Big Results Now in Education, Program for Results
This website displays open data about Swedish aid, which shows when, to whom and for what purpose Swedish aid is paid out, as well as what results it has produced. This page contains information about one of the contributions financed with Swedish aid.
After the mid-term review of the performance based program "Big Results Now in Education, Program for Results" (BRNEd PforR) 2014-2018 Tanzania requested development partners to expand and extend the support to the program in the light of the initial good results and the challenges ahead in implementing the free basic school policy introduced in the academic y...
Read the full descriptionFrom
- C01 - Project-type interventions ,
- B04 - Basket funds/pooled funding (excluding funds managed by international organisations)
To
Breakdown of the total amount paid for the entire contribution.
Within
Breakdown of the total amount paid for the entire contribution.
Contribution period
Financial information
Sustainable Development Goals
More about the contribution
After the mid-term review of the performance based program "Big Results Now in Education, Program for Results" (BRNEd PforR) 2014-2018 Tanzania requested development partners to expand and extend the support to the program in the light of the initial good results and the challenges ahead in implementing the free basic school policy introduced in the academic year of 2016. The Tanzanian government together with three partners; the World Bank, the UK and Sweden, have jointly prepared an updated program under the new name "Education Program for Results (EPforR)", with payments dependent on the degree of results achievements, during the years 2017-2020.The introduction of the free basic education means that informal fees are being eliminated and that lower secondary school is now free of charge. Enrollments to primary school has as a consequence increased sharply in 2016 (by about half a million children - more than 40%), which have resulted in an acute shortage of infrastructure, learning materials and teachers. To uphold the recent gains in quality of education, while also catering for learning needs of these new groups of pupils that often come from poor and marginalized families, is a formidable challenge that will require increased resources, as well as, improved efficiency. Otherwise, there is a high risk that the achievements made in recent years cannot be maintained and that the quality of education deteriorates again.EPforR is expected to play an important role both financially and technically to sustain and improve further the results achieved during BRNEd in terms of improved exam results, increased reading skills, better statistics and more equitable distribution of teachers and resources including capitation grants. The expanded contribution builds on the lessons learned over the first two years of implementation and retains the same development objective: to improve the quality of education in Tanzanian primary and secondary schools.Support for delivering results on the basis of the key reforms that were initiated during BRNEd continues incentivizing that: capitation grants arrives in time to the schools; teacher are motivated; even distribution of teacher resources, transparency and publishing of school statistics, schools that improve are rewarded, and increasing skills in reading, writing and arithmetic (3R) already at early ages.Support for already completed activities cease, and are being replaced with incentives for: a quality assurance system with its school inspection and publication of quality assessments at a school level in order to raise the general level of quality; girls' education and opportunities to continue to high school (secondary school); access to textbooks; and incentives for completing school and prevent drop-outs. In other words, the poverty focus will be further strengthened and girls' rights will be addressed more directly.The experience of the new result-based modality is also generally positive. The set-up problems that existed, including differences in the understanding of the modality of the partners, have gradually been replaced by a common understanding and concrete action to address identified weaknesses and to strengthen monitoring. The ownership of the program is strong, and Tanzania sees the program as an instrument for setting priorities and incentives. Subsequently, the ministries have pushed for the introduction of new results, replacing already implemented activities, even though it raises the bar for payment.External verification of the results has contributed to the credibility, and lessons learned have been incorporated into the program operation manual that have been continuously updated. However, there is a need for further simplification and a risk management that is better adapted to realities and capacities.
All activities related to the contribution are shown here. Click on an individual activity to see in-depth information.
Total aid 1,002,202,465 SEK distributed on 0 activities
A list of all paid transactions for a specific contribution is presented here. Each payment can be traced to a specific activity. Negative amounts indicate that there has been a refund.
