IMPACT EVAUATION STUDY ON WHOLE SCHOOL DEVELOPMENT AND GRANTS

1
IMPACT EVAUATION STUDY ON WHOLE SCHOOL
DEVELOPMENT AND GRANTS

• THE GAMBIA

2
Country Overview

• Pop -1.6m (2007)
• Per capita GDP -350
• Area -12000 sq km (400 x 30 km)

3
Whole School Development Initiative (piloted
adopted)

• It is an ongoing participatory approach that uses
  series of activities to improve teaching and
  learning in schools

4
Activities

• Training of SMCs and others on 3 of 5 modules
• - Concepts of WSD
• - School development Planning
• - Financial management/resource mobilization
• Training of Regional staffs on plan evaluation
  (central level)
• Evaluation of plans (regional level)
• Moderation of plans (Central level)

5
Activities

• Implementation of school plans for the academic
  year Sept. 2008 June 2009 starts
• Training done on module 4
• - Curriculum management and Teachers
  Professional Dev (N0v/Dec 2008)

6
Expectations

• improved management of schools
• continued professional development of teachers
• increased participation and support by the
  community
• improved learning environment and pupil welfare
• increased access to high quality teaching and
  learning materials
• better management of curriculum delivery

7
QUESTION Impact Evaluation Studies

• 2 Key Questions!!!
• 1. What is the Impact of the WSD on
• i. student performance
• ii. school management
• (What is working and what isnt)
• 2. What is the Impact of the school grant on
  student performance
• After one year, the differences between schools
  are because of the programme

8
Launching

• Sensitisation of stakeholders on
• Impact Evaluation Studies
• Consultations at various levels
• Central and regional
• Donor partners
• Government Departments UTG, GBOS,WAEC

9
Set Up

• Randomly assigned clusters of schools to one of
  three groups
• - Group 1 Receive full training grant
  (90 schools)
• - Group 2 Receive grant only (90
  schools)
• - Group 3 Comparison group (90 schools)

10
Baseline data collection

• School environment
• School management
• Teaching / learning activities
• Student performance
• End of academic year (2007/08)

11
Corporal punishment

• 20 of randomly selected children report being
  beaten the previous day
• That means in a week, you have a 65 chance of
  being beaten
• In a month 99 chance
• Correlates?
• Ability almost no relationship
• Gender no relationship
• Wealth no relationship

12
Current Status of Evaluation

• All stakeholders aware of the IES
• Full cooperation on implementation
• All scheduled training done
• Implementation of the School development plans
  underway
• Baseline data processed, analysed and conclusions
  drawn
• Preliminary results shared

13
Challenges To Roll Out

• Ensuring local ownership
• Continued monitoring of schools
• Maintaining trained staff on IE team, others

14
Lessons Learnt

• Stakeholders have to be fully on board
• Collaboration of stakeholders guaranties smooth
  implementation
• Question must be pertinent to countrys drive for
  improvement on education
• Palpable eagerness for results of follow up data
  collection 1 after the one year
• Very sensible and practical using nationals to
  drive the process

15
Next steps

• Disbursement of school grants
• Training on last module
• - Learner Welfare and School Environment and
  Teaching/learning resources
• Follow up data collection 1 June 2009
• Follow up data collection 2 June 2010