DANIEL OFOSU MENSAH

I submit this request for funding to cover living costs for my participation in the Advanced Training Programme (ATP) in Educational Planning and management (1 September 2009-30 June 2010).

WHY APPEAL?

This communiqué serves to appeal and request for financial support to participate in the Advanced Training Programme in Educational Planning and Management (ATP) 2009/2010. The ATP programme is a nine months master’s level course in France. I was selected and admitted to the programmes on April 2009. I am supposed to raise 22 400 Euros and two air tickets. Please note that my selection was based on the fact that I had secured sponsor with my employer. Due to the current economic down turn my sponsorship is no more available due to budget cuts.

BIO DATA

My name is Johanna Morwe. I am a Motswana woman of 45 years old. I currently work for the Department of Out of school Education and Training (DOSET) in the Ministry of Education and Skills Development (MoESD) in Botswana. I hold a Degree in Adult Education. I work as a district supervisor which largely involves inspectorate. I am charged with the responsibility of administering and implementing Out of School Education Programmes as Principal Adult education Officer II.

WHY ATP PROGRAMME?

I am particularly interested in the ATP as I have been contemplating to study at master’s level. Firstly, I wish to sharpen my performance focus and improve myself professionally. Secondly, I wish to improve and add value to my performance in planning and managing educational programmes which I am entrusted with. I wish to see the DOSET well managed and focused on establishing a learning environment in which education is seen as a lifelong process. I believe this could be possible if DOSET could strengthen its focus, extend and expand programme’s coverage to include strategies to promote inclusive education.

How I wish to see myself contributing meaningfully towards creating a literate environment whereby communities are given learning opportunities that will empower them with knowledge and information to be world class citizen! I strongly believe that numerous efforts have been made by DOSET to achieve this.

Regrettably, the management of programme’s implementation has always been a challenge as there is a performance gap in as far as organisation, planning a systematised strategy to manage programmes. As such, I wish to focus my efforts on managing DOSET education programmes efficiently and effectively to make out of school education a reality for everybody who is not in school. I feel that DOSET is challenged to prepare its staff to cope with their responsibilities. To begin with DOSET has to be aware of the nature and magnitude of the problems in dealing with the out of school population. I see DOSET under pressure to develop policy guidelines on inclusive education as a matter of urgency.

According to UNESCO 2009, the e-FlagNews shows that in order for any country to promote inclusive education
“an in depth analysis of the size and character of the out of school populations should be conducted; and also ensuring their integration into quality school and other kinds of education and training programmes. It further states that such analysis would frequently require improved data systems and data collection methods”.
The ATP programme is quite appropriate to enhance and build needed capacity.

FUTURE EXPECTATIONS

I see my participation in the ATP programme as a critical. ATP programme can be of value to my career and future responsibilities. DOSET is undergoing a transformation as its mandate has broadened in scope to cover men, women, youth and children who are not in school. DOSET exists to provide equitable access to education and training to out of school population. There is a challenge currently to expand out reach programmes through increasing fluidity of knowledge and information. As Principal Adult Education Officer II I need to engage experts in programme’s delivery. As such I need to be more organised to effectively coordinate their efforts.

I also sit in the District Education Planning Committee which meets quarterly to dialogue on salient issues pertinent to improving performance in the curriculum delivery and management of schools. The committee serves as an advisory body to the District Development Committee (DDC) that is charged with the district planning and management of Government and Non-Government Organisation’s programmes. My 27 years experience in this field accords me to see all of these as potential opportunities and targets for the creation of a literate environment in which education is seen as a lifelong process.

MAJOR EDUCATIONAL TOPIC OR PROBLEM I WILL BASE MY ATP PROJECT PAPER ON.

Generally, there is a concern for slow growth in the Department’s curriculum delivery to address emerging issues and initiatives that need the department’s attention. This is despite the fact that there are Adult Educators employed to ensure amongst other things that quality delivery is achieved.
A number of studies conducted in the department revealed that Management of information and in appropriate placement of staff were among the issues attributed to the problems hindering performance. The absence of implementation guidelines for the programmes has been a concern too. It has been difficult if not impossible to manage, as there is no data in the department that can serve as a base for decision making. There a numerous activities in the department that are not accounted for these have rendered the department in effective.

For instance, the 1987:100 NLP Evaluation report stated a need for a more comprehensive policy towards further learning opportunities for literacy graduates and more practical action to implement such a policy. Still the 1987 report indicated problems in the delivery of quality out of school education and training curriculum due to poor management the National Literacy Programme.
“The evaluation team’s overall suggestion for the role of the then Department of Non-Formal Education now DOSET is that it should offer a comprehensive range of learning opportunities to adults including basic literacy/numeracy”

In the past the Department did not perceive the out of school population that is not enrolled in the Department’s programmes as part of its mandate; hence there were no deliberate or planned programmes meant to reach this population as part of its clientele. As a result, the services were sporadic and carried out as matter of discretion but not obligatory. These are left to chances.

Therefore, the purpose of this proposal is to develop a strategic idea to establish how best the out of school education programmes could be managed in an effort to increase fluidity of knowledge and information through outreach programmes. The strategic idea seeks to strengthen capacity for adults, youth and children to identify learning opportunities, develop potentials; develop common interests and negotiate lives commitments that would impact on their livelihoods as well as to ensure sustainable lifelong learning. The focus here is to expand and extend out of school education and training delivery to cover out of school population that had not been covered before.

May I therefore, submit this proposal to solicit financial support to cover my living costs for the nine months stay in France.

For further details please contact Maria Blackwell “iiep.unesco.org

Thanking you in anticipation.

Yours Faithfully

Johanna Morwe