RESULTS-BASED FINANCING RBF EDUCATION IMPACT DECEMBER 2019 MOROCCO Supporting the Design of Performance-Based Contracts to Improve Results in Education Introduction Morocco has made dramatic improvements in access to education over the last two decades. The country has built thousands of schools, hired and trained teachers, achieved universal primary education, and registered large improvements in student learning outcomes. While the education system has recorded impressive and rapid improvement, challenges remain. Student dropout rates remain high and regional and gender inequalities in access to education and learning outcomes persist. As part of efforts to tackle these remaining challenges, the government has provided greater autonomy to regional education offices as a way of encouraging improvements in the quality of education programs and to ensure that they are sensitive to local needs. The Results in Education for All Children (REACH) Trust Fund provided a grant aimed at exploring how performance contracts between the central ministry and its regional offices could improve cooperation between different levels of government and renew a focus on results. Intervention In 2016, REACH provided a small grant to the World Bank country team to help the Government of Morocco develop a model for performance-based contracts between the national government and the Regional Academies for Education and Training. Performance contracts can provide incentives to the academies to use centrally allocated funds to achieve specific results that both sides agree on rather than focusing solely on “inputs” and activities. The grant helped to support The Results in Education for All Children the conduct and analysis of the Service Delivery Indicator (REACH) Trust Fund under the World Bank (SDI) survey, done by the National Observatory of Human Group seeks to help countries strengthen their Development under the Prime Minister’s office. The survey education services by focusing initiatives on generated data on teacher and student knowledge, the state results. The IMPACT series describes how of school infrastructure, and teacher attendance to help results-based projects funded by REACH identify the major challenges in the education sector and to influence learning, education systems, and provide useful information and potential indicators for the policy making. RESULTS-BASED FINANCING RBF EDUCATION IMPACT Cover photo: “First grade classroom at the elementary school in the village Ait Sidi Hsain” by World Bank/Arne Hoel, license: CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 design of performance-based contracts. The Bank team also World Bank Supported held workshops to train central and regional officials on how Interventions that Help Design to design and implement performance contracts. Performance Contracts Impact A key achievement under the grant was the completion of the Service Delivery Indicator (SDI) survey, which helped to highlight key constraints in Morocco’s education system. Discussion on these results has helped government officials to focus on several findings that can be addressed SDI TRAINING OF SURVEYS GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS through performance contracts or other performance-based approaches. These include weak teacher performance, the data on support for importance of preprimary education, and the general poor quality of education services. School Increased capacity infrastructure to design and The REACH grant also provided initial support to Morocco’s enact performance Teacher and student education ministry and regional authorities to design a knowledge contracts framework for performance-based contracts between the Teacher attendance national government and regional academies. This support provided initial draft contracts which have been developed further by the government. Draft contracts are under helps design discussion at the education ministry and will require updating to align with a new education bill enacted in August 2019. The final version is expected to incorporate core aspects of the draft contract, including the use of education-specific indicators, such as student-teacher ratio, and of public EDUCATION PERFORMANCE CONTRACTS financial management indicators, such as education budget execution rate in a specific area. Completion of the performance contract and its adoption by Morocco’s education system is one of the disbursement- RESULTS IN EDUCATION FOR ALL linked indicators included in a new US$500 million World CHILDREN (REACH) RESOURCES Bank project for the country approved in 2019. The For more information on REACH initiatives REACH grant helped lay the groundwork for this project and other resources, please refer to the by building Morocco authorities’ capacity to design and REACH website or contact us by email. enact performance contracts in the education sector. It also strengthened support for the use of a results- based approach in education. Finally, the grant helped to worldbank.org/reach strengthen collaboration between Morocco’s education reach@worldbank.org and finance ministries, with both agencies committed to using performance contracts to push for improvements in education services and ultimately, learning outcomes. Co-funders: the Governments of Germany, Norway, and the United States