Report No: XXX INTERNATIONAL BANK FOR RECONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL SYSTEMS ASSESSMENT ON A PROPOSED LOAN IN THE AMOUNT OF US$ 500 MILLION TO INDIA FOR GUJARAT: OUTCOMES FOR ACCELERATED LEARNING (GOAL) (P173704) Disclosed on January 31, 2021 Education Global Practice South Asia Region Gujarat - Outcomes for Accelerated Learning (GOAL) School Education Excellence Program (SEEP) Environmental and Social Systems Assessment (ESSA) January 20, 2021 (Revised Version) Environment and Social Systems Assessment Table of Contents Executive Summary.................................................................................................................... 6 1. Program description ......................................................................................................... 16 2. Environment and Social Systems Assessment (ESSA) – Methodology Adopted ............. 35 3. Environment and Social Over-view of Gujarat ................................................................ 39 4. Potential Environment and Social Effects, Risks and Benefits ......................................... 45 5. Assessment of Environment and Social Systems ............................................................. 53 Core Principle 1: Program E&S Management System .............................................. 56 Core Principle 2: Natural Habitat and Physical and Cultural Resources ................... 59 Core Principle 3: Public and Workers Safety ............................................................ 60 Core Principle 4: Land Acquisition and Resettlement .............................................. 61 Core Principle 5: Rights and Interests of Indigenous People .................................... 62 Core Principle 6: Social Conflict ................................................................................ 65 6. Consultations with Key Stakeholders and Disclosure ...................................................... 67 7. Recommendations............................................................................................................ 72 ANNEXURES ............................................................................................................................. 81 Annexuree 1: List of Documents Reviewed ............................................................................. 82 Annexure 2: List of Individual/Officials Consulted During ESSA Preparation .......................... 83 Annexure 3: Stakeholder Consultation ................................................................................... 86 Annexure 4: Applicable Legal and Regulatory Framework ..................................................... 94 Annexure 5: Description of E&S Management Systems and Capacity Assessment .............. 108 Annexure 6: Screening Checklist ........................................................................................... 133 Annexure 7: Measures for Inclusion in Civil Works Contracts (an indicative list) ................. 136 Annexure 8: Social Audit Format Used by Samagra Shiksha, Gujarat ................................... 139 Annexure 9: Declaration of Grievance Redress Mechanism under under RTE Act, 2009 ..... 145 GOAL-SEEP Pg 2 Environment and Social Systems Assessment Abbreviations AWP&B Annual Work Plan & Budget BaLA Building as Learning Aid BRC Block Resource Centre BRCC Block Resource Centre Coordinator CPD Continuous professional development CRC Cluster Resource Centre CRCC Cluster Resource Centre Coordinator CSS Centrally Sponsored Scheme CWSN Children with Special Needs DIET District Institute of Education and Training DIKSHA Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing DoE Department of Education DPC District Program Coordinator DPEO District Primary Education Officer E&S Environmental and Social ECCE Early Childhood Care and Education ECE Early Childhood Education EHS Environmental Health and Safety EMF Environmental Management Framework EMIS Education Management Information System ESSA Environmental and Social Systems Assessment GAS Gujarat Achievement Survey GCERT Gujarat Council of Educational Research and Training GCSE Gujarat Council of School Education GOAL Gujarat Outcomes for Accelerated Learning GoG Government of Gujarat GoI Government of India GP Gram Panchayat GRM Grievance Redress Mechanism GSDMA Gujarat Disaster Mitigation Authority GOAL-SEEP Pg 3 Environment and Social Systems Assessment GSDP Gross State Domestic Product GSQAC Gujarat School Quality Accreditation Council ICC Internal Complaints Committee ICT Information and Communications Technology ISL Institute of School Leadership MDM Mid-day meal MHRD Ministry of Human Resource Development MoE Ministry of Education NAS National Achievement Survey NDMA National Disaster Mitigation Authority, Government of India NEP National Education Policy NGO Non-governmental organizations NIEPA National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration P for R Program for Results PAP Program Action Plan PAT Periodic Assessment Tests PDO Project Development Objective PISA Program for International Student Assessment PRI Panchayati Raj Institution PTR Pupil Teacher Ratio PVTG Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group RMSA Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan RTE Right to Education RTI Right to Information SAC State Assessment Cell SC Scheduled Caste SCERT State Council for Educational Research and Training SDMC School Development and Management Committee SDP School Development Plan SEA Sexual exploitation and abuse SEEP School Education Excellence Program SEZ Special Economic Zone GOAL-SEEP Pg 4 Environment and Social Systems Assessment SH Sexual harassment SLAS State Learning Achievement Survey SMC School Management Committee SoE Schools of Excellence SPD State Project Director SPIPA Sardar Patel Institute of Public Administration SS Samagra Shiksha SSA Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan ST Scheduled Tribe TE Teacher Education TEI Teacher Education Institution TLM Teaching Learning Material WCD Women and Child Development WSDP Whole School Development Plan GOAL-SEEP Pg 5 Environment and Social Systems Assessment EXECUTIVE SUMMARY E.1 Program Background 1. The school education system in Gujarat caters to the educational needs of about 11.48 million students, of whom 5.42 million are enrolled in government schools, 1.82 million in government-aided (private) schools, and 4.24 million in private unaided schools. Government and government-aided schools account for more than 60 percent of school enrolment and teachers. 2. Gujarat’s National Achievement Survey (NAS) scores at Grade 3 and 5 are close to the national average. However, it performs below the national average for Grade 10. As per the Class 5 National Achievement Survey (NAS) 2017 (language), 12 percent students were below grade level proficiency. Further based on the Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) 2016-17 and the population projections (2016) of the National Commission on Population, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, about 390 thousand (6.5 percent) of the 5.6 million children of primary school going age (6 to 10) are out of school. With an overall elementary school Pupil Teacher Ratio (PTR) of 27, and an average government elementary school enrolment of about 165, the state has several small schools with low enrolment. About 25 percent of primary, upper primary, and/or elementary schools have fewer than two teachers and 21 percent have fewer than two classrooms. To augment and strengthen existing educational facilities, investments are needed for refurbishment of infrastructure and addition of new amenities that can directly support efforts to enhance the quality of teaching-learning transactions. 3. The current COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented challenges in school education, disrupting both demand and supply side interventions. It is imperative to take steps to: (a) mitigate the immediate risks and continue to provide education to all children; and, (b) build education resilience as a strategic imperative across the sector. Given the unpredictability of the COVID-19 outbreak, institutional resilience and a robust state and district architecture is important to ensure a response to any disaster/pandemic that affects students and teachers. Technology will not only be a supplementary teaching-learning strategy; it needs to become a way of life for students, teachers and administrators. Instructional materials henceforth would need to incorporate within their inherent capacities to respond to the needs of a changing reality that requires innovations and, on the feet, thinking that builds on systemic strengths and decentralized reform. 4. Building on a detailed sectoral analysis, Gujarat - Outcomes for Accelerated Learning (GOAL) - School Education Excellence Program (SEEP) Program has been prepared and proposed for funding from the World Bank. The project will build on learnings of state operations, unlocking the potential of involving district governments for implementation with local flexibility and innovation. Coupled with inter-state and inter-district exchange of experience and learning, the operation would attempt uniformity of reform and outcomes in the sector. E.2 Program Development Objective 5. The Program Development Objective of the GOAL-SEEP Program is to strengthen decentralized management for improved education outcomes in the state of Gujarat. GOAL-SEEP Pg 6 Environment and Social Systems Assessment E.3 Program Development Objective Level Indicators 6. The PDO-level indicators are: a. Stakeholder owned planning systems institutionalized b. Improved school quality through performance evaluation and incentives c. Improved foundational learning outcomes at the lower primary level, gender disaggregated d. Strengthened teacher development for classroom performance e. Improved learning environment in schools and teacher education institutions 7. The Intermediate-Outcome Indicators are: a) Decentralized planning systems institutionalized • District based planning systems enabled through capacity building for decentralized education functionaries including school-related gender-based violence (SRGBV) prevention protocols, complaint and referral mechanisms implemented • School level Annual Work Plan and Budgets (AWPBs) enhanced through community participation b) Improved foundational learning outcomes at the lower primary level • Access to Early Childhood Education (ECE) Programs for all pre-schoolers • Strengthened state level learning assessment systems c) Strengthened teacher development and school-based assessments for classroom performance • Teacher training and management systems strengthened for performance tracking • Quality remedial program based on classroom-based assessments • Strengthened teacher education institutions for teacher development d) Improved learning environment and technology infrastructure in schools • Performance-based selection of school for learning environment and technology infrastructure improvement e) Resilient Recovery from COVID-19 • COVID-19 response strategies built in for systemic resilience E.4 Program Components 8. The GOAL-SEEP Program has five Results Areas, which are: 1) Results Area 1: Stakeholder Owned Planning Systems Institutionalized 2) Results Area 2: Improved Foundational Learning Outcomes at Lower Primary Level 3) Results Area 3: Strengthened Teacher Development for Classroom Performance 4) Results Area 4: Improved Learning Environment in Schools and Teacher Education Institutions 5) Results Area 5: Resilient Recovery from COVID-19 GOAL-SEEP Pg 7 Environment and Social Systems Assessment E.5 Environment and Social Systems Assessment 9. An Environmental and Social Systems Assessment (ESSA) for GOAL-SEEP has been completed in line with the World Bank’s Guidance for conducting ESSA for operations that use PforR as a financing instrument. The findings and recommendations of the ESSA are based on review of relevant environmental and social (E&S) management systems of the Samagra Shiksha Program in Gujarat, and consultations with key stakeholders. E.6 Methodology 10. The ESSA process adopted a methodology in which, (a) the E&S effects, including indirect effects, of activities associated with the Program were identified/analysed; (b) borrower’s systems for managing identified E&S effects, including a review of practices and the performance track record was assessed; (c) borrower’s systems - laws, regulations, standards, procedures, and implementation performance were compared against the core principles and key planning elements to identify any significant differences that could affect Program performance. Based on this, the ESSA has recommended measures to strengthen performance on specific operational aspects relevant to managing risks and enhancing benefits/sustainability of the Program. E.7 Environment and Social Risks/Impacts 11. The over-all E&S impacts of the GOAL SEEP Program are likely to be positive, owing to benefits from improved learning environment in schools and enhanced capacities of teachers. The proposition for developing greenfield infrastructure is limited and proposed interventions on infrastructure augmentation primarily include upgrading/improvement works of buildings/services within existing campus of schools and Teacher Training Institutes. Therefore, the overall E&S risk rating is ‘moderate’, given that most of the E&S effects of the Program are likely to be localized/site specific, reversible, predictable, and can be effectively mitigated by complying to existing environmental regulations/codes/standards/guidelines and by strengthening the existing E&S management systems, for which ESSA has made specific recommendations. 12. The key environment risks and impacts of the Program are likely to include: (i) cutting of trees/loss of open spaces while expanding school infrastructure/building footprint, (ii) risk of poor building design leading to restricted access to children/people with physical challenges and deficiencies in provision of basic services (sewage/waste water disposal; drainage; solid waste management), (iii) inadequate lighting/ventilation and thermal comfort in buildings, (iv) temporary inconvenience/ disruption to school activities during execution of civil works, (v) construction related impacts on account of dust, noise, stress on water availability and improper management of debris and wastes, (vi) safety risks to students/teachers and OHS risks to workers during construction, (vii) fire and electrical safety risks. Some schools under the program may be located near forests and natural/wildlife habitat areas (more likely in Dangs, Gir Somnath, Porbandar districts of the state), requiring additional considerations/attention. However, greenfield infrastructure development is a small component of the program and associated concerns are likely to be of limited for this reason. 13. In addition, some key risks and issues associated with operation and maintenance stage GOAL-SEEP Pg 8 Environment and Social Systems Assessment include: (a) food safety and hygiene (in schools/early child education centres with kitchen/mid-day meal cooking arrangements and in schools/teacher training institutes with hostels); (b) management of wastes from kitchen/mess (specially in schools with hostels/residential facility); (c) management of hazardous waste/wastewater from the laboratories, and; (d) e-waste generation from disposal of non-functional/old electrical and IT equipment. 14. Climate and natural disaster risks may be involved in the program as the state of Gujarat is challenged by multiple geophysical hazard risks (owing to state’s location) like cyclones/storms, high winds, floods and extreme temperature incidents. This includes vulnerability and preparedness to deal with safe evacuation during emergencies. 15. The key social risks emerges from concerns related to access and social inclusion for children coming from poor and vulnerable community and in tribal areas; potential issues related to coordination and convergence among different department such as Tribal Development, Social Welfare, and WCD etc. for early childhood care and education (ECCE); rapidly changing demand for access to improved gadgets for ICT based teaching and learning; and the potential need for squatter removal while expansion of school infrastructure or during school consolidation exercise. E.8 Key Findings from Assessment of Existing Capacity and Systems 16. The ESSA has identified key gaps as well as opportunities for strengthening the existing operational systems and capacities pertaining to E&S issues in school education program for Gujarat. 17. Environment Systems: The assessment on Environment Systems benefited from the experience of implementing Environmental Management Frameworks (EMFs) developed under SSA (primary school) and RMSA (secondary school) programs of the MHRD (now Ministry of Education), both supported by the Bank. These EMFs, which include key environmental, health and safety actions, have been adopted under the Samagra Shiksha Framework (SSF) and broadened to ECE and vocational training. These remain relevant to interventions under GOAL-SEEP. The SSF requires school buildings/infrastructure to be environment-friendly and provide for clean/hygienic and safe learning environment in the campus. 18. The state of Gujarat has successfully adopted and implemented several environmental interventions on sanitation, safe water availability, energy efficiency, Building-as-Learning- Aid (BaLA), eco-clubs, inclusive infrastructure, the concept of Green Schools (which was introduced for the first time in India under SSA) and continues to maintain an over-all satisfactory track record under the SSF too. The state has also initiated activities to promote ‘safe schools’ and this includes mitigating risks from seismic events, promote security, emergency preparedness (in case of fire/events requiring evacuation) and safer operation of transport fleets carrying school children. The required institutional capacity, including staffing was found to be adequate. 19. Social Systems: From a social perspective, the assessment revealed that to meet the core principles on land acquisition and involuntary resettlement, screening will be required to identify any potential adverse social impacts, which is currently lacking. GOAL-SEEP Pg 9 Environment and Social Systems Assessment 20. The Samagra Shiksha guidelines provide the institutional mechanism for school education program implementation along with detailed roles and responsibilities and are being followed in the state. It also follows the process of consultations with various stakeholders, community mobilization and includes social audits to create transparency, participation, and accountability of the program implementation at the school level. The Samagra Shiksha also identifies children of Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), minorities, landless workers, and children with special needs (CWSN), trans-gender children etc. and attempts to provide educational opportunity in an inclusive environment, free from discrimination. 21. The Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009 further addresses the gender and social equity within a framework that is holistic and systemic. However, given about 14.8 percent population in Gujarat being tribal across 12 eastern districts of the state, there are some challenges due to local geographical terrain, socio-economic conditions, and language barriers as their mother tongue being tribal language. Hence, special effort is required to ensure access and inclusion to the whole continuum of school education. 22. The summary of identified gaps and recommendations, aligned to the core principles, are presented below: S.No. Identified Gaps Recommendations Core Principle 1: Program E&S Management System - Environmental and social management procedures and processes are designed to: (a) promote environmental and social sustainability in Program design; (b) avoid, minimize, or mitigate against adverse impacts; and (c) promote informed decision making related to a Program’s environmental and social effects. 1 The Samagra Shiksha Framework spells There is need for designating an out clear roles and responsibility and Environmental Expert and Social Expert in the process to be adopted for school the Program Implementation Unit to education and covers all aspects of coordinate and monitor the E&S activities. program implementation, including For EHS aspects, an official in the civil works inclusive education for CWSN, gender wing entrusted this responsibility as several and social inclusion, and requirements/ risks can be avoided or mitigated through norms for infrastructure. strengthening planning, design and execution of infrastructure works. 2 Screening for E&S risks and impact • Screening for E&S risks and impacts prior to any civil works is a gap and may needs to be instituted during site level lead to some adverse E&S impacts planning for infrastructure related works given the spread of works/activities for to identify E&S risks and apply due a large geographical area of the state mitigation measures, as applicable. (and its varying conditions). • Organize periodic training programs for field engineers, schools and SMCs/SDMCs on environmental and social risks and their management as GOAL-SEEP Pg 10 Environment and Social Systems Assessment S.No. Identified Gaps Recommendations relevant to Samagra Shiksha. 3 The Block and Cluster Resource Centre Need to strengthen the mechanism across Coordinators (BRCCs and CRCCs) play the implementation chain, and build a key role in monitoring school level capacity of BRCCs, CRCCs and SMCs/SDMCs. EHS aspects for all facilities within the block/cluster. SMCs/SDMCs play an important and similar role but at the school level. With frequent turn-over of members in SMCs/SDMCs, there are gaps in understanding the issues/ requirements. 4 There is need to build capacity of Capacity building/training of BRCCs, CRCCs, different stakeholders mainly the CRC, SMCs/ SDMCs, and PRIs towards awareness BRC, SMC/SDMC, and PRI bodies on creation on their expected roles and their roles and responsibilities in an responsibilities to ensure accountability and continued manner especially for social redress grievances. audit and GRM systems, as many of the members change over 2-3 years period. Core Principle 2: Natural Habitats and Physical and Cultural Resources - Environmental and social management procedures and processes are designed to avoid, minimize, and mitigate any adverse effects (on natural habitats and physical & cultural resources) resulting from the Program. 5 While greenfield construction is • There is need to institute a screening expected to be very limited in the mechanism to identify rare but specific Program (and hence associated E&S instances, where issues pertaining to risks are low/negligible on this count), natural habitats or physical cultural awareness on the relevant provisions resources may arise. of the existing laws and regulations • Construction/demolition activities in related to civil work activities in areas within a 100-meter radius of proximity of protected monuments of protected monuments will be excluded archaeological/ historical value among from the program. the key stakeholders needs to be • Also, sensitization on regulatory enhanced, including the field provisions, relevant to school functionaries of civil branch of the development activities in proximity to Samagra Shiksha and SMC/SDMC. cultural heritage sites, is being recommended, as part of the regular and periodic training programs for SMCs/SDMCs and for engineers from civil engineering wing. GOAL-SEEP Pg 11 Environment and Social Systems Assessment S.No. Identified Gaps Recommendations Core Principle 3: Public and Workers Safety - Program procedures ensure adequate measures to protect public and worker safety against the potential risks associated with: (a) construction and/or operations of facilities or other operational practices developed or promoted under the Program; and (b) exposure to toxic chemicals, hazardous wastes, and otherwise dangerous materials. 6 Awareness about provisions under the • Strengthen contractual obligations/ SSF for civil construction is low among clauses on EHS management in SMCs/SDMCs and varies across the construction contracts for building districts among engineers of the civil users/workers/ public, including those wing/branch. related to COVID-19 - a simple generic EMP/OHS plan to be made and integrated in the bidding documents. • Periodic sensitization/training for field functionaries of Civil Branch on design and construction related EHS requirements – using “anytime, anywhere and any device� for delivering the content. Core Principle 4: Land Acquisition and Resettlement - Land acquisition and loss of access to natural resources are managed in a way that avoids or minimizes displacement, and affected people are assisted in improving, or at least restoring, their livelihoods and living standards. 7 While for the title holders the Land • E&S screening mechanism is to be Acquisition act provides for adequate instituted during the planning phase of provisions, however, the act does not any new construction under the program cover provisions for encroachers and to identify any adverse social risks and squatters on government land. impacts. • In a rare case if land acquisition and/or resettlement is required, World Bank core safeguard policy on land acquisition and resettlement will be followed and due process will be instituted in consultation with World Bank. • While the land donation is a common practice, there is need to ensure that it is done on voluntary basis and these are no coercion for doing so, and the process of donation shall be institutionalized through gift deed. GOAL-SEEP Pg 12 Environment and Social Systems Assessment S.No. Identified Gaps Recommendations Core Principle 5: Rights and Interests of Indigenous People - Due consideration is given to cultural appropriateness of, and equitable access to, Program benefits, giving special attention to the rights and interests of indigenous peoples and to the needs or concerns of vulnerable groups. 8 While the Samagra Shiksha scheme • Training of BRCCs and CRCCs from tribal aims to and provide for equitable and areas shall include special focus on inclusive system of education, due to dealing with local circumstances and local geographical terrain and socio- setting up mechanism for continued economic condition, it requires special consultation with local tribal community. effort in community mobilisation and • Training of SMCs/ SDMCs from tribal garnering larger community support. areas shall have additional focus on creating community awareness and role in community mobilization. 9 Providing multilingual education is not Special efforts to be planned for addressing a simple task. Even mother tongue language related issues, infrastructure education is challenged by problems related gaps, teacher’s capacity to enhance like – not having a script, language not overall learning outcome for tribal recognized as legitimate language, population based on conducting the need shortage of education material in the assessment in tribal areas. language, lack of appropriately trained teachers, resistance to schooling in the mother tongue by students, parents and teachers and with several mother tongues represented in one class, it compounds the problem even further. To deal with the above, various states such as Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra have developed bridge language courses for students from tribal communities. 10 The school education program in The school education program in Gujarat in Gujarat in line with RTE Act, 2009 line with RTE Act, 2009 addresses gender addresses gender and social equity and social equity within its framework. within its framework. Though no Though the impact of these efforts will be specific gaps are identified in gradual, it is important to assess the current addressing the need of vulnerable and situation through needs assessment and disadvantaged communities including identify gaps that may be required to make CWSN, it does require an assessment to additional effort specially in case of understand if what has been planned is vulnerable and disadvantaged community being delivered in an smooth manner, including for CWSN. GOAL-SEEP Pg 13 Environment and Social Systems Assessment S.No. Identified Gaps Recommendations addressing any additional efforts to meet the desired objective. Core Principle 6: Social Conflicts - Avoid exacerbating social conflict, especially in fragile states, post-conflict areas, or areas subject to territorial disputes. The Program interventions are not likely to exacerbate social conflicts as these seek to support the school education system in Gujarat and aim to improving overall learning outcomes. Also, exclusion of any groups in terms of caste, religion, and/or geography by the Program is not expected. E.9 Grievance Redress Mechanism 23. In line with RTE Act 2009 - section 9, section- 24(1)and section-32 (1), the Government of Gujarat has authorized local authorities including Gram Panchayat, CRC, Taluk Panchayat and District project coordinator office in rural areas and similarly ward office, CRC, Municipal office and Administrative office in urban area. And has also specified type of grievances, the authority charged with provision, the time duration of office for its disposal, the appellate authority, and time for grievance redressal by the appellate authority. The type of grievance and related authority for redressal, time duration and appellate varies and is structured in a matrix form. The type of grievances is structured in ten clusters i.e. (1) Access related, (2) Admission related, (3) Incentive related, (4) Teachers related, (5) Infrastructure facilities related, (6) Management related, (7) curriculum related, (8) SMC related, (9) Finance and accounts related, and (10) MIS/ computer related. Anyone can make a written complaint to above mentioned authorities related to school education and RTE related issues. E.10 Stakeholder Engagement and Consultations 24. Virtual consultations were held with Samagra Shiksha Mission at GCSE along with its Civil and Infrastructure branch, Gujarat Council of Educational Research and Training (GCERT) and other departments such as Gujarat State Disaster Management Authority (GSDMA), Tribal Development Department, Social Welfare Department, Department of Women and Child Development of Government of Gujarat (GoG). Officials of Education Department across the implementation chain at district, taluka/block level, NGOs working on education/tribal areas and members of community as part of SMCs/SDMCs, including those from tribal dominated districts were consulted through virtual platforms. 25. Discussions and feedback from these consultations have helped in preparation of the ESSA report and finalization of recommendations/actions for the Program Action Plan. This includes a state level consultation that was held on November 26, 2020 and attended by participants from a wide spectrum, who actively participated, provided feedback on the Program design and supported the recommendations made by ESSA. 26. The draft ESSA (version dated December 7, 2020) has been in public domain since December 14, 2020. This revised ESSA (version dated January 20, 2021) has been disclosed/redisclosed in country at Government of Gujarat’s website (www.ssagujarat.org) and by the World Bank’s through the project portal on January 31, 2021. GOAL-SEEP Pg 14 Environment and Social Systems Assessment E.11 Recommended Measures to Strengthen Environment and Social Systems Environment Systems 27. The ESSA for GOAL-SEEP builds on the systems already in place and has identified opportunities for strengthening the existing institutional and operational capacities pertaining to environment, health and safety issues in the state’s education sector. The recommendations to strengthen environment system focus on: (a) improving implementation/outreach of existing systems/standards on EHS to address inter-district variations that exist currently (including some gaps in sanitation requirements for girls), (b) scaling-up the ‘green school’ model, and (c) addressing disaster and climate related challenges through up-stream planning, improving building/infrastructure design and sensitization/ preparedness and curriculum delivery. Following this, the recommended measures include: (i) use of “green school� model/approach for all schools to be taken -up under the Program, including new construction as well rehabilitation/retrofitting works; (ii) promoting ‘inclusive infrastructure’ (for CWSN) in all schools to be taken -up under the Program, (iii) climate/disaster vulnerability assessment and integration of findings into the planning and design of infrastructure works, (iv) provision of lightening arrestors in schools, (v) strengthening menstrual hygiene management (MHM) in schools, (vi) strengthening waste management, (vii) sensitization/ awareness creation on environment, climate, safety and other associated topics - targeting teachers, students, BRCCs and CRCCs, (viii) strengthen contractual obligations/clauses on EHS management in construction contracts, and (ix) promoting environmental report cards at school/district/state level. Social Systems 28. The ESSA recommendations focus on clear mechanisms and institutional arrangements for implementation, management and reporting of E&S aspects, including: (i) screening for E&S risks and impacts for all civil works; (ii) building capacity of BRCCs, CRCCs, SMCs/SDMCs and PRIs towards awareness creation on their expected roles and responsibility to ensure accountability and redress grievances; (iii) training of BRCCs and CRCCs from tribal areas on dealing with local circumstances and setting up continued consultation with local community for awareness creation; and (iv) special efforts to be planned for addressing language related issues, teacher’s capacity to enhance overall learning outcome for tribal population based on conducting the need assessment in tribal areas. In addition, though land acquisition and/or resettlement is not anticipated, however, in case of need arises, the World Bank safeguards team may be consulted for any necessary mitigation measures. Also, given that land donation is a common practice, there is a need to ensure that it is done on voluntary basis without any coercion for doing so, and the process of donation shall be institutionalized through the process of gift deeds. E.12 Program Action Plan 29. The Program will ensure adequate resources are provided for timely and effective implementation of environment and social measures and the key recommendations will be made a part of the Program Action Plan (PAP). GOAL-SEEP Pg 15 Environment and Social Systems Assessment 1. PROGRAM DESCRIPTION 1.1 Background and Context 1. The school education system in Gujarat caters to the educational needs of about 11.48 million students, of whom 5.42 million are enrolled in government schools, 1.82 million in government-aided (private) schools, and 4.24 million in private unaided schools. Government and government-aided schools account for more than 60 percent of school enrolment and teachers. On the National Achievement Survey (NAS), Gujarat performs below the national average for Grade 10. With an overall elementary school Pupil Teacher Ratio (PTR) of 27, and an average government elementary school enrolment of about 165, the state has several small schools with low enrolment. About 25 percent of primary, upper primary, and/or elementary schools have fewer than two teachers and 21 percent have fewer than two classrooms. To augment and strengthen existing educational facilities, investments are needed for refurbishment of infrastructure and addition of new amenities that can directly support efforts to enhance the quality of teaching-learning transactions. 2. Most schools need investments to refurbish existing infrastructure and add new facilities that can directly support efforts to enhance the quality of teaching-learning transactions. 3. Inter-district variations abound. A preliminary analysis of the Unified District Information System for Education- Plus (U-DISE+) indicators for Gujarat presents the need to view each district individually and develop planning mechanisms specific to them, as opposed to a one- size-fits-all model in the state. There are specific indicators like electricity connections in schools that are largely uniform through the state (above 95% for all districts) and present a strong case for a state-wide initiative to integrate technology into classrooms. However, several indicators highlight intra-state or inter-district disparities; 95 percent of all Government schools in Mehsana reported having a regular Headmaster as opposed to 84 percent in Amreli. Porbandar reports a Pupil Teacher Ratio (PTR) of 22 compared to 30 in Ahmedabad. In-service training in Government schools also presents a significant disparity with a 63-percentage point difference between Valsad (13 percent) and Banas Kantha (76 percent). Learning achievement also varies across districts; NAS (2017) scores highlight that on an average, the lowest and highest performing districts have a difference in the range of 15-20 percentage points, with the highest gap of 27 percentage points between Anand and Panchmahal on average grade 5 mathematics score. Figure 1: NAS 217 Achievement (Lowest and Highest Scores) (in percentage) Figure 1 Government schools’ share in grade 1 Enrolment 100 77 71 72 72 90 80 59 64 66 59 65 57 57 64 60 70 53 48 47 60 50 38 37 40 30 20 10 0 Surendranagar Surat Gujarat Gujarat Gujarat Bhavnagar Gujarat Gujarat Anand Anand Bharuch Bharuch Dohad Panch Mahals Chhotaudepur Panch Mahals Panch Mahals Gujarat Language Mathematics Language Mathematics Language Mathematics Grade 3 Grade 5 Grade 8 GOAL-SEEP Pg 16 Environment and Social Systems Assessment 4. Gujarat has made significant progress in enhancing classroom-teaching practices. The availability of teaching-learning materials (TLM) at schools is generally high and the state is gradually transitioning to competency-based learning outcome-focused teaching-learning transactions. In 2019-20, using classroom-based assessments the state identified about 2.1 million students (including double counting across domains) who were below grade 3 proficiency for reading, writing, and mathematics. These learning issues continue to persist and magnify as a child progresses through grades and underlines the need for remedial education support. Global evidence shows that continued deficiencies in student learning levels are attributable to a lack of quality preschool education, leading to parents increasingly choosing private schools over public institutions; voting with their feet. Between 2015-16 and 2018-19, government schools’ share in grade 1 enrolment has decreased from 62.1 percent to 57.6 percent. 5. Addressing Learning Poverty. As per the Class 5 National Achievement Survey 2017 (language), 12 percent students were found to be below grade level proficiency. Further, about 390 thousand (6.5 percent) of the 5.6 million children of primary school going age (6 to 10) are out of school. 6. Gujarat leverages technology and learning assessments to enhance the relevance and effectiveness of in-service training and on-site academic support for teachers. In-service training is coordinated overall by Gujarat Council of Education Research and Training (GCERT). Continuous professional development (CPD) is offered through the GCERT, District Institutes of Education and Training (DIETs), Block Resource Centres (BRCs), and Cluster Resource Centres (CRCs). 7. Data on overall learning levels are collected through two large-scale surveys – the NAS (Classes 3, 5, 8, and 10) of GOI, the State Learning Achievement Survey (SLAS) for Classes 4, 6, and 7. Gujarat plans to participate in the 2028 administration of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD’s) Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) to benchmark its learning levels against global standards. 8. Gujarat has initiated multiple channels for monitoring the quality of school education. Gunotsav, was conceived as an appraisal system of school outcomes for public funded schools; assessing whether schools are provided with the necessary support to improve quality – including school infrastructure, teacher performance and students’ outcomes. Schools are classified in ascending order from D to A+, based on an annual assessment of their performance, co-curricular activities, teacher performance, community participation and infrastructure. 