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SCHOLARSHIP TRUST FUND FOR GIRLS OPERATIONAL MANUAL PREFACE Education is the key to development. The question to be asked is: Who stands to benefit from the education of girls? Obviously the girls themselves but society as a whole will benefit. However it is statistically proven that in The Gambia the level of participation of education is not comparable to that boys; and for a country to benefit fully from its citizens none of them should be left behind. There is a lot of truth in the saying that goes educate a man, you educate an individual but educate a woman, you educate a whole nation. It is of vital importance therefore that girls are given assistance in their education for the benefit of all. The Scholarship Trust Fund for girls is an initiative by the Department of States for Education to help provide the financial support for girls to improve their participation in education in the areas of access, retention and academic performance. This is also an explicit effort by DoSE to contribute towards the achievement of education for all (EF A) goals. Assistance is highly needed to facilitate the successful operation of this scheme, which will benefit all Gambians in the long run. Please contribute towards this noble venture. The contact address is: Permanent Secretary
PART A: PRESENTATION OF THE TRUST FUND 1. OBJECTIVE The Girl's Scholarship Trust Fund is designed to enhance access, retention and education performance of the Girl in The Gambia in both the Upper Basic and Secondary Schools. From studies conducted with both UNICEF and the Planning Unit of the Department of State for Education (DoSE), the opportunity cost of sending girls to school is very high and one of the main factors that determine who to educate in the poor rural household. Invariably, it is the girl who gets to be refused education or is even withdrawn from school; thus the disparities in gender equity in education at all levels. The idea of specifically targeting girls, more so rural girls in the first instance, is because statistically only four (4) out often (10) girls are enrolled at the primary level in regions 3-6. At the second cycle, the picture is even grimmer where only about 20% ofrura1 girls complete Upper Basic and Secondary Schools in 1998- 1999 education statistics. It is envisaged that the Trust Fund will further the enabling environment that the DoSE is creating to provide access, and increase the retention and performance of girls. It also facilitates the transition from the Upper Basic to the Secondary Schools. It will contribute to:
Given the levels of poverty in The Gambia, this will depend on strong financial support for the success of this initiative. While the initial scheme was targeted at needy girls, the need to more fully address the development of excellence in education and particularly in maths and science has led to the extension of the scheme to include scholarship for those girls who are meritorious and those who excel in maths and science. The Education III has provided for the award of scholarships to girls from the proceeds of Cr. No.3128 GM. The Master Plan specifies that Regions 5 and 6 would be the priority regions for this initiative. Hence the DCA provides for 300,000 SDRS for scholarship or financial aid to girls. 2. ACTIVITIES The Scholarship Trust Fund covers School Fees, Books and Examination Fees at the Upper Basic and projection is D l,252,643.00. It is envisaged that an 8% growth rate will be featured in for the subsequent years to cater for the expansion and increased enrolment of girls. Once these needy girls are identified, the financial aid will cover the entire period of their stay in the Upper Basic and Secondary Schools. Their situation will be reviewed annually as part of the identification process presented below. Scholarships will be awarded based on excellence in overall academic performance or on excellence in mathematics and science. The criteria for excellent performance are described below under section 2.1.1. Secondary Schools. Scholarships are to be awarded annually. School fees include tuition fees and development fund. Books mean textbooks only. Examination fees are paid for the final examinations taken at the end of the sixth and ninth grades and executed by W.A.E.C. The Scholarship Trust Fund provides two types of support: scholarship and financial aid. For the purpose of clarity and the correct use of nomenclature, the term Financial aid will be used to refer to assistance given to the needy, whilst Scholarship will be used for the meritorious and the high performers in mathematics and science. Financial aid will be provided to:
The number of needy girls to receive the financial aid will be determined by the financial allocation for this category of girls and will depend on the scores obtained starting from the highest. A total of 1,565 girls in the Upper Basic schools and 348 girls in the Secondary Schools in Regions 5 and 6 are projected to receive financial aid beginning 1999-2000 and the estimated direct cost based on this projection is Dl,252,643.00. It is envisaged that an 8% growth rate will be featured in for the subsequent years to cater for the expansion and increased enrolment of girls. Once these needy girls are identified, the financial aid will cover the entire period of their stay in the Upper Basic and Secondary Schools. Their situation will be reviewed annually as part of the identification process presented below. Scholarships will be awarded based on excellence in overall academic performance or on excellence in mathematics and science. The criteria for excellent performance are described below under section 2.1.1. The maximum total to be allocated to each eligible child before deduction of any amount received from other sponsors is estimated as follows.
