Case Study ‘School Participation and Retention in Banjul City Council and Kanifing Urban Areas’

Case Study‘School Participation and Retention in Banjul City Council and Kanifing Urban Areas’ Regional Education Directorate One, Kanifing BasiruMbenga Principal Education Officer and AlhagieJallow Senior Education Officer (Ag) January, 2013

Presentation Outline • Introduction • Methodology • List of educational initiatives and/or pilots in the region • Introduction to the case study area • School enrolment and progression data • Urban communities case study • School Enrolments in case study - Banjul City Council • Respondents • Interview findings • Recommendations

Introduction • The Regional Education Directorate 1 (RED 1) is one of the six Educational Regions in The Gambia. This office has the operational jurisdiction over two local government councils or districts namely; Banjul City Council (BCC) and Kanifing Municipal Council (KMC). It is mandated to co-ordinate the implementation of Basic and Secondary Educational Programs. • Region 1 is characterised by a proliferation of schools of all categories.

Methodology • Semi-structured interviews with 55 Children (15-20 minutes) 39 Parents/Guardians (10 to 15 minutes) • In addition researchers spoke with • 4 head teachers including 2 Upper Basic School Principals • 12 teachers • 1 sub-committee members (Mothers Group) 2. Gathering contextual data from region 3. Analysing data 4. Reporting

List of educational initiatives and/or pilots in the region • Decline in enrolment survey • Early Grading Reading EGRA survey • Study on the keeping of standard teaching records in public and private lower basic schools • Report on Education For All indicators July, 2009 • Piloting of Mobile phone project on Teacher attendance • Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) pilot in Kotu Dara • Mothers’ clubs • Private schools verification exercise • Re-entry programme for girls • President’s Empowerment of Girls’ Education Project • School performance monitoring meeting

School provision in Region 1 at level and by type of provider in 2011

School provision by level in 2011 In the last number of years there has been an expansion of schools in Region 1 especially in private and Madrassas. This is because some parents opted for such schools mainly due to better quality in the private conventional schools and also seeking for alternatives.

School provision by district Region 1 is characterised by a proliferation of schools of all categories, especially in the KMC district. Most of them are private.

District level net enrolment rates for children aged 7-12 (2012). Table 3 shows the estimated district level net enrolment rates for children aged 7-12 (2012) where the NER for Banjul City Council district is slightly lower than Kanifing Municipal Council district area. The NER is slightly higher for boys than girls.

Regional & district level net enrolment rates for children aged 7-12 (2012) by gender.

Promotion, repetition and drop-out in RED 1 in 2010 and 2011 Table 4: Promotion, repetition and drop-out in RED 1 in 2010 and 2011 One of our findings from this research indicates that not all transfers are recorded and some children are reported as drop-out when they have transferred to another school or registered Madrassa. We do not have a full picture of transfers and this needs further investigation at RED. Promotion and dropout rate may be affected slightly by transfers, but which are not factored in our calculations above.

Promotion, repetition and drop-out in RED 1 in 2010 and 2011

Urban communities case study • Camapa, Wesley and St. Mary’s lower basic schools located in BCC and Tallinding in KMC districts were identified as having experienced decline in enrolment in 2010/2011. Another reason that influenced our choice of areas for the case study was to look at the factors contributing to barriers to participation and retention in deprived communities such as Tallinding and Ebo Town.

Urban communities case study Cont’d In BCC district three schools were identified as locations for a case study on socio-economic reasons for non-participation or progression in school: Campama, Wesley and St. Mary’s Lower Basic Schools. Socio-economic factors have been cited as particular barriers to Banjul and may underpin the perception that socio-economic factors have an influence on enrolment and retention. In addition, some families are not economically strong enough to send their children to school. They are either out of work or involved in petty trading such as fish mongering, buying and selling imported or locally produced commodities.

Urban communities case study Cont’d In some instances especially those who live around the Port sell their lands and transfer to the Kombos while other are migrants from other countries, for example Senegal, Guinea Conakry, Guinea Bissau, Mali for economic reasons. Most of the inhabitants are also engaged in trading or skilled work. The Head Teacher St. Mary’s Lower Basic School informed us that there may be more than 200 children not at school (either dropped out or never enrolled) in the surrounding compounds. However, he embarked on a door-to-door enrolment campaign and succeeded by slightly increasing school intake after nearly six months since taking over the school.

Urban communities case study Cont’d In KMC district, there are three settlements populated by various ethnic groups mainly from The Gambia who migrated from the provinces. The deprived communities used in the case study are densely populated but majority of the inhabitants belong to the poor quintile of the municipality. Again like in Banjul, most of them are petty traders engaged in fish selling or other communities. They value conventional and dara education and often choose to send their children to the latter because of cost, among others. In spite of the numerous schools majority of which are private charging high education bills in these areas, most families cannot send their children to school.