9. The state has established the Gujarat School Quality Accreditation Council (GSQAC) for school inspection and accreditation to deepen the Gunotsav tenets, completing 19,000 government-managed elementary schools using a predefined framework. The state has set up an Institute of School Leadership (ISL) to provide in-service professional development support to Block Resource Center (BRC) and Cluster Resource Center (CRC) officials, school headteachers and principals. The state has been gradually investing in building digital infrastructure for monitoring and management. 10. A well-functioning Education Management Information System (EMIS) and associated platforms have been developed to track child and teacher attendance, capture student assessment data, and provide rich metrics on education in the state. The state has set up a dedicated data analytics cell for this purpose. GOAL-SEEP Pg 17 Environment and Social Systems Assessment 1.2 Program Design 11. Building on the above analysis and India’s experience from the Country Partnership Framework, 2018-22, during its implementation, GOAL will build on learnings of state partnerships, further unlocking the potential of involving district governments for implementation with local flexibility and innovation. GOAL would trigger decentralization in education, evolving Bank support to towards the storyline of service delivery in public education. In-depth engagement with states may now facilitate deeper decentralization and embed reform in public institutions with more stakeholder support. The proposed Program design would focus on three critical pillars drawing from the India Country Partnership Framework (2018-21) and the global initiatives on human capital growth and reducing learning poverty: a. Investing in human capital: GOAL will reduce learning poverty through measurement and analytical work designed to galvanize the momentum around human capital growth. It will provide disaggregated solutions for designing solutions, and tracking progress investments to align the years of schooling to optimal learning outcomes. This is especially relevant to strengthening teacher performance through professional development and accountability systems, building institutions and systems to identify ways to improve learning outcomes, and improving quality assurance within schools. Human capital growth encompasses the growth of a child into a healthy and productive individual, skilled to contribute to economic growth. b. Tilting the balance towards decentralized district level reform: Learning from the successful shifts towards state support, GOAL will further deepen this approach through interventions in district-level systems. Identifying entry points and change levers at the different levels of the district institutional network, GOAL will incentivize district level catalytic contributions and strategic innovations. High performing districts will be categorized along with the ones needing more reform to cross learn and infuse change management and reform into the different pillars of the education architecture at district, block and further at community organization levels. These will be done through drawing upon the strengths of the Panchayati Raj Act 74th Amendment that provides more autonomy to decentralized bodies. This will be coupled with strengthening the District Education Office and the Block Education Office as the administrative units with the local bodies at both urban and rural levels especially catering to actualization of the Panchayati Raj institution tenets as envisaged; ushering in administrative and financial devolution of decision making with greater ownership. c. Strengthening public service delivery in the education architecture: GOAL will attempt to bridge the gap between ‘form’ and ‘function’1. This would be achieved through encouraging public education delivery and enhanced institutional functionality. The State Implementation Society (SIS) for Samagra Shiksha (the nodal implementing agency), the State Council of Educational Research and Training, the District Education Offices, Block and Cluster Resource Centers will be supported for improved service delivery. This is especially true about the crucial presence of teacher educators/district and sub-district 1 Building State Capability: Evidence Analysis, Action: Matt Andrews, Lant Pritchett, Michael Woolcock: Oxford University Press; 2017 GOAL-SEEP Pg 18 Environment and Social Systems Assessment level training staff that needs bottoms-up planning for filling up of critical vacancies that are essential for ensuring a functional training institution. Building the accountability chain from the top to the frontline workers, the Program will strengthen human and financial resources allocation and decision-making to (i) ensure critical staff positioning where they are most needed (ii) develop accountability mechanisms, including support for digital platforms to remove discretion for routine interactions between government, and citizens, as well as enabling citizen engagement channels; (ii) strengthen public financial management (PFM) and procurement systems, and (iv) strengthen planning, budgeting, and Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) at different levels. 12. These three pillars of GOAL’s design will cut across all the components of the Program. 1.3 Government’s Program 13. The Program has been designed to support select components of the Gujarat School Education Enhancement Project (SEEP) planned by the state to create a strong foundation through a realigned and consolidated school network in the K-12 segment. All schools under the Schools of Excellence program will follow a hub-and-spoke model that will support ‘spoke’ schools in improving their quality. Schools of Excellence, at the hub, will mentor ‘spoke’ schools in improving their quality. 14. Residential schools based on the model of Navodaya Vidyalayas will be created for academically bright but deprived students. Critical reforms to enhance instructional processes and remedial measures will be introduced, teacher performance and accountability will be improved, school-to-work transition strategies will be strengthened, and the foundational years will receive additional support. Teacher support will be strengthened through creation of District Institutes of Education and Training (DIETs) in uncovered areas. Above all, the state will strengthen its learning assessment systems with more competency-oriented teaching and learning and will prepare for participation in the Program for International Students Assessment (PISA) in 2028, which will require strong institutional support at state and decentralized levels. 15. Under GOAL, a comprehensive approach to educational reform based on a decentralized stakeholder owned planning and management approach will be undertaken. Planning for stakeholder ownership of the state’s vision will be supported through district planning and appraisal processes. These will be strengthened through focused support. Comprehensive training of planning teams linked to realizing key Program outcomes; covering thematic areas of social inclusion; foundational education; classroom practices; and teacher development etc. will be undertaken. Customized need-based school infrastructure packages will be supported by engaging the community and stakeholders. School environment reform to meet international standards will also be supported. 16. Strengthening pre-school to primary grade transition will be a key area, and expansion of one-year of government provision of school-based Early Childhood Education (ECE) will be supported in alignment with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. Quality assurance of ECE through effective co-location of Anganwadis and government schools will be taken up. The Program will support the state to set up a semi-autonomous State Assessment Cell (SAC) to manage PISA participation, strengthen classroom-based assessments and improve quality of Gujarat Achievement Survey (GAS) through external, carefully identified partnerships. Estimation of device requirement to support assessment reforms would be undertaken and GOAL-SEEP Pg 19 Environment and Social Systems Assessment supported. Private aided schools form an important public private partnership model in Gujarat with 13,641 schools in the sector. GOAL will support the not-for-profit private aided schools for holistic educational reform. Vocational education support and expansion of quality and market relevant courses at secondary and higher secondary levels including setting up of labs will be supported especially through convergence with industry, and partnerships with Special Economic Zones (SEZs). 17. The Program will support GoG’s comprehensive response to the COVID-19 shock to ensure that the education system is “built back better than before�. The response will be aligned with the World Bank’s policy response2 strategies for Phase 2 (managing continuity of learning to promote learning recovery as schools reopen safely) and Phase 3 (using the crisis as an opportunity to improve and accelerate, making education system stronger and more equitable than it was before). Large-scale efforts in Gujarat to utilize technology in support of remote learning, distance education and online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic are emerging and evolving quickly. 18. Ensuring a high-quality remote learning experience for all students (Phase 2) will be predicated on the system’s ability to provide teachers with technological and pedagogical support to cope in the short term and remain resilient as the world adapts to the new normal post-COVID. The Program will invest in creating peer support Programs to encourage connectedness and help teachers transition to remote teaching, as well as provide teachers with short courses on how to teach remotely. 19. As the system emerges from this crisis (Phase 3), GoG will increase investments in remote learning, adopting blended models when schools partially reopen, and creating remedial courses. Technological and digital pedagogies for teachers will also be developed through diversified and innovative teacher capacity-building programs such as virtual coaching, and activating regular follow-up plans to support the skills developed, using both (remote) tutors and peers. 1.4 Scope of the Program for Results (PforR) (Supported by the World Bank) 20. The Government of Gujarat’s education program is a wide programmatic approach that includes support through Samagra Shiksha, the national Teacher Education Program, and several other centrally sponsored schemes with convergent financing. The GOAL Program boundaries will be limited to a portion of the Gujarat education programs, aiming at strengthening decentralized educational management to improve education outcomes with special focus on: stakeholder owned planning and management systems; improved foundational learning and assessments; strengthened teacher development; and enhancement of child friendly learning environments. 21. The PforR Program with clearly demarcated boundaries has been presented in the following table: 2 The COVID-19 Pandemic: Shocks to Education and Policy Responses, May 2020, The World Bank Group https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/33696/148198.pdf?sequence=4&isAllowed=y GOAL-SEEP Pg 20 Environment and Social Systems Assessment Table 1: Program Boundaries Government Program Program supported by the PforR Gujarat Mission Schools of Gujarat: Outcomes for Accelerated Title Excellence Learning To strengthen decentralized Objective School education enhancement management for improved education outcomes Duration 2018 onwards 2021-2027 Geographic The state of Gujarat The state of Gujarat coverage Covers from Pre-Primary to Grade 12 Coverage would be same as the Program Result Areas include: Government program. • Access and Retention – The Program will support outcome- strengthening of existing oriented interventions aligned with schools; transport and escort the school strengthening, quality facilities interventions, teacher education, • RTE Entitlements – free gender and equity, inclusive education textbooks; reimbursement monitoring and program management towards expenditure incurred components of the Government under the Right to Education program specifically: (RTE) Act; special training for Program Management: out of school children; Institutionalizing decentralized interventions for migrant planning systems for stakeholder children; media and owned planning along with annual community mobilization work plan and budgets created for Results • Quality Interventions - quality supporting holistic school level reform areas components including funds with community mobilization, for safety and security at the program management and capacity school level, talent search, building of key education functionaries teacher orientation programs; including specific interventions for innovative project activities gender and equity such as career guidance, Access and Equity counselling, meritorious • Improving learning environments awards for children with for child friendly schools through special needs, periodic strengthening of existing schools assessment tests, STEM labs, with needs based and inclusive sports education, infrastructure packages digital transportation facilities, virtual classrooms, technology hardware /digital/ smart classrooms, etc. This results area will also youth and eco club, learning by support KGBVs upgradation doing kits, twinning of schools, cultural and band competitions • Promoting gender and equity GOAL-SEEP Pg 21 Environment and Social Systems Assessment Government Program Program supported by the PforR etc.; foundational literacy and aspects (special interventions for numeracy; learning vulnerable and tribal students) enhancement programs and including support to children with remedial teaching; assessment special needs. at national and state levels; Quality Interventions training for in-service teachers • Strengthening foundational and head teachers as well as resource persons; composite learning for improving learning school grants; libraries; outcomes at the primary level and Rashtriya Aavishkar Abhiyan reducing learning poverty with (RAA) for joyful learning of support to quality components science and mathematics; especially for pre-primary support at pre-primary levels; education, foundational literacy academic support through and numeracy including teaching BRCs/CRCs etc. learning materials, training for early childhood educators, • Teacher education – salaries of academic support as well as educators at Teacher strengthening state level Education Institutes (TEIs); assessment systems, STEM labs, DIKSHA, the National Teacher academic support through BRC, Platform; programs and CRC activities including faculty • Strengthening teacher development of teacher development and school based educators in the SCERT and assessments for classroom DIETs; and annual grants for practices including strengthening TEIs needs-based in-service teacher • Sports and Physical education training, instituting teacher at the primary, upper primary, performance measures, support to secondary and senior DIKSHA, strengthening Teacher secondary levels Education Institutes, academic • Salary of teachers including support mechanisms and regular staff in position and facilitating quality improvements subject teachers in instructional processes with • Gender and Equity – support to strong learning enhancement KGBVs including staffing, programs and remedial teaching as medical care, monthly well as buttressing state stipends, teaching learning assessment systems and periodic material, skill trainings, assessment tests to ensure capacity building etc.; self- competency based learning, defence training for girls; and preparing the state to participate special projects for equity such in PISA, 2028. as adolescent programs for • Resilient recovery from COVID-19 – girls. by supporting the Government’s • Inclusive Education – response to ensure learning provisions for Children with continuity and systemic resilience GOAL-SEEP Pg 22 Environment and Social Systems Assessment Government Program Program supported by the PforR Special Needs including through capacity building, digital assistive devices, equipment infrastructure and technology and TLM, escort allowance, integration support, as well as identification and medical facilitating blended learning with assessment camps, in-service disability inclusive content for teacher training of special CWSN, stakeholder orientation, educators, stakeholder counselling and training activities. orientation, salaries of special Vocational Education educators, exposure visits, therapeutic services and • GOAL will support the state’s transport allowances. vocational education program • Vocational Education – tools, to facilitate school to work equipment, furniture, financial transition. support to resource persons and vocational teachers/trainers and raw material grants per course; innovation including internships, skill competitions, assessment and certification costs, skill training, in-service teacher training and support for CWSN. • Monitoring of the scheme/program including support for Management and Information Systems (MIS) • Program Management for elementary, secondary and teacher education 1.5 Program Expenditure Framework 22. The Program will support the Government Program in strengthening decentralized educational management for improved education outcomes. The activities to be supported correspond to specific sub-programs and activities under the overall Samagra Shiksha centrally sponsored scheme as well as that of the GOG’s state prioritized educationa l reform under SEEP. The total government education expenditure would be about USD 2068 million. The overall PforR Program cost of GOAL is USD 714.3 million out of which $ 500 million comprises of the World Bank loan and the remaining is GoG’s counterpart contribution. 23. The GOAL Program consists of the following activities: I. Improved learning environment and school upgradation for child friendly schools in place (Civil infrastructure upgradation and technology hardware/IT infrastructure) GOAL-SEEP Pg 23 Environment and Social Systems Assessment II. Quality reform for education outcomes that includes the following: a. Decentralized planning systems for stakeholder owned planning along with annual work plan and budgets created for supporting school level reform b. Improved foundational learning for strengthening learning outcomes at primary level and reducing learning poverty c. Strengthening teacher development and institutionalizing teacher performance measures with need-based teacher training d. Quality improvement in instructional processes with a strong remedial program e. Support to state assessment systems to ensure competency based learning systems and preparing the state to participate in PISA, 2028. 24. The distribution of funds is likely to be as follows: Table 2: Proposed Program Expenditure Framework (in Million USD) • GOAL 714.3 • SmSA/GoG 1354.5 Grand Total 2068.8 * Figures may change during Project Negotiations. 1.6 Program Financing Table 3: Proposed Program Financing (% share) Source % of Total o State funding 75.8 o International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) 24.2 o Total Program Cost 100 * Figures may change during Project Negotiations. 1.7 Program Development Objective (PDO) and PDO Level Results Indicators 25. The Program Development Objective is to strengthen decentralized management for improved education outcomes in the state of Gujarat. 26. The PDO-level indicators are: a) Stakeholder owned planning systems institutionalized b) Improved school quality through performance evaluation and incentives c) Improved foundational learning outcomes at the lower primary level, gender GOAL-SEEP Pg 24 Environment and Social Systems Assessment disaggregated d) Strengthened teacher development for classroom performance e) Improved learning environment in schools and teacher education institutions 27. The Intermediate-Outcome Indicators are: a) Decentralized planning systems institutionalized i. District based planning systems enabled through capacity building for decentralized education functionaries, including school-related gender-based violence (SRGBV) prevention protocols, complaint and referral mechanisms implemented ii. School level Annual Work Plan and Budgets (AWPBs) enhanced through community participation b) Improved foundational learning outcomes at the lower primary level iii. Access to Early Childhood Education (ECE) Programs for all pre-schoolers iv. Strengthened state level learning assessment systems c) Strengthened teacher development and school-based assessments for classroom performance v. Teacher training and management systems strengthened for performance tracking vi. Quality remedial program based on classroom-based assessments vii. Strengthened teacher education institutions for teacher development d) Improved learning environment and technology infrastructure in schools viii. Performance-based selection of school for learning environment and technology infrastructure improvement e) Resilient Recovery from COVID-19 ix. COVID-19 response strategies built in for systemic resilience 1.8 Program Components 28. The GOAL Program has five Results Areas. The sub-sections below present the details of each Results Area: Results Area 1: Stakeholder Owned Planning Systems Institutionalized 29. To address the wide socio-cultural and economic diversities across districts especially in access to quality education and learning spaces, the Gujarat Outcomes for Accelerated Learning (GOAL) Program will enable and prioritize systems and processes for strengthening decentralized district and sub-district level planning. 30. Considering that Gujarat is one of the progressive states with an evolved community participation framework, GOAL will support district and sub-district level planning instruments for each educational intervention like access, equity, quality and accountability and improving service delivery in frontline institutions. District specific and context relevant micro-planning exercises will ensure that each district plans financing as per its own GOAL-SEEP Pg 25 Environment and Social Systems Assessment requirements and fiscal transfers will be based on these. 31. The State Implementation Society will be trained by management institutions to appraise and supervise the district AWPBs (annual work plans and budget) that are prepared by the stakeholders and not centrally driven by the state authorities. District and sub-district Figure 2: Decentralized Financial Planning level teams will be constituted with representation from different stakeholder groups, including sectoral representatives from related sectors, professionals, panchayat members, education sector/school staff, {such as teachers of different stages of education}, Cluster Resource Center Coordinators, (CRCCs), Block Resource Center Coordinators (BRCCs) parents, civil society representatives and others. Training of the planning teams in preparing district plans (Annual Work Plan and Budget- AWPB) will be undertaken through an expert national or state educational planning and management institution.A state-level planning unit will be supported by the Program to oversee and coordinate the district level planning and appraisal process; appraise the financial plans of the districts for allocations. 32. Training on participatory community-led planning: Given the interdependence of the different Program components for the achievement of the Program objectives, district and sub-district level planning teams will be provided with comprehensive training in decentralized, contextualized and participatory planning processes with participation of experts, to include not only Education Management Information Systems (EMIS) data or micro-planning strategies but also thematic aspects that relate to challenges to realizing the project outcomes at all levels including aspects of access, equity with gender inclusion and support to children with special needs (CWSN); early childhood education; pedagogy and classroom practices; teacher development; civil works, partnerships with NGOs and non-state actors etc. The training will focus on creating awareness regarding potential social and systemic challenges, and possible and proven mitigating contextual measures for components/objectives with effective participatory planning strategies for more context specific and realistic fiscal planning component wise for each intervention. An assessment of GOAL-SEEP Pg 26 Environment and Social Systems Assessment governance and public finance battlements will guide the creation and development of these strategies, training modules and action plans. 33. Effective system for appraisal of district plans to ensure high quality of plans by constituting and training appraisal teams at the state level in the above areas as well as developing a basic rubric for appraisal or review of the draft plans. The formative process of pre-appraisal and appraisal of the AWBPs will be supported for which teams will be identified and trained at state/district levels by a national/state planning institution which will hand hold the planning teams and ensure effective prioritization of needs and appropriate budget planning. 34. Enhancing accountability through stakeholder empowerment: The districts’ planning exercise will include representatives from NGOs, tribal populations, scheduled tribes and disabled persons. These will be over and above the ones that are included in the School Management Committees (SMCs). SMCs, constituted at every elementary school in the state, form one of the basic building blocks in the service delivery of school education in Gujarat. The GoG currently provides 3 days residential training to SMC members. The Program will review these programs, and finance strengthening of these programs to train and improve SMC capacity to undertake social audits, develop robust evidence-based School Development Plans (SDPs), and evaluate teacher attendance along with academic issues in schools for more effective school management. In addition, the Program will develop a community engagement model to enhance the participation of the community in school functioning and improving teacher accountability by empowering members with relevant technology tools and EMIS systems to monitor school performance. SDPs will be provided special attention and SMCs trained to ensure that SDPs are prepared. A performance-based grants mechanism to incentivize school level performance will be instituted with the school selection process and performance standards prepared and cleared with the World Bank 35. Improved MIS and accountability systems through use of technology: In order to build service delivery capacity at the state level, the Program will finance monitoring and evaluation processes and information systems. The financing could be directed towards strengthening of Gujarat’s education management information system (EMIS) and MIS Cells at the State and District Program Offices. The Program may leverage the Gujarat State-wide Area Network (GSWAN) infrastructure as part of the MIS strengthening. Building on the electricity provision available in 95 percent of school, GOAL will strengthen contextual use with community ownership of the monitoring processes. Disaggregated strategies for the urban deprived will also be a special focus of the program. 36. Promoting gender equity in annual work plan and budgeting: The annual work-plan and budgeting process will include funds ear-marked for a) life-skills training for adolescent girls, b) introduction of job-oriented skills, c) entrepreneurship training, d) transport facilities/vouchers, e) targeted school-level monitoring of enrolment and attendance rates of girl students and f) community-level behaviour change campaigns against early-marriages. The district and sub-district level planning teams will receive training on barriers experienced by girls in rural areas, in transitioning from elementary to secondary grades. Additionally, the funds will also be used to develop a referral mechanism to monitor instances of school-related gender-based violence (SRGBV). Communities will establish a community-led referral system engaging school management committees (SMCs), teachers, mothers, BRPs, CRCCs for monitoring and redressal of complaints related to sexual, physical and psychological school related violence. Funds will also be allocated and utilized for regular sensitization, trainings GOAL-SEEP Pg 27 Environment and Social Systems Assessment on bystander interventions and reporting of SRGV-related cases. The community-led referral system will be used by parents and students for registering anonymous complaints. Results Area 2: Improved Foundational Learning Outcomes at the Lower Primary Level 37. India’s New Education Policy (NEP) 2020 emphasizes on the need to enhance the quality of foundational learning being offered to children. In this direction, it calls for improved convergence between the Anganwadi Centers, being supported by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, and the public schools being operated under support from the Samagra Shiksha program (Centrally Sponsored Scheme on School Education) managed by the Ministry of Education (MoE), GoI. The GOAL Program will support the government’s efforts towards strengthening foundational learning by improving access to and quality of ECE and early grade learning. A focus on this results area will be essential for reducing learning poverty. The Program will help the GoG in strengthening the preschool to primary grade transition. It will support the review and revision of curriculum, learning competencies/standards, and Teaching Learning Material (TLM) for establishing an appropriate pedagogical continuum between ECE, and early grade education. The Program will address the capacity building needs of the Gujarat Council of Education Research and Training (GCERT), District Institutes of Education and Training (DIETs), Block Resource Centers (BRCs), and Cluster Resource Centers (CRCs). The Program will build upon the Preschool Reform Initiative (PRERIT) package developed by the World Bank, and vetted by the Ministry of Education, Government of India and nodal national education institutions. The package includes specifications for a standardized package of teacher training modules and guidebooks, TLM, and an online application for monitoring ECE implementation across schools/centers. The GOAL Program will support the gradual rollout of the state roadmap of ECE and one-year preschool program across 2,000 select schools. The teacher training, pedagogical, and assessment support to be provided through the state’s nodal education institutions will be structured and paced accordingly. In the interim (years 1 and 2 of implementation), the Program will gradually prepare the system by focusing on building the capacity of primary school teachers to support the provision of ECE to 5 to 6-year-old children in the 9,436 co-located Anganwadis in the state. Results Area 3: Strengthened Teacher Development and School Based Assessments for Classroom Performance 38. The state of Gujarat has witnessed use of ICT for cost-effective teacher training - the Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing (DIKSHA) platform, which needs to be adopted more integrally in the state, offers a host of online training courses where more than 1.5 million teachers have been registered. There are strong institutional linkages from the state to district and sub-district levels for planning, monitoring, and management of teachers. However, information on teacher performance is limited, with no standardized system for gathering information regularly on professional development needs. School closures during the COVID-19 pandemic have also left many teachers uncertain about their role, and unprepared for school reopening. This Results Area will support the enhancement of needs- based continuous professional development, pre-service teacher training, and teacher performance management to boost classroom performance. Development of high-quality teacher training institutions is a strategic area; the Program will support the strengthening of digital and other essential infrastructure of the District Institutes of Education and Training GOAL-SEEP Pg 28 Environment and Social Systems Assessment (DIETs) to improve their technology-readiness to provide online/blended teacher training programs. Towards improving teacher performance monitoring, the program will support a teacher performance evaluation system that can be linked with existing systems hosting teacher data and training delivery. Standard tools such as the World Bank’s TEACH tool3 may be adapted for the state of Gujarat for this purpose. 39. The state has a well-served program with teacher education institutions; however, there are some disadvantaged districts that are still unserved with District Institute of Education and Training (DIETs). As part of the intervention the Program will also support the construction and operationalization of five full functional DIETs with requisite staff in place in the unserved districts of Gujarat. These will be supported not just through infrastructure support but through ensuring the academic, governance and financial systems are in line with that of the state. 40. Assessment systems: GOAL will support the state in establishing a semi-autonomous State Assessment Cell (SAC); and in engaging technical experts/institutions required to enhance the capacity of this body. A comprehensive technical review of all assessment activities in the state will be undertaken to identify general issues and capacity building needs, particularly concerning competency-based approaches. The SAC will help the state in managing its participation in (i) the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) Based Test for Schools, and (ii) in the PISA Main Survey 2028. This sequence will help build the capacity of the SAC. These will be leveraged by the SAC to gradually enhance classroom- based assessments (formative and summative assessments) and Gujarat Achievement Survey (GAS) to focus more on competency-based test items and descriptors, definition of clear learning proficiency bands/buckets etc. The Program will also support the review of examinations towards further expansion of competency-based questions and higher-order thinking skills questions in term and terminal examinations. 41. The state conducted reviews of the quality of classroom assessment in 2015 and 2017, which revealed that teachers needed more support with formative assessment and record- keeping. To address this, the state’s pilot on technology-assisted Periodic Assessment Tests (PATs) will be scaled up under the GOAL Program. Handheld devices will be leveraged to share standardized tests and/or test items with teachers. Students will use Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) sheets to provide their responses, and the same will be scanned with the handheld device to access immediate school, grade, subject, and student-specific assessment results. This digital relay channel will also be able to guide teachers to relevant training modules, remedial resources (Gyansetu initiative), or student-specific remedial plans. This technology-assisted process will also facilitate a real-time flow of information from classroom-based assessments into teacher training programs and concurrently inform policy reforms/iterations. 42. Remedial programs for improving learning levels of students will key; the state level diagnostic test Nidaan Kasauti that assesses foundational learning for remedial education will be supported. All students will be tested for literacy and numeracy and based on the diagnostic assessment results, targeted and accelerated learning enhancement programs will be conducted. Remedial material development for teachers and students will be undertaken 3 TEACH is a classroom observation tools that it captures (i) the time teachers spend on learning and the extent to which students are on-task, and (ii) the quality of teacher practices that help develop students’ socioemotional and cognitive skills. GOAL-SEEP Pg 29 Environment and Social Systems Assessment with support for conducting pre-tests, midline tests and post-tests to assess the progress of the students. Remedial teaching would become an integral part of the day-to-day teaching process and take place for learning gaps identified through continuous formative assessments. Intensive remedial class materials (such as workbooks and teacher manuals) will be developed. Curriculum-aligned digital self-learning courses will be developed and made accessible on the remedial course portal. Afterschool and summer camp-based remediation led by senior/retired teachers may be rolled out in phases. A situation analysis of remedial teaching will be supported to review the current practices and identify critical gaps in capacity and resources for organizing effective remedial education programs. Formative assessments to periodically assess the progress of students on learning outcomes will be undertaken to provide learning support to all students. Results Area 4: Improved Learning Environment and Technology Infrastructure in Schools 43. School environment improved with augmented infrastructure and functional child friendly schools in place: The Program will support the strategic development and rehabilitation of the school network in Gujarat with the aim of reducing learning poverty and addressing the pressing infrastructure needs in the State. This will be more effective if the schools of Gujarat become more student-centric and feature innovative teaching and learning aimed at development of the skills of 21st-century. 44. Infrastructure school characteristics are important contributors to student performance; differences in the physical characteristics of classrooms accounted for 16 percent of variations in learning progress between students over just one year in primary school. As the physical characteristics can contribute to student learning, the way the learning happens can also be a strong contributor to the success. According to the recent study, the diversity of learning approaches in schools is positively related to student performance4. For instance, teachers that arrange small group activities and deliver learning in teams in addition to the traditional presentation model help their students achieve more in an academic perspective and also in terms of student’s confidence and school perception (see Figure 3). At the same time the implementation of the team teaching and project-based learning (see phenomenon-based learning5) requires specific layouts in schools and would be hard to/ impossible to deliver in a traditional classroom and corridors schools. The new skills and new learning technologies require different learning spaces. 