Evaluation Guru is a short video series produced by the Independent Evaluation Department (IED) of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The series aims to make evaluation findings more accessible and engaging by featuring evaluators in informal, conversational episodes. Using simple language and real-world examples, each episode highlights key insights from evaluations of ADB’s work across Asia and the Pacific.

This episode features Ari Perdana, evaluation team leader on ADB’s support for education sector. From Ari’s point of view, the episode explores the evaluation journey, highlighting what worked, what didn’t, and what can be improved in efforts to strengthen education systems across Asia and the Pacific.

Transcript

Evaluation Guru
Episode: 4 Lessons to Make Education Projects More Effective

Would you agree that education is important? Whether you are from a large country or a small island, chances are you have worked hard for it.

Education is so important that nations are pouring millions of dollars every year into planning and executing education programs. But not all programs turn out as effective as they are set to be.

Hi, I'm Ari Perdana, ADB Senior Evaluation Specialist.

"All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Same thing with development projects. The effective ones have it all: solid upfront and analytical works, quality implementation, strong monitoring, client buy-in, highly committed and capable agencies. Take out one and it will be highly likely that the project will be less than effective.

In this video, we’ll look at four real-world examples to understand why education projects are less effective than expected and share four lessons that we could draw for future projects.

1. Unattainable targets. In Bangladesh, we set out an ambitious goal for every new teacher to meet the qualification requirements, but only half did. Both the project’s completion and validation agreed that the target was probably too high, especially considering the country's existing teacher’s training and qualification landscape.

So, the first lesson is quality upfront work helps setting relevant but realistic targets.

2. Not enough evidence. Sometimes, we see promising numbers like a secondary education project in Viet Nam reported higher pass rates in national university entrance exams. But here's the catch: there was not enough evidence to show that the success could be attributed to the project.

Second lesson, build strong data habits from day 1.

3. Competing interventions. In Sri Lanka, we aim to boost youth employability by increasing science and commerce enrollment in secondary schools. But that didn't happen as expected, because during implementation, the government introduced a new technology stream that proved so popular it pulled students away from the science and commerce streams. And this was not fully analyzed.

So, the third lesson is solid analytical works support stronger implementation.

4. Of course, circumstances may go beyond our control. COVID-19 has delayed key reforms in Armenia that ADB supported.
So, the fourth and final lesson is expected and expected—be ready to pivot when necessary.

Until next time, stay curious and keep learning.

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