Education and Training in Ethiopia An Evaluation of Approaching EFA Goals

• enhanced capacity of the REBs to generate and compile analyses and exploitinformation for the purposes of effective decision-making;• improved capacity of two REBs to provide services to zones, woredas and schoolswith the support of the project; and• supplied REBs, the Ministry of Finance (MoF) and educational institutions inAmhara and Benishangul Regions with books and teaching materials and vehicles,computers, typewriters and other vital materials and facilities.As a result of the project a study 5that surveyed the effectiveness of teacher trainingprogrammes in Amhara Region was prepared, and it is still providing the guidelines andobjectives for further quality development by the other donors (see Avenstrup et al.,2001).More particularly, carrying the ESDP project through had taught the participants thefollowing methods and approaches, as the coordinator evaluated his performance based onbeneficiaries’ feedback and self-assessment:• a participatory project design made stakeholders actively involved;• the planning seminars helped the stakeholders to acquire new skills and learn tomake participatory decisions;• the flexible methods used in implementing the ESDP responded to existing needsand changing circumstances;• the efficient project management methods demonstrated to the stakeholders thatgood results can be attained through limited inputs;• the integration of the objectives of the ESDP project with the Education andTraining Policy (ETP) and its compatibility with central and regional sectordevelopment plans enhanced its acceptability and implementability at local level;• sticking to agreements, plans and deadlines while still being responsive toemerging needs and new situations brought good results; and• the training and instruction manuals, research and assessment outputs andcurriculum materials produced during the project contributed in important ways tothe sustainability of the project and sources of learning and generators of practicalactivity.Many of the materials created within the ESDP project, particularly its educationalmanagement modules, were disseminated and used nationally. A few representatives wereinvited from all the other regions to take part in the training events and given the materials(training modules, handbooks and other materials). Project design was another area ofstrength, with the result that the relevant training events were attended also by other MoEpeople than those who usually collaborated with the projects, as well as by NGO people.This increase in the number of trainees, however desirable it has been, has brought alsoproblems. Among the most difficult of them seem to be a lack of teachers, the unevenquality of their basic and further training, the teachers’ poor working conditions, thedeficient quality of the curricula, and youth unemployment. The ESDP project wasobliged to give up attempts to develop non-formal education and vocational education andtraining, from today’s perspective potentially a partial solution to the problems ofunemployment and out-of-school children and youth. A promising but short-livedexperiment carried out during the ESDP project to provide girls from the outlying areas of5 Review of First Cycle Primary School Teacher Education and Training in Amhara Region. May 1999.ESDP and Amhara REB.81