PROJECT INFORMATION DOCUMENT (PID) CONCEPT STAGE Report No.: AB6569 Project Name Education Region Latin America and Caribbean Country Paraguay Sector Secondary education (100%) Lending Instrument Specific Investment Loan Project ID P123154 {If Add. Fin.} Parent Project ID Borrower(s) Government of Paraguay Implementing Agency Ministry of Education Environmental Screening [ ]A [ ]B [X]C [ ]FI [ ]TBD (to be determined) Category Date PID Prepared April 27, 2011 Estimated Date of Appraisal September 29, 2011 Completion Estimated Date of Board December 20, 2011 Approval Concept Review Decision Following the review of the concept, the decision was taken to proceed with the preparation of the operation. I. Introduction and Context Country Context 1. The country has experienced a period of economic growth and poverty has been reduced, but inequality remains high. Between 2004 and 2008, Paraguay experienced its strongest economic expansion since the 1970s with an average growth rate of 4.8 percent. In 2009, the Paraguayan economy contracted by 3.8 percent due to the global economic crisis and a serious drought. The country started to recover strongly in 2010 with an estimated 15.3 percent real growth. This growth surge was primarily driven by a commodity price-induced export boom, and strong domestic consumption and investment growth. Exports grew by 43.2 percent in 2010 due to a record production of soy and other agricultural products, paired with export commodity prices at record levels, and Argentina’s inability to meet demand due to supply shortages. The record soybean harvest and commodity prices bolstered domestic demand as the increase in export revenues translated into additional disposable income. This strong economic performance resulted in a decline in overall poverty levels, from 49.7 percent in 2002 to 35.1 percent in 2009. Extreme poverty also fell from 24.4 to 19.4 percent during the same period. Inequality remains, however, high. National surveys point to a Gini coefficient of 0.49 for the country as a whole in 2009. The wealthiest 10 percent hold 37.7 percent of the nation’s income while the poorest 10 percent hold merely 1.3 percent, one of the worst ratios in the world. Sectoral and Institutional Context 2. In the education sector there have been significant advances, but challenges remain. In the last decade, Paraguay’s education system has made considerable strides, including an improvement in system coverage at all levels, increases in the average educational level of the population, and improvements in the sector’s internal efficiency. In addition, public expenditure on education (around 4 percent of GDP) is one of the highest in the region. Similarly, progress has been made on national interventions aimed at improving the quality of education, student learning, and the internal efficiency of the system. However, important challenges remain including the need to: (i) expand enrollment in secondary education and tertiary education; (ii) improve student learning outcomes at all levels; (iii) reduce inequalities in access between urban and rural areas, by gender, language spoken at home and income quintiles, especially in secondary and tertiary education; and (iv) improve internal efficiency through reducing repetition and drop-out rates at all levels. 3. Enrollment and student achievement in upper secondary education remain low. Although net enrollment rates in upper secondary grew from 33 percent to 44 percent in the period of 2000-2009, they remain among the lowest in LAC and far behind other Mercosur countries. Regardless of Paraguay’s high public expenditure on education (one of the highest in the region), its learning outcomes remain among the lowest. Only around 5 percent of upper secondary students reach the level expected for their grade, as measured by Sistema Nacional de Evaluación de los Procesos Educativos (SNEPE) in 2006 and 2009. 4. Low learning outcomes in upper secondary can be partially explained by the lack of a conducive environment for effective teaching and learning. The 2002 curricular reform launched in 2002 introduced a competency-based approach and restructured traditional subjects into thematic areas. Upper secondary education (grades 10-12) current curriculum consists of Scientific and Technical Baccalaureates (bachilleratos), which share a Curricular Common Plan in grades 10 to 11 prior to 12th grade specialization. Whereas the Scientific baccalaureate emphasizes communication and arts, the Technical baccalaureate offers three specialties: Industrial, Services and Agrarian. The curricular reform was not paired with a strategy to timely train current upper secondary teachers and teachers-to-be to the new curricular framework. With the previous sector operation, partially financed by the Bank, the Ministry of Education (MINED) begun to address this issue with revamped pre- and in- service teacher training programs for upper secondary education that are in line with the new curricular framework. 