These amounts would be revised each year if need be to take into account any fees changes, in particular the examinations fees. The revised amounts will be notified to the schools by the Trust Fund Administrator. An assessment of the scheme will be carried out as part of the preparatory process of the next policy document to inform and provide guidance to the way forward for the scheme. 3. SOURCES OF FUNDING Sources of funding for the Scholarship Trust Fund include: .
A pledge is what Government employees, private individuals, NGOs, Parastatals, Private Companies decide to contribute towards the Trust Fund on a regular basis. Spot contributions are defined as contributions received at once and not on a regular basis as for the pledges. In future, the Scholarship Trust Fund scheme could also have revenue generating activities according to guidelines to be determined. But in any case, such activities should not endanger the sustainability of the Scholarship Trust Fund because of risky investment. 4. ORGANIZATON The Scholarship Trust Fund is under the supervision of the Department of State for Education. It is managed both at the National and at the Regional levels. The detailed structure is attached. It includes:.
5. GUIDING PRINCIPLES The activities of the Scholarship Trust Fund are guided by the following principles :
PART B : OPERATIONAL PROCEDURES 1. REVENUE COLLECTION PROCEDURES 1.1 IDA CREDIT Contributions from IDA Education ill Credit will be transferred on a yearly basis to the Trust Fund Bank Account. Once the beneficiaries identification process is complete and that the fund needs for the coming year are determined, the Trust Fund Administrator sends a payment requisition to the PCU. This requisition indicates the total amount to be paid and is accompanied with detailed approved lists of beneficiaries. Upon receipt of the payment requisition, the PCU requests IDA non-objection and then makes a direct transfer of the amount requested to the Trust Fund bank account. 1.2 DONORS' CONTRIBUTIONS The procedures for collecting Donors' contributions will depend on the conditions agreed with each Donor . 1.3 PLEDGES Individual pledges Pledge fonns are filled out and signed by contributors. They indicate the amount to be deducted from their salaries, the period considered (monthly,quarterly, yearly) and the Trust Fund Bank Account to which the pledge must be transferred. Pledge forms are filled in duplicate and transmitted to the Trust Fund Administrator . The Trust Fund Administrator prepares a list of pledges by employer indicating the name of the contributor, period considered, amount to be deducted. Then a letter accompanied with the respective list of pledges is sent to each employer asking that the deductions be made from the contributors salaries and transferred to the National Trust Fund Bank Account. For civil servants, the pledges are sent to the Accountant General' s office for deductions to be effective. The Trust Fund Administrator maintains a list of pledges expected for each month. At the end of each month, he/she reconciles this list with the bank account statement from the bank and the transfer requisition from employers concerned to ensure that all pledges expected have been duly received in the bank account. If this is not the case, he / she contacts the employers concerned or the Accountant General's office to enquire about the reasons and reach a solution for the payment to be made. Institutional Pledges Pledge forms are filled out and signed by the Institutional Heads. They indicate the amount to be paid monthly, quarterly, yearly. At the end of each period agreed the institution transfers the amount contributed directly to the Trust Fund bank account. 1.4 SPOT CONTRIBUTIONS Spot contributions are collected by "collectors" officially designated by the Technical Committee. A letter signed by the Trust Fund Administrator and the Focal Point Girls' Education and a receipt book are delivered to each collector. The receipt book is pre-numbered. Each receipt is presented in triplicate, one for the contributor, one for the PCU through the Trust Fund Administrator, and Administrator, and one for the collector. The letter indicates the numbers of the receipts delivered to the collectors. Contributions can be collected in cheques or in cash, but cheques are preferred. For each contribution received, the collector prepares a receipt. Weekly,each collector transmits the cheques and the cash collected accompanied with a copy of the receipts to the PCU. The PCU verifies that the total amount of cheques and cash is equal to the total amount of receipts. Then the PCU delivers a receipt to the collector and deposits both the cheques and cash to the bank account. 2. SCHOLARSHIP AND FINANCIAL AID 2.1 ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA As mentioned above, the Scholarship Trust Fund will provide financial assistance in terms of scholarships for meritorious and high performers in mathematics and science,and financial aid to needy girls. The criteria to identify the beneficiaries are presented hereafter. 