Papua New Guinea - Secondary Education Project

Document of The World Bank FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Report No. 11472 PROJECT COMPLETION REPORT PAPUA NEW GUINEA SECONDARY EDUCATION PROJECT (LOAN 2395-PNG) DECEMBER 22, 1992 Population and Human Resources Division Country Department III East Asia and Pacific Regional Office This document has a restricted distribution and may be used by recipients only in the performance of their official duties. Its contents may not otherwise be disclosed without World Bank authorization.  CURRENCY EQUIVALENTS Currency Unit - Kina (K) At Appraisal, April 1983 K 1.00 = US$1.20 US$1.00 = K 0.83 Average Annual Exchange Rates to US$1.00 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 K 0.94 1.01 0.96 0.88 0.83 0.86 0.95 FISCAL YEAR OF BORROWER January 1 - December 31 ABBREVIATIONS ADT - Advanced Diploma in Teaching ADU - Advanced Diploma Unit BEd - Bachelor of Education CODE - College of Distance Education CU (CDD) - Curriculum Unit (now Curriculum Development Department) DFP - Department of Finance and Planning DWS - Department of Works and Supply GTC - Goroka Teachers College, UPNG HSSP - High School Support Program MSU - Measurement Services Unit, NDOE NDOE - National Department of Education NHS - National high school NPEP - National Public Expenditure Plan PCR - Project Completion Report PDOE - Provincial Division of Education PHS - Provincial high school PIU - Project Implementation Unit PMC - Project Management Committee PNG - Papua New Guinea REU - Research and Evaluation Unit, NDOE SAR - Staff Appraisal Report TSC - Teaching Service Commission UPNG - University of Papua New Guinea  FOR OFFICIAL USE ONL1 THE WORLD BANK Washington, D.C. 20433 U.S.A. Office ot Director-General Operations Evaluation December 22, 1992 MEMORANDUM TO THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS AND THE PRESIDENT SUBJECT: Project Completion Report on Papua New Guinea Secondary Education Project (Loan 2395-PNG) Attached is a copy of the report entitled "Project Completion Report on Papua New Guinea Secondary Education Project (Loan 2395-PNG)" prepared by the East Asia and Pacific Regional Office, including Part II contributed by the Borrower. The report provides a satisfactory assessment of project achievements. The projected expansion of middle- and high-level manpower was achieved although 18 rather than 23 provincial high schools were constructed due to scarcity of government funding and unplanned private expansion of educational capacity. Quality improvement through curriculum development and support services was also secured although the problems encountered in textbook supply and teacher training have highlighted institutional weaknesses which will require remedy in follow-up projects. Thus, the project outcome can be considered satisfactory even though institutional development goals were partially realized. Because of doubts about the timely availability of textbooks, properly trained teachers and maintenance budgets, the sustainability of the project is not fully assured. No audit of the project is planned. Attachment This document has a restricted distribution and may be used by recipients only In the performance of their offcial duties. Its contents may not otherwise be disclosed without Wodd Bank authorzation.  '.i ~ ' 'f' S.:  FOR OMCIAL USE ONLY PROJECT COMPLETION REPORT PAPUA NEW GUINEA SECONDARY EDUCATION PROJECT (LOAN 2395-PNG) Table of Contents Pate No. PREFACE . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . EVALUATION SUMNKARY .S . .................... .il I. PROJECT REVIEW FROM THE BANK'S PERSPECTIVE . . . . . . . . Project Identty . .. . . . . . . . . .1 Project Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Project Objectives and Description . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Project Design and Organization . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Project Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Project Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Project Sustainability .... . . . . . . . . ......... 17 Bank Performance .... . . . . .... ....... . 17 Borrower Performance .... . . . . .......... 18 Project Relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Consulting Services ..... .. ..... .... . 20 Project Documentation and Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 II. PROJECT REVIEW FROM THE BORROWER'S PERSPECTIVE . . . . . . 21 Introduction .... . . . . . . . . . . . ...... . 21 Project Preparation . . .. ....... . . . .. . . 21 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Government Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Lessons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Implementation .... . . . . ....... . . . . . . 25 Government Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Lessons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Summary. .... 28 III. STATISTICAL INFORMATION . . . . . . . . . . 30 1 Related Bank Loans/Credits . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 2 Project Timetable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 3 Loan Disbursements . . . . . . . . . . 32 4 Project Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 5 Project Costs and Financing . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 6 Project Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 7 Status of Covenants . . . ...... . . . 41 8 Use of Bank Resource.s . . . . . . 42 This document has a restricted distribution and may be used by recipients only in the performance of their official duties. Its contents may not otherwise be disclosed without World Bank authorization.   