Welcome to Vincent Kizza's Course on Monitoring and evaluation of environmental programs in the Uganda secondary school sector
Course Rationale
It is increasingly being recognised that a shift in practice within the school educational sector requires the adoption of whole-school approaches to sustainability.This shift moves beyond the dissemination of knowledge and understanding about the environment,to equipping individuals with the skills and motivation needed to work toward a more sustainable world.Recognising that a school is a “learning community”, this implementation of education for sustainability incorporates all elements of school,life: school governance; resource management; school grounds and physical surrounds; networks and partnerships; curriculum; and teaching and learning practices.Past emphasis has been upon developing environmental education-based learning experiences that can be ‘tacked on’ to existing curriculum in order to provide a ‘green’ glow to the program. Similarly, sustainability was first introduced and taught as a sub-section of environmental education. Environmental educators often maintain that school education should endeavor to improve and protect the environment through producing an environmentally informed, committed and active citizenry, yet existing research shows that the implementation of environmental education in schools is problematic and has had limited success’. Consequently, there has been a recent shift towards a more holistic view of sustainability education such that students can be significant drivers of future systems of change. However, the more holistic approach encompassed by education for sustainability (EfS) is yet to have the significant impact upon school governance that environmental education has enjoyed. Research indicates that this may be because the current implementation of EfS does not differ significantly from environmental education with little attention paid to the cultural, political, social and economic aspects of sustainability and how these are interconnected. Hence an appropriate goal for EfS is to develop more holistic and systemic education models that extend the scope of EfS and improve the quality and frequency of sustainability outcomes resulting from such education. This Monitoring and Evaluation course has been developed for transformative change towards sustainability and is grounded in current and emerging national and international sustainability drivers.
Course overview
Monitoring and evaluation provide answers to questions regarding the output, effects and impact of the project or program in the life of the target population. It establishes the necessary linkage among a set of activities undertaken in project planning and management: identification of problems, feasibility study, design of the project/program, approval process, organization, implementation and supervision processes, completion, evaluation and follow-ups.
Information secured through monitoring and evaluation must be relevant, i.e. geared to specific needs of program and project administrators; timely, i.e. available and accessible at the time decisions are taken; and accurate, i.e. reliable and empirically verifiable.
The course helps the participants to determine the relationship between program inputs, activities and outputs as well as the influence of external factors on program performance. It provides tools for improving project and program management. This course aids the participants in determining the results attained by the project activities designed to accomplish goals and objectives.
During the course, the participants will develop monitoring and evaluation plans in work groups or individually. The results will be presented by the participants and debated.
The course is highly interactive and will enable the participants to develop tools that will help them to monitor, assess and evaluate their projects on a periodic basis.
Who should attend
The course will benefit all persons who participate in the implementation of projects and programs, including:
- Project managers of environment programs in the school sector.
- Supervisors and department heads who lead the project planning process
- Team leaders of an environment project
- NGO staff, community leaders and officers involved in designing and implementing projects.
Course Objectives
- Understand the role and challenges of NGOs vis-a-vis the development concerns of the community
- Become familiar with the project development cycle
- Describe the different criteria of donor agencies in supporting and assessing a project or program
- Define the key concepts of monitoring and evaluation
- Illustrate the framework of monitoring and evaluation
- Discuss the different methodologies and tools for monitoring and evaluation
- Design and formulate tools for monitoring and evaluating programs and projects.
