PPA

(: This Course Design Document is prepared on behalf of the Commonwealth of Learning, Vancouver, Canada by Dr. Sanjaya Mishra, for ActionAid, Bangladesh as a Consultant to COL in disucssion with Mr. Shohel Rana of ActionAid, Bangladesh)

Title of the Course

People’s Plan of Action (PPA)

Medium

English in Phase I, and Bangla in Phase II

Target Group

The course is primarily aimed at common citizens and therefore any one who can read and write in English can be a learner in the initial phase. Later on, as the materials shall be available in Bangla, anyone who can read and write Bangla can become a learner on the course. Primarily the course is designed for Chairpersons and members of School Management Committee (SMC), parents, teachers, students, Chairpersons and members of Union Porishad (UP), religious leaders, local elites and UP and Upozilla officials.

Aims and Objectives

Aims:

The course aims at

• Improving the quality of education in Bangladesh as envisaged in National Plan of Action II (NPA-II); and
• Empowering the stakeholders to develop alternative Plan of Action for improvement of education and UP-level.

Objectives:

After reading this course, the participants/learners shall be able to:

• Describe the system of education in Bangladesh;
• List important features and recommendations of NPA-II and PEDP-II;
• Analyze their specific contexts vis-à-vis provisions of NPA-II to find out gaps, if any;
• Prepare reports and share it with the community, UP, and Upozilla level for discussion;
• Develop PPA at school level and UP-level; and
• Lobby and implement PPA in Union Porishad level.

Content Outline

Module 1: Primary Education in Context

Unit 1: Education System in Bangladesh
Unit 2: Structure and Management of Primary Education in Bangladesh
Unit 3: International Initiatives on Education and Bangladesh

Module 2: NPA-II and PEDP-II

Unit 4: National Plan of Action – II (NPA-II) (Sample Unit)
Unit 5: Primary Education Development Programme – II (PEDP-II)

Module 3: Developing PPA

Unit 6: Analyzing the Local Context
Unit 7: Sharing the Findings
Unit 8: Reporting and Lobbying

Media Mix

The course shall be offered only through printed self-learning materials. However, if any video and audio materials are developed at any point of time these shall be used as supplementary materials to enrich the teaching-learning process. For example a documentary video of 20 minutes can be prepared on “Quality Schools”.

Assessment Strategies

There shall be no formal learner evaluation in this course. However, participants/learners in the course shall be engaged in self-evaluation, and activity-based tasks in the field, which will be monitored and feedback provided by a local level Mentor.

Support Mechanisms

As the course has many psychomotor and affective level issues involved such as context analysis in the field, group formation, discussion of local education problems in the community, and development of plan of action involving people, there is need for human support at local level, who can be termed as a Mentor. A mentor can be someone who has adequate knowledge of PPA and has access to local facilities and resources. He/She may be an employee of one of the partner NGOs of ActionAid. Mentors can be trained before being given charge of about 50 learners in one Union Porishad. He/She will form groups of 10 learners to work as a team in accomplishing the learning objectives of the course. His/Her job shall be to facilitate and coordinate their activities related to learning tasks.

Besides this human support, ActionAid can think of using the School Library as a resource centre for the learners of this course. As per the Govt. policy, the school libraries are open to all, and thus can be developed as a resource centre by ActionAid by adding additional resources related to the course.

ActionAid may also use the concept of Self-Help Groups (SHG), and facilitate creation of SHGs amongst the learners of this course residing in a locality. These learners may discuss their problems related to the content of the course over phone or meet to share their learning.

Credit Value

The credit weight of the course shall be 2, where one credit is equivalent to 30 learner study hours. Thus, the learners shall spend about 30 hours in working with the printed study materials, and shall work in the field about 30 hours to complete various activities related to the course.