Turkey - Second Basic Education Project (Phase 2 APL)

Report No. PID9625 Project Name Turkey-Basic Education II (Phase II APL) (@) Region Europe and Central Asia Region Sector Primary Education Project ID TRPE59872 Implementing Agency Address MINISTRY OF NATIONAL EDUCATION Ministry of National Education M.E.B. Mastesarlik, 06648 Bakanliklar, Ankara TURKEY Contact Person: Ibrahim Barbaros, Deputy Undersecretary Tel: (90-312) 418-6979 Fax: (90-312) 425-3315 Email: barbaros@meb.gov.tr Environment Category B Date PID Prepared March 26, 2001 Projected Appraisal Date April 30, 2001 Projected Board Date June 5, 2001 1. Country and Sector Background Educational attainment of Turkey's population and labor force is by far the lowest of all the OECD countries. In 1997, virtually all children in other OECD countries completed at least eight years of schooling, but in Turkey, fewer than 90t of children completed the first five years of schooling. Of those students who did complete the first five years, 45t -- mostly girls -- did not pursue further education. Only 53t of the 6-8 grade age group attended school. Just 17 W of Turkey's labor force had at least a secondary education, versus an average of 60t across all the OECD countries. Fully 70t of the labor force had only a five-year primary education or less. Ten percent of the labor force was illiterate. The East and Southeast lagged far behind the rest of the country in educational attainment, with almost half of girls dropping out before completion of fifth grade in some provinces. Rural schools were particularly handicapped in terms of teacher qualifications, educational materials, school attendance, and educational performance. Raising the educational qualifications of the population is a crucial requirement for national integration and for improved labor productivity and employment growth in Turkey. It is also crucial for making the Turkish economy more competitive with the European Union, with the other OECD countries, and with Turkey's global trading partners. Turkey is in the midst of a national mobilization to improve the educational qualifications of its population - starting at the base of the education pyramid. The Basic Education Law (No. 4306) which was adopted by Turkey's Parliament in August, 1997 extends the period of compulsory basic education from five years to eight years, and raises new tax revenues to finance a vast expansion of education infrastructure to accommodate the expected increase in basic education enrollments. Prior to adoption of the new Law, most children started school and completed five years of schooling, but 45t of students dropped out at the completion of grade five. Part of the reason  for the high drop-out rate at this level was that village schools typically provide for only the first five grades of schooling. In order to continue schooling beyond grade five, most rural children either had to commute to a middle school (grades 6 through 8) in a nearby town, or attend a boarding school. The compulsory extension of basic education began to take effect in September, 1998, when all children who had completed grade five in the prior school year were required to enroll in grade six. In the following two years, progression from grade six to grade seven, and from grade seven to grade eight became compulsory, and dropouts within the eight-year basic education cycle were also proscribed. The passage of the new Basic Education Law ended a period of stagnation in basic education enrollments which started in 1991. In 1998, the first year that the compulsory nature of the new law took effect, total enrollments increased sharply - by 4.4%. Enrollments in grade 6, which became mandatory for the first time in that year, increased from 866,000 in September, 1997 to 1,127,000 in September, 1998 - an increase of over 30 percent. In rural areas, the gains were dramatic: boys' enrollments in grade six increased by 62 percent; girls' enrollments increased by 162 percent. The rate of enrollment growth for girls was at least 50% greater than for boys in each of the years since the passage of the Law. The overall progress in basic education enrollments following the passage of the Basic Education Law is best summarized by the net enrollment ratio, which is the proportion of the basic education age group which is currently enrolled in school. The net enrollment ratio increased very sharply following passage of the Law, from 75.8% in 1996/97 to 91.1% in 1999/00. There are few cases of such rapid enrollment gains in the history of any national education system. This enrollment expansion is a very impressive achievement of the Basic Education Program, yet it is no grounds for complacency. There are still almost a million children of basic education school age who are not attending school. Non-attendance in basic education is concentrated largely in rural areas of the East and Southeast, and in slum areas of the largest cities. Under the Phase I of the Program, the Ministry is making a major effort to improve school attendance by improving school facilities and teaching materials in rural areas. It is also providing salary supplements to teachers to help offset the hardship of serving in provinces where teachers face especially harsh