INTEGRATED SAFEGUARDS DATA SHEET CONCEPT STAGE Public Disclosure Copy Report No.: ISDSC2076 Date ISDS Prepared/Updated: 28-Jan-2013 Date ISDS Approved/Disclosed: 13-Feb-2013 I. BASIC INFORMATION A. Basic Project Data Country: Armenia Project ID: P130182 Project Name: Education Quality Project (P130182) Task Team Mario Cristian Aedo Inost Leader: Estimated 00-undefined-0000 Estimated 11-Dec-2013 Appraisal Date: Board Date: Managing Unit: ECSH2 Lending Specific Investment Loan Instrument: Sector: General education sector (50%), Tertiary education (30%), Pre-primary education (20%) Theme: Education for the knowledge economy (70%), Education for all (30%) Financing (In USD Million) Financing Source Amount Public Disclosure Copy BORROWER/RECIPIENT 0.00 International Development Association (IDA) 30.00 Total 30.00 Environmental B - Partial Assessment Category: Is this a No Repeater project? B. Project Objectives The Project Development Objectives are to (i) improve school readiness of children entering primary education, (ii) improve the learning environment in general education, and (iii) support increased labor market linkages of the higher education institutions inArmenia. C. Project Description The project comprises five components as follows: Component 1 (Estimated total cost US$ 1.5 million) - Increasing Access and Quality of Preschool Education. The objective of this component is twofold: firstly, it would support the Government of Armenia’s (GoA’s) efforts to increase preschool enrollment, focusing on vulnerable populations (including ethnic groups and disabled children), as a means of improving school readiness of 4 to 6 years old Public Disclosure Copy children entering primary education. Secondly, this component would finance activities aimed at improving the quality of preschool education offered by community-based initiatives. By the end of 2017, it is expected that 90 percent of 4 to 6 years old children would be enrolled in preschool institutions. Component 2 (Estimated total cost US$ 18 million) - Enriching Upper Secondary Schools. The objective of this component is to enrich the recently established network of High Schools by supporting rehabilitation of existing facilities and improvements in teaching and learning conditions, including the provision of contextualized digital learning materials in classrooms and modern equipment. By the end of the Project, it is expected that at least 17 high schools will be fully rehabilitated and offer upper secondary educational services in improved teaching and learning environments. Component 3 (Estimated total cost US$ 3.5 million) - Strengthening Key Institutions for Monitoring Outcomes of Educational Institutions and for Assessments of Student Learning in Armenia. This component will (i) improve the National Center of Education Technology’s (NACET) capacity to Monitor the Armenian Educational network and provide adequate ICT coverage to all educational institutions of the country and (ii) provide support for the strengthening and improvement of Armenia’s student assessment system. Component 4 (Estimated total cost US$ 5 million) – Mainstreaming of the Competitive Innovation Fund (CIF) for Higher Education Institutions. The objective of this component is to support the roll-out of the competitive grant program for higher education institutions (HEIs) that was developed and piloted under the Bank-supported Education Quality and Relevance Project (EQRP) -2. CIF was designed to support the best proposals prepared by HEIs with the aim of improving the quality, promoting the modernization and labor market Public Disclosure Copy relevance of the academic programs, increasing efficiency and equity, and increasing the access to new academic programs of HEIs in Armenia. Component 5 (Estimated total cost US$ 2 million) - Project Management. This component will provide the resources for the day-to-day implementation of the project by the Center for Education Projects (CEP), as well as for monitor and evaluate project implementation and outcomes. This component would provide funds for monitoring and evaluation studies, and audits of both project financial statements and grants implementation. D. Project location and salient physical characteristics relevant to the safeguard analysis (if known) The project will be implemented country-wide. Beneficiary educational facilities are not pre- identified and therefore their locations are not known at present. A Feasibility Study will be carried out to select them. E. Borrowers Institutional Capacity for Safeguard Policies The Ministry of Education and Science (MoES) is the implementing agency for the project. CEP under the MoES will act as the project implementation unit responsible for day-to-day management of the project implementation including procurement, disbursement, safeguards application, and M&E. Although MoES and CEP have been involved in the implementation of the Bank-supported project in the past and performed well in that capacity, their experience in the application of safeguards policies is modest as in difference from the proposed project, the previous activities did not include civil works are were classified as environmental Category C. The Bank team discussed Public Disclosure Copy with the CEP institutional arrangements to close the gap in human