DFID’s work with schools
DFID spends around £8 million per annum on formal education project activities and products. We support work on education policy, and support schools to help them implement government policy on teaching about global issues. This is because we want young people in the UK to understand more about global poverty and how it can be tackled, as well as the globalised world they live in, and their responsibilities as global citizens.
DFID’s support to national level development education organisations
The umbrella development education organisations are:
- England - the Development Education Association, (DEA),
- Wales - Cyfanfyd,
- Scotland - the International Development Education Association of Scotland (IDEAS),
- Northern Ireland - Centre for Global Education in Northern Ireland.
At present we have a core funding agreement with the DEA and a smaller funding arrangement with Cyfanfyd.
The DEA are a key partner for us on national education policy influencing and provide extremely valuable insights into the sector.
DFID’s funding to it includes support to run the teachers Global Dimension website. This is a free online database of resources for teachers, including case studies of school projects, information on school speaker services, and continuing professional development opportunities, see link below.
Enabling Effective Support (EES)
The EES has been running for about seven years and complements the DEA at the local level. It is made up of twelve regional education networks, each with their own coordinator, funded by DFID.
The EES initiative aims to put policy into practice by embedding global issues in the curriculum. It aims to build the capacity of the education sector locally to ensure global issues are taught in schools, furnishing teachers with the tools and skills they need to do this well.
The EES has been running for about seven years and complements the DEA at the local level. It is made up of twelve UK regional education networks, each with their own coordinator, funded by DFID.
The EES regional coordinators each use the following approaches, whilst maintaining a degree of freedom to decide what works best in their particular area:
- Developing collaborative approaches between the statutory education sector (and its devolved agencies) and voluntary education sector organisations, authorities and institutions in joint planning and implementation of global dimension education programmes and projects.
- Facilitating groups of teachers/ Teacher Training tutors/ advisers in active engagement with the global dimension of education, so that they develop their own professional understanding, capacities and capabilities.
- Working with schools/ colleges to integrate global dimension issues, concepts and approaches in teaching plans, and helping them respond to national and local education initiatives and requirements.
Development Awareness Fund (DAF)
The DAF is the main funding mechanism through which DFID funds development awareness activities in the UK. It is a competitive fund and applicants can apply for grants of between £10-100,000 per year for a maximum of three years. Around 60% of the projects funded through the DAF address the inclusion of a global dimension in the schools sector, and DFID requires that all proposals are consistent with and, where possible, linked with the EES initiative.
Global School Partnerships programme (GSP)
DFID has been funding the Global School Partnerships programme which is run by the British Council on DFID's behalf for over five years. This is designed to strengthen a school’s capacity to adopt a ‘whole school approach’ to global education, through an active partnership with a school in a developing country.
The GSP offers support and guidance to teachers and grants to schools to make the most out of a school partnership as a learning tool. It aims to support 5,000 UK school partnerships by March 2012.
School resources
DFID has also sought opportunities to build a more direct relationship with young people themselves in order to raise awareness about development and highlight the work organisations do to combat global issues.
This has included the production of resources or ‘products’ for educationalists and schools e.g. Joint DCSF (formerly DfES)/DFID publication ‘Developing the Global Dimension in the School curriculum’; World Classroom – developing global partnerships in education, joint DFID/Treasury publication; ‘Change your school for good’ case history booklet on good practice in the classroom; New DFID publication offering guidance for educationalists – Bringing the World into the Classroom, and the DFID Global Study Planner which gives students information about development in their mandatory homework diary.
Events
We have also sponsored events that target school children (e.g. the annual Global Student Forum) and encouraged direct outreach to schools through visits by DFID ministers and inviting school groups into DFID.
Research
We have also commissioned some research into what works well in order to gather evidence and promote good practice, for example ongoing research into the impact of school partnerships. DFID is also jointly funding the new ‘Development Education Research Centre’ within the Institute of Education.
DFID’s work with other government departments
There is regular contact around issues of joint interest concerning the inclusion of global issues in the curriculum (across all four UK jurisdictions), including as part of the wider social cohesion agenda.
Officials from DFID meet regularly with Department for Children Schools and Families (DCSF) officials on areas for collaboration; similarly with Welsh, Scottish and Northern Ireland education ministries, to ensure complementarities with national strategies. We are currently exploring how we can further deepen and strengthen our collaboration with DCSF.
Wider work with young people
More recently, DFID has also begun to develop activities to engage young people in development through non formal channels. This includes the volunteering scheme called Platform2 (managed by Christian Aid and BUNAC and launched in February 2008) to fund young people from less advantaged backgrounds to volunteer in developing countries, and we are considering support to other initiatives that aim to engage young people through broader channels.