INTEGRATED SAFEGUARDS DATASHEET APPRAISAL STAGE

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1 Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized I. Basic Information Date prepared/updated: 03/13/2009 INTEGRATED SAFEGUARDS DATASHEET APPRAISAL STAGE Report No.: AC Basic Project Data Country: Morocco Project ID: P Project Name: Morocco Basic Education Reform Support Program II Task Team Leader: Rachidi B. Radji Estimated Appraisal Date: February 10, Estimated Board Date: May 19, Managing Unit: MNSHD Lending Instrument: Specific Investment Loan Sector: Secondary education (50%);Primary education (50%) Theme: Education for all (P);Education for the knowledge economy (S) IBRD Amount (US$m.): IDA Amount (US$m.): 0.00 GEF Amount (US$m.): 0.00 PCF Amount (US$m.): 0.00 Other financing amounts by source: Borrower 3, African Development Bank EC: European Commission EC: European Investment Bank FRANCE: French Agency for Development , Environmental Category: B - Partial Assessment Simplified Processing Simple [] Repeater [] Is this project processed under OP 8.50 (Emergency Recovery) or OP 8.00 (Rapid Response to Crises and Emergencies) [ ] No [] 2. Project Objectives The project responds to the vision that the King has set for the country to have rapid growth, less poverty and better social conditions. Integral to this vision is endowing the Moroccan society with a better education system that will contribute to the competitiveness of its labor force in the global economy. In the long run, education will also help reduce the incidence of poverty and provide the basis for inclusive growth. To this end, and as mentioned above, the government has recently put in place an Education Emergency Plan to accelerate the pace toward the achievement of the 2000 Education Charter. The Emergency Plan aims to complete the compulsory education policy for children up to 15 years old by 2015 while gradually expanding access to upper secondary and higher education, in a sustainable manner. The Emergency Plan lays out a coherent and sound policy framework which is articulated around four strategic directions: (i) implement compulsory education to all children up to the age of 15 years;

2 (ii) stimulate ingenuity and excellence in upper secondary and higher education; (iii) tackle the institutional cross-cutting system issues; and (iv) mobilize and engage the necessary means to ensure success. In assisting the government of Morocco to the implement the Education Emergency Plan, the project s main objectives will be to increase completion of compulsory education for children 6 to 15 years old and improving efficiency and effectiveness measures in the education system, while progressively increasing access to upper secondary education. Specifically, the project will contribute (i) to increasing net enrollment rates for primary, lower secondary and upper secondary education from 93.5%, 47.4% and 20.0% in 2007/2008 to 96.6%, 79.2% and 48.2%, respectively by 2012, (ii) improving the education quality with a focus on restructuring teachers training and learning evaluation; and (iii) improving management capacity and promoting accountability of results at all levels within the context of decentralization. The overall assessment of progress in achieving the project s development objectives will be based on a results-framework which comprises the sector s performance indicators and monitoring indicators. 3. Project Description Component 1 supporting Strategic Direction 1 Implement Compulsory Education to all children up to the age of 15: The overall objective of this strategic direction is to achieve compulsory education for children aged 6-15, to guarantee a place in school for all children aged 4 under a preschool development program and to limit repetition and dropouts. Specific activities include the development and promotion of pre-schools through a strategic public-private partnership framework. While access to primary education is almost universal and access to secondary education has significantly improved, school retention remains low and a large number of school-aged children remain excluded from the system. Repetition and dropout rates are high. The project will support the expansion of access through approaches that will promote quality of service delivery, tackling the supply side as well as the demand side. The supply side will be met through a construction and equipment program based on Ministerial norms and standards. Given the volume expected under the school construction program, the AREF system implemented under PARSEM I for equipping schools is limited. The MENESFCRS is aware of the challenges and is considering different scenarios that include options to outsource construction, equipping and/or management of the schools. While the 2008/2009 construction program continues to be managed by the AREF, PARSEM II will assist the MENESFCRS in finding new approaches that will be gradually applied for the construction and equipping program. Technical assistance will be sought to examine and assess different scenarios, using international best practices, and will develop new approaches that are responsive to needs and cost-efficient. Construction priority will be given to communes who have lower net enrollment rates. At the same time, a number of innovations will be carried out to

