MOITORING THROUGH TECHNOLOGY SMC TRAININGS Training of 240 SMC Members on E-Monitoring

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.

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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

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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

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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 testing it was observed that SMC members were not selected according to the selection criteria devised in consultation with CMP. Most of them were found to be over aged and unfamiliar with the basic use of smartphones and other technologies. In all selected schools for tool testing, not a single woman participant was found which raises question mark on SMCs election process. Government Girls High School Arain Goth, Sukkur was of one of the sample school during the testing field. This school has 100% girls’ enrollment and all the SMC Executive Committee comprised of only male members which shows level of insensitivity towards gender inclusiveness. It was learnt that the selected SMC members were not engaged in school level activities. Thus they were ignorant about many indicators regarding quality education and were unable to fill out the paper tool properly. Their role was limited to maintaining SMC funds and other administrative tasks despite the number of interventions carried out by CMP. SMC members from the two selected school in Khairpur and Sukkur were unaware of School Mobilization and Improvement Plans, however the plans were available and visible in the school premises.

For paper monitoring tool, please refer to Annexure-1

For paper tool testing report, please refer to Annexure-2

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Development of Android based Mobile Application

Since the SMC training was technology based, thus SCDP developed an Android software aligned to Sindh School Monitoring System (SSMS), DG M&E systems and indicators as well as that of SBEP that could be used by the SMCs of 106 schools. All selected SMCs of designated schools would provide a tablet/smart phone for the designed and tested android application. In this regard, an IT firm was hired through procurement policy and procedures established by Deloitte Pakistan. The specific objectives of the assignment were to design and develop mobile application in English, Sindhi and Urdu on Android operating system, to be made with dynamic functionalities. SCDP developed a detailed

Flash Screens of E-SMC: the Android based Mobile Application for SMCs

Requirement Specification document (RSD) for the mobile application which was signed off by both the parties. The mobile application was developed to create an opportunity to engage the communities in monitoring process to ensure quality education at school level in Sindh. The results will be applied to, and used by, the overall monitoring system of the school education in Sindh for effective governance. The mobile application is developed on android operating system. It runs on the smartphones which have been provided to the SMC Members. The application is comprised of two modules: a web-based administrative module and the Android Application module. The application named E- SMC works simultaneously in three languages i-e English, Urdu and Sindhi.

The process of application development was complex and time taken. After the application was developed, SCDP took it out for user assurance through a simulation session. A detailed user assurance testing (UAT) report was submitted to the developers to further fine tune the application according to the user need and requirements. PD PMIU gave special approval to deploy the E-SMC application at server available at PMIU. A user instructional manual was also developed to provide support to SMC members so that they can handle mobile application independently even if there is no assistance is available. These instructional manuals were also got translated in to local languages. All the trained SMC members have been provided with Android mobile phones with installed software and E-SMC application. SCDP developed detailed SoPs for SMC members to ensure safe and secure handling of mobile phones. For requirement specification document, please refer to Annexure-3

For UAT, please refer to Annexure-4

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3. TRAINING NEED ASSESSMENT (TNA)

SCDP conducted an exercise to assess the need of SMC trainings in March 2017. The objectives of this TNA exercise were;

 To understand the existing capacity needs of School Management Committees.  To understand the level of knowledge of SMC members with respect to ICT  Identify areas of capacity building and technology based learning

A basic profiling tool was developed initially which was filled and tested by M&E team The purpose of profile collection was to collect the basic information about the School Management Committees, level of their knowledge related to ICT. The main areas of profile included;

 Basic information about village/school  Profile of SMC executive body and experience of handling smart phones  Clarity of functions of SMC members  Clarity of SMC sub-committees on functions  Interest and availability for ICT training

A participatory method of TNA was adopted. SCMP was requested to identify any two SMCs of construction schools for conducting face to face interviews and data collection. Based on the TNA, the following areas have been identified for the training and capacity building;

 Training on using Smart phones/ Use of Technology  Roles and responsibilities of SMC  Monitoring and Evaluation steps for SMC

Based on TNA results, SCDP designed a detailed SMC training programme.