45. GOAL will support the strengthening of infrastructure and quality improvements of facilities in at least 6,000 Schools of Excellence, including at least 150 Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidhyalayas (KGBVs) and five teacher education institutes in unserved districts of the state. Addressing the rapidly emptying public schools, GOAL will be ensuring that there will be a hub and spoke model where the well performing schools with accountable teachers will be supported as Schools of Excellence and the schools with less or depleting enrolments will be turned into small primary schools and eventually phased out as the serving teachers retire and leave. At least one Emerging School of Excellence would be established in each cluster to act as a hub that would cater to two to three Aspiring Schools of Excellence (spokes) for 4 https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/32598 5 https://www.teachermagazine.com.au/articles/what-is-finlands-phenomenon-based-learning-approach GOAL-SEEP Pg 30 Environment and Social Systems Assessment capacity building and other quality reform initiatives. Figure 3: Typology of Learning Spaces and Methods of Teaching and Learning 46. Guidelines for school consolidation have been undertaken by the state and GOAL will focus on school consolidation to ensure that small unviable schools are created into spokes of the hubs- the Schools of Excellence with optimal enrolment and quality reforms. In the long-term, these schools will serve as model schools attracting more students, eventually leading to the crowding out of small sub-optimal schools that will be closed and phased out. The Program could potentially support the rehabilitation and creation of up to 500 Residential schools that will serve socio-economically disadvantaged students. Technology solutions to improve schooling systems may be piloted with a focus on accessibility, low-cost, low bandwidth requirement and scalability. These may include strengthening existing solutions that utilize digital infrastructure in education (such as EkStep/Sunbird that currently forms the backbone for DIKSHA), solutions for remedial education, and solutions for improving governance in specific areas such as student entitlement distribution (textbooks, uniforms, etc.). The Program may support the state in improving the availability of digital devices in GOAL-SEEP Pg 31 Environment and Social Systems Assessment schools offering upper primary and secondary education. These devices will help in upscaling the state’s pilot on digital entry and analysis of PAT/Unit Test data/results. Further, it will enable the state to attempt a gradual rollout of computer-based assessment for classroom- based assessment. 47. Child-friendly architectural layouts: The Program will support the development of recommended architectural layouts of school facilities and teacher education institutes, and the process of their implementation and interaction with the community. This would allow more streamlined procurement, using innovative construction solutions (like off-site construction, etc.), facilitating quality control during construction, and ensuring that the resulting infrastructure/facilities align with teachers’ and students’ needs . The State of Gujarat features all five seismic zones that add to the complexity. The requirements for school construction may also vary significantly, adding further layers of complexity to the Program. The Program will also generate significant climate co-benefits with regards to better construction technology, improved energy efficiency, less landfill, and reduced civil works impact on the side of the construction subcomponents. Resilience of school buildings in Gujarat will be an important issue also from the COVID-19 standpoint. To this end, the Program will support the strengthening of the school ventilation systems (where needed), improvement of toilets and hygiene facilities (especially for girls) and creation of better circulation areas for safe social distancing. 48. Support to private aided schools: Private aided schools are those where public aid to private non-profit schools is provided; major capital costs are financed by the private sector but the recurring costs like teacher salaries are supported by the government. While the private management controls the curriculum, study materials, syllabus, examinations, etc. of the school, it follows the same academic rules and regulations laid down by the government as that of the public schools. India has a total of 3,26,228 aided schools while Gujarat has 13,641. GOAL will support 4500 private aided schools. 49. Specific support to Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas (KGBVs): KGBVs are government-run residential schools at secondary level for girls belonging predominantly to the SC, ST and minorities’ groups in hard-to-reach/rural areas6. The Program will support strengthening of infrastructure improvements in at least 150 Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya’s (KGBVs). This will be complemented by comprehensive interventions including a) training of teachers/sub-district planning teams on gender attitudes and perceptions; b) provision of life skills targeting adolescent girls; c) information dissemination around health, nutrition and digital skills; d) awareness campaigns related to menstrual hygiene and reproductive health; e) introduction of job-oriented skills and entrepreneurial programs and d) continued access to career counselling facilities with parental/community engagement at residential schools. Results Area 5: Resilient Recovery from COVID-19 50. As Gujarat geared up to address COVID-19 related emergencies, the state noted that 25-30% of students had limited or no access to remote learning devices. Reaching the unreached was a problem. Rapidly responding, the state prepared detailed guidelines to 6 Revised Guidelines for implementation of Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas (KGBVs), Ministry of Education GOAL-SEEP Pg 32 Environment and Social Systems Assessment ensure that no student remains deprived of education. Gujarat ensured that it was not just technology support, but the entire academic architecture was geared to respond. 51. Technology support at local levels: Learning support was provided at the local levels (villages/hamlets/habitats), pairing students with and without devices; promoting peer learning; creating a mobile bank; offline learning; home-visits by teachers and field staff; providing access to online classes at citizen service centers or village offices; as well as mobile learning vehicles. 52. Further, Gujarat undertook an exhaustive device-mapping exercise to measure the type/medium of access to remote education, be it television, smartphones, regular cell phones, tablet, radio, or none of these. For instance, for the 50% of students identified with access to Television, the state collaborated with a national broadcasting channel to stream six hours of daily learning programs, 30 minutes for each Grade; and runs a 24*7 broadcast on a dedicated channel. Hence only 7.8% students are without access to any technology support. Online social networks like You tube, Google, WhatsApp have been extensively used to connect teachers and students. 53. Home learning program: GOAL will support a large holistic home learning program with a realigned syllabus broken into chapter- and subject-wise weekly schedules with semesterization. Teachers and subject experts mediated high-quality teaching-learning material including presentations for virtual sessions; lesson plans; and key points, summarizing chapters including content dissemination through both digital media – e- content and energized textbooks; YouTube channels; Facebook; web-links circulated on WhatsApp, and through physical media, in print materials, will be supported. 54. Remedial programs with support to the Periodic Assessment Tests (PAT) system, which are formative weekly tests on each subject, will be strengthened. Data analysis will be used to guide instruction. Students have been tested on their learning levels post COVID to gauge the baseline and learning losses- PAT is put in place to identify these and undertake remediation accordingly. 55. DIKSHA will be used extensively as the national open platform with its QR-coded energized textbooks that can be scanned with a cell phone, opening a world of resources in multiple languages for reference and further reading. 56. Learning for all will be ensured as GOAL will include disability-friendly content that will be disseminated through several mediums on themes including therapy, numeracy and literacy etc. 57. Building back better: Moving forward, GOAL will provide a long-term strategic action plan to meet the aftermath of COVID-19 to prepare education systems for meeting similar/unforeseen events that need greater systemic resilience and rapid academic response mechanisms to address such challenges. Educational personnel like DEOs, BEOs, BRCs and CRCs along with the Head Teachers will be provided capacity building support on a recurrent basis to ensure that they have the rapid response systems ready to meet unforeseen pandemics/disaster situations. 1.9 Disbursement Linked Indicators and Verification Protocols 58. Since the GOAL Program uses PforR as a financing instrument, disbursement will be conditional on the achievement of specific results, measured by the Disbursement Linked GOAL-SEEP Pg 33 Environment and Social Systems Assessment Indicators summarized in table 4 below. The choice of each DLI and the DLI values for each year are based on (a) the signalling role of the indicator (that is, the extent to which it signals the implementation of a critical action, output, or outcome in the results chain); (b) the perceived need to introduce a strong financial incentive to deliver the activity, output, or outcome; (c) practical aspects of verifying achievement; and (d) GoG capacity to achieve the DLI during the implementation period. The summary of Disbursement Linked Indicators is: 59. The summary of Disbursement Linked Indicators is: Table 4: Disbursement Linked Indicators Financial Allocation Summary of Disbursement-Linked Indicators (USD Million) DLI 1. Stakeholder owned planning systems institutionalized 75 DLI 2: Performance grants to schools to incentivize improved 50 outcomes DLI 3. Improved foundational learning outcomes at the lower primary 75 level DLI 4. Strengthened teacher development for classroom performance 75 DLI 5. Improved learning environment in schools and teacher 150 education institutions DLI 6. Improved learning assessment systems for focused remedial 50 programs DLI 7. COVID-19 response strategies built in for systemic resilience 25 Total 500 60. The DLIs will be annually reviewed and verified by an Independent Verification Agency (IVA) to be contracted by the Government of Gujarat using terms of reference satisfactory to the World Bank. The DLIs will be verified through pre-identified disclosed data sources (e.g., UDISE, Gujarat Achievement Survey, desk reviews, etc.), and the periodic IVA reports will serve as the basis for assessing progress towards the achievement of the DLI targets, and for disbursement authorization by the World Bank. The report from Independent Verification Agency will also form the basis for the GoG to present DLI claims to the World Bank and to release funds to the state. The World Bank will further review the evidence base for all DLIs during implementation. GOAL-SEEP Pg 34 Environment and Social Systems Assessment 2. ENVIRONMENT AND SOCIAL SYSTEMS ASSESSMENT (ESSA) – METHODOLOGY ADOPTED 2.1 Over-view on ESSA 1. For each proposed PforR operation, the World Bank assesses, at the Program level, the potential environmental and Social (E&S) effects, including direct, indirect, induced, and cumulative effects as relevant; the applicable legal /regulatory framework and the borrower’s organizational capacity and performance to manage those effects. 2. This Environmental and Social Systems Assessment (ESSA) has been prepared by a World Bank ESSA Team for the proposed Gujarat – Outcomes for Accelerated Learning (GOAL) School Education Excellence Program (SEEP) in India, which will be supported by the World Bank’s Program for Results (PforR) financing instrument. In accordance with the requirements of the World Bank Policy Program-for-Results Financing (PforR Policy), PforRs rely on country- level systems for the management of environmental and social effects. 3. The PforR Policy requires that the Bank conducts a comprehensive ESSA to assess the degree to which the relevant PforR Program’s systems promote environmental and social sustainability and to ensure that effective measures are in place to identify, avoid, minimize, or mitigate environmental, health, safety, and social impacts. Through the ESSA process, recommendations to enhance environmental and social management outcomes within the program are developed, which subsequently become a part of the overall Program Action Plan. 2.2 Purpose and Objectives of ESSA 4. The main purposes of this ESSA is to: (i) identify the Program’s environmental, health, safety, and social effects; (ii) assess the legal and policy framework for environmental and social management, including a review of relevant legislation, rules, procedures, and institutional responsibilities that are being used by the Program; (iii) assess the implementing institutional capacity and performance to date, to manage potential adverse environmental and social issues and (iv) recommend specific actions to address gaps in the Program’s environmental and social management system, including with regard to the policy and legal framework and implementation capacity. 5. The ESSA describes the extent to which the applicable government environmental and social policies, legislations, program procedures and institutional systems are consistent with the six ‘core principles’ of OP/BP 9.00 and recommends actions to address the gaps and to enhance performance during Program implementation. These six core principles are listed below and further defined through corresponding Key Planning Elements in this report: (a) Core Principle 1: Environmental and Social Management: Environmental and social management procedures and processes are designed to: (a) promote environmental and social sustainability in Program design; (b) avoid, minimize, or mitigate against adverse impacts; and (c) promote informed decision making related to a Program’s environmental and social effects (b) Core Principle 2: Natural Habitats and Physical Cultural Resources : Environmental and social management procedures and processes are designed to avoid, minimize, and GOAL-SEEP Pg 35 Environment and Social Systems Assessment mitigate any adverse effects (on natural habitats and physical and cultural resources) resulting from the Program. (c) Core Principle 3: Public and Worker Safety: Program procedures ensure adequate measures to protect public and worker safety against the potential risks associated with: (a) construction and/or operations of facilities or other operational practices developed or promoted under the Program; and (b) exposure to toxic chemicals, hazardous wastes, and otherwise dangerous materials. (d) Core Principle 4: Land Acquisition: Land acquisition and loss of access to natural resources are managed in a way that avoids or minimizes displacement, and affected people are assisted in improving, or at least restoring, their livelihoods and living standards. (e) Core Principle 5: Indigenous Peoples and Vulnerable Groups : Due consideration is given to cultural appropriateness of, and equitable access to, Program benefits, giving special attention to the rights and interests of indigenous peoples and to the needs or concerns of vulnerable groups. (f) Core Principle 6: Social Conflict: Avoid exacerbating social conflict, especially in fragile states, post-conflict areas, or areas subject to territorial disputes. 6. An additional purpose of this ESSA is to account for the decisions made by the relevant authorities in the borrower country and to aid the Bank’s internal review and decision process associated with the proposed GOAL SEEP program. The findings, conclusions and opinions expressed in this document are those of the World Bank and the recommended actions that flow from this analysis will be discussed and agreed with Government of Gujarat (GoG) counterparts and will become legally binding agreements under the conditions of the new loan. 7. Environmental and Social Systems Assessment (ESSA) for GOAL-SEEP has been carried out following the Bank’s Guidance Document on “Environmental and Social Systems Assessment for Program-for-Results Financing, effective from July 1, 2019�. In the context of ESSA requirements mentioned in the said document, the specific objectives of this exercise for GOAL-SEEP (this operation) included: a) to identify the potential environmental and social impacts/risks applicable to the Program interventions, b) to review the policy and legal framework related to management of environmental and social impacts of the Program interventions, c) to assess the institutional capacity for environmental and social impact management within the Program system, d) to assess the Program system performance with respect to the core principles of the PforR instrument and identify gaps in the Program’s performance, e) to include assessment of M&E systems for environment and social issues, and f) to describe actions to fill the gaps that will input into the Program Action Plan in order to strengthen the Program’s performance with respect to the core principles of the PforR instrument. GOAL-SEEP Pg 36 Environment and Social Systems Assessment 2.3 Methodology Adopted for ESSA 8. ESSA refers both to the process for evaluating the acceptability of a borrower’s system for managing the Program’s E&S risks in the operational context, and to the final report that is an output of that process. The ESSA process is a multistep methodology in which the World Bank team analyses the E&S effects, including indirect and cumulative effects, of activities associated with the defined Program; analyses the borrower’s systems for managing the identified E&S effects, including reviewing practices and the performance track record; compares the borrower’s systems - laws, regulations, standards, procedures, and implementation performance against the core principles and key planning elements to identify any significant differences between them that could affect Program performance; and recommends measures to address capacity and performance on policy issues and specific operational aspects relevant to managing the Program risks such as staff training, implementing institutional capacity building programs, developing and adopting internal operational guidelines. 9. The ESSA primarily relied on desk review of existing information and data sources, complemented by consultations, interviews/ discussions with key stakeholders to capture opinions, anecdotal evidence, functional knowledge, and concerns. It involved (a) a comprehensive review of government policies, legal frameworks, Program documents, national guidelines for Samagra Shiksha and National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and other relevant information and assessments of Government of India and Government of Gujarat’s environmental and social management systems (b) interviews and consultations were conducted with relevant experts and officials from Department of Education (DoE), GoG including Gujarat Samagra Shiksha Mission at GCSE along with Civil and Infrastructure branch of GSCE, Gujarat Council of Educational Research and Training (GCERT), Gujarat School Quality Accreditation Council (GSQAC) and Tribal Development Department, and Social Welfare Department of Government of Gujarat (GoG), and officials and stakeholders across the implementation chain at district, taluka/ block level, Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) involved, and members of community as part of school management committee. 10. The World Bank ESSA team and the borrower worked closely to identify and consider the range of E&S effects that may be relevant to the Program. The PforR approach distinguishes specific roles and responsibilities regarding major steps and tasks at the various phases of the program cycle. The World Bank team prepared this ESSA report that provides an overview and analysis of the GoI’s as well as state government’s policies and regulatory frameworks for GOAL-SEEP Pg 37 Environment and Social Systems Assessment the environmental and social aspects for the GOAL-SEEP operation. The ESSA discusses relevant environmental and social national legislations for the school education sector. Findings of the assessment have been used in the formulation of an overall Program Action Plan (PAP) with key measures to improve environmental and social management outcomes of the Program. The findings, conclusions, and opinions expressed in the ESSA document are those of the World Bank. Recommendations contained in the analysis will be discussed and agreed with DoE, GoG. 11. The World Bank ESSA team extensively consulted the designated personnel in the Samagra Shiksha Unit under Department of School Education, Govt. of Gujarat. Interviews and consultations were done virtually with relevant experts and officials from Education Department, Government of Gujarat, SCERT, GSQAC, District Education Officers, District Project Coordinators, DIET, Civil Engineering Team, GSDMA, etc. The ESSA team also consulted community members and beneficiaries across selected districts of the State. Interviews were held with Block and Cluster Resource Centre Coordinators, school staff, School Management Committees (SMC) members, and in a few cases, with students and parents too. 12. The draft ESSA was shared with DOE, GoG for their comments and feedback. It has been updated/revised based on feedback from stakeholders. This updated/revised ESSA will be made publicly available in accordance with the Bank’s policy on Access to Information. The final ESSA will be re-disclosed prior to World Bank Board consideration of the Program. 2.4 Structure of the ESSA Report 13. The ESSA report for GOAL-SEEP has been structured as follows: Section 1: Program Description Section 2: Environment and Social Systems Assessment – Methodology Adopted Section 3: Environment and Social Over-view of Gujarat Section 4: Potential Environmental and Social Effects, Risks and Benefits Section 5: Assessment of Environmental and Social Management Systems relevant to the Program (including description of the applicable systems against core principles and planning elements/practices; performance and track record) Section 6: Consultations with Key Stakeholders and Disclosure Section 7: Recommendations Annexures GOAL-SEEP Pg 38 Environment and Social Systems Assessment 3. ENVIRONMENT AND SOCIAL OVERVIEW OF GUJARAT 3.1 Location 1. Located in western part of India, Gujarat is bordered by Rajasthan to the northeast, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu to the south, Maharashtra to the southeast, Madhya Pradesh to the east, and the Arabian Sea and the international border with Pakistan to the west. 3.2 Demography 2. Gujarat is the fifth-largest state in India by area and with a population of 60.44 million it is the ninth-largest state by population. About 42.6 percent of population in Gujarat live in urban areas. The population density of Gujarat is 308 sq.km which is lower than other Indian states and the sex ratio of 918 females for every 1000 males (Census 2011), one of the lowest (ranked 24) among the 29 states in India. Literacy rate in Gujarat is 78.03 percent as per 2011 population census. Of that, male literacy stands at 85.75 percent while female literacy is at 69.68 percent. Gujarat has a poor child sex ratio of 890 and a literacy rate of about 80 percent highlight the need for the state to improve areas related to education and gender equality. Gujarati is the official language of the state and is spoken by 86 percent of the state's population. Figure 3.1: District Map of Gujarat GOAL-SEEP Pg 39 Environment and Social Systems Assessment 3.3 Physiography and Drainage 3. The State can be divided into three distinct regions viz the peninsula, traditionally known as Saurashtra which is a hilly tract with low hills, Kachchh on the north-west which is barren and contains the famous Rann of Kachchh and the mainland, extending from the Rann of Kuchchh and the Aravalli hills to the river Damanganga and consists of plains with alluvial soil. 4. Gujarat is a land of great contrasts, stretching from the seasonal salt deserts of the Kachchh (Kutch) district in the northwest, across the generally arid and semiarid scrublands of the Kathiawar Peninsula, to the wet, fertile, coastal plains of the southeastern part of the state, north of Mumbai. 5. The Rann of Kachchh - including both the Great Rann and its eastern appendage, the Little Rann - are best described as vast salt marshes, together covering about 9,000 square miles (23,300 square km). The Rann constitutes the Kachchh district on the west, north, and east, while the Gulf of Kachchh forms the district’s southern boundary. During the rainy season - slight though the rains may be - the Rann floods, and the Kachchh district is converted into an island; in the dry season it is a sandy, salty plain plagued by dust storms. 6. To the southeast of Kachchh, lying between the Gulf of Kachchh and the Gulf of Khambhat (Cambay), is the large Kathiawar Peninsula. It is generally arid and rises from the coasts to a low, rolling area of hill land in the centre, where the state reaches its highest elevation, at 3,665 feet (1,117 metres), in the Girnar Hills. Soils in the peninsula are mostly poor, having been derived from a variety of old crystalline rocks. Rivers, except for seasonal streams, are absent from the area. 7. To the east of the Kathiawar Peninsula, small plains and low hills in the north merge with fertile farmlands in the south. The richness of the southern soils is attributable to their partial derivation from the basalts of the Deccan, the physiographic plateau region that constitutes most of peninsular India. South-eastern Gujarat is crossed from east to west by the Narmada and Tapti (Tapi) rivers, both of which flow into the Gulf of Khambhat. Toward the eastern border with Maharashtra, the terrain becomes mountainous; the region is the northern extension of the Western Ghats, the mountain range that runs parallel to the Arabian Sea on the western edge of southern India. 3.4 Climate 8. Gujarat is located on the Tropic of Cancer and has a varied climate and can be divided into five climatic regions, involving diverse conditions. The plains of Gujarat are very hot and dry in summer and cold and dry in winter. The average daytime temperature during winter is around 29 °C (84 °F) and in nights is around 12 °C (54 °F) with 100 percent sunny days and clear nights. During summers, the daytime temperature is around 49 °C (120 °F) and at night no lower than 30 °C (86 °F). Winds are generally light to moderate, increasing in intensity during the late summer and monsoon seasons. 3.5 Rainfall and Humidity 9. Gujarat receives its rainfall from the south-west monsoons (June to September), its maximum intensity being in the months of July and August. Most of the rainfall occurs in this season, and the rain can cause severe floods. The annual rainfall varies between 300 mm in GOAL-SEEP Pg 40 Environment and Social Systems Assessment the north and northwest, gradually increasing to 2500 mm in south. The relative humidity in all parts of the state is low. 10. While most parts of Gujarat receive scanty rainfall, southern Gujarat and the hilly regions receive heavy rainfall during the monsoons with high humidity which makes the air feel hotter. There is relief when the monsoon season starts (around mid-June). The day temperatures are lowered to around 35°C (95 °F) but humidity is very high and night temperature is around 27 °C (81 °F). The sun is often occluded during the monsoon season. Though mostly dry, it is desertic in the north-west, and wet in the southern districts due to a heavy monsoon season. In Gujarat, the aridity ranges between 10 per cent towards the south- eastern hilly region to 40 per cent in large parts of Kachchh. 3.6 Forests 11. Forests cover only a small portion of Gujarat, reflecting human activity as well as meagre rainfall. Scrub forest occurs in the north-western region and across the Kathiawar Peninsula, the main species being babul acacias, capers, Indian jujubes, and toothbrush bushes (Salvadora persica). In some parts of the peninsula and north-eastern Gujarat, deciduous species such as teak, catechu, axlewood, and Bengal kino (butea gum) are found. Figure 3.2: Forest Cover in Gujarat 12. Deciduous forests are concentrated in the wetter southern and eastern hills. They produce valuable timbers, such as Vengai padauk (genus Pterocarpus; resembling mahogany), Malabar simal, and haldu (Adina cordifolia). The west coast of the peninsula is known for its algae, and the east coast produces papyrus, or paper plant (Cyperus papyrus). GOAL-SEEP Pg 41 Environment and Social Systems Assessment 13. Recorded Forest Area (RFA) in the state is 21,647 sq km of which 14,373 sq km is Reserved Forest, 2,886 sq km of Protected Forest and 4,388 sq km of Unclassified Forests. 3.7 Biodiversity 14. The unique features of the State of Gujarat are the climatic and geomorphologic conditions such as the largest coastline in the country, the saline deserts of Rann, grasslands, wetlands etc. These factors have bestowed the State with rich floral and faunal diversity. The Asiatic lion and Wild Ass have their last reserve in the forests of Gir and the Little Rann of Kachchh respectively. Four National Parks, 23 Wildlife Sanctuaries and one Conservation Reserve constitute the Protected Area network of the State covering 8.83% of its geographical area. 3.8 Vulnerability to Natural Disasters and Climate Risks 15. Gujarat, owing to its geo-physical setting, is prone to natural disasters, such as floods, cyclones, storm surge, earthquakes, droughts and extreme temperatures during summer months. Many of these risks are expected to be further accentuated by climate change. The general variation of temperature in Gujarat is from 10.8 degree Celsius to 45 degree Celsius7. Annual rainfall in the state varies between 300 mm in the West to about 2,100 mm in South8. The state experiences heat and cold waves that have the potential to become more extreme; and also witnesses droughts and floods. These events could even be simultaneous and continue to intensify with climate change. Gujarat also has the longest coastline among Indian states (1,663 km)9. The regional model (PRECIS) simulation of cyclone tracks and intensity show that when compared with the 1970's, the cyclonic disturbances over the Arabian Sea may be less in the 2030’s but would be more intense. Storm surge and cyclones would remain 7 Gujarat State Action Plan: Prevention and Mitigation of Impacts of Heat Wave, 2020 http://www.gsdma.org/uploads/Assets/other/gujaratstateheatwaveactionplan2020-2104252020024137455.pdf 8 Gujarat State Action Plan on Climate Change, 2014; http://gujenvis.nic.in/PDF/Gujarat-SAPCC.pdf 9 Coping with Climate Change: An Analysis of India’s State Action Plans on Climate Change, Centre for Science and Environment, 2018; http://cdn.cseindia.org/attachments/0.40897700_1519110602_coping-climate-change-volII.pdf GOAL-SEEP Pg 42 Environment and Social Systems Assessment a constant concern. Further, parts of the state lie in the Seismic Zone V and are susceptible to major earthquakes. Depending on the region within the state, exposure to hazards would range from moderate to high; and mitigation measures tend to vary as per the type of hazard(s) that are most prevalent/relevant. These climate-induced incidents can disrupt the regular academic calendar with localized school closures and pose challenges that need to be addressed in any education program/reform. 3.9 Scheduled Tribe and Scheduled Caste Population 16. The state is home to a population with diverse socio-cultural backgrounds. Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes share in the state population is 6.7 percent and 14.8 percent respectively (account for 8.55 percent of the total ST population of the country). Figur 3.3: Pockets of Tribal Concentration in Gujarat 17. About 12 out of 33 districts have ST population more than the state average and among them 5 districts have more than 70 percent population being ST. As per census 2011, the literacy rate for Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) is reported to be 79.2 percent and 62.5 percent respectively. Gujarat accounts for 8.1% of the Scheduled Tribe population of the country. Most of the tribal population in Gujarat are concentrated in the eastern districts. The Tribal Sub-Plan (TSP) area constitutes about 18 percent of the state’s geographical area. There are 11 major tribes in Gujarat of them the largest are Bhil tribe about constituting 48 percent of the state’s tribal population. There are 5 Particularly Vulnerable GOAL-SEEP Pg 43 Environment and Social Systems Assessment Tribal Groups (PVTGs) are in Gujarat and account for about 1.6 percent of the tribal population in the state. 3.10 Economy 18. Gujarat is one of the important maritime states and has approximately 1600 km long coastline. The state has emerged as a significant logistics and export hub, especially for north India. The state Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) of about US$180 billion and is the fifth- largest state economy in the country. Industry and services sectors account for 40 percent of the GSDP respectively. However, agriculture continues to employ about 50 percent of the state population. 19. The key industries in the state are gems and jewellery, pharmaceutical, textiles, chemical and automobile, petroleum products, and electronic goods. The state has also emerged as a leader in the area of leveraging renewable sources of energy. While Gujarat is one of the richer states in the country, about 17 percent of the state population continues to live below the poverty line. Social indices vary across the 33 districts in the state, with two (Dahod and Narmada) of them being included in the aspirational districts Program of the Government of India. GOAL-SEEP Pg 44 Environment and Social Systems Assessment 4. POTENTIAL ENVIRONMENT AND SOCIAL EFFECTS, RISKS AND BENEFITS 4.1 General 1. Overall, the Samagra Shiksha Program will have a positive outcome. It is an overarching programme for the school education sector extending from pre-school to class XII and aims to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education at all levels of school education. It envisages the ‘school’ as a continuum from pre-school, primary, upper primary, secondary to senior secondary levels with an emphasis on improving the quality of school education and to enhance the Learning Outcomes at all levels of schooling. 2. The objectives of the Samagra Shiksha are: a) Provision of quality education and enhancing learning outcomes of students; b) Bridging Social and Gender Gaps in School Education; c) Ensuring equity and inclusion at all levels of school education; d) Ensuring minimum standards in schooling provisions; e) Promoting Vocational education; f) Support States in implementation of Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009; and g) Strengthening and up-gradation of SCERTs/State Institutes of Education and DIET as nodal agencies for teacher training. 3. This section provides detailed description of the likely Environmental and Social Effects and risks associated with GOAL-SEEP. The description of effects distinguishes between the effects of the associated borrower program and those of the proposed program, including reference to any potential indirect or cumulative impacts. The sub-section below describes both anticipated Environmental and Social benefits as well as adverse impacts associated with the Program. 4.2 Potential Environmental and Social Effects Associated with the Operation 4. The key environmental and social impacts/risks associated with the GOAL-SEEP include the following: a) The key environment risks and impacts of the Program are likely to include: (i) cutting of trees/loss of open spaces while expanding school infrastructure/building footprint, (ii) risk of poor building design leading to restricted access to children/people with physical challenges and deficiencies in provision of basic services (sewage/waste water disposal; drainage; solid waste management), (iii) inadequate lighting/ventilation and thermal comfort in buildings, (iv) temporary inconvenience/disruption to school activities during execution of civil works, (v) construction related impacts on account of dust, noise, stress on water availability and improper management of debris and wastes, (vi) safety risks to students/teachers and OHS risks to workers during construction, and (vii) fire and electrical safety risks (both during construction and O&M stages). However, greenfield infrastructure development is a small component of the program and associated concerns are likely to be of limited for this reason. GOAL-SEEP Pg 45 Environment and Social Systems Assessment b) Climate and natural disaster risks may be involved in the program as the state of Gujarat is challenged by multiple geophysical hazard risks (owing to state’s location) like cyclones/storms, high winds, floods and extreme temperature incidents. This includes vulnerability and inadequate preparedness to deal with safe evacuation during emergencies. Many of these environmental risks are expected to be further accentuated by climate change. c) During school operation, children and other users/residents of the facility may be exposed to high levels of lead and volatile organic compounds (VOC) in paints, electrical hazards, poor sanitation and unhygienic conditions in toilets and washrooms, inundation of school during rains, collapse or structural damage to school buildings during earthquake, fire hazards, poor indoor air quality in laboratories and class rooms etc. d) In addition, risks and issues associated with operation and maintenance stage include: (a) food safety and hygiene (in schools/early child education centers with kitchen/mid-day meal cooking arrangements and in schools/teacher training institutes with hostels); (b) management of wastes from kitchen/mess (specially in schools with hostels/residential facility); (c) management of hazardous waste/wastewater from the laboratories, and; (d) e-waste generation from disposal of non-functional/old electrical and IT equipment. e) Some schools under the program may be located in close proximity to forests and natural/ wildlife habitat areas (more likely in Dangs, Gir Somnath, Porbandar districts of the state). f) The current COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented challenges in school education: both demand and supply side interventions have been disrupted. It is imperative to take steps to (a) mitigate the immediate risks and continue to provide education to all children about COVID; and (b) build education resilience as a strategic imperative across the sector. Students in the public sector have no access to schools, as schools and training centres are closed or being turned into quarantine centres - posing immediate short term and long-term deficiencies and health hazards. Global value chains have been disturbed, training schedules interrupted; and the changing nature of education delivery, of skilling and employment in a pandemic situation and its aftermath need to be anticipated and addressed, including safe reopening of education facilities in the coming months. g) The key social risks emerges from concerns related to access and social inclusion for children coming from poor and vulnerable community and in tribal areas; potential issues related to coordination and convergence among different department such as Tribal Development, Social Welfare, and WCD etc. for early childhood care and education (ECCE); rapidly changing demand for access to improved gadgets for ICT based teaching and learning; and the potential need for squatter removal while expansion of school infrastructure or during school consolidation exercise. 