The concept of government education
Dr. Alaa Jarrad
Garad@alaagarad.com
October 11 2022
The subject of learning will remain the decisive factor in the success of individuals, institutions and nations, especially in this difficult era the world is going through of uncertainty, tension and instability.
A decade ago, a group of World Bank experts conducted a study and evaluation of several international projects in various countries of the world, and in cooperation with several governments, this evaluation study resulted in a 206-page report that was published in a book entitled “The Black Box of Governmental Learning – Towards a Concept of Learning Organization.” At the governmental level,” and although the tools that came in the report are not all new, the use of these tools and solutions at a governmental level drew attention to the importance of adopting and investing in learning at a strategic level, and this is exactly what countries have done that have taken a lead in many areas, such as Brazil and Korea South, Estonia, Vietnam and the United Arab Emirates.
The report emphasizes that learning from success and failure will be critical for governments, international organizations, and civil society organizations as they attempt to improve the livelihoods of their citizens around the world.
This is done by making learning and accountability two main goals. Accountability directs our attention to the past, what has already happened and what we have learned from it. Learning requires focusing on how to improve results in the future, and identifying the tools and methods needed to find out what has worked and what has not.
An investment in learning is needed so that evidence is collected for assessments, lessons learned, and established policies and procedures updated.
The World Bank's team of learning experts has created a so-called Learning Ladder that has been developed to help bridge the gap between knowledge production and its application by stakeholders. It combines theoretical approaches with individual, institutional, and governmental learning.
The ladder of learning has a sound foundation from an academic and empirical perspective, as it is based on theories that have been successfully developed and tested, and the ladder focuses on the fact that learning is a dynamic process and highly dependent on the context in which the work takes place, i.e. working with a government department in Vietnam is different from working in a similar department In Brazil, the context is different and is linked to culture, awareness and multiple factors.
The development of the learning ladder and its experiment took two years, and the geographical areas in which this method was applied varied, so that the team worked with government departments in 10 African countries, in addition to the rest of the world's continents.
The report emphasizes that one of the effective ways to improve the quality of government work is to learn from past practices and from the experiences of other governments, as this helps to avoid repeating mistakes and encourages the adoption of successful practices from others.
But how much can governments or are willing to learn?
And if they can do that, what do they want to learn - and how?
Is the way they learn different from the way individuals or institutions learn?
In what conditions do they learn best, and to what extent can learning enhance the ability of governments to improve their performance?
This is what the next article will deal with, God willing.
• One effective way to improve the quality of government work is to learn from past practices and the experiences of other governments.
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Garad@alaagarad.com
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Garad@alaagarad.com