For TNA report, please refer to Annexure-5

4. TRAINING DESIGN SCDP conducted district level 3-day SMC Training in districts Karachi, Larkana, Dadu, Jacobabad, Kashmore, Qambar Shahdadkot, Khairpur and Sukkur. The overall aim of the SMC training was to strengthen the capacity of School Management Committees (SMCs), to take part in school level monitoring and reporting, to support SELD and to ensure improved quality education in SBEP target schools and beyond. The objectives of the training program were to:

 Increase the capacity of SMC members in performance of their roles and responsibilities  Introduce the concept of monitoring to SMC  Train School Management Committees to technology-based monitoring  Guide SMC members to report on designated indicators as part of the monitoring cycle  Pilot the community based e-monitoring approach in SBEP target school

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 Taking the result of TNA in account, SMC training agenda was designed as;

DAY-ONE:

TIME S# TOPIC DURATION

Session-1 Opening 60 minutes

1.1 Set trainings norms 10 min

1.2 Ice-breaker 20 min

1.3 Share objectives of the training program 10 min

1.4 Overview of Training 20 min

Tea break 15 minutes

Session-2 SMC Roles and Responsibilities 90 minutes

2.1 SMC Roles and responsibilities prescribed by the new 60 min rules under Right to Free and compulsory Act 2013

2.2 Role of SMCs in improved education delivery 30 min

Lunch break 60 minutes

Session-3 Overview of community based monitoring 120 minutes

3.1 Monitoring and reporting cycle 60 min

3.2 Community based monitoring approach 30 min

3.3 Wrap‐up Day 1, a look ahead to Day 2 with tea 30 minutes

DAY-TWO:

TIME S# TOPIC DURATION

Quick recap Day-1 15 minutes

Session-4 Introduction to monitoring tools 45 minutes

4.1 Orientation on SMC E-Monitoring Tool 45 minutes

Session-5 Hand over mobile phones 1 hour

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5.1 Orientation on Mobile Phone SOPs 1 hour

Tea Break 15 minutes

Session-6 Introduction to Mobile Application and its use 3 hours

6.1 Use of smartphones and android based mobile 1 hour application

Lunch Break 1 hour

6.2 Introduction to E-SMC Mobile Application 1 hour

6.3 E-SMC Live demo 30 minutes

Wrap‐up Day 1, a Look Ahead to Day 2 with tea 30 minutes

DAY-THREE:

TIME S# TOPIC DURATION

Quick recap Day-2 15 minutes

Session-7 Reporting protocols and generating live reports 4.5 hour

7.1 Reporting protocols and display of sample reports 1 hour

Tea Break 15 minutes

7.2 Mock Exercise 1 hour 30 minutes

7.3 Feedback, Solution to problems and queries 1 hour

Lunch Break 1 hour

Certificate Distribution 45 minutes

Closing words 15 minutes

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5. TRAINING MATERIAL DEVELOPMENT

SCDP developed a comprehensive 3-day SMC training manual to provide assistance to the trainers and facilitators to conduct the training according to the designed theme. Training manual was developed taking into account the results of training need assessment. Each set of trainings was composed of three components, 1) the roles and responsibilities of SMCs prescribed in the rules notified for implementation of the Right to Free & Compulsory Education Act 2013, 2) an overview of community-based monitoring approach and introduces Android-based mobile application developed for e-monitoring at school level 3) use of the mobile application and 4) trains on generation of monthly e-monitoring reports. In addition to taring manual, detailed 3-day training presentations were developed and translated into local languages. Handouts for group activities during SMC trainings were also prepared.

COMPONENTS TITLE DURATION

Component-1 SMC Roles & Responsibilities ½ day

Component-2 Overview of Community based ½ day monitoring approach

Component-3 Introduction: Monitoring tools and 1 day Mobile Application and its use

Component-4 Reporting protocols and generation of 1 day live reports

For SMC training manual, please refer to Annexure-6

6. RECONSTITUTION OF SMC BODIES SCDP had planned to conduct SMC E-Monitoring Trainings in December 2017. However, it was found that SELD was in the process of restructuring and reconstituting SMCs according to the newly notified SMC rules under Free & Compulsory Education Act 2013. Thus SCDP will have to wait untill the new SMC bodies are elected and onboard. Hence, the training process and identification of SMC Members was dependent on the reconstitution and election of the SMCs, so that the relevant members are trained. This would give SCDP an added opportunity to add more value to the SMC trainings by training newly elected SMC members.

