Equity and School Improvement Project Program Summary

1. Objectives
   (a) to expand the gross primary school enrollment rate from 28% to 53% by the year 2000;
   (b) to increase the efficiency of resource use within the sector, (c) to increase overall Government support for basic education and to improve quality.
2. Activities / contents
   • build and rehabilitate primary schools and improve community level capacity for school maintenance and upkeep functions; provide textbooks at both the primary to improve teaching and student leaning. For this the project would;
   • provide textbooks at both the primary and lower secondary levels;
   • support primary school staff development and school improvement; and
   • increase student leaning capacity through a school-based micronutrient and deworming program;
   • the capacity for systematically monitoring student leaning;
   • develop a viable communication system within the sector;
   • improve sector planning, budgeting and monitoring; and
   • support pre-investment studies for establishment of closer Ministry/private sector links.
3. Expected outcomes / impacts
   • increase in gross primary school enrollment rate from 40%-53% during the project period. By 1996 the Guinea Government was actually ahead of schedule for attaining its target of 53 percent gross enrollment by the year 2000. Primary school enrollment has continued to grow at an average of 11% per year;
   • increase in school participation of rural students and of girls--school enrollment for girls has expanded at an average 16%;
   • improvements in quality of education through the supply of textbooks and of improving the health and nutrition of children;
   • improvements in capacity of Ministry of Education to plan, monitor and manage the sector in a sustainable manner.
4. Features in line with the Agenda for Action
   The program has been instrumental in helping the government to;
   • raise school enrollment levels very quickly and in an equitable manner;
   • address cross cutting issues of health and nutrition;
   • work in effective and sustainable partnership with donors and communities.

Robert Prouty, Principal Education Specialist, Task Manager, World Bank
Telephone: 202-473-7532

A: The Guinea Government has succeeded in generating a momentum for primary school expansion which places attainment of UPE within reach in spite of having started at a very low base. Enrollment increased from 28 percent in 1988, to 40 percent by 1994 (an increase of 70 percent in nominal enrollments). This was made possible through: (i) an ambitious school construction program supported by community groups, NGOs and donors, accompanied by development and implementation of low-cost construction norms; (ii) the redeployment of over 2,000 teachers from administrative posts and secondary schools to primary school classrooms--for greater efficiency; and (iii) a reallocation of budgetary resources infavor of non-salary operating expenditures, particularly at the primary level.

B: Lessons Learnt: