INTEGRATED SAFEGUARDS DATA SHEET CONCEPT STAGE Public Disclosure Copy Report No.: ISDSC8327 Date ISDS Prepared/Updated: 18-Sep-2014 Date ISDS Approved/Disclosed: 18-Sep-2014 I. BASIC INFORMATION A. Basic Project Data Country: Burkina Faso Project ID: P148062 Project Name: Education Access and Quality Improvement Project (EAQIP) (P148062) Task Team Adama Ouedraogo Leader: Estimated 14-Oct-2014 Estimated 25-Nov-2014 Appraisal Date: Board Date: Managing Unit: GEDDR Lending Investment Project Financing Instrument: Sector(s): Secondary education (60%), Tertiary education (20%), Primary education (15%), Pre-primary education (5%) Theme(s): Education for the knowledge economy (80%), Education for all (20%) Financing (In USD Million) Total Project Cost: 50.00 Total Bank Financing: 50.00 Public Disclosure Copy Financing Gap: 0.00 Financing Source Amount BORROWER/RECIPIENT 0.00 International Development Association (IDA) 50.00 Total 50.00 Environmental B - Partial Assessment Category: Is this a No Repeater project? B. Project Objectives Project Development Objectives (PDOs) of the Education Access and Quality Improvement Project (EAQIP) are to (i) increase access and quality of secondary schools (grades 7-13) in five of the poorer regions with a special focus on girls; and (ii) contribute to strengthening the education institutional capacity at national, regional, and school level. To help achieve these objectives, the project would support further development of ECD and curriculum development in primary education, both of which are critical for increased access and improved quality of secondary education, but are not now adequately financed through other interventions. In addition to further development of ECD, it is expected that interventions at this and Public Disclosure Copy the primary level would positively impact primary education during the life of the project and secondary education in the short to medium term . C. Project Description The project will focus primarily on the five poorest regions in the country, but will also contribute to the further development of some national programs. The latter include curricula reform, teacher training (pre- and in-service training), improved student assessment and monitoring, and institutional capacity strengthening and development. The expansion of secondary-level access, including specialized classrooms, would create additional capacity to accommodate the growing number of students coming from the primary level. The lowering of the costs of education to the poorest households in the five regions would make it easier for families to enroll their children in school. Involvement of School-Based Management Committees (SBMCs) will also stimulate demand by ensuring keener focus on some of the non- financial and contextual constraints to access. The design of the SBMC would build on earlier successful outcomes with COGES, including the use of School Improvement Plans (SIPs). Quality & relevance of learning and teaching would be improved through support to strengthen curricula reform, SBMCs and SIPs, student assessment & monitoring, and expansion of better quality of teacher training. “Lycées Scientifiques” (focusing on excellence in math and sciences) would serve as “living laboratories” for other secondary schools to emulate to further improve their school- environments and to adopt more appropriate teaching methods, especially for math and sciences. Strengthening the institutional and management capacity in selective areas at the national, local and school levels, including greater use of modern computer and technology tools would also enhance efficiency and effectiveness in the secondary education sub-sector. Public Disclosure Copy Component 1: Expanding equitable access to secondary education (US$20.00 million) The objective of component 1 is to contribute to increased and equitable access to secondary education by tackling supply and demand constraints to enrollment in the five poorest regions. On the supply-side, the EAQIP would support the expansion of lower and upper secondary education, through increasing: (i) public and private secondary education access; and (ii) equity in lower and upper secondary education, especially for girls and children from low income families. This would be achieved through reduced school costs by providing subsidies to selected students and introducing other support mechanisms to tackle specific local constraints on education demand. This component consists of three sub-components. Subcomponent 1. Increasing public secondary school places, especially in the five covered regions. This sub-component will finance construction and equipment of new lower (CEG) and upper secondary (Lycée) schools/classrooms in underserved areas. The construction will also include 2 “pilot” lycées scientifiques located in suburban areas to allow easier access for secondary schools that would want to emulate their best practices. Based on the schema used for previous projects (PEPP II), the MESS will hire full time teachers for each new school, while communes will hire contractual teachers to supplement pedagogical staffing needs where needed. Subcomponent 2. Increasing private secondary school places in urban areas. This sub-component would support the