Education
Regardless of a spectacular improvement of access to education since 2000, there are still about 75 million children worldwide who do not attend school.
Often these children are kept at home to help out with household chores. Sometimes schools are too expensive or children have to contribute directly to the family income. Apart from economic barriers there are also cultural constraints.
Access to good education is a universal right. Education is also an essential element in the fight against poverty and inequality. Education gives children and young people a chance to develop and obtain an income later. At school children obtain knowledge and skills that help them improve their quality of life (their health, for instance). Education also contributes to economic growth and the development of a country.
Education is a priority sector of Belgian development cooperation. Internationally, Belgium has committed to contributing to the achievement of Millennium Development Goal 2, achieve universal primary education by 2015.
Current needs
The access to primary schooling has improved considerably over the last few years. Indeed, in Africa the percentage of children attending primary education increased from 54% in 1990 to 74% in 2007. But because of this increase the quality of education has suffered. Moreover, because of the successful concentration of resources on primary schools the demand for continued education has increased. BTC is especially active in these fields.
BTC interventions
Together with authorities in the South, BTC intervenes in the education sector through dozens of interventions. One of the main concerns is to provide more access to better education and at the same time to ensure equal access for boys and girls. BTC is mainly active in building schools, in technical and vocational education, in teachers’ training, in schoolbooks (policy), and in financing and planning education. Via budget support and institutional strengthening of the whole education system BTC also supports primary education.
Budget support / sectoral aid
Belgium uses budget support and sector programmes more and more to support education. Doing so, it is the government of the partner country that becomes fully responsible for identifying and executing the activities. It can count on financial and technical support from Belgium though. This implies active participation of Belgian development cooperation to the sector dialogue in the partner country. In 6 countries BTC supplies the necessary expertise to follow-up the budget support and prepare the policy dialogue (Rwanda, Burundi, Niger, Mali, Uganda, Vietnam).
Case studies
Rwanda | When electricity makes progress
In the west of Rwanda, on the hills near Lake Kivu, about 6,800 families live in Nyamyumba. Recently 416 families have gained access to electricity thanks to the electrification programme. Change has arrived. The local administration is finally computerised and can do away with its typewriters; locals can develop many revenue-generating activities so they do not have to rely solely on agriculture. Another 480 families have asked for access and are expecting to be connected.
Clean water for better education
The Bon Pasteur de Kinazi school in the south of Rwanda accommodates 233 boarding students.
Until 2009, the school had a very hard time buying enough clean water. Large part of the school’s budget was spent on the monthly need to boil water for drinking and washing.
Lud'eco, a game to improve hygiene practices and environmental management
LUD'ECO! is a new tool to raise awareness and foster action to protect the environment and the ecosystems of the region but also to improve hygiene practices of youth and indirectly, their relatives. From January 2011 onward, LUD'ECO! will be distributed in the project intervention zone and near other bodies of water of South Benin.
Empowering farmers for a sustainable agricultural transformation in Rwanda
The Farmer Field School (FFS) is a group-based learning process widely used by development actors to promote integrated pest management (IPM). Introduced by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization in Indonesia in 1989, FFS was first fully used in Rwanda in 2009 as an agriculture extension approach to promote the use of IPM technology.
Capacity Development in Rwandan Health Care management
Health is one of Rwanda’s development priorities, which is clearly relevant in a densely-populated country like Rwanda. Rwandan resources are the people; so good health care is of essential importance. In 2008 Rwanda counted 40 hospitals, but only 4 of them were lucky to have a professional hospital manager.
Education in Congo: Handbooks for pupils and teachers
In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), education is doing poorly due to the many problems schools have to deal with. Often teaching staff is not competent enough because of a lack of pedagogical tools and continued training. Pupils have to share the few books available… In primary school, sometimes pupils have never held a book in their hands.
Improved quality and access to basic education
Between 1975 and 1979 the Cambodian school system was dismantled and its personnel was decimated by the Khmer Rouge regime. Only 54 teachers remained for the whole country. That number by itself shows the extent of the challenges the authorities were facing when building a successful education system.
