Evaluation in Extension Programe

QN. WITH CONCRETE EXAMPLES DISCUSS THE MAJOR STEPS IN EVALUATION OF AN EXTENSION PROGRAM

An extension programme is a written statement which contains the following four elements:

Objective on which is to be expected

Means of achieving the objectives

Resources that are needed to fulfil the programme

Work plan that indicate the schedule of extension activities that will lead to the fulfilment of the programme objectives.

EVALUATION

It examines the programme and schemes for community development (agriculture) and other areas of rural development, it is defined as:

The process of determining  the value, since it is basically concerned with behavioral change among the farming people. Extension evaluation is essentially the process of determining the desirable behavioural change for instance change in the knowledge, skills, attitude and adoption behaviour of the farmers.

Program evaluation refers to a systematic and objective assessment of on-going or completed programs in terms of their design, implementation and results, this assessment usually deals with strategic issues such as program relevance, effectiveness as well as program impact and sustainability.

Basic things regarding extension of any programme are:

1. The process determining  the behaviour of the people being taught
2. The process of determining the people to whom there are changes in behaviour actually are taking place.

Evaluation process of an extension program involves several steps which are to be discussed below by using an example of the program namely MILK PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION FOR REDUCING MALNUTRITION PROBLEMS IN BAHI DISTRICT DODOMA

1. Decide on what to evaluate or planning

  First of all an extension agent  needs to decide what he or she is going to evaluate ,it involves determining and setting the objectives and the purpose of the program to be evaluated  and identifying the activities designed to achieve objectives where the objectives are the core activities and aims of the programs. Evaluation is done to measure whether or not the program have been succeeded or not and why? It is associated with weakness and strengths of the program activities and strategies , for example

Milk production: A program is focused on reducing Malnutrition problems to the people through education provision on milk production and consumption since milk is a source of all types of nutrients required by human being which include proteins, fats, minerals (calcium, potassium), lipids, starch, and vitamins

        b)  Select criteria, what criteria will be used to judge program performance .

 There are several criteria which can be applied in the program judgement especially in the progress of the program under which we can consider the following