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Quality education is education that
works for every child and enables
all children to achieve their full potential.
The Child-Friendly Schools Manual was developed during three-and-a-half years of continuous work,
involving UNICEF education staff and specialists from partner agencies working on quality education.
It benefits from fieldwork in 155 countries and territories, evaluations carried out by the Regional Offices
and desk reviews conducted by headquarters in New York. We particularly acknowledge the contributions
of colleagues who participated in two CFS Writers’ Workshops held in Glen Cove, New York, in June 2005
and August 2006.
Project managers and final writers: Cream Wright (lead writer), Changu Mannathoko and Maida Pasic.
Edited, produced and distributed by UNICEF’s Division of Communication.
MANUAL TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction 5.5 Reducing risks and increasing
References protection
5.6 School organization and management
Chapter 1 – Purpose, scope and concept 5.7 Child-friendly education in emergencies
1.1 Background
1.2 Purpose and scope Chapter 6 – Learners, teachers and school
managers
1.3 Precursors of an evolving model
6.1 School reform and learning
1.4 Promise of a consolidated CFS model
achievement
6.2 Preparing teachers
Chapter 2 – Dynamics of theory in practice
6.3 School head as leader and mentor
2.1 Overview
6.4 Organizing classrooms and learning
2.2 Implementation as an eclectic process spaces
2.3 Key principles, desired features and 6.5 Pedagogic materials
standards
6.6 Learning and teaching methods
2.4 Putting children fi rst
6.7 Curriculum
2.5 Implementation of models in various
countries
Chapter 7 – Costs and benefi ts
7.1 ‘Costing’ the elements
Chapter 3 – Location, design and construction
7.2 Estimating resource requirements
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Pedagogy and design
Chapter 8 – Monitoring and evaluating
3.3 Locating schools or learning spaces
8.1 Why monitor and evaluate?
3.4 Additional elements in design
8.2 What needs to be monitored and
3.5 Factors infl uencing design
evaluated?
3.6 Design with involvement of all
8.3 A focus on dynamic monitoring and
3.7 Remaining challenges evaluation
8.4 The learner as the focus of monitoring
Chapter 4 – School and community and evaluation
4.1 School-community links 8.5 Monitoring and evaluation to support
CFS mainstreaming
4.2 The school as a learning community
8.6 Monitoring and evaluation to support
4.3 The school in the community
investment
4.4 Reaching out to the community and
8.7 An overview of experience with CFS
beyond
monitoring and evaluation
4.5 Communities and child-friendly
8.8 Who should monitor and evaluate, and
learning spaces
what are their potential roles?
4.6 Policy implications
8.9 Other issues on monitoring and
4.7 Supervision and oversight evaluation of CFS models
8.10 The way forward
Chapter 5 – Schools as protective environments
5.1 Introduction Chapter 9 – Mainstreaming child-friendly
5.2 The right to learn in safe, healthy concepts
environments 9.1 Understanding mainstreaming
5.3 Children at special risk 9.2 Simulation modelling and
5.4 Assessing threats to health, safety and mainstreaming
security
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INTRODUCTION
WHY A CHILD-FRIENDLY SCHOOLS MANUAL?
Schooling is the one experience that to stand in unfurnished classrooms,
most children worldwide have in being hungry, thirsty or unwell; it can
common and the most common also mean being frightened by the
means by which societies prepare threat of punishment, humiliation,
their young for the future. On any bullying or even violence at the hands
given day, more than a billion children of teachers and fellow pupils.
are in primary or secondary school:
689 million in primary school and These conditions thwart learning.
513 million in secondary school. They are made worse when learners
They are in permanent or temporary are without competent teachers to
buildings, in tents or under trees – guide them, textbooks to learn from
sharing the experience of learning, or exercise books to write in, or if
developing their potential and they have textbooks of inferior quality
enriching their lives. But schooling is that reinforce damaging stereotypes.
not always a positive experience for Learning is further stymied when
children. It can mean shivering in cold, schools have no toilets, running water
unheated buildings or sweltering in hot, or electricity. It is a challenge to reach
airless ones. It can mean being forced the 101 million primary-school-age
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children around the world who do Recognizing that different children
not attend school. But it is perhaps face different circumstances and have
even more daunting to rectify the different needs, such schools build
deplorable conditions endured by on the assets that children bring from
millions of children already in school, their homes and communities and
conditions that are antithetical to also compensate for shortcomings
learning, children’s well-being and in the home and community
their future livelihood. environment. They enable children
to achieve, at a minimum, the
And children face negative conditions knowledge and skills prescribed
not only in school. The home and in the curriculum. They also help
community environment can also them develop the ability to think
pose challenges that make it diffi cult and reason, build self-respect and
for children to enrol in school, respect for others, and reach their full
attend regularly, complete the fi nal potential as individuals, members of
year of the cycle or achieve the their communities and citizens of the
prescribed level of learning. Food world. Child-friendly schools (CFS)
and water insecurity, undernutrition, embrace a multidimensional concept
parasitic infestations, unhygienic of quality and address the total needs
surroundings, chronic poverty, of the child as a learner.
