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APPRAISAL CONSULTING RV KY
EVALUATION OF THE ROLE AND IMPACT OF THE TwB VOLUNTEERS
Final Evaluation Report
Raisa Venäläinen
22.1.2018
1
Sisällys 1. Teachers without Borders (TwB) ................................................................................................................ 3
2. Purpose, Scope and Methodology of the evaluation................................................................................. 4
2.1. Purpose of the evaluation .................................................................................................................. 4
2.2. Scope and Methodology of the Evaluation ........................................................................................ 4
2.3. Limitations .......................................................................................................................................... 5
3. Background ................................................................................................................................................. 5
3.1.1. Volunteers .................................................................................................................................. 6
3.2.3. Volunteer deployments.................................................................................................................... 8
4. Findings ...................................................................................................................................................... 8
4.1. Relevance ........................................................................................................................................... 8
4.1.1. Alignment of the activities with the TwB mission and vision .................................................... 8
4.1.2. Relevance of the TwB activities to the targeted beneficiaries ................................................ 10
4.2. Effectiveness..................................................................................................................................... 12
4.2.1. Selection process ...................................................................................................................... 12
4.2.2. Achievements ........................................................................................................................... 16
4.2.3. Global Education ...................................................................................................................... 20
4.2.4. Success factors and challenges ................................................................................................ 21
4.2.5. Gender issues ........................................................................................................................... 23
4.2.6. Efficiency .................................................................................................................................. 24
4.3. Impact ............................................................................................................................................... 26
4.4. Sustainability .................................................................................................................................... 27
5. Monitoring ................................................................................................................................................ 29
6. Conclusions and Lessons learned ............................................................................................................. 30
7. Recommendations ................................................................................................................................... 34
Annex 1 Terms of Reference .................................................................................................................... 38
Annex 2 Persons consulted ...................................................................................................................... 45
2
Abbreviations
CAR Central African Republic
CO Country Office CIMO Centre for International Cooperation (CIMO)
EiE Education in Emergencies
FCA Finn Church Aid FNAE Finnish National Agency for Education
FNBE Finnish National Board of Education
MEC Ministry of Education and Culture
MFA Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland
MOHE Ministry of Education and Higher Education, Palestinian Authority
MoEYS Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, Cambodia
OAJ Trade Union of Education in Finland PKO Puthi Komar Organization
PO Partner Organisation
SDG Sustainable Development Goals
ToR Terms of Reference
TwB Teachers without Borders
VoD Vocational Orientation Department of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports
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1. Teachers without Borders (TwB) Teachers without Borders (TwB) is a network for teachers and educational professionals, which offers
opportunities for Finnish teachers and educational professionals to support teachers in developing
countries through volunteering periods of 3-12 months. Through this volunteering the Finnish teachers gain
first-hand experience in development cooperation, to be further utilized in Global Education in Finland.
TwB was established in 2014 to:
• Support the development of the quality of education in the most fragile countries.
• Enhance the Global Education in Finnish schools by developing tools, models, methods and new
materials suitable for everyday school life.
Currently, the TwB network is coordinated by a TwB Coordinator in the Finn Church Aid (FCA). For the first
years there were two coordinators/ account managers. The network has a steering group with members
from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland (MFA), the Finnish National Agency for Education (FNAE),
the Ministry of Education and Culture (MEC), University representatives from Teacher Education
Departments of Oulu and Helsinki University, the Trade Union of Education in Finland (OAJ) and Kepa ry.
Teachers without Borders was introduced in 2012 as a new concept of volunteering that offers Finnish
educational professionals a variety of ways to participate in development work both at home and abroad.
The concept was developed in co-operation with different educational and development partners and
educational professionals. Educational experts participating in domestic activities are also expected to
develop new methods of implementing global education for the needs of the Finnish education system and
the volunteer teachers commit themselves in Global Education activities for the duration of one year after
their volunteer period.
TwB was initially established as a national programme, but so far volunteers have been deployed to mainly
to the FCA funded projects in South-Sudan, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Eritrea, Uganda, Haiti, Central African
Republic, Myanmar, Nepal, Cambodia, and Greece. In 2016 the MFA provided additional funding to Centre
for International Cooperation (CIMO) to manage a “pilot” project. In this pilot, a total number of 17
volunteers (out of 53 applicants) were deployed to various CSO projects managed by Liike, Lasten ja
Nuorten Säätiö, Finnish Special Education in Africa, including FCA funded projects. Till mid 2017, altogether
31 volunteers have been deployed.
The TwB coordinates also other activities such as the World Teacher programme in Kenya and Ghana with
the Dutch organisation Edukans, and the language programme (Suomen kieli sanoo tervetuloa –
kieliopastoiminta), follows up Global Education research, develops materials and tools for Global Education,
and implements fundraising to support education in the developing world. There has been around 20 short
term volunteers yearly (world teachers and others like Lauttasaari Project in Cambodia). These activities are
not included in this evaluation.
4
2. Purpose, Scope and Methodology of the evaluation
2.1. Purpose of the evaluation
The purpose of the evaluation is to assess the role the TwB volunteers in promoting and improving quality
education and the impact of the activities they have undertaken. According to the Terms of Reference (ToR,
Annex 1) the evaluation will:
• Assess the relevance, effectiveness, and efficiency of the volunteer deployments.
• Assess the extent of sustainability attained to date and propose what more needed/needs to be
done to ensure sustainability.
• Determine the impact of the volunteers’ deployment on the related projects, their right holders
and duty bearers
• Identify key lessons learnt and good practices during all the phases of the deployment (from
induction at FCA Head Office to return back from deployment) that can be used in future
deployments
The evaluation assesses how the TwB processes have developed since the inception of the project. It aims
to make context specific recommendations that will provide learning that allows FCA/TwB to better
monitor results and change taken place through TwB work, track the effectiveness of similar volunteer
project interventions, and to develop a framework for planning and evaluating TwB work in future.
2.2. Scope and Methodology of the Evaluation
The evaluation covers period 2014 until July 2017, during which 31 volunteers were deployed. Data was
collected using different methodologies:
Desk study included review of country strategies, project documents, reports and blogs of the volunteers,
as well as other relevant documentation. Online survey was sent to 31 volunteers. Altogether 20 responses
were received, corresponding 65 % response rate. A total number of 44 interviews were conducted (skype
of face to face), including FCA Country Directors, representatives of Partner Organisations (POs),
programme coordinators, regional and thematic advisers, Steering Committee members and volunteers
and other stakeholders. 35 people were involved in group interviews and focus discussions in Cambodia
and Finland. List of persons consulted is annexed in this report (Annex 2).
Field visit To Cambodia was carried out during period 11.-18. November 2017. The field visit included
project site visits (Career Counselling and Dream school project), and stakeholder and beneficiary
interviews in Battambang and Pnom Penh.
In the end of the evaluation process, a focus group discussion was held in Helsinki with eight volunteers to
validate the findings and key conclusions. A draft report was submitted to FCA for comments. After
receiving the comments and presentation the report, the report was finalised. The evaluation process and
data collection is illustrated in the Figure 1 below.
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Figure 1 Evaluation process
2.3. Limitations Overall, the evaluation process went smoothly and no major problems were faced. However, it is important
to note that impact assessment is a challenging task and particularly in this evaluation separating the
volunteer(s)’ impact from the overall project achievements is difficult, or even impossible. Generalisation of
findings related to effectiveness and impact is also challenging because it depends on the environment and
the project where the volunteer works. Therefore, the field mission to Cambodia works only as a snapshot,
and the findings cannot be generalised.
The TwB is a network guided by its vision and mission. It does not have an overall target or strategy against
which the overall achievements of the network could be assessed and evaluated. It also does not work as a
network per se, thus the network evaluation methodologies cannot be applied. In most cases the inputs
and results of the volunteer are not defined in the project’s”theory of change” neither specific targets nor
indicators for the volunteer’s work are set. Therefore, the assessment of effects and impacts of individual
volunteers’ work is based on the perceptions of the individuals rather than pre-defined indicators.
The quality of the volunteers’ end-of deployment reports varied. Some volunteers’ reports were more like
timesheets describing the main activities undertaken while some reports were analytical presentation of
the volunteers’ contributions. The TwB Secretariat did not have comprehensive records about applications,
selection processes and end-of mission discussions.
3. Background Teachers without Borders -initiative was launched in fall 2012 when a number of stakeholders were invited
to discuss the possibility to initiate activities that combine Finnish expertise in education and development
cooperation. The first meeting was attended by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), the Ministry of
Culture and Education (MEC), the Finnish National Board of Education (FNBE, now Finnish National Agency
for Education), Centre for International Mobility and cooperation (CIMO), Trade Union for Education in
Finland (OAJ), the department of teacher education at the Helsinki University and Finn Church Aid (FCA).
• Country programs• Project Documents
• Volunteers' reports
• other relevant documentation
• Cambodia: Education sector related documents
Document review
• FCA/HQ: TwB coordinator, Education thematic advisor, FCA Management
• FCA Country Managers; coordinators
• SC members• Selected Volunteers
• Partner organisations
• Stakeholders
Interviews
• Volunteers
Online survey
• FCA Country Office: management ineviews
• Partner Organisation interviews
• Stakeholder interviews (Education Authorities, community members)
• Beneficiary interviews and focus groups (Career Counsellors, students)Focus groups
Field Mission
• Volunteers • TwB coordinator
Focus group
Draft report → Comments → Final Report
→Presentation →
6
FCA commissioned a background analysis in 20121. The mapping showed that the idea of Teachers without
Borders was well received. It also had a strong policy alignment and it supports the 2010 Finland’s country
brand discussion which emphases the importance of education as means for solving the global challenges:
"Numerous international comparisons have proved that Finnish basic education is world-class. High-quality
and equal education has been at the heart of the success story of Finnish society. Education has given birth
to wellbeing, secured democracy and equalized the differences between regions and social groups. Our
expertise offers Finland an excellent opportunity to help developing countries”
3.1.1. Volunteers
TwB volunteers are educational professionals with a degree in education or other relevant field and
teacher’s pedagogical qualification, with minimum 2 years of relevant work experience. The selection
criteria also include good physical and mental health and strong stress management skills and willingness
and ability to work in challenging situations.
Among the survey respondents2, one third of the volunteer teachers had 0 -5 years of working experience
and similarly, one third had more than 21 years of experience, including working as a teacher, school
principal, counsellor and teacher trainee at primary school, secondary school (subject teacher, counsellor)
and VET-schools. The volunteers come from different parts of Finland, though majority of them are from
the capital area (In the last 2017 application round 41% of applicants come from capital area).
Figure 2 Work Experience of the Volunteers
According to the results of the on-line survey, half of the volunteers have previous experience in
development cooperation ranging from internships to several years of work as a volunteer or education
expert in CSO projects. One respondent had taken part in the FCA basic roster training, which FCA has
established for professionals available for missions in crisis areas3.
Summary data on applications and approvals is not available. The Table 1 below is constructed from data
received from the TwB secretariat. It shows that the number of applications has increased from the first
1 Almgren Anssi and Minna Hietamäki (2012) Opettajat ilman rajoja Selvitys aloitteen taustasta, osallistujatahojen odotuksista ja jatkotoimen-
piteiden mahdollisuuksista 2 Statistics about applicants are not available and these data is based on the survey responses. 3 The Roster members are experts of humanitarian aid or professionals of various fields such as education, livelihood, construction and logistics.
