Camfed initiates plans for quality education
Planning is a key aspect of ensuring the success of any endeavour. Planning enables an individual or an organisation to look at the immediate, medium and long-term results of any action taken to achieve a particular goal or objective.
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It gives the individual or the organisation enough opportunity to have a comprehensive and in-depth knowledge of any decision taken on a programme or an activity.
One organisation that takes the issue of planning seriously and has involved it in all its activities is the Campaign for Female Education (Camfed), an organisation that seeks to multiply girls’ access to education and accelerate the benefits to individuals, their families and communities in Africa.
Camfed started operating in Ghana in 1998 and by 2012 was active in 721 schools in 677 communities, directly supporting over 98,000 girls to be in school. It operates in 30 districts across four regions of Ghana - Northern, Upper East, Upper West and the Central Region.
The organisation, which has, among other things, been involved in the sponsoring of girls to access education has gone beyond that initiative by ensuring that the girls do not only access education but get quality education from the schools they attend.
In pursuit of that, Camfed in 2012 introduced the Planning for School Excellence (PSE) programme. The PSE programme, funded by the UK Government through its Department for International Development (DFID), was inspired by Camfed's development approach of working in partnership with local stakeholders to improve performance of students and educational outcomes in their schools. The programme covers 260 partner schools at both basic and senior secondary level in 10 Camfed partner districts.
Objectives of PSE programme
The objectives of the PSE programme are to engage all stakeholders in education at school level planning and implementation; develop shared action goals and targets; and improve performance of students and their respective schools.
The PSE programme is designed to facilitate a set of school planning exercises at a meeting of school stakeholders which leads to an agreement on shared action goals that are documented in the form of a school annual plan, also known as the PSE Plan.
At each school’s PSE session, data on various issues such as absenteeism, truancy, dropout and academic performance are presented to invited participants by Camfed trained facilitators. Informed discussions then follow, after which the group agree on set actions that need to be undertaken over the course of the academic year to address the problems identified. Targets and monitoring plans are also put in place to monitor progress towards achieving the plan.
PSE sessions
The PSE sessions are underpinned by two key principles. Firstly, the process is participatory in nature, ensuring that attendants are made up of about 25 representatives of community and school stakeholders with a vested interest in the progress of the school.
Participants; include the headmaster, teachers, members of the School Management Committee and PTA, students, Cama (Camfed Association of young women) members, representatives of parent support groups and opinion leaders in the community.
Secondly, PSE planning sessions are informed by evidence based decision-making. School-related data on issues such as academic performance, dropout rate and attendance are gathered at school level by Camfed through mobile phone technology and then shared back to facilitate discussions. This sharing back process is an important aspect of strengthening community working relations and promoting ownership of decision making and implementation.
School performance
Considering the existence of the School Performance Improvement Programme (SPIP) and School Performance Appraisal Meetings (SPAM) in the educational set-up, the PSE programme is designed through consultation with key district stakeholders such as the District Directors of Education to ensure that both programmes are complementary to each other.
For instance, the action plan that emanates from the PSE programme has been streamlined to align with the structure of the School Performance Improvement Plan which is used by basic schools to access capitation grants.
The PSE programme was first piloted in five schools in the West Mamprusi district in May 2012. Based on the successful results of the pilot, a full phase one roll-out was undertaken, covering 100 schools over the 2012/13 academic year. The first 100 schools out of the target 260 schools were drawn from 10 Camfed programme districts in the Upper East, Upper West, Northern and Central regions of Ghana. The remaining 160 schools will be covered in the subsequent 2013/14 and 2014/15 academic years.
Progress reviews
Following the roll-out, mid-academic year reviews were conducted in participating schools. This was followed by four regional level review meetings in June 2013 with representatives of the 10 participating programme districts. The aim of the review meetings was to assess progress, address challenges, and build on achievements as well as strategies for roll-out in the 2013/14 academic year and beyond.
The review meetings also created the platform for representatives to contribute to thinking around the long-term sustainability of the PSE programme and how this could be embedded within the structure of the Ghana Education Service's (GES) existing school planning process.
Feedback received indicated that the initial strategic approach of engaging with key district level stakeholders, such as the district assemblies and the directorates of education ensured good cooperation, deepened communication and support from all stakeholders in the district.
Headmasters of schools involved demonstrated high levels of commitment and professionalism to ensure that the PSE planning sessions focused on finding solutions to various problems in their schools, such as students’ absenteeism, low enrolment levels and improving academic performance.
Success stories
The roll out of the PSE programme has been successful, with good levels of support and buy-in received from key players such as the district directors of Education in participating districts. Good progress has also been made by participating schools in carrying through planned activities in the course of the academic year.
Among various initiatives undertaken by schools is the purchase of furniture teaching and learning materials for students, as well as organising extra classes to enhance performance. Other schools have reported successes after embarking on community sensitisation and enrolment drives to rope in out-of-school children in their local communities.
According to the Executive Director of Camfed Ghana, Mrs Dolores Dickson, “the engagement of all stakeholders in the planning process is critical not only to help make informed choices but also to ensure sustainability. Communities want to see change and they are the only ones who can make this change happen, we catalyse this process.”
At school level, some challenges, particularly regarding managing high turn-out at school-planning meetings and keeping to allocated time slots were experienced in most cases. Though challenging, this is further indication of the interest levels generated within community stakeholders such as parents and opinion leaders who were enthused about being directly involved in planning for their schools.
To ensure sustainability and scale-up beyond Camfed partner schools, Camfed is committed to engaging with the GES to explore various ways of institutionalising the PSE or school planning processes into mainstream planning activities for schools.