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Document of The World Bank Report No. 66240-BF INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION THIRD BASIC EDUCATION PROGRAM SUPPORT GRANT FROM THE INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION ACTING AS ADMINISTRATOR OF THE EDUCATION FOR ALL/FAST TRACK INITIATIVE CATALYTIC FUND IN THE AMOUNT OF US$35 MILLION TO March 16, 2012 Africa Education Department
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Document of
The World Bank
Report No. 66240-BF
INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION
THIRD BASIC EDUCATION PROGRAM SUPPORT GRANT
FROM THE INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION
ACTING AS ADMINISTRATOR OF THE EDUCATION FOR ALL/FAST TRACK INITIATIVE CATALYTIC FUND
IN THE AMOUNT OF US$35 MILLION
TO
March 16, 2012
Africa Education DepartmentCountry Department AFCF2Africa Region
Burkina FasoGOVERNMENT FISCAL YEAR
January 1 – December 31
CURRENCY EQUIVALENTS
(Exchange Rate Effective as of January 9, 2012)
Currency Unit = CFA US$1.00 = 514 CFA
FISCAL YEARJanuary 1 – December 31
WEIGHTS AND MEASURESMetric System
ABBREVIATION AND ACRONYMS
ASCE High Independent Audit Authority for State Oversight known as Autorité Supérieure de Contrôle de l’Etat.
BCEAO Banque Centrale des Etats de l’Afrique de l’Ouest (Central Bank of West African States)
BUNED Bureau National des Evaluations Environnementales et du Développement (National office for Development and Environnemental Evaluations)
BEPSG Basic Education Program Support GrantCBRD Community Based Rural DevelopmentCEMCAS
Country Economic MemorandumCountry Assistance Strategy
COGESCPAR
Community/school based local education management Committees, known as Comité de Gestion des Etablissements ScolairesCountry Procurement Assessment Report
CSR Country Status Report DEP Directorate for Studies and PlanningDFGG Demand For Good GovernanceDGTCP General Directorate of Treasury and Public AccountingDPO Development Policy OperationDSA Debt Sustainability AnalysisEFA-FTI CF Education For All-Fast Track Initiative Catalytic FundESW Economic and Sector WorkFTI Fast Track InitiativeGBS General Budget SupportGDP Gross Domestic ProductGER Gross Primary Enrollment Rate
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GPE Global Partnership for EducationGPEF Global Partnership for Education Fund HDI Human Development IndexHIV/AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus/Acquired Immunodeficiency
SyndromeICA Investment Climate AssessmentICRR Implementation Completion and Results ReportIDA International Development AssociationIFRS International Financial Management StandardsIMF International Monetary FundISR Implementation Status and Results ReportJICA Japan International Cooperation AgencyJSDF Japan Social Development FundM&E Monitoring & EvaluationLDGMASSN
Local Donor GroupMinistry of Social Action and National Solidarity
MATD Ministry of Territorial Administration and DecentralizationMDGs Millennium Development GoalsMEBA Ministry of Basic Education and LiteracyMEDV Ministry of Environment and Sustainable DevelopmentMENA Ministry of National Education and LiteracyMEFMESSRSMJE
Ministry of Economy and FinanceMinistry of Secondary and Higher EducationMinistry of Youth and Employment
MOH Ministry of HealthMoU Memorandum of UnderstandingMTEF Medium-Term Expenditure FrameworkNGO Non Governmental OrganizationNPV Net Present ValueOECD DAC Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development –
Development Assistance Committee PAFPDDEB
Performance Assessment Framework Ten-Year Basic Education Development Program, known as “Programme Decennal de Développement de l’Education de Base”
PDO Project Development ObjectivePEFA Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability AssessmentPER Public Expenditure ReviewPFM Public Financial ManagementPRSC Poverty Reduction Support CreditPRSG Poverty Reduction Support GrantPRSP Poverty Reduction Strategy PaperSCADDSDRSSN
Strategy for Accelerated Growth and Sustainable DevelopmentSpecial Drawing RightsSocial Safety Nets
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SVT Science Curriculum on Life and Health known as Science de la Vie et de la Terre
UFR University Training Unit And ResearchUNDPUPC
United Nations Development ProgramUniversal Primary School Completion
UPE Universal Primary EducationWAEMU West Africa Economic and Monetary UnionTVET Technical and Vocational Education and Training
Vice President:
Country Director:
Sector Manager:
Task Team Leader:
Obiageli Katryn Ezekwesili
Madani M. Tall
Peter Nicolas Materu
Adama Ouedraogo
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BURKINA FASO
THIRD BASIC EDUCATION PROGRAM SUPPORT GRANT
TABLE OFCONTENTS
GRANT AND PROGRAM SUMMARY
I. INTRODUCTION.............................................................................................................................................. 1
II. COUNTRY CONTEXT....................................................................................................................................... 3
POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS........................................................................................................................................3RECENT ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS IN BURKINA FASO...................................................................................................4MEDIUM TERM OUTLOOK.........................................................................................................................................8
III. THE GOVERNMENT’S TEN-YEAR BASIC EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM AND PARTICIPATORY PROCESSES...................................................................................................................................................... 15
IV. WORLD BANK SUPPORT TO THE GOVERNMENT’S PROGRAM......................................................................29
LINK TO THE CAS...............................................................................................................................................29COLLABORATION WITH THE IMF AND OTHER DONORS....................................................................................30RELATIONSHIP TO OTHER WORLD BANK OPERATIONS......................................................................................31LESSONS LEARNED............................................................................................................................................32ANALYTICAL UNDER PINNINGS.........................................................................................................................33
V. THE PROPOSED THIRD BASIC EDUCATION PROGRAM SUPPORT GRANT.......................................................35
VI. OPERATION IMPLEMENTATION................................................................................................................. 52
POVERTY AND SOCIAL IMPACT.........................................................................................................................52ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL SAFEGUARD ASPECTS......................................................................................52IMPLEMENTATION, MONITORING AND EVALUATION......................................................................................53FIDUCIARY ASPECTS..........................................................................................................................................55RISKS AND RISK MITIGATION............................................................................................................................59
ANNEX 1: INITIAL IMPACT OF MEASURES TAKEN UNDER BEPSG 1 AND 2.........................................................61
ANNEX 3: GOVERNMENT’S TEN-YEAR BASIC EDUCATION PROGRAM (PHASE 2: 2009-2011).............................76
ANNEX 4: BASIC EDUCATION PROGRAM SUPPORT GRANT POLICY MATRIX FOR BEPSG 1 – 3............................87
ANNEX 5: TEN-YEAR BASIC EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM OUTPUT INDICATORS................................92
ANNEX 6: BURKINA FASO – KEY ECONOMIC INDICATORS.................................................................................94
ANNEX 7: FUND RELATIONS NOTE................................................................................................................... 95
ANNEX 8: COUNTRY AT A GLANCE (INCLUDES COUNTRY MAP).........................................................................99
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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Sectoral Contribution to Growth....................................................................................4Figure 2: Demand Side Contribution to Growth............................................................................5Figure 3: Revenues and Expenditures (% of GDP)........................................................................6Figure 4: Current Account Deficit (% of GDP).............................................................................7Figure 5: CPI end of period 2009-2011 (%)..................................................................................8Figure 6: World Cotton Prices ($US cents per pound)..................................................................9
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Burkina Faso: Selected Economic and Financial Indicator, 2008-16............................11Table 2: Total Education Sector Expenditure in the National Budget.........................................13Table 3: Key indicators 1999 to 2009..........................................................................................26Table 4: CAST Expenditures by PDDEB Components...............................................................31Table 5: Comparison of Triggers and Proposed Priors Actions for BEPSG 3............................37
LIST OF BOXES
Box 1: Good Practice Principles for Conditionality.....................................................................40
The Third Basic Education Program Support Grant was prepared by an IDA team consisting of Adama Ouedraogo (Sr. Education Specialist, AFTED); Ousmane Maurice Kolie (Financial Management Specialist, AFTFM); Renaud Seligman (Sr. Financial Management Specialist, AFTFM); CélestinBado (Sr. Operations Officer, AFTPR); Georgiana Pop (Economist, AFTP4); Mariam Diop (Senior Economist, AFTP4); Mamata Tiendrébéogo (Procurement Specialist, AFTPC); Donald Hamilton (Consultant, AFTED); Begnadehi Claude Bationo (Operations Officer/Monitoring and Evaluation specialist, AFMBF); Bintou Sogodogo (Program Assistant, AFMBF); and Rose-Claire Pakabomba (Language Program Assistant, AFTED).
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GRANT AND PROGRAM SUMMARY
Burkina Faso
THIRD BASIC EDUCATION PROGRAM SUPPORT GRANT
Borrower Burkina Faso
Implementing Agency The Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) in close collaboration with the Ministries of the Social Welfare; National Education and Literacy; Youth, Vocational training and Employment; and Secondary and Higher Education.
Financing Data EFA/FTI CF – US$ 35 million
Operation Type Programmatic Development Policy operation consisting of three grants.
Main Policy Areas The main policy areas to be supported in BEPSG 3 are: (i) launching multi-grade teaching; (ii) including the COGES in the decentralization process for school construction; (iii) launching a new distance education program for students training to become secondary level math and science teachers; (iv) increasing the actual number of teaching hours in basic education; (v) launching a system for the utilization of the results of student assessment to improve student learning in primary and secondary education; (vi) introducing a system of dual apprenticeship training in technical education and vocational training and (vii) including school health, nutrition and HIV and AIDS in the upper secondary school curricula.
Key Outcome Indicators
Key Indicators are: Primary Education: GER increased from 72.4% in 2008/2009 to 82.4% in 2011/2012. Repetition rate decreases from 10.6% in 2008/09 to, to 10% in 2011/12. Completion rate rises from 41.7% in 2008/2009 to 51.4% in 2010/2011. Lower secondary education completion rate increased from 15.8 in 2008/2009 to 18.8% in 2011/2012. Access to training courses and apprenticeship training opportunities increased from 25,877 young people in 2008/09 to 30,000 in 2010/11. Repetition rate falls from 25.7% in 2008/09 to 16.5% in 2011/12.
Program Development Objective(s) and Contribution to CAS
Development Objectives. The BEPSG-1-3 supports the Government’s Ten-Year Basic Education Sector Program which aims to (i) Improve access and equity in basic education (ii) Improve quality, efficiency, and relevance of basic
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education and (iii) Strengthen sector management.
Contribution to the CAS. The Basic Education Sector Program is consistent with the country’s Strategy for Sustainable Accelerated Growth and Sustainable Development (SCADD) and the CAS priorities for the period 2010-2012.
Risks and Risk Mitigation
Macroeconomic risk. The recent rebound in gold and cotton prices has helped Burkina Faso recover from the global economic crisis. However, the country remains heavily exposed to swings in its terms-of-trade and weather-related shocks. Growing import demand and increasing oil prices, coupled with a deterioration of the terms of trade, could weaken the country’s external position. Other potential risks include a decline in foreign aid that threatens debt sustainability and allocations to the education and training sector. Effective implementation of growth-enhancing reforms, export diversification availability of GPE funds will help mitigate these risks. The education sector is also prioritized in the MTEF. Reforms related to multi-grade classes, abolition of biennial intake, enrollment and equity might trigger resistance. This is being addressed through sound consensus and institutional building. The decentralization strategy is challenging in the education sector because of resistance from the center and lack of capacity at the local levels. To address this issue, the Government has adopted a participatory and gradual decentralization approach as well as increased involvement of communities in the management of schools.
Operation ID P127166
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PROGRAM DOCUMENT FOR A
PROPOSED THIRD BASIC EDUCATION PROGRAM SUPPORT GRANT
TO BURKINA FASO
I. INTRODUCTION
1. Financing of BEPSG 1 – 3. Burkina Faso requested and obtained assistance from the Education for All/Fast-Track Initiative (EFA/FTI) in the amount of US$102 million in 2008 to complement financing from the government and other partners for the implementation of its Ten-Year Basic Education Development Program (PDDEB) 2000 to 2010. These resources were provided from the EFA/FTI’s Catalytic Fund which was set up by the EFA/FTI, to help countries reach the EFA goals. The Government and the World Bank decided that the EFA/FTI funds would be provided through a programmatic series of three single tranche development policy operations governed by the World Bank’s Operational Policy 8.60, to support sector policy reforms and institutional strengthening (the Basic Education Program Support Grants (BEPSG 1-3).
2. The EFA/FTI whose name has since been changed to the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) is a partnership of developing and donor countries and agencies designed to support EFA goals by focusing on accelerating progress towards the core EFA goal of universal primary school completion (UPC). It was established in 2002, following the development consensus reached at Monterrey. It is a compact for the education sector that explicitly links increased donor support for primary education to recipient countries’ policy performance and accountability for results. Specifically, the GPE aims to accelerate UPC by promoting: a) More efficient use of aid for basic education; b) Sustained increases in aid for basic education to reach minimum acceptable levels; c) Sound sector policies in education; d) Adequate and sustainable domestic financing for education and e) Increased accountability for sector results.
3. The agreement for the first EFA/FTI grant in the amount of US$22 million was signed on June 29, 2009, and the agreement for the second grant of $45 million was signed on March 29, 2011. This third and final Grant of $35 million is planned to be approved in March, 2012.
4. Context and Evolution of BEPSG 1 – 3. The BEPSG 1-3 series is designed to support introduction of policy and institutional reforms to remove constraints that have limited government efforts to develop the sector. The first phase implementation of the PDDEB emphasized expansion of the system through direct investments and included few key policy reforms and institutional changes needed for sustained development of the sub sector. As a result, even though substantial progress was made, the absence of needed policy reforms limited the contribution of these investments to achievement of the MDGs related to the basic education sub-sector. The reforms proposed to be supported in this final grant are directly linked to the objectives of PDDEB which are to (i) Improve access, equity, and expand coverage of basic education (preschool, primary, lower secondary education and vocational training as well as
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literacy programs); (ii) Improve quality, efficiency, and relevance of basic education; and (iii) Strengthen sector management (fiduciary, administrative, and pedagogic management) and monitoring, in the context of decentralization of management of basic education services.
5. The PDDEB was updated and approved by the Council of Ministers in June, 2008, and re-endorsed by members of the LDG in September, 2008. The PDDEB which was expected to end in 2010 was initially extended to 2011, but was further updated and the revised plan will now be implemented through 2012. The updated plan retains essentially the same overall objectives but the contents reflect progress made in the sector over the last ten years and the objectives of the new SCADD (new development strategy that replaces PRSPs). A new ten-year Plan for 2012 to 2020 is being finalized and will include greater emphasis on post primary and technical education as well as vocational training without prejudice to basic education.
6. Progress under BEPSG 1 and 2. Several important reform actions took place under BEPSG 1 and 2, as detailed in annex 1. These measures have led to significant improvements in the education sector:
a. Improvements to annual work programs, budgeting and financing of the education sector have strengthened collaboration between the government and partners and has improved predictability in the availability of resources.
b. The expansion of multi-grade teaching has resulted in increased and more equitable access to primary education. Between 2008/09 and 2010/11, the enrollment rate increased from 72.4% to 77.6%, and girls’ enrollment rate increased from 67.7% to 75.0% much higher than for boys. The number of schools that do not offer a full cycle of six grades from 3,062 in 2008/09 to 2,014 in 2010/11, representing a 37% decline.
c. With regard to decentralization of education sector management to communes the process is now well advanced and support has been provided to increase their effectiveness. The foundation is now set for further decentralization of some responsibilities to the Community/school based local education management committees (COGES) and a prior action on such further decentralization is included in this operation.
d. The new university based program for training secondary Science and Math teachers is in place and the distance education program, which is a prior action for the BEPSG 3 has started. While in previous years’ science and math teachers were difficult to recruit, in 2009/2010 732 such teachers were recruited satisfying 85% of the needs.
e. The primary level repetition rates dropped substantially from 10.6% in 2008 to 8.1% in 2010. For first cycle of secondary education, the repetition rate fell modestly from 26.3% in 2008 to about 26% in 2010. Similarly, from 2009/10 to 2010/11, dropout rates fell in the first two sub-cycles of primary education from 6% to 4%.
f. Effective teaching time in primary education has increased from 574 hours or about 59.6% of the total to an estimated 736, 76.5% of the total.
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g. It is too soon to attribute changes in completion rates to the measures related to student assessment. However, Completion rates for primary education rose from 41.7% in 2008 to 52.1% in 2010. In first cycle secondary education, completion rates increased from 15.8% in 2008 to 17.5% in 2010. Focus on student might have contributed to this improvement.
h. The issue of adequate HIV/AIDS, health and nutrition education is now being systematically addressed, as the strategy was approved by cabinet in October 2009 and a new curriculum for these areas was introduced in lower secondary education in 2010.
i. The shared use of resources by training institutions resulted in 1,411 apprentices from programs run by the Ministry of Youth and Sports being certified in 2009.
7. The prior actions for this third operation are based on the results achieved from the first and second operations and are aimed at deepening implementation of the reform program.
II. COUNTRY CONTEXTPolitical Developments
8. During February and June 2011, Burkina Faso experienced episodes of civil unrest unprecedented in the 23 years of President Blaise Compaoré’s tenure. Demonstrations by students, the military, labor unions and the political opposition led to frequent incidents of looting. Popular dissatisfaction was sparked by rising fuel and food prices, limited political debate, perceived corruption, abuse of procurement processes and mistrust of the justice system. In mid-April, after ad-hoc measures to contain the violence proved ineffective, the President dissolved the cabinet and appointed many newcomers to the Government. The situation improved, although sporadic incidents of military unrest continued, including the mutiny in Bobo-Dioulasso on June 3 which resulted in the deaths of six protesting soldiers and one innocent bystander.
9. The Government has initiated a dialogue with different socio-political groups and stakeholders, responding to demands for institutional and political change. In July, the Government also terminated employment of 566 military officers, of which 217 were arrested pending legal proceedings for their involvement in the unrest. A Consultative Council, consisting of members of the opposition, government officials and civil society representatives, was established to promote dialogue and reflection on political governance and institutional reform. On July 14, the 68 member Constitutional Council produced a report of its recommendations, including: the introduction of a Senate, constitutional recognition of traditional chiefs and a limited amnesty for former heads of state. Although some opposition parties and civil society organizations boycotted the Council, the Government has called for open participation in the national hearings planned for September. During the recent Council report ceremony, the President has confirmed his commitment to deepen reform, although many challenges remain. The important objective will be to address fundamental issues of injustice and corruption in a transparent and equitable manner and to ensure the reforms are implemented.
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Recent Economic Developments in Burkina Faso
10. Growth : In 2010, economic growth accelerated to 7.9 percent, up from 3.2 percent in 2009. Growth is projected at 5.8 percent in 2011. A combination of favorable weather conditions and better incentives for farmers, higher gold production and prices, and increased public investment have helped fuel this recovery. The large share of growth in 2010 was accounted for by industry, in particular gold mining, although agriculture and industry contributed their share. A decrease in the rate of economic growth to 5.2 percent of GDP is projected, partly due to a weaker agricultural performance.
Figure 1: Sectoral Contribution to Growth
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
-3
-2
-1
0
12
3
4
5
Services Agriculture Industry
11. Growth and investment have had multiple drivers. In 2009, growth was mainly driven by exports of goods and services and consumption. Consumption absorbed most of the GDP in 2010, reaching 90 percent. Public consumption has absorbed around one-fifth of the GDP in 2010. The investment rate has fluctuated in recent years, but in 2010, it reached 19 percent of GDP. Private investment has also fluctuated and stayed at about 10 percent of GDP in 2010. The recent social unrest has adversely affected investment, and early estimates in 2011 suggest a possible decrease in both public and private investment by about 0.7 percent of GDP.
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Figure 2: Demand Side Contribution to Growth
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
-1
0
1
2
3
4
5
Consumption Public investmentPrivate investment ExportsImports
12. Fiscal situation : The overall fiscal deficit, including grants, is projected at about 4 percent of GDP in 2011. A preliminary assessment of the first revised budget law for 2011 shows that new measures enacted in response to civil unrest (lower taxes on salaries, abolition of the communal tax, payment of housing allowances for military personnel, compensation to small merchants for property damage, and fixing the price of food items of vital importance to the poor) will have at most a marginal impact on the fiscal deficit since the bulk of the proposed expenditure increases will be financed through a reallocation of investment expenditures from non- priority sectors. The financing from project loans currently stands at US$183 million (50 percent of the forecast amount); central bank credit has covered the deficit for US$132 million, while commercial banks have contributed over US$10 million. Also, the authorities have succeeded in launching four T-bill operations within the WAEMU financial market. An amount of US$79 million has been mobilized, demonstrating the credibility of the national treasury.
13. The resource mobilization effort remains satisfactory. Although in the last three years, expenditures have increased at a faster pace than revenues, there has been an increase in the pace of resource mobilization. Revenue collection has strengthened due to administrative efficiency gains, and one-off nontax revenue from the renewal of cellular phone licenses. By the end of July 2011, revenue collected stood at US$1 million out of a US$1.6 million forecast, around 65 percent of the IMF revised program targets, the result of improved tax administration and new contributions from the mining sector, whose exemption period has come to an end. Value-added taxes have been collected at more than 60 percent of the total envisaged annual target as of July, and are on track with the IMF program. Customs has reached their mid-year targets of duty collection. At this point, the reductions in the salary tax rate and elimination of the communal development tax, introduced to address demands during the social unrest, have not significantly impacted public revenues. At the same time, the grants were only 26 percent of the forecasted amounts compared to 35 percent in June 2010, due to delays in donor disbursements. Therefore, the overall revenue collection needs to improve by the end of the year to get closer to the regional target of 17 percent for WAEMU.
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Figure 3: Revenues and Expenditures (% of GDP)
2008 2009 2010 20110
5
10
15
20
25
30
Revenue Expenditure
14. Current expenditures are rising, while the pace of executions of investment spending has been slow. Current expenditure is forecasted at 13.5 percent of GDP, partly because of measures undertaken to mitigate the crisis, amounting to 26 billion FCFA. Capital expenditure, which has increased in recent years, due to special infrastructure projects, has slowed down, while the wage policy, despite some reforms, continues to remain prudent. Total expenditures stand at 48 percent of forecasted annual amount by end of July. Current expenditures reached US$737 million over the first seven months of 2011, salaries have been paid for 58 percent of the total annual wage bill, while current transfers account for 45 percent despite the increased subsidies for food and fuel to address the social unrest. Conversely, public investments have been slower compared to 2010 because of uncertainty in the mobilization of budget support following the social unrest. Investments financed by internal resources (US$316 million) are currently more than those financed by foreign resources, demonstrating the weak mobilization of project and program grants. Despite the new agenda of aid efficiency, the Government still faces some problems with donors’ grant/loan procedures. Commitments are on track in resource allocation to priority sectors such as health and basic education. Also, expenditures on priority sectors represent 80 percent of the total amount.
15. Burkina Faso has improved budget transparency over the years. In 2010, the PEFA exercise highlighted the improvements in publishing budget figures by the Ministry of Economy and Finance on their website. The system was graded A, both in 2007 and 2010. Currently, central budget figures are published on the MEF’s website and hard copies are also available for line ministries and civil society including local NGOs. Starting 2011 the draft budget law of 2012 has been posted on the website and translated into three native languages. This translation aims at increasing awareness of the population at large about the budget proposals before they are adopted by the parliament.
16. Balance of payments : In 2011, the current account deficit (excluding grants) was 11.2 percent. While the country has solid export performance from cotton and gold exports, rises in global oil prices and higher non-oil imports used for investment purposes have led to
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deterioration in the trade balance. This has been partially offset by increases in transfers and remittances. The overall balance of payments financing will continue to depend on public and private financing flows, particularly donor aid (mostly grant and concessional) and remittances over the short and medium-term.
Figure 4: Current Account Deficit (% of GDP)
2008 2009 2010 201102468
10121416
Current account (including transfers)Current account (excluding transfers)
17. Money and Banking : Monetary policy has remained prudent. The regional central bank (BCEAO) has maintained prudent monetary policy through careful injection of liquidity into the economy. There has been some increase in money supply, reflecting the increase in net foreign assets of the banking system, while credit to the economy has risen to finance the rising services sector.
18. The inflation rate remains contained at low single digits. The inflation rate stands at 2.8 percent in 2011 and has increased due to spillover effects from the Ivorian crisis, increased global food and fuel prices, and supply disruptions from the social unrest. From January to July, there has been a slight increase in food prices as the rise in world prices has been largely offset by a favorable domestic harvest and subsidies in food prices earlier in 2011, while the other expenditures, such as housing and electricity, have risen to 5.3 percent. The subsidies for imported rice, oil and petroleum have been set up only for three months as a response to the social unrest. Therefore, some inflationary increase might be expected if subsidies are not maintained.