3 respond to the demand side of education, notably conditional cash transfers, provision of boarding facilities, partnership with communities on transportation, distribution of educational materials, etc. PARSEM II will also implement strategies and measures to improve children s retention in schools and learning. To improve the quality of education and increase school retention, teachers and principals will be trained to better assess the learning skills of their pupils. Teachers workload will be reorganized to focus on children who have learningdifficulties. In addition, PARSEM II will continue to support the institutionalization of learning evaluation and benchmarking mechanisms. Other relevant measures are being addressed under component 3 to tackle generic cross-cutting issues Component 2 supporting Strategic Direction 2 - Stimulate ingenuity and excellence in upper secondary education: Progress in achieving compulsory basic education is resulting in growing pressure to respond to the demand by youth for education beyond the age of 15 at the upper level of secondary education and higher education. Enrollment at these levels of education remains relatively low (in comparison to other countries in the Region) with weak external efficiency. Less than half of the children aged are enrolled. PARSEM II will support the scope of Strategic Direction 2 that is related to the development of quality upper secondary education, through increased supply of upper secondary schools. It will also assist in the development of a strategy for the development of a reference upper secondary school (lycã es d excellence) by first defining the criteria used and assessing the overall social impact of the existence of such schools before proceeding forward with this strategy. In parallel, a strategy to provide quality upper secondary education adapted to the country s long-term needs will be developed. Component 3 supporting Strategic Direction 3 - Tackle the institutional issues cutting across the system: Under this strategic direction, the Emergency Plan confronts the structural weaknesses that have impeded the acceleration of the reform program and the improvement of education outcomes. It puts forward a wide reform agenda, ranging from human resources, decentralization, and sector management to the language of instruction and student information and orientation. PARSEM II will support policies and areas of action that strengthen the institutional performance of the education sector, including decentralization, human resources management, and monitoring and evaluation. Specifically, the process of deconcentration/decentralization of the sector s management will be pursued with an eventual transfer of job positions and staff under the AREF s management, implement a budgeting process based on results, and improved governance. The responsibilities and qualifications of the Inspectorate and the pedagogical corps will be redefined so that they can monitor, inspect and teach in an effective manner. The jobcompetency-based framework will be used to hire and redeploy teachers and other administrative and technical staff. Concerning the teaching force, PARSEM II will support strategies to revamp the pre-service training system, with the integration of bi-

4 subject teaching force in lower secondary education. At the onset, administrative and pedagogical aspects along with curricula and teacher profiles will be developed with the aim to launch the regional training center in The project will also strengthen inservice training. In addition, the reform agenda will be incorporated into the school system with the creation of School Management Committees. PARSEM II will support school-based initiatives whereby the related financial resources will be managed directly by the schools. Component 4 supporting Strategic Direction 4 - Mobilize and Engage necessary means to ensure success (financing, partnership, communication and social mobilization, private sector): Achieving the ambitious objectives set by the Emergency Plan will require an additional public financing but also strong mobilization of all stakeholders. While the use of a rolling medium-term expenditure framework will be used to ensure appropriate annual allocations to the sector in the National Budget, the project will assist the MoE in closely monitoring the execution of a number of savings and efficiency measures which are put forward in the Plan, e.g. decreased repetition rates, bi-subject teachers in lower secondary education, teacher deployment and utilization measures, human resource management decentralization, and contract-based management. In this context, a sectoral PER and/or possibly a PETS along with a beneficiaries assessment survey will be implemented during the four-year period (to be confirmed during negotiations). In addition, PARSEM II will provide technical assistance to promote private sector partnership in the provision of non-public education, with a view to share the financial and performance responsibilities of the expansion of the sector. Mobilizing all stakeholders to provide support and commitment to improving education will be essential. To this end, PARSEM II will support an internal and external communication strategy, and strengthen and institutionalize stakeholder partnerships, particularly those in proximity to the schools, notably local governments, associations, NGOs, and local communities. A charter, establishing the relations between the schools and the parent associations, will be instituted. In addition by the project mid-term date, there will be an evaluation of a sample of partnership conventions between the MENESFCRS and other institutions. 4. Project Location and salient physical characteristics relevant to the safeguard analysis National education reform program will be implemented throughout national territory. The government selects sites for specific intervention based on various information systems (school maps, regional plans, etc.). Project to be implemented in the following regional academies (regional education jurisdictions): Rabat-Sale-Zemour-Zaer, Al Gharb-Chrada-Bni H sine, Tanger-Tetoun, Fes-Boulmane; Meknes- Tafilalet, Taz-Al Hoceima-Taounate, Orientale, Sous-Mass-Daraa, Marrakech- Tensift- Elhaouz, Tadla- Azilal, Grand Casablanca, Chaouia-Ouardigha, and Doukkla- Abda.

