Mid-term Review of Empowerment of the Ethnic Minorities through Education

Background:

At the inception phase of the Long Alternative Development Project (LADP), education services of the district were limited. There were few complete primary schools located along the main road and only a very small number of ethnic children had access to education. LADP supported both formal and non-formal education for the ethnic minority groups living in the mountainous area of Long District. Parents have been motivated to participate in the education activities through PRA, teachers have been trained and ethnic children have been given scholarships to teacher training school. In 1997 NCA developed a drug prevention curriculum with different resource persons including a representative from the Akha culture. More schools have been built by the ethnic groups and enrolment has increased. As a continuation of these local and external initiatives, the "Empowerment of the Ethnic Minorities through Education Project" was established. The project started in March 2006 and is planned to cover three phases.

The timeframe of the project is planned to take place in 3 phases:
• Project phase 1: Pilot Phase 2006-2008
• Project phase 2: 2009-2011
• Project phase 3: 2012 -2014

The project is co-funded by Norwegian Church Aid (Norway) , Human Education International (HEI) , Norway (preliminary from Jan 2006-December 2008), and Pestalozzi Children's Foundation (PCF) , Switzerland. PCF is also providing technical and advisory support in planning, implementation, review and network.

Purpose/ Objective:

The Mid- term review is intended to:

• Check whether the project has met its objectives and desired results within the given time frame;
• To map positive and negative outcomes and examine the quality and quantity issues of implementation;
• To judge the sustainability of the project`s actions within a larger context of Education for All;
• To indicate where progress has been made and where existing work needs to be strengthened bearing in mind the financial and personnel constraints

Methodology:

Resources drawn upon during the review: Annette Kanstrup- Jensens`s experience from 3 years as education advisor in the Lao PDR, earlier reviews carried out for NCA among ethnic populations, independent studies among Akha minority groups as well as the study of relevant project documents formed the basis for the previous review.

Although lack of sufficiency in Lao has language was a hindrance for the reviewer's full participation in the discussions, especially with different village groups, it was possible to gain valuable insight through non- verbal communication and observation. As for meetings with teachers and members, village heads and members of parents` associations semi-structured interviews were made possible by means of Akha and Lao translators. During interviews with education officers, NCA and government staff as well as representatives from donor organisations structured interviews were applied, the reason being that the relevant questions were mainly concerned with management issues.

The review team spent one week in the Soplai and Bokhbor sub-districts. 7 of the 11 satellite schools and both schools were visited. The team talked to village resource persons in 6 villages, 11 teachers, 2 core teachers, the 2 principals and to government and project staff involved in the project.

Key Findings:

The Empowerment of Ethnic Minorities Education Project is a healthy project. It is well planned, the log frame is very precise and the balance between the quantitative and the qualitative inputs is just about right for Phase I. The planned and ongoing activities are in line with the national Education for All goals, and they are -with few exceptions mainly due to transport difficulties- carried out in a timely and effective manner. The donors are appreciative, supportive and the money is allocated in time. The EEME project meets the needs of the direct beneficiaries, the ethnic minority groups in the mountains in Long District, as well as assisting other schools and teachers in the area.

Recommendations:

A. To keep children in school after Grade 1 (avoid school drop out):
 Keeping the school attractive for children. It must be fun (singing, games etc.).
Special effort must be made to keep girls to continue in Grade 2 (P.2).
Several outdoor activities should be organized for pupils such as camping, and involve them to produce their own learning materials.
Rewarding the good students for obtaining good results, helping in keeping school building and surroundings cleaned. Moreover, the good students should receive an extra gift or scholarship for further study.
 The village education officer has to keep close contact with parents of children who are about to drop out, and to appoint female teacher as satellite teachers.
 In addition, the project together with the district education should investigate the possibility for setting up a kindergarten-like system (nursing school) in the target village for pre-school education, which is now the national policy of the Lao government.

B. Advocacy and promotion of Child rights (CRC):
 The project and district authorities should organize a workshop on child rights in which parents and school principals are invited to join and discuss children's issues. Another approach would be for parents and school principals to visit the targeted children directly and discuss child rights with them. To raise awareness on child rights IEC materials such as posters and slogan papers should be displayed in public areas such as outside classrooms. In additions, schools should organize a short drama to disseminate information on child rights in schools.

C. For Jamai core school, and Soploi core school:
 There is need for a new teachers' quarter in Jamai core school, and urgent need for an extension of the boys dormitory in both Jamai and Soploi core schools. The problem of the water shortage must be urgently resolved, and the boys' kitchen needs refurbishing. One important thing is that there seems to be scarcity of protein supply for students.

D. For Satellite schools:
 Many blackboards are not good enough as they are damaged. These need to be repaired or replaced. Library (books box) are made of bamboo which not strong enough. The book box should therefore be kept in the schoolroom.
 In order to keep the school buildings in good condition, a maintenance team should be organized in each target village, consisting of parents' association, teachers, villagers and students. In those schools where there is a garden, a good farmer should be assigned to assist the students with gardening duties. Small incentives may be given to the farmer.

E. Teachers' house:
 The maintenance team should also help to keep the teachers' house in good condition.

F. Adult Education (evening class):
 One more teacher has to be assigned to be in charge of evening classes, or a former drop-out in the village hired to teach adults in his/her community. The number of days for evening class might be reduced to 3-4 days per week.

 Electricity for the evening class has to be looked into. There is not enough light (electricity) in the village.

G. School attendance:
 NCA should look into possibility of offering scholarships to good students, especially from poor families. Another option is to involve good students in the running of the core schools, work for which they can receive a small incentive. Girls might have priority in the school garden.

H. Development of 20% local curriculum
 The project should consider adopting experiences from the Non-formal Education centre to use in the target area. It must be ensured that each year the teachers and curriculum developers have opportunity to revise the teachers' manuals, including asking for feedback from students. Gender issue may be appropriate to be added in to curriculum.

Comments from Norwegian Church Aid (if any):