Views VSO - Volunteer Service Overseas British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA)
Schools procurement choices make savings
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Education challenges in Cambodia
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eacher Gilly Clifford, 32, from London, reflects on her two year VSO placement in Cambodia
“Cambodia is still considered a post-conflict country long after the civil war, which destroyed the education system, ended in the 1990s. The consequences are still evident. Culturally, people are less inclined to question things or deviate from the norm. The education system relies on rote learning in which the teacher talks and the children listen, but they don’t necessarily fully understand the subject matter. There are high drop-out and repetition rates, particularly in grade one. In 2009, the percentage of children repeating grades across primary school was 10% for female and 12% for male children.
I am based at the Provincial Office of Education in Kratie town and I travel across two districts in the province to help implement the Ministry of Education’s Child Friendly School Policy. This framework, initially developed by UNICEF, has six dimensions including effective learning, safety of children and gender responsiveness. The second dimension ‘effective learning’, focuses on encouraging creative and critical thinking, problem solving and questioning. Although this policy was introduced in 2002, there is little evidence in schools of the interactive approach it recommends. Over the last two years, I have focused on five target schools, working with the grade 1-3 teachers and school directors, to help them implement this method of teaching through workshops, lesson observations and discussions.
My biggest success has been to develop a DVD project in which groups of teachers discuss different learning methods after watching Ministry of Education-produced films on literacy or maths. This helps the teachers to reflect on their own teaching as well as see what works so they can make improvements. After five months of doing the project, I began peer observations of each teacher and encouraged them to put these ideas into practice. The difference was striking: teachers became more confident, more responsive to the children’s individual needs and willing to try out group activities. Since then they have started to use real objects to introduce new topics, including visual aids like puppets. Teachers are also trying out different classroom layouts, which make the lessons more fun and encourage discussion and critical thinking. Working in Cambodia has not been without its challenges. I have definitely gained skills in negotiating and improvising, as well as flexibility to navigate the complicated, hierarchical and bureaucratic educational system. Despite this, it motivates me when I see teachers use my suggestions and pass these ideas on to others. I have loved my five minute commute to work, cycling alongside the mighty Mekong River; and buying fresh vegetables and fruit from the market. I can now speak a new language and ride a motorbike.”
*VSO (2008) Teaching Matters. A policy report on the motivation and moral of teachers in Cambodia
u020 8780 7500
uwww.vso.org.uk
October 2012
his month, Caroline Wright, Director, British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA) shares some insight gained from BESA’s latest research into procurement in schools
“The headline finding of our latest survey of 630 schools (325 primary, 305 secondary) was that schools are using a range of
procurement practices to support the
Government’s £1bn spending review. According to the
research, a significant 47 per cent of primary schools are taking advantage of economies of scale by working with
other schools to buy their ICT in clusters, and 84 per cent of all schools are now purchasing from low cost web providers and always or sometimes use non-branded products.
The research indicates that schools are moving towards achieving cost savings, including always or sometimes searching for and reacting to special offers (86 per cent of primary, 83 per cent of secondary schools), selecting their own brand of products (68 per cent of primary, 75 per cent of secondary schools) and moving purchasing away from the local authority (85 per cent of primary, 80 per cent of secondary schools). What was also interesting to note from the research findings was that there was little notable difference between procurement practice in academy and non-academy schools, apart from the unsurprising finding that more academies are always or sometimes moving away from local authority procurement (91 per cent primary academies and 87 per cent secondary academies, compared with 86 per cent of primary non- academies and 73 per cent of non-academy secondary schools). As the new academies have been established to manage their own budgets, our expectation would have been for a greater change in procurement methods.
However, the only other notable difference in the procurement practice between academies and non-academies was that primary academies are less likely to disseminate all of their teaching materials and equipment budget to teachers than non-academies, while furniture and storage budgets are more likely to remain centralised than classroom ICT.
Rapid and easy ordering and delivery proved to be of greater importance to all schools than being a current and trusted supplier, although it was interesting to note that non-academies are more likely to reference trusted suppliers than academies.
It is certainly heartening to know that schools are looking to support the Government’s spending review by cutting costs. By buying in a cost effective way, schools should still be able to procure the same amount of products and resources. However, as the sector’s trade association, our word of warning to schools is to always consider the total cost of ownership of all products, taking into account the product’s quality, warranty and fit for purpose.”
u020 7537 4997
uwww.besa.org.uk
www.education-today.co.uk
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