Announcement of Mexico Primary Education Project on September 30, 1991

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 'World Bank 1818 H Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20433, U.S.A. BANK NEWS RELEASE NO. 92/18 Contact: Ciro Gamarra Tel: (202) 473-8721 MEXICO: PRIMARY EDUCATION PROJECT The following is information on a project approved by the World Bank's Board. DATE: September 30, 1991 WORLD BANK GROUP SUPPORT: World Bank loan: $250 million. The loan is for 17 years, including five years of grace, with a variable interest rate, currently 7.73 percent, linked to the cost of the Bank's borrowings. It also carries an annual commitment charge of 0.25 percent on the undisbursed balance. TOTAL COST: $352 million OTHER FINANCING: Federal Government of Mexico, $102 million IMPLEMENTING AGENCY: Secretariat of Education (SEP) ESTIMATED COMPLETION DATE: 1997 PROJECT DESCRIPTION: The objective of the Primary Education Project is to improve the quality and efficiency of primary education, focusing on Oaxaca, Guerrero, Chiapas, and Hidalgo (states with the highest incidence of poverty and low education indicators) through: (a) reducing high repetition and dropout rates; (b) raising the level of cognitive achievement of children; and (c) strengthening management of the primary education system. The project includes two components: (a) educational services improvement ($255 million) to provide the resources required to increase the availability and quality of educational inputs, including: provision of educational materials, books for school libraries, and some bilingual reading books in primary schools, mostly rural; upgrading skills of underqualified teachers and providing in-service training for primary school teachers and teacher trainers using traditional methods as well as distance education technologies; and rehabilitating, expanding, and constructing educational facilities; and (b) institutional strengthening ($97 million) to support a set of activities to improve the delivery of education services at both the central and state levels through: provision of work incentives to teachers; improvement of the supervision system; strengthening of support service delivery and management capacity; improvement ih the information, monitoring, and evaluation systems; and selected studies to assess the effect of project activities and to help refine future program design.