Endline Situation Survey of CASP ASP in Dhading and Siraha Districts FINAL REPORT Submitted to JICA/CASP Office Sanothimi, Bhaktapur Submitted by Teacher Educators’ Society – Nepal (TESON) Kathmandu, Nepal February 2009 Study Team Members Prof. Dr. Basu Dev Kafle, Team Leader Dr. Prem Narayan Aryal, Social Survey Expert Dr. Tika Ram Aryal, Data Analyst Mr. Ganga Ram Gautam, Researcher/Project Coordinator Resource Persons Prof. Dr. Tirtha Raj Parajuli Prof. Dr. Ram Krishna Maharjan Field Researchers Dr. Bal Mukunda Bhandari Dr. Chida Nanda Pandit Mr. Prem Raj Khaniya Mr. Hem Raj Dhakal Mr. Shanta Bahadur Shrestha Mr. Ram Kumar Ghimire Mr. Bisnu Bahadur Luitel i Acknowledgements Education for All is the commitment of Nepal government and various educational programs have been launched both at the government and non-government level in order to meet this commitment. Community-based Alternative Schooling Project (CASP) is one of such initiatives technically assisted by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and implemented by Non-formal Education Center (NFEC) of Ministry of Education. The project began in 2004 as a pilot program from Dhading and Siraha districts and later it was expanded to Kathmandu. This study is an attempt to analyze the implementation of CASP in Dhading and Siraha with an assessment of its outcomes for implicative reference to the government in order to judge its replication in the remaining parts of the country. Teacher Educators' Society Nepal (TESON) would like to extend its sincere thanks to IC Net Limited, Japan for entrusting us to undertake this study. We would like to express our gratitude to Mr. Shigenobu Handa, Social Survey Expert of JICA CASP for his invaluable inputs and suggestions right from the very beginning of the study. We are also grateful to Ms. Mutsumi Tsubochi, Chief Advisor of JICA CASP, Ms. Yasuko Oda, Information, Education & Communication Expert of JICA CASP, Mr. Madhav Dahal and Mr. Rajeswor Acharya from CASP/JICA for their continuous support during the study. The Director of NFEC and the Chair of the Study Steering Committee, Mr. Sushil Pandey and the members of the Committee, Mr. Laxman Khanal, Deputy Director of NFEC and Mr. Pramod Sharma deserve special mention for their warm support and guidance to the study team. Similarly, the study team also appreciates the cooperation extended by the enumerators, District Education Officers, School Supervisors, Resource Persons, SMC members, CMC members, parents and children during the study. We hope that this study will provide valuable insights into the CASP's outcomes from the pilot phase in Dhading and Siraha with implicative input for its replication in other districts of the country. The Study Team TESON ii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The government of Nepal (GON), as a signatory of the commitment of the universal primary education, has initiated the implementation of the community based alternative schooling program (CASP ASP) in collaboration with JICA as a pilot activity in two districts of Nepal i.e. Dhading and Siraha. After the baseline study (2005), CASP/JICA launched the CASP ASP with the aims of developing an operational model of the community-based Alternative Schooling Program (ASP) under which various activities were launched in collaboration with its various stakeholders in the community through 17 SOP and FSP centers for three years. In Dhading the program was implemented for three years and phased out in March 2008 but in Siraha the CASP's intensive support could not continue after May 2005 due to the deteriorating security situation. The main purpose of this project was to create a community-based successful model by developing ownership and partnership among the stakeholders, strengthening linkage between non-formal and formal education and networking among the stakeholders replicating the model to the other districts of Nepal. The pilot activities were completed in Dhading and the cycle envisaged in the beginning of the project has also been completed. JICA commissioned this study in order to assess the outcomes and impacts of CASP activities for ASP and this study is an attempt in this direction with the following objectives: 1. To review the implementation of CASP ASP and analyze the current situation of the graduates of CASP ASP. 2. To assess the outcome of CASP ASP comparing ordinal ASP, and identify the influential factors of its outcomes. In order to accomplish the goals mentioned above, the study team contacted the key stakeholders of the CASP ASP program and collected the required information. Altogether fourteen different research instruments were used in the study that included SOP/FSP center survey from, mother school survey form, interview questionnaire for children, facilitators, ASP monitors, Education Volunteers, RPs, DEOs, NFEC officials, CMC members and NGO representatives. Also, focus group discussion guidelines were prepared in order to record the observations of the parents. Collected data from the field were studied in detail and they were analyzed individually first and then