PROJECT INFORMATION DOCUMENT (PID)



PROJECT INFORMATION DOCUMENT (PID)

CONCEPT STAGE

Report No.: AB274

|Project Name |VN-NATIONAL EFA PLAN IMPLEMENTATION |

|Region |EAST ASIA AND PACIFIC |

|Sector |Primary education (70%); Secondary education (30%) |

|Project ID |P085260 |

|Borrower(s) | |

|Implementing Agency | |

| |Ministry of Education and Training |

| |49 Dai Co Viet |

| |Tel: (84-4) 869 4795 Fax: (84-4) 869 4085 |

| |Socialist Republic of Vietnam |

|Environment Category |[ ] A [ ] B [X] C [ ] FI [ ] TBD (to be determined) |

|Safeguard Classification |[ ] S1 [ ] S2 [X] S3 [ ] SF [ ] TBD (to be determined) |

|Date PID Prepared |August 26, 2003 |

|Estimated Date of Appraisal Authorization |July 14, 2004 |

|Estimated Date of Board Approval |October 15, 2004 |

1. Key development issues and rationale for Bank involvement

Vietnam has expressed strong commitment to achieving universal basic education as a cornerstone of social development and economic growth. This commitment is clearly formulated in the Education Strategic Plan for 2001-2010 and the Comprehensive Poverty Reduction and Growth Strategy. A fully-costed National Education For All (EFA) Action Plan has been approved in July 2003 by the Prime Minister. To date, Vietnam is the only country in the South East Asia region that has qualified for the EFA Fast Track Initiative.

During the past 10 years, Vietnam has accomplished tremendous progress in the field of education. The primary net enrollment rate increased from 86% in 1990 to 94% in 2000, the dropout rate declined from 12% to less than 3%, the repetition rate fell from 9% to less than 5% and the completion rate increased from 47% to more than 75%. In addition, Vietnam has also significantly developed junior secondary (JS) education opportunities. The transition rate from primary to JS has increased from 78% to 88% and a majority of young Vietnamese have gained access to nine years of basic education. The share of education on total public expenditure in 2003 is 17% and is expected to increase to 20% by 2015.

However, significant challenges in educational access and quality still remain. First, approximately 6% of the school age population has never attended school. Barriers to education access are concentrated in specific regions of Vietnam, where schooling is made harder due to lack of adequate human resources, prevalence of vernacular languages other than Vietnamese, high poverty incidence, lack of adequate financial resources, limited resource mobilization at the local level and the existence of smaller remote communities that tend to make unit costs of education higher. An estimated 30% of ethnic minority children have no access to basic education. It is clear that the goal of universal basic education in these disadvantaged areas will not be achieved without targeted programs.

Second, financing of the education system still heavily relies on significant contributions from families, for both capital and some recurrent expenditures. Except for limited fee exemptions for approximately 10% of parents, it is widely acknowledged that direct costs to education are a salient obstacle to schooling access for disadvantaged children.

Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) accounts approximately for 10% of the total public education budget. But despite substantial Government and overseas contributions to education, the existing level of effort is not yet sufficient to achieve Vietnam’s targets for EFA by the year 2015. The National EFA Action Plan shows that these objectives will remain elusive without an additional investment of 2 to 2.5 billion dollars for the period 2003-2015 (see EFA Technical Annex IV for full costing). This situation is compounded by the fact that additional financing must be mobilized to relieve the burden of education cost-sharing to poor families. The proposed targeted budget support intervention would help to bridge the estimated financing gap at the primary level for the period 2005-2006.

2. Proposed objective(s)

First, the project will provide budget support the Government of Vietnam needed to make progress towards the achievement of its National EFA goals, in particular with regard to expanding access to universal basic education for poor and disadvantaged children.

In addition, the project will support the improvement of educational quality through the implementation of minimum quality standards, commonly referred to as “Fundamental School Quality Levels” (FSQL). The FSQL standards establish minimum service delivery criteria in terms of infrastructure, teaching staff qualifications, in service professional development, school organization and management and schooling inputs. During the life of the project, the share of schools achieving FSQL standards will be expected to increase. In addition, the share of schools offering a full-day curriculum will grow.

Finally, the project will support a policy framework in education finance, planning and governance that will act as an enabling environment to promote expanded educational access and improved service delivery. In support of the EFA strategy objective to make free primary school available to all children by 2015, direct cost and fee exemptions for disadvantaged students will be expanded during the project period. The school funding formula will accommodate provisions for compensatory financing to better serve poor children.

3. Preliminary description

The proposed support program consists of an earmarked budget support operation to the education sector in support of National EFA goals in basic education and the promotion of minimum service delivery standards. The funding gap to achieve primary education goals is calculated at about USD 50 million per year on average.

The project will utilize a specific purpose transfer disbursement channel, introduced by the revised Budget Law, which will top-up traditional equalization budget transfers from the central government to sub-national governments. These specific purpose transfers will channel resources to specific policy priorities and interventions in provinces, districts, communes and schools, which cannot be reallocated to other purposes by sub-national governments. These earmarked budget transfers can support both recurrent and capital expenditures.

4. Safeguard policies that might apply

Indigenous peoples: This is a targeted budget support operation to advance an overarching enabling policy environment aimed at expanding educational opportunities and enhancing education service delivery for disadvantaged communities. The project is expected to benefit districts and provinces where indigenous peoples reside. Earmarked budget transfers from the central government to sub-national governments will support the attainment of education minimum quality standards.

5. Tentative financing

|Source: |($m.) |

|BORROWER/RECEPIENT |0 |

|INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION |50 |

| Total |50 |

6. Contact point

Contact: Luis Benveniste

Title: Senior Education Specialist

Tel: (202) 473-8495

Fax: (202) 614-0935

Email: lbenveniste@

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