construction and equipment of new private lower (CEG) and upper secondary schools (lycées) and the expansion of existing private secondary schools using the public-private partnership (PPP) practices adopted in the previous education project. The MESS would build and lease ownership and management of schools to private education providers selected through a Public Disclosure Copy competitive process. Expansion of existing schools will include high achieving “religious private secondary schools” based on agreed and specific eligibility criteria which would include an agreement that they would enroll promising students sponsored by MESS. Subcomponent 3. Targeted support to girls and the poorest households. This subcomponent will contribute to tackling education demand constraints through combined actions aimed at increasing enrollment and retention of girls and/or the poorest students. The policy of fee reduction started in the PPEP2 would be continued to help lower the direct household costs of secondary education and make it easier for girls and poorest households to participate in secondary education. Subsidies would also be provided to selected students, mainly girls, from poor households to help with additional schooling costs. Specific criteria would be established to identify promising students who successfully complete primary or lower secondary education, but for socio-economic reasons would not be able to afford lower or upper secondary education. The identification “targeting” system would build on the mechanisms prepared by the Social Protection team in the proposed Safety Net Project. This approach would be launched on a pilot basis in 5 Communes selected within the covered five regions. The third action would consist of targeted support for the implementation of the School Improvement Plans (SIPs) led by the SBMC (see Component below). The project will contribute to financing, within the SIP, specific activities related to promoting enrolment and retention of girls and poorest students. This intervention would help address two key issues identified in the preliminary results of the gender study on factors limiting girls and poor students’ enrolment: (i) housing of students living away from their home villages to attend school and (ii) early pregnancy and accommodation for students’ newborn babies. The project would also support within the SIP, locally identified solutions to address these issues. Component 2: Improving the quality and relevance of Secondary Education (US$22.00 million). Public Disclosure Copy The objective of component 2 is to contribute to improved quality & relevance of teaching & learning in secondary schools in the five poorest regions, focusing on Mathematics, the Natural Sciences, Languages and computer sciences. This component would consolidate and scale up achievements from the previous Post-Primary Education project (PPEP2) and support the GoBF reforms for improving the quality, relevance and efficiency of secondary education. The component consists of four sub-components. Subcomponent 1. Targeted activities for efficient transition from primary to lower secondary education. Assessment of the results of PPEP2 showed that many secondary schools students had not attained the expected level of achievement. The explanation was largely because students entering from the primary cycle had not acquired the minimum academic requirements needed to embark on the secondary school program. This issue will be addressed by two structural actions which could have a profound impact on the quality of primary education and beyond. The project would provide continued support for the targeted activities under the PDSEB. The targeted activities include: (i) Curriculum reform: Building a quality basic-education curriculum by upgrading the programs for the ECD and streamlining the primary and lower secondary school curricula. This would ensure coherence in the curriculum throughout the basic education cycle, particularly to correct the discontinuity in learning objectives at the transition point from primary to lower secondary education. The specific activities would include (i) development and adoption of good quality early childhood education programs; and (ii) streamlining the curricula for the primary and secondary levels to ensure a systematic progression between grades and transition between the two Public Disclosure Copy cycles. Implementation of the basic education curriculum reform which was launched in 2013 is expected to be completed by the 2020-2021 academic year. To date, the following activities have been completed, financed by national budget and other donor partners: (i) Reference document for the curriculum reform; (ii) Determination and organization of basic education contents; (iii) Organization of curriculum contents per sub-cycle; (iv) Rewriting of programs per sub-cycle in a curriculum format; (v) Development of framing instruments; (vi) Development of an experimental Protocol. Under this strategy, the key remaining activities to be undertaken include: (i) Development and approval of teaching programs, teacher training modules and didactical instruments for the curriculum pilot and generalization phases; (ii) Training of teachers and pedagogic supervisors to ensure smooth