By Sharon Haag, Associate Director for Nontraditional Education, International Children's Education Department (CHED)
Note: Wycliffe is the name for our sending/ home-country organizations; Wycliffe members are seconded to SIL to carry out the work.
From Preamble to SIL’s “Ends Policy”
SIL’s special concern is for those language communities who lack access to the Scriptures in the language and media that best serve them, and in particular to help them find the training, advice, and resources required to meet this need. SIL serves these communities through a strategy that combines Bible translation, linguistics, literacy work, and other academic activities—all in the context of partnership with governments, organizations, and individuals who share some of these objectives.
Mission Strategy and Educational Implications
In the first 50 years of Wycliffe’s existence, the primary strategy for accomplishing the above ends was for Bible translators to live among the people for whom they were translating the Word. Most of these people groups were quite isolated from the mainstream populations of their country. Translators were typically isolated from one another as well, and they were far from the urban centers or mission headquarters where appropriate traditional schools might be available. This meant that most translators taught their own children at least some of the time through about grade eight. In the earlier years, translation projects generally took around 20 to 25 years to complete, though the average was reduced to about 10 to 15 years with the advent of computers.
In recent years there has been a greater focus on training local citizens to do Bible translation with SIL consultant help, but so far that has not resulted in significantly fewer families living in isolated situations. In most of the 50 or more countries where SIL works, there are typically not enough families to warrant setting up a traditional school. In order for families to stay in such ministry allocations and keep their children with them, Wycliffe has made it a priority to support parents by providing nontraditional education options and support.
Historically, SIL has defined nontraditional education to mean that children are receiving their basic educational preparation outside of a traditional classroom situation. Usually it means that parents are mainly responsible for teaching their own children, sometimes with the assistance of part-time tutors or other teachers (either locally or via correspondence). Online options are often now included in this category if the parents continue to be the primary supervisors of their children’s study times.
Extent of the Need
The following are some statistics that illustrate the extent to which nontraditional options are used by Wycliffe families:
- Total number of Wycliffe families—1,381 (2002 statistics).
- Total number of Wycliffe school-aged children (ages 5–17)—2,609 (2002 statistics).
- Our estimate is that at any one time, at least one-third of these children are being educated using nontraditional options—870. Probably 95 percent of these students are at levels kindergarten through eight, but in the last ten years the number of high school students using nontraditional options has increased. This seems to be because of the greater acceptability of homeschooling, availability of a broader range of materials, and the development of online options. About 30 SIL students are currently using the online school NorthStar; probably another 10 are using other high school homeschooling programs. The great majority of SIL’s families with high school–age children still either sends them to a boarding school or moves to a location where a school is available.
- In the past 13 years, SIL has established Educational Resource Centers to support homeschooling families in 26 different countries (16 in Africa, 8 in Asia and the Pacific, and 2 in Latin America). Wycliffe families are currently working in more than 50 countries on 6 continents. (See chart below for distribution of projects by areas of the world.)
Nontraditional Education Services in SIL
The following are services that Wycliffe and SIL, through the Children’s Education Department (CHED), have provided for their overseas entities and families who need to use nontraditional education options:
- Pre-field workshops for parents who anticipate teaching their children overseas
- Kindergarten and first grade curriculum packages—with a focus on teaching parents how to teach effectively, including incorporating the overseas setting and ministry factors into their educational program
- Individualized consultation pre-field and on-field by CHED (there are presently two CHED staff members whose main responsibility is to support families using nontraditional education options)
- Reviews/recommendations of educational materials and ordering/shipping services
- Funds and consultation for establishing Educational Resource Centers in overseas settings that do not have traditional schools/libraries available (materials include library books, hands-on materials, computer software, and parent teaching resources
- Funds for home-country educational materials for members whose mother tongue is not English
- Traveling to and consulting with overseas entities to help them plan educational strategies and cooperative educational programs to support their families who do not have appropriate traditional schools available
- Development and support of nontraditional education options to meet the needs of our families (e.g., school-based programs out of MK schools, Field Education Systems (FES), cooperative “one-room schoolhouses,” NorthStar Academy online school, Asia Education Resource Consortium, SHARE Education Services)
- Recruitment and training/orientation of tutors and teachers to serve in nontraditional programs (including teachers with NorthStar, tutors for individual families, teachers and tutors for FES programs)
- Development of a network of special education professionals who are willing to provide assessment and consultation services for homeschooling families
- Publication of Parents Teaching Overseas—a newsletter focused on homeschooling issues and materials and TCK themes
Factors Impacting Future Need for Nontraditional Options in SIL
Many More Language Groups Still Needing Bible Translation Projects
Asia, Africa, and the Pacific are the areas where the greatest numbers of Bible translation projects are still needed. Living among minority language speakers still usually means that appropriate schools are not locally available to translators’ children. SIL currently has 657 families working in these areas, with 1,852 children among them. Of those children, 1,041 are age 12 or younger, the age group for which nontraditional options are used the most. The majority of new members are being directed to these areas, so they are where SIL expects the need for nontraditional education options to increase most dramatically.
