Ministry of Education

Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

Education Quality Improvement Program (EQUIP

III)
Concept Note

Prepared by

EQUIP Coordination Unit

28 February 2016

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 Contents

Introduction:.............................................................................. 3
Background and Rationale for EQUIP III.....................................3
Country Context.....................................................................3
Sector Context........................................................................4
EQUIP II Status........................................................................5
Project Component wise performance..................................5
Challenges............................................................................ 6
EQUIP II Evaluation.................................................................. 6
Rationale for EQUIP III.............................................................7
EQUIP III Focus Areas.................................................................7
Programmatic Focus Areas under EQUIP III.............................8
Reforms in Programme Management in EQUIP III:.................10

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 EQUIP III Concept Note

Introduction:
This Concept Paper presents the initial discussion for the potential areas of focus for the follow on
programme to EQUIP II. A letter from Ministry of Education has been sent to Ministry of Finance
requesting for the follow up project, EQUIP III subsequent to the closure of EQUIP II on 31 st December
2016. The paper also mentions some of the important best practices of the existing programme, its
achievements and lessons learnt. Based on these as well as the current state of the sector and priorities of
the Ministry of Education, the concept note elaborates the need for restructuring within the existing
components of the programme to ensure a narrower scope in line with current priorities of the Government
and to bring about a stronger focus on results.

The proposed interventions under EQUIP III would deepen the on-going reform agenda, expand successful
project interventions in order to scale up impact and development effectiveness, and would fill the funding
gaps in the critical areas in harmonization with the National Education Strategic Plan III of the
Government. Implementation of the next level of reforms to enhance measures to bring children in
disadvantaged circumstances into pre-primary and primary education and to ensure their learning more
effectively, to upgrade the quality of learning for all children, greater role for civil society in promoting
spread of education and to strengthen mechanisms for public and private sectors to work more closely
together in education service delivery, some of which were initiated through the EQUIP since 2004 will be
intensified during the EQUIP III period.

The proposed EQUIP III would cover the costs associated with scaling up activities to enhance the impact
of a project while introducing the following innovative elements (i) strategic changes in the design of the
operation and project implementation supporting transformational impacts on enhancing service delivery;
and (ii) disbursement linked indicators to strengthen the focus on results and address issues related to
sector efficiency. The EQUIP III would help achieve the overall Project Development Objective (PDO) to
improve access to, and quality and equity of education, by continuing to support the implementation of
Afghanistans National Education Strategic Plan (NESP III) from 2017 to 2020.

Activities selected to be supported by the EQUIP III are those with potential to address key bottlenecks to
improving learning outcomes in the education and enhancing the sectors efficiency. In particular, the
EQUIP III would provide continuous support to existing activities promoting the acquisition of learning
competencies, namely teacher training, curricula reform and the provision of textbooks in an efficient and
timely manner. Girls and children living in rural areas are disproportionally affected by early dropout and
therefore expected to benefit the most from the activities supported by the EQUIP III. In addition, the
EQUIP III would support activities aimed at enhancing accountability for better learning outcomes through
strengthened governance at the school, district and provincial level. Finally, the EQUIP III would continue
to support activities aimed at facilitating school readiness through the provision of Early Childhood
Development (ECD) activities.

Background and Rationale for EQUIP III

Country Context
Afghanistan has thirty four provinces and has a population of approximately 34 million though there is no
nation-wide census, with a high poverty rate hovering over 35% despite numerous efforts towards poverty
reduction by the government and international community. The gap between the rich and poor is
increasing leading to more socio-economic inequities. The security situation remains tense and country
has been undergoing difficult transition since the withdrawal of the international forces. The recovery
from the security and political transition in Afghanistan is much slower than expected. The private
investment had a massive slowdown since 2014 and domestic revenues have fallen to 8.7% in 2014

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particularly due to economic slowdown 1. However, the National Unity Government has taken up an
ambitious agenda for reform in the country to revitalize the economy and create an atmosphere for private
foreign investment in the county.

