II

III

Foreword

Foreword

2013 was a year of increased investment in quality of edu-

cation, strengthening public participation in educa-

tion, and strengthening MoE’s institutional capacity. On the quality front,

assessment of the Learning Achievements of grade-six students, was a

historic milestone; followed by new investment in the Teacher Training

Colleges to improve learning for student-teachers with emphasis on fe-

male. Evaluation of EQUIP in entirety and the nation-wide teacher pro-

fessional development program are expected to guide improvement for

better-results. School Shuras were trained in their new tasks of reducing out of school kids, ab-

senteeism (among teachers and students), school dropouts and violence. Smaller but significant

initiatives tested include making schools more conducive for learning and teaching through the

use of low-cost modifications in their physical environment.

On the system-building front, a major practical step toward establishing a school Operations

and Maintenance system was taken by undertaking of ordinary and major maintenance in over

500 schools. Worthy of mentioning are also the use of a more precise cost-estimation system

in school design; enhancing the Human Resource Management system; investment in the Evalu-

ation unit of the Planning Department and new support for improving the Audit system in the

ministry.

Noteworthy are also the preparations made for launching the assessment of the sub-national

education system, Conditional Cash Transfer, and the drop out research.

Despite uncertainties, hopes for 2014 are bigger. Besides, so much being on the launching pad

and ready for implementation, important steps will be taken to strengthen MoE in gender-main-

streaming, and integration of initiatives such as the Learning Assessment and Social Mobiliza-

tion. Design of EQUIP III, which briefly started in 2013, will have to be completed in 2014.

Finally, new measures are being tested to augment intra-MoE coordination and more will be

done to boost EQUIP-donor coordination. We welcome 2014 with a higher spirit and stronger

commitment.

Dr. Seddiq Weera

EQUIP Director

IV

Introduction .......................................................................02In-Service Teacher Training through (DT3) ........................03Progress of District Teacher Training Teams (DT3).............03Pre- service Teacher Training .............................................08New Initiatives and Future Plans (2014) ............................13Challenges .........................................................................15

#1 Teacher Education Directorate 01

Introduction .......................................................................17Activities and Progress ......................................................18Major Activities Planned for the Next Six Months ............26Key Challenges ...................................................................27Recommendations.............................................................27

#2Infrastructure Services Department 16

Introduction .......................................................................30Progress .............................................................................31Future Plans .......................................................................37Implementation Challenges...............................................38Recommendations.............................................................39

#3 Social Mobilization Unit 29

Introduction .......................................................................41Targets and Core Activities ................................................42Future Plans .......................................................................46Implementation Challenges and Recommendations .........47Recommendations.............................................................47

#4 Education Management Information System 40

Tabl

e of

Con

tent

s

Designed by: Ah.Jawed Sediqee / EQUIP

V

Introduction .......................................................................50Activities and Progress ......................................................51Planned Key Activities .......................................................55Challenges .........................................................................55Recommendations.............................................................55

#5 Learning Assesment 49

Introduction .......................................................................57Activities and Progress ......................................................58Future Plans .......................................................................59

#6 Gender 56

Introduction .......................................................................64Activities and Progresses ...................................................65Future Plans .......................................................................69Challenges .........................................................................70Recommendations.............................................................70

#8 Envoironment & Social Safeguard 63

Introduction .......................................................................62

#7 Strengthening Sub-National Governance 61Tabl

e of

Con

tent

s

VI

Annex One: Tables .............................................................87Annex Two: Details of SMU basic training missions ..........104Annex Three: Details of SMU ToT Missions .......................105Annex Four: Mobile Application in Urozgan ......................106Annex Five: Budgetary Information of Provinces ..............107

Annexes 86

EQUIP-III Design .................................................................85

#12 Design of EQUIP III 84

Independent Evaluation of EQUIP II .................................83

#11 Independence Evaluation of EQUIP 82

Introduction .......................................................................76Key Activities and Progress ................................................78Future Plans .......................................................................80

#10 Communication & Public Awareness 75

Introduction .......................................................................72Progress on Key Tasks ........................................................73

#9 School Grant Audit 71Ta

ble

of C

onte

nts

VII

List of Abbreviations and A

cronyms

L i s t o f A b b r e v i a t i o n s a n d A c r o n y m sADA Afghan Development Association AGEI Afghanistan Girls Education Initiative AL Accelerated Learning ALPT Accelerated Learning Program Training ANDS Afghanistan National Development Strategy ARTF Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund AUAF American University of AfghanistanAuSAID Australian Agency for International Development BESST Building Education Support to Teachers Training Program BoQ Bill of QuantityCC Community ContactCIDA Canadian International Development Agency CTAP Civilian Technical Assistance ProgramDAARTT The Danish Assistance to Afghan Rehabilitation and Technical TrainingDANIDA Danish International Development Assistance DED District Education Directorate DSM District Social MobilizerDSTTC District based Satellite Teacher Training College DT3 District Teacher Training Teams EMIS Education Management Information System EQUIP Education Quality Improvement Program ESMF Environmental Social Management Framework ESS Environmental Social Safeguard ESSAF Environmental Social Screening Assessment Framework FP Focal Point GIS Geographical Information System GIZ German Development Agency GMTF Gender Mainstreaming Task Force GoA Government of Afghanistan GPE Global Partnership for EducationGSP Girls’ Scholarship ProgramHAS High School Teaching Assistance HR Human Resources ICT Information Communication Technology IDA International Development Association

VIII

List

of A

bbre

viat

ions

and

Acr

onym

sA

bbrevations

IMIS Infrastructure Information Management SystemINSET In-service education for teachers IP Implementing Partners IRD International Relief and DevelopmentISD Infrastructure Services Department ISSA In-School Support Activities ITSA In-School Teacher Support Activities JACK Just for Afghan Capacity and Knowledge JICA Japan International Cooperation Agency MDG Millennium Development Goal M&E Monitoring and Evaluation MoE Ministry of Education MoF Ministry of FinanceMoU Memorandum of UnderstandingMoWA Ministry of Women Affairs M&R Monitoring and Reporting NCB National Competitive Bidding NGO Non-governmental Organization NoC No Object CertificateNoL No Objection LetterNPITT National Program for In-service Teacher Training PD Procurement DepartmentPED Provincial Education Directorate PIM Project Implementation Manual PLC Principal Learning Circle PMO Provincial Monitoring Officer PTL Provincial Team leader PTTM Principle Training Team Member QEG Quality Enhancement GrantSCI Save the Children InternationalSIP School Improvement Plan SMIS Students’ Information Management SystemSMO Statement Mission ObjectiveSMS School Management Shura S-MS Social Mobilization Supervisor

L i s t o f A b b r e v i a t i o n s a n d A c r o n y m s

IX

List of Abbreviations and A

cronyms

Abb

reva

tions

L i s t o f A b b r e v i a t i o n s a n d A c r o n y m s

SMU Social Mobilization UnitSMT School Management Training SPP Supplementary Procurement PlanST Senior Trainer TA International Technical AdvisorTDC Teacher Development Center TED Teacher Education General DirectorateTLC Teacher Learning Circle TMC Technical Management CommitteeTMIS Teachers’ Management Information SystemTO Teacher Observation TTC Teacher Training College UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Culture Organiza-tion UNICEF United Nations Children’s Education Fund WB World Bank

List of Special NamesArticle 25 An International Nongovernmental OrganizationCMORE International Relief and Development (IRD) Database Soft-ware

IX

Executive Summ

ary

E x e c u t i v e S u m m a r y

The World Bank supported the Education Quality Improvement Program (EQUIP) of the

Ministry of Education of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan beginning a four year opera-tion in 2004. The second four-year phase (EQUIP II) ended in August, 2012 but was ex-

tended through August, 2014. An extension grant of over 250 million USD, covering the extension, was approved by the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF and the World Bank.EQUIP activities and achievements during the second half of 2013 are summarized in the topic para-graphs below.

The EQUIP Coordination Unit activities covered multiple coordinating and liaising functions in-cluding facilitating and leading new developments, daily support and trouble shooting for on-going projects. Examples of the work of this unit include: establishing and providing support to teams for pilot projects and for Learning Assessment; revamping the Environmental and Social Safeguard projects; leading the School Grant Audit following up on liquidation and fund transfers. This unit followed up on Social Mobilization activities such as establishing a coordination protocol between Social Mobilization and the Infrastructure Services Department (ISD) and the Community Contacts (CCs) in order to improve the Social Mobilization system and ensure renewal and training of school Shuras. This focus was especially on those schools receiving infrastructure grants, quality grants, or model school grants. The unit also organized training workshops to ensure capacity development of MoE personnel. Trouble-shooting between ISD and partnership consulting firms, support for the recruitment of the Human Resources firm, along with participating in the hiring of staff for Procure-ment, Finance, Audit, and the EMIS departments were part of the functions of the Coordination Unit this half-year. They also facilitated the work of the WB experts with the MoE departments dur-ing supervisory Mission visits as well as following up on binding decisions and recommendations in the Aide Memoire. Currently, the evaluation of EQUIP II and the design for EQUIP III are underway, along with the establishment of the Asset Management Information System.

The Teacher Education General Directorate (TED) of the Ministry of Education (MoE), Gov-ernment of Afghanistan (GoA) is responsible for setting up infrastructure for pre- and in-service teacher education and for planning, delivering and monitoring teacher education throughout the country. TED continued to build on its achievements of teachers’ capacity building across the coun-try and TED institutional capacity building both at national and provincial levels through technical and infrastructural investment in teacher training colleges (TTCs) and development and provision of In-Service teacher training. During the reporting period, TED through their partner NGOs rolled out the Inset III to provincial and district teachers using the three-tiered cascade model. A total of 90,645 (36.2% female) in-ser-

X

Exec

utiv

e Su

mm

ary

vice teachers were trained in reading and literacy and numeracy, and subject areas of math, natural science, social sciences and humanities. A total of 7,612 headmasters and principals were trained across the 23 provinces in SMT4. The scholarships for female students at TTCs were extended to an additional 3,390 female students which increased the total number of female students benefiting from the Girls Scholarship Program to 7,906 students. All TTCs and TDCs received the quality gender grants. The regional allowance was provided to 22 insecure and disadvantaged provinces. The number of TTC faculty members benefiting from the regional allowance reached 902. TMIS made significant achievements by developing the system further. Tangible achievements include designing data, capturing formats and collecting the re-quired information on TTC lecturers as well as entering data on TTC students. The system can now generate geo-maps and data in visually presented formats.TED has new and energetic plans for 2014 that include the capacity development of TTC lecturers through a Master’s Program with American University for Afghanistan. TED has also developed new training packages for teachers and school administrators such as INSET IV and V, and SMT-V and VI and will roll these out during 2014. Consolidation of the TTC curriculum and the DT3 packages is continuing in order to provide clear alignment between pre-service and in-service teacher edu-cation, and to prepare for future equivalency decisions in the credentialing process. Piloting data collection through Smart Phones is also among the new initiatives of TED.

The Infrastructure Services Department (ISD) of MoE has been responsible for implement-ing the construction component of EQUIP for improving and increasing access to quality educa-tion for all, since November/December 2011. During the reporting period, out of the total 1,347 CC projects, the department has completed 355 projects. Thirty five other projects will be com-pleted within the budget. As of December 2013, 219 NCB projects (71%) are completed against the planned 305 NCB projects. Under the Additional Financing arrangements with the World Bank, 77 pilot projects, 121 CCs with their annexes of 83 CCs, 128 NCBs, 1328 projects for missing compo-nents and 1,001 projects for maintenance and rehabilitation are undertaken. Of the 128 National Competitive Bidding (NCB) projects, 6 TTC, Total 666 classrooms, 68 latrines, 2 solar panels, 82 boundary walls and 61 water wells will be built under these 128 projects of which 38 projects are submitted to the Procurement Department for bidding. Of the 1,328 missing com-ponents, all are submitted to the Procurement Department for bidding. The missing components include boundary wall, electricity, garbage collection points, GI sheet, furniture, latrine, water well and other school needs. The packages for the 121 CC projects are submitted to EQUIP for contract-ing out to SMS. These schools include 840 classrooms to be built, 85 laboratories and 85 computer labs. Eighty five CC annexes which include boundary wall, water well, latrine, furniture and solar system for all 85 schools are also submitted to the Procurement Department for NCB bidding. 77 pilot projects are submitted for bid processing, which will take place at the provincial level.

XI

Executive Summ

ary

Under Operation and Maintenance budget, 1,001 projects are planned this year and all are submit-ted to the Procurement Department, 886 contracted to the Operation and Maintenance budget are already channeled to PED through MOE/MOF. Out of these 886 projects, 214 are completed, 370 are ongoing and 9 projects are stopped. The rest of the projects (115) are not contracted due to lack of budget.

The Social Mobilization Unit (SMU) is awarded with the prime responsibility of facilitating the process of community participation through the establishment and formation of School Man-agement Shuras (SMSs) in each school. These SMSs, representing the communities, go through the participatory process of identifying and prioritizing educational and facility needs in the schools, plan for the solutions with consensus in form of School Improvement Plan (SIP), translate it into action by delegating the responsibilities to the members as Executive Committee, Procurement Committee, Finance Committee under overall supervision with transparency and accountability to General body of Shura and related community in cooperation with the District and Provincial Edu-cation Authorities. The strong belief in community participation enabled SMU to achieve the target of 445 new SMSs formation, development of 425 School Improvement Plans (SIPs) and 73 Model Schools along with the preparation of comprehensive technical and financial guidelines for Model Schools as of December 2013.In terms of financial support to Schools through SMSs, SMU allocated 115.570 million AFs for Quality Enhancement Grants, to 538 schools in 34 provinces and Kabul City, with the disbursement of 107.946 million AFs. To ensure the process of participatory decision mak-ing, accountability and transparency of allocated responsibilities and financial resources, quality assurance as per standards of the work undertaken by SMS, smooth coordination and communica-tion with the stakeholders, develop local leadership, institutional strengthening of Shuras social guidance is provided by SMU through monitoring visits across the country. To build and develop the capacity of entire SMU the International Capacity Development and Social Mobilization Advisor (ICDSMA) is on board. The TNA has been carried out leading the way to initiate the implementa-tion of Training Plan along with the development of training manuals and materials. The generic Training of Trainers (ToT) manual has been developed (translated into Dari and Pashto) and series of ToT conducted through cascade approach for trickle down effects. Eleven basic training events were also organized for EQUIP Officers, SM Supervisors and DSMs. SMS training and capacity de-velopment regarding program methodology was a regular feature of the reporting period. The first national level “Experience Sharing Conference” and launch of “Success Stories” booklet was a hall-mark of EQUIP-SMU efforts in acknowledging community participation, ownership of the process and contribution of SMSs, in the cause of quality education for all especially girl child.