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Figure 5: CPI end of period 2009-2011 (%)
2009 2010 2011-10123
Inflation rate (end of period) %
19. Burkina’s banking sector remains healthy, and the banks have been observing regional prudential norms. The net credit to the economy has increased US$44 million from January to June, 2011. The net government position has been positive at US$138 million due to cautious monetary policy management during the political crisis.
20. Poverty : About 44% of the population is poor. In general, the impact of growth on employment has not been strong, partly due to the enclave nature of the mining industry. There has been some improvement in poverty over the years due to higher agricultural production.
Medium Term Outlook
21. Political stability is foreseen in the near future after the recent social unrest. The Government has taken action to improve governance, although important challenges remain. The overall context is more peaceful and stable compared to the last four months. Some risks remain with regard to the military after the forced resignation of the 566 soldiers. Also, some points are important like the decisions on Article 37 of the Constitution, which stipulate a limit of two five-year terms for the Presidency, and governance reforms are still being implemented. The political and social crisis faced by Burkina Faso in 2011 may have short-term adverse consequences, but the general trend is positive.
22. Expected economic growth in 2011 remains positive, but challenges remain. The medium-term macroeconomic prospects are positive. Economic growth is expected to average 5 percent between 2011 and 2015, due to higher cotton and gold prices, a resilient services sector, and improved public investment in infrastructure. Agricultural, mining and services will remain the pillars of the economy. The forecast is for continued price stability over the medium-term, as inflation will remain in the low single digits. In spite of spikes in 2011 with increases in food and fuel prices, the projection is for annual inflation to reach the regional convergence criterion of 2 percent on average. The fiscal position is projected to be sustainable as revenue increases will be matched with expenditure increases to finance the new investment expenditures. On the balance of payments side, the external current account deficit is forecast to widen to more than 5 percent of GDP as there will be strong domestic demand for imports, particularly for capital goods.
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23. Despite the rebound in international prices and the introduction of a new producer price, the recent social and political unrest and climate factors may have a negative impact on the cotton sector this year.
Figure 6: World Cotton Prices ($US cents per pound)
2008 2009 2010 2011 20120
20406080
100120140160180200
World cotton prices
24. The delay in the arrival of the rainy season may have an adverse impact on agricultural production, as nine out of thirteen regions of Burkina Faso show risk of drought. However, the rise in international cotton prices for 2011 will benefit the cotton sector over the next year (Figure 6). Despite some projected decline in 2012, the price of cotton is still projected to remain above $ 1 per pound, much higher than the historical average. The fiscal impact of reforming agricultural input markets will be significant in the medium-term. According to estimates from the Permanent Secretariat in charge of cotton sector reforms, bringing this year’s input prices back to last year’s price levels would require approximately US$36 million in additional subsidy from the Government while only US$7 million has been forecast in the budget law. While mining revenues have been increasing due to favorable international prices, the challenge will be to use these revenues to benefit local communities and create employment.
25. The risk of debt distress in Burkina remains high, and there is a need for a prudent debt policy. Results from the latest Debt Sustainability Analysis (DSA) indicate that under current policies, the present value of debt-to- exports ratio would breach its indicative threshold around 2026 in the baseline scenario and under stress tests. In the baseline scenario of the DSA, the NPV of debt-to-exports ratio is projected to increase from 71 percent in 2011 to 114 percent by 2021, and 176 percent in 2031, well-above the 150 percent threshold. The narrow export base of Burkina suggests a need to maintain a prudent borrowing policy, relying mostly on grants and highly concessional loans. However, the DSA shows that the risk depends on a variety of factors and can be mitigated by stronger export performance and more favorable financing terms. Some flexibility in borrowing conditions under the current IMF/World Bank Debt Limits Framework could help Burkina Faso obtain investment financing for implementing the SCADD.
26. Overall, the macroeconomic policy framework is acceptable as there is sufficient financing to fund the current account deficit. Economic growth is expected to be in line with projections for 2011, while inflationary pressures will remain moderate. The government has
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demonstrated commitment to fiscal discipline to consolidate recent progress in fiscal sustainability and to support macroeconomic stability. The government recently implemented its economic and financial program under the IMF Extended Credit Facility. The Third Review concluded satisfactorily in November, 2011. The macroeconomic framework is adequate to support this operation.
Future Prospects and Outlook.
27. Over the medium term, Burkina has a favorable growth prospects although downside risks remain. The country is projected to have respectable growth, price stability, and positive export performance from 2011 to 2015. Growth is expected to remain in the range of more than 5 percent, but will remain reliant on volatile commodity prices over the medium-term, economic growth is projected to remain strong, mostly driven by agriculture, cotton, mining, and services sectors, as well as higher public investment in infrastructure. Agriculture production will benefit from continued implementation of measures aimed at supporting higher productivity and agricultural food supply, although there will be challenges from a variable Sahelian climate. Mining export revenue is projected to account for more than 70 percent of export revenue by 2015. Fiscal and monetary policies will remain prudent as the government will try to ensure macroeconomic stability. There will be no anticipated major increases in expenditures, but there will be a great focus on capital expenditure over the medium-term. The current account deficit (incl. transfers) is projected to widen to more than 7 percent of GDP due to increase in capital goods for construction and oil imports. External transfers in the magnitude of close to 4 percent of GDP are expected to continue to keep the current account sustainable. However, volatility in international cotton prices, decreases in gold prices, and an increase in oil prices could have an adverse effect on the macroeconomic balance in the medium-run. The risk of debt distress, which remains high, can be also hamper growth in the long-run.
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Table 1: Burkina Faso: Selected Economic and Financial Indicator, 2008-16
Poverty Reduction
28. Less than one year after the heavy floods of 2009, unusual rainfalls were recorded again in 2010, affecting the living standards of many households. However the exceptional level reached by cotton prices may have mitigated some of the consequences of this natural disaster. The rainfall in July 2010 caused at least 16 deaths, and left 84,395 people homeless
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corresponding to 13,193 households. People experienced considerable material damages and loss in livestock. In parallel, historically good prices recorded for cotton this year should contribute to improve the subsistence conditions of about 3 million people and mitigate the reduction of well-being of some of those affected by floods. Macro-simulations forecast a 6.9 percent increase of income for cotton producers in 2010. The good prices recorded for gold might also benefit some households involved in traditional mining.
29. The overall poverty rate seems to be decreasing, but it is rather unevenly distributed over the population. Methodological issues make it difficult to compare survey data from 2003 and 2009, but there is a general consensus of a poverty estimate of 44 percent in 2009 as well as a decline from 2003 to 2009. According to some evidence, during 2003 – 2007, it was estimated that the share of population in poverty decreased by around 7.9 percent at the national level. With the rebound in economic growth expected with the implementation of the new strategy of socioeconomic development, the government has retained its objective of achieving a poverty rate of 35 percent by 2015 in the framework of the MDGs. According to the provisional results, poverty was reduced in rural areas but increased in urban areas over the period 2003-2009. While this will have reduced inequality, the government will have to tackle a growing phenomenon of impoverishment in the urban areas.
30. Access to basic services has improved thanks to increased public expenditure and targeted social service provisions. Government spending on education, health, water and sanitation has increased steadily, and the social sectors have been protected even during budgetary shortfalls. During the period 2002 to 2010 budgetary allocations to the education sector showed an upward trend as shown in Table 3 below. Budgetary allocations to the sector increased from 15 percent in 2002 to 22 percent in 2008, but dropped to 18 percent in 2009 rising again substantially to 22 percent in 2010, higher than the 18.7% average or 19.1% median for SSA countries. The drop in allocations shown for 2009 can be partly explained by the shift of resources to emergency expenditures associated with the floods. In 2010, allocations to the sector started increasing as in previous years. The priority given to education in the SCADD (new PRSP) confirms the Government’s commitment to the education sector.
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Table 2: Total Education Sector Expenditure in the National Budget 2002 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
Basic Education 37,054.1 50,291.7 64,446.6 99,778 103,340 104,440 118,790
Secondary and Tertiary Education 23,889.9 30,652 37,053 60,209 70,447 56,987 73,631
Total Education 60,944 80,944 101,500 159,987 173,787 161,427 192,421
Government Budget 399,295.2 504,721 563,583 744,665 774,788 914,106 890,297
Education as % Government Budget 15% 16% 18% 21% 22% 18% 22%
Source: CID-LFI, MEF
31. Good progress was also made in the health and water sectors over the same period . According to a national survey in 2009, underweight malnutrition has come down from 35% to 26% and acute malnutrition dropped to 11% (21% in 2003) which is category III (high). The trend of worsening malnutrition was reversed through political recognition in 2003 and concerted action since 2006. Among the population 15-49 years old, the prevalence rate is estimated at 1.2% (2009). However, the national prevalence is estimated at 2.0%, with a higher prevalence in urban areas (3.1%). The HIV/AIDS program received an enormous boost following a Presidential decree that made access to ARV treatment free of charge since January 2010. As a result, the number of people on ARV has now exceeded 30,000 compared to just 8,000 in 2005. Controlling and treating epidemic diseases also had good results, thanks to prevention and public awareness efforts and improved hygiene. Major progress has been made in increasing access to drinking water, which now covers about two-thirds of the population.
32. Nevertheless, there is still significant scope for improving the efficiency and equity of public spending as well as the quality of services. Public finance management reforms, stronger sector policies, and a new focus on social protection and safety nets will all be crucial to further underpin human capital development and poverty reduction. The recent Social Safety Nets (SSN) Review (2010) has shown that the scope and coverage of the existing social safety net is too limited and that most interventions are fairly small in scale and designed as temporary programs. On average, excluding fuel subsidies, spending on social safety net programs was about 0.6 percent of GDP from 2005 to 2009, while about 20 percent of the population is food insecure and lives in chronic poverty. Universal fuel subsidies are very expensive (0.7 percent of GDP in 2007) and have a very limited impact on the poorest decile (84 percent of the benefits go to the non-poor). Among the remaining programs, food transfers are the main form of social safety net programs in Burkina Faso, accounting for 69 percent of total SSN spending and over 80 percent of all estimated SSN beneficiaries in 2009 (excluding fuel subsidies). However, most of the financing for social safety net programs comes from external and ad hoc resources.
33. Despite progress in social indicators, Burkina Faso continues to remains near the bottom of the Human Development Index. Despite improvements, Burkina Faso still ranked 161 out of 169 countries in the UNDP Human Development Index (HDI) 2010 and dropped
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further to 181 out of 187 countries in 2011 according to the recently published UNDP data. The evolution of the human development index remains slow despite steady increase in social expenditures and institutional reforms. This is because in large part the overall education level of the population remains low, with mean years of schooling of 1.3 years per person whereas the average in the low HDI countries is about 4.1 years. In addition a high fertility rate of 6.2 children per women, a population growth rate of 3.1 percent per year and an increase in life expectancy make it costlier to the government to respond to the human development needs of a young population.
34. Moreover, it is unlikely that the country will reach several important MDG targets by 2015, such as halving the proportion of people with incomes less than US $1.25 a day, ensuring completion of the primary education cycle for all children, and eliminating gender disparity in primary and secondary education. The adult literacy rate was only 28.7 percent in 2007, and the quality of education remains low. Health outcomes for children and women have not shown any improvement: only 41 percent of births were attended by trained medical personnel, the maternal mortality ratio was estimated at a very high 700 per 100,000 child births, and infant mortality remained at around or slightly above 100 per 1,000 child births between 2000 and 2008. Some progress has been made in other areas, specifically those related to HIV prevalence, and environmental sustainability. The SCADD highlights important delays in designing and implementing sectoral programs and allocating adequate public resources, including at the local level, which are critical to help achieve the MDGs, especially the ones where progress has been slow (literacy rates, health and sanitation). In order to help improve Burkina Faso’s human development indicators, the proposed series of operations would directly target improved quality and equitable expansion of the education sector to complement the current PRSC series which focus on growth rather than equity as well as other IDA activities, which directly target reproductive health and improved social service delivery.
35. In order to address these issues, the government has been steadily improving its budgetary process. Since 2002, the government has prepared a global Medium term expenditure framework (MTEF) as the first step in the budget preparation process. The global, top-down MTEF prepares sector envelopes for line ministries on the basis of macro-economic projections and government priorities. The allocations of the MTEF are in line with the SCADD priorities as the government devotes a large share of the discretionary budget to priority sectors. The implementation of the MTEF allows Burkina Faso to be responsive to changing fortunes as well as to translate growth and poverty priorities in the annual budget. The MTEF has brought substantial changes in budget allocations by introducing effective rules-based criteria and promoting pro-poor spending. Under the MTEF, the priority sectors are rural development, environment, justice, health and basic education. The priority sectors receive 60 percent of overall additional resources, with basic education and health receiving 50 percent of resources allocated to priority sectors.36. The main elements of forward budget planning are in place. Sector strategies have been developed for sectors representing 40 percent of primary expenditures and related costing is comprehensive for each strategy, in order to complement the top-down, MTEF approach. They display three-year program-budgets that are built with information provided by the ministries and are consistent with the expenditure projections on a yearly basis. To improve the budget process and ensure alignment between the budget and policy priorities, Burkina started,
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in 2010 with support from donor community, to implement program budgeting by the creation of a Technical Secretariat in charge of piloting and monitoring the reform program in line with WAEMU recent PFM Directives. To this end, 16 ministries have been selected for the 2011 program budget preparation with the aim to fully cover the remaining ministries by 2015. The budget is formulated through systemic consultations with spending ministries and the National Assembly, adhering to a fixed budget calendar.
III. THE GOVERNMENT’S TEN-YEAR BASIC EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM AND PARTICIPATORY PROCESSES
Basic Education Sector Issues
37. Despite progress made in the recent past, Burkina Faso continues to have some of the lowest education indicators in the region. These comparatively low returns to investments in education in Burkina are partly related to the need for the introduction of policy and institutional reforms that would help improve the operational efficiency of the system. The key issues in the education sector are: (i) inadequate and inequitable access to education, particularly for the poor; (ii) low quality and mismatch between curriculum and the needs of local economy; (iii) inadequate financing of education and inefficient use of resources; and (iv) weak sector management. One area of particular concern is the participation of girls in the education system. Despite recent progress access to all levels of education through the implementation of the ten-year education program (2001-2011), girls' education is hampered by various socio-cultural and economic factors as well as by the organization of schools and training. This under-education of girls and women has negative consequences on the lives of women at the individual and collective level, but also deprives the country of some of its economic development potential.
Access and Equity
38. Primary Education: Although the gross primary enrollment rate (GER) increased by 7.5 percentage points per year on average since 2000 to reach 77.6 percent in 2010, this rate is unlikely to allow Burkina to achieve universal primary education (UPE) by 2015. Current government projections suggest that UPE will be achieved in 2020. The primary education completion rate in 2010 was only 52 percent compared to the Sub Saharan average of 70% even in 2006/2007. The low enrollment and completion rates are partly the result of very low internal efficiency. Improvements in curriculum and teaching are having an impact as substantial progress is being made to improve internal efficiency with repetition rates declining from 17.5 percent in 2004 to 7.25 percent in 2010 and drop-out rates also improving over the same period from 17% to 11.7%, although the rate remains high.
39. Access to primary education is also inequitable although the gender gap is narrowing. From 1999 to 2009 the proportion of girls in primary education increased from 35% to 44.8% in 2007 and further to 47.2% in 2010. The gap between the 48 poorest performing Communes and the rest of the country continues to be a concern1. Despite the
1The Gross Enrollment Rate in these 48 Communes is 43.7%, with 44.9% for boys and 42.4% for girls in 2010.
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progress in narrowing the gender gap, experience suggests that, in addition to resources, a combination of structural factors constrains household incomes, and cultural practices especially in difficult geographic areas ̶ cannot be addressed by existing policies and strategies. Some of the remaining differentials between boys and girls would therefore require targeted policy interventions to achieve equity.
40. The reason for the low and inequitable enrollment rates are related to both demand and supply factors. Demand side factors include unaffordable costs of education to households such as informal school fees, costs of textbooks and other teaching materials as well as the opportunity costs of education. On the supply side, long distances to school, poor quality physical facilities and an inappropriate school calendar are key factors which adversely affect access. The direct and indirect costs of education are still prohibitive for some families, especially for those in low income areas. Primary education is free, but the subsidies provided by the Government are inadequate to cover the costs of a good quality education. Schools therefore continue to impose unregulated fees on students, which some parents find unaffordable.
41. On the supply side, the Country Status Report shows the gross enrollment and admission rates become progressively lower as the proportion of children who live 45 or more minutes away from a school rises. This is particularly true for girls in rural areas, who are considered to be at greater risk when they have to travel long distances on isolated roads. Poor physical facilities also limit access to education. Many primary schools are overcrowded because they are run in temporary structures with inappropriate architectural designs and low quality construction. The practice of biennial school intake in sparsely populated areas also restricts access to school. Under BEPSG 1 and 2 the Government began addressing this through introduction of multigrade teaching and expansion of school construction and results are promising as summarized in annex1.
42. Secondary Education: The shortage of secondary school places is even more severe. The surge in primary education enrollment and completion rates has increased the need to accommodate graduates at the lower secondary level. In 2010, out of the 253,553 students completing primary education, more than 119,000 students, mainly from rural areas, were unable to enter secondary education. The secondary level as a whole has experienced only modest progress in enrollment growth during the period: GER increased slowly between 1999 and 2004, and picked up with support from the IDA financed Post Primary Education project launched in 2006, to reach 29.90 percent in 2010 (32.30 % in lower secondary and 10.70% in upper secondary). The GER for lower secondary education continues to be on an upward trend. However, reforms are needed to increase enrolment in quality secondary education to support the growth objectives defined in the current PRS.
43. Internal efficiency in lower secondary education is lower than for primary education and has remained unchanged over the past few years. For the 10 years preceding 2006/7, the repetition rate fell by less than 3 percentage points from 28.4% to 25.9% and has continued at this level until 2010. It takes 9.5 years on average to produce a lower secondary school graduate (the level consists of xxx grades); 2.4 times longer than necessary. This imposes an additional average cost of 51% to produce a low secondary school graduate.
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44. The opportunity and direct costs of secondary education are higher than for primary education. Therefore, parents have to make significant investments/sacrifices to enroll their children in secondary school. Thus, parents’ propensity to withdraw their children from school if they judge the quality of education to be low or if the child is not making good progress is higher than in primary education. Reforms are needed at this level to improve quality and increase internal efficiency to provide an incentive for increased participation in the system.
Low Quality and Relevance of Education
45. The quality of education is low, although evidence in this area has been limited due to lack of reliable national student assessment data. However, the basic education sector is building its students learning assessment system. In 2006 and 2010, two national assessments were piloted at the primary level with external support, but the national systems still need to be strengthened. Overall, the pilots indicated no progress in learning outcomes from 2006 to 2010 in Math and French. Students’ performance at grade 2 and 5, both in French and Math remained weak (average score for both ranging between 40 and 54 out of 100). Although examinations pass rates are not reliable instruments for measuring learning outcomes because they often serve to filter students for the next level of education, they could be used as a proxy to measure quality, especially at the lower levels. Examination results show that pass rates were only 66% in 2010.
46. Low quality in primary education can be explained by in part by low learning time, limited school inputs and teacher effectiveness. There is also some disconnect between the curriculum and the needs of the economy. The instructional time in primary and especially secondary education is lower than internationally accepted norms. It is even lower than the nationally prescribed time due to unauthorized school closings, inefficient bureaucratic procedures and practices and absences and tardiness of students and teachers. These factors dramatically limit student-teacher interaction and learning opportunities. The quality of learning time is also adversely affected by a shortage of textbooks and other instructional materials. Low quality of education is worsened by the shortage of qualified teachers, particularly in science and math. Reforms are needed to increase the amount and use of learning time, to improve teacher management and to make textbooks and teaching materials more easily available.
47. The current curriculum focuses on preparing students for secondary education followed by tertiary education, with little focus on skills development. A good proportion of students who exit the system at the primary or secondary levels are denied marketable skills. This limits the returns to investments in these students and constitutes missed opportunities for producing better trained manpower that could help increase individual incomes and promote economic growth.
48. There is no recent study of labor market skill shortages in Burkina. However, it is acknowledged that skills in the areas of building trades, metal work, science and technology are in short supply in the economy. There is a shortage of skills to match the construction boom,
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and technology has advanced to the extent that even the simplest household equipment, motor cycles and cars are increasingly being computerized and require some exposure to science and technology for proper maintenance and repair. This advance in technology is making it increasingly difficult for school leavers and informal sector labor without basic skills in these areas to find suitable employment. Repair and maintenance of equipment has been a significant part of the informal sector so unless these challenges are addressed, growth can be adversely affected. Burkina also has ambitions to become the technology hub of the sub-region given its limited supply of natural resources and difficult geographic and climatic conditions. The aim therefore is to provide students with basic concepts in science and technology and to help train the labor force in core basic skills that could be used in a broad range of enterprises. The emphasis on apprenticeship is to allow enterprises to train youths with these skills to meet their specific needs.
49. Since the system for assessing learning outcomes is yet to be fully developed, it is difficult to determine how well the system is performing from one year to the next or even in comparison with other countries in the region. In addition the absence of a fully developed assessment system reduces the opportunity to analyze learning weaknesses that could help inform the teaching/learning process. This capacity is being further developed to help improve the pedagogical management of the system.
Weak Management of Education
50. Although the government is making every effort to finance the education and training system, the resources are inadequate given the needs and over-centralization of management leading to a number of inefficiencies. The Government increased budgetary expenditures on the education sector from 3.6% of GDP in 2000 to 4.7% of GDP in 20072 and 2008. However, the share fell to 4.1% in 2009 due to the shocks during that period and then recovered to 4.5% in 2010. This trend shows that the government is keeping allocations to levels well above the 3.5% recommended in the GPE framework, and the 4.7% share is above the 4.6% median share of education in GDP for SSA, IDA and FTI countries as well as world-wide median. Although the 4.5% for 2010 is lower than the referenced median, allocations in the medium term are expected rise again to the 4.7% level or higher in the future. High priority is put on investments in the sector as Burkina allocates 43.9% of these expenditures to investment expenditures and ranks second in the world in this respect.
51. Much of this increase was allocated to primary education, but this is not enough to meet the current needs for this level of education because of the large share allocated to salaries and inefficiencies in the system. The share of primary education increased from 57% of the recurrent budget for education in 1996 to 62% in 2007, then dropped to 58%3 in 2008 and then rose again to 65% in 2009 but fell to 62% in 2010. The levels recorded for the recent past are above the parameters set in the GPE framework, and Burkina ranks highest in Africa and sixth
2Burkina Faso - Revue des Dépenses Publiques: Au-delà du Paradoxe Burkinabé: Feuille de Route pour une Décentralisation Réussie et une Dépense Publique plus Efficace, Novembre 2009.
3 This was due to the unusual increase in the post primary budget at the start of 2008 with the start of the 15 billion FCFA post-primary project financed by Netherlands and IDA.
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in the world regarding the share of per capita income it spends on primary education, 29.2%. However, only about 10% of these expenditures were allocated to educational materials. Sixty-five percent was allocated to salaries and 30% for transfers.
52. To protect these expenditures, a software tool, “Circuit Informatisé de la Dépense” has been used since 2002 to decentralize budget management and track public expenditures in line ministries such as education, health and water. This tool provides data used by the government and partners to monitor allocations to these sectors based on the matrix of performance criteria used by donors for disbursement of general and sector budgets for each fiscal year. In addition, the government has set up a treasury committee lead by MEF to mobilize and allocate resources equitably for the social sectors, to monitor social sector budget execution and to protect these sectors during periods of shock. Allocation of resources within the sector to address any distortions is carried out by the joint government/donor collaboration in the preparation of annual action plans that are reviewed twice a year. The measures to increase expenditures on textbooks and teaching materials are part of the interventions being made to increase expenditures on non-salary expenditures and this should result in a reduced share of salaries and transfers in education expenditures in the short to medium term.
53. In addition, inefficiencies are observed in the use of resources. At the primary level, 25% of the staff are not teachers and this rises to 39% at the secondary level. The level of salaries based on multiples of GDP per capita is also relatively high compared to those in the region. At the primary level, average teacher salaries are 5.3 times GDP per capita compared to 4.4 for the region and 3.5 recommended by the GPE framework. Similarly, the average teacher salary in first and second cycles of secondary education are 8.8 and 9.6 times GDP per capita respectively compared to an average of 6.6% for both cycles in the region. It is not clear to what extent these high salaries are generated by a relatively high cost of living in a landlocked economy which relies largely on imports.
