UNICEF Guinea Bissau: Usher's story

Schools for Africa Guinea Bissau

Usher’s storyCHILD FRIENDLY

INCLUSIVE EDUCATION

2 UNICEF Guinea Bissau

Guinea Bissau became independent in 1973 after fighting a decade-long war ofindependence against Portugal. Since then, this fragile state has experiencednear-constant political instability. This has resulted in increasing poverty for themajority of its population—almost 70 per cent of the population live on less thanUS $2 per day and 33 per cent survive on less than $1 per day. It has alsoresulted in severe financial constraints for the Government.

Education, along with other basic social services, suffers from chronicunderinvestment. Classrooms are in disrepair, the curriculum is decades out ofdate, teaching and learning materials are in short supply, and the majority ofteachers are untrained and, increasingly, unpaid. In recent years schools havebeen closed more and more frequently as teachers have gone on strike becausetheir salaries have not been paid, often for months on end.

Further cuts to education and other social services took place in 2012 when, in the wake of another coup, all of the country’s major donors reduced orcancelled their planned budgetary support. “Currently the education situation inthis country is not even up to the minimum standards,” says Alfredo Gomes,Guinea Bissau’s Minister for Education, “and for the development of a countryeducation is crucial.”

There is hope however, for despite these challenges, more children are enteringthe education system than ever before: since 1997, school enrolment (for primary and secondary education) has increased more than 2.5 times from 135,000students in 1997/98 to 357,000 in 2010/11. But these increases are notequitable. One third of all school age children in Guinea Bissau are out ofschool—primarily the rural poor, girls and other vulnerable children—for whomaccess is impeded by the high costs associated with school, the distance theymust travel to attend and discrimination.

CHILD FRIENDLY, INCLUSIVE EDUCATION

Thanks to your support, Usher and other children withdisabilities are going to school.

Guinea Bissau

Ponta Nova

Schools for Africa Usher’s story 3

For those who do attend school, educational outcomes are strikingly poor, asthe rapid increase in the number of students coupled with limited publicinvestment has made it difficult to provide quality schooling. In the following pages, you will meet Usher, a first grade student at Ponta NovaUnified School, in the village of Ponta Nova, Oio Region, Guinea Bissau. Bornwith a physical disability, Usher would almost certainly have joined the 90 percent of disabled children in developing countries worldwide who are out ofschool, were it not for his proximity to a UNICEF-supported child friendly school(CFS).

Child friendly schools take a holistic approach to education: they are inclusiveand gender-sensitive, they have adequate resources and competent teachers whouse child-centred teaching methods, they provide safe water and suitablesanitation facilities, and they are designed to make children feel safe and secure.

Because of the UNICEF-supported training his teacher received, Usher hasbeen welcomed into the school, where he learns as an equal alongside his peers.

This year Usher and his fellow classmates have also benefitted from the factthat, unlike in most schools in Guinea Bissau, the teachers at Ponta Nova haveremained in their classrooms and learning has continued uninterrupted. This isthanks to partnerships that have been forged between the school and the localcommunity since the school became child friendly in 2011.

Having the opportunity to attend a child friendly school like Ponta Nova isarguably even more important for Usher than for his able-bodied peers, as histeacher, Antonio Mendoça, explains: “Without education, it is difficult for ablebodied people to earn a living, but it is even more difficult for someone likeUsher. His grandmother will not be here to take care of him forever. When he iseducated, in the future, he will be able to take care of himself.”

Child friendly schools arerelatively new to GuineaBissau. Started in 2011, theinitiative will expand to reacha total of 145 schools by 2015(ten per cent of all primaryschools in Guinea Bissau),with a focus on promotingequity for the country’s mostvulnerable regions. Afterbuilding an evidence-basedcase for the initiative, UNICEFwill support the MEN in rollingit out across the country.

Given the extremely limitedfinancial resources available to the Government, externalfinancial resources areessential to ensuring thatchildren’s right to education ismet. UNICEF is working withthe Ministry of Education(MEN) and its partners toensure donor’s resources arewell-managed.