Education is one of the most important aspects of human development and it continues to be a major
challenge in the country. Afghanistan is ranked at one of the lowest level of 175th in the human
development index and the literacy rate in the country continues to be very low. The current rate of
improvement for education, literacy and related gender equity indicators will fail to achieve the ANDS
targets by 2020. Despite number of achievements in the last decade in educational performance,
opportunities and access to schools remains limited, especially for girls and women, and rural populations
in general, even though the gender gap in education and literacy show continuous improvement, in both
absolute and relative terms. The share of the adult Afghan population who have completed any level of
education is very small, less than 25 percent, and for women as few as 10 percent. However, major
improvements in primary and secondary school completion are observed for the younger age group 15-24
years, especially for girls. This is the result of increasing school attendance in the past decade 2.

Afghanistan is a signatory to the Convention on the Rights of the Child which enshrines the right of all
children to a primary education that will give them the skills they need to continue learning throughout
life. The Constitution of the Afghan year 1382 mandates that the State will provide free and compulsory
education from Grade 1 to Grade 9 and a free education to the completion of Grade 12. Yet, a large
majority of Afghan children are deprived of this right to free education especially girls. Since 2004, a
nationwide process for spread of education is being implemented with large support from the international
community which has showed significant improvements in the areas of literacy and educational
attendance3.

After a decade of increasing school attendance at all levels, there is a stagnation of improvement in
primary education attendance or even deterioration. The net attendance ratio for boys has only marginally
increased, whereas that for girls has decreased from around 51 percent to around 48 percent. One
explanation of declining school attendance of girls could be the reportedly increasing attacks on girls
schools in recent years4. This explanation is supported by the observation that security concerns were
much more often mentioned as the reason for girls not to attend primary school compared to 2011-12.

Beyond the major achievement of increase in enrolment levels in the country from only 4 million in 2008
to 8.5 million in 2014, there are other major challenges in the education system. Some of major
bottlenecks are the availability of well qualified teachers especially the female teachers, lack of female
teachers in rural areas, limited school infrastructure, lack of availability of drinking water and toilet
facilities in many schools, lack of awareness among the communities and weak service delivery. Further,
the existing education system does not have any linkage to the vocational training programs and as a result
the adolescents passing out of Grade 12 are not equipped to take any skilled jobs in the market. This
seriously reduces the relevance of education in improving the future of these children. With 47% of the
population in the country in the age group of less than 15 years which will be joining the labor force,
increasing access to quality education is a daunting task and at the same time most critical to the needs of
the development in the country.

1 The World Bank Group (2015), Afghanistan Country Snapshot

2 Central Statistical Organization (2014), NRVA 2011-12, Afghanistan Living

Conditions Survey, Kabul, CSO

3 Central Statistical Organization (2014), NRVA 2011-12, Afghanistan Living

Conditions Survey, Kabul, CSO

4 Afghanistan Living Conditions Survey (ALCS) 2014, CSO, Kabul

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Sector Context
A recent assessment of the implementation of the EQUIP II shows that Afghanistan has made significant
progress in improving equitable access to education. Between 2008 and 2014, net enrolment in schools
has more than doubled from 4 million to 8.5 million. Out of these the enrolment of girls has increased
from 1.9 million to 3.3 million and every year more children are in the education system overall. The ratio
of girls to boys has slightly improved over the period in Grade 1-3 but it has substantially improved from
Grade 4 -12. The student completing the last grade of the stage has also significantly improved from 2008
to 2014, in Grade 3, 6, 9 and 12. Despite this, there are significant challenges facing the education level,
particularly the weak retention, low level of learning environment; inadequate school infrastructure and
lack of qualified teachers. Only about half the total registered schools have proper buildings, among the
teachers, only 52% meet the minimum requirements and national student learning assessments are yet to
be mainstreamed and quality of education and administration remains weak 5. All these factors are
mutually reinforcing and result in weak learning outcomes. This is evidenced by the recent results from
the 2014 national assessment of Grade 6 which shows that 10% of students cannot read simple words,
14% of students of maths cannot name simple shapes and 31% of students cannot write a simple word.

There are wide variations in the drop-out rates from schools, region wise, and gender wise and among
rural and urban areas as per the Drop-Out study conducted under EQUIP II. The major cited for the high
drop-out rates are early marriage and social customs, insecurity, lack of qualified teachers, illiteracy of
parents and their lack of interest in education, poverty, lack of female teachers, location of schools and
lack of food incentive in the schools 6.

Further, a study on Ministry of Educations sub-national structure with an overall goal to improve its
performance & effectiveness at sub-national level was conducted by Altai Consulting under EQUIP II in
2014. The report focusses on key findings and recommendations relevant for policy and program
development to strengthen sub national governance of the public education sector 7. The report points out
the critical need to enhance capacity of the provincial level authorities and their accountability for
improving service delivery in the education sector.

EQUIP II Status
Most of the PDO level results indicators of EQUIP II are on track and some of them have been already
achieved. Overall implementation of the project has progressed well, with the exception of the school
construction activities which have experienced substantial delays and encountered significant issues in
terms of quality. The project has made considerable progress in (i) the number of teachers trained, (ii)
provision of inputs to schools, and (iii) establishment of information systems including collecting first
hand data from schools and provincial directorates. The PDO indicators such as direct project
beneficiaries (enrollment of students segregated by gender) and establishing systems of learning
assessment, show positive trends; however, the increase in girls enrollment and ratio-boy to girl remain
below their target levels8.
There has been considerable increase in number of schools established from 326 in 2008 to 1000 in
2014. The student class room ratio has come down to 65 % and the proportion of schools with toilets and

5 The World Bank Group (2015), Afghanistan Country Snapshot

6 Research Study in School Drop Out (2015), organization for Sustainable

Development and Research (OSDR)

7 Educational Sub-National Assessment: Strengthening Public Education

Management (2015), Altai Consulting

8 Aide Memoire for the WB Mission in November 2015

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drinking water has made impressive progress to 84 % and 73% respectively 9. Despite these
achievements, school infrastructure is severely lacking in many provinces especially in insecure
provinces. Many schools lack in proper boundary walls, latrines, and drinking water facilities etc. making
it very difficult for children especially girls to attend the school.

Further, more than 150,000 teachers in the country have been trained in in-service training programs.
Despite this quality of teachers and their capacity remain severely restricted. The number of female
teachers is very limited which directly impacts the enrolment and retention of girls in the schools.

Project Component wise performance

Quality Enhancement Grants (QEGs): The objective of this sub-component is to develop linkages between
schools, communities, and local governments while supporting and empowering schools and communities
as local education managers. There are two types of grants supported under the project: first and second
generation grants. Under EQUIP II, 11,543 schools (versus an objective of 5,000) benefited from quality
enhancement grants for a total amount of US$25 million. In the extension period of the project from
August 2015 to December 2016, it was agreed that there will be no further disbursement of QEGs.

Social Mobilization has been an important investment over the past 7 years with important gains in
establishing functional shuras, supporting them with school improvement plan development, as well as
sensitizing communities of the value of education. These structures are now sufficiently mature to stand
on their own feet10. Therefore the Directorate of Social Mobilization will be engaged in a) assessment
and evaluation of the school grants to gather lessons from the current phase and inform future intervention
in this area, and b) development of a social mobilization strategy in line with the Citizens Charter vision.
It was agreed that the Ministry would follow up closely on the development of the Citizens Charter, given
its importance in determining the future of social mobilization, local participation and education service
delivery at the village and community level.

Challenges
Weak Oversight of civil works: The construction management aspect in the project is weak, including
renewal of expired contracts and expired licenses of contractors; release of payments to match the
financial progress with physical and follow up on other significant details with concerned departments
sometimes for years, are major challenges and these have resulted in long delays in executing the civil
works. Further, A large number of schools that have already been funded under the project still remain
incomplete (110 schools under stopped category and 524 school under incomplete according to the
estimate by ISD). There are also serious weaknesses in project management and coordination among
different departments, poor contract management as well as significant fiduciary issues.

Lack of Inter departmental Coordination: The implementation of the project also suffers from
operational level coordination between the line departments. Similarly, the monitoring of the progress has
been hampered by the inconsistent reporting of the line departments to the EQUIP Coordination Unit.
Lastly, there has been insufficient collaboration between EQUIP Coordination Unit, Procurement and
Financial Management Departments, as well as Infrastructure Services Department (ISD) 11.

