Additional Financing to GEQIP-E

closed

Closed

The proposed AF directly supports the CPF focus on improving basic education learning outcomes and building resilience and inclusiveness. The AF contributes to all three pillars of the World Bank’s Education 2020 strategy: investing smartly, investing early, and investing for all, as well as the World Bank’s commitments on disability-inclusive development. The proposed AF will ensure synergies with the Digital Foundations Project (P171034) and Human Capital Project (P172284). Ethiopia made substantial progress in social and human development over the past decade, but learning outcomes remain low. The Ethiopian education system has expanded significantly from 7.1 million learners in 2000 to 26.7 million in 2017. Completion rates at all education levels have also improved. The gender parity index (GPI) at the primary level improved from 0.67 in 1999/2000 to 0.90 in 2017/2018. The share of education in the total government budget has been between 22 percent to 26 percent from 2013/14 to 2017/18, demonstrating the Government’s commitment to investing in education. However, despite the progress made, many challenges remain. Learning outcomes remain low. An Ethiopian child is expected to complete on average 7.8 years of education by age 18. However, when taking into account what the child actually learns, the expected years of schooling is only 4.5 years. This means that there is a learning gap of 3.3 years; learning poverty in Ethiopia is high with 90 percent of children in Ethiopia at age 10 unable to read and understand a simple age-appropriate story. Primary school completion remains low at 60 percent. Learning outcomes are at increasing risk of further deterioration due to conflict and violence around the country and the recent outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, which disrupted schooling. Technology offers promising solutions to increase learning and strengthen the education system. Under the business-as-usual scenario, it would take decades for Ethiopia to address its learning poverty or achieve universal basic education, especially in the wake of COVID-19. Therefore, it is important to explore the application of Edtech within the Ethiopian context where there is a large rural population with limited access to electricity, underdeveloped telecommunications infrastructure, and low Internet penetration. There have been successful experiences in countries with similar limitations, which can be adapted and piloted in the Ethiopian context to accelerate teaching and learning for all children regardless of their geographical location. School shortages and weak learning environments contribute to the low learning outcomes. Only 70 percent of primary schools are able to offer full grades 1¬–8 education. Moreover, most schools in the country are failing to provide an adequate learning environment for students. Many schools operate in tents, without basic infrastructure and educational inputs. These poor conditions contribute to girls dropping out, especially when they hit puberty. GEQIP-E focuses on the enrollment and progression of girls at the upper primary level. To sustain these efforts, the AF will contribute to the expansion of the upper primary and middle school network in disadvantaged areas to bring schools closer to communities (which is important for girls) and will invest in separate latrines and creating safe spaces for girls .Quality preprimary education is necessary to build the foundations for retention and learning. Ethiopia is among the 10 countries (of 103) with the highest index of delayed progression in early grades which negatively impacts the internal efficiency of the system. Repetition is especially high in the first years of schooling. In early grades, children attend infrequently, repeat grades and eventually leave the education system with few skills. The ESDP V identifies internal efficiency as 1 of its 6 priority programs. Further, it places a particular emphasis on early childhood care and education (ECCE) as one of the ways to tackle the issue of low internal efficiency. Several studies in Ethiopia show that attendance in quality preprimary education is a significant factor for promotion and learning progress, helping to reduce dropout and repetition rates. Over the last years, through support of the GEQIPs, the country rapidly expanded the preprimary sector, with enrollment now at around 3.2 million children. ECCE gross enrollment rate was 41 percent in 2018/19, up from 17 percent in the 2011/12 school year, even though there was a recent decline due to the conflicts. This growth has come mainly from the provision of O-class programs in primary schools (65 percent of all preprimary enrollments). The AF will scale up the O-class quality enhancement program to areas not covered by GEQIP-E. Increasing human capital requires equal opportunity for all children to access education. Many children with disabilities (special needs) in Ethiopia are not integrated in the education system. According to the Education Statistics Annual Abstract only 11 percent of children with special needs were enrolled in primary schools, and 3 percent in secondary schools in 2018/19. Mainstream schools have inadequate capacity to implement special needs education activities and lack educational resources for children with special needs which limits their access. The ESDP V underlines the importance of increasing the provision of inclusive education in mainstream schools, including in the 1-year school readiness program aimed at 6-year-olds and delivered in primary school campuses. It includes specific targets on inclusive education and IERCs in mainstream schools. GEQIP-E supports the establishment of IERCs in mainstream schools to provide educational support for children and teachers alike. The AF will scale up this initiative, building on encouraging examples of IERCs that serve as catalysts for mainstreaming inclusive education in the country. The proposed AF activities fall within GEQIP-E’s four main results areas: (a) to improve internal efficiency, by addressing the chronic issue of repetition in the early grades; (b) to improve equitable access, by promoting access to general education, particularly for girls, children with special needs, and those in emerging regions; (c) to improve quality, by focusing on the improvement of teaching practices and learning environment; and (d) to strengthen the system for improved planning, policy formulation, and reforms targeting cross-cutting areas that support other results areas to achieve the overall development objective of the Program.Results Area 1: Improved Internal Efficiency This results area focuses on addressing the chronic issue of over-enrollment in grade 1 and promoting progression of children through the early grades for improved internal efficiency of the education system. To improve student progression in the early grades, concerted efforts will be made to: (i) improve school readiness of grade 1 entrants so that they were able to progress to the next grade; and (ii) get children enrolled on time and ensure regular attendance throughout the year (the latter under support of the parent Program).To improve student progression in early years, the parent Program introduced a comprehensive QEAP for O-Class comprising two key components: Quality Enhancement (QE) and Quality Assurance (QA). The QE component aims to improve pedagogical practices in the classroom and includes teacher preparation and professional development, improvements in curriculum and teaching and learning materials for O-Class, and training for management and supervision. The QA component aims to create a quality assurance mechanism and entails the establishment of national standards, school inspection for O-Class, and quality EMIS data collection for preprimary. Under support of the parent GEQIP-E, the QEAP is implemented in 2,160 Phase 1 schools. The initial data on early learning programs in Ethiopia were collec

FY17 - Education

World Bank Group

Project

Power Generation (CCGT), Broadband, Telecommunications, Commercial, Government, Education