Africa Bureau Technical Sector Review: Education



Africa Bureau Technical Sector Review: Education

July 2000

The Africa Bureau Technical Sector Review for Education took place on May 31st, 2000. Present were the DIR/AFR/DP, the ADIR/AFR/SD, representatives from AFR/DP, G/PPC and G/HCD, as well as desk officers from the Western and Eastern African regions. The turnout was the largest and the review session one of the most helpful many participants had ever experienced.

The purpose of the sector review was to discuss mission and AFR/SD/HRD-Education assessments of performance as well as individual country and regional issues and trends in the sector. Regional as well as country-specific issues are listed below.

CENTRAL ISSUES:

The central issues in USAID’s work in education in Africa today are:

• Focusing on quality of education and measuring student learning

Enrollment is increasing, but what is the quality of the schooling that more children have access to? How do we measure improvements in quality of leaning?

To better track changes in the quality of teaching and learning, measuring student learning achievement is crucial. The number of Missions attempting to report on student learning as an indicator of quality (vs. reporting on access only or other more tangential indicators of quality) has been increasing over the decade – a trend that SD highly encourages. National capacity to measure and report on student learning achievement, particularly on core competencies of reading comprehension, writing and numeracy needs to be developed. Should the Mission support this capacity development, if so how?

• Keeping the strategic focus on Basic Education

In this time of competing demands for scarce development dollars, AFR/SD has been most fortunate to be able to maintain the focus on basic education in the form of primary education reform. We encourage staying the course in primary education reform. Staying the course includes using other levels of education to strengthen primary.

• Status and future of sector investment plans and non-project assistance

Are sector investment plans working well? Can we participate in sector investment plans without NPA? SIP does not mean NPA only. AFR/DP mentioned the need for a policy piece from the Bureau on NPA. DP may need to broker higher level dialogue in this area.

Non-project assistance has been enormously successful in countries such as Uganda. We are using it less and less due to a scarcity of funding, lack of USAID staff who know how to use if effectively, and failure of host countries to effectively manage budgetary support. It is believed to be an effective instrument, and we should strengthen our own capacity to use it effectively.

• Shortage of qualified Education staff

Sector programming requires seasoned education staff in both Missions and Washington.

• Improving the quality of education data

Data in the education sector is problematic. It is difficult to obtain common data across countries on even the most basic indicators (gross enrollment, for example), and international sources are often several years out of data. AFR/SD attempted to gather this data last December by sending out matrices with common indicators to each Mission. The response was very low. DP agreed to step up efforts to encourage Missions to comply with the modest data request.

Regional issues: Issues raised in the context of a specific country program but with larger regional implications.

• Since AFR/DP often reports on budget allocation to education as a success story in the Agency, they were surprised to hear of the low absorptive capacity issue. It was noted that absorptive capacity was an issue in virtually all MOE’s.

• What does it means to graduate in the education sector given nearly universal enrollment rates in some of the countries in which we have education programs? It was emphasized that access is only part of the equation. A focus on quality education has to be encouraged and/or maintained in order to realize the returns to children’s schooling and in order to keep enrollment rates growing or stabilized at near universal levels. In Uganda, for example, the focus for the education system at this stage is the quality of primary education.

• The impact of HIV/AIDS on the teaching and professional education force, and the strategies for ameliorating the impact of HIV/AIDS through the education system need to be further examined and reflected within country and Mission programs.

• Should money be taken from those countries with large pipelines (such as Ghana) and redistributed it to needy and deserving countries such as Malawi and Zambia?

• The trend is for increased emphasis on community participation in education programs. What are the implications of this trend for sustainability and its positive impact on democracy?

COUNTRY SPECIFIC ISSUES

Benin: Met Expectations

The mission should redouble efforts to focus on the reform of the primary education system (with an emphasis on girls) and the institutional contract – not pulling in many other directions. It is difficult to get a sense of Mission priorities in Education; curriculum reform seems to be just as important as school health, for example.

