School construction II

Final PES covers the period 4/80-8/85 and summarizes an attached Project Completion Report (XD-AAS-575) based on document review and interviews with headmasters and GOJ and Ministry of Education (MOE) personnel. The project has had remarkable success in achieving its outputs and purpose. A total of 14 schools have been constructed, equipped, and staffed in 9 different urban and rural areas where they will primarily serve low-income populations. All 14 schools were completed on time and 13 of the 14 are operational. The Al Marj school at Karak is not yet operational, but is expected to be so by the beginning of the 1985-86 school year. Although the project achieved the hoped-for improvement in space/student and student/teacher ratios, the MOE is still in need of 159 primary schools to replace the 33% of rented schools which are structurally unsafe and unsuitable for educational purposes. Also, further attention is needed with regard to: the selection of appropriate sites; policies to guarantee clear transfer of land ownership; and the use of project-constructed school facilities for non-compulsory education levels (8 of the schools are being used for secondary as well as compulsory primary education). The major lessons learned are: (1) the modified fixed amount reimbursement method is an efficient disbursing tool; (2) local consulting firms if properly selected can provide adequate construction supervision; and (3) recommendations from an evaluation of the predecessor project, School Construction I, strengthened the design of this project. Action decisions are: (1) the implementation arrangements of this project should be utilized if another school construction project is undertaken; (2) the Karak school should be visited following its opening to assure that it is properly utilized, and if not, an appropriate course of action should be recommended, including a refund claim; and (3) TA should be offered to review MOE methodology for site selection and student population estimation; follow-on projects should be more precise in determining site selection criteria.