Document of The World Bankdocuments.worldbank.org/curated/en/...NYCE Nine-Year Compulsory Education...

Document of The World Bank

Report No: ICR00001404

IMPLEMENTATION COMPLETION AND RESULTS REPORT (IBRD-71940)

ON A

LOAN

IN THE AMOUNT OF US$100 MILLION

TO THE

PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA

FOR A

BASIC EDUCATION IN WESTERN AREAS PROJECT

June 29, 2010

Human Development Sector Unit China Country Management Unit East Asia and Pacific Region

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CURRENCY EQUIVALENTS

(Exchange Rate Effective June 1, 2010)

Currency Unit = RMB Yuan 1.00 CNY = US$ 0.146 US$ 1.00 = 6.8 CNY

FISCAL YEAR

ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS

BEWAP Basic Education in Western Areas Project CAS Country Assistance Strategy CPIOs Country Project Implementation Offices CEP Chinese Expert Panel DfID Department for International Development EMIS ERAT

Education Management Information System Education Reform Advisory Team

FILO Foreign Investment and Loan Office GDP Gross Domestic Product GNI Gross National Income GoC Government of China JSS Junior Secondary Schools MOE Ministry of Education NYCE Nine-Year Compulsory Education PMO Project Management Office PPMOs Provincial Project Management Offices PTT Participatory Teacher Training PS Primary Schools QER Quality Enhancement Review SDP School Development Planning TEOS Two Exemptions and One Subsidy

Vice President: James W. Adams Country Director: Klaus Rohland Sector Manager: Eduardo Velez Bustillo

Project Team Leader: Kin Bing Wu ICR Team Leader: Kin Bing Wu

PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA

Basic Education in Western Areas Project

Contents Data Sheet A. Basic Information

B. Key Dates C. Ratings Summary D. Sector and Theme Codes E. Bank Staff F. Results Framework Analysis G. Ratings of Project Performance in ISRs H. Restructuring (if any) I. Disbursement Profile

1. Project Context, Development Objectives and Design .......................................................... 12. Key Factors Affecting Implementation and Outcomes ......................................................... 53. Assessment of Outcomes ...................................................................................................... 114. Assessment of Risk to Development Outcome ..................................................................... 195. Assessment of Bank and Borrower Performance ................................................................. 196. Lessons Learned ................................................................................................................... 227. Comments on Issues Raised by Borrower/Implementing Agencies/Partners ...................... 22Annex 1. Project Costs and Financing ...................................................................................... 26Annex 2. Outputs by Component ............................................................................................. 28Annex 3. Economic and Financial Analysis ............................................................................. 35Annex 4. Bank Lending and Implementation Support/Supervision Processes ........................ 36Annex 5. The Borrower’s ICR .................................................................................................. 38Annex 6. List of Supporting Documents .................................................................................. 51Annex 7: Photographs of a School Building Damaged by the Earthquake and Newly Rebuilt

School in Wenchuan ................................................................................................ 52MAP CHN32722 .......................................................................................................................... 54

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A. Basic Information

Country: China Project Name: CN-Basic Education in Western Areas

Project ID: P073002 L/C/TF Number(s): IBRD-71940

ICR Date: 06/30/2010 ICR Type: Core ICR

Lending Instrument: SIL Borrower: MINISTRY OF FINANCE

Original Total Commitment:

USD 100.0M Disbursed Amount: USD 99.8M

Revised Amount: USD 100.0M

Environmental Category: C

Implementing Agencies: Ministry of Education Cofinanciers and Other External Partners: UK-funded DFID B. Key Dates

Process Date Process Original Date Revised / Actual

Date(s)

Concept Review: 06/24/2002 Effectiveness: 05/20/2004 05/20/2004

Appraisal: 04/16/2003 Restructuring(s):

Approval: 09/09/2003 Mid-term Review: 10/15/2006 06/15/2007

Closing: 06/30/2009 12/31/2009 C. Ratings Summary C.1 Performance Rating by ICR

Outcomes: Satisfactory

Risk to Development Outcome: Low or Negligible

Bank Performance: Satisfactory

Borrower Performance: Highly Satisfactory

C.2 Detailed Ratings of Bank and Borrower Performance (by ICR) Bank Ratings Borrower Ratings

Quality at Entry: Satisfactory Government: Highly Satisfactory

Quality of Supervision: Satisfactory Implementing Agency/Agencies:

Highly Satisfactory

Overall Bank Performance:

Satisfactory Overall Borrower Performance:

Highly Satisfactory

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C.3 Quality at Entry and Implementation Performance IndicatorsImplementation

Performance Indicators

QAG Assessments (if any)

Rating

Potential Problem Project at any time (Yes/No):

No Quality at Entry (QEA):

None

Problem Project at any time (Yes/No):

No Quality of Supervision (QSA):

None

DO rating before Closing/Inactive status:

Satisfactory

D. Sector and Theme Codes

Original Actual

Sector Code (as % of total Bank financing)

Central government administration 2 2

Primary education 95 95

Sub-national government administration 3 3

Theme Code (as % of total Bank financing)

Education for all 29 29

Gender 14 14

Indigenous peoples 14 14

Participation and civic engagement 29 29

Rural services and infrastructure 14 14 E. Bank Staff

Positions At ICR At Approval

Vice President: James W. Adams Jemal-ud-din Kassum

Country Director: Klaus Rohland Yukon Huang

Sector Manager: Eduardo Velez Bustillo Emmanuel Y. Jimenez

Project Team Leader: Kin Bing Wu Eduardo Velez Bustillo

ICR Team Leader: Kin Bing Wu

ICR Primary Author: Kin Bing Wu F. Results Framework Analysis

Project Development Objectives (from Project Appraisal Document) Improved access to and completion of affordable and quality basic education for poor boys and girls in Sichuan, Gansu, Yunnan Provinces, Ningxia Hui and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Regions.

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Revised Project Development Objectives (as approved by original approving authority) N/A (a) PDO Indicator(s)

Indicator Baseline Value

Original Target Values (from

approval documents)

Formally Revised Target Values

Actual Value Achieved at

Completion or Target Years

Indicator 1 : Primary education enrollment rates for boys (%)

Value quantitative or Qualitative)

Gansu : 94; Guangxi: 97; Ningxia: 97; Sichuan 91; Yunnan 99

Gansu: 97; Guangxi: 99; Ningxia: 99; Sichuan: 98; Yunnan: 99

Gansu : 98; Guangxi: 100; Ningxia: 100; Sichuan: 99; Yunnan: 100

Date achieved 12/31/2001 12/31/2008 12/31/2009 Comments (incl. % achievement)

Indicator 2 : Primary education enrollment rates for girls (%)






Indicator 3 : Primary education enrollment rates for ethnic minorities (%)


Gansu : 90; Guangxi: 97; Ningxia: 95; Sichuan 84; Yunnan: 96




Indicator 4 : Junior secondary education enrollment rates for boys (%)





Date achieved 12/31/2001 12/31/2008 12/31/2009 Comments

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(incl. % achievement) Indicator 5 : Junior secondary education enrollment rates for girls (%)






Indicator 6 : Junior secondary education enrollment rates for ethnic minorities (%)






Indicator 7 : Primary school completion rate for 15-year-old boys (%)






Indicator 8 : Primary school completion rate for 15-year-old girls (%)






Indicator 9 : Primary school completion rate for 15-year-old ethnic minorities (%)





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Indicator 10 : Junior secondary school completion rate for 17-year-old boys (%)






Indicator 11 : Junior secondary school completion rate for 17-year-old girls (%)






Indicator 12 : Junior secondary school completion rate for 17-year-old ethnic minorities (%)






Indicator 13 : Mathematics pass rates upon completion of primary education (boys) (%)






Indicator 14 : Mathematics pass rates upon completion of primary education (girls) (%) Value quantitative or Qualitative)


Gansu: 87; Guangxi: 94; Ningxia: 93;

Gansu : 88; Guangxi: 96; Ningxia: 96;

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Sichuan: 91; Yunnan: 95

Sichuan: 93; Yunnan: 85


Indicator 15 : Mathematics pass rates upon completion of junior secondary education (boys) (%)






Indicator 16 : Mathematics pass rates upon completion of junior secondary education (girls) (%)






Indicator 17 : Chinese Language pass rates upon completion of primary education (boys) (%)






Indicator 18 : Chinese Language pass rates upon completion of primary education (girls) (%)






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Indicator 19 : Chinese Language pass rates upon completion of junior secondary school (boys) (%)






Indicator 20 : Chinese Language pass rates upon completion of junior secondary school (girls) (%)






Indicator 21 : Number of Project Counties Achieving universal 9 years of compulsory education (Grades 1-9)


None of the 112 Project Counties

No target set All 112 Project Counties


Indicator 22 : Number of boys, girls, and ethnic minorities exempted from miscellaneous fees (from parallel govt. financing)


Total: 265,036; Girls: 134,257; Minorities: 101,751

Total: 2.65 million; Girls: 1.3 million; Minorities: 0.9 million

Total: 4.81 million; Girls: 2.29 million; Minorities: 1.62 million


Indicator 23 : Number of boys, girls and ethnic minorities receiving free textbooks


Total: 298,811; Girls: 164,238; Minorities: 199,388

Total: 2.35 million; Girls: 1.17 million;Minorities: 0.81 million

Total: 4.51 million;Girls: 2.69 million;Minorities: 1.55 million

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(b) Intermediate Outcome Indicator(s)

Indicator Baseline Value

Original Target Values (from

approval documents)

Formally Revised

Target Values

Actual Value Achieved at

Completion or Target Years

Indicator 1 : % of primary school teachers who have met the qualification requirement

Value (quantitative or Qualitative)





Indicator 2 : % of junior secondary school teachers who have met the qualification requirement

Value (quantitative or Qualitative)





G. Ratings of Project Performance in ISRs

No. Date ISR Archived

DO IP Actual

Disbursements (USD millions)

1 12/29/2003 Satisfactory Satisfactory 0.00 2 06/22/2004 Satisfactory Satisfactory 0.66 3 12/13/2004 Satisfactory Satisfactory 3.96 4 03/04/2005 Moderately Satisfactory Moderately Satisfactory 7.61 5 11/08/2005 Satisfactory Moderately Satisfactory 19.39 6 09/07/2006 Satisfactory Satisfactory 42.51 7 07/07/2007 Satisfactory Satisfactory 60.57 8 09/24/2008 Satisfactory Satisfactory 74.37 9 09/21/2009 Satisfactory Satisfactory 95.25

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10 06/28/2010 Satisfactory Satisfactory 99.83 H. Restructuring (if any) Not Applicable

I. Disbursement Profile

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1. Project Context, Development Objectives and Design

1.1. Context at Appraisal

China is one of the fastest growing countries in the world. Between 1978 and 2008, its economy grew nearly 10% per year, compared to 4% for all developing countries, lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. The Gross National Income (GNI) per capita grew from $890 in 2001 to $2,930 in 2008 (World Bank Country at a Glance). China’s policy to universalize nine years of compulsory education (comprising six years of primary education and three years of junior secondary education) has laid the foundation for its economic and social development. At the same time, economic growth has enabled the Government to increase investments in education to achieve developmental objectives. Public spending on education rose from 2.9% of GDP in 2001 to over 3.5% in 2009. An increase in the percentage share of public education expenditure in a growing economy has resulted in a rise in public spending in the aggregate and in per student terms, even after adjusting for inflation.

This Implementation Completion Report (ICR) of the Basic Education in

Western Areas Project (BEWAP) has become a study of China’s efforts to overcome the pre-existing inequality to improve opportunities for poor boys and girls and ethnic minorities to enable them take advantage of economic and social opportunities.

