SIERRA LEONE FREE EDUCATION PROJECT – TECHNICAL BACKSTOPPING MISSION February 24- 27, 2025 Technical Note 1. The World Bank in collaboration with development partners including the European Union (EU), Embassy of Ireland, the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) of the Government of the United Kingdom, and Education Above All (EAA), carried out a technical backstopping mission for the Free Education (FREE) Project from February 24-27, 2025. UNICEF provided support to the mission. The main objectives of the mission were to review the overall project management performance and key implementation progress on the agreed actions since the November 2024 mission. The mission also discussed and agreed on an updated action plan. Summary of Discussions and Implementation Progress 2. Restructuring and Additional Financing: The restructuring will allow the project to reallocate funds from sub-component 7.4 to 7.2 due to the change in implementation arrangements for administering the Out of School Children (OOSC) activities. As the Save the Children led NGO Consortium has withdrawn from the project, MBSSE will take up their assigned activities and support all 120,000 OOSC. The Embassy of Ireland expressed interest to add an additional €3.00 million over the period of 2025 to 2027. The restructuring letter has been sent to the Ministry of Finance (MoF), which will include restructuring and AF for onward transmission to the World Bank. 3. Project management. FEPS is in the process of recruiting a gender and inclusion expert1 for the project. The initial advertisement did not attract appropriate candidates, and the position is to be readvertised, immediately. 4. Streamlining SRGBV reporting. The mission noted delays in reporting of some school- related gender-based violence (SRGBV) cases, and stressed the importance of timely reporting of cases, ensuring easily accessible reporting modalities, to enhance timely reporting, the mission recommended weekly mandatory reporting of SRGBV cases by the District Directors (DDs) irrespective of any incident occurrence. To ensure stakeholders are fully aware and complying with the recently signed MoU for information sharing on GBV cases between the MBSSE, the Ministry of Gender and Children’s Affairs (MoGCA) and the Family Support Unit (FSU) it was agreed that all District Directors (32), One-Stop Center focal personnel (10), Rainbo Center focal personnel (6), FSU officers (16) will be brought to Freetown for an orientation on the MoU and the 24-hour reporting protocol in April 2025. Further, UNICEF is supporting the MoGCA to develop an e-referral system2 application to be used by various stakeholders to report cases of GBV (including School Quality Assurance Officers). This system will include information of the 8060 hotlines. However, it will not feed into the GBV Management Information System. The 1. 1 GPE/UNICEF program also supported the Ministry in recruiting a gender and inclusion specialist who is already been appointed. MBSSE should assess how to maximize the work of the expert/s already available. 2. 2 It’s important to clarify that e-referral is a digital directory of available service providers on the response to SRGBV cases. E-referral app does not have a function of reporting through app, it is just a directory which can be used to identify the contact of relevant service providers. 1 MBSSE and TSC will have access to this system and will be trained on the system which is expected to be rolled out by the end of the calendar year. 5. Strengthening survivor services. A One-Stop Center will be established in Falaba in partnership with MoGCA and Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS) and further discussion will take place with UNFPA/EU. FEPS undertook a visit to the health center in Falaba to assess the feasibility of establishing an OSC within the existing premises. MBSSE will request the MoHS to authorize the use of an underutilized building at the health center for the purposes of establishing an OSC as an interim arrangement until the new hospital is constructed in Falaba. The MBSSE has developed a temporary structure design in the event that the unused building is not available, and construction is required. 6. The mission and the MBSSE met with the Attorney General (AG) on February 27, 2025. It was agreed that the necessary legal support will be provided, and a senior prosecutor was designated as the focal point for providing legal advice to the MBSSE/TSC. 7. Taking action against teacher perpetrators. The mission discussed the process and requirements for blacklisting teacher perpetrators. A perpetrator database is being maintained by TSC. Discussions were held between the MBSSE, TSC and the Attorney General. The MBSSE has confirmed that teachers accused of SRGBV who are absconding from the law, can be immediately blacklisted. TSC has agreed to publish their names and information in the Sierra Leone Government Gazettes, in newspapers and relevant online fora. This will be done by March 31, 2025. Related to this, TSC has expressed the need to develop a sanctions framework relating to violations of the Teacher Code of Conduct, and these regulations/guidelines are to be approved by the TSC board and the MBSSE management. 8. School based interventions to address SRGBV. The mission discussed priority school- based interventions for addressing SRGBV, including prevention and incident reporting. The mission identified four main interventions which will be rolled out to a subset of primary schools in the country. These are: (i) school clubs to create safe spaces for students to learn and speak about SRGBV issues, (ii) school mentors to support the functioning of school clubs, (iii) school guidance counsellors to provide general counseling support to students (iv) training on SRGBV school safety standards. Aside from the school safety standards which would have to be developed, the other interventions have all been implemented in Sierra Leone and through the FCDO funded Leh Wi Lan (LWL) project. UNICEF will also support this area through Spotlight. Coordinated efforts will increase the coverage and effectiveness. These models will be leveraged and scaled up to a subset of primary schools which will be selected using set criteria consisting of the following parameters: (i) school enrollment (ii) estimates of out of school female population, (iii) school vulnerability and (iv) poverty rates. A detailed design document and implementation plan must be developed for these interventions by FEPS by April 2025. 