Views Volunteer Service Overseas (VSO) British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA)


Special educational needs in Ethiopia


T


eacher, Meriel Whitty, 26, talks about volunteering with VSO as an SEN instructor in Ethiopia.


“I found out about the possibility of volunteering at VSO after becoming interested in doing some charity work and researching what was available. I started teaching straight after university and didn’t do any travelling, so volunteering overseas also seemed like a good opportunity to see a bit of the world.


I had received SEN training in the UK, so VSO arranged a placement in an SEN college in Sebeta, a large town 25km from the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.


Now I’m here, part of my job is managing a resourcing project that is setting up classrooms for children with special needs in thirteen schools in the local area. These will cater for children who are visually or hearing impaired, as well as provide suitable services for children with forms of special needs that are harder to identify, such as autism. With the help of the lovely local staff, we have now successfully resourced rooms in two schools, which are being used by around 40 pupils every day.


I am also sharing my expertise by training teachers so that they have the skills necessary to staff these new classrooms. This involves training on how to identify children with special needs, how to interact with them and the different kinds of teaching approaches to use. Children in these classes are able to learn Braille, sign language, and life skills such as cleaning and cooking, which will help them live without assistance. I also work in a school for blind children where life skills are a particularly important part of lessons. Pupils in the final two grades aren’t accommodated at the school, which means that children as young as 12 could be renting a room with 3 or 4 others and living on the equivalent of around £10 a month.


I feel very welcome and at home here. I live around 15 minutes walk away from the school, but the journey always ends up taking half an hour as I stop to talk to people on the way. The local people often say hello and ask how I am.


Time has passed very quickly and I really appreciate how lucky I am in being able to come here. Being close to my family back home, I thought I would find it difficult to adjust to being away, but I’ve made great friends and I haven’t cried once!


The country itself is beautiful, and much greener than you would expect. Transport can be a little different however. Travelling to other schools is often done in line taxis, which are supposed to seat 18, but more often than not they have up to 24 people packed inside. I am really enjoying my experience of Ethiopia. While I haven’t yet made further plans, volunteering has made me consider other contributions I can make when I return to the UK, such as fostering. It has also made me eager to see other parts of the world, and made me more open to the different opportunities life brings.”


uwww.vso.org.uk February 2013


BESA lobbies Government to save millions for schools


C


aroline Wright, Director, BESA, the education sector’s trade association, explains what the organisation is doing to save schools approximately £8 million a year, nationally. “Over recent years, schools have been wasting millions of pounds due to out-dated Government guidelines. These guidelines refer to ICT equipment leases, which are used by many schools to manage their expenditure. They currently stipulate that schools must only use complicated operating leases, rather than the industry standard finance leases, which often represent a more cost-effective form of leasing. Coupled with the leasing scam that sadly affected several schools last year, schools are understandably wary of using this financial service. However, the potential pitfalls can be removed and huge benefits can be realised if the Government agreed to change its current leasing legislation.


The advantages of leasing are simple. Firstly, it allows schools to invest in resources they need, when they need them, whether or not the full initial capital is available. Secondly, the majority of available leases for school equipment allow for technology upgrades, enabling the head teacher, governors and bursars to manage the life of their products. But the current guidelines and consequential restrictions on the type of lease schools can use, mean that the full benefits of leasing is not being realised.


As the sector’s trade association we are the conduit between the government, schools and suppliers. To this end we are currently working to lobby Government to change the existing guidance for schools to deliver better value for money.


The Treasury has set challenging efficiency targets for the public sector but it would appear that they haven’t followed their own guidance on this issue. Schools’ are potentially wasting a significant and unnecessary part of their budget at a time when cost saving is everyone’s objective.


We are therefore calling on Government to allow schools to use finance leases and update the current confusing school leasing guidelines; and work with industry to develop a standard finance leasing template for schools.


Without the changes suggested by BESA, the extra cost incurred by leasing essential ICT equipment through complex operating leases will mean that some schools will be unable to afford to replace equipment as regularly as they would have been able to if they had been allowed to use a typical finance lease.


Over the past few months we have been meeting with the Government and discussions continue. We’ll keep you updated on our progress.”


uwww.besa.org.uk www.education-today.co.uk 7


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32