End-of-project evaluation of the primary and non-formal education project in Cape Verde

Contracted final evaluation covers the period through May 1986 and is based on discussions and informal interviews with key project and Verdean personnel, teacher questionnaires, site visits, and document review. The project not only complied with the terms of the grant agreement, but its positive, unanticipated benefits far surpassed the objectives therein stipulated. The project built 102 classrooms, versus the target of 100 (building one third as many primary education facilities in 7 years as were built during 500 years of colonial rule), and trained 350 educators, 75% over the number planned. With few exceptions, school construction is nearly complete (details awaiting completion include sand filling and cobblestoning of some playgrounds and turning on electric power in the few schools so equipped). Although construction costs were generally higher than the budgeted amount, the project was completed within the terms of the grant agreement, thanks to the devaluation of the local currency and the rise of the dollar; without the favorable exchange rate it is doubtful whether even 75% of completion objectives would have been achieved. The project-funded schools have served not only as primary classrooms but as rural community centers, accomodating housing literacy classes, civic and party meetings, youth and women"s organization meetings, and, in one community, even religious services. A triple shift program in many of the classrooms and the community uses which they serve increase their functional use by 100-200%. The project achieved benefits in terms of process as well as product. It was completed some 5 years after the scheduled completion date due to the many internal constraints faced by Cape Verde during its first decade of independence. However, extending the project from 2 to 7 years provided employment to the rural population during a critical drought period during which other employment was scarce.