In 2001, 99% of China’s 6-to-11 year-olds enrolled in primary education

and 88.7% of the 12-to-15 year-olds enrolled in junior secondary education. However, the high average enrollment ratios masked inequality in access and quality, particularly among girls and ethnic minorities in rural areas, and particularly in the western region. The gross enrollment rates in 25 minority counties were 20 percentage points lower than the national average, according to the PAD. In a county in Gansu province, primary school completion rate was only 63%, compared with the national average of 99%. There was a huge achievement gap across regions, between rural and urban areas, and between Han and ethnic minorities. Ethnic minorities had to learn through a language which was not their mother tongue, thereby affecting their achievement and completion rates.

A major cause of disparity is China’s highly decentralized system of financing and provision of compulsory education. County governments are responsible for provision and financing of compulsory education in the rural areas. As the fiscal capacity varies across counties, so do resources to fund basic education. At the time of project preparation, budgetary expenditures accounted for only 55% of the total resources for basic education, and the funding gap was supplemented by extra-budgetary sources, such as educational surcharge and student fees, which include miscellaneous fees, and fees on books, uniform, notebooks, boarding, food, and so forth. Poor parents’ inability to pay affected their

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children’s enrollment and completion of compulsory schooling. Also, insufficient budgetary educational expenditure had led to hiring of less qualified teachers (known as substitute teachers) at lower cost, thereby affecting the quality of education.

In spite of the policy to make nine years of basic education universal and compulsory, many counties had not even reached universalization of primary education (Grades 1-6), let alone junior secondary education (Grades 7-9). The Bank’s Country Assistance Strategy (CAS) supported the policy of the Government of China (GoC) and had a continuous emphasis on expansion of access to and completion of basic education (Grades 1-9), while the co-financier of this Project, United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DfID), also supported improvement of access to quality and affordable basic education. There was synergy among the three parties’ objectives for basic education. The Project was expected to relieve the financing gap in poor areas, providing a partial bridge to a time when revenue collection and budget systems function better.

1.2 Original Project Development Objectives (PDO) and Key Indicators

The PDO was to improve access to and completion of affordable and quality basic education for poor boys and girls in five poor provinces in China’s western regions -- Sichuan, Gansu, and Yunnan Provinces, Ningxia Hui and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Regions. The key performance indicators that were used to judge the achievement of development objectives were:

increased numbers o f counties achieving Six Year Compulsory Education

(SYCE) and Nine Year Compulsory Education (NYCE);

increased percentage of 15 year-old children who enroll in primary education (boys, girls, minorities);

increased percentage of 15 year-old children who complete primary education (boys, girls, minorities);

a decrease in the gender gap in primary and junior secondary education enrollment;

increased percentage of the 17-year-old age group who enroll in junior secondary school (boys, girls, minorities);

increased percentage of the 17-year-old age group who complete junior secondary school (boys, girls, minorities);

improvement in learning achievement as measured by pass rates in math and Chinese language (boys, girls, minorities);

increases in the number of poor boys, girls and minorities receiving fee exemptions (from parallel Government funding);

increases in the number of poor boys, girls and minorities receiving free textbooks (from parallel Government funding);

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increased qualification rate of primary school teachers; and increased qualification rate o f junior secondary teachers.

The PAD did not present any target values for each of these indicators.

However, the Provinces subsequently defined the target values. The base year was 2001, when Project preparation began and data were collected. The target year was 2008, as the Project was originally set to close on June 30, 2009. Although the Project was extended for half a year due to the Wenchuan Earthquake of 2008, the target values were not changed.

1.3 Revised PDO (as approved by original approving authority) and Key Indicators, and reasons/justification

The original PDO and key indicators were never revised.

1.4 Main Beneficiaries

The main beneficiaries were 2.4 million students, of whom 19% were ethnic minorities. There were about 190 million students in primary and junior secondary education in China in 2001. Although the total number of beneficiaries was small, they lived in mountainous or arid areas in the vast territory of five western Project Provinces. Worldwide, the greatest difficulty in achieving education for all is the last few percent of students because they tend to live in remote areas and are the poorest or the most disadvantaged. Thus the Project served the hard-to-reach population.

Girls and ethnic minorities were particularly disadvantaged. Their

enrollment ratios, school completion rates, and pass rates were lower than boys’ (See Figures 1-8 in Section 3.5a). They were the main beneficiaries of the Project.

1.5 Original Components

The Project provided investments to complement and improve the effectiveness of good government policies and programs. The total project costs were estimated to be $147.34 million, and the total loan amount was $100 million. DfID provided a grant of $34.40 million, which was “made available to China for prepayment of part of the principal amount of the Loan” (The Tripartite Agreement). In addition, DfID provided parallel financing of £1.75 million to support an impact evaluation, two national-level studies and a number of provincial-level studies and technical assistance during implementation.

The key sector issues addressed by the Project were access, quality,

management skills and capacity, and improvement of information technology. The components and subcomponents are as follows:

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Component 1. Improving School Facilities ($117.7 million of the total Base Cost)

School Construction and Upgrading -- to address the access issue. School Furniture, Teaching Equipment, and Library Books -- to address

both the access and quality issues.

Component 2. Strengthening Management and Administration ($6.67 million) School Development Planning (SDP) Project Monitoring Institutional Development

Component 3. Implementing Strategies to Improve the Quality of Teaching and Learning ($13.84 million)

Teacher and Staff Training Rural Education Reform Pilots

DfID Parallel Grant Activities (£1.75million)

Project impact evaluation; National level research; Provincial level research on topics relevant to their needs; Chinese Expert Panel (CEP); Technical assistance for SDP and participatory teacher training (PTT);

and Education Reform Advisory Team (ERAT).

1.6 Revised Components The Project was never restructured. The Loan Agreement was amended in 2005, which clarified the categories of expenditure by each province. After the Mid-term Review, there was reallocation of the unallocated funds and adjustment across different categories. However, the structure or the objective of the Project was not affected. Due to the Wenchuan Earthquake in 2008 and the Government’s subsequent prohibition of overseas travel, the approved study tours could not be carried out within the original life of the Project. As a result, the Project was extended from June 30, 2009 to December 31, 2009. DfID concurred with the extension.

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1.7 Other significant changes

There was no man-made change, but there was the 2008 Great Wenchuan Earthquake. Section 2.2 discusses its impact on civil works.

2. Key Factors Affecting Implementation and Outcomes

2.1 Project Preparation, Design and Quality at Entry Rating: Satisfactory

Preparation was undertaken by two Task Team Leaders (TTLs). Upon the retirement of the first TTL, the second TTL was the China Human Development Coordinator based in Beijing. The design benefited from their contribution.

A Quality Enhancement Review (QER) was conducted on February 27,

2002. The panel identified the need to create the following conditions in order for the Project to be sustainable, replicable and scalable: (a) financial arrangements are in place to ensure that schools in poor townships and counties have adequate material and human resources for effective instruction; (b) an explicit quality improvement strategy ensures that the instructional resources are effectively used and result in increases in learning achievement; (c) reliable evidence systematically documents progress and effective practice, and lessons from experience are widely shared and disseminated; and (d) strategies for going to scale with effective practice drive the design of project interventions from the outset. These conditions eventually assured the Project’s sustainability.

The QER panel’s key recommendations were incorporated into the design. These included: (a) outcomes indicators and impact evaluation; (b) use of school development planning (SDP) and participatory teacher training (PTT) to pilot innovations in school management and delivery of effective and affordable instruction; (c) a series of workshops to engage policy stakeholders and disseminate lessons learned; and (d) emphasis on education of ethnic minorities. These elements have contributed to piloting innovations that proved to be implementable and scalable. 2.2 Implementation Rating: Satisfactory

Implementation arrangements remain unchanged throughout the life of the project:

Foreign Investment and Loan Office (FILO) of the Ministry of Education (MOE). At the central level, FILO was responsible for overall coordination and implement national level project activities (training, seminars, study tours, support for CEP, and monitoring), as well as review of provincial

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action plans, procurement review, and preparation of the annual progress report, the mid-term report, and the ICR.

Provincial Project Management Offices (PPMOs) were set up under the

Provincial Education Departments which were responsible for implementation and provision of provincial counterpart fund. The PPMOs handled planning, procurement of goods, and financial management. They oversaw construction and delivery of goods, coordinated with experts on training, and furnished required indicators and reports to MOE and the Bank.

County Project Implementation Offices (CPIOs) carried out the actual

implementation, including planning, procurement of school construction, provision of county-level counterpart fund, financial management, supervision and monitoring.

Chinese Expert Panel – A multi-disciplinary panel advised MOE and Bank-DfID Team on the pedagogical, social, cultural, economic and operational aspects of the Project and assisted in supervision. The panel coordinated with Provincial Expert Panels in providing support in SDP and PTT and in the Rural Education Reform Pilots.

New and challenging implementation arrangement. This implementation arrangement was the first of its kind. In the Bank’s previous China education projects, FILO played a key role in procurement and project management, and assisted the Ministry of Finance (MOF) to handle the Special Account. MOF collected and submitted withdrawal applications to the World Bank. In this Project, each Province opened its own Special Account, took charge of its own procurement and implementation, and sent withdrawal applications directly to the Beijing Office of the World Bank. Because the Project became effective late, the Special Accounts opening procedure at the provincial level was also delayed. The Project Counties were responsible for procurement of civil works. The Provinces and Counties went up a steep learning curve, resulting in slow disbursement at the first few years. Also, as the Project Counties were responsible for providing the counterpart fund, financial constraints affected the speed of implementation. However, the uptake began in 2006, after overcoming the initial difficulties.

Impetus to perform. The 11th Five Year Plan (2006-2010), began the

reform of rural compulsory education finance, which abolished schools’ miscellaneous and textbook fees, and provided living subsidies to boarding students on a need-basis. This is known as “Two Exemptions and One Subsidy” (or TEOS in short). Central fiscal transfer to the Provinces was used to offset the loss of revenue due to abolition of school fees. With the resources came a strong focus on universalization of compulsory education. All of these gave a strong impetus to the Project to perform and reach its development objective.

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The Great Wenchuan Earthquake of May 12, 2008. Originated in Sichuan, it devastated not only the Province, but also affected neighboring Gansu and Yunnan. It claimed about 100,000 lives. Wenchuan, the epicenter, was a Project County. Other Project Counties in Sichuan – Maoxian, Songpan, Jiuzhaigou, Xiaojin, Zhongjiang, and Yuechi – were severely affected. Almost all structures in these Counties were flattened. There were 31 newly constructed buildings and 13 newly upgraded schools in affected Project Counties in Sichuan. Among the newly constructed schools, 15 in Wenchuan and Maoxian were damaged beyond repair. The rest needed repair and reinforcement. All 40 newly constructed school buildings and 45 newly upgraded buildings in Gansu and all 45 newly constructed buildings in Yunnan needed repair and reinforcement. The equipment, furniture and books in these damaged schools were destroyed.

Fortunately, the Project-financed buildings were of sufficiently high quality

that they did not collapse on the students and enabled students and teachers to evacuate safely. There was no loss of lives in Project-funded buildings.

The Project followed the National Construction Standards issued by Ministry of Construction and Ministry of Education, which required buildings to withstand seismic activities. However, the estimate of seismic intensity rested with the Provinces and the estimate varied from locality to locality. Gansu apparently had the highest level among five Provinces, as its schools were built to withstand a seismic intensity level of 7 to 8 and an acceleration of force equivalent to 20~30% of the gravity (0.1g~0.3g). Sichuan’s schools were built to withstand a seismic intensity level of 6 or 7, while Yunnan schools were also built to withstand an intensity of 6 or 7. However, the Wenchuan Earthquake had a seismic intensity level of over 8.

After the Earthquake, the MOE wanted to make schools a place of refuge

for the community, given that there will be earthquakes in the future. Many of the collapsed teaching points are not rebuilt. In July 2008, the MOE issued new building standards for schools requiring them to raise the earthquake resistant standards by one level and Provinces have adjusted their building standards accordingly. For the completed civil works, there are no additional resources to reinforce the buildings. In the future, reinforcement will be implemented in a phased manner, funded by own resources.