2.1.1 MERITORIOUS AND HIGH PERFORMERS IN MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE Scholarship will be provided for the meritorious and high performers in mathematics and science. Awards will be determined based on performance on the W A EC examinations in grade 6 and 9. Once the grade 6 exams are phased out in the Upper Basic Schools the standardisation of children' s overall scores in their class tests will be done using the Z score in order to objectively arrive at the meritorious and high performers in mathematics and science. The number of beneficiaries under this category will be determined by the financial allocation for each region and will depend on the scores obtained from the highest. For a girl to continue to benefit from this award she will be expected to score nothing less than 50% in all subjects for the meritorious and at least 60% for mathematics and science. Until the grade 6 exams are phased out the meritorious girl at this stage will be identified through the results as computed by the West African Examinations Council. This would also apply to girls in Grade 9 who would through the exams at this stage be expected to enter Grade 10. This serves as a selection procedure to determine those who are meritorious and those that excel in mathematics and science. 2.1.2 NEEDY GIRLS All girls in regions 5 and 6, poverty targeted regions, are defined as "needy". The selection criteria for needy Girls in Regions 1- 4 are as follows:-
Indicator Girls from broken homes / female headed households.
weight (8) Total 20 Girls identified, as needy but receiving sponsorship from another source will only be eligible for the difference between the amount received from sponsor and the total allocation per girl under the scheme. The bio-data forms, a sample of which is attached, are to be completed by the Head-teacher in collaboration with the parents of the child concerned. The Parent Teacher Association Committee will also assist in this exercise. 2.1.3 BUDGET ALLOCATION Each year before the identification of the beneficiaries for the coming year, the Administrator of the Scholarship Trust Fund prepares a table showing the following information:
.Total funds to be allocated to scholarship and financial aid for the coming year. Total funds to be allocated are expected to be financed by the National Trust fund account up to 80% and the regional trust funds up to 20%. This is subject to review by the Technical Committee. Total amount to be allocated by the national trust fund cannot exceed 85% of the total balance plus the expected contributions. The remaining 15% is to help sustain the activities of the trust fund. It could be used to generate additional income for the trust fund through non -risky investment activities (e.g. long term deposits) according to conditions to be determined and agreed by the Board of Trustees Based on the total funds available for the coming year, the Administrator of the Scholarship Trust Fund will determine the number of recipients by class, taking into consideration the maximum total to be allocated to each eligible child. The budget available for each school, by grade and class, will be determined and notified to each school through the PEO. 2.2 IDENTIFICATION OF BENEFICIARIES 2.2.1 MERITORIOUS ANDHIGH PERFORMERS IN MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE The eligibility criteria are defined above. The identification of beneficiaries will be done through two channels
W A E C meritorious results list W A E C produces a meritorious list ranking from the highest score down at the end of grades 6 and 9 exams across the nation. The National Trust Fund would provided scholarship to the 15 top ranked girls. The meritorious list is available in the third term of the academic year .The Administrator of the Trust Fund will get this list from W AEC as soon as it is available. He / She will draw the list of beneficiaries from the meritorious list with the following information: region, school, name, grade, amount of scholarship. Continuous assessment Procedures The selection based on the continuous assessment will be determined using the Z score. The Head teachers and teachers trained in using the Z score will work out the marks to determine the meritorious and those who excel in mathematics and science. At the end of the third term, the lists of the meritorious and of those who excel in mathematics and science will be produced by individual schools and sent to the Trust Fund Administrator through the PEO. The Trust Fund Administrator and the Focal Point Girls' Education prepare a draft beneficiary list by school and grade which will be reviewed by the Technical Committee and approved by the Board of Trustees. The number of beneficiaries will be determined by the budget available for the coming year with an equitable allocation to all schools. The approved list of beneficiaries