Respondents • Interviews were conducted with 55 children in total. • Of these • 23 with children who had never been to school (16 Male and 7 Female) • 16 with children who had dropped out of school (11 Male and 5 Female) • 16 with children who did not successfully progress to Grade 10 (9` Male and 7 Female) • Interviews were conducted with 39 parents in total

Respondents Cont’d • Of these: • 12 with parents of children who had never been to school • 7 number with parents of children who had dropped out of school • 20 with parents of children who did not successfully progressed to Grade 10 • In addition researchers spoke with • 4 head teachers including 2 Upper Basic School Principals • 12 teachers • 1 sub-committee members (Mothers Group)

Findings The main factors that stop parents enrolling their children at all have socio-economic and cultural dimensions. Some parents are not financially strong to enroll their children in conventional schools. In most cases they enroll them in the dara/majalis where cost is relatively non-existent. A parent even opined to prefer dara or Madrassah education. Comparing the two districts selected in the case study which are also urban settlements, no significant difference exists regarding causes for not enrolling children in conventional schools.

Findings Cont’d The issue of tracking pupil transfer remains a challenge as records were unavailable in schools covered in the case study. This was evident in Wesley where some pupils transferred from St. Mary’s. We also noticed that some children transferred from Wesley to Campama due mainly to distance. In the latter case, the issue of quality was noticed as a key factor that influenced decisions to transfer to Wesley. Children purported to have been urged by their parents to transfer from St. Mary’s due to poor performance. This was later confirmed through interviewing parents.

Findings Cont’d Cost of school Categories B and C accounts for 32 of the children interviewed (16 dropped out early and 16 could not progress to grade 10). For those who did not progress to grade 10, ten cited cost as the main reason for non-progression. On the other hand, those who left early also reported cost as their main reason for dropping out. There is nothing better than school. I have gone up to Crab Island, a UBS but could not continue due to the early demise of my father. I could not continue and deeply regret it. This is a contributing factor to my poor situation. (Interview with a parent of child who did not progress to Grade 10) Mam has never been to school but too eager to learn. He was even trying to spell his name to prove that he could do something. (Interview with an out-of-school child)

Findings Cont’d Similarly, the research also shows that cost was the main reason for children who have never been to school in both communities. This shows that there was no difference in causes for children not attending conventional school both in terms of location and gender. However, two children in BCC mentioned other reasons such as tailoring apprenticeship as the main causes for not going to school. The research also discovered that some parents who had themselves gone to conventional school later dropped out like their due largely to cost. Schools are charging unnecessary fees. Guardian fears children attending school in the afternoon but informed that all LBS in Banjul operate single shift. Guardian is prepared to buy books and uniform to get the child enrolled in school. He deeply regretted not being schooled. (Interview with parent of child who left school early)

Findings Cont’d Getting to school in urban areas According to our findings distance has not been found to be a factor hindering participation and retention. The farthest distance (3km) that children walked to school was discovered in Tallinding. This is a large community and stretches as far as the mangrove swamps bordering that side of the River Gambia. The terrain is often flooded especially during the rainy season. In comparison, the longest distance children walked to school in BCC is from Tobacco Road to Wesley Lower Basic School - 2km. The average distance from both the nearest lower and upper basic schools for areas covered in the case study is 0.8 km which of course means children could walk to school for less than an hour.

Findings Cont’d School experiences Majority of the children found Mathematics as the least subject they liked followed by French, Agricultural Science, Science, Art/Craft, English, IRK, History. This has some quality issues. Programmes will be developed to address them. On the other hand, the subject most liked by the children is English. Other subjects such as Mathematics, Art/craft, Science, French and Social and Environmental studies are liked. Agricultural Science is not mentioned as most liked subject. This is not an impressive picture taking into consideration the agrarian nature of the country which relies more on farming as a source of income and livelihood underpinned by the presidential initiative of ‘back to the land’. Therefore, teaching methodologies need to change especially when teaching abstract subjects. More learner centred strategies should be used to change learners’ attitudes especially towards mathematics.

Findings Cont’d A large number of the children interviewed found the lessons interesting and the tests easy. Most of them also confirmed that the lessons were not difficult. Fifty-three of them also said teachers were kind to them. Interestingly, only children questioned said they would not like to go to school accounting for just two. One of them cited poor performance while the other mentioned over age as the reasons for not interested in attending school. Although teachers are said to be helpful towards children’s’ learning, this help should be translated more into pedagogic assistance in order to realise the desired impact.

