COVID-19 response
The US$15 million grant will provide online training to about 4.3 million students (50% of them girls) and 20,000 teachers from landlocked areas.
Allocation: US$15 million
Years: 2020-2022
Grant agent: World Bank
Key documents: Application and program document
The program will focus on the poorest and most vulnerable children and will:
- ensure the continuity of home education during confinement with educational content broadcast by radio and TV stations
- ensure that measures are put in place to address girls’ vulnerability, gender-based violence, and the increased risk of marriage and early pregnancies
- support one-time grants to around 37,000 community teachers in the less-favored areas of the country
- prepare for the reopening of classes by disinfecting schools and distributing hygiene kits
- strengthen the system's resilience to possible future pandemics with the development of distance learning through a digital learning platform, distance education teaching sheets and interactive educational radio programs.
In late March 2020, the UNICEF office in Madagascar received a GPE grant of US$70,000 to support the Ministry of Education in planning its response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Education in Madagascar
The education sector plan (2018-2022) covers all of the education sector and is based on a national vision. It defines the overall vision of the country for education, which is among the goals of the National Development Plan (2015-2019) and the international objectives for the development of education, particularly, Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4).
The plan is the first for Madagascar that aligns medium- and long-term development goals for the entire education system with three ministries responsible for education and consolidates coherent subsector action plans with a common financial framework.
The plan proposes a strategy aimed in particular at reducing repetition rates by establishing 9 years of basic education (primary and junior secondary school), i.e., 5 years in primary school and 4 years in secondary school, divided into 3 sub-cycles.
The plan, which was prepared after the political crisis, emphasizes strengthening the management and governance of the education system, while proposing responses to disparities in access by having communities construct schools and by improving the intake of children with minor or moderate disabilities into the formal system (goal of 15% in 2022) and children with significant or severe disabilities into specialized institutions (15% in 2022).
To ensure increased monitoring of the education sector plan, the local education group decided to introduce a National Education Sector Support Platform (PNPSE), which above all aims to support the sector implementation of the education sector plan and the establishment of a policy dialogue and coordination instrument aimed at better alignment and greater accountability toward the beneficiaries in the education sector.
Madagascar organizes annual joint sector reviews (at the national and regional levels).
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The overall goal of the Basic Education Support Project (PAEB), which received cofinancing from the World Bank and the GPE Fund for a total of US$100.7 million, is to improve learning outcomes and promotion rates in the two primary sub-cycles of basic education.
The GPE financing will be central to achieving this objective by improving school management to increase the pupil promotion rate (component 3, US$13.1 million) and supporting the implementation of key sector reforms, strengthening the education system and implementing the project (component 4, US$14 million).
The GPE financing covers two components in the areas of equity, efficiency and quality of learning.
Financed on the basis of performance, component 1 aims to gradually improve learning outcomes by introducing regional training plans, improving the teachers’ skills in teaching French and mathematics, and developing the curriculum. The activities aim to enhance quality by reducing teacher absenteeism and increasing the actual teaching time from 3 hours and 9 minutes to 5 hours and 46 minutes, based on the sector plan goal.
The aim of component 2 is to better prepare the entry of children into the school system by taking measures to stimulate the demand for education: constructing 1,000 early childhood education centers and 800 classrooms using the community approach and organizing deworming campaigns benefiting 2.7 million children.
The goal of component 3 is to increase the promotion rate for pupils by improving the management of schools through the establishment of an equitable national school grants system and by professionalizing the skills of the school principals. The key indicator is the average promotion rate for all pupils in the first two sub-cycles of basic education. The first subcomponent consists of creating and financing a single national, harmonized, verified and equitable school grants program. This tool is aimed at keeping household expenditures on education and other school-related costs to a minimum to reduce dropout and repetition rates in primary school.
The objective of component 4 is to support the planning and implementation of the major reforms of the ESP and strengthening of institutional capacities, enhancement of the system for the assessment of learning outcomes, and the provision of technical assistance in the context of the implementation of the sector plan.
Key reforms include the design and implementation of a language policy that will aim to increase the use of the maternal language as the language of instruction during the first sub-cycle, with French gradually being introduced in the second sub-cycle to become the teaching language in the third cycle. In terms of curricular reform, the project will mainly support activities focusing on strengthening the curricula for the first two cycles (primary education) in mathematics, reading and writing.
Grants
All amounts are in US dollars.
| Grant type | Years | Allocations | Utilization | Grant agent | |
| COVID-19 | 2020-2022 | 15,000,000 | 0 | WB | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Program implementation | 2018-2023 | 66,400,000 | 31,114,118 | WB | Progress report |
| 2013-2017 | 85,260,367 | 85,260,367 | WB | Completion report | |
| 2012-2013 | 26,920,182 | 26,920,182 | UNICEF | Progress report | |
| 2010-2012 | 22,018,000 | 22,018,000 | UNICEF | ||
| 2009-2011 | 15,000,000 | 15,000,000 | UNICEF | ||
| 2005-2010 | 60,000,000 | 60,000,000 | WB | Completion report | |
| Sector plan development | 2012-2014 | 248,782 | 248,782 | WB | |
| System capacity | 2022 | 220,000 | 0 | UNICEF | |
| Program development | 2019-2020 | 263,724 | 263,677 | WB | |
| 2017-2018 | 336,420 | 335,247 | WB | ||
| 2012-2013 | 187,067 | 187,067 | WB | ||
| Total | 291,854,542 | 241,347,440 |
As part of its investment in civil society advocacy and social accountability efforts, GPE’s Education Out Loud fund is supporting the Coalition Nationale (CONAMEPT) for the 2019-2021 period.
This builds on 11 years of Civil Society Education Fund (CSEF) support to national education coalitions for their engagement in education sector policy dialogue.
GPE had provided the Coalition Nationale (CONAMEPT) with a grant from the CSEF to support its engagement in education sector policy dialogue and citizens’ voice in education quality, equity, and financing and sector reform.