The Power of Persistence: Education System ... - EQUIP123.net

More documents

Recommendations

Info

USAID support for hands-on assistance in implementing SIP/SSA in Namibian schools, financial support for creating the advisory teacher position, and intensive facilitation of professional reflection opportunities were an essential part of the success of the program. In Egypt, UNICEF support for Community Schools project, and USAID support for the New Schools was invested for years before conditions were conducive for policy engagement. Once conditions were favorable, the proven and documented success of these initiatives was an important factor in policy dialogue. Moreover, USAID’s support for the Alexandria Pilot Project and for the Education Reform Program built on these models and added a stronger focus on policy dialogue and system capacity building. Project governance structures and management procedures play a key role in developing country leadership and ownership, establishing trust, building capacity, and facilitating continuous improvement practices. Whether at the national planning level, such as a SWAp, or at project or local levels, participatory governance structures require a degree of flexibility in donor management that is sometimes antithetical to a strict focus on project performance and deliverables. The more effective projects in terms of promoting sustainable reform of the education system have been those that adapted to opportunities, and were responsive to government concerns within the context of dialogue and negotiations. The major accomplishments of Namibia’s program to integrate professional development in school improvement planning, self-assessment, circuit support, and on-site training were not part of the original design. With the arrival of a reform-minded Minister and development of a comprehensive plan, the Education Reform Program in Egypt was restructured to address new and unanticipated areas of support. In El Salvador, the opportunities created by the Presidential Commission greatly expanded a small project activity. The ability of USAID to maintain a primary focus on objectives, rather than initially defined activities and deliverables, was essential to successful implementation. Developing the trust needed for participatory governance requires that donor agencies and their agents recognize their lack of convening power, and acknowledge the recipients’ insight into the complexity of national political and institutional issues. The sine qua non of genuine country ownership requires donors to cede some authority and accept that the essential donor function is to enable countries to solve their own problems. SECTION 3: SUMMARY fINdINGS ANd CONClUSIONS 147
CONCLUSIONS This review of five countries’ experience in reforming education is a slice of a much more complex reality. In the countries studied, some programs were continued for a decade or more, while others were eliminated or modified substantially at the conclusion of the original program. It would be an error to label the reforms as a success or failure on the basis of a limited, project-based notion of sustainability. More important than continuing specific interventions is the existence of a continued system response to improve education. Positive system change and performance do not come about through efforts in any one dimension—political, institutional, or technical—but through the interactions between them. It is at the intersection of interests within these dimensions that facilitative activities such as information use, evaluation, and communication of results can have considerable leverage. Though the countries represent a range of cultures, regions, and conditions, this review cannot provide a comprehensive and exhaustive analysis of the universe of developing countries. Nonetheless, the experiences of these countries are consistent with the broader literature on reform and offer insights that may be instructive in developing realistic expectations and identifying what is important in development. The fact that reforms play out over a considerable period of time during which the players and circumstances change has profound implications. Rather than thinking of education reform as a formula, or as a technical or engineering problem to be solved, it may be more useful to think of reform as a movie, full of plot twists and character flaws and periodic events; and managing this narrative are contending interests of producers, directors, investors. Critiques and evaluations of education assistance showing lack of impact or questioning sustainability can be put in perspective once we understand reform as a long-term narrative. Evaluation is inevitably a snapshot—a static glimpse of a dynamic process stopped at a particular point in time. A snapshot of the reforms in these five countries at any given point in time could show misleading views: unvarnished success in one frame, dismal failure in another. Most of the reforms and events in these five countries could be judged (and have been) as grand success or dismal failure based on a snapshot taken without the benefit of context or plot—or without carefully reviewing and analyzing earlier actions and conflict. A limited frame focus on individual elements such as teacher training or pilot programs in isolation shows something quite different from the view from the long-term perspective. 148 SECTION 3: SUMMARY fINdINGS ANd CONClUSIONS
