Supervision and Support of High-quality Group-based Nonformal Education Services: Use of Observation Checklists in Supervision

This paper is the expanded and further detailed accompaniment to Credit with Education: A Self-Financing Way to Fight Chronic Hunger and Poverty (Document ID: 35839). The paper:

• Defines the need for programs that combine financial services for the poor with education about health and nutrition;
• Explains the ways in which Freedom from Hunger hopes to address this need by implementing Credit with Education;
• Describes the implementation steps.

The first step to implementing the Credit with Education program is to Develop the Checklist:

• An observation checklist highlights what specifically is expected and how a task should be done;
• The paper lists FOCCAS Uganda's Learning Session Observation Checklist and Feedback Form, CARD Philippines's Learning Session Observation Checklist, and CRECER Bolivia's Qualitative Evaluation Form;
• It gives examples of each checklist and tips for creating a new one;
• How the observation checklist approach is introduced to staff and how they are trained to use it are essential steps in transforming a simple tool into a process that can successfully improve quality.

The second step is the training and implementation of the learning session observation checklist.

The third step is using the information to improve education delivery quality at the individual and programmatic levels:

• It is important to clearly specify the roles and responsibilities of various staff, the system for informational flow periodicity, recordkeeping, and analysis;
• The information can be used for a variety of analysis including field agent performance and identification of additional training needs.