A global learning community gains momentum in Mexico

The PAL Network 5th Annual Assembly 2017

Across valleys, mountains and pyramids in Mexico, a week of intensive learning in communities along with children, teachers and volunteers in schools, university and was an awesome experience.

From 13^th March to 16^th March 2017, citizens from 16 countries and 4 continents came together gathering momentum to fuel the twin agendas of assessment and action for learning. This is exactly how the energies of the south have been able to attract attention of the north for creating common ground for improved learning. The theme for the fifth assembly of the PAL Network was appropriately titled ‘Power to the People’ – from assessment to learning.

The meeting was jointly hosted by Medición Independiente de Aprendizajes (MIA) and the PAL Network. The Mexico experience was led by two incredible leaders Dr. Felipe Hevia and Dr. Samana Vergara-Lope, Directors MIA and their dedicated teams. The participants hailed from Asia, Africa, Latin America, Australia, UK, and North America (http://palnetwork.org/participants-bio/).

What began and is growing as a citizen led movement investigating if children are learning, whether in schools or not, is fast turning into a roller coaster to think up solutions for learning improvement on the same scale as the assessments are conducted. The week-long Mexico Network Assembly 2017 held intense discussions on 4 key areas underpinned by the theme ‘Power to the People’:

• Opportunities and challenges of volunteer engagement: what have we learned?
• Exploring the use of citizen generated data to monitor progress towards achieving the SDGs.
• Involving citizen volunteers beyond the assessments: learning interventions and communication.
• Strengthening citizen participation for greater accountability.

The 5th PAL Network Assembly was a witness to interventions to improve learning in Veracruz, Mexico, that included chess clubs to Bancubi[1] to stringing stories for literacy. The interventions adopted by MIA from local partners, were focused on children from grades 1 to 6 undertaken through MIA’s youth volunteers (teachers), motivated to make a difference for the next generations. This is not a random experiment but a conscious one being measured for outcomes.

We sat in grades 5 and 6 at a primary school in the village of Las Haldas, municipality of Naolinco, closely observing what the children were doing. Watching parents who were present was a delight. The parents had been invited to enjoy the co-creation of stories and solving math problems through the Bancubi units; ones, tens and hundreds distinguished by colored wooden cube blocks. Could this type of learning be done differently? Could it be done through government schoolteachers who had an ideal student teacher ratio (STR) of 1:16/17/18? These questions kept popping in our heads as we saw an extra ordinary head teacher and teachers so open to all sorts of ideas and recommendations from the visiting team and from MIA volunteers.

The Chess Intervention Program was another interesting idea facilitated by teachers in schools across Veracruz state. The teachers from both primary and high schools were seen to be keen to include Chess as a regular activity in schools, promoting the reading and numeracy skills amongst children. Nobody would have imagined that something so exciting was happening across the gentle, cloud filled hills of Chiconquiaco.

For people who are often in the trenches carrying out assessments and looking for solutions about learning improvement, it was a treat and a pleasant surprise when the Mayor of Naolinco and dignitaries from Xalapa welcomed us like royalty. They bestowed certificates in the municipality square, treating 100 members of the Network Assembly to a tasteful lunch combined with a historical dance-drama performance about the Spanish invasion and local resistance in the ‘House of Culture’ or the ‘Casa de Cultura’. The generous hospitality and amazingly beautiful town of Naolinco specializing in leather goods and crafts and milk sweets, much like our own in Pakistan, overwhelmed us!

Our development and technical partners engaged closely with our deliberations at the assembly, convinced that PAL Network is an unstoppable citizen’s movement with unique challenges at scale, that need vigorous actions. Their engagement was valued by the assembly members throughout the week.

Innovations were shared by all countries including tech enabled learning, reading camps, youth assessment and skills for a world we cannot imagine and a conference on literacy and numeracy. The possibilities across continents were innumerable that they need to be mapped for rigor at the same level as assessments that work – matching citizen led assessments (CLA) with citizen led learning (CLL) known to transform children’s lives through measurable capabilities.

The University of Veracruz hosted a rich academic seminar on literacy and numeracy initiatives under the PAL Network across all continents. The seminar gave students, faculty and visitors an opportunity to engage in new narratives of assessment and learning. The seminar held intensive sessions on the diversity of CLAs, the role of citizens, impact and innovations that work, raising the bar for many more assemblies to come. The ‘southern’ PAL Network Assemblies, be they in Africa, Asia or Latin America, always stimulate learning with palates and musical expression, vocal and instrumental complemented by extraordinary traditional dances in exquisite costumes.

In Xalapa, the PAL Network Assembly had all days filled with music during our meals and evenings reinforcing that the South -South civilizations are about learning through multiple intelligences across times; right from the ancient Pyramids of the Sun and Moon in the valleys of the ancient city of Teotihuacan Classic Era to the dances and sounds of love, separation and victory, to the multiple marvels of stone carvings and landscapes of Mexico!

[1] Bancubi is a fun and novel way for children to learn Mathematics, using the Decimal System, with 60 colored cubes and a coloured place sheet/mat. Bancubi is derived from the work of Tere Maurer Ríos from the study and constant reflection he has made on the proposals of Maria Montessori and Jean Piaget. Bancubi has a team that works with children and teachers in several states of the Mexican Republic, in Chile, Honduras and Nicaragua.

Baela Raza Jamil is the Director of ASER Pakistan and CEO of Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi (ITA) Pakistan