Impact and Organizational Performance of Community Based School Capacity Building Project

Background

services including education. Though several NGOs and local communities have been providing education in Southern Sudan, operation and management of these have been challenged by a number of factors among them lack of unified and examinable education and certification, lack of a universal curriculum, syllabus and training policies. In addition these schools also lack amenities for proper health and sanitation as well as extra curricula activities. There has been low school enrolment, poor motivation for teachers, poor learning materials and environment, high drop out rate and or sometimes no school attendance by girls.
Strømme Foundation's partnership with ACORD began in 2001 with support for implementation of a community-based education and capacity building program in Tali Payam in Terereka County. ACORD's education program was aimed at increasing access to and levels of education amongst the population both adults and children of Terekeka County, more specifically towards improvement of the quality of teaching and learning as well as community participation in school management. The program gave special attention to the girl child disadvantaged by existing traditions and customs.

Purpose/objective

The purposes were to assess the impact, relevance of the approaches used, organizational policies regarding finance, human resources, logistics, benefit to the target groups and future interventions in relation to community prioritized needs and make recommendations on the future direction.
The key objectives of the evaluation were:
• To assess and evaluate the overall qualities, approaches, effectiveness and efficiency of each education partner based on implemented projects.
• To identify and analyze current and anticipated consequences and effects of the above at the grass roots, community, partner and local government levels and identify strengths and gaps for new direction for action.
• To identify common and different community needs not met by the funded projects and required partner approaches for the best interventions.
• Assess the level of beneficiary/community involvement and participation in the project cycle management and establish the level of project ownership towards sustainability.
• Give recommendations helpful to both Strømme Foundation and local partners.

Methodology

The evaluation process was guided by participatory techniques to suit each of the stakeholders. The following participatory and interactive methods were used for data collection, review and analysis,
- Literature review of relevant documents among them assessment reports, project proposals and implementation reports, curricula documents as well as progress reports (monthly, quarterly & annually).
- Focus Group Discussions with stakeholders drawn from the program partners, program staff and beneficiaries of the programme.
- Semi structured interviews consisting of open ended questions
- In-depth interviews with key people including programme coordinators, finance and administration personnel, county officers, etc
- Observations for data that could not be collected verbally.

Key findings

i) Planned Objectives versus Outputs
The review revealed that program objectives were consistently implemented despite a number of challenges. Each year the program reached more community members who responded by participating in school activities and sending their children to schools. The target schools continued to get learning and teaching materials. The evaluation noted various achievements associated with the strategy on community mobilization and training of leaders and the PTAs.
ii) Strategies and Methods in Project Implementation
The creation of awareness and community sensitization on the importance of education approach was found to be relevant, however the program still faced major challenges on reducing and eventually reversing gender biases at community level due to non participation of girls in school. On teacher-training, the program has helped improve performance of teachers and the quality of teaching in schools and it also established that this had been only partly achieved as majority of trained teachers left for other jobs. The program recognizes the importance of involving parents to work in partnership with teachers in running and managing the schools and formation of PTAs was followed by capacity building workshops.
iii) Challenges facing Program Implementation
Notable ones include lack of needed construction materials locally. Transport and logistics for bringing cement, timber and iron sheets from Uganda were difficult and took time given the poor road access route. This became more difficult during wet weather and in addition to the rough terrain experienced during the dry season.
iv) Impact of the Project as Perceived by the Stakeholders
Despite the challenges, the program registered some impact among the beneficiary communities. Notable ones were said to be improvement on enrolment in schools as a result of awareness creation and sensitization. In particular, more parents were said to be supporting the education of children and particularly girls' enrolment. Increased community participation in the education program as the target communities became organized and self monitored for community work.
v) Programme Sustainability
The Education programme had put in place various mechanisms to ensure that the program continues even in the event of ACORD's exit. Such mechanisms included capacity building for PTAs and local leaders to enable them to own and manage the schools. Paying of incentives to teachers backed by the County and community through provision of food and non-food items as a way of retaining teachers and increase in annual enrollment of pupils.

Recommendations

The program should,
- re-strategize the education awareness campaign approach and develop one that is participatory, independent and yet not conflicting but responsive to the culture of the people.
- revise the phase out strategy in light of the emerging changes in Terekeka given the advent of peace and the enormous community needs for education.
- rethink on the need and strategy for teacher training within the Terekeka County. This would attract more teachers and especially female teachers to join the education sector.
- continue with these courses until the local leadership is strong enough to operate on its own.
- use training needs assessment to inform the head teachers' capacity building strategy, this way the program would be able to develop a demand driven training module that is more relevant and responsive to the entry levels of the head of schools.
- undertake capacity building for the County Education Officers to equip them with relevant skills for monitoring and supervision of the programs. Specifically the capacity building should target aspects of baseline assessment, data analysis and planning, as well as school management, administration and finance.

Comments from the organisation

After submission of the final report, a follow up visit was made in May 2006 to discuss the evaluation findings at individual organizational level with the project stakeholders. It was also agreed that the findings be shared at a workshop among all the seven education partners of Strømme Foundation in Southern Sudan which was later moderated by PRECISE Communications, the consultant for the evaluation in order to find ways to correct the shortcomings as well as incorporate good practices into the work plans in 2007. Further training, facilitation, administration and technical support needs were identified for further action for the partners including developing new strategies to meet the challenges. This process has been very useful as it involved partners in understanding their performance levels and ways to improve.