5. The proposed GOAL-SEEP is expected to pose overall, minor and localized environmental risks and effects, which can be mitigated by compliance of applicable environmental regulations, codes, standards and guidelines; and by implementing required mitigation and management measures at different stages of the program. GOAL-SEEP Pg 46 6. The component-wise environmental and social effects of the program, including the potential benefits, risks and impacts are presented in the table below. Component and Activity Potential E&S Benefits Potential E&S Risks/Impacts Results Area 1: Decentralizing Educational Management - District Centred State Facilitated Planning A system for planning and processes for • The process of participatory bottoms-up • The component will have overall positive concurrent, participatory and bottoms-up planning at all levels beginning at schools to environmental and social outcomes. planning at all levels clusters to blocks to districts and to state There are no anticipated adverse impacts a. Training on participatory community-led level is going will reflect the local needs and on account of activities planned under this planning concerns including the concerns of component. However, it is important to community and school management and will note that in the absence of training on b. Effective system for appraisal of district have positive impact on the project participatory processes of planning, plans outcomes. outcomes are likely to be mixed and may c. Stakeholder involvement from different not reflect the real concerns. • The training of planning teams will further sections strengthen the process of bottoms-up d. Enhancing accountability through planning including on addressing the issues stakeholder empowerment related to social inclusion, gender concerns and needs of disabled and vulnerable e. Improved MIS and accountability systems population. through use of technology • The process-based planning is a positive move to reflect the key processes that are going to enhance the desired output and outcome of the planning process which are often gets missed out and accorded less priorities than reflecting the physical and financial aspects of the plan. Environment and Social Systems Assessment Component and Activity Potential E&S Benefits Potential E&S Risks/Impacts Results Area 2: Improved Foundational Learning a. Improved convergence between the • In line with National Education Policy (NEP), • Both access and social inclusion has been Anganwadi centers and the public the Task Force setup by Government of one of the important factors for children schools – in line with New Education Gujarat (GoG) to help support the smooth coming from poor and vulnerable Policy (NEP) 2020 transition including the transition for Early community to join the pre-school. And b. Support the government’s efforts Childhood Education (ECE) through hence, an adequate focus is required in towards strengthening foundational identifying an appropriate model suitable to planning and implementation to address learning - by improving access to and local situation is a positive approach and the same as this may require additional quality of ECE and early grade learning expected to lead to positive social outcomes measures in some areas/locations. c. Support the gradual rollout of the state in the long run. • The early childhood care and education roadmap of ECE across 4,000 select • The activities under the component are (ECCE) requires a multi-sectoral approach schools aligned to support the smooth transition and to address this, the NEP also suggests leading to achieving the NEP objectives with adoption of such an approach. It also developing teaching and learning materials recommends coordination with for ECE, training ECE workers, training Department of Women and Child teachers on ECEs, and doing the quality Development (WCD), Health and Family assurance. Welfare (HFW), and Tribal Development • The component is likely to bridge inequality in Department as part of the Task Force for access to pre-primary education, thus planning and implementation of early exposing students to early stimulation and childhood care and education and to early learning. This is likely to have a more address any gender, social exclusion and prominent impact on students from nutrition related issues in designing the marginalized groups since these households process of transition. A lack of often miss out on the benefits of pre-primary coordination may pose risk to holistically education and early learning, thereby addressing the needs of ECCE. impacting learning outcomes at a later stage. GOAL-SEEP Pg 48 Environment and Social Systems Assessment Component and Activity Potential E&S Benefits Potential E&S Risks/Impacts Results Area 3: Strengthened teacher development for classroom performance a. Support strengthening of digital and • The COVID-19 pandemic has posed many • ICT based training and teaching poses other essential infrastructure of DIETs to challenges to larger society, country and rapidly changing demand especially improve their technology-readiness to sectors including education. This has posed a requiring a more sophisticated set of provide online/blended teacher training major challenge to teachers coming from competences than before including the programs various socio-cultural and economic availability of necessary digital devices background to learn the art of remote and and applications. b. Strengthen Assessment System online teaching and put them on a steep c. Support Remedial Programs for learning curve to cope with. This component • Given the rapid change in technology and improving learning levels of students aims to understand the challenges faced and ICT related innovations, the need to keep device mechanisms and build capacity of updating teachers and their access to d. Support technology solutions to improve technology is a continued process and education management and learning teachers to deal with such situation or in any other similar emergency. This will have requires mechanism to ensure continued outcomes capacity enhancement to be abreast with positive impact especially in areas where disruptions are common due to natural changes. and/or man-made hazards such as floods, • Management of e-wastes, if not stored cyclone, strikes etc., or other such situations. and disposed properly is likely to have • Gujarat is increasingly using ICT for teacher some adverse impacts down the line training and have 26 online courses that were (medium and long term). offered through the Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing (DIKSHA) platform that saw registration of 1.44 million teachers. This has positive social outcomes in terms of teachers being prepared to teach in such situations. • ICT-enabled teacher training will make teacher trainees adept at tackling disruptive GOAL-SEEP Pg 49 Environment and Social Systems Assessment Component and Activity Potential E&S Benefits Potential E&S Risks/Impacts technologies that are shaping the lives and thought processes of students across age groups. The use of technology in special education helps break the barriers for people with disabilities and provide them with access to the most relevant educational programs. Results Area 4: Improved School Environment and Infrastructure a. School environment improved with • Upkeep and maintenance of school • While land acquisition and involuntary augmented infrastructure and functional infrastructure as well as filling the necessary resettlement is not expected under the child friendly schools in place - support gaps in terms of new schools and classroom program whether for school construction school consolidation towards more will not only lead to adequacy and quality of or for DIET construction, it cannot be student-centric and feature innovative school infrastructure but will also have completely ruled out given the teaching and learning. positive perception of student and experience of Samagra Shiksha civil community about the school. engineering team whereby in the past in b. Support strengthening of infrastructure • The process of infrastructure needs very few cases there has been the need and quality improvements of facilities in assessment on an annual basis to identify the for acquiring land. In many cases at least 6,000 Schools of Excellence, requirement based on Whole School especially in rural areas it is managed including at least 150 Kasturba Gandhi Development Plan (WSDP) assessment form through transferring government land Balika Vidhyalayas. developed by Samagra Shiksha Gujarat has a and land donations. The issues related to b. Construction of five DIETs in unserved positive environment and social benefits in squatters/ encroachers/ informal settlers districts of Gujarat terms of upgradation plan being need based were very few and mainly being handled and does not unnecessarily disrupt the by the district teams in consultation with schools with unplanned construction or respective school management infrastructure maintenance work. committees. However, it is unclear whether the measures used for squatter GOAL-SEEP Pg 50 Environment and Social Systems Assessment Component and Activity Potential E&S Benefits Potential E&S Risks/Impacts • Since nearly 60 percent of the program removal are aligned with ESSA core expenditure will be on improved principle. infrastructure (buildings, IT equipment and • Though the attempt is made for repair, goods), environment, health and safety upgradation and new construction in an management is critical for achieving program operational school to be least disturbing objectives. Adoption of green (environment and interfering with school operations, friendly), climate resilient, safe and inclusive there is always a risk of overlaps and may elements in planning, design, construction require some measures to address them. and operation of schools/DIETs (including Also, it poses some risk to Sexual aganwadis and hostels) will create a good exploitation and abuse (SEA)/ sexual learning, teaching and living environment. harassment (SH). This will not only help in creating direct • Potential environmental risks and benefits for a large number of users of these impacts due to activities proposed under facilities but also create good demonstrative/ this Results Area include: cutting of behavioural impacts on students and trees/loss of open spaces while teachers. expanding school infrastructure/building • Engagement of community through SMC and footprint; poor building design leading to school management and other key restricted access to children/people with stakeholder into the planning is an important physical challenges; deficiencies in aspect of community engagement and provision of basic services (sewage/waste feedback on design and process of water disposal; drainage; solid waste upgradation. This will also help enhance management), inadequate lighting/ community empowerment and community ventilation and thermal comfort in ownership of processes leading to higher buildings, temporary community satisfaction. inconvenience/disruption to school • DIET is an important institutional link to activities during execution of civil works provide teacher’s training and have positive and construction related impacts. impact on building teacher’s capacity leading GOAL-SEEP Pg 51 Environment and Social Systems Assessment Component and Activity Potential E&S Benefits Potential E&S Risks/Impacts to quality education. Hence, strengthening • During operation stage, risks pertaining DIETs will have a positive social impact. to food safety and hygiene, management of wastes from kitchen/mess (specially in schools with hostels/residential facility), management of hazardous wastewater/ wastes from the laboratories and e-waste generation from disposal of non- functional or old electrical and IT equipment will be of concern. Results Area 5: Resilient Recovery from COVID-19 a. Support a large holistic home learning • This will help prepare the state to meet the • There are no specific risks and overall, the program with a realigned syllabus broken aftermath of COVID-19 situation and to interventions under this Results Area will into chapter- and subject-wise weekly prepare the systems for meeting similar/ have a positive/beneficial impact. schedules unforeseen events that need greater b. Will include all ability-friendly content systemic resilience and rapid academic that is disseminated through several response mechanisms to address such mediums on themes including therapy, challenges. numeracy and literacy etc. • The multi-modal service delivery level will c. GOAL will provide a long-term strategic help address the need of diverse socio- action plan to meet the aftermath of cultural and economic group of population. COVID-19 to prepare education systems • The mapping of the current status of learning for meeting similar/unforeseen events will help plan remedial measures that can be d. Strengthening school to work transition instituted with school reopening to address students’ learning losses. GOAL-SEEP Pg 52 5. ASSESSMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS 5.1 Assessment of Existing Systems 1. As noted earlier, the PforR Policy of the Bank requires the proposed Program to operate within an adequate environmental and social management system that can manage environmental and social effects (particularly adverse impacts and risks) identified during the ESSA process. This includes: (a) an adequate legal and regulatory framework and institutional setting to guide environmental and social impact assessment and the management of environmental and social effects, and (b) adequate institutional capacity to effectively implement the requirements of the system. 2. This section assesses whether the program’s environmental and social management systems are consistent with the core principles and key planning elements contained in the PforR Policy and whether the involved institutions have the requisite capacity to implement the requirements of these systems. Both elements (e.g. program systems and capacity) are necessary towards ensuring that the environmental and social effects identified in Section 4 of this document are effectively managed. Through the analysis, the ESSA team has identified some gaps, which can be addressed through actions recommended under Section 7 of this report. A detailed analysis of the proposed program with respect to key elements against the core principles laid out in PforR policy/ESSA guidance is presented in the Annexure 5. 3. A program system is constituted by the rules and “arrangements within a program for managing environmental and social effects,�10 including “institutional, organizational, and procedural considerations that are relevant to environmental and social management�11 and that provide “authority� to those institutions involved in the program “to achieve environmental and social objectives against the range of environmental and social impacts that may be associated with the Program.�12 This includes existing laws, policies, rules, regulations, procedures, and implementing guidelines, etc. that are applicable to the program or the management of its environmental and social effects. It also includes inter-agency coordination arrangements if there are shared implementation responsibilities in practice.13 4. Program capacity is the “organizational capacity� of the institutions authorized to undertake environmental and social management actions to achieve effectively “environmental and social objectives against the range of environmental and social impacts that may be associated with the Program.�14 This ESSA has examined the adequacy of such capacity by considering, among other things, the following factors: 10 Drawn from Program-for-Results Financing: Interim Guidance Notes on Staff Assessments, “Chapter Four: Environmental and Social Systems Assessment Interim Guidance Note,� Page 77, paragraph 1. 11 Ibid, page 82, paragraph 12. 12 Ibid., Page 77, paragraph 2, and page 82 paragraph 12. 13 Based “Chapter Four: Environmental and Social Systems Assessment Interim Guidance Note,� Program -for-Results Financing: Interim Guidance Notes on Staff Assessments. 14 Ibid., Page 77, paragraph 2, and page 82 paragraph 12. Environment and Social Systems Assessment Adequacy of human resources (including in terms of training and experience), budget, and other implementation resources allocated to the institutions; Adequacy of institutional organization and the division of labor among institutions; Effectiveness of inter-agency coordination arrangements where multiple agencies or jurisdictions are involved; and The degree to which the institutions can demonstrate prior experience in effectively managing environmental and social effects in the context in projects or programs of similar type and magnitude. 5.2 Key Program Implementing Agencies 5. With the launch of the Government of India’s Samagra Shiksha in 2018, the management structures for elementary and secondary levels as well as teacher education were integrated into a unified administrative mechanism, pooling together existing and additional personnel at both the national and sub-national levels. Management Structure at the State Level 6. At the state level, in Gujarat, school education sector schemes including the Samagra Shiksha, (under which the School Education Excellence program is carved), is executed by the Gujarat Council of School Education (GCSE) through a State Implementation Society (SIS) set- up under the Societies Registration Act, under the administrative control of the State Education Department. The GCSE was set-up in 2018 for implementation of Samagra Shiksha by amalgamation of erstwhile Gujarat Council of Elementary Education and Gujarat Council of Secondary Education. The SIS is accountable to the Governing Council headed by the Chief Minister/State Education Minister, and its Executive Committee, chaired by the Chief Secretary/Commissioner/Education Secretary of the State. Representation of Finance and Planning Departments on the Governing Council and Executive Committee resolve issues of coordination and convergence apart from facilitating better decision-making. The SIS, through the State Project Office and State Project Director, establishes linkages with district and sub-district level structures, NGOs, State Government, National Bureau of School Education, and other concerned stakeholders. It is also responsible for effective monitoring and training and capacity building of personnel. 7. Additionally, the SIS is underpinned by a high degree of inter-departmental convergence, including coordination with the Department of Finance, Department of Public Works, Department for Women and Child Development, and other departments. Other bodies that compose the administrative structure and provide technical and academic input at the state level are the Gujarat Council of Educational Research and Training (GCERT), and the Program Management Unit (PMU) of the SIS. Implementation Arrangements at the District Level 8. At the District level, the District Project Office is responsible for implementing and reviewing the progress of the program. It is chaired by the District Collector/Magistrate/Chief Executive Officer of the Zilla Parishad. GOAL will support the District Project Office headed by the District Education Officer (DEO), comprising of representatives from the district education GOAL-SEEP Pg 54 Environment and Social Systems Assessment departments, NGOs, as well as technical specialists. The DEO, who also performs the duties of the District Project Coordinator, is responsible for preparing Annual Work Plans and Budgets (AWP&B), liaising with the District Institute of Education and Training (DIETs) to jointly oversee the function of the Block Resource Centers (BRCs) and Cluster Resource Centers (CRCs), monitoring progress and status of project implementation, and ensuring regular trainings of teachers/school heads, members of the School Management Committee (SMC)/School Management and Development Committee (SMDC), and BRCs and CRCs. Implementation Arrangements at the Block Level Arrangements 9. At the block level the administrative structure is headed by the Block Education Officer (BEO), who is responsible for facilitating the creation of a School Development Plan in coordination with the block/cluster resource persons, SMCs/SMDCs, headmasters, teachers, etc. Additionally, the BEO is responsible for capacity building, academic supervision, and onsite support to field-level cadre, and monitoring and implementation of school education programs at the grassroots level. BRCs and CRCs provide academic support at the block and cluster levels, respectively. Implementation Arrangements at the School Level 10. SMCs/SMDCs, comprising of members from the local authority, parents, and teachers, assist with school-level monitoring and implementation through community mobilization, preparing School Development Plans, conducting Social Audits, and monitoring attendance of students and teachers. 5.3 Legal and Regulatory Systems 11. The National Education Policy 2020 (NEP 2020), which was approved by the Union Cabinet of India on 29 July 2020, replaces the previous National Policy on Education, 1986, and outlines the vision of India's new education system, and is the overarching framework for the educational system in India, including the state of Gujarat. 12. The legal/regulatory framework on social aspects ensures the following: (a) protection of the interest of SC and ST population, (b) non-discrimination based on religion, race, caste, and gender, (c) transparency with the right to information, (d) the right to fair compensation in case of land acquisition. A comprehensive listing and assessment on environmental policies, laws and regulations, as applicable to the school education program is provided in Section 3 of Annexure 4. 13. Over-all, the provisions of the existing environmental and social legal/regulatory framework, including the stipulations to protect the interest of marginalized and vulnerable population such as the SCs and STs, are adequate though enabling institutional and technical capacity building is required for achieving full and more uniform compliance on the ground across districts and blocks of the state. GOAL-SEEP Pg 55 Environment and Social Systems Assessment 5.4 Environmental and Social Management System Assessed Against Core Principles Core Principle 1: Program E&S Management System Program E&S management systems are designed to: (a) avoid, minimize, or mitigate adverse impacts; (a) promote E&S sustainability in the Program design; (b) avoid, minimize, or mitigate adverse impacts; and (c) promote informed decision-making relating to a Program’s E&S effects. System and Capacity Assessment 14. The Samagra Shiksha guidelines for school education program detail out the institutional mechanisms for implementation of school education program along with detailed roles and responsibilities within the larger constitutional and legal framework of India. 15. Planning and implementation of the school education program in Gujarat follows the RTE Act and the Samagra Shiksha Framework, which subsumes the three erstwhile Schemes of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) and Teacher Education (TE). The institutional mechanisms have been well established to meet the overall program requirements and there are detailed systems in place for each of its program component including civil and infrastructure development, gender, social inclusion and inclusive education for children with special needs. 16. Environment Management: Samagra Shiksha in Gujarat has guidelines for environmental management, which are implemented and monitored through the established institutional arrangements. The framework for the Samagra Shiksha provides guidelines for environment friendly design, construction and operation/maintenance of schools. This framework also specifies institutional arrangements for implementation of such guidelines. GOAL-SEEP Pg 56 Environment and Social Systems Assessment 17. The Samagra Shiksha has the ‘in-house’ Civil Engineering Department which looks after all the infrastructure facilities in the schools of Gujarat, and has about 272 engineers at the block level; 36 engineers at district level and 22 Assistant Engineers at state level for planning, monitoring and supervision of civil works. It also has 16 Assistant Architects at block level and 4 at the state level for preparation of building plans. The Department hires structural engineers through consultancy services. 18. The assessment of program systems under this principle determined that while standalone environmental assessment is not a statutory requirement for the scale of augmentation works/construction of class rooms within existing schools, envisaged under the program, the program framework emphasizes on environment friendly design, construction and operation of schools. For the limited green field construction (such as the five new District Institutes of Education and Training) that has been proposed under the operation, standalone environmental assessment will not be required as per MoEFCC, GoI’s notification on environmental clearance that imposes certain restrictions/prohibitions on new projects/activities, or on the expansion or modernization of existing projects/facilities. The education sector (including schools, colleges and hostels) is exempted under this notification but such facilities have to ensure that sustainable environmental management practices, including those pertaining to solid and liquid waste management, rain water harvesting and possible use of recycled materials (such as fly ash bricks) are adopted. 19. In terms of program capacity, the main findings are that the implementing agency, Samagra Shiksha in Gujarat, has substantial experience on school education, including on application and implementation of environment aspects that are embedded within the over- all guidelines of the Program. Provisions on environmental management like rainwater harvesting, waste collection, greenery and plantation, measures for protection against seismic events and energy conservation are there. State level, district level, block level officials; civil engineers; SMCs; SDMCs are familiar with the environmental management requirements/guidelines. In house civil infrastructure engineers are also well versed with environmental management system/guidelines for design and construction stages, and on environment, health and safety (EHS) aspects encountered during execution of civil works. 20. The Samagra Shiksha, Gujarat has also developed infrastructure assessment form for Whole School Development Plan (WSDP), that captures various details of the school viz. general information, campus environment, academic information, infrastructure details, details of classrooms, boundary wall, availability of separate toilet for Girls and Boys, drinking water facility and mid-day meal kitchen shed – these have been incorporated in the form, which has been further developed as an mobile application to be used by Technical Resource Persons at the Taluka level to update real-time information on school infrastructure. The available facilities at the school are further compared with standard norms to identify infrastructure upgradation requirement on an annual basis. 21. All the engineers of the civil branch have been trained by the Gujarat State Disaster Management Authority (GSDMA) to ensure design and execution of building meets the necessary school safety requirements, specifically from seismic and fire safety perspective. The existing classrooms are graded under the damage grade G1 to G5 by a technical resource person as part of WSDP update towards planning adequate measures for upgrading them, when required. GOAL-SEEP Pg 57 Environment and Social Systems Assessment 22. Management of Social Aspects: From a social systems perspective, the process of planning and execution of construction activities involves community in planning and implementation through SMC/SDMC. Though the process of planning for school infrastructure has been a well laid out process, however, the current process does not specify mechanism for systematic screening of E&S risks and impacts. 23. The Samagra Shiksha in Gujarat follows a range of consultations with various stakeholders, including monitoring of learning outcomes. Through This, it guides and ensures the responsibility and accountability of different stakeholders. The Samagra Shiksha Framework also proposes to undertake community mobilisation and close involvement of community members in school education to foster a ‘bottoms-up approach’ not only for effective planning and implementation of interventions but also for effective monitoring, evaluation and ownership of the government programmes by the community. The proposed GOAL SEEP program further plans to strengthen this under Results Area 1 through: (1) training on participatory community-led planning; (2) effective system for appraisal of district plans; (3) stakeholder involvement from different sections; (4) enhancing accountability through stakeholder empowerment; and (4) improved MIS and accountability systems through use of technology. 24. Samagra Shiksha program follows the process of social audit to create transparency, participation and accountability in the program implementation at the school level, which is clearly articulated in the framework. Social audit is carried out by the community with participation of other stakeholders including PRI members, local authority, members of SMC/ SDMC etc. at least once a year, and follows a structured format designed by Samagra Shiksha in Gujarat (Refer Annexure 8). 25. For Grievance Redress Management, Government of Gujarat under the RTE act has authorized local authorities including Gram Panchayat, CRC, Taluk Panchayat and District Project Coordinator Office in rural areas and Ward Office, CRC, Municipal Office and Administrative Office in urban areas. The system also specifies time duration for disposal of grievances. Key Gaps Identified 26. The key gaps identified includes: • Screening for E&S risks and impacts prior to undertaking civil works is a clear gap and it may lead to some adverse E&S impacts/effects. • The Block and Cluster Resource Centre Coordinators (BRCCs and CRCCs) play a key role in monitoring school level EHS aspects, and SMCs/SDMCs play an important role in execution of civil works. A frequent change in members of SMCs/SDMCs poses gaps in understanding and adherence to EHS aspects. While the turn-over is inevitable, the system needs to be strengthened for quick/effective on-boarding and sensitization. • There is need to build capacity of different stakeholders mainly the BRCC, CRCC, SMCs/ SDMCs, and PRI bodies on their roles and responsibilities in a continued manner especially for social audit and GRM systems, as many of the members change over 2-3 years period. Recommendations GOAL-SEEP Pg 58 Environment and Social Systems Assessment 27. The key recommendations to fill the identified gaps are listed below: • There is need for designating Environmental Expert and Social Expert in the Program Implementation Unit to oversee and monitor the E&S activities. Also, there is need for clear articulation of E&S responsibility at the district and block level for staff already in place. • Screening for E&S risks and impacts needs to be instituted as part of the planning process for any infrastructure related works to identify concerns (if any) early-on in the sub- project cycle. Based on the results/findings of this exercise, due mitigation measures can be applied. A sample screening checklist is provided in Annexure 6 for reference and adaptive use for this operation. • Need to strengthen the EHS mechanism across the implementation chain, and build capacity of BRCCs, CRCCs and SMCs/SDMCs on the same. • Organize periodic training programs for field engineers, schools and SMCs/ SDMCs on the provisions of the Environmental and Social Management relevant to Samagra Shiksha Framework. • Capacity building/training of BRCCs, CRCCs, SMCs/SDMCs, and PRIs towards awareness creation on their expected roles and responsibilities on accountability and to redress grievances. Core Principle 2: Natural Habitat and Physical and Cultural Resources Program E&S management systems are designed to avoid, minimize, or mitigate adverse impacts on natural habitats and physical cultural resources resulting from the Program. Program activities that involve the significant conversion or degradation of critical natural habitats or critical physical cultural heritage are not eligible for PforR financing. System and Capacity Assessment 28. The assessment of program systems under this principle determines whether National and State level laws and regulations exist for regulation of activities in natural habitats, critical natural habitats, in proximity of protected monuments and for management of chance finds. The existing available guidelines for Samagra Shiksha in Gujarat specify measures for early identification of biodiversity and cultural resource areas as part of the process related to land to be acquired for augmentation of facilities for existing schools or construction of new/greenfield schools. 29. There are National and State level laws for regulation of activities in proximity of protected monuments and for management of chance finds of archaeological/historical value. The Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains (Amendment and Validation) Act, 2010 bans construction within 100 metres of a centrally protected monument and regulates construction within 100-200 metres. 30. After interaction with project team and studying the scope of activities proposed under GOAL-SEEP, the ESSA Team concludes that most of the program activities will be implemented within the existing school premises. The activities are not likely to cause adverse environmental effects or pose any risks for natural habitats and physical cultural resources GOAL-SEEP Pg 59 Environment and Social Systems Assessment (PCR). This principle is applicable to program activities at locations that are in close proximity to natural habitats and PCRs (for example, schools located near forest areas, wildlife sanctuary/national parks, especially in Dang, Porbandar, Gir Somnath districts). 31. In terms of institutional capacity, the main finding is that while there are functional systems for statutory clearances for activities within or in the proximity of critical natural habitats, the level of awareness in the key stakeholders on the relevant provisions of the existing laws and regulations varies. Key Gaps Identified 32. The key gap pertaining to Core Principle 2 is stated below: • The awareness on the relevant provisions of the existing laws and regulations related to civil work activities in proximity to protected monuments of archaeological/ historical value among the key stakeholders such as field functionaries of civil branch of Samagra Shiksha as well as SMCs/ SDMCs needs to be enhanced. Recommendations 33. The key recommendations to fill the identified gap are: • There is need to institute a screening mechanism to ensure adherence to the respective laws and regulations (so that not a single case of violation/non-compliance occurs even when there is limited probability or likelihood of such slippages happening under the program). • Construction and demolition activities in areas within 100-meter radius of protected monuments will be excluded from the PforR program. Also, include coverage on regulatory provisions relevant to school development activities in proximity of cultural heritage sites as part of regular and periodic training programs for the planning and civil engineering team associated with the program. Core Principle 3: Public and Workers Safety Program E&S management systems are designed to protect public and worker safety against the potential risks associated with (a) the construction and/or operation of facilities or other operational practices under the Program; (b) exposure to toxic chemicals, hazardous wastes, and otherwise dangerous materials under the Program; and (c) reconstruction or rehabilitation of infrastructure located in areas prone to natural hazards. System and Capacity Assessment 34. The assessment of program systems under this principle determined that the Samagra Shiksha Framework lays emphasis on environment, health and safety (EHS) aspects and encourages the application of relevant national codes and guidelines. 35. The Samagra Shiksha Framework specifies that environment, health and safety practices should be followed for design, planning, preparation and execution of improvements in school learning environment in accordance with: (a) National Building Code 2016, and (b) School Safety Policy Guidelines February 2016 issued by National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA). The Code on Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions, 2019 is GOAL-SEEP Pg 60 Environment and Social Systems Assessment applicable to civil works under the program. Safety provisions in construction contracts, especially due to COVID-19 situation, are also applicable. 36. However, comprehensive guidelines for development of school learning environment in natural hazard prone areas (except seismic) or ensuring health and safety conditions for workers during construction and the communities after schools have been utilized as quarantine facilities for medical emergencies would be required. 37. In terms of program capacity, awareness among the in-house civil engineers, SMCs and schools on the public and worker safety needs to be further augmented. Construction safety was highlighted as an issue of concern during consultations with stakeholders. Also, training programs for civil engineers on disaster resistant construction (except seismic safety) and on climate resilient designs would be required as this was identified as an area where there are gaps, both in the guidelines and in practice on the ground. 38. Samagra Shiksha Framework recognizes the sexual violence and abuse in and around school and seeks to address it in a holistic manner, which involves sensitization of all teachers, administrative and other support staff and recommends undertaking sensitisation measures to work around these issues as well. Also, it recommends making schooling spaces address the needs of both boys and girls from all contexts, especially during adolescence. The state has initiated self-defence training for girls of Class 8th, which is much appreciated by all parents. Also, every school in Gujarat has sexual harassment committees where students, teachers or any support staffs can lodge their complaints. Key Gaps Identified 39. The key gap identified is stated below: • Awareness about EHS provisions under the framework for civil construction is low among SMCs/ SDMCs. Also, adherence to COVID-19 related safety measures during construction is also low among contractors and communities. Recommendations 40. The key recommendations to fill the identified gaps include: • Organize periodic training programs for civil engineers/architects on environment, health and safety aspects and their management, including disaster resilient and climate smart design, use of safe materials, resource conservation, waste management, etc. • Institute COVID-19 related contractual obligations by including specific clauses in the construction contracts. Core Principle 4: Land Acquisition and Resettlement Program E&S systems manage land acquisition and loss of access to natural resources in a way that avoids or minimizes displacement and assists affected people in improving, or at the minimum restoring, their livelihoods and living standards. System and Capacity Assessment 41. The land acquisition activities are part of the civil branch’s responsibility of the Samagra Shiksha in Gujarat. In the past, in very few cases there has been the need for acquiring land, GOAL-SEEP Pg 61 Environment and Social Systems Assessment in many cases especially in rural areas it is arranged through transferring government land and land donations. 42. Wherever needed the land acquisition follows ‘The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 (and further amendments), and the Right to Fair-Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Gujarat Rules, 2017)’, and based on the request by the Education Department, Revenue Departments through the District Collector follow the procedures as laid out in the above Act and the rules. The process involves Gram Panchayat proposing the requirement to District Project Coordinator (DPC) of the Education Department and through DPC to District Collector for initiating the process of land acquisition. A similar process is also followed in case of land donation for legal transfer of land in the name of the school. 43. While the system and capacity for land acquisition and resettlement exist within the Government of Gujarat, no land acquisition or displacement of title holders or non-title holders is anticipated under the GOAL SEEP program. Upgradation will be restricted to government land and will be monitored through the E&S screening checklist. Key Gaps Identified 44. The key gaps identified include: • While for the title holders the Land Acquisition act provides for adequate provisions, however, the act does not cover provisions for encroachers and squatters on government land. Recommendations The key recommendations to fill gaps are: • E&S screening mechanism is to be instituted during the planning phase of any new construction under the program to identify any adverse social risks and impact. • Though both land acquisition and/or resettlement is not anticipated, but in rare case, if any need arise, World Bank core safeguard policy on land acquisition and resettlement will be followed and due process to be instituted in consultation with World Bank task team. • While the land donation is a common practice, there is need to ensure that it is done on voluntary basis and these are no coercion for doing so, and the process of donation shall be institutionalized through gift deed. Core Principle 5: Rights and Interests of Indigenous People Program E&S systems give due consideration to the cultural appropriateness of, and equitable access to, Program benefits, giving special attention to the rights and interests of Scheduled Tribe people (Indigenous Peoples) and scheduled caste people, and to the needs or concerns of vulnerable groups GOAL-SEEP Pg 62 Environment and Social Systems Assessment System and Capacity Assessment 45. The Samagra Shiksha Framework and process adopted in Gujarat clearly details out the range of consultations to be undertaken with various stakeholder and work with close involvement of community members in school education to fosters ‘bottom up approach’ not only in effective planning and implementation of interventions, but also in effective monitoring and evaluation, and building ownership of the government programmes by the community including the Scheduled Tribe (ST) and Scheduled Caste (SC) and other disadvantaged community. 