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Khasnabis C, Heinicke Motsch K, Achu K, et al., editors. Community-Based Rehabilitation: CBR Guidelines. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2010.

Cover of Community-Based Rehabilitation: CBR Guidelines

Community-Based Rehabilitation: CBR Guidelines.

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Non-formal education

Introduction

Non-formal education refers to education that occurs outside the formal school system. Non-formal education is often used interchangeably with terms such as community education, adult education, lifelong education and second-chance education. It refers to a wide range of educational initiatives in the community, ranging from home-based learning to government schemes and community initiatives. It includes accredited courses run by well-established institutions as well as locally based operations with little funding.

As non-formal education is diverse, this element has many aspects in common with other elements, particularly Lifelong learning. For the purposes of these guidelines, this element focuses on non-formal education for children and young people outside the regular school system. However, CBR personnel need to be aware that non-formal education reinforces marginalization and stigmatization, so if possible it should not be offered as the only educational option for children with disabilities. Inclusion in a regular school should be prioritized as every child's right.

While non-formal education is often considered a second-best option to formal education, it should be noted that it can provide higher-quality education than that available in formal schools. Non-formal education can be preparatory, supplementary or an excellent alternative (where necessary) to formal schooling for all children.

BOX 43Bangladesh

Facilitating fun and flexible learning environments

The Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) operates over 50 000 pre-primary and primary schools throughout Bangladesh, serving more than 1.5 million children. The schools are usually one-roomed bamboo or mud houses and are located within a one-kilometre radius of the students' homes. They are usually run at a time convenient for the students; some schools start as early as 6 a.m. and operate in two shifts.

Since 2003, BRAC schools have been run with an underlying inclusive philosophy: “Inclusion is an approach which addresses the needs of all learners in ordinary classroom situations, including learners with special needs, indigenous children, children with disabilities, girl children and poor children”. BRAC schools have flexible schedules that ensure compatibility with rural life. Teachers are recruited locally and the community is involved in developing timetables, choosing the site for the school and providing labour and materials to build the classrooms. Teaching methods are learner-centred and participatory, using music, dance, art, games and storytelling. Some of the schools are for children who have never attended formal schooling, and others focus on children who have dropped out.

Children return to formal schooling once they have completed courses in BRAC schools. Specialist disability nongovernmental organizations and the Government are assisting BRAC to remove barriers to inclusion by making schools accessible by adding ramps, wider doors, additional/bigger windows; providing training for teachers and other staff; providing assistive, low-cost devices such as hearing aids, glasses, wheelchairs; and creating learner-centred teaching materials and methods including posters and story books that raise awareness - so making the whole environment “disability friendly”.

Goal

People with disabilities develop knowledge and skills, which help to improve their quality of life.

The role of CBR

The role of CBR is to work with non-formal education programmes to ensure that people with disabilities are able to access educational opportunities suited to their own needs and interests in inclusive settings.

Desirable outcomes

  • People with disabilities participate in non-formal education programmes and learn literacy, numeracy and other skills which contribute to better living conditions.
  • Non-formal education programmes include people with disabilities and consider their needs during programme planning.
  • People with disabilities, family members, disabled people's organizations and parents' associations are involved in decision-making and implementing non-formal education programmes.
  • Home-based learning is available either as a supplement to formal schooling, or in preparation for formal schooling, or as an alternative to formal schooling.
  • Social cohesion is strengthened as students with disabilities and non-disabled students interact together and develop friendships.

Key concepts

Non-formal education expresses the core principles that should be at the heart of all good education. Non-formal education is all of the following.

Relevant to the learner's life and the needs of society, and will be so in the future. Mechanisms for involving children, parents and local communities as well as educators in deciding the content of what is taught will ensure that non-formal education is relevant to the needs of communities and draws on local resources and personnel.

Appropriate to the level of the learner's development, with new content and experiences being introduced when the learner is ready. Teaching is learner-centred and student-directed.