My name is Usher Renu Olivera Sanca. I am sevenyears old and I am in the first grade at Ponta Nova

Primary School in Ponta Nova village in Guinea Bissau. Ilive with my cousins and my Grandma Nene. I came to

live with her two years ago. At that time I couldn’twalk, I could only crawl. My grandma helped me towalk. Now I go to school like everybody else. I like

learning to read and write. When I grow up I want towork in the fields—or maybe I will be a driver.


06:27 My cousin Geralda is 15. She takes care of me. She helps me washmy face and brush my teeth. She feeds me and washes my clothes.


Usher is the son of my daughter and my nephew. When he was one yearold he couldn’t walk, at two he couldn’t walk, at three he couldn’t walk,at four he couldn’t walk. When he turned five he still couldn’t walk. Thatyear I went to their village for a ceremony. I went to see Usher and sawthat his body was bent. You needed to hold him to feed him. I askedthem to give him to me and I took him home with me. I am a healer so Ilooked for medicines to treat him. I would help him stand up, then Iwould help him sit down to rest a bit. He would fall whenever he startedwalking. This is how we started.

A year went by and in the second year someone came and he said thatUsher could go to school. Now he is in school. I am happy because I wasnever counting on it—that Usher would walk or that he would go toschool. And now we have a school in our village. This is good for mebecause if the school were far away he wouldn’t be able to get there, and I would be the one suffering because of this child.

I took Usher in and God has helped us. Now I just want him tocontinue to walk, and to go to school until he grows up. Then, he will be clever, and if God calls me Usher will be able to stay here and lookafter himself.

NENE CUADEUsher’s ‘Grandmother’

With your UNICEF support...

Schools closer to home

Statistical analysis shows that the

probability of school attendance

decreases as the distance to school

increases. A child living within 15

minutes of a school is 44 percentage

points more likely to go to school than a

child living 45-60 minutes away. Having

a school close to home is even more

critical for children like Usher, for whom

distance to school is likely to mean the

difference between being able to attend

and being out of school.

Between 2010 and 2014, UNICEF, in

partnership with the Ministry of

Education (MEN), rebuilt or rehabilitated

almost 340 classrooms in hard to reach

communities in Guinea Bissau’s most

vulnerable zones.


06:43 Grandma Nene and Geralda help me get dressed.


When I first came here I couldn’t walk. I crawled. I wanted to walk likemy friends and go to school. My grandmother boiled some leaves and put that water in a hole and left it to get cool. Then she told me tostand inside the hole and she filled up the hole with dirt and I stayedstanding in it for a long time. It hurt. But now I don’t feel any pain. I can walk and I go to school.

USHER SANCAFirst grade student, Ponta Nova Primary School

07:48 After breakfast I walkto school with my cousins.

Building a picture of the situation for children living with disabilities

UNICEF puts a great deal of resources and energy into collecting data to inform decision-

makers. Every three years the organisation provides national and regional level data on a

series of indicators related to women and children in Guinea Bissau. It also supports the

MEN in collecting and compiling data that can be used to improve its planning capacity,

including the national education statistics (2009-2011) and the nationwide school census

(2013). In July 2013, UNICEF supported Guinea-Bissau in signing the international convention

on people with disabilities, and in 2014, UNICEF, in partnership with UNDP, will conduct the

country’s first national survey on the situation of people with disabilities. The results will

orient future policy-making and planning to improve their lives.



07:48 I’m the cleverestbecause I can write.

Addressing the economics of access

According to a UNICEF survey on reasons for not attending school, over half of children did

not attend because they were unable to pay the costs related to schooling or did not have

enough money to buy school materials. These costs hit poor families hardest, and are likely

to hit families with a disabled child even harder: households that have members with

disabilities generally have lower incomes than other households and are at greater risk of

living below the poverty line. UNICEF is planning to increase the access of vulnerable

children to school through social protection schemes, such as cash transfers, which will

target the most vulnerable children and their families, through school canteens (operated

with the World Food Programme and the International Partnership for Human

Development), and through the provision of uniforms and extra learning materials.


08:04 The teacher takes attendance. 08:22 We sing a song.



When I attended UNICEF’s child friendly schools training I learned a littlebit about including children who have disabilities in the classroom, butit was not enough.

Here, in Guinea Bissau,couldn’t people like Usher have always beenplaced apart. They have been considered people who cannot contributeto society. Only now are people starting to see that handicapped people can do the same things as everybody else and that they have the same rights.