combined according to certain themes. The themes chosen for the analysis of the data to address the research questions were; implementations of CASP ASP, situation after implementation of CASP ASP, assessment of the CASP ASP, recommendations and implications. Major findings of the study and their implications are as follows: 1. Implementation of CASP ASP • The CASP ASP brought the educational facilities to the reach of the children by shortening the distance to school. • All the centers completed the three year cycle in Dhading but in Siraha, the CASP support had to be withdrawn after one year of implementation. After this, two centers in Siraha continued their operation with the community support whereas the remaining six ran the classes in different forms such as tuition/coaching center and private study centers. • Some centers conducted their classes in the school-like buildings whereas some of them were run in private houses, huts, club house etc. • The average duration of class was four hours and the respondents indicated that this was not enough to complete the course for FSP classes. • The age at enrolment in the SOP/FSP has been observed under the age bracket of 3 to 15 which shows that children did not have opportunity to attend educational facilities due to the lack of schools in their community. • In the CASP ASP, the dropout rate is about 30 percent. iii • The curriculum for the CASP ASP and ordinary ASP is the same but the respondents said that the implementation is more effective in the CASP ASP program but the completion of course contents in the FSP has been a problem perhaps due to the lack of enough time allocated for the classes. • Quality of the textbooks and stationery materials were found good in both the districts. However, the physical facilities of the centers were a little shabby and informal. • Extracurricular activities in the CASP ASP program were also found good but the respondents were of the view that such activities were mostly limited to singing and dancing. • In comparison of the CASP ASP with that of ordinary ASP, respondents said that selection and training of facilitators, provision of materials and incentive packages were better in the CASP ASP. Similarly, academic performances of children in reading, writing and computation skills are also better among the CASP ASP students. • The children of CASP ASP were also found better in domestic help and behavioral skills. • Some of the SOP centers have been converted into primary schools and almost all children of that area were found to have attended that school. Thus, the CASP ASP gave birth to the primary schools in areas where there were no schools. • The cost of establishment of the center ranges from Rs. 30,000/- to 400,000/- and there was a big community contribution in their establishment both in kind and cash. • Regarding the teaching aspect of the centers the respondents have rated it very highly and the facilitators were found nice with warm behavior, friendly with caring nature, competent and loving. • The facilitators were trained and retrained at different phases of the program. • The provision of EVs was a very good aspect of this program and the EVs were trained and they contributed enthusiastically into this program in Dhading where they taught children while the facilitators were absent and also convinced the parents to send their children to the center. However, EVs in Siraha could not contribute as the CASP support had to be stopped before the completion of the program. • The CMCs and ASPMs were found very effective in both the districts and their roles were mainly to facilitate the center for the smooth implementation of the program. Also, the CMCs were found involved in monitoring and supervision of the classes. The CMCs and ASPMs met almost every month and major activities they carried out include: o Visit the centers in order to monitor the regularity of the class, monitor the regularity of all children in the class, observe classes run by the facilitator, learn about the problems of the center and solve them, maintain quality o Construction of cottage/building, office room for the center o Door to door visit for awareness campaign to convince parents to send their children to the center o Solving problems of the center and looking after the center o Collection of wood/timber and managing furniture, benches etc from the village o Voluntary labor contribution/ free labor and repairing work such as door, furniture etc o Managing qualified facilitator/teacher and monitoring their activities o Playing Deausi Bhailo to collect resources for making building or hut o Visiting and contacting DEO/RP for physical facility of the center and Chepang education problems • Some of the challenges faced during the implementation of CASP ASP as reported by the respondents were collecting monetary and physical resources for the center from the local people in some places due to the poor socio-economic condition of the parents, construction of the centers, convincing parents to send their children and maintenance of building when they were damaged by the wind etc.