Capacity Building Course

Village Education Committees

 Introduction

Community participation in the teaching learning and school improvement activities, play a vital role and it boosts the quality of teaching and learning process. Similarly, the primary purpose of parents’ participation is to implement a school and home based program for young children which raises students’ achievement and increases educational opportunity. Likewise, it is seen as an effective strategy for attaining educational goals in any community and society.

Village Education Committees (VEC) are formed according to the educational policy for each school. This committee is consists on parents and some social persons of the community. According to the TORs of VECs, the members of the committee are responsible to attend the school regular meetings, observe classroom teaching, and check the teachers’ performance. Only few members take the responsibility and attend some meetings but rest of them does not do what they are supposed to do. So, this situation sometimes hinders the initiatives carried out to improve the school and affects students’ learning as well.

A step towards making schools improvement processes, Iqra Fund Pakistan had organized two days capacity building course from May 5, 2014 to May 6, 2014 for the members of Village Education Committees VECs in Baltistan under Community Education Support Program. The purpose of this training course was, to aware and sensitize VEC members about their roles and responsibilities in school development processes. The group consist 14 course participants from each Iqra Fund managed schools in Hushe and Basha Valley.  

This report includes objectives, themes covered during the course, training methods used and outcomes of the training course. The report also consists of challenges, recommendations and conclusion of the training course.

Objectives for the VEC Capacity Building Program

Objectives are the intended outcomes of any training course. I expected that after the training, course participants will be able to:

·         Orient with the Iqra Fund Program in Gilgit Baltistan

·         Express their views about importance of education and their involvement in school improvement initiatives

·         Present verbally/written their roles and responsibilities assigned by Iqra Fund

·         Identify educational issues related to their area/schools and come up with solutions

·         Share the roles of parents in Child development

·         Discuss the child rights in our society

·         Play their active role voluntarily for any task given to them.

Content Covered during the course

Following topics/themes were covered during the sessions. Day plan is also attached with the report (See annexure)

·         Roles and responsibilities of VECs

·         Success stories of effective VECs

·         Role of parents in child development

·         Child rights

·         Volunteerism

Methodology used for the course

The course facilitators used effective training methods to share the content of the training course. The bellow list shows some of the instructional strategies used during the training course.

·         Reflection on previous day’s learning

·         Brainstorming before starting new topic

·         Think-pair-share

·         Role plays

·         Multimedia presentations

·         Group discussion

·         Questions/answers

·         Individual and group presentations

·         Debate

Outcome of the Course

In the reflections, majority of the course participants mentioned that the training course was very effective and useful. More than half of the course participants shared that before this training course they thought VEC is a general committee of the village. They revealed that after the training course they understood their roles and responsibilities in school development. In the reflection, one of the course participants cited that VEC is the key stakeholder to look after the school improvement processes.

Moreover, two of the course participants shared in their reflections that they did not consider any such role in schools development processes. After attending the training course they realized that they have huge responsibility on their shoulders. They showed their interests (promised) to play their active role in school improvement processes. Some of the course participants shared real examples and success stories of VECs. This attitude shows that after the training, the course participants are sensitized regarding their roles and responsibilities. They also promised to play their active role in giving awareness to the parents.

The course participants mentioned that the training on capacity building of VECs was very fruitful for their personal life. Before this training, they were thinking that teachers are responsible for school development processes. This training course opened their mind that all the stakeholders are important for school development processes.  

During the reflections, one of the course participants shared that “we felt that we are attending a seminar or conference in a five star hotel in Islamabad. This training course was not less than any such training course. The facilitator has very rich experience of working with different NGOs. All the content he shared was very useful and meaningful. We are very thankful to the facilitator and his team for arranging such a fabulous training course. Now it is our responsibility to share our learning to rest of our VEC members and also entire community.” He invited course facilitator that in your next visit you will find a drastic change in each school. This shows that the course participants are sensitized and it is their role and responsibility to convey the important message to parents and whole society. 

Overall, the CPs found the training course highly productive and very useful but they felt the course duration and time factors for activities were not sufficient.

Challenges

The course facilitators faced some challenges during the training course. Some of the noteworthy challenges were:

·         The topic “roles and responsibilities of VECs” was new for most of the course participants; therefore, it was difficult to clear the roles and responsibilities of VECs due to shortage of time. 

·         Variety in participants’ learning abilities and understanding level was a challenge to keep pace and level accordingly.

·         Some of the participants did not show up during the training course.

·         Available materials were mostly in Urdu and English and it was not possible to translate them all into their local language within the short time available.

·         It was difficult to cover the whole concepts of VEC, roles and responsibilities of VECs in two days.

Recommendations

·         There should be a needs assessment in schools before conducting any session for VECs.

·         Some clips could also be added on various roles and responsibilities of VECs and share some more successful stories of VECs which allow course participants to discuss and reflect on their own practices and think of implications of new learning.

·         I recommend successive one week face-to-face sessions for more clarity of different concepts and participants’ positive attitude towards school improvement processes.

·         Such training course should be conducted for all VEC members because they are also part of school improvement process.

·         An exposure visit to a model VEC would be useful to understand the real impact of VECs’ roles and responsibilities in school improvement processes.  

Conclusion

The training course came to an end successfully and to some extend the objectives were achieved. The course participants considerably changed their perceptions, perspectives of their roles and responsibilities towards school improvement processes. One of the participants commented that before this session he believed that their role is specific to demand school supplies from the management of Iqra Fund but after attending this training course he realized that their role is also to generate the resources locally and play their active role in school improvement processes. The course participants reflected that they have huge responsibilities on their shoulders to enhance the access to education and improve the quality of education in their communities.  Finally, the course participants realized that VEC are very important stakeholders of school development processes. However, there is always a room for improvement and hence I would like to see the duration of the training program to increase for future courses.