conditions. These measures are contributing to improved enrollments in areas with the most sigmnificant enrollment gaps. But a continuing obstacle to improving school attendance is the high turn-over rate for teachers in remote, rural areas. The isolation and austerity of life in these villages discourages teachers from accepting teaching positions, and causes teachers to seek other positions as soon as possible. The average tenure of teachers in much of the East and Southeast is one to two years. This is often too short a time for teachers to be accepted by the village and to become confident and effective in their teaching. The proposed Phase II Basic Education Project aims to increase enrollments in areas with significant dropouts by supporting further improvements to schools, further provision of educational materials, further teacher training to equip basic education teachers to deal with the teaching challenges of rural schools, and efforts to reduce teachers' sense of isolation in remote, rural schools. 2. Objectives The objective of the first APL was to promote the objectives of the Basic Education Program by supporting the Phase I implementation of the Basic -2 -  Education Program through: a) the provision of educational equipment and materials to basic education schools , b) upgrading rural basic education schools, c) in-service training of basic education teachers, principals, and inspectors, d) strengthening the Ministry of National Education's (MONE's) capacity to implement the Program, and e) monitoring and evaluation of Program outcomes. The objective of the second APL is very similar: to promote further progress in coverage of eight-year basic education and improved basic education quality by supporting the Phase II implementation of the Basic Education Program, comprising the same actions that were supported under the first APL, plus the development of preschool education as an integral part of basic education. 3. Rationale for Bank's Involvement MONE's very large school construction program -- involving expenditures of over $1 billion since 1998 -- incorporated the improved school construction norms developed with Bank support under the Basic Education Pilot Project -- a component of the National Education Development Project. The Bank's involvement in the first phase of the Program helped ensure that the Program benefitted from international experience -- particularly, in the computer education activities and the development of technical specifications for educational materials for rural schools. It also helped ensure that the needs of the most educationally deprived areas received the special attention that they need. The same benefits of Bank involvement will apply during the second phase of the Program. 4. Description Program Components. The main expenditure elements of the Basic Education Program in Phase II, together with activities and expenditures during the final two years of Phase I, are presented in the following table. Activities proposed for financing under APL II are shaded. Project Components. The Phase II Basic Education Project, to be financed under the second APL, would support a continuation and extension of the activities supported under the first APL. In addition, it would support an expansion of preschool education which is designed to help children from educationally deprived households succeed in basic education. Annex 2 provides a detailed description of project components; Annex 3 provides a detailed cost breakdown. As in the first APL, the project comprises four components: Improved Basic Education Coverage (estimated loan financing US$88.0 million) would support continued rural school rehabilitation and targeted community-based actions to improve school attendance. Improved Basic Education Quality (estimated loan financing US$190.0 million) would support continued investments to equip basic education schools with computer education and foreign-language laboratories, to equip remote rural schools with modest computer facilities, to provide educational materials to urban slum schools, and to provide in-service training to teachers to make them more effective teachers. It would also initiate support for expanded preschool education to provide better chances of success in basic education for children from educationally deprived households.Project Implementation Support (estimated loan financing, $1.0 million) would finance consultant services to upgrade implementation capacity -- particularly in the areas of procurement management and financial management. Monitoring and Evaluation (estimated loan financing, $2.0 million) would support studies and other actions to assess the outcomes of the Program against several several categories of performance indicators, and to provide continuous - 3 -  feedback to Program management to improve the effectiveness of the Program. Improved Basic Education Coverage Rural School Rehabilitation School-Community Fund Improved Basic Quality Computer Education Educational Materials Teacher Training Preschool Education Project Implementation Support Monitoring and Evaluation Front End Fee Unallocated 5. Financing Total ( US$m) Total Project Cost 374 6. Implementation The Project is to be implemented over a three-year