Evaluation of the development and implementation of learning modules in primary education

The project was implemented over the period 1984-92. Modules were developed in three provinces, but this evaluation is limited to Balochistan and Northwest Frontier Province. The project-developed learning modules are designed to serve several needs, including inservice teacher training, learning aids for students, and a focal point for measuring and upgrading student achievement. However, while the modules are available in the schools, the teachers are not using them. Teachers are only vaguely aware of the modules and do not associate the training they received from the learning coordinators with the application of the modules for teaching. The project had a good idea, but its implementation strategy was weak. Project directors failed to effectively establish a system of formative evaluation and they failed to integrate PEP-2 with the regular educational system; instead of working through the provincial departments of education, PEP-2 created a parallel Project Implementing Unit (PIU) in each project province. This meant that on many occasions, the PEP-2 system competed with or conflicted with the regular system. Recruitment of staff with appropriate experience and competence was also a problem. A project that aims at implementing a new and untried innovation in a very traditional society must recruit a dedicated team. The project never succeeded in doing this. Many provincial PIUs were without a Project Director for extended periods of time, and as responsibility for module development kept changing hands, the modular concept gradually diverged from its original design. Those responsible for training project staff and learning coordinators came from a highly conventional background of teacher training and often were unclear or ignorant about the concept of the learning modules. Early formative evaluation could have alerted those concerned to the fact that the initial PEP-2 concept had been abandoned due to the prevalence of the failed ideas that keep primary education in Pakistan in its present sorry state. Recommendations are made for a new project which not only builds on the gains and mistakes of PEP-2 but to a large extent on its original intentions, which remain unrealized.