The Gambia Report

A Feasibility Study for Delivering an Innovative Educational Programme for Enhancing the Employability of Upper Basic School Leavers in Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Nigeria, and Senegal

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Presented at the Educational Research Network for West and

Central Africa (ERNWACA) Colloquium

Held at Bamako, Mali

2nd – 3rd March 2015

By: Burama L. J. Jammeh (PhD)Principal Researcher for the ERNWACA Gambia Chapter

email: bjammeh47@gmail.com

OUTLINE OF PRESENTATION

Outline of the Presentation

• INTRODUCTION • RESEARCH OBJECTIVES & QUESTIONS• LITERATURE REVIEW• METHODOLOGY/ METHODS• RESULTS– How Employability was Understood– Social Demand For Employability– Discrepancies in: (a) Curriculum Content &

Resources (b) Pedagogy3

OUTLINE OF PRESENTATION Contd.– Evaluation of Students Learning in relation to the

Required Competency– Integrating Employability in School Programme of

Study

• RECOMMENDATIONS• CONCLUSION

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INTRODUCTION

The Gambia Research Team Members

Educational Research Network for West and Central Africa (ERNWACA) in collaboration with Ministry of Basic and Secondary Educatiion (MoBSE) coordinate the ProjectResearch Team/Contributors•Dr. Burama L. J. Jammeh (Principal Researcher)•Dr. Kenneth Igharo, University of The Gambia (Researcher)•Mr. Momodou Cham, MoBSE (Researcher)•Assistant Researchers•School Working groups•Dr. Yves Benett, Transnational Resource Person •Mr. Cheikhou Touré, Transnational Principal Researcher•Mr. Makaireh N’jie, the National Coordinator of ERNWACA •Local Scientific Committee Members

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RESEARCH OBJECTIVES & QUESTIONS• Research Question 1: What are the

possible discrepancies between the current Upper Basic School Curriculum and the Social Demand for Employability?• Research Objective 1: To identify the

discrepancies between the current curriculum for Upper Basic School leavers and the social demand for employability

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RESEARCH OBJECTIVES & QUESTIONS contd.

Research Question 2: How feasible is it to develop and implement a programme of study for the Upper Basic School leavers which integrates the concept of employability into the curriculum?

Objective 2: To explore the feasibility of developing a programme of study for the Upper Basic School leavers which integrates the concept of employability into the curriculum?

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LITERATURE REVIEW• Employability• Competencies for employability• Curriculum Integration• Benefits of Integrating Academic and

Vocational Education • Challenges in Implementing Integration• Assessment of Employability Skills

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LITERATURE: Employability• Employability remains a contested concept in

terms of its use in both theory and policy (McQuaid, Green and Danson (2005: 191)

• A set of skills, knowledge and personal attributes that make an individual more likely to secure and be successful in their chosen occupation(s) to the benefit of themselves, the workforce, the community and the economy.

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Employability Contd.• Hillage and Pollard’s (1998) widely-cited

definition of employability, as an individual's ability to gain initial employment, maintain employment, move between roles within the same organisation, obtain new employment if required and (ideally) secure suitable and sufficiently fulfilling work

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LITERATURE: Competencies for Employability• Self-Management• Communication• Problem Solving• Initiative & Enterprise• Team Work• Planning & Organising• Technology• Learning Ref: (Equals International (2012) and National Quality Council,

(February 2008):• Framework for the reference of competencies (Enlish).docx

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LITERATURE: Integration• Integrating academic and competence-based

education• Curriculum and Teaching Strategy• School Organization e.g. rreplacing

departments with occupational clusters, Combining departments and occupational clusters, the career academy model. “Academies” operate as schools-within-schools. They align clusters of courses around a specific career,

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METHODOLOGY/ METHODS

• Preparations and sampling• Development of Instruments• Training workshop for the research team • Project Inception workshop• Progress Report and discussions• Finalisation of the Instruments• Data Collection• Focus group• Individual Teacher interviews

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METHODOLOGY/ METHODS contd.

Student Competency assessmentLesson observationDevelopment of a programme of

study Implementation, monitoring and

assessment of the students at the end of their programme of study

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RESULTS• Presented in two main sections in line

with the two main research questions:

(1) What are the possible discrepancies between the current Upper Basic School curriculum and the social demand for employability?(2) How feasible is it to develop and implement a programme of study for the Upper Basic School leavers, which integrates the concept of employability into the curriculum?

