The World Bank Implementation Status & Results Report Tuvalu Learning Project (P171681) Tuvalu Learning Project (P171681) EAST ASIA AND PACIFIC | Tuvalu | IBRD/IDA | Investment Project Financing (IPF) | FY 2020 | Seq No: 8 | Archived on 19-Jun- 2024 | ISR00741 Implementing Agencies: Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, Ministry of Finance 1. OBJECTIVE 1.1 Development Objective Original Development Objective (Approved as part of Approval package on 25-Oct-2020) To improve the readiness of children entering first grade and improve the reading skills of students. Has the Development Objective been changed since Board Approval of the Project Objective? No 2. COMPONENTS Name Strengthening early childhood care and education and school readiness for all children:(Cost 1,800,000.00) Improving Literacy Outcomes in all Schools:(Cost 4,100,000.00) Research, learning assessment and policy review:(Cost 3,600,000.00) Strengthening institutional capacity, monitoring and evaluation, and education sector management:(Cost 4,500,000.00) 3. OVERALL RATINGS Name Previous Current Progress towards achievement of PDO Satisfactory Moderately Satisfactory Overall Implementation Progress (IP) Satisfactory Moderately Satisfactory Overall Risk Rating Moderate Moderate 4. KEY ISSUES & STATUS Jun 19, 2024 Page 1 of 12 The World Bank Implementation Status & Results Report Tuvalu Learning Project (P171681) 4.1 Implementation Status and Key Decisions Under Component 1 (Strengthening early childhood care and education and school readiness for all children), all ECCE centers have received playgroup resources to support play-based pedagogy. Additional resources focused on early Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)-learning will be distributed by the end of the year. ECCE centers organize weekly Playgroups@Preschool sessions. Toy libraries are a new initiative that allows parents and caregivers to borrow play-based resources for home stimulation. Monthly communities of practice are organized to provide continuous professional development for ECCE teachers. Further, ECCE teachers are being trained to facilitate school health promotion. Under Component 2 (Improving literacy outcomes in all schools), the Tuvalu Reading Program (TRP) is being implemented to support local language literacy in the early grades (Years 1-3). The School Supervisory Unit has distributed sports equipment to all primary and secondary schools to support learning enrichment. A repository of digital resources has been procured for all primary and secondary schools to strengthen the availability and quality of teaching and learning resources. Under Component 3 (Research, learning assessment and policy review), the Tuvalu Early Human Capability Index (TuEHCI) survey was conducted in 2021, two iterations of the Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) were conducted in 2021 and 2023, and a study on the quality of teaching practices in ECCE and primary school classrooms was conducted in 2022- 2024 and 2023-2024, respectively. Three research studies (teacher time-on-task, teacher and student absenteeism, and gender disparities in student enrollment and learning outcomes) have been completed. University of South Pacific - Institute of Education (USP-IOE) delivered the Graduate Certificate of School Leadership Program in December 2023- Janurary 2024 to 25 school leaders. Under Component 4 (Strengthening institutional capacity, monitoring and evaluation, and education management), the Central Project Management Office (CPMO) and the project management team is entirely staffed. 5. SYSTEMATIC OPERATIONS RISK-RATING TOOL Rating at Approval Last Approved Rating Risk Category Approval Package - ISR Seq. 07 - 28 Nov Proposed Rating 26 Oct 2020 2023 Political and Governance Moderate Moderate Moderate Macroeconomic Moderate Moderate Moderate Sector Strategies and Policies Moderate Moderate Moderate Technical Design of Project or Program Substantial Moderate Moderate Jun 19, 2024 Page 2 of 12 The World Bank Implementation Status & Results Report Tuvalu Learning Project (P171681) Institutional Capacity for Implementation and Substantial Substantial Substantial Sustainability Fiduciary Substantial Substantial Moderate Environment and Social Low Low Low Stakeholders Moderate Moderate Moderate Overall Substantial Moderate Moderate Jun 19, 2024 Page 3 of 12 The World Bank Implementation Status & Results Report Tuvalu Learning Project (P171681) 6. RESULTS 6.1 PDO Indicators by PDO Outcomes Improve the readiness of children entering first grade Baseline Actual (Previous) Actual (Current) Closing Period Indicator Name Value Month/Year Value Date Value Date Value Month/Year 44.20 Sept/2020 49.30 04-Jun-2024 49.30 04-Jun-2024 55.00 Dec/2025 Comments on School readiness is measured as the overall development score of 3-5 year old children on Percentage of children aged achieving targets cognitive and non-cognitive dimensions on a scale of 0 to 1. 