Effectiveness of the School Improvement Program and Its Challenges: the Case of Dessie Town Woreda Schools

The School Improvement Program (SIP) is one of the most important program among the six General Education Quality Improvement Package (GEQIP) of the country, Ethiopia. The program has four important domains namely teaching-learning, leadership, conducive school environment and community participation all of them geared towards students' learning and their learning outcomes. The School Improvement Program has 4 domains, 12 elements, 29 standards, 150 indicators and 516 descriptors. The notion of this program was when these four domains were effectively implemented in the schools thus, it is possible to make the students' learning outcome more effective. However, in the context of the research area there were many challenges while implementing the four domains of the program. Therefore, this study tried to bridge the gap between the issues raised in the theoretical and conceptual frame work of SIP and the practical application of the program through identifying the major challenges and recommending possible alternative solutions for the effective implementation of the program.