| Project Detail |
The Project responds to an urgent need to support the Government’s roll-out of its free primary education
policy. It is designed to address challenges in the primary education sector through short- and medium-term
interventions organized in three mutually reinforcing components, two of which are results-based. The
Project uses an IPF with DLIs modality that will put in place the building blocks of a more sustainably financed
system which supports improved learning outcomes. The use of an IPF with DLI modality creates an
opportunity for the World Bank and, indirectly, other donor partners, to support the Government’s
implementation of primary education sector reforms which underpin the sustainability of the free primary
schooling policy -- strengthening human resource (HR) and data management systems, as well as PFM. In so
doing, the operation relieves poor households from paying out-of-pocket school fees, funds which they can
use for other critical expenditures.
29. The Project is highly pro-poor. The Project will support a reduction in the burden of public primary school
fees on households and increase access for approximately 1.28 million poor children entering the system.
This is based on the Government’s preliminary estimate of approximately 2.5 million additional children
nationwide having entered the public primary system immediately following the announcement of the free
school policy,30 of which an estimated 95 percent come from poor households. Approximately 54 percent of
these, or 1.28 million poor children, are in the project provinces. The elimination of fees is expected to also
benefit poor or near-poor households who will transfer their children from private schools to public ones that
are now fee-free. Given that private schools disproportionately serve the better-off, the main impact on the
private sector in the short term is therefore likely to be a limited reduction in enrolment and the possible
closure of some low-cost schools serving the poor. Over time there may be a further rebalancing in favor of private schools if the policy negatively impacts quality and as parents who can afford private schools re-assess
the relative merits of the options available to them. 31 In addition, as detailed below in the economic analysis,
the implementation of the national free primary education policy, which this Project supports, will result in
an immediate 2 percentage point decrease of the national poverty rate. Given the country’s lack of social
protection systems, shifting the cost of primary schooling from households to Government is one of the most
direct and effective ways to improve welfare, while also tackling fundamental governance issues.
Project Components
Component 1: Enabling Free Access for All (US$410 million equivalent)
Component 2: Laying the Foundations for Quality (US$290 million equivalent)
Component 2: Laying the Foundations for Quality (US$290 million equivalent) |