XII

Exec

utiv

e Su

mm

ary

The Education Management Information System (EMIS) at the Ministry of Education (MoE) enables the Ministry to meet its information needs for decision-making, accountability, and organizational learning. The department executed assessments, evaluations and data manage-ment, which include activities such as requirement collection and analysis, system development and maintenance, data analysis and reporting, and capacity development through technical train-ing. The department’s other activities included deployment of an EMIS Server in the Afghanistan National Data Center (ANDC), procurement of IT equipment, recruitment of three new staff, and providing education information to EQUIP Gender and Communication units.

The Learning Assessment Unit (LAU) was established in January 2013 to monitor the educa-tion development through assessment of learning achievements of school children in Afghanistan. The objective of this program is to establish valid, reliable and continuously updated data on the quality of learning, and the education system as a whole. Activities and achievements of the unit for the reporting period include program staff recruitment and technical assistance received from the Australian Council for Education Research (ACER). The provision of an online marking system, delivery of the text booklets, translation review, capacity development trainings, visits to Afghani-stan, a Field Trial, a PEDs workshop and a Main Survey are outcomes of this project.

The Gender Unit focuses on analytical work in order to address the gender gaps within the edu-cation sector. The unit identified a research advisory firm to conduct research on ‘drop outs’. A re-search specialist is hired and a training specialist will be hired soon to assist the unit in its research programs. The unit is also helping in enforcement of the ‘Mahram’ policy, through allocation of a “Mahram allowance” along with other facilitative measures designed to facilitate increased recruit-ment and retention of field-based female staff. In addition, the Gender Unit is designing a pilot project, Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT), for girls’ retention in schools, which will be implemented as a complementary response to the unit’s research initiative.

The Envir onmental and Social Safeguard (ESS) Unit focused mainly on developing the capacity of EQUIP provincial and central staff working with the Infrastructure Services Depart-ment (ISD) and the Social Mobilization Unit (SMU), as well as staff of Provincial Education Director-ates (PEDs), District Education Departments (DEDs), and members of School Management Shuras (SMSs) to identify and address ESS issues related to Environmental Social Screening Assessment Framework (ESSAF) and the implementation throughout the project cycle. The ESS Unit has so far installed standard Sign Boards for 12 schools in Kabul province and the process is underway for 174 other schools. As per the plan, 450 Complaint Boxes will be installed in 450 schools by the end of year 1392. The Unit has also developed a Grievance Redress Mechanism in local languages, which will be implemented in 36 schools as a pilot, and will gradually be extended to all schools across

XIII

Executive Summ

ary

the country. In addition, the Unit has prepared training materials in local languages, for provincial staff. The Unit also designed two standard formats for land acquisition, which are approved by the Assets Department of MoE.The Quality Grant Audit Unit was established in July 2012 to provide report to EQUIP Man-agement with in-depth assessments; to evaluate whether school grants and SMSs are achieving their main objectives and following proper processes, and to make remedial recommendations based on observations and findings. Since September 2012, the following key activities have been implemented by the team: audit of 91 schools in 8 provinces, assessment of 15 CC projects, follow up of expenditure liquidation process in 6 provinces, and special assignments of suspicious cases.

The Communication Unit and the Public Awareness Unit started a public awareness campaign by organizing public awareness events (PAEs). The Units conducted Public Awareness and Public Education programs in Jawzjan, Samangan, Baghlan, Kapisa, Wardak, Laghman, and Parwan. During the reporting period, the Communication Unit published 3 editions (2000 each edition) of the EQUIP bi-monthly Newsletter in English, Dari and Pashtu, and translated the SMU Manual, the ISD Manual and the Model School Guidebook. They also developed budget and profile of provinces into Dari and Pashtu. They developed over 1000 messages about eradicating violence, reducing drop-outs and increasing enrollment. They prepared script for 12 episodes of drama about eradicat-ing violence, reducing drop-outs and increasing enrollment. The Unit published education related articles and information about budget of provinces in various audio-visual and print media; pre-pared media reports of all EQUIP workshops/seminars/conferences, developed a database for a Shura Picture Book; and composed, edited, designed and printed materials for all units of EQUIP and for EQUIP related workshops, seminars and conferences.

Executive Summ

ary

02

Teac

her E

duca

tion

#1[Teacher Education]

Introduction

The TED of the Ministry of Education (MoE), Government of Afghanistan (GoA) is

responsible for setting up infrastructure for pre- and in-service teacher education,

and for planning, delivering, and monitoring teacher education throughout the

country. Key responsibilities of the TED include:

• Establishing and sustaining a pre-service and in-service professional development

Infrastructure, consisting of provincial TTCs, district Teacher Development Centers

(TDCs) and satellite training centers;

• Staffing and equipping these institutions adequately to deliver quality

education;Introducing sustainable teacher professional development systems and

structures to;

Improve the professional capacity of teachers and school managers

• Developing a responsive teacher education curriculum for pre-service and in-sevice;

Teacher professional development

• Developing pre-service textbooks and in-service manuals and teacher guides

• Delivering periodic professional development programs for teachers and

education managers;

• Monitoring the quality of these professional development programs.

The World Bank funded EQUIP II program, initiated in 2008, supports the TED to

strengthen and sustain pre-service and in-service teacher professional devel

opment. It contributes to the GoA’s National Program for In-service Teacher Training

(NPITT). Key components of EQUIP II are briefly introduced on the fol lowing pages.

03

Teacher Education

1.2 In-Service Teacher Training through the District Teacher Training Teams (DT3)

The NPITT program also known as DT3, is a strategy of TED to develop and implement a high quality, sustainable in-service teacher professional development infrastructure. EQUIP-II supports the DT3 program delivering in-service teacher education to teachers across Afghanistan in 23 provinces. These 23 provinces are organized into three groups, with a different lead NGO implementing partner (IP) responsible for delivering the program in each group of provinces.

Based on the needs of the teachers, packages were designed by TED to meet the identified needs. The training packages were delivered by NGOs through DT3 in a sequence addressing on-going needs and newly identified needs with increasingly more challenging content.

Currently INSET I, II III, IV and V have been developed and INSET I, II, and III have been delivered. De-tails of each phase will be provided in the following section.

At the same time leadership and management training packages were developed for school adminis-trators to develop their skills and understanding of their job. The capacity building for school manag-ers is implemented through the following trainings SMT I, II, III and IV.

In secondary schools where they are facing a shortage of qualified teachers the DT3 staff are provid-ing on-site assistance and professional support through the High School Teaching Assistance (HAS) component of DT3.

Through the important follow-on activities that are an essential part of DT3, the teachers and ad-ministrators are supported in their school sites by activities that ensure the active application of the training concepts and skills. The integration of those ideas into classroom instruction for improved learning is supported by Teacher Learning Circles, Principal Learning Circles, peer partnering and col-legial support, observations, mentoring, coaching, monitoring of schools and classrooms, along with conferences and consultation, and other professional development activities.

1.2.1 Progress of District Teacher Training Teams (DT3)

The contracts for the three consortiums of NGOs for DT3 were extended for a period of seven months to continue the professional development of teachers and school administrators in the 23 provinces. Even as these contracts were extended, the procurement was ongo-ing for the next competition of the contracts for all 34 provinces.

Figure 1.1. EQUIP II Target Provinces and the Implementing NGOs

04

Teac

her E

duca

tion

1.2.2 INSET-III Trainings

a) Training in Various Subjects

After delivering of INSET-I and II trainings based on teachers’ needs TED developed and conducted INSET-III training focusing on literacy and numeracy for teachers of Grades 1- 6 and a more intensive focus on content knowledge for teaching in all other grades. Teachers were organized into four sub-ject specialty groups for INSET III including math, science, social science, and humanities. Religious studies were included in the Humanities section. The content was not taught in a mechanical way, topic by topic, but the training focus was on assessing the needs of the teachers to determine where they needed the most help in comprehending the content and in being able to communicate the con-cepts and skills to students. Many teachers in Afghanistan, especially in rural areas, do not meet the minimum required education level of grade 14; in fact many do not even have a secondary diploma. These teachers are the special focus for making the trainings practical, useful, understandable and meaningful.

In addition for each subject, content training is also included in sections on teaching literacy skills across the curriculum. The training made clear that each teacher, in every subject field, has respon-sibilities for teaching students how to read in their own subject field. In each field specific vocabulary as well as ways special content areas are organized, are important for every subject specialty teacher to understand. Teachers need to know how to teach students in their subject to read material for different purposes.

Professors from Kabul University together with Provincial Monitors and TED Academic Members fa-cilitated the workshops. TED’s staff provides training to trainers recruited by the IPs, who, in turn pro-vide training to teachers. The facilitators of the workshop used a variety of learner-centered meth-ods including group work discussions, demonstration lessons, role-plays and visual materials such as charts. In science training, the facilitators conducted experiments using laboratories. The training is delivered using a cascade model. The cascade is illustrated below:

05

Teacher Education

INSET-III Literacy and Numeracy

Totally, 40,244 teachers are trained out of which 16,843 (41.85%) are female.

Math and Science Training

The Math package contains material for grades nine and ten but the training included Math teachers from grades 7 through 12. It was based on both math content and ways of helping teachers explain, demonstrate, and make meaningful the concepts and skills essential to us-ing and understanding mathematics. The training package uses approaches to teaching and learning math that are internationally accepted. There were 9,021 teachers trained in Math package of which 2,490 (27.6%) were female.

INSET-III Literacy and Numer-acy training for of primary school teachers started in August of 2013. These teach-ers were provided with skills and competencies needed for reading, writing and nu-meracy for grades 1-6. The book contains 12 chapters and is accompanied with a program guide that helps the trainer to plan the chapters and deliver the training.

Figure 1. 2. INSET-III Literacy and Numeracy

Figure 1. 3. Math training

06

Teac

her E

duca

tion

Humanities and Social Science Training

In INSET-III, TED put an emphasis on the fact that “All subjects are reading subjects”. Teachers’ en-hanced capacity in developing their students’ reading and writing skills facilitate the overall learning in any subject. TED integrated themes from its Enhanced Literacy package, which was developed with support from UNICEF, to strengthen students’ reading skills across the curriculum. The integration of themes on developing students’ reading capacity will enable not only teachers of language and litera-ture, but teachers from different specialties to help their students read efficiently, comprehend better and construct their understanding of the text more effectively.

The Science package covers contents in Chemistry, Biol-ogy and Physics of grade 7-9, but it is designed for Grade 7-12 Science Teachers. By the end of November, 2013, a total of 13,479 teachers 4,518 (33.77%) female were trained in this package. This chart shows the number of teachers trained each month.

Figure 1. 4. Science training

Another part of INSET-III package training is the Human-ities training that cover Geog-raphy, History, Islamic subjects and language subjects (Dari, Pashto and English). The train-ing is provided to teachers of grade 7 – 12, but the content included in this package is cov-ering grade 7-9. Totally, 27,895 teachers were trained in this package out of which 8,937 (32%) female.

07

Teacher Education

b) School Management Training (SMT)

School Management Training has been delivered in four cy-cles (SMT-I, II, III and IV). The training began with basic school management skills focusing on the practical administration needed for Afghan schools. The subsequent trainings were more advanced and include emphasis on the school adminis-trators as educational leaders as well as a manager. The con-tent of the recent SMT-IV training which covered 8,367 (755 female) includes information about responsibilities of school administrators under the Education Law of Afghanistan as well as qualitative training in support and evaluation of teachers, time management and priorities, communication and leader-ship skills with regard to staff, students, parents and commu-nity, safety and security issues, equitable and fair treatment of students and staff with focus on classroom management, anti-discrimination, inclusive classrooms, and child friendly classrooms and schools. It also includes resource manage-ment and use, budgeting issues, parents-community relation-ships and communications and principal evaluation. Attention to teacher evaluation and improvement of classroom learning with data collection and application to school improvement are addressed.

While these trainings become progressively more advanced, it is not necessary for participants to complete one phase before enrolling in subsequent phases since each SMT training recap-tures and extends key lessons from the basic training.

These programs are extremely effective especially in prov-inces such as ours where

teachers are often unqualified and do not have access to institutions where they can upgrade their qual-ifications.

There is also a lot of improvement in our administrative procedures. We can see a lot of improvement in ourselves. Up to now we have re-ceived four SMT trainings, and we are hoping in the future more SMT training will be designed and deliv-ered to us.

One of the appealing topics in SMT 4 is how principals can establish communication and relationships with parents of the students. We now know the importance of es-tablishing relationships with fami-lies and how to have meetings with parents to help the children learn. We also had topics on school im-provement plans and working with the School Improvement Commit-tee and the Shuras.

A principal from JabalSsraj District of Parwan Province

Figure 1.6. SMT4 training in June 2013

08

Teac

her E

duca

tion

High School Teaching Assistance

High schools across Afghanistan frequently face shortages of qualified teachers, especially in science subjects. To support high school teachers to deliver quality and updated instruc-tion to their students, DT3 teacher trainers provided teach-ing assistance to a total of 2,764 high schools in all 23 prov-inces. The assistance consisted of teaching, mentoring and providing support to teachers to prepare instructional mate-rial, delivery of model lessons, consultation with teachers to help them prepare lesson plans, helping teachers find solu-tions to their lesson problems and instruction on how to use lab equipment and conduct experiments. Teachers have re-ported finding this component of DT3 extremely useful and in evaluations they claim to have benefited from improved capacity to independently teach their classes in the future.

Teacher and Principal Learning Circles

TLCs and PLCs were set up as separate teacher and princi-pal support networks in target schools in all 23 provinces. They provided a platform for teachers to regularly meet col-leagues from other schools to discuss problems and chal-lenges, share successes and best practices, and learn from each other. During the reporting period 5,907 TLCs and 772 PLCs were provided support. Most TLCs have between 5 - 12 members and they meet at least for an hour or more once a month. Teachers and principals were supported to orga-nize their meetings independently to consultatively decide on the agenda for each meeting and increase the number of meetings in each month.

