PRACTICES AND CHALLENGES OF EDUCATIONAL PROJECT DEVELOPMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS OF EASTERN ETHIOPIA

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate the practices and challenges of educational project development in higher education institutions of eastern Ethiopia. To address this objective, three basic research questions were posed: What is the current status of project development in Higher Education Institutions of Eastern Ethiopia? What are the challenges to educational project development in the study area? How educational project development will be improved? Descriptive survey research design and mixed research approach were used. Both primary and secondary data were gathered. Simple random sampling (to select universities), availability and purposive (to select respondents) sampling techniques were used. The sample size was 266 participants from three Universities. Data were collected through questionnaire, interview and reviewing documents. The data were tabulated then quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed by use of descriptive statistical measures such as frequency, percentage and mean. Regarding the findings, staffs’ attitude towards project development was found high, the extent of the initiation of staffs to spend their time on developing project besides their regular duty was found fairly high and the extent of the roles educational leaders played for the proper project development was found low. Finally, the analysis of data indicated inability of achieving significant improvement of staff’s project development due to the influence of information barriers, lack of proper training and motivation, lack of leadership skills and qualities and lack of budget. These problems reduced the quality of educational project development in the higher institutions. Therefore, the problems need proper and timely intervention. So, the MoE, University leaders and NGOs should work hard to enhance the participation of staff by the use of training, providing sufficient information, good coordination and experience sharing. The MoE, all Higher institution leaders and managers and other stakeholders must work together to increase the participation of staff on educational project development. Universities, government and NGOs should allocate sufficient budget