Argentina - Second Buenos Aires Secondary Education Reform Project

Report No. PID9349 Project Name Argentina-AR BA Secondary Educ Reform II (+) Region Latin America and Caribbean Region Sector Secondary Education Project ID ARPE64614 Implementing Agency Address Directorate General Of Culture And Education - Dgcye Avda. 13 Entre 56 Y 57, La Plata, Buenos Aires Contact Person: Lic. Jose Horacio Ordeix Tel: (54-221) 421-4535 Fax: (54-221) 427-3007 Email: Ordeix@Ed.Gba.Gov.Ar Environment Category B (Partial Assessment) Date PID Prepared July 17, 2000 Projected Appraisal Date September 18, 2000 Projected Board Date January 16, 2001 1. Country and Sector Background Argentina has a Federal Government and 24 provinces. Each province has its own administrative structure headed by the elected Governor. The Province of Buenos Aires (PBA) is most populated province in Argentina and holds about 35t of the country's total number of pupils in the education system. The City of Buenos Aires (with about 3 million people) has a separate governing structure and is not included in the province if Buenos Aires. However, the larger suburban area around the City of Buenos Aires (the so-called "conurbano") is part of the Province of Buenos Aires. Thus, the largest concentration of the PBA education system is in the urban areas around the City of Buenos Aires. There are also significant differences in GDP per capita in Argentina. The PBA has an estimated GDP per capita of about US$9,000, while the City of Buenos Aires GDP per capita is close to European standards and estimated at around US$25,000. Overall Argentina's GDP per capita is estimated at about US$8,000. While social assistance programs can mitigate poverty in the short run, long-term poverty reduction will depend both on rapid growth combined with substantial investments in human capital. The most important type of human development investment remains education, especially as Argentina's labor demands shift to higher skill levels. Argentina's education system has been one of the most advanced in the region and can still boast of a literacy rate of 97 percent for the adult population, universal primary enrollment, and about 20 percent of the population between the ages of 20 to 25 enrolled in higher education. In fact, for a country of its wealth, Argentina under-performs in certain key indicators. The secondary graduation rate in  Argentina is 52 percent, compared to an average rate for the OECD countries of 80 percent. Of 100 students entering primary school, 84 will enter the seventh grade, 76 will enter the ninth grade, 40 will enter the last year of secondary school, 35 will enroll in university and only seven will graduate. While expenditures have increased, recurrent spending represents 95 percent of the total, with little going to investments. Experiencing rapid economic changes, with a more open economy and a dominant service sector, the Province of Buenos Aires requires more and better qualified workers. It has more than 13 million inhabitants (out of the total of 36.1 million in 1998) and produces about 35t of the national GDP. The PBA is particularly in need of better secondary education quality and coverage to respond to new labor market demands. Based on a survey of private employers (1997) and results from the ongoing secondary education reform project it can be concluded that employers require substantially higher skilled workers due to new productive process and growing labor market competition. Completion of secondary education is now a minimum requirement to enter formal employment. However, a recent study (1998) indicates that about 70t of the unemployed between the ages of 14 and 24 did not finish secondary school. Youth in households from the poorest quintiles are most affected. With the passage of a comprehensive Federal Education Law in 1993, Argentina has taken important steps to restructure primary and secondary education. Some of these changes include modifying the curriculum and increasing mandatory Basic Education education from 7th to 9th grade (third cycle of EGB). The PBA has the largest educational system in the country (roughly 4 million students and 300,000 teachers). Also, it is more advanced than the other provinces of Argentina in the implementation of the education reform. For example, it completed the building of needed infrastructure for the new EGB (Basic Education) 8th grade one year in advance of the federal Government timetable and in March 1998, the first cohort of students are expected to enter the new 9th grade. The Province is also contemplating: passing a provincial law that would make the Polymodal level (from 10th to 12th grade) mandatory; raising the education budget in order to finance the expansion; increasing teachers' salaries; improving the conditions of services; and creating a scholarship program for underprivileged children. In spite of these efforts, the Province of Buenos Aires is still facing major education issues: Low secondary school coverage, efficiency and equity: Although Argentina has one of the most developed education systems in Latin America, it lags behind competing nations with similar per capita income. For instance, in the Province of Buenos Aires, although coverage at the secondary level is close to 65w, only about 25t graduate from secondary. This compares with OECD secondary completion rates averages of 78-80%. For - 2 -  example in Korea, a country with a GDP per capita level similar to the PBA, this rate reaches 92%. Low educational efficiency at the secondary level in the Province of Buenos Aires is illustrated by the schools' inability to retain students. Drop-out and repetition rates are high, reaching more than 60% and 15% respectively. These coverage and efficiency issues are more acute in poverty areas. For instance, only 52% of the population of the lower income quintile between the ages of 14 and 18 attend school, while this number is 85% in the upper quintile. The ongoing reform of secondary education has boosted the retention rates in the EGB3 cycle and is already