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Exam Results and Student Assessment

JUNE 2005

Ms. Sadiqa Basiri, Omid's director, visits the schools during the month of June. Her aims are to find out the yearly examination results, receive feedback from the staff and students, assess school curriculum and resource needs, and report on the rates of absenteeism.

Fatima Zahra School, Jalalabad
Date(s) of Visit: June 2, 2005 

Meeting with Principal/Teachers: Final student grades are discussed with Omid following the end of examinations. The principal and the teachers remain at the school site to finish grading exam papers. The teachers are more satisfied with the quality of the papers from the higher grades. They believe the reason for this is because more students in these grades are active members of the volunteer Student Learning Committee. This committee, run by volunteer students, provides tutoring in various subjects.



Younger students are benefiting from older student tutors.
 
Registration Status: The school is not officially registered with the government. Omid advises the principal of the school to make the Fatima Zahra School affiliated with a nearby school that is already registered. This will make it easier for Omid to continue working with Fatima Zahra. The principal contacts the Directorate of the Ministry of Education (DME) but is told to wait until the examinations are over.  

Examination Results: According to the principal, 97 percent of the students have passed their exams. The breakdown of grades are as follows: 26 percent of the students received "excellent" marks, 44 percent "good", 27 percent fair and three percent did not pass.

Female Teacher Recruitment: No new teacher has been recruited. Omid will be hiring one female teacher in September when the school session recommences. 

School Needs: The school needs remain the same as mentioned in the previous report of May 2005. Equipment required: chairs and desks for the teachers, carpets for classes, and water containers and fans for the students.  

Monthly Absentees: All students are on summer break session. 

Challenges/Opportunities: Omid will continue to work on getting the school registered.  

Trilli Girls School, Nangrahar
Date(s) of Visit: June 3, 2005

Communities Give Land The Trilli community has donated 5,000 square feet of land for a girls school. The Godah School has also donated land for a permanent school structure. By investing in their children, these two communities are investing for themselves.

Girls take exams at Trilli School. Many students hope to have female teachers next year. 

Meeting with Principal/Teachers: A successful meeting is held with the principal and the teachers regarding examination results. The teachers are satisfied about the examinations. According to some teachers, students were given greater incentive to perform well following an announcement made by the principal prior to exams. The principal told the students that if they studied hard, then they might be able to have female teachers next year. It seems clear that many students support having female teachers. 

Exam Success at Trilli Girls School 98 percent of the students have passed exams this year, with 71 percent of students receiving above average scores.

Registration Status: The school is registered and Omid has the registration certificate.

 
Academic Status: The exam results are promising. In general, 98 percent of the girls passed the tests successfully. 31 percent of the students passed with "excellent", 40 percent as "good", 27 percent as "average" and two percent did not pass. 

Female Teacher Recruitment: There will be one female principal and five new female teachers hired in September. The principal and the teachers have been selected. There will be one guard hired too. 

School Needs: There are no immediate needs, though the principal has requested school stationary from Omid if the government does not provide school stationary in September. In addition, the school will need four tents and seven blackboards. Omid suggests that the principal speak directly to the DME to obtain this equipment. If the government cannot provide this assistance, Omid will make plans for purchasing the equipment. 

Monthly Absentees: All students are on summer break session. 

Student Committee: There is no students' tutoring committee at Trilli School but it is agreed that one would be very beneficial. A new students' committee is planned in September when the school year begins.  

Godah School, Wardak
Date(s) of Visit: June 5 and 12

Two visits are made to Godah on June 5 and June 12. The first visit is to monitor the running of the school. The second visit is to investigate a fire at the school set by unknown assailants in early June.  

Meeting with Principal/Teachers: On June 5, there is a meeting with teachers regarding attendance and teaching style. Omid puts these points on the agenda because a previous teacher was negligent in registering student attendance in a previous unannounced visit. Omid emphasizes the importance of the teachers taking attendance and using the attendance sheets daily. Omid also asks teachers to practice teaching methodologies and classroom management. There have been no more incidents of missed attendance.

The Importance of Attendance Monitoring Measuring attendance rates is crucially important, enabling Omid to chart the growth of each school. Omid works with teachers to emphasize the need for daily attendance tracking.

Second meeting: On June 12, Omid visits Godah to investigate a fire at the school. Neither the teachers nor the principal know who started the fire, which occurred at night outside of school hours. Information on the fire has been shared with the Advocacy Project. AP intern Shirin Sahani has co-written a report with Omid's director Sadiqa Basiri. The AP Omid report covers the details of the fire.



The fire at the Godah School burned two tents and much of the school equipment.  

Registration Status: The school is not yet registered. The paperwork for the registration has been submitted to the Ministry of Education; however, registration is contingent on the approval of the National Budget that was scheduled for March 2005. The Afghan government has not yet announced a new approval date. 

Academic Status: The mid-term exams are held. The teachers are satisfied with the results of grade 3, but are disappointed with scores from grade 1 and 2. In explanation, teachers respond that grade 1 students are new to the school and are not yet fully aware of the school's importance. Teachers explain that students in grade 2 are not motivated to score well in classes because they will pass irrespective of their grades. This is due to the educational policy in Afghanistan: even if students do not pass the first 3 grades of school, they are still promoted to higher grades. In grade 4, students move on to higher grades based on the success of their grades. In the mid-term exams, there are no written records for grade 1 to 3 since all the exams are given orally. There are no percentages that mark their grades. 

School Needs: Following the Godah school fire, the school needs immediate help with acquiring two tents at and two blackboards. Two tents, housing the classes, were destroyed in the fire, but the school also requires replacement of the existing tents. The remaining two tents are very worn and do not adequately protect students from the heat.  

