Page 21 - OSISA Annual Report 2015-2018

Economic and Social Justice (ESJ) Cluster
Zimbabwe School Curriculum Reform
The ESJ Cluster Education Programme undertook a mission to Zimbabwe in May in response to concerns around the school curriculum reform process supported by OSISA in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). The Programme met with the host partner UNICEF, the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education (MoPSE), civil society organisations, and all teacher trade unions in the country.
These meetings confirmed widespread problems around the roll-out of the programme, with timing being a key problem. Communication of the entire programme appears to be a vital issue of concern, as schools remain unclear about the direction of the process, resulting in confusion. UNICEF had, together with the Ministry, begun a nationwide communication strategy, mainly through the print media and not much in radio and television.
The next six weeks were used to provide clarity on the curriculum and use of alternative media platforms (it was reported that radio had been adopted and used as of that week). Clearly, a lot of education change management lessons exist for this work. Donors through the European Development Fund (EDF) appeared reluctant to support the communication aspect of the curriculum due to wider political concerns as the country geared up for elections the following year. The case study on the curriculum reform work was re-phrased to a “performance framework”, whose terms of reference (TORs) were sent to OSISA by UNICEF.
It was anticipated that this performance framework would be completed in August or September. Of major concern was that the government appeared set on forcing the curriculum’s launch and implementation without
addressing several difficult issues raised by stakeholders. These included significant investments required to give full life to the new changes brought by the curriculum and the need for training on continuous assessment, infrastructure, preparation of schools, etc.
UNICEF hoped for a progressive realisation of the curriculum, but the macro-economic environment was not conducive. The programme, together with the Open Society Foundation (OSF) education support programme, planned to engage UNICEF on these concerns. Significantly, it was clear that an all-inclusive national engagement was needed to ensure that appropriate decisions were made in addressing the challenges around the curriculum roll-out.
Swaziland Special Needs Project
In Swaziland, the education programme successfully supported the development of an early childhood development (ECD) caregiver’s training manual for children with special needs and disabilities under the Special Education Needs project with the Church Forum on HIV/AIDS. This manual was developed to train caregivers in the ECD centres on children with special needs and disabilities in Swaziland. The manual can be used to train teachers on the foundation phase in primary school. The purpose of the training is enable teachers and caregivers to identify children with special needs and disabilities as early as possible and refer children for services and appropriate interventions. The manual was developed in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) in Swaziland.
DRC
Our activities within the DRC education field were suffering as a result of political instability. There was a shared concern among partners regarding the absence of permanent interlocutors within the institutional framework. However, we participated in the joint review of the interim education plan (IEP).
Health Rights Programme
The Health Rights Programme continued to consolidate its efforts to build a critical mass in which citizens could
OPEN SOCIETY INITIATIVE FOR SOUTHERN AFRICA – 2017 REPORT
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