Reconstruction. Although the Bank and DfID offered to provide additional financing to Sichuan to help rebuild the damaged schools, the offer was declined because the Province had received donations from other provinces, government departments, state owned enterprises, private citizens and overseas compatriots and charitable organizations to rebuild the schools.

The mission visited Wenchuan in April 2010 and found that most of the

schools were rebuilt and operational (See Annex 7 for the photographs of a

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damaged building and a newly constructed building). A multi-sector emergency loan to Gansu helped rebuild some damaged schools.

Appreciation of the RMB and inflation. During the life of the project, RMB rose sharply, from one dollar to RMB8.26 in 2002 to one dollar to RMB6.8 in 2010. The RMB also rose against the pound sterling by as much as one-third at the end of 2008. This affected the amount of funds available for the central expert teams who provided technical assistance to SDP and PTT. At the same time, the costs of labor and materials rose sharply. These affected civil works in particular. Provinces which completed their civil works programs early were not affected, but Provinces which started their civil works programs late could not complete all the schools it intended to build because of the rising cost, and had to use their own budget to finance them. As RMB is likely to continue to rise against the dollar and the pound in the future, similar projects should be forewarned so that their planning and output targets would take the fluctuation of the exchange rate and inflation into account.

The global financial crisis, 2008-09. The crisis came within half a year

after the Great Wenchuan Earthquake. Unemployment rose sharply. In spite of the difficulties, implementation continued. Continuous central fiscal transfer to support TEOS enabled students to remain in school. Dropout rates continued to trend downwards, despite the financial crisis. Overall, the dropout rates fell dramatically between 2001 and 2009. In primary education, the dropout rates for boys declined from 2.4% to 0.6% in Gansu, from 1.9% to 0.3% in Guangxi, from 2.1% to 0.12% in Ningxia, from 3.5% to 0.65% in Sichuan, and from 2.1% to 0.6% in Yunnan; the dropout rates for girls fell from 2.7% to 0.72% in Gansu, from 2.4% to 0.4% in Guangxi, from 3.1% to 0.13% in Ningxia, from 4.1% to 0.76% in Sichuan, and from 2.4% to 0.62% in Yunnan. Over the same period, in junior secondary education, the dropout rates for boys fell from 5.4% to 1.2% in Gansu, from 5.6% to 2.13% in Guangxi, from 3.6% to 0.93% in Ningxia, from 7.9% to 2.1% in Sichuan, and from 4.2% to 1.6% in Yunnan; those for girls declined from 7.9% to 1.3% in Gansu, from 8.7% to 2.3% in Guangxi, from 4.6% to .9% in Ningxia, from 9.7% to 2.2% in Sichuan, and from 4.7% to 1.32% in Yunnan.

The Project’s outputs are presented in Annex 2.

2.3 Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Design, Implementation and Utilization Rating: Satisfactory The Project monitoring indictors included school completion rates and student achievement. Data were disaggregated by gender and by ethnicity to monitor these subgroups. The Project’s Education Management Information System (EMIS) was computerized and Project staff received training on using the software. The indicators were produced on time to inform policymakers, the Bank and DfID on whether the PDP was met.

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An impact evaluation was conducted for the Project. The original conception was to collect data from a sample of Project and Non-Project schools at the beginning of the Project, at mid-term, and at the end of the Project. However, because it was the first time an impact evaluation was done for Chinese education projects, a number of technical issues had to be overcome. Data collection began in 2006, shortly before the mid-term, and then in 2008, in time for the report to be completed before Project closure.

2.4 Safeguard and Fiduciary Compliance Rating: Satisfactory

Financial Management. Generally, appropriate financial management

arrangements were put in place to ensure proper use and accounting of project funds. Financial management was carried out satisfactorily with only one exception. The 2007 audit report of one of the Project Provinces identified ineligible expenditures. The local counterparts paid high attention to the issue and took a series of appropriate remedies and actions to address and resolve the issue.

Procurement. There was no major procurement issue. National competitive bidding and other methods were the two major methods of procurement.

Indigenous Peoples. This safeguard was triggered during preparation and

the compliance was good. The Project’s key beneficiaries were ethnic minorities. There were 22 ethnic minorities within 98 of the 112 Project counties. They include Hui in Ningxia; Hui and Tibetan in Gansu; Hui, Tibetan, Yi, Qing, Lisu, Miao, Dai, Baiyi in Sichuan; Zhang, Yi, Miao, Yao, Dong, Miulao, Maonan, Shui, Gelao in Guangxi; and Tibetan, Yi, Miao, Lisu, Baiyi, Zhuang, Bai, Hani, Jinuo, Jingbo, Nasi, Wa, Lahu in Yunnan. Nearly half of China’s 55 ethnic minorities were represented in the Project Counties.

The education strategy to improve ethnic minority education included the following elements: (a) strengthening the link between schools and communities, and inviting communities to participate in the design and implementation of the school development plan; (b) training of ethnic minority teachers and female teachers; (c) training of bilingual teachers; (d) inclusion of locally- and culturally- relevant materials into the curriculum; (e) improving the quality of rural education; (f) making special efforts to enroll ethnic minority girls and to retain them until graduation. Project Provinces are developing their new minority education strategy under the guiding principles of the MOE’s National Plan for Medium- and Long-Term Strategy for Education Reform and Development (2011-2020).

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The Project had targeted minority areas well. According to the impact evaluation, 29% of students in sampled Project schools were ethnic minorities, more than double the 13% of minority students in sampled Non-Project schools.

The Project had a positive influence on ethnic minority education. Nine-year compulsory education was universalized in minority areas in Project Counties (See Figures 1-4 for closing of the gaps between Han and minorities). Schooling conditions and infrastructure were fundamentally transformed in minority areas in the Project. Boarding facilities was expanded and improved. The supply of schooling places is no longer a problem for minority children.

The Project improved the capacity of school principals and teachers in minority areas. The Project had a strong emphasis on upgrading the skills of minority teachers in order to improve the quality of instruction for minority students. Although ethnic minority accounted for a small share of the teaching force, minority teachers accounted for 40% of total number of persons trained. They were heavily represented in bilingual education training (68% of the trainees), computer teaching (54% of the trainees), continuing education (38% of the trainees), and laboratory instruction (35% of trainees). Bilingual schools and bilingual education experienced great development. Awareness of teaching reform rose in minority areas.

2.5 Post-completion Operation/Next Phase

The policy environment that overlapped with the life of the Project was extremely favorable. These include the rural compulsory education finance reform that began in 2006, the emphasis on teacher training, and the MOE’s National Plan for Medium- and Long-term Education Development and Reform (2011-2020) that assures sustainability of SDP, PTT and minority education.

There are three main issues in the post-completion phase: “Left-behind Children”. About 200 million rural persons migrated from

the rural areas to urban areas for work in the last three decades, and this trend will continue. In 2005, about 55 million children were left behind in the rural areas by their migrant parents and most of them were cared for by their less educated grandparents. These left-behind children are more vulnerable to accidents, and to develop emotional, behavioral, and learning problems. Taking care of them requires teachers to take up additional responsibilities, such as providing after-school programs and conducting home visits. It also requires the provision of more boarding facilities and supervision. The MOE plans to pilot in a major labor-exporting province multi-sectoral interventions from the Ministries of Education, Health, and Civil Affairs, Women’s Federation, and Public Security Bureau to set up a protective and caring network for these children. An impact evaluation is planned to assess effectiveness of the strategies.

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Consolidation of schools and building stronger schools. The decline of compulsory school-age population (with the number of students enrolled falling from 190 million in 2001 to 159 million in 2008), the trends of rural to urban migration, the issues of the left behind children, the implementation of the new curriculum with English and computer skills in primary grades, and the devastation of the Wenchuan Earthquake that destroyed almost all teaching points, gave the impetus to consolidate schools and to build stronger schools. Boarding will be offered as an alternative. Moreover, it is impossible to provide enough well-trained teachers, teacher support systems and sophisticated learning materials and educational equipment to small, remote, multi-grade schools. Children in better equipped and staffed central boarding schools are likely to be safer, provided that adequate resources can be made available to ensure proper care and support.

There is a need to continue to strengthen education of ethnic minorities. In spite of the gains through the Project, minority girls are still more likely to drop out than other subgroups, and need continuous support and monitoring. There are vast and under-populated areas outside the Project Counties and their schools need support. Bilingual education requires a large number of teachers, but there is a shortage of bilingual teachers in mathematics, science, foreign language, computer education, history and geography. In minority areas, there are still a lot of substitute teachers. There is a need to evaluate the effectiveness of various approaches and to make the minority education strategy more evidence based.

3. Assessment of Outcomes

3.1 Relevance of Objectives, Design and Implementation Rating: Highly relevant.

The objective to improve access to and to ensure completion of affordable and quality basic education for poor boys, girls, and ethnic minorities in western provinces was highly relevant because they were the most disadvantaged groups. The Project played a role in helping China reach its own goal which is consistent with the Millennium Development Goals for education.

The achievement of PDO is related to the design. The Project provided the necessary inputs to extend access, improve quality and improve management at the school, county, provincial and national levels. The first component, which replaced dilapidated buildings with new or upgraded infrastructure, and complemented them with a standard set of equipment and library books, made the school attractive. Project schools are often the most impressive building in a village or a township. This conveys a powerful message to parents and students that education is important and the Government is determined to extend education to all. The second and third components helped build management capacity and improved teaching quality. The technical assistance by CEP and provincial level experts were essential complementary inputs to take forward the innovations and to ensure a transition to institutionalization.

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3.2 Achievement of Project Development Objectives Rating: Satisfactory

The performance indicators were outcome focused, and used 2001 as the base year to measure the annual progress from 2004 to 2009 against the targets set for December, 2008. The table on outcomes indicators in the datasheet at the beginning of this ICR provides strong evidence that the development objective was achieved.

Bank experience with education projects in other countries shows that reaching the last 5% to 10% of children, and improving their completion rates and pass rates, are extremely difficult and costly. The Project has achieved or exceeded its targets in on many indicators.

School visits found remarkable results on the ground. Children were

cheerful, vibrant and confident; classrooms were colorful; and teachers were engaged in their teaching. Parents are keen to ensure that their children receive the highest possible quality and level of education. Communities welcomed the Project.

3.3 Efficiency

A rates-of-return (RoR) analysis was not done at preparation but there were some economic analysis including financial analysis, equity and others. This ICR did not do a RoR analysis but compared the composition of budgetary expenditure on education in 2000 at the time of preparation with that in 2008 (See Annex 3).

There was evidence that Project resources were used efficiently. The

Project’s unit cost of civil works seemed to be highly efficient. For a total of $78 million spent on construction, the Project built, rehabilitated and repaired 1,525 schools, creating 1,182,633 square meters of new, usable floor space. This amounts to a unit cost of about RMB 500 ($64 at an exchange rate of RMB 8.2 to one dollar) in the early years and about RMB 800 ($118 at exchange rate of RMB 6.8 to one dollar) in the later years of the project. This is lower than the construction unit cost of $120 in Laos, $180 in Vietnam, and about $500 in Mongolia. It should be noted that: (a) the remote location of BEWAP schools entailed higher transport cost; and (b) many schools were multi-story buildings, constructed according to the mandated earthquake resistant standards of the time, although the magnitude of the Wenchuan Earthquake proved that even higher standards were required. The cost efficiency is attributable to the success of the competitive procurement process, the experience of Chinese construction firms, and massive public investments in roads, water and electricity in the western region in the first decade of the 21st century. Even when the higher cost of the new earthquake resistance construction standards is used (over RMB 2000 or roughly $300 per square meter), the unit cost is still reasonable.

Training was also relatively low cost. Spending $12.28 million to train

154,286 teachers made a unit cost of $80 per trainee, lower than the unit cost of

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$154 per trainee in Mongolia. This would cover the cost of trainees’ transportation, materials, accommodation, food and the trainers’ fee. The training duration varied from a few days to 10 days or more.