showing a significant increase in enrolment for the Polimodal cycle. Low quality and relevance of education: Recent evaluations and results from the ongoing secondary education projects show that the quality of education in the Province of Buenos Aires remains low, especially in poorer areas. National standardized tests results (1999) for the students in the last year of secondary school indicate that, although there has been some improvement in the last 4 years, an important gap between the performance of low-income educationally at risk students and more privileged students still persists. In the coming year Argentina will participate in the upcoming international assessment tests (the TIMSS and the OECD's PISA). This will provide valuable comparative information about the quality and relevance of secondary education in the country and also specifically in the PBA. Relevance of what is learned and the skills that graduates possess when they leave secondary school needs to be evaluated. However, the goals of the secondary education reform are to improve the quality of the curriculum and to introduce more participation from society in determining what is being taught. National youth unemployment rates (about 26% among the population between 14 and 24 years of age who have completed secondary education) indicate that there is a mismatch between the secondary graduates' skills and what is needed to get a job. This also causes low student motivation and early dropouts. This situation, in turn, has several negative consequences, such as: more children and youth on the street; early entrance into the informal labor market; violence; drug consumption; teenage pregnancy; etc. In fact, recent provincial statistics indicate that, in the last five years, there has been a 40% increase in the crime rate among youth (age group of 12-19). Inefficient management and unbalanced spending: by improving training and providing additional resources for secondary school management and teaching, and by supporting ongoing administrative reform activities at the central and district provincial levels, which will lead to cost-efficient and effective monitoring and - 3 -  reporting; by providing support for decentralization of decision-making and accountability to secondary school and district levels in the 200 pilot secondary schools and their Districts; these efforts will build upon the results of the ongoing secondary education reform project of the PBA. Low quality of teaching. The teachers in the PBA are paid an annual salary of about 0.7 times provincial GDP per capita for a normal workload (about 24 teaching hours per week), compared to an OECD average of 1.4. This situation causes teachers to work 60-70 hours per week in order to supplement their salaries. However, total education sector spending in the PBA, over 95t of which is spent on staff salaries, represents about 29.7w of total public spending in the PBA's. This indicates that the teachers are underpaid, but also that there are too many teachers and staff in the system. This causes a significant shortage of resources for in-service teacher training and other activities to enhance the quality of teaching. Furthermore, the PBA, like all the other provinces, needs to overhaul its pre-service teacher training system, which currently caters mainly for the first two cycles of basic education. At the Polimodal level the urgency of improving teacher training and support services is even greater, since the new streams ("modalidades") require different teaching methodlogies and academic skills. The poorest schools encounter most of the problems to implement the new regime, and are most urgently in need of assistance. In summary, the main problems in teaching at EGB3 and Polimodal levels include (i) weakness of staff management and lack of adequate control which lead to high levels of absenteeism; (ii) late pay checks, the absence of incentives and insufficient attention to teachers working conditions which negatively effect teachers' motivation and commitment; (iii) teachers' economic necessity to work in several schools which hampers team work and pedagogic improvement; (iv) centralized management which results in lack of accountability among directors and teachers; (v) absence of a decentralized school budget for maintenance; and (vi) lack of information from secondary schools to students and parents and limited possibilities for parent and community participation in secondary school management and governance. 2. Objectives This project follows the ongoing secondary education sector reform (AR-50714 or Prodymes III) in the Provincia de Buenos Aires, which to date disbursed over 75%. It also complements the two ongoing Federal Secondary Education Projects (Ln. 3794-AR and 3971-AR). This proposed Buenos Aires Second Secondary Education Reform Project (BASSERP or Prodymes IIIA) has the following objective: - 4 -  Improve schooling and learning conditions for students in the 12- 18 year age group from households in socio-economically disadvantaged areas of the province by expanding access and providing resources for increasing the annual number of teaching hours from about 800 to 1,200 in about 200 pilot secondary schools with EGB3 and Polimodal cycles (implementation of the "jornada completa"). 3. Rationale for Bank's Involvement The Bank's financial and technical assistance will provide valuable contribution to the project's design and implementation, particularly because: The Bank has substantial lending experience with Argentine provinces. In the ongoing Secondary Education I Project, the Bank is working with seven provinces, the Secondary Education II project is financing secondary schools in all provinces and the Secondary Education III project is finalizing the expansion and rehabilitation of EGB and Polimodal schools, and supporting students transition to Polimodal. Furthermore, Public Sector Reform Loans in several provinces are working directly with provincial governments. For the PBA a provincial reform loan (BASAL) is in preparation and will be presented to the Board simultaneously with this project. The Bank provides a balanced expert opinion in project design and implementation. Through continuous dialogue and cooperation between the Province and the Bank, the Province has redefined the project's priorities and restated its commitment to institutional strengthening and education quality interventions. The Bank's team can also offer expertise on the latest international developments in secondary education reform. Bank team members are available to contribute cross-country knowledge and experience, with links to operations in Chile and Uruguay. 