CIWARA COMMUNITY SCHOOL

An initiative of the
Institute for Popular Education
Kati, Mali

I. Background

The Institute for Popular Education (IEP) is a collective of community educators working to develop alternative approaches in program content, methodology and materials for grassroots education in Mali. IEP members believe firmly that information and analysis are the basis for authentic community action and that communities without access to both, not either, are prone to mobilizing either a " simulated participation " or a passive reception in response to outside development interventions. Proactive community development is strongly reinforced by education that is empowering in content, methodology and materials.

In January 1994, IEP began facilitating adult literacy in Kati, a small town located 15km from the capital of Bamako. The literacy program had a proactive bias towards reaching community women and an operating principle of raising awareness around critical issues using information, analysis, and community action. Literacy materials were generated by learners and program staff and were based on life experiences related to the critical issues. Six critical issues were identified as community concerns : education, gender, development, rights, economics, and reproductive health.

As a result of their participation in the literacy program, a group of women learners from the first cohort of classes requested the program design and methodological support of IEP in starting up a community preschool. They opened SIGIDOLO in the fall of 1994 stating that their primary concern was to allow their own preschool children to have the experience of an educational environment similar to the one created for their own adult literacy classes. SIGIDOLO open, then, with the dual mission to use active methods and to use these methods in a program based on cultural content using bamanan, the national language, as the language of instruction. After two years, the preschool served over 70 children every day.

In 1996, the first cohort of preschool children, made up essentially of the children of the women who initiatied SIGIDOLO, were ready to enter first grade. Once again, IEP received another request from this group of mothers, now enlarged to include others of the SIGIDOLO family : would it be possible to open a 1st grade so that their children would be able to continue their schooling with this same methodology? It was clear to all that the environment the children would experience in 1st grade public school would reverse all effects of their preschooling. Public school first grade would use French as the language of instruction, memorization, teacher-centered content and power.

It was at this point that IEP, heretofore dedicated exclusively to practicing alternatives in nonformal adult education, took on the mission of doing so for children and for formal schooling. Coincidentally, the time was ripe in Mali for such a mission. In 1992, the first democratically elected government in the history of independent Mali began a series of national conferences to re-orient Malian society after 23 years of military rule. An important national concertation on education took place and resulted in proposals for a " new primary school " as of 1994. In 1996, the " new primary school " initiative was broadened to a call for " re-founding " education in Mali. A commission was charged to come up with a 10 Year Plan for Re-founding Education in Mali from preschool to university and to involve all sectors of Malian society in its design. Concommittently, the democratic government called for a massive program of decentralization which would fundamentally alter community governance and would re-situate development initiative at the community level.

At about the time the SIGIDOLO mothers were calling for a first grade, the government of Mali was setting about the business of lauching a movement for community schools. With less than 50% of school age children in school, the new government removed all restrictions of state-controlled education and invited communities and NGOs to fill the space with grassroots initiatives for schooling. Although IEP's decision was made solely in response to SIGIDOLO mothers, a group which included several IEP members, the commitment to open a first grade appropriately converged with macro level activities associated with the 10 Year Plan from 1998-2000, the explosion of community schools and social mobilization for girls' education. Even if all those links were not totally clear at the time of the decision, it was clear that once we opened a first grade, we would have to be prepared to then open a 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th grade. At the end of 6th grade, the system in place presented entrance exams for middle school and IEP community school students could then pass over into the public system having had a consistent 6th grade education.

The first 1st grade opened with 24 children who had participated in the SIGIDOLO preschool program. IEP determined to continue its struggle to innovate alternative practices in content, methodology and materials now for children as well as for adults.

II. Operating Principles of CIWARA Community School

The IEP CIWARA Community School operates on the following principles :
§ Use of active methods and discovery learning
§ Promote a culture-identity-leadership-based primary education that would allow children a gender-equitable, learner-centered, collaborative-learning life experience at school
§ National language bamanan as language of instruction, French to be taught as second language
§ Creation of theme-based curriculum using history/geography and science as core; math, reading, writing, visual and performing arts as cross-cutting competencies
§ Conflict resolution discipline
§ Parent involvement

III. Community involvement

The CIWARA community school is registered as a community school run by the association IEP and open to membership of all. IEP members all have their own children attending the school and are active in teaching, curriculum design and materials production. Parents are kept informed of curriculum and other issues through home visits, school meetings and an annual school closing program. The community of Kati participates as a setting for human resources (themework sends children out into the community to do research). The community is also invited into the classroom for restitution of what children have learned per theme.

Today, four years after the opening, the CIWARA school has five classes : a kindergarten, first, second, third and fourth grade. IEP has opened a new class each year as the first 1st grade class progresses. That cohort is now in 4th grade. Next year a 5th grade will be opened and the following year a 6th grade. The original intent was to stop at 6th grade and to have CIWARA students integrate the public school system at 7th grade. The school operates with 3 permanently hired teachers and five interns in teacher training. Classes are facilitated by these 8 people supplemented with the occasional assistance of IEP pedagogy team, which adds six more people to the teaching resources.

The profile of families with children at the school reveals two extremes in terms of experience with schooling. There are children from families who would never have sent them to school and there are children from families of teachers or school directors. The former are usually low income families who have none or very few family members with schooling experience. These children were recruited by members of IEP. The latter are families of educators who are attracted by IEP's low student-teacher ratio. Between the two extremes are children of civil servants and " petty traders " which reflects the socio-economic picture of Kati.