Lengthy and time taking procurement procedures: The contract management system is adequate, Weak
tracking, monitoring and reporting system there are delays in procurement process & execution of school
contracts and controls are not adequate to address the associated risks of delays and lack of timely
response. Further there is lack of adequate coordination between different units (EQUIP Coordination
Unit, ISD, Procurement, Finance, Procurement Directorate etc.)
9 Results framework and Monitoring (October 2015), EQUIP II

10 Aide Memoire for the WB Mission in November 2015

11 Aide Memoire for the WB Mission in November 2015

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Structure of EQUIP Coordination Unit: The EQUIP Coordination unit simply acts as a coordinating
unit for the various departments of the ministry implementing the project. This modality has not been very
effective in implementing the program as it has led to large delays n project implementation, weak
monitoring and supervision of the project. The Project Implementation Unit will authority to implement
the project along with coordination as is the case with other WB projects like NSP, SDNRP etc. is more
effective in implementing programs considering the limited capacity of the ministry departments.

EQUIP II Evaluation

Three evaluations of EQUIP II have been carried out. These include Analysis of Education Sector & Cost-
Benefit Analysis by PARTICIP, Pre-Services and In-Service Teacher Training Programs (NPITT, DT3,
TTCs) Analysis by ISAPS and Program Analysis by Integration. All three evaluations have stated that
EQUIP II was very useful in enhancing access to quality education in the country and needs to be
continued for further improvements in the quality and access of education and for improving the service
delivery of the Government institutions in the sector.

Some of the major recommendations are as follows. Some of these have been incorporated in the proposed
focus areas for EQUIP III.

Focus efforts on equitable expansion of general secondary education, vocational education,

inclusive education and not at least literacy in remote areas.
Need to be engaged in a dialogue with development partners for long-term commitments to ensure
expansion of equitable educational opportunities while keeping a close eye on the quality of the
education services delivered.
Donors should continue to prioritize financing the education sector preferably through enhanced
alignment and harmonization with Afghanistans national priorities and plans
Measures should be taken to improve coordination among departments in ministry implementing
the project.
Emphasis on a comprehensive capacity development strategy and more emphasis would be
needed to developing the capacity of the civil servants to carry out regular tasks.
Funding for Early childhood education (ECD) needs to be considered.
Need to strengthen the role of sib national governance structures in providing service delivery.
More checks on the validity of EMIS enrollment data through regular field visits
The school book distribution system should in particular receive attention since many children are
without books.
Bureaucratic cumbersome financial procedures that delay projects should be reviewed. This has to
do with the procurement department of MoE and the relationship with MoF centrally as well at the
provincial level.
The curriculum should be reoriented from being content-based to competence- based and not only
focus on content that the students must master, but rather the competencies they should acquire.
Procurement has been a major problem and further streamlining of procurement processes to
speed up construction of new schools with boundary walls, water, toilets and garbage points need
to be considered.
Project support needed for District administrative structures, Community mobilization and
Infrastructure maintenance and more female teachers in districts,
Sustainability of school buildings & equipment

Rationale for EQUIP III

EQUIP II is going to be concluded in December 2016. The project commenced in 2008 with a funding of
USD 188 million and it has received two additional financing of USD 250 million in 2012 and 2014.
Thereafter it had two no-cost extensions. It is critical to continue EQUIP beyond 2016, in order to

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maintain the momentum created by EQUIP I and II in advancing school education and to reap benefits of
the initiatives taken under the earlier EQUIP programs. This will help to bring the large number of out of
school in to the education net and make effective improvements in the learning outcomes and quality of
education in the country.

EQUIP III Focus Areas

The EQUIP III would build on existing strategies that have proven to be effective, but the design would be
modified to reflect emphasis on key priorities and challenges and the implementation modalities which are
better and more effective. A selective approach would ensure stronger focus on areas that are identified as
crucial to improving learning outcomes, including, improving the learning environment, creating of child
friendly schools, enhancing school readiness through ECD activities, providing vocational skills in higher
grades and strengthening service delivery through improved local governance and school and resource
management.