implementation and monitoring of the pilot and for scaling up the new curriculum; (iii) Revision, development and approval of textbooks and other didactical materials. The Government created a Directorate to conduct the curriculum reform, relying on national expertise within the ministry organized in specialized committees, supported by international expertise. Based on the implementation schedule, it is projected that by end of 2018, which is also the expected closing date of the project, the new curriculum for the first two sub-cycles of primary education, ECD, and all grades of lower secondary education would have been piloted and generalized. The project will contribute to the financing of the curriculum reform, including development of instruments, teacher training for the first two sub-cycles of primary education, ECD, and the first three grades of lower secondary education. (ii) Further Development of Early Childhood Development. Research shows that investments in quality early childhood education programs are effective in achieving improved educational outcomes at higher levels of the education system. ECD helps provide the required psycho-motor and basic literacy and numeracy skills that promote on-time entry and improved learning at the primary Public Disclosure Copy level. This in turn leads to improved retention and completion rates at the primary and secondary levels. Students who learn more in primary schools are better able to master the lower secondary curriculum and would enter lower secondary at a younger age. This latter is important since younger students are less likely quit school for marriage or employment in contrast to older students. To support Government’s efforts to further develop ECD, the project will invest in increasing access to early childhood care and education through parenting education and in improving the quality of existing ECD services through teacher training. Parenting education will better prepare parents to play a critical role in their child’s development by providing early stimulation and appropriate health and nutrition care for them. This component will be based on the UNICEF supported Government Parent Education Strategy that is currently being implemented. This str ategy includes selected low- cost, good quality and highly scalable models of parent education currently in operation in the country, run by the non-profit sector. Subcomponent 2. Development of school-based quality initiatives This component would strengthen the administrative arrangements and management capacity of secondary schools to help achieve improved student learning outcomes. It would build on the Presidential Decree of 2010 authorizing nation-wide establishment COGES in all primary schools by 2015. Following this Decree, the Government and the Bank agreed to pilot the use of COGES in lower secondary education to complete coverage for the basic education cycle. The composition and functions of the SBMCs would be designed to ensure that they operate effectively. Recent evidence shows that the school based management approach can be an effective strategy to increase parental participation in school decisions that would help reduce dropout, repetition and failure rates and, Public Disclosure Copy under certain conditions, increase learning outcomes . outcomes. Therefore, the project will focus on creating the conditions (local capacity building, SIP preparation, resources transfer and management, incentives) within which the school based management policy, can be translated into improvements in the quality of education service delivery. The three following key tools will be used to achieve success in quality improvement at this level: (i) support for establishing School Based Management Committees; (ii) supporting School Improvement Plans (pedagogic support and materials); and (iii) piloting incentives for performance improvement. (i) Promoting School Based Management Committees. The project will support the establishment of SBMCs in each lower secondary school and provide training for its members. The design and implementation will build on the successful experiences of using SBMCs in Niger and the JICA financed pilot programs on SBMCs at the primary level in Burkina. The existing guides clarifying the roles, responsibilities and modalities for their establishment and operations, as well as training programs for members are available and will be adapted for use in Burkina. The first project year will be used for adapting the various tools and for piloting SBMC in one region. (ii) Development of School Improvement Plans (SIPs). Each lower secondary school will have a SIP prepared by the SBMC focusing on quality improvements, notably better learning outcomes and performance in national examinations. The SBMC will lead the process of preparing the SIP, from diagnostics to implementation, including managing resource allocation. The existing guides for the preparation of SIPs at the primary level will be adapted for use at the lower secondary level. (iii) Incentives for performance improvement. Two types of incentives will be financed for schools. The first, which will vary based on the size of the school, will be provided for 2 years to allow time for these resources to be included in the