An evaluation of the sustenance of the primary school management development project in Botswana

Abstract

Primary School Management Development Project intended to improve management of primary schools in Botswana started in 1999 and ended in 2002. The Impact Evaluation Study (IES) conducted in 2000 found that management practices introduced by the project had improved management by most SMTs. School Management Teams and Primary School Management Advisors put in place by the Project were functioning well. Cluster and school-based in service training had a positive impact on management of primary schools. The present study wanted to find out whether the findings from the IES were sustained. A survey of 24 schools in four of the six national education regions was conducted. The main findings of the study were that the program activities and structures were sustained. The sustenance was attributed to the initial involvement of the key stakeholders in the conception of the project through the base line study where school managers identified key management areas of need. The sustenance is also attributed to political commitment by the government manifested through regularizing the project into a Ministry of Education programme properly budgeting for. One of the implications of the findings is that commitment by stakeholders should be grounded on a sound understanding and true involvement by the key players from conception to implementation of any program. It is also noted that decentralization should not be abdication of accountability by the mother body, the central government, instead, should be a strategy through which the central government works to empower the policy and programme implementers.