Project assistance completion report : the primary education assistance project (PEAP I)

The project was successful. It distributed 12 million books to 1.75 million children vs. targets of 2.7 million books and 350,000 children. Additionally, 8,000 teacher's kits were distributed to all teachers in 784 schools. The textbooks effected some measure of change in the teachers' methodology, students' performance and even parents' reading habits, but their cost was too high. The Ministry of Education (MOE) intends to address the cost problem by expanding competitive procurement. Meeting the project goal, a total of 66 schools were renovated, 10 of them through community participation. This participation resulted in a marked improvement in areas such as class comfort, teaching aids, and student and teacher morale. All schools involved reported a marked decrease in vandalism. Most importantly, for every dollar spent on community participation, volunteerism yielded eight dollars. Training in community maintenance of the schools was provided to 375 persons vs. a target of 150, and approximately 75% of those trained were women. Trainees were influential in setting up the School/Community Outreach Program for Education (SCOPE). The success of SCOPE efforts made it possible for the MOE to initiate the Community Maintenance Program whereby 794 primary schools islandwide were given a cash grant to implement maintenance programs. This program will be evaluated early in 1991 under the follow-on project (5320155).