Socio-cultural barriers to schooling

In many regions around the world schools are available, yet enrolment rates continue to be low. Socio-cultural barriers constitute some of the factors why children fail to attend primary school. For instance, some parents –particularly, those with low level of education– undervalue education in general or they believe it is not suitable for certain children, such as girls and children with disabilities. Cultural barriers can also impede children belonging to a particular ethnic or religious group, social class, and/or sexual and gender minority to access schools. In other cases, specific features of the school –such as the language of instruction and the content of the curriculum– discourage the enrolment of children.

As expressed during IBE-UNESCO’s International Conference on Education (2008), cultures are ‘about deeper levels of basic assumptions and beliefs shared by members of an organization’, which are frequently conditioned by social class (Bordieu, 1984). Socio-cultural barriers impeding children schooling are generally not only prevalent among parents of the affected children, but also among teachers, school authorities, and the community overall. Therefore, it is not only important to mitigate negative beliefs regarding the importance of enrolling children to school, it is also essential to create equitable and inclusive education systems which welcome and appreciate diversity.

Promising policy options

Enrolment and awareness-rising campaigns and actions supported by strong advocacy from civil society

Enrolment and awareness-raising campaigns allow the gradual break down of socio-cultural barriers to schooling for certain children with disabilities, those belonging to a particular ethnic or religious group, social class, and/or sexual and gender minority. In order to create an impact through these campaigns, strong advocacy support from civil society is needed, with the involvement of multiple stakeholders such as teachers, education officers, local authorities, children, families, parents’ organizations, Disability People’s Organizations (DPO), religious and cultural leaders, among others is essential in the process.

Some particular actions are:

• community mobilization campaigns. Mobilize public opinion on the right to education for all. Build consensus around the concept of inclusive education and its underlying values (e.g. viewing diversity as a positive aspect);
• identify ‘champions’ within the community to support schooling for all and tackle down discriminatory practices that inhibit children’s access and retention in school. For example, in Tanzania, twenty leaders, including imams, became champions and helped addressed gender issues such as child marriage and early pregnancy (UNESCO, 2017);
• partnerships with national and local media to disseminate information about the importance of education while deconstructing socio-cultural beliefs against schooling. Develop inclusive media programmes. For example, an example of a successful campaign done in Nepal with the support of Save the Children UK, where stories of children with disabilities who accessed schools all over the country were publicised and helped raise awareness on their right to education (Save the Children, 2002). Develop motivational material presented in posters, story-telling articles, audio-visual content, etc.;
• disseminate information through social media. For example, Chile’s campaign Educate with Equality, ‘Eduquemos con Igualdad’ (Santibanez and Honeyman, 2017);
• engage community members, children and NGOs to organize artistic awareness-raising campaigns on their communities such as ‘street-drama’. For example, the Child Club initiative in Nepal (Nepal, 2014);
• encourage civil society organizations to give seminars, trainings, and workshops on inclusive education; and
• Organize annual/periodical household visits to convince the parents to enrol their children in school. For example, the ‘Welcome to School’ campaign in Nepal (Nepal, 2014).

Establish ‘National Enrolment Days’

Coordinate the enrolment and awareness-raising campaigns with the elaboration of ‘National Enrolment Days’ in order to disseminate information about the procedure parents/guardians must follow in order to enrol their children to school. Organize seminars and trainings to support parents/guardians and children with the official enrolment process, such as Yemen’s campaign to promote girls’ education.

Policy dialogue and initiatives at a local level

Enhance policy dialogue at a local level by including diverse voices in the decision-making process, such as those of women, girls, people from different ethnicities, religious groups, children or persons with disabilities, families, education groups and civil society organizations. This allows policies to be ‘rooted in local concerns and address locally relevant issues regarding the most disadvantaged children’ (Banham and Anhern, 2016: 7).

Promote cooperative, participatory, decision-making spaces where stakeholders discuss education, influence national decisions, advocate for tangible changes and make greater commitments to education at the local level (e.g. Nicaragua’s Education roundtables (UNESCO, 2017a); ‘Inclusion Committees’ in Uganda (Preston, n.d.).).

Finally, reform existing barriers to inclusion on the system, such as policies that restrict children with disabilities or those speaking different languages to access the neighbourhood school.

Mandate inclusive practices, like:

• requiring schools to welcome and educate all the children of the community (consult Policy page School climate);
• providing accessible teaching and learning materials and practices (consult Policy pages Classroom practices supervision; Teaching skills; Student learning assessments; Availability and content of textbooks; and, Availability of teaching aids);
• promoting an inclusive curriculum (consult Policy page Curriculum);
• ensuring school buildings are accessible (consult Policy pages Buildings are not ready and School physical infrastructure); and
• implementing flexible timetables to ensure children’s access and retention within the school (consult Policy page Constraints to attendance).  

School’s management

Promote parental and community involvement in the school. Make sure that school management committees and parent-teacher associations have representatives from various ethnic and religious groups, DPOs and women (For more information on this subject, see Policy page Relationship between schools and their community).

Enhance a mixed recruitment by ensuring that women, religious and ethnic group members, as well as persons with disabilities are being recruited for teaching and administrative positions (For more information consult Policy page Appropriate candidates).

Provide training opportunities to teachers by:

• helping them understand their role in inclusive education systems;
• helping teachers to break down their negative stereotypes, attitudes, and expectations concerning particular children, such as children with disabilities; and
• encouraging teachers to welcome and appreciate diversity and help them acquire inclusive teaching practices.

Foster the use and recognition of multiple languages, challenging the belief that only one language should be used in education and promoting the idea that children must start to learn in the language which is most familiar to them. When teachers do not speak the children’s first language, encourage partnerships with community members so that the classroom activities can be conducted in children’s first language and ensure that the language used within the classroom is inclusive and gender-responsive (For more on this subject, see Policy page Language of instruction).

Inclusive curriculums must be structured but at the same time flexible to respond to the needs of particular learners, communities, cultural and linguistic groups. Tolerance towards diversity must be instructed through curriculums so those cultural barriers are addressed, and the school becomes a welcoming space. In addition, it is important to analyse if girls, persons with disabilities, ethnic and religious groups are portrayed negatively on national curriculum and textbooks – if it is the case, it is essential to change it (For more information on this subject, consult Policy page Curriculum). Finally, implement a code of conduct in schools to minimize discriminatory practices based on ethnicity, religion, gender, disability.

Policy options for improving Equity and Inclusion

Gender-responsive policies

Entrenched gender-issues underly socio-cultural barriers to schooling. As such, the general section of the present Policy page was approached with this aspect in mind from the beginning.

Policies for children with disabilities

Children with disabilities are one of the most marginalized groups in society. Socio-cultural barriers are one of the strongest barriers impeding children with disabilities to access mainstream settings. As such, the general section of the present Policy page was approached with this aspect in mind from the beginning.

Policies for displaced populations and host communities

Contents under review

Policies for minority populations

Contents under review