China’s average per student spending on primary and junior secondary

education as a percentage of GDP per capita was about 14% and 16%, respectively (Table 1). Extra-budgetary spending adds a few more percentage points. Even so, this level of spending per student is not high by international comparison (Table 1).

Table 1: International Comparison of Public Spending per Student as a Percentage of GDP per capita

Primary Secondary China budgetary spending (2008) 14% 16% (Jr. Secondary China Total (budgetary and extra-budgetary expenditure) (2008)

17% 21% (Jr. Secondary)

United States (2007) 22% 24% South Korea (2007) 17% 22% Mexico (2007) 13% 14% Source: World Bank EdStats database, 2010; China Educational Finance Statistical Yearbook 2009.

3.4 Justification of Overall Outcome Rating Rating: Satisfactory

Considering the extent to which implementation has met the targets, achievement of PDOs and efficiency, the overall outcome rating is satisfactory.

3.5 Overarching Themes, Other Outcomes and Impacts (a) Poverty Impacts, Gender Aspects, and Social Development

The Project’s theme is education for all, gender, ethnic minorities, participation and civic engagement, and rural services and infrastructure. Education for all will have positive effects on students’ future life-time earnings and positive externalities on social development. By ensuring universal coverage, and raising school completion rates and improving pass rates of ethnic minorities who have traditionally had limited educational access, the Project helped break the cycle of inter-generational transmission of poverty.

School development planning (SDP) encouraged schools to work closely

with their community to solve their problems, to improve teaching and learning conditions, and to improve access for poor children and raise achievement levels. It emphasized participatory approaches to strengthen school-community links. SDP began by training principals and head teachers, and then, they implemented it in

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their school. Through SDP, the Project had positive influence on participation and civic engagement. The construction and rehabilitation of schools in rural areas created infrastructure and services in the rural areas.

Figures 1-8 present how the gaps between boys and girls, and Han and

ethnic minorities were closed between 2001 and 2009. Sichuan has started from the lowest base among five provinces in 2001,

particularly among enrollment rates of ethnic minorities (84% in primary education and 52% in junior secondary education), but has since made the most progress (See Figures 1 and 2). By 2009, Yunnan, Guangxi, and Ningxia achieved parity in primary education enrollment among boys, girls and ethnic minorities, while Sichuan and Gansu were also on the verge of closing the gaps among these three groups. The gender and ethnicity gaps were much bigger in junior secondary education than those in primary education. In 2001, all Provinces’ coverage was at 80% or below. By 2009, the Provinces reached 95% plus in enrollment rates. The enrollment gaps between boys, girls and ethnic minorities were closed.

Figure 1: Primary School Enrollment Rates among Boys, Girls and Ethnic Minorities in Five Project Provinces, 2001 and 2009

Figure 2: Junior Secondary School Enrollment Rates among Boys, Girls and Ethnic Minorities in Five Project Provinces, 2001 and 2009

The increase in completion rates between 2001 and 2009 was particularly

large in junior secondary education, reaching over 90% in 2009. The gaps in completion rates between boys, girls and minorities were being closed (Figures 3 and 4).

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Figure 3: Primary School Completion Rates Among 15- -Year-Old Boys, Girls and Ethnic Minorities in Five Project Provinces, 2001 and 2009

Figure 4: Junior Secondary School Completion Rates Among 17-Year-Old Boys, Girls and Ethnic Minorities in Five Project Provinces, 2001 and 2009

All Provinces showed an increase in the pass rates in mathematics and

Chinese upon completion of primary education and junior secondary education, respectively, and in gender parity (Figures 5-8).

Figure 5: Mathematics Pass Rates of Boys and Girls Upon Completion of Primary Education, 2001 and 2009

Figure 6: Mathematics Pass Rate of Boys and Girls Upon Completion of Junior Secondary Education, 2001 and 2009

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Figure 7: Chinese Language Pass Rates of Boys and Girls Upon Completion of Primary Education, 2001 and 2009

Figure 8: Chinese Language Pass Rate of Boys and Girls Upon Completion of Junior Secondary Education, 2001 and 2009

(b) Institutional Change/Strengthening The rural compulsory education finance reform since 2006 and the implementation of free compulsory education nationwide since 2008 have been institutionalized. Figure 9 shows the dramatic increase in the number of students benefiting from government financial subsidies between 2001 and 2009.

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Figure 9: Number of Students Benefiting from the Government’s Financial Subsidies, 2001 and 2009 (Unit: Number of persons)

Although the Project affected only 112 counties out of some 2,800 counties

in China, it demonstrated that SDP and PPT were implementable and scalable in China.

The use of part of the schools operating budget for teacher in-service

training and the incorporation of teacher training into teacher performance evaluation became institutionalized. The increased percentage of qualified teachers in primary and junior secondary schools provided a reasonable degree of assurance of teachers’ academic and pedagogical standards (See Figures 10 and11).

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Figure 10: Percentage of Qualified Teachers in Primary Education, 2001 and 2009

Figure 11: Percentage of Qualified Teachers in Junior Secondary Education, 2001 and 2009

(c) Other Unintended Outcomes and Impacts (positive or negative) The unintended, positive impact is the spread of bilingual education for ethnic minorities outside Project schools. In 2009, 1,532 schools in Yi and Tibetan -inhabited areas of Sichuan Province carried out bilingual teachings. This involved 294,000 students at school and 4,799 fulltime teachers. A total of 308 schools in areas inhabited by Tibetans, Mongolians, and Kazaks in Gansu also carried out bilingual teaching, involving 31,218 students at school and 1,207 fulltime teachers. Gansu Province compiled 10 Tibetan and 9 Kazak teaching and reading materials.

3.6. Summary of Findings of Beneficiary Survey and/or Stakeholder Workshops

There was no stakeholder workshop at the end of the Project. However, throughout supervision missions, in all school visits, the mission team talked with teachers, parents and students, and heard directly from stakeholders their appreciation of the Project. Other sources of independent information corroborated with BEWAP’s outcomes in enrollment and school completion.

First, the Poverty Monitoring Report of Rural China 2008, found that in 592

poverty stricken countries, out of a total of some 2,800 counties in the country, the enrollment rate of the 7-12-year-olds has reached 98% and that of the 13-15-year-olds, 96%. There was an overlap of some of the Project Counties with these poverty-stricken counties. The findings are consistent with the Project’s report of increased enrollment ratios.

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Second, the Bank in 2007 independently conducted its own study of rural compulsory education finance reform in Gansu, with DfID financing. The findings corroborated with BEWAP results: (a) Public expenditure per student grew substantially over the 2000-2006 time period. (b) The vast majority of primary and junior secondary students reported that their fees were exempted. (c) Fee reduction raised the probability of enrollment of girls, poorer children, and those in higher grades.

4. Assessment of Risk to Development Outcome Rating: Negligible

At the time of preparation, the risks identified were grouped into several categories: financial (inadequate commitment of resources at provincial and lower levels, uncertainty of revenue delivery; and inadequate counterpart funding), negative impact on enrollment due to closing of teaching points and increasing the number of boarding schools; inadequate dissemination and lack of continuous institutional support for innovative activities; and cultural bias against girls education. However, these risks turned out to be negligible due to the new policies and practices mentioned above.

5. Assessment of Bank and Borrower Performance

5.1 Bank Performance (a) Bank Performance in Ensuring Quality at Entry Rating: Satisfactory

The QER provided high quality inputs at the design stage. The analysis in the PAD was thorough. The social assessment was well done. The risk assessment and mitigation strategy were insightful. The PDOs were highly relevant to the conditions in these western provinces during the life of the project. The key performance indicators captured the achievement of the development objectives. The partnership with MOE and DfID was constructive and collegial that served the objectives of three parties. (b) Quality of Supervision Rating: Satisfactory

The Bank’s supervision focus changed over the life of the Project. At the beginning, the focus was to help the Project going. This included reviews of architectural design, procurement bidding documents, post-review, and financial management. The composition of the supervision team reflected the tasks on hand in the earlier stage. Supervision also paid much attention to school mapping and the quality of construction. Towards the Mid-Term, as outputs were produced, the supervision missions emphasized the linkages between outputs to amplify the effects. Towards the last two years of the Project, given the results on the ground,

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the focus was on impact evaluation, policy and sustainability. The Bank’s supervisory role was supported by sound monitoring and evaluation arrangements.

There were five Task Team Leaders during the life of the Project. However, there had not been disruption; instead, the diversity brought richness in the supervision efforts. The Beijing-based education specialist, financial management specialist and senior procurement specialist remained on the team and provided the continuity. The first TTL is the current Education Manager and there was much continuity in supervision.

Sector Management paid high attention to the Project. In the summer of 2009, the Sector Director made a spontaneous visit to a Tibetan school in the high attitude plateau of Sichuan. He found focused energy on teaching and learning by teachers and students and good utilization of BEWAP inputs.

A key strength of supervision was the effective dialogue between the

Government and the Bank and DfID. All missions were held jointly with the DfID team. There was much cross learning between the Development Partners and the Project. (c) Justification of Rating for Overall Bank Performance Rating: Satisfactory

The Bank’s major contributions were in the project design, provision of technical advice and analytical validation of Project achievement, arrangement of the study tours to ensure relevance of learning, and policy monitoring. The Bank’s satisfactory performance resulted in the completion of an ambitious reform program.

5.2 Borrower Performance (a) Government Performance Rating: Highly Satisfactory

The Government demonstrated a very serious commitment to universalization of compulsory education, which the Project was designed to support. This commitment is reflected in the implementation of a series of policies. The first is the rural compulsory education finance reform which began in 2006, to abolish miscellaneous school fees and textbook fees, and to provide living subsidies for boarding students on the basis of needs. The 11th Five Year Plan (2006-2010) allocated over $35 billion during the Plan period to support TEOS in all the provinces in the western and central regions, and some poverty-stricken counties in the coastal region. The Government made compulsory education free, nationwide in 2008, just as the global financial crisis began and unemployment rose in China. Due to this policy, compulsory education was not interrupted by the crisis. The reduction of the private cost of education resulted in increasing enrollment, reducing dropout, and improving school completion rates, particularly among girls, minorities, and children in poverty.

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The new financing scheme increased the operating budget of schools, and

made it possible to mandate schools to spend no less than 5% of its budget on teacher in-service training and to make participation in training one of teacher evaluation criteria. This assures continuous improvement of teaching quality.

More recently, the MOE’s National Plan for Medium- and Long-term Education Development and Reform (2011-2020) assures sustainability of SDP, PTT and emphasizes ethnic minority education. The Plan incorporates scientific and democratic planning into China’s education system, a model that is largely based on SDP. All of these policies enable scaling up successful pilots nationwide and assure institutionalization of pilots and sustainability. (b) Implementing Agency or Agencies Performance Rating: Highly Satisfactory

The quality of project management at the national, provincial and county levels improved with greater effectiveness in communication, progress reporting and experience sharing. FILO was effective in overall coordination of the project. All Provincial PMOs were staffed by highly committed and effective officers. Their efforts were reflected in highly positive results on the ground – in the vibrant school environment, in improvement of teaching and learning conditions, in the enthusiasm of teachers, and in the comprehensiveness and thoroughness of documentations in schools and PMOs.

The performance of County officers, school principals and teachers in severely affected areas was outstanding after the 2008 Great Wenchuan Earthquake. In spite of the devastation, schooling was never interrupted. Within two to three weeks after the Earthquake, classes were resumed in tents and temporary, prefabricated structure, to restore a sense of order among students and to channel their shock and grief to learning activities. Psychological counseling was provided to students. Some students were relocated to non-affected areas and absorbed by those schools until their collapsed schools were rebuilt. Orphans were cared for by the system. Many of the officials, principals and teachers who survived the Earthquake lost their loved ones. Yet, they gave their best to their students and worked around the clock in the aftermath of the Earthquake. Examination, promotion and graduation proceeded as normal with some minor adjustments to the school calendar. Within two years, almost all the affected schools were rebuilt and became operational.

