3.6 Conducting effective and efficient Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning

had negative attitudes towards STEM activities. While the MoES was supportive throughout the life of the project, there were gaps noted in terms of inadequate staffing and insufficient science equipment in schools. In some of the project schools, the situation of inadequate equipment was made worse when student numbers increased due to improved performance. Teacher transfers and teachers promotions were also seen as a challenge affecting project continuity and threatening sustainability. Parallel opportunities such as scholarships in Nursing after O’level enticed girls to abandon proceeding to A’level. That the 700 schoolbased innovations that had been developed over the three years were not patented, was noted as a critical gap. Based on the project activities, beneficiaries reached and information generated, a number of lessons were learned with regard promoting Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) among girls in secondary schools as follows: 1. Partnerships, are integral to promoting, sustaining, replicating and scaling up integrated multi-pronged STEM innovations. Strategic partners such as: Government ministries, UN agencies, civil society, academia and other key players need to be involved from the initiation to the end of the project. For instance, Government offered to incorporate some of the project schools into national plans and budgets, and to offer support, follow up and review. Stakeholders like

AfDB pledged their continued support towards girls’ STEM education, while others like UNESCO; civil society and academia embarked on adopting aspects of the project including: scaling up the gender responsive pedagogy (GRP) training for teachers, and supporting the replication of STEM innovations that address community problems. 2. The STEM initiative can have a ripple effect that at times extends beyond academic enhancement and achievement. For instance, government efforts to strengthen gender equality in education were reinforced by enhancing the capacity of key education players in the project partner schools, and universities. While they implemented gender related programs aimed at closing the gender gap in STEM education, the general gender gap in schooling was closed. In addition, STEM role models also encouraged the girls to do Sciences, with students being more receptive to role models who were not much older than them; as opposed to much older role models who were detached from their reality. The project led to: increased discipline, self-confidence and selfesteem; developing over 700 practical solutions to community challenges and generating income through the innovations. School governance and management adopted better practices, including: better planning, reporting and creating an overall conducive learner environment, with select schools institutionalizing the FAWE gender responsive pedagogy model in their education practices. Teachers engaged in more research and applied more practical and gender responsive pedagogies. 3. A multi-pronged STEM approach has various project elements that are mutually reinforcing.

This increases chances of project sustainability, replication and scale-up. This was evidenced by school level uptake of various aspects of the project into their systems. Additionally, different education stakeholders took up certain aspects of the project for support, replication and scale up. For example, the Ministry of Science,

Technology and Innovation set up an Innovation

Fund to support the students’ innovation. The

NCDC, Ministry of Education Teacher Instruction

Education Training (TIET) department will design an intervention, which will use the GRP to equip teachers for STEM at both primary and secondary school level. Twenty one out of the 34

FAWE national Chapters were trained in utilizing e-learning platform and FAWE in partnership with

Dubai Cares, UNESCO, ICBA, and UNICEF initiated the digitization of GRP which will enable more pre-service and in-service teachers to access content across the continent. 4. Digitalization and e learning can be used to optimize the teaching and learning of STEM with: increased research and practical application; greater teacher-learner, mentor-learner and peer to peer interaction. During a time when virtual communication is gaining momentum, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic; digitalization and e-learning can be extended to capacity building, networking and increased information sharing.

With proper planning, it can open up various learning, communication and capacity building avenues in a cost-effective manner.

5. Documentation and sharing of lessons learned can popularize the intervention beyond the targeted stakeholders. The project reached more actors in education with the hope of ultimately closing more gender gaps, especially in STEM.

Additionally, this led to increased national and regional networks; galvanized support; garnered resources and led to policy and operational considerations.

6. The project result are more pronounced in the rural compared to the urban schools. This is attributed to the greater STEM inadequacies experienced in the more disadvantaged and illequipped rural schools prior the intervention.

The result of the intervention has manifested in increase in the number of girls taking Science subjects at advanced level and performing well; compared to the period before the introduction of the project.

School governance and management adopted better practices, including: better planning, reporting and creating an overall conducive learner environment, with select schools institutionalizing the FAWE gender responsive pedagogy model in their education practices.

4.2 Sustainability

Partnerships will form an important part of project sustainability; drawing upon the initiatives of the Ministry of Education and Sports and other national level education stakeholders. For example the ministry through NCDC received funding from Pic-Ed to develop STEM e-learning for secondary schools in Uganda. The platform will focus on availing digital learning materials for lower secondary school learners. Under the project NITA-Uganda, a fibre optic is being developed across the country. This gives hope around sustaining the e-learning platform. At school level, the project will be sustained through the good practices that can be maintained at little or no cost, by ensuring they are not voluntary but are incorporated into the school timetable.

4.3 Recommendations

Since a number of the project schools are MoES centres of excellence or government aided schools, FAWE will engage the ministry towards having some of them included on MoES STEM projects. One such e-learning project, Pic-Ed; focuses on availing digital learning materials for lower secondary school learners. The MoES can further build capacity of the STEM project schools and sustain the project through the ministry’s routine capacity building, monitoring and support supervision visits to the schools. Key successes can also be shared at various platforms such as departmental, inter departmental and Education Sector review meetings. Working through the relevant departments at the Ministry of Education and Sports, FAWE and partners are to lobby for more equipment and apparatus in some of the project schools. This is important; especially since it was proven that the equipped laboratories lead to more practical application of theoretical concepts, thus improving interest and performance in Science subjects. Government should set in place mechanisms to Increase enrollment of female teachers in TVETS and particularly in STEM related fields. Female teachers should be supported and encouraged to take up STEM classes from primary school levels; in order to ensure that girls develop and interest for these subjects from an early age. Similarly, STEM role models should be increased proactively; working with government and other partners. Innovative ways of ensuring that girls develop an interest in STEM and TVET should be developed by government and other partners. These could include initiatives such as: contests, mentorship programs and group activities. STEM peer mentors can be introduced or strengthened in schools. For example, A’ level students can mentor O’Level students. This is expected to contribute towards exchange and transfer of knowledge (She for She in STEM). Raising awareness and advocacy, through documentation of successful aspects of the project such as the GRP should continue, since it has already attracted partners that can support with project sustainability. For example, UNESCO pledged to fund the roll out of GRP in secondary schools nationally, and the European Union-funded ‘Building Resilience