Basic Information:

Project Name: “Solidarity for Preservation, Education, Excellence and Dignity” (SPEED)
Project Duration: August-2013 to July-2016 (3 years)
Supported By: Manuhsher Jonno Foundation (MJF)
Project status: Phased out

Project goal/objective:

Upgrading the development avenues for disadvantaged children of the marginalized communities in Rangamati Hill District by means of sustained increase in essential life skills of the relevant social groups”

Geographical Coverage:

Achievement:
Throughout the project life cycle, Green Hill produced a good number of achievements that is follows

• 1701 Students succeeded PEC (Primary Education Certificate)
• 644 (Boys: 342 & Girls: 302 ) of children in project areas learning in mother tongue in their schools
• 2500 (Male: 1446 & Female: 1054) of poor, marginalized, and vulnerable households received support from government safety net service
• 230 (Male: 77 & Female: 153) of women and men in program areas having paid work and self-employment and 2835 (Male: 1418 & Female: 1417) of people from marginalized groups actively taking part in local government bodies and local forums
• 720 (Male: 352 & Female: 368) of men and women received skill development training and entrepreneur assistance
• 10 Boat support to the 10 schools student where children can’t regularly attend in school due to lack of boat facility
• 14 water supply installed in remote school and 41 School building Infrastructure development completed
• 27 IGA groups of 275 members in different component are running well. Total grant distributed taka 10, 10,000.00 (Ten lacs and ten thousand) while they produce total net profit taka- 3, 34,552 (three lacs thirty four thousand five hundred and fifty two) only.
• The SMC, PTA & Mother group become more proactive as well as they conduct SMC meeting regularly. They have group savings (Village Savings & Loan, VSLs) money amount is taka 3, 35,030 (Three lacs thirty five thousand and thirty) only by 19 nos. of Mother Groups (MGs) and 528 total group member.
• 17 nos. of project Schools have been succeeded in obtaining nationalization
• Three Sub Partners are well running and run the project smoothly.
• One Sub Partner is got 2-3 project from others donor after receiving PP writing training from Green Hill.

Learning Obtained:
Throughout the project life cycle, Green Hill gained a good number of learning that is follows

• Sufficient teachers are essential for good quality education:

Remote schools always suffer for lack of teachers; the education project could address the problem to some extent by providing additional teachers to these schools. The result was immediately visible.  The additional teachers improved the overall teacher-student ratio. It resulted in better teaching and better results in the examinations.  The lesson learned is that all schools have to be well equipped with sufficient teachers and only then better results can be expected.  Increasing the teacher-student ratio can bring miraculous change in the performance of the students.

• Well-functioning SMCs are important for management of primary schools:

SMCs often exist only in papers and at times are improperly formed.  This leads to ill-functioning of SMCs and school lacks accountability and transparency, which leads to poor performance of the students and teachers.  The lesson learned is: if SMC is properly formed and strengthened, it works well. It can bring about positive changes to school’s learning environment.

• Parents have important role in schooling:

The project learned from its experience that the parents are important players in making primary schooling more effective.  The PTAs were rarely active in the project schools prior to SAMPRETI-II.  The illiterate parents little knew that they also had a role to play in the schooling of their children.  The project activated the PTAs and saw the results of it.

• IGAs by SMCs help attaining the schools to become financially stable

Primary schools often lack adequate funds for fulfilling various needs that may arise any time.  SAMPRETI-II and SPEED implemented the innovative idea of IGAs undertaken by the SMCs for raising additional fund for school management.  The IGAs gave the schools greater financial stability and let the SMCs think ahead with their plans.  This experience of SAMPRETI-II and SPEED can be considered as a good model replicable across the country particularly in the poverty stricken and hard-to-reach areas, where it is difficult for schools to run due to lack of sufficient resources.  This can be a model for the government and the NGOs working in primary education.

Challenges faced
Throughout the project life cycle, Green Hill faces a few of challenges that is follows

• CHT is an extreme poverty prone zone in Bangladesh. Most households are poor and unable provide for school dresses, educational materials to their children. The children are taken to Jhum to work there or to engage them in domestic works.
• The textbooks are in Bangla. It creates problems for indigenous students who do not speak Bangla.
• National and international organizations also implement primary education program in the CHT. But there are inconsistencies in respect of monthly salary of teachers and other benefits/facilities for them. It creates turnover problem and recruiting good quality teacher becomes difficult.

Poor communication & remoteness of locations are responsible for irregular attendance of children in schools. Lack of electricity in the project areas denies digital education facilities to children.