capacity for safeguards application. It was agreed, that for the period of the project preparation CEP management will appoint one of the staff members as a focal point for overseeing required environmental work, and will hire an environmental specialist once the project enters into operation and resources become available. The environmental specialist should have relevant experience and skills, and will receive on-the-job coaching from the Safeguards Specialist of the World Bank Task Team promptly upon recruitment. Hiring and maintaining an environmental specialist in CEP throughout the period of civil works performance under the project will be a legally binding commitment of the Borrower. F. Environmental and Social Safeguards Specialists on the Team Darejan Kapanadze (ECSEN) II. SAFEGUARD POLICIES THAT MIGHT APPLY Safeguard Policies Triggered? Explanation (Optional) Environmental Assessment OP/ Yes Component 2 of the project will support BP 4.01 rehabilitation of school buildings, the main expected deficiencies being heating systems, water damage, and seismic instability of constructions. Rehabilitation works are expected to have some temporary negative impacts typical for reconstruction/rehabilitation of small to medium size constructions. OP/BP 4.01 is triggered. According to the principles of this safeguard policy and based on the outcome of environmental screening, the project is Public Disclosure Copy classified as Category B. Environmental risks of the project implementation will be of modest scale, and limited to the construction sites and to the period of construction works. Managing these impacts and keeping them to the acceptable minimum will be achieved effectively by adhering to the good construction practice and applying specific mitigation measures to be provided in the Environmental Management Plans. An important principle for selecting building for rehabilitation and preparing design documents will be to screen them for revealing any structural damage and instability and to address these faults or drop buildings which are beyond repair of structural problems. If the designed works imply replacement of damaged roofs, there is a high likelihood of encountering asbestos-containing old roofing materials. Environmental Management Framework (EMF) to be developed for the project will provide guidance on the protection of workers’ health& safety and Public Disclosure Copy on the disposal of asbestos-containing hazardous materials. Natural Habitats OP/BP 4.04 No Forests OP/BP 4.36 No Pest Management OP 4.09 No Physical Cultural Resources OP/ Yes School buildings suggested for rehabilitation BP 4.11 with support of the project are predominantly old and there is some likelihood of some of these buildings carrying a historical value. OP/ BP 4.11 is triggered to ensure that the process of school selection will involve checking if any of the buildings are formally entered into the list of the nation's historical and/or cultural heritage. In such cases the building renovation designs will be cleared with the national authorities responsible for the preservation of cultural heritage to ensure that historic/cultural value of such buildings are not compromised as a result of improvement works. These provisions will be included into the EMF. Indigenous Peoples OP/BP 4.10 No Involuntary Resettlement OP/BP No Public Disclosure Copy 4.12 Safety of Dams OP/BP 4.37 No Projects on International No Waterways OP/BP 7.50 Projects in Disputed Areas OP/BP No 7.60 III. SAFEGUARD PREPARATION PLAN A. Tentative target date for preparing the PAD Stage ISDS: 26-Apr-2013 B. Time frame for launching and completing the safeguard-related studies that may be needed. The specific studies and their timing1 should be specified in the PAD-stage ISDS: According to the project design civil works will be implemented in multiple locations to be identified at a later stage of the project life. Also, the project beneficiary institutions may be selected on the rolling basis rather than named all at once. The nature of works to be undertaken in all of these locations will be pretty similar with generally well known impacts on the natural environment and social strata. Therefore, an Environmental Management Framework (EMF) will be developed for the project by the time of appraisal as well as the site-specific Environmental 1 Reminder: The Bank's Disclosure Policy requires that safeguard-related documents be disclosed before appraisal (i) at the InfoShop and (ii) in country, at publicly accessible locations and in a form and language that are accessible to potentially affected persons. Management Plans (EMPs) for the first year work program. EMPs for other sites will be produced later, as the beneficiary institutions get identified and detailed designs for their rehabilitation become available. The simplified EMP Checklist for Small Construction and Rehabilitation Public Disclosure Copy Activities will be used for the predominant number of construction sites, while a fuller version of EMP may be required in an unlikely case of higher risk Category B works. IV. APPROVALS Task Team Leader: Name: Mario Cristian Aedo Inost Approved By: Regional Safeguards Name: Agnes I. Kiss (RSA) Date: 31-Jan-2013 Coordinator: Sector Manager: Name: Alberto Rodriguez (SM) Date: 13-Feb-2013 Public Disclosure Copy