Assessment of project baseline effect on performance of Rwanda education funded projects: a case of Pan African education empowerment project in Rwanda

Abstract

A project's baseline is the research conducted at the commencement of the project to identify the current state of the project via data collecting, providing a benchmark against which subsequent modifications may be evaluated. The general objective of the study was the assessment of project baselines on performance of Rwanda education funded projects. A case of Pan African Education Empowerment Project in Rwanda and the specific objectives were to evaluate the influence of stakeholder’s participation as an effective baseline-survey on performance of education funded project of Pan African Education Empowerment Project in Rwanda, to examine the effect of project team competency as an effective baseline-survey on performance of education funded projects of Pan African Education Empowerment Project in Rwanda and to determine the effect of project costs as an effective baseline-survey on performance of education funded project of Pan African Education Empowerment Project in Rwanda. The study guided by the following theories: Stakeholder’s participation theory, project team competency theory, Project Costs Effectiveness theory and Expected Quality Standard theory. Project coordinators, PAEE project officers, District Education Officers in the Nyarugenge District, and project beneficiaries in the Nyarugenge District made up the target population of this descriptive research that used both quantitative and qualitative methods. In all there were 2689 from which a sample size of 348 was picked, the sample size calculated by Yamane formula. Researchers utilized a basic random sample strategy to choose participants from the whole population of interest, and a stratified sampling strategy to divide those participants into manageable subsets. Questionnaires, interviews, and records were used to compile the information needed for the study. Frequency tables, percentages, means, and standard deviations were generated using SPSS version 21 when data processing is complete. The predictors (Project cost effectiveness, Project team competency, and Stakeholders' engagement) and the Performance of education sponsored project of Pan African Education Empowerment Project in Rwanda are well correlated (R value of 0.807). There is a 0.221 coefficient for stakeholders' engagement (t = 3.938, p = 0.000), a 0.398 coefficient for project team competency (t = 8.381, p = 0.000), and a 0.254 coefficient for project cost effectiveness (t = 4.286, p = 0.000). This means that the performance of the Pan African Education Empowerment Project -funded education initiative in Rwanda improves in direct correlation with the level of each of these factors.  These coefficients have important statistical significance and major roles in contributing to the success of the education financed project of Pan African Education Empowerment Project in Rwanda, since their p-values are considerably below the normal significance threshold of 0.05. Pan African Education Empowerment Project in Rwanda is recommended to strengthen stakeholder engagement, providing comprehensive training, investing in project team competency through professional development, conducting cost-benefit analyses, and implementing strong monitoring mechanisms to optimize financial resources and enhance the success of education funded projects.