MOITORING THROUGH TECHNOLOGY SMC TRAININGS Training of 240 SMC members on e-monitoring TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1 INTRODUCTION 2 1. SELECTION OF KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS 3 2. DEVELOPMENT & TESTING OF (PAPER) MONITORING TOOL 3 3. TRAINING NEED ASSESSMENT (TNA) 6 4. TRAINING DESIGN 6 5. TRAINING MATERIAL DEVELOPMENT 9 6. RECONSTITUTION OF SMC BODIES 9 7. SELECTION OF PARTICIPANTS 10 8. SMC TRAININGS 11 KARACHI 12 LARKANA 12 JACOBABAD 12 DADU 12 KASHMORE 12 QAMBAR SHAHDADKOT-1 13 KHAIRPUR 13 QAMBAR SHAHDADKOT-11 13 SUKKUR 13 LARKANA 14 KHAIRPUR 14 9. SMC TRAINING FEEDBACK 14 10. CHALLENGES/LIMITATIONS 16 11. RECOMMENDATIONS 16 12. WAY FORWARD 16 13. PICTURES 17 14. ANNEXURES 20 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Governments from developing countries often assist school management committees to encourage active participation from parents and community members in order to involve them in the educational sector which serves as a means of improvement of quality as well as a way to receive feedback from the community. Specifically focusing on Pakistan, school management committees were initiated with the intention of facilitating communities to advocate for education under the School Action Program in 1994. A primary quantitative study was conducted to assess the impact of School Management Committees on school management of elementary level schools. The results confirmed the effectiveness of school management committees in improving standards of education and conditions of school. It also confirmed improvements in teachers’ attendance, students’ admission ratio, school dropout ratio and school regulations after the introduction of SMCs. Sindh Capacity Development Project (SCDP), a USAID project, has been tasked to assist the Program Management Implementation Unit (PMIU) to undertake monitoring, reporting and evaluation of all components of the Sindh Basic Education Program. To ensure the success of the project, the SCDP has taken a number of initiatives in organising, training, and facilitating the local School Committee Members (SMCs) throughout the province of Sindh. The project aims to involve the local School Management Committees (SMCs) for real-time monitoring and reporting, through technology. To accomplish this goal, numerous measures were taken to determine the most efficient ways of engaging the local communities. Key performance indicators were finalized, tools was developed and feedback was received from the concerned stakeholders. Following the results an android application named “E-SMC” was developed by contracting an IT firm, which was tested by a selected group of individuals associated with the SMCs of Keamari and Lyari towns of Karachi. In order to conduct SMC e-monitoring trainings, it was mandatory that the SMC bodies of designated schools are reconstituted and notified so that the relevant members are trained. This gave an added opportunity to add more value to the SMC trainings by training newly elected SMC members. The SCDP facilitated the electoral process with SCMP and RSU, while also conducting meetings to further accelerate the process. A combined coordinated effort with the District Education Officers, and Regional Education Directors, the SMCs of all 106 Sindh Basic Education Program construction schools were elected. Necessary material was developed for a comprehensive three-day training session for 20 to 25 members from each district (including 5 towns of Karachi where the SBEP works). A number of SMC trainings were carried from March till May of 2018, in SBEP targeted districts, which include Karachi, Larkana and Jacobabad, Dadu, Kashmore, Qambar ShahdadKot, Khairpur and Sukkur. Furthermore, two rounds of supplementary trainings were planned to overcome the shortage and ensure the equitable women participants. Thus far, 241 SMC Members have been successfully trained. The intensive training of the SMC members has yielded positive results, as after the training the members of the SMCs are able to understand the importance of the SMCs, their roles and responsibilities as described by the Right to Free & Compulsory Education Act 2013. The members now have a basic idea of monitoring, community-based monitoring and reporting their findings to the concerned authorities due to comprehensive training program. They have been taught how to operate the android based application “E-SMC” and have been given appropriate android devices, which enables them to report their findings efficiently on monthly basis and without delay. As the trainings came to end, some members of the SMCs began their monitoring duties, and data was collected. However, the data collection was put on hold due to summer vacations. The assigned SCDP team continues to provide support to the SMC members in technological issues and monitoring based inquires. Finding a reasonable number of female participants has been a difficult process, however 21% of trainees were women. 