Purchases Made: No purchases are made though two tents and two blackboards are still needed.  

Monthly Absentees: The attendance records do not match the actual numbers of students present, and do not accurate measure absentee rates of the students. Ms. Basiri works with Shirin Sahani to develop a form for teachers that will indicate the number of students in attendance. On the June 12 visit, it is expected that attendance rates will be down due to the fire. The converse is true. More students are attending Godah School than ever before. Teachers report to Omid that parents continue sending their children because they would like the school stay open and for Omid to continue its support. These actions show that parents are collectively condemning the perpetrators of the fire and openly supporting Omid and the school.

Rising Student Attendance Follows Fire Unexpectedly, the rates of student attendance increased following an arson attack at Godah School. Teachers report that the reason is because parents want to show their continued support for the school despite vandalism.

Reasons for Absentees: Omid cannot accurately ascertain from teachers specific reasons for absences. Omid is told through second-hand information that some students must stay home to help sick parents or take care of their siblings and family livestock.  

Community Meeting: A meeting takes place at the district counselor's office in Wardak regarding the fire. The district counselor reports that he has already sent a police team to investigate the fire. The other meeting takes place at the local police station. Police report that that they queried community residents regarding incident, and no one reported to have seen or heard anything. The police asked the residents if they would like the school to remain in the area. The residents affirmed that they wanted the school, and subsequently wrote a letter expressing their support. Community members also have taken on the responsibility for protecting the school from vandalism in the future. 

Meeting with Directorate of Ministry of Education (DME): The project supervisor visits the head of DME. He is told that as soon as the registration certificate is released from the government, the DME office will provide the school two tents.  

Challenges/Opportunities: Registration is a big challenge. The school and Omid has been waiting for more than eight months for the registration certificate to be released. The other challenge is finding the person(s) responsible for the fire.  

Student Committee: There is no students' committee. It will be difficult to form until the school can be registered and professional teachers are hired for the school. 

Comments on Previous Report

Teachers evaluation: The principal and students can give teacher evaluations, but a "peer teacher" evaluation will prove too sensitive. Omid will plan for evaluation forms to be distributed to principals for their evaluation of the teachers. On a positive note, registered schools have DME evaluations for principals and teachers.  

Noor Khel School, Wardak
Date(s) of Visit: June 6, 2005 

Meeting with Principal/Teachers: A meeting took place with Omid, the principal, teachers and students of the school. The meeting was in regards to mid term examinations. The teachers are very happy about the exam results of the students.



Examination results are high for the female students at Noor Khel School in Wardak.

The other topic of the meeting concerns the hiring of the teachers and guards. Omid meets three new teachers hired at Noor Khel for the first time. The new teachers report on their satisfaction from working with the students. They commend the existing teachers on their professionalism and the positive impact they have had on the students.

Omid also hires two guards. The government has hired one guard for the day shift but Omid decides to hire two guards for the night shift as well. Two years ago, the Noor Khel School also fell victim to arson. As a preventative measure, Omid agrees to hire two guards for night shifts.

In the meeting, all five new staff members register with Omid. The students express satisfaction with their teachers; however, students in grade six state their concern that the school may not be able to have a grade seven. They request that Omid look into the possibility of providing a grade seven. It is possible for Omid to hire another instructor, but the teacher must first receive government approval, and the school must be given a certificate to operate as a secondary school. The principal and teachers are asked to contact the Ministry of Education to change Noor Khel's status to a secondary school.

Registration Status: The school is registered and Omid has its registration certificate.  

Academic Status: The students from grade 1 to 3 are not graded in their exams but the students from grade 4-6 are graded. According to the information provided by principal the result was satisfactory. 99 percent of the girls from grade 4 to 6 have passed their tests. 25 percent of the students passed the tests as "excellent", 47 percent as "good", 27 percent as fair and one percent failed. 

Female Teacher Recruitment: This is not possible at the moment. There are two educated females in the area, but they are not allowed to come out of theirhomes and teach in open air or tents without the security of a compound. 

School Needs: The teachers are given stationary and notice boards following a previous request. 

Monthly Absentees: The teachers are happy about the regular attendance of their students. The teachers are also very fastidious about keeping their attendance books accurate, though Omid will give teachers a new format to track down the percentage of absentees. In grade 6, there were previously fifteen students in class, but five of them have dropped out. One more student dropped out which made the class nine students. According to the Ministry of Education, the minimum number of students for a class must be ten. The teachers are unhappy about having an incomplete class.  

Reasons for Absentees: Five girls were taken out of the school by their families, who said they were too old to continue with their education. All five girls come from strict and traditional families. After holding numerous discussion with these parents, they relented and let their daughters study. However, after three years they are no longer prepared to have them attend school any longer. One girl recently became engaged and her in-laws do not let her study. She will come to school for her exams only. This will enable her to have a grade six certificate and make the class as a complete class of ten students for the Ministry of Education. 
Student Committee: There is no student committee. The principal tells Omid this is not possible because the girls are traveling long distances to get to and from school. They come in groups accompanying each other. The girls are reluctant to stay with only a few other girls in tents or traveling home alone late at night. 
Capacity Building: UNICEF trainers are holding a teacher-training workshop. This is the first meeting between the school and UNICEF.

Challenges/Opportunities: A challenge Omid is experiencing is due to the absence of another school structure that prevents older girls from coming to school.

Report Prepared By:

Sadiqa Basiri
Project Coordinator
Omid Learning Center
Kabul, Afghanistan

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