They are qualified to do needs assessments in disaster areas as well as plan, coordinate and supervise implementation of relief operations. They
provide professional support to FCA and local actors in, for example, school (re)construction in disaster settings and in restarting and developing
educational activities.
0 2 4 6 8
0-5 years
6-10 years
11-15 years
16-20 years
more than 21 years
years
Responses, total 20
7
years. In 2016 there was an increase in number of applications as the 2015 application round was
combined with the pilot project managed by CIMO.
In 2014 and 2015 approximately half of the applicants were selected. In 2017, volunteers were selected to
Greece and Eritrea through a separate application process. A volunteer, who had been engaged in Career
Counselling project earlier, was sent to Cambodia to support the national trainers and carry out a training
of new counsellors without an application process. Overall, majority of applicants are female.
Table 1 Number of TwB applications and approvals by gender
YEAR
Number of applications
Selected Total Female (F) Male (M) 2013 15 11 (73%) 4 (27%) 2016 314 Includes second application round of 2015.
2017 13 10 3 F5/M1; 46 % selected
53 36 (68%) 17(32%) 17; 32% selected
46 41 (89%) 5 Not yet available
Source: FCA/ TwB December 2017
Some volunteers have applied and have been selected for volunteer posts for several times. In the most
recent application round (2017) there were 10 persons (out of 46) who applied for second time. The
TwB/FCA has made a decision in principles that two volunteer rounds should be a maximum for one
person.
The Table 2 presents the number of volunteers by country by year. In some countries (such as Eritrea),
projects are run and they depend on the inputs of volunteer teachers; for some projects volunteer teachers
is an added value, complementary activity or instrument to achieve the project objective.
Table 2 Volunteers by country 2014 - 2017
Country 2014 2015 2016 2017 Total
Cambodia 3 5 5 3 10
Central African Republic (CAR) 1 1
Eritrea 2 2 6 10
Greece 2 2 4
Haiti 1 1
Liberia 1 1
Myanmar 2 1 3
Nepal 4 1 5
South Sudan5 1 1
Sierra Leone 1 1
Uganda 4 1 6 11
4 First application round in 2015 received 12 applications; 92 % (11, one male selected); second application round received 19 applications, no data
available about selection. 5 Since the security situation deteriorated the volunteer was relocated to Uganda in the beginning of 2015.
8
3.2.3. Volunteer deployments
According to the responses received from the volunteers, they have been placed in different types of
organisations and projects. Volunteers are posted to projects implemented by the FCA Country Office (e.g.
Cambodia Career Counselling, SCORE project financed by UNICEF) and projects implemented by Partner
organisations (e.g. PKO in Cambodia, RACOBAB in Uganda; UCEP (Underprivileged children’s educational
programs) in Nepal). Few Volunteers posted to Education Ministry or central education agency (e.g. Central
African Republic)6:
a) Ministry of Education Central (1 person)
b) Ministry of Education Provincial/ District (1 person)
c) Teacher Training Institutions (3 persons)
d) NGO/ CSO (4 persons)
e) FCA Country Office (5 persons, including a UNICEF funded project)
f) Part time FCA Office/ CSO project (6 persons)
So far, volunteers have not been posted to organisations which are not directly engaged in FCA projects.
4. Findings
4.1. Relevance
4.1.1. Alignment of the activities with the TwB mission and vision
Overall, TwB fills the gap of volunteering and experience exchange programmes in Finland. Over the years
Finland has supported different volunteer programmes. For instance, in 1990s’ the development worker
programme managed by Kepa ry (till mid 90’s called Finnish Volunteer Service FVS) deployed 50 – 80
professionals annually to Zambia, Mozambique and Nicaragua. This programme was closed in 1998. A
Finnish Volunteer Programme ETVO was set up in mid 90s’ as a response to an increasing number of
enquiries about possibilities for voluntary services in the southern countries. This programme was closed in
2016. The North-South-South programme provided experience exchange at Higher Education level. It was
also closed in 2016. Each year the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs also funds junior experts taking up
international assignments via the UN Junior Professional Officers (JPO) and the UN Volunteers (UNV)
programmes. JPOs are usually posted to UN organisations such as UNICEF and UNESCO. These volunteer
6 Data refer to online survey responses only.
TwB’s Vision TWB is a leading actor in enabling international volunteering and global citizenship education and training in Finland. High quality educational expertise and development co-operation in education sector helps generations of youth exit poverty especially in vulnerable situations. The role of Finland as a global education sector’s development actor is strengthened. TwB’s Mission The sharing of knowledge and skills of Finnish teachers improves the quality of education in developing countries. Education professionals participate the development work and support the Finnish people to grow as active, responsible
world citizens.
9
programmes aim at influencing the development challenges and strengthening the Finnish human capital
and resource base on development issues.
TwB provides opportunities to Finnish educationalists to get experience in development work.
Opportunities for such experience are scarce, as a result of closing the volunteer programmes and because
Finland is less engaged in bilateral projects which deploy education experts. Some civil society
organisations have initiated their own programmes such as Global Grant initiative by the Rotary
association, which provides 12 Finnish and Namibian teachers an opportunity for experience exchange.
Compared to its original vision of being a national platform, the scope of the TwB programme is still
limited. It has not received its purpose as a national platform as indicated in its vision and mission
statement because education experts who have received their training in Finland have been deployed to
FCA funded projects only (with the exception of the 2016 pilot, when CIMO was engaged in managing the
programme with additional funding from the MFA). Deploying volunteers in projects addressing quality
challenges at ground level, however, is a relevant approach and aligned with the network’s purpose of
supporting teachers in their work.
With regards to FCA strategies, the role of TwB is not clearly spelled out. Though the review of the FCA’s
country programmes shows that TwB is increasingly mentioned as an input or instrument for addressing
the education quality issues, the volunteer teachers expected input or added value is not fully integrated in
the programme’s or project’s Theory of Change (ToC) and monitoring systems. Furthermore, the actual
needs of the teachers and quality challenges are not properly analysed in the programme/ project designs
which makes it difficult to target the volunteers' support. This analysis at the project formulation phase
and as a foundation for volunteer’s work is an essential so that targeted support can be planned for.
In Finland, there are many actors involved in Global Education7 but few of them have expertise on the
Finnish curriculum framework and pedagogy. The TwB volunteers know the curriculum framework which
enables them to link development aspects with the curriculum contents and for instance on the
“phenomena”-based approach introduced in the last Finnish curricula. The volunteer teachers could also
bring in concrete, up-to date and relevant information about emerging situations in the global world to
their peers and students, and their experience would also be very valuable for instance in the textbook and
educational material development. Their experience could also be useful in teacher pre-service. The
relevance of the TwB in the Global Education arena may even be more important in the future as the
national coordination of Global Education will become the responsibility of the National Education Agency
(formerly National Board of Education).
At the moment due to resources, Global education has been put clearly as a secondary priority in TWB,
meaning that TwB has participated in a common NGO project titled “Koulu maailmaa muuttamaan” led by
Kepa.
In summary, volunteer activities are aligned with the TwB’s mission. The TwB is a relevant instrument to
support the FCA funded projects but focusing only on FCA funded projects is a narrow focus compared to
the vision of the network. The potential of the TwB in promoting Global Education has not been fully
utilised.
7 see e.g. http://www.globaalikasvatus.fi/verkosto/kulttuurikasvatus
10
4.1.2. Relevance of the TwB activities to the targeted beneficiaries
Supporting teachers is one of the key measures for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
and for the improvement of the quality of education. Teachers with limited pedagogical and substance
knowledge and with limited motivation is reality in many countries, as pointed out in the recent World
Development report “Learning to Realize Education’s promise” (2017) “one of the main challenges of the
education system is that teachers often lack the skills or motivation to be effective8. There is also an
increasing understanding among education community that more direct support to the operational level
(districts, regions, schools) of the education system is needed to make the policies reality, particularly in
countries where policies and regional disparities exist.
Volunteer teachers have been posted to FCA managed projects (with an exception of the pilot managed by
CIMO in 2016), which aim at developing models and practises for improving quality of education. The key
measures have been training of teachers and supporting them in taking the new methodologies into
practise. Also a holistic school level development has applied. According to the research it has appeared to
be one of the most effective measure for improving learning outcomes and teacher professionalism. Some
projects supported by volunteers also aim at building the capacities of the teacher trainers in pre-service
institutions (e.g. Eritrea, CAR).
The needs of the beneficiaries are identified – at least in principle – during the project identification and
formulation stage. However, the review of the FCA’s country programmes and project plans indicate that
this analysis is not included in the project documents, neither in the Terms of References (ToR) of the
volunteers. This analysis is essential because quality challenges differ by country and between the regions
of one particular country. Also, an analysis of teachers’ competencies is of utmost importance as “one size
does not fit all” and this information is needed to tailor and target the capacity building to the capacity
gaps.
For instance, in some countries teachers may lack substance (subject) knowledge and pedagogical
orientation, as after the introduction of free basic education, more children were enrolled in school and any
countries had to recruit non-qualified teachers to fill in the teacher gap. Also trained teachers may have
gaps in their competencies; in many countries initial teacher training focuses on subject knowledge and less
attention is given to pedagogies. Teacher trainers themselves also lack experience on how to transform e.g.
the principles of student-cantered learning into practise. In many countries, significant efforts are made to
increase awareness on inclusive education but practises are yet to be developed. Overall, less attention is
given to the monitoring of the processes and classroom practises where the quality improvement should
take place and where the support should be targeted to.
Because teachers’ competencies and capacity building needs were not assessed at the project formulation
phase, some volunteers tried to conduct a training needs assessment by themselves in the beginning of
their deployment period. The low level of teachers’ competencies was surprising:
“-- we tried to ask from the local teachers what kind of training they needed or wanted, but I
got the feeling that they didn't have any realistic opinions about that. I mean, it felt like they
didn't even know what they could be trained for, what kind of skills they could have or what
kind of knowledge they were lacking of. And probably that's the reality; they didn't know
8 World Bank (2018) World Development Report. Learning to Realize Education’s promise. International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank
11
what they didn't know. I hope we opened their eyes for new possibilities and gave them new
ideas and new urge to be trained for different things”.
“--- I realised it just during the training, also the fact that I should have checked their level of
comprehension better, especially about the basic ideas of the exercises. There were moments
during the training when the trainer seemed to be a bit “lost”, and I had to interfere to
specify something. So, the preparation was not quite adequate.”
There volunteers also noted that there was a huge professional difference between the teachers who
attended the trainings. For instance in Greece, where the group of trainees consisted of trained teachers
and the community teachers who did not have any educational background or training.
Relevant topics and themes were selected for teacher training activities such as inclusive education,
positive discipline and child-centred teaching. In many countries these are the guiding principles and
policies of the education sector, but practical implementation is still far from reality. Also, positive discipline
is a theme which is never addressed enough. In Sierra Leone, an important topic of lesson planning was
practised in a workshop of tutors. Lesson plan is also an important but too often forgotten tool for effective
instruction. It can be used for ensuring that sufficient time is allocated for student activities.
Some Partner Organisations (POs) and beneficiaries noted that more localised approach would have been
needed. For instance, the child-centred and inclusive pedagogies are relevant for the teachers globally, but
the teachers need concrete measures on how to apply them in large classrooms with 70 – 100 children.
This need for more customised and localised approach was verified also during the field mission in
Cambodia. The Career Guidance training manual has limited links with the local environment. It also
provides limited support to the career counsellors to establish links with local business, which is one of the
key objectives of this subject. Also though the manual introduced how to set targets for different grade
levels, the Career Counsellors need more specific guidance on how to build the targets on the previous
knowledge and skills in a constructive manner and how to adapt the contents to the certain age groups. If
there is a plan to disseminate the manual broader, it is essential to adapt the manual with the
competencies of the teachers and to match different realities and environments in Cambodia.