Findings Cont’d Bullying among children is not featured in the responses. However, a child said some children have bad attitudes and does not want to be influenced by them. One of the child respondents a parent mentioned children being harassed or punished for failing to pay school fees or put on proper uniform or shoes. They beat me if I didn’t bring my school fees. (Interview with a child who left school early) In spite of these few isolated cases, majority of the children reported to have been in school giving the researchers and regional education authorities some hope of possible re-entry and retention successes. Only two out of the total children interviewed do not really want go to school citing inability to perform and over age for their arguments.

Findings Cont’d Out of the 39 parents interviewed only 10 have been to conventional schools. In this category, there is gender parity as can be observed by the statistics, 5 men and 5 women. It is also evident that this category of parents has the highest number of children that have been to school up to grade 9 but could not proceed to grade 10. The men are engaged mostly, in tailoring, welding and carpentry. These are jobs that do not earn them enough income to support their families. Therefore, most of them can only afford to pay for some of their children to attend conventional schools and the rest are either sent to Dara/Majlis or sent to learn some other trades such as tailoring or welding.

Findings Cont’d Other factors were parents’ preference to Dara/Majlis. Out of the parents that have been to Dara/Majlis only 7 are women (33%), the rest, 14, (67%) are men. Here it is also clear that men are given more priority to attend Dara/Majlis than their women counterparts. It is evident among this category of parents that there is the highest number of early drop-out children and those that have never been to school. 11 children have never been to school, eight dropped out of school early and the 2 could not progress to grade 10. Parents are divorced. Mother lives in Ebo Town while father resides in Sinchu Alhagie. Mum is not financially strong and could not enrol her in school. The father is a Quranic teacher in a local dara and hardly takes his children to conventional schools. It is worth educating your children at all cost. (Interview with mother of child not enrolled in school) Female head of household Again most the children who never went to school are staying with their female parents or guardians

Findings Cont’d It is obvious that almost all the parents interviewed did not receive any form of Western Education to adequately prepare them to face future challenges. Since they did go to conventional schools and are not highly trained they cannot secure highly paid jobs required to enhance their socio-economic development. Most of the women interviewed were found to be engaged in petty trading such as fish mongering, selling water, juice, pancakes, roasted grounds and the like while others are housewives whose activities are limited to domestic chores. This therefore rhymes well with the main reasons why a large number of children in these areas either out of school, dropped early or cannot progressed to Grade 10 as summarised below.

Findings Cont’d Working children in urban areas 11 of the 55 children interviewed, nine completed grade 9 and two are grade six drop-outs. They are said to be working instead of going to school. Some are engaged in different jobs such as steel fixing, petty trading, farming, hair dressing while others are factory workers or domestic servants. We met with a girl at the Albert Market apparently very clever and smart as well as focus. She was going to buy ingredients for the aunt who owns a small stall by the beach behind the market. We waited for her to shop and later took us to her aunt. We walked about 500m before arriving at her aunt's stall. When interviewed the aunt admitted that the girl is not in school.

Findings summary The main causes of barriers to participation and retention in school (non-enrolment) are: • Cost • Parents’ preference • Overage • Lack of interest • Poor performance The main causes of early school leaving are: • Cost • Poor performance The main causes of non-progression from Grade 9 to Grade 10 • Cost • Poor performance • Lack of place in previous UBS

Recommendations Having interviewed children, parents, community members and teachers, the following suggestions can be used as measures to improve participation and retention: • Provision of school grants to schools to discourage unnecessary levies - • Free Basic Education • Sensitisation campaign by SMC and community leaders, Regional office • Engage mothers’ clubs in enrolment and retention programmes e.g. generate extra income for schools – mothers’ clubs • CCT expansion • Increase use of learner centred methods

Recommendations Cont’d • Offer special package to orphans • Increase the frequency of such studies to inform policy • Include home economics and technical subjects e.g. in LBE curriculum • Conduct regular School mapping • Strengthen internal and external monitoring - regional, community, school levels • Local government funds to sponsor students • Strengthen PPM and SPMM • Provide access and encourage students with poor GABECE results to repeat in their previous schools • Parents whose children are all enrolled in school should be given special support by the social welfare department

Measures to improve participation and retention Matrix

Measures to improve participation and retention MatrixCont’d

Measures to improve participation and retention Matrix Cont’d

Introduction • Methodology • List of educational initiatives and/or pilots in the region • School enrolment and progression data • Urban communities case study • Respondents • Interview findings • Recommendations • Full report

Case Study ‘School Participation and Retention in Banjul City Council and Kanifing Urban Areas’