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Help a Student Stay in School in Uganda

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May 3, 2011

Parent Involvement in School Savings Program

By Sarah Kabay - Project Associate

Festo speaks to a classroom full of parents

Working closely with schools and administrators gives us considerable insight into the many issues affecting them and the challenges they face. From our experience, qualitative research and a simple survey with teachers in all 136 schools, we identified parental involvement as one of the critical issues affecting primary education in Uganda.

With the introduction of Universal Primary Education, and the government's taking control of the majority of schools, many parents have become distanced from their children's education. Additionally, as many parents have not gone to school themselves, schools can seem intimidating and demanding as parents struggle to raise the resources and supplies to keep their children enrolled. Teachers called for "parent sensitization."

We saw the same need in relation to the Super Savers Program. Over the past year, we noted that many children were saving on their own. Though this was a valuable learning experience, we were concerned that it might not lead to keeping children in school, as fees are most often paid by parents or guardians. Decreasing drop out rates would require greater parental involvement.

This term we started a "Parent Sensitization" program. 39 of the treatment schools were randomly selected to participate in the first term of this year, February to April 2011. We hosted and directed parents meetings at each of the schools, inviting parents, providing a meal or snack and discussing the roles and responsibilities of schools, the government and parents under Universal Primary Education. We then transitioned into talking about the Super Savers Program and how it can not only provide a valuable learning experience for children, but help parents raise the funds necessary to keep them in school.

The program has had a tremendously positive response. Attached is a photo of Festo, one of our program officers, explaining the savings process to parents during a meeting.

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Jan 31, 2011

Another year begins with more school savings!

By Sarah Kabay - Project Associate

With the Ugandan school term beginning on Jan 31st, we are about to start our second year of implementation. We finished last year with 4,961 pupils in 81 schools saving just over 5 million shillings.

We have many goals for this year! We hope to increase the number of pupils saving and improve the savings behavior of those that are. This will include increasing the amount, frequency and continuity of savings.

One of the ways in which we hope to reach our goals, is by testing an add-on intervention of "parent sensitization." We will randomly select half of our 78 treatment schools to be offered a general parents meeting to be run by one of our program officers. The program officer will lead a discussion with parents about why education is important, how can parents support their children's education, what the exact roles and and responsibilities are assigned to various stakeholders under the government's policy of Universal Primary Education and how the Super Savers Program can help. We will be interested to see what kind of effect this program could have.

Our program officers have been working to write a script to use when speaking to parents. Here's an example, taken from program officer Sula's script: "It's important at this point to inform the participants that FINCA does not give interest on pupil savings. I always use the slogan "kyosiga kyokungula" meaning that what you sow is what you reap." We look forward to your interest and support as we continue implementation and plan for the endline data collection exercise, scheduled for the end of this year!

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Sep 29, 2010

SuperSavers Back to School Update

By Sarah Kabay - Project Associate

Students saving in class

Following the mid-September start of Uganda's third school term, the Super Savers team has just completed the pay out of savings in each of our 81 active schools. During the pay out, all 4,036 participating pupils received their savings and were able to either continue saving or use their money. At this point the difference between the two treatment groups is readily apparent. The schools where pupils receive their money in cash are saving significantly more than those in the voucher treatment group, where pupils receive a voucher which they have to spend on something educational. We have been monitoring the trend, speaking to pupils and teachers to learn more about this dynamic. We would love to hear any hypotheses you might have as to why voucher schools are saving less!

Looking ahead to the end of the scholastic year and the beginning of the next, the team is preparing to focus on parents. Starting the program in each school required a strong presence at the school. Now that the program is up and running and we have earned the schools' trust, we are ready to reach out into the community. To ensure the sustainability of the program and to effectively engage parents we believe it's necessary to move beyond the school. We look forward to this exciting new direction!

As always we would like to thank our donors for their interest and support!

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