(c) Justification of Rating for Overall Borrower Performance Rating: Highly Satisfactory The “Highly Satisfactory” rating is justified because the government’s policies demonstrated a very level of commitment to basic education. Public resources continued to increase and good practices were institutionalized. The

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Project’s PDO was achieved, in spite of the natural disaster and the global financial crisis. The speed of reconstruction was far faster than other countries which also suffered natural disasters. The efforts of local officials, principals and teachers to resume classes even though many of them had lost their loved ones, were above and beyond the call of duties.

6. Lessons Learned

Close alignment of national interest with local needs. This Project has benefited from a very close alignment of China’s national interest with local demand in overcoming inequities between boys and girls, between Han and ethnic minorities, and within and between provinces. There was a close match of the Bank and DfID’s partnership strategies with the GoC’s. The outcome indicators enabled the assessment as to whether the Project had achieved the PDO.

Technical support is key to successful implementation. The use of Chinese Expert Panel forged a link between national-level experts and provincial-level experts, resulting in transfer of knowledge and skills. This addressed a critical capacity constraint at the local level.

Aligning in-service training with pre-service training and inspection. The initiatives of embracing SPD and PTT varied across Counties and schools. Aligning the focus of the inspectorate with the principles of SDP and PTT, and aligning pre-service training with in-service training would be critical for sustainability in quality improvement.

Planning and execution of the impact evaluation. The impact evaluation would be more effective if it was planned at the time of project preparation. The baseline data collection exercise should take place before the delivery of inputs. Signing on to the impact evaluation could be a condition for the Counties to participate in the Project in order to obtain the highest level of cooperation and to maximize the use of the findings to improve practices.

Construction standards and school safety. The Wenchuan Earthquake is a

wake-up call for all Bank Projects in countries with seismic activities. It is worthwhile to engage civil engineers to look into the construction standards and structural soundness of the designs for schools. It is also worthwhile to build into co-curricular activities drills for evacuation and first aid.

7. Comments on Issues Raised by Borrower/Implementing Agencies/Partners (a) Borrower/implementing agencies The Borrower’s comments are as follows:

“With the efforts of stakeholders, all Project components were accomplished and satisfactory. The implementation of the Project has greatly improved the school

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conditions and teaching quality as well as the educational innovation in poor and minority areas, and has brought an important change in a high-quality popularization of nine-year compulsory education in Project areas. The Project was carried on smoothly during the implementation period (even during the project extension caused by Wenchuan Earthquake and in spite of the global financial crisis) and as a first basic education project whose special account set within provinces or autonomous regions, the implementation quality was good generally. Most of the project output targets were met and some were even exceeded. Most of the outcomes indicators (measured by number of Project Counties achieving popularization of compulsory education, enrollment rates, school completion rates, dropout rates, and student pass rates in Mathematics and Chinese) were met or exceeded.

The Foreign Investment and Loan Office of Ministry of Education

(FILO/MOE) strengthened the national level management and paid more attention to the innovation pilots at early stage of the project, in which FILO not only supervised the utilization of project funds to avoid the risks of interest rate, exchange rate as well as operating, but also continuously encouraged project implementation agencies and provided technical and policy support to the project innovations at each level through national workshops, site visits, project fruit conclusion, etc. In terms of the earthquake influence, FILO decidedly asked to extend the project to guarantee the project implementation. FILO also successfully organized the study tours, and provided lots of guidance to the project provincial dissemination programs and project procurement of civil works and goods. FILO fulfilled its task in Project supervision, providing constructive suggestions and recommendations to Project units, and having good coordination with departments concerned. On the whole, the Ministry of Education has fulfilled its duties in project implementation and management.

The World Bank (WB) and DFID officials and consultants sent to China are

all possessed with high professional and management ability. They had worked harmoniously with the Chinese Counterparts. FILO/MOE had very good cooperation with the Bank and DFID in implementation period. From the beginning of the Project, the task manager and team members of the World Bank and DFID and the consultants paid much attention to the quality of the Project. At the second half of the Project life, the task manager of WB was very focused on aligning the project’s DO and indicators with China’s education policy and strategy. She provided lots of valuable suggestions and recommendations during the site visits to the Project Provinces and helped Provinces solve problems appeared in the implementation period, which guaranteed the smooth implementation of the project. Her hard work were praised and appreciated by their Chinese counterparts. Management followed implementation closely, providing proper guidance.

There is great relevance between BEWAP and the MOE’s new National Plan for Medium- and Long-Term Education Reform and Development (2011-2020). It is crucially important to continue the post-operation dialogue and cooperation to

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address the issues of left behind children, education planning following the migration trends of the population, and ethnic minority education.

In September 2009, the Human Development Director of The World Bank, made an unannounced and informal visit to BEWAP school in a Tibetan county (Tagong Township Primary School of Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Kangding County) in the high altitude plateau of Sichuan and was very pleased and impressive to see the serious studying going on, etc. After this visit, he wrote a blog on the website and provided his main findings from his visit. He noted: “It’s usually pretty hard for a World Bank sector director to make a spontaneous site visit. But this one was fortuitous. Tagong is a small but very picturesque ethnic town in the Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in the high grasslands plateau of western Sichuan. The Tagong Township Primary School has clearly benefitted from BEWAP. The headmaster was able to point proudly to physical changes such as rehabilitated classrooms, dormitories (80% of the 250 students were from nomadic families) and administrative facilities such as a library and common room used where faculty could work. ” He further pointed out the contributions of BEWAP: the instruction was clearly participatory, the availability of school materials was well used, and the school’s functionality was well run, even on the weekends. He enthusiastically got a conclusion: “Having seen many schools in remote areas in other countries that did no teaching even in the middle of the day, I was astounded. Clearly, the school was well-managed and staffed locally with dedicated and motivated teachers and administrators.” (b) Cofinanciers DfID’s comments are as follows:

“DFID considers this to have been a successful project and has scored it “1” on the DFID internal project rating system, i.e., the project’s purpose will be fully achieved, the highest possible rating. The DFID-funded impact assessment demonstrates that the project has had a measurable impact not only on improving enrollment rates (especially among junior middle school girls) but also on the educational achievement of students. The project has collaborated closely with other DFID-funded basic education projects in China, and built on the foundations laid by the pioneering Gansu Basic Education Project. New approaches supported by the project, especially the participatory approach to classroom teaching and school development planning, are being institutionalized into regular Government management and supervision systems and training programmes and are being scaled up to non-project areas. “Democratic and scientific planning”, based on the school development planning model, is being written into the 12th national 5-year plan as Government policy. (The participatory approach has already been incorporated into the new national curriculum.)

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There have been several projects in different sectors in China co-financed by World Bank loans and DFID grants and all those completed so far have been successful. However, this project has seen the most effective model of collaboration of all of them. This is particularly remarkable given the frequent changes of World Bank Team Leaders. DFID and the World Bank have taken a genuinely joint approach to managing and monitoring the project, making full use of the comparative advantages of both organizations. It is a model worth studying and emulating elsewhere.” (c) Other partners and stakeholders N/A

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Annex 1. Project Costs and Financing

(a) Project Cost by Component (in USD Million equivalent)

Components

Appraisal Estimate

(USD millions)

Actual/Latest Estimate

(USD millions)

Percentage of

Appraisal

1. Improving School Facilities 111.70 107.04 95.83%

2. Strengthening Management and Administration 6.67 4.56 68.37%

3. Improving Strategies to Improve Quality of Teaching and Learning 13.84 12.88 93.06%

Total Baseline Cost 132.21 124.48 94.15%

Physical Contingencies 8.13 6.00 73.80%

Price Contingencies 6.00 2.00 33.33%

Total Project Costs 146.34 132.48 90.53%

Front-end fee of IBRD 1.00 0.60 60.00%

Total Financing Required 147.34 133.08 90.32%

(b) Financing

Source of Funds Type of

Cofinancing

Appraisal Estimate

(USD millions)

Actual/Latest Estimate

(USD millions)

Percentage of Appraisal

Borrower* Counterpart Fund

391,028,400 RMB Yuan ($47.34 million by 2002 exchange rate)

374,842,000 RMB Yuan ($55 million by 2010 exchange rate)

96% (using RMB for calculation)

International Bank for Reconstruction and Development

Loan $100 million $99.83 million 99.83%

DfID Parallel Financing Grant £1.75 million £1.75 million 100% DfID Trust Fund Grant $34.5 million $34.5 million 100%

*The figure reported in RMB Yuan by the Project provinces is basically a nominal figure. Due to the contribution of resources to reconstruct and reinforce schools

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damaged by the Wenchuan Earthquake by various sources from China, the actual amount spent on Project counties far exceeded the original estimated counterpart fund. However, there is no aggregate estimate for reconstruction. It was also difficult to estimate because roads were rebuilt before schools could be reconstructed. The lumpiness of the construction cost made it impossible to disaggregate the amount for individual buildings.

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Annex 2. Outputs by Component There was no revision of the output targets.

Components Planned Actual

1. Improving School Facilities

1.1 School Construction and Upgrading 1,599 schools 1,525 schools 1.2 Instructional Equipment

Furniture 3,091 schools 563,505 sets

2,847 schools 637,086 sets

1.3. Library Books 7,759,074 copies 6,795,197 copies

2. Strengthening Management and Administration

2.1. School Development Planning (number of persons trained)

7,368 principals 1,010 female/vice principals

9,805 principals 1,063 female/vice principals

2.2. Institutional Development (number of persons trained and study tours taken)

23,629 persons 8 study tours

18,909 persons 8 study tours

2.3. Project Monitoring EMIS developed; impact evaluation

EMIS developed; impact evaluation done-

2.4. Chinese Experts Panel 1 panel 1 panel

3. Improving Strategies to Improve Quality of Teaching and Learning

3.1. Teacher Training (Number of teachers trained)

120,489 154,286

3.2. Rural Education Reform Pilots (Number of reform pilots/action research undertaken) 3 10

The implementation of the project has greatly improved the school conditions and teaching quality, as well as the educational innovation in poor and minority areas and has brought an important change in a high-quality popularization of nine-year compulsory education in poor areas in the western region.

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Component 1. Improving School Facilities School Construction and Upgrading. 1,525 building were constructed or rehabilitated, accounting for 95% of the planned number of schools and 98% of the planned total floor areas. This number included the schools damaged by the Wenchuan Earthquake.

School furniture, teaching equipment, and library books. Procurement of

furniture sets reached 113% of the original plan. Procurement of instructional equipment accounted for 92% of the number of schools in the plan. Procurement of library books reached 88% of the plan. Computer weighed heavily in the teaching equipment purchased, accounting for 174% of the original target.

China aims to bring information and computer technology (ICT) to every

classroom in order to improve the quality of teaching and learning and to bridge the digital divide. MOE offers three categories of ICT: (a) computers and DVDs on all subjects in all grades for instructional use; (b) satellite dish that receives educational broadcast from Beijing on a daily basis and VCRs for teachers to record the programs for flexible use; and (c) internet access, over and above the aforementioned ICT. Computer literacy is part of primary school curriculum and coverage of computers is 100% for all schools as well.

Component 2. Strengthening Management and Administration School Development Planning (SDP) was piloted in selected counties and is spreading beyond pilot schools in Gansu, Ningxia, Guangxi, Yunnan and Sichuan. Some counties have used their own funds to expand these activities to all schools within their respective jurisdiction (Figure 1). A team from Peking University provided high quality training and technical assistance to provincial experts and trainers and supervise school-level implementation.

Figure 1: Number of schools conducting SDP Pilot Program

Source: Province annual reports (2004-2007)

30

Project Monitoring. The Provincial PMOs implemented an education management information system and produced performance indicators and output indicators on time.

