Governance, Decentralization and Service Delivery: Education sector in Southern Sudan Government of Southern Sudan Paris, 10 March 2006 Break out Session 11:30 – 1:00

Context and Strategic opportunities CPA, INC and ICSS: provide a framework Decentralization allows for equitable resource allocation; locally-relevant interventions; targeted efforts to reduce disparities; Improved security: allows expanded educational access, return and reintegration of IDPs; Increased budget allocations, partnerships and donor support (Allocation of $140 million by GOSS): allows scaling up of educational programmes; MDTFs and ERDF: Support sector-wide approaches

Commitment to Decentralization Functions to be allocated on the principle of subsidiarity: –GOSS: Mainly Policy, Standards, Financing, Monitoring and Capacity Building –States: Mainly Policy Implementation, Regulation, Financing, Technical Assistance, Training and Monitoring and Evaluation –Counties: Mainly Provision (See Annex slides for details) Transition Arrangements: During the transition, the GOSS will be performing functions that will subsequently be transferred

Strategic Framework Design and finalize the decentralization framework, including the guidelines/criteria for resource allocation; Enact relevant legislation, as required; Establish mechanisms to monitor disbursements and utilization of funds; Capacity development of states and county-level staff; Creation of educational administration structures.

Delivery of educational services : Thrust Areas Build state/county-level capacity to manage education; Enhancing educational access; Improve gender equity; Improve quality of education; Expand teacher training (pre-service and in- service); Expand secondary education and strengthen tertiary education

Priority actions for Building state/county-level capacity to manage education Revise education policy for consistency with CPA, INC and ICSS; Establish County Education Offices; Establish an administrative structure linking levels Create a pool of trained personnel; Develop community-school partnerships; Set up a functional EMIS/simple mechanism for monitoring learning.

Priority actions for enhancing educational access Commitment to Free Basic Education Go-to-School initiative to be launched on April ; Expand educational facilities in places of arrival of returning IDPs and refugees; Undertake a comprehensive mapping of services; Construct classrooms/learning spaces with focus on underserved areas; Develop alternative learning programmes for out- of-school adolescents, demobilised children and young adults; Provide educational materials to enrolled pupils; Expansion of school feeding programme; Develop state/county-specific plans.

Priority actions for Improving gender equity Increase the number of village schools for girls; Introduce accelerated learning programmes for out-of-school adolescent girls; Community mobilisation to remove the cultural and social obstacles which prevent girls from participating in education; Multi-sector approach involving the provision of water supply facilities and gender- segregated toilet facilities and “comfort kits” to girls in schools.

Priority actions for improving educational quality - I CURRICULUM RENEWAL AND TEXTBOOKS PRODUCTION Train staff of curriculum development centre; Renew basic education curriculum to : –Develop framework for primary and secondary education; –Make learning content contextually and culturally relevant; –create a culture of peace and tolerance; respect for human rights and ethnic diversities; environmental awareness, hygiene education, and gender issues; –incorporate life-skills education with focus to promote HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention. Increase textbook production Mother tongue as medium of instruction in the early years of primary education : national conference to be held in 2006 to address language issues.

Priority actions for improving educational quality - II IMPROVING LEARNING ENVIRONMENT Create a protective/safe learning environment Ensure the availability for basic teaching-learning supplies for teachers and pupils. IMPROVING TEACHING-LEARNING PROCESS Set up a network of teacher training centres to train in- service teachers. Increase number of teachers to keep pace with planned increase in enrolment. IMPROVING LEARNING ASSESSMENT Establish an examination and certification authority; Set a mechanism to monitor learning achievement. EXPAND TEACHER TRAINING

Priority Actions - Strengthening secondary and tertiary education Establishment of additional secondary schools and training of teachers; Increasing tertiary institutions to meet the urgent need for qualified work force; Transfer of three universities from Khartoum to Southern Sudan (Juba, Malakal and Wau); Training of staff of tertiary institutions and universities; Establish vocational training facilities.

Continuing challenges Capacity constraints to expanding access Lack of institutional, organizational and human resource capacity at all levels of government Limited qualified human resources – the lack of trained educational planners/administrators, head-teachers, teachers etc. Inadequate equipment, transportation facilities Low funds absorption capacity

Annex Slides

Institutional Framework for Decentralization of educational administration: GOSS Functions Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST), GoSS : –Policy development; –Capacity building; –Standard setting; –Quality assurance; –Technical support to states; –Monitoring and evaluation; –Equitable allocation of resources; and –E Management Information System.

Institutional Framework for Decentralization of educational administration: State Functions State Ministry: Policy implementation; State-level planning; capacity building at county level; Equitable allocation of resources among counties; Technical support to counties; Monitoring and evaluation; Teacher training

Institutional Framework for Decentralization of educational administration: Sub-state Functions Sub-state: County-level planning; Delivery and management of educational services; Facility expansion; Supervision of educational services; Promotion of school-community partnerships that improve school governance.