IV. Issues and Analysis

Language of instruction
In the first two months of operation, four students were eventually removed by their parents from the first 1st grade class. These parents reported the language of instruction as being the cause. Since then, other parents have questioned the decision of IEP to use Bamanan as the language of instruction, six others have removed their children because of it. All parents, including those who have removed their children due to language of instruction, report that their CIWARA children are much more open to learning, to dialogue, to enjoying school than their public school sibilings. Many report, with some amazement, the type of content and competencies mastered by the CIWARA children. They note that many CIWARAs can do and think in ways that their older sibilings cannot. IEP attributes these effects to language of instruction and to active methods.

Girls' education
Qualitatively, girls' education is at the heart of the school's mission, having started with mothers' literacy and with IEP institutional mission to offer an empowering education for women and girls. The school curriculum takes on gender equity as an issue and the school experience strives to offer, to both girls and boys, a life experience of gender equity to contrast with family and social realities. There is a concern to train community women as teachers: 1 of the 3 permanent teachers is a woman, 3 of 5 interns are women.

The school, including the preschool SIGIDOLO, fluctuates between 65-75% girls' enrollment. The first 1st grade class, now in 4th grade, started the 1999-2000 school year with 20 girls and 4 boys. Two girls were removed in 4th grade due to the language of instruction issue and the class lost one boy to malaria. Current figures of girls' presence in classes are :

Class Girls Boys
Ciwara 4 14 3
Ciwara 3 5 4
Ciwara 2 8 10
Ciwara 1 8 9
Ciwara 0 17 12
Subtotal Ciwara 52 38
Sigidolo 55 20
TOTAL 107 58

Curriculum innovation
After these 4 years of operation, we see that CIWARA students have already, in many areas, surpassed the limits set on learning per grade. Some examples follow :

Official curriculum (IPN* 1994)(*National Institute of Pedagogy, Ministry of Education) Ciwara curriculum (IEP, evolving since 1996)
Sciences and History/Geography start in 4th grade Sciences and History/Geography begin in 1st grade
Geography from 4th -6th grade : shows the community, Mali, West Africa Geography from 1st-4th grade : Africa, Mali, universe, world
Lesson texts are dictated by teachers and recopied by students Students and teachers produce lesson texts out of class experiences, field visits, or out of student inquiry projects
?? Leadership as cross-cutting orientation; value placed on culture and identity
Discipline-based programming Thematic programming across disciplines
Teacher-centered (eg, students respond to questions put to them by the teacher) Learner-centered (eg, students repond to their own questions through guided inquiry and question asking)
Recitations Creation of poems, songs, theater
French language of instruction Bamanan language of instruction with French studied as subject
1st grade math : recognition and use of numbers 0-20 1st grade math : recognition and use of numbers 0-100
Discipline using corporal punishment Discipline without corporal punishment
Type of content : descriptive of realities in place (eg. traditional gender roles) Type of content : changing realities(eg, gender equity in roles and potential careers);
Accountable to office of school inspector Accountable to community
Teacher dependent : (eg. " in class " learning) Use of community and family resource people plus teacher : eg. " class in community ", " community in class "

Replicability
As innovation, IEP is dedicating considerable effort and resources to investment costs in building an alternative model for community-based primary education. Concerns expressed as to the replicabilility of the model seemingly do not look beyond these investment costs. We believe the recurrent costs post-innovation will be replicable and, once streamlined, that the model will be practical and transferable to a variety of rural and urban settings. IEP has already experimented with replicating the 1st grade program in a rural school and plans to do more expansion next year.

V. Curriculum

The Ciwara curriculum is designed and developed by the IEP pedagogy team. The design is based on four " corner-poles " : Identity, Activism, Justice and Competency. These four poles are housed under the overarching theme of Leadership and have their subsections which guide conception of curriculum content and methodology. The 4 corner-poles and their subsections are supported by two end pillars (community and classroom) and a two-sided center pillar (empowerment and movement-building). (see Annex A).

A summary of themes studied per semester per class follows. (see Annex B).

VI. Perpectives

At this point, IEP is fully engaged in the process of curriculum building, methods and materials experimentation for grades K-4. Recent developments on the macro level in Mali point to solidification of the movement towards " re-founding " education : a national Education Re-foundation Act was passed into law on December 16, 1999; USAID has put priority support behind the revision of " official curriculum "; the Ministry of Education has made a commitment to generalizing the use of mother language instruction in the early grades; teacher training will be revised to follow curricular reforms; communities are to continue their ownership and management of community schools, etc.

With the official launching of the implementation phase of the Ten Year Education Plan, in November of 1999, all the macro elements are in place for achieving an historic transformation of what education means in Mali. Significantly, IEP finds itself as one of the few, and in some cases the only, structure which has been developing a micro practice that is in line with the " quality " aspects of macro policies.

This realization heightens the urgency IEP feels to complete its first production phase and make at least one alternative model visible and accessible to communities who might want to adopt it. At this point, IEP is still experimenting its curriculum with the CIWARA school, a creative process that is on-going and multifaceted. The IEP pedagogy team has identified the following steps as necessary for completing the model and making it ready for expanded experimental use :