Here are some examples that illustrate the community’s ownership of the school and its participation in its management and development: 

• the inhabitants themselves provide the construction materials to build their own school building; 
• the parents pay a school fee which allows to pay the teachers and maintain the school;
• some schools have parent associations that provide various forms of support to the school; 
• some schools organize parental seminars to discuss the importance of education for the community; 
• the school management committee is in close contact with community leaders and members of the community, and in ongoing conversation with parents.

At the heart of our partners’ efforts is to strengthen the capacity of communities to meet the educational needs of children through teacher training, a training that links practice to theory. Teachers are gradually trained at different levels from kindergarten to primary school, during seminars lasting several weeks. The training includes the study of the curriculum at the level assigned to the teacher (mainly based on national curricula and other teaching materials), some units of the PSA program and other materials on the moral education curriculum that is provided.

After the initial training seminar, teachers continue to be supported throughout the year. At the school level, the management committee helps teachers create and revise lesson plans and discuss interactions with parents and students, and teachers meet regularly to reflect and share their experiences. At the regional level, regular reflection meetings are held, and teachers are occasionally visited by the organization’s regional staff.

The curriculum used in schools is continuously developed. In the case of our partner in the Central African Republic, a team of more experienced teachers meet regularly to review and enrich the curriculum with the support of the directors of the Ahdieh Foundation. Teachers use their experience to develop lesson plans. Small sub-groups of 3 to 4 teachers focus on the specific areas of the program, namely mathematics, technology, language, science and the kindergarten program. The concepts studied are complemented by exercises, songs, drama, visual arts, games, memorization activities and service projects. In all areas of the curriculum, teachers help students understand the implications of the concepts they are studying in the context of their families, regions, continents and the world.

A community school, when established, provides education for a relatively small number of children. Over time, the role that the school plays in the community evolves and becomes more complex. For example, as the Ahdieh Foundation gained experience with supporting communities to address the educational needs of their children, it also found itself drawn ever more deeply into understanding and addressing other concerns of the populations with which it was working. A common challenge many of the communities faced was related to nutrition and children’s health. The children attending the schools were often not adequately nourished and had difficulties concentrating during the school day. In 2010, the organization began assisting the teachers of certain community schools, along with members of the community, to study materials aimed at building capacity to engage in highly productive, environmentally sustainable agricultural practices. With the institution’s support, these communities then established and began tending to experimental agricultural plots. At a basic level, schools were then able to provide a hot meal to the students each day. Beyond this, a process was also set in motion to assist the community to generate, apply, and disseminate knowledge about how to effectively meet the nutritional needs of the population while also increasing the income of farming families. Similarly, other action-research programs can be initiated on different aspects of community life, such as health, and many schools hope to establish community health centers in the long term. Thus, analyzing continuously the social reality of the community allows our partners to identify other areas of learning and to create additional programs accordingly.

Special care and attention are given to girls attending community schools and women who are members of school committees and trained as teachers. About 60% of students in community schools are girls. How do our partners achieve this? Primarily by raising awareness among parents about the importance of educating their daughters, who will, in turn, be the first educators of their children: it is through educated mothers that the benefits of knowledge can be most effectively and rapidly diffused throughout society. In addition, many older girls have to take care of their younger siblings while their parents work. Community schools are aware of this reality and allow these girls to attend class with their younger siblings. In some projects, local partners arrange special day care for the children of women who wish to be trained as teachers. As a result, about 70% of the teachers in community schools are women.

The PSA program originated in Colombia based on the experience of FUNDAEC’s Tutorial Learning System (SAT). The SAT program is based on a series of textbooks which on the one hand bring together elements of knowledge from diverse fields in a way that proves relevant to the reality of students in rural areas of Colombia, and on the other constitute the result of the systematization of the new knowledge being generated by the learning processes that have been set in motion in the region. Those who take part in their study and learn to apply the knowledge acquired contribute in turn to generating knowledge, and the new lessons learned from collective action continue to be systematized by this program.

The SAT program attracted the attention of other NGOs and the government in the 1970s and 1980s because education in rural areas of Colombia was very limited. The Ministry of formally recognized the SAT program as an educational option for youth at the secondary level and the 1990s witnessed a huge expansion of the program, in 18 departments in Colombia and other Latin American countries, enabling some 300,000 rural youth to benefit from a quality and rigorous education program relevant to the needs of local communities.

In order to respond to the interest in adopting SAT expressed by a growing number of organizations, FUNDAEC has modified some of the curricular content and organized it into “Preparation for Social Action (PSA)”, created in the mid-2000s and offered in a non-formal education modality. Currently, a global network of about ten organizations from Africa, Asia and Latin America is implementing the PSA program, five of which are supported by Unity Foundation.

The PSA program is conducted in the form of study groups, each consisting of 10 to 15 students and a tutor who meet approximately 12 to 15 hours per week. It includes the study of 18 books that aim to develop the participants’ capabilities in the areas of language, mathematics, science, and processes of community life. The latter area encompasses community development, technology and service to the community. As participants move forward in the study of books, they work together on service projects in the community. The program is organized around blocks of 3-4 units that are often studied consecutively. The activities undertaken by the groups are guided by these textbooks, which integrate knowledge from many disciplines and help students develop their capacities, serve their communities and influence the various processes of community life.

In the context of this program, “capability” is understood as a “developed capacity to think and act in a particular sphere of activity and according to an explicit purpose.” It brings together the various attributes the individual needs to acquire progressively as he or she pursues personal growth and learns to contribute to the advancement of society. Some of the capabilities that the program helps students to develop, to cite but a few, are the capability to make organized observations about phenomena, to seek patterns in data gathered through these observations and to test hypotheses (in the area of science); the capability of making numerical statements (mathematics); the capability of formulating ideas and expressing them with increasing clarity (language); and finally the capability of creating environments of unity based on diversity and promoting unity of action (moral capability).

To implement and facilitate the management of the program at the local level, an administrative structure called a “unit” is created. A unit is normally composed of a coordinator, 10 to 15 tutors with their respective groups and about 150 students. Tutors regularly participate in capacity building spaces and meet regularly with their coordinator to review progress made during the past period and plan future activities. When several units are created in close proximity to each other, a regional coordination structure is created. This structure makes it possible to develop the PSA program in a region.

The PSA content and methodology strives to address the underlying causes of gender disparities by promoting the equality of women and men. Further, because of the flexible study schedule, the program is readily accessible to women. Available statistics show that over 50% of the youth are young women. Reports and interviews indicate that women’s confidence is raised by the development of their language skills and that they develop the capability to voice their opinion within their local communities.

Among the many learnings that have been generated by organizations promoting the development of community schools in English-speaking countries, we can mention the following:

• The school is more than a building; it serves as a “center of light”, where conversations about how to develop the community as a whole can take place. 
• When spaces are created for different actors surrounding a school – teachers, parents, community members, school management committees, institutions (government, community leaders and other NGOs) – to meet and consult with each other, this increases community support for the school, promotes ownership and contributes to the development and sustainability of the school.
• Close and regular accompaniment of teachers by coordinators at different levels, supported by constant encouragement, strengthens their commitment.