Morocco - Rural Primary Education Project

 Rural Primary Education Report No: ; Type: Report/Evaluation Memorandum ; Country: Morocco; Region: Middle East And North Africa; Sector: Primary Education; Major Sector: Education; ProjectID: P005480 The Morocco Rural Primary Education Project, supported by Loan 3026-MOR for US$83 million, was approved in FY89. The loan was closed one year behind schedule in FY96 and US$8 million was canceled. Cofinancing of US$40 million was provided by the African Development Bank. The Implementation Completion Report (ICR) was prepared by the Middle East and North Africa regional office. The borrower’s evaluation of the project are included as an appendix. The ICR did not include the aide-memoire for the final supervision or the cofinancier’s comments, though these were subsequently made available. The project emphasized demand-side factors in improving primary education, as well as the supply of inputs. It had five objectives: one, to increase access to primary schooling in rural areas by building classrooms and related school facilities (88 percent of project costs); two, to increase rural primary school attendance, particularly for girls, through a major textbook program, promotional campaigns and local initiatives to increase girls’ participation; three, to improve educational quality with new curricula, standardized achievement testing, multi-grade teaching, recruitment of teachers for rural areas, pre-service and in-service teacher training and school management; four, to strengthen educational planning, monitoring and evaluation capacities; and, five, to strengthen the efficient and rational use of resources in primary education. Outcomes were unsatisfactory. The Ministry of Education was less committed to the quality objectives than to physical expansion. The program to provide schools quickly by using prefabricated materials proved unsound and unpopular. Nevertheless, the government completed the school construction program using conventional materials. The improvements in educational quality were piloted but were not implemented in proper sequence and not expanded, though the ICR expects some of these components to develop under the ongoing Social Priorities Program. The planned enrollment growth was achieved under challenging conditions, but girls did not go to school regularly and dropped out early. Moreover, the government did not adequately monitor girls’ participation. Community awareness campaigns had only brief impact and project investments did not support community initiatives as planned. A study on resource use and allocative efficiency was purportedly done but is not available, and public expenditures for education still favor secondary and higher education. Technical assistance was not fully implemented. The Operations Evaluation Department (OED) ) agrees with the ICR ratings for outcome as unsatisfactory, institutional development as negligible and Bank performance as unsatisfactory. The ICR leaves several important gaps including an operational plan that would show convincingly that the borrower is committed to following through on the budgetary and quality objectives. On the basis of the evidence in the ICR alone, OED would rate sustainability as unlikely because the project has to be evaluated on its own achievements and not in terms of prospects for subsequent follow-up projects. However, on the assurances of the Region that the policy environment and borrower commitment is now much better, OED rates sustainability as uncertain (ICR likely). Among other familiar lessons on project design, the ICR also cautions against prefabricated materials for school buildings, especially when communities are against them. OED supports the ICR’s comment on the need for detailed action plans for institutional development integrated into project design. But the Bank’s willingness to continue financing risky components should also be based on the evaluation of pilots and on an effectively operating institutional infrastructure to support the activities. An audit is planned.