Tanzania - Secondary Education Development Program Project

Project Information Document (PID) Project Name TANZANIA-Secondary Education Development Program Region Africa Regional Office Sector ES - Secondary Education Project code PE-P083080-LEN-BB Borrower(s) Government of the United Republic of Tanzania Responsible Agency: Prime Minister's Office Address: Mrs. Rose Lugembe, Permanent Secretary Prime Minister's Office Tel: (255) 022 2117349-58 P.O. Box 3021 Fax: (255) 022 2112850 Dar es Salaam, Tanzania Email: ps(pmo.go.tz Implementing Agencies Ministry of Education and Culture Address: Mrs. Mwatumu Malale, Permanent Secretary Ministry of Education Tel: (255) 022 2113139 P.O. Box 9121 Fax: (255) 022 2113271 Dar es Salaam, Tanzania Environment Category B Date PID Initially Prepared 8/18/2003 Projected Appraisal Date 1/05/2004 Project Board Date 2/26/2004 Country and Sector Background The general education system in Tanzania comprises seven years of primary education, four years of lower secondary and two years of upper secondary education. Tanzania currently faces three main challenges in secondary education: increasing access, raising quality, and reducing costs. Tanzania has one of the lowest secondary gross enrollment ratios anywhere in the world. Only about seven percent of the relevant age group attends secondary education, compared with an average of nearly 30 percent for Sub-Saharan Africa as a whole. This is the result of a deliberate policy after independence to restrict access to secondary education and limit provision to public schools. Restrictions on private secondary education were relaxed in the mid-1990s, and this led to rapid growth of private secondary schools. This policy proved to be an effective way to cope with some of the excess demand for secondary schooling in the context of tight constraints on the public budget. Currently, private providers enroll about 40 percent of all secondary students. However, private schools face major constraints to increase their enrollments due to restricted access to investment resources and limited affordability by households. As a result the bulk of future increases will likely come from the public sector through increased support of "community schools" in which communities contribute to the provision of buildings while the Government finances teachers and some operating costs. The current limited provision of secondary education is economically unwise and socially unsustainable. Economically Tanzania is being held back by the low level of human capital development resulting from the restricted access to secondary education. Over time the  Government will have to transform the secondary education system from one servicing a small, privileged clientele into an expanded system catering to a much larger and more diverse group of children. How to manage this expansion in a fiscally sustainable manner is a major policy challenge. Objectives and description The proposed adjustment operation to support the Secondary Education Development Program (SEDP) seeks to achieve three basic objectives: (a) to increase the proportion of the relevant age group completing secondary education; (b) to improve learning outcomes of students, and (c) to enable the public administration to manage secondary education more effectively. The long-term aim of the operation is to build a productive and adaptable labor force, as well as supplying more and better qualified students at higher levels of the education system, to support continued growth and diversification of the economy to allow Tanzania to participate more successfully in the global economy. Preliminary Content (1) Policy reforms to improve access and equity * Better resource utilization - reduced teaching costs per student. The proposed program features, therefore, a set of changes in policy and practice to use teaching resources more intensively. Chief among these are policies on teacher deployment and utilization. * Relieving constraints on the expansion of public and private secondary education. The SEDP will provide development grants on a matching basis to both communities and private institutions that qualify. * Relieving financial constraints on enrollment of the poor. The program will include a scholarship scheme to enable the enrollment of qualified but poor students. * Breaking the bottleneck of trained teachers. Policies will be adopted to attract and retain qualified secondary teachers in the teaching service, and the output of degree- level teachers will be increased. (2) Reforms to improve educational achievements * Countering the under-financing of non-teaching costs. SEDP features the introduction of capitation grants (i.e., a normative funding formula) for recurrent non- salary costs in secondary education, both public and private. * Curricula, testing and textbooks. The number of subjects in the curriculum will be reduced, and the content updated and improved. Quality of textbooks will be improved and costs reduced. The Form II and Form IV examinations will be reformed to support good teaching practices.  * Better teacher competencies including a large-scale scheme for continuous in-service training for teachers. (3) Reforms in service management and delivery * Revised Regulatory Framework for provision of quality secondary education. * Decentralization aimed at devolving major administrative and management functions (including student admission and placement, and teacher recruitment and deployment) to lower levels of the system. Financing (US$ million): Proposed IDA Credit 100 Total Program Cost: 200 Poverty Reduction Intervention: Y Environment category: B The proposed IDA credit will support, among other things, increased access to secondary education which will require rehabilitation and construction of schools and classrooms, as well as provision of water supply and sanitary facilities. Public school places would especially be expanded in rural areas and in poor or remote communities unable to provide their own schools or attract private schools. In order to ensure that the construction of these schools and related facilities under SEDP will not incur negative environmental and social impacts, an Enviromnental and Social Management Framework (ESMF) and a Resettlement Policy Framework (RPF) will be prepared by the Government. Contact: Task Manager Donald B. Hamilton Tanzania Country Office 50 Mirambo Street, Dar es Salaam TANZANIA Telephone: 255-22-2114575/7 For information on other documents contact: Public Information Center The World Bank 1818 H Street, NW Washington, D.C. 20433 Telephone: (202) 458-5454 Fax: (202) 522-1500  WB15430 Q:\My Documents\Personial\DATA\tan\sector issues\ESDP\Post-Prirnary Education and Training\secondary education\lnitial PID_ September 10, 2003.doc September 11, 2003 2:55 PM