Programmatic Focus Areas under EQUIP III

Learning Assessment: The EQUIP III would support scaling up of selected activities that are crucial to
further improve learning outcomes. Recent national level Grade 6 assessment showed weak learning
outcomes which require more efforts for enhancing education quality. The EQUIP III would provide
essential resources to reach this goal by focusing on early reading, writing and numeric skills. It would do
so by supporting ongoing actions aimed at: (i) improving school readiness (through expanding access to
ECD); (ii) enhancing the learning environment (including through the implementation of curriculum
reform and additional teacher training); and (iii) interventions aimed at transforming existing resources
into better results through enhanced local management and governance (including through strengthened
school management, increased supervision by districts, enhanced capacity of school councils, as well as
the targeting of resources to benefit the learning of all, with a focus on the most vulnerable).

Citizen-led Learning Assessments: In EQUIP III, citizen-led learning assessments could be piloted in 3-
4 provinces in the country. Recently there has been an emergence of the citizen-led assessments in many
developing countries which involves efforts by civil-society organizations to gather evidence on learning
to increase awareness of low learning outcomes and to stimulate actions that are intended to address the
learning gap. Citizen-led assessments are tailored to each country context and have been recently
conducted in countries in the region like India and in Africa including Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Senegal
etc. Citizen-led assessments are a survey of childrens mastery of basic reading and math, using tools that
are simple to administer and easy to understand. They are conducted in households, not schools, so as to
include all childrennot just those enrolled in schools. Therefore all out-of-school children are also
included, as well as children in non-government schools. It is conducted orally and one-on-one, and unlike
a written test, this method allows children to demonstrate skills even if they cannot read the questions. The
survey is carried out independently by civil society through a network of partners and not by the
government. These kinds of assessments also take into account the important element of engaging ordinary
citizens in the assessment of childrens learning. This participatory method of the assessment also helps in
creating greater awareness among the communities and their sense of responsibility in proper functioning
of schools in their area.

Besides this, increased awareness of learning outcomes also helps the key education stakeholders with
quality information regarding the state of learning within their country, district, and community, in
initiating action to address issues in learning. The use of volunteers as surveyors also enables to extend
their role beyond that of data collectors to serve as champions within their communities. Citizen-led
assessments also support training partners and volunteers in the follow-up activities to implement
community engagement and social mobilization activities.

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Teachers Training program: While considerable progress has been achieved in Afghanistan with regard
to teachers training, teachers often lack the pedagogical skills to take it a step further and apply what they
have learned. EQUIP II will support the improvement of the existing pre-service and in-service training
programs benefitting from earlier experiences gained from teacher training programs operated throughout
the country. Further activities may include, making TTCs more responsive to needs and consistency across
TTC & school curricula.

Linking ECD centres to School Education: Lack of school readiness upon primary school entry is a
major concern, particularly among the poorest children. There are also cognitive and linguistic delays
of mostly disadvantaged 3 to 5-year old children, with major implications in terms of school readiness
and completion. The support to ECD activities helps in spread of education. The skills developed in
early childhood form the basis for future learning and failure to develop these skills in early childhood
can lead to long-term, often irreversible effects. Quality ECD interventions can actually help in
enhancing school readiness and improve physical and mental health. The focus of the ECD
interventions on rural and poor communities is expected to strengthen the benefit for the poorest. EQUIP
III would take up activities such as assessment of ECD initiatives currently being implemented in the
country, provision of community-based ECD services in rural areas of selected provinces and districts,
policy development and implementation in the area of ECD; capacity development in the Ministry to
support ECD service delivery and an impact evaluation of ECD activities under the project.

Reforms in Curriculum: In line with international best practices, teacher training would be
accompanied by other measures meant to enhance the quality of education in an integrated approach
which will bring more sustainable improvements in learning and teaching. The proposed activities will
involve streamlining the curriculum to increase learning time in language learning (reading, writing and
speaking) and mathematics, as well as to promote an integrated approach to life skills; designing
dedicated learning materials to support the implementation of the revised curriculum, as well as the
acquisition of additional learning materials, enhancement of the capacity of training institutes to ensure
their efficient and effective delivery of pre-service, in-service and professional development of
teachers; and supporting the development and application of learning assessment instruments, and,
where feasible, action- oriented research and sharing of best practices.

