Public Disclosure Authorized

PROJECT INFORMATION DOCUMENT (PID)

APPRAISAL STAGE
Report No.: AB1768
Education for a more productive and equitable Argentina
Project Name
Region LATIN AMERICA AND CARIBBEAN
Sector General education (100%)
Project ID P070963
Public Disclosure Authorized

Borrower(s) GOVERNMENT OF ARGENTINA

Implementing Agency
Ministry of Education, Science and Technology
Republic of Argentina

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

Date PID Prepared September 16, 2005
Date of Appraisal October 20, 2005
Authorization
Date of Board Approval December 15, 2005
Public Disclosure Authorized

1. Country and Sector Background

Argentina’s recovery from the worst ever economic and social crisis is now well under way,
with economic growth continuing at a robust 8% for the second year in a row. The focus in
Argentina now needs to move away from crisis response to one of the long term structural
issues regarding the economy and society, an issue of growth and equity and resilience and
avoidance of further crises.

Regarding the education system in Argentina, the administration of schools had

traditionally been a responsibility of the Federal Government until a series of
decentralization reforms were introduced. Primary education establishments were
transferred to the provinces in 1978 and secondary education establishments in 1992.
During the nineties the old system that had been in existence for many decades and
Public Disclosure Authorized

consisted of Primary School in 7 grades, and Secondary School in 5 grades (6 for technical
schools) changed. The changed system would consist of a compulsory year of Pre-School, an
extended compulsory Primary or Basic School of 9 grades, and a Secondary school or
Polimodal with flexible, modular offering of 3 years (4 for technical schools). Variations in
the availability of resources and institutional capacity across provinces has contributed to
variations across provinces in terms of the education system.

2. Objectives

The Project Development Objective (PDO) is to support national government policy (i) to
improve the coverage, efficiency, quality of the Argentine education system, and (ii) to
improve the governance of the Argentine education system through strengthening of the
normative, planning, information, monitoring and evaluation capacity at the national and

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provincial levels. These general objectives translate into the following specific Project
Development Objectives (PDO):

A. Coverage
st
(A1) Eliminate by half the difference in the access to 6 year old children in 1 grade
as compared to the acccess for 5 year old children in Pre-School in rural areas in
Argentina;
(A2) Increase to 85 percent the access of students completing the 7th grade to the 8th
grade of schooling in rural areas in Argentina;
B. Efficiency
(B1) Improve promotion rate in EGB1 (Grades 1 to 3) in rural areas in Argentina
from 76 percent (2002) to 85 percent (2010);
(B2) Reduce two or more years of overage enrollment in EGB2 from 24% (2002) to 12
percent (2010);
C. Quality
(C1) Improve the percentage of students in Grade 3 in rural schools achieving
proficiency in the nationally ratified standards of the Core Learning Priorities
(NAP);
(C1) Improve the percentage of students in Grade 6 in rural schools achieving
proficiency in the nationally ratified standards of the Core Learning Priorities
(NAP);
D. Governance
(D1) Number of bilateral agreements between national and provinicial governments
in satisfactory execution;
(D2) Annual plans regarding the compilation, analysis, dissemination and use of
educational statistics in satisfactory execution;

3. Rationale for Bank Involvement

Supporting an important national educational program for rural education provides an

excellent opportunity for the World Bank to work in partnership with the Government, a
role that is seen by the Board as increasingly important for Bank work in Middle Income
Countries. The role of Bank intervention would (a) increase the financial envelope of the
program, with the Bank’s financing to go towards: (i) speeding up implementation of the
program; and (ii) increase the geographical scope of the program.

4. Description

The project seeks to contribute to the task of improving the growth potential of Argentina
and to reduce social inequality. Argentina’s rural sector has a tremendous potential to
contribute to growth and economic development in Argentina, which would be supported by
this project.

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The project would provide education inputs to rural schools in order to improve the
coverage and quality of basic rural education. The inputs would include teacher training,
didactic material and equipment including textbooks, workbooks and guides, and school
rehabilitation for basic minimum standards. Adequate attention would be paid to make
sure that these inputs are appropriate for the local context of rural areas to which the
project is directed.