54. Management of the system is also over centralized, making it difficult to ensure efficient utilization of resources at the lower levels of administration, including schools. As a result, the impact of resources provided in the central budget at the school level is limited. One of the major inefficiencies related to this is the inequitable distribution of teachers. According to the CSR, 22% of the teachers in primary education are not allocated in accordance with the number of students. At the same time central administration of the system forces teachers to absent themselves from schools to obtain decisions on routine matters. At the secondary level there is a wide disparity among regions in the number of hours taught, and there are serious teacher shortages in some subjects such as science and math. Teacher accountability is reduced since attendance and performance is not monitored at the local level.
55. The education sector is one of the priority sectors in the government’s decentralization program. However, there are significant challenges that need to be addressed to fully implement this policy. First among these is weak capacity in the communes and in the education administration at local levels. A school based management system could be an effective approach to improve capacity in the short-term, but there is still a need to expand the COGES, to clearly define their roles and to put in place the organizational and management systems within which they would function. The aim would be to integrate the COGES into the
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decentralized structures to work with communes to manage school level resources and carry-out oversight functions that cannot be efficiently carried out by communes. Resolving the capacity and political economy issues at the commune level would require substantial amounts of time, resources and political will. Experience in other countries has shown that quick positive results can be achieved at the school level if beneficiaries are involved in the delivery of services. Pilots in this respect have been carried out with some success in Burkina Faso and there is a new JICA financed project aimed at taking this approach to scale.
Objectives of the Ten-Year Basic Education Development Program
56. The Government is addressing these issues through the PDDEB, especially those related to equitable access and quality. The main objectives of the government’s Ten-Year Basic Education Development Program (PDDEB), which is summarized in Annex 3, are to raise the educational level and diversify the skills of the labor force to help promote equitable economic growth.
Description of the Ten-Year Basic Education Development Program
57. Burkina Faso has adopted a number of reforms in response to the constraints in basic education. The priority in basic education is to fully operationalize the principles of compulsory and free public education. Specifically, the aim is to create greater coherence in the curriculum between grades and cycles and to reform education and training to increase the employability of youths by establishing links between non-formal and formal general and technical education and vocational training. To promote girls education, a key priority, the program consists of various strategies and specific measures funded by the Government and development partners to address the limited access of girls and women to education. These actions have helped to reduce the education gap between boys and girls, but gender parity is yet to be achieved.
58. To increase the synergy of actions aimed at improving multisectoral participation of women in social, economic and cultural development, the government intensified its interventions on girls/women’s education by consolidating and expanding all the diverse actions undertaken previously into a national gender strategy that was adopted in 2009. This strategy is included in the SCADD and cuts across all sectors. The strategy provides, inter alia, measures for improved access and monitoring of men and women to basic social services in a fair and equitable manner. As part of the strategy a ministry for women’s affairs was created to exercise oversight of all issues and programs related to the roles and the participation of girls and women in the development process. Programs for enhancing girls and women’s participation in education is thus well integrated in strategies at both the sectoral level and at the Ministry for promotion of Women’s affairs.
59. Consistent with this, programs have been implemented at each level of the education sector, ranging from basic education to higher education, including TVET, to address the key issues related to girls education and training including demand and supply constraints to increasing access and retention, as well as the achievement of girls in the system. Specifically, the reforms in PDDEB include the following:
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60. Pre-School Education reforms aim to revise the policy and institutional framework for pre-school education to permit further development of a community based approach in partnership with public sector pre-school centers. A regulatory framework is also planned to encourage private sector participation in pre-school provision while ensuring minimum standards of quality. This would help reduce the costs of pre-school education on the government budget while helping to meet the objective of expanding coverage from 2.1% in 2006 to 8.3% in 2015. The target is for communities to increase their share of coverage from 24% in 2006 to 73% in 2015.
61. Primary Education– reforms aim to introduce policies and regulations detailed in annex 3 to facilitate better utilization of school places, increased availability and performance of teachers, increased supply of schools, textbooks including learning materials and improved management of the education system. The learning assessment system is also being strengthened. Particular emphasis is placed on rural areas and provision for children with special needs, girls and the poor.
62. Specific actions to address gender issues in primary education include: (i) the adaptation of school facilities, including separate latrines for girls, (ii) the establishment of satellite schools with three classrooms in villages to reduce distance to schools, with a quota system of 50% female students where possible, (iii) the creation of Mothers for Education Associations (MEAs) in all schools to support the enrollment and retention of girls in school;(iv) the removal of the annual financial contribution of girls to school funds, (v) the distribution of school kits to girls, (vi) the distribution of food rations to girls, (vii) teacher training and community awareness to reduce the effects of stereotypes and (viii) the organization of literacy classes adapted to a schedule convenient for women.
63. Reforms in private education are also planned to increase its share, which has been relatively low especially in upper secondary education. From 2002 to 2010, the number of private schools increased from 776 to 1,965 accounting for 13% and 18% of the total number of schools respectively. The scope for provision of private primary education is mainly in urban areas where the population has relatively higher access to monetary resources and incomes. Due to poverty that is more widespread in rural areas and the need to stimulate demand in some of these areas, the government made the strategic decision to stress the development of private primary education in urban zone. Towards this end, the Government policy reform program includes the revision of education norms, including those related to school construction with a view to stimulating the participation of the private sector in expanding the education system. However, this does not include private primary education in rural areas where the need for expansion is greatest. Poverty in these areas limits the demand response to this strategy in these areas. The objective for 2020 is therefore to maintain the current share of private schools in the rural areas.
Lower Secondary Education and Secondary Vocational Education Training
64. The Government has embarked on a major reform program for first and second cycle secondary education and technical education and vocational training. Specific measures are designed to achieve the following objectives: (i) improve management of the transition from primary to first cycle secondary education; (ii) reduce overcrowding and (iii)
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ensure class sizes that allow provision of quality secondary education. The policy of free education is also to be gradually extended to first cycle secondary education to increase access; also management of schools will be strengthened to ensure quality improvement and efficiency.
65. Priority is to be given to underserved areas and vulnerable groups. Strategies to promote girls education include:(i)the creation of small schools in rural areas to reduce distance travelled to school, (ii) free distribution of school kits to girls, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds; (iii) school canteen subsidy for girls from disadvantaged backgrounds, (iv) psychological training for girls to increase their self-confidence; (v) training of teachers on gender issues; (vi) tutoring of girls in certain subjects such as Math and Science, especially those in difficulty, (vii) appointment and training of focal points in all regions for counseling/guidance of girls and (viii) organization of sex education for girls during the school holidays.
66. Vocational training is to be reorganized to introduce short courses, some based on apprenticeship adapted to labor market needs. The main thrust of the reforms is to establish structures for short-term and or apprenticeship training in partnership with master craftsmen and other accredited businesses. A specific initiative is being introduced with the support of the private sector for the training of graduates of first cycle secondary general education. This would permit establishment of a capacity for short-term courses and training attachments for 50,000 youths by 2015. It is expected that in the medium to long-term, these measures would help to absorb 40% of primary school graduates annually in first cycle secondary general education and vocational training.
67. Secondary general education reforms would permit provision of high quality education especially science education and technical/professional training. The regulations for private provision of secondary education are to be revised to increase their participation and provide incentives for the development of applied and scientific research.
68. Initiatives to support girls include counseling and guidance provided by the Department responsible for girls’ education and an NGO comprised of women scientists. The NGO promotes the enrollment of girls in science courses. Despite the progress made, the proportion of girls in higher education remains limited, accounting for only 33% of the total number of students enrolled in 2010-2011.
69. The provision of private secondary education continues to increase to satisfy unmet needs. From 2002 to 2010, the proportion of pupils enrolled in lower secondary private education more than quadrupled rising from 9% to 41%. The share of the private sector in upper secondary education is much higher but the increase at this level was more modest, increasing from 41% in 2002 to 48.9% in 2009. The government’s objective is to increase the contribution of the private sector to secondary education to 50%. Given the constraints of limited access to cash incomes in rural areas where the need for expanding secondary education is higher, the government will encourage the private sector to invest in urban areas. The proposed incentives for private sector expansion in this area comprise the construction of schools for private promoters in urban areas such as those tested in Bank financed Post-Basic Education Project. By supporting the expansion of private sector education to meet the demands of the urban
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population, the government expects to mobilize more public, donor and NGO resources, to increase the supply of education in rural areas.
70. Adult and non-formal education, reforms include establishment of new and alternative approaches to the provision of adult education including the “le Faire faire” model at decentralized levels. These and other interventions are expected to promote acquisition of basic education skills by out of school youth and adults and are expected to have a positive effect on socio-economic development.
71. Pre-service teacher training policy is being redesigned to change the requirements for entry, the duration and contents of the program as well as the balance between theory and practice, thus preparing teachers to teach the new curricula, which is focused on greater coherence between primary and secondary education.
72. The Government’s matrix of proposed policy and institutional reforms is guiding the implementation of the sector program and is shown as annex 3. BEPSG 1-3 have been supporting the implementation of the program and critical measures in the Government’s matrix have been selected as the prior actions for the three operations. Progress in implementing the Sector Program
73. Implementation of the first phase of the PDDEB started in 2002, with the support of development partners within the context of the GPE, and was completed in 2007; the second phase started in the same year. Good progress has been made in implementing the reform program including in the following areas that were not covered by BEPSG 1-3. First, the government has implemented its policy of expanding the provision of community based pre-schools and is advocating the inclusion of pre-school education in the budgets of local authorities. As a result, provision of preschools by the private sector dropped from 72% in 2007/08to just over 47% in 2008/09 largely in urban areas. To ensure quality, the pre-school curricula are being revised and teacher supervisors and teachers are being trained for pre-school run by communities. The sale of textbooks for pre-schools has also been decentralized to increase availability to schools. These interventions have helped enrollment in pre-school education to rise by an annual average of about 28% from 12,057 in 2000-01 to 43,165 in 2009-10.
74. At the primary level the government has implemented a number of reforms especially with regard to the enrolment of girls. Public subsidies for girls in first grade primary education were increased to 189,981 in 2009-10 from 143,333 in 2008-09. In addition, the government and partners provided support for the association of mothers (AMEs) supporting education which helped increase the number of these organizations from 50 in 2007-2008 to 62, in 2008-09 and 315 in 2009-10, reaching a grand total of 427 AMEs. This has re-energized the AMEs and in turn has resulted in increased enrollment of girls in the beneficiary schools and promoted greater involvement of AMEs in school management.
75. Access, retention, success and protection of girls in school are also being supported through the establishment and expansion of monitoring clubs. The number of these clubs increased from 20 in 2007-08 to 97 in 2009-10. School lunchrooms have been expanded to cover from 972,000 students in 4,873 schools to over 1 million in 5524 schools and this is
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further helping to increase access and retention. Policy reforms to expand private sector participation in primary education has resulted in an increase in enrollment in private schools by an annual average of 13.9% between 2007-08 and 2010-11, raising the share of the private sector in the sub-sector from 13.1% to almost 15% during the same period. To improve quality, the curricula are being enriched with the introduction of emergent themes such as environmental studies and education citizenship, and improved national capacity for authoring and production of textbooks for both primary and post-primary education is being pursued to ensure regular availability of these materials at affordable prices.
76. These actions have also led to substantial progress in girls' education. For example, for the period 2005-2010, the number of girls in primary schools increased from 614,810 to 1,041,511, an increase of 70% in five years. The parity indexreached0.93. Over the same period, the completion rate for girls increased from 28.5% to 49.1% and a reduction of the gap with boys was about 4 percentage points. In non-formal education, the number of women attending literacy centers more than doubled in 9 years from 61,198 in 2002 to 124,494 in 2010.Women made up over 60% of those enrolled in literacy centers in 2010.
77. Post primary education is being promoted through sensitization sessions especially with regard to girls’ retention in these schools and promotion of private sector participation. The interventions to promote girls education in secondary education cited above have resulted in improved girls’ participation in secondary education. In the first cycle of secondary education, the number of girls increased from108,469 in 2005 to 221,080 in 2010,an increase of 104% in 5 years. The completion rate for girls in the first cycle also increased from 10% (12% for the national average) to 14.3% (17.5%for the national average) over the same period.
78. In upper secondary education, the number of girls increased by 65%, from 23.472 in 2005 to 38,678 in 2010. The completion rate in this cycle has almost doubled for girls from 3.9% in 2006 to 6% in 2011, with an average completion rate of 8%.
79. Interventions at this level to promote private education consist of inclusion of private sector teachers and teacher supervisors in teacher training conferences and in-service training as well as provision of textbooks and teacher guides. Student teachers from private teacher training colleges are also allowed in public sector practice schools.
80. Despite these measures, the share of the private sector in post-primary education remained around 40.5% between 2008-09 and 2009-10. This stabilization follows a period during which the private sector grew faster than the public sector as a result of the decision to include evening class students in the private sector enrollment and the decision to provide scholarships for students who pass the examinations to enroll in private schools.
81. Further development of TEVT is being promoted through residential, sandwich, in-service and modular training. Modular training has been introduced for apprentices, managers and workers in industry in the areas of building trades, metal work including aluminum and carpentry. The French language curricula for the third and fourth years have been adapted to the requirements for TVET and physical sciences, and the teacher guides have been updated to match the revised curricula.
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82. Private sector participation is also being promoted and this has allowed private sector training of 8,602 youths in 2010 an increase of 11.7% from 7,705 in 2009 and 5490 in 2008.An external evaluation of the PDDEB showed that substantial progress had been made especially in terms of access to education as shown in Table 3. These achievements continued in 2008 and 2010 during phase two implementation of the PDDEB.
83. The external evaluation of the 2000 – 2007 PDDEB I benefitted from discussions carried out during the 2007 joint government/LDG education sector review and the national consultations on the status of education including options for the reform of the education system. The results of the evaluation and consultations formed the basis for drafting and approving the 2007 Education Law, and led to a national consensus on the purpose and role of education in Burkina as well as on the key priority areas in the sector during the 7 years from 2008 to 2015. The PDDEB II (2008-2011) introduced further reforms for the development of basic education while maintaining focus on quality and improving management of the sector. The PDDEB II also aims at improving the quality and relevance of the curriculum and increased retention at all levels. Achieving these qualitative and quantitative objectives require reforms in the administrative, fiduciary and pedagogical management of the system to optimize utilization of resources. Implementation of the reform program in BEPSG 1- 3 is helping to achieve the objectives of PDDEB II. However, it is clear from various evaluations of the interventions related to gender that the current rate of progress will not result in Burkina achieving the goal of parity between girls -boys by 2015. An updated national strategy for accelerating girls' education with deeper reforms is therefore in the process of being approved for implementation between 2012 and 2020. It builds on lessons learned from the decade of implementation of policy of girls’ education. The main objective is to achieve gender parity during this period.
Table 3: Key indicators 1999 to 2009Indicators 1999 2002 2007 20084 2009 2010
Gross Enrollment Rate in Primary 40,1% 42,7% 72% 72.4% 74.8% 77.6%
Gross Intake Rate at first grade of Primary
40,7% 55% 81,3% 78% 85,8% 85.7%
Completion Rate in primary 24,5% 25,6% 39% 41.7% 45.9% 52.1%
Girls Proportion in Primary 35% 37% 44.8% 45.6% 46.8% 47.2%
Pupils/teachers ratio in Primary 51 51 55 55 54 54
Number of classrooms built per year
ND 900 1511 1700 ??? ???
Gross Enrollment Rate in lower 13, 2% 14% 27,4% 28.6% 29.7% 32.30%4 2008 indicators are calculated based on 2006 census data except for those relating to Pupil/teacher ratio and number of classrooms built per year which are derived from school administrative data.
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secondary
84. Participatory Processes Stakeholders’ consultation. Experience with the first generation of PRSPs in Burkina Faso showed that consultations with civil society organizations was not systematic and that impacted negatively on the program achievements, including in the education sector. The joint annual review of the education sector plan implementation held in September 2003 which involved teachers’ unions, also made the same observations and recommended regular involvement of teacher’ unions, students and parent/teacher’ associations in these reviews. Since that review, stakeholder and civil society consultations have become systematic in the education sector. Preparation of the second phase of PDDEB (2006-2011) was carried out in this participatory manner. Teachers’ unions and students’ parent/teacher associations are now involved in early stages of program preparation, from analysis of sector issues to plan approval and implementation. For example, during preparation of the national policy on secondary education, a national workshop was organized from August, 24-29, 2009, to discuss and confirm the conclusions of the analytical work. Five networks of teachers’ unions, students and parent/teacher associations as well as other civil society organizations participated in the process. This workshop concluded a set of regional consultative workshops with all stakeholders, including teachers. Following the joint acceptance of the results of the analytical work the national policy was prepared and formally approved at a national workshop involving different stakeholders including which teachers’ unions on November 5, 2010. This approval was the culmination of an approval process that included regional stakeholders consultations held during October 2010.
85. More specifically, the following are examples of involvement of and consultations with civil society, particularly teacher representatives, in the design of the sector program, including examination of a variety of policy options from which the prior actions for the IDA-supported BEPSG operations were selected, and in the adoption of the sector program policy options and arrangements for implementation. To facilitate this process the following monitoring arrangements were put in place:
(i) The PDDEB Board Meeting chaired by the prime minister, is generally held in June each year, to assess implementation progress, to discuss and adopt annual sector strategic priorities and to agree on key recommendations for the future. Participants at this Board Meeting include civil society, notably teachers’ unions, students’ parents associations, and Mayors from representative communes, ministries responsible for Education and donor partner representatives. In October 2008, the PDDEB Board discussed and approved the key reforms in the program, including those related to the BEPSG operations, and endorsed the request to the FTI Secretariat.
(ii) Joint Reviews: Two principal sessions are organized annually to assess progress toward reaching the PDDEB objectives (April-May) and policy outcomes, as well as to identify policy measures and possible conditions for future support (October-November). The results of these consultations also feed into the national PRSP report on the sector and inform the budget allocations for the ensuing year. Teachers’ unions and Parent/teacher associations are institutionally participants in these reviews as stated in Government
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PDDEB M&S rules. The participants in the joint reviews make recommendations on program implementation and policy reforms to be monitored by thematic working groups. The series of BESPG 1-3 and associated policy reforms were discussed and approved with civil society participation during joint reviews held in December, 2008, April 2009 and April 2010. With regard to the policy measures, teachers’ unions focused mainly on multi-grade classrooms expansion, monitoring of teachers’ time on task and reform of regulations regarding students’ repetition. They made the following specific comments and recommendations on the design and implementation of these reforms to help increase the chances of success: (i) include teacher training and information campaigns to sensitize teachers and parents about multi-grade teaching, (ii) carry-out an extensive information campaign on reducing repetition rates and (iii) fully inform teachers about the objectives of monitoring teachers’ time on task. The approved reform program incorporated these recommendations and they were reflected in the reformulation of associated policy measures. For the secondary education program, as a follow up consultative meeting was organized in November 2011 with civil society on the theme of monitoring teachers’ time on task. The monitoring report prepared during the school year 2010-2011 was presented and further actions were agreed to reinforce the system.
(iii) Joint Monthly meetings: The main objectives of these meetings are to monitor implementation progress of the PDDEB, including the reform program. Civil society, particularly teachers’ unions and parents’ associations participate in these meetings where all stakeholders, including civil society and donor partners are regularly informed about the status of the various reforms and participate in the reformulation of the prior actions for donor-financed operations if needed.
(iv) The thematic groups and associated sub groups in each region of the country, focus on specific issues of the program (access, quality, sector management and fiduciary management). Government representatives, partners and civil society members are included in these groups, which meet regularly to monitor implementation and progress in carrying-out the recommendations of the joint annual reviews on the various themes. During the November 2011 meeting of the access group for Secondary education, a decision was made to organize further information campaigns throughout the 13 regions starting December 20, 2011 to raise teachers’ awareness on how to implement the new policy on repetition while maintaining the quality improvement agenda. The campaign is being jointly organized by the Ministry, teachers’ unions and student parents association.
86. This consultative process was maintained in the preparation of the PDDEB II (2012-2020). Teachers’ unions as well as other civil society organizations are members of thematic groups which are responsible for preparing the three components of the program, notably access, quality, and sector management including fiduciary management. A schedule for program preparation and approval including the various participatory steps outlined above which now characterize the system is available.
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IV. WORLD BANK SUPPORT TO THE GOVERNMENT’S PROGRAMLINK TO THE CAS
87. BEPSG 1-3 were designed to support the priorities in the Government’s SCADD and help achieve the strategic objectives of the CAS for the period 2010 – 2012 which was endorsed in August 10, 2009. The SCADD includes the following priorities: (i) reinforcement of access to quality basic education, (ii) development of post-primary, secondary and higher education, (iii) promotion of technical education and vocational training and (iv) the continued fight against HIV/AIDS and STDs.
88. To support the government’s strategy, the CAS is framed around the following two strategic objectives and two cross cutting themes:
89. Strategic theme one : Minimizing economic vulnerability and promoting growth through economic transformation. Strategic theme two: Promoting shared growth through improved social service delivery. Cross-cutting issues: Weak institutional and human capacity and rapid population growth.
90. The proposed Grant is an integral part of the FY10-12 CAS. It aims at assisting Burkina Faso to transform its economy by improving the relevance of secondary and vocational training, supporting equitable and shared growth and making progress on human development by improving the quality of education services for the poor regions. The reforms supported by this operation harness the Government’s commitment to improved governance and enhanced public participation and aim at improving social service delivery. The Grant adopts new ways of doing business, which involve better positioning the country’s development in a regional context; strengthening analytical support and developing results-focused approaches to the development of the education and training sector.
91. BEPSG- 1- 3 support CAS Theme One by helping to raise the overall level of education of the population, especially disadvantaged groups, to participate in and generate economic growth, and thereby raise incomes. BEPSG- 3 will help establish the foundation for increased employment and diversified growth through reforms related to raising the quality and relevance of technical education and vocational training to promote coherence between the training programs and the needs of the labor market.
92. BEPSG-3 will also directly support strategic Theme Two, which aims at increasing access to quality social services, as well as the objectives of PRS pillars 2 and 4 by increasing access to quality primary and first cycle secondary education. BEPSG-3 will also help, better manage population growth and promote good governance through strengthening technical and administrative management of the education system.
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COLLABORATION WITH THE IMF AND OTHER DONORS
93. IMF and World Bank staffs have coordinated closely on the identification of the respective institutions’ areas of focus. The IMF finalized the First Review under the Three-Year Arrangement under the Extended Credit Facility and Request for a Waiver of Non-observance Criterion on November 4, 2010. IMF and World Bank staff are assisting the authorities in the implementation of the country’s SCADD, providing them with technical assistance on areas such as resource mobilization and budget management and education sector policies and programs. This collaboration has continued following the recent demonstrations to help the government introduce reforms and investment programs to respond to the crisis within an acceptable fiscal framework.
94. Twenty seven donors currently support the implementation of the Government’s SCADD through various modes of assistance: general budget support (GBS), sector programs, investments operations, capacity building operations and technical assistance. Investment financing accounts for two-thirds of external aid, while budget support accounts for approximately one-third of total donor support. Currently, nine donors support the joint CGAB on the basis of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed in 2005. Donors have progressively moved into a joint Performance Assessment Framework (CGAB Matrix) which includes policy actions and performance indicators for monitoring progress.
95. Joint development of the Government’s PDDEB as required by the GPE framework enabled the sector ministries to strengthen harmonization among development partners. Following the successful harmonization of major donor policies around the Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) in 2005, Local Donor Group (LDG) coordination in the education sector was strengthened through participation of all donors in the cadre partenarial and the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that governs collaboration on all aspects of the program.
96. Most partners in the education sector, eleven in all, focus their support for the education sector on the government’s education sector plan using budget support through a common fund, the CAST. A few others provide direct investment financing. In 2010, the CAST partners pledged 13.8 billion FCFA and 89.3%, or 12.3 billion FCFA, was disbursed. Total resources in the CAST for 2010 were 13.2 billion FCFA5 and expenditures amounted to almost 11.0 billion FCFA, representing an absorption rate of about 83%. Table 4 below shows the distribution of these expenditures by PDDEB components.