Initially the TLCs were established by the NGOs, who con-tinue to establish new TLCs and PLCs. NGOs are encouraging that the TLCs and PLCs that they plan and run their meetings independently. Some TLCs are increasing the number per month, but others still heavily relying on the support from NGOs.

1.3 Pre- service Teacher TrainingAfghanistan continues to face a serious shortage of qualified teachers. With over 180,000 teachers almost 50% are un-qualified and only 30% are female, concentrated most in ur-ban areas. The need for more female teachers is critical and it is one of the highest priorities for TED. The establishment and development of the provincial TTCs and District based

Our group is a teacher learning

circle and is a chemistry research

group. Our group consists of 20

members and we convene our

meeting every 15 days. Whenev-

er, as teachers, we face a problem,

we come together and consult

each other to solve the problem.

These learning circles are very ef-

fective because we are learning

a lot from each other, and any

problem that comes up in physics

or chemistry we can discuss and

solve that problem.

Kabul City TLC Member Said:

09

Teacher Education

Teacher Development Centers (TDCs) is creating a large pool of potential teachers as well as upgrading the qualifications of current In-Service teachers.

In 2001, there were 4 semi-functioning teacher training colleges with only 450 stu-dents enrolled. And none of these students were female. Now there are 44 TTCs in 34 provinces, with 187 district based teacher development centers, and 64 teacher sat-ellite TTC branches that are teaching more than 72,000 with 54% are female students both pre-service and in-service. This year we have enrolled around 22,420 new stu-dents in the TTCs out of which 71% are fe-male. This dramatic increase in female, as well as male students can be seen in the following chart.

This year we have graduated over 23,000 students (38% female) and since 2001 a total of more than 106,000 students gradu-ated from both pre-service and in-service program of teacher training colleges across Afghanistan with 39% female. Out of those 106,000 graduates, over 90,000 of them graduated since the initiation of EQUIP II.

One of the major factors in this enrollments and graduation increase is the impact of the girl’s scholar-ship program.

1.3.1 Girls Scholarship Program

Through the GSP, TED distributed scholarships (USD-60/month) to disadvantaged but academically capable women enrolled in TTCs in 25 provinces with low female enrolment levels. The scholarship aims at recruiting and retaining promising female students, and encouraging them to become teach-ers. It provides deserving female students with financial support to continue their education.

An important goal is not only to increase the cadre of female teachers, but to increase the number of females educated in the nation.

This fact in itself is a significant long term contribution to the benefit of women and families.

During the reporting period a total of 7,906 female students received scholarships. Compared to the first half of 2013, the scholarship was extended to an additional number of 3,390 female students,

Figure 1. 7. Dramatic enrollment increase in TTCs 2011-2013

Figure 1. 8. Graduation rates in TTCs 2001-2013

10

Teac

her E

duca

tion

which is a significant improvement in the num-ber of female students in TTCs. It is remarkable that of this number only 1% dropped out and did not complete the program. This means that 99% of these female students successfully completed the two year TTC training. Many will become teachers and also may continue their education at the university level.

TED Provincial administrators visited their re-spective provinces, monitored the process of the scholarship distribution and met the scholarships students. The data show that in the scholarship group attendance is over 75%, all are receiving passing marks (50% and above), and the 1% drop out of the TTC program is based on personal, not academic, reasons. Surveys of these students provide many testimonies to the importance of the scholarship program in their lives.

The Scholarships have been very effective in in-creasing the number of female students in the TTCs. TTC Directors in many provinces have sto-ries of how barriers to women’s participation and enrollment in TTCs have been overcome. In Kunduz, the TTC was very proud of its success in attracting new female students particularly in the more remote districts. Recently the TED monitoring team visited Kunduz where the TTC Director provided evidence of the increase in female students in Khan Abad district as confir-mation of the effectiveness of the girls’ scholar-ship program. “The number of female students in Khan Abad TDC has reached 137 in the current academic year, whereas last year it was only 25 students. This shows a five-fold increase. Also progress was made in drawing women to the TDC. An administrator in Kunduz said, “We did not have any female student in Dashti Archi TDC and in the current year, there are 34 female stu-dents.”

A Scholarship Student from Parwan Says:

I’m very happy to be able to study in the teacher’s training college and the other girls are happy too. These are the girls who do not have the money to pay for the expenses of their education. I am one of those girls. I come all the way from Jabalsaraj District. We are spending the scholarship money mostly on transportation costs to be able to come to the college. The girls are using their money to buy school supplies as well as to pay for their transportation. They are very happy for this opportunity.

Another Student Says:

I wanted to continue my studies when I grad-uated from grade 12. But because of the economic situation of my family, I couldn’t go to school. I delayed my study for a whole year. Then, when I heard of the scholarship program, I registered myself and am happy to have received the scholarship. We are four sisters, and we all have requested and received the scholarships. If this scholarship didn’t exist, none of us would have been able to study even though we all love to study and learn.

11

Teacher Education

1.1.1. Curriculum Improvements Implemented Action Research, Student Port-folios, and Student Teaching Practicum

The Action Research course, the Portfolio Assessment, and the revised Student Teaching Practicum have all been completed and are in the process of implementation in the TTCs. These three are sepa-rate but integrated components to provide teachers with a well-rounded professional program.

The course on Action Research includes the textbook and syllabus that gives the student skills and knowledge about how to use research methods in classrooms and in schools to improve instruction in a practical and real way. TTC instructors are identified to teach this course, and instructors in the Masters’ program at the AUAF will also be qualified.

The Student Portfolio Assessment Project is a new way for students at the TTC to monitor and track their development through their two year program. This project has three purposes: 1) the TTC stu-dent and the TTC advisor are both able to assess the student’s development, 2) the portfolio will be a required part of the credentialing process, and 3) the portfolio is to be useful as the graduate interviews for a teaching position. The portfolio is also the Capstone project for the student and is presented in the final semester before graduation.

The improvements made in the Student Teaching Practicum include an improved syllabus for the course, new manuals for student teachers and for instructors, and guides for use by teachers and administrators in the partner experimental schools. These improvements have been instituted as a result of lessons learned in the practicum and suggestions made during the pilot phase of the new program.

1.1.2. Primary Education-- a new TTC Specialty

The new Primary School specialty is designed for teachers in grades 1-6 in order to address the train-ing of teachers in the special strategies required for teaching students at these grade levels. Because the beginning years in school set patterns for each child’s future, the period of education needs well trained teachers who understand the special ways to teach primary school content. This specialty is a two-year diploma program that integrates the primary specialty courses as a major with pedagogy and general education courses, In addition, a subject specialty is required as a minor. The founda-tion course for the specialty, teaching in the Primary School, is completed and includes content and methods for teaching all subjects in the primary grades, as well as organization and management of primary school teaching including multi-age and multi-grade. The development of other specialty courses is underway.

1.1.3. TTC Quality and Gender Grants

The TTC Quality and Gender Grants were offered to TTCs to provide incentives for improvement of facilities especially to improve conditions for female students. This time the grants were extended to TDCs as well. The TTC and TDCs proposals were reviewed and approved by TED. Each TTC and TDC receives the quality grant of USD-10,000 per year. Each TTC and its sub-TTC receive a gender grant based on the number of female students they have enrolled and retained.

12

Teac

her E

duca

tion

Last year the difference between the quality grants and the gender grants was not very clear. Based on lessons learned, this year a workshop for TTC directors was held to clarify any confusion and to ensure that the gender grants were used exclusively to improve conditions for female students.

1.1.4. Teacher Management Information System (TMIS)

TMIS continued to build on the system development work performed during the first half of the year. Complete data capturing formats were sent out to all TTCs to collect the required information on TTC lecturers. The process of data entry into the system in digital form was carried out for all provinces. TTC Students’ Management Information System has already been designed and the data entry is in progress. The system will be able to generate transcripts and diplomas for students.

Considering the necessity of visual data representation, work on the geo-maps has been initiated by the TMIS team. The data are going to be integrated with the Google Map, and a visual representation will be made available through the TMIS server. TMIS will also be able to generate geo-maps which are the maps of a country, continent, or region with colors and values assigned to specific regions. Values are displayed as a color scale, and can specify optional “hover text” for regions. The development of an Education Atlas is in process.

1.1.5. Regional Allowance

This monthly allowance is provided to lecturers who work in TTCs that are located in insecure and remote areas. These lecturers receive an allowance of 10,000 Afghanis (roughly USD $200) per month in addition to their salary so they can cover extra transportation or security costs and/or to provide them an incentive to continue teaching in difficult conditions. TED responded to the persistent request by the four provinces for extending the regional allowance to the faculty members in their TTCs. This includes Ghazni, Wardak, Laghman and Kunduz provinces. Lack of security, geographical remoteness

Figure 1.9.TTC Lecturers’ and students’ data map.

13

Teacher Education

and lack of qualified TTC lecturers in the provinces were the important factors that challenged the TTCs in attracting and retaining qualified faculty members. After assessing the request, TED extended the regional allowance to the above four provinces.

A total of 902 faculty members in 22 provinces benefitted from the regional allowance during the reporting period.

New Initiatives and Future Plans (2014)

1.1.6. In-Service

The School Management Training (SMT-V) is developed and its translation into Dari and Pashto is in process. TED will be able to roll out the SMT-V in early 2014. A group of master trainers has already been trained. SMT-V builds on the four domains of capacity development of School Management including Leadership and Management, Teacher Professional Development, Student Learning Out-comes, and Community Relationships. The 50 competencies for School Administrators were previ-ously mapped; SMT V carries forward the development of those competencies for both experienced and new administrators. The main topics in SMT-V include:

a) Effective School Management and School Leadership

b) The Instructional Program: Helping Teachers Improve their skills with self-reflection and self-assessment

c) Ensuring Quality Learning Outcomes in a Healthy, Safe School Learning Environment

d) The School Administrator as a Leader for Learning and for Curriculum Management

e) The School as a Professional Learning Community with Mentoring, Coaching, Study Groups and use of Data for Setting Goals

1.1.7. INSET IV

INSET IV is designed in four packages for teachers of different grade levels and subjects. One package is designed specifically for teachers in the primary schools, grades 1 through 6. The other three pack-ages are for Grade 7-12 Science, Humanities, Social Sciences and Math Teachers. The Grade 1-6 pack-age focuses on the curriculum linked to pedagogy for teaching children the basic and foundational concepts and skills in of literacy (reading, writing, thinking, speaking), and numeracy from grade 1 through the primary years. Classroom organization and management for different learning purposes; teaching in multi grade classrooms and in multi-subject classrooms is part of this training and will be especially relevant for teachers in rural areas and in community based schools. This in-service course is the first one designed specifically to be linked to the TTC curriculum as both an in-service course and

14

Teac

her E

duca

tion

a 2 credit TTC course. It will be a foundation course and requirement in the future TTC specialty for primary teachers as a special field of study within the two-year diploma program.

1.1.8. INSET V and SMT-VI

The development of INSET V and SMT-VI will be a different kind of training experience for teachers and administrators focusing on responsibility and accountability in their job effectiveness as seen through their own eyes. They will be required to complete a variety of self-reflection and self-assessment tasks focusing on how well and clearly they understand their jobs and how well they are performing. The SMT-VI training will require many months of follow-on in school assessment activities that will include obtaining feedback from students and from colleagues. The format for the training will rely on a textbook type of Tool Kit that explain the self-assessment process, and it will be accompanied by a Workbook that will be used by the teacher to document his/her classroom planning and perfor-mance. In 15 chapters there will be from 3 to 5 reflective/self-evaluative activities --- approximately 50 exercises related to classroom teaching to be completed at least one or two a week. These will be discussed with a peer partner, a mentor, in a learning circle, and in some cases with the principal, head master or department head. Some of the exercises will be filed as copies in the teacher’s official file; others will be kept as a record for the teacher to review at the year’s end during a summative evaluation conference. The Workbook will have space for reflective writing and for notes or respons-es from others with whom the self-assessments and reflections have been shared.

This Workbook for will be designed for teachers as part of their INSET V training, but is also intended to be used by principals in a slightly modified form since they also need to develop the habit of re-flection and self-assessment with respect to their own job competencies. In addition, the Principals need to be trained in the content for INSET V in order to support, encourage, and guide their teachers through the workbook process.

1.1.9. Pre-Service-- The TTCs

The Master’s Program for TTC lecturers through American University will begin in the first semester of 2014. The curriculum designed specifically for this program covers different aspects of pedagogy including not only those important themes for school teachers, but also strategies for teaching adults in the TTCs who will be teachers and who need to be taught how children learn but also how students who are adult can be appropriately taught. The courses they will take are graduate level content, but are chosen to improve their skills as TTC instructors of prospective teachers.

1.4.5 Credentialing System for Teachers

The plan for a national teacher credentialing system, developed after many months of consultation and work by a numerous groups of educators, is now ready to be approved and implemented. The plan tentatively has 4 tiers or steps on the professional ladder for teachers. The first is a Provisional Credential to be given to teachers who have not yet met all the qualifications required for a fully cre-dentialed teacher. Certain qualifications must be met however, and all minimal qualifications must be met within a certain time period, probably 5 years. CBE teachers may qualify for this category as well as prospective teachers educated in other countries who do not have training in pedagogy.

15

Teacher Education

Tier II is an Interim Credential given to teachers who have met the minimal qualifications including evi-dence of a grade 14 diploma, a passing score on the National Teacher Examination or TTC exit exam, a portfolio evaluation and an application for the credential. This credential also has a time limit of 6 years, but the time does not start until the credential holder has a position as a teacher.

Tier III Professional Credential. This may be earned after 5 years of successful and competent teaching with evidence and recommendations provided. Even this credential is not given for a lifetime, but to renew it the teacher must provide evidence of continuing professional development and/ or educa-tion

Tier IV Advanced Professional Credential. This is advanced step in the teacher’s career that has spe-cific credentials with titles for different types of positions including that of Administrator, Subject Matter Specialist, Teacher Trainer, Mentor or Coach, Curriculum Specialist. These titles may not be the final ones included, and other qualifications and credential regulations may be inserted as the proposal is discussed widely.

Challenges

• Due to severe security challenges in a number of districts, the Girls’ Scholarship distribution was postponed as the concerned staff could not travel to the districts. For example, in Alingar district of Laghman and in Kurziwan and Qaisar districts of Faryab province the scholarship distribution was postponed. The scholarships will be distributed once the districts become accessible in terms of security.

