Mexico: US$220 Million to Improve Educational Level
The World Bank (WB) approved a US$220 million loan yesterday for the second stage of the Quality Schools Program (QSP), which seeks to improve educational levels, particularly through increases in coverage, social participation and educational results, with a special emphasis in marginalized schools and the indigenous population.
The project promotes social participation in schools, a long term goal of the country’s educational sector. Since the creation of the QSP in 2001, the State has tried to involve community members in the execution of the school’s educational plan and administration, which becomes an added value.
“In coordination with the World Bank, we’re working to reinforce the Quality Schools Program, through one of the great unresolved issues of the educational system, which is giving supervisors the role of pedagogical leaders so that they work for competence, achievements and results, thus helping their administrative chores, giving an incentive for collegiate work, academic work and fostering the autonomy of schools and teachers as an essential element of the new parameters for educational quality,” said Fernando González Sánchez, Undersecretary for Basic Education. “This effort can only succeed with the participation of all educational players, including parents, who are our main allies in the implementation of this program. Thus the importance of the Social Participation School Councils,” he added.
The second stage includes schools with greater needs located in low income areas. It considers the partial reorientation of the program to improve internal efficiency and learning results. To that end, it will support pilot programs to identify, design and develop adjustments allowing for program adaptation and its expansion in schools within small communities in semi-urban and rural areas. Furthermore, it will train school directors and parents to improve staff management and participation levels.
The project has three components:
- School scholarships: supports the QSP through eligible school scholarships to implement school improvement plans;
- Supervision and monitoring: finances monitoring, supervision and advertising programs; and
“We’re convinced that quality and a greater relevance in the educational system add value to the country’s economy, which has all it needs to exploit its knowledge and specialization, while being competitive in the new global economic environment,” said Gloria Grandolini, World Bank Director for Mexico and Colombia. “Improving productivity is the main engine of economic growth,” she added.
Some of the expected results include:
- A 25 percent increase in the number of schools participating in the QSP by 2013 – from 39,189 to 50,000;
- A 6 percent increase in the number of parents participating in the design of educational plans (from 72.2 to 80 percent);
- A 10 percent increase in the number of schools participating in the QSP, located in highly marginalized areas — from 40 to 50 percent; and
- An 8 percent increase in the number of schools in the QSP with indigenous students – from 7 to 15 percent.
“For this three-year stage, the support of the World Bank will serve to strengthen equity strategies for resource distribution, in order to reach schools located in remote communities, showing greater needs and educational lag; with this opportunity, we intend to expand the quality schools program and improve it based on the institution’s global experience,” said Daniel Hernández Ruiz, National Coordinator for the Quality Schools Program.
Through this operation, the WB supports Mexico, particularly the Secretary of Public Education (SEP, in Spanish), in its effort to improve information systems, develop new objectives and prioritization mechanisms, as well as enhancing social participation in the decision-making process of schools, through a more inclusive educational system.
In order to achieve these objectives, the WB seeks to promote an educational and administrative autonomy model based on schools that emphasize freedom to decide; shared leadership; team work; flexible learning practices; participative planning; evaluations for continuous improvement; responsible social participation; and accountability.
The WB has been supporting the QSP since 2005 through a collaborative scheme conceived from the beginning as flexible and long term, as required by the educational system’s reform process. The package includes consultancy and financial services. The total amount of financing required by the second stage is US$366.7 million, of which the WB will contribute US$220 million and the government counterpart US$146.7 million.
The organization responsible for implementing this loan is the SEP, which designated Nacional Financiera (NAFIN) as financial agent. This is a flexible, fixed-term loan denominated in US dollars, with an 18-year maturity period. The entire sum will be disbursed in a single exhibition on December 15, 2027. The opening fee has been agreed at 0.25% of the total amount. The project is expected to end on June 30, 2013.
Rio De Janeiro City Receives Us$ 1 Billion for Growth, Education and Health
The World Bank approved today a US$ 1.045 billion loan, in two tranches, for the City of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The Rio de Janeiro Municipality Fiscal Consolidation for Efficiency and Growth Development Program Lending loan supports initiatives aimed at bolstering economic growth in the Municipality and improving the quality and coverage of social services, especially in low income areas. This is the first World Bank loan for the City of Rio de Janeiro and is the biggest loan to date provided by the institution directly to a municipality around the world.
“Rio has been nurturing the foundations for sustainable growth, one that responds to its unique urban and social challenges, and taking into account the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games,” said the Mayor of Rio, Eduardo Paes. “This program with the World Bank, the first one if its kind with a municipality, is a giant step in that direction, supporting the City’s investment program and bringing with it the knowledge and best practices from abroad.”
The loan seeks to bolster economic growth by supporting the City’s fiscal policy, freeing up space for investments, improving the quality of health and education services, simplifying the business start-up process, and modernizing municipal public management.
- In the fiscal area, the project will help create additional resources for public investment through improvements in revenues and greater efficiency in social security expenditures;
- In public services, the project will expand access to family health and emergency care services, and will improve the quality of child and basic education through the “Escolas do Amanhã (Schools of Tomorrow)” and “Espaços de Desenvolvimento Infantil (Child Development Areas)” programs in low income and high violence areas. It will also promote systemic improvements in learning results in general. On top of that, the project supports reforms to the business start-up process, such as the “Alvará Já (License Now)” program, seeking greater efficiency to stimulate entrepreneurship and job creation.
- With regards to public service management, it will promote spending plan and medium-term results-based management mechanisms, as well as the creation of an institutional framework for public-private partnerships (PPP) in infrastructure and service provision.