5 New disbursements plus reserves etc.
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Table 4: CAST Expenditures by PDDEB Components Component Amount (Billion FCFA) Percentage
Access 4.9 45
Quality 4.6 42
Management 1.4 13
Total 10.9 100
RELATIONSHIP TO OTHER WORLD BANK OPERATIONS
97. The PRSCs and PRSGs, which are the main instruments for supporting the SCADD, cover three areas that complement and reinforce the impact of the Government’s education sector program viz. sustainable and equitable growth; the use of public sector resources to promote human capital development, decentralization and the modernization of public sector management. PRSG 11 was approved on July 26, 2011. In addition to the PRSCs and PRSGs, the following Bank-financed operations complement and reinforce the BEPSG operations: the Administration Capacity Building Project (US$7 million equivalent, FY05); the Statistical Capacity Building Project (US$10 million equivalent, FY04); the Decentralized Urban Capacity Building Project (US$10 million equivalent, FY07); the Second Community Based Rural Development (CBRD) Project (US$74 million equivalent, FY07) which aim to build capacity in public administration for policy formulation, implementation and monitoring, streamlining public administration, modernizing personnel management, and enhancing the poverty focus of expenditure in the context of decentralization. The Local Government Support Project approved in November, 2011 will help lay the foundations for increased decentralization of the education sector as planned including in increasing the participation of beneficiaries in program implementation.
98. In the social sectors (education and health), the following Bank-financed projects support social services delivery, particularly for the poor: the recently closed Basic Education Sector Project (US$36 million equivalent, FY02 and additional financing of US$15 million in FY08), the Post Primary Education Project (US$23 million equivalent, FY06) in education, the HIV/AIDS Disaster Response Project (US$22 million equivalent, FY02), the Health Sector Support and AIDS Project (US$63 million equivalent, FY06 and additional financing in FY08) and the Reproductive Health Project (US$ 28.9 million equivalent, FY 12).Both the Basic Education Sector Project and the Post-Primary Education Project were designed to support implementation of the PDDEB and to strengthen institutional capacity in the sector to prepare for the use of policy based/budget support instruments by the World Bank and other partners consistent with the CASs at the time. Specifically, the PDO of the Basic Education Development Project which was designed to support implementation of PDDEB 1 included “….Further, to prepare for a shift from project to programmatic support, the Bank's assistance will also aim to build the capacity of the Ministry of Basic Education (MEBA) with particular attention to the areas of financial management budgeting, procurement, monitoring, evaluation and donor coordination.” Similarly, the PDO of the Post-Primary Education Project which was
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designed to support implementation of PDDEB 2 included “…. the Ministry of Secondary and Tertiary Education and Scientific Research (MESSRS) will be supported to strengthen its capacity for financial management, procurement and monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems to move rapidly toward a programmatic approach and budget support.” In line with this, both projects focused on investments such as school construction, teacher training and textbooks procurement while the complementary policy and institutional reforms that would ensure successful achievement of the sector plan objectives were to be included in BEPSG 1-3. The proposed BEPSG-3 operation will also set some policy foundations for the preparation of the new Local Government Support Project. All three health sector projects will help reinforce the interventions on health, nutrition and HIV and AIDS in BEPSG 1-3.LESSONS LEARNED
99. The design of the proposed operation draws on lessons from the Implementation Completion and Results Report (ICRR) for the PRSC 4-6 series that was circulated to the Board in February 2008, as well as from the Implementation Completion Report (IF-N0070) for the Post Primary Education Project – P000304. The key lessons focus on the experience in implementing policy and institutional reforms through general budget support, promoting equity through reforms, decentralization and partnership with the private sector. The key lesson is that general budget support needs to identify an appropriate institutional anchor for reforms.
100. Ownership. Experience with previous PRSCs show that consistent progress was made in areas under the direct control of the central ministries, notably the Ministry of Economy and Finance, whereas progress was uneven where implementation of reforms depended upon the involvement of sector ministries while the Ministry of Economy and Finance managed the operation. This series of operations, while benefitting from general budget support and the macro-economic and fiscal policies, would rely on the relevant ministries responsible for education and training for implementing the sector reform program. This would ensure greater ownership and commitment to the reforms during implementation leading to greater chances of success.
101. Gender Equity. A key lesson learnt from the CAS is the need for better understanding of challenges faced by women and girls through AAA in order to mainstream gender in all operations. Interventions included in this series of operations are based on the specific constraints analyzed in the CSR that prevent girls and other disadvantaged groups from benefiting from education. Targeted responses for different parts of the country have been identified and will be implemented with community support to increase participation and learning achievement for girls in particular. This is a continuation of an approach that has allowed Burkina Faso to make substantive efforts to increase girls’ share in education as shown by the parity index girls/boys = 0.90.
102. Decentralization. The absorptive capacity of the budget is weak due to centralized management which stretches government capacity in responding effectively to requirements at the local level, while procedures for involvement of local authorities in the management of schools remain unclear. In further pursuit of the decentralization policy, responsibility for school construction has been expanded to include the private sector and communes to increase the rate and quality of the infrastructures to be built. In 2009, the ministry transferred
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infrastructure funds to 13 communes and in 2010 the transfer was subsequently expanded to the 49 urban communes. This approach will be deepened through decentralization/deconcentration in the management of the education system, including expanding the use of the school based management approach. Experience with decentralization, especially school based management, has demonstrated that effectiveness in the use of resources and absorptive capacity can be substantially increased through these methods. Ownership and participation by local communities is stronger and more meaningful when communities are consulted and participate in the decision-making process. The current ad hoc arrangements under which COGES function will be better structured to avoid the existence of parallel structures to the local government system including the communes. Schools through the COGES will therefore gradually be made an integral part of the decentralized management system to complement the functions of the communes starting with their participation in the supervision of school construction in selected communes. Experience in the ongoing Basic Education Project has shown that much better quality schools are built more quickly when the private sector and communities are involved in the process.
103. Partnerships with the private sector and NGOs especially at the decentralized levels are alternative ways to enhance post-primary education with low recurrent costs to the Government and households. Access to private schools can also be more equitable than for public schools. The Government is developing an appropriate regulatory framework and specific incentives for municipalities and the private sector to increase their participation in the provision of secondary education. Such efforts have already started with the ongoing Post Primary Project.
104. Ensuring full involvement of all Government agencies involved with the policy program before they are finalized. The experience in preparing the second operation in these series suggests that while the government was fully committed to the prior actions, the key units responsible for implementing the reform program had not been fully involved in assessing the appropriateness and/or feasibility of undertaking the proposed actions prior by the expected date. This has now been corrected and there is full engagement of the key stakeholders in the dialogue that will lead to final approval and implementation of the operation without any obstacles. ANALYTICAL UNDER PINNINGS
105. The BEPSG- 3 benefited from several analytical reports. In FY08, the Country Status Report and a regional water and sanitation PER helped deepen the World Bank’s understanding of two key sectors in the decentralization process. The education sector review was the basis for preparing the GPE request. A set of studies was completed in FY06 to assist in identifying priority reforms for spurring growth, diversification and employment. These studies included a labor market study and an investment climate assessment (ICA). In FY07, an ESW on Decentralization and a PEFA were made available.
106. The design of The BEPSG-3 also benefitted from the actual experiences of PRSC series (7-10), and other sources including a report on the diagnosis of the Independent Audit Institution (Cour des Comptes) and its Action Plan (European Commission, October 2006), as well as a report on the sources of growth and the vulnerability of Burkina Faso’s Economy to exogenous shocks (Government - MEDEV, December 2005). These studies helped identify the
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strengths and main shortcomings in Burkina Faso’s fiduciary system and served as inputs for the authorities’ update of the budget management reform program (Programme de Réforme de la Gestion Budgétaire). This program, supported by all donors, is a key instrument toward increased donor harmonization in Burkina Faso.
107. The Education Sector Review has assisted the Government in readjusting the national program towards the development of the education sector as a whole. The report concluded that expansion of basic education is hampered by costs associated with schooling, and therefore free basic education will increase the demand for education, particularly for rural communities and vulnerable families. It also underlined shortcomings on quality due to poor management of teachers, low learning time, inefficient use of classrooms with bi-annual student intake, and the need to expand multi-grade classrooms as an alternative teaching method for cost effective expansion of the system. Given the rapid expansion of the basic education sub sector, the shortage of space in secondary education, and the need to increase the workforce ability to adapt to the growing economy, alternatives for developing vocational training have been identified. The adjusted national program has addressed these issues through the second phase of PDDEB which is supported by the BEPSG 1-3.
108. The Making Decentralization Work study in 2007 identified key challenges in this area. In particular, the report concluded that at the central level, the complex set of decentralization and de-concentration structures requires further rationalization and that the mechanisms for intergovernmental transfers needs to be clarified to ensure development of an appropriate system, as well as regular and transparent transfer of resources to the communes. The report also clarified that at the commune level, limited basic capacity in planning and budget management constitutes a major obstacle, and that local revenue collection and adequate staffing need to be addressed. A fund for municipal development (Fonds Permanent de Développement des Collectivités Territoriales or FPDCT) was developed in response to this diagnosis to facilitate local development. In addition to the decentralization ESW, the World Bank commissioned a political economy analysis in 2008, which highlighted that civil society and the media are constrained by weak capacity and limited access to information pertaining to public decision making and governance. The study concluded that to improve accountability and transparency, the government needs to revisit the framework for access to information and develop appropriate avenues for engaging more openly with civil society and the media. Using these findings, the education sector has been at the forefront of implementing the government’s agenda on decentralization. Both studies helped deepen the World Bank’s understanding of two key sectors for the decentralization process and informed the policy measures proposed in the matrix to improve access to quality basic education.
109. The CEM on growth, competitiveness and diversification prepared by the World Bank highlights the critical importance of reforms in the country’s sustainable development strategy and in competitive human capacity building. The labor market study conducted in 2006 identified priority reforms for spurring employment that provided relevant insights into the choice of policies supported by the operation. The PER (FY10) takes stock of recent trends in public spending and proposes a road map for decentralization in health, education and rural development. It proposes ways to leverage the decentralization process in order to improve
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public service delivery in these sectors. Some of its early findings on the importance of transparency and accountability at the local level have informed this operation.
110. Implementation of the Recommendations of the education sector in-depth Public Financial Management assessment conducted by the World Bank and the PER will ensure existence of effective controls. The assessment made recommendation to: (i) improve the budget process (from preparation to execution) to prevent the loss of funds due to in-year budget “regulation” and delays in school construction, (ii) use funds for the purposes intended in an economical, effective and efficient way, and (iii) improve accountability and transparency in funds management. The mechanisms to reinforce financial management include: (i) preparation and adoption every year of a national procurement plan; (ii) production of semi-annual financial and procurement implementation reports; (iii) adoption of a decree on MOD (maitrise d’ouvrage déléguée); (iv) transfer of funds to communes and deconcentrated units; (v) creation of specific units in charge of procurement within each ministry; (vi) capacity building of staffs on fiduciary aspects; (vi) mid-term review of the budget. Technical Assistance has been put in place to improve fiduciary capacity building in order to test the program budget approach and to implement an adequate internal audit arrangement including physical control of infrastructures in the education ministries. The design of this proposed BEPSG-3 Grant also benefitted from the results of the 2010 PEFA and the Social Safety Nets Review 2010.
V. THE PROPOSED THIRD BASIC EDUCATION PROGRAM SUPPORT GRANT
111. To achieve the objectives of the PDDEB to raise the educational level and diversify the skills of the labor force to help promote equitable economic growth, the proposed PEBSG-3 operation will support Government reforms and further strengthen its education sector institutions to: (i) Increase access and equity to basic education (ii) Improve the quality, efficiency, and relevance of basic education, and (iii) Strengthen sector management and monitoring and evaluation of the sector.
112. As was the case for the earlier BEPSGs, the prior actions for BEPSG 3 are drawn from measures in the PDDEB matrix (see measures highlighted in Annex 3) and have been adjusted to meet the criteria for a DPO. The criteria for selecting the policy areas, prior actions and triggers of BEPSG 1 - 3 were that they support and complement those covered during phases 1 and 2 of the PDDEB and the efforts of other partners. For example, adult education is not covered by BEPSG 1 - 3, as CIDA and Swiss Cooperation are providing support in this area, while policy measures are included in BEPSG 1 – 3 to complement the efforts of the Luxemburg and others in the further development of technical education and vocational training. Given the challenges associated with the development of the technical education and vocational training sector, reforms proposed in BEPSG 1- 3 are focused on refining the policies, strategies and institutional frameworks that would permit a more rapid pace of reform in these areas in the medium-term. Further development of TEVT will be more fully addressed in the proposed Bank-supported skills development project under preparation. The policy areas in BEPSG 3 are based on these criteria and are selected to further deepen the reforms started in BEPSG 1 and 2.
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Proposed Prior Actions for BEPSG 3
113. A key lesson learned during the processing of the BEPSG 2 has been applied in the selection of the prior actions for BPESG 3: key stakeholders directly responsible for the design and implementation of reforms should also be directly involved in the dialogue to ensure realism, full commitment to the proposed actions and feasibility in carrying out the reforms by the agreed deadline. The prior actions are shown in Table 5 below and in Annex 4. They complete some of the reforms undertaken in BEPSG 1 and 2 and further deepen others. No further measures are included for reforms already completed. For example, no prior actions are included for roll-over of funds for school construction. This issue was resolved by strengthening the management capacity of the agencies that are responsible for the construction process and this permitted transfer of funds to these agencies for use in more than one fiscal year. Similarly, no prior actions are included in the area of repetition. The pedagogical and institutional reforms for this area were carried out under BEPSG 1 and 2 and the next steps are to monitor continued implementation of the approach and its impact on reducing repetition.
114. The specific prior actions for the third operation are shown in Table 5 below and all the actions have been completed.
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Table 5: Comparison of Triggers and Proposed Priors Actions for BEPSG 3Triggers for BEPSG 3 as set out in the Program Document for BEPSG 2
Proposed Prior Actions for BEPSG 3 Reasons for Reformulation
In order to improve multi-grade teaching, the Recipient has (i) updated the guide for multi-grade teaching based on feedback from previous experience; (ii) distributed the updated guide to all teachers and supervisors involved with multi-grade teaching; and (iii) trained teachers and supervisors newly involved with multi-grade teaching.
The Recipient has fully operationalized the multi-grade system for Primary Schools (in particular rural Primary Schools), commencing Academic Year 2011-2012, by: (a) finalizing the guide for multi-grade teaching based on feedback from teacher and teacher supervisors in the field to ensure acceptance of the guide by the users; (b) distributing the updated guide to all teachers and supervisors involved with multi-grade teaching; and (c) offering training for all teachers and supervisors newly involved with multi-grade teaching to carry out and manage such teaching properly in the classroom.
The evidence for this would be: (i) Updated guide as adopted and report by the MENA of the process of adoption and how these steps were completed; (ii) Report by MENA on the distribution of the guide with signed delivery slips in the regions and provinces as well as a table on the distribution by the CEB and (iii) Report by the MENA of the training of teachers and teacher supervisors newly involved with multi-grade in the utilization of the guide.
The wording of the action was reformulated to be clearer on the action taken.
In order to improve community participation in the implementation of school construction programs in areas where COGES is being piloted, the Recipient has ensured that the decisions of the commune with respect to the implementation of the school construction program are made after consultation with the COGES.
The Recipient has enhanced the involvement of local communities in the education process by expanding the decentralization process to ensure that: (a) over time, the school construction programs in each Municipality where a Local Education Management Committee has been established are finalized and initiated only after consultation with said Local Education Management Committee on the implementation of such construction program; and (b) ensuring that starting Fiscal Year 2011, the school construction programs in at least 12 of said Municipalities have been finalized and initiated only after such consultations with their Local Education Management Committees.
The evidence for this would be: Minutes of the commune meetings in at least twelve communes which confirm that COGES were involved in the discussions regarding monitoring of the school construction program
The wording of the action was reformulated to be clearer on the action taken.
In order to further improve math and science teaching, the Recipient has started providing distant training to
The Recipient has introduced a new distance education training program for students training to become math and/or science teachers in Secondary Schools and has enrolled at least twenty-five new students in said program for Academic Year 2011-2012.
The wording of the action was reformulated to be clearer on the
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students to become math and science teachers.
The evidence for this would be (i) Ministerial order nominating the officials responsible for the training (ii) Ministerial order defining the organizational structure and operations of the distance training program and (iii) Report by MENA on the implementation of the distance training program
action taken.
In order to reduce the lost teaching time in primary and secondary education, the Recipient has monitored the effective time spent in class and published the results in the newspapers.
The Recipient has introduced a system for monitoring the time spent by Primary and Secondary School teachers throughout the Recipient’s territory in the classroom actually teaching and has published the results of said monitoring for Academic Year 2010-2011 in newspapers of wide circulation, all with the objective of improving the amount of time spent by said teachers effectively teaching students.
The evidence for this will be (i) Report by MENA of the monitoring of actual teaching time including (a) a presentation of the complete monitoring system and its tools and (b) analysis of the data obtained; and (ii) Copies of the publication of the results in the press
The wording of the action was reformulated to be clearer on the action taken.
In order to be able to use the results of the students’ assessments as a teaching improvement tool in the primary and secondary education, the Recipient has sent the results of their students’ assessment to the teachers with feedback on how to improve their teaching and to teacher training schools with the aim to improve pre-service training.
The Recipient has operationalized a system, commencing Academic Year 2011-2012, designed to provide to all Primary and Secondary Schools, and their teachers, as well as Primary and Secondary School teacher training institutions throughout the Recipient’s territory, performance assessments of such entities’ students, and recommendations, based on said assessments, of ways to improve teaching approaches, with the objective of improving pre-service training and teaching in primary and secondary level classrooms.
The evidence for this will be: For the primary level: (i) a note from MENA presenting the production and distribution of the student assessments and (ii) a synthesis by MENA presenting the assessment of student achievement by province showing the key weaknesses of students by zone and instructions on how these weaknesses should be addressed and (iii) a Circular letter from the Secretaries-General of MENA to teacher supervisors instructing them on how to use the student assessments to provide support to teachers through the various in-service teacher training mechanisms including the GAP, Education Conferences, PAI, PAC etc.For secondary education: A synthesis by MESS presenting (a) the assessment of student learning; and (b) the process by which the assessments are used to improve practical teaching. The note should include an annex with several examples of the results sent to at least 3
The wording of the action was reformulated to be clearer on the actions taken.
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secondary schools.
In order to promote dual apprenticeship training, the Recipient has: (i) adopted regulations on dual apprenticeship training; (ii) introduced dual apprenticeship training in at least four training institutions; and (iii) and informed the public (through the media) on the opportunities offered to primary education graduates by technical education and vocational training.
The Recipient has: (1) adopted a regulatory framework designed to encourage the introduction of Dual Apprenticeship training programs, whereby students attending technical and vocational training programs intern in private enterprises as part of their training; (2) introduced and operationalized, commencing Academic Year 2011 - 2012, said programs in at least four training institutions; and (3) informed the public through appropriate media channels of such Dual Apprenticeship opportunities available to primary education graduates who attend technical education and vocational training programs.
The evidence for this would be: (i) ministerial (MENA) instruction authorizing the establishment of dual training and the rules and regulatory framework under which it will be carried out and (ii) a note by MENA presenting the current status of dual training in at least 4 establishments carrying out dual training with the number of students involved
The wording of the action was reformulated to be clearer about the action taken.
In order to extend implementation of its policy and strategy on health and nutrition in schools, the Recipient has organized working sessions of subject committees which produced a draft of the revised curricula by integrating health, nutrition and HIV/AIDS in the curriculum of upper secondary education.
The Recipient has adopted and introduced, commencing Academic Year 2011, a revised curriculum for secondary education that integrates health, nutrition and HIV/AIDS education.
The evidence for this would be: (i) a copy of the revised curriculum and (ii) Ministerial (MESS) order adopting the revised curriculum.
The action was strengthened to include adoption and utilization of the new curricula in secondary education.
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Box 1: Good Practice Principles for ConditionalityPrinciple 1: Reinforce Ownership. The grant is embedded in the country’s education sector program-PDDEB- which serves as an organizational framework for coordinating all interventions in the sector and is consistent with the SCADD and the CAS. It defines the country priorities, strategic choices, and policy reforms to be carried out for the education sector toward achieving the MDGs. It focuses on (i) ownership of the reform process; (ii) alignment with the country’s PRSP; (iii) predictability of funds flow; and (iv) a results-based approach which is coordinated and agreed upon with the Government, civil society, and the donors involved in the sector. The World Bank, in conjunction with other donors, has supported the country in conducting a country status report, and other analysis which have been the basis for framing sector reforms. Principle 2: Agree up front with the government and other financial partners on a coordinated accountability framework. This series of DPOs is the first one in the education sector in Burkina Faso. It has been a joint effort by government and donors based on the analytical work also jointly done, and on a common results framework. The request was prepared by the government in 2007, endorsed and supported by local donors group (LDG) in 2008, and submitted to the FTI committee in December 2008. The LDG and the government conduct two annual joint review missions based on the approved results framework, annual action plan, and MTEF which are reviewed jointly and constitute the principal tool for coordination and evaluation of sector interventions. This procedure allows for accountability based on the shared objectives and performance indicators.Since 2002, IDA’s as well as LDG support through PDDEB has been part of the PRSP framework in response to Government demands to align donor support to lower transaction costs and to harmonize the policy dialogue with the other donors around the Government’s program and priorities, as well as the accountability framework for the sector. This operation is completely aligned with the program which offers two principal sessions with the Government to assess progress toward the objectives and policy outcomes (April-May), as well as to identify policy measures and possible conditions for future support (October-November). The results of these reviews also feed into the PRSP report on the sector. Only reforms truly owned by the Government, however sensitive, have been retained in the program.
Principle 3: Customize the accountability framework and modalities of World Bank support to country circumstances. The first phase support for the Government’s Basic Education Sector Development Program, has enabled the MENA to establish a process of harmonization among key development partners in the sector through a harmonization framework which uses national systems and by supporting further improvements to bring them to international standards. This includes: (a) joint supervision and review missions of PTFs and government; (b) oversight by the MENA of donors interventions, which have contributed to ensuring consistency of the interventions with the Government’s Program; and (c) signing and implementing a MoU which governs collaboration on all aspects of the program.
Principle 4: Choose only actions critical for achieving results as conditions for disbursement. The operational policy matrix uses a limited set of conditions (7 in total for this third operation), which function as prior actions for approval and future disbursement. The chosen policy measures were identified jointly with the Government as well as the other donors from the policy matrix of the sector program (Annex 3) to ensure that they form an integral part of the Government’s reform program and to ensure proper coordination with the other conditions necessary for successful implementation of the sector program. The prior actions are focused only on critical operational actions which would move the Government’s reform agenda forward. The matrix provides further program benchmarks, some of which can be used as conditionality for subsequent operations.
Principle 5: Conduct transparent progress reviews conducive to predictable and performance-based financial support. Progress in implementing the PDDEB is monitored and evaluated continually especially with regard to policy implementation through the semi-annual joint government/partner reviews. These two sessions are chaired by the Minister of Basic Education, supported by a secretariat made up of a representative of the administration and the lead donor. The two sessions are open to interested parties, and the principal results as well as a summary of the discussions are documented and are publicly available. The Government incorporates feedback into its own reporting, including for the Annual Progress Report.
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POLICY AREAS
115. The policy measures included in this operation are designed to address key policy and institutional constraints to good quality basic education to a larger proportion of children, especially girls and those in the rural areas, and to expand training opportunities for youth and better align skills training with the labor market. Rural children and girls who are currently disproportionately disadvantaged will be the main beneficiaries of these reforms. Specifically, the main policy areas to be supported in BEPSG 3 are shown below.
Policy Area 1: Launching the system for multi-grade teaching.
116. Description: Government has fully launched the system for multi-grade teaching by updating and distributing the guide for management of multi-grade schools and trained teachers, school directors and teacher supervisors in their use.
117. Challenge: Children in areas with sparsely distributed population are disadvantaged with regard to access to school because of inadequate school places and inefficient use of teachers. Government regulations prohibiting “biennial” school intake6 and requiring multi-grade classes in areas with low class sizes, were often not observed in Burkina Faso because of the absence clear guidelines on the required organizational structures for multi-grade schools,7 absence of multi-grade teacher training and teacher supervision, as well as limited provision of appropriately designed textbooks and school materials to support this new teaching method. In addition, there was resistance from some teachers and the public, who were unfamiliar with the method and feared this approach would be incapable of providing quality education.