1 USAID.GOV SMC TRAINING REPORT INTRODUCTION USAID is supporting Government of Sindh to improve the governance and quality of education in Sindh through Sindh Basic Education Program (SBEP). As part of SBEP the Sindh Capacity Development Project (SCDP) implemented by Deloitte Yousuf Adil, Chartered Accountants (Deloitte Pakistan) supports Sindh Education and Literacy Department in various areas including strengthening of the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) systems. One of the tasks of SCDP is to provide trainings to 240 members of School Management Committees (SMC) and involve them in monitoring and reporting. Monitoring is technology supported and trainings include its use. These 240 SMC members are from 106 SBEP construction school sites who are oriented and involved in monitoring and reporting. Details are as under: S# DISTRICT NO OF SCHOOLS 1 Khairpur 15 2 Sukkur 13 3 Larkana 13 4 Qambar ShahdadKot 21 5 Dadu 12 6 Jacobabad 13 7 Kashmore 10 8 Karachi-Bin Qasim 2 9 Karachi-Gadap 3 10 Karachi-Orangi 2 11 Karachi-Lyari 1 12 Karachi-Keamari 1 Total 106 To accomplish this task, SCDP devised a comprehensive activity plan including following activities; Selection of Key Performance Indicators Development and testing of monitoring tool (Questionnaire) Development of Android based Mobile Application for SMCs Training Need Assessment (TNA) Training Design Training Material Development Reconstitution of SMC bodies Selection of participants SMC Trainings SMC Training Feedback 2 USAID.GOV SMC TRAINING REPORT 1. SELECTION OF KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS SCDP conducted a meeting with the stakeholders back in May 2017 for selection of indicators to deliberate and finalize the indicators required to monitor schools through SMCs. Following are the indicators on which SMC evaluate the progress at school level: Students’ attendance Teachers’ regularity Teachers’ punctuality Subject teachers’ availability in school Teachers’ in-service training Guide Teacher support in school Learners’ regular assessment Learning material in the classrooms Library and reading material Science Laboratory usage Physical facilities available in School Parents’ involvement in school activities School Improvement Plan and implementation SMC Funds utilization 2. DEVELOPMENT & TESTING OF (PAPER) MONITORING TOOL SCDP developed monitoring tool that is a questionnaire, which was used by SMCs at school level. The paper tool was developed back in October 2017 in consultation with SBEP counterparts according to the SMCs role and responsibilities. Input from SCMP and SRP was also incorporated in the tool after having detailed meetings. This tool was then translated into local languages i-e Urdu and Sindhi. SCDP tested the paper tool with SMC members prior to get it finalized for mobile application, in order to ensure that the tool is user friendly and not complicated to be used at community level. The objectives of paper tool testing were to: Evaluate the knowledge, attitude and practices of SMC members about their roles and responsibility and monitoring process Check the viability of monitoring tool to be exercised by the SMCs Engage SMC members in implementation process Assess the comfort level of SMC members with technology use The paper tool testing was conducted in the designated schools of Khairpur, Sukkur and Karachi-Malir districts identified by Community Mobilization Program (CMP). The SMC monitoring tool has been developed considering the requirement and limitations of the members coming from diverse group of communities. Most of the questions kept close-ended and of multiple choices. This tool will also be translated in Sindhi and Urdu languages for the convenience of the users. A sample of two members from each SMC of SBEP construction school was selected from each district. Meetings with two target groups were also conducted including; Members of SMC Executive bodies rural area Members of SMC Executive bodies urban slum area 3 USAID.GOV SMC TRAINING REPORT Meetings with SMC Executive members were also organized to brief them with the objective of the SCDPs interventions with SMCs. Total six SMC members were interviewed on the questionnaire developed for monitoring. Following is the detail of members involved in the testing process; S Distri UC/ Village School Name of Gend Designation Contact# # ct Town Name SMC er Member 1 Khairp Khanpu Kouro GHS Male Chairperson ur r Goth Kouro 2 Goth Male Member 3 Sukkur Old Arain GGHS Male Member Sukkur Goth Arain 4 Goth Male Member 5 Karach Bin Quaidab GPS Male Chairperson i-Malir Qasim ad Sindhi 6 Town Jamat Male Member During the paper tool