programme Coordinator made his presentation on major impacts of BESP coveing major activities of the individual units of BESP and the positive impact of them in various fields of education through experiences and studies conducted. A detailed account of the following areas of BESP interventions was presented. 

• Primary Pre-service Teacher Education Language Component and Internship Programme
• Teacher In-service Programme – improvement of primary classroom teaching through training of educational personnel based on five handbooks developed specifically for this purpose
• Development of basic education of the children in disadvantaged areas through psychosocial counselling, catch-up and remedial educational programmes conducted by BECAre and VERP projects in the North and East.

BESP also contributed much to strengthen Peace & Harmony in the country integrating the concept of Peace into the curriculum materials developed, teacher training conducted and bringing together the student teachers of National Colleges of Education who belong to all ethnic groups and religions in special peace programme conducted yearly, in cooperation with the National Institute of Education and the Ministry of Education.

At the end of his presentation he introduced a DVD on peace education that was produced by BESP in three languages in cooperation with Young Asia Television and the Unesco International Bureau of Education, Geneva to be used for Sinhala, Tamil and English languages classes at National Colleges of Education. He also demonstrated modern knowledge management by presenting a VCD containing important documents, studies and impacts of BESP. Both modern IT instruments were handed over to Dr. Tara de Mel, Prof. Wickremasinghe and the GTZ Country Director Dr. Roland F. Steurer as a token of successful development cooperation between Sri Lanka and Germany in the education sector. 

Dr. Tara de Mel – Secretary to the Ministry of Education – graced this memorable occasion. Addressing the gathering she referred to the new education reforms and the role the GTZ supported BESP played in its implementation. She presented the Ministry’s point of view, the new planning approach and the tasks ahead.

One of the main items of the programme was the presentations on BESP outcomes and findings with regard to the areas of intervention of the different units.

For pre-service teachers education Mr. Shirley Jayamaha, Technical Advisor MDTU, presented the major activities and outcomes in pre-service teacher education followed by the of presentation of the impact of MDTU intervention on pre-service teacher education by Dr. Nanayakkara, Head of the Impact Study Team. He pointed out that the new “Internship Guidelines” manual is highly appreciated by all the stakeholders. The training provided for the teacher educators, principals and mentors of internship schools had tremendous impact on the quality of the internship programme. The study also shows that there is a big demand from principals to get the services of Interns to their schools. He added that in order to maintain the sustainability of the internship programme in-house training programmes for teacher educators and in turn to the mentors be organized in future.

It was also recommended:

1. To make use of computers to store data related to internship programmes.
2. To conduct focused training programmes for teacher educators on topics such as action research, development professional competencies of interns and their assessment.
3. To ensure that valuable work initiated on the internship programme is carried forward with necessary improvements.

Mr. Thesomayanantham, Technical Advisor TIP/CP, presented major activities and outcomes of the continuing teacher education component of BESP by referring to initial interventions in the Central and the North-East Province and the activities in all provinces in the island.

This was followed by the presentation of the impact of in-service activities by Mr. Jayasingha Herath. He presented empirical research results through a bar graph the high level of impact comparing the two studies conducted – Baseline Study in 2000 and Impact Study in 2003 using 35 schools and 43 classes. For example the percentage of child centred learning has increased by 60% on the average in these 35 schools while there is a 70% increase on attending to weak students and a similar increase in creating a joyful learning environment. Questioning and answering also has significantly improved by 73%.

The following suggestions were made to the MoE and the NIE for the continuity and completion of TIP work:

•    To continue training on remaining manuals

•   To train the backlog of untrained teachers and new recruits

•   To adopt the participatory TIP training approach and utilize available trained human resources

•   To support the newly established Basic Education Sector Unit in Trincomalee and the Teacher In-service Training Unit in Kandy in implementing these new approaches.

The first presentation regarding BESP efforts in conflict affected areas was made by Prof. Daya Somasundaram from Jaffna University on the activities and outcomes of psychosocial counselling and catch-up education and the impact of such activities in the North & East. This BESP component was initiated in 2001. The approach shifted from center-based to school-based activities in 2002. Psychosocial intervention as a major focus of BECAre activities has meanwhile resulted in the training of 154 counsellors and 1200 befrienders. The training manual “Child Mental Health” was developed to train the teachers as counsellors  at Shanthiham. It is now available in English, Tamil and Sinhala.