118. Government Actions and Future Actions: The Government recognized the challenges involved with the introduction of multi-grade teaching and took several steps to initiate the required changes under BEPSG 1 and 2. The first step was to identify all the schools that were practicing or that should have been practicing multi-grade teaching to assess the magnitude of the problem and the effectiveness of what was being done, including identifying the specific reasons for resistance from some teachers and communities. Based on this the government established criteria for schools that would introduce multi-grade teaching, launched a communications plan to inform the teaching profession and the public about multi-grade teaching and strengthened institutional support for implementation of the system. To further build confidence in the approach and to ensure its success in providing quality education, the government also developed, with the participation of all stake holders, administrative and organizational procedures as well as pedagogical methods and materials for multi-grade teaching. These procedures were included in a guide that was field tested during school year 2010/2011 and subsequently revised to reflect the inputs of the users and stakeholders. Under BEPSG 1 and 2 multi-grade classes were expanded through training of about 3,400 teacher supervisors and teachers involved with multi-grade schools in the management of multi-grade classes/schools, distribution of the draft multi-grade management guide to supervisors and teachers, introduction of appropriate architectural designs for multi-grade schools and provision 6 Anew class of first grade students is started only every second year so that children who would normally enter first grade during one of those two years are grouped together in one class7 These include the criteria for deciding which schools would practice multi-grade, class sizes and combination of grades in the same class and teacher/pupil ratios.
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of appropriately designed textbooks and teaching materials. The government will fully launch the multi-grade system by institutionalizing the changes in the organizational structure for schools, teacher/pupil ratios and pedagogical and student testing methods required for multi-grade teaching through the distribution of the revised guide to schools during school year 2011/12.
119. Specific Measures: The Recipient has fully operationalized the multi-grade system for Primary Schools (in particular rural Primary Schools), commencing Academic Year 2011-2012, by: (a) finalizing the guide for multi-grade teaching based on feedback from teacher and teacher supervisors in the field to ensure acceptance of the guide by the users; (b) distributing the updated guide to all teachers and supervisors involved with multi-grade teaching; and (c) offering training for all teachers and supervisors newly involved with multi-grade teaching to carry out and manage such teaching properly in the classroom.
120. The evidence for this would be: (i) Updated guide as adopted and report by the MENA of the process of adoption and how these steps were completed; (ii) Report by MENA on the distribution of the guide with signed delivery slips in the regions and provinces as well as a table on the distribution by the CEB and (iii) Report by the MENA of the training of teachers and teacher supervisors newly involved with multi-grade in the utilization of the guide.
121. Expected Results: The targets for the adoption and rolling out of this multi grade management system are: (i) the primary level gross enrollment rate will increase from 72.4% in 2008/09, to 74.8% in 2009/10, to 77.1% in 2010/11 and to 82.4% in 2011/2012; (ii) all multi-grade classes have been provided with a minimum pedagogical kit;
Policy Area 2: Further strengthening the decentralization structure by including the COGES in school management including construction.
122. Description: The Government has expanded the scope and coverage of the decentralization reforms from the communes to the COGES by involving the latter in school management, especially construction, in areas in which they are being piloted to increase the pace of establishing new and quality school places at affordable costs.
123. Challenge: School construction costs are high and the pace of construction, textbook distribution and acquisition of school materials are slow in rural areas partly due to the centralized management system. As a result, establishment of new school places falls far short of requirements especially in remote and difficult areas. To address this issue, the government decided to decentralize management of the education system to the communes. However, it became evident from experience that this approach achieved only limited success as the communes were not close enough to schools to have a significant impact on their operations. This occurred even though there was a Presidential Decree permitting COGES participation in school management. Pilot programs and research in Burkina Faso and other countries in sub-Saharan Africa have shown that decentralization of school management including school construction down to the community level with the involvement of COGES can make a positive
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difference in results. A comparative study8 on school construction concludes that of all the various approaches to school construction, delegating contract management and supervision to local communities is the most cost effective and can increase the pace of construction. It also emphasized that community management can produce good quality construction. This is partly because communities are able to quickly identify and resolve local priorities as well as prepare and execute action plans quickly9.
124. Government Actions and Future Actions: As part of its decentralization strategy, the government has fully transferred responsibilities for management of funds for school construction, purchase of school materials and school operations to communes, starting with all the 49 urban communes and 53 additional rural communes, consistent with its regulations governing decentralization. To support this process the Government has also put in place a mechanism for monitoring school construction in collaboration with the Ministère de l’Habitat et de l’Urbanisme to ensure that minimum professional standards are maintained in the process. To further strengthen the decentralization process, the government now plans to involve COGES more closely in the planning and monitoring of the school construction to complement the actions being taken at the commune level. Involvement of the COGES in the supervision of school construction is only the first step in a reform process that would change the paradigm in the relationship between the community and the school. The final objective is to encourage school autonomy by including the community in school management committees that would be responsible for managing the human and material resources of the school and oversee educational outcomes and service standards, including teacher behavior. This reform is being implemented in phases since all of the required changes cannot be implemented in one year. To facilitate the reform process and to ensure success, this first step is being carried out in parallel with measures to create awareness in communities about their new roles, build capacity in communities to undertake these roles and establish institutional structures that would permit efficient and effective flow and use of funds and smooth relationships among the various levels of central and local government administration. This program will be gradually expanded to cover the whole country through the implementation of the JICA financed Project for Support to School Management Committees10. These reforms will build on successful experiences in Burkina, the region and the world. Compared to what was done for the BEPSG 1 and 2 as well as under the PRSC/Gs, the number and nature of the communes covered and the scope of responsibilities transferred in the prior action for BEPSG 3 constitute further steps in the reform process. In the first BEPSG operation, the transfer covered mainly the 49 urban and 20 rural communes on a pilot basis and responsibilities delegated were limited to the management of the entire cycle of school construction. The responsibilities delegated have now been fully extended to all 49 urban communes and an additional 53 rural communes for a total of 73 rural communes. Additional responsibilities have also been transferred to communes to cover purchase of school supplies and management of school operational funds. The COGES are now being involved in
8 “School Construction Strategies for Universal Primary Education in Africa - Should Communities be Empowered to Build Schools”– Serge Theunyck, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development - 2009 9These conclusions are based on regression analysis of 215 school construction projects in 30 countries (23 in Africa) and 7 others in Latin America, East Asia and the Pacific and South Asia and compared various management approaches such as centralized management by the MOE, contract management agencies (CMAs), NGOs and Social Funds when acting as CMAs.
10Projet d’Appui aux Comites de Gestion d’Ecoles (PACOGES)
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the over sight of school construction on a pilot basis as the COGES are closer to the schools and have a direct influence on school operations because of their responsibility to develop and monitor the implementation of school plans. This program is being implemented in communes that have the capacity to ensure success as a way of testing approaches and determining how best to organize this intervention before it is taken to scale. This is a further institutional change that would deepen the decentralization process in relation to management of the education sector.
125. Specific Measures: The Recipient has enhanced the involvement of local communities in the education process by expanding the decentralization process to ensure that: (a) over time, the school construction programs in each Municipality where a Local Education Management Committee has been established (53 Municipalities) are finalized and initiated only after consultation with said Local Education Management Committee on the implementation of such construction program; and (b) ensuring that starting Fiscal Year 2011, the school construction programs in at least 12 of said (about 23 percent) Municipalities have been finalized and initiated only after such consultations with their Local Education Management Committees.
126. The evidence for this is: Minutes of the commune meetings in twelve communes which confirm that COGES were involved in the discussions regarding monitoring of the school construction program.
127. Expected Results: The expected results are that unit costs of construction would drop and that the pace of construction would increase without prejudice to the quality of school construction. The unit cost of school construction by private contractors is 8,624,000 FCFA. This cost has dropped by one third to 5,700,000 FCFA with the involvement of communities in pilot programs. This should increase the rate of building new schools leading to increased enrollment, internal efficiency and improved quality. With greater decentralization of management of funds for school operations and school materials, availability of school materials will increase and school operations will become more effective leading to overall increase in learning achievements and school completion rates especially in rural areas.
Policy Area 3: Launching a new distance education training program for secondary school student teachers in Math and Science.
128. Description: The Government plans to improve teacher quality by expanding the output and increasing hiring of university graduates in math and sciences. It also plans to improve management of the actual hours spent by teachers in secondary education to reduce the use and cost of part-time teachers (heures de vacation).
129. Challenge: The supply of qualified teachers in math and sciences is inadequate to meet the needs, while some teachers in other subjects do not carry the full required number of teaching hours even when the authorized overall teacher/pupil ratio is applied. Schools in rural areas are particularly deprived as the few qualified teachers in math and science are reluctant to be assigned to these areas without adequate incentives. This anomaly is because teachers are recruited based on the teacher/pupil ratio even though some of the teachers cannot teach math or science. As a result, schools are assigned many more teachers than they need in non-math and science courses and these teachers become underemployed. At the same time, science and math
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classes are not properly manned. To address this issue, schools hire part-time teachers for math and science. This increases the teacher/pupil ratio above the approved levels incurring additional teacher salary costs that are even higher than needed because the guidelines for managing these part-time teachers are not clear and are not fully respected by schools. For example part-time teachers covered over 157,000 teaching hours at a cost of 2,000 FCFA per hour not all of which was needed. The government has been trying to address this issue but the key constraints are limited supply of teachers with these specializations because of inadequate training capacity, the design of training programs and some resistance from teacher unions to the proposed corrective measures.
130. Government Actions and Future Actions: The government has been trying to reduce the use of part time teachers by introducing special allowances to encourage teachers to serve in rural areas. This however has not been enough because of limited supply of math and science teachers. Not only are there not enough teachers trained to cover the required teaching load, but there is competition for those who are trained in these subjects from the growing and diversifying economy. The government is therefore introducing reforms in BEPSG 1 -3 to increase teacher supply in these subjects. Specifically, the Government is implementing a strategy to improve the quality of regular and distance education university pre-service and in-service teacher training programs in math and science. The new systems and training modules for the pre-service and distance training programs were completed and approved under BEPSG 1 and 2. As a prior action for BEPSG 3 the institutional arrangements for administrative and pedagogical management of the system and supervision of system quality for distance-training will be put in place and the program launched. This will include regulations relating to inter alia entry qualifications, criteria for establishing distance education centers, structure for delivering the program and for evaluation and certification of students.
131. In addition, to overcome resistance from unions, a monitoring system, including collecting, compiling, analyzing and publicizing information on the misuse of part-time teachers has been established, to support debate on further measures that would ensure that full-time teachers respect the required number of hours and that use of part-time teachers follows the prescribed guidelines. The information collected through this monitoring system is considered essential as a basis for discussions with stakeholders, including trade unions, on what measures should be taken to reduce the use/cost of part-time teachers. Stakeholders are sometimes reluctant to accept measures proposed by the government to reduce the use of part-time teachers, considering the proposals as punitive because the total costs and inefficiencies are not fully understood.
132. Specific Measures: The Recipient has introduced a new distance education training program for students training to become math and/or science teachers in Secondary Schools and has enrolled at least twenty-five new students in said program for Academic Year 2011-2012.
133. The evidence for this is: (i) Ministerial order nominating the officials responsible for the training; (ii) Ministerial order defining the organizational and operations of the distance training program and (iii) Report by MESS on the implementation of the distance training program showing that at least 25 students have been enrolled in the program.
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134. Expected Results: The target for this module is that the university based program is in place and the distance education program will be put in place as a prior action for this operation. The target is to train between 50 and 150 math and science teachers annually through the distance training program. It is expected that this will reduce the number of hours (157,144) covered by part-time teachers and eventually the overall costs of the teacher salaries.
Policy Area 4: Reducing the amount of lost Teaching Time in Primary and Secondary Education.
135. Description: Introducing mechanisms at the school level to increase the actual number of teaching hours in basic education to complement the administrative measures already taken at the central level.
136. Challenge: The number of hours teachers spend in the classroom is substantially lower than that prescribed because of unauthorized/unplanned school closures, cumbersome administrative procedures and unauthorized and lengthy teacher and student absences. Time is lost at the start of the school year while schools are being prepared for school opening. School materials arrive late, delaying opening; teacher transfers take place at the start of the school year, leading to late arrival of teachers at their assigned schools; and some schools need repairs before they can be used. Rural communities are disproportionately disadvantaged in this respect as teachers often have to travel long distances to deal with official and personal/family issues. Monitoring of school closures in these areas is also difficult as supervisors/inspectors have to travel longer distances to observe these events.
137. The National Law 13 of April 28, 1998, Decree No. 98 of September 15, 1998, and Law 19 of 2005 regulate the absence of all civil servants in Burkina. These texts apply to teachers and sanctions provided are gradual and vary according to the duration of absence. The application of these Acts has not been very effective. In April 2010, an assessment revealed that from 2000 to 2010, more than 200 cases of sanctions had not been processed up to the final step in accordance with the provisions of the laws. Two main reasons partly explain the weak application of the texts. The first reason was related to lack of information and knowledge of the texts by school officials who are responsible for implementing them, including those responsible for human resources management at the decentralized levels and school heads who are in a position to notice any absences. The second reason was related to poor communication between the decentralized levels and the central level where important decisions on sanctions, such as suspension of salary and dismissal are taken.
138. Government Actions and Future Actions: The government has implemented measures to increase the time spent by teachers in schools via better management of school closures and teaching time, and improved teacher management. With regard to school closures, the government has issued instructions in its “School Opening Circular” addressed to all schools that unauthorized school closings should be reduced. Better management of teaching time is being handled through introduction of a period of administrative school opening prior to the arrival of students in October 2011 to permit preparation of schools, including teacher appointments and deployment, repair of classrooms and acquisition of desks and teaching materials to reduce time lost at the start of the school year . With respect to teacher management, the two bottlenecks
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identified were addressed. Training programs were organized in 2009 and 2010 to improve knowledge of the regulations by human resource managers at local levels and all directors responsible for deconcentrated entities. In addition, communications have been enhanced to enable the Human Resources department to reach managers in the decentralized structures more easily to facilitate application of the regulations. An annual report presenting the follow up of sanctions taken during school year 2009-10 using the new procedures concluded that these measures have improved application of the laws and hours of schooling (see annex 1).
139. In addition to the administrative measures already taken under BEPSG 1 and 2, the government will, as a prior action for BEPSG 3, introduce a system for monitoring the actual number of hours spent by teachers in class and publicize the results in the press. This is partly to deal with some of the sensitivities11 associated with some of the proposed actions needed to ensure compliance with current regulations. The government will use this information to build consensus with the public on further measures by informing them of the gravity of lost time on task and the corrective measures it plans to take to improve the situation. In addition, through this monitoring system, school heads will be required to systematically monitor and report on teacher absences and they will be subject to a continuous auditing process by the school communities who will be aware of teacher attendance and sanctions. This will induce greater discipline in the behavior of school directors, teachers and supervisors who will be responsible for supervising schools in the implementation of the system and the imposition of sanctions at the school level.
140. Specific Measures: The Recipient has introduced a system for monitoring the time spent by Primary and Secondary School teachers throughout the Recipient’s territory in the classroom actually teaching and has published the results of said monitoring for Academic Year 2010-2011 in newspapers of wide circulation, all with the objective of improving the amount of time spent by said teachers effectively teaching students.
141. The evidence for this is: (i) Report by MENA of the monitoring of actual teaching time including (a) a presentation of the complete monitoring system and its tools and (b) analysis of the data obtained; and (ii) Copies of the publication of the results in the press.
142. Expected Results: The target for this measure is that effective teaching hours would increase from 574 in 2007 to 736 in 2010 and 800 in 2011. As a result of these measures already implemented it is estimated that the time on task in primary education has increased from 574 or about 59.6% of the total to 736, 76.5% of the total. The 194 hours lost due to teacher absences has been reduced by 69 or 36% while lost teaching hours due to organizational and administrative reasons dropped even more sharply from 194 to 101 or by 48%. The results on lost time due to teacher absenteeism for 2010 and 2011 were published and civil society responded positively to the report. However, they recommended that teachers be further sensitized to fill in the forms and that the report be distributed widely. Increased focus on teacher absences as planned for this operation will further reduce the lost time in this area while work continues on the other administrative issues. Policy Area 5: More Effective use of the Results of the Assessment of Student Learning.
11The argument of trade unions is that teachers are being unfairly punished for lost time on task when some of the reasons have to do with overall management of the system
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143. Description: The Government has launched a system for the utilization of the results of student assessment to improve student learning outcomes in both primary and secondary education.
144. Challenge: Improving student achievement is constrained by the lack of reliable information on student performance and areas of pedagogical weaknesses that need to be addressed. This is because the system for student learning assessment is still embryonic and there is no consistency between the methods used at the primary and secondary levels. Also, in the past the results were not analyzed to identify learning weaknesses nor publicized to generate civil society debate as a foundation for building consensus on possible solutions. In addition, there was little coordination among the various departments responsible for pedagogical management and preparation and implementation of the assessments as well as provision of feed back to schools.
145. Government Actions and Future Actions: In order to monitor student learning and to help identify difficulties in the way teachers teach and how students learn, the government has implemented assessments of student learning in 45 provinces for primary education and 23 provinces for secondary education and has publicized the results in the press. At the primary level, student assessment focuses on French grammar and reading, math and science of observation. In post-primary education student assessment is carried out on French grammar and writing, Math, Science, History and Geography in the second year of junior secondary education.
146. The government now plans to launch a system for using the results of these assessments to improve learning outcomes. This system will include designing these assessments to ensure that they could identify specific learning weaknesses so that the results of the assessments can be used by schools/teachers to focus attention on specific areas of learning weaknesses in the teaching process. To achieve this the government will also establish structures to ensure systematic collaboration among the departments responsible for basic education (primary and lower secondary education), the inspectorate, curriculum, examinations and policy and planning as well as the regional directorates of education in the preparation and implementation of the assessments, the production and the dissemination and use of the results to inform the public on the one hand and as a feedback to schools directors, teachers and inspectors to improve the teaching process.
147. Specific Measures: The Recipient has operationalized a system, commencing Academic Year 2011-2012, designed to provide to all Primary and Secondary Schools, and their teachers, as well as Primary and Secondary School teacher training institutions throughout the Recipient’s territory, performance assessments of such entities’ students, and recommendations, based on said assessments, of ways to improve teaching approaches, with the objective of improving pre-service training and teaching in primary and secondary level classrooms.
148. The evidence for this is: For the primary level: (i) a note from MENA and MESS presenting the production and distribution of the student assessments and (ii) a synthesis by MENA and MESS presenting the assessment of student achievement by province showing the key weaknesses of students by zone and instructions on how these weaknesses should be addressed; for the secondary level the note will include an example of the delivery note for
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signed by each school when the report is received and (iii) a Circular letter from the Secretary-General of MENA to teacher supervisors instructing them on how to use the student assessments to provide support to teachers through the various in-service teacher training mechanisms including the GAP, Education Conferences, PAI, PAC etc.
149. Expected Results: The expected results are that: (i) Primary Completion rates will increase from 41.7% in 2008/2009 to 45.9% in 2009/2010, to 51.4% in 2010/2011, to 56.3% in 2011/2012, 75.7% in 2015 and to 100% in 2020. (ii) Low secondary Completion rate will increase from 15.8% in 2008/2009 to 17.1% in 2009/2010to 17.6% in 2010/2011, to 18.8% in 2011/2012.
Policy Area 6: Improving the Quality and Relevance of Technical Education and Vocational Training.
150. Description: The government has introduced a system for dual apprenticeship12 training in technical education and vocational training
151. Challenge: The education and training system has been unable to respond adequately to the skills needs of the economy due to the absence of an appropriate strategy, a lack of focused interventions, and inefficient and uncoordinated training institutions. This has made it difficult to establish a robust investment program for skills development. Where training has been provided in public institutions, practical application of theories learnt has been weak, making it difficult for students to perform in the job market immediately after training.
152. Government Actions and Future Actions: Conscious of these weaknesses, the government has established a strategic framework for technical education and vocational training. This strategy is being implemented through realigning training programs to the needs of the economy and promoting collaboration among training institutions to improve efficiency and to reduce costs. To further develop the system, the Government has finalized arrangements to make training institutions autonomous, including allowing them to provide paid services to the private sector and retaining the revenues to cover their recurrent costs. The government now plans to further develop technical training by introducing dual apprenticeship in at least four institutions and creating awareness in the public about the opportunities for skills training. This dual apprenticeship will allow students in public training institutions to spend time in private enterprises for practical training to better prepare them for the job market.
153. Specific Measures: The Recipient has: (1) adopted a regulatory framework designed to encourage the introduction of Dual Apprenticeship training programs, whereby students attending technical and vocational training programs intern in private enterprises as part of their training; (2) introduced and operationalized, commencing Academic Year 2011 - 2012, said programs in at least four training institutions; and (3) informed the public through appropriate media channels of such Dual Apprenticeship opportunities available to primary education graduates who attend technical education and vocational training programs.
12 “Dual apprenticeship” refers to a partnership between public training institutions and the private sector that would allow students in training institutions to undergo practical training in private enterprises as part of their training programs.
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154. The evidence for this is: (i) ministerial (MENA) instruction authorizing the establishment of dual training (ii) the final regulatory framework under which dual training will be will be carried out following comments from the Bank and (ii) a note by MENA presenting the current status of dual training in at least 4 establishments carrying out dual training in 2011-2012 with the number of students involved. Expected Results: The targets are: (i) short training courses and dual apprenticeship training would be in place; (ii) Increase in the annual flow of young people from 25,877 in 2008/09 to 28,500 in 2009/10, to 30,000 in 2011/12, and to 50,000 young people in 2015; (iii) Common management tools are available that allow for planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of TVET; (iv) Intake to the post-primary are streamlined between the various sub-sectors (general education and TVET); (v) % of public schools practicing TVET as a training mechanism; (vi) the number of public institutions practicing TVET dropped from 10.35% in 2008 to 8.76% in 2010.
155. With this shared use of resources in 2009, 1,411 apprentices were certified in programs run by the Ministry of Youth and Sports because of access to 7 workshops and 14 trainers under the MESS. Supply of relevant skills at affordable costs for the labor market will continue to increase as the program expands.
Policy Area 7: Extending Teaching of School Health and HIV/AIDS to Upper Secondary Schools.
156. Description: Revising the curricula for upper secondary education to include material on school health and nutrition and HIV/AIDS.
157. Challenge: Many communities especially in the rural areas suffer from food insecurity and the impact of HIV/AIDS, but designing and implementing cost-effective programs to meet the diverse and sometimes difficult conditions in schools has been a challenge. Some communities are reluctant to have schools introduce material on sexual behavior even if it has to do with serious illnesses such as HIV/AIDS. Collaboration amongst the Ministries responsible for health, nutrition and HIV/AIDS and education has not always been easy. It has therefore been difficult to limit the impact of these factors on access to and quality of education.
158. Government Actions and Future Actions: MEBA, MESSRS, MOH and the HIV/AIDS Commission have finalized a strategy on school health, nutrition and HIV/AIDS which was approved by the council of ministers in December, 2009. The Government has started implementing the new policy and strategy on managing health and nutrition in lower secondary schools (orientations stratégiques du secteur de l’éducation pour la lute contre les IST-VIH, la malnutrition et les autres problèmes de santé (2009-2011) by (i) revising the lower secondary school curriculum to include the relevant contents related to health, nutrition and HIV/AIDS and (ii) using the revised curriculum in lower secondary schools with the support of Teachers’ guides in these areas. The government will further extend these interventions to upper secondary education by revising the curricula for this level and subsequently introducing them it in schools.
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159. Specific Measures: The Recipient has adopted and introduced, commencing Academic Year 2011, a revised curriculum for upper secondary education that integrates health, nutrition and HIV/AIDS education.
160. The evidence for this is: (i) a note presenting the process for preparing the curriculum including the manner in which the curriculum was made available to schools through the electronic resource centers and (ii) the circular sent by the DG for Training through the Regional Directors instructing them to implement the new curriculum.
161. Expected Results: The target is that the curricula for lower and upper secondary schools include material on health, nutrition and HIV/AIDS issues .The strategy was approved by cabinet in October 2009. With this approval, a new curriculum including health nutrition and HIV/AIDS was introduced in lower secondary education in 2010. In this operation, the curriculum for upper secondary education will be revised to include material on these subjects.
162. Expected impact of the BEPSG Series: Implementation of policy and institutional reforms contained in these series of operations will positively impact expansion of quality education and increased supply of skilled labor to the economy. With regard to enrollment, the program will ensure that adequate resources are available for continuation of the school construction programs from one fiscal year to the next to help raise the enrollment rate in primary education. The primary level gross enrollment rate increased from 72.4% in 2008/09, to 77.6% in 2010/11, slightly beyond the expected target (77.1% in 2010/11) and is expected to reach 82.4% in 2011/2012. Expansion of secondary school places is also expected partly from increased supply of qualified teachers especially in math and science.
