To ensure a sustainable future operation of the secondary schools in NAD and NIAS, specifically the newly reconstructed ones, a number of financial, managerial, operational and technical issues and shortcomings were addressed and further improved.

The Sustainability Initiative (SI) primarily addressed the following fields of deficiencies, as identified during the reconstruction phase, to enhance the sustainability of the investment:

• Adequately qualified technical (vocational) teachers: this issue was addressed with priority at provincial as well as at national level. Teacher education and training was supported by major donors in the education sector;
• Adequate funding for maintenance and operation of buildings, facilities and equipment: also here, awareness was created at the responsible levels through a number of high level talks and workshops;
• Awareness for and implementation of integrated maintenance systems: in the beginning, while there appeared to be awareness at provincial and national level, the issue had not reached district and specifically school levels to a visible degree. The SI supported the introduction of selected TPM tools (inventory, visualisation, maintenance planning);
• Promoting modern teaching methods to complement the traditional teacher centred front-to-front teaching practice. While MoNE encouraged the development of learner-centred training modules, traditional teaching still prevailed.