Third Primary Education Dev. Prog (PEDP 3)

The following are some of the most important results reflected in the Implementation Completion and Results Report of the PEDP3 programme published by The World Bank in June 2018.  With respect to the first programme development objective (PDO) outcome – increase participation and reduce social disparities in primary education: a) The number of children enrolled in primary education as measured by the net enrollment rates (NER) was 97.96 percent in 2016 (last school year included in the 2017 Annual Sector Performance Report (ASPR) and over 13 percentage points above the 2010 baseline of 84.7 percent. The end-of-project target of 98 percent was practically achieved. b) The NER ratio of the 20 percent poorest to 20 percent richest children was 0.89 in 2016, considerably higher than the 0.72 set as a baseline using data from 2005 and surpassing the end-of-program target ratio of 0.80 by 9 percentage points. c) Needs-based infrastructure, as measured by the number of additional classrooms built or rehabilitated at the primary level under PEDP3, reached a total of 27,500 classrooms, or 89 percent of the end-of-project target of 31,000 classrooms. With respect to the second PDO outcome – increase the number of children completing primary education and improve the quality of the learning environment and measurement of student learning:  a) The end-of-project primary cycle completion rate (gender disaggregated) of 80.8 percent slightly surpassed the program target of 80 percent, and was an impressive 26 percentage points above the 2010 baseline. Completion rates for boys improved from a 2010 baseline of 52.4 percent to 77.7 (slightly short of the target of 78 percent). Completion rate for girls went from 57.5 percent to 83.9 percent exceeding the target of 82 percent. Female students performed much better than male students. b) Frequency and quality of assessment of learning of primary education completers as measured annually by the grade 5 primary education completion exam (PECE) — was met with the percentage of competency-based test items in the PECE reaching 65 percent. Although the curriculum was competency based, at the start of PEDP3, the PECE still tested students primarily on how well they could recall and reproduce what was in the textbooks. With the inclusion of competency-based test items, the PECE now increasingly tests students’ abilities to use knowledge.d) c) The percentage of schools receiving textbooks within the first month of the academic year was a remarkable 99 percent in 2017 as compared to a baseline of 32.7 percent in 2010, exceeding by 9 percentage points the end-of-project target of 90 percent. d) The percentage of government primary schools (GPS) meeting at least 3 out of 4 minimum quality standards as measured by the primary school quality level (PSQL) indicators (as listed in the ASPR) increased 15.8 percentage points from a baseline of 17 percent in 2010 to 32.8 percent in 2017, reaching 94 percent of the end-of-program target of 35 percent. With respect to the third PDO outcome – improve effectiveness of resource use for primary education: a) Expanded coverage of decentralized planning and management at the school level measured by the proportion of schools preparing SLIPs (school level improvement plan) and receiving funds significantly increased from a baseline of 27 percent (2010) to 90 percent in 2016, exceeding by 15 percentage points the end-of-project target of 75 percent.  b) Strengthening sub-districts for supporting school management measured by the proportion of sub-districts having prepared UPEPs (Upazila/sub-district Primary Education Plan) and receiving funds went from a zero baseline to 51 percent in 2017, exceeding the end-of-project target of 50 percent. c) Monitoring and evaluation systems strengthened to improve monitoring and data utilization for program performance and planning as measured by the number of months to administer and disseminate the APSC (Annual Primary School Census) significantly decreased from 17 months in 2010 (baseline) to 11 months in 2017 exceeding the end-of project target of 12 months.

The scope of the Third Primary Education Development Programme (PEDP3) is the whole primary education sector plus gradual inclusion of one pre-primary year. PEDP3‘s goal is to provide: “quality education for all our children.” This is being approached through the specific objective: to establish “an efficient, inclusive and equitable primary education system delivering effective and relevant child-friendly learning to all Bangladesh’s children from pre-primary through Grade 5 primary". The objectives of the project were: (a) to increase participation and reduce social disparities in primaryeducation; (b) to increase the number of children completing primary education and improve the quality of thelearning environment and measurement of student learning; and (c) to improve effectiveness of resource usefor primary education.