5. The National Student Assessment System requires further strengthening. The SNEPE was developed with support from the previous World Bank-supported Project (MECES) and has produced several measurements of student learning outcomes at different educational levels. However, future learning measurements warrant further strengthening of the SNEPE through the provision of adequate human, technical and financial resources for test preparation, validation and administration, for data processing and analysis, and for the dissemination and use of test results. 6. In this context, one of the main tasks ahead for the MINED is to ensure the alignment of the curricular design with teacher qualifications. As enrollment rates grow, so does the need to recruit and maintain a greater number of qualified teachers who are trained to teach at the upper secondary education level and within the new subject structure set by the curricular design. A World Bank (2008) study found that the expansion of upper secondary coverage has not been necessarily accompanied by an increase in the number of qualified teachers whose number swelled to 7,280 between 2001 and 2005. Available data from teacher entrance examinations show that teachers have limited knowledge of the new curriculum and didactic processes. 7. Adding to the problem, there are delays and inefficiencies in the recruitment and deployment of teachers. The teacher selection process in secondary education does not facilitate the timely filling of vacant posts nor result in the recruitment of teachers who fit the required profile. The current (paper-based) system does not allow for storing, organizing and cross- referencing data on vacant posts and applicants, thereby causing delays in the assignment of qualified teachers to the vacant posts. With regards to the assignment of teachers, the World Bank study found that 50.4 percent of upper secondary teachers have a teaching load of less than 15 teaching hours per week overall, indicating that there is room for a greater concentration of teaching hours. Another inefficiency problem in teacher assignment relates to what is known as “taxi” teachers whereby 39 percent of teachers teach at more than one school, which impedes their full participation in quality improvement interventions at the school level. A study by UNESCO shows that the less-qualified teachers are located mostly in rural schools and in indigenous communities. 8. Upper secondary schools still lack sufficient teaching and learning materials, such as textbooks, teacher libraries, laboratories, information and communication technology. Thanks to the MECES Project, for the first time in the history of the education sector in Paraguay, students from public secondary schools received free textbooks in most subjects and that some public secondary schools were equipped with science laboratories and a center for learning resource materials. Nonetheless, the current situation remains one of limited learning materials in the classrooms for both students and teachers. About 58 percent of schools lack classroom libraries, and none of them have reference libraries for their teachers. To address this shortcoming, in September 2010, the Paraguayan Congress approved Law 4,088/2010 which declared upper secondary education as mandatory and free of charge. The Law mandates progressive monetary transfers to all public secondary schools for non-salary recurrent and capital expenditures, according to student enrollment. Therefore, funds are expected to be increasingly available for textbooks and other essential learning inputs. 9. The World Bank is well positioned to help Paraguay address its key educational challenges. First, the Bank can bring to bear, its global knowledge and experience in the areas of teacher selection, training and professional development. Second, the proposed operation is seen as a natural continuation of the Bank’s support to the country since 1995 (see Table 1 below). Lessons learned from lending operations and analytical work strongly point to the need for focusing this proposed operation on a few key sector issues that are directly related to student learning, teacher policies and adequate provision of teaching and learning materials. Table 1: World Bank Contributions Loans Loan No Year Amount Paraguay Secondary Education Improvement 39410-PY 1995 US$24 Million Project (Project P007923) Education reform program (First Phase) (Project 7190-PA 2003 US$24 Million P073526) Sector Work Report No Year Secondary Education in Paraguay: 42665-PY 2008 Achievements, Challenges and Options 10. The design of the proposed Project will be informed by the results of a new global initiative led by the World Bank to collect, analyze, and disseminate comparable data about national and sub-national teacher policies across developed and developing countries. This initiative, known as the System Assessment and Benchmarking for Education Results (SABER), will provide the MINED with the information to make their own diagnosis about the state of teacher policies in Paraguay, learn about other countries’ policies, and make informed decisions about teacher policy reform. The MINED will be able to conduct analyses that contribute to the understanding of how teacher policies affect teacher quality and to obtain valuable information to fine-tune the Project components. The information collected through this exercise will be available to other countries in a user-friendly website, which is hosted at the World Bank and accessible