government’s recurrent budget. The second will be linked to existing annual school performance competition already being run by MESS. This initiative is based Public Disclosure Copy on agreed criteria that will be incorporated in the Project Implementation Manual. Under the MESS initiative, the best performing schools are included in a Circle of Excellence. Schools that do not maintain their performance levels annually will be re-evaluated and, if performance does not improve, dropped from the “Circle of Excellence”. The ranking of all schools will continue to be published in the regional and national press, as well as on the web sites of the Education Ministries. Subcomponent 3. Improve teacher management and Pre- and In-service Training in secondary Education This subcomponent aims at improving both the initial and In-service training of secondary school teachers. Toward this end, the project will support the government’s teacher tr aining policy. Initial training: Currently the two institutes responsible for teacher training, the ENS-UK, (covering all subjects) and the IDS (which trains teachers only for math and science), produce only around 1,400 teachers per year against the need for about 2000 teachers, with the highest deficits being in math and science. The project will support progressive expansion of teacher output to meet all the needs and to facilitate teacher assignments to rural areas where the needs for qualified teachers are greatest. In addition, the project will support use of improved teaching methodologies in the training institutions especially for math and science. The current training strategy comes from reforms undertaken in 1990s piloted and implemented by previous Bank financed projects (PEPP1 and PEPP2). The project will also support improving the contents of the training program. An evaluation of the pre-service training programs will be carried out to identify the specific areas of need. Support for improving the pedagogical methods would be done through technical assistance. In addition, the project will finance equipment to improve the curricula programs. Public Disclosure Copy In-service training. Continuous pedagogic support and advice are necessary to improve the quality of instruction and to update teaching capacity. The PPEP2 supported the revision of the in-service training system. The strategy for upgrading the skills of teachers is designed and implemented on a three-pronged approach. School principals would receive initial training related to their pedagogic responsibilities. The training would draw on the experience of PEPP2 and would use the manual already developed, which clearly explains the respective roles. The second level of support involves deployment of Pedagogic Advisers (CP) and Inspectors, who are responsible for visiting each school and each teacher at least once a year, in the regions. On the basis of their reports, the insp ectorate would prepare subject-based in-service training programs (including how to use existing materials and textbooks). The third level of support is the teachers' study group established in networks of closely located schools (Cellule animation pédagogique-CAP). The in-service training would take advantage of the half-day midweek break to organize activities for teachers each week. Subcomponent 4. Increased availability of textbooks and pedagogical materials This sub-component will support improving the teaching and learning environment by increasing the availability of textbooks and other pedagogical materials. The previous project (PPEP2) financed successful local production of teaching materials to improve science teaching. This initiative will be extended. The project will also finance necessary equipment for the two “Lycees Scientifiques” pilots in upper secondary schools. The current project will build on and improve the overall textbooks provision started under PEPP2 to ensure textbooks availability for lower and upper secondary. The project will not acquire textbooks directly, but will provide support to ensure adequate textbook availability for the secondary education. Quantity and details will be completed during project preparation. Public Disclosure Copy Component 3: Contributing to strengthening education institutional capacity at central and decentralized entities (US$8.00 million) The objectives of component 3 are to contribute to strengthening the ministry’s capacity in selective areas and support the PCU operations. The areas covered include: 3.1. Project management and implementation activities; 3.2. Establishment of a Technology Platform: the Technology Platform, as an IT infrastructure for secondary education institutions (secondary and higher education), with connectivity to the Ministry in charge of Secondary and Higher Education (MESS) will reinforce the sector EMIS built under the PPEP2 by integrating different entities. It would serve a dual purpose for academic and administrative management of institutions and schools. With regard to academics, the platform would serve as a tool for course development, in the form of so-called “virtual labs”, and for course delivery with the view to reducing teacher shortages in higher education; and as a virtual library shared by teacher training institutions within the universities. 