Participatory impact and organizational performance of the education programme of Diocese of Torit

Background

The Diocese of Torit (DOT) began its partnership with Strømme Foundation in 2002 with support to an education programme which included support to teachers' salaries as well as provision of learning and teaching materials for the secondary school. The conflict in Southern Sudan which has taken over 50 years has inflicted a great challenge to provision of basic services including education. During the war most if not all schooling infrastructure and other needed facilities were destroyed. The need for social services and in particular education especially for girls and women is enormous.

Purpose/objective

The evaluation looked at the types of education initiatives implemented under the partnership and more specifically quality of approaches, methods and techniques used in programme planning, implementation, monitoring and reporting, programme achievements, effects, and impact on the target groups. In addition DOT's organizational capacity, relevance and efficacy.

Methodology

The evaluation utilized participatory techniques in data collection, review of program documents and interviews with several stakeholders e.g.
?? Literature review of relevant documents among them assessment reports, progress reports, audit reports, project proposals and implementation reports as well as curricula documents
?? 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 informants 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
Project documents and interviews with key respondents revealed that the program has been on track with the objectives it set out to achieve namely, continuation of normal learning, registration of new students and provision of learning and teaching materials. In regard to ensuring the continuation of normal learning in the school, it had gone well until in 2005, when implementation of this had slowed down due to a teachers' strike. The Diocese ensured that the school had enough teachers, while parents' support to the school both in cash and kind guaranteed continuity.
Through out the evaluation period, the school has progressed to a fully pledged secondary school. There was also an increase in the school enrollment, as new students joined (2003: 75 students, 2004: 101 students and 2005: 102 students). In spite of the increased of students, the number of girls in the school remained low even though the school targeted girls
ii) Strategies in Project Implementation
The findings revealed that the approaches used by DOT were relevant, and contributed to addressing the community needs. Lack of trained teachers in the country to take up positions, was found to be a major barrier to secondary school education. The evaluation noted that the application of the Kenyan curriculum was a challenge, even though it linked students with opportunities for further education. There was hope that the curriculum for South Sudan would be addressed when government structures are put in place.
iii) Relevance of Interventions
In this aspect, it was found that DOT was addressing appropriate and relevant needs and using appropriate approaches. There is a dire need for trained teachers and learning materials in St. Bakhita Girls' Secondary School. Given the disadvantaged situation of the girl-child due to inherent culture, the presence of the school was found to be contributing to the creation of awareness among the community, on the importance of education for girls.
iv) Impact of the School to the Community
The presence of the school in the community had contributed to increased awareness on the importance of education in the community, as evidence from yearly enrolment. The school was also providing a ready market for local materials, hence generation of income for local people. The presence of a boarding school in the community had not only facilitated enrolment of girls in the school, but also contributed to their retention and completion of education.

ORGANIZATIONAL CAPACITY REVIEW
i) NGOs as Partners in Education
Besides Strømme Foundation, a number of other donors have contributed towards enhancement of the capacity of St. Bakhita by providing varied types of support e.g. Caritas Belgium, who supported construction of permanent classrooms and administration Block and Catholic Relief Services (CRS) with supply of food to the school, as well as capacity building of some selected students on store management.
ii) Review of Financial Management Capacity
The Diocese has committed to ensure proper, efficient, effective and transparent utilization of resources allocated by Strømme Foundation. The partner has an accounting policy in place and continued to maintain books of accounts and records accordingly using the guidelines and standards.
iii) Human Resource Capacity
At the time of the evaluation, both the head teacher and the deputy had left and they have not been replaced. School was also faced with an inadequate number of teachers and laboratory technicians.
iv) Governance of St. Bakhita Girls' Secondary School
The school has formed its Parents Teachers Association (PTA), whose main function was to over-see good relationship among the staff, students and parents. The PTA also acted as the link between the school and the community.

Recommendations

- DOT should ensure better dialogue with the teacher community. This would enhance effective sharing of critical information through open discussion and feedback on continual basis, focusing issues that directly affect the two parties beginning with improved housing need for the teachers.
- It is recommended that an identification process of the gaps existing in learning and teaching materials be undertaken and DOT continues to facilitate provision of needed learning and teaching materials and other inputs.
- DOT should continue to collaborate with the government, and lobby for a curriculum for secondary schools in Southern Sudan that is more relevant to the needs. In addition, counseling function in the school should be improved to cater for all aspects in educational, social and career needs of the students.
- DOT should plan capacity building for the two groups to clarify roles and responsibilities of each on running and managing St. Bakhita Girls' Secondary School. Specific areas requiring capacity enhancement are: leadership, management and school administration, conflict resolution and management technique.

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.