12 February 2004	Thursday	20 Zilhaj 1424

LAHORE, Feb 11: The World Bank has approved a $100 million credit for Punjab to help it enrol more children, especially poor, in schools, and to provide them with quality education.

The interest-free credit for the provincial government is from the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank's concessionary lending arm, with a 35-year maturity, and a 10-year grace period. The IDA would charge a 0.75 per cent service charge on the interest-free credit, though.

The credit was approved by the IDA on Tuesday. It, however, is yet not clear as to when will the money be transferred to Punjab. "We'd get the money soon," finance department officials told this reporter when approached on Wednesday.

It may be recalled that the IDA assistance figures prominently in the annual development programme (ADP) of the province for the current fiscal year for education sector reforms (ESR).

The credit would be the first of a series of three "adjustment credits" to support the Punjab government's medium-term education reform programme to enhance access and quality of education.

The IDA credit would support Punjab's efforts to undertake its wide-ranging reforms agenda to improve fiscal management, promote devolution and improve service delivery starting with education, according to the World Bank.

Under the Punjab education service delivery reforms, which the IDA credit supports, the provincial government is required to enhance public expenditure on pro-poor services with a focus on education by raising provincial public sector expenditures with conditional grants for district governments under the "public finance reforms programme".

The Punjab government would also be required to strengthen the country's devolution of governing authority as well as to improve governance. The IDA credit, the World Bank says, will ensure that decision making on resource allocation is made at the district level.

This would also develop an implementation framework that clarifies the roles of service providers and users as well as institutionalizes performance-based budgeting.

Under the education sector reforms, Punjab would take steps to strengthen education accountability by establishing "transparent" criteria for teacher recruitment and deployment for improving the education sector performance, the World Bank says.

The reforms support the effective use of School Councils (SCs) to strengthen parents and children's participation in the process and for improvement in "monitoring and evaluation of the education sector".

The reforms programme is designed following consultations with students, parents, teachers, local officials and NGOs. The stress being laid on revitalizing SCs is a key element of the programme, which aims at enhancing the community and parental involvement in education, specially to improve teacher and school management and enhance enrolments. "Participation of the NGOs is a major aspect of the programme for strengthening SCs," says the World Bank.

"Aiming to improve the education indicators in Punjab, the IDA credit contributes towards the progress in the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) related to poverty reduction, and Education For All (EFA) in Pakistan," says the World Bank.

It may also be recalled that "one of the eight MDGs relates to achieving universal primary education by 2015". "Although Punjab has slightly better education indicators than other provinces in Pakistan, it fares poorly in comparison to the other low-income countries in South Asia," according to the World Bank.

"The rate of participation in the education sector has been very low - 47 per cent male and 43 per cent female primary net enrolment rates. In terms of adult literacy rate, Punjab is also among the lowest in the region with only 36 per cent of women and 57 per cent of men considered literate."

The (education) system also has low internal efficiency with a high rate of dropouts and repeaters. There are disparities across different regions of the province.

"Low family income, high costs of school materials, poor quality of teaching and, above all, inadequate infrastructure are main constraints to greater access to education," the World Bank says.

The World Bank officials maintain that the service delivery of the education sector, like other social services in the province, suffers from poor governance, weak financial management and over-centralized decision-making process which has contributed to poor quality and low access.

"Improvements in education outcomes in Punjab have a potential for country-wide impact," says Mr John Wall, World Bank's country director for Pakistan. "Another indirect but important benefit is that the programme can ensure that services work for the poor."

Mr Wall says that "terms of partnership contracts" between the province and the district governments will improve accountability among different service providers. The role envisaged for SCs and NGOs will improve coordination among parents and students as service users and teachers and district officials as service providers, he says.