This is Usher’s second year in school. There is no problem with hismind—he talks a lot so you can see his mind is just fine—the problem is physical. When he started school he had problems with his movements,especially moving his hands. If I told him something he would just throwhis pencil or rip his exercise book, but this year he is much better. He isnot doing that anymore.

But having Usher in the classroom still requires patience and effort—especially with 48 other children in the class. I keep him in the front,near me, so I can watch him. When we do an activity I give Usherdirections and then I move around the classroom to help the others and finally come back to help him.

I know Usher is capable of succeeding, especially if I keep workingwith him.

Teachers and quality education

Teachers are a matter of serious concern

in Guinea Bissau. First, the country does

not have enough of them: the national

primary student–teacher ratio was 52:1 in

2009/10—a figure that is higher in most

rural schools. Second, the majority of its

teachers have limited schooling and they

are not trained to teach.

UNICEF has made teacher training a

priority. Through programs that offer

continuous training for qualified teachers

who need to improve their skills or pre-

and in-service training for untrained

teachers who do not yet have the basic

skills required to teach, the organisation

is working to promote the professional

development of the 435 teachers in its

child friendly schools by 2015. This

includes training in interactive and child-

centred teaching and learning practices

as well as special education for teaching

handicapped students. These trainings

will promote quality learning outcomes

for all students.

ANTONIO MENDOÇAHead Teacher, Ponta Nova Unified School



09:14 “Whatever the other children are learning, Usher can also learn,” says Antonio.


09:41 I like learning to read and write and count.

The process of supporting inclusiveness

Becoming a child friendly school is a process. It does not happen

overnight. Ponta Nova Unified Primary School, like all child friendly

schools, still struggles to be fully inclusive, particularly in the case

of children with disabilities, orphans, and vulnerable children. The

school building and grounds do not easily accommodate Usher’s

physical disabilities, and the school head and teachers are not yet

sufficiently trained to support children with a variety of special

needs. UNICEF Guinea Bissau will continue working with child

friendly schools and all education stakeholders to strengthen their

ability to be inclusive of and provide support to all children.



09:59 My best friend in school is Mampatchi. She sits with me. Sometimes she helps me write.


10:08


Supervision and oversight

School inspectors are responsible for

supervising teachers and developing

teacher support systems for on-the-job

training in the dozens of schools they

oversee. By working to improve

inspectors’ understanding of child-

centred pedagogy along with their

capacity to support teachers in

implementing it, UNICEF aims to

enhance learning outcomes in all of the

classrooms in the 145 target schools

and beyond.

To ensure that teachers are

observed according to a fixed set of

criteria that are in keeping with child-

centred teaching methods, UNICEF and

the MEN have trained the inspectors in

child-friendly education according to a

newly developed manual. They have also

provided most of the inspectors in the

country with motorcycles so that they

can make regular visits to the schools

and give teachers guidance in making

child-friendly improvements to their

classroom skills.

Guinea Bissau faces many challenges when it comes to education.Previously there were other organisations that provided support toeducation. Now there is only one—UNICEF—and we rely on thembecause the state isn’t able to do much. Our teachers don’t have manuals,the students don’t have textbooks, there is no chalk in the classrooms.The school management lacks training. The school facilities are poor. The curriculum is out of date, most of the so-called teachers have onlyfinished the seventh or eighth grade and on top of that there is not eventhe money to pay them, so they are forced to go on strike.

Since 2011 UNICEF has opened ten child-friendly schools in thisregion, of which two are in my sector. These schools are different. Theyare model schools. They have latrines. They have water. They have schoolfurniture, teachers’ manuals, textbooks and teaching and learningmaterials. But the biggest difference is the teachers. As a result of thetraining they receive, the teachers in these schools have the skills theyneed to teach, and they have learned that all children—including thosewith disabilities—must be enrolled in school and treated with care toimprove their learning.

Child friendly schools are very important to a country like GuineaBissau. The more we have, the better it will be for everyone—teachers,students, parents, the community and even the government—everyonewill benefit.

PAULO SAMBUSchool Inspector, Mansoa Sector, Oio Region



10:12 It’s hot. At break time we get water and wash our feet.


Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) facilities for child friendly schools

Access to safe water and adequate sanitation is still poor countrywide both at the

community level and in schools. In 2010 in Oio Region, for example, only 16 per cent of

schools had functional water points equipped with hand pumps. As part of the child friendly

schools initiative, by 2015 all of UNICEF’s 145 target schools will have::

• Access to a safe and sustainable water source;

• Child-friendly, separate sanitation facilities for girls and boys;

• Hygiene education programmes led by child-to-child sanitation committees;

• Links between school management committees and communities to ensure that hygiene

education skills acquired in school influence community level behaviour change.

10:22 Some people play outside at break. Some look at books. I go inside to do more writing.


10:55 I get to lead the class in counting.


Revising the curriculum to make it relevant and child friendly

The curriculum currently in use was developed in 1992. UNICEF and the MEN and other

education partners are in the process of developing a new curriculum that will be rolled out

nationwide at the end of 2014. The new curriculum will reflect the latest approaches to

teaching, including child-centred teaching methods. It will also include age appropriate life

skills information on topics such as sanitation, nutrition, hygiene, sexual and reproductive

health, HIV prevention, peace, environmental conservation and civic education. The aim is

to provide a textbook to every student in every subject so that students are not forced to

spend most of their class time copying from the blackboard whatever text the teachers

have extracted from the textbook. This will benefit not just the 29,000 students in the 145

target schools, but the 280,000 students enrolled in all primary schools nationwide.

The curriculum is a big problem It is more than 20 years old. Thetextbooks feature only one person named ‘Bene’—as if there is only oneperson in the whole community! Children start by learning about Ghanaand other countries before they learn about their own; if you ask astudent—even one in grade five or six—to name the rivers in GuineaBissau, he or she won’t be able to do it.

—Paulo Sambu, School Inspector, Mansoa Sector, Oio Region



Participatory school management

Effective partnerships with all of the

education stakeholders in the local

community help to improve the quality of

schools. In all of UNICEF’s child friendly

schools, School Management

Committees (SMCs) work to support

the school, ensuring that responsibility

for the school’s success lies with the

community and is not concentrated in

any one person.

UNICEF is working to build the

capacity of 725 SMC members (five per

target school) to enhance community-

school relationships, promote stronger

school management, and identify, reach

out to and enroll vulnerable children—

notably girls and children with special

needs—through community mobilisation

and targeted cash transfers (see box

page 15). School-community partnerships

are also key to solving many of the other

challenges schools face, including

keeping schools open in the face of

recurrent teacher strikes. These

partnerships point to a sustainable way

forward as Guinea Bissau strives to

accelerate its progress towards

education for all.

The School Management Committee was formed three years ago, whenthis became a child friendly school. Until recently our role was to workwith the teachers, parents and community to manage the support theschool receives and to maintain the school buildings and furniture. Butthen last year there was a teacher strike that went on for over sixtydays, so our children lost most of their learning time. We wanted ourchildren to go to school, so we decided to work with the community tofind a solution.

We held many meetings to discuss the issues. At first the parents didn’tunderstand why we were asking them to make a contribution. Weexplained that the money would pay the teachers a small salary, andthere would be a little left over to take care of the needs of the school.

When the parents said they didn’t want to pay, we gave them the facts.We reminded them about how just a few years ago many of our youngpeople had to go away to school. We told them that if there were nolonger enough teachers here, our children would again have to goelsewhere to finish primary school and that would be much moreexpensive than simply paying the teachers we already have. And it wouldcause us to worry again. We reminded them of how bad we felt when ourchildren were away from us, and how, if they are here in the village withus, we feel at peace—and our children are also available to help at home.

In the end everyone agreed to pay a contribution of 600 CFA/month(US $1.15) for each of their children who are enrolled in the school.Because we took action, today our school is always open and ourchildren are learning.

ALBERTO MENDOZAHead of the Village Committee and member of the School Management Committee



12:03 I walk home from school.

12:04

When the community decided to pay for the school I was not angry. I know that if the teachers go on strike and I go to work in the fields,Usher will just be here playing all the time and he will not take time tostudy. So how could he be clever? That is why I am paying the school,even if he is not a strong student. If Usher becomes clever, it will begood for him. I am an old woman, what will I be able to give him? Oneday he will have to feed himself and to feed me too. My husband died,my brothers and uncles have all died. The only one left is my grandson.

—Nene Cuade, Usher’s Grandmother

We know it is hard for manypeople to pay the fee,especially if they havemany children, so we areflexible. We will even acceptpayment in chickens.

—Alberto Mendoza, School Management Committee


Providing sufficient teaching and learning materials

Given that 94% of public expenditure in the education sector is

spent on salaries, there is not enough public funding for materials

to support teaching and learning. UNICEF provides the children in

its child friendly schools with a learner’s kit, containing a bag, a mini

atlas, basic mathematical tables and a stationary set with pencils,

pen, eraser, sharpener and notebooks. Teachers receive a kit with

two teachers’ guides: one on practical methods of teaching and

learning and another on special education needs in the classroom.

Schools also receive maps of Guinea-Bissau and the world, rulers

and compass for blackboard-use, register books and chalk.

12:14 Look what we got at school today!



12:36 I eat and change my clothes.


13:03 I look after the peanuts. Grandma puts them out to dry and I keep the pigs and chickens away. When they are dry we put them into sacks.


14:22 When I am not in school I like to write and play my drum. My drum has two sticks.


15:42 It is hot. My cousin Sadjo helps me get

some water so I can wash myself and be cool.


Nobody kicks the ball to Usher. He has to run and play like everyoneelse. He is no different from the rest of us.

—Sadjo, Usher’s cousin

17:18 I like to play football with my friends.

I remember when Usher first came to live here. He was always crawling.We couldn’t play. Now we like to play football and hide and seek andkick the can.

—‘Mampatchi’, Usher’s friend

In terms of relationships, Usher does very well. He plays well with theother kids and they always take care of him. They do it spontaneously.But if there is a problem, Usher’s cousin, Sadjo, always protects him. Hewill stand between Usher and the others.

—Antonio Mendoça, Head Teacher, Ponta Nova Unified School


17:46 When I get tired, I watch the others play. I like it when Sadjo sits with me.

I like to play with Sadjo. We also like to read together and pinch eachother and do our homework together.

—Usher


18:10 My cousin Aliya washes me. “We don’t wash Usher because he is different,” she says. “We wash him because that is what we do with all of the children, and he is one of the children.”

All children have the right to an education.

UNICEF is working with the Government, local education authorities and NGOs to provide

Guinea Bissau’s most vulnerable children with access to a quality education that

will allow them to take their rightful place as equal participants in society.

www.schoolsforafrica.org

To fund all of its work UNICEF relies entirely on voluntary donations from individuals,

governments, institutions and corporations. We receive no money from the UN budget.

Thank you for believing that all children have the right to an education.

ABOUT UNICEF

Together with you, UNICEF is working to make a difference for all children,everywhere, all the time. All children have rights that guarantee them whatthey need to survive, grow, participate and fulfill their potential. Yet everyday these rights are denied. Millions of children die from preventablediseases. Millions more don’t go to school, or don’t have food, shelter andclean water. Children suffer from violence, abuse and discrimination. This is wrong.

UNICEF works globally to transform children’s lives by protecting andpromoting their rights. Their fight for child survival and development takesplace every day in remote villages and in bustling cities, in peaceful areasand in regions destroyed by war, in places reachable by train or car and interrain passable only by camel or donkey.

Their achievements are won school by school, child by child, vaccine byvaccine, mosquito net by mosquito net. It is a struggle in which success ismeasured by what doesn't happen—by what is prevented.

UNICEF will continue this fight—to make a difference for all children,everywhere, all the time.

UNICEF Guinea Bissau

Apartado 464

1034 Bissau Codex

Bissau

REPUBLIC OF GUINEA BISSAU

Tel : + (245) 320-3581/84

Fax: + (245) 320-3586

E-mail: [email protected]

www.unicef.org/infobycountry/guineabissau.html

Facebook: Unicef Guiné-Bissau

Photography, words and design: Kelley Lynch

The Schools for Africa initiative is a successful international

fundraising partnership between UNICEF, the Nelson Mandela

Foundation and the Peter Krämer Stiftung. For more information

please visit www.schoolsforafrica.org.

UNICEF Guinea Bissau: Usher's story

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