Note No. 62 July 2001 Addressing the Needs of Vulnerable Youth: Buenos Aires Second Secondary Education Project Social Development Best Practice Elements · Comprehensive poverty diagnosis · Provisions for participatory monitoring and evaluation With World Bank support, Argentina has program, "Jornada Completa" or "Full Day undertaken a systematic program over the Schedule" to be introduced in 200 pilot past seven years to transform the education schools. The program will be supported by system. The Province of Buenos Aires is one the World Bank through the Buenos Aires of the most advanced in implementing Second Secondary Education project. The secondary education reform. During the 90s, pilot program seeks to ensure equity by school attendance significantly improved for paying special attention to the quality of ages 15-24 in the province. education for children "at risk." Despite this progress, only 24% of low Jornada Completa will increase the number income students complete secondary of classroom hours from 800 per year to education. Although the age group 15-24 1,200 per year and introduce a new constitutes 18% of the population, it accounts pedagogic and curricular model. Extending for 31% of the poor. Youth unemployment is the school day is also intended to lessen high, especially among those not completing students' exposure to street violence. The secondary education. program will support measures designed to make school management more effective and Project Objectives more autonomous. School selection criteria will target those urban lower secondary The Province of Buenos Aires government's schools in which most of the student strategy for secondary school education aims enrollment comes from households that are to improve equity, quality, and effectiveness. considered socially and economically To support these objectives, the provincial disadvantaged and among the poorest. On the Ministry of Education proposed a new basis of the pilot results, the government ___________________________________________________________________________________________________ The task manager for this project during preparation was Jacob Bregman. Sandra Cesilini, social development specialist and a member of the project team, prepared this best practice note. The views expressed in this note are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official policies of the World Bank. intends to gradually extend the Jornada curricular activities for youth, on improving Completa to all secondary schools in high the labor market skills of youth, on poverty districts or areas. leveraging community participation, and on improving the learning process. Social Analysis Building on Local Capacity A social assessment (SA) was carried out to determine the potential impact of education The project also built on local information reform in areas of high poverty and to systems in implementing the project and in identify obstacles to implementation. The monitoring outcomes. The provincial TOR for the SA was prepared in Ministry of Education's existing database collaboration with the International was modified and adapted with their Organization of Migration which has cooperation and the assistance of the SA considerable expertise in working with team. This database (Sistema de Informacion grassroots organizations and extensive local Socio-Educativa) will be maintained by the experience. It conducted the field work and ministry and will contain information on at participated in the debate about the study's least 400 poor lower secondary schools. The implications for the educational system. 200 schools which will implement the Jornada Completa and the 200 control Two groups of five schools each, with schools will be selected from these. Selection similar socio-economic levels, were selected. criteria for the schools incorporated the SA' s The Jornada Completa will be implemented results. A school can be included in the in the first group of five schools and not in project if the percentage of its student the second group. In the first phase of the population "living in disadvantaged socio- SA, conducted during preparation, focus economic conditions" is higher than the groups were held with parents, youth from district's average. A poverty composite the community who attend and do not attend indicator, based on data from students and school, teachers, and school administrators. their households, includes family residence These stakeholders were interviewed on (i) in slum areas or on illegally occupied land as the concept of Jornada Completa and its one of the factors indicating student usefulness; (ii) perception of the quality of disadvantage. public school education; (iii) perception of the relationship between secondary education Feedback on the project's impact will and access to the labor market; (iv) factors obtained through focus groups and through that will improve the quality of education; the educational evaluation system, jointly (v) perception of the scholarship program with the household survey on life conditions. and its relation to Jornada Completa; and (vi) Information from Jornada Completa schools opinion on the implementation of education and from the control group will be compared reform. to assess educational progress, and school surveys and interviews will address school After one year of implementation, a performance. The combined methods can comparison will be made between the first track school improvements due to Jornada group and the control group to check the Completa. Lessons learned from the pilot benefits of the program and to monitor will aid in the program's planned expansion progress. Emphasis was placed on the and with the design of better institutional potential impact of the project's extra- mechanisms. "Social Development Notes" are published informally by the Social Development Family in the Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development Network of the World Bank. For additional copies, contact Social Development Publications, World Bank, 1818 H Street, NW, MSN MC5-507, Washington, DC 20433, USA, Fax: 202-522-3247, E-mail: sdpublications@worldbank.org. 2 Printed on Recycled Paper