The Inclusion of Child-Friendly School into Teachers’ Training Programme (NCE)
INTRODUCTION
The adoption of the convention on the Rights of the child by most of the world’s countries has led to the search for practical ways of translating many of the convention’s ideas into concrete applications, particularly in the developing world. One of the initiatives that best capture a right-based and participatory approach to educational development has come to be known as the child-friendly school system. The children-friendly school system is intended “as a way to give practical and easily understood meaning to the key principles of the child Right convention and the commitments of the Dakar Framework of Action” (Bernard, 2005). The child-friendly school (CFS) approaches have variously been adopted in many different places as a counterweight to the “effective schools” movement, which has been a powerful philosophy to improve school management and classroom practices during the last three decades.
CONCEPT OF CHILD-FRIENDLY SCHOOL (CFS)
The developer of any nation depends on its younger ones. Society creates schools at educating this segment of the population. Since their education is important, the school should be conducive in terms of taking care of all the needs of the children. A positive psycho-emotional environment must be ensured if children are to attend school, remain, and achieve. UNICEF (2005) report indicated that 40% of children ages 6-11 years are not attending school: 30% of those attending primary school drop out and 54% only transit to Junior Secondary School. Many reasons have been cited as responsible for this situation. These include i. The exponential growth in population leads to overcrowded classrooms. ii. Resources are spread thinly to the extent that teaching-learning materials are inadequate. Olaleye (2009) further described the learning environment of the Nigerian child as one that lacks basic amenities, space, teaching-learning equipment, health and sanitation facilities, substandard teaching methodologies, and poorly motivated teachers.
The economic Crunch has led many parents to withdraw (or not even enroll) children from school for economic activities (hawking, domestic servants, etc.) or early marriage. All these inadequacies lead to poor education which is the same as no education. The child then neither be literate nor be able to acquire critical life skills. But education must and should work for all children.
THE INCLUSION OF CHILD-FRIENDLY SCHOOL IN THE TEACHERS’ TRAINING PROGRAMME
- It enables teachers to learn new ways to make their classrooms child-friendly such as abandoning corporal punishment and allowing children to sit in groups, instead of the traditional row formation. Teachers have also been introduced to a ‘student-centered’ teaching approach, which encourages children to do more study and explore on their own through small surveys, group discussions,s and group presentations helping them to socialize and build a team spirit.
- it also enables a practicing teacher to See and understands the whole child, in a broad context is concerned with what happens to children before they enter the system (e.g., their readiness for school in terms of health and nutritional status, social and linguistic skills), and once they have left the classroom back in their homes, the community, and the workplace
- it will also enable the training teachers to practice a child-centered learning environment that encourages participation, creativity, self-esteem, and psycho-social well-being; promotes a structured, child-centered curriculum and teaching-learning methods appropriate to the child’s developmental level, abilities, and learning style; and considers the needs of children over the needs of the other actors in the system
The Inclusion of Child Friendly School into Teachers’ Training Programme (NCE)
- it helps the training teachers to have gender-sensitive and girl-friendly – promotes parity in the enrolment and achievement of girls and boys; reduces constraints to constraints to gender equity and eliminates gender stereotypes; provides facilities, curricula, and learning processes welcoming to girls
- it allowed practicing teachers to promote quality learning outcomes encourage children to think critically, ask questions, express their opinions and learn how to learn; helping children master the essential enabling skills of writing, reading, speaking, listening, and mathematics, and the general knowledge and skills required for living in the new century including useful traditional knowledge and the values of peace, democracy, and the acceptance of diversity
Conclusion
Child-friendly schools can be a powerful tool for both helping to fulfill the rights of children and providing them with an education of good quality. At the national level, for ministries, development agencies, and civil society organizations, the framework can be used as a normative goal for policies and programs leading to child-friendly systems and environments, as a focus for collaborative programming leading to greater resource allocations for education, and as a component of staff training. At the community level, for school staff, parents, and other community members, the framework can serve as both a goal and a tool of quality improvement through localized self-assessment, planning, and management and as a means for mobilizing the community around education and child rights.
REFERENCES
Federal Republic of Nigeria (2012). National Policy on Education (4th Ed.) Lagos: NERCDC
Maduewesi, E.L. (1992). Implementation of educational policy in pre-primary and primary education: Achievements and shortcomings, in A. Ndu (Ed. Educational policy and implementation in Nigeria. Awka: Mekslink Publishers.
Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association, Boston, MA. Chabbott, C. (2004). UNICEF’s Child-Friendly Schools framework: A desk review. Unpublished manuscript.
The Inclusion of Child-Friendly School into Teachers’ Training Programme (NCE)