0 transactions
No transactions available for this contribution
0 contribution documents
| Link to download |
|---|
No contribution documents available for this contribution
Result
The assessment is that EPforR contributed to the development of new systems, data collection and analysis. The programme helped put in place strategies, guidelines, systems, procedures, and tools that support the institutional strengthening of MoEST and PO-RALG. MoEST and PO-RALG both reported that the programme has significantly increased their focus on results and the use of evidence-based data in that regard. The fact that the EPforR has supported the collection and management of actual data has reportedly mitigated against the fear of failure amongst Government employees by ensuring that relevant data are now publicly available. One of the key successes of the programme has been the integration of the Cambridge Education Technical Assistance Support (TAS) team within the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST) and the Presidents Office, Regional Administration and Local Government (PO-RALG). This provides support for a sustainable institutional development. The TAS team's experience demonstrates that working side-by-side with ministry people on challenges in the education system prove more effective than advising at distance from the donors office. The programme has become well embedded in MoEST and PO-RALG and continues to remain aligned with GoT administrative systems. This creates strong ownership and thereby improves the potential for sustainable results. While the achievement of different DLIs have varied, especially with the fee-free education policy having a large abrupt effect, the trend for total released funds have been increasing. The improvement is both due to better education systems and quality education, but also a result of the learning curve for managing Results-based financing and utilizing foundational DLIs. Therefore, it is expected that investments both in capacity development and in systems building during the first years have an exponential effect on the release of funds later on in the programme. The quality of data used in the national education system has improved and the EMIS (Education Management Information System) is now one of the best in the East Africa region. Before EPforR began in 2015, the EMIS suffered with problems such as accuracy, duplication, simplicity. Data was simplified and did not offer a basis for improving the following school year. With specific DLRs introduced with the programme, there was a clear incentive to collect comprehensive information through an annual school census exercise. These data sets would then be used for the of the annual Education Sector Performance Report (ESPR), which contains information and analysis of a number of key decision-making metrics. Improvement in the system for distributing the capitation grant where the grant now goes directly to the schools, in a timely manner as a rule (almost 20 000 schools). This has made it possible for schools to plan ahead according to their individual needs, improving the quality of education. The system of disbursing the grant on a set date each month has embedded and will prove very difficult to be reversed in the future. The programme has put and remained the focus on the learning and results of the students. One example is the improvements in early grade learning outcomes with national average for reading correct words per minute (cwpm) in Oral Reading Fluency assessment among Grade 2 students increasing from 17.9 to 22.3 cwpm between 2013 and 2019, another being learning outcomes in numeracy skills with the percentage of students achieving Grade 2 minimum numeracy skills increasing from 8.2 percent (2013) to 17.1 percent (2019) (data from co-founding partner World Bank implementation report on Big Results Now in Education, 2022). With the fee free education policy being put in place in the early years of the programme, it was evident how quickly classrooms and schools became over-crowded. 3,700 new classrooms and 6,500 new toilets have been built - but carried into the second phase of the programme was the understanding that this is nowhere enough.
The overall objective is to improve education quality at primary and lower secondary level. The Education Program for Results (EPforR) is a multi-donor project funded by the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), the World Bank (WB), the Swedish Government (Sida), the Korean Government (KOICA) and the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), using a programming for results modality to bring about meaningful change in the basic education sector in Tanzania. The programme has run since 2014 and is ending this year (2021). As the contribution is result-based and payments are made retroactively based on performance, it is proposed to extend the contribution by one year to avoid a funding gap in 2020/21, which in that case would also coincide with the expected financial effects of Covid 19. A bridging year provides an opportunity to harmonize different donors and the government's priorities in the sector, while at the same time achieving the results achieved is given the opportunity to be institutionalized. A bridging year also provides the opportunity to include a pilot indicator with the aim of being able to include in the next phase of the program. The objectives for the program remain the same during 2020/2021 and no new funds for the bridging year are proposed.
Swedish aid in numbers and reports
Do you want to read more about the results of Swedish aid?