Structuring nonformal education resources

External evaluation covered the period 12/82-11/83. The LDTC has developed the capacity to provide TA to target groups and successfully demonstrated a creative approach to solving educational problems. The Center"s Service Agency has provided TA on 63 occasions to roughly 24 organizations. Of this assistance, 33% was in training, 23% in materials development, 5% in research, 5% in pre-testing materials, and 35% in copy editing, printing, or recording of materials. With UNICEF assistance, the Literacy/Numeracy unit is working with 28 rural posts, helping 40-60 learners at each post. On the negative side, the LDTC"s mechanism for providing financial assistance is not functioning efficiently. Only 7 groups have received assistance and these were not necessarily those of greatest need. A major constraint is the difference of opinion among the decisionmakers in the LDTC and the Ministry of Education as to the kind of financial support to be provided and groups to be served. Long-term overseas training has not always been relevant and has lacked emphasis in certain key areas, such as radio. Short-term training has been inadequate, poorly focused, and not designed to consolidate skills already partly learned. The radio unit has not produced to its fullest capacity, and output from the Printing and Production unit has been confined recently to services required by LDTC itself. The latter fact is especially regrettable given the the unit"s potential to generate the financial resources the Center will need to become self-sustaining in the face of increased pressure from South Africa. A major lesson learned is that the continued presence of expatriate advisors and project funding appears to have allowed LDTC staff and the Government to postpone the necessity for sound management practices and self-sustainability.