PROJECT COMPLETION REPORT PAPUA NEW GUINEA SECONDARY EDUCATION PROJECT (LOAN 2395-PNG) Preface This is the Project Completion Report (PCR) for the Secondary Education Project in Papua New Guinea, for which Loan 2395-PNG in the amount of US$49.3 million equivalent was approved on March 27, 1984. The Loan was closed on December 31, 1990, one year behind schedule. It was fully disbursed, and the last disbursement was on December 3, 1990. The PCR was jointly prepared by the Population and Human Resources Division, Country Department III, of the East Asia and Pacific Regional Office (Preface, Evaluation Summary, Parts I and III) and the Borrower (Part II). Preparation of this PCR began during a mission to Papua New Guinea in July 1991, and is based, inter alia, on the Staff Appraisal Report, the Loan Agreement, supervision reports, correspondence between the Bank and the Borrower, the project files of the Bank and the Borrower, internal Bank memoranda and information provided to the final mission.  I  - iii - PROJECT COHPNZTION REPORT PAPUA UW GUIE SECONDARY EDUCATION PROJECT (LOAN 2395-PUG) Evaluation SuiinrV Oblectives i. The main objective of the Project was to assist Papua New Guinea to develop qualified national manpower at the middle and higher levels, by increasing the output and improving the effectiveness of secondary education. These objectives were to be achieved primarily through: implementation of strengthened subsector policies and evaluation; provision of appropriate instructional materials and upgrading of the teaching force; and expansion of school places and upgrading of existing facilities (para. 3.1). Implementation Experience ii. The Project was generally well-implemented with a one-year delay in the closing date to allow completion of the educational materials component. During the extra year, the Project also continued to fund ongoing school construction and several project activities that have now entered the recurrent budget (para. 5.1). Construction of six high schools was dropped during implementation and, as a result and in spite of the extra year, the final project cost reached only US$70.9 million as compared to the estimated cost of US$78.5 million. The US$49.3 million Loan financed 70 percent of the total instead of 63 percent as originally expected (para. 5.3). The Project Implementation Unit had the full support of the National Department of Education and was adequately staffed, housed and supplied. A Project Management Committee met regularly and provided valuable guidance to the Unit and to other agencies implementing project activities (para. 9.1). iii. The major project components for which implementation was the least smooth were the educational materials component and the Advanced Diploma in Teaching program. The former was mainly due to weak management in the Curriculum Development Department (paras. 5.6 - 5.12) while the latter was due to inadequate preparation of the program during appraisal with the result that numerous adjustments had to be made during implementation (parts. 5.14 - 5.18). The main problem that arose during implementation, however, was when a new Government decided to emphasize the productive sectors at the expense of human resources. This naturally led to financial problems for this Project and for education in general (para. 10.1). Results iv. During implementation, the quantitative objective of increasing the output of secondary education was met, although this was not entirely attributable to the Project. Effectiveness of secondary education was also improved quantitatively although how much the quantitative inputs contributed  - iv - to qualitative improvement is harder to measure. Nevertheless, enrollment expansion at both the lower (provincial) and upper (national) secondary levels took place as planned (paras. 6.2 and 6.3), textbooks and educational materials were developed and distributed to the high schools in the numbers envisaged (para. 6.7), the Advanced Diploma in Teaching program was firmly established (para. 5.18), in-service training was provided for teachers at foreign and local universities (para. 6.27), new inspectors were appointed and housed (para. 6.28), provincial high schools were constructed in nearly the numbers planned (para. 6.30), national high schools were upgraded and expanded (paras. 6.31 and 6.33) and the very popular grants for school facilities maintenance, ancillary staff, library books and science equipment (paras. 5.19, 5.21, 6.16 and 6.34) were forwarded every year directly to the schools. Sustainabilitv v. The provincial and national high schools constructed under the Project have entered the Government's regular school system and are being sustained as part of that system. The National Department of Education is committed to continuing its support of the Advanced Diploma in Teaching program. Once the Government makes a final decision on a textbook replacement policy, textbooks will automatically be supplied in adequate numbers to the schools; meanwhile a large textbook component is being included in the proposed Education Development Project. The most visible of the components under this Project that are continuing to be funded under the recurrent budget for education, are the grants to the schools (para. iv). These are so popular with the schools and the parents that they are likely to remain a part of the recurrent budget for the foreseeable future (para. 7.1). Findings and Lessons Learned vi. Lessons learned include the following (paras. 