A Few Case Studies

If the goal of education is the promotion of human welfare and personal and community development, then it must be made accessible to all communities. However, the traditional education system is not applicable to rural communities that lack infrastructure, transportation and resources. I have highlighted three successful education campaigns that cater to rural communities. Each one has a different approach, but all target the needs of the respective communities.


System for Tutorial Learning in Colombia
The Foundation for the Application and Teaching of the Sciences (FUNDAEC) has launched the SAT (system for tutorial learning) program. This program, with the help of local NGOs and the Ministry of Education, has been adopted in 13 of the 30 departments of Colombia. Dr. Gustave Correa, director of FUNDAEC, says “Traditional education systems in Latin America are mostly urban oriented. People who graduate from high school simply don’t have the skills needed to thrive in the countryside, and they didn’t have other options but to leave.”

This program relies on curricula and workbooks developed specifically for rural communities in Colombia and is administered by tutors that act more as facilitators than lecturers. The SAT program takes an integrative approach, aiming to cover the same topics of an urban education (biology, mathematics, social studies) in a way that is more applicable to people from rural areas. An example would be, “a discussion of how insect populations reproduce (biology) exponentially (mathematics) given the right conditions (social studies and ecology).”

The key is to improve access to quality education, and designing rural education programs that do not lack the analytical and theoretical components of more formal education. We must remove the assumption that rural people only need vocational skills. SAT also addresses the problem of urban overcrowding, and it allows the community members to manage their own community without having to recruit professionals from the urban centers.


New Era Development Institute in India

The New Development Institute (NEDI) has developed an approach to rural development that includes vocational training as well as personal development that encourages the students to undertake local and sustainable development efforts in their own communities. The institute provides training in 9 vocational fields (including animal husbandry, teacher-training, diesel mechanics). The Institute sponsors regional training courses as part of an outreach program (lasting from two weeks to 9 months). Mr. Rushdy, the director of NEDI, says they have achieved a technology of training that gives a balanced development to the individual. “Every course of study has four tracks: a service track, a spiritual track, a vocational track and a cultural track. In this way, our aim is that each student should leave with some service skill – how to promote health, hygiene, literacy, the education of children and the like; some spiritual skills – so they know why they are doing these things; some vocational skills – so they can get some money to support themselves; and some cultural skills, meaning training in tolerance and diversity and the arts – so they have the confidence and the capacity to be leaders and they are able to convey development messages through the arts.”

The Masetlha Foundation in Zambia

The Masetlha Foundation in Zambia shows how the expansion of grassroots development activities lead to a natural evolution of established structures, governed by the needs and priorities of the people they serve. The institute sought to develop human resources through combining a study in the Baha’i teachings as well as vocational training in rural technology, farming, food production, art and health. The aims of this institute included channeling energy into effectively meeting the needs of the people in the area it serves. This institute believes that spiritual insight is needed so that service to humankind will be the purpose of both individual life and social organizations. This training aims to “equip people and institutions with the means through which they can achieve the real purpose of development: that is, laying foundations for a new social order that can cultivate the limitless potentialities latent in human consciousness” (The Prosperity of Humankind)

One thing that you’ll notice about these successful programs is that they all contain a component of community service and development. This important skill is integral to the success of any educated community in the developing world. All too often there is no role for an educated person in a rural community, but in the context of socio-economic development, their role is pivotal.