Second Additional Financing for Sierra Leone Free Education Project

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The Sierra Leone Free Education (FREE) Project (P167897) in the amount of US$50 million was approved on June 29, 2020, signed by the Government of Sierra Leone on July 13, 2020 and became effective on August 10, 2020. The project development objectives (PDO) of the parent project are to improve the management of the education system, teaching practices, and learning conditions. The FREE Project is co-financed through a grant in the amount of US$15.97 million equivalent from the European Comission (EC); the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO) of the UK; and Irish Aid through a World Bank-administered Sierra Leone education multi-donor trust fund (MDTF), established in February, 2020. An additional financing (AF) grant for the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Education Response (P174958), in the amount of US$6.85 million from the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), was added to the parent FREE Project and was approved on February 5, 2021, and became effective on May 24, 2021. The AF for COVID-19 response (Component 6) was successfully implemented and closed on December 31, 2022.The current proposed AF under the FREE Project is being prepared as the second AF to the FREE Project for scaling up key efforts to support the education reform. In parallel, the restructuring will extend the project closing date from September 30, 2025 to December 31, 2027 and revise the Results Framework to add new indicators. The AF would be financed by additional IDA grant in the amount of US$20 million. The proposed AF will also benefit from a co-financing grant in the amount of another US$13.73 million from the Education Above All (EAA) Foundation.Sierra Leone is facing a learning crisis. The average number of learning-adjusted years of school is 4.5, which is low. Early Grade Reading and Mathematics Assessments (EGRA/EGMA) 2021 results show that 61 percent of children in early grades cannot successfully read 9 out of 10 words in a simple story. Additionally, almost one-fifth of children, 18 percent of primary school age (6 to 11 years old) and 19 percent of Junior Secondary age (12 to 14 years old) were out of school in 2017, prior to the introduction of government program – Free Quality School Program (FQSE) in 2018. The FREE project supports government’s initiative to bring out of school children (OOSC) to schools and keep them enrolled through a number of policies and programs including OOSC strategy, radical inclusion policy, overturning the ban on pregnant girls and lactating mothers to attend schools and the like. The proposed AF will support activities to achieve that goal.The AF is well aligned with the Government’s education priorities and strategies including those outlined in the National Development Plan (2019-2023) and Education Sector Plan (2022-2026). Also, the focus of the AF is aligned with the emphasis of the World Bank Group’s Country Partnership Framework (CPF) (FY21-FY26) of Republic of Sierra Leone, specifically with its emphasis on the importance of investing in human development. It is consistent with Sierra Leone’s strategies on climate change and is aligned with the Paris Agreement’s mitigation goals. The AF design is also responsive to priorities articulated in the World Bank’s Education Strategy for Western and Central Africa launched in June 2022. The proposed AF will support strategic priorities identified in the regional strategy, especially Pillar 1 (improving teaching and learning) and Pillar 2 (widening opportunities for learning) and invest in high-impact interventions suggested in the strategy. The FREE Project consists of the following components: (i) System Administration, Governance and Accountability which aims to strengthen the education system in areas of policy, governance, accountability, and administration for enhanced quality of education services; (ii) Teacher Management and Professional Development which seeks to address the critical teacher quality and workforce management issues in the country; (iii) School-Level Education Development which aims to improve the quality of education and the teaching and learning environment by addressing school-level needs; (iv) Project Management, Coordination, and Monitoring and Evaluation which will support the management of the project, as well as coordination and monitoring and evaluation aspects; (v) Contingent Emergency Response Component (CERC) which aims to allow for rapid reallocation of project proceeds in the event of a natural or artificial disaster or crisis that has caused or is likely to imminently cause a major adverse economic and/or social impact (activated and executed for approximately US$12 million in August, 2022); and (vi) COVID-19 Education Response – through the AF for COVID-19 response (Closed on December 31, 2022). Under the AF, the PDO will remain unchanged. The AF will (a) expand the scope of selected on-going activities which are performing well and (b) add new priority activities, Component 7 — Enhancing Access to Education and Supporting Foundational Learning for All – by prioritizing foundational learning (for instance, specialized teaching and learning materials [TLMs], curriculum/teacher guides, teacher training and upgrading, strengthening use of data and technology to support learning, management capacity building) and by reinforcing foundational learning (for instance, school health, support to OOSC, community sensitization and training, improvement of learning opportunities). Component 7 will comprise of the following sub-components: (7a) Accelerating foundational learning competencies; (7b) Improving learning opportunities catered for OOSC; (7c) Strengthening system to monitor OOSC; and (7d) NGO consortium supporting OOSC.The design of Component 7 is responsive to strategies articulated in the MBSSE’s Education Sector Plan, Radical Inclusion Policy, and the Sierra Leone Zero Learning Poverty Plan. The technical design of the proposed AF is guided by lessons learned from past and ongoing projects in Sierra Leone and in the region, as well as global knowledge and research evidence. In addition to the new component, the AF will include - revision and update of the Results Framework to reflect the expected impact of the AF and extension of the project closing date from September 30, 2025 to December 31, 2027.