9. UNICEF is working on developing a database/GBVIMS and dashboard for timely reporting and a coordinated SRGBV technical working group (merged UNICEF/MBSSE and NRP TWG together) including all the key stakeholders has been established for strengthening coordination among the agencies. 10. Implementing school safety measures. The mission discussed the issue of sexual harassment and drug abuse on school buses in Freetown and Bo. It was agreed that the MBSSE leadership would arrange a meeting with the local council and the Sierra Leone Road Transport Corporation to put in place measures to secure safe school bus travel. Further, the issue of engaging the Okada riders’ unions at the district and sub-district level was also discussed and it was agreed that an engagement plan needs to be developed. Lastly, the safety audit identified 2 some good practices regarding student awareness of SRGBV and school-level response, which need to be documented and rolled out to other schools in the country. 11. Registration of teachers in TMIS. Teacher registration has been launched on 21st February 2025 followed by a press conference to inform the public about the registration. The timeline for registration is March 14-31, 2025. It will cover all categories of teachers in all schools including non-approved schools. The teachers’ database will be available from April 2025. 12. Out of school children program. MBSSE will lead and implement the program with a focus on capacity building within the ministry. Following the restructuring, MBSSE will support the enrollment of 120,000 OOSC at the primary education level as shown in the Project Document, of which 60,000 will be children enrolled in the formal system and 60,000 through a non-formal system using an Accelerated Learning Program (ALP). 13. An Accelerated Learning Program (ALP) will be used for OOS by compressing the 6 years primary education program to 3 years. The mission discussed three modalities for the ALP intervention – (i) through existing centers, (ii) through local NGOs, and (iii) through establishing temporary learning centers to be located where 25-30 OOSC, using local teacher and managed by the community and MBSSE. An incentive package for students, teachers including others will be included in the compendium. 14. The OOSC program in formal schools is expected to be started from September 2025. It shall focus more on community (including parent) engagement and mobilization to identify and enroll the OOSC and will especially target the most marginalized and deprived groups. There is a need to engage with the Ministry of Social Welfare to ensure the provision of psychosocial services for the out of school children participating in the program. In addition, the MBSSE will seek support where necessary from NGOS and individuals on OOSC identification, enrollment and tracking in appropriate learning programs. 15. There shall be an independent verification of the OOSC enrolled and tracking of the survival (retention) data of cohorts enrolled. A detailed implementation plan, referred to as the compendium, is currently under preparation. The first draft will be shared with the WB by February 28, 2025, and will be finalized by March 31, 2025. Community engagement will start after the finalization of the compendium 16. Civil work and WASH facilities. A total of 367 additional classrooms in 71 schools have been established. Among the additional classrooms, 279 were completed. However, only 210 have been handed over and the remaining 69 will be handed over by March 31, 2025. All the civil works for additional classrooms have to be completed by March 31, 2025. A status report on functionalities of the WASH facilities will be prepared by FEPS by April 2025 and to be shared with the WB. The low-cost sustainable WASH facilities design and costs estimate is being prepared and to be completed by March 2025. 17. Conversion of the ongoing construction of the three girls hostels to Boarding Schools. It has been agreed that the hostels will be converted to boarding schools. The existing contracts modification for civil works and furniture will be done to complete the remaining works by April 2025. It was agreed that the boarding schools will start with JSS1, and the first academic year will commence in September 2025. MBSSE/TSC will take necessary measures to recruit the girls’ students and deployment of teachers and staff for boarding school. A compendium will be prepared to outline the operationalization plan for the hostels by April 2025. 18. National Learning Assessment. The P4 NLA has been finalized, and it will be disseminated in the regions. It was agreed that a simplified district/region level customized presentations with score cards will be used for disseminating key NLA findings to local councils, 3 NGOs, and SQAOs. NLA team will plan follow-up discussions to evaluate the impact of interventions and continuous assessment improvements. 19. Procurement and distribution. The procurement of tablets and literacy materials is delayed but making progress. For tablets, performance security has been extended to ensure delivery of the tablets. The distribution of P1 literacy materials to all government and government assisted schools is delayed and will take place from April 1 to 30. The councils will be sensitized about the expected delivery and distribution process prior to the distribution, and distribution guidelines will be shared with all stakeholders. Track and trace will be used to monitor the delivery status. School authorities will be notified about the expected delivery. 20. P2 FLN books and materials printing and distributions: The books and materials will be developed by March 2025 and procurement process will be started from April 2025. It was agreed to ensure distribution of P2 books and materials to the students by September 2025. 21. Annual Work Plan: It was agreed that the AWP will be updated based on agreement between the MBSSE and the Bank. 22. Agreed Actions. The November mission agreed actions plan has been reviewed and updated. (Annex 1). 23. Next Mission. The next implementation supervision mission is expected to take place during May/June 2025. 4