Institutional Development. Strengthening management skills at the provincial

and county levels was mainly done through training and study tour. The total number of persons trained reached 80% of the target. However, the number of principals trained exceeded the targets by 133%, that of female/vice principals by 105%, and that of managers of equipment, books and procurement by 179% (See Table 1).

Table 1: Training of Administrators and Managers

Adm

inis

trat

ive

Sta

ff

Info

rmat

ion

Sys

tem

S

taff

Pri

ncip

al/

Vic

e-Pr

inci

pal(

on S

DPP

Fem

ale

Pri

ncip

al/V

ice-

Pri

ncip

al S

DP

)l

Sta

ff m

anag

ing

Equ

ipm

ent,

Boo

ks, &

P

rocu

rem

ent

Man

ager

s of

Civ

il W

orks

& te

nder

ing

Fin

anci

al M

anag

er

Pro

ject

Man

ager

Tot

al

Total

Planned

8,928 2,125 7,368 1,010 1,095 1,233 378 1,685 23,629

Total Completed

2,170 1,763 9,805 1,063 1,960 655 313 1,384 18,904

Completed as % of Plan (%)

24 83 133 105 179 53 83 82 80

Source: PPMOs and FILO. The study tour to Britain, France, Germany, Singapore, Thailand, India, New

Zealand, Chile, Brazil, and Colombia was completed. However, a planned training session in Singapore did not materialize due to the inability of the Singapore-based agency to arrange for training before project closure.

Chinese Expert Panel. The Panel was established comprising national experts on teacher education, ethnic minority education, and so forth. The Panel has provided high quality advice to officials and local experts at the national, provincial, county levels, and also to the Bank and DfID. Representatives of the Panel participated in all, except the last supervision mission, but they also independently visited Project counties between missions.

Component 3: Implementing Strategies to Improve Teaching and Learning

Teacher and Staff Training. Teacher training supported upgrading of teacher basic academic qualifications, bilingual teaching, active pedagogy, multi-grade teaching, computer technology, computer use in classroom, use of standard equipment sets,

31

conducting classroom experiments and monitoring student performance. The total number of teachers trained reached 128% of the target (Table 2).

Table 2: Teacher Training

Category

Total

Planned (Number

of Persons)

Accumulated Completion (Number of persons trained)

Completed

by the Year

Female

Teachers

Minority Teachers

Daike Teache

rs

Teaching

Point

Incomplete Primary School

Complete Primary School

Completed as % of Plan

(%)

Degree Qualification

6,564 2,388 543 434 15 114 185 1,008 36

Bilingual Education

2,003 1,890 642 1,282 84 754 290 379 94

Multi-grade

Teaching 3,658 3,771 1,051 1,831 288 1394 887 669 103

Computer Teachers

10,861 13,971 4,981 7,567 277 812 3,941 6,558 129

Lab Instructors

9,077 9,306 3,168 3,295 89 544 1,793 5,024 103

Librarians 6,670 5,897 2,248 1,713 83 139 1425 2,632 88

Continuing Education

89,209 11,7354 61,913 44,858 2,484 10,138 20,111 63,610 132

Total 120,489 15,4286 74,546 60,980 3,320 13,895 28,632 79,880 128.

Source: PPMOS and FILO. The Project had a strong emphasis on upgrading the skills of minority teachers in

order to improve the quality of instruction for minority students. Ethnic minority teachers accounted for 40% of total number of trainees. They were heavily represented in bilingual education training (68% of the trainees), computer teaching (54% of the trainees), continuing education (38% of the trainees), and laboratory instruction (35% of trainees).

Female teachers and teachers in complete primary schools were also well

represented among the trainees, accounting for 48% and 52%, respectively. Continuous education is the major areas of training for these two groups, accounting for 54% and 53% of trainees, respectively. Substitute teachers were not targeted for training, representing only 2% of the total trainees. The vast majority of them were engaged in continuing education. The policy was to regularize the substitute teachers if they have upgraded their qualifications, or to retire them if they fail to do so.

Although the number of teachers completed their degree qualifications was only 36% of the original plan, by 2009, over 95% of teachers were qualified. Many unqualified teachers upgraded their qualification through continuous education, and

32

vacancies of positions left by retirees were filled by qualified teachers.

Participatory teacher training (PTT) was piloted in 3,724 primary schools in 99

counties and in 279 junior secondary schools in 38 counties (Table 3). The response from teachers and students during supervision mission and reflected in the Impact Evaluation was highly positive.

Table 3: Participatory Teacher Training Gansu Guangxi Ningxia Sichuan Yunnan Overall

Primary Schools No. of counties 17 18 6 28 30 99 No. of schools 191 138 136 617 2,642 3,724

School type: County central town 10 13 9 19 67 118 Key township school 60 54 37 186 240 577 Complete primary school in village 93 26 90 24 1,716 1,949 Village school 20 44 0 256 458 778 Teaching point 8 1 0 132 161 302

No. of teachers 3,675 \ 545 12,560 19,002 35,782 No. of days of teacher training 26,540 \ 8,673 125,600 137,959 298,772

Junior Secondary Schools No. of counties 15 5 6 0 12 38No. of schools 15 28 17 0 218 278

School type: Schools in county centre town 0 5 3 0 18 26Schools in townships 15 23 14 0 200 252

No. of teachers 1487 \ 219 0 2525 4231No. of days of teacher training 10,495 \ 2,498 0 15,597 28,590Source: Provincial reports.

Rural Education Reform Pilots. Ten pilot and action research activities were

implemented: (1) Rural School Curriculum Development and Implementation in Zhongwei City of Ningxia; (2) School-based Teaching and Research Model in Rural Schools in Xiji County of Ningxia; (3) Education of Left-behind Children during the Compulsory Education Stage in Fushun County of Sichuan; (4) Training of Verbal Communication Ability for the Lower-grade Students of Primary School in the Ethnic Areas of Kangding Tibetan Autonomous County in Sichuan; (5) Development of

33

Teachers for Rural Middle and Primary Schools in Fumin County of Yunan; (6) School-based Curriculum Development in Rural Middle and Primary Schools of Hekou Yao Autonomous County of Yunnan; (7) Improving the Completion Rate of Middle School in Poor-stricken County in Guliang County of Gansu; (8) Improving the Enrolment Rate of Girls in Zhangjiachuan Ethnic Autonomous County of Gansu; (9) Linking the Teaching of Rural Primary Schools and Middle Schools in Longan of Guangxi; (10) Reduction of Drop-out Rates among Students of Yao Minorities in Lingyun Yao Ethnic Group Autonomous County in Guangxi. Technical assistance was provided by a professor from Northeast Normal University, and supported by provincial and county experts. DfID Parallel Financing The National-level Study on School Mapping. Due to declining school-age population because of one-child policy, and massive rural to urban migration in the last two decades, educational planning faces the challenge of deploying resources to provide schooling in rural areas in a cost effective manner. The study aims to identify the issues and provide recommendations to meet the challenge. The study was undertaken by Huazhong Normal University which surveyed 177 towns of 38 counties/cities of Hubei, Henan, Guangxi, Yunnan, Shanxi and Inner Mongolia from 2005 to 2007. Nearly 40,000 questionnaires were sent out to collect information from education officials of counties/towns, headmasters and teachers, parents and students. The findings were televised on CCTV. The National-level Study on Student Financial Assistance. Global literature has found that the demand for schooling is often adversely affected by the charging of school fees. To assess the impact on access and school retention, the Northwestern Normal University Team surveyed 16 counties (including four BEWAP counties) and 32 townships, 64 villages in Sichuan, Gansu, Hubei and Henan provinces. It found that provision of student financial assistance has the effects of extending access and improving school retention.

Impact evaluation. The objective is to compare a sample of Project and Non-

Project schools in five Provinces to assess whether the interventions (e.g., improved school facilities, equipment, library books, PTT, and SDP): (a) reached the intended beneficiaries (the poor and low income students, and ethnic minorities); (b) improved the teaching, learning and boarding environment; and (c) raised student enrollment and achievement. The sample included a total of 157 primary schools and 87 junior secondary schools and the teachers and students in them. The number of Project schools and non-Project schools are roughly divided equally. Over 2,300 villages were also interviewed. As this is the first impact evaluation study done for China education projects, data collection began only in November 2006, instead of at the beginning of the Project. A follow-up study was done in November 2008.

34

The method combined quantitative surveys, with in-depth interviews and administrative databases. However, due to the Government’s new programs to support compulsory education, Non-Project Schools also received inputs, although to a smaller extent.

The impact evaluation found that Project resources have been targeted to relatively poor areas and to townships with proportionally higher ethnic minority population, that both books and computers are more often used by students and teachers in Project schools, than by those in non-Project schools. Principals and teachers who have attended PTT and SDP training show a better understanding and sensitivity to issues associated to participatory methods and openness to new school management ideas, but there is little evidence that this was sufficient to significantly change behavior. While student learning improved between 2006 and 2008, it is unclear whether it could be attributable only to the Project because non-Project schools also received a lot of inputs from government.

35

Annex 3. Economic and Financial Analysis 3.1. Rates of Return to Education

The ICR did not do a rates-of-return analysis, but it reviewed similar studies done on China, using more data from 2002. Education remains in a critical pathway to social mobility in China in the 21st century. 3.2. Budgetary expenditure on compulsory education

The PAD examines the budget allocation for compulsory education. It noted that

in 2000, budgeted allocation accounted for 59% of the total sources of funds for compulsory education, and fees, for 9.89%. This ICR reviewed public expenditure on education and found that due to the policy of free compulsory education, in 2008, budget allocation rose to 88% for primary education and 83% for junior secondary education, while fees dropped to 3.39% in junior secondary education and 2.16% in primary education (See Annex Table 3-A). Annex Table 3-A: Comparison of the Structure of National Compulsory Education Funding, 2000 and 2008

Total Budget allocation

Education Taxes

Social Donation Fees

School- based enterprise profit

Revenue of Enterprise -run school

Social Organ-zation

Other evenue

PAD 2000 100 59.17 11.10 3.62 9.89 1.51 4.25 2.55 7.93 ICR 2008:-

Jr. sec. 100 82.82 5.99% 0.84% 3.39% 0.07% 0.38% 0.43% 1.74%

Primary 100 87.66 9.38% 0.76% 2.16% 0.05% 0.32% 0.30% 1.31% Source: PAD for 2000 figures and China Educational Finance Statistical Yearbook 2009 for 2008 figures.

36

Annex 4. Bank Lending and Implementation Support/Supervision Processes

(a) Task Team members

Names Title Unit Responsibility/

Specialty Lending

Halsey Beemer Task Team Leader, Lead General Educator

Eduardo Velez Bustillo Lead Human Development Specialist, Social Sector Coordinator, Beijing

Christopher Thomas Senior General Educator Sandra Erb Operations Officer, Consultant Guo Xiaowei Procurement Specialist Dong Yi Financial Management Specialist Dorothy Judkins Program Assistant Dan Gibson Social Scientist Wang Chaogang Social Scientist Carlos Escudero Chief Counsel Margaret Png Senior Counsel Susiana Iskandar Operations Officer Rosfita Roesli Operations Officer Liping Xiao Education Specialist Ding Xiaohao Education Economist

Supervision/ICR Xiaowei Guo Senior Procurement Specialist EAPPR Haixia Li Sr Financial Management Spec. EAPFM John Malmborg Consultant ECSHD Lynn Wang Consultant EAPCO Kin Bing Wu Lead Education Specialist EASHE Liping Xiao Education Spec. EASHE Xiaoke Zhai Transport Specialist EASCS Charles Abelman Lead Education Specialist HRSLO Dingyong Hou Sr. Education Specialist ECSH2 Tao Su Program Assistant EACCF Sabrina Terry Program Assistant EASHD

37

(b) Staff Time and Cost

Stage of Project Cycle Staff Time and Cost (Bank Budget Only)

No. of staff weeks USD Thousands (including travel and consultant costs)

Lending FY01 18 92.34 FY02 10 205.09 FY03 34 395.97 FY04 9 50.63

Total: 71 744.03 Supervision/ICR

FY04 14 91.06 FY05 26 75.65 FY06 14 57.94 FY07 11 78.82 FY08 8 48.31 FY09 13.5 101.37 FY10 8.6 65.07

Total: 95.1 518.22

38

Annex 5. The Borrower’s ICR 1．Project Overview

On 11, November 2003, the World Bank, and the Chinese Government signed the

Loan Agreement of the above project, and the World Bank, the UK Government and the Chinese Government signed the Tripartite Arrangement of the project. The project became effective on 20, May 2004 and is originally scheduled to complete by 31, December 2008, with a closing date of 30, June 2009.

