THE PROJECT
A. SCOPE AND STRATEGY 2.1 The proposed IDA credit is for a specific investment project that would finance the development and operation of the DPEP Bureau in the GOI DOE to serve as a financial and technical program intermediary organization, as well as an initial set of state capacity building and district sub-projects in 23 districts (3-5 per state) in the states of Assam, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu." The number of initial districts exceeds the minimum number agreed to by the World Bank and the GOI in the Program to Strengthen the Social Safety Net (Credit 2448-IN). The proposed credit would support the first of three phases of GOI DPEP, which focuses on establishing DPEP as the principal financing and technical support mechanism for the development of primary education in India, and testing intervention strategies in a limited number of districts.
2.2 As a newly developed and complex program" that would develop key Institutions while initiating district action programs, GOI DPEP would need to be implemented in a carefully phased manner. In the first year of operation, GOI DPEP would focus on the development of key national and state institutions and technical support programs, and on initial start-up activities in district sub-projects based on seven year investment plans and detailed first year implementation programs (Annexes II and 12 - National, State and District Implementation Plans). District sub-projects would emphasize the development of district management capacity, initial in-service training designs and materials, and limited civil works. Detailed plans for expanded implementation of the GOI DPEP would be prepared for review at the beginning of the second and each subsequent year of program implementation. Annual reviews would be conducted by the DPEP Bureau, with full participation of program donors.
2.3 The GOI DPEP would extend support lo participating states in phases. In Phase I, the proposed district sub-projects would be financed in Assam, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu. These states have a combined population of 243 million and contain 38 of the 242 districts, nation-wide, with below average female literacy rates. ODA assistance to Andhra Pradesh, currently partially present in all districts, would expand to full coverage, resulting in coverage of 50-52 low female literacy districts. In Phase II, GOI DPEP would be expanded to include
10/ Financial assistance from other donors, including the European Community, could be used in other states and districts.
11/ The GOI DPEP is referred to in this document as the program. IDA would support this program through the DPEP project. The project comprises 7-year national, state and district sub-projects; each sub-project has an annual work plan and budget (AWPB). The national sub-project supports several programs of technical assistance and research.
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additional states and additional districts in the initial set of states. In later phases, present state projects could be considered eligible for expansion. At full expansion, the program would cover an estimated 373 districts, including all falling below the average female literacy rate, in 14 of India's largest states, with a combined population of 770 million. (Annex 6 - DPEP Policies, Guidelines and Operational Procedures).
2.4 The proposed IDA credit (the proposed DPEP project) would finance implementation of Phase I of the GOI DPEP. It would also finance preparation and initial activities in states and districts proposed for Phase II of the GOI DPEP. It is also anticipated that, depending on implementation progress, the proposed IDA credit would be followed by a second operation to support Phase II of the GOI DPEP.
B. GOALS AND OBJECTIVES 2.5 The goals of national policy for lower primary education are to (a) build institutional capacity, (b) reduce dropout, (c) improve learning achievement and (d) increase access for unserved groups. Reducing the disparities in dropout, learning and access for girls, SC and ST students has high policy priority. To address these goals, the proposed credit would assist the GOI DPEP in achieving achieve key objectives at national, state and district levels by the end of the project period. Specific objectives and monitorable indicators have been established for the development of national program management and technical assistance capacity and operations, for state capacity building and for district sub-projects (Annex 5 - Development Objectives, Indicators & Monitoring).
NATIONAL OBJECTIVES 2.6 The DPEP Bureau in the DOE would be fully established and functioning. National technical assistance and research and development programs for development of improved textbooks and learning materials, in-service teacher training, educational planning and management, program evaluation and research, and ST education development would have been established and provided substantial support for the development of counterpart agencies in project states. A computerized school statistics MIS would have been developed, tested and installed in all DPEP assisted states.
STATE OBJECTIVES 2.7 State Implementation Societies would be fully functioning, providing sub- project preparation and supervision support to districts and reporting quarterly on progress and expenditures. A new generation of textbooks based on MLL would have been tested and put in use. Publication quality and distribution efficiency would be improved. Textbooks and learning materials would be available in major tribal languages.
