This is for all those who are about to embark on their TFP work and will need to conduct a baseline study before any development work with teachers and schools begins. It will include the overall M&E strategy, of which the baseline study will be part. This, at the moment, involves those in Cohort B. However, forum participants involved in Sierra Leone and Kiribati have much to contribute to this as they have been involved in preparing and conducting a baseline on the ground; a much richer experience than people sitting in Canada and the UK imagining the situation!
In reply to Randall Pienaar
Re: 1. Preparing to conduct a baseline study.
Dear all
Let me start something off in terms of discussion, by first wishing you a Happy Christmas and a successful New Year!
I don't expect that you will be turning to TFP work until the new year, but if you are trying to get to grips with the Monitoring and Evaluation of the Programme, or just starting to plan the Programme in your country, then may I suggest that you look at the 'Enumerator Handbook' (for either Kiribati or Sierra Leone) to see what the evaluation entails (this is in the Resources section). This Handbook focuses upon the baseline study, which is what you will have to plan and organise first. You can then turn to the Framework, but be selective in reading it. Best to start with the 'Executive Summary', then move to Section 2.3 to see the focus of the evaluation. The sections are all laid out in a hierarchy, so if you use Outline View in MS Word (view 7 levels), then it will be easier to see the structure and navigate through it. No doubt our colleagues who have been involved with the Kiribati and Sierra Leone baseline studies (and indeed those connected with Sri Lanka and Uganda who have more recently started) can all give you good advice on how to deal with the large amount of information.
I will be working on a generic version of this Framework in the coming months, but even now it will be good to see what parts fit particularly with Sierra Leone or Kiribati (you can search for these countries' names in the text and see what was specific to them).
I look forward to discussion on each of the threads in the Forum and welcome you all to contribute, even if it is asking what to you might seem basic questions. These are likely to provoke important discussion.
Best wishes
Bob McCormick (M&E consultant to the TFP for CoL)
In reply to Prof. Robert McCormick
Re: 1. Preparing to conduct a baseline study.
by Tekonnang Timee -
Dear All,
Happy belated new year!
I would like to thank Bob for asking you to refer to Enumerator's Handbook. I find the handbook to be helpful and useful as it clearly explains the necessary steps you need to follow when conducting the baseline study. Therefore, I encourage you to use the Enumerator's Handbook as your guide throughout the baseline study.
Of course, the Enumerator's Handbook has a large amount of information, however, from my experience you need to study carefully a tentative schedule (Table 1EH) for the collection of data and explain it to the enumerators. You also need to spend ample time reading the Sampling section as well as the section on the usage of each instrument. For me, the schedule for the collection of data is important since this clearly explains how each enumerator performs his/her task one each day of the school visit without interrupting or doing similar things together.
I believe this is what I can share from Kiribati and hope others can contribute to this discussion too.
Thank you.
Best wishes
Tekonnang Timee (RM&E Consultant for Kiribati)
In reply to Tekonnang Timee
Re: 1. Preparing to conduct a baseline study.
Dear Tekonnang (and others who have joined us)
Thank you for the 'thanks'!
It was useful for you to point to the data collection schedule as an important feature. I wonder if there were other things that someone who is planning the baseline should pay attention to, and that you wished you had known.
In addition if there are things you found particularly challenging, it would be useful to explain these, to alert those who are going to conduct a study.
Of course many others of you have much to contribute as you have, or are just doing a baseline study, or have done quite a lot of preparation.
Comments on all stages of the process are useful and important.
Best wishes
Bob
In reply to Prof. Robert McCormick
Re: 1. Preparing to conduct a baseline study.
Dear all
I'm sure you will want to welcome Mohameed Aryee to the project, and wish him well in his work with us on the baseline studies that many of you have carried out and are hoping to complete data entry for. Others will want to know what is required as you plan your study.
I'll leave Mohammed to say how he would like to field your questions and what you have to do next. It will be useful to do this on the Forum so that everyone can be informed and also so that at some later date those following on will have a reference point for issues.
It may be appropriate to do this under another strand in the Forum and certainly you should all feel free to start another thread in this part of it. This will enable you to identify the area of concern and others will be able to identify what seem appropriate issues to them.
Mohameed, you may also want to set up one or more threads and I invite you to take the appropriate initiatives to reflect what you see as your immediate and longer-term concerns.
I hope, by the way, that you are all keeping safe from the coronavirus. I, as an over-70 year old, have now to stay at home for 14 weeks to keep away from possible infection. Plenty of time to work on the Forum!
Best wishes
Bob