3-5 years in ECCE centers with a school readiness score above 0.7 (Percentage) Update: This indicator is measured by the TuEHCI which was conducted in October- November 2021. Another iteration of the TuEHCI is planned in August 2024. Percentage of FEMALE 51.10 55.10 60.00 children aged 3-5 years Comments on School readiness is measured as the overall development score of female 3-5 year old in ECCE centers with a achieving targets children on cognitive and non-cognitive dimensions on a scale of 0 to 1. school readiness score above 0.7 (Percentage) Percentage of MALE 37.10 44.70 44.70 50.00 children aged 3-5 years Comments on School readiness is measured as the overall development score of 3-5 year old male children in ECCE centers with a achieving targets on cognitive and non-cognitive dimensions on a scale of 0 to 1. school readiness score above 0.7 (Percentage) Improve the reading skills of students Jun 19, 2024 Page 4 of 12 The World Bank Implementation Status & Results Report Tuvalu Learning Project (P171681) Baseline Actual (Previous) Actual (Current) Closing Period Indicator Name Value Month/Year Value Date Value Date Value Month/Year 37.70 Dec/2016 26.7 04-Jun-2024 26.7 04-Jun-2024 50.00 Dec/2025 Comments on It is important to note that the current value (26.7%) comes from EGRA 2023 and Year 3 achieving targets students who participated in the 2023 EGRA were not exposed to the Tuvalu Reading Program (TRP) under Component 2, as the TRP was introduced to Year 1 in 2022, Year 2 in 2023, and Year 3 in 2024. Therefore, the current status of this PDO level indicator is not Percentage of students influenced by the project activities. meeting the minimum reading fluency benchmark in Additionally, the reading passages in the EGRA change annually, so the apparent decline in Year 3 (Percentage) reading skills might be due to varying difficulty levels of the passages from 2021 to 2023, rather than an actual decrease in reading abilities. Consequently, the MEHRD has decided to conduct an equating exercise to ensure the 2023 EGRA results are temporally comparable to previous years. This exercise will be completed by October 2024, with the next EGRA scheduled for 2025. This indicator will be reviewed and may be adjusted during the project restructuring. Percentage of FEMALE 48.40 32.4 32.4 60.00 students meeting the Comments on The minimum reading fluency benchmark is set at 50 correct words per minute. This minimum reading achieving targets indicator is measured for female children in Year 3. fluency benchmark in Year 3 (Percentage) Percentage of MALE 26.1 Dec/2016 39.6 31-Oct-2023 40 Dec/2025 students meeting the Comments on The minimum reading fluency benchmark is set at 50 correct words per minute. This minimum reading achieving targets indicator is measured for male children in Year 3. fluency benchmark in Year 3 (Text) 32.00 Dec/2018 24.00 31-Oct-2023 45.00 Dec/2025 Percentage of students Comments on The 2021 PILNA results are not comparable to those from 2015 and 2016 because the 2021 meeting minimum literacy achieving targets assessment reported reading and writing separately, unlike the combined literacy Jun 19, 2024 Page 5 of 12 The World Bank Implementation Status & Results Report Tuvalu Learning Project (P171681) proficiency levels in Year 4 proficiency levels in 2015 and 2018. Additionally, since Year 4 students have only recently (Percentage) begun learning English as a subject, assessing their literacy in English is inappropriate. The Tuvalu Reading Program (TRP), a key component of the project, supports students in Years 1-3 in the Tuvaluan language, while the PILNA for Year 4 was conducted in English. Consequently, the MEHRD has decided to request that the Education Quality and Assessment Programme (EQAP) administer future PILNA Year 4 literacy assessments in Tuvaluan (next PILNA is 2025). This indicator will be reviewed and may be adjusted or possibly dropped during the project restructuring. The potential drop is due to the lack of baseline data once the language of PILNA Year 4 is changed to Tuvaluan in the 2025 