Training workshop alone does not guarantee changes in the classroom practises. In order to support the
teachers to implement the new skills and methodologies in the practise, some volunteers followed-up
support and provided mentoring to teachers after training workshops. This is in line with the principles of
effective professional development (see for instance OECD 2009). Effective teacher professional
development includes training, practice and feedback, and provides adequate time and follow-up support,
and encourages the development of teachers’ learning communities.
According to the many survey results, working at the school and supporting teachers to share their
expertise and experience appears to be among the most successful measures to improve education quality.
It is more and more evident that conducting traditional training workshops is an insufficient measure to
make a change in the classrooms, but it needs to be supported (or in some cases replaced) with concrete
school level interventions, mentoring and on-the –job support.
Many informants noted that some training topics could have been delivered by local experts. However, the
richness of methodologies used by volunteers was one of the added values of the trainings. Teacher
12
volunteers involved trainees in learning activities that are similar to ones they should use with their
students. The critical issue, however, is how to transfer them into the classrooms.
The Finnish teachers have competencies, which are highly needed in developing countries and fragile
contexts. Whereas teacher education in developing countries focuses on subject knowledge, in Finland
teacher preparation aims at equipping teachers with understanding of the teaching and learning processes
and building the professional identity as a teacher and learning facilitator. Finnish teachers are trained to
focus on learning, they are goal-oriented and they have a vision of school development and high-quality
teaching, and moreover, they are able to work collaboratively with other teachers towards those goals.
These competencies and way of work are difficult to transfer by traditional training workshops, but they
can be learned through working together.
4.2. Effectiveness
4.2.1. Selection process
The selection process is managed by the TwB coordinator and it includes development of the Terms of
Reference (ToR), call for applications (announced twice a year usually in March and December), first
interviews by the TwB Coordinator and the FCA Head Office and second interview by the Country
Office/Country Director. COs neither POs see the applications and they do not participate in the pre-
selection. Sometimes there is possibility to offer many candidates for all countries, sometimes not.
The applicants can apply for three places at the same time. It has been a common practise that the
volunteers take an orientation course first after which the placement is confirmed.
Terms of Reference
The need for the volunteer teacher is usually identified by the FCA Country Office, but as indicated earlier in
this report, volunteer inputs are not systematically included in the country programme plans or project’s
“theory of change”. On the other hand, it was also learned that binding certain project outputs to
volunteer’s deployment may be risky, as delays in deployment influence the entire project performance.
The process of drafting the Terms of Reference (ToR) for the volunteer differs and has evolved over years.
Sometimes the ToRs are developed together with the country office (normally the first ones for the
country) and sometimes they are drafted in co-operation with the Desk Officer (DO), depending on the
work load of the DOs. In Cambodia, the ToR is developed together with partner organisations and FCA CO.
The general conclusion is that over the years the partner organizations have not been systematically
engaged in the development of the ToRs but they have been given an opportunity to comment them, and
in the latest recruitments, the partners have also been given more responsibility to draft the ToR.
In the early years, the ToRs were very generic and broad looking for a “multitasking heros”, because it was
anticipated that this would attract more teachers to apply. For instance, the volunteer in Cambodia was
expected to perform “strategic technical guidance, leadership and coordination of the work between
departments, ministries, ensuring common understanding of Career Guidance concepts at national/sector
level, building capacity of national staff from the ministries and schools, supporting to organize the teacher
trainings of how to use career guidance in their work taking into consideration gender and social inclusion
of disadvantaged and marginalized groups and provide technical guidance/support on the development of
the national core curriculum and its implementation in national and subnational levels, develop further
13
tools and material for career guidance and counselling practice including innovation and use of technology,
contribute to developing an M&E tool/plan to follow up on the implementation, participate in technical
working groups as designated focal points from respective departments as required”. Reading this ToR
generates an image that a superhero is sought for and might reduce the number of applicants.
In the most recent recruitment rounds the ToRs have become more specific and targeted. For instance a
targeted selection process was conducted for arts and music teachers for Eritrea in 2017.
The ToRs do not provide a proper picture about the working environment and issues to be addressed by
the volunteer. For instance, most of the ToRs do not describe the purpose of the project to which the
volunteer would be posted. Similarly, description of the previous volunteers’ work and achievements would
also support the continuity and coherence of individual volunteers’ work. Also, as indicated above, a
description of teacher competencies and development needs would help the potential candidate to assess
whether they are suitable to this job, what they have to offer and furthermore, it would guide the
orientation, work planning and performance assessment. These aspect is also missing from the new
“Guidelines and Practices for Successful Volunteer Management in the FCA Country Offices” prepared by
the FCA.
Interviews
The interview process is two-step. TwB Coordinator and HQ select the candidates for the first round of
interviews. In the first round, the TwB coordinator (and FCA representative) interviews the applicants. They
select the best ones for the Country Office (CO) for a second round of interview. In the second stage, the
Country Director or equivalent of the destination country interviews the applicants through Skype and
makes the final decision on voluntary selection. The Partner Organisations have not been systematically
engaged in the interviews at the pre-selection phase. Sometimes they have been involved e.g. to assess
the volunteer’s language capacity.
Orientation
Volunteers who have completed the first round interviews will take part in a two-day orientation course in
January and April. The two-day orientation presents the FCA operations and working principles and
includes lectures on stress management, development cooperation and cultural awareness. Each volunteer
also studies the electronic learning material for safety training and makes an electrical test related to safety
issues. Orientation also includes a briefing with the Desk Officer to discuss the country and project specific
issues. It time allows, a meeting with the Education Adviser is organised to discuss the FCA’s education
sector strategies.
The survey responses and interviews indicate that volunteers have received a good understanding about
FCA’s work but that they would need better understanding about the education challenges in the specific
country and about the principles of aid effectiveness such as ownership and participation. For instance, the
application of Human Rights Based Approach (HRBA) would entail using participatory approaches but it was
learned that the volunteers initiated the themes for the trainings and developed the training materials
mostly by themselves. Furthermore, the volunteers did not receive proper orientation to gender issues and
other crosscutting objectives.
Many volunteers had previous experience in development work and would have benefitted from different
topics than the novice volunteers. Thus, it would be necessary to tailor the programme to respond to the
14
needs of the volunteers. This could be done in modular form of orientation which would also provide an
opportunity to link the orientation with the basic Roster training, which was found very useful.
The mostly commonly heard complaint was that the volunteers did not know their target country and post
by the time of the orientation course. Knowing this would help the volunteer to orient herself/ himself and
it would reduce the time needed in orientation on the ground. Knowing the post would also help the
volunteer to orient his/her learning and linking the information to their expectations and new working
environment.
In-country orientation
The in-country orientation differs by country and by the Partner Organisation (PO). Some PO who have
experience with volunteer programmes have developed packages to orient the volunteers, including an
education sector overview. In Eritrea, the country orientation includes signing a Memorandum of
Understanding in the beginning of the voluntary period which should clarify the expectations and job
description.
Overall, the feedback from the volunteers indicates that orientation could be more structured. There was
some confusion about the work planning of the volunteers and in some cases, the volunteers never had a
proper job description or they had to develop it by themselves. There were expectations that FCA would
guide the volunteers in planning the work as the volunteers were posted to support the implementation of
the FCA funded project.
On arrival, there was no structured induction to the work. I think that both FCA induction and induction by the local partner institution would be necessary. It’s challenging to start working in a setting without any ready-planned assignment to start with. Soon after I started working I realized that I need to manage myself. The only piece of advice I received was:” You can look and walk around, you have your responsibilities, let´s see what is going to happen”. So, I took the responsibilities in my own hands and I concentrated to those areas, which fit to my knowledge and knowhow. I made my own plan and worked intensely and independently. I have been very self-imposed in my work.
Building a “one size fits all” –orientation is difficult because volunteers have different kinds of expectations.
Some volunteers wanted to have concrete guidance about bargaining in the market, about buying food in
the street-kitchens; some wanted language lessons whereas some volunteers wanted to have more
information about the country, the cultural aspects and traditions, about the religion, about the business
etiquette, about the challenges in development, and major players in development co-operation.
“I noticed during my stay, religion / philosophies have great impact on education. During the
orientation in the target country it would be useful to have country specific information on
the topic, organized visit to a temple and practical information on the consequences in the
society. “
Volunteers also reported that the overall picture about FCA operations and the project remained unclear
during orientation: “While the staff members introduced what each of them was doing, the country
programmes / projects remained quite unclear”.
15
Volunteers posted to fragile contexts would have needed a better understanding about the education
challenges and the working environment. For instance, in humanitarian aid context and refugee camps,
there are certain rules and protocols that need to be followed up. Similarly, more information should be
given (and included in the project documents) about other interventions and stakeholders. For instance,
the volunteers in Cambodia were not aware of the School Dropout Prevention Pilot programme
implemented by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport and financed by USAID which targeted grades
7, 8, and 9 in six provinces, including Battambang. This intervention developed an Early Warning System
with related materials for identification of students in risk of dropout in 2012. 9 This analysis should be part
of the project preparation (stakeholder analysis) and volunteers should also be encouraged to find
coherence and complementarity with other actors.
The Box 1 summarises the perceptions of the volunteers about the orientation phase. In general, these
perceptions are similar with the perceptions of the COs and POs with one exception. The POs considered
that whereas the volunteers were mentally prepared to development context, they had limited information
about the reality on the ground. This was also verified by the analysis of the volunteers’ reports as many of
them indicated mismatch between the expectations and reality for instance when the capacities of the
teachers was concerned.
Box 1 Volunteers perception on the deployment preparation
The orientation course in Finland provided sufficient information about FCA work and objectives
80 % of the respondents considered that the orientation course in Finland provided sufficient information about FCA’s work. However, they had limited information about the projects they were posted to. Core principles of FCA’s work such as Human Rights Based Approach and gender equity remained unclear.
The orientation course in Finland provided sufficient information about education challenges in developing countries
Majority of the respondents (75 %) considered that they had received sufficient information about the overall education challenges in developing countries during the orientation course in Finland, but they lacked the “big picture” about education sector development plans, strategies and stakeholders in their target country.
The orientation course in Finland prepared me well to my deployment.
55% of the respondents considered that the
orientation course prepared them well for the deployment, while another half considered that more should have been done to give country/ post specific information. The respondents did not know about their future post or projects where they would work at the time of orientation course.
9 http://schooldropoutprevention.com/country-data-activities/cambodia/; https://sdpp.creativeu.com/en
Do not know 5% (1)
Disagree to some extent 15% (3)
Agree to some extent 45 % (9)
Stongly agree 35% (7)
Do not know 10% (2)
Disagree 5% (1)
Disagree to some extent 10% (2)
Agree to some extent 55 % (11)
Stongly agree 20% (4)
Do not know 5% (2)
Disagree 20% (4)
Disagree to some extent 20% (4)
Agree to some extent 40 % (8)
Stongly agree 15% (3)
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Upon arival in the country, I received sufficient support and oriantation from the FCA country office.
Majority of the volunteers considered that they had received sufficient orientation and support from the CO. The expectations differ: some volunteers wanted to have more information about the culture while others were more oriented to the education context. The overall purpose of the FCA supported project and the volunteers’ contribution to the project remained unclear to many volunteers.
