China - Teacher Training Project

 Teacher training project Report No: ; Type: Report/Evaluation Memorandum ; Country: China; Region: East Asia And Pacific; Sector: Other Education; Major Sector: Education; ProjectID: P003465 December 29, 1995 China: Teacher Training Project (Credit 1908-CHA) The China Teacher Training project (Credit 1908-CHA for US$50 million) was approved in FY88. The Implementation Completion Report (ICR) was prepared by the East Asia and Pacific Regional Office. The ICR provides a clear and comprehensive account of the implementation of the project and follows the structure prescribed in the new guidelines. Comments by the Borrower are included in Annex B. The project aimed to achieve universal basic education by expanding and upgrading the training of lower secondary school teachers with an emphasis on improving the quality of teachers and on institution-building in 16 provinces, 52 prefectures, and the cities of Beijing, Shanghai, and Tianjin. In support of its objectives, the credit financed construction of facilities, equipment purchases, provision of instructional materials, training and technical assistance to improve system management. The project performed well and the credit was fully disbursed within the original implementation period. Inputs were successfully utilized, and the physical aspects of the project were completed satisfactorily. The total number of teacher trainees rose to nearly three times the original target (of 171,916) and the participation of women in in-service lower secondary education teacher training increased from 27 percent to about 42 percent. Nevertheless, the institution-building aspect of the project had mixed results. Borrower planning capacity was weaker than expected, and a permanent national network of provincial institutes of education was not created, as envisaged. This network would have permitted the regular exchanges of instructional ideas and practices between the newly trained teachers and teachers who had not received inservice training. Future projects need to be better designed to facilitate this dissemination. The ICR rates the outcome of the project as satisfactory and its sustainability as likely, particularly if refresher training maintains teachers' skills and good classroom practices. Institutional development is rated by the ICR as modest, because linkages among institutions need to be strengthened. Bank performance is rated as satisfactory. The Operations Evaluation Department agrees with these ratings. The implementation of this project illustrates that the dissemination of new ideas is often more difficult than expected. The horizontal dissemination of good practices even within the same type of institutional structure is very difficult when structural compartmentalization goes unnoticed. Future projects should be designed to deal with recognized dissemination difficulties in the system. No audit is planned.