Page 1 PROJECT INFORMATION DOCUMENT (PID) CONCEPT STAGE Report No.: AB4476 Project Name NATIONAL QUALITY EDUCATION PROGRAM Region EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA Sector General education sector (100%) Project ID P097176 Borrower(s) GOVERNMENT OF TAJIKISTAN Implementing Agency Ministry of Education Tel: (992-372) 230-718 Fax: (992-372) 217-973 emp@pmu.tajik.net Environment Category [ ] A [ ] B [X] C [ ] FI [ ] TBD (to be determined) Date PID Prepared January 30, 2009 Estimated Date of Appraisal Authorization November 9, 2009 Estimated Date of Board Approval February 18, 2010 1. Key development issues and rationale for Bank involvement Tajikistan has made significant progress since the signing of the peace accord in 1997. It is among the few post-conflict countries that moved quickly from civil war to internal stability and a functioning government. It has achieved remarkable economic success averaging 10% growth a year for the past four years. The country’s development agenda however remains daunting—failing infrastructure, tenuous health and education systems, and weak institutions, especially the financial system and the civil service. Magnifying these challenges are Tajikistan’s geography, its demography and a reputation for corruption. Tajikistan was one of the first signatories to the Millennium Development and Education for All goals. Government has adopted a long-term sector strategy – the National Strategy for Education Development (NSED) from 2006-2015 and with it the action plan is implemented, updated and monitored regularly. The Government’s NSED takes into account the national development priorities and presents a vision for the future development of the education sector. The NSED seeks to ensure effective and efficient delivery of education services and access to relevant and quality education for all and adopts five strategic goals related to improving management and performance, effectiveness of the system, quality education services at all levels, equitable access to basic education and merit-based access to other levels and efforts to improve physical infrastructure. The national education priorities of the Government of Tajikistan (GOT) in line with the MDGs and the EFA goals are: (i) Ensuring equal access to the basic education; (ii) ensuring quality education at all levels and (iii) upgrading a capital infrastructure and material and technical basis of education system. While the path to achieving these goals remain challenging there is sufficient commitment from both GOT and donor sides. The major issues affecting the sector can be identified as being the following: (i) From early childhood to tertiary levels, the quality of education is poor poor illustrated by what is widely believed to be poor outcomes, a lack of accurate information on outcomes, inadequately trained teachers and a need for curriculum reform. Many of Tajikistan’s children enter school without being sufficiently prepared; these children face a number of risks that affect their ability to complete schooling and profit from it, and to become productive adults. Page 2 Furthermore, initial findings show that a significant number of students are leaving school in secondary to higher secondary. (ii) Poor learning conditions leading to inequitable access to school facilities characterized by a lack of adequate school infrastructure and a disparity in the provision of school buildings between rural and urban as well as inadequate furniture and teaching and learning materials. (iii) Poor management of the system illustrated by a lack of accountability and old approaches for solving issues of management and planning. Moreover, there remains in many key areas, an overall lack of an institutional framework for reform. Sector financing (excl. PIP and EBFs) as a percent of GDP is increasing (3.7% in 2008 1 vs. 3.5% in 2005) and education budget as a share in the total budget is not comparatively quite good – 19.3% in 2008. However, it remains low in terms of spending per student in absolute figures. Overall, the country’s challenges and needs are enormous and resources available to address key issues are limited. IDA’s annual allocation is insufficient to cover more than one medium sized road project and the combined resources of all donors-a mix of humanitarian and development aid is declining as Tajikistan exits the post conflict stage. The focus of the CPS by the Government of Tajikistan and the Bank group has the following: (i) supporting growth in the immediate future by improving domestic economic opportunities; (ii) laying the foundation for future growth by preserving and enhancing human capital; and, (iii) exploring the country’s energy potential. The proposed program is closely aligned to the CPS goal of laying the foundation for future growth to enhance human capital and has been requested by the highest levels of GOT. Since 1997, the Bank has been involved in the education sector with the first Education Reform Project (LIL) followed by Education Modernization Project which includes grants to communities for school improvement, rehabilitation of schools and the modernizing of curriculum and textbooks. In the past two years, Tajikistan received the Fast Track Initiative Catalytic Fund (FTI) totally for so far, USD 18.4 million. The FTI is supervised by the Bank in collaboration with UNICEF and other donors in the sector and implemented by the government. The current strategy of GOT and the Bank will be to, enhance and preserve the quality of the human capital through the proposed intervention, embark on a program that is aligned to a sector wide program where the FTI catalytic fund and other donor programs are implemented side by side as part of a larger whole. There is an IDA USD 10 million grant for the proposed program and additional third year FTI grant that if approved will bring up to USD 15 million 2 . This total of USD up to 25 million, while not sufficient for Tajikistan’s needs, can be prioritized effectively to both complement each other and address high priority needs of the GOT and the people of Tajikistan. Moreover, by taking a sector wide approach based on an agreed upon and fully owned strategic plan, the proposed program will be a slice of selected prioritized activities that fit within the larger pie made up of the FTI and other donor programs in the sector. Table 1 provides a snapshot of the different programs being implemented in Tajikistan at this time, by donor organization. The rationale behind focusing on systems reform as the proposed program does is three fold. First, poor outcomes in all levels of the education system remain largely unspecified and unexplored. There is a profound need to determine where and why shortcomings exist in order to develop programs and policies that best meet the most pressing education needs. Creating and enhancement of a MoE M&E unit is the first step to addressing this issue. A second pressing shortcoming is inequality regarding access to education. The 1 Figures for 2008 are preliminary ones. Education budget with PIP as % of GDP is 4.2% in 2008. 