• Despite continuous follow-up by TED, TTCs could not receive the fund until No-vember 2013. In December, the grants were delivered to the Mustofiat and the TTCs have started receiving the grants in December.

• TED Implementing Partners (IP) experienced considerable challenges in meeting their targets and rolling out Inset III in the given contract period due to Eid and Ramazan Holidays and examination period in school.

16

Teac

her E

duca

tion

17

ISD

Introduction

The Infrastructure Services Department (ISD) of the Ministry of Education has been responsible for implementing the construction component of the Educa-

tion Quality Improvement Program (EQUIP) for improving and increasing access to qual-ity education for all, since November 2011. This report of the ISD covers the projects of the Supplementary Procurement Plan (SPP) 2013-2014 under new financing, as well as the incomplete and missing components of Com-munity Contracted (CC) projects, which were not completed within the allocated budget by EQUIP. In addition, this report highlights the achievements under the institutional support given to ISD by the World Bank through EQUIP.

#2[Infrastructure Services]

Department

18

ISD

2.2. Activities and Progress

Of the total 1,347 CC Projects under EQUIP II, 355 are completed and 35 projects will be com-pleted within the budget, 796 projects are partially completed in which 256 projects have been covered by DANIDA, 115 projects have been included in Additional Financing (AF) by ISD and have sent to Procurement Department for the bidding process.

527 projects have been planned under the Operation and Maintenance budget for incom-plete components, of which 55 projects have been completed. The remaining projects will be completed, provided sufficient fund are allocated. 25 projects have not been started yet due to insecurity, lack of funds and land problems. The financial arrangements for the remaining incomplete components are given in the Table 1 under Annex 1. All the remaining projects are planned to be completed by 1392 (2013), except for 4 problematic and 30 demolished projects.

As of December 2013, 219 (71% of all projects) National Competitive Bidding (NCB) projects of comparatively large complex structure are completed against the planned 305 NCB proj-ects under EQUIP (see the Table below). MOE terminated contracts of 11 projects due to de-lay in construction by the contractors, and because of relocation of projects by PED without a No Objection Letter (NOL) from the World Bank. These 11 terminated projects will be re-bid for construction. ISD is working on preparing technical documents. 41 projects are not yet started due to land and security problems are carried forward (CF) and will be started, once the constraints are removed.

Figure 2.1 and 2.2. Constructed school under ISD supervision through Community Contract (CC)

19

ISD

Summary of projects status: Carry Forward under EQUIP and Additional Financing:

Under the Additional Financing arrangements with the World Bank, 2738 new projects are undertaken: 77 pilots, 121 CC, 211 NCBs including 83 CC annexes, 1328 projects for miss-ing components and 1,001 projects under maintenance and rehabilitation program. 91 NCB projects including some projects of the missing components are contracted and the work is progressing till the reporting date.

153 NCB projects under additional financing have 6 TTCs (composed of 666 classrooms), 68 latrines, 2 solar panels, 82 boundary walls and 61 water wells. .

Table 2.2. Summary of projects under Additional Financing

Table 2.1. Summary of projects status

Project Status # Projects by Contract Type

AF CF

CC NCB CC NCB

Completed 6 0 390 219 (71% of the planned)

Ongoing 75 91 459 34

Stopped 20 0 34 11 (due to relocation w/o NOL, unsatisfactory delay)

Not yet started 20 0 25 41 (due to land problem and insecurity)

Under procurement 0 1525 439 0 Total 121 1616 1347 305

)Summary of EQUIP II Projects )Revised PP 17.Nov.2013

Type of Projects Projects # )Estimated Cost )USD

AF PP NCB (incl. 83 annexes) 153 26,904,488

Old PP NCB 58 8,519,194

.AF Missing Com 1328 27,373,355

AF Pilot 77 19,000,000

AF PP CC 86 8,479,400

Old PP CC 35 3,313,400

Total 1,737 93,589,837

20

ISD

Of the 1,328 missing components, all are submitted to the Procurement Department and most of them are at bidding process. These missing components were not included in the original contract with the Shuras. They are now included in SPP 2013-2014 for construction under additional financing. The missing components include boundary wall, electricity, gar-bage collection points, GI roofing, furniture, latrine, water-well and other school needs.

The packages for the 121 CC projects are submitted to EQUIP for contracting out to SMS. These schools include 840 classrooms to be built, 85 laboratories and 85 computer labs. 85 CC annexes which include boundary wall, water well, latrine, furniture and solar system for all 85 schools are also submitted to the Procurement Department for NCB bidding. 77 pilot projects are submitted for bidding process, which will take place at the provincial level.

Under the Operation and Maintenance budget, 1,001 projects are planned this year and all are submitted to the Procurement Department. Of them, funds for 886 contracted projects using the Operation and Maintenance budget are channeled to PED through MOE/MOF: 214 are completed, 370 ongoing and 9 projects stopped. The rest of the projects (115) are not contracted due to lack of budget.

2.2.1. Update on Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E)

As IRD and DAARTT do third party monitoring, the projects monitored during o1July to 31De-cember 2013are shown below including ISD internal Monitoring and Evolution:

As noted above, the third party monitors of IRD and DAARTT monitored 219 and 186 projects respectively during the last six months. Following recommended actions, here are some ex-amples of corrective actions by ISD.

In the first two pictures, the Monitoring team of IRD had found problems in expansion joints of building in Abdul Rahaman Baba High School at Qarabagh district, Kabul province and had recommended that it should be cleaned and filled with expandable material. ISD monitoring team visited the project site and corrected the problem through the contractor as seen in the pictures. There are some more pictures below, following recommendations by IRD DAARTT and even ISD staff for corrections, ISD had taken actions ensuring the quality.

Figure 2.13. ISD monitoring team had found painting problem in Qala-e-Najaran primary school at KherKhana of Kabul and recommended corrective

actionssupervision through Community Contract (CC)

Figure 2.13. ISD monitoring team had found painting problem in Qala-e-Najaran primary school at KherKhana of Kabul and recommended corrective

actionssupervision through Community Contract (CC)

21

ISD

Figure 2.5. Recommended by IRD

Figure 2. 7. IRD founded Damage of room PCC surfaces problem in Karthi Boolan Primary School, Helmand

Figure 2.9.KarthiBoolan Primary School Lashkar Gah District of Helmand prov-ince was observed as Damage of room PCC surfaces by IRD

Figure 2. 6. Correction by ISD

Figure 2.8.ISD has taken the actions and solved the problem

Figure 2. 10. Karthi Boolan Primary School after corrective action by ISD

22

ISD

Staff strengthened for M&E tasks

One of the priorities of MoE is to strengthen its staff capacity in terms of number and skills through essential trainings.

During the reporting period, 84 field engineers received on-site and workshop training from DAARTT, and 15 central M&E staff received capacity building trainings from IRD. In addition to them, IRD held on-job training to provincial staff while commissioning joint visits to projects for monitoring.

Summary of DAARTT Training

As noted, all the three workshops held covered the essential topics on quality control and quality assurance monitoring. The participants of the workshops expressed their satisfaction and appreciation of the workshops. “This workshop by DAARTT was very useful as all covered topics were productive and useful for field work. I personally appreciate the workshop and request to increase the training duration and would be more than helpful if DAARTT prepare QC training in future”, said a participant from the East.

“We have learned a lot regarding construction materials from this workshop organized by

Figure 2.15. Identification of poor quality of brick wall construction (with bricks splice not considered) in Qader Kochi High school at Surkhrud district

of Nangarhar by DAARTT.

Figure 2.16. Action taken by ISD in which the masonry is collapsing the wall for re-building it properly

Center Zone

Engineers 32East Zone

28EngineersNorth Zone

Engineers 24

23

ISD

DAARTT. In particular, most of the lessons were helpful for our site works and would definitely help us solve our field problems as this workshop was basically about monitoring and con-structions materials, so we would have no problems in monitoring after this workshop. These workshops capacitate engineers, so we request more of these workshops to train every single engineer for betterment”, said a participant from the Center.

“I honestly would like to say that the conducted workshop regarding M&E by DAARTT was significant and DAARTT has spared no efforts in the preparation of M&E handouts and I hope continuation of these workshops. DAARTT should build and equip testing laboratories as with-out these the monitoring result would not as good as it should be”, said a participant from the North.

Capacity Building Training by IRD

Fifteen incumbents from the center M&E completed the First Common Monitoring and Re-porting Platform (CMORE) training from October 15, 2012 to August 30, 2013. CMORE is a kind of training that allows field-based staff to be assigned certain tasks, collect information from the field through Smart Phones and electronically send it back to a database where supervisors can edit, transcribe and create reports. The information can then be displayed in a variety of ways, including a geographical layout. In addition, the 2nd Batch training is in progress for additional 10 engineers (monitors & evaluators) and five supervisors (managers of them) starting from September 01, 2013 till August 30, 2014. As per ISD observation, the training was productive and liked by the participants. The structure of these trainings contains both in-class as well as field practical training to enable the participants get maximum advan-tages. Two field engineers and one supervisor from the first batch are placed as trainers for the 2nd Batch who have been engaged in training and supervising the second batch trainees both in-class as well as in the field.

Figure 2.17. DAARTT trainer during training in Balkh

Figure 2.18. Training of engineers in Jalalabad Figure 2.17. DAARTT trainer during training in Balkh

24

ISD

Site Plan Preparation and Design of EQUIP support Projects

Since 2013, site plans for the World Bank supported EQUIP projects have been prepared based on site assessment and/or topographical survey, with the details plotted in the master plans. In the past, the projects’ cost at the package level were estimated for the lump sum quan-tity of water supply/canalization, plumbing and electrical systems but now there are detailed quantity calculation for the water supply and canalization, plumbing and electrical system. Package identification and cost estimation and BOQ follows the site plans prepared based a topographical survey and site assessment.

Quantity and Cost Estimation System is prepared with the support of the DAARTT and is at the testing phase. The system will facilitate an efficient quality and cost estimation process with quality assurance. The system is linked to the cost indices of market prices for construc-tion materials and labour wages, collected from the center of provinces. The system has em-bedded in it the norms, cost co-efficient and rate analysis by BOQ items. ISD will maintain the cost indices with regular update of market prices as per data collection policy is at place, and as well, quantity calculation of various typical designs will be reviewed and re-calculated using the Quantity Calculation system. This is important to ensure that the design is cost efficient and at the same safe in terms of criteria (DRR) followed in design. The overall system will help in direct cost control of projects.

Infrastructure Module Development

The development work has been slow but was progressing as per decisions taken at the last mission. However, the work is now suspended in absence of developers from EMIS and wait-ing for the decision about the firm engagement. The engagement of a firm will take time even if the decision is taken; thus the next phase of development must proceed as per prepa-ration is in place during the interim period and EMIS support is needed for it.

2.2.2. Updates of Safety and Environment (Infrastructure)

Following is the summary of major achievements that has been accomplished by the Infra-structure Environmental and Safety Management Units since its inception. The section must

Figure 2.20. First phase, in-class training Figure 2.21. First phase, field training Figure 2.22. In-class training

25

ISD

be read together with the ESS section of this semi-annual report.

• Prepared Environmental and Safety guidelines/Monitoring checklists with the ESS Framework of the Bank.

• Prepared Environmental and Safety Codes of Practices for the designers;

• Prepared Environmental and Social Best Practices Guide for school administration;

• Prepared project screening checklist to collect ESS related data for screening of school projects during site assessment and survey;

During this reporting period, follow major activities were carried out. In doing so, ESS infra-structure team worked closely with the ESS Coordination Unit.

• Prepared a Training Package for a broad target group on Environmental and Social Safeguard (covering up to twenty topics);

• Prepared guide on Communication, Consultation and Stakeholders Engagement;

• Preparation of School Sitting Guidebook is in progress;

• Preparation and costing of an Environmental Package is in progress.

• Reviewed of IRD inspection reports and took actions based on observations and recommendations, working closely with M&E Infrastructure team.

In addition to the above, supported in the following activities:

• Carried out cost break-down of the World Bank supported projects including the Pilot projects;

• Arranged, filed and sorted out the drawings of EQUIP schools in Archive for remov-ing deficiencies and smoothing the activities of Archive Department;

• Supported in staff recruitment with EQUIP support for ISD;

Engagement at Procurement Department of Ministry of Education for the evaluation of the World Bank supported infrastructure projects.

2.2.3. Success stories

BaadQul Girls’ School located in Panjshir province had 200 girls studying under the shadow of trees without classrooms, latrines and potable water. During bad weather and rainfall the girls needed to stop going to their school and thus educational attain-ments of these girls were not as good as of regular students. The people of Panjshir requested Infrastructure Services Department for building a school for these girls in facilitating their access to proper education. Following survey and need assessment by ISD engineers, the need for the construction of five classrooms’ Figure 4.23. School before having the

building

26

ISD

building identified. The school with latrines and water-well has been built and the girls are going to enjoy their lessons soon like the usual students do.

Khawaja Khan Baba Primary School located in Baghlan province has 132 girls and 234 boys studying at the school. This school had no boundary wall and the students especially the girls were not secured in absence of protection. The school Shura requested ISD for building the boundary wall. Following site assessment by ISD field engineers, the boundary walls as well as electricity facilities were built. The students are safer and enjoying their study in a conducive learning environment.

SarNili high school in Dikundi province had 470 girls and 133 boys were learning under the open sky as they had no school building until it is built under EQUIP. The community elders along with school teachers and school Shura requested the Ministry of Education for school building. ISD with support from World Bank has not only built school building for those stu-dents with no access to decent classrooms but has also provided with water well and separate latrines for girls and boys. The students are now enjoying study like other regular students.

Khawaja Khan Baba Primary School is located in Baghlan prov-ince where 132 girls and 234 boys are being busy in their learning. This school had no boundary wall and the students especially girls were not secure and needed protection, so with overwhelming ef-forts from the school Shura who has requested ISD for building the boundary wall. As of the assessment by ISD field engineers, the boundary walls as well as electricity facilities were justified and now the students are safer and have calm and convenient school environment.

470 girls and 133 boys were learning in Dikundi province under the name of SarNili high school where they had no school building at all and students were continuing their education under the open sky. As usual the commu-nity elders along school teachers and school Shura have requested the ministry of education for school building. ISD with support from World Bank has not built school building for needy students, but has also provided water well and separate latrines for girls and boys. The stu-dents are now enjoying as regular and formal students.

