Evaluation report of the Speed School program in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger

1. Project Description and Background to Evaluation:
Speed Schools were started in order to give schooling to non-educated children and reduce early school dropout for children between the ages of 8 to 12 in order to combat poverty and exclusion of marginalized and disadvantaged groups. The program was designed by Malian professor Denis Dougnon in Mali in 2004, and later exported to Burkina Faso in 2006 and Niger in 2007.  It covers the first three years of primary education in nine months with a bilingual curriculum, after which graduated children can enrol into the fourth grade of primary school. Speed Schools are implemented by national NGOs in cooperation with the Sub-Regional Permanent Secretariat for Speed School and Strømme Foundation West Africa.

The program is evaluated to establish the achievements and effectiveness of the program and to provide the actors with advice regarding strategy for up-scaling of the program.

2. Purpose/objective:
• Providing the actors and the potential users of the Speed School with a base of an objective and scientific assessment of the strategy at the end of its experimentation phase in the three pioneering countries
• Assessing the relevance of  Speed School for the states within the framework of the objectives of Education for All and the Millennium Development Goals
• Providing the three pioneer countries with reliable evidence needed for the potential expansion of the Speed School program.

3. Methodology:
The methodology included a literature review, field investigations covering the whole chain of actors with questionnaires and interviews. A comparative evaluation of the achievements of outgoing pupils of the Speed Schools and that of the pupils of the reception schools. A test at 23 randomly selected schools, with 423 pupils participating (220 Speed School students and 203 students from reception schools- A total of 197 pupils (47 %)) tested were girls. Secondary data was collected from the sub-regional Permanent Secretariat of the Speed Schools, of Strømme Foundation, the administrations of the Ministers of Education in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, Technical and Financial partners and implementing NGOs.

4. Key findings:
Coverage and accessibility: The program contributed significantly towards the education of non-educated young people/early drop outs. 3995 centres have been set up (2005-13), and 107 804 learners have gone through the program so far, of which 53969 are girls.

Performance and quality: There was an 86,6 % transfer rate to primary school at the final test for all students in the program. 2010-11: Out of the total Speed School student population 74,5 % passed on to the 6th year in formal schools. It has also been pointed out by some test in language and mathematics that pupils coming from speed school had higher rates than their colleagues of regular primary school. The difference is 6,4 points in French and even 17,4 points in mathematics, in favour of speed school pupils and

In Mali more Speed School students transferred to 7th grade than did the pupils from the reception schools, with a transfer rate of 58,9/100 from Speed School students vs. a transfer rate of 52,5/100 from reception schools students.

Funding: Strømme Foundation and partners provide 80,4 % of the funding, Ministers of Education 15 % and 4,6 % is provided from communities and NGOs. Allocation of state resources was difficult and affected the performance of the program with slow procedures for signing of agreements and disbursement of funds and non-predictability of resources mobilized by strategic partners.

Performance on management, monitoring and evaluation: the structure is in place and respected. Monitoring and evaluation is well appreciated by actors, although there are weaknesses in production and transmission of reports. There are also insufficiencies in monitoring child transfer to primary school, although a joint implementation system should be in place.

One of the challenges of Speed School is the transfer of graduates to already stretched formal primary schools (which often have more than 100 pupils per class). The already limited infrastructure and shortage of teachers and materials makes it difficult for schools to cope with the heavy influx of more students.

5. Recommendations:
To partner countries of implementation:
• Develop action plans for the expansion of the Speed Schools backed by the country programs for educational development
• Engage in advocacy for resource mobilisation in support of Speed Schools
• Establish frames frameworks for dialogue between Governments, PTF and NGOs on Speed Schools
• Improve procedures for transferring state funds to NGOs
• Strengthening the management system at the sub-regional level
• Provide funding for the managing of structures for the Strategy
• Consider whether animators should be paid for 12 months instead of 10 months, to avoid turnover
To Strømme Foundation and the Permanent Secretariat of Speed School
• Engage in advocacy for resource mobilization in support of Speed Schools
• Empower the management committees in planning activities
• Increase the Speed School pupil unit size from a recommended number of 25 to 27 pupils per school
• Build the capacity of the supervisors, teachers and animators in the area of language
To implementing NGO’s
• Give some professional perspective to teachers of speed school in order to motivate them
• Provide social assurance for the teachers
• Give more information about their financial contribution to the funding of speed school

6. Comments from the organisation, if any: (this section to be filled by the staff responsible in SF’s Regional Office)
The results of the evaluation have been validated and adopted by the last Orientation Council of the secretariat. The Orientation Council and Strømme Foundation are currently partnering with other organisations, such as Plan International, that work with formal schools, in order to address the difficulties in transferring Speed School graduates to formal schools that have limited capacity to accept new pupils.