The integration of strategies for non-formal education and development in third world communities

Abstract

The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate the nature and potential of an integrated strategy for non-formal education and development that will alleviate the problem of milieu-deprivation in Third World communities. This integrated strategy includes compensatory education, community development, and development communication strategies. Learning need structures were investigated and the most important categories of learning needs that exist in socially disadvantaged communities were identified. Community education is a relatively new concept, through which innovation, adaptation and extension of educational opportunities can be achieved, and thus suggests the most suitable infrastructure for the integration of educational and developmental strategies, namely compensatory education, community development and development communication. Community education can be defined as the educational process in which the provisions (services, programmes, resources) of all the educational agencies in a community are utilised in a co-operative and co-ordinated manner, to provide for all of the learning needs of all the people of a community, to develop the community and solve the problems of the community. The milieu-deprived Third World communities of the world are thus depend en t on community education. I n the present practice of community education, the community school serves as community learning centre, and becomes the focal point of the community whereby the school functions as a centre and delivery system for lifelong learning and community development. The operation of educational programmes is realized through a ten phase process. The appointment of a Director of Education, creating an educational milieu and the establishment of an organizational structure for participative planning, establish the necessary infrastructure for community education. The planning and bringing into operation of educational programmes takes place in the next six phases, namely: identification and analysis of problems and needs, formulation of programme objectives, identification and mobilization of community resources, operation of educational programmes, evaluation, and continuous research. The community education process can be implemented for the integration of all the programmes, practices, projects, and learning experiences of compensatory education, community development and development communicaton. The following categories of compensatory education can be realized in a community education set-up:<ul> <li> pre-school educational programmes and parent education</li><li> work-study programmes for youths</li><li> higher education and adult education</li><li> counselling</li><li> reading and language education</li><li> extracurricular innovations</li></ul> In dealing with community education, one is dealing with a community development strategy: a comprehensive community development strategy is actualised through some variation of the co-ordinating, co-operating process of community education. The following development communication strategies can be implemented and realised in a community education set-up: the open broadcasting strategy, the organised group strategy, multimedia strategy. Through the integration of the above-mentioned strategies within a community education set-up, with its network of educational agencies and social services, the problems of mi1ieu-deprived communities can be alleviated to a meaningful extent.