Strategic Platform Meeting Sustainability and exit strategy of SfL

1. Strategic Platform MeetingSustainability and exit strategy of SfL Presented by: Hussein Abdulai Ziblim October 22, 2012

2. Introduction • SfL has exited from six districts since its inception under DANIDA support. • The Districts are Yendi, Gushegu, Karaga, Zabzugu/Tatale, Savelugu/Nanton and Tamale Rural. • West Mamprusi will be the next District from which SfL will exit.

3. Introduction cont. • Some lessons have been learnt from the exit activities that were carried out in the earlier exit districts to serve as a point of departure for putting in place sustainability and exit strategies. • Following this, an outline for sustainability and exit strategies has been prepared. • Such strategies are being applied in West Mamprusi district where the programme is just about exiting.

4. Outline of exit strategies • Sensitizing local committee members on their continuous role in providing quality education for their children. • Training and supply of literacy materials to more formal schools (P1-P3 teachers) • Strengthening local committee members to take active part in PTA /SMC activities.

5. Outline cont. • Advocating GES to engage some of the hard working facilitators as untrained teachers. • Advocating the DAs to sponsor hard working facilitators on UTDBE. • Organizing workshops for LCMs, PTAs, CSs and Head Teachers to brainstorm and strategize on how to sustain the gains of the programme .

6. Increased capacity building of local committee members • Local committees represent a very important structure that need to continue working for improved education in their communities. • Local committees at the point of the programme exiting from a District, have been strengthened and put in a better position to support formal school structures like PTAs and SMCs to enhance quality basic education.

7. Increased capacity building of local committee members cont. • In communities where there are no formal schools, the local committee members would be able to advocate the assembly for the establishment of wing schools.

8. Exit meeting with local committee members in West Mamprusi • SfL in March 2012 organized sensitization workshops for all local committee members in the West Mamprusi District on how to strategize to continue to support efforts to improve basic education in their communities. • In these workshops, most committee members pledged to commit themselves to improve education in their communities.

9. Exit meeting cont. • For example, the Chairman of the Tinguri Community said this: “Our community has benefited immensely from the SfL programme, our primary school has seen improvement both in enrolment and performance so we will not let the exiting of SfL retard the progress made. We will organize ourselves and contribute to support the volunteer teachers to teach in the school”

10. Exit meeting cont. • The Magazia of Janga also had this to say: “A lot of our children who pass through SfL are now in the Senior High Schools, so we will organize ourselves to come out with ways of supporting them to succeed if they achieve their aim they can also assist in teaching their younger siblings”.

11. Exit meeting cont. • Chairman of Kukua also said this: “Most of us are also Chairmen of our PTAs in the communities. We will use the experience we have gained from SfL to organize ourselves to take up educational issues. We expected that one day SfL will not be with us so we are not discouraged about the exiting”.

12. Mainstreaming • One other area that can ensure that the programme exits smoothly and has its gains sustained is through the formal system. • More formal school teachers in the West Mamprusi District have acquired mother tongue teaching and child friendly methodologies to enhance quality education delivery. • Furthermore, literacy materials in the mother tongue were supplied for use in the formal schools.

13. Mainstreaming cont. • The GES can support to sustain the gains of the SfL programme by engaging former SfL facilitators and the Community Support Teachers (CSTs) to the status of untrained teachers. This will help fill vacancies in many rural schools where teachers are not readily available. • This will also facilitate the mainstreaming of the best practices of SfL.

14. Mainstreaming cont. • The Director gave a strong commitment to SfL that because of the good work SfL has done in the district, consideration will be given to qualified facilitators who apply for appointment

15. Mainstreaming cont. • He told SfL staff at the district level to endorse such applications so that the office can easily identify them when they are conducting interviews for recruitment. • He however insisted that they must have the requirement of at least five passes including English and Mathematics in West African Senior Secondary School Certificate Examinations.

16. Mainstreaming cont. • The District Assemblies also have very important roles to play in helping to sustain the gains made by the programme. • This includes strengthening the sponsorship of qualified indigenes of the area including former facilitators and Community Support Teachers (CSTs) so that they will remain in the District to teach after training and also develop on the method they used as facilitators and CSTs. • They can also absorb the allowances of the CSTs so as to continue benefiting from their services.

17. Conclusion • All these have been experimented in West Mamprusi with a lot of commitment from the leadership of GES and the DA e.g. the Assembly has made a promise that in November 2012, the Assembly will be putting up an annual budget for 2013 and will absorb the allowances of the 12 CSTs who are working in the district. • The DA is also talking with GES to employ this group of teachers as untrained teachers.

18. End of presentation Thank you