8.2 and 9.2): (a) programs being newly established with project funding should be closely examined at their conception and all variables that may come into play should be taken into account, especially, in the case of PNG, incentives for people to participate; (b) attention must be paid at appraisal to project evaluation and monitoring to make sure systems are in place that will provide useful data; in this regard, more educators should participate in supervision of projects to look specifically at educational issues; (c) counterparts to expatriate staff involved in project implementation should always be appointed in order to build up local expertise; (d) the provinces cannot be expected to budget large sums of money for education even when national matching funds are available; (e) systems should be put into place to improve delivery of textbooks and educational materials, to ensure that the materials provided remain in the schools and to protect them from wear and tear;  - v - (f) book development should be carefully thought out in advance; (g) schools unable to complete necessary paperwork to take advantage of benefits being offered should be assisted to do so; and (h) a separate study should be made of how to utilize fully, existing post-secondary facilities rather than depending on increasing the number of grade 12 graduates to do so.   -1- PROJECT COMPLETION REPORT PAPUA NEW GUINEA SECONDARY EDUCATION PROJECT (LOAN 2395-PNG) PART I. Proiect Review from the Bank's Perspective 1. Project Identity Project name: Secondary Education Project Loan number: Loan 2395-PNG RVP unit: East Asia and Pacific Regional Office, Country Department III Country: Papua New Guinea (PNG) Sector: Education Subsector: Secondary education 2. Proiect Background 2.1 Sector Development Objectives. The major aims of Papua New Guinea's development strategy and programs in the 1980s were: (i) to achieve financial self-sufficiency through developing the natural resource base; and (ii) to improve the quality of rural life. An important objective of the Government in meeting these aims was to raise the skill level of national manpower to replace expensive expatriates, who then accounted for over half of the higher level manpower in the formal sector. Weaknesses in the education system were a major constraint to achievement of this objective; these included: poor average quality of primary and lower secondary education, low participation rates in secondary education and poor cost-effectiveness at post-primary levels. The Government was addressing these problems through a comprehensive development program for primary education.l/ As the next step, emphasis needed to be given to strengthening secondary education, which supplies national manpower for higher education and formal employment. 2.2 Policy Context. The Government gave priority to strengthening its education and training system in order to overcome the shortage of qualified national manpower. The main objectives of its strategy for formal education included the reduction of (i) disparities (by location and sex) in access, (ii) inefficiencies attributable to low student progression rates, and (iii) significant variations in unit costs among levels. Priority was to be given to continuing development of primary education and to development of secondary education. At these levels, emphasis was to be given to improving quality and cost-effectiveness, and to expanding enrollments on an equitable basis. Owing to budgetary constraints and concern for overall demand, 1/ The Primary Education Project, assisted by Loan 1934/Credit 1087-PNG of 1981, supported this effort and strengthened educational planning in general. (See Project Completion Report No. 8968 dated August 21, 1990; and Part III, Table 1.)  expansion of secondary school places was, however, to continue at a modest pace. At the post-secondary level, emphasis was to be given to more effective use of resources. No expansion was then envisaged in the near term. Emphasis was also to be given to developing nonformal education and training programs, focusing on basic education and rural skills. 3. Proiect Oblectives and Description 3.1 Proiect Objectives. The main objective of the Project was to assist PNG to develop qualified national manpower at the middle and higher levels, by increasing the output and improving the effectiveness of secondary education. These objectives were to be achieved primarily through: study and implementation of strengthened subsector policies and introduction of improved evaluation practices; provision of appropriate instructional materials and upgrading of the national teaching force; and expansion of the number of school places on an equitable basis and upgrading of existing facilities. 3.2 Project Components. The Project included civil works, equipment, materials, furniture, staff, staff-upgrading and technical assistance to: Policies and Evaluation (a) study and implement enrollment expansion and cost-control policies designed to improve the match between supply of secondary school graduates and demand for manpower, and increase the cost- effectiveness of secondary education; and (b) strengthen the National Department of Education's (NDOE) Measurement Services Unit (MSU) to support improvements in educational planning;2/ Development of Materials and Upgrading of Teachers (a) strengthen the NDOE Curriculum Unit (later Curriculum Development Department (CDD)) and provide materials coordinators for the national high schools (NHS - grades 10 to 12) to prepare and provide curriculum-related textbooks and other learning materials for provincial high school (PHS - grades 7 - 10) and NHS students, respectively; and (b) introduce a revised program of preservice and expanded in-service training for national teachers to improve their subject matter knowledge, and provide additional inspectors and school administration staff to strengthen support for teachers; and 2/ The Staff Appraisal Report (SAR) mistakenly assigns the monitoring and evaluation responsibility to the MSU which is actually responsible for testing. Monitoring and evaluation are the responsibility of NDOE's Research and Evaluation Unit (REU).  