Education > Programs

CREATING AN ENABLING ENVIRONMENT FOR A SUCCESSFUL BASIC EDUCATION REFORM PROGRAM

STRENGTHENING INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY

The education system was characterized by poor financial management and planning. Decentralization of the administrative, management functions, and the devolution of decision-making authority to regional levels were major issues. USAID's program primarily focused on these aspects.

• Revision of Fundamental Quality Level (FQL) norms

During the experimentation phase of the new curriculum, 50 norms were established as Fundamental Quality norms. These first norms have been evaluated and revised. A second definition has been developed and adopted. This second definition includes essentially ten norms under which there is a set of indicators.

• Decentralization of the education system

A study was carried out on the impact of the decentralization of Benin's educational system on human and financial management resources. Local elected officials were trained to address education issues in the design and implementation of their development plans.

• Development of a national textbook policy
• Development of a strategy for better school management

• Improving the budget control system

Computer applications for budget control at the central and decentralized levels of the Ministry of Education were set up and put into use. Also, an Education Account Statement was developed and put in place at the Ministry. Such a tool shows the average spending on students, source of funds, the disparities by region, and the evolution of spending since 1993.

• Financial planning tools designed 

• Financial management plan developed

• Staff trained 
• Financial management and the West African Accounting System (for Ministry of Education financial managers); 
• Usage of the Financial and Human Resources manuals (for 382 Ministry of Education employees); 
• Usage of computer software (for 185 Ministry of Education employees); 
• Introduction to database software ACCESS (for 12 Ministry of Education regional employees).

EMPOWERING COMMUNITIES

The sustainability of the primary education reform program and the sustainability of democracy in Benin are dependent on an informed and active civil society within an environment where education resources reach the intended recipients and schools are well managed. We seek to strengthen the role of local communities and civil society in the management and financing of schools and assist the government to devolve effective power to the local level to enhance the advocacy, management, and decision-making skills of local public and private entities.

The Empowering Communities program aims to increase the involvement and the role of civil society (the adult population, i.e. parents of children attending school) in the management and the development of the primary school system.

World Education World Education implements this activity through the "Primary Education NGO" (PENGOP) and the "Civic Action in School Environment" (CASE) projects.

PENGOP is a comprehensive country-wide program of strengthening school parents associations that ended in September 2003. It strengthened 1,200 parents associations, representing approximately 25% of primary school parents associations in the country, to make them effective partners of the administration in the democratic governance of the primary school system.

The project impact, though, stretched beyond the education sector, since it encouraged the organization of the population into non-governmental associations in order to create "social capital."

Voluntary associations are places where social and civic skills are learned and applied. Members learned how to run meetings, speak in public, write letters, design projects, and discuss public issues.

The project's objective of increasing the involvement of civil society in the education sector was achieved. World Education's strategy of operating through partnerships with about 20 local non-governmental organizations and other programs working in the primary education sector to reach parents in project areas in every region of Benin and provide them with training in organizational management and development has paid off.

A parents association with a "Good Governance" index (> 0.7) has a clear mission statement and a good understanding of that mission, has written bylaws that are understood by the association members, carries out regular and transparent elections for officers, and has officers who understand and correctly carry out their functions.

A parents association with a "Sound and Transparent Financial Management" index (> 0.7) is an association that keeps its cash in a bank or credit union and has proper financial management controls in place and functioning.

World Education and its partner non-governmental organizations carry out two-year cycles of practical training with participating parents associations. A significant part of the training involves hands-on projects identified and managed by the associations themselves. Parents have greatly improved the school environment through these projects. For example, by the end of the 2000/2001 academic year, construction of more than 1,000 classrooms has resulted.

Selected impacts are shown in the table.
 

Selected impacts of parents association projects (Oct. 2001)
No.	Impact category	Number	Students Impacted	Teachers Impacted	Comments
1	Construction / Rehabilitation of Classrooms	1143	68,580	1143	68,580 students and 1143 teachers work in good learning environment.
2	Construction / Rehabilitation of school offices & storerooms	262		262	School books and supplies stored in safe, clean place.
3	Blackboards and murals	2397	64,719	1200	64,719 children and 1,200 teachers easily use blackboard and murals for learning purposes
4	Construction of housing for teachers	52		52	52 teachers well-housed, more likely to remain at post
5	School yards fenced (meters)	8,643	11,500	227	11,500 children and 227 teachers learn in safe and quiet environment.
6	Desks and chairs	4,286	8,572		8,572 children seated comfortably.
7	Kindergartens equipped	1	50	2	50 young children and 2 teachers enjoy appropriately equipped school.
8	Teachers tables	48		48	48 school principals and teachers have proper working environment.
9	Teachers chairs	71		71	71 principals and teachers are comfortably seated.
10	Filing cabinets	26		26	26 schools better equipped; teaching materials protected against elements.
11	Construction of school canteen kitchen	2	1200		1200 students enjoy food prepared in safe, clean environment.
12	Construction of water supply (well)	1	300	6	300 students and 6 teachers have on-site water; school hygiene improves.
13	Construction of water supply (running water)	13	3,900	78	3,900 students and 78 teachers enjoy potable water; health conditions improve.
14	Construction of water storage cistern	15	4500	90	4,500 students and 90 teachers have access to water at school site.
15	Construction of toilets	30	1,200	36	1,440 children and 40 teachers hygiene improved.
16	Teaching materials	6	1200	36	1200 children have access to school books and other supplies
17	Electrification	3	450		450 students able to participate in after-hours school activities in evening hours.
18	Construction of emergency classrooms	17	1020		1020 children able to continue their education after floods destroyed their schools in Zou region.