household chores, harmful traditional
beliefs and practices, domestic
The case for a CFS manual
overcrowding, gender discrimination,
HIV and AIDS, domestic violence,
Various school models illustrate ways
childcare defi ciencies and the
to improve the quality of education.
increasing prevalence and severity
However, it is the CFS models
of natural disasters related to climate
that have emerged as the most
change are factors that can wreak
comprehensive in their approach
havoc with a child’s right to attend
and the most widespread, both in the
and complete school. Schools
number of countries in which they
must therefore focus on the whole
have been put into practice and the
child, which means taking into
account conditions in the family or geographical distribution of those
community that might be hindering countries. Not surprisingly, CFS
his or her educational progress. models vary from country to country.
Fulfi lling the education-related As the main proponent of these
Millennium Development Goals CFS models, UNICEF has the
(MDGs) requires not just getting all responsibility of providing a coherent
children into school, but making account of them, summarizing their
sure that all schools work in the best main features so as to create a
interest of the children entrusted prototype that can serve as the basis
to them. This means providing for developing national capacities
safe and protective schools to design and implement CFS in a
that are adequately staffed with wide range of countries. The same
trained teachers, equipped with prototype can also enable countries
adequate resources and graced with to incorporate CFS standards
appropriate conditions for learning. into their educational plans and
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realistically estimate the cost of (d) P rovide practical guidance on
achieving basic education for all the design, construction and
with attention to quality standards. maintenance of child-friendly
schools as safe, welcoming
It is against this background that environments in which children
UNICEF embarked on the preparation can learn, emphasizing links with
of this CFS manual, a practical guide the community, the infl uence of
that aims to: pedagogic considerations, cost-
effectiveness and sustainability.
(a) P rovide an introduction to
the child-friendly concept, its (e) P rovide practical guidance on the
underlying ideology and the key operation and management of
principles from which the main child-friendly schools, elaborating
characteristics of a child-friendly on the role of school heads,
school can be derived in different teachers, non-teaching staff, pupils,
contexts and circumstances. parents, communities and local and
national education authorities.
(b) O utline, with supporting
arguments, the multiple ways in (f) P rovide practical guidance on
which CFS models consistently classroom processes in child-
contribute to quality education in friendly schools, emphasizing
a wide range of national contexts. such key features as:
(c) H ighlight the intrinsic value of CFS i. The role of teaching/learning
models for developing quality in aids and materials in creating
any education system as: a stimulating environment that
is managed by the teacher and
i. Flexible models that offer
enriches the overall classroom
‘pathways’ to quality rather
experience for the learner.
than prescribe blueprints that
should be rigorously copied in ii. The interaction between
all situations. teacher and learners, with the
teacher as authority fi gure and
ii. Heuristic models that offer
facilitator of learning and the
opportunities to move
learner as active participant
towards the quality standards
in a democratic process that
through a series of cumulative
involves mutual respect.
improvements rather than
impose an overwhelming ‘one- iii. The pedagogic process, which
off’ or ‘all-at-once’ approach. is both structured enough to
facilitate measurable learning
iii. Reforming models that require
progress and fl exible enough
serious refl ection on basic
to facilitate the use of a variety
principles and issues relating
of techniques for promoting
to the whole child as a learner
achievement of learning
and the conditions that make for
outcomes.
successful learning rather than
unrefl ectively apply a number (g) H ighlight the importance of
of technical inputs that are cultivating a sense of community
assumed to infl uence the quality in child-friendly schools by use
of education. of such features as:
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i. Daily rituals, including (h) P rovide a ‘minimum package’
morning assembly that may that offers guidance and tools for
involve prayers, a school song addressing environmental risks
and/or pledges to school, and vulnerabilities to climate
community or nation. change within schools and
their surrounding communities.
ii. Periodic rituals marking rites
These inquiry-based activities
of passage, such as special
for empowerment include
events for new students on
participatory risk-mapping and
opening day, a graduation
facilities-based environmental
ceremony for students
solutions to support children
completing school, an annual
and their communities in
prize ceremony, thanksgiving
adapting to changing conditions
day, founders’ day or
and reducing risk through
memorial day.
preparedness and response.
iii. Identity symbols, including
(i) P rovide a rich menu of examples,
school uniforms, sport teams
from various country contexts, of
and colours, a school crest or
actual child-friendly schools that
emblem.
illustrate the principles, strategies
iv. Rules and regulations that and actions of good practice.
are fair, in the best interest
A single manual cannot do full justice
of children, applied in a
to this ambitious set of objectives.
transparent, democratic
Therefore, the present manual is
manner, do not result in the
part of a total resource package
humiliation or suppression of
that includes an e-learning package
learners, do not undermine
for capacity-building in the use of
the authority of teachers and
CFS models and a collection of fi eld
school managers and do not
case studies to illustrate the state of
alienate schools from the
the art in child-friendly schools in a
communities they serve.
variety of settings.
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