2.3. Major Activities Planned for the Next Six Months

• Maintenance and rehabilitation of the 1,001 planned schools using O&M discre-tionary budgets;

• Hiring of an international firm to conduct survey of additional 5000 schools for maintenance;

• Continue quality assurance monitoring of the ongoing projects with the support of third party monitors (IRD engineers) and community monitors hired by IRD (only

Figure 4. 24. The structure of school built by ISD/EQUIP

27

ISD

for projects located at remote and insecure places);

• Follow up with the procurement department/PED to ensure contracting of all missing components, pilot projects and NCB projects; and construction of them with the support of the hired contractors;

• Review and finalization of M&E formats, testing and implementation of Estimation system and finalize the construction manual working together with DAARTT;

• Work together with Article 25 in restructuring of Infrastructure Department and its institutional capacity enhancement;

• Procurement of computers and smart phones for EQUIP employees working at ISD (as per PP);

• Ongoing with the development of the infrastructure module with the support of EMIS developers.

2.4. Key Challenges

In absence of proper database system, informed project planning and reporting, timely decision making by having track on projects and managing assets is one of the greatest challenges that the management is facing at Infrastructure services department (ISD);

In absence of laboratory testing results, ensuring quality and/or taking actions against the contractor for non-compliance and bad quality work only based on field observations is difficult;

Despite enhanced skills and expertise within ISD, current capacity is not adequate to deliver works efficiently and effectively;

Security and funds for field visits still exists as major constraints for ISD to monitor projects;

Lack of transportation for monitoring of the projects (budget item included in the PP).

2.5. RecommendationsISD would like to recommend a range of trainings such as on M&E, Report Writing, Designing, Survey, Estimation and Database for its engineers based at the central office as well as at the

28

ISD

field. For quality control of construction works, laboratory testing facilities is a pre-requisite. Thus support from the development partners/The World Bank is highly recommended for purchasing of laboratory equipments and hiring of an international expert and national con-sultants to build on capacity and skills among local engineers to be engaged in QC activities. Engineers/staff engaged in survey and monitoring activities are recommended to provide with hazard allowances to encourage them visiting projects/sites located in remote and insecure places.

29

ISD

30

Soci

al M

obili

zatio

n U

nit

#3[Social Mobilization Unit]

Introduction

EQUIP II strives towards achieving MOE’s National Ed-ucation Strategic Plan, in particular enhancing

quality of education through 1) improving facilities and infrastruc-ture 2) training teachers and school administrators 3) increasing the number of qualified female teachers available 4) promoting conditions that encourage larger number of girls and boys to en-roll in schools.

EQUIP’s strategy for achieving the above is by mobilizing commu-nities so that they are directly involved in all activities and pro-cesses for ensuring provision of quality education to all school-aged children. EQUIP, through its Social Mobilization Unit (SMU) supports the formation of a School Management Shura (SMS) in each school. The SMS is mandated for identifying educational and facility needs in the schools by developing SIPs, processing and management of the community contracts for school construction , effective utilization of the school grants through a participato-ry and consultative process, based on local priorities and to pro-vide an accountability mechanism at the school/community level. Members of SMSs also oversee school construction and rehabili-tation activities, and contribute to the school development from their personal assets.

31

Social Mobilization U

nit

3.2. Progress

3.2.1. Social Awareness and Mobilization

One of the core principles of social mobilization at EQUIP is to build and develop the capacity of SMSs with the mandate of coordinating efforts for improvement and enhancement of edu-cation quality, by ensuring textbook availability for all students, minimizing teachers/students absenteeism, ensuring best utilization of instructional time, and over all monitoring of school functionality. The SMSs also strive to identify and address the cross cutting themes as gender, environmental and social safeguard, etc.

In the second half 0f 2013, 445 SMSs were planned and all were established. The School Improvement Plan (SIP) as the blue print of the actions and processes needed for school im-provement and guide of resource allocation is developed by SMS just after it is established. During the reporting period, 425 SIPs were developed as per plan with 100% achievement of the activity.

One of the important achievements of Social Awareness and Mobilization is the willingness and promising contribution of the respective communities in form of time, labor, cash, kind and material to improve the quality education. SMU provincial staff has been able to raise and collect community contributions via SMSs in 15 provinces. In 2013, the total amount of community contribution is 167,033,997.00 AFs, which includes providing land, books, and lab materials, repairing of tables and chairs and purchasing other necessary materials for the schools.

Figure 3.1. Detailsof SMSs and SIPs

32

Soci

al M

obili

zatio

n U

nit

3.2.2. Quality Enhancement Grant

School Improvement Plans (SIPs) are developed by the SMS with the help of SMU provincial teams. The Quality Enhancement Grant is allocated to support implementation of the SIP developed per school. This enriches educational resources so that students can benefit from a better quality learning environment in which they have access to experiential and practi-cal learning. First and second generation grants are awarded to schools. The first generation grants are given to the schools that have never received any quality grants under EQUIP. The second generation grants are given to schools meeting the evaluation criteria and with proper utilization of first generation grants as per standards.

The table below shows the plan for both first and second generation grants.

During the second half of 2013, 115,570,000.00 AFs were allocated for Quality Enhancement Grants, to be awarded to 538 schools in 34 provinces and Kabul City. Of the allocated amount, 107,946,800.00 AFs were transferred to the provinces and disbursed to the schools. Out of the transferred amount, 100,939,800 AFs are liquidated and 7,007,000.00 AFs remained un-liquidated, but the liquidation process is underway.

Steps Variation of Quality Enhancement Grant based on levels of SchoolsPrimary School Secondary School High School

Boys Girls Mix Boys Girls Mix Boys Girls Mix1st Genera-(tion (USD

3,000 4,500 4,500 4,000 6,000 6,000 5,000 7,500 7,500

2nd Gener-(ation (USD

1,500 2,250 2,250 2,000 3,000 3,000 2,500 3,750 3,750

Table 3.3. Plan for 1st and 2nd generation Quality Enhancement Grant

Figure 3.2. Quality Enhancement Grant

33

Social Mobilization U

nit

A detailed account of the Quality Enhancement Grant for each province including the amount allocated, transferred, disbursed, liquidated and un-liquidated is provided in Table 2 under Annex 1.

3.2.3. Community Contract (CC) Projects:

As per the Project Implementation Manual (PIM), the Social Mo-bilization Unit is managing and organizing all CC projects related activities, which include the following:

• Preparation of official documents of the land allocated to construction of the school building;

• Preparation of allotment documents for CC projects;

• Preparation and development of contract documents;

• Social Survey of the school;

• Conflicts Management related to land and location of schools;

• Facilitating purchasing procedures of the construction materials;

• Liquidation of the transferred amount with Mustofiats;

• Liquidation of the cost of community contribution;

• Report of the construction progress.

3.2.4. Model School Project

The overall objective of this intervention is to reinforce the concept clarity of curriculum with its practical connotations through hands-on learning methodologies, to make the optimal use of available modern student-cantered teaching/instructional resources and methodologies.

A school selected to be a Model School should possess the following criterion:

• Must have pro-active SMS and community willing to participate in all aspects for education improvement;

The community contribution in

the shape of providing land to

85 CC projects and 4 NCB proj-

ects undertaken by EQUIP in

2013 is the result of the SMU

exhaustive efforts and close in-

teraction and guidance to com-

munity.

34

Soci

al M

obili

zatio

n U

nit

• Must have Education Activists to lead the communities into action;

• Appropriate and safe/peaceful environment;

• Accessible for exposure visits for other SMSs;

• The strength of students must be not less than 1000;

• Low dropouts and absenteeism rate of students and teachers;

• Positive discrimination is allowed to take girls at par

A school which satisfies more than five of the above criterion should be eligible to receive the grant of 780,000 AFs (1500 USD) that can be used for enhancing physical infrastructure prioritized needs.

In total, 73 schools are identified as Model Schools from 34 provinces and Kabul City and the budget for this project is 56,940,000.00 AFs.

A detailed breakdown of the Model School Grant for each province including the amount al-located, transferred, disbursed and refunded is provided in Table 3 under Annex 1.

Figure 3.3. Details of Model School

35

Social Mobilization U

nit

3.2.5. Monitoring and Support Visits

Within the reporting period, the SMU under-took monitoring visits to 60 schools and more than 128 SMSs in 16 provinces (Faryab, Jawz-jan, Saripul, Samangan, Balkh, Baghlan, Takhar, Kunduz, Ghazni, Paktika, Urozgan, Nangarhar, Laghman, Kunar, Nooristan and Kandahar). Moreover, 180 schools in Kabul City and 150 schools in Kabul province were also visited, monitored and provided with social guidance by the SM team. During these visits, the coor-dination and networking meetings with DEDs, PEDs, Finance Departments (Mustofiats), Gov-ernors and Technical Management Commit-tees (TMCs), and Provincial EQUIP teams are also included to strengthen relationship and cooperation with clear communication strate-gies and mechanisms.

3.2.6. Strengthening of SMU

Due to the inadequate number of Social Mobilizers (SMs) working at district level, compound-ed by the fact of less women SMs, which further restricted contact with women in the com-munity, Social Mobilization (SM) activities were severely constrained. EQUIP addressed this gap by recruiting an ambitious number of 677 District Social Mobilizers (DSMs) (19% female) and encouraged the women by the introducing Mahram Policy.

To build and develop the capacity of SM team towards the achievement of SM objectives and to take the SM agenda forward and institutionalize the Social Mobilization process within the MoE, EQUIP seeks the technical inputs of the International Capacity Building and Social Mobi-lization Advisor.

The field teams were assisted with the appropriate number of computers, photocopiers, scan-ners, printers, furniture and vehicles, to facilitate the field activities and increase the out-reach of the program. The technical and financial guidelines were developed and provided for smooth implementation of planned activities.

Exposure visits to learn and see the concept of Model School for all 35 Equip Officers were organized.

Results of Monitoring Visits:1. The visits exposed the strong SMSs with active members’

participation, maintenance of proceeding registers and up

dated records;

2. The school library, laboratory, and computer labs were

properly maintained and efficiently used by the students.

3. Efficient and effective use of QEG was observed;

4. Productive Use of grants in implementing the Model

School concept was recorded;

5. Liquidation process of disbursed funds was expedited;

6. Social guidance and mentoring was provided to SMS and

field staff during the regular meetings;

7. Records, inventory books and proceeding registers were

checked;

8. The trust and confidence in the shape of continuous sup-

port and ownership of the efforts on behalf of DEDs and

PEDs was gained.

36

Soci

al M

obili

zatio

n U

nit

3.2.7. Social Mobilization Trainings

Basic Training:

To orient DSMs, SM Supervisors and EQUIP Officers about the program, familiarize them with their roles and responsibilities, and improve their knowledge and skills about Social Mobili-zation concepts, SMU launched the Basic Training at the provincial and district levels, as the regular feature of the program in the reporting period. Eleven events were organized covering 289 out of which 59 (20%) were females. The total approved budget for the basic training of Social Mobilization Supervisors and DSMs was 6,604,211 AFs. The separate training event for 35 EQUIP Officers, 35 Provincial Senior Engineers and 35 Provincial Finance Officers, with the total budget of 700,000 AFs was conducted. The total training budget was 7304211 AFs and the total number of participants was 394 men and women.

Details of SMU Basic Training visits are provided in Annex 2.

Training of Trainers (ToT):

To facilitate the process of enhanced productivity of SMU in achieving EQUIP’s development objectives, capacitate and strengthen SMSs with positive change in behavior for self-help, self-responsibility, self-management and sustainability, there was a dire need to develop the cadre of Master Trainers, who can train the SMSs following the Training Cycle and transmit their messages on experiential learning models with maximized facilitation skills.

To achieve these objectives, following the Training Cycle, the TNA exercise was carried out, report was produced, and exhaustive Training Plan was generated. As a next step, the Train-ing Manual was developed and translated into Pashto and Dari languages to cover the needs of the emerging trainers and resource persons. The Manual was reviewed and pre-tested and necessary changes were incorporated.

To translate the Manual in to action, the generic ToT was cascaded for all the cadres of SMU covering 154 participants out of which 29(19%) were women.

The training contributed in enhancing existing knowledge and changing behaviors of the par-ticipants to strengthen the education quality improvement process by imparting the impor-tant and necessary technical knowledge and skills to the potential trainers about the Training Cycle and Facilitation Skills for the effective delivery of various concepts.

A Summary of SMU ToTs with respect to the total number of participants along with their designations is provided in Table 4 under Annex 1. Details of SMU ToT visits can be found in Annex 3.

37

Social Mobilization U

nit

3.2.8. First National Experience Sharing Conference of SMSs

Aiming to provide a collective platform to SMSs from all 34 provinces in order to share their lessons learnt, progress/achievements, key challenges and future strategies to further refine their efforts for improving the quality of education through community participation, SMU organized the first ever National Experience Sharing Conference of SMSs on Dec 24-25, 2013, under the title of “Taking Stock of Lessons from the Field”, with total participation of 230 per-sons including 140 Shura members (39% females),EQUIP Officers, MoE Senior Officials, Par-liamentarians, representatives of Development Partners, NGOs and Civil Society members.

The conference was declared a great achievement by HE Minister of Education, Parliamen-tarians and SMSs members, and was acknowledged as the most effective source of interac-tion and information sharing between MoE leadership at central level and SMSs members. The interactive and participative conference methodology provided SMS representatives to reflect on their work, issues, proposed solutions and recommendations for future collabora-tion, through Focus Group Discussions(FGDs),individual presentations, question and answer sessions with panelists from MoE, MRRD and EQUIP. The participation of women in the FGDs and plenary presentations was promising and encouraging.

The event was well broadcasted by National and International print and electronic media. The productive and effective outcomes of this Conference convinced the EQUIP /MoE and relevant stake holders to commit for the continuation of such initiatives.

3.2.9. The Documentation of Best Practices

The process of documenting best practices in the area of Social Mobilization and community participation has been initiated by SMU in the reporting period. The first volume of Success Stories booklet is the result of the promising efforts by SMU towards replication of field ex-periences.

A one day basic training on how to develop a Success Story was conducted for the selected personnel of SMU core team and provincial team of Kabul. The information received from the field on developed and pretested formats was translated and processed to bring it to the ac-ceptable level. Though it was a challenging and demanding on part of the field teams as well at core level, the book in hand boosted the moral and commitment to come up with another volume in upcoming quarter focusing on thematic areas of Social Mobilization and commu-nity participation.