“Through this operation, the World Bank recognizes the importance of the work carried out by the City in areas of public expenditure efficiency and medium and long term strategic planning,” said the World Bank Country Director for Brazil, Makhtar Diop. “Furthermore, this loan will help the municipality coordinate policies with the State and the Union, increasing the impact and the results of its policies and investments.”
Some of the goals supported by this loan include: doubling the coverage of family health programs to 12% by December 2011; annual reductions in school dropout rates and increases in IDEB and IDE results; increase child and preschool education enrollment by at least 3,000 licenses per year in low income communities; reducing the number of days needed to open a business from 20 to 12.5; and measures to make the Municipality’s retirement system more sustainable.
The first tranche of this loan, worth US$ 545 million, will be disbursed after the operation is signed and made affective in the next months. The second tranche, of US$ 500 million, should be disbursed by June 2012 and is linked to the obtention of fiscal and social indicators agreed with the Municipal Government.
According to Yaye Seynabou Sakho, World Bank Project Manager, “the reforms backed by this loan will also aid in the creation of institutional capacity and greater government coordination, exactly at the moment when they are most needed, during the build up to the World Cup and the Olympics.” According to her, along with social improvements in underprivileged communities, the improvements to administrative efficiency will become a long-lasting legacy to the City.
Including the loan approved today, the World Bank has already financed projects worth more than US$ 3.2 billion for Rio de Janeiro State since 1952. This IBRD flexible loan, linked to commitments and with a variable spread, is denominated in US dollars and is payable in 30 years through monthly customized payments, with all conversion options.
New World Bank Financing to Boost Indonesia’s Power, Education and Local Governance Sectors
The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors today approved new loans designed to help scale-up two successful Indonesian government programs in the power and education sectors, as well as a for a new project designed to help improve local government accountability on the use of Specific Purpose Grants (DAK) from the central government.
In the power sector, an Additional Finance loan of US$30 million was approved to support efforts by PLN, the national power company, to strengthen its management capabilities by continuing to deploy an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. The ERP is an integrated information technology (IT) system that helps better manage PLN’s human resource, materials, and financial management systems. The approved project will build upon an already successful deployment of the ERP system to PLN’s business units in the islands of Java and Bali, to its operations in Sumatra and Sulawesi.
“The use of ERP systems in Java and Bali has significantly strengthened our management capabilities by providing timely and accurate financial information that enable us to make better informed decisions,” said Setio Anggoro Dewo, Director of Finance of PLN. Whereas Joachim von Amsberg, Indonesia Country Director of the World Bank said, “The ERP systemin Java-Bali has standardized PLN’s business processes, made them more transparent and improved its internal controls. As a result, there is evidence of greater accountability and governance within the company,”
In the education sector, Additional Financing of US$500 million has been approved to help scale up BOS-KITA (School Operational Assistance – Knowledge Improvement for Transparency and Accountability), which is designed to strengthen school-based management and community participation and, as a result, to further improve the quality of education spending in Indonesia. BOS-KITA builds on the success of BOS – the Government’s program to improve access to quality education for all children aged 7 to 15. This new loan brings the World Bank’s total BOS-KITA financing to US$1.1 billion.
Finally, a new loan worth US$ 220 million was approved for the Local Government and Decentralization project, aimed at increasing the accountability of local governments in their use of Specific Purpose Grants (DAK). DAK grants come from the national budget (APBN) and are generally used to support regions that lack the fiscal capacity to provide physical infrastructure for basic public service delivery. In 2010, total DAK allocation amounts to Rp. 21,13 billion or 2.0 percent of APBN. The project will reimburse existing DAK grants for infrastructure (roads, water, sanitation, and irrigation) based on reported and verified physical outputs delivered by participating local governments. The State Finance and Development Supervisory Board (Badan Pengawasan Keuangan dan Pembangunan, BPKP) are tasked with verifying these outputs. Up to 81 local governments are eligible to take part in this project.
World Bank Supports Skills Development in Two Chinese Provinces
On June 1 the World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors approved a loan of $40 million to support technical and vocational training in Liaoning Province and Shandong Province in China.
TheLiaoning and Shandong Technical and Vocational Education and Training Project focuses on improving the quality and relevance of technical education in eight schools in the two provinces. It will also produce lessons from this experience as a guide for future school reforms and policy development on a national level. Through its involvement in the project, the World Bank will help schools connect their curriculums more closely with competencies sought by industry.
The first part of the project tackles school-based reforms and innovation. It will introduce reforms that provide goods, services, and works to strengthen school-industry linkages and improve school management. A modular competency-based training (CBT) curriculum with instructional materials will be implemented to improve student assessment. Instructors will be equipped to use the new CBT curriculum and expand their industry experience. Facilities and equipment for CBT programs will be upgraded.
The second part involves knowledge development, policy studies and capacity building. This will be achieved through improving monitoring and evaluation to capture lessons from reforms under part one of the project, then disseminating lessons produced and building capacity for planning and implementation of reforms.
"We hope these new approaches will eventually lead to schools producing graduates with better skills and more favorable labor market outcomes" said Liang Xiaoyan, World Bank Senior Education Specialist who is in charge of the project.
Liaoning Province with 43 million people is one of China’s most important industrial bases. It is the largest economy in Northeastern China and ranks eighth in the country in terms of GDP. Shandong Province with 94 million people is China’s second largest province. It is also one of China’s richer provinces ranking second in terms of GDP. In both provinces, the growth of capital-intensive manufacturing and services is increasing the demand for education and skills.
The design of this project is inspired by a similar project approved for Guangdong Province in 2009. These projects benefitted from the experience gained from three earlier projects that the World Bank supported in China in areas related to technical and vocational education, including the Vocational and Technical Education Project completed in 1997, the recent China Vocational Education Reform Project completed in 2002, and the Labor Market Development Project completed in 2006.