CAPACITY BUILDING IN GENDER – INCLUSIVE SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL LITERACY FOR ENHANCING LIFE SKILLS: THE CASE FOR CHRYSALIS COMMUNITY LEARNING CENTERS IN AFRICA.

The Chrysalis community learning centers project in Africa has been launched within the framework of the capacity building for the Education For All (EFA) program with the financial and moral support of UNESCO.

The objectives of the project are among others:-

1. To eliminate redundant costs and pockets of development success and failures from town to town, focusing on the learning needs of a town’s small groups----the by product is learning that is 100% relevant to local community development.
2. To help the African nations in reviewing their EFA plans to include gender-inclusive scientific and technological literacy (STL) for enhancing life skills and thereby helping poverty reduction.
3. To increase adult learning literacy both in business and farming practices thus “educating to create new jobs”.
4. To encourage tighter collaboration between communities, governments, NGOs, companies, and local leadership for sustainable development.

The overall idea is to make science and technological education (STE) accessible to both boys, girls, men and women without discrimination on the one hand and to be more attentive to their economic and socio-cultural needs by making them better equipped in basic life skills in order to improve their quality of life.

The rationale of the community learning centers is that at the beginning of the 21^st century, in a society dominated by science and technology and its applications, STE must constitute an indispensable part of basic education.

Today, in order to participate effectively in a democratic society, it is essential that each citizen possesses basic scientific and technological notions on subjects such as Internet, health, environmental protection or sustainable development, which are based on scientific concepts. After all, the Framework of Action of the ICSTME conference, Goa, 2001, recognizes that science and technology education not only contributes to open and critical thinking but also strengthens people’s capacity to face the challenges of modern society.

In this context, the primary activities of the Chrysalis project should include;

• Regular training workshops / webinars for NGOs, government agencies, local leadership, project educators, teacher trainers, coordinators, and implementers to make them socio-culturally relevant.
• Setting up of a continuous monitoring and assessment system to evaluate on-going work and recommend actions for effective follow-up based on the results of the project.