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| Tuesday, 3 August 2004 |
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Features | |
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JICA pilot project: an inestimable gift for our education by Rohana Andaraweera, H/Rajapaksa Central College, Weeraketiya The JICA (Japanese International Co - operation Agency) pilot project launched nearly a year ago to primarily promote the Science and Mathematics education in the country has succeeded in phase 1 by bringing very noticeable changes in our school culture to improve the standard of our education.
The school-based bottom-up approach, the participatory approach and step by step approach, manifest themselves as the major components of the project. An outright grant was warded to the pilot schools for creating a productive school management, a vital factor seriously to be concerned in the educational development, enhancing Science and Mathematics education through practical aspects rather than rote learning, in our traditional educational pattern and developing the infrastructure facilities of the schools to cater to their requirements. The school-based, bottom-up approach provides opportunities for the school community to participate actively in the educational process in the school. Teachers gathered a novel and rich experience in their career by taking up the leadership in planning, making decisions and implementing programmes in their own schools. Today the need of sharing responsibilities by School Development Societies and Old Pupils Associations in the school management has emerged unprecedentedly in our schools. The pilot schools have been urged to carry out the programmes through the maximum participation of these external bodies. The Kaizen, a concept initially introduced to the pilot schools to explore the opportunities to improve the quality of school activities, is now rooted in practice. Achieving excellence is never an accident but it is a continuous process always leaving scope for further improvement. The Kaizen suggestion box is readily accessible to the school community to make their valuable suggestions to enhance the quality of the educational activities. Responding swiftly to children's suggestions has indeed created a friendly school culture. Inculcating our younger generation to see things from a different perspective is another key attribute in this activity. They should be educated about the fact that the Kaizen activities have the potential for quality education as well as for personal development. The conformation of an efficient school management system determines the well established school system. 5S, a productivity enhancing concept has been introduced to the school management to achieve Kaizen in the classrooms. Applying 5S in the classrooms provides a firm and organized foundation for an attractive learning environment towards increasing productive results in the education. The phase II of the pilot project has now kicked off mainly focusing on promoting and developing Science and Mathematics education. New pragmatic programmes and much efforts are under way to enhance the teaching and learning of the subjects with a practical aspect: Do Science, Not listen Science. Demonstrations and experiments have replaced dissemination through traditional lectures and note writing respectively even at the teacher training programmes. Model experimental workshops, conducted by the NIE officials have greatly influenced the classroom teaching. Various teaching methods and some innovative practices such as group discussions, field trips, mutual assessment system in teaching, open classes and science corners are under implementation to promote the teaching and learning process. Providing access for children to explore their environment through experiments outside the classroom can improve the competencies in learning and building up their confidence on the school education. It promotes self learning and in the long run creates the child-centred learning environment, a desirable goal in our new educational reforms. The innovative programmes initiated to promote school mathematics have dispelled the myth of Mathematics as a difficult subject. It is a major obstacle for our children in learning the subject. The fact that mathematics is a powerful tool to describe the world around us has been brought to light in the teaching and learning activities in which the skills of problem solving and logical thinking have been developed. 100 box calculation activity has already emerged as the most interesting activity in the 25 Kaizen schools. The activity develops the basic calculation skills of children to proceed with their higher studies. The pilot schools are now extending this new experience to their neighbouring schools too. The JICA project is more than a project. It has thrown much light on rethinking of the strategies on developing attitudes and skills of the school community, creating a pleasant learning environment for our children and a contented systematic working environment for our teachers. Unlike most projects, it has not lavished much care on accumulating the resources which is not the only factor to be concerned in any form of development particularly in education. Therefore, the pilot schools are required to understand the objectives of the project and show the real sense of commitment in working together in order to accomplish this remarkable effort. The three day convention to be held in late August is the final but the most significant event of the project. The schools look forward to the occasion to display their successful culmination of a great task carried out by them working in concert with all concerned in our children's education. So we feel bound at this stage to express our very special thanks and deep sense of gratitude to the government of Japan for their invaluable grant and the JICA study team, its counterpart team and National Institute of Education for their constant and valuable guidance and contribution given to the schools to reap the utmost benefits of this inestimable gift. |
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Produced by Lake House |
The singularity and the success of the project lies in the fact that it
lays greater emphasis on its down to earth approaches in achieving the
objectives of the project. Having completed phase I of the pilot project
in 25 schools, implementing various innovative and interesting programmes
at the school level to extend their impact to the education at the
national level, JICA has now embarked on phase II of the project.