Logistics, Housing and travel went smoothly
In general, there were no major complaints about the logistics. The volunteers were provided with the necessary tools and a local SIM card at the field office. The volunteers were expected to bring their own laptop, unless the office offers a computer for volunteer use.
4.2.2. Achievements
Volunteers were engaged in developing the teacher capacities in the target schools of the FCA projects.
This included development of training materials and study guides, conducting teacher training workshops
as well as mentoring and follow-up. The training workshops dealt with e.g. child-centred learning, inclusive
education and positive discipline.
Majority of the volunteers reported that successful delivery of planned workshops was the main
achievement of their work. Though logistics were sometimes challenging, the trainings achieved their
results and volunteers consider that they have succeeded in raising the awareness e.g. related to students'
learning difficulties and different learning styles, pupil centred teaching and learning. None of the
volunteers referred this achievement clearly as a contribution to the project objective. Positive feedback was
given about trainings.
Some volunteers conducted follow-up and tutoring visits to schools and reported that the trainees have
taken the new methodologies and materials into. For instance the volunteer of the Dream school project in
Cambodia reported that “all the self-made teaching materials and equipment had been used a lot”. On the
other hand, some volunteers and POs have doubts whether the skills actually are taken into use. It is
challenging indeed and takes time. Some informants consider that application of the new skills does not
take place because the over-crowded curriculums do not allow application of new methodologies which
might take longer time than simple “chalk-and talk” –method. Therefore, if the trainings contents are
closely linked with the curriculum content, the stronger is the likelihood of application.
Assessments of the actual outcomes of the volunteers’ work is difficult because their reports neither the
Country Programme/ Project reports do not include information about the specific outputs or
achievements and the volunteers’ reports are more description of the activities rather than analysis of their
outcomes and impacts. Some final reports are more like time sheets. Only few reports contain an in-depth
analysis of the achievements. Generally, these reports do not include quantitative or qualitative data e.g.
on the number of teachers trained or other outputs delivered, thus it is not possible to assess the overall
achievements, scope and coverage of TwB work.
Do not know 0% (9)
Disagree 5% (1)
Disagree to some extent 10% (2)
Agree to some extent 50 % (10)
Stongly agree 35% (7)
Do not know 0% (0)
Disagree 10% (2)
Disagree to some extent 10% (2)
Agree to some extent 25 % (5)
Stongly agree 55% (11)
17
Some country programme reports acknowledge the input of the volunteer. For instance the Uganda Annual
Report 2016 indicates that “there was a remarkable increase in the number of teachers trained 360
Teachers (200M, 160F) were trained in 2016 compared to 67 teachers in 2015) was made possible by the
presence of one volunteer who also conducted 14 training sessions for both teachers and local education
authorities”. This kind of information is not found in all Annual Reports.
In Myanmar, the FCA funded project conducted two capacity building training courses for the study guides
in collaboration with two different organizations – the Third Story Project and Teachers without Boarders
(TwB). While, training on story telling by Third Story was provided to 21 ECCD and study guides teachers
(90% women) in Northern Shan, 68 study guide teachers from Northern Shan received three-month
teachers’ training by two teachers from TwB. The CO reports that through the training, the study guide
teachers have a better understanding of appropriate teaching methods for different levels of students,
including ways to help students to focus on their studies, value the importance of education, and behave
without corporal punishment.
In Eritrea and Central African Republic (CAR) teacher volunteers were engaged in development of initial
teacher training (pre-service training). In CAR, a volunteer worked in the central institute responsible for
teacher preparation in in Ministry of Education INRAP (Institute National de Recherche et d'Animation
Pédagogiques).
In Eritrea volunteer teachers have revised the teacher training curriculum in the Asmara Community
College of Education (ACCE), and they have introduced new teaching and learning methodologies (e.g.
student cantered approach, research in education, station working etc.) and enhanced research capacity of
the teacher trainers of the ACCE (action research, publications writing, use of audio-visual research
methodology). In addition, this project which was initiated by the TwB volunteers has supported the
establishment of a new Alternative Teacher Training Programme (ATTP), a programme combining the last
two years of high school with teacher training with an aim of developing more attractive educational paths
for Eritrean youth.
In Liberia, Sierra Leone and Haiti volunteers were engaged in training teachers and supporting the FCA
projects. In Greece the volunteers trained the Greek and community (refugee) teachers who worked with
the refugee children on various sites in Thessaloniki, Ioannina and Athens area. They also wrote a Life Skills
curriculum to support Greek and refugee teachers’ work with refugee children and adolescents in the
refugee sites in Greece. In Nepal, the first volunteer was engaged in conducting student assessment, in
Sano Thimi Technical School, building the capacity of the teachers on “learner centered approach” 10and
the local NGO who was implementing the FCA funded project.
In Cambodia, a TwB volunteer worked with FCA partner organization PKO on planning the project including
environmental protection and school infrastructure design for a Dream school project and two more TwB
volunteers built capacity on school management and on teachers’ and principals’ pedagogical skills in target
schools. Volunteers have also paid visits to the Regional Teacher training Institutes (RTTIs) to establish a
system for teaching practise in those model schools.
Volunteers have also been engaged in the FCA project or formulation of funding proposals, including
“everything from the initial meetings with the stakeholders, coordinating with the DEO's office about
10 based and modifying material developed by another volunteer
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selection of schools, school visits, planning of workshops for teachers, both developing the material and
making sure the logistics were handled”. The volunteers reported that “Making the application was a very
enlightening process. It was interesting to learn what needs to be included in the project proposal and how
to budget the project.” Volunteers were also used by the COs to organisation of education activities and
preparations of study visits and mission programmes. Because the volunteers are engaged in project work
overall and in project formulation the orientation could include a brief introduction to basic principles of
Project Cycle Management.
The field visit was done to Cambodia and the findings of the volunteers’ input to Career Counselling project are highlighted in the Box 2 below. Box 2 Volunteer inputs to Career Counselling project in Cambodia
Developing career counselling and guidance in Battambang province (project 11534) In 2014, the first teacher volunteer was deployed to develop a career guidance curriculum framework. He worked with the technical working group of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MoEYS). The second teacher volunteer was engaged in development of a training programme and training material for Career Counsellor’s pilot training and to deliver a seven moth’s career counsellor’s pilot training course in 2015. This course consisted of contact and distance learning and mentoring support by volunteers. The participants were 10 teachers from 4 lower secondary and 1 upper secondary schools in Battambang province. Also some education authorities took part in this course. The pilot programme was evaluated by a third volunteer. It is unclear how the evaluation findings were used for the modification of the training content or approach. In 2016, a volunteer was deployed to provide additional training on counselling and blog writing and fifth volunteer supported organisation of the Finnish Education Forum together with FCA staff and production of a radio programme on career counselling and guidance. She also delivered some short workshops on her area of expertise. A sixth volunteer drafted Education Sector Assessment for FCA. The Career Guidance and Counseling manual was published at the Finnish Education Forum in October 2016 after some difficulties of communication over its contents with MoEYS. The manual is available in English and Khmer and copies have been distributed to relevant stakeholders. In 2016 a Training of Trainers course was organized in 2016 in collaboration with Vocational Orientation Department of the MoEYS. The training was planned and coordinated by FCA’s Technical Advisor, who was the head trainer of the training. Other thematic topic sessions were conducted by two Teachers without Borders (TWB) volunteers, who worked together to give the trainees a practical example of pair teaching. In addition, a TWB volunteer was responsible for one thematic topic. There were 14 trainees in total participating the training: 11 career counselors from FCA’s pilot secondary schools in Battambang, a representative from local District office of Education, a representative from partner organization (Puthi Komar Organization, PKO), and one official from Vocational Orientation Department of the MoEYS.
A second cadre of Career Counsellors was trained in 2017. The Pilot Group of Career Counsellors were engaged as trainers, facilitated by the Finnish volunteers.
The relevance of the Career Counselling project, which was initiated by the TwB volunteers, is high. Career
counselling is included in the Life Skills curriculum but is not yet conceptualised and “rooted” in the system.
FCA responded to this with the Finnish expertise. Volunteers have made career counselling visible and
trained a cadre of career counsellors. Volunteers in Cambodia have played a key role to achievement of the
results and objectives set for the Country Programme. However, more work is needed to upstream the
programme and localise it with local contexts.
As a result of the trainings delivered by the volunteers (and the pilot group) there are nearly 40 Career
Counsellors in the Battambang province. Overall, the trainees give positive feedback from the trainings and
the materials are taken into use. Particularly the interactive training methodologies were appreciated and
the trainees could name methodologies such as world cafe, but also told that so far they have not applied
them in the classrooms.
19
The focus groups with 7th, 8th and 9th grade students showed that the students have learned about the
value of education and they have been taught how to set their own objectives. However, their knowledge
about local employment market and career paths is still limited. When asked professions which they see in
their nearby environment they were able to mention some such as doctor, teachers, policy or fishermen
and moto-repairer, but none of them mentioned professions such as accountant, secretary, etc.
Up-to-date data on the Career Counsellors work was not available. According to the FCA documentation,
Career Counsellors work has led to significant achievements in reduction of dropouts in the target
schools11. However, the focus groups with the first group Career Counsellors was not able to provide data
on drop-outs at all, but the Career Counsellors reported about success stories on how they have managed
to counsel students who already have dropped out to take part time programmes or continue in vocational
stream. It is also unclear to what extent the reduction of drop-out actually can be attributed to the Career
Counsellors work as there are several other factors influencing it.
The Career Counsellors neither the District Education Office was able to provide follow-up data of Career
Counsellors’ work in 2017. The data provided to the evaluation of the Pilot programme (Timonen 2015)
indicates that during the period February to July (excl. May) 2015 the first group of Career Counsellors had
conducted 42 – 70 classroom guidance sessions reaching 806-2180 students, and individual counselling for
285 students. The Career Counsellors neither the District Education Office was able to provide similar
follow-up data from 2017. This indicates that proper monitoring systems are not in place.
The Career Counsellors of the pilot group show professional self-esteem and they can work as a team. They
also informed that most of them work in an enabling environment with support from the principal.
However, more awareness and advocacy is needed with the school and in the community to understand
the benefits of career counselling and counselling in general. It also seems that the concept of Career
Counselling is mixed with counselling.
The new group of Career Counsellors trained in 2017 provided some concrete suggestions for the further
development of the training content. For instance, the manual should give more concrete guidance on how
to set specific targets to various grade levels. Also, there is a need to review the training material based on
the local contexts and to clarify the concept of Career Counselling compared to counselling and align the
approach better with the Moseys Action Plan 2014, which introduces Career Counselling as part of Life
Skills as follows:
“Life Skills studies is a flexible resource (2 – 5 weekly hours) that offers many possibilities for
locally/regionally-focused course contents for implementation (learning knowledge and
skills that have career guidance aspects through various student-centred and small group
projects, entrepreneurial, working life experiences, and anti-corruption measures).
With regards to sustainability, more work is needed with relevant MOEYS’s Departments. The Curriculum
Development Department of MOEYS was aware of the project but the curriculum developers and textbook
11 Among the five pilot schools, four lower secondary schools had a total of 2,113 students in 2015 with dropout rate 9% (191 students). In 2016 there was a total of 1,888 students and a decreased dropout of 7% (136 students). At the same time, one upper secondary in 2015 had total of 877 students with 38 dropout students (4.3%), but in 2016 a total of 984 students and a decreased dropout rate of 19 students (1.93%). Cambodia Country programme Annual report 2016)
20
producers would need assistance and advice on how to integrate Career Counselling aspects and methods
in the text books. This is the momentum, as the curriculum standards have been approved in 2017 and
textbook production will start during 2018. As part of the teacher education reform the Regional Teacher
Training Institute (RTTI) in Battambang is now beginning a new four year Bachelor level teacher training
programme, which would allow integration of the Career Counselling aspects in the teacher training
programmes and/ or as an optional subject. Also the Dream school project should be actively engaged in
the development of teaching practises. This is the momentum for the FCA Country to analyse how to
engage volunteers or consultants to advocate and support the integration of the Career Counselling in
these processes.