163. The program will help improve quality and internal efficiency through introducing a viable system for multi-grade teaching, increasing the number of effective teaching hours by reducing teacher absences and the number of unauthorized school closings. As a result repetition rates fell from 10.6% in 2008/09 to 10.12 % in 2009/10, to 8.1% which was the result expected in 2015. At the secondary level, the decrease of repetition rate is almost insignificant going down from 26.31%% in 2008/09 to 25.9% in 2010/11 against the 19.2% expected. The primary completion rate increased from 41.7% in 2008/2009 to 45.9% in 2009/2010, and to 52.1% in 2010/2011which is beyond expectation (51.4%). It is anticipated that the Completion rate will reach 56.3% in 2011/2012. The lower secondary completion rate increased from 15.8 in 2008/2009 to 17,1% % in 2009/2010, and to 17.5% in 2010/2011 as planned and it expected to reach, 18.8% in 2011/2012.
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VI. OPERATION IMPLEMENTATIONPOVERTY AND SOCIAL IMPACT
164. The BEPSG 1-3 is expected to have a significant positive direct impact on poverty reduction. First, the expansion of quality basic education targeting in particular rural areas as supported by the proposed operation will help increase individual and family incomes and economic growth by providing opportunities for increased productivity in the rural and urban economies. In addition, targeted interventions to increase the participation of disadvantaged groups, including girls in the education system, would help promote greater social cohesion and increased productivity of groups now largely on the margins of economic growth. In turn, this will help increase individual and community incomes for disadvantaged groups. Externalities from increased levels of education will help raise the standards of living of communities and disadvantaged groups through improved practices in child bearing and rearing, nutrition, health and sanitation. Improved practices in these areas will in turn reduce the burden on the public sector to provide social safety nets, thereby creating fiscal space for increased investment in development expenditures.
165. Second, the strengthening of public financial management is expected to enhance efficiency, transparency and accountability in the use of public resources. Such measures will increase the country’s absorptive capacity for external resources as it will enhance social service delivery, particularly for the poor. Both of these measures will help increase returns to investments in the education sector.
166. Third, the reforms related to decentralization/deconcentration including piloting initiatives for closer involvement of families and communities in the management of schools will help promote efficient use of resources and increased learning outcomes by building stronger community/school organizations that would work more effectively to improve the teaching/learning process. A significant byproduct from increased transfer of resources to communities would be higher incomes in those areas as a result of increased demand for local goods and services.
ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL SAFEGUARD ASPECTS
167. Under Operational Policy 8.60 on Development Policy Lending, the Bank is required to determine whether specific country policies supported under the operation are likely to cause significant effects on the country’s environment and, in the event of such likely effects, assess country systems for reducing any such adverse effects and enhancing such positive effects. In the event of significant gaps in the analysis, or shortcomings in the country systems, the Bank is required to identify how such gaps or shortcomings would be addressed before or during program implementation, as appropriate.
168. The specific reforms supported by the proposed development policy grant are not likely to have significant negative effects on the country’s environment, forests and other natural resources. The potential environmental effects associated with the implementation of
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the reforms supported by the proposed BEPSG-3 are mainly related to school construction and unlikely to have significant negative environmental effects. For the education sector, any likely adverse environmental effects associated with school constructions or rehabilitations are expected to be minor, site-specific and manageable. While conducting the PRSC in May 2007, the environmental team assessed the readiness of the government to deal with environmental issues. The assessment found that Burkina Faso has the necessary regulations pertaining to environmental assessment but that compliance with such regulations is weak. To overcome that, the Ministry of Environment has prepared a program budget to reflect its institutional and technical capacity needs until 2010. In this light, ongoing Bank projects in some cases provide training and capacity building in environmental assessments and environmental management to the Ministry of Environment staff.
169. The ongoing Bank-financed education sector projects provide adequate support for environmental capacity building and compliance in the education sector. In general, review of Burkina Faso’s environmental management activities has been conducted across a number of sectors through IDA-financed investment projects, in particular, the education, agriculture, health, natural resources management, and energy sectors; none of the environmental assessments for these operations revealed any major environmental issue. With respect to the education sector specifically, environmental and social compliance is ensured through the insertion and implementation of the environmental and social management clauses in contracts for enterprises that are involved in schools constructions and rehabilitation; and this is still done in the ongoing Basic Education Support Project and the Post Primary Education Project.
IMPLEMENTATION, MONITORING AND EVALUATION
170. The Ministry of Economy and Finance will be responsible for overall management of the Grant. The Permanent Secretariat for the Monitoring of Basic Education Development Plan (SP-PDDEB) in the MENA will lead the Government’s technical team responsible for implementation of the policy reforms and institutional strengthening supported by BEPSG 1-3, with representatives of the Ministries of Economy and Finance; Youth, Vocational Training and Employment; Social Action and National Solidarity; Basic Education and Literacy; Secondary and Tertiary Education; Decentralization; Public Administration; and representatives of teachers unions and parents associations.
171. The World Bank’s supervision effort will be aligned with the Government-led Monitoring and Evaluation system underpinning the PDDEB, the Annual Sector Action Plan, and the two joint (donors and government) supervision missions conducted each year. The specific benchmarks and outcomes to be monitored under the proposed Grant (Annex 4) are extracted from the Basic Education Development Program as synthesized in the Letter of Development Policy (Annex 2), thus providing significant benefits in reducing transaction costs for the Government. These outcomes are included in the joint performance matrix of the education sector under the SCADD. IDA staff has been working with the authorities and other donors under the SCADD to ensure that coordination of the supervision efforts will increase predictability and aid alignment with the budget cycle. Output indicators used for program monitoring for the sub sector are reflected in Annex 5.
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172. On the technical aspects, the program management and monitoring mechanism set-up during the first phase of PDDEB implementation has been strengthened and expanded at the central and de-concentrated levels to cover new ministries included in the basic education reform (Youth, Vocational training and Employment, Social Action and National Solidarity, Secondary and Tertiary Education,). In each ministry, the Directorate for Studies and Planning (DEP) is responsible for data collection and program monitoring; they will provide annual information for program monitoring and evaluation. Each DEP will provide data on a timely basis to SP/PDDEB for consolidation and analysis in order for them to prepare the periodic reports in accordance with PDDEB M&E manual. A small committee comprising each DEP will validate the data as consolidated by SP/PDDEB before convening the session of the National Steering Committee. The framework for implementation will include the following:
173. The National Steering Committee under the Prime Minister’s Leadership. This committee consists of ministers, directors of ministries in charge of basic education, representatives of teachers’ unions, parents’ associations and NGOs. The committee meets annually to assess progress and make recommendations for policy adjustments and improved implementation.
174. The Permanent Secretariat of PDDEB (SP/PDDEB), in place since 2000, coordinated the first phase implementation of the program. Its authority was extended, in line with the broader education sector reform program, to include other relevant line ministries, in particular the Ministry of Secondary and Higher Education.
175. In addition to these institutional arrangements, there are three instances where consultations, coordination, and team work will take place: (i) The Joint Reviews which are governed by the Partnership framework (“Cadre Partenarial”) based on an MoU signed by all donors active in the sector; (ii) The joint supervision missions (field visits and technical working groups); and (iii) the thematic groups and associated sub groups in each region of the country, which are focused on specific issues of the program (access, quality, sector management and fiduciary management).
176. Deconcentrated units of line ministries in charge of basic education are organized into a single regional unit which will carry out planning, coordination, and monitoring activities under regional governors’ responsibility. These units will produce quarterly reports to inform their direct supervisors and the SP/PDDEB on program implementation progress and issues to be addressed. Their specific mandates are to:
- monitor implementation on a daily basis;
- assess reports presented by each local unit and ensure effective coordination among various representatives of line ministries (MEBA, MESSRS, MASSN et MJE);
- conduct field visits to collect information and monitor implementation progress of the various components;
- produce required reports, propose and implement corrective measures for sound activities implementation;
- monitor closely the education sector program activities: each region will hold a bi-annual
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regional steering committee session to assess progress and address major issues.
- participate in the joint supervision missions at the national level.177. In addition to regular monitoring of implementation to assess in achieving the program objectives, assessment of the impact of the reforms carried out under these operations have started and will continue following the closure of this operation. For example, the results of the actions taken to increase time on task in the first two operations as shown in par. 8 and annex 1, were obtained through impact evaluation studies conducted as part of the reform agenda. The impact of the measures to deepen reforms in these areas as well as assessments of student learning will also be carried out following the closure of this operation. The latter will also measure the impact of all the measures taken to improve quality in the PDDEB. In addition to these studies on specific measures, a more comprehensive assessment of the impact of the series of operations will be included in the assessments to be carried out as part of The Africa Program on Education Impact Evaluation.
FIDUCIARY ASPECTS
178. Since the BEPSG 3 operation is a DPO processed under OP 8.60 there needs to be assurance that the country’s fiduciary, including anti-corruption, arrangements are adequate to ensure transparent and efficient utilization of the funds. The following provides a brief assessment of the current fiduciary system in Burkina Faso, including plans for further improvement and concludes that the system meets the requirements for a DPO. However, given the “Burkina paradox” which suggests that improvements at the macro level do not sufficiently impact on the poor to alleviate poverty, efforts are being made to address this issue including two operations aimed at strengthening demand-side fiduciary interventions which are being implemented in parallel with this operation.
179. Financial Management. Overall, the Bank has judged implementation performance of the PFM reform program to date and Government’s commitment to PFM improvements as exemplary. This was evidenced by repeated PEFA assessments, showing progressive improvements and good overall performance, and was also reflected in Burkina’s relatively high CPIA score. Fiduciary arrangements were reviewed by the Bank in the context of the new Growth and Competitiveness (GC) DPO series, the first of which is under preparation, and updated in May 2011 following the unrest. The fundamental PFM systems have not changed so far. There is no evidence that the systems and institutions have changed as a result of recent events. Burkina has made efforts to align the composition of its spending to the priorities laid out in its poverty reduction strategy, and to introduce a medium term outlook in the budget.
180. One of the remaining challenges for Burkina Faso’s PFM is to move from a focus on inputs and compliance to a greater emphasis on performance, value for money and service delivery. The country’s outcomes in terms of poverty reduction do not yet match its good PFM and macroeconomic performance, and part of the reason lies in its insufficient effectiveness of public spending (the recent PER calls it the “Burkinabè paradox”). The Government has realized this and has been at the forefront of the push within WAEMU to shift the focus of the PFM directives towards performance budgeting, and the GC-I DPO is expected to include triggers to foster this important aspect. At this stage, programs have been designed for all line ministries (including education sectors) and institutions with support from IMF and UNDP.
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181. The Central Bank of the West African States (BCEAO), including Burkina Faso, continues to improve its governance structure. The updated safeguards assessment of BCEAO issued by the IMF in March 2010 revealed that the Institution continues to have adequate controls in place at the operational level. However, the IMF noted that, the overall governance framework should nonetheless be strengthened by the addition of an audit committee to ensure that the Board of Directors exercises appropriate oversight over the control structure, including the audit mechanism and financial statements. The upcoming implementation of the Institutional reform of the West African Monetary Union (WAMU) and the BCEAO should help correct that situation. In addition, efforts to fully implement International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) should be pursued as adopted internationally by other central banks.
182. Bank financial management specialists reviewed the flow of funds arrangement between the Central Bank (BCEAO) and the Treasury (DGTCP), taking into account the findings of an audit of the flow of budgetary funds between the Central Bank and the Treasury funded by the multi-donor Budget Support Group. The team concluded that current arrangements are adequate, with fiduciary risks within acceptable risk tolerance levels. However, the team recommended that the information systems of these two institutions be linked, so as to minimize delays and discrepancies in flows reporting, thus eliminating cumbersome reconciliations. At the request of donors involved in budget support operations, the Government annually contracts an external auditor to provide assurance on the flow of funds of budget support operations between the BCEAO and the Treasury. The 2009 audit report on the flows of funds, which was produced in September 2010, included an audit opinion with some disclaimers due to delays from two donors in disbursing budget support operations. These disclaimers have no impact on the fiduciary arrangements for this operation. The 2010 audit report will be finalized before end of the fiscal year.
183. At the decentralized level, expenditure control mechanisms are in place to mitigate any possible shortcomings. Specifically, the existing reporting system at the decentralized level is based on financial management procedures that allow for tracking expenditures with a very detailed breakdown per chapter, article and paragraph including a split between capital and operating expenditures per sectors (education, water and sanitation, health, sport, and culture) transferred as part of the administrative decentralization process. The PRSC 9 has promoted transparency and accountability in the use of financial resources transferred to the decentralized levels by getting from the Authorities the consolidation and the posting on the Ministry of Finance's website13 for all rural and urban communes in the country, the detailed expenditures (including education sector) and revenues either transferred from the center or mobilized at the decentralized level. In addition to the prior reviews conducted by local financial controllers (decentralized at the province level), annual post reviews have also been conducted by the auditing department of the Treasury since 2007. Since 2010, internal audit missions at the ministry in charge of education are performed based on a risk based methodology. The first audit report highlighted a set of weaknesses mainly related to the lack of manual of procedures. The independent Supreme Audit Institution is being made more independent and its capacity is being strengthened. A system was also created for delegated audit of small communes’ accounts by regional treasurers acting on behalf of the Court of Accounts. It is anticipated that these measures
13http://www.dgb.gov.bf/comptes_A/CA_2009.htm
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will secure essential conditions required for an independent and effective Court of Accounts. Existing flow of funds audit arrangements in place for all budget support operations will continue to be performed. In preparation for the shift toward program budgeting, the Ministry of Finance is currently piloting at the Ministry of Education, the deconcentrated execution of budget procedures through a FM shared service unit (unité de vérification des mandats) located within the Ministry of Education with the aim of providing in situ budget, financial control, and payment services. Lastly, the Bank is currently supporting the piloting of a complaint handling system in the projects involved in the decentralization sector (including the education’s sector).
184. Procurement. As with all DPO operations, this proposed third and final in the series of operations does not finance specific expenditures, and the Bank Procurement and Consultant Guidelines do not apply. Further strengthening of national public procurement continues, and the focus is equally split between progressively reforming the legal and regulatory framework as well as focusing on strengthening the procurement capacity and the transparency of the procurement system. In this regard the Government has taken the following steps: (i) adopted an action plan based on the findings of the 2005 Country Procurement Assessment Review (CPAR), and prepared an additional action plan in 2010 based on an update using the same methodology (ii) setup several new legal and regulatory reforms under the new procurement Code, and (iii) issued procurement regulations and Standard Bidding Documents, which are being further refined, and (iv) established a new regulatory agency for public procurement14. Furthermore on the capacity issues, the government continues to deconcentrate and decentralize procurement functions for procurement units to the regions and ministries, including the Ministry of Basic Education and Literacy.
185. In 2008, the Government adopted a new procurement regulation which builds on weaknesses identified during various review missions and audits conducted by the Government and donors. In 2009, the Bank conducted a diagnostic study based on the OECD DAC methodology, the assessment is finalized, and the government has decided to implement the key recommendations of the assessment to improve its national procurement system.
186. The government has already started implementing its new regulations, which provide a sound framework for carrying out procurement activities with the goal of meeting regional and international standards. It has set key ministries, such as the Ministry of Basic Education, as ministries of focus for strengthening of procurement capacity and is closely monitoring procurement processes. It is expected that these arrangements, will enhance procurement activities.
187. Corruption. The Government is also making good progress in fighting corruption. Although Burkina’s ranking and score in Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index declined in 2010 (from 81/180 to 98/178 and 3.6 to 3.1 respectively), it remains among the better-ranked WAEMU countries. Following the adoption in May 2006 of a national anti-corruption policy (which is currently undergoing revision), the Government committed to step up efforts to fight corruption with the establishment of an independent audit institution, the High Authority for State Oversight (Autorité Supérieure de Contrôle de l’Etat, ASCE), and the dissemination of a good governance plan. The publication of annual audit reports by both the
14Autorité de Régulation des Marchés Publics (ARMP).
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ASCE and the Court of Accounts since 2008, strengthened and de-concentrated administrative and fiscal inspections and expanded powers of the Court of Accounts to sanction misconduct have all increased the visibility and demand for action against corruption. In the wake of recent civil unrest, the Government has re-affirmed its commitment to fighting corruption. Several major procurement processes were cancelled following the discovery of irregularities related to corruption, steps have been taken to expedite pending corruption proceedings, and the ASCE has committed to developing an inclusive national corruption tracking tool to monitor trends in corruption and better target anti-corruption reform.
188. Social Accountability Interventions. Over the years, the government has been promoting participation of beneficiaries in service delivery in the education sector through a variety of interventions including the establishment of Parent/Teacher Associations, Mothers for Education and COGES by various decrees and regulatory orders (arretés). Through these associations beneficiaries are able to ensure that development plans are properly adapted to the local needs and circumstances and that allocations and use of resources are fully transparent and efficient. To further increase the impact of these associations on the management of the education system, the COGES is being taken to scale and institutionalized through the JICA financed Support to School Management Committees Project. This project will support the COGES in designing and using school plans for management of resources to increase their effectiveness. The links between the COGES, communes and the center will also be strengthened to promote efficiency in the decentralized structure.
189. The Community Monitoring for Better Health and Education Service Delivery Technical Assistance Grant financed by the Japan Social Development Fund (JSDF) is also helping to build local capacity to engage in the provision of local services as a way of improving service delivery and accountability. Specifically, that project is raising awareness of communities and beneficiaries about the value of monitoring service delivery and building links among the various organizations and training their members to strengthen their effectiveness. In addition, various monitoring tools such as community score cards, trace-in-kind approaches and inspection of public works projects will be introduced and expanded. This approach could eventually evolve into the contract watch approach which is being implemented in selected countries in the region. Further the JSDF Grant will promote dissemination of the results of the application of these tools to the wide public to seek their reactions. The grant also includes an evaluation component that will assess the objectives of the Grant as a basis for refining the approaches.
190. To complement measures taken at the community level, the Bank Country Office is proactively implementing the Bank’s policy on access to Bank-related information by creating awareness at all levels of society about this policy and encouraging project staff to facilitate access to such information by the public. This initiative also includes e-ISRs through which the public will be provided information on progress in the implementation of Bank-financed operations for their assessment and feedback.
191. Disbursement and Auditing. A single tranche of US$35.0 million will be disbursed against satisfactory implementation of the prior actions under the program. The proposed grant will follow the World Bank’s disbursement procedures for development policy operations. At effectiveness and upon receipt of a withdrawal application from the Government, and
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provided the World Bank is satisfied with the implementation of the program being carried out by the Government and with the adequacy of the Government’s macroeconomic policy framework, the proceeds of the grant will be deposited by the World Bank into a Government account at the Central Bank (BCEAO) which forms part of the country’s foreign exchange reserves. As a due diligence measure, the World Bank will seek confirmation from the Government that an amount equivalent to the grant proceeds has been credited to the government Treasury account (DGTCP), (within 30 days of disbursement) with an indication of the exchange rate applied and the date of the transfer. If, after being deposited to this account, the proceeds of the grant are used for ineligible expenditures as defined in the Grant Agreement, the Government will be required to refund, promptly upon notice from the World Bank and directly to the World Bank, an amount equal to the amount of said payment. Amounts refunded to the World Bank upon such request will be cancelled. No dedicated account is required as no concerns with the fiduciary safeguards environment have been identified. The closing date will be September 30, 2012.
192. Fiduciary obligations of the program will be carried out by regular units of ministries, and each Budget and financial management unit will be responsible for overall activity implementation and management of funds. The grant will be managed by the Ministry of Economy and Finance.
RISKS AND RISK MITIGATION
193. Macroeconomic risk. The recent rebound in gold and cotton price has helped Burkina Faso recover from the global economic crisis. However, the country remains heavily exposed to swings in the terms-of-trade and weather-related shocks. The growing import demand consistent with economic activities and increasing oil prices, coupled with a deterioration of the terms of trade, could weaken the country’s external position. Other potential risks include a decline in foreign aid and hence budget support that may generate negative effects on expenditure dedicated to public investment and on debt sustainability. This could make it difficult for the government to make the necessary budgetary allocations to the education and training sector. Effective implementation of growth-enhancing reforms and export diversification will help mitigate these risks. Also, the availability of the GPEF has helped the government minimize the negative impact of expenditures on reconstruction following the floods on the education sector. The long-term risk of falling budgetary allocations to the education sector is also minimized by the inclusion of this sector as one of the priorities in the MTEF and recent trends continue to be positive in spite of exogenous shocks.
194. The macro-economic risks were heightened in 2011 following the social unrest which threatened to disrupt public sector operations partly by diverting resources from essential current and development expenditures to security and emergency operations. However, based on assessments of the impact of these events to date the impact has been minimal and future prospects are projected to be good.
195. The macro-economic risks were heightened over the past few months following the social unrest which threatened to disrupt public sector operations partly by diverting resources from essential current and development expenditures to security and emergency operations. However,
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based on assessments of the impact of these events the impact turned out to be minimal and future prospects are projected to be good.
196. Reforms related to multi-grade classes, abolition of biennial intake, enrollment and equity may trigger resistance. To mitigate these risks, the Government has as part of the prior actions for the second operation implemented a communications plan aimed at seeking the views of all stakeholders on the issues and building consensus on the proposed solutions. In addition, the guide for the implementation of multi-grade classes was piloted during school year 2010/11 and revised before it was finalized and distributed for use in schools along with the necessary training and resources. This gradual approach is consistent with and part of the government’s nationwide campaign to build consensus on sensitive issues before they are implemented. Progress in implementing these reforms indicates that the inclusive and consultative approach has been working well.
197. The decentralization strategy raises significant challenges, including in the education sector. Officials at the center may resist the transfer of responsibilities to local Governments, while local Governments may lack resources and capacity to carry out their new responsibilities. To address this issue, the Government has adopted a participatory and gradual decentralization approach using the DFGG tools that includes establishing a framework for increased collaboration between the de-concentrated units and local government authorities as well as increased involvement of communities in the management of schools. The Government also plans to involve communities in the oversight of management of resources at the school level to bring significant benefits to schools in the short term while capacity for full devolution is being put in place. The financial flows system is also being strengthened as part of capacity building for decentralization to ensure adequate and predictable transfer of resources to lower governmental levels.
198. These interventions are part of a multipronged approach the government is using to address the wide scope and complexity of the decentralization program. In the SCADD the government committed to transfer 4 percent of national government revenues to be transferred to communes by 2013.
199. In addition, initiatives aimed at reinforcing capacity at the local level are included in other programs financed by the Bank such as the Local government Support Project and other members of the donor community. The decentralization projects financed by the Bank and the EU are designed specifically to address commune capacity issues. As part of the Bank financed Local Government Support project, initiatives will be put in place at the central government level (including the PM and Ministers of Finance and MATD) to address the lack of transparency and predictability of fiscal transfers.
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Annex 1: Initial Impact of Measures Taken Under BEPSG 1 and 2Area Reform Action
First Operation
Reform Action
Second Operation
Initial Impact and Current Situation
Policy and Planning
Revision of the Recipient's 2009 annual work program for the Basic Education sub-sector to, inter alia, update policy and institution strengthening actions to be carried out during the last semester of 2009.
In order to improve the budget execution for the implementation of the education sector construction program, the Recipient has: (i) entered into agreements with four agencies for the implementation of the 2009 program of school construction; and (ii) transferred the funds allocated to the financing of the 2009 program of school construction not spent at the end of fiscal year 2009, to said agencies to ensure completion of the program.
This helped establish a clear joint Government and LDG work program over the last few years including policy and institutional changes with targets that were monitored in 2010 as well as adequate budgetary resources.
The reform action in the second operation ensured uninterrupted implementation of the FY09 construction program during FY 2010. All schools in the 2009 and 2010 construction program have now been completed and commissioned. This is a major contribution to meeting the access and equity goals defined in the sector program and this will largely benefit students in sparsely populated and disadvantaged areas.
More efficient use of school places
Identification by the Recipient's ministry responsible for Basic Education of territory all of the following schools within the Recipient's territory, with a view to ensuring in a next step that they will comply with the applicable laws and regulations of the Recipient relating to class size and intake: (i) schools with multi-grade-classes, (ii) schools practicing "biennial school intake", and (iii) schools with multi-grade classes which do not comply with the
In order to improve awareness of the public and the relevant staff on the expansion of the multi-grade classes, the Recipient has prepared and adopted a communication plan, and started its implementation, including through sensitization campaigns, training of teachers involved with multi-grade classes and supervisors, and distribution of a multi-grade management guide to supervisors and teachers, with a view to receiving feedback for its improvement.
