Indonesia - Health Professional Education Quality Project

Page 1 INTEGRATED SAFEGUARDS DATASHEET APPRAISAL STAGE I. Basic Information Date prepared/updated: 06/08/2009 Report No.: AC4367 1. Basic Project Data Country: Indonesia Project ID: P113341 Project Name: Health Professional Education Quality Project Task Team Leader: Puti Marzoeki Estimated Appraisal Date: June 1, 2009 Estimated Board Date: August 27, 2009 Managing Unit: EASHD Lending Instrument: Specific Investment Loan Sector: Health (50%);Tertiary education (50%) Theme: Other human development (67%);Health system performance (33%) IBRD Amount (US$m.): 74.00 IDA Amount (US$m.): 0.00 GEF Amount (US$m.): 0.00 PCF Amount (US$m.): 0.00 Other financing amounts by source: Borrower 2.00 2.00 Environmental Category: C - Not Required Simplified Processing Simple [X] Repeater [] Is this project processed under OP 8.50 (Emergency Recovery) or OP 8.00 (Rapid Response to Crises and Emergencies) Yes [ ] No [ ] 2. Project Objectives The specific Project Development Objective would be to strengthen quality assurance policies governing the education of health professionals in Indonesia through 1) rationalizing and assuring competency focused accreditation of public and private health professional training institutions, 2) developing national competency standards and testing procedures for certification and licensing of health professionals, and 3) building institutional capacity to employ results based grants for encouraging use of accreditation and certification standards in the development of medical school quality. 3. Project Description The lending instrument for the project is a Specific Investment Loan (SIL). The project would have 4 components: Component 1 - Strengthening policies and procedures for school accreditation The component will focus on improving the accreditation system of medical, dental, nursing, and midwifery schools to make it comparable to internationally recognized systems. The goal is to have an independent body for the accreditation of medical, dental, nursing, and midwifery schools. More specifically, the project will assist in building consensus on and develop accreditation policies, standards, processes and outcomes, and in piloting the new system prior to legalizing the system for nation wide implementation. Page 2 This includes developing an accreditation strategic framework, accreditation instruments, assessor recruitment system and training, and a policy mandating publication of accreditation results for easy access by the general public. The project will revitalize the function of the National Medical Education Research Center initiated under the World Bank financed HWS Project and support the DGHE in synchronizing data collection and analysis for accreditation and EPSBED,(Evaluation of Study Programs Based on Self- Evaluation), a tool designed by DGHE to monitor HEI statistics. This will help the self evaluation prior to the accreditation process and will inform decision making and planning processes in the institutions. Project resources would be used for the costs of workshops and training, benchmarking, international and local technical assistance, legal assistance studies and surveys, office equipment, IT and audio visual equipment and furniture. Component 2 - Certification of graduates using national competency-based examination The purpose of certification is to assure the standard of education quality. The project will support the establishment of an independent National Evaluation Center responsible for developing, validating and implementing strategies, methodologies, and tools to evaluate the competence of medical, dental, nursing and midwifery students prior to graduation from the respective education institutions. The challenge is to develop an evaluation mechanism measuring not only knowledge but also clinical skills, attitude, ethics, and communication skills; and to develop policies introducing discipline in determining passing scores and transparent remedial examination for failing students. In this regard, the project will assist the National Evaluation Center in establishing Computer Based Testing (CBT) and Objective Structured Clinical Evaluation (OSCE) facilities in 12 medical education institutions that will function as regional centers. To improve the validity and reliability of the examination, the project would assist the establishment of an item bank networking system. The system would also allow Health HEIs to evaluate their teaching methods. Expenditures include IT and audiovisual equipment, computer software, skills laboratory equipment, office equipment, furniture, international and local technical assistance, international benchmarking, workshop and training. Component 3 - Results based financial assistance package (FAP) Building on the agreements on accreditation and certification, the project would allocate financial assistance packages (FAP) for selected medical education institutions (MEIs) to meet the accreditation standards. The project would adopt 3 key principles in allocating the FAPs: (i) results based allocation of resources, (ii) fair competition among MEIs according to their capacity, and (iii) partnership between leading and less strong NEIs to build the capacity of the less strong schools according to their specific needs. The project would have 3 FAP schemes: - Scheme A: FAP for leading medical education institutions to build their international reputation and to strengthen Indonesia