5. Financing
Source: ($m.)
BORROWER 100.75
INTERNATIONAL BANK FOR RECONSTRUCTION AND 150.00
DEVELOPMENT
Total 250.75

6. Implementation

The implementation arrangement of this project follows closely the principal of partnership
with the Government in the delivery of the national rural education program. The lead
agency for implementation will be the National Ministry of Education, Science and
Technology (MECyT), through its Directorate General for the Unit of International Finance
(DGUFI). The DGUFI would be responsible for coordinating the various activities of the
project with the other agencies of MECyT as well as other Federal and Provincial
Government Agencies. The DGUFI also manages an IDB Operation and has substantial
experience with the international standards of financial management and procurement.

While the national government may decide to finance teams of consultants in the provinces
to provide an accompaniment of project activities, there would not be any need, with some
exceptions, to set up Project Coordination Units (PCUs) either at the National or at the
Provincial levels. Where there is a particular need to shore up provincial implementation
capacity, this would be done, if possible, by strengthening existing line departments at
provincial Ministries of Education, rather than through parallel administrative units. The
recently released Country Financing Parameters (CFP) for Argentina provide the
authorization for Bank Financing of recurrent costs, as long as a case can be made on
technical grounds and due attention is paid to issues of sustainability and fiscal impact.

7. Sustainability

The support of the national program for rural education within a federal framework brings
benefits of continuity in government policy. In the case of national programs the role of the
decision making of the Federal Education Council (Consejo Federal) is very important and
the rural education program is supported by resolutions of the Consejo Federal. The
physical goals of the program are of modest size in terms of fiscal impact. Increasing the
enrollment at the Pre-School and EGB3 levels in rural areas, with the use of pedagogical
models that rely on multi-grade teaching and the use of itinerant teachers, tutors and
supplemental material for students would necessitate marginal increments in recurrent
expenditures. Improvements in efficiency from the accelerated programs for over age
children and attention to problems of repetition and drop out would lead to improvements
in the efficiency of existing resources.

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8. Lessons Learned from Past Operations in the Country/Sector

The lessons learnt can be classified in three dimensions – (i) scope of the project; (ii)
working in the federal context; (iii) and implementation arrangements to ensure timely
execution. As regards the scope of the project, it is important to realize that Bank financing
would bring at most about US$30 million per year to bear on an education system which
spends about US$5,600 million. This indicates the need for a project to be very well focused.
The current project’s focus on the relatively small but important area of intervention in
rural education would be more likely to have a systemic impact.

The new project also reflects learning derived from working with both the National and
Provincial Governments. Rather than an agglomeration of a series of possibly disconnected
provincial projects, the project would finance a national program that counts with
provincial ownership. The ownership derives from the provincial participation in the design
and implementation of the project.

9. Safeguard Policies (including public consultation)

Safeguard Policies Triggered by the Project Yes No

Environmental Assessment (OP/BP/GP 4.01) [x] []
Natural Habitats (OP/BP 4.04) [] []
Pest Management (OP 4.09) [] []
Cultural Property (OPN 11.03, being revised as OP 4.11) [] []
Involuntary Resettlement (OP/BP 4.12) [] []
Indigenous Peoples (OD 4.20, being revised as OP 4.10) [x] []
Forests (OP/BP 4.36) [] []
Safety of Dams (OP/BP 4.37) [] []
Projects in Disputed Areas (OP/BP/GP 7.60)* [] []
Projects on International Waterways (OP/BP/GP 7.50) [] []

10. List of Factual Technical Documents

n/a

11. Contact point

Contact: Suhas D. Parandekar
Title: Education Economist
Tel: (202) 458-7622
Fax:
Email: sparandekar@worldbank.org

*
By supporting the proposed project, the Bank does not intend to prejudice the final determination of the parties’ claims on the
disputed areas

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12. For more information contact:
The InfoShop
The World Bank
1818 H Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20433
Telephone: (202) 458-5454
Fax: (202) 522-1500
Web: http://www.worldbank.org/infoshop