Expansion and Upgrading of Secondary Schools (a) provide approximately 4,500 new student places in PHSs to be located primarily in provinces with below average enrollment ratios to reduce inequities in the distribution of school places and to support planned expansion; (b) expand existing NHSs to support a planned increase in enrollments of about 400 students; and (c) upgrade physical facilities at existing PHSs and NHSs on the basis of need, and provide additional science equipment at PHSs to complement planned improvements in the quality of materials and teaching. 4. Prolect Design and Organization 4.1 The Project was very thoroughly prepared in 1982 and 1983 by the NDOE and was generally well-designed and appropriate in scope and scale for its time and place. The conceptual basis was clear with its emphasis on increasing output from the secondary system and improving the system's effectiveness, and the Project aimed to do just that. The in-service teacher training component (paras. 5.14-18) under which the Advanced Diploma in Teaching (ADT) program was developed, was the one major component not clearly thought out at appraisal. 4.2 It was recognized at appraisal that there was a risk that provincial commitment to the high school support program (HSSP) under which the PHSs were to be constructed, would be inadequate in spite of the high level of demand for schooling at this level. Therefore 50 percent of the construction costs were to be provided by the national government along with financing of all incremental teacher salaries for the new PHSs. What was not foreseen was that many of the disadvantaged provinces where the schools were to be constructed, would not be able to come up with their 50 percent share of the budgets for this construction, much less to furnish and equip the schools upon their completion. Thus the national government was forced at various points throughout the life of the project to increase its share of funding (up to 100 percent in some cases) of the total cost of the PHSs (para. 5.20). The new PHSs also had to be furnished and equipped by the NDOE. 4.3 The NDOE also realized that the Provincial Divisions of Education (PDOEs) probably did not have the organizational capacity to distribute the various grant funds and the new educational materials, both aimed at improving educational quality, to the individual schools. Provisions were made in the project design to overcome this weakness in the short term, at least, by arranging to forward the grants and materials directly from the NDOE to the schools, bypassing the PDOEs altogether (paras. 5.8, 5.19, 5.21 6.16 and 6.34). 4.4 During the project implementation period, four provinces along with five churches established PHSs throughout PNG that were additional to those being provided under the Project's PHS expansion component. The NDOE  - 4 - apparently has no way to control this kind of expansion. This led to faster than planned enrollment increases and resulted in a major revision of the Project in 1988, when six PHSs scheduled to comence construction under the Project, were dropped (para. 6.30). The main reasons for this revision in the project design were that enrollment projections for 1988 had already been reached and government budgets were more constrained than usual. In any case, this was in line with the Bank's view by that time, as outlined in its draft report on the Costs and Financing of Education in PNG (green cover, June 25, 1987), that in view of the then current and prospective budgetary constraints in the country, enrollments could not continue to expand at all levels. The report recommended that the Government give priority to primary education as the most cost-effective type and curtail the expansion of lower secondary education until an analysis could be made of the employment patterns of grade 10 leavers. (Although the Government subsequently refused to discuss this report at the green cover stage with the Bank so that it was never officially published, the report continues to influence thinking on educational matters in PNG.) 4.5 Weaknesses also continued in the CDD which was responsible for the Project's instructional materials component. These shortcomings were not apparent at the time of appraisal of the Secondary Project but have since been pointed out in the PCR for the Primary Education Project (Part III, Table 1). (See footnote 1.) Delays in supply of all the planned textbooks and instructional materials have resulted although in the end, all quantitative goals will be met (para. 6.7). As mentioned, the innovative (for PNG) in-service ADT program for PHS teachers also was not clearly thought out at appraisal and proved to be much more complicated and time-consuming to establish than envisaged (paras. 6.18 - 6.26). 4.6 Organizationally, the strong role taken by the NDOE in managing project implementation, the establishment of a very effective project implementing unit in the NDOE and the willingness of the national government to provide additional financing when the provinces were unable to pay their share of project costs, contributed most to the Project's success. 5. Proiect Implementation 5.1 The Project was implemented over a period of about 6