46. As acknowledged by the Samagra Shiksha Framework, the biggest problem faced by tribal children is that of language. Teaching materials and textbooks tend to be in a language the students do not understand; content of books and syllabi ignore the students’ own knowledge and experience and focus only on the dominant language and culture. Not understanding the school language and therefore the course content, the children are unable to cope, end up repeating grades and eventually dropping out. 47. There has been some experience where Gujarat has developed dictionaries in Dangi and Bhili dialects. A local word glossary in Dangi has been prepared and distributed in schools for class I-IV. Similarly, a local word glossary in tribal dialect has been prepared for class I-IV in Banaskantha district and distributed in schools. The Vidhya Sahayaks were given training on the use of these dictionaries. Gujarat has also initiated extensive work for preparation of teaching learning materials (TLM) in tribal languages. This included flash cards for different languages and cards for mathematics. These have been supplied to all schools in tribal areas15. Similarly, discussion with district level officials from education department and members of SMCs/SDMCs in Banaskantha suggests special efforts are made including at times teacher visiting villages to teach if the children are not able to come to school. 48. The RTE Act, 2009 addresses gender and social equity within a framework that is holistic and systemic. The Samagra Shiksha Scheme envisages improvement quality of education, ensuring equity and inclusion at all levels of school education. The key parameters of the approach informing the following perspective includes: • The Samagra Shiksha scheme envisages to improve quality of education, ensuring equity and inclusion at all levels of school education and mean not only equal opportunity, but also creation of conditions in which the disadvantaged sections of the society – children of SC, ST, Muslim minority, landless agricultural workers and children with special needs, transgender children etc. can avail of the opportunity in an inclusive environment free from discrimination. • Gender is recognized as a critical cross-cutting equity issue and implies not only making efforts to enable girls to keep pace with boys but to bring about a basic change in the status of women. • Access does not only confined to ensuring that school becomes accessible to all children within specified distance but implies aims to cater the educational needs of the traditionally excluded categories – the SC, ST and other sections of the most 15 http://www.vri-online.org.uk/ijrs/April2012/Primary%20Education%20in%20a%20Tribal%20district%20of%20Gujarat%20India.pdf GOAL-SEEP Pg 63 Environment and Social Systems Assessment disadvantaged groups, the Muslim minority, girls in general, transgender children and children with special needs. • Equity is seen as an integral part of the agenda on improving quality and therefore encompass issues pertaining to teacher training and education, curriculum, language, educational planning and management. 49. Samagra Shiksha look at education of all children including CWSN in a continuum from pre-school to class XII by (a) Identification of children with disabilities at the school level and assessment of her/his educational needs; (b) Provision of aids and appliance and assistive devices, to the children with special needs as per requirement; (c) Removal of architectural barriers in schools so that students with disability have access to classrooms, laboratories, libraries and toilets in the school; (d) Supplying appropriate teaching learning materials, medical facilities, vocational training support, guidance and counselling services and therapeutic services; (e) General school teachers are sensitized and trained to teach and involve children with special needs in the general classroom; (f) CWSN will have access to support services through special educators, and establishment of resource rooms, vocational education, therapeutic services and counselling; and (g) Work in convergence with other line departments and intends to provide relevant holistic support for effective and appropriate services for education of CWSN. Key Gaps Identified 50. The key gaps identified includes: • While the Samagra Shiksha scheme aims to and provide for equitable and inclusive system of education, due to local geographical terrain and socio-economic condition, it requires special effort in community mobilisation and garnering larger community support. • Access to schools especially in tribal/ difficult to reach areas aren’t limited to just infrastructure barriers but goes beyond including barriers faced by teachers and there is need for training teachers to increase sensitivity etc. • Providing multi-lingual education is not a simple task. Even mother tongue education is challenged by problems like – not having a script, language not recognized as legitimate language, shortage of education material in the language, lack of appropriately trained teachers, resistance to schooling in the mother tongue by students, parents and teachers and several mother tongues represented in one class, it compounds the problem even further. To deal with above, various states such as Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra have developed bridge language courses for students from tribal communities. • The school education program in Gujarat in line with RTE Act, 2009 addresses gender and social equity within its framework. Though no specific gaps is identified in addressing the need of vulnerable and disadvantaged community including CWSN, it does require an assessment to understand if what has been planned is being delivered in an smooth manner for addressing the need of vulnerable and disadvantaged community, and address any additional effort to meet the desired objective. Recommendations 51. The key recommendations to fill gaps includes as below: GOAL-SEEP Pg 64 Environment and Social Systems Assessment • Training of BRCCs and CRCCs from tribal areas shall include special focus on dealing with local circumstances and setting up mechanism for continued consultation with local tribal community. • Training of SMCs/ SDMCs from tribal areas shall have additional focus on creating community awareness and role in community mobilization. • Special efforts to be planned for addressing language related issues, infrastructure related gaps, teacher’s capacity to deal with local context in tribal areas and other vulnerable population based on conducting need assessment. Also, based on need assessment, specialized intervention to be planned for coastal communities, fishing areas, tribal areas and urban slums etc. The needs assessment should also look at teachers’ access to ICT- based training in ST/SC communities. • The school education program in Gujarat in line with RTE Act, 2009 addresses gender and social equity within its framework. Though the impact of these efforts will be gradual, it is important to assess the current situation and identify gaps that may be required to make additional effort especially in case of vulnerable and disadvantaged community including for CWSN. Core Principle 6: Social Conflict Program E&S systems avoid exacerbating social conflict, especially in fragile states, post- conflict areas, or areas subject to territorial disputes. 52. There is no social conflict affected areas in the state. And, in any case the program interventions do not exacerbate any social conflicts as it supports the school education system in Gujarat leading to overall learning outcomes. Also, exclusion of any groups in terms of caste, religion, and/ or geography by the program activities is not expected. 53. Under the Samagra Shiksha scheme the preference for various interventions is given to Educationally Backward Blocks (EBBs) and Special Focus Districts (SFDs) and the 115 Aspirational Districts including those in Gujarat. Also, exclusion of any groups in terms of caste, religion, and/ or geography by the program activities is not expected. The program and its activities are quite inclusive in nature and does not exacerbate any conflicts. 5.5 Grievance Redressal Mechanism 54. In line with RTE Act 2009 - section 9, section- 24(1)and section-32 (1), the Government of Gujarat has authorized local authorities including Gram Panchayat, CRC, Taluk Panchayat and District project coordinator office in rural areas and similarly ward office, CRC, Municipal office and Administrative office in urban area. And has also specified type of grievances, the authority charged with provision, the time duration of office for its disposal, the appellate authority, and time for grievance redressal by the appellate authority. The type of grievance and related authority for redressal, time duration and appellate varies and is structured in a matrix form (Refer Annexure-9). 55. The type of grievances is structured in ten cluster i.e. (1) Access related, (2) Admission related, (3) Incentive related, (4) Teachers related, (5) Infrastructure facilities related, (6) Management related, (7) curriculum related, (8) SMC related, (9) Finance and accounts related, and (10) MIS/ computer related. And for each type of grievances legal entitlements GOAL-SEEP Pg 65 Environment and Social Systems Assessment to different local authority have been stated along with timeline (2-7 days) within which they need to redress complaints. Anyone can make a written complaint to above mentioned authorities related to school education and RTE related issues including children or on behalf of any child and could be anonymous. 56. After receiving the complaint, the prescribed local authority needs to register the complains and acknowledge it and schedule procedure for redressing. Local authority may further investigate whatever they find it convenient to take decision on the complaint. Stipulated local authority has to decide one day and time in a week to listen complaint and make personal visits. While decision must be given quickly within the stipulated timeline, and in complex situation at the most to be done within 3 months after listening to both parties. Following which the aggrieved person may appeal through state commission for protection of child rights. Complaint received by local authority where decisions are to be made by another or higher authority, the process to be quickly initiated by the local authority for the same. 57. The stipulated authority has to maintain record or complaints and their redressal and report back to Samagra Sikhsa cell and in turn the SPD of the Samagra Shiksha submits the summary of number of complaints received and redressed to state government on monthly basis. 58. Samagra Shiksha program follows the process of social audit to create transparency, participation and accountability of the program implementation at the school level is clearly articulate in the framework. Social audit is carried out by the community with participation of other stakeholders including PRI members, local authority, members of SMC/ SDMC etc at least once a year, and follow a structured format designed by the Samagra Shiksha in Gujarat (Refer Anneture-8). Social audit is conducted in schools to check the implementation of RTE, grant utilization, innovative practices and achievements of schools and sharing the audit reports to Gram Sabha. The stipulated local authorities for redressing grievances such as Gram Panchayat are also part of the Gram Sabha, also there is representation of the Village Education Committee (VEC) under the Gram panchayat are part of the social audit team. GOAL-SEEP Pg 66 Environment and Social Systems Assessment 6. CONSULTATIONS WITH KEY STAKEHOLDERS AND DISCLOSURE 6.1 General 1. As part of the ESSA, virtual discussions happened with officials of Gujarat Council of School Education (GCSE), Gujarat Council of Educational Research and Training (GCERT) and District Institute for Education and Training (DIET) to understand the functioning of the program and components and associated existing system and processes. 2. In addition, district level consultations were also conducted with key district officials of Education Department (DPCs/ DPEOs) along with SMCs/ SDMCs and an NGO. The consultation involved discussion on (a) Process of need assessment for infrastructure development; (b) Role of SMC and school principal/ teachers in design and implementation; (c) Need for land acquisition; (d) Need for squatter removal; (e) Reducing disturbances in school operation due to civil works; (f) Environmental health and Safety mechanism during civil works; (g) Labor management including intermixing with student/ teachers; (h) Grievance Redress Mechanism; (i) Participation of women, disadvantaged and vulnerable groups in SMC; (j) SMC’s engagement with school; (k) Issues related to girl child education; (l) Challenges expected to face in case of school consolidation; (m) Role of Panchayat and other local bodies in school development; (n) Process of Social Audit; and (o) Dealing with issues related to gender based violence. The details are presented in Annex 5. 6.2 Summary of Multi-stakeholder State Level Consultation Workshop 3. A multi-stakeholder workshop is conducted on November 26, 2020 with more than 115 participants including various officials from Department of Education/Samagra Shiksha; officers from other departments such as Tribal Development Department, Social Welfare Department, Department of Women and Child Development, GSDMA; District level officials of Department of Education from 6 districts including from tribal and coastal districts; SMC members from 6 districts including from tribal and coastal districts; various NGOs working on education and gender issues including those working in tribal and coastal areas; independent researchers and academicians from IIM-A; and UNICEF. 4. While all the participants appreciated the findings from ESSA, the feedback and suggestions from the multi-stakeholder consultation workshop is broadly grouped in a manner to inform program design and ESSA and presented below. Feedback and Suggestions on Program Design • There have been some efforts made earlier by an NGOs in collaboration with UNICEF to make gender friendly schools by creating gender friendly spaces and can be looked at while designing of the schools especially in the green schools. • Some state like Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan are working with UNICEF on life skill education and integration with curriculum from pre-primary to secondary schools and being implemented in 6000 schools with training of teachers and can also be tried out in Gujarat on an experiential learning basis. GOAL-SEEP Pg 67 Environment and Social Systems Assessment • In addition to child friendly schools, there must be focus on mental health issues and awareness. • While BRC, CRC linkages are being strengthen by the Government, but it has not been able to address the child marriage issues leading to dropout of girl students. Small program may be tried out in villages to increase community awareness towards this. • Child rights and protection in schools needs to be strengthened – e.g. Maharashtra education department has made it mandatory for teachers across the state to attend training on Child Rights and Protection in order to create awareness about child rights in schools. • Is there a possibility to institute a safe and effective way for continuous counselling of girls – it should be an option for girls to access all the time in addition to safety, hygiene issues (water availability) etc. • It was informed that ICDS, WCD has developed State ECCE curriculum and developmental assessment tool for monitoring holistic development of 3-6 years children with consultative process with UNICEF support and collaboration SCERT, SSA in Gujarat. Initiatives to involve parents and mothers focusing on the early stimulations and providing learning environment at home are also taken up and received very good response. the learning can be taken from it to build the social environment and create awareness. ICDS also has the Anganwadi assessment tool providing insights for the quality of the services provided at Anganwadis and the improvement plans can be developed, the Leadership program is also initiated for PO & CDPOs, Supervisors to assess their Anganwadis based on this tool and develop their Anganwadis accordingly in selected districts. this can be also used as reference. • It was informed that GSDMA has been doing school safety week over the last few years – so far more than 75,000 teachers being trained; it has reached 54.5k schools, and all Disaster Management plans have been made and demonstrations completed and there is recognition that life & property of all teachers and students are very important. • There is need for comprehensive assessment of education and psychological outcomes across grade levels, and Questions on scientific validity of outcomes needs to be thought through. Also need to think of capturing student and teacher schooling experiences through surveys. • For effective qualitative improvements, capacity building at district/block level requires human resources for pedagogical support, environmental issues, statisticians etc. Most importantly at district-level: data management system, inclusion of specialists: testing & measurement, educational statisticians, school psychologists, pedagogical experts, policy evaluators, school management trainers, and so on. Refer - http://www.teacherplus.org/bottom-up-policymaking-keeping-schools-at-the-centre/. These human resource at district-level will be likely to cater to the needs of schools. That creates an ecosystem for decision-making at local levels - an effective decentralization. • It was mentioned that Gujarat has lots of organizations with tried and tested resources especially for pre-primary/Anganwadis and primary education. Part of ECCE group with GOAL-SEEP Pg 68 Environment and Social Systems Assessment UNICEF, WCD etc are working on curriculum, child development tools etc. and it is important not to reinvent the wheel but shall be strengthened. • There is need for conducting comprehensive school evaluation and assessment including related to RTE policies in a regular manner. Also, each school should have a student council to voice their views. • There is suggestion to build capacities of Anganwadi using cluster approach whereby one Anganwadi can act as cluster head and can train 7-8 neighbouring Anganwadis. • With online teaching, there is need for school-based micro planning and separate strategies for different kinds of children (with/without devices) • Digital learning should not be looked at as replacing classroom learning but complimenting it. The teacher training should also happen in a blended mode and not relying solely on online mode. • As part of collaboration between ICDS and UNICEF lot has been done to strengthen ECCE in terms of development of curriculum, development standards, training tool kit, activity bank and activity books for children are developed and responsive parenting and ECD leadership is implemented. at the state level thematic groups are formed to support quality. The program of foundation learning could be built on that. • School safety should also include softer dimensions. School safety can be conceptualized as a construct covering all within-school stakeholders (students, teachers, administrator). Suggestions Related to Environmental Aspects • The presentation on the ESSA was very well received and the participants highly appreciated/seconded the recommendations made on clean, green and safe schools for GOAL-SEEP. • The concept of ‘green schools’ found a lot of appreciation and support from the all stakeholder groups, including the NGOs. • Suggestion of having more green schools & need for system for maintaining infrastructure as speed of wear & tear is high in case of sanitation, drinking water, electricity type of infrastructure is well appreciated. The suggestion to also include softer aspects on environment (curriculum) along with physical infrastructure. • Due to COVID-19 situation, disposal of waste and hygiene has become very important as well as the need for promoting behaviour change e.g. no spitting etc. • It was mentioned that Environmental Lab has been setup in more than 4000 schools in Gujarat, and water conservation is one of the important components under this initiative. All the activities under Environmental Lab have been done by students and schoolteachers, which are monitored/captured by a dedicated portal. However, any initiative towards water conservation is a good suggestion, especially for the areas where people face scarcity of water during summer. GOAL-SEEP Pg 69 Environment and Social Systems Assessment • For menstrual management, Swati Bedekar (Vadodara) NGO has done great work across India. Also, students from IIM-A are conducting a comprehensive PhD thesis on MHM for school girls in Gujarat, and may be good to connect with them to learn further. • Agency responsible for civil works should also be sensitized on E&S aspects from the beginning Suggestions Related to Social Aspects • There have been some efforts made earlier by an NGOs in collaboration with UNICEF to make gender friendly schools by creating gender friendly spaces. This should be addressed through GOAL-SEEP. • Existing programs for community participation need to be made more effective. • Focusing on home language and strategy to transition from home languages to school languages in the areas where children are coming from different language community at Anganwadi and foundation level is critical for foundation learning and literacy. • Access to schools especially in tribal/difficult to reach areas aren’t limited to just infrastructure barriers but goes beyond including barriers faced by teachers and there is need for training teachers to increase sensitivity etc. • While BRC, CRC linkages are being strengthen by the Government, but it has not been able to address the child marriage issues leading to dropout of girl students. Small program may be tried out in villages to increase community awareness towards this. • Child rights and protection in schools needs to be strengthened – e.g. Maharashtra education department has made it mandatory for teachers across the state to attend training on Child Rights and Protection in order to create awareness about child rights in schools. • Is there a possibility to institute a safe and effective way for continuous counselling of girls – it should be an option for girls to access all the time in addition to safety, hygiene issues (water availability) etc. • There is need for specialized intervention in coastal communities, fishing areas, tribal areas and urban slums etc. 6.3 Disclosure of ESSA 5. A multi-stakeholder workshop involving Samagra Shiksha officials and other partner agencies, key departments including Tribal Development Department, Social Welfare Department, Department of Women and Child Development, Forest Department, GSDMA, district and taluka level officials, NGOs, representatives from community groups including members of SMC/SDMCs, and other stakeholders was conducted through a virtual platform on November 26, 2020 using World Bank’s guidance on Public Consultations and Stakeholder Engagement in constraint situation (COVID-19, with travel restrictions, the entire preparation was done using virtual means and with help of Govt. of Gujarat/field functionaries). The ESSA has benefitted from the feedback and suggestions received during this consultation workshop using a mix of languages - English, Hindi and Gujarati (vernacular). GOAL-SEEP Pg 70 Environment and Social Systems Assessment 6. The draft ESSA (version dated December 7, 2020) has been in public domain since December 14, 2020. This revised ESSA (version dated January 20, 2021) has been disclosed/redisclosed in country at the Department of Education, Government of Gujarat’s website (www.ssagujarat.org) and by the World Bank’s through the project portal. GOAL-SEEP Pg 71 Environment and Social Systems Assessment 7. RECOMMENDATIONS 1. Based on the Environment and Social Systems Assessment conducted for GOAL-SEEP, the following recommendations are being made for inclusion in the Program Action Plan. 7.1 Exclusion of High-Risk Activities 2. The following activities will be excluded from the program in view of the high environmental risk: • Construction within all protected/forest areas (including National Parks, Wildlife Sanctuaries, Wildlife Corridors) and, within Eco-Sensitive Zones for which final or draft notifications have been published by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Government of India. • Construction or demolition within 100-meter radius of protected monuments identified by the Archaeological Survey of India or Gujarat State Archaeology Department. • Construction, renovation or dismantling works involving ‘asbestos containing material’. 7.2 Summary of Identified Gaps and Recommendations 3. This section summarizes the measures that have been recommended based on gap/risks identified in the previous sections. The recommendations will address the important gaps identified in the project systems as well as any capacity building needs to align them with align core principles. During the preparation and appraisal process for the PforR, the actions recommended below will be clarified through consultations with program counterparts and specific agreements will be made to address recommendations by including them in the Program Action Plan (PAP). The summary of identified gaps and recommendations are presented to align with core principle. S.No. Identified Gaps Recommendations Core Principle 1: Program E&S Management System - Environmental and social management procedures and processes are designed to: (a) promote environmental and social sustainability in Program design; (b) avoid, minimize, or mitigate against adverse impacts; and (c) promote informed decision making related to a Program’s environmental and social effects. 1 The Samagra Shiksha Framework There is need for designating an spells out clear roles and Environmental Expert and Social Expert in responsibility and the process to be the Program Implementation Unit to adopted for school education and coordinate and monitor the E&S activities. covers all aspects of program For EHS aspects, an official in the civil works implementation, including Gender wing entrusted this responsibility as several and social inclusion, inclusive risks can be avoided or mitigated through education for CWSN and strengthening planning, design and execution of infrastructure works. GOAL-SEEP Pg 72 Environment and Social Systems Assessment S.No. Identified Gaps Recommendations requirements/norms for infrastructure. 2 Screening for E&S risks and impact • Screening for E&S risks and impacts prior to any civil works is a gap and needs to be instituted during site level may lead to some adverse E&S planning for infrastructure related works impacts given the spread of to identify E&S risks and apply due works/activities for a large mitigation measures, as applicable. geographical area of the state (and its • Organize periodic training programs for varying conditions). field engineers, schools and SMCs/SDMCs on environmental and social risks and their management as relevant to Samagra Shiksha. 3 The Block and Cluster Resource Need to strengthen the mechanism across Centre Coordinators (BRCCs and the implementation chain, and build CRCCs) play a key role in monitoring capacity of BRCCs, CRCCs and SMCs/SDMCs. school level EHS aspects for all facilities within the block/cluster. SMCs/SDMCs play an important and similar role but at the school level. With frequent turn-over of members in SMCs/SDMCs, there are gaps in understanding the issues/ requirements. 4 There is need to build capacity of Capacity building/training of BRCCs, CRCCs, different stakeholders mainly the SMCs/ SDMCs, and PRIs towards awareness CRC, BRC, SMC/SDMC, and PRI bodies creation on their expected roles and on their roles and responsibilities in responsibilities to ensure accountability and an continued manner especially for redress grievances. social audit and GRM systems, as many of the members change over 2- 3 years period. Core Principle 2: Natural Habitats and Physical and Cultural Resources - Environmental and social management procedures and processes are designed to avoid, minimize, and mitigate any adverse effects (on natural habitats and physical and cultural resources) resulting from the Program. 5 While greenfield construction is • There is need to institute a screening expected to be very limited in the mechanism to identify rare but specific Program (and hence associated E&S instances, where issues pertaining to risks are low/negligible on this GOAL-SEEP Pg 73 Environment and Social Systems Assessment S.No. Identified Gaps Recommendations count), awareness on the relevant natural habitats or PCRs may arise. provisions of the existing laws and • Construction/demolition activities in regulations related to civil work areas within a 100-meter radius of activities in proximity to protected protected monuments will be excluded monuments of archaeological/ from the PforR program. historical value among the key • Also, sensitization on regulatory stakeholders, including the field provisions relevant to school functionaries of civil branch of the development activities in proximity of Samagra Shiksha and SMC/ SDMC,, cultural heritage sites as part of their needs to be enhanced. regular and periodic training programs for SMCs/SDMCs and for engineers from civil engineering wing is being recommended. Core Principle 3: Public and Workers Safety - Program procedures ensure adequate measures to protect public and worker safety against the potential risks associated with: (a) construction and/or operations of facilities or other operational practices developed or promoted under the Program; and (b) exposure to toxic chemicals, hazardous wastes, and otherwise dangerous materials. 6 Awareness about provisions under • Strengthen contractual obligations/ the SSF for civil construction is low clauses on EHS management in among SMCs/SDMCs and varies construction contracts for building across the districts among engineers users/workers/ public, including those of the civil wing/branch. related to COVID-19 - a simple generic EMP/OHS plan to be made and integrated in the bidding documents • Periodic sensitization/training for field functionaries of Civil Branch on design and construction related EHS requirements – using “anytime, anywhere and any device� for delivering the content. Core Principle 4: Land Acquisition and Resettlement - Land acquisition and loss of access to natural resources are managed in a way that avoids or minimizes displacement, and affected people are assisted in improving, or at least restoring, their livelihoods and living standards. 7 While for the title holders the Land • E&S screening mechanism is to be Acquisition act provides for adequate instituted during the planning phase of provisions, however, the act does not any new construction under the program to identify any adverse social risks and GOAL-SEEP Pg 74 Environment and Social Systems Assessment S.No. Identified Gaps Recommendations cover provisions for encroachers and impacts. squatters on government land. • In a rare case requiring Land Acquisition and/or resettlement, World Bank core safeguard policy on land acquisition and resettlement will be followed and due process to be instituted in consultation with World Bank task team. • While the land donation is a common practice, there is need to ensure that it is done on voluntary basis and these are no coercion for doing so, and the process of donation shall be institutionalized through gift deed. Core Principle 5: Rights and Interests of Indigenous People - Due consideration is given to cultural appropriateness of, and equitable access to, Program benefits, giving special attention to the rights and interests of indigenous peoples and to the needs or concerns of vulnerable groups. 8 While the Samagra Shiksha scheme • Training of BRCCs and CRCCs from tribal aims to and provide for equitable and areas shall include special focus on inclusive system of education, due to dealing with local circumstances and local geographical terrain and socio- setting up mechanism for continued economic condition, it requires consultation with local tribal community. special effort in community • Training of SMCs/ SDMCs from tribal mobilisation and garnering larger areas shall have additional focus on community support. creating community awareness and role in community mobilization. 9 Providing multilingual education is Special efforts to be planned for addressing not a simple task. Even mother language related issues, infrastructure tongue education is challenged by related gaps, teacher’s capacity to enhance problems like – not having a script, overall learning outcome for tribal language not recognized as population based on conducting the need legitimate language, shortage of assessment in tribal areas. education material in the language, lack of appropriately trained teachers, resistance to schooling in the mother tongue by students, parents and teachers and with several mother tongues represented in one class, it compounds the problem even further. To deal with GOAL-SEEP Pg 75 Environment and Social Systems Assessment S.No. Identified Gaps Recommendations the above, various states such as Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra have developed bridge language courses for students from tribal communities. 10 The school education program in The school education program in Gujarat in Gujarat in line with RTE Act, 2009 line with RTE Act, 2009 addresses gender addresses gender and social equity and social equity within its framework. within its framework. Though no Though the impact of these efforts will be specific gaps are identified in gradual, it is important to assess the current addressing the need of vulnerable situation through needs assessment and and disadvantaged communities identify gaps that may be required to make including CWSN, it does require an additional effort specially in case of assessment to understand if what has vulnerable and disadvantaged community been planned is being delivered in an including for CWSN. smooth manner, addressing any additional efforts to meet the desired objective. Core Principle 6: Social Conflicts - Avoid exacerbating social conflict, especially in fragile states, post-conflict areas, or areas subject to territorial disputes. The Program interventions are not likely to exacerbate social conflicts as these seek to support the school education system in Gujarat and aim to improving overall learning outcomes. Also, exclusion of any groups in terms of caste, religion, and/or geography by the Program is not expected. 7.3 Key Climate Adaptation and Mitigation Measures 4. The Samagra Shiksha Framework (SSF) mainstreams disaster-mitigation measures and environmental good practices across key program interventions. The technical and institutional capacity to implement the requirements set forth under SSF will be supported under GOAL-SEEP (this operation). Further, the design of this operation and its components has considered natural disaster/climate related vulnerabilities and integrated measures to mitigate/reduce such risks. The program will support intrinsic and extrinsic climate risk mitigation measures through: a) Scaling-up and extending the concept of ‘green schools’ to all facilities supported under the program – this includes aspects such as energy efficiency, water harvesting, water conservation/efficiency, use of local materials for construction, use of no/low VOC paints, multi-use spaces, nurturing kitchen gardens, reducing requirement of construction materials (resource efficiency) through various techniques, greenery/tree plantation in and around the school campus etc., which bring-in climate co-benefits in addition to promoting environmental sustainability; GOAL-SEEP Pg 76 Environment and Social Systems Assessment b) appropriate design of school buildings/infrastructure and associated services/utilities factoring-in locational context and vulnerability to natural disaster faced – this includes higher plinth levels to avoid/minimize damage from flooding/water logging; installation of electrical and IT infrastructure above HFL, extra bracing and higher specifications for doors-windows in cyclone prone coastal belt etc.; c) Structural safety assessment and seismic retrofitting for older buildings; d) Earthquake resilient design of new buildings/blocks to be reconstructed; e) Installation of lightening arrestors in schools covered under the Program; f) Comprehensive vulnerability assessment and considering the findings for school consolidation exercise and infrastructure design; g) Specific focus on measures required to reduce/mitigate extreme temperatures and increase thermal comfort – this includes roof treatment, well- designed openings (windows, doors and vents), strategic ceiling level ventilation, use of less heat absorbing paints/colours/materials, positioning of furniture; h) Ensuring that the Anganwadi centers for early childhood development are provided with open, clean and safe learning spaces and child friendly learning environment; i) Fire and electrical safety measures; j) Emergency preparedness (for quick evacuation when needed) as part of School Development Plans. 5. These measures have been identified and recommended as part of Environment Systems Assessment and will be included in the Program Design, specifically related to infrastructure development and utilization. 