6 Reducing inequalities in education in an isolated community Kalyakooti is a hard-to-reach community located at the periphery of Nakasongola District

Box 9.6 Reducing inequalities in education in an isolated community Kalyakooti is a hard-to-reach community located at the periphery of Nakasongola District

in Uganda. Because some children have limited access to the structured education system offered in government schools, the community has devised alternative resources for providing education for its orphans and vulnerable children, such as those belonging to child-headed households or living with members of an extended family network. In order to identify the children who fall under this category, the community draws a village map and finds out which households contain children who do not go to school.

With the help of NGO funding, the community has built a resource centre with classrooms made of mud and grass-thatched roofs. It has also established leisure facilities that encourage ease of communication and interaction between children and their ‘parents’ – parents are community members who have volunteered to take on the responsibility of addressing the learning needs of these orphans and vulnerable children. The NGO trains parents in psycho-social support skills so that their interaction with the children leads to appropriate child development. The interaction involves reading books, poems and stories that prepare them to become responsible adults. The leisure centre is also being used to provide immunization, to monitor child growth and for educating parents about the importance of child nutrition.

The community members identify trained teachers (also recruiting them with the support of the NGO) who can teach children during specific times. Teachers are paid and looked after by the community, while the NGO assists with basic commodities such as grain and soap. Children are taught a different curriculum from the one in the normal school system. Girls and boys are equally treated, and the learning takes into consideration the community’s peak seasons, such as harvesting and planting, and other household activities. For instance, when the children have to help with certain activities, classes start a little later, thereby allowing everyone to participate. Throughout the learning process, children are assessed but are not given formal reports. This is done to minimize inequalities within the group so that some pupils do not feel more or less intelligent than others. At the end of each year, the community organizes a party to mark the children’s promotion to the next level. At the end of their primary education, the children sit for the same examination as all the children in the district (it is noteworthy, however, that the community had to negotiate with the district education office so the children could do this).

EDUCATION

The Kalyakooti example is one of several local initiatives that provide different resources to disadvantaged groups so that they can have the same ‘capability to be educated’ as those who come from more privileged backgrounds. It also reflects the creativity of a community to offer educational opportunities that take into account the specificities of different learning needs and environments.

This box was written by Saidah Najjuma.

Learners differ along intersecting dimensions: personal (e.g. gender, race, class), environmental (wealth, climate, etc.) and inter-individual. These inter- sections critically determine when a difference becomes an inequality. The key point for education is that resources are very important, but what then matters are the opportunities each person has for converting their bundle of resources into valued doings and beings. Conversion factors link diverse individual biographies to social arrangements, further underscoring the difficulty of focusing solely on the subjective wants of learners, since these might be adapted in ways that do not necessarily serve their best interests. For example, girls might adapt their educational ambitions in a culture where maleness has more relative prestige and cultural power. In this case, gender difference becomes inequality. What and who students are learning to be, and how they are learning to be good choosers, ultimately affects equality in education.

Thus, the capability approach offers a useful perspective on education by teaching us to evaluate learning opportunities, processes and outcomes. It asks questions such as: are valued capabilities distributed fairly and equally in and through education? Do some people get more opportunities to convert their resources into capabilities than others? Which capabilities matter most when it comes to developing agency and autonomy for educational opportunities, social connection and valued dimensions of living?