3.3. Future Plans

• Launch a National Experience Sharing Conference and at least 5Regional Experi-ence Sharing Conferences;

38

Soci

al M

obili

zatio

n U

nit

• Continue ToT cascade to DSMs across the country;

• Design and organize at least 4 trainings for SMU team through cascade approach including related training manuals and handbooks as well as their translation into official languages;

• Follow up of Quality Enhancement Grant and its liquidation;

• Follow up of CC projects activities and its liquidation;

• Monitoring visits to 35 provinces;

• Establishment of 940 SMSs in 34 provinces and Kabul City;

• Development of 1656 SIPs in 34 provinces and Kabul City;

• Follow up of Model Schools’ activities and their liquidation;

• Follow up of survey for identification of dropouts and school-age children (not go-ing to school), especially the girl child;

• Design and print Proceeding Register for 10,000 SMSs and over 1200 Diaries for provincial staff;

• Internal/external exposure visits for SMU and SMSs;

• Initiate the process for establishment of District Education Council of SMSs.

3.4. Implementation Challenges

• Insecurity in some of the districts of provinces have been posing major constraints to smooth implementation of the program;

• No transport and top up card allowances to DSMs;

• High turnover of women staff at field level

39

Social Mobilization U

nit

• Non availability of professional women for management positions

• Due to cultural and contextual scenarios and movement of women without Mah-ram is obstructing women to adhere and sustain their jobs

• Unavailability of funds for timely implementation of planned targets/activities

• Unavailability of appropriate office premises both on provincial and district level

3.5. Recommendations

• Transportation allowance (at least 50 USD) and top up card allowance (at least 20 USD) should be provided to DSMs to implement the program well;

• Allowances for Mahrams of female DSMs should be approved and provided to en-sure women participation in EQUIP workforce;

• Positive discrimination to encourage women workforce with special initiatives to build their capacity;

• Timely release of financial resources for the implementation of activities as per plan;

• Construction of independent workplace at PEDs compounds across the country.

Soci

al M

obili

zatio

n U

nit

41

EMIS

Introduction

The Education Management Information System (EMIS) at Afghanistan’s Ministry of Education en-ables the ministry to meet its information needs for decision-making, accountability, and organi-

zational learning. EMIS aims to provide information for strategic planning and to produce regular and specialized reports, and to this effect, has developed data manage-ment modules and enhanced human capacity.

The World Bank (WB) currently supports 1) recruit-ment of technical assistants for the planning depart-ment and 2) funding purchase of equipment and con-sultancy services required for the expansion of EMIS at provincial and district levels. The following three sections cover the contributions made to EMIS by the technical assistants, the progress made in expan-sion of EMIS, and other activities directly or indirectly linked to WB assistance.

#4[EMIS]Education Management Information system

42

EMIS

4.1.1. System Development Department

System Development Department is a technical unit within the EMIS Directorate at the Min-istry of Education (MOE). This unit is responsible for administration of the current developed management information system, development of new systems, technical consultation and providing civil servants with long and short term training on using and maintaining the devel-oped applications at central, provincial and district levels throughout the country.

Main responsibilities of System Development Department include:

• Consult with each department to integrate their paper based systems into the EMIS, thus allowing for more efficient transfer, storage, and retrieval of data. This system will be extended into a full-fledged online reporting system, and will even-tually reach the school level;

• Data Security in terms of developing security and backup systems to ensure that the data is safe and to avoid loss of information;

• Ensure all essential databases at the ministry (e.g. EMIS, AFMIS, HRMIS and school establishment) can be linked in order to streamline the collection and processing of information and to avoid or minimize the duplication among systems.

EMIS Directorate has seven technical staff (consultants) supported by the World Bank project (EQUIP) to carry out the above systems development and maintenance activi-ties. A table that summarizes each consultant’s activities during the past six months can be found in Table 5under Annex 1.

4.2. Targets and Core Activities

4.2.1. EMIS Modules

The EMIS Department developed various applications to manage information and provide re-quired data and information using web based and mobile technologies and SMS solution for different departments and units of the ministry and other organizations. The following are the most significant core activities and achievements over the reporting period.

4.2.2. Assessments, Evaluations and Data Management

Assessments, Evaluations and Data Management include four key activities which are: A) Re-quirement Collection and Analysis, B) System Development and Maintenance, C) data analysis

43

EMIS

and reporting, and D) capacity development and technical training. Following are the com-plete details of each core activity and target.

Requirement Collection and Analysis

One of the main activities during the last few months was to diagnose the departmental re-quirement of MoE and analyze the existing education management information systems, to find its gaps and fill them in with close coordination of the stakeholders. After analyzing the current gaps and troubleshooting them, not only the school management system is revised and updated but also requirements were collected and analyzed for new systems including, Infrastructural Services Department (ISD) system, procurement tracking system, students’ certification system, the community based education system, and the textbook distribution system. Likewise, requirements were collected and analyzed for development of terms of ref-erence (ToR) for the intranet network design to connect provincial EMIS servers with the cen-tral EMIS server for data synchronization and replication. Also included was the development of a second ToR for the design of an asset management system which would be launched in near future.

System Development and Maintenance

Many information systems were developed, updated and maintained over the reporting peri-ods that are mentioned below:

a. School Management Information System (SMIS) has been in place and the data collected through the module has been extensively used for planning, decision making and other pur-poses. Over the past six months, the system has been improved and updated based on the revised school census. Its new version was installed in July 2013 at the Provincial Education Directorates (PEDs) the academic year 1392 (2013) data entry is done in the updated system in PEDs.

In addition the data collection census is also developed. The blank data collection form will be printed automatically from the system in each PED; these forms will retrieve province name, district and village name, school name and school code from the system. The forms will be distributed to the targeted schools for data collection.

b. Procurement Tracking System is developed and is currently fully functional and locally installed in Procurement Department of the MoE. This system is able to track construction, goods and consultancy projects of MoE which are under procurement process.

c. Non-Formal Education (NFE) System is developed and currently it is fully functional for the literacy department. Similarly, the Community Based Education (CBE) system is also devel-oped and currently is functional, data entry is in progress; this system will be able to register all community based educational classes throughout the country supported by donor agen-

44

EMIS

cies.

d. Students Certification-MIS System is de-veloped; this system is now fully functional and data entry is in progress, GE Directorate has plans to enter the complete profile of students who are expected to graduate this year (around 310,000), including uploading the scanned copy of their required docu-ments. This system will be able to automate the process of issuing 12th grade graduates’ certificates. Additionally, this system will be able to upload the scanned documents like the upper secondary schools’ exam results of individual students.

e. Mobile Application was developed by a consultancy company (Afghanistan Reli-able Technology Services (ARTS), which was first tested in four schools in Kabul City. Af-terwards, Mobile Application was success-fully tested in Urozgan, covering 56 schools. Due to security challenges, the system has not been expanded to cover all 70 planned schools. So, out of 70 schools, the system has been implemented and successfully complet-ed in 56 schools. This system is being used for educational data collection, monitoring and verification purposes. More information about the application can be read in Annex 4.

f. HR-MIS System is developed for contract based staff; this system is recently fully func-tional in the relevant department. It will manage all human resources’ recruitment processes including job analysis, job designs, job announcements, employee assessment and training.

g. Geographic Information System (GIS): A Unit to develop GIS is newly established at EMIS. GIS Specialist is recruited, and the problems and gaps with GIS coordinates were identified. The GIS coordinates are col-lected for Kabul city. Educational statistical

data is visualized through GIS maps at provin-cial levels and at the district level for Kabul city. GIS booklet for Kabul city is developed and is shared with the relevant MoE depart-ments and the donors. System Development Department is recently working on develop-ment of an online GIS system connected with Google maps updating from the central EMIS system

Data Analysis and Reporting

The System Development Department also provides technical support to the Statistical Department of EMIS, providing them with trainings in terms of designing the school census, data collection, data entry, data cleaning, data cross-checking, data dissemi-nation, reporting (annual statistical analytical report) and getting feedback from the stake-holders. Finding information of the missing 1391 (2012) schools’ data and the data set for the year 1391 (2012) are both prepared.

Capacity Development and Technical Train-ing

One of the key responsibilities of the System Development Department is to improve and strengthen the capacity of MoE employees at central, provincial and district levels for us-ing technology for educational activities. This is to automate the MoE activities and change their execution from the traditional way. This will build capacity and enable the MoE staff to perform tasks efficiently, effectively and on timely basis.

The Education Management Information Sys-tem is decentralized at provincial level and was installed at PEDs. EMIS units were estab-lished at PEDs and servers were configured and installed in each PED across the country. Civil servants and EMIS officers were trained

45

EMIS

in terms of using and maintaining the updated EMIS system. EMIS officers were also trained on GIS devices and in how to use the GIS device in order to collect accurate and reliable GIS coordinates from the field.

4.2.3. Other Activities

1. Deployment of EMIS Server in the Afghanistan National Data Center (ANDC) is completed. A Contract was signed with the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (MoC-IT) for the transfer of the EMIS server to ANDC at MoCIT. EMIS was transferred to the Afghani-stan National Data Centre. EMIS is now accessible on internet at www.emis.af, and clients can access quantitative information online about schools, students and teachers online, the new reporting system would be installed by the end of December, 2013.

In September 2013, the mobile application was also deployed in ANDC, which will be acces-sible online through www.mobile.emis.af. This would be used for some basic data collection in some urgent cases, as well as for monitoring and data verification. A new project is to be created in order to use the mobile application in TED and ISD departments.

Likewise, ISD-MIS system is installed on ANDC for testing purposes by World Bank consultants and EMIS technical staff. Estimation, payment and registration modules of this system have been developed.

2. Network Infrastructure and Equipment: procurement of IT equipment was completed. The purchased equipment was installed in Kabul city departments, and has reached all 34 prov-inces. Local Area Networks (LAN) were set up while EMIS systems were configured in central offices of PEDs. Central and provincial officers were trained to use the EMIS system, includ-ing data entry and data retrieval. Recently a project has been announced by EMIS and IT Departments funded by GPE to build an infrastructure in the central EMIS unit with all the 34 provinces and Kabul city for data synchronization and replication on the scheduled basis. This infrastructure will connect a total of 70 sites in 34 provinces and Kabul city, five back up sites and 30 other remote sites in Kabul city for MoE officials for 24 hours usage of the service to make sure that the bandwidth which we are paying for is not wasted.

3. EQUIP Program Implementation Manual (PIM): A review of Volume III of PIM for EQUIP II was finalized through a consultative process with the EMIS Monitoring and Reporting Unit, and the Evaluation Unit of the Department of Planning. The Evaluation Unit played a key role in the review. The volume sets a framework and provides a guide for EQUIP Monitoring and Evaluation activities.

4. New Recruitments of a database developer, a system developer and a GIS specialist were completed with the World Bank support. Recruitment of a database developer, a programmer and a web designer is in progress. They will be deployed at the System Development section to provide support for improvement and expansion of the developed modules, and they will

46

EMIS

be responsible to design/develop other needed modules.

5. Additional Support to EQUIP: EMIS provided education information to EQUIP units includ-ing the EQUIP Gender Unit and the Communication Unit. EMIS also cooperated with the EQUIP team in the development of concepts and strategies for student learning assessment. EMIS will also provide technical support to EQUIP in terms of using the mobile application for Model School activities.

4.3. Future Plans

4.3.1. Proposed Systems to be developed

The plan for the System Development Department in the next six months is the develop-ment of new systems based on the operational needs of MoE to support decision making and managerial performance of the departments at the ministry.

Initial tasks for next six months would be started from system development policies and strat-egies. These policies would be responsive to the requirement and problems of MoE in terms of providing accurate and reliable information in a timely manner. It would translate where we are (through system diagnosis), where we have to go (setting goals and targets) and how to reach our long and short term targets (through implementing different types of strategies).

New systems would also be developed for Contract Management and Budget Management, Administration and Finance Management. Integrated Tashkil and HR-MIS systems are being developed to cover all contract based and civil servant staff’s activities. A system for contract based staff has already been developed and the system development for civil servants is in progress. In addition, a Decision Support Management Information System will be developed to support decision making and planning activities in order to do deeper analysis, to create dif-ferent types of scenarios, and to develop projections and simulation models. Asset Manage-ment Information System development is also planned. The ToR for the Asset Management Information System is developed and shared with MoE line departments, MoF and donors, Asset Management and Payment management Information systems will be developed by a consultancy company.

In addition a GIS online graphical user interface is also to be developed in order to visualize all required national and international indicators of educational systems at the national, pro-vincial, district and school level and to make the information accessible to all authenticated users.

47

EMIS

4.4. Implementation Challenges and Recommendations

4.4.1. Challenges

Some of the main challenges/constraints encountered during the last six months were as fol-

lows:

• Due to overall security conditions, staff members cannot travel to certain inse-cure provinces, districts and schools for data collection, data validation as well as for technical consultation with provincial EMIS units;

• Low capacity of civil servants at provincial level in terms of using information technology for educational purposes;

• There is inadequate transportation facility for data collection, verification and validation processes at school level;

• Inadequate supply of power/electricity is a big problem for EMIS units in prov-inces;

• Inadequate availability of internet facility in PEDs, most of technical problems with EMIS servers in remote and non-secure provinces are solving through re-mote accessing through internet by central EMIS technical staff;

• There are no clear and standard work flow procedures in some MoE depart-ments, so technical staff is suffering from dramatic changes in mastering the developed systems or during the development progress.

4.4.2. Recommendations

1) Existence of standard and approved work flow and document flow procedures for

MoE departments would be useful in terms of systems’ computerization for long

term;

48

EMIS

2) Many System Development staff have no transportation facility; especially for

some unsecure provinces. It is recommended that providing such a facility (by

road and by air) would raise the team productivity;

3) Installing solar systems would solve electricity problems faced with provincial EMIS

units;

4) Providing technical training packages at central and provincial levels in terms of

data collection, entry, processing, cleaning, verification and reporting, as well as

basic training in terms of usage of ICT equipment (Computers, printers, scanners

and internet);

5) Providing at least one internet connection per PED, it would be useful for EMIS

servers’ maintenance and trouble-shooting especially for remote and non-secure

provinces;

6) Providing Technical trainings on the updates in the technologies to the System

Development staff.

EMIS

50

Lear

ning

Ass

essm

ent

#5[Learning Assesment]

Introduction

Monitoring Educational Development (MED) in Afghan-istan is a quality improvement initiative within the framework of EQUIP. The program is implemented by a team of nationals with technical assistance from

ACER- a well-known organization in the development and imple-mentation of large scale system wide assessments.