Flexible in what is taught and how it is taught, and to the needs of the different learners, e.g. adults and children who work, who live on the street, who are sick, who are in prison, who have a disability or who are victims of conflict or emergency, and flexible to traditional/indigenous learning styles.

Participatory in that learners are active participants in their learning, and that they and their families and communities are involved in running the non-formal education programme.

Protective of children from harm, and protective of their rights to survival and development. Places of non-formal education should be healthy and safe, and provide proper nutrition, sanitation and protection from harm.

Inclusive of all children regardless of background or ability, respecting and utilizing the differences between them as a resource for teaching and learning. Non-formal education often targets marginalized groups, e.g. nomadic communities, girls, people with disabilities, school dropouts and working children. For students with disabilities and other marginalized groups, non-formal education is very helpful, responding to and fitting their needs.

Quality: non-formal education programmes have the potential to be of exceptionally high quality, because they can respond more easily to the needs of individuals and specific groups in the community.

Suggested activities

Help make existing non-formal education programmes inclusive

A wide range of non-formal education programmes may already be operating in the community. These programmes may be oriented towards literacy and basic education, health promotion (reproductive health issues, sexually transmitted diseases, HIV/AIDS), environmental issues, agriculture, fishing, rural development and/or community development. Non-formal education programmes offer excellent opportunities for people with disabilities to be educated alongside their non-disabled peers.

CBR programmes can identify existing non-formal education programmes and encourage them to become inclusive rather than establish parallel programmes for people with disabilities. Making non-formal education programmes inclusive will involve encouraging the enrolment of people with disabilities in all types of programmes, and ensuring that teaching is conducted in accessible places and that teaching formats are accessible.

Government programmes

Government ministries, e.g. ministries of social welfare, education or youth, are often responsible for managing non-formal education programmes. These programmes are usually focused on literacy, adult learning and vocational training. CBR programmes need to find out about existing non-formal education policies, who is responsible for implementing these policies, the current focus of non-formal education, whether people with disabilities are included and whether grants or loans are available to enable them to participate. This will help CBR programmes to shape a strategy to include people with disabilities in existing non-formal education programmes.

BOX 44Nepal

Access through policy actions

The Policy on Non Formal Education in Nepal (31) states: “NFEC (Non-formal Education Centre) has made efforts to pay special attention to the people who have problems caused by their ethnicity, language, gender and physical disabilities and make non-formal education programs inclusive”.

Policy 8: Inclusive education policy will be adopted to ensure access, quality and co-existence.

The following policy actions will be adopted for the implementation of the above policy:

  • Special educational and pedagogical measures will be adopted to eliminate caste, ethnicity, gender, language, and disability related discriminations.
  • Special arrangements will be made to ensure access to quality non-formal education for the children with various disabilities, conflict affected children and adults, and child labourers.

Community-based non-formal education initiatives

These may include nongovernmental organizations carrying out various development or awareness activities, faith-based schools, creches or day care centres, schools to promote girls' education and schools for older children with disabilities (who were not identified early or included in primary education), formal school dropouts and working children. CBR programmes can identify the different forms of community-based non-formal education initiatives available and facilitate the inclusion of people with disabilities, including children.

CBR personnel can work together with non-formal education facilitators to ensure teaching materials are accessible (e.g. large print, Braille, tape, audio facilities), that the environment is accessible and welcoming, and that students are supported in their learning.

Ensure the curriculum is practical and relevant

Lacking the rigid constraints of formal schools, non-formal education curricula often have greater flexibility and can be easily adapted to suit the needs of individuals. CBR programmes can help ensure that non-formal education:

  • prioritizes basic literacy and numeracy;
  • is oriented to practical skills, life skills and personal development;
  • is effective in teaching decision-making skills;
  • focuses on vocational skills, income-generating activities and job creation;
  • empowers students, instilling confidence and a sense of ownership in programmes and projects – CBR programmes can ensure that disabled people's organizations are involved in promoting the empowerment of students with disabilities;
  • promotes effective communication between students with disabilities and their families, peers and the community, e.g. through basic sign language, Braille, speaking clearly.