The strategies of “Education and Technology making China prosperous” and “A

Country of Profound Human Resources” implemented by Chinese Government establish the strategic status for basic education in China’s social and economic development. And the emphases of basic education lie in rural area, especially in China’s western area. During recent years, Central Government has also put in place a range of initiatives to develop basic education in whole country, to invest greatly to the area not only with state budget but also with foreign capital. The successful implementation of four World Bank-supported basic education projects in China had allocated credit and counterpart funds with total amount of US$ 1.065 billion. The beneficiaries of the four projects covered 466 national and provincial counties (banners) in 21 provinces or autonomous regions, of which 11 provinces with 255 counties (banners) are in western area. All the measures taken have pushed forward the popularization of nine-year compulsory education in the

BEWAP

The World Bank s

DFID of UK 9

Chinese Government

39

area. But the laggard economic development and inadequate funding of the rural education system in a long-term still make a key challenge to the popularization and consolidation of nine-year compulsory education, and these initiatives are unable to cover the major funding gap that still exists. When China entered the years of Eleventh Five-Year Plan, in accordance with the request of Scientific Development Outlook, the governments at each level require much higher for Universalization of Basic Education. According to the design and appraisal of BEWAP, this project is not simple duplicates of previous projects, but an innovation or breakthrough in project financing and implementation content.

Because from 1999 the World Bank would not provided the credit to China’s

humanities areas, including educational sector, the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID) was ready to provide the PRC a grant to be blended with an IBRD loan to reduce the effective interest rate. Therefore, a new mode came into being, in which the World Bank, DFID and Chinese Government cooperated together to support the basic education of poor western areas.

1-1 The project Objectives are to support the popularization of basic education

in 112 counties of Sichuan, Yunnan, Guangxi, Ningxia and Gansu; and to consolidate fruit of compulsory education. All project counties can basically realize the popularization of nine-year compulsory education with high quality by the end of the project through improving the conditions of project primary schools and lower secondary schools and strengthening the management and quality of teaching learning.

1-2 The project construction includes three main components: first, providing

funding on civil works, books, equipment and furniture to improve facilities and

China’s Basic Education Projects

EDPP

BEII

BEIII

BEVI

1992-1999

BEWAP

2004-2009

1995-2000

1995-2001

1997-2002

40

conditions of project primary and lower secondary schools and to promote the teaching, learning and administrative quality; second, conducting training on managers, school principals and teachers，and strengthening the construction of Management Information System( MIS); third, Implementing strategy study to improve the quality of teaching and learning, and discussing / resolving the important issues in the basic education at provincial level.

1-3 Project financing model and cost: The United Kingdom’s Department for International Development provides to the PRC a grant of 34.4 million to be blended with an IBRD loan of US$100 million (fixed-rate loan) to reduce the effective interest rate (to around 2%). The project provinces provide 390.7 million (US$ 47.36 million equivalent) counterpart funds. Therefore, the total cost of the project is US$ 143.30 million, converting into RMB 1.2 billion equivalent (the exchange rate between US$ and RMB is 1:8.25). The ratio between counterpart funds and loan is 0.47.

Sketch Map of BEWAP

41

2. Project Implementation Overview: The project was closed on 31, December 2009. With the efforts of stakeholders, all

project components were accomplished and satisfactory. The implementation of the project has greatly improved the school conditions and teaching quality as well as the educational innovation in poor and minority areas, and has brought a significant change in a high-quality popularization of nine-year compulsory education in project areas. The project was carried on smoothly during the implementation period (even during the project extension caused by the Great Wenchuan Earthquake and the global financial crisis) and as a first basic education project whose special account set within provinces or autonomous regions, the implementation quality was good generally. Most of the project output targets were met and some were even exceeded. Most of the outcomes indicators (measured by number of Project Counties achieving popularization of compulsory education, enrollment rates, school completion rates, dropout rates, and student pass rates in Mathematics and Chinese) were met or exceeded"

The Foreign Investment and Loan Office of Ministry of Education (FILO/MOE) strengthened the national level management and paid more attention to the innovation pilots at early stage of the project, in which FILO not only supervised the utilization of project funds to avoid the risks of interest rate, exchange rate as well as operating, but also continuously encouraged project implementation agencies and provided technical and policy support to the project innovations at each level through national workshops, site visits, project fruit conclusion, etc. In terms of the earthquake influence, FILO decidedly asked to extend the project to guarantee the project implementation. FILO also successfully organized the study tours, and provided lots of guidance to the project provincial dissemination programs and project procurement of civil works and goods. FILO fulfilled its task in project supervision, providing constructive suggestions and recommendations to project units, and having good coordination with departments concerned. It is crucially important that great relevance between BEWAP and current / mid-long term education policy has been set up and therefore project sustainability will be strongly promoted. On the whole, the Ministry of Education has fulfilled its duties in project implementation and management.

2-1 Counterpart Funding Accumulation According to the provincial ICRs, project provinces have collected 374.84 million

Yuan, accounting to 101.01% of total plan, in which Yunnan contributed 97.34 million (87.40% of provincial plan), Guangxi 85.54 million (99.43%), Sichuan 108.96 million (120.63%), Gansu 40.80 million (110.53%), and Ningxia 42.20 million (90.83%).

42

It is obvious that project total planned had been accomplished but completion ratios

among provinces are not even. In order to ensure the timely and enough availability of counterpart funding, all project provinces have taken the measures that counterpart funding accumulation should be shared by provincial, prefecture and county levels. From provincial reporting, sufficient provincial counterpart funding had been achieved in time, but the status of counterpart funding accumulation of other two levels are not satisfactory because of frequent natural disasters and financial influences during the project circle. During project implementation, the exchange rate of RMB to US dollar had changed greatly and thus the project has been greatly affected with serious loss in project cost part. Since the project became effective, the price of materials (including concrete and steel products) has large extent of increase and meanwhile, the transportation cost has also risen up because of more strict regulation on over loading. Furthermore, the more and more standardized construction market has brought increase in agency fee (e.g. fee for geological exploring activities) of civil work construction. All these increases directly influence availability of project funding. At the beginning of the project, FILO remained to ask provincial PMO to increase their counterpart funds to make up the losses.

In general, the current finished proportion was able to meet the needs of project

implementation. 2-2 Disbursement and Management of Loan:

According to statistics from project provinces and Beijing Office of WB, the total

loan disbursement amounts to 99.84 million dollars, taking up 99.84% of project plan with Yunnan finishing 99.61% of its own plan, Guangxi 100.00%, Sichuan 99.84%, Gansu99.82%, and Ningxia100.00%.

110.53%120.63%

99.43%90.83% 87.40%

0.00%

20.00%

40.00%

60.00%

80.00%

100.00%

120.00%

140.00%Rates of Completed Counterpart Funding in Project Provinces

Gansu

Sichuan

Guangxi

Ningxia

Yunnan

43

It is fortunate that although affected by natural and financial factors, the disbursement rate of loan is basically satisfactory with the hard efforts of all stakeholders especially before the end of project closing, and as a result, BEWAP inherits the good tradition of high disbursement rate of China’s basic education projects. FILO had mainly conducted the following affairs in the areas:

2-2-1 In each March and September of every year, the provincial educational

departments was asked to submit the disbursement estimates through FILO of MOE to the Bank and DFID as the overall references of project disbursement and the grant for paying interests.

2-2-2 In January 2005 and November 2007 (mid-term), FILO respectively assisted

to reallocate the category of loan. One of the allocations was to put SDP (Student Development Planning) as a category of project’s loan. This measure provided provinces the convenience in distinguishing SDP funding during disbursement and reimbursement.

2-3 Analysis and Actions on the Factors affecting Funding Benefits 2-3-1 In the first year of project implementation, FILO analyzed and found the

reasons that resulted in low disbursement rate and long circle of disbursement----late project effectiveness and special accounts opening, more links of disbursement and slow turnover of funding as well as unfamiliar with project disbursement procedure, etc. And with the help of MOF, FILO conducted a series of special supervision and training and finally solved the problems at the early stage of project implementation.

2-3-2 During the overall project implementation, FILO asked project provinces to

pay much more attention to two serious issues: In terms of these issues, FILO urged provincial PMO to speed up their project disbursement to extremely defuse the losses.

99.61%

99.84%

100.00%

100.34%

99.82%

99.20%

99.40%

99.60%

99.80%

100.00%

100.20%

100.40%

Rates of Disbursement in Project Provinces

Yunnan

Sichuan

Guangxi

Ningxia

Gansu

44

RMB to US dollar Exchange Rate during Project Implementation (2005,7-2009,12)

From 21st July 2005 when China began to conduct RMB exchange rate reform, US$ to RMB exchange rate had gone down from 8.23 to 6.83 after project being put into effective. It had nearly decreased 17%.. The continuous increase of RMB value had directly resulted in exchange loss of project provinces that have loan by dollar during disbursement. During May, 2004 to July 2005, the project experienced difficulties in disbursement such as late effectiveness, lack of evaluation on risk factors, etc. At least half a year lost in project disbursement, which should have been a great time opportunity in consideration of exchange rate risk.

2-3-3 After the mid-term of project implementation, in view of the negative

influence of Wenchuan Earthquake and request from project provinces, FILO asked project extension and ensured the project implementation.

2-3-4 When project entered the last year, FILO solved Guangxi’s funding problem

and strengthened further financial training. Within project extension, FILO successfully controlled the possible risk of project financing and speeded up the disbursement.

2-4 Civil Work Up to now, 1525 project school buildings were built, accounting for 95.37% of the

total plan. The total areas of all kinds of construction are estimated at 1,182,633.94

680690700710720730740750760770780790800810820

45

square meters or 98.52% of the planned total areas, with disbursement of US$ 61 million loan funds and RMB 276 million counterpart funds, which respectively accounts for 105.24% and 108.64% of total plan. The characteristics and main work of civil works could be listed as following two points:

2-4-1 The procedures of civil work meet the criterion and process of WB, and the

good quality met the requirements of domestic construction standard with good management in supervision, check-accept process and intact documentation and records. Most provinces also placed a project introduction board on the building in order to record the background of project and standardize these building. “A plaque commemorated the Bank’s contribution with the number of the project’s appraisal document CH-25172-a code which must baffle almost anyone who sees it.”

2-4-2 Construction of civil work had attached more importance to issues of

humanism thought and the environmental protection. In particularly, to hygiene education, construction of friendly campus, Gansu provided an explorative experiment named “A Study on Clean Toilets and Drinking Water in Rural Schools in Poor Areas” and achieved its good proposes.

2-5 Goods procurement

The procurement of project equipment and library books was carried out by the

provincial PMO through NCB procedures. Project counties conducted the bidding procurement and the distribution of desks and chairs. The goods procurement was scheduled to start after the completion of civil work. And this part had been accomplished.

2-5-1 Up to now, the investment in equipment counts RMB 33.52 million (101.46%

of the total) for the counterpart funds and US$ 13.48 million (125.02%) for loan funds. 2-5-2 RMB 20.36 million (137.11%) counterpart funds and US$ 3.85 million

(97.25%) for loan funds had been paid for furniture. 2-5-3 RMB 14.78 million (75.88%) counterpart funds had been paid for and

US$ 6.23 million (91.30%) for loan funds had been paid books. 2-6 Training for Managers Trainings for managers at two levels are performed in this project. FILO of MOE

was in charge of the study tours abroad as well as the national level training and seminars, and project provinces conduct other trainings for managers.

