BESST

After the success of the “Back to School” campaign with enrollment increased to over 6 million children, the efforts to build new schools and to repair those in bad shape, and the efforts to provide textbooks to all children in school, there was still a critical need for better qualified teachers to provide quality education to that immensely increased number of students. Most teachers still had very low educational background, with limited knowledge and skills in how to teach (pedagogy) and what to teach (content).

Responding to these needs, at the beginning of 2006, USAID funded the project Building Education Support Systems for Teachers, a five years, 100 million dollar project, with the purpose of improving the quality of education in Afghanistan through in-service teacher training for all teachers in eleven provinces of the country and to support the Ministry of Education in its efforts to improve work conditions for teachers.

Actually, the teacher and school managers’ in-service training component was part of the Ministry of Education National Program for In-Service Teacher Training (NPITT) managed by the Teacher Education Directorate and funded by World Bank for the rest of the country’s provinces.

BESST had two main components: one focused on in-service training for teachers and school managers, and the other on assisting the MoE to strengthen systems that support teachers, the quality of instruction, and their work conditions.

The first component offered face-to-face in-service training for teachers and school managers, an Accelerated Learning Program for Teachers who had not completed 12 years of education to enable them to have access to Teacher Training Colleges, a supplementary radio teacher training program, an in-school support system for teachers and school managers to follow up and reinforce face-to-face training, and a grant program to provide schools with infrastructure and equipment needed to improve their learning environment.

Under the second component BESST provided technical assistance to the MoE to develop policies and plans to improve teacher work conditions, to assist with education reform, to build capacity of MoE’s Human Resources staff and to improve teacher training and standardization of credentials. Also BESST facilitated coordination and cooperation with and among teacher training providers and other education stakeholders.

During the implementation of the project over 80,000 teachers and school managers participated in one or more training activities offered by BESST. An Accelerated Learning Program for Teachers was designed and implemented including the production of five teacher guides with 56,500 copies distributed, the establishment of a computerized testing center, and an initial group of teachers already participating in tutoring classes to prepare for the accreditation tests. Also, during the life of the project a Supplementary Radio Teacher Training Program broadcast 43,254 lessons in 11 provinces where BESST worked and in 14 additional provinces outside areas covered by BESST.

In order to train such a large number of teachers and school administrators, BESST used a cascade system. All the training was done by implementing partners. Creative worked with the same five national NGOs as it did with APEP, plus two international organizations: Save the Children and MSS for the distance education component. To reduce the risk of losing quality going down the cascade, the project developed very prescriptive training sessions to be replicated exactly in every step of the cascade. BESST also appointed monitors in every province to visit the training sites to support trainers and make sure that training was being done according to the design and training they had received.

According to the Impact Assessments carried out by BESST there was 35% increase in teachers surpassing minimal performance levels among those who completed INSET training. Among the teachers who did listen regularly to the RTT broadcasts, there was a steady increase in the percentage of teachers who met or exceeded minimum performance levels, rising from 63 percent in 2008 to 70 percent in 2009 to 77 percent in 2010. Among school principals who successfully completed the 2008 SMT training, there was an overall 31% increase—from 58 percent to 76 percent—in the percentage of school managers meeting or surpassing minimum performance levels since the baseline was established. It is estimated that more than 2.7 million children benefitted from BESST supported in-service training programs.

Education a way to the future.

What we Have Learned

Through supporting education in Afghanistan, Creative Associates confirmed what it knew from the beginning of its work in development: development work is a two way street, it is a process of giving and receiving, of teaching and learning that is obtained by working in partnership with local public and private organizations that have similar visions and pursue similar goals.

Working together is the basis for the “two way street” to happen and in working together a lot of learning takes place. Creative learned about Afghanistan, its people, culture, traditions, religion, and the particular ways to work in that country; local partners learned how to work with international organizations and funders, rules and regulations, reporting, planning, minimal standards, and assessment systems. This interaction resulted in improved capacity both for Creative Associates and for the local organizations Creative was working with. Improved capacity is the basis for these organizations to continue working in development projects on their own. It is the basis for sustainability.

Working in partnership with local organizations made it possible for Creative Associates to implement activities in support to education in a state of conflict and insecurity. This requires flexibility, adaptation, and investing time and efforts to develop capacity, but in the end, the capacity remains and allows local organizations to continue doing the work themselves, work that is an important contributing factor for stabilization and peace building.

1. See Moulton, Jeanne; Dall, Frank Delivering Education Services in Fragile States: Lessons from Four Case Studies Creative Associates International, Inc., 2006.

2. Idem, page 7

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