Education reform
STATEMENT BY UNICEF REPRESENTATIVE MR. SHELDON YETT AT THE WORKSHOP ON "EXPERIENCES IN EDUCATION REFORMS: NATIONAL EXPERIENCES -ARMENIA, HUNGARY, LATVIA AND SERBIA"
4 April, Yerevan
Minister Yeritsyan, Ambassador Pryakhin, ladies and gentlemen,
It is a pleasure for me to be here today in such a distinguished company. I would like to thank Larisa and other colleagues at OSI, in particular, for taking the initiative for organizing this important conference on education reform.
Education is about more than just learning. It saves lives; from the teenagers it protects against HIV/AIDS to the babies saved by their mother’s knowledge of health and nutrition. It transforms lives; from the adolescents given the opportunity to lift themselves out of poverty to the girls it gives a new chance of self-esteem and status in society. It enriches lives from the refugee child given the stability that daily classes provide to the 12 year old girl who dreams of being one day President of Armenia.
I hope that over the course of the day, we will not only have an opportunity to share experiences on education reform but have some honest discussions about what is working and what is not, and raise questions of what we need to know to move forward.
We all know that the traumatic economic, social and political changes facing this country in the early and mid 1990’s left an indelible impact on the education system here. The steep decline in social expenditure resulted in deterioration of education infrastructure, the exodus of teachers, and new questions about the relevancy of the education being offered. These issues are by no means unique to Armenia and are also being faced by other countries in the CEE/CIS region.
But as we contemplate reform, we also need to acknowledge that other countries can also learn from Armenia. Studies have shown that parental involvement in schools in the CEE/CIS region remains high, and parents here are more likely to help children with their homework than in many EU countries. Such parental support provides a foundation for the preservation of what was good in the education systems – particularly universal coverage – as well as the reforms necessary to adapt education to a rapidly changing world.
As enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child to which Armenia is also a signatory, education is the right of all children: girls and boys, rich and poor. Investing in education remains our best hope of accelerating progress towards the wider Millennium Development Goals in that the international community has pledged to meet.
Millennium Development Goal 2, is the achievement of universal primary education; to ensure that by 2015, all children complete a full course of primary schooling.
In assessing progress towards this goal, it is essential to go beyond the number of children enrolled in, or completing school. Universal primary education will necessitate all children starting school at the right age, and progressing through the levels with minimal or no repetition. This will entail improving the quality of education; an expansion and improvement of early childhood care and education to prepare children for a smooth transition from home to school. These aspects of education are less easy to measure – and gathering and analyzing more sophisticated data that will help efforts in the future should be a priority.
In 2003 Armenia made a critical step to ensure the fulfillment of children’s rights by adopting a National Plan of Action for the Protection of Children’s Rights. This 10-year road map puts education as a top priority, and lays a solid foundation for the achievement of MDG 2.
Progress in achieving this Millennium Development Goal depends not just on re-tooling a system to ensure the provision of a relevant quality education, but also on addressing the barriers that prevent some children from starting or completing school. Poverty, of course, remains one of the biggest barriers.
Household surveys from all parts of the world, show that children from the poorest 20% of households are 3.2 times more likely to be out of primary school than those from the wealthiest 20 %. This data masks wide variations among regions and between individual countries. For example within the CEE/CIS, the poorest children are 1.5 times more likely to be out of primary school. Yet even within the region, there are wide disparities, in Moldova and Kazakhstan children from the poorest households are at least five times more likely to be out of school.
Another key indicator as to the likelihood of a child attending school is whether or not the mother has herself benefited from some education. Children whose mothers have had no education are more than twice as likely to be out of school as children whose mothers have had some education. This underlines the importance of getting as many girls and future mothers into schools as soon as possible, and encouraging them to stay on to complete their education.
Children’s chances of going to school partly depend on where they live. Fully 30% of rural children in developing countries are out of school, compared with 18% of those living in urban areas. Among the multiple contributing factors are that in rural areas, children are likely to have to travel much further to reach the nearest school; their parents are less likely to be educated and it is often harder to attract good teachers to rural areas. Effective education reforms mean knowing the sources of disparities within countries, not just between them.
Although in the recent years Armenia has been showing steady economic growth resulting in more financial allocations being channeled to the social sector, the level of investment in such important areas as health and education still remains low. Indeed, public expenditure on education represented only 2.5% of GDP in 2004. This percentage is considerably lower than in many other countries in the region and as a percentage of GDP, is lower than the level of expenditure on education in the mid 90’s. We appreciate that in the 2005-2006 state budget there is a notable increase in the funding in the education sector, particularly for teachers’ salaries. A trend that we hope will continue.
Dear friends,
There are four steps that must be taken to fulfill the child’s right to education in Armenia.
The first is to ensure that all young children are ready for school. For this, they need the very best start in life, including immunization, proper nourishment and early stimulation in an environment that is caring and protective. A child who is sick and malnourished, who has had little or no mental or emotional stimulation, is unlikely to thrive in a classroom.
That is why UNICEF promotes and supports programs in Armenia to meet the health, nutrition and development of young children. The percentage of children enrolled in preschool has dropped by almost half since 1989. Pre-primary services are at roughly half the level now that they were at the collapse of the Soviet Union, a parentage drop fairly typical of his region. We need to ensure that we reverse this trend. The evidence is clear: children who attend preschool perform better in primary school, are less likely to drop out and are more likely to attend classes more regularly.
Second, we must address issues of inclusion. We need to ensure that all children not only get into school, but stay there until they have completed – at a minimum - their basic education. While net primary school enrollment for both girls and boys remains high in Armenia, there are some communities in the country where enrollment rates lag, particularly for girls. Social mobilization campaigns and parent education programs can all help, and UNICEF supports many such initiatives. But schools and communities need to be pro-active, seeking out children who are not in school, examining the obstacles that keep them away and then removing these obstacles in order to bring the children back into the classroom.
Third, we need to continue to push forward to making education more relevant to the needs of children today. Methodologies focusing on a child-centered approach to teaching need to be firmly anchored in the curriculum. Teachers deserve to be properly rewarded for their crucial work, buildings must be maintained, and more resources are needed for basics, such as textbooks. We must develop better standards and indicators to assess if we are on track and incorporate scientific rigor into data collection and analysis.
The fourth step requires a long, hard look at the conditions of schools themselves and their relevancies to the needs and sizes of the populations they serve. Just as children must be ready for schools, schools must be ready for children.
We look forward to continue to working with all of you on these essential issues.
Thank you.