4. Description Expanding access for the 12-18 age group in socially most disadvantaged areas of the Province of Buenos Aires (PBA) and rehabilitating school facilities to allow an increase in the number of annual teaching hours from about 800 to 1,200 ("Jornada Completa") in 200 pilot secondary schools in socio- economically disadvantaged areas, by building 30 new secondary schools, about 20 school cafetarias, and rehabilitating about 400 classrooms and providing adeqequate sanitary facilities in each targeted school; Improving the quality and relevance of learning and teaching in the pilot 200 "Jornada Completa" secondary schools, by providing incremental staff and teacher resources, learning materials and equipment (including laboratories for technology, computers, language instruction),technical assistance and training for the implementation of the "jornada completa" in the 200 pilot schools and for district administrative staff, and incentive-based teacher and staff scholarships; -5-  Provision of project management support at provincial, district and school level, including support for monitoring and supervision by the project implementation unit and the DGCyE administration). Expansion of Access Improvement of Quality and Relevance in EGB3 and Polimodal Schools Project Management and Implementation 5. Financing Total ( US$m) GOVERNMENT 143 IBRD 57 IDA Total Project Cost 200 6. Implementation Implementation period: 3 years (2001-2003) Project coordination: The proposed project will be jointly managed by the DGCyE with the support of the Project Implementation Unit (UEP) which has been coordinating both ongoing Secondary Education projects and a Basic Education IDB project (PRISE). The General Coordinator will continue to manage all UEP operations while a Project Coordinator will be specifically responsible for the three Secondary Education projects. Three Sub-coordinators (Infrastructure, Education and Administrative Reform, respectively) will be in charge of all aspects pertaining to their area in all secondary education projects in the PBA which have international financing. The sub- coordinators will report to the Project Coordinator. The project Coordinator will report to the Directors of the respective departments and the Director-General (Minister of Education for the PBA) of the DGCyE. The relevant Departments in the DGCyE will be responsiblke for implementing the activities related to defined project outputs and be involved closely in monitoring results (for example in the areas of (i) learning assessment and testing; (ii) edcuation budgeting and auditing; (iii) polimodal reform implementation; and (iv) development, implementation and minitoring of secondary school development plans and tproviding the necessary technical assistance). In addition, the UEP has a team of 25 professionals providing services for: contracting, accounting administration, auditing, legal, and educational administration. The proposed project will finance about 50t of all UEP staff involved in the joint management of these three projects. Financial Management: The Province of Buenos Aires would maintain adequate financial management systems --including accounting, financial reporting, and auditing systems-- to ensure that they can provide the Bank accurate and timely information regarding project resources and expenditures, in accordance with: (i) the Financial Accounting, Reporting, and Auditing Handbook (Washington, D.C.: World Bank, 1995), and (ii) the Bank's Operational Policy (OP) and Best Practice (BP) 10.02, dated July 1996. Efforts are being made on a country basis to discuss with - 6 -  the Government the revised Bank financial management standards to comply with OP and BP 10.02, dated August 1997. With respect to auditing, the Bank has confirmed that the AuditorUa General de la Naci6n (AGN) is eligible to provide audit preparation services as long as it meets criteria of independence, quality, capacity and timeliness in the opinion of the Bank. The AGN is already auditing existing projects, including Education Sector projects being implemented in the Province of Buenos Aires, and up to now the financial management of Education Sector projects has been satisfactory. The Bank's Resident Mision financial management specialist reviewed the procedures and found that they are consistent with Bank procedures and regulations. During project implementation, the Bank will provide assistance to improve and update a financial management practices and reporting. Executing agencies: The PBA's Directorate General of Culture and Education (DGCyE) will be the responsible party and the main executing agency of the project. Managed by the Administration Secretariat, several executing agencies and main stakeholders (district administrations and secondary schools) will be in charge of different aspects of project implementation. These include: (i) the implementation of the "jornada completa" related to technical assistance, equipment and learning materials, individual school development and improvement projects, youth projects in the pilot secondary schools. The supervision, monitoring and coordination of all these activities will be the responsibility of the project Implementation Unit General Coordinator, and the respective department Directors in the DGCyE. The infrastructure component for the implementation of the "jornada completa" in the 200 pilot EGB3 and Polimodal secondary schools will be the responsibility of the UEP Infrastructure Sub-Coordinator, while the Public Works office of the DGCyE will be in charge of planning, budgeting, managing and ensuring the quality of all civil works. The project will also encourage active involvement by secondary school communities and parent associations, composed of teachers, students, parents and school administrators. This means that the responsibility for certain project activities at the school level will be coordinated and implemented by the school-level education actors, with adequate oversight from the project's General Coordinator's Office and related DGCyE department staff. 