The indicators for this measure are: (i) the primary level gross enrollment rate will increase from 72.4% in 2008/09, to 74.8% in 2009/10, to 77.1% in 2010/11 and to 82.4% in 2011/2012.
(ii)*All multi-grade classes have been provided with a minimum pedagogical kit.
The actions for the first and second operations have resulted in increased and equitable access to primary education as overall enrollment rates have increased and dropout rates have dropped especially for girls. Between 2008/09 to 2010/11, the enrollment rate increased from 72.4% to 77,6%, and girls’ enrollment rate increased from 67.7 to 75.0% much higher than for boys.
There has also been a 37% drop in the number of schools that did not offer a full cycle of six grades from 3,062 in 2008/09 to 2,014 in 2010/11. The 1,048 schools that were transformed into six grade schools during the period are now staffed with appropriately trained teachers.
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multi-grade classes enrollment criteria.
MEBA has distributed the first version of the teacher guides for multi-grade teaching and trained teachers, teacher supervisors and inspectors in the use of these guides. This version of the guide was evaluated and revised for use during school year 2010/2011.
Increasing the number of school places
Continued implementation of the Recipient's Basic Education decentralization strategy through the identification and communication by the Recipient's Ministry responsible for Basic Education to the Recipient's Ministry responsible for decentralization of a list of 14 school complexes, 12 three-classroom blocks, 29 latrines blocks, whose construction is planned as part of the 2009 annual budget, and with respect to which construction and management responsibilities have been transferred to the urban Commune in which the relevant school complex is located.
In order to improve the effective decentralization of responsibilities, resources and capacity in the construction of schools, the Recipient has: (i) increased the number of Communes to which responsibility for management of school construction and corresponding funds have been transferred, and (ii) established in the Recipient’s ministry responsible for urbanism and habitat a commission with regional representations to monitor and evaluate school construction by, and provide technical support to, these Communes.
The expected result was that unit costs of construction would fall and that the pace of construction would increase without prejudice to the quality of school construction. The unit cost of school construction by private contractors is 8,624,000 FCFA. This cost has dropped by one third to 5,700,000 FCFA with the involvement of communities in pilot programs.
Data on the impact of involvement of communities in BEPSG 1 and 2 are not yet available as decentralization to this level has not yet happened except in pilot projects.
Increasing teacher supply in secondary education
Issuance by the Recipient's ministry responsible for Secondary Education of guidelines (note de cadrage) dated June 15, 2009, for the development of a national strategy for reducing the deficit of teachers in Secondary Education, and
In order to reduce teaching deficit in math and science, the Recipient has prepared training modules in math and science for certificate teaching courses for university students to be used for regular and distance education courses.
The indicator for this module is that the training programs are in place.
The university based program is in place and the distance education program will be put in place as a prior action for this operation.
Current data shows that while in previous years’ science and math teachers were difficult to recruit, in 2009/2010 732 teachers with these profiles were recruited satisfying 85% of the needs. The distance education program will increase the supply of science and math teachers in rural
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establishment of an ad hoc committee comprised of representatives of all interested ministries of the Recipient, to be responsible for the preparation of a proposed strategy consistent with said guidelines, to be submitted for approval by the Recipient's Cabinet not later than August 15, 2009.
communities since student teachers will remain in their communities during training. Experience shows that when students move to cities/larger towns for training not all return to the rural areas.
Increasing internal efficiency
Issuance by the Recipient's ministries responsible for Basic Education and Secondary Education respectively of an inter-ministerial regulation (Arrêté), limiting the repetition by students of grades between two sub-cycles, prohibiting repetition by students of grades within each sub-cycle in Primary Education, and limiting the repetition by students of grades in the first cycle of Secondary Education.
In order to reduce the repetition rate and increase the students’ chances to successfully complete each teaching cycle, the Recipient has trained the teachers to enable them to teach the curriculum as a unified program by cycle (as opposed to a succession of annual programs within the cycle).
The targets are that repetition rates will go from 10.6% in 2008/09 to 10,12 % in 2009/10, to 10% in 2010/11and 2011/12, and then to 8% en 2015 in Primary;
* For secondary education repetition rate would go down from 25.7% in 2008/09 to 24.6% in 2009/10, to 19.2% in 2010/11, to 16.5% in 2011/12, and then to 9% en 2015.
The results so far are that at primary level repetition dropped substantially from 10.6% in 2008 to 10.12% in 2009 and reached 8.1% in 2010. For first cycle of secondary education, the repetition rate fell modestly from 26.31% in 2008 to 25.99 in 2010.
From 2009-10 to 2010-11, dropout rates fell in first two sub-cycles of primary education from 6% to 4%. For girls during the same period, dropout rates fell in the first sub-cycle from 7% to 5% and for the second sub-cycle from 5% to 3%.
Increasing effectiveness in use of learning time
Introduction of a system to monitor time spent by teachers in providing instruction to students in Primary Education and the first cycle of Secondary Education, and preparation of an action plan to implement the recommendations of the Recipient's studies on improving students'
In order to better leverage teachers’ teaching time, the Recipient has: (i) issued an official circular on school openings to limit unauthorized schools’ closings, insist on the strict application of rules and regulations on teaching hours and teachers’ absences; (ii) introduced an annual period of administrative school
The indicator for this measure is that effective teaching hours would increase from 574 in 2007 to 736 in 2010 and 800 in 2011.
As a result of these measures it is estimated that the time on task in primary education has increased from 574 or about 59.6% of the total to 736, 76.5% of the total. The 194 hours lost due to teacher absences has been reduced by 69 or 36% while lost teaching hours due to organizational and administrative reasons dropped even more sharply from 194 to 101 or by 48%.
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learning time entitled, respectively, “Etude Relative au Volume Horaire Effectif de l'Enseignement Primaire au Burkina Faso", dated January 7, 2008, and "L 'Effectivité de l'Année Scolaire 2006-2007 - Suivi du Calendrier Scolaire", dated December 2008.
opening to address administrative, logistical and maintenance issues before the beginning of the teaching period, (iii) strengthened its capacities (communication tools and training) to implement the administration’s remedies to unauthorized absence of teachers in Primary Education; and (iv) established a monitoring and evaluation system (including collecting, compiling and analyzing data) of the number of hours taught by full-time teachers and the use of part-time teachers in Secondary Education.
Assessment of student learning
Adoption by the Recipient's ministry responsible for Basic Education and the Recipient's ministry responsible for Secondary Education, respectively, of an action plan for the implementation of the Recipient's strategy for the assessment of students' learning in Primary Education in the forty-five Provinces, and in institutions of the first cycle of Secondary Education in 23 Provinces.
In order to assess students’ learning, the Recipient has: (i) designed and implemented pilots for student learning assessments in Primary Education in the Recipient’s 45 Provinces and in Secondary Education in 23 Provinces; and (ii) published the results of these assessments.
The expected results were that:
(i) Primary Completion rates will increase from 41.7 in 2008/2009 to 45.9% in 2009/2010, to 51.4% in 2010/2011, to 56.3% in 2011/2012, 75.7% in 2015 and to 100% in 2020.
(ii) Lower secondary Completion rate will increase from 15.8 in 2008/2009 to 17.1% in 2009/2010, to 17.6% in 2010/2011, to 18.8% in 2011/2012.
During the implementation of this series, completion rates for primary education rose from 41.7% in 2008 to 45.9% in 2009 and 52.1% in 2010. In first cycle secondary education, completion rates increased from 15.8% in 2008 to 17.1% in 2009 and 17.5% in 2010.
Improving school health and nutrition
Approval by the Recipient's ministry responsible for health and the Recipient's ministry responsible for Basic Education of a
In order to start implementing its new policy and strategy on health and nutrition in schools, the Recipient has started to include health,
Indicators:
The curricula for lower and upper secondary schools include material on health, nutrition and HIV/AIDS issues.
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draft strategy on health and nutrition in schools (Projet d'orientations stratégiques du secteur de l'éducation pour la lutte contre les 1ST-VIH, la malnutrition et les autres problèmes de santé (2009-2011}), approved by the Recipient's ministry responsible for health and the Recipient's ministry responsible for Basic Education, with a view to its submission to the Recipient's Cabinet for adoption.
nutrition and HIV/AIDS in the low secondary education curriculum taught in 2009-2010 and in the teacher’s guide to teaching.
The strategy was approved by cabinet in October 2009. A new curriculum including health nutrition and HIV/AIDS was introduced in lower secondary education in 2010.
More effective use of training resources
Issuance by the Recipient's ministries responsible for Secondary Education and for professional training respectively, of an inter-ministerial decision, for the introduction of apprenticeship training and issuance by the Recipient's ministries responsible for Basic Education, Secondary Education, and youth and employment respectively, for the aggregation of various education resources in institutions offering Secondary, Technical and Professional Education (ESTP – Enseignement Secondaire, Technique et Professionnel).
In order to start implementing its new policy and strategy to improve technical and vocational education training and the financial sustainability of training institutions, the Recipient has: (i) revised the training programs for key skills to better align to the needs of the labor market; (ii) established individual budget lines for each training institution; and (iii) adopted regulations allowing the training institutions to provide paid services to the private sector and allocate this income to the financing of their recurrent and development costs.
Indicators:
Short training courses and dual apprenticeship training are in place.
Increase from 25,877 young people the annual flow by 2008/09 to 25,804 in 2009/10, to 30,000 in 2010/11 and to 30,000 in 2011/12 and 50,000 young people in 2015; Common management tools are available that allow for planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of TVET.
Intake to the post-primary are streamlined between the various sub-sectors (general education and TVET)
Percent of public schools practicing TVET as a training mechanism.
The number of public institutions practicing TVET dropped from 10.35% in 2008 to 8.76% in 2010
With this shared use of resources in 2009, 1,411 apprentices were certified in programs run by the Ministry of Youth and Sports because of access to 7 workshops and 14 trainers under the MESS. Supply of relevant skills at affordable costs for the labor market will continue to increase as the program expands.
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ANNEX 2: LETTER OF DEVELOPMENT POLICY
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ANNEX 3: GOVERNMENT’S TEN-YEAR BASIC EDUCATION PROGRAM (Phase 2: 2009-2011)
Policy Reform Measures Prior Actions before July, 2009Proposed Prior Action before December, 2009
Proposed Prior Actions before December 2010
Expected Results and Monitoring Indicators
Sector Wide Measures
Policy framework Satisfactory macroeconomic framework
Satisfactory macroeconomic framework Satisfactory macroeconomic framework A stable macroeconomic environment conducive to growth and poverty reduction
Education Sector Policy Submission of a Letter of Sector Policy to the Bank
An agreed medium-term program consistent with the Poverty Reduction Strategy.
Financing of the Education Sector
Presentation of the 2009 annual work program for the Basic Education sector to update policy and institution strengthening actions to be carried out during the last semester of 2009.
Presentation of the 2010 AWP of the basic education sector which includes policy and institution strengthening actions to be carried out in 2010.
A Ministerial Decision to allow unspent investment appropriations for education infrastructure programs to be automatically rolled-over to the next year’s budget as of 2010 will be signed.
Presentation of the 2011 AWP of the basic education sector which includes policy and institution strengthening actions to be carried out in 2010.
Implementation of the Ministerial Decision to allow unspent investment appropriations for education infrastructure programs to be automatically rolled-over to the next year’s budget will continue in 2011.
The resources necessary for the program will be available;
Budgetary allocations will be consistent with program requirements
Increasing Access and Quality
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Pre-School Education
Community Approach to Pre-School Education
Revision of the architectural plan for community pre-school centers
Revision of the manual of procedures for the establishment of pre-school centers
Transfer responsibilities for the construction of pre-school infrastructures to communes
Adoption of an arrête ministerial updating the composition, roles and regulations of the COGES
Preparation of a detailed communication plan to mobilize community support for local pre-school centers
Preparation and implementation of an action plan to strengthen the capacities of communities to manage community pre-school centers
R/: The number of pre-school structures increases
I/: The rate of enrollment at the preschool level rises from 2.8% in 2006 to 5.8% in 2011 and to 8.3% in 2015
The procedures for the establishment of CEEPs are simplified
Increasing the supply of public pre-school education
Revision of the architectural design for the construction of pre-school education facilities.
Design and start implementation of a system aimed at monitoring preschool development at each commune level.
Monitor implementation of the system aimed at monitoring preschool development at each commune level and publishing of report comparing communes.
Private sector provision of pre-school education
Revision of the instructions and rules regarding the responsibilities of private sector centres d’éveil and pre-school education centers.
Development of a data system on monitoring private sector provision of preschool education.
Publish data for monitoring preschool provision including private provision.
Primary Education
Prohibition of alternate school year intake
Preparation of a document to convince the key actors about the need to stop alternate school year intake
Identification of schools with
Inclusion in the circular regarding school intake in 2009/2010 that alternate year school intake is no longer permitted
For school year 2009/10, put in place the support systems to allow all new schools to practice only annual school
Each province will have an action plan to reduce the biennale school intake and to introduce multigrade classes where appropriate
The primary level gross enrollment rate will increase Indicators: *The Gross primary school enrollment rate increases from 80.2% in 2008/09 to 110% in 2010/2011;
*The percentage of incomplete
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multigrade classes and that practice biennale school intake
Adoption of a regulation prohibiting biennale school intake as from school year 2009/2010
intake primary schools (with less that 6 classes) is reduced by 50% in 2011/12
* All multigrade classes have been provided with a minimum pedagogical kit
*The schedule for regularizing all 637 schools with multigrade classes with large enrollments is ready
The participation of the private sector is increased.
Introduction of multigrade classes
A document aimed at convincing the key actors about the need for the introduction of multigrade classes is ready
A communication plan for informing the public about the expansion of multigrade is agreed and included in the 2010 action plan for MEBA.
Update and reproduction of the guide for the management of multigrade classes for all teachers
Distribution of the guide for teaching multigrade classes to all teachers
Information and training of supervisors and teachers in the management of multigrade classes
Introduce a schedule for normalizing schools with multigrade classes with large enrollments
The list of schools with multigrade classes with large enrollments to be normalized is available
The list of multigrade classes with large enrollments to be regularized in 2010 is available and implementation is included in the action plan for MEBA
The list of multigrade classes with large enrollments to be regularized in 2011 is available and implementation is included in the action plan for MEBA
Strategy for increasing the pace of school construction
Make available and communicate the list of school construction sites to communities and communes
(i) Prepared a multiyear document for implementing construction by the MOD, and the transfer of responsibilities to communes in collaboration with other actors; (ii) Put in place a system for Monitoring, Evaluation, and technical support of school construction conducted by technical services of the Ministry Responsible for Infrastructure.
(i) provided the first report on Monitoring, Evaluation, and technical support of school construction conducted by technical services of the Ministry Responsible for Infrastructure; (ii) Updated the multiyear document for implementation of construction by the MOD, and the transfer of responsibilities to communes and other actors at the local level
Private Sector Participation Review the education norms, including those regarding school construction with a view to stimulating the participation of the private sector in
The revised construction norms are distributed to private providers of education
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expanding the education system
Post Primary
Introduction of a new type of teachers (voluntary, SND) to address teacher deficit
Establish the level of deficit in the number of teachers by subject.
Discuss and adopt the methods of recruitment of the new type of personnel in the Council of Ministers.Design and agree on a national strategy for reducing the deficit of teachers in secondary education.
Plan the entry into service of this specific category of teachers
Provide specific training by region and organize class visits
Preparation of modules for a certificate course on the pedagogic skills for the UFR options and for distance education: SVT and exact sciences for students in the first two classes of high school
Organize new recruitment on the basis of estimated needs
Provide teacher supervision for the new category of teachers
Expand the training strategy for options in UFR and other specialties
The gross enrollment rate in post-primary education rises from 21.8% in 2007 to 35 % in 2011 and 40% in 2015
Indicators: reduction in the average student teacher ratio from 54.8:1 in 2006 to 51.1:1 in 2011 then to 45.6 in 2020. reduction in the average student/class which will fall from 44.1 in 2006 to 41.9 in 2011 then to 38 in 2020
Mechanisms for more rational utilization of existing teachers and reduction in the cost of part-time teachers
Design of a tool to collect information on the actual instruction time spent per high school teacher
Collect and analyze data on the use of time by teachers collected by school directors
Produce a synthesis report on the analysis, findings and recommendations of the study
Include the conclusions of the study (OCECOS) on teaching time in the action plan
Adopt regulations on the use and allocation of teachers
Deployment of computers for management to schools
The conditions for improving the quality of teaching are put in place
Establishing a mechanism for reducing geographic and gender disparities
Sign a ministerial arrêté, which identifies localities (villages with high population density) that can accommodate new secondary schools; Provide a document which identifies potential school sites in collaboration with the beneficiaries and include these sites in official
Monitoring, Evaluation, and technical support of school construction conducted by technical services of the Ministry Responsible for Infrastructure
Carry-out a study to identify constraints to girls participation in post primary education other than availability of schools
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documents
Improving internal efficiency of Post-Primary education
Adoption of an ministerial arrêté limiting repetition rate in Junior High;
A strategy on the causes and consequences of repetition and drop-out is integrated into the communication plan
Strengthen and sustain the textbook lease system in particular for disadvantaged communities;
Strengthen mechanisms for class visits and support to Teachers at the local level
Evaluation of the implementation of measures limiting repetition and drop-out in secondary schools
Strengthen class visits mechanisms and support to Teachers at the local level
Repetition in Post-Primary are reduced;
Indicators:
* Repetition rate goes down from 25% in 2006 to 10% in 2015;
* The textbook lease system is functional in all the priority provinces
Improving quality
Preschool
Curriculum Improvement Update preschool curriculum The new curriculum is available
The quality of the preschool education is improved
Management Plan of early childhood personnel
Indentify constraints to management of pre-school education
Preparation and adoption of a management and training plan for staff in early childhood education
Implementation of the management plan?
Primary
Improving the internal efficiency of the system
A Ministerial Decision on limiting repetition between sub-cycles and their prohibition within sub-cycles are available and integrated into the action plan of the MEBA 2010.
Effective implementation of a communication / outreach plan to various stakeholders on the extent of capping.
Assessment of the implementation of the legislation introducing automatic promotion within sub-cycles to incorporate the limitation on repetitions to 10% in between cycles for the start of 2010/11
Repetition at the elementary level is reduced;
Indicators:* Repetition rates go from 12% en 2007 to 8% en 2015.
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Improving the learning time of the students
The recommendations of the study on the learning time are translated into an agreed action plan.
A section on improving the learning time of students is integrated into the communication plan and is implemented in conjunction with decentralized structures
A notice indicating the prescribed number of hours and the obligation of monitoring absences and tardiness of teachers and students and the assessment of its implementation by the heads of departments and municipalities.
A report on a study for assessing learning time in primary and lower secondary is available.
The prescribed official number of school time is implemented (961 hours)
Indicators:
*The actual number of hours applied in 2007 increased from 574 hours to 800 hours in 2011 ;
*The success rate in primary education certificate from 58.46% in 2008 increased to 75% in 2011
Improving the quality of learning
Planning of the student learning assessment for 15 provinces is in place
A notice establishing harmonized testing is widely disseminated.
Implementation of student learning assessment in 15 provinces will be extended progressively to the entire country.
The harmonized testing is held in each school during the school year 2009/10 and the results published.
Implementation of student learning assessment in 25provinces will be extended progressively to the entire country.
The average scores on tests of achievement have improved
Indicators:
French:
- Fourth Grade: from 50 points over 100 to 60 points en 2011 and 70 points in 2015;
- Six Grade: from 53,7 points over 100 in 2006 à 60 en 2011
Math:
- Fourth Grade: from 38 points over 100 to 50 points in 2011 an 60 points in 2015
- Six Grade: from 49,8 points
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over 100 to 55 points in 2011 and 60 points in 2015
Science:
- Fourth Grade: from 46 points over 100 to 55 points in 2011 and 65 points in 2015
Retention in primary education has improved.
* TAP will increase from 40,7 en 2007/2008 to 58% in 2011 and 75,1% in 2015 and to 100% in 2020 ;
Adult Literacy
Shared classrooms Developing an action plan for the pilot schools
Education awareness campaign for communities
Notice to supervisors for effective monitoring of CPAF
Training of trainers and educational supervisors
Literacy rate has improved
*The current stock of illiterate adults from 15 to 49 years will be reduced to 50%;* Number (150) of shared classes and the number (30) of CEBNF functional classes including 450 in 2011
Implementation of multifunctional centers
Developing an action plan on school specification
Identification of construction sites
Construction and furnishing of centers A center for each province is built and equipped
18,000 guides for facilitators are produced and distributed
A center for each Commune is built and equipped by 2011
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Assess the statistical data to be collected for non-formal education
Setting up the technical team responsible for the assessment of the tool.
Integration of non formal items into the Statistical Yearbook in 2009
Monitoring and evaluation of the adult education program through data publication.
Indicators of non-formal are consolidated in the statistical yearbook
Diversification of Technical Education and Vocational Training
Policy Reform Measures Prior Actions Before July, 2009 Proposed Prior Action before December, 2009
Proposed Prior Actions before December 2010
Expected Results and Monitoring Indicators
Adoption of the TVET management tool
Adoption of a framework for dialogue among all stakeholders (government, donors, civil society, NGOs
Implementing a communication plan to enhance the value chains of short-term vocational training and support provided for self-employment
Validation of TVET master plan EFTP (December 2009);
Adoption of an action plan for the PN / TVET
Revision and adoption of a national skills certification system
Elaboration and adoption of an integrated school curriculum TVET (MESSRS, MEBA, JE
Short training courses and apprenticeship training are in place
Indicators:
*Increase by 30,000 young people the annual flow in 2011 and 50 000 young people in 2015.
Common management tools are available that allow for planning, implementation and monitoring and evaluation of TVET
Indicators:
* The offer of short training courses for self-employment has increased ESTP institutions.
Introduction of dual learning in institutions of ESTP
Adoption of a main document detailing the implementation mechanisms of learning in institutions of ESTP
Adoption of statutory instrument regulating the introduction of learning in ESTP
Conducting a pilot on new learning approaches in at least four institutions of ESTP
Establishment of modalities to guide Primary School graduates in the training structures of MJE
Inventory of the capacity of the Vocational Training of MJE
Development of a framework document to guide primary school graduates in the vocational training scheme of MJE
Adoption of a statutory instrument regulating the vocational guidance given to primary school graduates in the training scheme of MJE
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Indicators:
*Intake to the post-primary are streamlined between the various
Establishing a mechanism for sharing human and material resources between training institutions and structures of TVET
Development of a framework document on the pooling of material and human resources between institutions and structures of training of TVET (MESSRS, JE, MEBA, private sector)
Development of a framework document on self-management of TVET institutions and training facilities
Adoption of regulations (MESSRS, JE, MEBA) on self-managed institutions and training facilities TVET
Adoption of a statutory instrument on the sharing of resources between institutions and TVET training facilities (MESSRS, MJE, MEBA, private sector)
*The pooling of resources between institutions and TVET training structures make sustainable the increase in the supply of vocational training and apprenticeshipIndicators:* Number of schools with autonomy;* The number of institutions using the mechanism for sharing;* % of public schools practicing TVET as a training mechanism
System management
Strengthening management capacity
develop a system for data collection and analysis
Production and dissemination of data on early childhood
The piloting of the sub-system has improved
The statistical directory is available
Allocation of funds to Communes For preschool construction
Operationalize the transfer of financial resources to Communes in support of transferred competencies
The financial resources are transferred
The facilities are built
Health, Nutrition, HIV/AIDS
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Mechanism for promoting school health, hygiene and sanitation, nutrition and HIV in Schools
Finalization of the draft policy document on health sector with MS school health guidelines
Adoption of Health, Nutrition and HIV/AIDS sectoral policy document with regard to health, nutrition and HIV
Integration of the document in the curriculum and the action plan
Teacher training
Training of peer/par educators
Hygiene and sanitation in schools is improvedStudents knowledge has improved
Nutrition improves access in areas with high cereal deficit
The curricula include preschool, primary and secondary health issues
Number of schools with resources for school canteen
1,500 peer educators, pupils and students trained in health; 1000 awareness kit exist
Number of schools with health systems; one medical visit per year per student
Number of hours of absence on average in the year
Management Mechanisms for the endogenous school feeding program in schools and educational institutions
Development of roadmap targeting areas of poverty
Planning the management of school canteens
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ANNEX 4: BASIC EDUCATION PROGRAM SUPPORT GRANT POLICY MATRIX FOR BEPSG 1 – 3
Key Reforms Outcomes Indicators
Prior Actions for the first Operation (July 09) Prior Actions for the Second Operation Proposed Prior Actions for the Third Operation
Overall Policy Measures
Revision of the Recipient's 2009 annual work program for the Basic Education sub-sector to, inter alia, update policy and institution strengthening actions to be carried out during the last semester of 2009.