period, beginning in July, 2001. The proposed closing date is June 30, 2004. Because the Government sees basic education as a fundamental public service, guaranteed under the Constitution, it prefers to implement the Program as much as possible within the existing public administrative structure. The Ministry is implementing the first phase of the Program using this approach. It plans to maintain this approach under the second phase of the Program. Implementation responsibility is shared by the Ministry of National Education at the central level and the provincial administration. As described in the following paragraphs, lead roles differ, depending on the nature of the activity. Overall management of Program implementation at the central level is being carried out by the existing management infrastructure of the Ministry, under the direct responsibility of the MONE Undersecretary, and the coordination of a Program Coordination Team which has been established in the MONE, headed by a Deputy Undersecretary with full-time responsibility for oversight of the Program. The Program Coordination Team comprises five units, staffed with seconded MONE staff and consultants, respectively responsible for civil works, information technology, educational interventions, monitoring and evaluation, and Program administration. Policy guidance is provided by a Program Steering Committee comprising heads of the relevant MONE Directorates. At the province and subprovince level-there are 81 provinces and 921 subprovinces-the Program is implemented under the authority of the provincial Governors and the Kaymakams (subprovince governors), with the Provincial Education Directors playing the lead technical role on educational matters. The provincial Governors call upon other elements of the provincial administration to implement particular parts of the Program, as necessary-particularly, in the area of school construction. Implementation responsibilities of the participating units of the MONE under the first APL are described below. After initial delays in start-up, this implementation approach has worked effectively under the first APL. The same basic formula is proposed for implementation of these activities under the second APL. The only new activity under the second APL, for preschool education, will be managed by the PCT in close -4 -  collaboration with the General Directorates of Basic Education, Preschool Education, and Non-Formal and Adult Education. School Construction, Extensions, and Rehabilitation. Normally, school construction, extensions and rehabilitation are carried out by the provinces, according to implementation plans approved first by the Ministry's Research, Planning and Coordination Council (APK), then by the State Planning Organization and the Ministry of Finance. Because of the vast scale of school construction and upgrading which is being implemented under the Basic Education Program, the Ministry of National Education and the provinces have adopted a new implementation formula, under which the provinces and the central Ministry share responsibility for implementing school infrastructure investments. The provinces are responsible for identifying their infrastructure needs, and prepare initial proposals for school construction, rehabilitation, and extension, according to criteria established by the Ministry. The responsibility for implementation is divided between local administration and the central Ministry. The provinces and subprovinces are responsible for extensions and rehabilitation of existing basic education schools, while the Ministry of National Education centrally manages the construction of new schools, with the assistance of regional teams of civil works management consultants. Information Technology. The computer education portion of the Program is being implemented centrally, by the Information Technology Unit of the Program Coordination Team, comprising staff of the Ministry's General Directorate for Educational Technologies (EGITEK), and consultants engaged under the Program.Educational Interventions. The educational interventions under the Program are managed by the respective line units of the Ministry -- for basic education, teacher training, preschool education, etc. -- under the coordination of the Program Coordination Team. Monitoring and Evaluation. Implementation of the Monitoring and Evaluation component of the Program is managed by the Monitoring and Evaluation Unit of the Program Coordination Team, in close collaboration with the participating line units and the Ministry's Planning, Research, and Coordination Council (APK).Program Administration. Generic functions of financial management, procurement, and preparation of withdrawal applications for the Program are carried out by the Administration Unit of the Program Coordination Team, based upon inputs from the provinces and the respective line units of the Ministry. 