for each region will be sent by the Trust Fund Administrator to the Regional Trust Fund Committee for onward transmission to Head-teachers concerned. All this process should be completed before the commencement of the academic year. 2.2.2 NEEDY GIRLS All girls in regions 5 and 6, poverty targeted regions, are defined as "needy" and will receive financial aid. For other regions, the initial selection is done by the school committees, which include the PTA members and the Head-teacher. During the last term of the academic year, the Trust Fund Administrator and the Focal Point for Girls' Education will visit Upper Basic and Secondary schools with the PEO to sensitise school committee members on the activities of the Scholarship Trust Fund and the identification process for the needy girls. During this visit, samples of the bio-data form will be presented and distributed to these schools. The bio-data forms are to be completed by the school committees and submitted to the Scholarship Trust Fund through the PEa before the end of the third term. Before the end of September, the school committees must submit the forms for the new intakes in grade 7. Once the forms are received at the Trust Fund, the Administrator and the Focal Point Girls' Education prepare a draft beneficiary list by grade (all schools included) using the weighting presented above. The list is presented from the most needy to the least. It is reviewed by the Technical Committee and approved by the Board of Trustees. The number of beneficiaries will be determined by the budget available for the coming year . The approved list of beneficiaries for each region will be sent by the Trust Fund Administrator to the Regional Trust Fund Committee for onward transmission to Head-teachers concerned. All this process should be completed before the commencement of the academic year for the initial list and before the end of October for the additional list. 2. 3 PAYMENT OF THE SCHOLARSHIPS AND FINANCIAL AID Based on the approved list of beneficiaries received from the Trust Fund, the Head-teacher of each school concerned sends a request for payment of the funds allocated to the Administrator. The request for payment specifies the amountn allocated for school fees, books and exam fees. The Administrator4reviews the request for payment to check if the amounts requested correspond to the amounts approved by the Board of Trustees. Then he / she approves the request for payment and transmits the original copy accompanied with the approved list of beneficiaries to the PCU for payment. The Administrator keeps a copy of the request for payment. Based on the list of beneficiaries approved by the Board of Trustees and therequest for payment approved by the Administrator, the PCU draws the cheques as follows :
All cheques drawn accompanied with the approved requests for payment and list of beneficiaries are handed over to the Trust Fund Administrator who gets the required signatories. Once the cheques are signed, they are transmitted by the Administrator to the schools through the PEO, to the Text book Revolving Fund and to W A EC respectively. The transmittal letters to each recipient are copied to the Commissioners, the PEO and the Head-teachers (for the books and exams fees). They specify the purpose of the payment, the school concerned as well as the beneficiary concerned, particularly for the school and exams fees. A receipt is signed by each recipient in duplicate and distributed as follows: one for the Administrator and one for the PCU. After the cheques are distributed, the Administrator transmits to the PCU a copy of the receipt, the request for payment and the list of beneficiaries for accounting. 2.4 BOOK RECYCLING SCHEME FOR SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS A book recycling scheme for Secondary schools will be adopted for 3 years. The recycling scheme will reduce cost on purchase of new sets of books each year per beneficiary .Heads of schools will be responsible for keeping stocks. They will distribute and retrieve at the end of each year the books which will be used by the incoming students of that grade. 3. MONITORING AND EVALUATION Monitoring and evaluation of the Scholarship Trust Fund will be done through termly visits throughout the regions. The exercise will involve the Trust Fund Administrator and the Focal Point Girls' Education. During these visits, information will be collected on the effect of the Trust Fund on enrolment, retention and performance of girls. A report showing the evolution of performance indicators will be prepared after the visits. The key questions relevant to the monitoring and evaluation of the Scholarship Trust Fund scheme are as follows : Outcomes 1. What is the effectiveness of the Trust Fund in increasing access, retention and academic performance? 2. What are other social or attitudinal effects of the Trust Fund? 3. Are the observed effects the same across populations? 4. What are some of the interactive effects with other interventions for girls' education 5 What are the recommendations for higher level outcomes? Outputs 1. How much funds are generated via grants, pledges and spot contributions? 2. What would increase the generation of funds via these sources? Processes and procedures I, Do the criteria and process used for identifying the needy work? 2. What improvements are needed? 3. Do the processes for payment of scholarship and financial aid work? PART C : ACCOUNTING SYSTEM
