Morocco: Evaluation of the bank assistance to the education sector, 1994-2004

Evaluation Team

This report was prepared by Albert-Enéas Gakusi, Principal Post-Evaluation Officer, Operations Evaluation Department (OPEV) and Mathias Sanou, a socio-economist (consultant).

Objective

The objective of this review of the Bank’s assistance to the education sector in Morocco is to assess the extent to which the Bank’s education sector policies and strategies match the policies and strategies defined by Moroccan authorities. The review also seeks to evaluate the performance of the Bank’s interventions in the sector. Finally, the review will help draw lessons from experience in order to strengthen Bank policies and procedures and improve the quality of future operations.

Main Lessons

• In an environment that is conducive to the mobilization of nonconcessional resources, as is the case of Morocco, the value-added of a development bank resides primarily in the quality of policy dialogue and technical assistance. Consequently, loan-based interventions alone are inadequate and should be backed by complementary financing instruments to meet needs not satisfied by the competitive capital market.

• The success of any project is closely tied to the quality of its preparation. Relying solely on preparatory work done by partners does not foster understanding of the sectors’ challenges; this can lead to an inaccurate assessment of interventions. In this regard, conducting sectoral studies provides a good vision of challenges and constraints and fosters the achievement of objectives.

• The participation in different phases of education projects by local communities, associations of students’ parents, NGOs, the private sector fosters ownership of outcomes, a factor for good performance and sustainability.

• Failure by partners involved in co-financing or parallel financing of projects to share experiences does not foster the achievement of positive externalities that are beneficial to all. The achievement of such externalities requires the fulfillment of a number of conditions, which include putting in place the following common coordination mechanisms: a) harmonizing the frequency and format of supervision and completion reports; b) definingcommon performance indicators; c) conducting joint supervision missions; and d) regularly exchanging information.

 

Main Recommendations

Recommendation(s) to the Beneficiary:

• Given the increasingly important role played by civil society, including associations of parents, of students, and NGOs in managing school facilities, it is important to effectively associate stakeholders in the design, implementation, and monitoring of education programmes and projects.

• To maintain school buildings and equipment in good condition, students should be sensitized to the need to respect education assets, within the context of the civic education classes.

• The Government should foster the development of the private education sector by lifting institutional barriers, particularly those related to evaluation and validation of diplomas, to promote competitive access to different opportunities in the labor market.

• While strengthening technical and financial cooperation with different development partners, the Government could also take the initiative to organize coordinationamong partners with a view to harmonizing interventions and maximizing their performance.

Recommendation(s) to the Bank:

• The Bank should improve the quality of its assistance by increasing financing for technical assistance and sectoral studies. It should also make available to ADB countries like Morocco the necessary expertise to carry out education and scientific research reform and other measures to strengthen the capacity of the ministries concerned. This assistance should improve the skills and the level of education of Moroccans to make them more competitive at the international level, in the context of globalization. It should also envisage supporting private sector investments in the areas of education, vocational training and applied research.

• The Bank should conduct its own research to better inform its interventions in the education sector and not simply rely on the achievements of other development institutions.

• Given the importance of qualitative education activities in school performance, the Bank should ensure that governments implement the qualitative components of projects, which are related primarily to the training of teaching staff.

• To derive real benefits from co-financing and parallel financing, donor activities should be coordinated to allow the sharing of analyses, experiences, work methods and tools,including the format of supervision and completion reports; the definition of commonindicators; joint supervision missions; and regular exchange of information.

• To improve the efficacy of its interventions in member countries, the Bank, like the World Bank, should put in place a communications system that would allow the monitoring of operations using New Information and Communication Technologies.

• To obtain the data needed to assess the performance of interventions in theeducation sector, the Bank could envisage providing assistance for the country to implement a computerized information collection system which will be used for monitoring and evaluation. It could also envisage assistance for the implementation and development of New Information Technologies in schools in order to facilitate the dissemination of information.