Provision of Text Books: Assessment of the text books requirement in the country from Grade 1 to 12
and provision of text books on a regular basis. This would also involve assessing the existing system of
text book distribution involving different levels including Ministry to provincial capitals to the district
and school level and strengthening the distribution systems.

Model Schools: The idea behind the model school is to reinforce an active learning environment for
students and teachers with the hope that this will have a demonstration effect on other schools in the
community. An additional grant of 15000 USD per school has been given to 73 model schools in the
country to improve their school environment. These model schools have been successful in improving
the school environment resulting in much better learning outcomes. It is proposed that under EQUIP III,
many more model schools will be set up, one each in every district, with around 400 in the country.
These schools have a huge demonstrative effect as communities also thereafter set up model schools
using their own funds. In model schools, EQUIP III could also focus on constructing those features which
are meant to cater to the children with special needs like handicapped children, blind, deaf and dumb etc.
This will enable large number of such children with special needs in the education net.

Constructing New Schools New School Buildings as a Learning Tool:

Amongst the barrier to education in Afghanistan is Lack of schools, long walking distance to schools,
and lack of essential facilities in existing school buildings.

According to NESPIII , Over seven thousand schools out of 14599 schools (49%)
do not have usable buildings. The MoEs capacity of outsourcing construction
projects is low and considering the fact that more schools are established each
year than constructed, the percentage of schools with buildings is getting lower
each year. Schools with buildings often do not have enough classrooms;
therefore, some classes are held under tents, in open space, or in rented

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buildings. Repairing school buildings is another challenge. Schools do not have
enough budgets for repairing their buildings. Moreover, many of the existing
school buildings lack proper sanitation, drinking water, or surrounding walls.

According to NESPIII, the MoE should reach both access and quality related
objectives identified in MDGs and EFA witht eh target for the number of
schools with usable buildings as low as 13100 by 1399 under general
education indicators , in addition to this ,under teacher education program
the target for Number of District TE Centers Constructed per year are set as
low as 40 TTC.It is expected that a fraction of these targets to be covered under
EQUIP III in order to enable MoE achieve there targets.
The Literacy Department will establish and construct 8 Community Literacy Centers at the zones of the country
in order to coordinate and supervise the literacy activities which is to be covered under EQUIP III

Education for children with disabilities: The MoE intends to provide access to children with disabilities and to
provide them with necessary facilities. For this, the MoE will construct 26 school buildings for the disble
children

Encourage communities to contribute in school construction: The MoE

encourages communities, especially benevolent businessmen, to contribute more in donating lands for schools
and constructing schools. The MoE will prioritize construction of those schools, in which, the community
provides more contribution.

Standard school construction: The MoE will construct all educational centers according to the defined criteria
and standards. All new school buildings will be accessible for students with disabilities, and will include
necessary facilities such as boundary walls, drinking water, and sanitation facilities. The MoE will supervise
school construction projects to ensure they meet the MoEs standards.

Construct a central building complex for the MoE

Monitoring and Evaluation Strategies

1. the MoE-ISD will evaluate the exsitng Designs , Specifications, Qulaity
Assurance and Quality control Policies in order to make sure that they are
effective, efficient, and sustainable and to apply the lessons learned for
improving the MoE ISD Designs and technical docuemtns
in addition to this, The MoE-ISD will systematically collect data and information
on (1) ordinary and development budget execution, (2) implementation of
activities, and 3) achieving results according to the Plan. The collected data and
information will be used for reporting to the senior management , and for
improving the implementation of plans.

2. Strengthen the MoEs-ISD MIS system The MoE-ISD will strengthen the
MIS to improve the quality and reliability of construction data, and to provide for
the MoEs leadership AND OTHER EDUCATION STAKEHOLDERS accurate and easy
to use, and up to date information.

3. Annual and semi-annual reports: In accordance with Reporting Procedures

which is approved by the MoE leadership, MoE ISD prepares its annual and
semi-annual reports, based on monitoring of operational plan implementation at
central, provincial and district levels. Based on lessons-learnt during the process,
Reporting Procedures will be revised, and meanwhile necessary guidance will be
provided to staff at different levels to better implement the projects and its
activities. Capacity development of the staff on reporting and monitoring will
remain as top priority

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4.. Develop the infrastructure service department capacity for
conducting research
The MoE-ISD will enhance its capacity for conducting technical researches and
evaluation to ensure of the effectiveness of implemented projects and to identify
the roots of problems and the reasons behind successes and failures. The MoE-
ISD will implement research studies independently and also jointly with national
and international research organizations.