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RESULTS: Understanding EmployabilityEmployability was understood as:

‘ability to be capably engaged in something that enables one to earn a living either by oneself (self-employment) or being employed by another’

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RESULTS: Social Demand for Employability

• Perceived expected competencies of school leavers = Social Demand: –Literacy and numeracy abilities , –basic manipulative skills - display

some vocational and technical knowhow or basic skills in technical areas–discipline, respect, courtesy,

commitment and hard work17

RESULTS: Discrepancies in Curriculum Content & Resources • Inadequate content such as ICT,

entrepreneurial skills & other prevocational programmes• Too much focus on examinations and as

such, little or no time is devoted to practice and developing competencies• lack industrial experiences/attachment • Negative perceptions about vocational

subjects 18

Discrepancies in Curriculum Content & Resources Contd.

• To some, curriculum content has the required competencies but the resources needed to implement the curriculum are lacking – lack of textbooks for the selective subjects,– limited time, material and human resources for

implementing practical lessons– subject- matters are taught in abstract – lack of adequate financial and skilled human

resources 19

RESULTS: Pedagogical Discrepancies

1. Pedagogical Objectives: lesson objectives are generally in conformity with the delivery of the necessary competencies and are clearly in line with the issues of employability,

2. Pedagogical Approach: generally transmissive, individual differences among students were not catered for (63% unsatisfactory) , learners’ autonomy not promoted 23% satisfactory and mostly irrelevant to the highlighted objectives.

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Pedagogical Discrepancies contd.3. Teaching Aids and Material were 86% insufficient and 80% unsatisfactorily adapted to learning.

4. Pedagogical Relationship: predominantly (90%) vertical, that is, top-down from teacher to students but the teacher generally communicates effectively during the lesson delivery.

5. Level of participation of students in the lessons was generally unsatisfactory (57%)

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Pedagogical Discrepancies Opportunity for students to ask questions was in the range of 66% unsatisfactory

6. The learning or working environment - the ventilation, lightings, security, infrastructure & equipment are conducive for learning (86% ) but motivation of students recorded 50% satisfactory.

7. Integration of cross-cutting themes in the lesson delivery: The lesson contents were 75% unsatisfactorily linked to cross-cutting themes such as good governance, ICT. Appendix 9.doc

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Cumulative Average Satisfaction in lesson observation

Level of satisfaction in Maths & General Science Lessons

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For all subjectsThe dominant pedagogical relationship was 90% vertical, which means the relation is top-down from teacher to students

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Evaluation of Students Learning for in relation to the Required Competency• Competencies for employability were grouped

in four main domains as follows.• Competency 1: Ability to communicate in

three different languages including one’s maternal language (or the most spoken language in the community) both orally and written.

• student performances in English and French Languages are 41% and 25.5 % respectively

• Appendix 8.doc 26

Evaluation of Students LearningCompetency 2: Demonstrate understanding and ability to apply basic concepts in mathematics, sciences (natural and social) and technology.•The students lack the understanding and application of mathematics and scientific concepts – effect of teaching abstract concepts•unable to apply scientific approach to problem solving and could not use the ICT to communicate or solve problems

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Evaluation of Students LearningCompetency 3: Capabilities of a responsible and employable citizen•Scores in relation to the capabilities of a responsible and employable citizen were also very low

Competency 4: autonomy, cooperative and enterprising•less than half (35.8%) of the candidates scored more than 50% in one of the competency task ANALYSES OF STUDENTS ASSESSMENT shortened.docx

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INTEGRATING EMPLOYABILITY IN THE SCHOOL PROGRAMME OF STUDY

• entrepreneurship and the information and communication technology

• integrating academic and technical/vocational education

• Ensuring that the human (teachers) and materials resources are available

• Develop & implement assessment tasks giving students the opportunities to demonstrate the pre-vocational skills

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RESULTS: Integrating Employability in School Programme of Study• Career guidance in schools to identify the

talents of individual students and encouraging them to concentrate on their talented areas,

• Proper and adequate learning materials, more time and resources for practical applications, linkages with industries and facilitating students’ attachment to them,

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Integrating Employability in School Programme of Study contd.

• capacity building of teachers in curriculum development and the integration of the necessary competencies

• Enhance students’ ability to communicate in at least two foreign languages

• suitable pedagogical approach, appropriate pedagogical relationships and the emphasis on the application, rather than on abstract are important means of curriculum integration

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RECOMMENDATION• At the pilot school level• Use the report for curriculum audit and

development of school programmes of study.

At the national level• Conduct of a nationwide needs assessment in

order to take the future needs of society into consideration.

• Introduction of career guidance and counselling programme in schools

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Recommendation contd.

• Emphasis placed on practical application of knowledge

• Link between school and factories, workshops and industries

• Curriculum should not be mainly examinations-driven

• Build capacity of teacher on curriculum development for them to relate curriculum to real life situation also on action research

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Recommendation contd.

• Equipped laboratories and pre-vocational workshops, teaching aids (including relevant textbooks and financial support) provided for curriculum implementation.

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CONCLUSION

This study heads towards school-based curriculum development, improvement and enrichment

THE END: Thanks35