BOX 45Bangladesh

A second chance for an education

One non-formal education programme in Bangladesh works in urban communities in large cities such as Dhaka, Chittagong and Rajshahi. The programme especially focuses on children working in the informal sector (often hazardous work) or living and working on the streets, and includes children with different impairments. The programme consists of a condensed primary education programme taught in half the time normally required in the formal system and which is more relevant to the older age-group, as children are older when they enter this programme – it is second-chance education for most of the students. Boys and girls of 10 years and older are invited to the programme. The classes are in three daily shifts to keep classes small and to allow children to continue to work and contribute to their family's income. After the primary education programme, children can choose either to learn vocational skills at the programme's para-trade centres, on courses that take around six months of part-time training, or to apply for a technical training that takes one to two years. The non-formal education programme also has job placement officers who help students – with and without disabilities – to find employment after graduating from the programme.

Support home-based learning

Home-based learning can be supplementary, preparatory or an alternative to formal education. It can be relevant for students with extensive needs, for whom the priority is to learn basic daily living skills, basic communication and basic functioning. These skills are best learned in environments where they will be used rather than in artificial environments. CBR personnel liaise closely with family members, teachers and students, carry out home visits on a regular basis and work with the entire family to ensure successful home-based learning. Home-based learning, as part of a comprehensive strategy, is effective. However, when it operates in isolation, home-based learning can contribute to exclusion and isolation of children with disabilities, despite working closely with family members and sometimes with teachers, as the example below illustrates (27).

Example of inclusion of a child with severe or multiple impairments, even when the child is based at homeExample of exclusion from society of a child with severe or multiple impairments who is based at home
  • CBR programme supports family and child from birth
  • Volunteers and other children help teach the child activities of daily living in his/her own home
  • Child is taken out and involved in local activities, religious and social events
  • Teacher visits family and develops appropriate learning goals together with CBR personnel and family
  • Child attends playgroup at appropriate age
  • District education team includes this child in its planning, provision and resource allocation
  • Parent is active member of local parent/disabled people's group, and is able to plan/lobby for the child's future
  • Family is stigmatized when the child is born
  • Older sister drops out of school to care for the child
  • Neighbours and other children avoid visiting and fear the child
  • Child is kept indoors lying down and gradually becomes more and more dependent and atrophied
  • Family spends money on seeking cures that do not work
  • Father is ashamed, blames mother and leaves
  • Mother becomes increasingly overworked and does not know how to help the child
  • Mother begins to neglect/abuse the child who is now an additional burden
  • Siblings cannot get married or get jobs due to stigma

Sustain specific learning groups

Sometimes there is a specific learning need (such as learning sign language or Braille) that requires students to come together in their own groups to study. CBR personnel can provide assistance in developing and sustaining these groups, and can link students with disabilities with disabled people's organizations, which can be a useful resource to facilitate their learning.

Sign language users find the instructional language in formal learning environments difficult. Many deaf people identify themselves as a linguistic minority rather than as people with disabilities. In low-income countries, the experiences of international nongovernmental organizations have revealed that deaf learners are rarely taught sign language in their native tongue, but are often taught in a foreign (oral) language. Non-formal education programmes that teach sign language can be an important support for deaf people and their families, particularly when deaf adults are recruited as teachers. CBR programmes can ensure that:

  • the rights and views of deaf learners are respected;
  • these special provisions do not increase social exclusion and isolation from the family and community, but rather enable children to participate in family and community life.