The purpose of the program is to help establish a learning assess-ment system that provides valid, reliable and continuously updat-ed information on national achievement levels in education. The information generated from the analysis of the assessment data is considered to be a reflection on the performance of the educa-tion system. Thus, the assessment could be used as a diagnostic management tool improving education management and policy making.

MED is envisaged to be an ongoing monitoring program for which the first cycle of activity is the assessment of grade six learning outcomes. Following the design of the MED program and prepara-tion work for the implementation of the first cycle of MED includ-ing the field trial of test instruments, a sample based assessment of grade six students were carried out in 13 selected provinces in November 2013. The aim of the assessment is to provide feedback on the extent to which students at grade six, which is considered to be a key stage of primary schooling have achieved the learning targets considered as minimal by the ministry of education and development partners.

This report provides an overview of the MED program objectives, activities and progress made in assessment of grade six students since July 2013, future activities and challenges.

51

Learning Assessm

ent

Objectives:

• To provide valid, reliable and continuously updated information about student achievements in the education system with reference to expected learning out-comes at various levels;

• To compare achievement levels of key subgroups such as boys and girls, urban and rural students, and students taught in Dari and Pashto to find out whether there is evidence of particular strengths and weaknesses in their knowledge and skills;

• To provide baseline information against which future progress in students’ achieve-ments could be monitored;

• To inform policy priorities of the government, MoE and development partners in curriculum development, teacher education, distribution of resources and equity policy;

• To maintain high quality standards in the design, implementation, data analysis, reporting and dissemination of result reports;

• To build capacity of the national staff in the design, implementation, data analysis and reporting on survey results.

5.2 Activities and Progress

5.2.1 Staffing

The current structure of the LA unit consists of a National Coordinator, a National Technical Advisor, a Research Officer and 12 Test Administrators. The National Technical Advisor, who has been extending support to LA team since the design stage of the MED program, officially joined in December 2013. The 12 Test Administrators have been hired through an open pro-cess of recruitment in July 2013. The International Technical Advisor due to family related reasons resigned as of October 1st, 2013.

5.2.2 Technical Assistance provided by the ACER

The Learning Assessment Program is implemented with the technical assistance from Austra-lian Council for Educational Research, which is a world-renowned organization in the design and implementation of national and international large-scale assessments. Following activi-ties have been undertaken by ACER during the reporting period:

Provision of an online marking systemAn online system and accompanying manual were released in July 2013. The LA team was

52

Lear

ning

Ass

essm

ent

trained on its use in Delhi and the software was used in marking the open-ended responses for the Field Trial.

Delivery of the test booklets

A total of 1600 test booklets for the Field Trial and a total of 6500 test booklets for the Main Survey were delivered in July and October 2013 respectively.

Translation Review

Following completion of the translations of the assessment and questionnaire items into Dari and Pashto by the LA team, a professional linguistic quality control company, subcontracted by ACER, checked and verified the translated items in September 2013.

Capacity Development Trainings

Two capacity development trainings were carried out by ACER during the reporting period:

Delhi training meeting

This has been the second capacity building training, attended by five members of the LA team, in Delhi from 21 to 25 July. The meeting agenda was focused mainly on training for coding student constructed re-sponses to reading and writing items in the field trial. However, because of the delays to the field trial no responses from students were available before or at the meeting. The lack of realistic responses available for discussion and training purposes presented some difficulty as it has been difficult to anticipate how items would have been interpreted and responded by students. To partially overcome this difficulty, par-ticipants prepared responses to the items for discussions. An advantage of this was that the participants became thoroughly familiar with the tasks in both Dari and Pashto. In addition, participants were also trained on mathematics coding and received a hands-on introduction to the online ACER Marking System.

Dubai training meeting

The third capacity building training was organized by ACER in Dubai from 23 to 26 September subsequent to the Field Trial in August 2013. The main purpose was to refine test items and procedures for the Main Survey based on inputs from the Field Trial. As a result, some of the test items were reviewed and the operations manuals were improved on the basis of recommendations made by the participants.

The participants also received an intensive hands-on train-

Figure 5.1. Coder Training Meeting in Delhi (21-25 July 2013)

Figure 5.2. Training on KeyQuest software in Dubai (23-27 September 2013)

53

Learning Assessm

ent

ing on the Main Survey version of the Key Quest software.

Visits by ACER to Afghanistan

A visit has been made to Afghanistan by Mau-rice Walker, the ACER Project Manager, in Oc-tober 2013. The visit involved presenting an update on the work progress at two donor meetings including the World Bank mission to Afghanistan. Discussions also took place with EQUIP and LA team members about the timeframe of the project and arrangements required for the preparation of the Main Sur-vey. Also, future plans about a sample based assessment of grade 3 students were put for-ward for initial considerations and discussions.

5.2.3. Field Trial

The field trial was carried out in August 2013 to pilot the test items and the overall opera-tions involved in the national assessment of population of grade 6 students. The idea was to collect and analyze student responses to the test items revealing whether the items are pitched at the right level of difficulty to suit the target population, flaws in the items, flaws in the translation, and whether items behave differently among different sub-groups.

A sample of 603 girl and 101 boy students from 28 selected schools of Kabul city, Parwan and Pakteya took part in the field trial. Analy-sis of students’ responses to each one of the items allowed test developers and translation reviewers to rectify faults in items and choose the best set of items for the Main Survey.

Steps involved in undertaking the field trial included preparation of the test booklets, printing, packing and distribution of them, sampling class 6 sections in selected schools, undertaking the assessments in the class-rooms, scanning and tracking the returned test booklets, and coding students’ con-structed responses. The trial of the overall operations led to smooth implementation of the Main Survey in November.

5.2. 4. PEDs workshop

The Learning Assessment Unit organized a two –day national inauguration seminar and orientation on assessment of grade six stu-dents’ learning outcomes in 21- 22 October 2013. The workshop was attended by Pro-vincial Education Directors (PEDs) and their EQUIP officers representing 13 participant provinces in the Main Survey. The intention was to enhance participants’ level of aware-ness on the purpose and scope of the MED program consequently securing their assis-tance in the Main Survey implementation.

During the two-day workshop the learning assessment team worked closely with PEDs and their accompanied EQUIP officers plan-ning arrangements for the Main Survey im-plementation in their provinces. The work-

shop proved to be very effective as PEDs and provincial staff extended enough deal of assistance during implementation of the Main Survey.

Table 5.1. Field Trial statistics

No Province Language of As-sessment

Girl Student Participants

Boy Student Participants

Total StudentParticipants

1 Kabul City Pashto 235 333 568 2 Kabul City Dari 240 302 542 3 Pakteya Pashto 75 180 255 4 Parwan Dari 53 197 250

Total 603 1012 1615

54

Lear

ning

Ass

essm

ent

5.2.5. Main Survey

The main survey was carried out in November 2013 in 110 sampled schools in 13 selected provinces. In most cases one intact grade six class was assessed in each school while in some cases where the class size was lower than 50, students were brought together from different grade six sections to ensure an adequate level of participation.

The achievement tests in reading, writing and mathematical literacy along with students’ questionnaires were administered to 6377 sampled students out of whom 2784 were girls. Depending on the language of teaching, out of 6377 student participants in the survey, 607 girls and 2196 boys were tested in Pashto in five predominantly Pashto speaking provinces and some Kabul city schools. Questionnaires were also administered to school principals in each sampled school.

No Province Girl StudentParticipants

Boy Student Par-ticipants

Total Student Par-ticipants

1 Kabul city 80 222 3022 Helmand 0 244 2443 Kandahar 172 350 5224 Pakteya 0 80 805 Khost 0 252 2526 Nengrahar 355 1048 1403

Total 607 2196 2803

Table 5.1. Field Trial statistics

Table 5.3. Main Survey statistics (Dari)

No Province Girl Student Par-ticipants

Boy Student Partici-pants

Total Student Partici-pants

1 Kabul City 698 319 1017

2 Balkh 323 155 478

3 Faryab 266 106 372

4 Kunduz 142 138 280

5 Kabul Province 38 152 190

6 Bamyan 106 28 134

7 Parwan 90 25 115

8 Hiraat 514 474 988

Total 2177 1397 3574

55

Learning Assessm

ent

Planned Key Activities

• Attend capacity building training on marking open ended responses in Dubai;

• Mark students’ responses for the Main Survey;

• ACER to report on initial survey results in March 2014;

• Attend capacity building training on data analysis and reporting in April 2014;

• Data analysis and report on survey results by ACER in June 2014;

• Preparation work for the assessment of grade 3 students.

Challenges

• Tight schedule in implementing the Main Survey put a lot of pressure on the LA team to complete the assessment activity within less than three weeks in Kabul city and 12 selected provinces.

Recommendations

• Although Test Administrators were adequately trained on steps involved in the test administration, availability of quality control monitors who would have made spot checks during the assessment appeared to be essential. This needs to be ad-dressed in the assessment of grade 3 students;

• Long-term government and donor commitment in building a strong institutional base for carrying out national assessment is required. National assessment activ-ity should become an integral part of functioning of the education system;

• Close involvement of policy makers at the outset of future cycles of the assess-ment i.e. assessment of grade 3 and grade 9 students, is needed. Over time, it may be hoped that the policymakers will come to regard a national assessment as a key policy-making instrument.

56

Lear

ning

Ass

essm

ent

57

Gender

#6[GENDER]

Introduction

EQUIP focuses on the increased participa-

tion of females in the education sector

and tries to facilitate the means that max-

imize the opportunities for female participation.

EQUIP Gender team has been facilitating and or

leading various research initiatives and interven-

tions; and coordinating within the ministry as well

as with other sectors. Gender mainstreaming in

the education sector and promoting gender par-

ity in access to quality education for all, are at the

heart of the efforts of the Ministry of Education’s

Education Quality Improvement Program (EQUIP).

58

Gen

der

6.2. Activities and Progress

• Highlight of this reporting period is enforcement of the ‘Mahram’ policy in social mobilization. A Mahram allowance is expected to encourage more women to join as district-level Social Mobilizers and province-level Social Mobilization Supervisors. This is going to facilitate participation of more women in school Shuras and improve community participation in girls’ schools, especially in more conservative parts of the country.

• Assessment of the sexual harassment policy and its implementation is under-way to establish effective pathways for reporting and disclosure for women at the program levels.

• Review of the text books from a Gender perspective is in progress. Two lan-guage books, life skills and social studies books are targeted from the grade 1-4. This initiative was coordinated with a similar assessment supported by USAID and follow-up negotiations are due for follow-up steps.

• The gender team has been focusing on strengthening the analytical work and contributing to gender specific evidence based research. To facilitate this process, a research firm has been identified to assist the Gender Unit in research and policy analysis. The firm will conduct research on school drop-outs in 2011 and 2012 from upper primary and middle grades (6th to 9th grade), with a particular focus on girls in selected districts and provinces.

• A teacher placement assessment will be carried out under the Third Party Evaluation. Inputs from a gender perspective have been provided to address issues around female teacher demographics by urban/rural, by region/prov-ince, by grades, creating baselines that can be mapped over time. TED has completed the audit of gender grants to assess incentives to increase the intake and training of potential female teachers.

• Review of the gender training manuals and materials used by different pro-gram components should lead to an integration of these into one compre-hensive manual.

• Contribution to the facilitation, arrangement and report writing of the Social Mobilization Unit’s Conference on “Lessons from the Field: Community Par-ticipation in Education” in late December.

• Discussions are currently underway with the program leaders of ISD, Social Mobi-

59

Gender

lization, TED and EMIS for gender integration at the national and provincial level and identifying ways to integrate and strengthen gender under each component. The next step is to conduct gender training for the MOE leadership and for the program components.

6.2.1. Gender Research

Hiring a consultant agency to conduct a study of “Girls Drop Outs” is still in the procurement loop. A competitive process is used and review of the technical and financial proposals is un-derway.

The recommendations of this research will guide policy decisions to reduce girls (and boys) drop outs and enhance completion rates for Afghan children and youth. Results will also feed into design and implementation of the Conditional Cash Transfer project.

6.2.2. Conditional Cash Transfer

Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) is one of the three pilot projects under the Additional Financ-ing phase of EQUIP II (for Operations and Maintenance see Section Four& for Strengthening Sub-national Governance see section Ten).

The primary objective of the CCT pilot is to address the issue of drop-outs and promote the retention of girls in upper primary and lower secondary levels of school through the use of conditional cash transfers. The pilot, through which cash transfers will be made over a 2-year period, will target approximately 16,000 extremely poor girls who are attending school in grades 5, 6 or 7 in 2013-2014, or who have dropped out of school in the past two years but have completed grades 5, 6 or 7. An impact evaluation will be conducted to test the effective-ness of the CCT in meeting its objectives.

The procurement process for a specialized consulting firm is still underway. Successful can-didate will be responsible to complete the design proposal, develop Operations Manuals and technical documents, and develop basic communication materials and a Management Infor-mation System for the project. The firm will also provide technical support to the MoE’s CCT team in implementing the pilot.

Meanwhile, MoE is forming a core CCT team that will be responsible for the implementation of the pilot and will work closely with the specialized firm once it is on board. The CCT proj-ect coordinator hiring is under the process. The MoE CCT team has started collecting data at the school level in two of the six selected districts for the CCT pilot. Data collection in all six districts will be completed soon. To familiarize the MoE CCT team with successful CCT models around the world, a study tour to Turkey was organized by the Bank in September for the MoE and MoLSAMD CCT teams.

6.3. Future PlansIn addition to facilitating and managing the consulting agencies, the Gender team is planning

60

Gen

der

to undertake the following:

1) Gender Strategy: The EQUIP Gen-der Team has a first draft of a EQUIP gender strategy drafted by the Gender team last year. This work was well appreciated, but since the EQUIP Gender Team also has other duties in EQUIP, it is important to ensure that the development of the gender strategy for EQUIP be a collective effort of the program. Hiring of a consultancy to under-take the articulation of a Gender Strategy should be central to the planning for the year 2014 before the start of the EQUIP III.

2) Female Internship: To improve women participation in education sector, EQUIP Gender Team is de-veloping a concept on “Manage-ment Internship Program for fresh female graduates” within the dif-ferent departments of the min-istry of education. This year it will be piloted in the centre only, after-wards it will be expanded to other provinces too.

