Japanese Experience and Issues on Educational ODA

This study examines Japanese experience and issues on ODA in the area of education which are important in designing future ODA programs. Issues related to the administration of projects: First of all, the nature of assistance must be assessed through sector analysis. Projects should be designed from a long term point of view, while aiming at maximum effects. The evaluation of efficiency is essential. What is also called for is flexible assistance based upon the needs of the countries and areas calling for assistance. It is important to provide not only hardware (structure for the improvement of educational situations) but also software (methods for managing the structure, including personnel development). It is also important to combine projects and to follow up the projects for enhancing the effects of the assistance. Assistance in the educational area cannot be successful unless the target countries make long-term self-help efforts. It is important to enhance communities' interest in education, and make an environment where people in the community participate in educational activities. For example, having the residents participate in the project from the stage of constructing school buildings is effective in making them interested in the school education of the children and the maintenance of the school building. Ideas and schemes reflecting the circumstances in Japan are called for in making a project successful. However, experiences in Japan are not always applicable to developing countries. It is necessary to form policy issues based upon the present status of the target countries. Issues on policy development: While vocational education and higher education have been emphasized in educational aids, assistance in the area of basic education has to be expanded from the point of view of securing basic human needs. Assistance in basic education may involve hundreds of sites. As traditional methods would not be sufficient in managing assistance projects, new methodology for the management of assistance will be called for. From the view point of maximizing the effects of assistance, it is important to offer comprehensive assistance, combining various assistance schemes. Cooperation with projects in other areas will also be effective. As a number of donor agencies carry on similar projects, it is natural that comparisons of their cost effectiveness are conducted. Traditional assistance projects lack the view point of social development. It has become necessary more than ever to cooperate with other donors. Evaluation standards for assistance projects should be global. Cooperation with other assisting countries will be necessary in the area of evaluation, too. As variety of assisting projects increases, it will be necessary to establish a system for registering personnel as well as to develop the capacity of such personnel

Possibility and Limit of Comprehensive Educational Cooperation : The Case of Malawi DfID PCOSP Programme

Primary Community Schools Programme, which the UK Department for International Development has been operating in Malawi, is well known as a project contributing to the improvement of primary education in a comprehensive manner, because it aims not only at offering hardware-type assistance in terms of the constructions of schools but also software-type assistance such as providing textbooks and teaching materials, training principals and teachers, and enlightening the public. A mid-term evaluation of the project found that the proposals on the improvement of certain areas made in the previous year had been achieved and the project had been highly productive in most part. The construction of schools itself is evidence of visible achievement, which meets the needs of the target community. Special attention has been paid to making the environment conducive for the improvement of female children's enrolment rate, achievement and performance. For example, separate washrooms are provided for boys and girls, and teaching staff includes female instructors. However, it has also been discovered that the operation of quality education with good textbooks and teaching materials is quite costly in the light of the present condition of the Malawi economy, even though efforts have been made to cut the educational costs, such as, minimizing the construction costs of school building. It is expected that the parents of the children will bear the educational costs because the central government has little assets and decentralization is still in progress. However, the amount of funds necessary to maintain the level of education equivalent to that of the education provided by the project even after the project is over, will be beyond the capacity of the parents. Another problem is that the Malawi government is unlikely to conduct projects modeled after PCOSP in other parts of the country. International cooperation is meant to assist developing countries to improve themselves, and the target countries are expected to continue to achieve the objectives set by the projects after the projects are over. However, it is nearly impossible to do so for the poorest countries such as Malawi. This case suggests that it is necessary to design projects for international cooperation suited to the economic levels of the target countries

The Comparison of the Influence of School Factors and Family-Related Factors on Learning Achievements : Confirmation and Policy Implication of HL Effect in Low-Incom Countries from MALP Example in Malawi

This paper, based on the report from Tomita & Muta (2010), re-examined the influence of school factors and family-related factors on learning achievements in Malawi, which is one of the very low-income countries, and confirmed Heyneman and Loxley's finding (1983) : School factors are more influential and family-related factors are less influential on learning achievements in lowincome countries (called HL effect) in more comprehensive manner. Two different statistical methodologies were employed: 1)separate analyses of school- and pupil-level variables based on linear regression and structural equation modeling (SEM), and 2)simultaneous analyses of school- and pupil-level variables based on hierarchical linear modeling (HLM). Results from both methodologies confirmed HL effect in the case of Malawi. Finally, the policy implication of the result was discussed