PROJECT INFORMATION DOCUMENT (PID)



PROJECT INFORMATION DOCUMENT (PID)

CONCEPT STAGE

Report No.: AB3939

|Project Name |Additional Credit through the |

| |Kenya Education Sector Support Program for the |

| |Secondary Schools Bursaries Reform Project |

|Region |AFRICA |

|Sector |Secondary education (100%) |

|Project ID |P110437 |

|Borrower(s) |GOVERNMENT OF KENYA |

| |Government of Kenya |

| |Ministry of Finance, The Treasury |

| |P.O. Box 30007-00100 |

| |Kenya |

| |Tel: 2252299 Fax: 2240045 |

|Implementing Agency |Ministry of Education |

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

|Date PID Prepared |July 12, 2008 |

|Estimated Date of Appraisal Authorization |August 21, 2008 |

|Estimated Date of Board Approval |November 11, 2008 |

1. Key development issues and rationale for Bank involvement

The key development issue is that the ongoing Ministry of Education (MoE) secondary school bursaries program is not a truly pro-poor oriented investment program, and therefore requires reforms to improve the flow of funds, targeting and accountability. The additional credit is sought for the implementation of additional/expanded activities that would scale up the impact and development effectiveness of the ongoing Kenya Education Sector Support Program (KESSP), and to address some of the post-election emergency needs and some medium-term priorities.

The rationale for the additional credit is supported by the vision and activities articulated in the MoE’s secondary education strategy which was prepared in March 2007, and the recommendations of the National Task Force on Affordable Secondary Education. The task force was convened to articulate the action for GoK to introduce the Free Secondary Education policy which was announced in January 2008 at the start of the academic year. It has now become urgent to support reforms in the MoE secondary bursary scheme to make it a well targeted pro-poor investment to (i) increase access to secondary schools; (ii) ensure retention of students in secondary schools; (iii) promote transition and completion rates; and (iv) reduce disparities and inequalities in the provision of secondary school education. Reform innovations will include more accurate needs assessment for targeting bursaries, changing the timing of identifying the most needy students, introducing governance and accountability measures to track bursary allocations, and building on the existing plethora of non-state bursary providers towards mobilizing them to introduce coherent financial sustainability and accountability measures into the bursary scheme. It is for the reforms that MoE is seeking the additional credit through the ongoing KESSP. The World Bank is already pooling funds along with Development Partners to assist reform efforts through KESSP. The World Bank’s involvement is a natural progression of ongoing activities. MoE has sought the Bank’s support for technical assistance and financing for the reforms.

2. Proposed objective(s)

The objective of the AF through KESSP is to reform the Government’s ongoing bursary scheme and will contribute towards: (i) increasing access for poor students to secondary education; (ii) ensuring their retention of those who enter secondary school; and (iii) enhancing their chances of completing secondary school. The approach would be to improve the efficiency and equity of the secondary school bursary scheme, and to contribute to raising the transition rates from primary to secondary education in keeping with the Government’s stated goals in Sessional Paper I of 2005. This would be achieved through two components: (i) a pilot pro-poor secondary school bursary scheme to set up demonstration effect in support of reforms to the Ministry of Education secondary schools bursary scheme, and more full-fledged support based on sequencing reforms which would signal Government’s commitment to pro-poor investment; and (ii) a governance and accountability component.

3. Preliminary description

Component 1. A pilot pro-poor secondary school bursary scheme to set up demonstration effect in support of reforms to the Ministry of Education secondary schools bursary scheme, and more full-fledged support based on sequencing reforms which would signal Government’s commitment to pro-poor investment. Provision of secondary school bursaries in the form of grants would be based on reforms based on the following principles: (i) Targeting: Ensuring that only students in genuine need actually benefit with sufficient funds to complete the four years of secondary education; (ii) Predictability: (i) re-orienting the existing/ongoing MoE scheme to award bursaries to students before they enroll in secondary school; and (ii) advancing disbursement of bursary funds to constituency and school bank accounts early in the school year; (iii) Consistency: Establishing funding allocation guidelines to ensure greater consistency for the duration of secondary schooling and the amounts received; (iv) Accountability and transparency: Designing an appropriate monitoring and evaluation system to follow the allocation of funds and the performance of beneficiaries; and (v) Governance and incentives: Ensuring national recognition for best performance for bursary awards, utilizing IEC channels to disseminate good practices, and providing avenues for sharing good practice examples of bursary awards management.

Component 2. Governance and Accountability: (i) Bursary Management Information System (BMIS). A bursary management information system (BMIS) will be developed to capture critical data on number of students receiving secondary school bursaries, the consistency with which they are receiving bursaries, and their overall performance; (ii) Institutional Capacity Development. The envisaged capacity development activities of the SSBR would go beyond traditional approaches of the supply of training and technical cooperation towards a focus on demand, and incentives for retaining and effective use of capacity. A public expenditure accountability approach for frontline service delivery aimed at tracking concrete results at beneficiary level will be instituted to improve the responsiveness, efficiency, and efficacy of the MoE’s current subsidy scheme; and (iii) Monitoring and Evaluation. The SSBR will include a full-fledged impact evaluation assessment, including the upstream impact evaluation to inform the targeting of secondary school bursaries. Baseline data collection has already commenced, and it is envisaged that the first report will inform the targeting of bursaries for Cohort 1 in academic year 2009 commencing in January. Risk mitigation and monitoring will include the layering of audits from central to local levels, and will include social audit at community level through the use of Citizens’ Report Cards. In addition, a mechanism will be set up for households and/or students to file complaints.

4. Safeguard policies that might apply

No safeguard policies are envisaged to be triggered by the additional credit.

5. Tentative financing

|Source: |($m.) |

|BORROWER/RECIPIENT |0.00 |

|International Development Association (IDA) |28.00 |

| Total |28.00 |

6. Contact point

Contact: Shobhana Sosale

Title: Senior Operations Officer

Tel: 254 20 322 6365

Fax: 254 20 3226384

Email: Ssosale@

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