Effect of project control on project performance of education projects in Rwanda: a case of SOMA Umenye project

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of project control and project performance in education project. Despite the fact that the Rwanda Basic Education Board in partnership with United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has implemented the Soma Umenye Project through project control in terms of scheduling, financial resources, risk control and change control, its performance remains poor and critical.  In conducting this research, four objectives were: to effect of project schedule control on Soma Umenye project performance, to examine the effect of project resources control on Soma Umenye project performance, and to analyze the effect of project change control on Soma Umenye project performance. To achieve these objectives, literature reviewed on the subject matter including definitions of key concepts, conceptual review, theoretical framework, conceptual framework and research gap analysis, moreover both planned theory and contingency theories were used. Descriptive research design was used and also the target population of the study was 169 employees of Rwanda Basic Education Board and all of them a sample size of 169 employees were selected by using stratified sampling technique. Questionnaire, interview guide and documentation were used as tools of data collection. Data was processed through editing, coding and tabulation and the data was also analyzed by using descriptive statistics. Findings indicated that that holding all the project control to a constant zero, project performance of Rwanda Basic Education Board (REB) will be 0.083 percent, a unit increase in the use of project schedule control would lead to reduction in project performance of Rwanda Basic Education Board by 3.4%, a one percent increase in the use of project resources control would lead to an increase the project performance of Rwanda Basic Education Board by 7.5%, a one percentage increase in the use of risk control would lead to 62.3% increase of project performance of Rwanda Basic Education Board and lastly a one percentage increase in the use of project change control would lead to 27.1% increase of project performance of Rwanda Basic Education Board. Overall, the project risk management control had the greatest effect on project performance at REB, followed by project change control, project resource control and lastly project schedule control. At 5% level of significance and 95% level of confidence, project resources control had 0.549 level of significance; project schedule control had a .327 level of significance, project risk control had a 0.000 level of significance finally project change control also had a 0.011 level of significance. The study concluded that there is a positive relationship between project controls on project performance of education projects in Rwanda, moreover the researcher in line with the findings and objectives of the study suggested that Rwanda Basic Education Board, as a public organ, may continuously establish checkpoints and milestones to review the project's progress, address key issues, and take corrective actions if necessary, to keep the project on track.