Education Capacity Building

The problem is a substantial intervention program inthe Windward Islands (WI) has gone unevaluated. Aidprograms such as Technical and Vocational EducationTeacher Training (TVETT) go unevaluated because (a)aid agencies' personnel policies preclude hiringlocal people with experience and expertise toevaluate programs and (b) projects are oftenabandoned because (i) another project came on stream(ii) funds and materials were lacking and (c) projectdata arrived too late to conduct an evaluation.The Commonwealth of Learning-supported TVETT projectis a distance education program developed andimplemented in the WI from October 1996 to June 1997.The study found that only St. Lucia participated inall phases of the project. Dominica Grenada and St.Vincent were involved solely in the planning anddevelopment of the technical and vocational teachertraining core curriculum. The study concluded thatthe WI should (a) control the education project cycle(b) procure education services in markets of choice(b) build the capacity to conduct research includingproject and policy evaluation and (c) be transparentin the manner the education ministry interfaces withaid agencies.