2-6-1 National level trainings seminars for managers were hold by FILO for 15

times with 350 person-times. The seminars conducted by FILO were connected with China’s policy, aimed to enlarge project influence, and explored and attempted to system of school running, content of teaching, educational methodology and evaluation

46

approaches, etc. For example, the Advanced Project Management Seminar in Hainan, had an eye on National Education Plan and current education difficulties and gave an active lecture which concerned tightly with BEWAP. These seminars not only upgraded the level of training, but also extended the project sustainability. The speeches named “the Main Ideas of Basic Education Development in National Education Plan” by MOE official, “The Construction of school leadership and Teacher Profession Development”, “The Systematic construction of Student-centered Teaching and Education”, “The Management of Boarding System in Rural Primary and Lower Secondary Schools”, and “Left-behind Children in rural areas and Schooling of Rural Children”, were warmly welcomed by the participants from provincial and county as well as township level. For another example, while preparing the Seminar of Impact Assessment, FILO discussed with the domestic and foreign experts many times and added the speeches in the seminar such as “International experience on impact assessments and their role”, “Key findings from the BEWAP impact assessment”, “Key findings from the school mapping study”, “The role of GIS in determining school mapping structure”, “Key findings from the school mapping study”, “Rural compulsory education financing” , ”Concepts and methods in impact assessment”, “Lessons learned from the BEWAP impact assessment”, “Application to school mapping” and “Application to student assistance and TEOS”. Finally, the seminar was promoted to an international workshop and a news conference of project outcomes. It is interesting that the teaching methodology had also adopted PTT. All experts were from famous universities such as Beijing Normal University, Cambridge University and from MOE.

2-6-2 FILO of MOE was also in charge of organizing and sending out Study Tours.

Up to now, 8 study tours with 38 members had been sent out. The progress of study tours has totally followed the project plan. Although it was specified the study tours were slowed down and cut down because of the influence of Wenchuan Earthquake, FILO actively coordinated with all levels of education department, financial department and foreign affairs offices in project provinces and strengthened the communicate with relevant embassies and foreign inviting unit, and received full support from WB Education Manager and Task Manager. Except one of the training tour was cancelled for cause, all the others had accomplished their missions before the Project closing.

2-6-3. Provincial Training for Managers According to reports from provinces, US$ 968.35 loan and 2.09 million RMB Yuan

have been paid in provincial trainings for managers, 18904 person-times have been trained. Provincial Training ensured the successful implementation within project provinces

2-7 Teachers Training (including PTT)

This part in provinces was progressing strictly following the project plan. 154,236 person-times provincial training had been hold, accounting to 128.05% of plan. Currently, the curriculum reform in primary and middle schools are being implemented national wide. One of the focuses of this reform is to promote reforms in the mode of studying by

47

advocating self-learning, cooperative learning, and exploratory learning. Therefore, training contents in this project need to adapt to new curriculum reform, and the plan making of training of our project must be banded together with training plans in new curriculum reform. PMOs of project provinces had some considerations in-depth in aspects like training content, method, target and persons qualified to teach. They also had made overall plan for training in this project as well as in new curriculum reform. For example, Yunnan had edited their own project training scheme together with related institutions, which gives priority to school-based training combining with trainings and seminars on SDP/PTT. Based on provincial training, Yunnan began to promote “Comprehensive ability training in Ethnic Minority Region” activity in project counties since 2006. This activity took people who came from counties and participated in provincial level training as teachers in school-based training, which includes periodical collective learning and support from experts. This so called “Five steps learning” school-based study for teachers and training by having collective discussions, developed in ethnic minority, boarder and poor area, not only focus on training itself, but on self-learning, reasoning and feedbacks of teachers. Guangxi was calling for “Five focuses”, meaning focus on compiling scientific training plan, focus on selection of qualified training institutions, focus on the variety of training content, focus and trainings for disadvantaged teachers, and focus on evaluation and feedbacks of training effect. Gansu, in the interest of the guarantee of the priority for female teachers and school headmasters in project trainings, had designedly dispatched regulations for the female ratio in training, which has excellent results.

While conducting reforms for innovations of training methods, it was required that

project provinces should intensify evaluation of training effect and improve the overall training quality and benefits and pay more attention to collecting and spreading experience.

In a word, PTT method have been utilized in all kinds of training not only in project

countries training but also extended to non-project countries training. 2-8 School Development Plan (SDP) As a planning and budgeting process from bottom to top based on the unit—School,

SDP includes almost every aspect of school development with the objective of promoting intimate cooperation between school and communities for solutions to the problems occurred during school development. By taking seminars, trainings and providing continuous technical assistance, especially by learning and comparing with the implementing experiences of the Chinese and the United Kingdom co-operated Gansu Project, FILO of MOE proposed the idea of “to instruct by different conditions, to implement step by step, to disseminate when have experience”. This idea demanded PMOs to take pilots in their provinces first, after which they could disseminate based on the experiences they had got. So far, the pilot task is popular in provinces with good results that 10 pilot counties now have increased to 80 project counties. The five provinces feel that the community members, students and teachers have more involved in the school affairs in schools and communities that have SDP activities. SDP also had

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helped to develop the abilities of school managers to realize a more scientific and democratic development of school management. They began to spread SDP to most of the project counties and even the non-project counties.

FILO paid most importance to connect the successful cooperative experience of

DFID’s project with China’s education reform (such as China National Plan for Medium- and Long-term Education Development and Reform) and to the sustainability of SDP and PTT, and summarized the good fruit of them through all kinds of seminars, meetings and activities.

2-9 Chinese Expert Panel: So far, CEP had taken individual reviews in five

project provinces and also had participated in several joint missions. During site-visits, CEP has extensive communications with management staff, teachers and students from schools of project provinces and project counties, after which CEP has submitted reports for their missions. CEP had very detailed work plan and clear field dissemination in every review, which guarantees a clear goal of reviews. It is believed that CEP contributes a lot to the smooth implementation of project. At the end of project, they submitted an excellent report.

2-10 Ethnic Minorities Education Strategy: The minority expert of CEP also

wrote an excellent report on this topic. Based on the investigation to BEWAP and compared with the situation before and after the project, he contributed nine good outcomes and six recommendations.

3. Parallel Grant from British Government (Because of the limited the length of the article, Please see other reports) 3-1. Student Assistance -------- Northwest Normal University 3-2 School Mapping------------ Huazhong Normal University 3-3 Impact Assessment Study (IAS)------------- Beijing Normal University 3-4 Technical Assistance Team for SDP & PTT---------Beijing University 3-5 Rural Education Reform Pilots (RERP)--------Beijing Normal University

Improving and perfecting school management system of primary and lower secondary schools: To set up parents commission of primary and lower secondary schools and to guide the communities and relevant specialists to participate in school management and supervision.

----------China National Plan for Medium- and Long-term Education Development and Reform (2010-2020)

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4. Project Supervision

WB, DFID, FILO of MOE and CEP took joint missions in all the project years.

They also hold several wrap-up meetings attended by five province PMOs, CEP members, Impact Assessment Study team members, and the Rural Education Reform Advisory Team (ERAT) members. These supervisions have indeed helped to acquire experiences of project implementation by discovering problems existed. Accordingly, the project was always heading for a healthy development. After the joint mission, the aide-memoir had been translated by FILO to inform all project management staff about the implementation status and make proper measures to solve problems during implementation. Some findings and recommendations, such as left-behind children, boarding school construction, had caused attention and concern of MOE and other relevant departments. 5. Experiences and Suggestions

Project was smoothly implemented with achievements of high quality. However,

attention should be given on the issues below in view of reference of future educational project.

Research on Linking up Teaching of Rural Schools

Action Research on Rural School Curriculum

Action Research on Improving Enrolment Rate 子项标题

Action Research on Improving Completion Rate 项标题

School-based Curriculum Development 项标题

Research on Teachers’ Development

Research on Verbal Communication Training子项标题

Research on Left-behind Children Education 子项标题

Action Research on School-based T&R Model 子项标题

RE

RP

Research on Drop-out Rates Reduction

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5-1 As the first project which had a special account in provinces, this project had not been effective for half a year after the Agreement signed and the implementation was affected. Compared with the same phase of other project, this project was slower in disbursement at the first year. The retroactive financing for the project had not been well used. Furthermore, the lagged disbursement has resulted in unnecessary capital loss because of exchange rate, financial crisis, etc. So it was necessary to speed up disbursement to acquire full benefits of funding. Further coordination between provincial financial departments and World Bank should be strengthened at the early stage when conducting a province-managed SP project. .

5-2 Because of the existence of many research subjects, teams and various fields of

study in a project, timely technical communications and exchanges become necessity for project implementation. Fortunately， it finally made the organic integration of all researches fruit a composite force for project implementation with the efforts of all stakeholders, which deserves highlighting.

5-3 SDP and PTT that were proposed and generalized in project come from the

Chinese and the United Kingdom co-operated Gansu Project. During this project implementation, it was necessary to notice the different character and amount invested between loan and grant. By following an idea of instructing by different conditions and implementing step-by-step, piloting work should be implemented well with limited loan funding. As soon as the conditions become mature, MOE tried to utilize the educational resources from provincial and national level and found the policy support to the generalization of SDP outcome.

5-4 We must attach much more importance to the consulting role performed by CEP

as well as make better use of their professional suggestion during evaluation and supervision and spread their suggestions in project implementation

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Annex 6. List of Supporting Documents Aide Memoires (December 2001; April 2003, January 2005; October 2005; December 2005; July 2006; July 2007; July 2008; July 2009, June 2010) Loan Agreement (Basic Education in Western Areas Project) between the People’s Republic of China and International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Loan Number 7194-CHA. Minutes of Project Appraisal Document Review. Ministry of Education (2010). National Plan Guidelines for Medium – and Long-Term Strategy for Education Reform and Development, 2011-2020. Ministry of Education and National Bureau of Statistics (2010). China Educational Finance Statistical Yearbook 2009. China Statistics Press: Beijing. National Bureau of Statistics. (2009) Poverty Monitoring Report of Rural China. China Statistics Press. Beijing. Project Appraisal Document on a Proposed Loan in the Amount of US$100 million to the People’s Republic of China for a Basic Education in Western Areas Project. Report No: 25 172. World Bank: Washington DC, 2003. Project Summary Reports or Implementation Summary Reports, 2004-2010 Progress Reports from the Project Management Offices of Gansu, Sichuan, Ningxia, Guangxi, and Yunnan. Various Years. “Quality Enhancement Review Panel Report on BEWAP”. (2003). Tripartite Arrangement for the Administration by International Bank for Reconstruction and Development of Grant Funds to be made available by the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to the People’s Republic of China For the Basic Education in Western Areas Project. November 11, 2003. Grant Number TF052350. World Bank (2008). “Rural Compulsory Education Finance Reform: A Case Study of Gansu.” Mimeo. World Bank (2009). “Education Sector Review.” Mimeo. World Bank (2010). “Education: 12th Five Year Plan.” Mimeo. UNICEF (2010) “Children in Poverty: A Household Survey in Gansu and Hubei.” Mimeo.

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Annex 7: Photographs of a School Building Damaged by the Earthquake and Newly Rebuilt School in Wenchuan

The two photos of schools attached below were taken in April, 2010. Both schools are located in different parts of Wenchuan County. The school in the first photo is being kept by the local community as a memorial to the Earthquake, while all other damaged schools in the earthquake-affected areas were demolished to make way for reconstruction.

The second photo shows the new Primary School of Wenchuan township, rebuilt

by a donation from a construction company in Guangdong. This county had a large Qiang minority population, and the new school was built for the Qiang minority students. The new buildings symbolize the spirit of defiance and mutual support.

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