Incentive Support for Girls in Secondary Education in Ghana Grant
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End-of-year Progress Report to DFID Ghana Accountable Grant: Incentive Support for Girls in Secondary Education in Ghana Grantee: Camfed Grant period: September 2012 – December 2016 Period covered by report: October 2015 – September 2016 Component code: 202493-101 Purchase order: 40061075 ____________________________________________________________________________ 1. Summary This is the fourth annual report to DFID Ghana on Camfed’s accountable grant ‘Incentive Support for Girls in Secondary Education in Ghana’. The report covers the period October 2015 to September 2016 and provides information on the project’s progress towards targets, objectives and milestones. The project aims to provide bursary support to 32,120 vulnerable girls in rural districts of Ghana. The secondary school bursary programme for girls is a core component of Camfed’s wider education programme, offering girls support to complete the full cycle of secondary education through a holistic, community-led approach that draws on existing infrastructure for delivery at scale. The total grant amount is £16,500,685 over four years. The project has three months remaining – covering the first term of the 2016/17 academic year – and is due to end in December 2016. Discussions for an additional six-months funding, to support a responsible exit from the DFID programme, are currently underway. 2. Expected Results The project’s expected results are as follows: 1 Impact: Ghana achieves gender parity in secondary education. Outcome: Disadvantaged girls supported in basic and secondary education through scholarship packages complete Junior High School and Senior High School. The impact indicators for this grant track enrolment rates in SHS and enrolment and completion rates1 in JHS for the regions covered (Northern, Upper West, Upper East and Central). School records for the academic year 2015/16 are provided by the national Education Management Information System (EMIS) and are expected to be available by January 2017 and updates on the impact indicators for enrolment and completion are therefore expected to be included in the next and final report. Outcome indicators tracking progress on the progression, attendance and completion rates of girls supported are in the process of being compiled and verified by Teacher Mentors, who send through relevant data using mobile monitoring technology. This data will therefore also be reported with the final report in January 2017. 3. Outputs and milestones The workplan detailing activities for Year 4 (October 2015 – September 2016) is attached at Annex A. Updated progress against activities in Year 4 Quarter 4 (July–September 2016) and planned activities for October–December 2016 is attached at Annexes D and E respectively. The section below describes in more detail the activities carried out over the past 12 months which have contributed to the project’s outputs. Output 1: Disadvantaged girls supported in basic and secondary education through scholarship packages Output 1 milestones to be achieved by October 2016: 16,000 girls supported in Junior High School (cumulative) 16,120 girls supported in Senior High School (cumulative) Output 1 score: A Progress against expected results: Camfed has met its targets for bursary provision at Junior High School (JHS) and Senior High School (SHS). To date, Camfed has supported 32,160 girls (16,000 in JHS and 16,120 in SHS). The final 1,120 SHS students were selected between November and December 2015 as a result of savings following approval of Camfed’s proposal for needs-based responsive 1 Completion rates are based on the number of girls who have not dropped out or repeated from their first year through to their final year of Junior High School (JHS) and Senior High School (SHS) respectively. 2 bursaries. Their selection has increased Camfed’s target and reach for this grant. Bursary expenditure to date is £14,130,555. Performance Description: Over the final full year of this grant, Camfed has so far enabled 20,970 girls to access education and remain in school through the provision of flexible bursary packages that cover school-going costs, such as uniforms, shoes, books and pens, sanitary protection, school fees, and exam fees. Key activities have included the selection of bursary students (including training of school selection panels), monitoring and verification of continuing students, payment of fees and distribution of bursary items, and training of Teacher Mentors to provide psychosocial support to girls in school. Selection of students The selection process for the new SHS1 students began in September–November 2015, with the training of School Selection Panels, groups of school and community stakeholders who are responsible for selecting girls for bursary support. Between the 29th September and the 1st October, 27 experienced stakeholders (14 women and 13 men) from across Camfed’s partner districts and Camfed staff participated in a three-day Training of Trainers Workshop. This workshop refreshed and deepened their expertise on the Camfed bursary model and prepared them to cascade this knowledge to Junior and Senior High School Selection Panels. The trainers subsequently trained 417 school stakeholders, 417 CAMA members, 341 District Education Committee (DEC) members, and 31 District Facilitators to participate in JHS and SHS Selection Panels at two-day trainings at district level across October and November.2 Using interactive methods including group assignments, demonstrations, and presentations, the Trainers worked with the stakeholders to create bursary action plans for the 2015/16 academic year and to integrate the new processes within them. They held sessions on every element of the bursary process: disseminating information and community sensitization about the Camfed bursary programme – with some stakeholders sharing the success of using radio announcements in schools to advertise the opportunity; using the application and assessment forms; clarifying and verifying information through home visits and interviews; ranking candidates and then reporting decisions to Camfed; informing applicants of positive and negative decisions; bursary entitlements and disbursements; and the role of Teacher Mentors in supporting bursary students. The stakeholders worked with the other members of the Selection Panels to rank selection criteria for their respective districts. The selection process itself was delayed due to a late allocation of SHS1 students to schools (see more under Challenges). Once SHS1 students began to register at schools in November, students started applying for support and the selection committees conducted interviews and meetings with parents, guardians, and students, to confirm that the girls meet the criteria for bursary support. The Camfed Ghana Education Programme team also 2 One school stakeholder from 331 JHSs and two school stakeholders from 43 SHSs. 3 supported the selection process through monitoring in all partner districts over the quarter, following up with the selection committees when they identified any queries. School-based monitoring At the start of each new academic year, Camfed’s Teacher Mentors confirm the status of continuing students via mobile monitoring in order to enable the release of Camfed funds for school fee payments and bursary entitlement procurements. In the previous and current academic years, the verification and fee payment processes have been supported by new data-collection and financial methods designed to improve Camfed’s efficiency, and based on past stakeholder and staff feedback. Procurement and distribution of bursary items and fees After successfully completing the selection of new SHS1 students by the end of December 2015, teams made up of stakeholders including CAMA members, DEC members, Teacher Mentors and District Facilitators led the distribution of bursary items for all students at community durbars in the first quarter of 2016. This began with soap and food distribution in February and was followed by the distribution of other bursary items including books, mathematical sets, sanitary wear, uniforms, and school bags in March. This quarter, Camfed made early preparations in June and July for the procurement of bursary items for SHS2 and SHS3 students entering the new academic year, while items for continuing JHS3 students were paid for at the end of September, along with school and examination fees for continuing students. As before, the school-going items will be distributed at community durbars in October and November when all students will have returned to school. Community durbars are held at district level and at Senior High Schools for SHS students. The involvement of parents is critical to these events. Both the supported student and her respective guardian or Teacher Mentor co-signed a document to confirm that the individual girl had received all the correct items. Camfed staff, Camfed monitoring teams, Teacher Mentors, and officials including Girl Child Officers addressed students and their parents and led discussions around the changes to Camfed’s bursaries, Camfed’s strategic plan and objectives, child protection, and the many challenges that girls face in completing their education. During the distribution durbars this year, Camfed followed up with parents and students on the revised package, and the overall feedback was that the changes were highly satisfactory. Bursary delivery throughout this period has reinforced the principles that Camfed’s model is stakeholder-led, responsive to feedback, and