It seems that more guidance and oversight is needed to ensure coherence and complementarity of
volunteers’ work. FCA Country Office and also volunteers themselves should more study the work by the
stakeholders and communicate and coordinate with other actors. For instance, the volunteers neither CO
were familiar with the Career Guidance materials prepared by Save the Children and USAID Drop-out
prevention programme in Cambodia. The rapid review of the manuals shows that the material prepared by
the TwB volunteers contains less practical information for the teachers to see “early warning signs” to
identify students in risk of dropout compared to for instance to a manual developed by the USAID. The
manual developed by the Save the Children puts more focus on employability skills. 12 Similar lack of
stakeholder analysis is reflected in the volunteers’ work in Nepal, where the volunteers in Nepal were not
aware of the MFA supported bilateral Soft Skills project in the Ministry of Education which supports the
development of Life Skills (Soft Skills) curricula, with an aim of promoting employability skills of secondary
school students in accordance with the Education Sector Plan.
One of the successes of the Career Counselling project is that there is very strong ownership from the
Vocational Orientation Department of the Ministry of Education Youth and Sports (VOD/MoEYS). In 2016
the VOD/MoEYS for the first time invested a small amount of its own funds to organise the master training
of the career counsellors. In 2017 MoEYS funded the training of the new career counsellors to 16 new
schools in Battambang. However, more efforts from the project and the volunteers and other educational
professionals are needed to get all important departments of the MoEYS on Board for the integration of
Career Counselling in the education system.
4.2.3. Global Education
After the assignment the volunteers are required to remain active in the TwB network for one year after
their deployment and undertake some Global Education activities.
According to the evaluation findings volunteer teachers contribution to GE has been relatively limited,
mainly based disseminated their experience in their own circles and some volunteers have been invited to
be present for instance when there is a need to have more people to be at the TwB's stand e.g. in the
EDUCA fair or World Village Festival. Overall, the volunteers’ engagement in Global education has been
sporadic and the effects are not possible to evaluate.
12 School Dropout Prevention Pilot programme implemented by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport and financed by USAID which targeted grades 7, 8, and 9 in six provinces, including Battambang. This intervention developed an Early Warning System with related materials for identification of students in risk of dropout in 2012. 12
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Figure 3 Volunteers contribution to Global Education after the deployment period
Only one volunteer out of 20 respondents has been actively involved in Global Education after the volunteer period. Half of the respondents reported that they have occasionally shared their experiences in individual events such as talking about their experience with their colleagues, or informing their colleagues about the opening of TwB posts. 15 % of the respondents have used their experience in Global Education at all for the quarter of respondents or the activity is not relevant for instance if they are retired
and not anymore active in their professional communities.
The education expertise of the TwB network has not been fully utilised in promoting Global Education. In
general, the respondents considered this “obligatory” engagement in Global education is somehow
arbitrary and they questioned its relevance in its current form. Some volunteers would also have liked to
continue supporting the partner countries or projects in a way or another also from Finland, but they
considered that this communication with the beneficiaries was not welcomed or acceptable by the FCA
after the deployment.
4.2.4. Success factors and challenges
Half of the online survey respondents were of opinion that they had been able to use the best of their
capacities during deployment. The main success factors for volunteers work are similar to success factors
for the project, including:
Overall, successful recruitments have been made with only one or two exceptions, where the
competencies of the volunteer did not match with the requirements or the deployment became
challenging due to personal reasons. The deployments which have been planned in collaboration with the
Partner Organisations, based on the needs of the project and teachers, provide a solid platform for the
work of the volunteers. Also, conducting a proper needs assessment at the time of the project formulation,
complemented by competency assessment (which would define the different expectations and
competencies among the target group) is vital. The needs assessment helps focusing the work and setting
the targets for the volunteers’ work. Similarly, collaborative working methods, observation, discussion
and feedback lead to increased relevance in training and other activities.
Combining training with school level support and continuous professional development activities are
necessary. One-shot training activity can be effective and efficient if it is targeted and needs are well
identified. Close collaboration with local authorities is essential for success in volunteers’ work. Similarly, if
structural changes are aimed at such as introducing Career Counselling in Cambodia, upstream work with
various departments of the Ministry of Education is needed.
There must be a balance of expectations. While Finnish education experts sought to bring international
exposure, activities for professional development and a culture of learning, their counterparts are
understandably interested in material support. The orientation course could also better address the
Very much 5%(1)
Sometimes 55%(11)
Not at all 15%(3)
Not relevant25% (5)
22
volunteers’ expectations and ensure that they match with the reality. For the POs and beneficiaries being in
a volunteer position is not an issue (not even moneywise, as the volunteers usually receive more
remuneration than the local teacher), they take the teachers as experts.
Flexibility and working with a counterpart. Some volunteers had a counterpart to work with. In some
countries the work modalities were modified to better match the situation and competencies (and
language requirements). For instance, in Greece the initial plan was to engage the volunteer to share
teachers' training with FCA’s Education Specialist, but after monitoring and observing the situation at the
centres it was decided that volunteer’s inputs would be more efficient used in mentoring and supporting
the teachers.
The main challenges and reasons for not been able to use the best of their capacities included:
Inefficient time use and poor planning/ timing for deployment. The review of reports of some volunteers
shows that they have spent nearly half of the deployment time for orientation, visiting different
organisations, and report writing. Some project the volunteers were expected to work with, were not yet
active or the schools were closed most of the time during the deployment: “On arrival I also found out that
the school for which I was recruited to work for was not opened and even staff was not recruited. This was
very disappointing”. “When I arrived --, it turned out that all the schools were on leave. Of course that was
something we already knew, but we didn't know that the leave would still last 2 more months. -- I got a
slight feeling about wasting the time”.
Lack of job-description and work plan. “I didn't get the work plan for my voluntary period so I didn't have a
clear picture of what I was expected to do during my stay”. The comments from some volunteers clearly
indicate that their work was not fully integrated in the project’s work plan: “In the beginning were
difficulties to find fruitful co-operation with the local project workers but it improved after feedback
discussions”.
Limited contacts with schools and teachers due to logistics and long distances and language barrier: “I did not have direct contact to the target groups and the interpreter didn't always know the terminology.” There are also unforeseen circumstances, for instance, delays in getting visa were reported.
Lack of coordination communication gap between the TwB coordinator in Finland and the TwB volunteers was mentioned as an efficiency challenge13, “usually there is a delay of several days in the reply and in many occasions friendly reminders were needed”. It also seemed that FCA Country Office and Teachers without Borders organisation were “not on the same page with planning”. Also lack of communication between the TWB network and the receiving organization was reported. The roles and responsibilities should be clarified as I some cases the country directors have specifically asked TwB secretariat not to communicate with partner organizations. Some volunteers expressed the disappointment that the final results of their work did not correspond with
the original terms of reference or their education background or experience did not match with the job
description. Unfortunately in these cases the volunteers did not have a supervisor in the FCA office or the
supervisor was too busy and overloaded or out of office at the beginning of the deployment.
Volunteers missed more team work. In Cambodia, there were two volunteers deployed at the same time
which appeared to be am efficient strategy as the volunteers could complement the work of others and
13
23
working together also contributed professional development. In another project, the working in pairs did
not work that well.
Some volunteers mentioned personal/professional challenges: being in the country for a short period of
time makes it difficult to understand the local and national context, the culture and traditions.
4.2.5. Gender issues
Most of the volunteers’ ToRs, the orientation course in Finland and the reports of the volunteers did not
address gender equity, which is one of the cross-cutting themes in FCA’s work and a crosscutting objective
for the Finnish Development cooperation. Gender equity is also a relevant issue for most of the FCA’s target
countries particularly when education and employment is concerned. For instance in Cambodia, gender is a
relevant issue to address and MoEYS is committed as a response to the 4th goal of sustainable
development on education, and the 5th goals on gender equality in education to interventions and
measures to promote and encourage female students to study science, technology and mathematics such as
orientation programs and career counselling to female students in secondary and higher education. 14
The findings of this evaluation show that the volunteers were not well familiar with the gender issues, as
shown in their responses to a question “How did you promote gender sensitivity and inclusion of vulnerable
people in your work?”
- “When selecting teachers for the trainings, we asked the schools to choose both male and female”.
- “In the training both genders participated (as a requirement)”;
- “Not as a purpose”;
- “I am not sure... At least I cooperated a lot with local catering teacher, a lady, and instead her
lessons I kept many lessons e.g. on hygiene and conservation of foodstuffs - also I hope that could
show an equal role model” ;
- “I chose both men and ladies to the training group, they were equal in every respect, also during the
training equality was on the top all the time”;
- “When grouping or selection of participants I tried to emphasize in gender balanced. Debates were
always a key strategy”, and
- “By being an example of how to treat people”.
Some respondents did not understand the relevance of the question at all: “Weird question - sorry do not get
this exactly”. Some volunteers noted that “We were talking and discussing about equality between genders,
difficult for the teachers to adapt in this country, though.”
Omitting gender from the TwB work is a missed opportunity. The review of the training materials shows
that in a few cases girls were discussed as a specific beneficiary group but the trainings did not specifically
analyse the reasons, consequences and solutions for gender inequity. Neither in the Career Counselling
feasibility study nor the Career Counsellors training manual made a reference to gender issues though
education, training and employment in Cambodia is often gender–stereotyped.
In all countries where volunteer teachers are posted, gender inequity is an issue. However, the volunteers
did not have proper understanding on the gender issues and as a result, many opportunities to influence
14 Efficiency refers to the extent how existing resources (including tome, human resources) have been used to
support the achievement of the intended objectives,
Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport (2016) Mid-Term Review Report in 2016 of the Education Strategic Plan 2014-2018 and
Projection to 2020. November 2016.
24
gender-based thinking were lost. It would be advisable to analyse the training materials from a gender
perspective. A checklist for the volunteers could be developed to track whether gender issues have been
sufficiently addressed. Introduction of crosscutting objectives (Themes in FCA context) and particularly
gender sensitive measures and approaches should be part of the volunteer orientation in Finland.
The students interviewed in Cambodia, appeared to be less gender biased. When they were asked to name
professions suitable for men or women only, they were able to list only one: fisherman, which according to
their opinion is a male profession. (Cambodia Mid-term Education Strategic Plan 2016)
Inclusive education has been a topic of trainings delivered by volunteers:
“One of the topics in my trainings was Inclusive education which includes this topic”
“The main focus on the training is about inclusive education, to identify groups who are risk
of exclusion, identifying the barriers for inclusion, and make a plan to overcome them.”
“One of the targets of the new project is to reduce the dropout rate. I tried to promote that
the reasons of slow learning may be social for example problems at home, feeling of
insecurity etc. and identifying and helping children at risk is essential.”
Most of the countries where FCA works, have adopted a policy of Inclusive Education, which should enable
every child to attend a school and receive good quality education in their neighbourhood. Awareness
raising has been done but less practical training has been provided on how to implement inclusive
education in classroom and school level, e.g. on how to manage an inclusive school, how to adapt
curriculum contents, assessments, classrooms and teaching methods in large classrooms. Maybe this
could be the task of the TwB alumni further elaborated by local partners and tested and implemented by
new volunteers?
