. PROJECT INFORMATION DOCUMENT (PID) APPRAISAL STAGE Report No.: 89641 . Project Name Guyana GPE-For Early Childhood Education Project Region LATIN AMERICA AND CARIBBEAN Country Co-operative Republic of Guyana Sector(s) Secondary education (100%) Theme(s) Education for the knowledge economy (100%) Lending Instrument Investment Project Financing (Recipient Executed Trust Fund) Project ID RE-P122555-LEN-TF015032 Borrower(s) Co-operative Republic of Guyana Implementing Agency Ministry of Education Environmental Category C Date PID Prepared/Updated 03-July-2014 Estimated Date of Board N/A Approval Decision Other Decision . I. Project Context A. Country Context The Co-operative Republic of Guyana is located in the northern part of South America, bordering the Atlantic Ocean, with Suriname, Venezuela, and Brazil as neighbors. It is the second smallest country in South America after Suriname, with a population of about 800,000 people and a per capita Gross National Income (GNI) of approximately US$3,410 (2012). For the five-year period 2008-2012, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth averaged 4 percent, recovering steadily since 2007 (when it fell by 3.6 percent). The economy grew by an estimated 5.8 percent in 2013, largely driven by rapid growth in mining. Inflation is stable at less than 2 percent. The Co-operative Republic of Guyana is well endowed with natural resources, fertile agricultural lands, bauxite, gold, and extensive tropical forests that cover 80 percent of the country. However, its incidence of poverty is among the highest in the Western Hemisphere, at 43 percent of the population (2011), and with much higher rates in Hinterland regions (regions 1, 7, 8 and 9, about 10% of the total population) where most Amerindians live. In 2012, it ranked 118 out of 187 countries on United Nations Development Program’s (UNDP) Human Development Index, having declined from 107 in 2008. About 90 percent of the population lives on the coastal plain, in and near the capital of Georgetown1. B. Sectoral and Institutional Context Now that the Co-operative Republic of Guyana has essentially attained Universal Primary Education (UPE) and is committed to achieve Universal Secondary Education by 2020, the focus has shifted to Early Childhood Education (ECE). ECE covers the period from the first year of nursery education (at 3 1/2 years of age) to Grade 2 of primary education (age 8). Nursery education is offered as a two-year program, mainly through public schools: in 2011/12 academic year 25,543 children (92 percent of the total nursery students) were enrolled in public nursery education in 442 public schools, while just 2,222 children (8 percent of the total) were enrolled in private nursery classes. That same year, more than 70 percent of private nursery schools are in Georgetown. For 2012-2013, the gross enrollment rate (GER) at the nursery level was 70 percent in hinterland regions and 62 percent in coastal regions.2 At the primary level, about 12,650 children were enrolled in Grade 1 in 2012. The quality and equity of ECE services are the most critical issues in need of attention. With respect to quality, 31 percent of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana’s 1,700 nursery teachers remain untrained, with a much higher proportion of untrained teachers (53 percent) in remote hinterland areas (2011/2012). 3 Even among trained teachers, their instructional methodologies do not incorporate best practices. Research shows that young children learn best through open-ended, play-based, and hands-on activities, which make learning experiential and real. This is particularly true for mathematical concepts, which are often quite abstract. According to the NCERD and based on the preparation team’s multiple school visits, Guyanese teachers are reluctant to allow children to engage in independent or small-group play-based learning activities, and prefer structured, didactic plenary instructional methods with firm timetables and little cross-curricular content. There are inadequate materials for teaching and learning in nursery and Grade 1 classrooms in the hinterland regions and riverine areas, particularly those that children can use themselves (e.g. blocks, puzzles, educational toys, magnetic numbers and letters, and other materials for visual expression and for developing pre-literacy and numeracy skills). Historically, nursery level and Grade 1 learning materials have been created by the teachers, supplemented by whatever could be mobilized from parents, community groups, NGOs, etc., but these materials are frequently not aligned with the nursery context or curriculum and/or not available when they are needed. Low nursery and Grade 1 teacher effectiveness and inadequate teaching and learning materials logically translate into poor learning outcomes. In 2013 NCERD administered a Literacy Assessment to 440 Grade 1 classes. Less than 8 percent of Grade 1 students demonstrated “mastery” of reading at their grade level; 24 percent were “approaching mastery”; and 68 1 UNDP. 2013 Human Development Report; World Bank Data. 2 Nursery education is not compulsory and some parents prefer to keep their children at home until primary school. This also does not capture all private school enrollment data, as not all private schools report their information. 