Ethiopia: Met Expectations

What is anticipated impact of border war on the mission's education activities? Will the government's financial commitment hold as funds are diverted to the war effort and will other donor governments continue to support SIP activities? What might this mean for AID's plans to expand its education program nationwide?

Ghana: Met expectations

Resources are pouring in but it does not appear as if the government and the donors are working together. Are there more resources than can be opportunely used? The R4 and the indicators don't provide evidence that USAID is strengthening the capacity of the local government. What is the mission strategy for using the partnership schools to do this? At the system level, which conditionalities were not met, and what is the impact on the system? Catholic Relief Services is essentially involved in humanitarian services and a food program. Does it have the capacity to implement the QUIPS school program in the north? Is a review or a stocktaking of the USAID program planned in the near future?

Guinea: Met expectations

How are the interactive radio program and teacher development being used to support long term transfer of skills? There seems to be a disconnect between FQEL and teacher supply. Is the mission continuing a policy dialogue with the government? It is not shown how the Girls' Project fits into the program. Are the donors coming with their own agenda, or is the government playing an adequate coordination role?

Malawi: Met Expectations

There has been a noticeable improvement in program performance since last R4. The Education Policy Investment Framework, which will guide future sector development activities, has been drafted and is before Parliament for review. Noticeably absent from the PIF, however, is a thorough plan for addressing the critical shortage of trained teachers. Also not included in the R4 was a discussion of the impact of HIV/AIDS on the education sector. But we do know that the Malawi mission and education SO are currently addressing these issues.

Mali: Met Expectations

The main issues raised during the review meeting pertained to the quality of education in community schools and the sustainability of the experience. Participants thus recommended further monitoring of the issue. Effective synergies between health and education were discussed as the youth SO keeps being questioned as an entity. Discussions are still open as to whether the SO would remain as such.

Namibia: Met Expectations

The Nambia program continues to provide much needed assistance to historically disadvantaged primary schools. The development of instructional materials in lower primary grades and in-service teachers training and support program met all expectations. The critical issue is the impact of the war in Angola on USAID supported education activities in the North. It is not clear how USAID will achieve education objectives if war continues to limit access to the two Northern regions. Also, as the Peace Corps supported in-service teacher training program phases out, what is the plan for continuing support for teachers?

South Africa: Met expectation

South Africa’s program is necessarily wider in scope than the other country programs (the one IR is commensurate with other SOs). The focus on quality is commended and most of the proposed indicators seem sound (technical issues about the new indicators for IR 1 have been sent in a separate memo) especially the proposed USAID support for the development of national assessment instruments. Inclusion of supplemental information very useful to understanding programs.

Uganda: Met Expectations

This R4 report reflects the continuing effectiveness of Uganda’s education reform, and the role that USAID has had in bringing this about. Today, the major challenge to the system, and to USAID's contribution, is the quality of the primary schooling. There is some evidence that overcrowding and resource shortages within the primary system are beginning to improve, with the coordinated investment plan and action program, but there is still a long way to go before the necessary conditions for children’s learning are widely available. Uganda’s Education Sector Investment Program is a government-managed framework for coordinating the support of 12 donors. ESIP, which has benefited from USAID’s NPA, conditionalites, and project support over the past seven years, makes Uganda’s education sector reform one of the best managed in Africa.

The Mission is now preparing a new CSP, and within that there is need to focus on the strategy for the next cycle of support for human resource development and basic education. The Mission requires the staff/technical assistance needed for this.

Zambia: Met expectations.

Discussion focused on the new Education Strategy, approved by DP on May 30, 2000, and the rationale for realignment of language between the SO and the IRs. More accurate data on gender equity in enrolment in Zambia was one factor cited that required changes in activities and IR descriptions. This highlighted the role USAID programs play in improving data collection and reporting within various country programs, and the importance of USAID/Zambia's ongoing activities to support EMIS in Zambia.

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