Education reform & innovation in the Global South | Co-Founder, EdWell & Metis | Ex-ALA
Excellent points from Javed Ahmed Malik at Malala Fund - worth a read for those from US/Europe (like myself)!
Ten common mistakes Education Advisors from Global North do when they aim to work in Global South. 1. The host country lack quality/consistent data. Let's make a programme on collecting and analyzing data. Its not education. its the data which matters more. 2. Curriculum making and cultural wars around languages is more important than implementing curriculum in actual class rooms. 3. Donor coordination and endless chat about work is actually work. 4. The host country local experts need training in English drafting. They cannot be trusted to write anything original specially for my boss. 5. My bosses in White Hall or Washington, even their casual views on one aspect of education is actually a policy worth pushing to host country's entire Government's view. My boss said in Columbia they are using morning meals which increased literary and reduced conflict. Let's find a conflict zone to improve literacy through meals. 6. Let me close the programme before June even though it's no cost extension will help the host Government so much but no we do not want any liability in audit. Plus, I did that when I was in Ghana. 7. Every advice by a local staff member must have elements of favoritism. I would rather work with an NGO whose Director I met at Oxford several times. 8. Solving a problem in education is not our responsibility but managing our little project's deliverable is. 9. Let's hire someone from Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Lab and do RCTs. No, I did not study econometrics and agree that Krishna knows more statistics in the team, but we must do RCTs on if handpumps have increased children's enrolment or not? That is important. 10. The schools I work with do not have teachers, but digital learning opportunity can give us a moonshot. One day villagers will have cell phones. They will start learning English too. #education #data #training #learning
