USAID SOUTH AFRICA SCHOOL-BASED SEXUALITY AND HIV PREVENTION EDUCATION ACTIVITY PROVINCIAL OPERATIONS MANAGERS REPORT MAY 2019

The project's activities are specifically designed to strengthen, link, and consolidate South African Government (SAG) efforts to link education sector initiatives and health sector initiatives that share a common purpose: a reduction in the incidence of new HIV and TB infections among young people and improved linkages to HIV care and SRH services for learners. The lead organization driving the Activity is the Education Development Centre (EDC). One of the core activities, designed to support educators in the effective delivery of comprehensive sexuality education in the classroom context, is the development of and educator training in a package of Structured Lesson Plans (SLPs) for Grades 4-6, 7-9, and 10-12. The SLPs include comprehensive lessons and activities, as well as assessment tasks, to guide educators to teach against the LO Annual Teaching Plans. In order to train educators to deliver the SLPs in the classroom, EDC conducts workshops with educators in all the districts that are included in the Activity. These workshops fall under objective three in the overall scope of work: "Improved quality of school-based sexuality and HIV education programs – evidence informed and effective to reduce risky behaviors amongst school-going youth; improved learner knowledge and achievement in targeted areas of the life skills program." Task 3.1 "Implement sexuality and HIV education activity in target schools" is also a key component of the workshops. Throughout the Activity, HEARD conducted quantitative research to assess the effectiveness of the training workshops focusing on the SLPs for grades 7-9. The research findings were reported quarterly in January, April, July, and October. From February 2017, the quarterly reports were complemented by monthly diagnostic reports that provided brief assessments of training workshops conducted in the last month. HEARD's diagnostic reports and the more comprehensive quarterly reports provided the Activity with an evidence-base for ensuring that the workshops were as effective as possible. The quantitative and qualitative analyses above focused on the teachers who received the training, or who were delivering the SLPs to learners. In order to complement the evidence that this research provided, HEARD conducted semi-structured interviews with the colleagues in the Activity who facilitated the trainings and who supported the teachers in the classrooms – the Provincial Operations Managers (POMs). These interviews were conducted in May 2018 after the conclusion of the trainings on the grades 7-9 scripted lesson plans. The interviews were structured by the same set of questions on the following five themes: the scope of work for the POMs, their experiences of facilitating the training workshops, the institutional opportunities and barriers that influenced effectiveness, their impressions from monitoring teachers delivering the SLPs in the classroom and learners' feedback, and what they regarded to be the optimal (but still realistic) scaled-up model for training and supporting teacher teachers. Each of the above themes was introduced by a more general question, and the POMs were given much freedom to elaborate on whatever aspects of the themes they wished to prioritize. The interviews were all recorded with the permission of the POMs, and each interview was transcribed, and the material was summarized into a set of main findings under each of the five themes. The report aims to identify institutional factors that help or hinder effective training and/or implementation, and the findings are intended to provide the Activity with an evidence-base for ensuring that the workshops are as effective as possible. The Provincial Operations Managers (POMs) who participated in the interviews were from various districts across South Africa, including Pinetown (KwaZulu-Natal), City of Johannesburg (Gauteng), Thabo Mofutsanyana (Free State), Umlazi and King Cetshwayo (KwaZulu-Natal), Johannesburg West (Gauteng), Gert Sibande and Bohlabela (Mpumalanga), and Metro North and East (Western Cape). The report emphasizes that the point of this report is not to link certain pieces of information with a particular Provincial Operations Manager, but rather to identify institutional factors that help or hinder effective training and/or implementation. The findings from the interviews are presented in the following sections, which focus on the scope of work for the POMs, their experiences of facilitating the training workshops, the institutional opportunities and barriers that influenced effectiveness, their impressions from monitoring teachers delivering the SLPs in the classroom and learners' feedback, and what they regarded to be the optimal (but still realistic) scaled-up model for training and supporting teacher teachers.