3 A “trained” teacher means a teacher who has completed formal pre-service teacher education at the Cyril Potter College of Education (2 years) or at the University of Guyana (4 years), plus at least 1 year of teaching. percent were “below mastery”. Geographic inequality is also indicated by the ratio of students to trained teachers in nursery schools, which is 22:1 in coastal regions and 37:1 in hinterland regions (the highest being 60:1 in remote Region 8). Unfortunately, these higher concentrations of untrained teachers in hinterland regions serve children from households with very limited learning opportunities at home. UNICEF’s Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (2006) revealed that in Regions 1, 7, 8 and 9, more than 70 percent of children have less than 3 children’s books at home, while more than 70 percent of children living in urban areas have more than 3 children’s books at home. Low teacher training levels combine with the lack of learning materials in classrooms and more challenging home environments (e.g. lower levels of adult literacy) in hinterland regions to create inequitable access to quality nursery education. Parents of young children play a key role in providing a stimulating home learning environment where emergent literacy and numeracy skills can be developed in a playful manner. This is especially important in countries with low-quality public ECE services. Yet very few Guyanese parents, particularly those in more remote areas, have been exposed to, much less trained in, methods to support their children’s early learning. In 2013 the Ministry of Education administered a Diagnostic Assessment of more than 700 children entering Grade 1 and found poor results in emergent literacy and numeracy skills.4 With the exception of the quantity differentiation task (where 56% of the participants were able to master the task), on average, just 31 percent of the participants were able to achieve mastery of the different subtasks that constitute the assessment. Of the remaining two thirds (2/3) of the participants, 34 percent showed some proficiency with the items on the assessment, while 35 percent demonstrated little or no ability to accurately execute any of the tasks on the assessment. Number Identification proved to be the most difficult task, with only 9 percent of the participants showing mastery, and 40 percent showing very little or no ability to identify any numerals from 1 to 10. Approximately 60 percent of children entering Grade 1 have not mastered pre-requisite skills for reading. Less than 10 percent could demonstrate any understanding of text. Though more than half of the participants (55 percent) were able to recite just above half of the alphabet (14-26 letters correct), 45 percent of the respondents were unable to recite at least half of the alphabet by rote (0-13 letters correct), and 15 percent were unable to recite any of the alphabet in sequence. Parental/caregiver education is a new critical area of intervention for the MOE that needs strengthening in terms of institutional capacity-building, development of training materials and delivery through multiple channels that reach parents and caregivers wherever they are. 4 Emergent literacy and math can be defined as the earliest phases of development of literacy and mathematical/spatial concepts. Emergent literacy refers to the knowledge, skills, and attitudes a child develops in relation to reading and writing in the early years, (Save The Children) such as oral language development, print and book awareness, alphabetic awareness, and phonological awareness. Emergent math skills —including an understanding of numbers and counting, patterns, sorting and classification, comparison and measurement, and geometry—develop concurrently with emergent literary skills and these skills are often interrelated. International research shows a strong link between emergent literacy skills and later reading outcomes and underscores that lack of mastery of and interest in reading during the early years can have a negative ripple effect on primary education learning outcomes and beyond . Under the MOE’s 2008-2013 Education Strategic Plan (ESP) 8 new nursery schools were built, another 20 primary schools were modified to accommodate nursery classes, and 46 nursery classes were opened in other schools. This helped the gross enrollment ratio (GER) at the nursery level to reach 63 percent in public schools5 in 2013, but children among the most vulnerable groups remain under-represented. These include children living in difficult socio-economic circumstances, children with special education needs due to some form of disability, and those lacking birth certificates and other necessary documentation to enter school. Gender differences in enrollment are not a major issue at this level. Boys represent 51 percent of total public nursery enrollment with surprisingly little variation by region. However, student attendance remains a troubling issue, remaining consistently at 68 percent over the past 3 years (2012/2013 data). It ranges from 61 percent in Region 1 to 76 percent in Region 9 (both are hinterland regions), with little difference by gender. In 2006 the Government approved a national policy with respect to integrated ECD. This included development of a system for accreditation and quality improvement of ECD services; training for ECD personnel; strategies for increased parental education and community awareness with respect to ECD; development of a revised curriculum framework for children aged 0-6; increased focus on equity and access in ECD service provision; and development of community infrastructure and support systems for ECD services. This policy is based on the CARICOM Regional Framework for Early Childhood Development, and is overseen by the ECD National Steering Committee. The Co-operative Republic of Guyana has made notable progress with the launch of an accredited Certificate program for Early Child Development Practitioners and Assessors in 2011, with the requisite qualification within the CARICOM ECD framework. Suggested lessons plans have been revised for more purposeful approaches to developing language and numeracy skills. In