4.2.6. Efficiency
During the past years, the TwB network has been managed by a coordinator in the Finn Church Aid (FCA),
supported by a part time intern. The TwB coordinator manages the recruitment process and is also largely
responsible for the Global Education and other network activities in Finland. The coordinator also organises
the orientation course and conducts the end of mission briefing and reflection with the volunteers. At
Country Level the County Director is responsible for the volunteer management.
FCA Desk Officers are not systematically engaged in the volunteer selection and management. In a way it is
understandable because they have lot of work, but on the other hand their engagement would be
necessary as TwB is expected to contribute to the achievement of the programme objectives and
“volunteer management refers to the tactics and strategies for making the most of the volunteers’ support
to the FCA country programs and critical in the leveraging of an organizations resources, on par with
program fundraising and human resources”. (FCA “Guidelines and Practices for Successful Volunteer
Management”).
The recruitment process which takes place twice a year, does not match with the project cycle.
Mechanisms to respond to the emerging needs of the projects need to be developed, such as pool of
experts should be established and used for deployment of volunteers.
According to the evaluation findings, the volunteers received sufficient support from the Country Offices
but “practical administrative procedures have been surprisingly demanding for FCA staff in general.” It was
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reported that at times it was difficult to get help from the FCA, especially from the FCA office in Helsinki.
The volunteers reported that there were delays and challenges in getting necessary guidelines. Delays in
payments were also reported. Volunteers also considered that while the CO supported in logistical and
practical issues, the work itself was lonely and peer-support and team work would have been desirable.
Also in countries where volunteers worked as pairs, they supported each other.
There were no major comments about logistics. It seems that the COs have responded to the needs of the
volunteers and tried to facilitate the work to the extent possible. Flexibility and “Plan B”s have also been
applied for instance in cases where there has been a need to transfer a volunteer to another post (ebola
crises in Liberia, security in South Sudan) or when the working conditions have changed (Myanmar).
Management of a number of volunteers requires time and attention from the Country Director, Regional
Programme Manager and Regional Finance and Admin Manager. They reported that volunteers and their
respective output are worth the effort in most cases. Similarly, volunteer management takes time in the
POs. Their role and responsibilities have not always been clear and only recently, for instance in Myanmar a
staff member has been nominated to provide support to the volunteers. A new guideline has been
developed to guide FCA country program staff and others who work with or are planning to work with
volunteers in their programs. This guideline is not yet shared with all FCA staff members or with the local
partners who are participating volunteer management practices in the program countries.
According to the new FCA manual the costs of a volunteer deployment for 6 months is about 10 000 EUR,
including the pocket money (500 – 600 EUR month), accommodation, travel and insurance. This money is
usually allocated from the FCA’s project or country programme budget. The volunteer deployment also
entails other in-kind costs such as interpretation (which can also be done by the FCA staff/ counterpart),
local transport and operational costs. These are also covered by the project or country office budget.
In general, the volunteers did not complain about the remuneration but some POs and COs considered it
relatively small to cover all expenses. The social and economic situation varies by country and within a
country and this should be better taken into account when planning for the deployment. The experiences
of the pilot managed by CIMO also considered that financial management was cumbersome. Many
volunteers also reported about delays in payments and reimbursements.
The costs of an individual deployment are relatively small, indicating cost-effectiveness, but the actual cost
effectiveness or “value for money” can be calculated only against the results delivered by the volunteers. At
the network level the TwB expenses may accumulate over 100 000 EUR annually excluding management
and administrative costs. This equals to a budget of a medium size project managed by the FCA. Similarly, a
rough calculation shows that if one volunteer post duration was three months (in reality the duration of a
contract is longer), a total amount of 30 volunteer man months have been provided to ACCA College in
Eritrea. It is a significant input to one project. The efficiency of the use of resources however can only be
analysed based on the results on the ground and the human capital Finland gets from experienced
volunteers in a long run.
Some FCA staff members consider that volunteer teachers are independent and that their motivation to
work in the project is based on voluntarism, which is different compared to the motivation of the FCA staff.
This evaluation did not find any evidence to support these perceptions. The volunteer teachers are
committed professionals and it was found that those volunteers who were given a clear role and
assignment by the FCA to contribute to the projects’ objectives were even more committed and proactive.
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Now its strategic role of the Steering Committee has been limited and the agenda is usually very broad.
There is no system for annual reporting or planning of TwB.
4.3. Impact Assessing the impact on individual volunteer’s work is difficult as it is tied with the performance of the
project and influenced by many external assumptions. According to the evaluation findings, also confirmed
by the field study, the work and presence of the teacher volunteers has motivated the local teachers and it
has provided them an opportunity to learn new methodologies and skills. Partner organisations also noted
that the presence of a volunteer works as a moral booster to the beneficiaries and improves the visibility of
the organisation and project.
However, many volunteers reported about immediate impacts or changes resulted from the training
events:
- “The immediate impact was big, which I could see when visiting the schools after the training. The teachers were using much more learner-centred approaches, visual aids and activating methods. What happened after I left I don't know, but at least the bigger project which followed is one outcome of "my" project.”
- “I believe my work has a positive impact on improving quality of education in the targeted schools. According to the feedback we have received after the trainings, the content we have delivered is very important for them, and they believe it can make a positive change in the schools.”
- “I think I managed to improve the process of project management. The quality of the education improved by the curricula composed. In the vocational courses organised by the project had not curricula at all. The educators had more systematic, self-confidence and quality in teaching. “
- “Hopefully they are still using the methods they were taught. At least the teachers got inspired and promised to keep on. The truth is the time was too short for big changes in their work but today they are aware of some tricks and methods and what it takes to activate students and get them interested in school work.”
In Uganda, the volunteers have worked with teacher trainers and supervisors who tutor and mentor
teachers in schools. They are the people who can make a positive and sustainable impact in quality
education in Uganda. Compared to training of teachers it was anticipated that the number of teacher
trained would be much lower than providing training to tutors to train teachers themselves.
It is evident that working with volunteers has influenced the thinking of teacher trainers for instance in
Eritrea, but it takes time to change the mind-set and perceptions about teaching and learning. Quite
obviously the curriculum for ACCE teacher education would not have been reviewed without volunteers’
inputs. However it is notable that impacts of the curriculum can be measured only if it is implemented in
teacher training and if the teachers are able to apply the learned skills resulting to getter learning
outcomes.
According to TwB coordinator, seven volunteer teachers have continued with FCA either as a consultant or
in another volunteer post. What most volunteers acquired overseas was somewhat realistic image about life
in other cultures and reality of teachers’ work. They learned a lot and saw different ways of doing things.
Obviously, volunteers also enhanced their language capacities. The volunteer period contributed to the
personal and professional growth. The younger volunteers pointed out that the volunteer period enhanced
their professionalism and identity as a teacher.
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For my personal career this was more than a great opportunity. I think I got a whole new
perspective for my work. I feel like I'm more innovative, creative and adaptive, which are
great qualities when working as a teacher. I got also more confidence and competence to do
my work. Even though I am a young female teacher, which appears to be a negative thing for
somebody for some reason, I now have the feeling that I'm good at what I'm doing and I'm
doing it professionally.
I learned myself so much during the past five months; about how things work in a developing
country. I also learned about the people and their hospitality and about working in an NGO. I
learned about equality, how not all have the same opportunities in life. I also learned a lot
about myself, mainly about acceptance and patience.
4.4. Sustainability Half of the respondents of the online survey indicated that they did not know whether the volunteer’s
activities have continued and achievements have been maintained after their volunteering period. As one
of the respondents indicated “Sustainability? - A good question but I don't know the answer and that makes
me sad.” None of the volunteer’s ToRs, work plans or reports made a reference to sustainability.
Sustainability issues have not been explicitly discussed with the volunteers and many of them consider that
their responsibility is to deliver a one-shot-activity and it is the task of the project or PO to maintain the
achievements. No specific plans for the continuation of the activities have been made, though in some
projects (e.g. Cambodia and Uganda) the volunteers worked with tutor supervisors or trained the trainers.
It is anticipated that through this system more sustainability and larger coverage could be achieved,
compared to targeted training to a certain group of teachers
Some volunteers considered that sustainability of their activities and achievements after the deployment
relies in the hands of the partner organisations but also mentioned that no handing over or measures or
recommendations for the sustainability or future actions were made. Volunteers believed that the material
developed will “hopefully be shared with future volunteers and other people working with the same
topics.” For some projects the activities will be continued by another volunteer. None of the volunteers
analysed the financial implications of their activities and this has not also been discussed in the end of
deployment discussions.
With regards to projects which rely on volunteers inputs, development of suitable sustainability measures
is critical. It is reported that there is a high level of ownership at the ACCE institute and some sustainability
measures are reported. For instance, the teacher educators have continued the learning groups
independently. This is a positive sign as in many projects which rely on external expertise; there is a high
risk of generating dependency. In this project the volunteers work not only to introduce new
methodologies but also to change the mind set and general approach to teaching and learning. Volunteers’
input is still needed to further develop understanding of learner-centred interactive pedagogies and to take
the child-centred methodologies into practise.
In ACCE, there were expectations for the volunteers to be more engaged in actual teaching, but this “gap
filling” has been avoided, as it is not considered to be sustainable. Instead, an approach of peer teaching
has been initiated but not yet fully realised because of resistance of some local teacher trainers. However,
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demonstration of “good practises” and engaging teacher trainers in actual activities which they would to
carry out with the students, have appeared to be a good approach. The Institute made a request to get
volunteer input to development of art and music education and volunteers for these posts were deployed.
However, from the documents available to the evaluator, it remained unclear whether a proper readiness
analysis was done to assess the institute’s absorption capacity and whether necessary sustainability
measures are in place (e.g. qualified teaching force) to integrate and maintain the teaching of new subjects.
Only few volunteers reported that they had a local counterpart who will continue training teachers and
providing support and supervision after the volunteer deployment. Some volunteers worked with teacher
trainers who are expected to carry on. In Cambodia, the Career Counsellors‘pilot group was engaged in
training of the new counsellors. They will also continue working in their schools. Major concern, however –
not thoroughly addressed by the project or volunteers - is that schools do not have a budget to cover the
work of the Career Counsellors which should include field visits and home counselling. Similarly, at the
national level, there is no budget of career counselling and training of Career Counsellors/ Counsellors.
The sustainability of volunteers’ work is not effectively embedded in the FCA project designs and it is not
discussed in the ToR neither in the end of mission briefings. The financial sustainability of Career
Counselling in Cambodia has not been analysed. At the school level the volunteers could ensure that career
counselling is included and budgeted in the school annual plans, which the Government finances as least at
lower secondary level through the Global Partnership on Education (GPE). This is also the momentum for
FCA to link the Career Counselling not only with Vocational orientation but also with teacher training and
curriculum development process. The teacher education reform would be an excellent opportunity to
integrate career counselling in initial teacher education (as a crosscutting, integrated theme and as an
optional subject). Curriculum reform is at the stage of starting text book production where the Career
Guidance aspects could be well integrated. FCA CO together with its stakeholders needs to analyse what
kind of expertise is needed to work with the MoEYS at central level.
