coconut*

The Education Value Chain:

When introducing educational projects or programmes of any kind, and for the purpose of ownership, sustainability, effectiveness and impact, it is necessary to cover the full Educational Value Chain (EVC) from beginning to end:

  1. CONTEXT: baseline study for building a sound knowledge and understanding about the psycho-social, cultural and economic conditions of the potential learners and teachers / schools, for identification of the major pedagogical and educational needs (teaching approach, contents of curriculums and textbooks, and of tests and exams);
  2. Development of a results oriented logical framework for monitoring and evaluation, including SMART indicators on output (quantitative) and outcome (qualitative);
  3. Identification and linking of partner organisations, including relevant (government) strategies and programmes;
  4. Development of an appropriate teaching approach (pedagogical, contents, assessments), and of a well-adapted implementation strategy (see context);
  5. Tuning towards each other of teaching approach, curriculums and textbooks, and tests and exams;
  6. Training of stakeholders (management, leadership, teachers, inspectors), creating ownership by awareness raising;
  7. Involve parents and caretakers, creating ownership by awareness raising;
  8. Careful piloting in schools, with appropriate professional and financial support, and a significant emphasis on raising awareness for attitudinal change;
  9. Monitoring and evaluation of the piloting process;
  10. Adaptations and mainstreaming, with appropriate professional and financial support.

A consequence of this Education Value Chain is the fact that the careful implementation of educational projects takes a considerable amount of time, in general three to five years at least. The incubation phase (1 to 7) takes minimal one or two years already, and then piloting and mainstreaming are still beyond the horizon. Therefore short term projects in education cannot create any sustainable impact.

The other way round, the more projects or programmes are implemented in accordance with this Education Value Chain, also implementing learner centred pedagogical approaches (see “Empowerment and Quality in Learning Processes”), the more likely it will be that they appear to be effective, with a view on sustainable impact.

The EVC could be used as well for developing and implementing a sound and comprehensive results oriented logical framework for monitoring, whereby each element represents a benchmark.

Rogier van ’t Rood – 2015 / 2020

* In education, mind the inside part of the coconut, which is nourishing!