Page 1 and 2:
The Power of Persistence Education
Page 4 and 5:
table of Contents Acknowledgments F
Page 6 and 7:
generously granted us their time an
Page 8 and 9:
Foreword The United States Agency f
Page 11 and 12:
Executive Summary EQUIP2 Education
Page 13 and 14:
local points of contact. In fact, b
Page 15 and 16:
Namibia has successfully developed
Page 17 and 18:
Sustainability in the context of sy
Page 19:
• Manage policy engagement and re
Page 23 and 24:
After more than 50 years of develop
Page 25 and 26:
to the point of functional literacy
Page 27 and 28:
An obvious question for donors is
Page 29 and 30:
• Was the investment in education
Page 31 and 32:
A final perspective on ownership, a
Page 33 and 34:
and recipients. The World Bank has
Page 35 and 36:
the term differently. Donors someti
Page 37 and 38:
Country commitment to improving pol
Page 39 and 40:
The importance of these insights, b
Page 41 and 42:
Table: Simple, Complicated, and Com
Page 43 and 44:
Basic principles of systems thinkin
Page 45 and 46:
Among the many aspects of systems t
Page 47 and 48:
EQUIP2 Education Systems Reform Fra
Page 49 and 50:
may or may not be influenced by the
Page 51:
• There are no magic bullets. Par
Page 55 and 56:
These case studies look at educatio
Page 57:
El Salvador Egypt Namibia Nicaragua
Page 60 and 61:
eform support during the 1980s and
Page 62 and 63:
system. In the same year, the USAID
Page 64 and 65:
CASE ANALySIS: DIMENSIONS OF REFORM
Page 66 and 67:
increased during this period, parti
Page 68 and 69:
militant groups (at least until 199
Page 70 and 71:
the growing political will and capa
Page 72 and 73:
political will and experience in bo
Page 75 and 76:
EgyPT TIMELINE
Page 78 and 79:
El Salvador: Summary COUNTRy CONTEx
Page 80 and 81:
financing, and ensuring adequate le
Page 82 and 83:
Impact Structurally, the education
Page 84 and 85:
CASE ANALySIS: DIMENSIONS OF REFORM
Page 86 and 87:
2005, USAID assistance further stre
Page 88 and 89:
EDUCO’s success exemplifies a tec
Page 90 and 91:
workshop with representatives of bo
Page 92:
• The continuing commitment to th
Page 95:
El Salvador Time Line Before 1988 1
Page 98 and 99:
Strategies Especially in the early
Page 100 and 101:
In terms of quality, the impact on
Page 102 and 103:
The second aspect is that the profe
Page 104 and 105:
• The complex and holistic nature
Page 106 and 107:
efforts have been studied closely,
Page 109 and 110:
NAMIBIA TIMELINE
Page 112 and 113: Nicaragua: Summary COUNTRy CONTExT
Page 114 and 115: ASP won the support of donor agenci
Page 116 and 117: Nicaragua Education Indicators Indi
Page 118 and 119: Though the strong leadership of Min
Page 120: eform. Starting from the early 1990
Page 123: Nicaragua Time Line Before 1986 198
Page 126 and 127: growth; primary enrollment expanded
Page 128 and 129: accountability and corruption led d
Page 130 and 131: Selected Reform goals, Policy Chang
Page 132 and 133: Increased sector leadership from MO
Page 134 and 135: it have to cope with major governme
Page 136 and 137: management and administration that
Page 138 and 139: the education system and have limit
Page 140 and 141: help an overextended MOE to meet se
Page 143 and 144: ZAMBIA TIMELINE
Page 146: 3 summary Findings and Conclusions
Page 149 and 150: In addition to an EFA-inspired emph
Page 151 and 152: from political changes. After 15 ye
Page 153 and 154: ased management, but were limited t
Page 155 and 156: is not necessarily limited to indiv
Page 157 and 158: sector limited the agenda-setting m
Page 159 and 160: and every new government seeks its
Page 161: 8. USAID and other donors have been
Page 165 and 166: Ownership It is a central tenet of
Page 167 and 168: actors is a never-ending process. T
Page 169 and 170: was beyond the mandate of the Minis
Page 171 and 172: IMPLICATIONS FOR USAID POLICy AND P
Page 173 and 174: Bibliography general References Alv
Page 175 and 176: UNESCO. 2007. EFA Global Monitoring
Page 177 and 178: Healy, F. & Crouch, L. (2007, Novem
Page 179 and 180: Sidhom, S. & Al-Fustat, A. (2004, J
Page 181 and 182: Crouch, L., J. Gillies, A. Florez.
Page 183 and 184: LLECE, “Conclusiones del estudio
Page 185 and 186: Miller-Grandvaux, Yolande and Karla
Page 188: 1875 Connecticut Ave., NW Washingto
show all

The Power of Persistence: Education System ... - EQUIP123.net

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?