SB-EDUCATION III

closed

The project will: (1) expand access to secondary education by about 40 percent while increasing female participation to 45 percent; (2) introduce lower-cost day secondary school education at the village level; (3) improve the quality of primary and secondary education through teacher upgrading and in-service training, curriculum inputs and increased availability of educational materials; (4) enhance the efficiency and management of the educational system; (5) expand the supply of nurses and midwives; (6) strengthen budgeting and financing planning to promote the rationalization of the education sector; and (7) undertake the emergency rehabilitation or reconstruction of education facilities damaged or destroyed by Cyclone Nina in January 1993. The project will support: (a) construction of additional academic and female boarding facilities and supply of equipment at eight provincial secondary schools; (b) extension of facilities and supply of equipment at five village primary schools, to pilot lower cost day junior secondary schools; (c) assistance to the Solomon Islands College of Higher Education to upgrade about 60 junior secondary teachers in priority subjects to teach at the senior secondary level; (d) provision of textbooks and educational materials for primary and secondary education by reprinting existing education materials and printing and distributing revised/adapted materials developed by the project; (e) in-service training programs for primary teachers in the use of the updated curriculum materials; (f) provision of training assistance for: (i) all levels of Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development and provincial staff in budgeting, computing and management/planning skills; (ii) school principals; and (iii) national/provincial conferences to improve staff pedagogical and management skills; (g) provision of technical assistance for curriculum development and project management activities; (h) support for planning and assessment studies; (i) construction of additional facilities and equipment for nurses and midwifery programs; and (j) rehabilitation or reconstruction of classrooms and staff houses damaged or destroyed by Cyclone Nina.