PACEEQ Participation Communautaire À L’Education De Base Pour L’Equité Et La Qualité
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Community Participation for Equity & Quality in Basic Education in Guinea PACEEQ Participation Communautaire à l’Education de Base pour l’Equité et la Qualité FINAL REPORT Covering the period September 2001 – April 2007 Submitted to Dr. Maladho Baldé CTO USAID/Guinea World Education Guinea B.P. 111 Mamou USAID COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT N° 675-A-00-01-00163-00 TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Acronyms 3 Introduction 4 The PACEEQ Approach 6 Analytical Summary 10 Intermediate Result 3: Improved Community Participation In Basic Education 20 Sub-IR 3.1. Increased participation, decision-making and mobilization and management of resources for primary schools 21 Sub-IR 3.2. Increased participation of CSOs and NGOs in Education 35 Sub-IR 3.3. Increased educational quality and greater equity for girls and rural children as a result of community participation 85 Intermediate Result 4: Improved Gender And Rural/Urban Equity In Basic Education 98 Sub-IR 4.1. Improved access to basic education for girls and rural children 99 Sub-IR 4.2. Increased promotion and retention rates for girls and rural children 105 Project Management 118 Administration and Finances 140 Monitoring & Evaluation 145 Annexes 151 2 PACEEQ Final Report 2001-2007 List of Acronyms ACRONYMS DEFINITION (ENGLISH-FRENCH) AED Academy for Educational Development AG (GA) General Assembly (Assemblée Générale) APEAE Parents’ Association (Association des Parents d’Elèves et Amis de l’Ecole) Board of Parents’ Association B/APEAE (Bureau d’Association des Parents d’Elèves et Amis de l’Ecole) Federated Parents’ Association C/APEAE (Coordination des Associations des Parents d’Elèves et Amis de l’Ecole) CBO Community Based Organization (Organisation Communautaire) Local Scholarship Management Committee (Comité de Gestion de Bourses à la CGBB Base) CSO Civil Society Organization (Organisation de la Société Civile) Rural Community Development Committee CRD (Communauté Rurale de Développement) CTP Prefectoral Technical Advisor (Conseiller Technique Préfectoral) CTR Regional Technical Advisor (Conseiller Technique Régional) Prefectoral Department of Education DPE (Direction Préfectorale de l’Education) Elementary Education Representative (Délégué Scolaire de l’Enseignement DSEE Elémentaire) EAP (PAE) Educational Action Plan (Plan d’Action de l’Education) EDC Educational Development Center ERO Bi-Annual Internal Evaluation (Evaluation Rapide Organisationnelle) FKL The regions of Faranah, Kankan, and Labé National Foundation for Girls’ Education FONSEF Fonds National de Soutien à l’Education des Filles INRAP Institut National de Recherche et d’Action Pédagogique ONG (NGO) Non-Governmental Organization (Organisation Non Gouvernementale) Community Participation for Equity & Quality in Basic Education in Guinea PACEEQ (Participation Communautaire à l’Education de Base pour l’Equité & la Qualité) PDL Local Development Plan for CRD (Plan de Développement Local des CRD) PS Planification Strategique (Strategic Planning) NGO Network for Education And Child Protection RONGEPE Réseau des ONG pour l’Education et le Protection des Enfants RTI Research Triangle Institute TOT (FdF) Training of Trainers (Formation de Formateurs) WEG World Education, Guinea 3 PACEEQ Final Report 2001-2007 Introduction World Education began working in community participation in education in Guinea with the 1997 Community Education pilot program in 1997 with funding from USAID. In 2001, Building on the experience from the pilot project, World Education launched the Community Participation for Equity and Quality in Basic Education in Guinea (Participation Communautaire à l’Education de Base pour l’Equité et la Qualité – PACEEQ) with funding from USAID. PACEEQ was a consortium managed by World Education, with Academy for Education Development (AED), Education Development Center (EDC), Research Triangle Institute (RTI) and Save the Children- US as consortium partners. PACEEQ worked with Parents’ Associations and other community based organizations by building their capacity to work in partnership with the school administration to improve the quality of education. In August 2005 USAID awarded an extension to PACEEQ for a consolidation phase. This Final Report covers all activities carried out during the PACEEQ from 2001 through 2007 funded by USAID Cooperative Agreement 675-A-00-01-00163-00. The report is organized by intermediate result and for each intermediate result there is a summary table showing the activities completed and results attained. PACEEQ supported two of USAID/Guinea’s Intermediate Results, specifically: 1) Improved community participation in basic education and 2) Improved gender and rural/urban equity in