The document provides an end-term evaluation report of the "Rebuilding Aceh through Education for All" post-tsunami reconstruction program in Aceh Province, Indonesia. The key findings of the evaluation are: 1) The program achieved its main quantitative targets including reconstructing 35 school buildings and providing scholarships to over 3,500 students. 2) Training programs benefited over 1,300 teachers, exceeding original targets. 3) There were delays in implementation but the program was still cost-efficient, with savings of over $666,000. 4) The program had generally positive impacts, improving teaching methods and school management. 5) Long-term sustainability is a concern, as some rural schools face maintenance

1. REBUILDING ACEH
through
EDUCATION FOR ALL
End-term Evaluation Report
of Post-Tsunami Reconstruction Program
in Aceh Province, Indonesia
carried out by Education International
co-financed by OXFAM International and OXFAM-NOVIB
Evaluation Team:
AHMAD MAHMUDI
ROEM TOPATIMASANG
JOENI HARTANTO
(YPRI-INSIST, Yogyakarta, Indonesia)
The Hague, July 2009

2. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
As part of the OXFAM International Tsunami Response Programme, Oxfam Novib was the managing
affiliate for a project named 'Rebuilding Aceh through Education for All' in Aceh Province, Indonesia. The
project has been implemented –in two consecutive phases (2005-2007 and 2008-2009) - by Education
International (EI) based in Brussels, Belgium, through its Regional Office for Asia-Pacific based in Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia, and its Field Coordination Office based in Banda Aceh, Indonesia.
The project comprises of six components that were designed as part of a comprehensive and integrated
intervention approach with the aim to restore the local education system. The components are:
reconstruction of destroyed school buildings; training for school teachers and headmasters; training for
local school committees; training for local members of teachers union; provision of scholarships for local
students; and an health education awareness campaign and trauma counselling services.
In June 2009, YPRI (Yayasan Pendidikan Rakyat Indonesia – Indonesian Foundation for Popular
Education) based in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, was invited to carry out an evaluation of the project. The
evaluation is aimed principally for learning and accountability. The focus of the evaluation is to assess
mainly the outcomes (results and impacts), cost efficiency, effectiveness, and the prospect of
sustainability of the program; to draw out some important lessons learned; and to recommend some
possible follow-up actions.
OVERALL FINDINGS
(1) Quantitatively, the main targets of the program have been impressively achieved. The infrastructure
reconstruction component has successfully built 35 school compounds in seven districts affected by
earthquake and tsunami in December 2004. Today, these schools are enrolling a total of 3,570 1 local
schoolchildren, while a total of 3,655 primary school's students –, including students of other schools not
built by the program - have received a monthly scholarship fees totalling IDR 1,200,000 (about € 86.0)
per student per year. The training for local school teachers and headmasters have benefited 1,388
participants, almost three times more than initially planned 2 . The training for local school committees
have reached 131 participants; training for local members of teachers unions (PGRI) have reached 260
participants; and training for local teachers in trauma counselling and health awareness campaign have
reached totally 389 beneficiaries. 3
1
Just less 45 from the target in proposal
2
582 participants only
3
Exceeded the target (210 participants) as explained later through email, 30 June 2009, by EI Coordinator.
If it is added with the total of 511 participants of trainings funded by JTU, the total amount becomes 940
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3. (2) The gender proportion among the direct beneficiaries is relatively balanced. Although the number of
female beneficiaries is fewer, the gap is relatively small, with the difference averaging 10% in total. The
number of female beneficiaries of training for local school principals and teachers in trauma counselling
is larger with more than 60% and 70% respective beneficiaries. In contrast, an extreme gender
imbalance has been found among the local members of school committees and, especially, the PGRI.
This is contradictory to the fact that the majority (more than 60%) of school teachers in Aceh –and
Indonesia as a whole- are women. This is mainly because of PGRI is still a male-dominated
organisation. It seems there could have been an opportunity within the program to insist an 'affirmative
action' on PGRI to seriously take this mater into account. As one of its founding members, EI may
actually be able to employ such a policy to PGRI.