to the general public. Relationship to CPS 11. The proposed Project is aligned with a key development goal of the World Bank’s Country Partnership Strategy for Paraguay (CPS) for 2009-2013 (Report No. 48087-PY, dated April 7, 2009), which is, to increase enrollment rates and the quality of secondary education. II. Proposed Development Objective(s) Proposed PDO 12. The proposed Project Development Objective (PDO) is to strengthen teacher capacities and increase the time that students spend engaged in relevant learning activities in the classroom. Key Results 13. Progress toward meeting these development objectives would be measured by improvement in key output and impact indicators which will be further identified during Project preparation. Impact indicators for the Project are expected to be: (i) Percentage of upper secondary school teachers who are independently certified in the competencies of the new curriculum framework; and (ii) Percentage of time that students spend, on average, engaged in relevant learning activities in the classroom, as measured through classroom observations in a representative sample of schools. III. Preliminary Description 14. The proposed lending instrument is a Specific Investment Loan (SIL) for an estimated amount of US$20 million equivalent, over the course of four years. The stated PDO will be achieved through the implementation of the following four components: &RPSRQHQW  ,PSURYLQJ WHDFKLQJ TXDOLW\ 86  PLOOLRQ  SHUFHQW RI WRWDO ORDQ  This component will build upon pre-and in-service teacher training 15. programs currently under implementation to finance (a) assessment of teaching practices in the context of the new curriculum framework; (b) fine-tuning the general models of pre and in-service teacher training based on the findings of the assessment of teaching practices; and (c) implementation of specialized training activities tailored to upper secondary teachers and principals. 16. Component 2. Provision and use of teaching and learning materials (US$8 million, 40 percent of total loan). This intervention will scale up the efforts to ensure adequate supply of teaching and learning materials. Specifically, textbooks, teaching materials, and science laboratories will be provided by this component through counterpart funds. In particular, ICT, audiovisual aids and the training of teachers in their application will be financed by the loan. 17. Component 3. Institutional strengthening (US$3 million, 15 percent of total loan). This component aims to strengthen the MINED’s capacity to manage upper secondary education at the central, provincial and school level. This component will finance (a) the implementation of a more efficient, computerized teacher selection and assignment system for upper secondary, based on the current teacher recruitment and certification policies; (b) the provision of ICT equipment for de-concentrated education supervision offices and upper secondary education management; (c) the strengthening of the SNEPE for the forthcoming student assessments, including technical personnel, test development and administration, data analysis and dissemination, software and hardware; (d) the development and implementation of an overall communication strategy for the Project, especially to address pressing concerns from teachers’ unions, and to involve them as partners for Project implementation; and (e) the strengthening of administrative units in charge of Project implementation and management. 18. Component 4. Monitoring and evaluation (US$1 million, 5 percent of total loan). This component aims to generate feedback on the implementation of Project activities and strengthen the institutionalization of key evaluation systems. It includes the financing of: (a) design and implementation of the Project monitoring framework; and (b) tailor-made research, including an impact evaluation of the teacher training activities. IV. Safeguard Policies that might apply Safeguard Policies Triggered by the Project Yes No TBD Environmental Assessment (OP/BP 4.01) X Natural Habitats (OP/BP 4.04) X Pest Management (OP 4.09) X Physical Cultural Resources (OP/BP 4.11) X Involuntary Resettlement (OP/BP 4.12) X Indigenous Peoples ( OP/BP 4.10) X Forests (OP/BP 4.36) X Safety of Dams (OP/BP 4.37) X Projects in Disputed Areas (OP/BP 7.60)* X Projects on International Waterways (OP/BP 7.50) X V. Tentative financing Source: ($m.) Borrower/Recipient 51 IBRD 20 IDA Others (specify) Total 71 VI. Contact point World Bank Contact: Mario Cristian Aedo Inostroza Title: Sr. Education Econ. Tel: (202) 473-2527 Email: caedo@worldbank.org Borrower/Client/Recipient Government of Paraguay Contact: Dr. Dionisio Borda Title: Minister of Finance Tel: (595-21) 440-010 Fax: (595-21) 448-283 Implementing Agencies Ministry of Education * By supporting the proposed project, the Bank does not intend to prejudice the final determination of the parties’ claims on the disputed areas Contact: Lic. Alcira Sosa Title: Directora General de Educación Media Tel: (595 21) 452899 (595 21) 494501 Email: soal_73@yahoo.com.ar VII. For more information contact: The InfoShop The World Bank 1818 H Street, NW Washington, D.C. 20433 Telephone: (202) 458-4500 Fax: (202) 522-1500 Web: http://www.worldbank.org/infoshop