 

Despite the achievements of the project, women's involvement in the school management remained a serious challenge. To address this aspect, USAID awarded World Education a new grant, the "Civic Action in School Environment" project.

The objective of the "Civic Action in School Environment" project is to improve community participation, mostly of women, in school management by strengthening the legal environment, and promoting girls' education and gender equity.

Successful experiences of CASE:

A total of 36 school mothers' associations have been created and are operating well above expectations The associations have identified priorities that they have submitted to the school parents associations for review and consideration as part of the schools' annual work plans. The enthusiasm of mothers to have an organization within which they express and discuss their own ideas has been very high. Aspects that support their enthusiasm include the high attendance rates at meetings and the interest in following up and supporting the academic performance of their children. There have been many instances where associations intervene to recuperate and return to school, children, in particular girls, who have been subject to domestic forced labor systems or placed in local religious convents.

The school mothers are in the process of developing small micro-projects for co-funding with World Education. Projects include the construction of classrooms, the purchase of cereals, and the purchase in bulk of school supplies.

The project is in the process of developing a directory of all existing laws and regulations that affect the primary school system. When completed in December 2005, the directory will be made available to parents asociations, commune elected officials, teachers, and local and national authorities. This will be the first time that parents will have direct access to the regulations and laws that pertain to their role as participants in the school system. It will also provide commune leaders with a valuable tool to use in the education sector as the decentralization of governance in Benin moves forward.

SCHOOL CANTEENS TO ENCOURAGE PARENTS’ INVOLVEMENT  
IN SCHOOL MANAGEMENT

Enrollment and attendance rates in Benin are particularly low in rural areas due to several factors:

Poverty:

Poor families are often unable to afford sending their children to school. Even when parents have made the decision to send their children to school, they may not be able to provide these children with pocket money on a daily basis to buy lunch at school.

Cultural factors:

In most areas of Benin, children provide essential household and farm labor. Girls are expected to take care of younger siblings and to complete many of the household chores. Early forced marriage is also predominant in many areas, and represents a major obstacle in girls' education.

Long distances:

Particularly in the northern areas of Benin, villages are often located far from the schools, in some cases up to 8 kilometers away, preventing children from returning home for lunch. This has a negative impact on attendance, encouraging students to leave school early and not return, as well as on attentiveness, as hungry children cannot concentrate on their lessons.

To address these constraints to attending school, Catholic Relief Services (CRS) developed a community-run school canteen program that began in May 2000 with funding from FFP/USAID.

Currently this program reaches 7,918 primary school students (4,7815 boys and 3,103 girls) in 40 schools in the northern regions of Benin. The purpose of this program is to increase access to education by rural students. 

To accomplish this objective, the community-run school canteen program employs three main strategies:

1. The program uses an approach based on self-management and full involvement of the Parents Associations in all canteen operations to encourage greater community involvement in education. To accomplish this, each school community is responsible for forming a canteen management committee. CRS staff organizes intensive training of these committees in canteen management prior to the opening of the canteens, as well as refresher training throughout the school year. 
2. From the beginning, parents contribute substantially to the canteen, both in cash and in kind (local produce such as corn, millet, yams, cassava). This cost-recovery approach ensures that parents are involved and contributes to the sustainability of the school canteen over the long-term. 
3. CRS/Benin works in close collaboration with other organizations in the education sector and assists in schools where these organizations are already working, thereby increasing the impact of all of the projects involved. 

Increase primary school children's knowledge on hygiene and sanitation, nutrition, and the prevention of some prevalent diseases.  Improve the primary school sanitary environment by providing an adequate number of latrines, urinals, water points, and hand washing facilities to meet the Ministry of Education’s Fundamental Quality Level (FQL) requirements to be put into effect by 2003.  Improve primary school children's sanitary and hygiene practices  Strengthen the participation of parents associations and school health committees in improving primary school children's sanitary and hygiene practices.

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