Education system revitalization

The GOES Ministry of Education (MOE) will be the primary implementing agency. Five project components will provide the resources necessary to restore an adequate physical environment for learning in the primary schools. Under the school repair, renovation, and construction component, 2,400 classrooms will be repaired or restored, and some 400 will be constructed as needed to receive the maximum number of new enrollees. The school maintenance component will supply vehicles, equipment, and materials to help the MOE improve its ability to respond quickly and effectively to school system maintenance needs, and will support the involvement of teachers, students, and the community in performing preventive maintenance by providing each school with a maintenance kit (simple tools and instructions). TA will be provided to develop the instruction manuals and maintain an inventory of all the schools in the system. The school furniture and equipment component will provide materials for equipping the estimated 2,800 classrooms to be restored or constructed, plus furniture (teachers" and students" desks and chairs, blackboards, bookshelves, storage cabinets) for an additional 1,000 classrooms. Basic teaching supplies (chalk, erasers, pencils, maps, student notebooks) will be provided as needed. The textbook component will finance procurement and distribution of about 3.5 million MOE-approved textbooks developed by a World Bank/GOES program (PLANALIBRE) for the 830,000 children in the primary school system, as well as teacher materials and guidebooks. Finally, the administration and management component will finance a special management unit to oversee project activities.