6. Gujarat has developed a strong environment friendly approach towards curriculum planning, and outdoor extracurricular activities for students as part of the ‘green school’ model/approach, which involves eco-clubs, nature conservation, water harvesting, plantation drives etc – with each activity contributing towards climate co-benefits in tangible (measurable results on the ground) and intangible (awareness/sensitization of future citizens/decision makers) ways. 7. The concept of green school and associated activities were first introduced and piloted as part of Environment Management Frameworks under SSA (primary) and RMSA (secondary school) programs, both supported by the World Bank. The concept’s outreach and application will be further strengthened through GOAL-SEEP. 8. Apart from measures listed above, training and capacity building of state, district and sub-district level officials, SMCs, teachers and students on a range of topics related to environment, climate, disaster preparedness and safety will be carried out under the program. For students particularly, hands-on learning will be encouraged – potential topics may include biodiversity assessment and conservation within school campus and in their neighbourhood, plantation programs and upkeep of saplings; water conservation and harvesting, water quality checks, energy usage tracking, waste management, etc. This hands- on learning helps develop a better understanding of subjects like Mathematics, Science and Social Science, and these students even take back this learning to their homes and communities to effectuate positive change. GOAL-SEEP Pg 77 Environment and Social Systems Assessment 7.4 Key Recommendations 9. The detailed set of recommendations are being summarized below for ease of reference: Environmental Aspects i. Use of “green school� model/approach for all schools to be taken-up under the Program (the level and type of interventions may vary depending on the type/extent of civil work proposed; condition of infrastructure available within the school/campus; specific contextual requirements etc.). o These options will include discouraging CC pavement for internal circulation and promote use of appropriate colour, materials, open spaces, multi-purpose space usage etc. o Create ‘water positive’ and ‘energy positive models’ (CoE) in each district or at least zero footprint schools following water and energy audits. o All new construction to adopt ‘green building’ concept (eg: 5 new DIETs) o Promote ‘inclusive infrastructure’ in all schools to be taken-up under the Program ii. Vulnerability Assessment (VA) to disasters using the available GIS platforms – floods/storm surge/earthquake (micro-zonation) and chemical disasters and integrate findings from VA into the planning and design of infrastructure related works. This should include a specific study and interventions on thermal comfort (heat stress) and promote cost effective options. iii. Provision of Lightening Arrestors in Schools iv. Sensitization/awareness creation on environment, climate, safety and other associated topics (such as dealing with pandemics) - for teachers and students v. Strengthen contractual obligations/clauses on EHS management in construction contracts for building users/workers/public, including those related to COVID-19 - a simple generic EMP/OHS plan to be made and integrated in the bidding documents. vi. Periodic sensitization/training for field functionaries of Civil Branch (architects/engineers) on design and construction related EHS requirements by using “anytime, anywhere and any device� for delivering the content. vii. Strengthen menstrual hygiene management (MHM) for adolescent girls/women staff – with sanitary pad dispensers and hygienic/safe disposal arrangements. viii. Strengthen waste management system, including segregation at source and storage of e- waste before it is disposed to authorized recyclers. ix. Environmental Report Cards at school/ district/ state level deriving key data from existing MIS/data collection systems/audits (can start with basic parameters) – expanding Swachhta Gunak. Social Aspects GOAL-SEEP Pg 78 Environment and Social Systems Assessment 10. Special efforts to be planned for addressing language related issues, infrastructure related gaps, teacher’s capacity to deal with local context in tribal areas and other vulnerable population based on conducting need assessment. (a) Need assessment conducted in tribal areas and for other vulnerable population including those living in coastal areas such as fishing communities, urban slums etc. and report submitted for action. (b) Based on need assessment recommendations, plan of action prepared and adopted within the school program. 7.4 Measures for Inclusion in the Program Action Plan 11. From the recommendations made above, the following actions are being proposed for inclusion in the Program Action Plan towards addressing key/critical identified gaps between the Program systems and PforR core principles. Description of the Action Responsibility Timing Completion Measurement 1. Special efforts to be GCSE/ PMU Within 12 a) Need assessment planned for addressing months of conducted in tribal language related issues, program areas and report infrastructure related effectivene submitted for gaps, teacher’s capacity to ss action. enhance overall learning b) Based on need outcome for tribal assessment population based on recommendations, conducting the need plan of action assessment in tribal areas. prepared and adopted within the school program. 2. Screening of new GCSE/ PMU Prior to Bid Collation of schools/facilities proposed Invitation information/screening under the program from for Civil results in a report form an E&S perspective Works (to be updated once in a quarter) 3. Strengthen contractual GCSE/ PMU Prior to Bid obligations/clauses on Invitation Generic Environment Environment Health and for Civil Management Plan to Safety Management Works be prepared and (including OHS aspects and integrated in the COVID-19 related bidding documents requirements) in construction contracts GOAL-SEEP Pg 79 Environment and Social Systems Assessment Description of the Action Responsibility Timing Completion Measurement 4. Strengthen menstrual GCSE/PMU/DE Within 12 a) Provisions made a hygiene management O/ Schools months of part of (MHM) program infrastructure effectivene improvement ss proposal. b) Provisions in O&M guidelines for schools, including awarness creation. 5. Strengthen waste GCSE/PMU/DE Within 12 a) Provisions made a management system, O Schools months of part of including segregation at program infrastructure source (including waste effectivene improvement from laboratories, ss proposal. kitchen/mess and e-waste) b) Provisions in O&M guidelines for schools, including awarness creation. GOAL-SEEP Pg 80 Environment and Social Systems Assessment ANNEXURES GOAL-SEEP Pg 81 Environment and Social Systems Assessment ANNEXURE 1: LIST OF DOCUMENTS REVIEWED 1. Census of India, 2011 2. Declaration of grievance redressal mechanism under the local authorities. Government of Gujarat. Education Department. 2013. 3. http://samagra.mhrd.gov.in/docs/Framework_IISE%20_F.pdf 4. https://mhrd.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/upload_document/Gujarat_GR1.pdf 5. https://tribal.gujarat.gov.in/assets/downloads/booklet-tribal-students-09082016.pdf 6. https://www.education.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/upload_document/rte- rules-gujarat-state-2012.pdf 7. National Education Policy, 2020. 8. Providing free transport facility to children in elementary school. http://gujarat- education.gov.in/ssa/images/RTE_Notification/English/28_Providing_Free_Transport_F acilityto_Children_in_Elementary_Schools.pdf 9. RTE Rules 2012, Government of Gujarat. 10. Samagra Shiksha Framework - An Integrated Scheme for School Education - Framework for Implementation. Ministry of Human Resources and Development. Available at 11. Socio-Economic Review 2019-20 – Gujarat State. Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Government of Gujarat. 2020. 12. The RTE Act 2009. Available at https://mhrd.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/upload_document/rte.pdf 13. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Amendment) Act, 2019. Available at https://www.education.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/upload_document/rte_2 019.pdf GOAL-SEEP Pg 82 Environment and Social Systems Assessment ANNEXURE 2: LIST OF INDIVIDUAL/OFFICIALS CONSULTED DURING ESSA PREPARATION (EXCLUDES PARTICIPANTS OF STATE LEVEL CONSULTATION WORKSHOP) Given the COVID-19 situation and travel restrictions and advisories on social distancing etc., primary field assessment and face to face discussion by the safeguard team could not be undertaken in conventional manner and followed World Bank guidance for ‘Public Consultations and Stakeholder Engagement in constraint situation. The organization and individuals met during virtual discussions is presented below. 1. Dr. Vinod Rao, IAS, Secretary, School Education, Education Department, Government of Gujarat(GoG); 2. Ms. P. Bharathi, IAS, State Project Director, Gujarat Council of School Education (GCSE), Samagra Shiksha, GoG Officials of the GCSE 3. Mr. Prakashbhai K Trivedi, Secretary, Quality Education Monitoring (QEM) and Establishment 4. Mr. Vishalbhai Soni, Officer in Charge, Management Information System (MIS) & Planning; 5. Mr. Asif Savant, Officer in Charge, MIS, Command and Control Centre 6. Mr. Kalpesh A Mehta, Assistant Director (IT), ICT and Digital Initiatives 7. Mr. Nipun Chokshi, State Project Engineer, Civil Infrastructure 8. Mr. H I Bhatt, Additional State Project Engineer, Civil Infrastructure 9. Ms. Shruti Patel, Additional State Project Engineer, Civil Infrastructure 10. Mr. Hitendrabhai P Joshi, Officer in Charge, Access Retention and Vocational Education 11. Ms. Darshanaben K Suthar, Officer in Charge, Gender and Social Inclusion 12. Mr. Jayasingbhai Kharadi, Officer in Charge, Inclusive Education 13. Mr. Priyank Patel, Project Manager, Project Monitoring Unit (PMU) From Gujarat Council of Educational Research and Training (GCERT) 14. Mr. T. S. Joshi, Director, GCERT 15. Mr. Nitinbhai Dalwadi and Hareshbhai Choudhary 16. Mr. M I Joshi, Director, Directorate of Primary Education From Gujarat School Quality Accreditation Council (GSQAC) 17. Mr. Gaurang Vyas, Dist. Primary Education Officer, Mehsana, Gujarat School Quality Accreditation Council (GSQAC) 18. Mr. H N Chavda, Joint Director, Commissionerate of Schools 19. Mr. Rohit Mehta, Consultant 20. Mr. Aditya Shah, Strategic Support Consultant (Education Department) GOAL-SEEP Pg 83 Environment and Social Systems Assessment District Officials 21. District Education Officers 22. District Project Co-ordinators 23. DIET Principals 24. BRCCs 25. CRCCs 26. District Civil Officers and MIS Coordinators and Accounts Officer(s) from the districts of Panchmahal, Banaskantha, Surat, Surendranagar, Vadodara and Gir Somnath. State Project Office, Gandhinagar, Gujarat 27. Mr. Nipun Chokshi, State Project Engineer 28. Mr. Harshvardhan I. Bhatt, Additional State Project Engineer 29. Ms. Shruti Patel, Assistant State Project Engineer District - Anand 30. Ms. Nivedita Chaudhari, District Project Co-Ordinator/ District Primary Education Officer 31. Dr. Amrish B. Makwana, Additional District Project Co-Ordinator 32. Mr. Niranjan Patel, District Project Engineer 33. Mr. Hiren J. Mekwan, Principal - Hadgud Primary School 34. Mr. Mohsin Ali Saiyad, SMC Member - Hadgud Primary School 35. Mr. Sanjay kumar D. Joshi, Principal - Vaghathi Primary School 36. Ms. Shilpa S. Chauhan, SMC Member - Vaghathi Primary School 37. Ms. Shilpa H. Patel, SMC Member - Vaghathi Primary School 38. Ms. Sangita Palod, Program Manager, Kaivalya Education Foundation District - Banaskantha 39. Mr. Sanjay Parmar, District Project Co-Ordinator/ District Primary Education Officer 40. Mr. M.M. Mansuri, District Project Engineer 41. Mr. Nileshbhai Trivedi, District Project Engineer 42. Mr. Kantibhai Patel, District Project Engineer 43. Mr. Naresh Joshi, Secretary of Kanodar, SMC 44. Mr. Prakash Dharava, President of Kanodar, SMC 45. Ms. Seema Kadiwala, Women President of Kanodar, SMC 46. Ms. Kusum Polara, Education Member of Kanodar, SMC 47. Mr. Vaishnav Divyesh Kumar, Secretary of Motasada, SMC GOAL-SEEP Pg 84 Environment and Social Systems Assessment 48. Mr. Jashu Darji, Member of Motasada, SMC 49. Ms. Rajshree Patel, Secretary of Kheroj, SMC 50. Mr. Kamlesh Thakkar, Secretary of Uttampura, SMC 51. Mr. Parbat Prajapati, Education Member of Uttampura, SMC 52. Mr. Kasam Mir, Office-in-Charge QEM Samagra Shiksha 53. Mr. Pankaj Patel, MIS Co-Ordinator, Amirgadh GOAL-SEEP Pg 85 Environment and Social Systems Assessment ANNEXURE 3: STAKEHOLDER CONSULTATION AND DISCLOSURE As part of the preparation of ESSA report, discussions and consultations was conducted not only with Gujarat Council of School Education (GCSE), Gujarat Council of Educational Research and Training (GCERT), Gujarat School Quality Accreditation Council (GSQAC), but also district level officials including DIETs, DPCs/ DPEOs, BRCCs, CRCCs, SMCs/ SDMCs and an NGO. The consultation involved discussion on (a) Process of need assessment for infrastructure development; (b) Role of SMC and school principal/ teachers in design and implementation; (c) Need for land acquisition; (d) Need for squatter removal; (e) Reducing disturbances in school operation due to civil works; (f) Environmental health and Safety mechanism during civil works; (g) Labor management including intermixing with student/ teachers; (h) Grievance Redress Mechanism; (i) Participation of women, disadvantaged and vulnerable groups in SMC; (j) SMC’s engagement with school; (k) Issues related to girl child education; (l) Challenges expected to face in case of school consolidation; (m) Role of Panchayat and other local bodies in school development; (n) Process of Social Audit; and (o) Dealing with issues related to gender based violence. The important points emerged from the consultation includes: (i) Infrastructure need assessment is done by school headmaster/principal sending request to Samagra Shiksha. These requests are collated at state level and sent back to district for further verification processing and school development plan is prepared using whole school development plan (WSDP) tool. SMC/ teachers are involved in the process of WSDP including on detailing the layout etc. Based on WSDP proposal state level decision is taken and tendering etc happens at the state level for civil work. Once the process of civil work starts, the district level team’s role changes into monitoring. (ii) Land Acquisition and dealing with squatter: The process of land acquisition follows the standard process through collector. The request is moved from SMC/ SDMC to Gram Panchayat and from Gram panchayat to District Education Committee and through them to Collector to initiate the process. All school lands are owned by Education Department and monitored/ managed by District Education Committee. If there are government land or donor land, then it takes 3-4 months to get formally transferred to the Department’s name. In the last 3 years there has been only 2 -3 such transferred done in Anand district and no private land acquired. Also, never faced the issues of removal of squatters. Once the land the formally transferred, the physical possession is given by the Revenue department officials and Patwari to the departmental officials. (iii) The key challenges faced is mainly with respect to fund availability and requirement of upgradation/ civil required. Prioritization is done by Characterizing the classrooms into G1 - G5 and taken up. Also, the G1 and G2 stages are often repaired through various repair budgets. (iv) Process of civil works to reduce disturbances to school operation: Most of time shift school to some other place e.g. merge with other school or halls given by school or run school in shifts etc. In some cases, the civil works also go in parallel if it can be barricaded. In those cases separate entrance is made for labour to ensure intermixing with student or teachers. GOAL-SEEP Pg 86 Environment and Social Systems Assessment (v) Labor Management: Labor is managed by contractors and overall monitoring is done by the district engineer. Mostly local labor are used and no labor camps is required. The labor varies from 5-10 for repair and small work to 30-40 in case of new school construction. The GRM for labor is works with generally placing some notices (board/ banner etc) and numbers of the key people to complain if required. (vi) SMC’s composition and role played: SMC is a 12-member committee/ SDMC is 15- member committee - both with 50 percent female members. Among the members, there are a panchayat person, an educationist or old retired teacher, a mason/ technical person. Members are chosen in the parent meeting and the term of office for members are two years. So, every two years the SMC/ SDMC changes with some overlap as some members being re-elected. SMC/ SDMC pays important role in WSDP plan preparation, site selection/ layout etc. and monitoring. Any letter etc to be sent to local body etc. one uses the SMC members mainly from panchayat to sign. Also, any expenditure for school development happens with the joint signature of SMC chair and school principal/ headmaster. Also, there are WhatsApp group with SMC and parents etc. to communicate with each other. (vii) Ensuring girl child education – There is generally no problem of sending school to girl child especially in primary school. However, when the move to secondary ad higher secondary school many people don’t prioritize schooling for girl child. For secondary school/ high school when the child has to travel upto 4 kms, then some people drop out. To deal with this government has also provided transportation with vans/ buses fitted with GPS mechanism and SMS system to inform parents when the child board the bus and when she is dropped back. Driver’s documents are also verified and uploaded. To deal with issues related menstruation, adolescent girls are made aware and also small incinerators are placed in schools for disposing the sanitary pads. From this year onwards, girls of class 8th were also given self-defence training (in all schools which has class 8) – which is a good practice and much appreciated by parents. Also, every school has sexual harassment committees to complain. (viii) Challenges being faced in tribal areas – Banaskantha being tribal district and even in other tribal areas, given the undulated terrain, students have to travel 3-4 kms on hilly areas to come to school. Many children whose parents are daily wages workers, also migrants are there, and they face different kid of challenges. Most of these types of villages are in remote areas. To deal will issues related to these remote areas, parents from these areas are also chosen in SMCs/ SDMCs to encourage children and school/government to understand the local situation better and dealing with the same. This has helped address some of the issues by providing transportation to all students from such areas. In some cases, in villages where more students are there and in times of problem teachers from the school visit the villages and with the help of villagers/ panchayat take a hall/ room there and teach students in village as well. Also, providing residential schools in these areas will help in improving the educational outcome. There is need to provide Seasonal residential school also for migrant children in areas where there are lot of migrants are also being tried out and is working well. GOAL-SEEP Pg 87 Environment and Social Systems Assessment (ix) With help of DPEO and DIET, dictionaries were developed translating local tribal language to Gujarati and vise-versa so that it can help teachers teaching in tribal areas understand the language spoken by tribal students and use the same to communicate and teach them. This is another good practice that is being used. (x) Process of Social Audit: Annually the social audit is done by Gram Sabha along with SMC members and parents including presentation of financial details. There is a structured format that is used to go through during that audit process. Also, during gram sabha questions are asked about school management and answered by SMC. Summary of State Level Multi-stakeholder consultation workshop A multi-stakeholder workshop is conducted on 26th November 2020 with more than 100 participants including various officials from Department of Education/ Samagra Shiksha; officers from other departments such as Tribal Development Department, Social Welfare Department, Department of Women and Child Development, GSDMA; District level officials of Department of Education from 6 districts including from tribal and coastal districts; SMC members from 6 districts including from tribal and coastal districts; various NGOs working on GOAL-SEEP Pg 88 Environment and Social Systems Assessment education and gender issues including those working in tribal and coastal areas; independent researchers and academicians from IIM-A; and UNICEF. While all the participants appreciated the findings from ESSA, the feedback and suggestions from the multi-stakeholder consultation workshop is broadly grouped in a manner to inform program design and ESSA and presented below. Feedback and Suggestions on Program Design • There have been some efforts made earlier by an NGOs in collaboration with UNICEF to make gender friendly schools by creating gender friendly spaces and can be looked at while designing of the schools especially in the green schools. • Some states like Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan are working with UNICEF on life skill education and integration with curriculum from pre-primary to secondary schools and being implemented in 6000 schools with training of teachers and can also be tried out in Gujarat on an experiential learning basis. • In addition to child friendly schools, there must be focus on mental health issues and awareness. • While BRC, CRC linkages are being strengthen by the Government, but it has not been able to address the child marriage issues leading to dropout of girl students. Small program may be tried out in villages to increase community awareness towards this. • Child rights and protection in schools needs to be strengthened – e.g. Maharashtra education department has made it mandatory for teachers across the state to attend training on Child Rights and Protection in order to create awareness about child rights in schools. • Is there a possibility to institute a safe and effective way for continuous counselling of girls – it should be an option for girls to access all the time in addition to safety, hygiene issues (water availability) etc. • It was informed that ICDS, WCD has developed State ECCE curriculum and developmental assessment tool for monitoring holistic development of 3-6 years children with consultative process with UNICEF support and collaboration SCERT, SSA in Gujarat. Initiatives to involve parents and mothers focusing on the early stimulations and providing learning environment at home are also taken up and received very good response. the learning can be taken from it to build the social environment and create awareness. ICDS also has the Anganwadi assessment tool providing insights for the quality of the services provided at Anganwadis and the improvement plans can be developed, the Leadership program is also initiated for PO & CDPOs, Supervisors to assess their Anganwadis based on this tool and develop their Anganwadis accordingly in selected districts. this can be also used as reference. • It was informed that GSDMA has been doing school safety week over the last few years – so far more than 75,000 teachers being trained; it has reached 54.5k schools, and all Disaster Management plans have been made and demonstrations completed and there is recognition that life & property of all teachers and students are very important. GOAL-SEEP Pg 89 Environment and Social Systems Assessment • There is need for comprehensive assessment of education and psychological outcomes across grade levels, and Questions on scientific validity of outcomes needs to be thought through. Also need to think of capturing student and teacher schooling experiences through surveys. • For effective qualitative improvements, capacity building at district/block level requires human resources for pedagogical support, environmental issues, statisticians etc. Most importantly at district-level: data management system, inclusion of specialists: testing & measurement, educational statisticians, school psychologists, pedagogical experts, policy evaluators, school management trainers, and so on. Refer - http://www.teacherplus.org/bottom-up-policymaking-keeping-schools-at-the-centre/. These human resource at district-level will be likely to cater to the needs of schools. That creates an ecosystem for decision-making at local levels - an effective decentralization. • It was mentioned that Gujarat has lots of organizations with tried and tested resources especially for pre-primary/Anganwadis and primary education. Part of ECCE group with UNICEF, WCD etc are working on curriculum, child development tools etc. and it is important not to reinvent the wheel but shall be strengthened. • There is need for conducting comprehensive school evaluation and assessment including related to RTE policies in a regular manner. Also, each school should have a student council to voice their views. • There is suggestion to build capacities of Anganwadi using cluster approach whereby one Anganwadi can act as cluster head and can train 7-8 neighbouring Anganwadis. • With online teaching, there is need for school-based micro planning and separate strategies for different kinds of children (with/without devices) • Digital learning should not be looked at as replacing classroom learning but complimenting it. The teacher training should also happen in a blended mode and not relying solely on online mode. • As part of collaboration between ICDS and UNICEF lot has been done to strengthen ECCE in terms of development of curriculum, development standards, training tool kit, activity bank and activity books for children are developed and responsive parenting and ECD leadership is implemented. at the state level thematic groups are formed to support quality. The program of foundation learning could be built on that. • School safety should also include softer dimensions. School safety can be conceptualized as a construct covering all within-school stakeholders (students, teachers, administrator). Suggestions Related to Environmental Aspects • The presentation on the ESSA was very well received and the participants highly appreciated/seconded the recommendations made on clean, green and safe schools for GOAL-SEEP. • The concept of ‘green schools’ found a lot of appreciation and support from the all stakeholder groups, including the NGOs. GOAL-SEEP Pg 90 Environment and Social Systems Assessment • Suggestion of having more green schools & need for system for maintaining infrastructure as speed of wear & tear is high in case of sanitation, drinking water, electricity type of infrastructure is well appreciated. The suggestion to also include softer aspects on environment (curriculum) along with physical infrastructure. • Due to COVID-19 situation, disposal of waste and hygiene has become very important as well as the need for promoting behaviour change e.g. no spitting etc. • It was mentioned that Environmental Lab has been setup in more than 4000 schools in Gujarat, and water conservation is one of the important components under this initiative. All the activities under Environmental Lab have been done by students and schoolteachers, which are monitored/captured by a dedicated portal. However, any initiative towards water conservation is a good suggestion, especially for the areas where people face scarcity of water during summer. • For menstrual management, Swati Bedekar (Vadodara) NGO has done great work across India. Also, students from IIM-A are conducting a comprehensive PhD thesis on MHM for school girls in Gujarat, and may be good to connect with them to learn further. • Agency responsible for civil works should also be sensitized on E&S aspects from the beginning Suggestions Related to Social Aspects • There have been some efforts made earlier by an NGOs in collaboration with UNICEF to make gender friendly schools by creating gender friendly spaces. This should be addressed through GOAL-SEEP. • Existing programs for community participation need to be made more effective. • Focusing on home language and strategy to transition from home languages to school languages in the areas where children are coming from different language community at Anganwadi and foundation level is critical for foundation learning and literacy. • Access to schools especially in tribal/difficult to reach areas aren’t limited to just infrastructure barriers but goes beyond including barriers faced by teachers and there is need for training teachers to increase sensitivity etc. • While BRC, CRC linkages are being strengthen by the Government, but it has not been able to address the child marriage issues leading to dropout of girl students. Small program may be tried out in villages to increase community awareness towards this. • Child rights and protection in schools needs to be strengthened – e.g. Maharashtra education department has made it mandatory for teachers across the state to attend training on Child Rights and Protection in order to create awareness about child rights in schools. • Is there a possibility to institute a safe and effective way for continuous counselling of girls – it should be an option for girls to access all the time in addition to safety, hygiene issues (water availability) etc. • There is need for specialized intervention in coastal communities, fishing areas, tribal areas and urban slums etc. GOAL-SEEP Pg 91 Environment and Social Systems Assessment World Bank Team Members • Ms. Shabnam Sinha, Task Team Leader (GOAL-SEEP) • Ms. Neha Vyas, Senior Environmental Specialist • Mr. Venkat Rao Bayana, Senior Social Development Specialist • Mr. Ranjan Verma, Social Safeguards Consultant • Mr. Vinod Kumar Gautam, Environmental Safeguards Consultant • Ms. Sarah Iype, Consultant GOAL-SEEP Pg 92 Environment and Social Systems Assessment LIST OF PARTICIPANTS Sr.no. Department/ NGO/Institution Participants Designation Contact details Departments 1 Samagra Shiksha/ Secrety Education/GCERT / Hon. SPD, Director-GCERT, SPD, OICs of all departments , Education commisioner schools consultants Director-Primary, OICs (5), Dept.,Civil branch representatives, director primary representatives civil branch- consultants, Director GCERT, Director- GCERT Samagra Shiksha (5), consultants ( Directorate of Primary education rohit@centralsquarefo 8), representatives GCERT ( 4), haresh5772@yahoo.c representatives Directorate of rajanjani6@gmail.com Primary education (3), ssagujpmu@gmail.com Commisioner schools (2), state stpprogress@gmail.co Total around- 30 participants gujgenderspo@gmail. ssa.misdata@gmail.co ssamcivilgcpe@gmail. iedssagujarat@gmail.c iedssastate@gmail.co divvya.singh@gmail.co savantasif@gmail.com aditya@gujccc.com 2 District officer (Samagra Shiksha/ Directorate) 12 participants DPCs and District Project Engineers (DPEs) of 6 districts 3 SMC members 36 participants 3 SMC members from each of the six district 3 Department of Woman and Child Mr. Dashrath Pandya Assistant Director, Infrastructure Development Ms. Jiganasha Dave Assistant Director, Preschool Education Ms. Sheela Goghari Consultant, WCD/ICDS, UNICEF 9824517558 sghoghari@gmail.com 4 Tribal Development Department Virendra Vasava Assistant Commissioner, Tribal ddashram@gmail.com Development Department 5 Tribal Education Society 6 Social Welfare Department Mr. SM Desani Assistant Social Welfare Officer 9913595134 7 Forest Department 8 GSDMA aceo-gsdma@gujarat. Organizations/ NGOs 1 UNICEF, Gujarat Ms. Pushpa Joshi Education Specialist 9717168333 pjoshi@unicef.org 2 Kaivalya Education Foundation Ms. Sangeeta Programme Director 9925068174 3 Dr. KR Shroff Foundation Mr. Uday Desai President uday@krsf.in 4 Coastal Salinity Prevention Cell Ms. Reena D'souza 9328194752 rina@cspc.org.in Mr. Ujjwal 9833236290 5 CRY Mr. Kumar Nilendu Regional Head, CRY 9930560433 Ms. Rucha Takkar State Programme Manager 9811161342 rucha.thakkar@cryma 6 Language and Learning Foundation Suril Shah Programme Officer 6359386898 surilshahllf@gmail.com Gaurang Dave State Academic Coordinator 8238377991 gaurangllf@gmail.com 7 Bhasha Research and Publication Centre Ms. Sandhya Gajjar Trustee sandhyagajjar@gmail Ms. Sonal Baxi Programme Officer 9428399110 8 Cohesion Foundation Trust Mr. Rajesh Kapur CEO 9825329739 cohesionfoundation@ Mr. Raghu Desai 9662694970 9 Aga Khan Education Services Mr. Iqbal Sama Regional Head, Gujarat 9825317767 iqbal.sama@akesi.org 10 ISAR Ms. Chinmayee Sejal Joshi Founder and Director 9879191519 chinmayee_joshi@yah Independent Institutions/ Academicians 1 Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad Mr. Vijaya Sherry Chand Prof. IIMA 07971524863 vijaya@iima.ac.in Mr. Kathan Shukla Assistant Prof., IIM A kathans@iima.ac.in 91-79-7152 4909 2 Independent Researcher Dr. Jigisha Shastri Ex faculty of MSU Vadodara, independent jigishastri@yahoo.co.i researcher GOAL-SEEP Pg 93 Environment and Social Systems Assessment ANNEXURE 4: APPLICABLE LEGAL AND REGULATORY FRAMEWORK The Government of India and the state government have enacted a range of laws, regulations, and procedures relevant to managing the environmental and social effects of the proposed Program. The following criteria were used to select the relevant legislation that best describes the country’s system for managing the Program’s effects: i. environmental and social policies, ii. environmental and social protection laws, and iii. laws, regulations, or guidelines in the relevant sectors and subsectors that provide relevant rules or norms for environmental and social management I. RELEVANT NATIONAL AND STATE POLICIES AND PROGRAMS National Education Policy 2020: The Union Cabinet on 29th July 2020 approves the new National Education Policy (NEP 2020) which aims to address many growing developmental challenges for the country. The NEP, after a gap of 34 years, has put in place a slew of systematic education reforms - both in school education and higher education sector. The Policy proposes the revision and revamping of all aspects of the current education structure, including its regulation and governance, to forge a new education system that is on par with the aspirational objectives of 21st century education. The New Policy also renamed the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) as the Ministry of Education in a bid to bring the focus back on education and learning. The foundational principles of NEP 2020 are Access, Equity, Quality, Affordability, and Accountability. The Policy believes that the education system should develop good human beings with rational thinking, compassion, empathy, courage, resilience, scientific temper, creative imagination, and ethical values. The fundamental principles of the Policy are: • Recognizing, Identifying, and Strengthening the unique capabilities of each student • Promoting each student’s holistic development in both academic and non-academic spheres • Achieving Foundational Literacy and Numeracy in all students by Grade 3 • Flexibility for learners to choose their learning trajectories and programs, and thereby choose their paths as per their talents and interests • No hard separations between arts and sciences, curricular and extra-curricular activities, vocational and academic streams, among others to eliminate harmful hierarchies and silos in areas of learning • Multi-disciplinary and a holistic education across the sciences, social sciences, arts, humanities, and sports to ensure the unity and integrity of all knowledge • Promotion of Multilingualism and the Power of Language in learning and teaching • Life Skills such as communication, teamwork, cooperation, and resilience • Regular Formative Assessment for learning instead of summative assessment • Full Equity and Inclusion as the basis of all educational decisions GOAL-SEEP Pg 94 Environment and Social Systems Assessment • Teachers and Faculty as the heart of the learning process • ‘Light but Tight’ regulatory framework to promote integrity, transparency and resource efficiency of the educational system • Encouraging innovation and out-of-the-box ideas through Autonomy, Good Governance and Empowerment The NEP 2020 paves for numerous significant changes in the Indian education system. The changes and objectives of NEP 2020 with respect to school education are as follows: • The current ‘10+2’ structure covering ages 6-18 to be replaced by a new Pedagogical and Curricular Structure of ‘5+3+3+4’ corresponding to ages 3-18 • Instead of annual examinations every year, students will now only attend exams in Class 3, 5 and 8 • Class 10 and 12 Board Exams will be conducted as usual, but the exams will be made easier by allowing students to take exams twice a year. The exam will have two parts, Objective and Descriptive • Universal standards of learning and regulations in public and private schools • Vocational Education and coding will be introduced from Class 6 • Mother tongue or regional language to be the medium of instruction at least up to Class 5 and preferably till Class 8 • Report cards will be a 360-degree Holistic Progress Card that will give a comprehensive report on skills and capabilities instead of just marks and grades • Focus on the curriculum to core concepts • Universalization of education from Early Childhood Care Education (ECCE) to Secondary Level • Achieving 100% Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in school education by 2030 • New National Curriculum Framework for Early Childhood Educator (ECE), schools, teachers and adult students • Open Schooling System to bring two crores ‘Out Of School Children’ back into the mainstream • Deployment of counsellors and social workers to improve student’s mental health • Midday Meal Scheme to be extended to include breakfasts In addition, the NEP 2020 provides for a series of reforms in the higher education sector, teacher’s education, establishment of nation level institutions supporting the NEP objectives, setting up Gender Inclusion Fund, for improving and providing education for female and transgender children, and Increasing the education expenditure from the current 4.6% to 6% of the GDP at the earliest. Samagra Shiksha: Samagra Shiksha - an overarching programme for the school education sector extending from pre-school to class 12 has been, therefore, prepared with the broader goal of improving school effectiveness measured in terms of equal opportunities for schooling and equitable learning outcomes. It subsumes the three erstwhile Schemes of Sarva Shiksha GOAL-SEEP Pg 95 Environment and Social Systems Assessment Abhiyan (SSA), Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) and Teacher Education (TE). The vision of the Scheme is to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education from pre- school to senior secondary stage in accordance with the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) for Education. This sector-wide development programme/scheme would also help harmonise the implementation mechanisms and transaction costs at all levels, particularly in using state, district and sub-district level systems and resources, besides envisaging one comprehensive strategic plan for development of school education at the district level. The shift in the focus is from project objectives to improving systems level performance and schooling outcomes which will be the emphasis of the combined Scheme along-with incentivizing States towards improving quality of education. The major objectives of the Scheme are provision of quality education and enhancing learning outcomes of students; Bridging Social and Gender Gaps in School Education; Ensuring equity and inclusion at all levels of school education; Ensuring minimum standards in schooling provisions; Promoting Vocationalisation of education; Support States in implementation of Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009; and Strengthening and up-gradation of SCERTs/State Institutes of Education and DIET as a nodal agencies for teacher training. The main outcomes of the Scheme are envisaged as Universal Access, Equity and Quality, promoting Vocationalisation of Education and strengthening of Teacher Education Institutions (TEIs). The Scheme is implemented as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) by the Education Department through a single State Implementation Society (SIS) at the State/UT level. