Enterprise Development for Secondary School Students in Sri Lanka Lalith Welamedage Roger Candy

Objectives Create an entrepreneurial culture in schools, Enable pupils to be more enterprising and innovative in their everyday life, and Introduce entrepreneurship as a viable career option.

Context In Sri Lanka, the past few years have witnessed an increasing policy interest towards incorporating entrepreneurship into the education system. Creation of an entrepreneurial culture has been identified as a policy priority by the government.

Strategic Framework Awareness raising within and outside the education system, Capacity building of education managers and teachers Development and delivery of in and co- curricular action learning tools and methods, Enhancement of the effectiveness of other school-based enterprise and innovation related activities

Method Development and pilot testing of a training programme for a cadre of 50 ‘ENTERPRISE CHAMPIONS’ and ‘ENTERPRISE TEACHERS’ to promote and manage the integration of the enterprise education model within schools across the country: Initial Conference June 2009, Training Sessions December 2009, Final Conference May 2010

Method Action centred instruction for CHAMPIONS and TEACHERS based on enterprise education best practice from OFSTED (England) and HMIE (Scotland). Innovation generation and implementation. Feedback into the education policy system.

Results Results are based on feedback from 29 Enterprise Champions / Teachers representing 25 of the 50 participating schools attended the review meeting in Colombo last week. 5 questions were asked from participants. – How useful was the training programme? – What do you think enterprise education is intended to achieve? – What do you think an effective enterprise education programme ought to be like? – General views, comments and issues, if any? – Factors of perceived importance for effective enterprise education

Results How useful was the training programme? – An innovative and new teaching method that is useful in all teaching and learning contexts. – A new approach to guide and facilitate for better future for pupils. – A new learning method to enable students to apply their academic learning to real world situations. – An opportunity for children to try new exciting activities, use their hidden skills, and practice what they learned in the class. – Able to understand enterprise education is much more broader than 'entrepreneurship' which is included as subject in school curriculum. – Able to realise how important teachers' role in facilitating and guiding pupils' future professional careers.

Results What do you think enterprise education is intended to achieve? – 'Creative and innovative children' – Develop knowledge skills of pupils that are necessary for the world of work and business. – Make them aware of future career opportunities; 'make them 'job ready'. – Personal development and change of attitudes of both pupils and teaching staff. – Integrated school curriculum with outside 'real' world; real life jobs & business. – General views, comments and issues, if any? – Factors of perceived importance for effective enterprise education

Results What do you think an effective enterprise education programme ought to be like? – Formally recognise as a cross curricular activity in the school curriculum. – More linkages with outside stakeholders. – School wide programme with participation of all teachers, pupils and parents. – Further development of the programme - inclusion of successful local interventions (case studies) by participating schools. – More CPDs and training for teachers participating int his programme.

Results General views and comments. – All participants (teachers and executives) have identified enterprise education is necessary for the education system in Sri Lanka. – Positive response from pupils – teachers found that pupils are more interested in this programme as it provides an opportunity to do practical activities. – Pupils like to engage in hands-on activities and get results (e.g. make things like arts and crafts etc.) – Teachers are more inclined to do things that they are familiar with (e.g. long term activities; farming and produce goods and services etc.). – However, on the positive side, teachers have incorporated 'enterprise education concepts into these activities.

Results General views and comments (contd...) – Significant spatial differences (rural, urban and post-conflict areas) exist in support from the management and parents. – Support from school management and parents towards this programme is strong in rural and post conflict areas (North and East) compared to city and urban schools. – Schools in rural and remote areas are more likely to engage in 'production' activities. Their engagement with community and outside stakeholders are relatively higher than urban schools. – Lack of resources, time and support from other teachers are identified as constraints. – Gender differences in student participation in enterprise education activities – in mixed schools participation of girls of all ages are quite high compared to boys.

Centrality of Learner Autonomy in Enterprise Learning An Issue Arising

Topics in Enterprise Education Management Resources Stakeholder Participation Learner Autonomy Assessment Evaluation

Enterprise

Industry

Non Autonomous Outcomes Teacher direction Learner execution

Autonomous Outcomes Teacher overview Student direction Student execution

The problem…. …. is teacher perceptions and expectations.

Topics in Enterprise Education N=29 Teachers/Champions Mean Ranking Resources 2.38 (75) Management 2.65 (77) Learner Autonomy 2.75 (80) Stakeholder Participation 3.79 (110) Assessment 4.06 (118) Evaluation 5.30 (154)

Principles Show rather than Explain Impart and (hopefully) Acquire rather than Teach and Learn (p11) M. Oakeshott, Rationalism in Politics, Methuen, London (1962)

What is important to make effective enterprise education? The teaching team sets the objectives and explains them to the learners. The learner groups plan and decide their own activities towards achieving the objectives. They then carry out the activities and reflect on the outcomes. The learners should be allowed as much autonomy as possible to plan, decide, carry out and then reflect on their activities.

Some photographs from the training programme and school visit