5 5. Environmental and Social Safeguards Specialists Mr Hocine Chalal (MNACS) Ms Laila Al-Hamad (MNSSD) 6. Safeguard Policies Triggered No Environmental Assessment (OP/BP 4.01) Natural Habitats (OP/BP 4.04) Forests (OP/BP 4.36) Pest Management (OP 4.09) Physical Cultural Resources (OP/BP 4.11) Indigenous Peoples (OP/BP 4.10) Involuntary Resettlement (OP/BP 4.12) Safety of Dams (OP/BP 4.37) Projects on International Waterways (OP/BP 7.50) Projects in Disputed Areas (OP/BP 7.60) II. Key Safeguard Policy Issues and Their Management A. Summary of Key Safeguard Issues 1. Describe any safeguard issues and impacts associated with the proposed project. Identify and describe any potential large scale, significant and/or irreversible impacts: The main environmental issues implied by this operation are related to the establishment of new schools in particular during the construction phase. Consequently it is considered that the Environment Assessment Policy (OP 4.01) and Involuntary Resettlement Policy (OP 4.12) policies need to be triggered. The education sector, like other sectors in Morocco, faces the issue of arrears in the payments of compensation for land taking due to the existing institutional settings. During PARSEM 1, the Government has acquired land through expropriation for the purpose of building schools. Compensation and indemnification for land taking has slowly been implemented and many cases are still pending because of procedural and other regulatory hurdles. The Government at both MEN and MOF are dealing with the issue of arrears. The Government reported that more than 700 cases of indemnification have been resolved to the satisfaction of expropriated land owners. The Ministry of Education has launched an inventory of lands (on which schools have been built) whose ownership has not been transferred and has started to allocate adequate budget required to indemnify expropriated land owners. To date, four hundred and three (403) cases have been treated out of a total of about The implementation of the Bank s Asset Management Reform Loan contributed to reducing the incidence of arrears. However, the arrears have yet to be completely paid off and the payment program implemented by the treasury ( Direction des Domaines of the MOF) shall continue under the proposed PARSEM II in order to liquidate all arrears by the end of It is expected that under PARSEM II a comprehensive database will be developed and installed to provide for the monitoring of the status of land parcels on which schools or education infrastructure have been built.

6 Finally, the Government has adopted a policy which gives preference to undertaking construction of school on government owned land or on land for which the acquisition process has been completed and title deeds issued to the Government.For the purpose of acquiring the marginal land that may be needed to build new schools, OP 4.12 is triggered and a RPF developed. In addition, the list of AREF that will benefit directly from PARSEM II is the following; Grand Casablanca, Chaouia-ourdigha, Doukala-Abda, Fks-Boulmane, Gharb-chrardabani hassan, Marrakesh-Tansift-Alhaouz, Meknes-Tafilalt, L Oriontale-Oujda, Rabat- Salk-Zemmour-Zair, Souss-Massa-Draa, Tadla-Azilal, Tanger-Tetuan, Taza-El Houseima-Taounate. Casablanca, Chaouia-ourdigha, Doukala-Abda, Fks-Boulmane, Gharb-chrarda-bani hassan, Marrakesh-Tansift-Alhaouz, Meknes-Tafilalt, L Oriontale- Oujda, Rabat-Salk-Zemmour-Zair, Souss-Massa-Draa, Tadla-Azilal, Tanger-Tetuan, Taza-El Houseima-Taounate 2. Describe any potential indirect and/or long term impacts due to anticipated future activities in the project area: N/A 3. Describe any project alternatives (if relevant) considered to help avoid or minimize adverse impacts. N/A 4. Describe measures taken by the borrower to address safeguard policy issues. Provide an assessment of borrower capacity to plan and implement the measures described. While the process of liquidating arrears will be pursued in PARSEM II, the Ministry of Education has launched an inventory of lands (on which schools have been built) whose ownership has not been transferred and has started to allocate budget for the assessments required by the Direction des Domaines Four Hundred and three (403) cases have been treated out of a total of about During PARSEM II, it is expected that a comprehensive database will be finalized that will indicate the status of the parcels of land on which schools or education infrastructure have been built. Directives from the Ministry have been sent to the Academies in order to avoid proceeding with construction on parcels of land for which the acquisition process has not been completed or at least initiated. Considering the need to continue efforts initiated during PARSEM I, PARSEM II will therefore pursue the application of the ESSF. In particular the revised ESSF mandates the total resorption of the arrears at the end of the four-year implementation period of the project. 5. Identify the key stakeholders and describe the mechanisms for consultation and disclosure on safeguard policies, with an emphasis on potentially affected people. An ESSF (Environmental and Social Safeguards Framework, which includes the mitigating and monitoring as well as capacity building measures to be applied during Project implementation), and a RPF (Resettlement Policy Framework,which describes

