Towards Education Sector Reform: An Initial Progress Report

 By H.E. Tol Lah, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education, Youth & Sport

Summary of Achievements 

This meeting between the Government and the international community provides an opportunity to provide a brief retrospective on education sector performance in recent years.  More importantly, it provides a platform for outlining our intentions for a major thrust in education sector policy reform in the next five to ten years. 

The Education For All assessment (1999) highlights some significant achievements by Government, with donor support, in education.  Primary school enrolment has increased steadily, alongside the building of many new classrooms.  Crucial quality improvements will be facilitated by recent increases in text book availability, the training of teachers and gradual re-organisation of the examination system. 

There have been some gains in education financing with substantial education aid flows, teacher salary rises and continued parental contributions, alongside significant increases in education discretionary spending.  Capacity building at the central, district, cluster and school levels have been important initiatives.  Many of our traditional partners, UN agencies, World Bank, European Union, Asian Development Bank, SIDA, DFID and other agencies have contributed to these successes.

The Challenges

It is recognised that the education sector faces a number of key challenges in the next decade if our ambition for a high quality education service is to be realised.  The education sub committee of the Social Sector Working Group has summarised the main challenges as: a) improved sector performance, b) better financial performance, c) clearly stated priorities and processes, d) strengthened regulatory frameworks and e) better sector monitoring and evaluation.  This is a fair assessment.  I would like to therefore outline the Ministry’s plan of action for addressing these issues, including forging a revitalised partnership between the Government/Ministry and the donor community. 

Several of the original targets of the Socio-Economic Development Plan have not been attained, especially low growth in secondary school enrolment and limited cost efficiency gains.  Some of the projects designed to assist achieving these targets have yet to show the overall impact anticipated.  For this reason I have initiated a thorough policy review process.  Our aim is to formulate an initial set of sequenced priorities and targets, linked to a strategic and programme framework by March/April 2000.

This framework will include a plan for expansion of quality secondary schooling, including improved gender balance.  The Ministry intends to use these plans to help formulate a number of priority action programmes (PAPs) by early 2000.  We intend to mobilise technical working groups in early November to drive this process forward.  This process will also include review and possible revision of existing SEDP targets and lessons learnt from previous initiatives.  Our intention is to formulate some initial PAPs by early 2000. 

Financial performance has been disappointing, including fluctuating levels of donor support in recent years.  However I very much welcome the initial proposed projections for education spending which show a potential increase from Riels 170 billion to 350 billion by 2002.  Our intention is to prepare alternative budget scenarios, including critical salary/non salary spending ratios by the end of 1999.  It is also encouraging that the actual education budget outturns in 1999 appear to be improving to 109% of budgeted expenditure compared to 94-95% in 1996.

Given the importance of provincial authorities, the Ministry intends to enhance consultation mechanisms with the provinces for budget planning, including new budget guidelines from late 1999.  All these financial discussions will feed into the forward budget planning process and the first phase PAPs.  I intend to consult regularly with the donor community on policy/strategic issues and associated aid outlooks from the middle of November 1999.

We recognise the need to revisit and restate our overall education priorities, within realistic resource envelopes.  As I said earlier, our target is to complete the first phase of this exercise by March 2000.  If all goes well this may provide a vehicle for a significant Government/Ministry/donor review and appraisal exercise to secure a new partnership in education into the millennium.  I intend to keep in close touch with colleagues in key Ministries and the international community.  Any such exercise, possibly in April/May 2000 will include a review of progress made on the Education Investment Plan 1995/2000 endorsed at the 1995 Round Table. 

As the outcome of the 1998 and 1999 National Education Congress illustrated, it  is recognised that strengthening legislation and regulations are a growing priority to secure spending effectiveness.   Preparing an initial plan for this kind of institutional reform and development, especially financial management and quality assurance, is vital.  Our target is to formulate our capacity building priorities for implementing better regulations and operational guidelines early next year. 

We recognise that a policy development process is an evolving and rolling programme.  The Ministry will be presenting a long term work programme for policy/strategy development in the coming weeks.  I would wish to use a commonly agreed work programme between the Ministry and the donor agencies as a framework for strengthening our partnership, possibly through some form of formalised agreement. 

Having said this, it is critical that there is continuation and assurance of key investments, running in parallel to the policy review process.  We must avoid experience elsewhere when investments by Government and donors have slowed down or been put on hold as the planning exercise takes place.  In particular, I  would hope that pipeline projects would place increased emphasis on  capacity building related to enhancing educational opportunities, improving quality and creating efficient education services.

Strengthening Sector Monitoring and Evaluation

I see it as a priority that the Ministry’s capacity to monitor and evaluate the performance of the sector be strengthened as soon as possible.  As a first step the priority action programmes (PAPs) will be linked to clear performance indicators and financial reporting mechanisms as required by the Ministry of Economy and Finance.  I intend to have prepared an initial framework for this process by early 2000.

I would also like to reiterate the importance accorded to strengthening financial management and reporting systems at all levels in the education service.  I would see these capacity building areas as a priority for early donor support.  A second priority would be to strengthen broader progress and impact monitoring systems at central and provincial levels, drawing on our improving education management information system. 

The importance of capacity building is particularly pressing at this time, bearing in mind the need to strengthen reporting systems on financial expenditure and staff management.  Once again I would see these areas as priorities for donor support in the first phase of resequencing education investments.  These capacity building areas will feature in the strategic and programme framework mentioned earlier.  The Ministry will also incorporate plans for overcoming the retirement of key MoEYS staff within short term capacity building strategies.

Finally I see this growing emphasis on sector monitoring/evaluation as an important vehicle for strengthening the partnership with donors and other stakeholders.  In the future, my ambition would be that much of this sector performance monitoring would be a joint exercise, with all partners sharing in the successes but also helping to overcome occasional disappointments.

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