Mexico - Basic Education Development Project

Report No. PID6106 Project Name Mexico-Basic Education Development Project (@) Region Latin America and the Caribbean Sector Education Project ID MXPE40199 Implementing Agency Consejo Nacional de Fomento Educativo (CONAFE) Mr. Edmundo Salas Garza Director General, CONAFE Secretaria de Educacion Publica Environment Category C Date Prepared May 1998 Board Approval Date June 1998 Country and Sector Background 1. In the last decades, Mexico has made important progress in providing primary education access to most children. Today, practically all primary school-aged children enroll in school and 80 percent of them complete this level (1996). In secondary education, approximately 75 percent of students enrolled complete this level. Despite the recent progress, and the efforts to increase access to basic education, universal coverage remains a challenge and the quality of education needs to be improved to support the country's economic and social development efforts. 2. In 1992, the Federal Government, the state Governors, and the Teachers' Union signed an agreement proclaiming bold policy reforms, the "Acuerdo Nacional para la Modernizaci6n de la Educaci6n Basica", which subsequently ratified by a new general education law in 1993. These reforms extended basic compulsory education from six to nine years and integrated pre-school into basic education (making it free but not compulsory). Furthermore, the Government transferred basic education managerial responsibilities to each of the 31 federal states, approved a new curriculum, allocated more resources to education, and put greater emphasis on compensatory programs which go beyond traditional interventions in basic education and focus on providing extraordinary support to specific disadvantaged groups. 3. Today, the Government's main priorities are to provide basic education to all citizens and to improve basic skills of all graduates. The Government hopes to achieve this goal by improving quality to achieve better learning outcomes, developing innovative approaches to reach marginalized groups, and providing better educational opportunities to those students not progressing at the expected rate under the current system. The Government's Education Development Program (Programa de Desarrollo Educativo, PDE) emphasizes the need to attend to students living in rural and marginal urban areas, handicapped children, migrant children and indigenous children. Program Objectives 4. For the period 1998-2006, the Government has requested a three-phase Adaptable Program Loan (APL) with the following program objectives: (a) to expand educational opportunities in initial and basic education for students  in the poorest communities, including indigenous and migrant children; (b) to improve the quality of basic education for students to achieve better learning outcomes; (c) to support school and community participation in decision-making processes at the school level; and (d) to support the decentralization process by developing management and delivery capacity at the federal, state and municipal levels. 5. The Phase I objectives reflect the program goals and aim at: (a) providing quality improvements in initial and basic education and non- traditional modalities of post-primary education; (b) improving the school supervision system; (c) establishing and implementing school-based school management improvement strategies; (d) designing and piloting new education modalities to better meet the needs of migrant children, children aged 9-14 in urban marginal areas, and indigenous children in general primary schools; and (e) strengthening institutional capacity for planning, evaluation and program and system management and execution at the federal and state levels. 6. The objectives of Phase II, if approved, would include the expansion of pilots and of state-based institutional development activities under Phase I and the consolidation and continued financing of compensatory programs in a more integrated context. The objectives of Phase III, if approved, would focus on the finetuning of delivery mechanisms based on a more fully developed decentralization model. Project Description (Phase I of APL) Component 1 - Quality Improvements in Initial and Basic Education 7. The objective of this component is to improve quality in the delivery of initial and basic education for children in the more disadvantaged rural and marginal urban communities, indigenous communities, and migrant worker populations. This would be accomplished by: (a) expanding compensatory activities and providing quality inputs to (i) increase internal efficiency and (ii) improve student achievement; and (b) improving school management and efficiency through (i) developing school projects (Proyectos Escolares), (ii) enhancing community and parent participation, and (ii) modernizing the organization and implementation of the supervision system. 8. This component will finance, inter alia, the following: (a) educational materials and equipment for students, teachers, and schools; (b) training for teachers, supervisors and principals; (c) support to community or school associations for school-based management activities; (d) improvement of the school supervision function; and (e) construction or rehabilitation of school infrastructure. Component 2 - Strengthening Institutional Capacity at Federal and State Levels 9. This component aims to strengthen the management capacity of key sector entities at both federal and state levels. The activities supported include: (a) at the federal level, (i) strengthening the national evaluation system and (ii) designing and piloting appropriate basic education models for migrant children, children aged 9-14 in urban marginal areas, and indigenous children in regular schools; and (b) at the state level, strengthening the role of the state-level Secretariats of Education (SEPEs) in the provision of education services by reinforcing their capability for management (i.e., planning, programming, budgeting, monitoring and evaluation) through the development and - 2-  implementation of state-specific Strategic Development Plans (Planes Estrategicos Rectores) and delivery of basic education services through support for state-generated institutional development proposals. 