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Introduction
Introduction
The main intervention of the STEM II project is the In-School (IS) girls’ club. The girls’ club provides support to in-school girls through revision classes, life skills sessions and upgrading grade classes to provide better life opportunities to girls through quality education. The club conducts classes on four core subjects (English, Mathematics, Science and Nepali) and two additional subjects Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) beyond school hours, i.e., on Fridays and Saturdays.
The key barriers that were found to be pertinent in the context of Kailali’s social, cultural and economic characteristics are ‘limitations in parental support’, ‘restriction of mobility’, ‘girls’ engagement in household chores’, among others. A key barrier that emerged before end-line evaluation is the impact of COVID-19 on both IS as well as SG/ OOS girls. Qualitative findings during the baseline study suggested a prevalence of instances of gender-based violence, mostly inappropriate touching, verbal abuse to girls and bullying. The end-line evaluation covers up this barrier by having two separate IOs focused on exploring girls’ level of awareness on safeguarding threats and confidence to tackle these threats if placed in an adverse situation.
2.80 percent of the IS girls stated that they don’t get support to stay in school and do well. This number has slightly increased from previous evaluation points. The financial impact of COVID-19 on households was found to be a major reason behind this. Girls’ engagement in household chores, a major barrier envisioned by the project, has significantly reduced from 77.32 percent at baseline to 13.80 percent at midline to 9.80 percent at end-line, highlighting commendable effort of the project towards this end.
75 percent of the girls involved in household chores for more than three hours every-day at baseline to less than 10 percent at end-line
89.10 percent of the IS girls said they believe COVID-19 has affected/ will affect their future aspirations regarding work/ studies. Impact of COVID-19 is therefore a major cross-cutting barrier that has been used to analyse different outcomes and intermediate outcomes throughout this report. Apart from the distribution of COVID-19 safety materials like masks and sanitizers, project extended the loan payback time and interest rate from 8% to 5% for the girls who had taken project’s GTF loan. As a result of the project's support in mitigating the impacts of the pandemic, both IS as well as SG/ OOS girls demonstrated high resilience.
The project participants attributed their improvement in learning primarily to their engagement girls’ club classes, provided by the project. The end-line survey showed that more than 65 percent of the girls agree that the girls’ club classes helped them improve learning. The girls’ club classes provided them with a friendly learning environment, where they felt comfortable to ask questions with teachers and clear their doubts in learning. The girls’ club classes also acted as a lesson revision platform, where the girls got the opportunity to understand the subject better and perform well. As the project provided this extra class opportunity exclusively to the girls, the size of the girls' club classroom was relatively small in comparison to the regular school classes. This ensured that the girls could practice learning, interact with each other and participate in group work in a more comfortable environment.
Apart from the girls’ club classes, the girls also attributed their learning performance improvement to their decreased engagement in household chores. The treatment girls interacted with in the course of this study said their involvement in household chores had decreased even before they reached class 10. Especially as grade 10 examinations are regarded with high importance in the context of Nepali education, where the SEE exams are also referred to as the 'iron gate', the students as well as parents alike tend to emphasize the studies of the students studying in grade 10. This reflects an indication of shift in parental and girls' attitude and practice towards gender roles and focusing more on education.
In terms of parental support, a greater number of girls in the treatment group (97.20 percent) in comparison to the control group (89.70%) said they receive support from parents to stay in school and do well in studies. Some of the common forms of support are ‘moral encouragement’, ‘financial help’, ‘help with homework’, and ‘allocation of ample study time both in and outside home’.
18.70 percent of the girls said parents helped them during difficulty in learning, against 8.50 percent in the control group. Likewise, while 22.40 percent of treatment girls said they were helped by their older siblings, the percentage is lower in the control group at 7 percent.
80.48 percent of the IS girls from the treatment group said their learning performance has improved despite their full-time engagement in household chores. The number is lower in the control group, at 68.18 percent.
Likewise, 86.61 percent of the IS girls from the treatment group who believed COVID-19 has affected/will affect their aspirations regarding work or studies demonstrated resilience towards their learning improvement. This number is lower in the control group, at 76.74 percent.
More than 85 percent of the girls said they are capable of dealing with the current crisis and still be persistent on their dreams and aspirations for the future.
While 54.40 percent of the IS girls from the treatment group said they received support from STEM II to tackle problems that they faced in learning because of COVID-19, only over five percent girls from the control group said they received such support.
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