Governance, Decentralization and Service Delivery:

Education sector in Southern Sudan

Government of Southern SudanParis, 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 1

2006;• 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.