10. This component will finance: (a) technical assistance to develop the national assessment and evaluation system; (b) studies and pilots for innovative programs; (c) a fund to support the states in implementing their institutional development proposals and other state-generated initiatives (Fondo de Desarollo Institucional, FDI); and (d) incremental operational costs. Project Financing 11. The APL would have a total program cost of US$780 million. Phase I would have a project cost of US$150 million, Phase II a total amount of US$370 million and Phase III, US$260 million. The current proposed Bank loan for Phase I is for US$115 million. Project Implementation 12. CONAFE will be the main executing agency and will coordinate all implementation activities on behalf of the Secretariat of Education (SEP). CONAFE has extensive experience implementing Bank- and IDB-financed projects. CONAFE will exercise its project coordination responsibilities through a Compensatory Programs Unit (CPU), with participation of SEP's normative units. The states, through their SEPEs, will have greater autonomy in planning and executing compensatory education activities according to a set of national guidelines which specify the targeted schools and communities, menu of supported activities, educational norms to be met, and procedures for obtaining program approval and financial support. CONAFE will also monitor project objectives, goals, processes, and deadlines in coordination with SEP and SEPEs. Project Sustainability 13. The program seeks to enhance sustainability of investments through the involvement of stakeholders, to the extent possible, in all activities. At the school level, communities will be asked to contribute labor and local materials to the construction and rehabilitation of classrooms; parents associations will have a greater say in the management of schools through the school projects, thus increasing ownership and enhancing sustainability. The same demand-side approach will be applied to the FDI, whereby SEPEs will have greater incentive to design and sustain institutional strengthening and investment activities with longer-lasting effects. At the federal level, SEP/CONAFE have been very active in the design and preparation of the program and, thanks to the long-term dialogue under the APL, have articulated a medium-term compensatory education strategy which all parties hope would still prevail under the next Administration. Lessons Learned 14. This proposal incorporates previous experiences gained from the implementation of other Bank projects with similar objectives in Mexico and Latin America: (a) The need to establish a broad policy framework which provides the proposed APL with potential to support systemic changes beyond programmed goals; (b) develop ownership and participation during project -3 -  design and implementation; (c) better targeting mechanisms, since excessive aggregation may hide important areas of poverty within states or inadvertently average conditions of wealthier communities with those of poorer ones; (d) maintaining effective incentives and inputs; (e) the importance of assessing factors which contribute to student learning; and (f) the need to allow flexibility and adaptability. Project Benefits 15. During Phase I, the short-term benefits of the program include quality improvements in education for approximately (a) 52,000 children at the initial education level (through 41,000 indigenous parents), (b) 349,500 preschool children, and (c) 343,000 children in rural areas at the lower secondary level, under various modalities (i.e., general lower secondary, technical lower secondary, telesecundaria, posprimaria). 16. Indirect, medium-term benefits of the program will accrue from improved efficiency and equity in the management and delivery of educational services at both federal and state levels. Through technical assistance provided under the program, the capacity for policy analysis and strategic planning will be strengthened at the federal level, while at the state level, the capacity of the SEPEs to plan, implement, monitor and evaluate regular and compensatory programs will similarly improve. 17. Long-term benefits of the program are derived from the projected increase in schooling years as a result of a better program of basic education. This will imply a reduction in the absolute level of poverty for those who can participate more productively in the economy (see Annex 6 for an economic analysis of the program). Project Risks 18. The main project risks are associated with: (a) continuity in government policies and priorities; (b) close coordination between federal and state agencies involved; (c) the states receive adequate technical assistance during subproject design and implementation, and (d) stakeholders support project activities. Environmental Aspects 19. The project has no adverse environmental effects and has an environmental rating of "C". An indigenous peoples assessment was prepared during project preparation, which confirmed the soundness of Government policies. Program Objective Categories 20. The project will have long-term effects in Poverty Reduction, since it will imply a reduction in the absolute level of poverty for those who can participate more productively in the economy. Contact Point: The InfoShop The World Bank 1818 H Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20433 Telephone No. (202)458 5454 Fax No. (202) 522 1500 - 4 -  Note: This is information on an evolving project. Certain activities and/or components may not be included in the final project. Processed by the InfoShop week ending May 29, 1998. - 5 -