SCDP conducted a meeting with both CMP and RSU to further discuss the situation and to try to expedite this process. RSU notified DEOs to conduct elections at school level and is expecting that the election process will be finished by the end of December 2017. SCDP requested RSU to priorities the process in SBEP construction schools so that the SMC E-Monitoring Trainings could take place as soon as possible. Following tasks were given to the relevant partner;

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 RSU works through Local Support Unit to ensure that elections take place.  CMP works through District Managers to reinforce that SMC elections in SBEP schools are expedited and ensure that gender equity is ensured in these bodies.  SCDP will consistently coordinate with District Officers and Headmasters to ascertain how many SMC bodies have been reconstituted in project districts to prepare for and initiate SMC E -Monitoring Training.

Another meeting was held between CMP and SCDP to further discuss how the SMC election process can be expedited and be more effective. It was mutually agreed in the meeting that both CMP and SCDP, will remain engaged in the election of SBEP schools together with RSU to ensure right people are elected to the SMCs to make this reform sustainable. SCDP has worked out the procedure and coordination mechanism in consultation with CMP and RSU to ensure transparent election process with equitable gender integration. SCDP also developed guidelines for SMC elections which were further shared with designated schools head teachers. . As a result of this collective effort, SMCs of all 106 SBEP construction schools elected and notified by the District Education Officers (DEOs) of the respective districts in February 2018.

For SMC reconstitution Concept Note, please refer to Annexure-7

7. SELECTION OF PARTICIPANTS The selection criteria of the trainees was devised in consultation with SCMP. It was decided that 240 SMC members will be selected on the following mentioned criteria;

 SMC members of SBEP Construction Schools only  Community member of SMC Executive Committee except the same school teacher and headmaster/mistress  Members between age of 18-55 years  Preferably equipped with basic literacy and numeracy skills  Preferably demonstrating comfort level with technology use  Equitable participation of women and youth as per new SMC rules

The literacy and age criteria had to be relaxed due to the unavailability of literate individuals. The trainers on ground had to decide if an illiterate person was eligible for inclusion, depending on their trainability. The nominations were received from SCMP according to the selection criteria devised. SCDP further assessed the skills of selected SMC members on;

 Level of Basic Literacy and numeracy skills (Adequate/Good/Excellent)  Level of Basic Literacy and numeracy skills (Adequate/Good/Excellent)a  Understanding of SMCs basic responsibility according to the new rules (Adequate/Good/Excellent))

Those participants who did not fall under the criteria were replaced, and new nominations were received from SCMP.

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8. SMC TRAININGS After finalization of training participants, SCDP chalked out a detailed training plan. Total 11 rounds of SMC trainings were conducted in district Karachi, Larkana, Jacobabad, Dadu, Kashmore, Qambar Shahdadkot, Khairpur, and Sukkur. During these trainings participants were engaged into many group activities. Basic monitoring concepts and jargons were explained through local examples. Daily revision and feedback was done by creating a feedback wall. Total 241 SMC members were successfully trained including 51 women that is 21% of the total trained participants.

TRAINED SMC MEMBERS

30 26 26 25 19 18 20 16 17 15 15 15 14 15 9 10 5 0

Trained Female Male

These trainings have enabled the SMC members to understand the roles and responsibilities of SMCs as prescribed in the rules notified for implementation of the Right to Free & Compulsory Education Act 2013, develop basic idea of monitoring, learn about community-based monitoring approach, operate Android-based mobile application developed for e-monitoring and generate monthly e- monitoring reports.

For detailed trainee list, please refer to Annexure-8

For summary of trained participants, please refer to Annexure-9

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KARACHI The first round of training was held in Karachi on March 20-22, 2018 at SCDP office where total 21 SMC members including 6 women were trained on e-monitoring. DG M&E was the chief guest at the award distribution ceremony. He appreciated USAID’s efforts to mobilize the community for the purpose of monitoring.