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Amendment) Act, 2009 (and Amendment, 2019): According to the Act, the State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of six to fourteen in such a manner as the State may by law determine. Accordingly, the Government of India passed the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, and enforced it as a fundamental right under Article 21-A. It was introduced to provide education to every child enabling them to have a better future. Right to Education concentrates on the following: 1. Right to Education Act is justiciable 2. Creating inclusive spaces for all 3. Monitoring compliance of RTE norms 4. Improving learning outcomes to minimize detention 5. Ensuring all-round development of children 6. No tolerance against discrimination and harassment 7. Quantity and Quality of teachers 8. Special provisions for special cases 9. The benchmark mandates 10. Compulsory and free education to all The act mandates 25% reservation for disadvantaged sections of the society where disadvantaged groups including SCs and STs, socially backward class, and differently abled. It also makes provisions for a non-admitted child to be admitted to an age appropriate class. It lays down the norms and standards related to (a) Pupil Teacher Ratios (PTRs), (b) Buildings GOAL-SEEP Pg 96 Environment and Social Systems Assessment and infrastructure, (c) School-working days, and (d) Teacher-working hours. It had a clause for “No Detention Policy� which has been removed under The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Amendment) Act, 2019. It also provides for prohibition of deployment of teachers for non-educational work, other than decennial census, elections to local authority, state legislatures and parliament, and disaster relief. It provides for the appointment of teachers with the requisite entry and academic qualifications. It prohibits physical punishment and mental harassment, screening procedures for admission of children, capitation fee, private tuition by teachers, and running of schools without recognition. It focuses on making the child free of fear, trauma and anxiety through a system of child friendly and child centred learning. II. RELEVANT SOCIAL POLICIES, LAWS AND REGULATIONS A brief summary of social laws, regulations and policies that are relevant to the proposed Program is mentioned in table below. Relevant Social Policies, Laws and Regulations Applicable Act/ Relevance to the Sl. Regulation/ Objective and Provisions Program and key No. Policy Findings 1 The Constitution The Indian Constitution (Article 15) Relevant to the overall of India prohibits any discrimination based on Program (especially, religion, race, caste, sex, and place of Articles 15,16 birth. Article 16 refers to the equality and 46) of opportunity in matters of public employment. Article 46 directs the state to promote with special care the educational and economic interests of the weaker sections of the people, particularly of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes and also directs the state to protect them from social injustice and all forms of exploitation. 2 Articles 38, 41 State to secure a social order for the These are very relevant and 46 of the promotion of welfare of the people because the focus is to Constitution through Right to work, to education minimize the inequalities and to public assistance in certain in opportunities and cases, Promotion of educational and promotion of economic interests of Scheduled educational and Castes and other weaker sections. economic interests of the weaker sections of the people. GOAL-SEEP Pg 97 Environment and Social Systems Assessment Applicable Act/ Relevance to the Sl. Regulation/ Objective and Provisions Program and key No. Policy Findings 3 Right to Provides a practical regime of right to Relevant as all Information Act, information for citizens to secure documents pertaining to 2005 access to information under the the Program requires be control of Public Authorities. The act disclosed to public. sets out (a) obligations of public authorities with respect to provision of information; (b) requires designating of a Public Information Officer; (c) process for any citizen to obtain information/disposal of request, etc.; and (d) provides for institutions such as Central Information Commission/State Information Commission 4 Scheduled Castes To prevent atrocities against This law promotes equity and Scheduled scheduled castes and scheduled by safeguarding the Tribes tribes. The objectives of the Act clearly rights of SC and STs, so is (Prevention of emphasised the intention of the relevant to the program. Atrocities) Act government to deliver justice to these 1989 and further communities through proactive Amendments efforts to enable them to live in 2018. society with dignity and self-esteem and without fear or violence or suppression from the dominant castes. With the reported misuse of the Act, In August, 2018, the parliament of India passed the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Bill, 2018, to bypass the ruling of the Supreme Court of India laying down procedures for arrests under the Act. 5 Minimum wages This act ensures minimum wages that Applicable to the overall Act, 1948 must be paid to skilled and unskilled Program labours. The employer shall pay to every employee engaged in scheduled employment under him, wages at the rate not less than the minimum wages GOAL-SEEP Pg 98 Environment and Social Systems Assessment Applicable Act/ Relevance to the Sl. Regulation/ Objective and Provisions Program and key No. Policy Findings fixed by such notification for that class of employee without any deductions except authorized. 6 The Right to Fair Aims to ensure, a humane, Applicable for any land Compensation participative, informed and acquisition or and transparent process for land resettlement is needed Transparency in acquisition with least disturbance to under the project. Land Acquisition, the owners of the land and other Rehabilitation affected families and provide just and and fair compensation to the affected Resettlement families whose land has been acquired Act, 2013 or proposed to be acquired or those that are affected by such acquisition and make adequate provisions for their rehabilitation and resettlement and for ensuring that the cumulative outcome of compulsory acquisition should be that affected persons become partners in development leading to an improvement in their post-acquisition social and economic status. 7 The Sexual An act that aims at providing a sense Relevant and applicable Harassment of of security at the workplace that to all institutions under Women at improves women’s participation in the project. Workplace work and results in their economic (Prevention, empowerment. It requires an Prohibition and employer to set up an “Internal Redressal) Act, Complaints Committee� (ICC) and the 2013 Government to set up a ‘Local Complaints Committee’ (LCC) at the district level to investigate complaints regarding sexual harassment at workplace and for inquiring into the complaint in a time bound manner. The ICC need to set up by ever organization and its branches with more than 10 employees. GOAL-SEEP Pg 99 Environment and Social Systems Assessment Applicable Act/ Relevance to the Sl. Regulation/ Objective and Provisions Program and key No. Policy Findings 8 National Disaster National Disaster Management- Applicable to the overall Management School Safety Policy 2016 guidelines Program Guidelines – have been formulated by the National School Safety Disaster Management Authority Policy 2016 (NDMA) with a vision of safety of school children. The Hon’ble Supreme Court has directed all the States to prepare an action plan along with timeframe for implementation of the guidelines. This policy is statutory in nature. With the view of building capacities for disaster resilience, Gujarat State Disaster Management Authority conducts various programs at institutional levels. Gujarat School Safety Programme is a capacity building programme which aims at strengthening of the capacity of school community and it further builds a disaster safety culture among the most vulnerable section of the society, that is, children. Under this programme, Gujarat School Safety Week is celebrated for generating awareness among school children. III. RELEVANT ENVIRONMENT POLICIES, LAWS AND REGULATIONS Below is a review of selected policies, laws, and regulations under relevant for environmental management under the Program. 1. The Constitution of India Article 48-A of the Constitution of India lays down a directive principle noting that the state shall endeavor to protect and improve the natural environment. Article 51-A of the Constitution declares it a fundamental duty of every citizen of India to protect and improve the natural environment and to have compassion for living creatures. The right to live in a healthy environment has been considered as a part of fundamental right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution. GOAL-SEEP Pg 100 Environment and Social Systems Assessment 2. National Environment Policy of India This policy aims at mainstreaming environmental concerns into all developmental activities. The objectives of the policy include conservation of critical environmental resources, integration of environmental concerns in economic and social development, efficiency in environmental resource use, etc. The policy outlines a range of strategies that aim at: conservation of existing environmental resources through regulatory reforms; emphasis on education, information, capacity building; inter-sectoral collaboration; etc. 3. Relevant Environmental and Education Sector Laws Environmental Laws The Environment (Protection) Act 1986: The objective of the Act is to provide for the protection and improvement of the environment. The regulations under the Act that are of relevance to the Program are the following (paras 10 to 13). Environmental Impact Assessment Notification 2006 and Amendments: There is no specific requirement of environmental assessment for construction of educational institutions (and hostels) with built-up area less than 20,000 sq.m. The works to be supported under the program are expected to be much smaller than this (for example, the recommended plinth area of a 100-student capacity hostel for girls is about 20,800 sft or about 1,930 sq.m.). The following regulations apply to larger buildings.  In case of educational institutions (and hostels) with built-up area  20,000 sq.m. to  1,50,000 sq.m., local bodies such as Municipalities, Development Authorities and District Panchayats are required to ensure compliance with environmental conditions before granting occupation certificate/completion certificate. The environmental conditions cover the areas of topography and natural drainage; water conservation; waste management; energy; air quality and noise; green cover; topsoil preservation and reuse; and, transport.  In case of educational institutions (and hostels) with built-up area  1,50,000 sq.m. and/or covering an area  50 ha, prior environmental clearance is required from the State Environmental Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA). An Environment Assessment Report and public consultation are required. Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) Notification 2019: This notification is of relevance to three of the program states with a coastline: Kerala, Maharashtra, Odisha. Construction activities are prohibited in the CRZ-I (Ecologically Sensitive Areas) and CRZ-IV (area covered between Low Tide Line and 12 Nautical Miles seaward). Clearance for projects/activities located in CRZ-I and CRZ-IV can only be given by the central Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MOEFCC). The powers for clearances for CRZ-II (urban areas) and CRZ-III (rural areas) is with the state level Coastal Zone Management Authority (CZMA). Construction of schools is permitted in CRZ-II on the landward side of existing structures. Construction of schools is permitted in the No Development Zone of CRZ-III only on approval of the CZMA. Eco Sensitive Zone Notifications: Areas around National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries are notified as ESZs for the purpose of regulating activities in the proximity of the protected areas. GOAL-SEEP Pg 101 Environment and Social Systems Assessment The activities that are regulated include felling of trees, erection of electrical cables, widening of roads, etc. The notifications are relevant in case of construction works in the notified ESZs: Himachal Pradesh (7 ESZs), Madhya Pradesh (18 ESZs), Maharashtra (20 ESZs), Odisha (7 ESZs) and Rajasthan (8 ESZs). Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act 1972: This Act provides for prevention, control and abatement of water pollution and the maintenance or restoration of the wholesomeness of water. It is applicable to the discharge of sullage, sewerage and drainage of water from educational institutions. Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act 1981: This Act provides for the prevention, control and abatement of air pollution. It is applicable to educational institutions during construction and renovation of infrastructure. The Noise Pollution (Regulation and Control) Rules 2000: This Act regulates and controls noise producing and generating sources in order to maintain ambient air quality standards in respect of noise. Sound emitting construction equipment is not to be used or operated during night times in residential areas and silence zones. It is applicable for construction, demolition and renovation of educational infrastructure and to equipment such as diesel generators. Construction and Demolition Waste Management Rules 2016: The generator of construction and demolition waste is responsible for collection, segregation, storage of construction and demolition waste generated as directed or notified by the local authority. In the context of the program, the generator, who is the Contractor for the civil work, needs to ensure that: there is no littering or deposition of construction and demolition waste so as to prevent obstruction to the traffic or public or drains; and that the waste is stored and disposed separately. Hazardous and other Wastes (Management and Transboundary Movement) Rules 2016 : These rules set out the procedures to be followed for safe handling, storage, transport and disposal of hazardous waste. Persons working in the site need to be provided with appropriate training, equipment and information necessary to ensure their safety. Such waste needs to be disposed in a secure landfill at the Common Hazardous Waste Treatment and Storage and Disposal facility. This is applicable to any activity generating hazardous wastes in the program – such as civil works involving demolition of existing structures containing asbestos roofs or pipes to make way for new construction. Solid Waste management Rules 2016: Every waste generator is responsible for segregation and storage of biodegradable, degradable and hazardous wastes and handling them over to authorized waste collectors as per the directions of the local authorities. This is applicable to all educational institutions supported under the program. E-Waste (Management) Rules 2016: Educational institutions that are bulk consumers of electrical and electronic equipment are required to ensure that e-waste generated by them is channelized through authorized collection centers or service providers to authorized dismantlers or recyclers, relevant records are maintained and annual returns are filed to the State Pollution Control Board. GOAL-SEEP Pg 102 Environment and Social Systems Assessment Notification for use of fly ash 2003 and subsequent amendments: As per this notification, fly ash needs to be used in construction works located within 300 km of coal or lignite based thermal power stations (for example, fly ash bricks). Food Safety and Standards Act 2006: This Act requires all food business operators to be registered/licensed and follow basic hygiene and safety requirements. It is relevant to all educational institutions and hostels with food services. Insecticides Act 1968: This Act governs the use of registered insecticides and non-use of banned insecticides. It is relevant to all educational institutions and hostels that undertake pest control operations. Forest (Conservation) Act 1980: This Act requires prior approval of the Central Government for use of any forest land for non-forest purposes including construction of buildings. In Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected districts, general approval is accorded for diversion of up to 40 ha of forest land for the creation of critical public utility infrastructure including schools. This Act is relevant in case of construction activity on land that is designated as ‘forest land’ and/or is in ‘protected areas’. It is especially relevant in the case of Himachal Pradesh where all vacant land is treated as forest land for which forest clearance is required. Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972: This Act prohibits destruction, exploitation or removal of any wildlife and provides for protection to listed species of flora and fauna. It is relevant in case of construction activity on land that is designated as ‘protected area’ for wildlife conservation. Wetland (Conservation and Management) Rules 2017: This Act empowers the state governments to constitute State Wetland Authorities and notify wetlands for conservation. The rules prohibit activities such as encroachment of wetlands, setting up of industries, storage or disposal of hazardous substances and construction and demolition waste, solid waste dumping, discharge of untreated wastes and effluents, etc., in wetlands. The Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act 2010: This Act prohibits construction in a radius of 100 m from a protected monument and regulates construction in a radius of 100 m to 300 m from a protected monument. Permission of the National Monuments Authority needs to be taken in case of repair/ renovation in the prohibited area or construction/ reconstruction/ repair/ renovation in the regulated area. It is applicable in case of infrastructure development works in proximity of ancient monuments and archeological sites and remains. Code on Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Bill 2019 : This code on occupational safety, health and working conditions applies to all establishments with 10 or more workers and includes building and construction workers. It is applicable to all infrastructure works supported under the program. 4. Relevant Environmental and Education Sector Policies Environmental Policies National Policy on Safety, Health and Environment at Workplace 2009: The policy provides an action program that includes enforcement, national standards, compliance, awareness, GOAL-SEEP Pg 103 Environment and Social Systems Assessment occupational safety and health development. It emphasizes that awareness generation on occupational safety needs to be done by suitably incorporating teaching inputs on safety, health and environment at workplace in schools, technical and vocational courses. This is especially relevant to the vocational education component under the program. National Policy on Disaster Management 2009: The policy focuses on prevention, mitigation, preparedness and response. It describes the institutional and financial arrangements, capacity development, knowledge management, etc. National Disaster Management Guidelines – School Safety Policy 2016: This policy issued by the National Disaster management Authority details the various activities that need to be undertaken at the state, district and local levels for school safety including planning, preparation of school disaster management plans, implementation of safety actions (structural and non-structural measures), capacity building of stakeholders, monitoring of risk, etc. It also details the roles and responsibilities of the various stakeholders to ensure school safety at national, state and local levels. Education Sector Policies Samagra Shiksha Integrated Scheme for School Education Framework for Implementation: The framework recommends the preparation of a master plan and base document for the school infrastructure along with its phase-wise development. It specifies that the National Building Code 2016 should be a reference for all States and UTs for design and planning of schools. It also stresses on compliance with the Guidelines on School Safety Policy 2016 and with the Harmonized Guidelines and Space Standards for Barrier Free Built Environment for Persons with Disability and Elderly Persons 2016. Most importantly, the framework specifies that “while planning and design of schools and also in construction, it should be ensured that measures to strengthen the environment, health and safety practices are included in accordance with the guidelines contained in EMF-SS issued by MHRD and School Safety Policy Guidelines February 2016 issued by NDMA�. The framework emphasizes that the provision of proper classrooms, adequate and functional toilets and drinking water facility is mandatory. It specifies that all school buildings constructed under the scheme will have provision of rainwater harvesting system. The framework also recommends inclusion of renewable energy options for electrification of schools including requirements for SCERTs and DIETs have also been specified in the framework. The framework specifies that the civil works cost shall include: (a) construction of school building conforming to RTE norms (b) eco-friendly construction of all school buildings (c) design of buildings as per NBC 2016, confirming with earthquake resilience and basic fire safety, and in compliance with NDMA guidelines on school safety (d) adaptation of existing building environment to conform to RTE norms (e) retro-fitting of existing building towards hazard resistance (f) reconstruction of dilapidated school buildings which are beyond major repairs and declared unsafe by the competent engineers (g) reconstruction of dysfunctional toilets and safe drinking water facilities (h) interventions required to be undertaken under Swachh Vidyalaya. The framework further lists detailed norms for infrastructure development and maintenance. The scheme also provides for annual maintenance and repair of existing GOAL-SEEP Pg 104 Environment and Social Systems Assessment school building, toilets and other facilities for upkeep and maintenance and to be used for promoting Swachh Bharat Campaign. The framework details the Swachh Vidyalaya (Clean Schools) Initiative which focuses on construction and maintenance of toilets for boys and girls in government schools. The framework prescribes that a minimum of 10% of the composite school grant should be used for activities related to Swachhta Action Plan (primarily operation and maintenance of water and sanitation facilities). A Swachhta Action Plan (SAP) or Cleanliness Action Plan based on credible analysis of the existing situation, gap assessment and prioritization of interventions is to be prepared. The self-assessment format of the Swachh Vidyalaya Puraskar (SVP) or Clean School Award is recommended for the purpose. The framework provides for vocationalisation of school education through the introduction of vocational courses from classes 9 to 12. The selection of vocational courses is to be based on an assessment of skill needs and mapping of local job opportunities. The framework lists 17 trades that have been approved for vocationalisation of secondary education for girls to avoid gender stereotyping. These are: agriculture, apparel made-ups and home furnishings, automobile, beauty & wellness, BFSI, construction, electronics, healthcare, IT & ITeS, logistics, media/entertainment, multi-skill, physical education and sports, retail, security, telecom, travel and tourism, gems and jewelry designing. The curriculum will comprise modules on vocational skills and employability skills. The skills modules include ‘green skills.’ The framework prescribes safety precautions for pre-schools covering the following aspects: safe location and boundary wall, adequate space, non-sharp furniture and toys, non-toxic paints on paly materials, protective caps for electric outlets, safe storage of detergents and flammable materials, procedures for dealing with emergencies, facilities for children with special needs. Environmental Management Framework for Secondary Schools: This framework document, first drafted in 2011, provides guidelines for safe and sustainable school buildings. The guidelines cover the following aspects: (a) sustainable school design (b) site selection and preservation (c) use of site features, site planning and landscape design (d) energy efficient building envelope (e) construction material (f) indoor air quality (g) lighting (h) ventilation (i) water (j) energy (k) solid waste (l) barrier free environment (m) safety (n) construction safety (o) administration during operation phase. The EMF also describes the institutional arrangements for its implementation. These arrangements include: (i) environmental experts are to be part of the Technical Support Group that will guide the Project Approval Board regarding appraisal and decisions pertaining to environment, health and safety issues in the programme (ii) designated official in the Department of School Education and Literacy to coordinate on all issues related to environmental safeguards pertaining to the programme (iii) an environment expert is to be appointed by the State Project Office to coordinate with district and sub-district organizations and help in preparing plans and bids that integrate environment, health and safety requirements. The EMF also describes the monitoring and evaluation arrangements which include an audit of its implementation. GOAL-SEEP Pg 105 Environment and Social Systems Assessment 5. Environmental and Education Sector Regulations, Procedures, and Guidelines Environment Sector Regulations, Procedures, and Guidelines National Building Code 2016 and relevant standards of the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS): The BIS codes that are relevant to the program activities are: IS 1893 (criteria for earthquake resistant design of structure), IS 4326 (practice for earthquake resistant design and construction of building), IS 13828 (guidelines for improving earthquake resistance of low strength masonry buildings), IS 13920 (ductile detailing of reinforced concrete structure subject to seismic forces), IS 456 (structural design of buildings), IS 14435 (code of practice of fire safety in educational institutions), IS 2440 (guide for day light of building), IS 4963 (recommendation of building and facilities for physically handicapped), IS 7662 (recommendation on orientation of buildings), IS 8827 (recommendation for basic requirements of school buildings). In addition, there is the IS 15498 (guidelines for improving the cyclonic resistance of low rise houses and other buildings/structures), IS 14458 (guidelines for retaining wall for hill areas), IS 14680 (guidelines for landslide control) and IS 14804 (guidelines for siting, design and selection of materials for residential buildings in hilly areas). Energy Conservation Building Code, 2017: This code provides minimum requirements for the energy-efficient design and construction of buildings. The code is applicable to buildings or building complexes that have a connected load of 100 kW or greater or a contract demand of 120 kVA or greater. Buildings with 1000 sq. m. or more of conditioned area are likely to fall under the mentioned load conditions. It is highly unlikely that the school buildings supported under the program would trigger this criterion. Guidelines for Management of Sanitary Waste, 2018: These guidelines issued by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) provide waste management options for disposal of sanitary napkins in schools, hostels, etc. The range of disposal options include low-cost locally made incinerators for pads with high cellulose content without super absorbent polymers; electric incinerators for bulk amount of napkin waste; deep burial for compostable sanitary pads; pit burning for cotton cloth. Indian Standard Safety Requirements for Toys IS 9873: The part 1 of this Standard specifies the safety aspects related to mechanical and physical properties; the part 2 specifies flammability requirements; the part 3 specifies maximum acceptable levels for migration of the elements antimony, arsenic, barium, cadmium, chromium, lead, mercury, selenium and phthalates from toys. Harmonized Guidelines and Space Standards for Barrier Free Built Environment for Persons with Disability and Elderly Persons 2016: These guidelines issued by the Ministry of Urban Development specify universal design elements within building premises, signage, level changes, access to toilet facilities, fire evacuation needs, etc. The guidelines also include an ‘access audit checklist’. Education Sector Regulations, Procedures, and Guidelines Guidelines on Safety and Security of Children 2014: These guidelines issued by the Department of School Education and Literacy, MHRD cover the preventive institutional mechanisms and procedures that should be put in place in the schooling system along with the relief and GOAL-SEEP Pg 106 Environment and Social Systems Assessment redressal strategies in case of any safety and security incidents. The aspects covered by the guidelines include: (a) location of new schools away from hazardous locations such as highways, unmanned railway crossings, water bodies, etc. (b) provision of boundary wall or fencing with plantation (c) ensuring safety of approach road (d) physically sound, all-weather buildings that are resistant to earthquakes, fire and are safe from floods, and are free from inflammable and toxic materials (e) provision of drinking water and clean toilets with waste disposal (f) separate kitchen shed (g) fire safety (h) emergency exits (i) electrical safety (j) restriction on access to construction sites on school campuses (k) adequate ventilation (l) safe fittings. The guidelines emphasize the preparation of School Disaster Management Plans, teacher training, monitoring by School Management Committees (SMC) and by the state. The guidelines do not cover climate change and extreme weather-related hazards. They also do not specify safety measures relevant to hazardous wastes. Guidelines on Food Safety and Hygiene for School Level Kitchens 2015: These guidelines issued by the Department of School Education and Literacy, MHRD focus on inter alia the safety aspects of food storage, preparation, waste disposal, personal hygiene, fire safety. The guidelines also cover pest management – pesticides are generally not to be used, but when unavoidable, prescribed safety practices must be followed. The guidelines, however, do not prohibit the use of any hazardous pesticide. The guidelines also do not prohibit the use of fuel wood for cooking – but encourage the use of smokeless stoves and ventilation. Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) – Sustaining Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in Schools: These SOPs issued by the Department of School Education and Literacy, MHRD (now MoE) cover the following aspects: safe handling of drinking water, sanitation and hygiene, food hygiene, waste management, menstrual health management, roles and responsibilities of parents and community, operation and maintenance (daily, monthly seasonal, annual). GOAL-SEEP Pg 107 ANNEXURE 5: DESCRIPTION OF E&S MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS AND CAPACITY ASSESSMENT System and Capacity Assessment - Core Principle 1 Recommendations to align with Sl. No. Planning Elements Management System Capacity, Risks and Gaps Core Principle Core Principle 1: Program E&S management systems are designed to: (a) promote E&S sustainability in the Program design; (b) avoid, minimize, or mitigate adverse impacts; and (c) promote informed decision-making relating to a Program’s E&S effects 1 Bank program • Planning and implementation of the • The legal and regulatory provisions • Organize regular/periodic training procedures are backed school education program in Gujarat for environment and social programs for field engineers, by an adequate legal follows the Samagra Shiksha management are adequate. Also, schools and SMCs on the framework and Framework and the RTE Act. the RTE and Samagra Shiksha provisions of the environmental regulatory authority to Framework guidelines spell out and social risks and the • The SSF covers aspects pertaining to guide environmental clear roles and responsibilities along management mechanism relevant planning/design as well as and social impact with the process to be adopted for to Samagra Shiksha. operation/maintenance stages. assessments at the school education and covers all programmatic level • The National Education Policy 2020 is aspects of program implementation. an overarching framework under which However, enabling technical the program education program in capacity enhancement is required Gujarat will operate. (in a continual/periodic) manner to ensure uniform and consistent • In addition, the legal and regulatory compliance across the state. provisions under various acts such as RTI Act 2005; Minimum Wages Act 1948 (with amendments); RFCTLARR, 2013 with further amendments; and provisions under the Constitution are applicable and provide larger umbrella of guidance and framework. Environment and Social Systems Assessment Recommendations to align with Sl. No. Planning Elements Management System Capacity, Risks and Gaps Core Principle • The legal and regulatory provisions under various policies, acts, regulations, rules and guidelines pertaining to environment that are applicable to the Program, are comprehensive. The applicability and other details have been presented in Annexure 4. 2 Incorporate recognized • The current institutional mechanism • Screening for E&S risks and impact • Screening for E&S risks and elements of good spells out both at state and district level prior to any civil works is a clear gap impacts needs to be instituted as practice in E&S human resource placement including for and it may lead to adverse part of planning process for any assessment and gender and social inclusion, inclusive environment or social impacts in infrastructure related works. management, education for children with special needs, some cases. including: civil works/infrastructure development. (i) Early screening of • The current process does not specify a potential impacts mechanism for systematic screening of E&S risks and impacts. 3 (ii) Consideration of • Samagra Shiksha Framework specifies • While the current process of site • The process of site selection for strategic, technical, construction activities to be undertaken selection involves SMC/ SDMC and infrastructure/ civil works to be and site alternatives with community involvement. Planning other community members where strengthened through capacity (including the “no and implementation by the community required, there is need to be enhancement of Civil branch action� alternative). through SMC/SDMC. So, it is assumed systematizing and strengthening the functionaries at the district/ block that if the community involvement in process of site selection free from level as well as SMC/ SDMC. planning and execution of infrastructure and E&S risks and impacts. works is there, then they will also choose an appropriate site. However, the GOAL-SEEP Pg 109 Environment and Social Systems Assessment Recommendations to align with Sl. No. Planning Elements Management System Capacity, Risks and Gaps Core Principle current system does not specify for consideration of an alternate site. 4 (iii) Explicit assessment • Samagra Shiksha scheme was made to • There are no specific gaps. However, • No specific measures required. of potential induced, bring synergy into the school program by it is important to have good cumulative, and bringing together the Sarva Shiska coordination with Department of transboundary Abhiyan (SSA), Rashtriya Madhyamik Women and Child (WCD), impacts. Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) and Teacher Department of Tribal Development, Education (TE) together to bring together and Department of Social Welfare the education system of pre-school to for a coordinated approach in this class 12 under one system for better transition. educational outcomes. • With proposed changes with emphasis on foundational learning and attempt to bring together the ICDS centres also in the school, it is expected to prepare children before they actually join the schooling and is expected to have positive outcome. 5 (iv) Identification of • Gujarat is prone to various natural • Environment, health and safety • EHS shall be made part of the measures to mitigate hazards, which not only damage school (EHS) remains one of the issues that capacity building programs for adverse E&S risks and infrastructure but also disrupts require constant emphasis. Whereas teachers, BRCCs, CRCCs, and impacts that cannot be educational process in the school for the civil engineers in the education SMCs/SDMCs along with the civil otherwise avoided or certain period of time. In line with department are not oriented to EHS infrastructure team. minimized. NDMA/ GSDMA’s school safety program issues on a regular basis. the design standards have been specified to meet the necessary standards required and all the engineers of the Samagra GOAL-SEEP Pg 110 Environment and Social Systems Assessment Recommendations to align with Sl. No. Planning Elements Management System Capacity, Risks and Gaps Core Principle Shiksha have also been trained by the GSDMA. • The Environment, health and safety (EHS) issues are also an important area that the civil infrastructure team supposed to follow as per the guidance provided in the Samagra Shiksha Framework guidance. 6 (v) Clear articulation of • The Samagra Shiksha Framework • There is a gap in clear articulation of • There is need for placement of institutional specifies institutional arrangements at institutional responsibilities and Environmental expert and social responsibilities and the national, state, district, block and resources for E&S management. expert in the program resources to support school levels. In addition, the Also, given the Block and Cluster implementation unit to oversee implementation of environmental management framework Resource Centre Coordinators and monitor the E&S activities. plans (EMF) for the Rashtriya Madhyamik (BRCCs and CRCCs) play a key role in Also, there is need for clear Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) program monitoring school level EHS aspects, articulation of E&S responsibility at specified institutional arrangements for and SMCs/ SDMCs play an important the district and block level and environmental management. role in execution of civil work the need to strengthen the EHS EHS aspects need to be further mechanism across the strengthened. implementation chain. 7 (vi) Responsiveness • The Samagra Shiksha Framework spells • Though no gaps identified in the • Capacity building/ training of CRC, and accountability out the range of consultations with process, however, there is need to BRC, SMC/ SDMC, and PRIs should through stakeholder various stakeholder that is required in the build capacity of different ensure awareness towards their consultation, timely program including monitoring of learning stakeholders mainly the CRC, BRC, expected roles and responsibility dissemination of the outcomes and through that it guides and SMC/ SDMC, and PRI bodies on their to ensure accountability and PforR information, and ensures the responsibility and roles and responsibilities in an redress grievances. responsive GRMs. accountability of different stakeholders. continued manner as many of the GOAL-SEEP Pg 111 Environment and Social Systems Assessment Recommendations to align with Sl. No. Planning Elements Management System Capacity, Risks and Gaps Core Principle • The framework clearly proposes to members change over 2-5 years undertake community mobilisation and period. close involvement of community members in school education to fosters ‘bottom up approach’ not only in effective planning and implementation of interventions but also in effective monitoring, evaluation and ownership of the government programmes by the community. • In addition, any construction activities are planned and executed with to be undertaken with community involvement through SMC/ SMDC. • The process of social audit to create transparency, participation and accountability of the program implementation at the school level is clearly articulate in the framework. Social audit is carried out by the community with participation of other stakeholders including PRI members, local authority, members of SMC/ SDMC etc at least once a year. • Government of Gujarat under the RTE act has authorized local authorities including Gram Panchayat, CRC, Taluk Panchayat and District project coordinator office in GOAL-SEEP Pg 112 Environment and Social Systems Assessment Recommendations to align with Sl. No. Planning Elements Management System Capacity, Risks and Gaps Core Principle rural areas and similarly ward office, CRC, Municipal office and Administrative office in urban area. And has also specified time duration of office for its disposal. GOAL-SEEP Pg 113 Environment and Social Systems Assessment System and Capacity Assessment - Core Principle 2 Recommendations to align with Sl. No. Planning Elements Management System Capacity, Risks and Gaps Core Principle Core Principle 2: Program E&S management systems are designed to avoid, minimize, or mitigate adverse impacts on natural habitats and physical cultural resources resulting from the Program. Program activities that involve the significant conversion or degradation of critical natural habitats or critical physical cultural heritage are not eligible for PforR financing. 