Writing five track records on education (also teacher training & ICT) programs in a team

Project title:
Name of organisation: Edukans
Team leader: Suzanne Hoeksema (freelance consultant)
Position: Writer / Researcher in a team
Start date: 2015-03-01
End date: 2015-08-31
Description: Conducting Research for the Dutch NGO Edukans on teacher training and ICT programs in Uganda in a small team of researchers. For this NGO we wrote five track records on education (also teacher training & ICT) programs in a team of freelance consultants. We wrote track records on quality education for Edukans’ Connect4Change programmes (ICT), (‘BEQUIP’ and ‘MOSIQUE’) in a team of consultants, gender mainstreamed. A video of the BEQUIP programma of Edukans and UvA in Ethiopia (Teaching Teachers: Training teachers how to apply active teaching and learning) Edukans Teaching Teachers from Edukans on Vimeo. A video from 2012 on the Edukans and UVA Active Learning programme in Uganda

The Importance of Teacher Training Research in Uganda: Insights from a small research team for a Dutch NGO

Conducting research on teacher training in Uganda is essential for improving education quality, especially for NGOs working to influence positive change. For this small research team, the process began with identifying key challenges in teacher training in a development program. Collaborating with local schools and stakeholders ensures the research is rooted in practical realities, making it impactful.

This small  often relies on cost-effective methods, like focus group discussions, classroom observations, and surveys, to gather data. Analysing this information helps identifying trends and opportunities to enhance teacher preparedness. For NGOs, this research can guide targeted interventions, from designing trainings to advocating for policy changes. By focusing on teacher training, this small research team assisted in offering clear lessons learned which allow to contribute to valuable insights, allowing this NGO to drive sustainable development and empowering NGOs and educators to transform lives.

Edukans, a Dutch non-profit organisation was a member of the ICCO Alliance. The ICCO Alliance was a worldwide cooperative, founded in 2005 by Edukans, Kerk in Actie, Oikocredit, Prisma, SharePeople and ICCO. Together they combine years of experience and a diversity of partners in developing countries. Edukans has a long history of improving children’s access to basic education in Ethiopia.

As a result of the combined efforts of numerous stakeholders, the enrolment rate in that country had reached 93% according to the 2015 Education for All National review Report for Ethiopia. Edukans began collaborating with the University of Amsterdam (UvA) to found the Ethiopian Development Expertise Centre (DEC) in 2007. This collaboration focused on the perceived need to improve the quality of education, and not only enrolment and access to education. Much progress was made towards increased access to education. The problem was however at the time of the research that large numbers of children could not read, write or count well, whether they have gone to school or not. This is described as the ‘global learning crisis’. For this purpose Edukans and UvA jointly developed and implemented the Basic Education Quality Improvement Programme (BEQUIP, and a program called Mosique) in Ethiopia, Ghana, Rwanda and Uganda.

Edukans Teaching Teachers from Edukans on Vimeo.
Location: Home-based
Value: 2.5 Million Euros
Description of value: Budget of the five projects running from 2011 until 2015
Donor: Dutch ministry of foreign affairs