Coherence and continuity of the work of different volunteers needs to be enhanced. For instance, the
Feasibility Study (Timonen 2014) in Cambodia identified risk factors such as limited teachers’ preparedness
to go to employment market outside the school to learn about employability skills (both soft skills and hard
skills). The evaluation found that the training has not addressed these skills and none of the Career
Counsellors have been in contact with the business. They were even of opinion that they are not allowed to
contact and engage business outside the school, through it is explicitly mentioned as a goal and activity in
the Life Skills strategy. Furthermore, the first cadre of Career Counsellors considered that the training was
not implemented in a coherent manner as the volunteers built the programme on their individual interests
and approaches. On the other hand, the Career Counsellors considered that the application of different
methodologies by each volunteer was an added value and enriched their capacities. However, in the
absence of proper strategic plan, goal and guidance, the overall goal might have been lost.
If the FCA wants to make a policy impact, as it is the case in Career Counselling in Cambodia, downstream
needs to be linked with upstream work. This means that while practices are developed on the ground level,
the project should also enhance continuous information exchange and cooperation with upstream
authorities. Though cooperation has been established at local level, this is insufficient to get policies at
national level in place.
Sharing lessons learned
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The materials developed by volunteers have not systematically shared. Though an e-platform is established
in 2017, many volunteers were not aware of it and also difficulties to access it were reported. It is also
unclear to what extent the COs have made use of recommendations and suggestions made by volunteers in
their further development and programming. While some volunteers were privileged to get a face-to-face
orientation from the pre—successor, many volunteers started without a proper orientation and briefing.
Proper sharing of information is essential for the continuity and coherence of volunteers’ work. Setting up
an e-platform to share the materials prepared by volunteers and reports and country specific information
was proposed both by POs and volunteers. It was learned that such platform has been in use in 2017 but
not all volunteers were aware of it.
Ownership and partnership
In general, volunteers have been supported by the local schools, local government (ministries), but the
evaluation found only few cases where participatory approach has been applied e.g. in the development of
the training programmes and materials.
Sometimes volunteers considered that the education authorities “tried to monitor and in my opinion to
somehow censor the content of the course. They didn’t always have the clear picture what kind of training
we are offering.” This comment indicates that the principles of ownership and participation are not fully
understood. In many countries, teacher training activities are managed and controlled by the education
authorities. They are mandated to do that for quality purposes and also ensuring that teacher training
efforts are aligned with the policies.
While there is some level of ownership within the FCA towards TwB, its role and purpose as an integral
element of the FCA work is not clear. For instance, in 2015 FCA Right to Education Strategy was revised, the
role of the TwB either as an input, resource, instrument or target for the FCA’s education quality work was
not recognised. The same applies with the current strategy focusing on Right to Quality Education (R2QE). It
does not elaborate whether TwB is an instrument, goal or a programme on its own and what its
relationship with the Country Programme and individual projects is. This unclear identify and lack of clarity
of TwB position and purpose in the FCA context was reflected in many interviews.
5. Monitoring The monitoring system for the TwB or any other volunteer programme should be based on the data needs.
In case of TwB where the volunteers are posted to FCA funded projects, the monitoring system and
indicators should be well aligned with the Country Programme input, output and outcome indicators.
Cumulative data on inputs and outputs can be collected at network level. An indicative presentation about
potential indicators is presented in figure 4 below. It excludes the Global Education indicators. Monitoring
system of the TwB would include the following elements:
Planning: Targets to Volunteer’s work shall be drawn from the Annual Plan of needs analysis, including
qualitative and quantitative indicators for outputs and outcomes (if-possible). These targets should be
developed and approved in collaboration with the CO and PO. Monitoring data will be collected from
activities, including numbers of beneficiaries etc.
Reporting: The volunteer’s report should include data on core indicators, including assessment and
recommendations of the outcomes, impact and sustainability. These data will be incorporated in the
Country Strategy Annual Report.
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Figure 4 Indicators for Teachers without Borders
6. Conclusions and Lessons learned TwB fills the gap of volunteering and experience exchange programmes in Finland. However, compared to
its original vision, it still has not reached its position of being a national network providing opportunities to
education experts as means of broader “education export”, and as a leading actor in enabling international
volunteering and global citizenship education and training in Finland. So far it has deployed volunteers
mainly to FCA funded projects. Therefore, the future of the network should be looked at from two
different but not exclusive perspectives: TwB as a national network and/ or TwB as an instrument for FCA
education sector projects.
If TwB aims to be a national network to respond to the increasing number of requests from overseas to
collaborate and learn from the success of the Finnish education system it needs broader resource base.. In
this broader context the role of the Steering Committee as an advisory body would also be better utilised.
Now its strategic role has been limited. There is no system for annual reporting or planning of TwB.
If FCA wants to use TwB as an input or instrument to contribute to education projects, it should be
integrated in FCA’s country programmes and projects and it should also be more closely anchored with the
FCA strategies and monitoring systems. The identify of the TwB could be strengthened by defining 4-5 key
objectives or themes, (e.g. life skills and vocational orientation, differentiated learning in inclusive
education environment), which would form the “niche” of the TwB. The FCA Desk Officers should be more
engaged in the preparation of the deployments and orientation as they have an overall understanding
about the country context and status of the project.
Longer- term strategic plans for the use of volunteers at country and programme level would guide the
continuity and coherence of individual volunteers’ work. Engaging many volunteers as trainers on short-
31
term basis can cause challenges in building trust with the trainees, and result in information gaps between
trainers. Also, when one of the previous volunteers strongly feels having personal ownership and
leadership of the project, it becomes a hindrance for shared expertise and collaboration.
Aligning the TwB with the FCA strategies and programmes would also clarify the role of the TwB volunteer
in relation to TwB secretariat, FCA and PO. Some POs considered that the volunteers were more attached
to TwB than FCA, even though they work in the FCA project and under the FCA Country Office
management. This confusion is also related to the reporting: Volunteers report to the Country Office and to
the TwB coordinator, and not to the Partner Organisation as implementing organisation. This practise does
not promote accountability and transparency and the opportunity to learn from the volunteer period on
both sides.
TwB secretariat should clarify to COs and POs what the TwB actually could offer. All POs and partners are
not familiar with the TwB concept and the role of the volunteer teachers in relation to the FCA, TwB
network and PO. Innovative approaches should be developed such as engaging volunteer teachers in
evaluations, needs and competence assessments and development of alternative means for teacher
capacity development (project work and action research, compared to traditional training workshops).
These could be entry points for newcomers who have no previous experience in development cooperation.
Deploying Finnish experts to support development of teacher competencies is a relevant, welcomed and
innovative approach. All stakeholders pointed out that engaging education experts at ground level of the
education system - meaning regions, districts and schools/ cluster of schools – is a relevant and long-waited
approach. It supports the decentralisation processes and it can produce significant impacts both at
beneficiary and policy level.
For some country directors the status of a volunteer differs from the status of the staff, because of their
motivation of being a volunteer. However, the teachers are ”professional volunteers” which is different
with the tradition of volunteering connected with youth and traveling explorers and for the Finnish
teachers the entry point to TwB is their professionalism and volunteering per se is considered as means to
get involved in development cooperation rather than freedom of doing everything. They sign the same
Code of Conduct than FCA staff and report to the CO and they are expected to work for the benefit of the
FCA managed project. Also the beneficiaries and POs see volunteer teachers as Education Experts and FCA
representatives and the volunteerism is not an issue as such. As a matter of fact, if the concept of
volunteering is related to the remuneration, in the eyes of the beneficiaries and POs, the TwB teachers still
earn more than an average teacher in the target country. Therefore there is a need to clarify the concept of
volunteer management.
In general, the volunteers have delivered workshops successfully. They consider that they have succeeded
in raising the awareness related to students' learning difficulties and different learning styles, pupil centred
teaching and learning. None of the volunteers referred this achievement as a contribution to the project
objective.
Effectiveness could be improved if the volunteer teachers had better understanding about the existing
competencies of teachers and their development needs. For instance, in many countries there is a
significant level of awareness on inclusive education but teachers and schools need practical models and
practises on how to implement it. Teachers would also need concrete ideas and tools on how to apply the
principles for instance in large classrooms with 70 – 100 children.
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Many partners and government officials suggested to focus support to district, regional and school level as
in most countries policies and strategies exist, but the implementation is lacking behind. Efforts and
participatory approach are needed to localise the trainings. It is more and more evident that conducting
traditional training workshops is an insufficient measure to make a change in the classrooms, but it needs
to be supported (or in some cases replaced) with concrete school level interventions, mentoring and on-the
–job support. If the trainings contents are closely linked with the curriculum content, the stronger is the
likelihood of application.
The expertise and experience of the volunteer teacher alumni could be better utilised for instance to
develop student-centred learning and differentiated learning in large classrooms. These teachers have
experience on the challenges, but also pedagogical knowledge on how to address and develop learning
strategies. Implementation of differentiated learning cannot be learned through a one-shot training activity
but it should be built on a process where students are gradually given more responsibility about their
learning. These materials could become a standard package of TwB to be modified and delivered in
different contexts.
The use of the e-platform for sharing information and materials produced should be enhanced. Volunteers
might also benefit from regular “catch-up” meetings where they could share their experiences and seek for
professional advise from peers.
Volunteer deployment
So far, successful recruitments have been done. However, the evaluation found some lessons learned how
the recruitment and deployment process could be improved. They are listed below and summarised in the
Recommendations section.
• The recruitment process should engage POs and COs. Engaging POs in the deployment process
would enhance “ownership” and effectiveness of the volunteer’s work and could also be part of the
capacity development.
• Terms of Reference (ToR) and orientation should provide the volunteers sufficient information
about the education challenges in the given country, and about the work and project they would
work with. This would help them to assess whether they are suitable to this job, what they have to
offer and furthermore, it would guide the orientation, work planning and performance assessment.
These aspect is also missing from the new “Guidelines and Practices for Successful Volunteer
Management in the FCA Country Offices” prepared by the FCA.
• Orientation should help the volunteer to focus on his/her future job and therefore the volunteers
should know their post at the time of the orientation. This would help the volunteer to orient
herself/ himself and it reduce the time needed in orientation on the ground. Maybe in the future,
TwB could have an open call for attending a general orientation course after which the teachers
could submit their interest in volunteer work.
• Because volunteers are engaged in project implementation, they should be provided basic skills on
project planning and management. Some POs wish to have volunteers with organisational and
project management skills to help them in results-oriented planning and management.
• The content of the orientation has developed over years and it works well for a general orientation.
However, teachers working in a development cooperation project would require a broader
understanding of the development context, education sector challenges in the given country and
aid effectiveness principles of “harmonisation”, ownership”, participation”, so to avoid the
33
potential risk of generating an image of or “western superiority” or “skills donation”. A suggestion
was made for the volunteers to spend at least one week in the communities from where the
students and teachers come from as observing everyday life in communities, at schools, learning
environments, and conditions teachers and pupils are facing and coping with them should be part
of any in-country orientation and it would lead to more expedient plans and goal setting.
• Partner organisations and Country Offices need a coherent approach for induction so that CO and
TWB are clear what is mandatory for induction in Helsinki, what is mandatory for induction in
country and what extras have been agreed upon.
The volunteers have different background and experience in development cooperation, thus “One size
orientation does not fit all”. To respond to the different needs, the FCA could consider of developing
modular form training with compulsory and optional modules from which the volunteers could tailor their
own programme. This would also provide an opportunity to link the orientation with the basic Roster
training, which was found very useful. Maybe having induction for all interested should come first, when
they have successfully completed that course, they become part of a pool country office can review CVs, or
job Descriptions are send to all in the pool and interested teachers then can express interest. That could
make volunteers available at the times when they are required.