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2.8 State Councils for Educational Research and Training (SCERTs), or equivalent organizations, would be providing enhanced support for improved classroom practices and teacher in-service training. State Institutes of Education Management and Training (SIEMTs), or equivalent agencies, would be providing technical assistance and training support for education staff at state and district levels. SCERTs, other state research agencies, and NGOs would have completed evaluations of DPEP activities in each state.
DISTRICT OBJECTIVES 2.9 Capacity Building. District sub-project teams would be fully functional, implementing sub-project activities and reporting quarterly on progress. DIETs would be functioning, with augmented staff and equipment, providing support for planning and management, teacher in-service training, development of learning materials, and program evaluation.
2.10 Reducing Dropout and Improving Learning Achievement. School/community organizations would be fully functional for at least 50 percent of schools, and dropout rates would be reduced to less than ten percent. Learning achievement in language and mathematics in the final year of primary school would be increased by 25 percent over baseline estimates.
2.11 Improving Equitable Access. Enrollment disparities by gender and by caste would be reduced to less than 5 percent.
2.12 Achieving these objectives equally for girls, SC and ST students would reduce present disparities for those groups currently ranked lowest on key indicators. For the 23 proposed district sub-projects, it is estimated that the program would enable 1,500,000 students to complete primary education who would otherwise have dropped out, of whom 785,000 would be girls. An additional 1,400,000 places would be created in primary schools or NFE classes. Learning achievement would be increased for an estimated 14 million students (Annex 5 - Development Objectives, Indicators & Monitoring).
C. PROJECT SUMMARY 2.13 The GOI DPEP is a centrally sponsored program of financial assistance to states for primary education development investments that are planned and implemented by state and district planning and management teams. The program would be managed by the DPEP Bureau in the DOE, which functions as an intermediary organization to identify, appraise and finance sub-projects proposed and implemented by state governments. Sub-projects are appraised against a set of program eligibility and financial criteria. Continuing eligibility of and financial allocations to sub-projects would be based on annual reviews of implementation performance and work program and budget
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proposals. In the third and sixth year of the project, impact on development objectives would be measured. Baseline levels of dropout rates, learning achievement and enrollment have been established for each district sub-project, and monitorable indicators of national and state capacity development have been established for state and national sub-projects.
2.14 The GOI DPEP was officially established with approval by the Cabinet in November, 1993. In the start-up stages of development the program has been managed by a team in the DOE. Over the past year the DPEP project development team has completed a project cycle of identification, pre-appraisal and appraisal for 42 districts and 7 states. 12/ A program of national technical assistance to states and districts for project preparation was organized in NCERT and NIEPA. A project studies program, including sample-based beneficiary learning assessment studies through which more than 45,000 children were tested, as well as studies of the educational context and needs of girls and ST children, was completed."
2.15 The proposed IDA credit would assist in further development of the GOI DPEP appraisal, financing, supervision and management capacity. On-going technical assistance, research and development programs would be intensified and expanded. Funds would be provided to sponsor DPEP innovations and for the preparation of additional sub-projects. The credit would finance international fellowships and technical cooperation as designed and managed by the DPEP Bureau. The credit would support a first phase of state sub-projects in Assam, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu aimed at strengthening capacities in education management, planning and research, textbook and learning materials development and publication, and teacher in-service training. The credit would also assist in the financing of 23 district sub-projects intended to reduce dropouts, increase learning achievement and increase access to primary education for unserved students in the same states. The proposed DPEP project would finance educational materials, training, staff salaries on a declining basis, consultant services, international fellowships and technical cooperation programs, research studies, pilot projects, civil works and equipment. The proposed DPEP project would have three components: (a) building national institutional capacity, (b) building state institutional capacity, and (c) improving quality and access in primary education. These components are described in the following sections (D, E, and F).
12/ The GOI signed a grant agreement for program support of DPEP with the European Community in December, 1993; the GOI would apply these resources over time to districts in Madhya Pradesh.
13/ Other completed study topics include state education finances, textbook production and distribution, and teacher motivation and training.
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D. BUILDING NATIONAL INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY
(Proposed Outlay -- US$20.5 Million) 2.16 The innovative nature of DPEP would require a management structure with good policy access, substantial authority, a high degree of flexibility in appointing staff and consultants, strong professional competence, and access to good information on program activities, accomplishments and problems. To meet these requirements, the GOI would establish the DPEP Bureau in the DOE and related governing and support bodies.