BOX 46Viet Nam

Dung passes on his skills to others

Dung (pronounced Zoong) is a bright young man from a village outside Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam. He is deaf and from an early age learned sign language and also learned how to read and write English. At the age of 25, he was working full-time and had a good life. Members from the Ho Chi Minh City Deaf Club and the leaders of a CBR project asked Dung to teach them English to open to them a world of literature and an alternative to writing phonetic Vietnamese. With the help of the CBR project, a local charity and the municipal government, 30 deaf young adults enrolled in the evening classes twice a week. Dung followed a regular English-as-a-second-language curriculum and materials. Each of the 20 regularly attending participants paid Dung the equivalent of about US$1 per lesson. They mastered basic English over the next two years, and then began working to develop and record their native sign language.

Ensure community-based daycentres are appropriate

Community-based daycentres are often established to provide respite for parents who have children with disabilities needing 24-hour care. While these centres may be a great support for parents, often the quality of activities and learning for children is very poor. CBR programmes can help ensure that the centres provide age-appropriate play and activity-based learning, and that the “best interests of the child” are the priority. The centres should also be as inclusive as possible, and involve local children without disabilities and their parents.

Facilitate links with formal schooling

In many countries, national education systems do not value non-formal education the same way as they value formal education. Non-formal education programmes tend to use different and more flexible curricula and teaching methods, which may enable learners to benefit, but can also jeopardize a student's transition into the formal system. Without systematic links between the formal and non-formal education systems, non-formal education may contribute to the segregation of people with disabilities.

BOX 47India

Government outreach schemes

Home-based education for children with disabilities has been recognized by the Indian Government as an alternative form of education for those who have difficulty accessing schools or who are left out of the education system for some reason. The Government programme also provides counselling support for parents and creates awareness regarding the importance of sending their children to school. The education department is responsible for identifying volunteers from the local community with the help and coordination of local nongovernmental organizations. Each volunteer works with three children. An honorarium is paid to them by the school authorities. Once brought into home-based education, the child is enrolled in the neighbourhood school and the school authorities become responsible for him/her. Through this scheme, the Government is reaching those who can't reach school, and works with the child at home until he or she is ready for inclusion or is provided with skills for life. This initiative of the Government creates an effective link between non-formal and formal education programmes, facilitates inclusion, and provides new opportunities for learning.

Although the non-formal and formal education sectors exist separately and have somewhat differing ideologies, they can complement each other and can actively assist each other in many ways. CBR programmes can help to facilitate links by:

  • inviting leaders from both the formal and non-formal education sectors to join the CBR programme in developing inclusive strategies;
  • strengthening formal schooling by providing training for parents and teachers in making schools inclusive, and maintaining strong home–school links;
  • assisting with transitions from non-formal education programmes to formal education;
  • developing complementary non-formal education programmes to help students with disabilities succeed in formal schooling;
  • facilitating transitions to further education, sustainable livelihood and courses offered by the non-formal sector;
  • encouraging the sharing of buildings and facilities, e.g. non-formal education programmes can use school buildings out of hours;
  • encouraging staff from both non-formal education and formal programmes to share their services and experiences.

BOX 48Honduras

After-school tutoring provides an incentive

CBR personnel in El Porvenir, Honduras, provided after-school tutoring for children with and without disabilities who were in danger of failing 1st grade. At the end of the school year, the children passed their exams. The District reported that the school's repetition rate for the year had dropped by 75%. This drop in repetition provided an incentive for the district to work with the CBR programme and include children with disabilities in primary schools.

Copyright © World Health Organization 2010.

All rights reserved. Publications of the World Health Organization can be obtained from WHO Press, World Health Organization, 20 Avenue Appia, 1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland (tel.: +41 22 791 3264; fax: +41 22 791 4857; e-mail: tni.ohw@sredrokoob). Requests for permission to reproduce or translate WHO publications – whether for sale or for noncommercial distribution – should be addressed to WHO Press, at the above address (fax: +41 22 791 4806; e-mail: tni.ohw@snoissimrep).

Bookshelf ID: NBK310920
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