1 Identify, and screen for adverse effects • National and State level on potentially important biodiversity laws and regulations • There is need to institute screening and cultural resource areas and exist for regulation of Screening mechanism doesn’t exist mechanism to ensure adherence to provide adequate measures to avoid, activities in proximity of the respective laws and regulation. minimize, or mitigate adverse effects. protected monuments and for management of 2 Support and promote the protection, chance finds of conservation, maintenance, and archaeological, historical Will not be required for the Program - rehabilitation of natural habitats. value. • The Ancient Monuments 3 Avoid significant conversion or and Archaeological Sites Highly Unlikely - degradation of critical natural habitats and Remains (Amendment and 4 If avoiding the significant conversion of Validation) Act, 2010 natural habitats is not technically bans on construction feasible, include measures to mitigate Not relevant - within 100 metres of a or offset the adverse impacts of the centrally protected PforR Program activities monument and regulated construction within 100- 5 Take into account potential adverse 200 metres. • The awareness on the relevant • There is need to institute screening effects on physical cultural property provisions of the existing laws and mechanism to ensure adherence to and provide adequate measures to • Likewise, comprehensive regulations among the key the respective laws and regulation. set of national stakeholders, including the field regulations exist to functionaries of civil branch of the GOAL-SEEP Pg 114 Environment and Social Systems Assessment Recommendations to align with Sl. No. Planning Elements Management System Capacity, Risks and Gaps Core Principle avoid, minimize, or mitigate such protect forests, wildlife Samagra Shiksha as well as SMC/ • Construction and demolition effects. and biodiversity rich SDMC, needs to be enhanced. activities in areas within 100-meter areas. radius of protected monuments will be excluded from the program. • Include coverage on regulatory provisions relevant to school development activities in proximity of cultural heritage sites as part of regular and periodic training programs for SMCs and for the civil engineers associated with the state departments of education. GOAL-SEEP Pg 115 Environment and Social Systems Assessment System and Capacity Assessment - Core Principle 3 Recommendations to align with Core Sl. No. Planning Elements Management System Capacity, Risks and Gaps Principle Core Principle 3: Core Principle 3: Program E&S management systems are designed to protect public and worker safety against the potential risks associated with (a) the construction and/or operation of facilities or other operational practices under the Program; (b) exposure to toxic chemicals, hazardous wastes, and otherwise dangerous materials under the Program; and (c) reconstruction or rehabilitation of infrastructure located in areas prone to natural hazards. 1 Promote adequate • The Samagra Shiksha • Though engineers of the civil • Organize regular and periodic training community, individual, Framework specifies that infrastructure branch are trained programs for SMCs/ SDMCs on and worker health, safety, environment, health and safety by GSDMA on technical environment, health and safety aspects and security through the practices should be followed for specifications and codes, of school improvement measures and safe design, construction, design, planning, preparation awareness about EHS measures is management including disaster operation, and and execution of improvements unclear and requires resistant and climate smart design, use maintenance of Program in school learning environment strengthening. of safe materials, resource activities; or, in carrying in accordance with: (a) National conservation, waste management, etc • Awareness about EHS provisions out activities that may be Building Code 2016, and (b) under the framework for civil • Organize regular and periodic training dependent on existing School Safety Policy Guidelines construction is low among SMC/ programs for civil engineers associated infrastructure, February 2016 issued by NDMA. SDMC. with the state departments of incorporate safety • The Code on Occupational education on environment, health and measures, inspections, or • Awareness and adherence to Safety, Health and Working safety aspects of school learning remedial works as COVID-19 related safety measures Conditions Bill 2019 is applicable environment creation and appropriate. during construction is also low to civil works under the program. management including disaster among contractors and local resistant and climate smart design, use • The states also include relevant authorities. of safe materials, resource safety provisions in the conservation, waste management, and construction contract especially COVID-19 related safety measures etc.. due to COVID-19 situation. • Institute COVID-19 related contractual obligation by including specific clauses GOAL-SEEP Pg 116 Environment and Social Systems Assessment Recommendations to align with Core Sl. No. Planning Elements Management System Capacity, Risks and Gaps Principle in the construction contracts as per Annex-7. 2 Promote measures to • Child labor is strictly prohibited • No specific gaps identified. • Civil work contract clauses shall address child and forced by Government of India and by However, awareness about reiterate the prohibition. Also, SMC/ labor. Government of Gujarat as per provisions of the act is low among SDMC to be made aware of the The Child Labour (Prohibition & general community. provisions of the Act as part of their Regulation) Act,1986 & Gujarat training. Rules 1994. The Labor and Employment Department, Government of Gujarat in association with various civil society partners tries to keep a close monitoring on adherence. 3 Promote the use of • Not much relevance given the • No specific gaps identified. • Will be made a part of O&M guidelines recognized good practice Program interventions. However, awareness about proper and sensitization/training on in the production, However, for e-waste, which is temporary storage of e-waste environment aspects. management, storage, expected, there are (before it is disposed off to transport, and disposal of comprehensive authorised recyclers) and uniform hazardous materials rules/regulations. Compliance application of rules may be generated under the mechanisms are also in place in required. PforR the state of Gujarat. 4 Provide training for workers involved in the production, procurement, storage, transport, use, and disposal of hazardous chemicals in accordance GOAL-SEEP Pg 117 Environment and Social Systems Assessment Recommendations to align with Core Sl. No. Planning Elements Management System Capacity, Risks and Gaps Principle with the relevant international guidelines and conventions. 5 Include adequate • Gujarat has initiated a ‘safe • The coverage and outreach of the Specific set of Climate Adaptation measures to avoid, school’ program, which ‘safe school’ program needs to be Measures have been recommended as minimize, or mitigate specifically seeks to address increased. part of this ESSA. This includes community, individual, risks from natural disasters and provisions to mitigate risks from • There is a clear need and scope to and worker risks when other emergency events. earthquake, cyclones, floods, droughts, build higher degree of resilience in the PforR Program lightening and fire hazard. the built infrastructure. activities are located in areas prone to natural • Actions and interventions on hazards such as floods, emergency preparedness need hurricanes, earthquakes, strengthening. or other severe weather or affected by climate events. GOAL-SEEP Pg 118 Environment and Social Systems Assessment System and Capacity Assessment - Core Principle 4 Recommendations to align with Core Sl. No. Planning Elements Management System Capacity, Risks and Gaps Principle Core Principle 4: Program E&S systems manage land acquisition and loss of access to natural resources in a way that avoids or minimizes displacement and assists affected people in improving, or at the minimum restoring, their livelihoods and living standards. 1 Avoid or minimize land • While the land acquisition • No specific gaps identified. Also, no • No land acquisition or displacement acquisition and related activities are part of the civil land acquisition is anticipated and/ of title holders or non-title holders adverse impacts. branch’s responsibility of the or resettlement is anticipated will be undertaken under the GOAL Samagra Shiksha in Gujarat. In the under the program. SEEP program. Upgradation will be past, in very few cases there has restricted to government land and been the need for acquiring land, will be monitored through the E&S in many cases especially in rural screening checklist. areas it is arranged through transferring government land and land donations. • Wherever needed the land acquisition follows ‘The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 (and further amendments), and the Right to Fair-Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Gujarat Rules,2017)’, and based on the request by the Education Department, Revenue Departments through the District GOAL-SEEP Pg 119 Environment and Social Systems Assessment Recommendations to align with Core Sl. No. Planning Elements Management System Capacity, Risks and Gaps Principle Collector follow the procedures as laid out in the above Act and the rules. • The process involves Gram Panchayat proposing the requirement to District Project Coordinator (DPC) of the Education Department and through DPC to District Collector for initiating the process of land acquisition. A similar process is also followed in case of land donation for legal transfer of land in the name of the school. 2 (a) Identify and address • Given the scope of the program, • While for the title holders the • With the program not anticipating economic or social impacts no land acquisition and/ or above act provides for adequate any land acquisition or resettlement caused by land acquisition resettlement is anticipated of title provisions, the act does not cover of title holders or non-titleholders, or loss of access to natural holders or non-title holders. encroachers on government land E&S screening will be instituted to resources, including those or squatters. identify any adverse social risks and • affecting people who may impact. lack full legal rights to • Though both land acquisition and/or resources they use or resettlement is not anticipated, but in occupy. rare case, if any need arise, World (b) Provide compensation Bank core safeguard policy on land sufficient to purchase acquisition and resettlement will be replacement assets of followed and due process to be equivalent value and to meet any necessary GOAL-SEEP Pg 120 Environment and Social Systems Assessment Recommendations to align with Core Sl. No. Planning Elements Management System Capacity, Risks and Gaps Principle transitional expenses, paid instituted in consultation with World before taking land or Bank task team. restricting access. (c) Provide supplemental livelihood improvement or restoration measures if taking of land causes loss of income-generating. (d) Include measures in order for land acquisition and related activities to be planned and implemented with appropriate disclosure of information, consultation, and informed participation of those affected. (e) Restore or replace public infrastructure and community services that may be adversely affected by the Program. GOAL-SEEP Pg 121 Environment and Social Systems Assessment System and Capacity Assessment - Core Principle 5 Recommendations to align with Core Sl. No. Planning Elements Management System Capacity, Risks and Gaps Principle Core Principle 5: Core Principle #5: Program E&S systems give due consideration to the cultural appropriateness of, and equitable access to, Program benefits, giving special attention to the rights and interests of Scheduled Tribe people (Indigenous Peoples) and scheduled caste people, and to the needs or concerns of vulnerable groups. 1 Undertake meaningful • The Samagra Shiksha Framework • While the scheme aims to and • Training of BRC and CRC from tribal consultations if the spells out the range of consultations provide for equitable and inclusive areas shall include special focus on Indigenous Peoples are with various stakeholder and work system of education, due to local dealing with local circumstances potentially affected with close involvement of community geographical terrain and socio- and setting up mechanism for (positively or negatively), members in school education to economic condition, it requires continued consultation with local to determine whether fosters ‘bottom up approach’ not only special effort in community tribal community. there is broad community in effective planning and mobilisation and garnering larger • Training of SMC/ SDMC from tribal support for the PforR implementation of interventions but community support. areas shall have additional focus on Program activities. also in effective monitoring, • BRC and CRC in tribal areas creating community awareness and evaluation and ownership of the requires to put in more effort in role in community mobilization. government programmes by the building capacity of SMC/ SDMC community including the Scheduled through setting up mechanism of Tribe (ST) and Scheduled Caste (SC) continued community and other disadvantaged community. consultation. 2 Ensure that Indigenous • As acknowledged by the Samagra • Providing multilingual education is • Special efforts to be made including Peoples can participate in Shiksha Framework, the biggest not a simple task. Even mother addressing language related issues, devising opportunities to problem faced by tribal children is that tongue education is challenged by infrastructure related gaps, benefit from exploitation of language. Teaching materials and problems like – not having a script, teacher’s capacity dealing with local of customary resources textbooks tend to be in a language the language not recognized as context related issues, and other and indigenous students do not understand; content legitimate language, shortage of mechanism based on need knowledge, the latter of books and syllabi ignore the education material in the (indigenous knowledge) to students’ own knowledge and language, lack of appropriately GOAL-SEEP Pg 122 Environment and Social Systems Assessment Recommendations to align with Core Sl. No. Planning Elements Management System Capacity, Risks and Gaps Principle include the consent of experience and focus only on the trained teachers, resistance to assessment to ensure proper Indigenous Peoples. dominant language and culture. Not schooling in the mother tongue by schooling and learning outcomes. understanding the school language students, parents and teachers • and therefore the course content, the and several mother tongues children are unable to cope, end up represented in one class, it repeating grades and eventually compounds the problem even dropping out. further. • There has been some experience • To deal with above, various states where Gujarat has developed such as Madhya Pradesh and dictionaries in Dangi and Bhili dialects. Maharashtra have developed A local word glossary in Dangi has been bridge language courses for prepared and distributed in schools for students from tribal communities. class I-IV. Similarly, a local word glossary in tribal dialect has been prepared for class I-IV in Banaskantha district and distributed in schools. The Vidhya Sahayaks were given training on the use of these dictionaries. Gujarat has also initiated extensive work for preparation of teaching and learning method (TLM) in tribal languages. This included flash cards for different languages and cards for mathematics. These have been supplied to all schools in tribal areas16. Similarly, discussion with district level officials from education department 16 http://www.vri-online.org.uk/ijrs/April2012/Primary%20Education%20in%20a%20Tribal%20district%20of%20Gujarat%20India.pdf GOAL-SEEP Pg 123 Environment and Social Systems Assessment Recommendations to align with Core Sl. No. Planning Elements Management System Capacity, Risks and Gaps Principle and members of SMCs/ SDMCs in Banaskantha suggests special efforts are made including at times teacher visiting villages to teach if the children are not able to come to school. 3 Give attention to groups • The RTE Act, 2009 addresses gender • No specific gaps identified. Though • Assessment of measures already vulnerable to hardship or and social equity within a framework it is important to assess the impact instituted and identification of its discrimination, including, that is holistic and systemic. The of measures instituted and further usefulness and further gaps to plan as relevant, the poor, the Samagra Shiksha Scheme envisages gaps if any. Also, ensure that further. disabled, women and improvement quality of education, teacher education modules at • Teacher education modules at children, the elderly, ensuring equity and inclusion at all SCERT, DIET and BRC includes SCERT, DIET and BRC level should ethnic minorities or other levels of school education. The key suitable components on education include suitable components on marginalized groups; and if parameters of the approach informing of children with special needs, and education of children with special necessary, take special the following perspective includes: provide training using them. needs. Training of educational measures to promote • The Samagra Shiksha scheme administrators including equitable access to PforR envisages to improve quality of headmasters, all other staff & Program benefits education, ensuring equity and relevant personnel of school inclusion at all levels of school education should be regularly education and mean not only equal organized. Special focus should be opportunity, but also creation of given on mechanisms for safety and conditions in which the disadvantaged security of children with special sections of the society – children of SC, needs. ST, Muslim minority, landless agricultural workers and children with special needs, transgender children etc. can avail of the opportunity in an inclusive environment free from discrimination. GOAL-SEEP Pg 124 Environment and Social Systems Assessment Recommendations to align with Core Sl. No. Planning Elements Management System Capacity, Risks and Gaps Principle • Gender is recognized as a critical cross- cutting equity issue and implies not only making efforts to enable girls to keep pace with boys but to bring about a basic change in the status of women. • Access does not only confined to ensuring that school becomes accessible to all children within specified distance but implies aims to cater the educational needs of the traditionally excluded categories – the SC, ST and other sections of the most disadvantaged groups, the Muslim minority, girls in general, transgender children and children with special needs. • Equity is seen as an integral part of the agenda on improving quality and therefore encompass issues pertaining to teacher training and education, curriculum, language, educational planning and management. • Samagra Shiksha look at education of all children including CWSN in a continuum from pre-school to class XII by: o Identification of children with disabilities at the school level and GOAL-SEEP Pg 125 Environment and Social Systems Assessment Recommendations to align with Core Sl. No. Planning Elements Management System Capacity, Risks and Gaps Principle assessment of her/his educational needs. o Provision of aids and appliance and assistive devices, to the children with special needs as per requirement. o Removal of architectural barriers in schools so that students with disability have access to classrooms, laboratories, libraries and toilets in the school. o Supplying appropriate teaching learning materials, medical facilities, vocational training support, guidance and counselling services and therapeutic services. o General school teachers are sensitized and trained to teach and involve children with special needs in the general classroom. o CWSN will have access to support services through special educators, and establishment of resource rooms, vocational education, therapeutic services and counselling. GOAL-SEEP Pg 126 Environment and Social Systems Assessment Recommendations to align with Core Sl. No. Planning Elements Management System Capacity, Risks and Gaps Principle o Work in convergence with other line departments and intends to provide relevant holistic support for effective and appropriate services for education of CWSN. GOAL-SEEP Pg 127 Environment and Social Systems Assessment System and Capacity Assessment - Core Principle 6 Sl. Recommendations to align with Planning Elements Management System Capacity, Risks and Gaps No. Core Principle Program E&S systems avoid exacerbating social conflict, especially in fragile states, post-conflict areas, or areas subject to territorial disputes. 1 Consider conflict risks, • Under the Samagra Shiksha • There are no specific gaps. The including distributional scheme the preference for program and its activities are equity and cultural various interventions is given to quite inclusive in nature and does sensitivities. Educationally Backward Blocks not exacerbate any conflicts. (EBBs) and Special Focus Districts (SFDs) and the 115 Aspirational Districts. GOAL-SEEP Pg 128 Existing Environmental Systems in Gujarat Samgara Shiksha under Education Department, Government of Gujarat has taken many initiatives for environmental management in the schools. During virtual consultations and discussions with State Project Director and Team of Samgara Shiksha, SCERT, GSQAC, District Education Officers and District Project Coordinators, DIET Principals, BRC and CRC Coordinators, etc. some key points were noted. These cover all major stages of planning, design, construction and operation and have been listed below: Environmental Considerations during Land Acquisition • Land acquisition for construction purpose is a prime factor, hence in most of the cases, Samagra Shiksha acquires government land for school buildings. • Land acquisition is normally processed by Revenue Department and prior to that a proposal is framed by DPO which considers certain environmental parameters. • Preference is given to site that is located within or close to city/village area - so that it is easily accessible and safe for students, teachers and parents. • Low lying /flood prone area are not selected. • Reserved Forest Land/Protected Forest Land is avoided. In case diversion of forest land is inevitable, clearance from Forest Department is obtained. Design Considerations on EHS Aspects • Small but effective and low-cost ideas of green schools are adopted. • Awareness through teachers training modules for all the teachers regarding child friendly environment for students. • Projects like Eco club, green & sustainable school and Paryavaran Prayogshala have been taken-up. • For new construction, repair/renovation, a basic environment assessment of the school building is carried out. • Connectivity and access to each and every corner of the school campus has been taken in the development plan. • Designs catering to CWSN developed and implemented. • Various elements of Building as Learning Aid are provided as per site situation and requirements of the school. • Special elements of inclusive Building as Learning Aid (BaLA) for special children are also provided. Monitoring of Air and Water • In about 300 schools, monitoring of ambient air and water quality has been carried out on sample basis. Environment and Social Systems Assessment • Drinking water quality is ensured by school and local panchayat. • Pollution free cooking methods i.e. smokeless chulhas, use of LPG/PNG gas, biogas, solar cooker, etc. have been provided. • Promoting non-polluting transport, public transport, vehicles sharing, etc. Pre-monsoon Preparedness • Cleaning the water channels before monsoon so that no water logging happens at the slab level which will prevent seepage. • Assessing if there are earthing problems or open electric wires. Ensuring that they are repaired before the onset of monsoon. • Taking precautions that the water does not get logged in the school premises after rains. Ensuring that there is plan for water to flow to flow out of the premise. Water Conservation and Harvesting • Provision of push taps to reduce waste of water. • Water purification through sedimentation method which can be used in gardening. • Adopting drip and sprinkler irrigation in garden areas. • Installation of float valves /sensors in all tanks to stops overflow. • Rainwater harvesting through storage tanks and ground recharge. Plantation and Biodiversity • Green Cover in school is provided to manage oxygen balance as per the student strength of the school. • Approx. 1,58,00,000 trees have been planted in schools within Gujarat. • Local plants species that have large canopy area and can provide shelter to birds and other small faunal species are used. • Planting a greater number of tree and shrubs species to promote biodiversity. Disaster Risk Considerations • The design of school building is developed taking into consideration earthquake zones of the concerned block/area. • Appliable Indian standards codes are used for the structural design. • All structure designs are earthquake resistant designs. • Minimum grade of concrete M-20 as suggested in IS 456-2000 is used. • Plinth band, lintel band & roof band are provided in the designs. • Grade of mortar for masonry work in Zone III, IV and V is taken up using a ratio of 1:4. • In coastal areas, corrosion resistant steel (CRS), wooden doors and windows are used instead of M.S. GOAL-SEEP Pg 130 Environment and Social Systems Assessment • In heavy rainfall areas, sloping roof is provided, and the plinth height is kept higher than the normal. • All the classrooms are provided with minimum 15% opening area for good natural light and ventilation. • Provision of two doors in classrooms is made for emergency exit. • The area of staircase and passage is kept wider, if required. • In schools with higher strength of students, more than one staircase is provided in case of emergency. • The height of parapet is kept at least 1.0-meter, gated compound wall, grill in the open area is provided for the safety purpose. • Fire extinguishers are also provided. • All electrical goods provided in schools are of BIS standards. Community Participation • Community awareness and active participation are also given importance to create ownership in society and to sustain the school. • Awareness and action within school by showing documentaries and videos. • Various activities like competitions, awareness campaigns, rallies, etc have been carried out to encourage good practices in the community. • Increasing personal and social ownership amongst teachers and students through different projects. Management Information System (MIS) • District Information System for Education (DISE) is available at the District, State and National Levels and implemented by Gujarat. • UDISE (Now UDISE+) has been implemented in 15 million schools of India by MHRD and National University of Education Planning & Administration. • All Government, Government Aided and Private schools covered under UDISE from 2003- 04. • Data covered of each school in UDISE+ are Schools Basic Information (Location, establish year, etc), Enrollment Details (class wise and cast wise), teachers details (name, join date, education, etc), and infrastructures details (toilets, water, electricity, MDM kitchen shed, etc). • In Gujarat, DISE forms have been translated in Gujarati • Despite of DISE, several web-based applications are also existence for various purpose of activities • DISE is only school survey in Gujarat and is mandatory for each school whether Govt or Private. • DISE is used as a base data for all the web-based applications • Gujarat State is using the Unification of Data system for better data analysis. GOAL-SEEP Pg 131 Environment and Social Systems Assessment • UDISE data is analyzed in various terms and is utilized for preparation of AWP&B to provide functional areas for further intervention specific planning like tribal development, infrastructure facility, etc. • Data sharing is done by GRCs at school level by providing school report to the schools. • Data shearing with all educational wings of education department i.e. GCERT, Directorate of Primary Education, Education Department and all researchers, NGOs and Educationalists, who wish to work out the same. • In Gujarat, UDISE is especially designed in Gujarati • The training is delivered at District and Block level to get expected inputs from each level for planning for capacity building. At State Project Office, Gandhinagar, all district level functionaries participate in training while at district level, District Project Coordinator, all officials of District Project Offices and BRCs participate in trainings. At block level, all CRCs are participated in trainings. • SMC/SDMC level works includes Composite Grant, internet, transportation, vocational, Shaala Swachchta/Sanitation grant, Special Training Program (STP) grant, Normal and CwSN Toilets, • Repairing work, Compound wall BaLA, Green School, IED Recourse Room, Sports School Ground Development, etc. COVID-19 Related Awareness and Outreach During COVID 10 Pandemic awareness outreach was ensured in the following ways: For Teachers/Field Staff • Regular call for command and control Centre • CRC/BRC visits and telephonic connect • What’s App Group For Students • Live feedback during virtual classes • Teacher and students connecting through telephones. For Parents • Regular call from command and control Centre • Teacher and parents connecting through telephones • What’s App Group. For Community • Coordination through CRC/BRC and Head Teachers and Teachers. • Connecting with parents-every teacher is connecting with 5 parents daily to help. Overall • Video Conference (VC) by Education Minister with educationalists, child physiologists, pediatricians, representatives from government and private schools. GOAL-SEEP Pg 132 Environment and Social Systems Assessment ANNEXURE 6: SCREENING CHECKLIST General Information 1. Location of the sub-project • School D.I.S.E Code: • District • Block • Town/Village • Category of the school 2. Implementing Agency Details (sub-project level) • Name of the Department/Agency • Name of the designated contact person • Designation • Contact Number • E-mail Id Part A: Environment Screening Question Yes No Details 1. Is the sub-project located in whole or part within a radius of 500 mts. from any of the following environmentally sensitive areas? a. National Park If yes, mention name and distance. b. Wildlife/Bird Sanctuary If yes, mention name and distance. c. Wildlife Reserve If yes, mention name and distance. d. Wetland If yes, mention name and distance. e. Natural Lake If yes, mention name and distance. GOAL-SEEP Pg 133 Environment and Social Systems Assessment f. World Heritage Sites If yes, mention name and distance. g. Archaeological monuments/sites If yes, mention name and distance. (under ASI’s central/state list) h. Reservoirs/Dams If yes, mention name and distance. a. Reserved/Protected Forest If yes, mention name and distance b. Migratory Route of Wild If yes, mention name and distance Animals/Birds c. Area with threatened/rare/ endangered fauna (outside If yes, mention name and distance protected areas) d. Area with threatened/rare/ endangered flora (outside If yes, mention name and distance protected areas) e. Habitat of migratory birds (outside If yes, mention name and distance protected areas) f. Historic Places (not listed under ASI If yes, mention name and distance – central or state list) g. Regionally Important Religious If yes, mention name and distance Places h. Public Water Supply Areas from If yes, mention name and Rivers/Surface Water Bodies/ distance Ground Water Sources i. Will the sub-project require any If yes, how many and of which tree cutting? species? Part B: Social Screening Sl. Questions Yes No Details No Does the subproject require additional If yes, give full details 1 land for upgradation/ expansion and/ or new construction through land GOAL-SEEP Pg 134 Environment and Social Systems Assessment Sl. Questions Yes No Details No acquisition or direct purchase and/or restrictions on land use? Does the subproject require additional land for upgradation/ expansion 2 If yes, give full details through transfer from another government department? Does the subproject require any 3 If yes, give full details informal/ illegal occupants’ removal? Are there any CPRs in the school 4 If yes, give full details compound that will get affected? Are there any places of worship in the 5 school compound that will get affected? What are the alternative arrangements 6 for conducting classes during repair and renovations? GOAL-SEEP Pg 135 Environment and Social Systems Assessment ANNEXURE 7: SUGGESTED MEASURES FOR INCLUSION IN CIVIL WORKS CONTRACTS 1) The annexure does not contain an exhaustive set of measures for inclusion in contracts for civil works. 2) The contents of this annexure should be used ONLY as a reference/base document for developing a complete Environment Management Plan (along with Occupational Health and Safety measures) for inclusion in the bidding document for civil works … which has been recommended as one of the key actions under Program Action Plan. 3) Some clauses/requirements are already covered in the Bidding Documents that are currently in use for the Program in state of Gujarat. Missing aspects/elements need to be added to strengthen contractual framework pertaining to EHS requirements, including protocols issued by Govt. of India and Govt. of Gujarat to prevent/minimise the transmission of COVID-19 between workers and surrounding communities. 1. General Obligations of the Contractor ▪ To take all necessary precautions to maintain the health and safety of the Contractor’s Personnel. ▪ To depute a health and safety officer at site, who will have the authority to issue directives for the purpose of maintaining the health and safety of all personnel authorized to enter and or work on the site and to take protective measures to prevent accidents, including spread of COVID-19. ▪ To ensure, in collaboration with local health authorities, access to medical help, first aid and ambulance services are available for workers/labours, as and when needed. 2. Labor ▪ No child labor and/or forced labour at construction site for all works. ▪ Equal pay/wage for men and women labour. ▪ Provide health and safety training/orientation on COVID-19 to all workers and staff and other employees of the sub-contractor (tips on cough etiquette, hand hygiene and social distancing). ▪ Prepare a detailed profile of the project work force, key work activities, schedule for carrying out such activities, different durations of contract and rotations, confirmed addresses of the labour and any underlying health conditions that increases the risk of severe infection, to facilitate tracking of workers in case of COVID-19 exposure. ▪ All laborers to be provided with photo ID cards for accessing the construction site. ▪ All laborers engaged at construction site to be provided with the required Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) – safety helmet and shoes, secured harness when working at heights, electrical gloves, eye protection for welding etc., without which entry to the construction site shall not be allowed. GOAL-SEEP Pg 136 Environment and Social Systems Assessment ▪ In relation to COVID-19, masks, adequate hand washing/ sanitization, clean drinking water and sanitation facilities to be provided at construction site. ▪ All workers/labour to be regularly checked for symptoms before allowing entry to the work site. ▪ Paid leave to be mandatorily given if labour contacts COVID-19 and/or any other contagious disease while working at the construction site or in the labour camp. ▪ Steps necessary to prevent labour harassment, including sexual harassment, gender- based violence and any discrimination based on religious, political and/or sexual orientation. 3. Labour Camps (only when labour camps are established) ▪ Contractor to provide hygienic living conditions and safe drinking water. ▪ Separate toilets for male and females and adequate hand washing/sanitization facilities. ▪ Small creche and/or play areas for children with helper, when labour is away at work. ▪ Fireproof wiring and good quality electricals to be used inside the camp. ▪ Cooking gas and/or electric/induction plate to be provided for each labour household. ▪ Monthly/weekly health check up to be organized at the camp for all labours/family. ▪ Organize awareness campaign for social distancing and general health and hygiene. 4. Greenfield/New Constructions ▪ No use of Asbestos or components/fixtures having asbestos. ▪ Comply with all applicable national/state permits. 5. Construction Management in Upgrading of Existing Buildings ▪ Maintain a roster of workers/staff at work site indicating their health condition and symptoms and ensure screening procedures (non-physical temperature measurement) at work sites. ▪ Depute and assign monitoring and reporting responsibilities on environmental management, health and personnel safety. ▪ Preventing a infected person from returning to the site for 14 days or (if that is not possible) isolating such worker for 14 days. ▪ Place posters and signages at/around the site, with images and text in local languages relating to personal safety, hygiene and on COVID-19 symptoms and guidelines. ▪ Ensuring handwashing facilities supplied with soap, disposable paper towels and closed waste bins exist at key places throughout site, including at entrances/exits to work areas; where there is a toilet, canteen or food distribution, or provision of drinking water; in worker accommodation; at waste stations; at stores; and in common spaces. GOAL-SEEP Pg 137 Environment and Social Systems Assessment ▪ Segregate lunch hours at worksite of workers to maintain social distancing. ▪ Designated separate space for storing construction material. ▪ Securing the construction site with entry only for authorized personnel and disinfecting of the worksite to be undertaken at close of work every day or as may be required. ▪ Any medical waste produced during the care of ill workers should be collected safely in designated containers or bags and treated and disposed of following relevant requirements (e.g., Biomedical Waste Rules-2018, WHO). 6. Grievance Redress Mechanism (GRM) ▪ Contractor to establish and widely advertise (within labor camps and at construction site) a GRM. Workers to be informed of their rights for reporting a workplace condition that is not safe or healthy for them and poses imminent risk of contracting COVID-19 without any reprisal/penalty. ▪ GRM to have provisions for receiving, registering, following up and resolution system for any complaint/grievance received during the construction period. ▪ A complaints register will always be maintained at the site office and responsibilities allotted to a sufficiently senior official for complaint redress. ▪ Quarterly report on the grievances received at each of the subproject is submitted to the contracting authority GOAL-SEEP Pg 138 Environment and Social Systems Assessment ANNEXURE 8: SOCIAL AUDIT FORMAT USED BY SAMAGRA SHIKSHA GUJARAT (IN GUJARATI) GOAL-SEEP Pg 139 Environment and Social Systems Assessment GOAL-SEEP Pg 140 Environment and Social Systems Assessment GOAL-SEEP Pg 141 Environment and Social Systems Assessment GOAL-SEEP Pg 142 Environment and Social Systems Assessment GOAL-SEEP Pg 143 Environment and Social Systems Assessment GOAL-SEEP Pg 144 Environment and Social Systems Assessment ANNEXURE 9: DECLARATION OF GRIEVANCE REDRESS MECHANISM UNDER LOCAL AUTHORITY BY GOG UNDER RTE ACT 2009 GOAL-SEEP Pg 145 Environment and Social Systems Assessment GOAL-SEEP Pg 146 Environment and Social Systems Assessment GOAL-SEEP Pg 147 Environment and Social Systems Assessment GOAL-SEEP Pg 148 Environment and Social Systems Assessment GOAL-SEEP Pg 149 Environment and Social Systems Assessment GOAL-SEEP Pg 150 Environment and Social Systems Assessment GOAL-SEEP Pg 151 Environment and Social Systems Assessment GOAL-SEEP Pg 152