PILNA. Percentage of FEMALE 40.10 Dec/2018 35.00 04-Jun-2024 35.00 04-Jun-2024 50.00 Dec/2025 students meeting Comments on Percentage of Year 4 FEMALE students reaching or exceeding minimum proficiency (Level 4) minimum literacy achieving targets in literacy. proficiency levels in Year 4 (Percentage) Percentage of MALE 24.40 Dec/2018 15.00 04-Jun-2024 15.00 04-Jun-2024 40.00 Dec/2025 students meeting Comments on Percentage of Year 4 MALE students reaching or exceeding minimum proficiency (Level 4) in minimum literacy achieving targets literacy. proficiency levels in Year 4 (Percentage) 6.2 Intermediate Results Indicators by Components Strengthening early childhood care and education and school readiness for all children Baseline Actual (Previous) Actual (Current) Closing Period Indicator Name Value Month/Year Value Date Value Date Value Month/Year 0.00 Sept/2020 22 04-Jun-2024 22 04-Jun-2024 38.00 Dec/2025 Jun 19, 2024 Page 6 of 12 The World Bank Implementation Status & Results Report Tuvalu Learning Project (P171681) Number of teachers using Comments on As measured through a classroom lesson observation tool called “Tuvalu Quality Early satisfactory play-based achieving targets Learning (TuEQEL)”. TuQEL 2024 data collection is ongoing, and results are expected by pedagogical practices in ECCE December 2024. centers (Number) 58.00 Dec/2016 74.00 04-Jun-2024 74.00 04-Jun-2024 80.00 Dec/2025 Comments on Simple average of percentage of parents who engaged in the following home stimulation achieving targets activities as measured through TuEHCI - read a book, told a story, sung songs, played (not at Percentage of parents home), played with child and named, counted or drew. engaging in home stimulation activities with their children in the last three days Update: The Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) data is used as the baseline as it was (Percentage) done in 2020 compared to the 2016 TuEHCI. The TuEHCI uses the same questions as the MICS so there is no change in methodology. Only the data source is different - MICS for baseline and TuEHCI for subsequent reporting. 0.00 Sept/2020 15 04-Jun-2024 15 04-Jun-2024 486.00 Dec/2025 Number of visits from health Comments on This indicator will be revised during the restructuring because the Project has encountered officers/ nurse to ECCE achieving targets issues in collaborating with Ministry of Health, Social Welfare and Gender Affair centers annually (Number) (MOHSWGA) to support regular nurse visits to ECCE centers to carry out child health and hygiene monitoring activities. Share of parents/caregivers 0.00 Sept/2020 98.40 04-Jun-2024 98.40 04-Jun-2024 75.00 Dec/2025 that found information Comments on Data source: TuEHCI (2021); TuQEL (2022); TuQEL (2023). The latest data is from TuQEL 2023 disseminated through the achieving targets data collection. ECCE public awareness program to be useful (Percentage) Improving Literacy Outcomes in all Schools Baseline Actual (Previous) Actual (Current) Closing Period Indicator Name Value Month/Year Value Date Value Date Value Month/Year 0 Sept/2020 26 31-Oct-2023 24 Dec/2025 Jun 19, 2024 Page 7 of 12 The World Bank Implementation Status & Results Report Tuvalu Learning Project (P171681) Number of teachers Comments on As measured through a classroom lesson observation tool. implementing Tuvalu Reading achieving targets Program (TRP) explicit instruction approach Update: TRP fidelity form has been developed and training of Head Teachers conducted in satisfactorily in Years 1-3 December 2021. A refresher training is conducted annually before data collection in Week 9 (Text) of Term 3 (October). 15.30 Dec/2016 1.9 04-Jun-2024 1.9 04-Jun-2024 10.30 Dec/2025 Gender gap in percentage of Comments on Measured as the difference between percentage of boys and girls with zero correct year 3 students with zero achieving targets responses in the reading fluency assessment (Gender Gap Indicator). scores in reading fluency (Percentage) Update: Based on TuEGRA results. Number of teachers 8.00 Sept/2020 58.00 04-Jun-2024 58.00 04-Jun-2024 50.00 Dec/2025 integrating education Comments on Number of primary or secondary school teachers that incorporate learning activities through technology in teaching achieving targets tablets, computers or e-readers in classes at least 3 times per term. practices (Number) Research, learning assessment and policy review Baseline Actual (Previous) Actual (Current) Closing Period Indicator Name Value Month/Year Value Date Value Date Value Month/Year 0.00 Sept/2020 