7 the land acquisition procedures in case land has to be purchased for the construction of school infrastructures) have been prepared. Also, a chance find procedure will be included in the operations manual to ensure that in case of discovery of physical cultural resources the appropriate steps will be taken by the contractors and relevant parties. The ESSF and RPF have been disclosed in the country through the Ministry s website ( as well as through the Bank Information Center (Infoshop). B. Disclosure Requirements Date Environmental Assessment/Audit/Management Plan/Other: Was the document disclosed prior to appraisal? Date of receipt by the Bank 01/28/2009 Date of "in-country" disclosure 01/28/2009 Date of submission to InfoShop 02/09/2009 For category A projects, date of distributing the Executive Summary of the EA to the Executive Directors Resettlement Action Plan/Framework/Policy Process: Was the document disclosed prior to appraisal? Date of receipt by the Bank 01/28/2009 Date of "in-country" disclosure 01/28/2009 Date of submission to InfoShop 02/09/2009 Indigenous Peoples Plan/Planning Framework: Was the document disclosed prior to appraisal? Date of receipt by the Bank Date of "in-country" disclosure Date of submission to InfoShop Pest Management Plan: Was the document disclosed prior to appraisal? Date of receipt by the Bank Date of "in-country" disclosure Date of submission to InfoShop * If the project triggers the Pest Management and/or Physical Cultural Resources, the respective issues are to be addressed and disclosed as part of the Environmental Assessment/Audit/or EMP. If in-country disclosure of any of the above documents is not expected, please explain why: C. Compliance Monitoring Indicators at the Corporate Level (to be filled in when the ISDS is finalized by the project decision meeting) OP/BP/GP Environment Assessment Does the project require a stand-alone EA (including EMP) report? If yes, then did the Regional Environment Unit or Sector Manager (SM)

8 review and approve the EA report? Are the cost and the accountabilities for the EMP incorporated in the credit/loan? OP/BP Involuntary Resettlement Has a resettlement plan/abbreviated plan/policy framework/process framework (as appropriate) been prepared? If yes, then did the Regional unit responsible for safeguards or Sector Manager review the plan? The World Bank Policy on Disclosure of Information Have relevant safeguard policies documents been sent to the World Bank s Infoshop? Have relevant documents been disclosed in-country in a public place in a form and language that are understandable and accessible to project-affected groups and local NGOs? All Safeguard Policies Have satisfactory calendar, budget and clear institutional responsibilities been prepared for the implementation of measures related to safeguard policies? Have costs related to safeguard policy measures been included in the project cost? Does the Monitoring and Evaluation system of the project include the monitoring of safeguard impacts and measures related to safeguard policies? Have satisfactory implementation arrangements been agreed with the borrower and the same been adequately reflected in the project legal documents? D. Approvals Signed and submitted by: Name Date Task Team Leader: Mr Rachidi B. Radji 03/11/2009 Environmental Specialist: Mr Hocine Chalal 03/11/2009 Social Development Specialist Ms Laila Al-Hamad 03/11/2009 Additional Environmental and/or Social Development Specialist(s): Approved by: Sector Manager: Mr Mourad Ezzine 03/11/2009 Comments: No reviewer as project has been transferred.