Nepal School Sector Development Program

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The development objective of the School Sector Development Program for Nepal is to improve the quality, equitable access, and efficiency of basic and secondary education in Nepal by supporting the Government’s School Sector Development Program. Nepal presents unique challenges and opportunities for development.Nepal continues to transition from a postconflict status and through a complex and challenging political landscape.The Government’s Development Strategy 2030 aspires to have Nepal achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).Other key achievements under the SSRP include the following: (a) initiation and completion of several rounds of National Assessment of Student Achievement (NASA); (b) initiation of Early Childhood Education and Development (ECED) as an important element of basic education and the early grade reading (EGR) program; and (c) continued implementation of the EMIS to regularly collect school-level data, which are being used for planning purposes, including for the allocation of PCF to schools and the bottom-up budgeting process of the Department of Education (DOE) whereby District Education Offices (DEOs) make budget proposals through their district-level annual work plans and budgets (AWPBs), which in turn are informed by school improvement plans (SIPs) submitted by schools.Despite the achievements, much remains to be done on learning outcomes, equitable access, and system strengthening. The most pressing challenge going forward is low and unequal quality of school education at basic and secondary education.urthermore, learning outcomes vary significantly by geography, school, and individual/household characteristics. The proposed PforR is well aligned with the World Bank Group’s Nepal Country Partnership Strategy (CPS) 2014–2018.The proposed Program will support the Government’s School Sector Development Program (SSDP), which has set the following goals: (a) to contribute to socioeconomic development and reduce disparities through inclusive development of its human resources and (b) to facilitate all citizens with opportunities to become functionally literate and numerate and to develop the basic life skills and knowledge required to enjoy a productive life taking into account the diversity of context and needs including the forthcoming federal structure of the country. The SSDP aims to achieve these goals through improvements in equity, quality, efficiency, governance, and management of the school education sector. he proposed PforR operation is also consistent with the World Bank’s Education Strategy for Nepal that is focused on improving student learning outcomes and skills attainment using the following three pillars: (a) alignment of performance incentives at each level of service delivery—central, district, school, and classroom; (b) system strengthening for improved service delivery; and (c) consistent and cross-cutting focus on the labor market.The World Bank has been a longstanding partner in the education sector, including the school sector through a series of SWAp programs such as the EFA (2004–2009) and SSRP (2009–2016).The World Bank’s value added, in addition to the financing support, is on bringing global expertise and the learning from the best practices and lessons from interventions in countries across the world, thereby building linkages and maximizing synergies across crosscutting solution areas and better informing the World Bank’s operational and analytical work in the country.