(3) There were several delays experienced in all of the program's components, which in turn resulted in
the program being carried over until the end of June 2009, six months over the planned date (the end of
December 2008) in the contract (initial proposal); it even exceeded the limitation of project time which
was supposed to complete in the end of May 2009. 4 . Within the uncertain context of post-tsunami Aceh,
especially in the first two years after the disaster where local infrastructures and institutions had not fully
recovered, the delay is understandable. All of organisations working in Aceh at that time have a similar
experience. Despite the delay, the program was able to achieve a certain level of cost efficiency,
particularly in school reconstruction, by saving a relatively large amount of money up to IDR 9.3 billion
(about € 666,100) without diminishing its construction standard and quality. Some of other components
are relatively less efficient but the most serious underspent was in the components of the training for
teachers in health education and trauma counselling which is retaining almost half (48.8%), the training
for local school teachers which is retaining almost quarter (21.1%), and the scholarships which is
retaining almost one-fifth (16.2%) of their respective allocated budget.
(4) Concerning on the impacts on the direct beneficiaries, the effectiveness of the program is
satisfactory. All of the beneficiaries noted that the program has brought some positive influences for
them. In fact, all of local schoolchildren have enrolled in all of those schools built by the project. All of
the local teachers and headmasters are now active in their respective roles and duties. They said that
they are highly motivated with their new and beautiful school buildings and especially, with the trainings
of EI which have been very helpful and useful to improve their professional competencies according to
the basic requirements of the new school curricula of 2004. The teachers are now implementing various
creative methods of teaching and student-centred methods of learning. The headmasters are now
starting to apply standard operation procedures in their daily management of their own school, including
basic practices of transparency and accountability. In the school's financial affairs for instance, school's
regular (monthly) financial reports are clearly recorded on the walls to be read and inspected by parents
and the surrounding community.
(5) Particular attention should be paid to two components of the program, i.e. the provision of
scholarships and the trauma counselling training. It is still difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of these
components in the long term. As related to the objective to get local schoolchildren 'back to school', the
scholarships have proven to work with only minor cases of misuse in the early months after its initiation
participants, four times higher than target.
4
There are two different versions on the extention period of the project. Clarification from Oxfam Novib
stated May 2009 (Joop Perboom’s email, 9 July 2009); meanwhile additional explanation from EI Coordinator in
Aceh stated June 2009 (Jerome Fernandez’ email, 30 June 2009)
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4. in 2006. The EI Office in Aceh have been able to learn from these mistakes and gradually developed an
appropriate scheme through direct bank transfers to the personal accounts of the respective students.
However, a more in-depth assessment may be needed to study a better scheme in the future since the
economic conditions of the parents may not have fully recovered in the next few years. The program
has not planned any concrete actions for this purpose, especially to draw out some possibilities to
develop successive scholarships scheme based on potential local resources.
(6) Similar findings are with the component of trauma counselling. The training of EI has successfully
prepared local teachers and some parents, as 'barefoot counsellors', to provide very elementary
counselling services for their students and children. Since the trauma of a huge disaster like the tsunami
of 2004 will remaining in long term, a more comprehensive healing or treatment by professionals is
needed. The program established a Children’s Center in one of EI-schools in Banda Aceh involving
some professional counsellors. Unfortunately, the Center only implemented one activity during a week
to serve students of EI schools in Banda Aceh. In fact, as planned in the proposal, the most needed is
the establishment of a permanent Centre in one of EI-Schools in Banda Aceh (SD 95 Gampong Baro).
Up to the evaluation was performed (July 2009), the plan had not been realized.
(7) Above all, the greatest concern is how to guarantee the continuity or sustainability of the program.
Some of the reconstructed schools, particularly those in rural areas, are very poorly maintained and
very dirty; with one school being found to be heavily damaged and partly abandoned. Attention to
maintenance, safety, and cleanliness has not been found to be commonplace among the schools in
urban areas. Improvements could have been made in efforts to activate the functioning of the local
school committees. In fact, local government budget allocated for operational costs for school
maintenance is still very limited. The amount each school receives is calculated according to the
number of students in the school. The schools in rural areas have smaller number of students and will,
consequently, suffer a serious lack of operational budget for the maintenance of their big compounds
and facilities. The evaluators feel the program has not carefully considered this issue from its initiation
and has not logically made a clear differential design between the schools for rural and urban areas.