2 In December 2005, the Fast Track Initiative Catalytic Fund (FTI-CF) agreed to grant USD 18.4 million to Tajikistan in support to its National Strategy for Education Development (NSED). The first year funds (FTI-1) of USD 9.2 million were made available in mid-2006. The MoE is implementing the second year allocation (FTI-2) and is preparing application package for the third year to be considered by the FTI CFC in September 2009. Page 3 proposed assessment center will establish a fair and transparent system for university testing and admittance. Once it is fully functional, it will not only improve transparency of access to higher education but also serve as a model for fair access throughout the system. Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, poor management and irrational decision making have plagued many education efforts in Tajikistan. Building on the system assessment, the proposed program will offer policy advice and a strategic framework to areas most in need and identified for support. Particular attention will be paid to areas related to MoE M&E and the assessment center. It is quite likely that initial success in the implementation of the proposed program and the FTI together would attract other donors into the sector wide basket. At this time, strengthened by the two years of implementation of the FTI activities half of which has been through MoE (and not a Program Implementation Unit), there exists a basic but healthy coordination mechanism between donors. The on going dialogue which all donors so far has been that donors would gradually move towards a sector wide tenet of implementation. The Bank has been advocating for that starting from 2010 and the implementation of the proposed program and FTI: (i) all donor funded programs would be implemented through the MoE with strategic and coordinated technical assistance placed in specific departments; (ii) all donors will with government adhere to the same key performance outcomes based on the agreed upon sector strategy and action plan; (iii) no donor would develop programs outside of the government’s sector strategy—NSED. This is a continuous dialogue that would be enhanced considerably by government ownership of the NQEP and its leadership in taking a lead on coordinating the programs in the sector. 2. Proposed objective(s) The overall project development objective would be to strengthen governance and management of the sector through the establishment of a national assessment center, promotion of monitoring and evaluation and development of an institutional framework for reform. This would lead to increased equity regarding access to higher education institutions and the development of tools which would better measure improvements in the quality of education in the country. The quality of learning in classrooms is intrinsically linked to the greater system and its management and the system’s ability to respond to students’ needs. The proposed program takes a sectoral view and would be a specific investment lending operation that finances key areas of management and reform laying the foundation for improved teaching and learning. 3. Preliminary description The proposed new program would be aligned to the National Strategy for Education Development (NSED) and the Joint Country Support Strategy (JCSS) and focuses on: (i) building on lessons learned in general education sub sectors in improving the quality of and access to schooling from Grades 1-11; (ii) improving management of the education system as a whole including the development of an institutional framework for reform. The proposed program would be a basic SWAp based on the NSED (government’s sector wide strategy) and adhering to the joint donor Country Support Strategy (JCSS) and prepared and implemented side by side with the FTI activities. The program would also share the following: (i) a jointly costed Action Plan with separate budgets per financier; (ii) donor coordination facilitated by GoT; (iii) a shared framework for Key Performance Indicators (KPIs); and, (iv) the use of MoE departments (with TA support) for implementation and a focus on lessons learned from past programs in the sector. Program preparation of the proposed NQEP would be linked to the preparation for FTI -3 funding (effective if approved by end 2009). Component 1. The National Testing Center (NTC). The objective of the NTC is to institutionalize fair and transparent assessments that will be used for improving learning outcomes and addressing issues of equity. Page 4 The main goals of the NTC will be to administer reliable and valid forms of assessment including: University admission tests, summative assessments at selected grade levels, and sample-based assessments. These tests will be used to support the MoE's goal of improving the quality of teaching and learning and introducing more equitable mechanisms in the entrance to universities. In terms of funding, it was agreed that donors and the state budget would provide funding for the NTC establishment and its operations during the first 4 years on sliding scale basis. Testing fees for university entrance exams would be collected from the first year of test administration. Gradually, the collected fees would substitute donors and state budget funding. This would ensure that the NTC would gradually become financially independent. Its budget would be formed out of the test fees and payments for the additional services under the contracts with external agencies. NTC financial statements, regardless of the funding source, would be subject for the annual independent financial audit funded by the NTC. The NTC would be an activity that is multi donor funded with the Bank and GOT in the lead and the Open Society Initiative and UNDP as partners. Component 2. Monitoring and Evaluation . The objective of the Monitoring and Evaluation component would be to establish a coordinated unit to provide reliable information and analysis to the education sector thus enabling national policy makers and educators to make informed decisions based on relevant and readily accessible information. Special attention would be paid to providing research addressing the gender and urban-rural disparities within the education system. Component 3. Policy Reform . The objective of this component would be to strengthen the linkage between program implementation and policy development and to build the capacity of the MoE and its stakeholders for effective policy making ultimately resulting in more rational education policies. Experience in social sector contexts similar to that of Tajikistan has shown that it can be more difficult to implement consistently and effectively in an environment in which there is no government owned institutional framework for reform. The implementation of policy reform first requires the development of a reform strategy which is a medium term process that requires consultation and political vision and will. This component would support MoE in areas where there has been minimal policy reform and thereby expand the scope of the NSED to include more substantive country owned strategies. These would include (but are not limited to), school construction, technical vocational education and training and higher education. 4. Safeguard policies that might apply Category C. No civil works are expected under the project. 5. Tentative financing Source: ($m.) BORROWER/RECIPIENT 0 IDA Grant 10 Total 10 6. Contact point Contact: Scherezad Joya Monami Latif Title: Sr. Education Spec. Tel: (202) 458-2488 Email: slatif@worldbank.org