3.3. strengthening students learning assessment and examination systems; 3.4. Studies to provide relevant information needed for policy dialogue and decision-making for education policy reforms. D. Project location and salient physical characteristics relevant to the safeguard analysis (if known) The project will be implemented mostly in five poorest regions of the country. E. Borrowers Institutional Capacity for Safeguard Policies Public Disclosure Copy The borrower's institutional capacity for safeguard policies is acceptable due to its experience with bank funded projects on one hand and on the other hand, its voluntary to make the environmental management one of key pillars contained in its Strategy for Accelerated Growth and Sustained Development for 2011–15 (Stratégie pour la Croissance Accélérée et le Développement Durable- SCADD). Furthermore both ministries ( Ministry of National Education and literacy and Ministry of Secondary and Higher Education) are familiar with safeguard policies for having opportunity in the past to implement projects funded by the World bank. In addition, it exists a national agency (Bureau National des Evaluations Environnementales-BUNEE) in charge of environmental studies and the monitoring and the control of projects implementation at the national level. Nevertheless, the PCU capacity building efforts to support project implementation will be done by implementing recommendations contained in the safeguards instruments prepared for the project. The project will also receive guidance from the Bank’s environmental and social specialists in the Project team. F. Environmental and Social Safeguards Specialists on the Team Lucienne M. M'Baipor (GSURR) Abdoulaye Gadiere (GENDR) II. SAFEGUARD POLICIES THAT MIGHT APPLY Safeguard Policies Triggered? Explanation (Optional) Environmental Assessment OP/ Yes The project will finance construction of new BP 4.01 lower and upper secondary schools in the five poorest regions of the country. In addition, it is envisaged that the project will finance the expansion of existing private secondary schools Public Disclosure Copy using private-public partnerships. Likewise, IT infrastructure is planned to be constructed under component 3. These investments, which are mostly small- to medium-scale civil works, are expected to induce potential environmental adverse impacts. However, they do not involve irreversible impacts. So, impacts expected will be dust, noise and particularly waste management. The exact location of the construction and expansion activities are not yet known, an Environmental and Social Management Framework (ESMF) has been prepared. This document will be prepared, consulted upon and disclosed both in-country and at the World Bank Infoshop prior to appraisal. Natural Habitats OP/BP 4.04 No The project does not involve or affect natural habitats. Forests OP/BP 4.36 No The project does not involve or affect forests. Pest Management OP 4.09 No The project does not involve pest management. Physical Cultural Resources OP/ Yes The construction will involve excavations. Public Disclosure Copy BP 4.11 Taking into account that factor, the policy on physical cultural resources is triggered because it could lead to chance finds. However, the triggering of this policy does not entail the preparation of a specific safeguard instrument. A chapter will be included in the ESMF to provide guidance in case physical cultural resources will be discovered. Indigenous Peoples OP/BP 4.10 No There are no Indigenous Peoples in the project area. Involuntary Resettlement OP/BP Yes Usually, in urban areas, public schools are built 4.12 in administrative areas reserved for this kind of infrastructure. However, this is not the case in rural areas, where these new constructions could involve land acquisition leading to involuntary resettlement and/or restrictions of access to resources and livelihoods. Therefore, to anticipate these potential social adverse impacts, a Resettlement Policy Framework (RPF) will be prepared by the client. That safeguard document preparation will follow the same process as the ESMF. So, it will be reviewed, consulted upon and disclosed publicly within Burkina Faso and at the Infoshop before appraisal. Public Disclosure Copy Safety of Dams OP/BP 4.37 No N/A Projects on International No N/A Waterways OP/BP 7.50 Projects in Disputed Areas OP/BP No N/A 7.60 III. SAFEGUARD PREPARATION PLAN A. Tentative target date for preparing the PAD Stage ISDS: 30-Jun-2014 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: The Environmental and Social Management Framework (ESMF) and Resettlement Policy Framework (RPF) constitute the environmental safeguard instruments to be prepared within the project. These safeguard instruments are expected to be prepared, reviewed, consulted upon and disclosed within the country by the Government of Burkina Faso, and by the World Bank’s Infoshop prior to appraisal of the Project. IV. APPROVALS 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. Task Team Leader: Name: Adama Ouedraogo Approved By: Public Disclosure Copy Regional Safeguards Name: Alexandra C. Bezeredi (RSA) Date: 18-Sep-2014 Coordinator: Sector Manager: Name: Peter Nicolas Materu (SM) Date: 18-Sep-2014 Public Disclosure Copy