7. Sustainability Among the critical risks for successful Phase II implementation of the Basic Education Program, the most important sustainability risk results from the need for continued budget support to maintain implementation of Program interventions at the intended levels. As shown in the expenditure projection in Section C, above, total investment and recurrent budget needs for the Program -- including teacher salary costs, by far the largest single item -- amount to over $9 billion over the three-year Phase II implementation period. The $300 million resources from the second APL will make only a very modest contribution to these total financing needs. Government assurances have been provided under the Economic Reform Program and under the the new Country Assistance Strategy that it will provide the necessary budget resources to implement the program effectively. 8. Lessons learned from past operations in the country/sector During the first APL, there were a number of delays in the procurement of IT hardware and software, attributable both to the MONE and to Bank review - 5 -  procedures. However, once contracts were signed, delivery and installation of IT hardware and software progressed rapidly, such that almost all of the first-phase IT labs were equipped and in operation by the end of the 1999/2000 school year. The care which went into preparation and review of the IT hardware and software technical specifications and bidding documents during Phase I is expected to lead to much smoother and faster procurement of IT hardware and software during Phase II. The second-phase IT procurement will benefit from the technical specifications and bidding documents which were approved for the successful first-phase IT procurement. The Ministry carried out monitoring and evaluation of the first-phase Program effectively, but under a quite different formula than had been foreseen at appraisal. It involved limited use of consultants, and relied upon documentation of quantitative results generated through the Ministry's permanent documentation system, and a consultative process with provinces in addition to feedback through formal survey instruments. This approach is yielding satisfactory results, and a similar approach is proposed for this second APL. The experience in implementing the Monitoring Response Facility under the first APL showed that the communities with the greatest educational needs tend to need close assistance in identifying their needs and in developing proposals that are feasible and responsive to their needs. Rather than having an unconstrained solicitation of proposals, the implementation team found that it is preferable to pre-identify target areas on the basis of objective indicators of educational needs, and then to work intensively with communities in the targeted areas to develop viable subprojects which can be supported under the fund. Once the concept and process are well understood, the communities which are successfully implementing subprojects can help other communities in the target area to develop proposals through a similar process. This approach is being followed now to develop subprojects under the first APL and is yielding good results. The same approach and essentially the same eligibility criteria as were agreed for the Monitoring Response Facility under the first APL are proposed for the School-Community Fund under the second APL. 9. Program of Targeted Intervention (PTI) Y 10. Environment Aspects (including any public consultation) Issues Although the Program is very large, no significant environmental risks are foreseen, in view of the highly dispersed nature of the Program. Environmental standards for safety, waste disposal, use of hazardous materials, esthetics and other aspects of the school construction program are codified in a Handbook for Basic Education School Buildings which was developed with Bank assistance in preparation for the Program. These standards have been reviewed by the Bank team, and found satisfactory. No involuntary resettlement will be involved in Program implementation. The MONE has confirmed that no involuntary resettlement will occur under the Program, and has instructed all of the provincial administrations, in identifying sites for new schools under the Program, to select only sites which are vacant public lands owned by the Ministry or the Treasury. Given the urgency with which the Government aims to complete the physical infrastructure for the Program, the Ministry is committed to avoiding land acquisition as this would require extensive time for legally required consultations and court decisions. In case private contributions are made for school buildings, the MONE, from its - 6 -  own funds, would pay private individuals who will contribute their vacant land for school building purposes, in accordance with the laws of Turkey. With regard to the refurbishment and renovations of the schools and other learning facilities, the government has prepared an Environmental Management Plan, which the PCU will ensure it is carried out. 11. Contact Point: Task Manager Michael T. Mertaugh The World Bank 1818 H Street, NW Washington D.C. 20433 (202) 458-5071 12. For information on other project related documents contact: The InfoShop The World Bank 1818 H Street, NW Washington, D.C. 20433 Telephone: (202) 458-5454 Fax: (202) 522-1500 Web: http:// www.worldbank.org/infoshop Note: This is information on an evolving project. Certain components may not be necessarily included in the final project. This PID was processed by the InfoShop during the week ending March 20, 2001. - 7 -