Endline Evaluation for Teacher Professional Development (TPD) Project, Uganda

Methodology The Enabling Teachers Approach (EAT) Project for Teacher Professional Development (TPD) was a 3-year project implemented by SCI in 50 schools in Western Uganda in the districts of Bundibugyo, Kasese, and Ntoroko. The project targeted 541 teachers with in-service professional development. It was funded by the Hempel Foundation, Denmark. The project’s implementation began in November 2019, and it ended in March 2023. Due to COVID-19 and flooding of some project schools, some funds were shifted to emergency response during implementation. The goal of the ETA project was to improve children’s learning outcomes in Uganda through Teacher Professional Development directly contributing to SDG4 which aims at ensuring ‘inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all’.
The ETA endline evaluation was designed to achieve two objectives that included; 1) to measure the impact of the Enabling Teachers Approach in improving teachers’ professional development, with a focus on teacher’s competencies and skills, and consequently children’s learning outcomes, with a specific focus on literacy and numeracy, providing an assessment of progress on relevant indicators; 2) to explore the process of rolling out the Enabling Teachers Approach through a cost-efficiency/cost-effectiveness and sustainability lens, to provide evidence for decision-makers, and to inform future scale-up of the approach in the context o
The sample for the TPD project end-line evaluation included 228 teachers, 435 learners, and 29 head teachers. Key informant respondents included the CCTs, DEOs, DIS, Canon Apollo Core PTC, and PTA/SMCs. The project’s key outcomes included improved inspection of schools after the project worked with DEOs in school selection, facilitated their fuel, provided motorcycles to CCTs, and communication materials that facilitated the participation of the DISs and DEOs in the implementation of school improvement plans. The project contributed to an increase in retention and enrolment of pupils in the schools where it was implemented and led to improved relationships between teachers and learners, – the training module on stopping violence and child protection helped very much in improving these relationships. There was also improved teacher motivation and skills and improved the capacity of head teachers to support the teachers. The capacity of teachers to deliver lessons to the learners improved as well as collaboration between SMCs, PTAs, and schools.
The project also improved the collaboration between SCI and the District local government in the project districts and by-laws were initiated on child protection. The project used EdTech sessions through VIAMO to enable teachers to attend professional development courses wherever they were during the COVID-19 pandemic. EdTech studies were cheaper as they did not require the costs for travel and time incurred when going to attend face-to-face sessions.