The PCU has the responsibility to ensure that accounting procedures fit in with the Accounting arrangement of the PCU. The idea of working through the PCU is for the purpose of donor co-ordination. Since the trust fund is intended to attract funding from development partners, local agencies, businesses and The Gambian citizenry as a whole, it is important that the volume of support be reflected and captioned in the overall financing and accounting programmes of the Education ill sector program. A bank account is opened for the National Trust Fund with the Trust Bank, Banjul Branch. It is maintained through the PCU. Three members of the Board of Trustees are signatories to the account, the Permanent Secretary , Department or State for Finance and Economic Affairs, the Permanent Secretary, Department of State for Education and the Secretary to the Board of Trustees. Cheques are signed by any two of the three signatories. In each region, a bank account is opened for the Regional Trust Fund. The signatories to this account are the Commissioner, the PEO and a representative of the PTA. The Regional Bank Account is managed by the PEO. He / She maintains a cash book in which he / she records all funds received from local contributors and the National Trust Fund and payments made for thescholarships and financial aid awarded. Contributions received for the Trust Fund as well as expenses made from the Trust Fund Regional Bank Account are posted in the cash book. The balance is drawn after each transaction. The accounts of the Scholarship Trust Fund will be kept by the Finance section of the PCU. The PCU will record all transactions of the Scholarship Trust Fund including transactions at the regional level in order to present a global financial situation of the Scholarship Trust Fund. Transactions at the regional level are posted by the PCU based on the quarterly financial report (see section 3 below) and the copies of the receipts vouchers, payments vouchers and bank account statement received from the PEO. The PCU will develop a chart of accounts which will enable recording and reporting on the Trust Fund resources by source and expenditures by nature (scholarships, financial aid), region, school and grade. 2. FINANCIAL REPORTING A quarterly financial report is prepared individually for each region by the PEO. It is sent accompanied with the bank account statement to the PCU through the Trust Fund Administrator. It indicates the bank account opening balance, the amount of contributions received during the period presented by source, the amount of scholarships and financial aid paid by school during the period, and the bank accounts closing balance. The Regions' quarterly reports and the transactions from the National Trust Fund account are used by the PCU to prepare a consolidated quarterly financial report for the overall Trust Fund. At the end of each year, the PCU will prepare the Trust Fund annual financial statements consisting of a statement of income and expenditures and a balance sheet. These two financial statements will capture all transactions of the Trust Fund both at the national and at the regional levels. 3. AUDITING The Scholarship Trust Fund accounts will be audited at the end of each year by independent auditors according to international auditing standards. Audit reports of reasonable scope and detail would be submitted to the Board of Trustees and to Development Partners within six months of the end of the audited period. The auditor will provide an opinion on the project financial statements (Statement of Income and Expenses and Balance sheet). The Auditor will also issue a separate management report on Internal Controls and operational procedures outlining any recommendations for improving internal accounting controls and operational procedures identified as a result of the financial audit statement. BIO-DATA FORM MECHANISM FOR SELECTING THE NEEDY Region: .. District: .. Name of Child: .. Gender: .. Mother's Name: Father's Name: Mother's martial status: Single Married .Divorced Number of Children: . Number of children of in school going age: . Number of children in school: Classes children are attending: Graded: One: Seven: Two: Eight: Three: .. Nine: Four: .. Ten: . Five: .. Twelve: .. Six: .. Parental annual income: Father .. Mother: Do parents annual income: Father: Mother: .. Do parents have any disability: Yes: No: . Do parents If yes, specify and indicate the amount of sponsorship. |
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