2.17 The credit would finance the formalization, expansion and strengthening of the DPEP Bureau in the GOI DOE and associated national technical assistance and research and development programs (Annex 8 - Management Development Plan). The credit would finance salaries of additional staff on a declining basis, consultant services, equipment, vehicles, and the costs of sub-contracts.
NATIONAL MANAGEMENT 2.18 The DPEP Bureau would serve as an intermediary organization to appraise, finance and supervise state and district sub-projects according to established criteria and procedures. The DPEP Bureau would in turn be assisted by an implementation support group employed under contractual arrangements to the DOE (program technical services). Through this contract, the DPEP Bureau would acquire substantial flexibility with respect to appointment of temporary staff and consultants, including levels of remuneration. The DPEP Bureau would be governed by a General Council, which would review policies and progress annually, and a DPEP Project Board, which would be fully empowered for program, financial and staffing approvals (Annex 7 - Project Management). The new units would have significant staff continuity with project preparation teams.
2.19 Staff Continuity. To finance technical assistance to states and districts for the preparation of sub-projects, and to appraise sub-project proposals, in 1993 the DOE established a DPEP Project Development Team comprising a joint secretary and three deputy secretaries, with support staff. A National Core Team made up of faculty from NCERT and NIEPA, and consultants, was established to conduct project studies and to provide technical training and support to national, state and district planning teams. Over the course of 15 months these teams have led the development of proposals from 7 states and 42 districts and completed an ambitious program of project studies. This work has provided an extensive program of action training, through which the GOI and partner institutions have gained experience with the conduct of large scale field research in primary education and with project preparation and appraisal. Experience gained has been the basis for the design of the GOI DPEP management structure and of the proposed technical assistance and research and development programs.
2.20 This experience would be incorporated into the proposed national management and technical assistance programs through continuity of staff. The experienced project development team would be appointed as the initial key staff of the DPEP Bureau that would be established to manage the program. Proposals for national
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technical assistance programs have been prepared by the NCERT and NIEPA faculty who have provided these services during the project development process.
2.21 General Council. The General Council would provide policy direction to the DPEP and facilitate center-state coordination; it would meet annually and be chaired by the Minister of Human Resources Development. Members would include DPEP state Ministers of Education, secretaries of affected central departments, and the Joint Secretary of the DPEP Bureau.
2.22 DPEP Project Board. The General Council would be assisted by a DPEP Project Board (PB), an empowered body assigned full financial and administrative powers to implement the program. The broad functions of the PB would be to recommend policies, consider annual work plans and budgets (AWPBs) of state and national sub- projects, approve changes in norms for new program components and activities, promote convergence of services, review DPEP progress, and provide guidance to the DPEP Bureau.
2.23 DPEP Bureau. The DPEP Bureau, headed by a Joint Secretary, would be responsible to the Project Board and General Council for the implementation of the program within DPEP Guidelines and in agreement with donors. The DPEP Bureau would have the responsibility and authority to appraise, supervise and evaluate district, state and national sub-projects and to approve staff appointments to the program technical services. It would comprise two units, with program and policy functions, staffed by deputy secretaries. The Policy Division would be responsible for servicing and implementing the decisions of the PB, release and reimbursement of funds, maintenance of accounts and compliance with procurement norms of donors. The Program Division would supervise the work of the program technical services, be responsible for overall coordination with states on implementation of DPEP, and represent the GOI on the state implementation societies. The GOI has appointed the joint secretary, 3 deputy secretaries and key support staff for the DPEP Bureau in the DOE. To ensure that implementation procedures are well understood at national, state and district level, an implementation manual has been prepared and reviewed by the Association.
2.24 DPEP Technical Services. The DPEP Bureau, assisted by full time senior technical and professional experts on contract, supplemented as needed by short-term consultants, would provide the key technical services needed for program management:
(a) Appraisal: technical assistance and appraisal for state and district sub- projects.
(b) Supervision: organizing DPEP supervision missions, coordination of biannual joint supervision missions with program donors, assisting DPEP Bureau state coordinators review procurement and disbursement activity, and preparing reports.