Greater National Diversity Among Members
SIL and Wycliffe are both international organizations. Within our family of organizations, we have personnel from nearly 70 different nations. Several working groups have over 20 different nationalities represented in their membership. At this point, 88 percent of Wycliffe’s dependent children are native English speakers (77 percent are from the United States), and there is a definite English/Western dominance in the schooling options available to members. However, SIL realizes that if we are going to meet the goal of seeing a translation project begun in every one of the remaining 3,000 language groups by 2025, that vision will need to be carried forward in conjunction with hundreds of our non-Western brethren. Wycliffe and SIL are actively recruiting partners from the “emerging church” nations (in Africa, Asia, the Pacific, and South America), where church growth has been 131 percent since 1970 compared to 18 percent in the Western world (see the following chart). We fully expect the proportion of nonnative, English-speaking SIL members to increase—probably dramatically in the next ten years.
The educational needs of non-Western, nonnative English speakers may not be met well through our traditional English/Western schooling options or by options in the countries in which they work. Even if English-language MK schools continue to be a preferred choice, there is a question as to whether there will be enough teacher recruits to staff them and to handle the increased breadth and variety of educational needs (e.g., ESL, different methodology/goals) these new students will bring. If MK schools are understaffed or cannot meet the breadth of needs, it may become necessary to develop and/or expand nontraditional education options and support for these families.
Increased Civil Unrest and Terrorism Directed at Westerners
In the past five years, SIL has had to evacuate its members from at least ten different countries because of civil turmoil. In addition, Westerners (particularly Americans) have become deliberate targets for terrorism rather than just suffering incidental harm from local wars. In many parts of the world, it may no longer be wise to have a highly visible presence and a concentration of foreign children such as an MK school provides. Given this kind of world climate, parents may be less inclined to be separated from their children. Wycliffe is getting many more requests from new recruits and their families that they be sent to “safe” places. It may be difficult to sustain traditional MK schools under these kinds of conditions. More families may begin choosing nontraditional, low-profile education options for these reasons.
Conclusion for Wycliffe/SIL
Because of Wycliffe’s and SIL’s goals and strategies, and in light of the trends mentioned above, we believe the need for nontraditional education options and services continues to be strong and will probably increase. We believe this need can best be met in partnership with other mission organizations in order to make the wisest use of the resources the Lord gives us.
Appendix
The following comments are from SIL’s executive director regarding the information from the chart and its meshing with SIL’s strategy:
From this table we can see that while the Western church (i.e., Europe and North America) grew 18 percent to 749 million Christians, the emerging church (i.e., Africa, Asia, the Pacific, and South America) has grown 131 percent to over 1.1 billion people! In addition, the number of “Great Commission Christians,” Christians of all traditions who take the Great Commission seriously, is 657 million, a growth of 137 percent. We can safely assume that the greatest growth in Great Commission Christians is in the emerging church, the very church we now pray will increasingly become engaged in Bible translation.
The Importance of Nontraditional Education Services: Wycliffe/SIL Q3 and Q4 2003