KENYA GPE COVID 19 LEARNING CONTINUITY IN BASIC EDUCATION PROJECT

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1. The COVID-19 pandemic threatens education progress worldwide through two major shocks: (1) the near-universal closing of schools at all levels, and (2) the economic recession sparked by the pandemic-control measures. Without major effort to counter their effects, the school closings shock will lead to learning loss, increased dropouts, and higher inequality; the economic shock will exacerbate the damage, by depressing education demand and supply as it harms households; and together, they will inflict long-run costs on human capital and welfare. But if countries do move quickly to support continued learning, they can mitigate the damage and even turn recovery into new opportunity. 2. On March 15, 2020 Kenya’s Ministry of Education (MoE) announced closure of the country’s 30,000 primary and secondary schools indefinitely to mitigate the impact of COVID-19. The tertiary level education institutions were also closed. Like in many other countries, the closure of schools was unexpected and unplanned. In Kenya, this decision means over 14 million pre-primary, primary and secondary students have their studies interrupted. More than 310,000 teachers are adapting to this new reality. Additionally, most MoE staff are working remotely, with only critical staff executing their duties from within the Ministry premises. Without major effort to counter the effects, the school closings will lead to learning loss, increased dropouts, and higher inequality. 3. The Kenya GPE COVID-19 Education Response is being prepared as a new project, with an objective to enhance access to remote learning (online and distance learning) for all students in primary and secondary schools and facilitate a smooth transition when schools reopen. The proposed grant financing is in the amount of US$10.80 million, including supervision fees of US$200,000, expected to be financed from an allocation from the Global Partnership for Education COVID-19 Accelerated Funding Window over an 18 months implementation period. 2. The proposed project activities are intended to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on the education system and help recovery when schools reopen. The project aims to achieve the following:a) increase proportion of students in basic education with access to remote learning (online and distance programs);b) reduce potential school drop out for the most vulnerable students when schools reopen; and c) enhance capacity of MoE to coordinate interventions in basic education during the COVID crisis and beyond.3. This project will have three components (with sub-components). Below is a brief explanation: a) Component 1: Expanding existing remote learning opportunities for learning continuity for all students in basic education. This component has three sub-components: • Sub-Component 1: Support access and delivery of online content to all students in primary and secondary school through: (i) enhancing existing radio education channels and partnerships to reach all regions; (ii) adding new programming to the existing Government-run Education Television (EDU TV) daily transmission schedule, and establish new partnerships with other faith based, community and privately-owned TV providers to include EDU TV; (iii) strengthening the Kenya Education Cloud (e-cloud) for curation of additional content to cover core subjects in all grades; and to upgrade the e-cloud portal to make it more efficient, and to increase its capacity to support over 15 million users; and (iv) adapting online content for access via mobile phones; • Sub-component 2: Teacher training in interactive remote learning methodologies to ensure teachers play a role such as in design and delivery of the online lessons; developing activities for students to do remotely or at home; designing simple learning plans to support parents to home school; and being on call for interaction with students and parents; and • Sub-component 3: Create an integrated monitoring and evaluation system for remote learning interventions, and to provide support for parents and caregivers to monitoring student learning to establish utilization of the remote education services through radio, TV and e-cloud, and to provide simple tips and help desks to parents and caregivers as they support learners at home, especially while using radi o, TV and mobile phones. b) Component 2: Facilitate smooth transition back to school for vulnerable students and girls. This component will support three sub-components: • Sub-component 1: Support to the existing National School Meals program (SMP) with a ’top up’ grant for targeted nutrition support of selected schools within informal settlements, arid and semi areas; and expand provision of school meals to additional schools within the informal settlements in urban centers, and special needs schools; and• Sub-component 2: Provision of on online based Psycho-social support services to promote psycho-social well-being of learners, and to provide psycho-social support. c) Component 3: Project Coordination, Communication, and Monitoring and Evaluation to support monitoring school attendance in all schools; to conduct a learning assessment to identify students who need targeted support, and to inform development of remedial programs for these children; to build capacity of MoE to conduct virtual meeting during the COVID-19 period; and to support overall project management, communication, monitoring and evaluation.