7. Sustainability The proposed project is linked to the BASAL operation and both operations are under preparation. The BASAL operation would provide budgetary support for the governmment of the Province of Buenos Aires, while it makes its public sectors more cost- efficient and streamlines its public budgetary process. This project would be sustainable, because (1) the new federal and provincial governments are committed to enhance the education reform supported by the project by selected interventions to improve quality in the targeted schools; (2) The project would have a relatively minor fiscal impact (see Financial analysis, above); -7-  (3) The primary executive agencies are part of the established structure of the DGCyE; (4) Primary stakeholders have been actively participating in project preparation. 8. Lessons learned from past operations in the country/sector A review of operational and policy experiences and of existing literature and studies offered the following lessons that are relevant to the proposed project: Simple project design: Simplicity in the design of a project contributes to ensuring its successful implementation. This lesson stems from the difficulties faced during the first stages of the implementation of Secondary Education I and II due to complexity of project design. Simple projects are less vulnerable to changes in counterpart budgets because they are flexible enough to be ajusted. The proposed project has only three components and tested, simple implementation mechanisms. Creditworthiness: The Bank's experience with Argentine and other provincial projects around the world, indicates that sub-national governments in federal countries are likely to be more successful in project implementation, because they have a more direct interest in the project's outcomes and directkly mamage their budgets. The PBA's international creditworthiness is satisfactory. Synchronization with federal and provincial government policies: Experience in Argentina (Secondary Education I, II and III) shows that synchronizing the implementation of the project with government policy and/or different stages of the reform is crucial to avoid administrative and implementation delays or obstacles. Projects linked to long-term reform policies maintain their viability despite political and management changes. The implementation activities of this project are designed to coincide with the timetable of the implementation of the Polymodal transformation in the Province of Buenos Aires. Articulation with ongoing secondary education projects: Bank operational experience indicates that, especially in countries as large as Argentina, not one single project can work on all sector issues (e.g., sector management, education quality) at all levels (e.g., federal, provincial, school levels). In some cases, the most effective alternative is to articulate the components of several projects working at different levels. This is the approach that we have adopted for the Secondary Education I, II and III. Role of the private sector: Studies show that participation of the private sector in education improves efficiency and increases resources allocated to the sector. Furthermore, it provides better linkages between the education offered in the schools and the labor market requirements. The proposed project will provide incentives for both public and private secondary schools and encourage collaboration with local private sector enterprises. School community participation: Experience in other Latin - 8 -  American countries (i.e. Brazil and El Salvador) demonstrates that strong school community participation in the education process has many advantages (e.g., increased accountability, greater communication, improved school management). This project will support activities at the school level, which are implemented by and with the school communities and students. Institutional strengthening: Experience shows that an adequate institutional capacity at the central level is crucial to the success of the project. Projects supporting sector-wide reform can normally not produce immediate outputs, therefore, they require participation at several levels, an implementation strategy, well-defined goals, and clear procedures and responsibilities. At the school level the proposed project will strengthen the schools' institutional and management capacity through technical assistance, improved management and development of school- bsed longer term performance plans. The secondary school will be required to take more responsibility for their output and held accountable for the results. 9. Program of Targeted Intervention (PTI) N 10. Environment Aspects (including any public consultation) Issues 11. Contact Point: Task Manager Jacob H. Bregman The World Bank 1818 H Street, NW Washington D.C. 20433 Telephone: 202-473-2457 Fax: 202-522-1201 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. Processed by the InfoShop week ending July 21, 2000. -9-  Annex Because this is a Category B project, it may be required that the borrower prepare a separate EA report. If a separate EA report is required, once it is prepared and submitted to the Bank, in accordance with OP 4.01, Environmental Assessment, it will be filed as an annex to the Public Information Document (PID) . If no separate EA report is required, the PID will not contain an EA annex; the findings and recommendations of the EA will be reflected in the body of the PID. - 10 -