Listening to the Voice of Children

The Universal Education Foundation, a partner with EDC, captured the views of young people in the Middle East about the ways they believe school affects their well-being. UEF administered their Voice of Children survey to 1,500 students in each of three countries: Jordan, Lebanon, and Palestine.

“The shared purpose of our work with UEF is to inspire and engage people to listen more to children and young people, and to work together on initiatives for their well-being,” says Cheryl Vince Whitman, Senior Vice President of EDC, Director of HHD, and Chief Technical and Operating Officer for UEF. UEF defines well-being as "realizing one’s unique potential through physical, emotional, social, mental and spiritual development... in relation to self, others, and the environment". UEF and EDC believe that a central purpose of schools is to nurture all these aspects of a young person’s potential.

HHD serves as the Global Resource Center for UEF and produced the publication reporting results from the three countries. The survey asks young people ages 15-17 about the impact of a school’s many features, such as the physical surroundings, relationships between teachers and students, relations among students, feelings of physical and emotional safety, and quality of teaching and learning in relation to their well-being. Research has shown that many of these features affect health and well-being.

The survey results illustrate that many of these features have an impact on student well-being in both positive and negative ways. It is encouraging that almost all students replied that they are satisfied with their overall health status. However, some aspects of the school environment can present a challenge to their general well-being. The results from young people inform us about changes they believe are needed.

The girls describe feeling less comfortable with expressing themselves at school than did boys. One Palestinian girl said, “Girls are not like boys. Boys can speak more freely inside school than girls, but girls will be viewed as impolite when they talk.”

Students of both sexes are dissatisfied with teaching methods in their schools. Quite a few students report that all or most of their teachers use a rote learning approach—41% of students in Jordan and Palestine, and 27% in Lebanon.

Another key finding was that schools do not provide students with the opportunity to learn about healthy lifestyles. When asked whether they agree or disagree with the statement, “My school educates me to adopt a healthy lifestyle”, approximately half of all students disagree or strongly disagree.

Perhaps the most startling finding is about physical abuse—approximately one out of every three students in Palestine and Jordan report that teachers or school administrators hit, slap or push them. In a focus group in Palestine, one student commented, “There is physical security at school, but sometimes the teacher hits a student on the head with no reason.” Another student said, “Sometimes we are beaten for silly causes.”

“We see mounting evidence from this study and other research that children need to feel safe and connected to their teachers, and that their physical, emotional, and mental health must be sound for academic performance to be maximized,” says Vince Whitman. Students learn best when—when schools continuously contribute to the emotional, social and mental development of students.

In Palestine, several exciting activities took place in response to the survey. Young people were involved with decision makers from the ministries of education, health and welfare, using the data from the survey to advocate for change. Young people have also been involved in the Elham (Inspirational) Program to nominate and select programs and strategies across Palestine that can be implemented nationwide as solutions to the identified problems. Over 900 inspirational programs were identified, and in May 2009 approximately 40 were chosen for recognition and national dissemination.

A modified or “internationalized” version of the school survey will be administered in Wales, in the United States, and in other countries and communities that express interest. With the growing use of information and communications technologies (ICT) and media as tools for learning both in and outside of school, EDC and UEF are also developing a variation of the survey that will capture students’ perceptions of the impact of ICT and media on student well-being.