An impact study revealed that training has moulded counsellors’ attitudes positively, particularly with respect to

• care and affection for children,

• tolerance and avoidance of punishment in all forms,

• attention to children with special needs,

• listening with empathy and patience,

• maintaining a joyful and democratic class atmosphere.

Mr. Kandasamy, Technical Advisor, VERP, presented the catch-up and remedial education conducted through specially developed materials on language and mathematics. First 120 trainers were trained  and they in turn trained 400 teachers in the education zones in Vanni. An English proficiency course was conducted for 600 primary teachers. The selected teachers were also given a special training in primary English teaching methodology to teach English in primary classes. A number of examples were presented to show the impact of VERP activities on the education development in Vanni.

Another highlight of the colloquium were two cultural performances presented by Mahaveli and Ruhunu NCoEs. The first one was “Saraswathi Pooja” a dance performed by student teachers of Mahaveli NCoE of both Sinhala and Tamil cultures together. The dance was a harmonious blend of Sinhala and Tamil cultures invoking the blessings of  Goddess Saraswathi, venerated by both Sinhalese and Tamils as the deity of Education, Fine Arts and Learning.

 
Saraswathi Pooja – Mahaweli NCoE

The second one was a ballet dance performed by student teachers of  Ruhunu NCoE on the life of fisher community of all nationalities depicting a natural disaster they faced and finally overcame. The theme was closely related to Tsunami. The supernatural blessings of all religions that resurrect the dead into new life symbolizes the human kindness, sympathy and empathy nurtured by individual religions that came to their rescue and helped them into a new life.

Fishing Ballet – Ruhuna NCoE

The lunch was served in an open-air tent specially arranged for the occasion with live performance of newly created Tsunami songs in Sinhala and Tamil accompanied by dance performances.

The participants met in three working groups after lunch to discuss the issues presented in the three presentations on:

1. Pre-service teacher education

2. In-service teacher education

3. Education for children in disadvantaged areas

Work group discussion

The final item of the programme was a panel discussion on the topic “How to Make BESP Impact Sustainable” The panel consisted of the following members.

1. Dr. S.B. Ekanayaka – Moderator
2. Dr. Nanayakkara – Pre-service Impact
3. Prof. Asoka Jayasena – In-service impact
4. Dr. Daya Somasundaram – BECAre/VERP impact

Each panelist presented the issue discussed in the respective working group followed by an open discussion. Prof.(Mrs) Asoka Jayasena  presenting  her points of view through the findings of her study expressed that:

• Due to the TIP activities the perceptions of the In-service Advisors Primary (ISAA) of their roles and functions have changed considerably and they are on their way to grasp the actual role they have to play.
   

• The training programmes conducted by TIP are the most preferred ones by the ISAA.
   

• However, ISAA have requested for further training in areas like English, computer literacy, remedial teaching, school family concept etc.
   

• The problems and the difficulties that the ISAA face should be looked into. She mentioned low salary, shortage of facilities and transport, opportunities for further studies and professional development as well as the present scheme of selection. These issues ask for special attention and immediate action taken by the authorities.

Prof. Daya Somasundaram put forward the following points:

• Negotiations to be made with relevant authorities to release the trained counsellors. and be-frienders  to attend to their counselling work.

• To appoint trained counsellors as ISAA in counseling.

• Provide incentives for the counsellors for their additional work.

• Extend the counselling training programmes to the secondary level teacher education.

Dr. Nanayakkara addressed the following issues as discussed in the group:

• MDTU language curriculum materials have a big impact on the Pre-service Course.

• “Internship Guidelines” have been accepted as very effective within the new concept.

• Curriculum materials need revision for sustainability.

• Reflective journals and mentor logs are not really used properly and adequately.

• Second national language needs more emphasis.

• Materials should be changed according to the expected major changes in the secondary curriculum.

The issues were discussed at the open forum and it was suggested to take up the activities of the BESP be carried out by the partner institutions to make BESP impact really sustainable. It was also recommended to consider relevant issues at the planning stage of the new GTZ supported project “Education for Social Cohesion” that will start in October 2005.

A special feature of the Colloquium was cultural performances presented by Mahaveli and Ruhunu National Colleges of Education and the live performance of some of the songs (both Sinhala & Tamil) which are being produced by utilizing German tsunami funds through GTZ, under the direction of Mr. Sudath Samarasinghe, as a special gift to the Tsunami affected children.

With the Vote of Thanks proposed by Mr. Muralitharan, National Director BESP the programme came to an end. 

Shirley Jayamaha

K. Somasundaram