Togo COVID-19 Education Response Project

closed

Overview of Country ContextOn March 6, 2020, the Ministry of Health announced the first confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Lome. Since March 17, 2020, Togo has instituted an action plan from the Ministry of Health to address the pandemic. This includes surveillance of air, land and maritime borders, limits on the size of gatherings, sensitization and information sharing, clinical and para-clinical screening and intensified management of hospitals’ human resources, infrastructure, and equipment resources. Government has reinforced measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19, including enforcing a curfew, revising working hours to allow workers to return home before the curfew and the suspension of all cultural and sporting events. Sectoral ContextAt the beginning March 2020, Togo rolled out a series of school closure measures to prevent the spread of the COVID 19 pandemic. According to the latest national education statistics , over 2.6 million children are out of school in Togo and 75,413 teachers unable to teach. The Togolese’s education system will be impacted by the crisis over the short- to medium-term in numerous ways, including an increase in learning inequalities, deterioration of children’s nutritional and health status, an increase in the number of dropouts, especially among disadvantaged populations, decreases in parents’ investment in education, reduced government spending on education, the closing of private schools, a deterioration in the quality of teaching and a decline in the overall quality of education. Before the crisis, the learning poverty in Togo was 86 percent meaning that 86 percent of children in Togo at late primary age today are not proficient in reading, adjusted for the out-of-school children. To mitigate negative impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on the Togolese’s education system, the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education (MEPS), in collaboration with the Ministry of Technical Education and Vocational Training (METFIF), developed a strategic plan which was shared with the Local Education Group (LEG) on April 30, 2020 and took into account the priorities of the ESP being finalized. Its three main objectives are to: (i) ensure continuity of learning, assuming that schools would remain closed beyond April 14, 2020; (ii) anticipate measures to be taken for schools reopening and supporting safe practices in schools; and (iii) reinforce system resilience. Relevance to Higher level objective The Education COVID-19 Response Project is fully aligned with the Government response plan both at the national and sector levels. The proposed Project will support the implementation of urgent interventions identified in the education sector COVID-19 response strategy, considering the available budget for the operation. Project activities will address immediate impacts of school closures and ensure recovery of school system. Activities related to the resilience of the education system are expected to be covered under the GPE/IDA project (P172674) in the pipeline. At the national level, the Government of the Republic of Togo has also developed a National COVID-19 Preparedness and Response Plan. It focuses on scaling-up and strengthening all aspects of preparedness and response including surveillance, laboratory, point of entry, risk communication, case management, infection control and safety, coordination, and research. Where appropriate, the project design also takes into consideration measures under the national preparedness and response action plan. Other partners from the LEG, led by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), are also expected to contribute to the funding of the Government education action plan. Summary and brief explanation of the proposed Project components The Project is an Investment Project Financing (IPF) which will be processed as an emergency operation. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, all Bank-financed emergency operations will benefit from fast-track processing procedures and move quickly t o make funds available to governments. Component 1: Ensuring Education continuity: The objective of this component is to ensure schooling continuity through distance learning to prevent learning losses and reduce risks of repetitions and dropouts. This component will (i) support distance learning for grades 1 to 9 to ensure schooling continuity during school closures, and (ii) provide support to teachers, parents and caregivers for effective distance and home-based schooling.Component 2: Supporting safe schools reopening and student re-entry: The objective of this component is to support Government in the re-opening of schools and keeping learners safe. The Government’s education action plan is based on gradual and/or partial reopening of schools depending on the spread of COVID-19. There will be a checklist of the minimum requirements for the re-opening of schools that will guide schools and communities as schools begin the process of reopening. In this regard, two main considerations have been identified for project support: access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and equipping schools and staff with prevention tools and measures. To achieve this, the component will support (i) safe reopening of schools through the provision of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and the payment of three months salary of voluntary teachers, (ii) targeted school grants to support readiness and functioning of School Management Committees (SMCs); and (iii) remedial programs for at-risk students and back-to-school campaigns. Component 3: Project management, Capacity building and Monitoring and Evaluation: The objective of this component is to support project management costs, including staffing of the Project Coordination Unit (PCU), supervision, and project audits, as well as technical assistance, monitoring and evaluation (including the setting up of a geo-enabling method), reporting, communication, training, operating costs and strengthen lessons from COVID-19 crisis.