Evaluation Design Report: Evaluation of the Passerelles Program

The program was implemented in 2018 by USAID to address the issue of out-of-school children and youth in Senegal. According to a 2017 survey, 37% of learners between the ages of 6-16 were out of school, and another 20% were at risk of dropping out. The survey also found unequal coverage of and lack of diversification of education opportunities and insufficient number of programs to support re-entry to formal education and to prevent drop-out. The Passerelles program offers four types of complementary basic education opportunities to communities: Classe Passerelle (CP), Ecole Communautaire de Base (ECB), Daara Communautaire (DC), and professional training. The program aims to create pathways to formal education and training. FHI 360, the implementing partner of the Passerelles Activity, has worked in several communes across the four target regions, Kédougou, Kolda, Sédhiou, and Ziguinchor. The evaluation of the Passerelles program has two key objectives: to assess progress towards achieving the goals and objectives of the Passerelles activity, and to identify any differences in elementary school enrollment between communities where Passerelles has been implemented and non-Passerelles communities. The evaluation aims to compare the attitudes and perceptions of community members, religious school leaders, and youth towards the educational opportunities established in their communities, also by area of intervention. The study also aims to document any changes on indicators of awareness, attitudes, and perceptions between 2016 and 2021. The Passerelles program has established a significant presence in the target regions, with a total of 476 sites across the four regions. The program has targeted elementary and middle schools, as well as non-formal structures such as koranic schools. Passerelles coaches have fostered school principals' and schoolteachers' capacity to manage safer and more equitable spaces for learning, as well as to promote the socio-emotional development of their students. The evaluation will employ a mixed methods approach that combines quantitative and qualitative techniques to answer the evaluation questions. The study will collect data from a range of sources, including surveys, focus group discussions, and key informant interviews. The evaluation team will conduct this inquiry to learn about the strategies non-formal Passerelles structures carried out and obtain inductive information from target youth and implementing partners. The Passerelles program has been implemented in a context of significant disruption to the education system due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Although schools in Senegal are currently open, the pandemic has exacerbated inequalities of access to education, particularly for the most vulnerable. The evaluation will examine the impact of the Passerelles program on the education system and its ability to support learners out of school children to return to formal education. The evaluation will also examine the role of the Passerelles components in formal and non-formal structures as tools for children and youth to navigate the challenges imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The study will document any changes on indicators of awareness, attitudes, and perceptions between 2016 and 2021, and compare measures of awareness, attitudes, and perceptions from the rich data of the 2017 OOSCY Study with the new wave of data collection. Overall, the Passerelles program in Senegal aims to provide safe, supportive, and responsive complementary education services to out-of-school children and youth. The program has established a significant presence in the target regions, and the evaluation will examine the impact of the program on the education system and its ability to support learners out of school children to return to formal education.