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accessible to children with disabilities

School Buildings as a Learning Tool : It is a new concept to creatively use space and its built elements to
make school architecture more conducive to child development and improvement in education quality
through intervention in school building and infrastructure. The objective is to improve education quality in
schools by incorporating activity-based learning & child-friendly education. The school building will be
used as a tool for learning instead of being mere concrete structures. The architecture of a school can be
used as a resource to improve teaching and learning process which would help children to learn in a more
interesting way than only through their text books and also help in overall child development.

Teaching in government schools, especially in rural area is one-dimensional where teachers follow a
mechanical method of teaching and, apart from the textbooks, there is no other material available to
reinforce learning. Further, due to insecure conditions and limited resources, teachers in rural areas are not
always available in the classrooms and therefore these types of buildings will also help to aid learning for
children in such circumstances. It would include using the classroom walls, corridors, staircases and outer
space like the playground for teaching different mathematical, scientific and even historical concepts to
children. The next stage would involve introducing elements of imparting education, which are in-built in
walls, windows, doors, ceilings and even the floor. Therefore the schools will have numbers printed on its
stairs, walls of classrooms and corridors having maps of Afghanistan and the world and window panes
painted in different colours and figures and shapes. It is an interdisciplinary concept, which combines
architecture and design with child development, child behaviour, and the pedagogy of learning languages,
mathematics, and science. This program would however require an effective delivery mechanism that
brings engineers, teachers, and architects together to implement it.

Residential Schools: In the areas where schools cannot be opened due to security reasons or the areas are
inaccessible, residential schools can be opened in the district or provincial capitals to provide access to
schools for the children living in those areas. These schools will have all the facilities including hostels,
laboratories, libraries etc.

Mid-day Meal: In order to encourage out of school children to join schools and to reduce the drop-out
rates, a healthy and nutritious mid-day meal could be provided to children. This will help to improve the
health of the children, their mental and physical capability besides being an incentive for the parents and
children to go to school.

Vocational Skills Training: In order to link the school education to vocational education especially for
Grade 8 onwards, adolescents can be provided skills training in the schools to prepare them for taking up
employment after they complete the schooling or to enter further vocational training institutes. This will
help children to better understand their aptitude, learn new skills and will be a major incentive for them to
attend schools.

General Education: It would include restructuring of general education to improve access, retention and
equity; expansion of Community Based Education (CBE) to potential areas having large number of out of
school children or areas with high dropout rates particularly for girls, improving academic supervision,
investing in science and computer labs and technicians, reallocation of female teachers, standardizing
school-level assessments, integrating learning assessment and legalizing School Shuras, implementing
CCT & promoting child nutrition.

Result Based interventions for Girls Education: There is a need more policy level initiatives and
mechanisms for mainstreaming girl education concerns in the Ministry of Education to have concrete
results in enhancing education among girls. EQUIP III could focus on these areas as well as in advocacy
for girls education with other concerned government institutions and civil society organizations.

Citizen Engagement: Project recognizes the importance of citizen engagement in the education sector,
and that one of the most prominent ways of engaging citizens is through involvement in School

12
Management Shuras (SMSs). There are a number of mechanisms which encourage citizen engagement
and strive to incorporate feedback from the programs multiple beneficiaries including students,
households, communities, schools, teachers and administrators, etc. Some of these are

Education Household Survey to find out beneficiary perspectives about education on the quality
of primary education, importance of girls' education, effectiveness of SMSs, textbook
availability, etc.
Third Party Validations for textbook delivery, school infrastructure design as well as a public
expenditure on education, etc. through engaging beneficiaries in generating evidence and in
providing feedback on recommendations for improvement.
Community mobilization efforts on a regular basis, to create awareness about education and
empower communities to utilize the educational facilities available in their areas.
Need- based school infrastructure is selected based on the inputs of the communities and SMSs.
Social & Environmental Management Framework, gender related action plans will be prepared in
broad consultation with the affected communities.
Civil society organizations will be continually engaged in the implementation of the program for
their regular feedback and supporting communities in capacity building etc.