(8) To certain extent, the program has influenced some significant changes in the internal structure of
local PGRI, especially in four districts, i.e. Aceh Tenggara, Aceh Selatan, Langsa, and Aceh Besar. All of
positions of the board's members of those PGRI are now fully occupied by the local teachers
themselves. No more bureaucrats or politicians who are not teachers or have no background as
teachers, as was the case before. The changes, in turn, have significantly influenced some policies of
local government in education sector, especially in the Aceh Besar District. The officials of the District
Office of Education and the Bupati of Aceh Besar himself have confessed that the program’s
comprehensive approach has motivated them to change and reform some policies of the system of
recruitment, placing, distributing, enforcing discipline, improving professional competencies and welfare
of local teachers. Thanks to the conference on 'Improving the Quality of Education in Aceh' organized by
EI they have been provided them with some ideas to initiate a draft for a new district regulation to put an
additional budget allocation for operational costs of schools in rural areas where there are fewer
students.
GENERAL CONCLUSIONS
Generally, this evaluation concludes that the program has achieved almost all of its objectives in a
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5. relatively efficient, effective manner relevant to the present local demands. Although its volume and
scale is relatively small compared to the real needs for the recovery of local education system in Aceh
as a whole, the results and impacts of program have contributed to the ideas of 'education for all' as part
of global efforts of MDGs at the micro level of local schools and formal education system.
The impressive achievements of this program were made possible in the first place by support from an
extensive network of labour movements of which EI is part. The helpful assistance from ILO and PGRI,
especially in the most crucial time of preparatory phase and the initial planning stage of implementation,
have enabled EI to find trusted and capable local partners, particularly in school reconstruction which is
the most complicated and largest component of the program. In the final stance, the most determinant
factor is the capability of EI Office in Aceh itself to make many necessary adjustments according to the
real situation in the field. To some extent, the strong commitment, long experiences, adequate
knowledge on local environment and community, good communication skills, tough leadership style, and
personal background as a teacher and unionist of the project manager himself, the Coordinator of EI in
Aceh, have also contributed to those achievements.
The comprehensive approach of the program has made its local stakeholders could understand better
the whole ideas and objectives which is, in turn, very helpful to involve their active participation and
appreciation. Unfortunately, in its implementation, that comprehensive conceptualization of project's
design has not been supported with a strong database and information system which made it difficult to
further analyse some specific aspects of the program. The project design did not carefully consider a lot
of differences between rural and urban areas which is crucial to the questions on the sustainability of
the program in the long term.
GENERAL RECOMMENDATIONS
Since the main guarantee of the sustainability of the program primarily depends on the local
government capacities and policies, the most important recommendation is to take some strategic
interventions to effectively influence local policies, especially on the allocation of public expenditures for
the maintenance of school's infrastructures and facilities; for the improvement of school's management,
professional competencies and welfare of school's teachers; and for the more active involvement of
local communities, especially within the school committees.
As a union in education sector, PGRI should take a determinant role to influence local government
policies. In fact, this organisation has not been fully transformed from its past misconduct as a
patriarchal 'pseudo union' dominated by vested interests of bureaucrats and politicians. Internal reform
and strengthening of the PGRI, as well as local school committees, need to be continued in a more
systematic and programmatic approach to make them an integrated part of civil society movement to
enable more effective influencing of local government policies in education sector.
Besides the recommendation for long-term strategic interventions, there are some practical follow up
actions which can be immediately applied. These are: [a] continuing cooperation with some professional
agencies –such as local office of LPMP- to provide regular monitoring, technical assistance, and further
capacity building of local school teachers and headmasters; [b] realizing the plan to establish a Children
Center in one of EI's school in Banda Aceh and, if possible, expanding the idea for two more Centers in
two districts outside Banda Aceh City, i.e. Aceh Besar and Aceh Jaya; [c] continuing to assist all of EI's
schools to develop their own inter-school network for exchanging experiences and best practices in
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6. improving the quality of their educational processes and school management to enable mutual support
for solving their problems given the lack of operational funds; and for mobilizing potential local
resources to develop an alternative scheme of cross-scholarships for their students; and [d] rebuild and
relocate two of badly damaged and poorly located schools (SD Umong Siribee and SD Glee Breuk)
using the present remaining project's fund.
There have been some interesting and unique lessons learned on how to implement humanitarian work
in a post-disaster context, particularly in the reconstruction of education sector in a comprehensive
approach. The evaluators feel it is important to compile them into a book and publish it for the benefits
of concerned individuals and organizations.
Based on those valuable lessons, post-disaster strategic intervention in education sector in Aceh in the
future needs to be more developed and enlarged, not only in infrastructure and in improvement of
micro-pedagogy and micro-management of formal schooling system but also in term to be more
integrated with the need to develop a local community welfare and resiliency system in facing several
hazards potentials.
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