Other impacts include the familiarization of small children to school environment giving them the opportunity for playing, learning and interacting with peers and remaining in the school system in the future as well. The observation of Gizachew Lerebo Principal Bifola Primary in SNNPR is a strong evidence of how far-reaching the impacts of O-class could be even in promoting equality among children. According to Gizachew “The introduction of the O level class is an important factor that helped the marginalized Fuga Community children to start mixing as equals with other children from early age and helped them to remain in school later”. The contribution of O-level class in increasing access to education at the right age is also significant. As indicated above, children who started at this class level are more likely to go to grade one and continue their education. According to Tarekegn Yehuala, Principal of Chewsar Primary school, those who start from O-class smoothly join grade one and continue through out. The opinions of Mohammed Demboba and Fano Gobena, cluster supervisors of Siraro WEO, was also a confirmation of the above reports where they stated that O-class, which was introduced by ADAA has been adopted and expanded to all schools in their woreda and has substantially contributed to expand access to primary education while at the same time resulting in improving the quality of learning for those who went through O-class level education. 3.2.3. Contribution to improvement in the quality of education Though facilitator/teacher training is the single most important determinant of quality improvement in the education sector, the impact of the projects on the quality of education have also to be seen in light of the provision of other inputs such as the provision learning aids, classroom improvements, provision of reading materials, science kits and making the school environment conducive for learning. The support that Kinderpostzegels gave to project schools through its implementing partner NGOs also included these items. These and other provisions coupled with the training of facilitator/ teacher have impacted positively on increasing the quality of education. The improvement in the quality of education in the project schools have been confirmed by all the different respondents of this evaluation in all the woredas and schools visited. The evaluation team went further and looked for evidences that indicate improvement in the quality of education. While the best indicator for quality improvement is to give standard reading and learning assessments and review the results, this was beyond the scope of this evaluation. 29
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