Reforms in Programme Management in EQUIP III:

EQUIP III will be instrumental in change management, through a focus on specific challenges,
strengthening the focus on results; while at the same time, guaranteeing adequate financial resources to
ensure key inputs at the school level.
Improved service delivery: The EQUIP III aims to accompany and support the current shift in strategic
thinking within Government, which puts an increased emphasis on enhancing service delivery
through strengthening local governance and accountability. There is increasing evidence of how
deficiencies in service delivery constrain further improvements in education outcomes in
Afghanistan. Such weaknesses are found to be key impediments to the overall functioning of schools,
including difficulties in ensuring that key resources arrive on time to all schools, the limited role played by
communities in the management of the school, the relatively weak monitoring and supervision at the
provincial and district level, as well as overall accountability systems linked to educational outcomes. The
proposed EQUIP III would support the emphasis on strengthened local governance and accountability
for improved service delivery and education outcomes through activities that were not previously
included in the project.

Reforms in Institutional and Implementation Arrangements:

(A) Project coordination: The project will be coordinated by the Project Implementation Unit (PIU)
and will build upon capacity and expertise acquired through the management of previous projects.
Considering the limited capacity within the Ministry, the PIU will be responsible for overall
supervision and management of the Project, and will report to the Steering Committee headed by
the Minister of Education. PIU will also be responsible for planning and overall coordination of
project activities with the concerned departments in the Ministry, and World Bank and other
donors.

(B) Steering Committee (SC). Project oversight will be the responsibility of a Steering Committee
(SC) that will be set up to oversee and ensure that project activities are relevant to the priorities
and needs of the different sub-sectors. The SC will be chaired by the Minister of Education and
will have representatives from all concerned departments of the Ministry. The SC will provide
overall guidance to the PIU for project implementation, review and approve the annual budgeted
action plans prepared by the PIU, ensure that the performance targets and timelines for proposed
activities are met and facilitate project implementation by addressing any bottlenecks/issues that
may arise.

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Results Monitoring and Evaluation

(A) Monitoring and Evaluation of Outcomes and Results: The project will support the
improvement of M&E systems and processes. M&E will be conducted through joint monthly
meetings chaired by the Deputy Minister Admin & Finance, WB implementation support
missions, a mid-term review (MTR) of project implementation; meetings of the SC; data
collection by relevant Ministry departments; semi-annual progress reports, beneficiary surveys
and assessments and other implementation milestones as shown in the implementation plan.

Although EMIS collects and provides reliable data for the education system management, a few
aspects require further strengthening. There is little communication and integration across the
different parts of the system, which weakens the overall functioning of M&E within the ministry;
and its capacity to collect and analyse data to inform decision-making at central and provincial
levels. There is also need for vigorous third party verification of the EMIS data to ensure
credibility.

(B) Donor coordination: The project M&E system will complement existing donor projects and
M&E systems put in place within the basic education subsector. The joint annual review will
ensure overall coherence among subsectors, and ensure that project activities are consistent with
the governments sectoral program. For each joint donor-government annual review, the PCU will
prepare and share reports with stakeholders focusing on: (i) the extent to which program
objectives are being achieved; and (ii) using qualitative and quantitative data, reports detailing
those aspects of the program that are ahead of or behind schedule. At this meeting
recommendations will be made on adjusting the ABAP.

Investing in effective Monitoring and Evaluation: EQUIP III will focus on more effective monitoring
and evaluation to achieve full benefits of the program through a more systematic and coordinated
approach in monitoring and evaluating the ongoing initiatives and the larger institutional framework which
supports them.

Stronger Capacity Building program: EQUIP III would focus on developing knowledge and capacities
in the Ministry and other stakeholders to support institutionalization of the reforms and initiatives
undertaken under the project and their sustainability overtime. This will also help to foster stronger
institutional linkages within government. By implementing a strong capacity building program, EQUIP III
will be able to provide to the ministry, a more effective human and financial resource capacity for
providing access to quality education to all beneficiaries across the country as per their specific needs.

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