Primary Education Quality Improvement Project

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The Government of DRC rolled out its flagship policy on free primary education in 2019. This was the first high-level political commitment to the education sector in four decades. According to the Constitution, primary education is compulsory and free in public schools, but the education system has been dependent on fees charged to households since 1980s.In 2021, there were approximately 20.2 million children enrolled in primary education (including 17.9 million in public schools), across more than 59,000 schools staffed by nearly 460,000 teachers. The implementation of the free schooling policy led to an immediate surge in enrollment: between the academic years 2020-2021 and 2018-2019, the number of students enrolled in public schools increased by an annual average of 12.3 percent. Despite significant achievements, the education sector struggles with a range of persistent demand and supply side challenges related to access, quality, and equity. Some of these challenges have become more prominent due to the rapid sector expansion over the past years, coupled with high fertility rates, at 6.2 children per woman. It is estimated that the primary school age (6-11 years old) population will increase by approximately 785,000 children per year between 2023 and 2030.A learning crisis at foundational levels poses risks to future productivity. A four-year-old Congolese child is expected to complete 9.1 years of schooling by their 18th birthday. Nevertheless, this translates into only 4.5 years of schooling when adjusted for learning. Poor learning outcomes are driven by a range of supply and demand side factors.• There is an increasing need for investments in basic school infrastructure. Of the 420,527 public primary classrooms in operation in 2021, nearly 24 percent were in poor condition, 17 percent were made of straw and leaves, and 30 percent were made of clay. • Limited access to teaching and learning materials especially in remote areas is a key constraint to strengthening learning outcomes. In Grades 5 and 6, no textbooks in core subjects have been distributed in several years, with resultant pupil to textbook ratios ranging from 71 to 92. Sustainability is a challenge: there is virtually no public funding for the renewal of textbooks, nor is there a policy that addresses this challenge.• Teachers generally have low qualifications, and there are limited opportunities for professional development. Only a minority of teachers master the curriculum they are meant to teach. Primary-level teachers in DRC score below their SSA peers in terms of reading comprehension, mathematics, and didactics. Opportunities for continuous professional development (CPD) are limited.• Gender disparities persist as more than two-thirds of teachers at the public primary level are men. Global research has shown that the gender of teachers impacts girls’ educational performance. Various factors contribute to lower female participation in the teaching workplace, including the relative difficulty women (compared to men) face to relocate, financial insecurity if the teaching position is not permanent and salaried, and a work environment and social norms that are not always welcoming to women. • Teaching conditions and incentives do not attract or retain the most skilled. Teachers report that the teaching profession in DRC has lost in prestige and value, further diminishing the profession’s attractiveness. • There is a critical need to strengthen data collection and analysis, to be used to inform decision-making. Data production is irregular, largely because of inadequate recurrent financing from the state budget. Databases are not sufficiently interconnected or harmonized, preventing consistency, credibility and reliability. The proposed Project would be implemented over a four-year period using an investment project financing (IPF) modality. In order to benefit from systems and complementary activities that have been strengthened and are being implemented under other Bank-financed operations, the Project would focus on five of the nine provinces targeted by the DRC Country Partnership Framework, which are also targeted under the current DRC Girls' Learning and Empowerment Project (GLEP, P178684). Component 1: Increasing access to improved learning environments (US$ 20 million) The objective of Component One is to improve access to quality learning environments inclusive of girls and children with disabilities, in communities of the five target provinces with the most severe needs. The project will finance the construction, furnishing and equipping of disabled-accessible and eco-sensitive classrooms, as well as water, sanitation, and hygiene facilities. The infrastructure will be built to mitigate the risks posed by natural hazards. The proposed Project will pilot a lower-cost approach to construction that includes the identification and use of local materials to be procured and processed with community participation in the five target provinces.Component 2: Improving Teacher Effectiveness (US$34 million) The objective of Component Two is to make teaching more learning-effective and girl-inclusive. It is composed of two sub-components that aim to provide essential teaching-learning materials, reinforce continuous professional development, support the introduction of merit-based recruitment and career advancement, and increase the proportion of female teachersSubcomponent 2.1: Strengthening classroom instruction (US$ 29 million). The objective of this component is to strengthen the effectiveness of teaching-learning practices through the provision of essential teaching-learning materials and the regular strengthening of teacher capacities. The project will finance the procurement and distribution of textbooks in French, mathematics and sciences for Grades 5 and 6 in public primary schools countrywide, to achieve a 3:1 students to textbook ratio; as well as a teacher’s guide with structured lessons to accompany each textbook, to provide one guide per subject teacher. Subcomponent 2.2: Supporting teacher management reforms (US$ 5 million). The objectives of this subcomponent are to: (i) promote the merit-based recruitment of primary teachers; (ii) increase the number of qualified female primary teachers using PBCs; and (iii) strengthen teacher career development through the aligned implementation of professional standards, performance evaluations, and promotionsComponent 3: Strengthening Systems and Project Management (US$ 15 million)The objectives of Component Three are to: (i) strengthen systems to generate and use information for education management and quality assurance, and to develop, monitor and report on gender-sensitive education strategic planning at decentralized level; and (ii) ensure overall implementation capacity to achieve project results. Support will be provided to complement activities funded separately through the GPE-System Capacity Grant (SCG). Sub-component 3.1: Strengthening critical management systems (US$ 9.35 million)The subcomponent will finance the following activities: i) capacity building and operational activities to produce the National Statistical Yearbook for the academic years 2024-2025 to 2026-2027, ii) technical assistance and training for the development and use of user-friendly school report cards, and iii) technical assistance as well as consultative and advocacy activities to develop for approval, a policy for the regular financing of the annual data collection exercise for the statistical yearbook.Sub-component 3.2: Supporting project management and monitoring and evaluation (US$ 5.65 million)The objective of this sub-component is to ensure that capacities and systems are in place to achieve project results while adhering to corporate safeguards and requirements, including those pertaining to fiduciary functions and monitoring, reporting, and evaluation.Component 4: Contingent Emergency Response (CERC) A no-cost CERC will be included in