In order to improve the budget execution for the implementation of the education sector construction program, the Recipient has: (i) entered into agreements with four agencies for the implementation of the 2009 program of school construction; and (ii) transferred the funds allocated to the financing of the 2009 program of school construction not spent at the end of fiscal year 2009, to said agencies to ensure completion of the program.
Implementation of policy and institutional reforms contained in the annual Action Plans.
Resources are available for continuation of the school construction programs from one fiscal year to the next.
Increasing Access and equity
Identification by the Recipient's ministry responsible for Basic Education of territory all of the following schools within the Recipient's territory, with a view to ensuring in a next step that they will comply with the applicable laws and regulations of the Recipient relating to class size and intake: (i) schools with multi-grade-classes, (ii) schools practicing "biennial school intake", and (iii) schools with multi-grade classes which do not comply with the multi-grade classes enrollment criteria.
In order to improve awareness of the public and the relevant staff on the expansion of the multi-grade classes, the Recipient has prepared and adopted a communication plan, and started its implementation, including through sensitization campaigns, training of teachers involved with multi-grade classes and supervisors, and distribution of a multi-grade management guide to supervisors and teachers, with a view to receiving feedback for its improvement.
The Recipient has fully operationalized the multi-grade system for Primary Schools (in particular rural Primary Schools), commencing Academic Year 2011-2012, by: (a) finalizing the guide for multi-grade teaching based on feedback from teacher and teacher supervisors in the field to ensure acceptance of the guide by the users; (b) distributing the updated guide to all teachers and supervisors involved with multi-grade teaching; and (c)
*The primary level gross enrollment rate will increase from 72.4% in 2008/09, to 74.8% in 2009/10, to 77.1% in 2010/11 and to 82.4% in 2011/2012;
*All multi-grade classes have been provided with a minimum pedagogical kit
*Reduction in the average student teacher ratio from 55:1 in 2008/09 to 54.2: 1 in
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offering training for all teachers and supervisors newly involved with multi-grade teaching to carry out and manage such teaching properly in the classroom.
2009/10, to 53.4: 1 in 2010/11 and to 52.6:1 in 2011/2012.
Continued implementation of the Recipient's Basic Education decentralization strategy through the identification and communication by the Recipient's Ministry responsible for Basic Education to the Recipient's Ministry responsible for decentralization of a list of 14 school complexes, 12 three-classroom blocks,
29 latrines blocks, whose construction is planned as part of the 2009 annual budget, and with respect to which construction and management responsibilities have been transferred to the urban Commune in which the relevant school complex is located.
In order to improve the effective decentralization of responsibilities, resources and capacity in the construction of schools, the Recipient has: (i) increased the number of Communes to which responsibility for management of school construction and corresponding funds have been transferred, and (ii) established in the Recipient’s ministry responsible for urbanism and habitat a commission with regional representations to monitor and evaluate school construction by, and provide technical support to, these Communes.
The Recipient has enhanced the involvement of local communities in the education process by expanding the decentralization process to ensure that: (a) over time, the school construction programs in each Municipality where a Local Education Management Committee has been established are finalized and initiated only after consultation with said Local Education Management Committee on the implementation of such construction program; and (b) ensuring that starting Fiscal Year 2011, the school construction programs in at least 12 of said Municipalities have been finalized and initiated only after such consultations with their Local Education Management Committees.
The expected result was that unit costs of construction would fall from 8,624,000 FCFA and that the pace of construction would increase without prejudice to the quality of school construction
Issuance by the Recipient's ministry responsible for Secondary Education of guidelines (note de cadrage) dated June 15, 2009, for the development of a national strategy for reducing the deficit of teachers in Secondary Education, and establishment of an ad hoc committee comprised of representatives of all interested ministries of the Recipient, to be responsible for the preparation of a proposed strategy consistent with said guidelines, to be submitted for approval by the Recipient's Cabinet not later than August 15,
In order to reduce teaching deficit in math and science, the Recipient has prepared training modules in math and science for certificate teaching courses for university students to be used for regular and distance education courses.
The Recipient has introduced a new distance education training program for students training to become math and/or science teachers in Secondary Schools and has enrolled at least twenty-five new students in said program for Academic Year 2011-2012.
The new university teacher training programs for math and science are in place
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2009.
Improving Internal efficiency
Issuance by the Recipient's ministries responsible for Basic Education and Secondary Education respectively of an inter-ministerial regulation (arrêté), limiting the repetition by students of grades between two sub-cycles, prohibiting repetition by students of grades within each sub-cycle in Primary Education, and limiting the repetition by students of grades in the first cycle of Secondary Education.
In order to reduce the repetition rate and increase the students’ chances to successfully complete each teaching cycle, the Recipient has trained the teachers to enable them to teach the curriculum as a unified program by cycle (as opposed to a succession of annual programs within the cycle).
Repetition rates go from 10.6% in 2008/09 to 10,12% in 2009/10, to 10% in 2010/11and 2011/12, and then to 8% en 2015 in Primary;
* Repetition rate goes down from 25.7% in 2008/09 to 24.6% in 2009/10, to 19.2% in 2010/11, to 16.5% in 2011/12, and then to 9% en 2015 in lower secondary.
Introduction of a system to monitor time spent by teachers in providing instruction to students in Primary Education and the first cycle of Secondary Education, and preparation of an action plan to implement the recommendations of the Recipient's studies on improving students' learning time entitled, respectively,
"L 'Effectivité de l'Année Scolaire 2006-2007 - Suivi du Calendrier Scolaire", dated December 2008.
In order to better leverage teachers’ teaching time, the Recipient has: (i) issued an official circular on school openings to limit unauthorized schools’ closings, insist on the strict application of rules and regulations on teaching hours and teachers’ absences; (ii) introduced an annual period of administrative school opening to address administrative, logistical and maintenance issues before the beginning of the teaching period, (iii) strengthened its capacities (communication tools and training) to implement the administration’s remedies to unauthorized absence of teachers in Primary Education; and (iv) established a monitoring and evaluation system (including collecting, compiling and analyzing data) of the number of hours taught by full-time teachers and the use of part-time
The Recipient has introduced a system for monitoring the time spent by Primary and Secondary School teachers throughout the Recipient’s territory in the classroom actually teaching and has published the results of said monitoring for Academic Year 2010-2011 in newspapers of wide circulation, all with the objective of improving the amount of time spent by said teachers effectively teaching students.
The number of instructional hours rises from 574 hours/year in 2007, to 736 in 2010 and to 800 hours/year in 2011.
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teachers in Secondary Education.
Adoption by the Recipient's ministry responsible for Basic Education and the Recipient's ministry responsible for Secondary Education, respectively, of an action plan for the implementation of the Recipient's strategy for the assessment of students' learning in Primary Education in the forty-five Provinces, and in institutions of the first cycle of Secondary Education in 23 Provinces.
In order to assess students’ learning, the Recipient has: (i) designed and implemented pilots for student learning assessments in Primary Education in the Recipient’s 45 Provinces and in Secondary Education in 23 Provinces; and (ii) published the results of these assessments.
The Recipient has operationalized a system, commencing Academic Year 2011-2012, designed to provide to all Primary and Secondary Schools, and their teachers, as well as Primary and Secondary School teacher training institutions throughout the Recipient’s territory, performance assessments of such entities’ students, and recommendations, based on said assessments, of ways to improve teaching approaches, with the objective of improving pre-service training and teaching in primary and secondary level classrooms.
* Primary Completion rate will increase from 41.7 in 2008/2009 to 45.9% in 2009/2010, to 51.4% in 2010/2011, to 56.3% in 2011/2012, 75.7% in 2015 and to 100% in 2020 ;
*Low secondary Completion rate will increase from 15.8 in 2008/2009 to 17.1% in 2009/2010, to 17.6% in 2010/2011, to 18.8% in 2011/2012
Diversification of Technical Education and Vocational Training
Issuance by the Recipient's ministries responsible for Secondary Education and for professional training respectively, of an inter-ministerial decision, for the introduction of apprenticeship training and issuance by the Recipient's ministries responsible for Basic Education, Secondary Education, and youth and employment respectively, for the aggregation of various education resources in institutions offering Secondary, Technical and Professional Education (ESTP - Enseignement Secondaire, Technique et Professionnel).
(viii) In order to start implementing its new policy and strategy to improve technical and vocational education training and the financial sustainability of training institutions, the Recipient has: (i) revised the training programs for key skills to better align to the needs of the labor market; (ii) established individual budget lines for each training institution; and (iii) adopted regulations allowing the training institutions to provide paid services to the private sector and allocate this income to the financing of their recurrent and development costs.
The Recipient has: (1) adopted a regulatory framework designed to encourage the introduction of Dual Apprenticeship training programs, whereby students attending technical and vocational training programs intern in private enterprises as part of their training; (2) introduced and operationalized, commencing Academic Year 2011 - 2012, said programs in at least four training institutions; and (3) informed the public through appropriate media channels of such Dual Apprenticeship opportunities available to primary education graduates who attend technical education and vocational training
Short training courses and apprenticeship training are in place.
Indicators:
Increase in the annual flow of young people from 25,877 in 2008/09 to 28500 in 2009/10, to 30000 in 2011/12, and to 50 000 young people in 2015.
Common management tools are available that allow for planning, implementation and monitoring and evaluation of TVET.
Intake to the post-primary are streamlined between the various sub-sectors (general
97
programs. education and TVET)
% of public schools practicing TVET as a training mechanism.
HIV/AIDS, Health, Nutrition
Approval by the Recipient's ministry responsible for health and the Recipient's ministry responsible for Basic Education of a draft strategy on health and nutrition in schools (Projet d'orientations stratégiques du secteur de l’éducation pour Ia lutte contre les 1ST-VIH, la malnutrition et les autres problèmes de santé (2009-2011), approved by the Recipient's ministry responsible for health and the Recipient's ministry responsible for Basic Education, with a view to its submission to the Recipient's Cabinet for adoption
(ix) In order to start implementing its new policy and strategy on health and nutrition in schools, the Recipient has started to include health, nutrition and HIV/AIDS in the low secondary education curriculum taught in 2009-2010 and in the teacher’s guide to teaching.
The Recipient has adopted and introduced, commencing Academic Year 2011, a revised curriculum for secondary education that integrates health, nutrition and HIV/AIDS education.
The target is that the curricula for lower and upper secondary schools include material on health, nutrition and HIV/AIDS issues.
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ANNEX 5: TEN-YEAR BASIC EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM OUTPUT INDICATORS
Indicators 1999 2002 2007 2008 2009 Projection 2010
Projection Projection 2015
1999/2000 2002/2003 2007/2008 2008/2009 2009/2010 2010/2011 2011/2012 2015/2016
Gross Intake Rate at 1st grade of primary
45,4% 55,4% 86,9% 78,0% 85.8% 87,7% 89% 117,4
Gross Primary Enrollment Rate 44,7% 48,7% 71,8% 72,4% 74,8% 77,1% 104,9
Girls’ share in primary school enrollments
41% 42% 46% 46% 47% 47,5% ND
Repetition Rate in primary education (Girls)
ND ND ND ND 10,12%
(10,13%)
ND ND
Completion rate in primary 26,2% 29,5% 38,9% 41,7% 45,9% 51,4% 75,7%
Gross Enrollment rate in lower secondary (Girls)
13.6% (10.6%)
15.4 % (12.4%)
21.6% (18.2%)
24.2 % (20.5%)
29.7%
(25.8%)
38.5% (34.2%)
59% (55%)
Number of students enrolled in Secondary VET
Cycle court 6 426 6 789 6 787 6 581 7112
Cycle moyen
4 179 5 005 8 311 8 693 8943
Cycle long 4 583 6 378 10 489 10 603 9749
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total 15 188 18 172 25587 25 877 25804 30000 35000
Number of young out-of-school trained in professional training centers
323 559 8 549 13 929 29 502 35000
Number of classrooms available 17,037 20,251 31,809 35,129 38 269 42000 55000
Number of multi-grade teaching classes
3073 4116 4748 4014 2910 10000 13000
Annual number of Instructional Hours for Students
ND ND 574 ND ND 800 920
Number of TVET curriculum revised and adapted to the economy
7 9 16 70
Pupil/teacher ratio 51 51 55 55 54,2 53.4 48
Proportion of teachers not assigned to a classroom
4,2% 12,4% 10,8% 10,1% ND 10% 7%
Share of Education as a % of GDP in national Budget
4.7 3.1% 3.1 3.2 3.4
Average Cost of school Construction (000 CFA)
(i) Public(ii) Community
8,624 ??
N/A
7,840
4,200 ND ND ND
Number of communes receiving funds for:
(i)Investments
(ii)Schools operations
0
0
33
69
69
69
49
351
351
351
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ANNEX 6: BURKINA FASO – KEY ECONOMIC INDICATORS
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ANNEX 7: FUND RELATIONS NOTE
IMF Executive Board Concludes 2011 Article IV Consultation with Burkina FasoPublic Information Notice (PIN) No. 11/162December 27, 2011
Public Information Notices (PINs) form part of the IMF's efforts to promote transparency of the IMF's views and analysis of economic developments and policies. With the consent of the country (or countries) concerned, PINs are issued after Executive Board discussions of Article IV consultations with member countries, of its surveillance of developments at the regional level, of post-program monitoring, and of ex post assessments of member countries with longer-term program engagements. PINs are also issued after Executive Board discussions of general policy matters, unless otherwise decided by the Executive Board in a particular case.
On December 21, 2011, the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) concluded the Article IV consultation with Burkina Faso.1
BackgroundSustained implementation of sound policies and reforms in recent years, as well as strong performance in key sectors driving growth helped the Burkinabè economy withstand several exogenous shocks in 2008-10. Economic growth has been robust; inflation has been trending down since the flare-up in 2008 caused by the global food and fuel prices; and the external current account deficit has narrowed, mostly reflecting the significant increase in gold exports. The authorities have maintained fiscal consolidation efforts, while mitigating the impact of exogenous shocks, and enhancing poverty reduction programs. In the later area, the authorities implemented a number of initiatives and took measures to support vulnerable groups. Key programs included school lunches, support to the elderly, and a cash transfer program. During 2001-10, the share of poverty reducing spending in total expenditure rose from 17.5 to 28 percent. These efforts were aided by progress in revenue mobilization and financial support from Burkina Faso’s development partners.
The authorities made important progress in implementing structural reforms in recent years, particularly in revenue collection, expenditure and Treasury cash flow management, cotton sector rehabilitation, the business environment, and the financial sector. In the later area, the authorities prepared strategies for the development of the financial and microfinance sectors, and implemented a divesture and rehabilitation program for selected banks. They continue to seek funding for the efficient implementation of the financial sector strategy. The authorities have also maintained a prudent borrowing policy, consistent with debt sustainability analysis that points to a high risk of debt distress for Burkina Faso.
In 2011, economic growth is projected at 5.6 percent, from7.9 percent in 2010, mostly driven by an expansion in the agriculture and mining sectors, which were marginally affected by the social turmoil and exogenous shocks in the first half of the year. Thanks to a good harvest, inflation is estimated to average 1.4 percent. The external current account (including grants) is projected to stabilize around 3½ percent of GDP, benefitting from the projected improvement in terms of trade; and the overall fiscal deficit (excluding grants) would increase to 10.9 percent of GDP, from10.1 percent of GDP in 2010, partly reflecting measures taken by the authorities to address adverse shocks in 2011.
The medium-term outlook is promising. Economic growth is forecast to reach 6.4 percent by 2013, thanks to the programmed public investment scaling-up, particularly in infrastructure; continued structural reforms; and the projected
102
expansion in the mining sector. Inflation is expected to remain below 3 percent, thus complying with the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) convergence criterion. The external current account deficit is projected to widen from 8.2 percent of GDP in 2011 to 10.9 percent in 2013, mainly because imports demand is expected to remain strong and to grow faster than exports in 2012-13. With continued measures to enhance revenue mobilization and expenditure management, the fiscal position is projected to improve in 2012 and over the medium-term, with the overall deficit declining from 10.9 percent of GDP in 2011 to 9 percent in 2013, notwithstanding an increase in investment and pro-poor spending.
Key risks to the economic outlook are related to the economy’s vulnerability to terms of trade shocks that might affect commodity prices, particularly for cotton, gold, and oil; and adverse changes to climatic conditions that would weaken growth prospects.
Executive Board AssessmentExecutive Directors welcomed the authorities’ sustained implementation of sound policies and structural reforms, which has contributed to robust economic growth, low inflation, and a broadly favorable external position. They noted, however, that global uncertainties and climatic conditions pose downside risks to the near-term outlook. In addition, daunting macroeconomic challenges remain, and poverty is still widespread. Directors underscored that continued fiscal consolidation, improved social policies, and decisive implementation of structural reforms will be critical to achieve sustained, broad-based economic growth and poverty reduction.
Directors encouraged the authorities to maintain fiscal discipline within the context of a medium-term fiscal framework, while increasing investment and social spending. They welcomed the continued focus on revenue mobilization to boost domestic resource availability. Directors also emphasized the need to strengthen expenditure management, contain current spending, and increase targeted poverty-related spending. In particular, they underscored that wage policy should remain prudent and supportive of medium-term fiscal objectives, and they encouraged full pass-through of international fuel price movements to domestic fuel prices.
Directors agreed with the authorities’ focus on scaling up investment to close the infrastructure gap and boost economic growth. Nevertheless, they stressed the need to improve investment efficiency, and to ensure that investment financing strategies are consistent with long-term debt sustainability. They noted that Burkina Faso remains at a high risk of debt distress, and called for continued prudent debt management anchored on grants and highly concessional loans.
Directors stressed that further progress on structural reforms will be critical to enhance competitiveness and stimulate broad-based economic growth. They highlighted the importance of reforms to improve the business environment and support private sector development, including strengthening the regulatory and judicial framework. Continued rehabilitation of the cotton sector will be crucial. Directors also urged acceleration of financial sector reforms to reduce financial sector vulnerabilities and to broaden access to financial services.
Burkina Faso: Selected Economic Indicators, 2009–13
2009 2010Est.
2011Proj.
2012Proj.
2013Proj.
(Annual percentage change; unless otherwise indicated)
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GDP and prices
GDP at constant prices 3.2 7.9 5.6 5.8 6.4
Consumer prices (annual average) 2.6 -0.6 1.9 2.0 2.0
Money and credit
Credit to the economy1 1.2 8.9 3.1 11.0 6.4
Broad money (M2) 18.2 19.1 19.1 13.6 8.5
External sector
Terms of trade 19.2 0.1 12.2 6.4 -1.9
Real effective exchange rate (– sign = depreciation)
2.6 -8.4 ... ... ...
(Percent of GDP; unless otherwise indicated)
Central government finances
Domestic revenue 13.7 15.6 15.8 16.2 16.3
Total expenditure (commitment basis)
24.4 25.7 26.7 26.1 25.3
Overall fiscal balance, excl. grants (commitments)
-10.7 -10.1 -10.9 -9.9 -9.0
Overall fiscal balance, incl. grants (commitments)
-4.8 -5.6 -3.9 -3.0 -2.6
External sector and debt indicators
Exports of goods and services 12.4 18.1 24.1 24.6 24.4
Imports of goods and services 23.3 27.2 33.9 36.0 36.6
Current account balance (incl. current official transfers)
-4.4 -3.6 -3.5 -6.9 -7.6
Current account balance (excl. current official transfers)
-8.8 -7.5 -8.2 -9.9 -10.9
External debt 18.6 21.5 23.0 23.4 24.4
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NPV of external debt 13.2 16.4 17.0 17.1 17.5
NPV of external debt as percent of exports
107.0 90.2 70.8 69.4 71.8
NPV of external debt as percent of revenues
98.6 104.8 107.8 105.5 107.7
Sources: Burkinabe authorities and IMF staff estimates and projections.1 Percent of beginning-of-period broad money.
1 Under Article IV of the IMF's Articles of Agreement, the IMF holds bilateral discussions with members, usually every year. A staff team visits the country, collects economic and financial information, and discusses with officials the country's economic developments and policies. On return to headquarters, the staff prepares a report, which forms the basis for discussion by the Executive Board. At the conclusion of the discussion, the Managing Director, as Chairman of the Board, summarizes the views of Executive Directors, and this summary is transmitted to the country's authorities. An explanation of any qualifiers used in summing up can be found here: http://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/misc/qualifiers.htm.
IMF EXTERNAL RELATIONS DEPARTMENT
Public Affairs
Media Relations
E-mail: [email protected] Phone: 202-623-7100
Fax: 202-623-6278 Fax: 202-623-6772
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ANNEX 8: COUNTRY AT A GLANCE (includes country map)
Burkina Faso at a glance 12/9/09
Sub-POVERTY and SOCIAL Burkina Saharan Low-
Faso Africa income2008P opulation, mid-year (millions) 15.2 818 973GNI per capita (Atlas method, US$) 480 1,082 524GNI (Atlas method, US$ billions) 7.3 885 510Average annual growth, 2002-08P opulation (%) 3.4 2.5 2.1Labor force (%) 3.4 2.8 2.7Most recent estimate (latest year available, 2002-08)P overty (% of population below national poverty line) 46 .. ..Urban population (% of total population) 18 36 29Life expectancy at birth (years) 53 52 59Infant mortality (per 1,000 live births) 92 89 78Child malnutrition (% of children under 5) 37 27 28Access to an improved water source (% of population) 72 58 67Literacy (% of population age 15+) 29 62 64Gross primary enrollment (% of school-age population) 73 98 98 Male 79 103 102 Female 68 93 95
KEY ECONOMIC RATIOS and LONG-TERM TRENDS1988 1998 2007 2008
GDP (US$ billions) 2.6 2.8 6.8 7.9Gross capital formation/GDP 18.8 24.2 .. ..Exports of goods and services/GDP 11.0 12.8 .. ..Gross domestic savings/GDP 2.7 8.9 .. ..Gross national savings/GDP 9.2 14.3 .. ..Current account balance/GDP -7.5 -10.4 -12.0 -11.7Interest payments/GDP 0.7 0.7 0.2 0.2Total debt/GDP 32.3 52.0 21.5 21.2Total debt service/exports 9.7 11.5 5.1 5.3P resent value of debt/GDP .. .. 12.0 11.6P resent value of debt/exports .. .. 99.9 103.6
1988-98 1998-08 2007 2008 2008-12(average annual growth)GDP 4.4 5.4 3.6 4.5 ..GDP per capita 1.6 2.0 0.1 1.0 ..Exports of goods and services 4.3 6.6 .. .. ..
STRUCTURE of the ECONOMY1988 1998 2007 2008
(% of GDP )Agriculture 29.6 39.2 .. ..Industry 22.3 19.1 .. .. Manufacturing 15.6 14.8 .. ..Services 48.1 41.7 .. ..Household final consumption expenditure 77.3 68.9 .. ..General gov't final consumption expenditure 20.0 22.3 .. ..Imports of goods and services 27.1 28.1 .. ..
1988-98 1998-08 2007 2008(average annual growth)Agriculture 5.7 5.3 .. ..Industry 2.9 7.4 .. .. Manufacturing 3.8 5.8 .. ..Services 2.9 5.7 .. ..Household final consumption expenditure 2.8 4.2 .. ..General gov't final consumption expenditure 3.6 8.6 .. ..Gross capital formation 5.1 4.5 .. ..Imports of goods and services 0.5 3.5 .. ..
Note: 2008 data are preliminary estimates.This table was produced from the Development Economics LDB database.* The diamonds show four key indicators in the country (in bold) compared with its income-group average. If data are missing, the diamond will be incomplete.
-20
0
20
40
60
03 04 05 06 07 08
GCF GDP
Growth of capital and GDP (%)
-10
0
10
20
30
03 04 05 06 07 08
Exports Imports
Growth of exports and imports (%)
Burkina Faso
Low-income group
Development diamond*
Life expectancy
Access to improved water source
GNIpercapita
Grossprimary
enrollment
Burkina Faso
Low-income group
Economic ratios*
Trade
Indebtedness
Domesticsavings
Capital formation
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