Uganda - Fourth Education Project

 Fourth education project Report No: ; Type: Report/Evaluation Memorandum ; Country: Uganda; Region: Africa; Sector: Other Education; Major Sector: Education; ProjectID: P002931 Uganda: Fourth Education Project (Credit 1965-UG) The Uganda Fourth Education project supported by Credit 1965-UG for US$22.0 million was approved in FY89. A total of US$6.68 million equivalent was canceled. The Implementation Completion Report (ICR) was prepared by the Africa Regional Office, and comments by the borrower are included in an appendix. The project aimed to maintain the momentum of the Government's education rehabilitation efforts at the primary level and to ensure their sustainability; pilot a revolving Textbook Fund (with parental contributions and matching government funds); strengthen key Ministry of Education agencies in improving and monitoring educational quality; and help prepare a follow-up project to implement the Government's emerging strategy. Momentum would be maintained by providing books and instructional materials to 3,400 small and remote primary schools not assisted under a previous project. Most project components were completed, but did not achieve the full results anticipated. Textbook provision to schools was timely and cost-effective. However, the project omitted to train teachers in textbook use, with the result that the books were seriously underutilized. The Textbook Fund experiment had negative consequences because parents proved unwilling to contribute, and enrollments in the pilot schools actually declined. Institutional strengthening results were mixed. The role of the National Curriculum Development Center, which had previously developed curricula and textbooks, was successfully redefined to permit commercial publishing of textbooks. But the new Science and Technology Equipment and Production Center failed to attract private firms to mass produce its prototype teaching aids. The Minister of Education's Inspectorate responsible for supervising teachers and schools was expanded and trained but lack of operating funds severely limited its effectiveness. The Borrower's capacity to provide counterpart funding proved weaker than anticipated. Some 16 of 19 policy and implementation studies were completed and fed into government plans, but did not include a monitoring and evaluation component for the project itself. Nevertheless, the project's forward looking operational plan helped to improve the policy context of subsequent Bank operations, and shortcomings were mitigated by improvement in the education sector. The Operations Evaluation Department (OED) agrees with some but not all of the ICR's main ratings. OED rates project outcome as marginally satisfactory (ICR satisfactory), given the projects' uneven record of implementation including the underutilization of textbooks and the failure of the Textbook Fund and Science and Technology Equipment supply. OED and the ICR agree in rating sustainability as uncertain. However, OED rates institutional development as modest (ICR substantial) because the anticipated strengthening of the Inspectorate had mixed results, and coordination by the Project Implementation Unit with related agencies was weak. OED agrees with the ICR in rating Bank performance as satisfactory overall. The ICR is satisfactory, but fails to point out that IDA's appraisal failed to reflect the experience of previous projects and underestimated riskiness. Nevertheless, the ICR draws important lessons including the need for: (a) better consultation with households to ascertain parents' willingness and ability to pay for textbooks; (b) development of a credible and acceptable mechanism for cost recovery; (c) monitoring and evaluation against development objectives to correct deficiencies during implementation and, thus, improve outcome; and (d) borrower commitment, interagency coordination by the project management and Bank and Borrower flexibility. No audit is planned.