9 04-Jun-2024 9 04-Jun-2024 4.00 Dec/2025 Number of research activities Comments on 2021 - TuEHCI; 2022 - TuQEL Preschool, TuQEL Playgroups; 2023 - TuQEL Preschool, TuQEL undertaken (Number) achieving targets Playgroups, Teach Primary; 2024 - Teacher and student absenteeism, gender analysis, teacher time-on-task 0.00 Sept/2020 1.00 31-Oct-2023 1.00 Dec/2025 Large-scale Comments on Number of large scale learning assessments for which the project supports primary/secondary learning achieving targets operationalization, data collection, analysis or reporting (non-cumulative) assessments completed (Number) This is a corporate result indicator. Jun 19, 2024 Page 8 of 12 The World Bank Implementation Status & Results Report Tuvalu Learning Project (P171681) The 2021 and 2023 EGRA was completed and results disseminated to MEHRD and school leaders. The next iteration of the EGRA is planned for 2025. 90.1 Sept/2020 86.0 04-Jun-2024 86.0 04-Jun-2024 80 Dec/2025 National student attendance Comments on Measures the number of students present on a given day as a percentage of total enrolment rate (Text) achieving targets in a school. It will be measured for all primary schools. The target and methodology will be revised at the restructuring. 0.00 Sept/2020 0.00 31-Oct-2023 24.00 Dec/2025 Comments on This indicator is not cumulative. It measures the number of schools that report termly achieving targets attendance and inventory data as well as annual school census data within 3 weeks and receive a school overview report within 3 months of the end of the school year. The school report is based on data from the Annual Statistical Report and contains data on key Number of schools with performance indicators including student and teacher attendance. timely data reporting and dissemination loops established (Number) Update: The school report template was developed in November 2021. Complete data was available for all 10 primary schools for 2022 and the school report cards were shared with schools digitally. Attendance data for ECCE centers an secondary schools was not available for 2022. The 2023 schools report cards for ECCE centers and primary and secondary schools were not disseminated within the agreed time frame. It was agreed that the 2024 school report cards would include data for both 2023 and 2024. Strengthening institutional capacity, monitoring and evaluation, and education sector management Baseline Actual (Previous) Actual (Current) Closing Period Indicator Name Value Month/Year Value Date Value Date Value Month/Year 0.00 Sept/2020 1,538.00 04-Jun-2024 1,538.00 04-Jun-2024 3,000.00 Dec/2025 Students benefiting from direct interventions to Comments on Update: This includes ECCE students benefiting from the playgroups@preschool enhance learning (Number) achieving targets intervention, Year 1 and Year 2 students benefiting from the TRP roll-out, and students from select primary and secondary schools benefiting from learning enrichment activities. Jun 19, 2024 Page 9 of 12 The World Bank Implementation Status & Results Report Tuvalu Learning Project (P171681) Students benefiting 0.00 722.00 1,500.00 from direct interventions to enhance learning - Female (Number) Teachers recruited or trained 0.00 Sept/2020 174.00 31-Oct-2023 150.00 Dec/2025 (Number) Teachers recruited or 0.00 159.00 100.00 trained - Female (RMS requirement) (Number) Percentage of transactions 0.00 Sept/2020 75.00 31-Oct-2023 75.00 Dec/2025 completed by CPMO specialists within service standards outlined in Standard Operating Procedures (Percentage) Jun 19, 2024 Page 10 of 12 The World Bank Implementation Status & Results Report Tuvalu Learning Project (P171681) 7. DATA ON FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE 7.1 Cumulative Disbursements 7.2 Disbursements (by loan) Loan/Credit/TF Status Original Revised Cancelled Disbursed Undisbursed % Disbursed IDA-D6250 Effective 14.00 14.00 0.00 7.23 6.55 51.66% 7.3 Key Dates (by loan) Loan/Credit/TF Status Approval Signing Effectiveness Orig. Closing Rev. Closing IDA-D6250 Effective 05-Jun-2020 28-Jun-2020 22-Jul-2020 31-Dec-2025 31-Dec-2025 8. KEY DATES Jun 19, 2024 Page 11 of 12 The World Bank Implementation Status & Results Report Tuvalu Learning Project (P171681) Key Events Planned Actual Approval 05-Jun-2020 05-Jun-2020 Effectiveness 31-Jul-2020 22-Jul-2020 Mid-Term Review No. 01 04-Aug-2023 Operation Closing/Cancellation 31-Dec-2025 9. RESTRUCTURING HISTORY 10. ASSOCIATED OPERATION(S) There are no associated operations Jun 19, 2024 Page 12 of 12