ED Development Ethiopia

EDUCATION SECTOR DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

FEDERAL DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF ETHIOPIA

Case Study

Your Task:

1. Read the attached excerpt from the Program Appraisal Document for the Ethiopian Education Sector Development Program dated May 4, 1998. (The excerpt has been modified for the purposes of this case study.) 2. Determine how you would design the cost-benefit analysis for the Bank project if your group thinks it is needed, or propose an alternative justification. 3. Note the issue of traditional chika construction of primary schools. Discuss in your group what should be the advice of the Bank. 4. Appoint a reporter to inform the plenary session about the results of your discussion including the reasoning of the group in a presentation no longer than five minutes. Prepare an overhead for the reporter to use.

In preparing this case you may make reasonable assumptions about information you are not supplied.

EDUCATION SECTOR BACKGROUND AND POLICY

Ethiopia's education sector is characterized by low enrollment at all levels. Only about one out of three primary school age children attend primary school. The gross enrollment ratio (GER) in 1995/96 was 30% for grades 1 to 8. Only one in ten school age youth attend secondary school and tertiary education is open to a smaller fraction of those completing secondary education. Regional disparities are also prevalent with urban areas having higher gross enrollment ratios (GERs) than less developed regions such as Afar and Somali. Except for Addis Ababa, gender disparities also exist with girls having significantly lower GERs than boys.

Low and declining quality is a problem contributing to high dropout and repetition rates, especially for girls. About a third of the students enrolled in Grade One drop out and close to one-fifth of the remaining students repeat. Poor performance is linked with inadequate facilities (due to long standing neglect and civil strife, a number of schools in the country are in need of major repair), lack of teaching materials (the textbook to student ratio is 1:5), inadequate teacher training (only about 85% in primary, 30% in junior secondary and 40% in senior secondary are qualified for their post), and a curriculum that fails to take into account regional, cultural and linguistic differences. Science, language and culture components seem too theoretical, lacking enough practical material to prepare students to lead productive lives in their communities.

In spite of some recent gains in enrollment and numbers of schools and teachers, the educational system, particularly at the primary level, is still suffering from acute problems of accessibility, quality, equity and relevance at all levels.

In order to address these issues, the Government embarked on a set of political, economic, and social reforms, and formulated a new Education and Training Policy and Strategy (1994). The policy=s main goal is to restructure and expand the education system in ways that are directly relevant to the present and future requirements of the economy. The policy=s scope encompasses formal education from kindergarten to tertiary education, special needs education, and non-formal education. Its main objectives are the following:

 To make education more relevant and to link schools closer to the community by use of local languages as a medium of instruction at the primary level.  To increase students= access to textbooks by reducing the textbook/pupil ratio from 1:5 to 1:1 in core subjects (language, math and science).  To enable increasing numbers of students to complete 8 years of basic education by changing the existing structure of 6-2-4 to 8-2-2.  To provide a good quality primary education with an ultimate aim of achieving universal primary enrollment by 2015.  To provide vocational education and training at different levels attuned to the manpower requirements of the economy.  To provide a secondary education of appropriate quality in an equitable way.  To promote a higher education of good quality, relevance, and focusing on research and development.  To streamline the management and organization of the education system so as to make it decentralized, coordinated, participatory, professional and efficient.  To increase education financing by encouraging community participation, introducing cost sharing mechanisms, and involving the private sector in the provision of education.

There is substantial evidence that investment in education in Ethiopia is highly profitable both for individuals and for the society (Table 1). The social rates of return in Table 1 consider social costs but not the difficult to measure non-monetary social benefits. Primary education in particular has large effects on desired family size, on the perceived ideal age for having a first child, and on the use of contraception. Primary education also has an effect on health outcomes. Female education lowers stunting, wasting and child mortality. In rural areas research shows that a mother who has completed primary education is 60% more likely to make sure that her child will receive treatment if ill than a mother with no education.

Table 1. Rate of Return to Education by Level of Education, 1995/96 (percent) Rate of Return Primary Secondary Tertiary

Private 25 24 27

Social 15 14 12

Source: Household Income, Consumption and Expenditure Survey and Welfare Monitoring Surveys

Education Sector Development Program

The Government has prepared an Education Sector Development Program (ESDP) to translate the Government=s far-reaching policy and strategy into action. The program covers the first five years of a 20-year sector development program and was launched by the Government in 1997/98. The program envisions greatly expanded access with emphasis on primary education, raising enrollment from 3.1 million to 7 million and raising the primary enrollment ratio from 30% to 50%. This sharp increase in primary enrollment will also permit greater equity by increasing enrollment ratios for disadvantaged groups, including increasing enrollment of girls from 38% to 45% and reducing rural-urban disparities. At the same time, it is hoped to improve the efficiency of the education system by reducing dropout and repetition rates. Other elements of the ESDP would selectively expand secondary school facilities, extend technical and vocational education and training activities in close consultation with the private sector, and strengthen teacher training institutions to enable them to conduct effective in-service upgrading, particularly for primary school teachers. The ESDP envisions limited expansion of the tertiary sector to meet the immediate needs of the country for educators, engineers, health workers and public administrators. In addition a number of institutional development activities are planned to improve the effectiveness of the Ministry of Education and of regional education staff.

The Government approached the World Bank for a credit to support the ESDP. The Bank agreed on a sector investment program loan to support the ESDP amounting to US$100 million. About a fourth of the loan was earmarked to support construction of hundreds of new primary schools throughout the nation.

School Construction

The massive civil works campaign to build new primary schools requires the coordinated effort of planners, educators, communities, and contractors. These new schools will be needed to accommodate the students required to be enrolled in order for the project to meet the targets set in the ESDP. To make it a good investment, the schools will have to last beyond the period of the ESDP so that Ethiopia can attain the goal of universal primary education by 2015. Historically, schools in Ethiopia have been built with a variety of materials, depending on local conditions, donor involvement and community participation. During the previous regime, enrollment drives emphasized construction of chika — mud and thatch — schools, which are quick and inexpensive to construct, but require substantial maintenance and last only about 10 years. Typically, a chika school costs about the equivalent of US$12,500 to construct and requires annual maintenance of about US$900.

In recent years a variety of construction alternatives have been used to build new schools. The alternative generally preferred is hollow concrete block. These schools cost about the equivalent of US$19,000 to construct but require annual maintenance costing only about US$190. They can be expected to last about 40 years.

Early in the design of the Bank project, the issue of the trade-off between chika and hollow concrete block construction arose. For the same amount of money, about half again more schools could be built using the traditional chika construction. The question became whether the primary school enrollment objective of the Government was better served by enrolling more children in chika schools than could be enrolled in hollow concrete block schools, even though chika schools must be replaced after about 10 years and are more expensive to maintain.