addition, the MOE has revived its training program for Nursery Field Officers (NFO), who are be responsible for providing support to teachers, parents and the school community in promoting the attainment of literacy and numeracy standards, ensuring access and supporting effective management of classes at the pre-primary and Grades 1 and 2 at the primary level. However, critical constraints to improved ECE service provision remain, including inadequate in-service training for nursery level and Grade 1 teachers, lack of appropriate teaching and learning materials for ECE, and lack of parental/caregiver engagement in supporting children’s learning at home. 5 Private nursery schools are concentrated in Georgetown and some coastal cities. All nursery schools/classes in Hinterland regions are public. II. Project Development Objective(s) The Project Development Objective is to improve emergent literacy and numeracy outcomes for children at the nursery level and primary Grade 1 in hinterland regions and targeted remote riverine areas. This would be achieved by strengthening the capacity and effectiveness of nursery and Grade 1 teachers, providing additional teaching and learning materials to nursery and Grade 1 classes, and reinforcing parental/caregiver engagement in children’s early education. This PDO is closely aligned with the objectives detailed in the MOE’s Nursery Action Plan prepared as part of its Education Strategic Plan for 2014-2018. III. Project Description Component 1 : Capacity Building for Nursery and Grade 1 Teachers (US$650,000) ; Component 2: Improved Supply of Teaching and Learning Materials (US$400,000) Component 3: Parent/Caregiver Education (US$350,000) Component 4: Project Implementation Support, Administration and M&E (US$300,000) IV. Financing (in USD Million) Total Project Cost: 1.7 Total Global Partnership 1.7 for Education (GPE ) Financing: Financing Gap: 0.00 Financing Source Amount BORROWER/RECIPIENT 0.00 International Development Association (IDA) 0.00 Other financing amounts by source: Global Partnership for Education (GPE): 1.70 Total 1.70 . V. Implementation Institutional and Implementation Arrangements The MOE would be the implementing agency for the Project. The MOE has extensive experience implementing externally financed projects (World Bank, IDB, EFA-FTI). Technical responsibilities for implementation would lie with the Chief Education Officer (CEO) of the MOE, supported by the Assistant Chief Education Officer (CEO) for Nursery Education and the Assistant CEO for Primary Education. Fiduciary responsibilities would be managed by the Planning Unit of the Ministry of Education, which currently handles all financial management and procurement for the on-going Improving Teacher Education Project, the Secondary Education Improvement Project, and the University of Guyana Science and Technology Support Project, all financed by the World Bank. A Project Implementation Specialist would be hired and maintained in the MOE’s Planning Unit. S/he would be responsible for supporting execution of project activities, monitoring, and coordination of project implementation, including work planning, and other Project-related activities. The Project Implementation Specialist would report to the A-CEOs for Nursery and Primary Education, and to the Chief Planning Officer of the MOE, supervise agreed work plans with the technical leads for each subcomponent, and coordinate implementation among MOE departments. In addition, the Project Implementation Specialist would be responsible for preparing/consolidating information for Quarterly and Annual Progress Reports. Existing fiduciary staff in the MOE Planning Unit currently managing other Bank-financed projects would handle procurement, financial management, accounting responsibilities for this Project. Results Monitoring and Evaluation To the fullest extent possible, the project would rely on the Results and Monitoring Framework developed by the MOE for the implementation of its Education Strategic Plan (ESP) for 2014-2018. This would avoid duplication of monitoring activities and reduce transaction costs. The Results Framework for the project detailed in Annex 1 incorporates the MOE’s own framework for the ESP, and adds several project-specific implementation indicators. Quarterly and Annual Progress Reports would be submitted to the World Bank by Nursery and Primary Departments of the MOE with support from the Implementation Specialist and the Fiduciary team under the Planning Unit. The WB will carry out regular supervision missions which would track progress on the indicators included in the Results Framework and provide additional implementation support. . VI. Safeguard Policies (including public consultation) Safeguard Policies Triggered by the Project Yes No Environmental Assessment OP/BP 4.01 X Natural Habitats OP/BP 4.04 X Forests OP/BP 4.36 X Pest Management OP 4.09 X Physical Cultural Resources OP/BP 4.11 X Indigenous Peoples OP/BP 4.10 X Involuntary Resettlement OP/BP 4.12 X Safety of Dams OP/BP 4.37 X Projects on International Waterways OP/BP 7.50 X Projects in Disputed Areas OP/BP 7.60 X Comments (optional) . VII. Contact point World Bank Contact: Hongyu Yang Title: Senior Education Specialist Tel: 473-9224 Email: hyang@worldbank.org . Borrower/Client/Recipient Name: Co-operative Republic of Guyana Contact: Dr. Ashni Singh Title: Minister of Finance Tel: Email: asingh@finance.gov.gy . Implementing Agencies Name: Ministry of Education Contact: Priya Manickchand Title: Minister Tel: (592) 226-3094 Email: moe.manickchand@gmail.com . . VIII. For more information contact: The InfoShop The World Bank 1818 H Street, NW Washington, D.C. 20433 Telephone: (202) 458-4500 Fax: (202) 522-1500 Web: http://www.worldbank.org/infoshop