Monitoring Delays in Monitoring Delays in Guatemala School Guatemala School

ResourcesResources“Demanding Good Governance – Inside and Out”

Session

Presentation by

National Center for Economic Research

World Bank, Washington DC, March 2010

The Guatemalan Education System The Guatemalan Education System ChallengeChallenge

Out of 100 children,only 89 enroll in primary schools

Out of 100 children,only 89 enroll in primary schools

Out of 89 children enrolled in primary school,

only 55 complete primary schooling

Out of 55 children that complete primary schooling,

only 38 enroll in secondary school

Out of 18 students that complete secondary schooling,

only 4 achieve the reading criteria and 1 the math criteria

Source: Yamada y Castro (2008), y MINEDUC (2008).

Out of 38 students that enroll,

only 18 complete secondary education

Out of 38 students that enroll,

only 18 complete secondary education

What was the focus of our analysis?What was the focus of our analysis?

We selected a set of services that support the process of education by increasing the likelihood that children from poor households remain in the education system:

1. School meals program

2. School supplies program

3. Teaching kits program

4. Scholarships program

5. Textbooks program

6. Milk program

What methodology was followed?What methodology was followed?

We followed the Public Expenditures Tracking Surveys (PETS) methodology through the following steps:

1. Hypothesize (6 hypothesis)

2. Representative sample design

3. Instruments to collect information

4. Desk work

5. Communications and advocacy strategy

What we founded out?What we founded out?

1. Resources are not available on time

2. Resources are often insufficient or of the wrong type

3. There are non-trivial leakages in selected programs, particularly the school supplies and teaching kits program

4. Knowledge about exiting programs is generally satisfactory

5. When programs reached intended beneficiaries, satisfaction levels tend to be reasonably high

What we founded out?What we founded out?

6. A few programs report a bias in favor of rural areas, particularly since 2008

7. There is scope for improving financial management in school boards

8. Some schools allocated resources to unexpected activities

9. There were problems in monitoring mechanisms at the school level

10. There are no mechanisms for increasing resources to schools

How we presented our findings?How we presented our findings?

H1: Timely availability of resources.

Arrives in January? • School meals program: 33%• Textbooks program: 28%• Milk glass program: 10%• School supplies program: 10%

Obstacle: Mainly because delayed allocation from the Finance Ministry.

What we did?What we did?

• We started with a meeting with the head of support services at MINEDUC => identified and corrected several mistakes in the coding of the schools and refined the study's recommendations.

• We had a meeting with the Minister of Education before the public launch of the research results => the minister welcomed the study's recommendation to delay the start of the school year

What we achieved?What we achieved?

• One week before the launch of the study, the Minister declared to a major national newspaper that “there is no technical justification to start classes on January 15, it just has always been this way” and said that the MINEDUC acknowledged the convenience of starting the school year on February 1, 2009. In 2010 the starting of the school year was January 29.

• The Minister also created rotating funds. This was another recommendation proposed by CIEN.

What else we did?What else we did?

• The publication of an illustrated brochure with the main findings of the study targeted to parents and teachers.

• Copies of the illustrated brochure were given to the head support services at the Ministry of Education to use during their trainings for the schools councils.

Monitoring Delays in Monitoring Delays in Guatemala School Guatemala School

ResourcesResources“Demanding Good Governance – Inside and Out”

Session

Presentation by

National Center for Economic Research

World Bank, Washington DC, March 2010