basic education. The strategic objectives of PACEEQ were to achieve: 1. A qualitative increase of community participation in improving primary education; 2. A heightened and more decisive involvement of Parent-Teacher Associations (APEAE) in decision making and resource management for schools; 3. An augmentation of school inscription and retention rates, along with heightened student performance, particularly among girls and students in rural zones; 4. An amelioration of the participation of the civil society and, in particular, of NGOs, in the process of improving the quality of the education system. Designed to capitalize on the success of the PACEEQ initiative from 2001-2005, the consolidation phase sought to: • Build on current activities and continue to achieve strong results; • Ensure the sustainability of project activities and approaches; • Gather, analyze and document the experiences of PACEEQ in order to share lessons learned with stakeholders and inform the development of future strategies in Guinea, particularly for the education sector. 4 PACEEQ Final Report 2001-2007 The strategic objectives for the PACEEQ consolidation phase were: 1) Continue the achievement of strong results in building community participation and improving gender and rural/urban equity in education; 2) Solidify the partnership between the formal education system and APEAE at the local level; 3) Reinforce the organizational capacity, representation and sustainability of federated APEAE structures at the sub-prefecture, prefecture, regional, and national levels; 4) Expand capacity-development activities for Local Alliances for Girls’ Education and the National Equity Committee in order to ensure their viability and partnership in advancing girls’ education in Guinea; 5) Create and implement strategies that will ensure the sustainability for project activities and approaches; and 6) Conduct studies and enrich project documentation in order to document and share information about lessons learned with relevant stakeholders. The concept of community participation in education entered the national debate in Guinea in 1985 as part of a larger movement for the development of civil society organizations in Guinea. The creation of Parents’ Associations was authorized by Ministerial decree in 1986. Progress in attaining meaningful community participation has been hindered by a number of obstacles, including the mindset inherited from the era when the government had sole responsibility for school affairs. Prior to 1986, schools had always been considered the domain of the government as opposed to the community. Although recent policies and decentralization plans are beginning to reverse the situation by giving greater responsibility to local communities for community development including education, the old mindset lingers. High illiteracy rates pose another obstacle to widespread and meaningful community participation in education. The literacy rate for the adult population in Guinea today is estimated only at 41%. This is even lower for women and rural areas. The high level of illiteracy reinforces the existing division between schools and communities. Illiterate parents feel disempowered next to the educated, salaried school officials, who did not always welcome their involvement. Another obstacle is the low organizational capacity of the Parents’ Associations themselves. Although Parents’ Associations have been in existence since 1985, until 1997 when World Education began working with Parents’ Associations, most existed in name only. Board members were not elected; they were appointed, often by the school administration. There was little documentation of the activities of Parents’ Associations, most were not legally registered, and they kept few, if any written records of the funds collected and how they were spent. There was virtually no accountability to members in terms of activity or financial reporting, and women’s participation overall was negligible. 5 PACEEQ Final Report 2001-2007 This is the context in which World Education began working with Parents’ Associations, first in 1997 with the Community Education project and later in 2001 with the PACEEQ consortium. Today, through the efforts of PACEEQ, many Parents’ Associations have become models of civic action for education, demonstrating that communities are capable of organizing and contributing to improvements in the quality of education. This renewal of Parents’ Associations came to be seen as a “social movement” which was sanctioned by the Ministry of Education. A landmark policy directive by the Ministry of Education in 2005 validated the efforts of Parents’ Associations and mandated their roles and responsibilities. Ministry of Education Circular No. 0999 In September 2005 the Ministry of Pre-University Education and Civic Education issued MEPU-EC Circular No. 0999. This