The volunteer’ reporting requirements and guidelines should be clarified. It is essential that those
volunteers who are posted to POs, also report to POs. This promotes transparency and enhances the use of
volunteer inputs for managing and improving the performance of the project.
The roles and responsibilities of the TwB secretariat and Country Office should be clarified. If TwB was
better aligned and integrated in the FCA operations, also the monitoring of volunteer’s work would be part
of the project monitoring.
If implementation of a project is supported by several individuals, there should be regular check-points with
different parties involved to see that all parties are going to the same direction. This applies both to
volunteers and consultants engaged in the project implementation.
There is no one opinion about the appropriate duration of the volunteer post. CIMO (2016) found that out
of eight volunteers half of them considered the duration of 3 to four months appropriate while the other
half of the respondents considered that the duration of four to five months is too short. None of the
respondents considered the duration (2-5 months) to be too long. Some evaluations suggest that 15 the
short length of the projects and prolonged time between one another, do not lead to issues of dependency
and local labour displacement, unlike other types of volunteering. FCA should make a clear guideline
whether sending a volunteer for two weeks (Cambodia) is a volunteer assignment or consultancy /
Technical Assistance post. and
FCA has shown interest to broaden the volunteer programme and some ideas of establishing collaboration
with e.g. UN organisations have been discussed. The evaluator explored such opportunity in the context of
15 Palacios, Carlos M. (2010). Volunteer tourism, development and education in a postcolonial world: conceiving global connections beyond aid. Journal of sustainable tourism, Vol. 18, No. 7, p.861-878
34
another assignment (preparation of a background paper for FCA’s programme in the occupied Palestinian
Territories). In Palestine, the Ministry of Education and Higher Education together with its partners,
including UNICEF and UNESCO would be willing to host Finnish teachers as volunteers to support school
level practises for Inclusive Education. Special Needs education and Counselling Unit of the MoEHE,
UNICEF, UNESCO and the Representation Office of Finland are committed to develop the ToR jointly with
the CO and there is a structure of technical working groups to support the work of volunteers. Palestine is
an example of a country where policies are in place but implementation on the ground should be
supported. Through working practises, an impact could be made in the policies and in the lives of the final
beneficiaries.
Teacher volunteers are expected to be active in Global Education after their volunteer period. Though
participation in Global Education was not an explicit issue to be addressed in this evaluation, the responses
from the volunteers show that they have shared their experiences mainly within the own social circles. Very
few of them have been engaged in FCA’s Global Education and advocacy activities..
7. Recommendations
Recommendation to the TwB secretariat:
• Establish a proper data base on applicants, approvals and reports.
• Develop reporting guidelines for the volunteer teachers in collaboration with COs and POs.
• Develop standard guidance for orientation: what is covered in Finland and in the target country and
by whom.
• Ensure that the ToRs are of sufficient quality and that they include background information about
the project, partner organisation and context.
• Further develop the orientation programme with concrete examples. Include a brief PCM session in
the orientation.
• Work intensively to integrate the TwB better with the FCA structures.
• Develop monitoring systems as introduced in this document. Ensuring the TwB is included in the
country programming .
• Engaging the experience and expertise of the teacher alumni to develop concrete guidance for the
implementation of differentiated learning and child-centred, inclusive pedagogies in large
classrooms.
Engage COs, POs and Desk Officers to the selection and orientation process ,
Box 3 Summary of suggestions for the selection and orientation process
1. Defining clear targets to the volunteers’ work based on a needs analysis.
2. Ensuring that the targets and tasks to be performed by the volunteer are integral part of the
FCA’s and the partners programme (if feasible).
3. Engaging POs in the selection process, including sharing of CVs of potential candidates.
4. Preparing the volunteers to their specific post during orientation in Finland, tailored to their own
needs and previous experience.
5. Ensuring that both the CO and PO are well aware of the potential and work plan of the volunteer
and that they have sufficient resources to provide orientation and support to their work. Some
projects/ programmes might need to earmark a specific budget for the volunteers’ activities.
35
6. Assigning the volunteer a counterpart or otherwise develop meauers where the transfer of skills
with a sustainability perspective is possible. Having a counterpart has reduced the need for
interpretation and serves as a sustainability measure because the counterpart can carry on with
the activities.
7. Enable proper orientation and handing over from the previous volunteers as part of the time
needed for orientation. Ensuring compliance and continuity of work on volunteers and that the
work of volunteers is aligned with the overall objective. An e-platform should be established and
a resource base for the volunteers.
8. Country Offices should ensure that the volunteer has Job Descriptions during the first weeks of
deployment. The FCA should update its Guide for Volunteer management and launch it
accordingly.
9. Ensuring that the expertise of the Finnish volunteer teachers is used also to support the PO in a
transparent manner. The reports of the volunteers should be shared and discussed with the
hosting organisation and used for learning purposes.
10. Ensuring clear communication lines and transparency.
11. Integrating TwB better in the FCA’s work and management.
Recommendations to FCA
• FCA should define the TwB as an instrument and input and include it in its strategic plans and
programmes.
• FCA should integrate the TwB better in its management and programming system, e.g. by establish
a task group for the TwB to support the strategic planning and monitoring of the TwB. Desk Officers
should be part of this task group or otherwise engaged in the planning and monitoring of the TwB.
• This would entail and lead to
o Volunteer teachers’ inputs should be planned as part of the FCA country programming.
o Volunteer management should be linked with the FCA programme and project
management (engaging Desk Officers etc.).
o A longer- term strategic plan for the use of volunteers at country and programme would
guide the continuity and coherence of individual volunteers’ work.
• If the focus is on improving quality of Education and teacher competencies, assessment of teacher
capacity building needs (or training needs) should be part of the FCA’s education project design and
basis for volunteer teacher deployment.
• In order to make better use of TwB, FCA should develop a clear strategy for TwB with a few (4—5)
thematic and strategic objectives (including Global Education, if found relevant) in accordance with
the FCA’s strategic priorities (Education in Emergencies, Vocational Orientation, School
Development, teacher Professional Development and establish a pool of experts in these domains.
FCA should consider of establishing a pool of experts under 4 -5 thematic clusters defined in the strategy
and education levels. This would reduce the need to have two rounds of recruitments as it is a resource
demanding process and the recruitment cycle does not always match with the needs of individual projects.
Prerequisites for being a pool member would be basic orientation course.
Recommendations to Steering Committee:
36
• Steering Committee should clarify the role of TwB as a national network promoting volunteering
and global education and develop a proper strategy for fund raising and resourcing.
• Steering Committee It could lobby for similar grants to the Global Educators and text-book and
educational materials producers than is available for the journalists16; to get acquainted with
development issues and implementation of Finland's development cooperation in practice
Recommendations to Country Offices and Partner Organisations
• COs and POs should ensure that each volunteer has a Job Description and results-oriented work
plan during the two first weeks of deployment.
• COs should ensure that the volunteer’s work is aligned with the project plans and contributes to
the achievement of the project objectives.
• COs should ensure close cooperation with POs and ensure that volunteer’s report is delivered and
discussed with POs.
Finally, for long term FCA together with its partners should develop a modular form of training as an overall
preparatory programme for volunteers who want to join development cooperation.
16 In 2017, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs provided 12 travel grants to journalists and filmmakers worth of EUR 37,800
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Annex 1 Terms of Reference
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40
41
42
43
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Annex 2 Persons consulted
Arponen Johanna
Bashayal Lila Country Director, Nepal
Braun Henry Country Director, Myanmar
Doe Michael Country Director, Sierra Leone
Hemberg,Jouni Executive Director
Hopsu, Inka; Coordinator, TwB
Husseini Bana, Country Manager IOPT
Jokivuori Mika Country Director, Kenya and Somalia (e-mail)
Järvinen, Tomi Director of International Cooperation, Strategy and Programme Development
Kajas Iiris, CIMO
Karvinen Ikali, Education Specialist; Eritrea
Lap Vanndy; FCA Project Coordinator, Cambodia
Lehmuskoski Saara Country Director, Cambodia
Makumbi Haq Director of RACOBAO; Uganda
Mäenpää Hanna; Ohjelmapäällikkö, Eritrea
Marjo Mäenpää, CAR Country Director
Pajibo Joyce Transition Manager, Liberia
Parhiala Pauliina Regional Director, Middle East
Pehu-Voima Satu, Education Adviser Ministry for Foreign Affairs
Peltola Minna, Teemakoordinaattori, oikeus koulutukseen
Posti-Ahokas Hanna
Riikonen Anu Valmiusryhmän koordinaattori
Sandberg Helena; Regional Education Specialist, FCA Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea,
Semi Ritva; Steering Committee Member; Teacher Trade Union (OAJ)
Sipilä Terésa, CIMO
Suomalainen Virpi, TwB volunteer, Cambodia
Tulivuori Jukka, TwB volunteer
Waismaa Aila Aluevastaava, Aasia
Focus Group with Volunteers on 19.12.2017
Piia Rötkin, Adjumani, Uganda
Markku Rantahalvari, RACOBAO yms. Uganda
Elina Yli-Hakala, Dream School, Kambodza
Pirkko Hatara, FAWE, Liberia
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Kyösti Timonen, Opo, Kambdza (skypellä)
Ole Sandabacka, Metta, Myanmar
Aulikki Tertsunen, CAR Cambodia; Pnom Penh
H.E. Sieng Sovanna, Director National Institute of Education
Cheap Chheangvith Deputy Director, Regional Teacher Training Center (RTTC),
Ngor Penglong; Director of Teacher Training Department; Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport
Nick Hinde, ESDP Maths and Science Advisor, Third Education Sector Development Programe; ADB Loan; Teacher Training Department
Sim Kong; National Innovative Training & Management Mentor (NITMD); Technical and Vocational Education and Training Sector Development Project; ADB Loan; Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training
Nuon Vansoeun, Deputy Director; Department of Vocational Orientation
Curriculum Department
Field Mission to Battambang
Place Interviewee Position
PoE Office Mr. Chhan Chheang Secondary Ed. Director
Mr. Phoung Mony Chief of Youth
PKO Office (Banteay Kuy Ze)
Mr. Lim Sophea Executive Director
Mr. Ty Samnang Program Manager
Mr. Seng Nick Project Officer
DoE Office Mr. Siv Sokvanna DoE Director
Mrs. Hak Chinhorn Chief of DoE Secretary
Norea Lower Secondary School
(LSS)
Miss. Roeut Chom Norea New Counselor
Miss. Oeurng Sokya Svaysor New Counselor
Mr. Tet Vannara Tapon New Counselor
Mr. Nab Seang Otakin New counselor
Norea LSS 2 boy and 2 girl students Students at Norea LSS
Watamim LSS/ Dream School
Mr. Kong Sakun Norea Old Counselor
Mrs. Chhoeurn Theary Watamim Old Counselor
Miss. Chhay Maravy Anlongvil Old Counselor
Mr. Mak Buntith Anlongvil Old Counselor
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Miss. Heng Kanhchara Odambang I Old Counselor
Mr. Un Vichet Watamim Old Counselor
Dream School btw Watamim and Slokram
Mr. Sor Chanry Watamim Principal
Mr. Ouk Bunna Slokram Principal
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Annex 3 Documents consulted
Almgren Anssi and Minna Hietamäki (2012) Opettajat ilman rajoja Selvitys aloitteen taustasta,
osallistujatahojen odotuksista ja jatkotoimen-piteiden mahdollisuuksista
World Development report “Learning to Realize Education’s promise” (2017)
Annex 4 Questionnaire