3) Women’s Participation in SMS: Women’s participation in SMS is generally very low and in some places non-existing. EQUIP Gender Team is going to undertake a rapid assessment of the female partici-pation and their impact within the SMS in not more than 6 provinces (in selected districts and in select-ed schools) in the first half of 2014, including the model schools, so that to help EQUIP SMU team work out a revised regulation regarding SMS establishment and composi-tion to ensure that members are elected by parents from the school

in question, that teachers only par-ticipate as in the SMS as represen-tatives of teaching staff, and that 2 local CDC members (1 man and 1women) are included in the SMS to facilitate the coordination and linkage to the local CDC. The SMS could be established every school year through an election in a gen-eral assembly of parents, and half the seats of the SMS should be al-located to women, irrespective of it being a boys’ or a girls’ school. The SMS could also be mobilized as advocates for girls’ education, and try to reach out to both the lo-cal CDC members and to the local Mullah to make him support edu-cation, and especially girls’ educa-tion, in the Friday prayer.

Media campaign: EQUIP Gender Team plans to undertake a media campaign that would lobby and advocate for the more balanced participation of the both male and female in the education sector. It would try to cover not only the enrollment at schools, joining as teachers but as employees in the minis-try and its directorates in the provinces too. Work on the development of the concept is under the process. This campaign will be jointly undertaken with the communication and public awareness teams and relevant de-partments within MoE.

Gender

62Stre

ngth

enin

g Su

bnat

iona

l Gov

erna

nce

#7[Strengthening]Sub-National Governance

Introduction

This is one of the three important pilot projects under the Addi-tional Financing phase of EQUIP II, consisting of two components.

First is the Pilot Provincial Projects (PPP) which is still in the procurement pipeline, which will be contracted through open bidding. These projects had been de-cided by the provincial government for a cost of 500,000 USD each. Second is the assessment of capacity and performance of the provincial education departments of the ministry. This component is also in the procurement pipeline to hire a con-sultant agency to undertake this impor-tant task.

Strengthening Subnational Governance

64

Envo

ironm

enta

l & S

ocia

l Saf

egua

rd

#8[ESS]

Introduction

The EQUIP Environmental and Social Safeguard (ESS), integrated in school construction and social mobilization is aimed for improving quality of education in Afghanistan by support-ing implementation of the Environmental and

Social Screening Framework (ESSAF).Assurance of safety to construction staff and labour, mitigation and protec-tion measures to project sites open to environmental and safety hazards, facilitation of safe drinking water, health and hygiene arrangement/facilities in schools are some of the essential components. However, challenges to the implementation of environmental and social safeguard framework in Afghanistan are numerous. Disputes over the land associated to the lack of land acquisition docu-ments in number of schools, social exclusion and margin-alization have been occurred from time to time too. ESS, through need assessment, building awareness, training and direct physical intervention has been attempted to address the need and/or prevent from such challenges. Since June 2011, the ESS Unit has been active in carrying out environmental and social safeguard activities in close coordination with the EQUIP social mobilization team at the field and as well as with the PED engineers and ISD

Envoironmental & Social Safeguard

65

Envoironmental &

Social Safeguard

8.2. Activities and ProgressesThe major achievements during the reporting period include the below:

8.2.1. Training and Development of Training Materials

During the last reporting period, orientation training materials developed in local languages and included in the social mobilization training manual. 48 supervisors, 10 EQUIP officers and 267 district mobilizers, total 325 provincial staff received this orientation training. During the current reporting period, following training materials for basic training module are prepared in local languages, and this basic training to provincial staff are planned to be conducted by mid-2014:

• Guidelines for safety issues

• Guidelines for environmental issues

• Grievance Redress Mechanics

• Safety and Environmental checklist

8.2.2. Establishment of Grievance Redress Mechanism

Grievance Redress Mechanism is developed in local languages. This will be implemented by a committee of three persons from SMS. The committee will open the complaint boxes in a specific time once in a month. Once these boxes are opened by the committee, they will then analyze complains and will take necessary actions.

Initially, the system will be implemented in 36 schools as a pilot, and gradually be extended to all schools across the country.

The committees will report only those issues, which are complicated and needs top manage-ment involvement/actions by the provincial EQUIP Officers/PEDs, while the rest of the issues will be redressed within the school by the SMS.

The Grievance Redress Mechanism is already established in the center and in some provinces. According to the mechanism, the grievances will be received from DSMs, SM Supervisors, EQUIP Officers and even provincial engineers about EQUIP project activities on provincial level and from central EQUIP staff. These grievances will be received through the following medi-ums:

• Complaint Box

• E-mail

• Mobile Text Message

66

Envo

ironm

enta

l & S

ocia

l Saf

egua

rd

Once the grievances are received or identified through any of the mediums, a committee of three persons will collect the grievances, review/study them and finally take necessary actions to redress them as soon as possible.

8.2.3. Complaint Boxes

A standard complaint box is designed and officially endorsed. The item is included in the BOQs of EQUIP projects and that will be followed also in all construc-tion projects of Ministry of Education. As per plan, the complaints boxes will be installed in 1800 com-munity contracted schools already built and under construction by the communities. With the budget allocated 450 complaint boxes in 450 schools will be installed by mid 2014in 8 provinces including Kabul City and the rest will be achieved in phases.

8.2.4. Installation of Sign Boards

The temporary metal sign boards were installed in all projects under EQUIP. During the report-ing period, a standard sign board is designed in two languages (Pashto and Dari) and officially integrated in the BOQs of EQUIP projects, and that will be followed in all construction projects of Ministry of Education.

EQUIP has the plan to install this standard sign board in all community contracted (CC) schools which are already built and under construction through communities. With the budget allo-cated, a target is set to install 174 sign boards in the following 8 provinces including Kabul City by mid-2014. of the planned, till the reporting, 12 sign boards installed in 12 schools in Kabul and for the rest 162 schools, the installation is ongoing.

Figure 8.1. A sample of the complaint boxes installed in schools

Figure 8.2. A view of Danishmand High School sign board at Shakardara District of Kabul

Figure 8.3. Sign board of Karinda Girls High School at Kalakan District of Kabul

67

Envoironmental &

Social Safeguard

8.2.5. EQUIP/ISD Actions vs. IRD Findings

ESS infrastructure team reviewed IRD Inspection reports and took following actions. A format consisting of following sections is designed by EQUIP’s ESS unit. The format is being main-tained for better tracking and follow-up of actions:

School information

IRD findings

EQUIP action

The findings with photos were sent to the EQUIP Officers of the relevant for further actions. The provincial teams submitted the report with actions taken with photos as evidences as fol-low:

Miskinia School in Farza District of Kabul Province (IRD-EQ-1199)

The construction work of toilets was not completed, the door of it was missing and the wa-ter point had no cover, which was unsafe for the students. The issue was shared with Kabul Province team for immediate action. The door was installed, stairs were constructed and the toilets were opened for students use.

The problem with water point was also shared with Kabul Province team. When they visited the school they were told by SMS that the water point area is rocky and the water well will be of no use. Following the observations, the technical team recommended to amend the type of well from boring to digging and it was certified by ISD and was approved by EQUIP; the digging work was ongoing till the reporting.

Figure 8.4. Before IRD report Figure 8.5. After EQUIP action

68

Envo

ironm

enta

l & S

ocia

l Saf

egua

rd

Schools in Alishang and Alingar Districts of Laghman Province (IRD-EQ-1104)

There were two water wells left, open and uncovered after completion within School com-pounds in Alishang and Alingar districts of Laghman province. The issue was shared with Lagh-man team who contacted the SMSs of the schools for immediate actions. The wells are tem-porarily covered to ensure immediate safety of the vulnerable students, animals and other people. In future proper digging of the wells will be done or they will be filled with mud if digging is not possible.

Schools of Injeel District of Herat Province (IRD –EQ-0604)

A hand pump of water well in one of the schools of Injeel district of Herat province was not installed. The issue was shared with the Herat provincial team. The team visited the school and the hand pump was installed. The water point is open to students who have now access to quality drinking water.

Figure 8.6. Before IRD report

Figure 8.6. Before IRD report

Figure 8.7. After EQUIP action

Figure 8.7. After EQUIP action

69

Envoironmental &

Social Safeguard

8.2.6. Land Registration vs. Land acquisition

During the last reporting period, formats were not standard for land registration/acquisition documents. Following the recommendation of the Bank, during the reporting period, two standard formats are designed and approved by the Assets Department of Ministry of Educa-tion, which are promised to be used for all MoE land donations including of EQUIP projects, it is promised by the Assets Department. The formats include:

• Personal land donation declaration format

• Community land donation declaration format

These formats are shared with the EQUIP officer and the guidelines in using the formats are also explained to them through EMAIL. An orientation will form part of the training in future. The provincial EQUIP officers are advised to use the formats for all under-construction proj-ects.

8.3. Future Plans

• Continue with reviewing of IRD inspection reports and taking actions on issues related to safety and environment. Bi-/monthly joint monitoring missions will be planned and carried out to schools at risk and of poor quality. In doing so, ESS (In-frastructure) team will work closely with M&E (Infrastructure) team;

• Continue support with ESS guidelines and coaching and mentoring to survey and design (Infrastructure) team in ensuring that Environment and Safeguard compo-nents are included in the new EQUIP projects’ preparation and design (including in site plans and BoQs);

• Orientation/Refresher trainings will be conducted to provincial EQUIP officers and to newly recruited field engineers on Environmental and Social Safeguards concept and guidelines. In addition, basic trainings will be conducted to DSMs, Supervisors, and provincial ESS staff;

• Sign boards and complain boxes will be installed in schools as per plan;

• School Cleaning Campaign will be run twice a year. One, before the beginning of new educational year, and other in the middle of year. The plan is that the cam-paign will be mandated for all schools after the official approval of Minister of Edu-cation and the two days will be officially declared “School Cleaning Days” in the

70

Envo

ironm

enta

l & S

ocia

l Saf

egua

rd

education calendar.

8.4. Challenges

• ESS is a new concept and the staff lacks essential skills and knowledge in it;

• The delay in budget allocation and fund disbursement pose challenges to overall implementation of EQUIP, including ESS.

8.5. Recommendations

1. As ESS is a new concept in Af-ghanistan and compliance to it is a pre-requisite at project planning, design and implementation stages of a programme cycle, hiring of an in-ternational expert to support the pro-gramme is highly recommended;

Training on ESS by the World Bank to staff of ESS (Infrastructure) and Social Mobilizers at field is also recommended. Exposure visit to countries from the region can help gaining experi-ences from best practices and programme(s) too.

The Bank support with a clear policy, norms and stan-dards to address ESS issues, which will be subsequently endorsed in the contract documents to follow by the con-

tractors in EQUIP projects.

Envoironmental &

Social Safeguard

72

Scho

ol G

rant

Aud

it

#9[School Grant Audit]

Introduction

A team of five Field Auditors contin-

ued to make visits to provinces and

districts to verify reports related

to implementation of school grants, train-

ings, Shura renewal as well as functionality

of school Management Shuras. Overall, this

initiative increased sense of responsibility

among Social Mobilizers and improved trans-

parency and accountability. This team also

conducted in-depth assessments and inves-

tigation of suspicious cases and practices in-

cluding cases of harassment, discrimination

73

School Grant A

udit

9.2. Progress on Key TasksThe Quality Grant Audit Unit targeted to audit 160 schools in 16 provinces till De-cember 2013, but due to implementation challenges discussed in following pages, the Audit Unit could implement 50% (8 provinces) of the audit plan. Since July 2013, the following key activities have been implemented.

9.2.1. Audit of 91 schools in 8 provinces

The Audit Unit has covered 91 Schools in 8 provinces of Kunduz, Takhar, Badakhshan, Baghlan, Samangan, Parwan, Panjsheer and Kapisa. During the audit assignment, 15 CC construction projects were also cov-ered in the aforementioned provinces. The purpose of this audit assignment was to reach to a conclusion regarding existence and activities of SMSs, and proper disburse-ment and utilization of School Grants. The focus was on CC construction projects and the quality grants disbursed in year 1392. The results included preparation of audit report for each single province containing findings, impact of the findings and reme-dial recommendations to address the chal-lenges.

9.2.2. Assessment of 15 CC projects

The Quality Grant Audit Unit has assessed 15 CC construction projects in Kabul city and Ka-bul province. The objectives of the assignment were: a) to assess whether the SMSs do exist and are actively fulfilling their duties and responsibilities. b) to investigate the problems and barriers caused cessation of the construction projects. c) to make sure that all SMS members have full knowledge about the construction project in their respective school and are ac-tively participating in implementation of the project. d) to observe the status of the construc-tion projects. The results included preparation of assessment report for 15 CC construction projects.

9.2.3. Follow up of expenditure liquidation process in six provinces

The management assigned the Quality Grant Audit Unit to follow-up on the fund disburse-ment and liquidation process in six provinces of Nimroz, Khost, Pakteya, Badakhshan, Nen-

Objectives

Key objectives of the Quality Grant Audit Team are:

• To provide EQUIP Management with in-depth assessment of effectiveness of key controls that are operated in disburse-ment and utilization of grants for Quality Enhancement and for Infrastructure Enhancement of schools;

• To assess whether school grants and School Management Shuras achieved their main objectives and follow due processes as well as the rules and regulations of the Ministry of Education, and

• To make remedial recommenda-tions and follow-through with their implementation.

Currently, a team of 5 Quality Grant Field Au-ditors are working closely with other units of EQUIP to carry out its duties to achieve de-sired objectives.

74

Scho

ol G

rant

Aud

it

grahar and Kandahar. The objectives of this assignment were to get update information about disbursement and liquidation of funds for School Grants, Operation budget, Vehicle fee and funds for Model Schools and to speed up disbursement and liquidation processes in men-tioned provinces.

9.2.4. Special assignments of suspicious cases

A number of assignments were undertaken, including assessment of Shahrak-e-Erfan high school construction project in Kabul City. The result was peacefully resolving the conflict be-tween groups of residents over a school project.

The awareness events are large gatherings that have been successfully tested in a number of provinces. Messages conveyed in awareness events are numerous aimed at motivating active participation of the community in school improvement, improving accountability and the ulti-mate ownership of education by the people. A typical awareness event will try to accomplish the following:

School Grant A

udit

76

Com

mun

icat

ion

& P

ublic

Aw

aren

ess

#10[Communication]And Public Awareness

Introduction

EQUIP Communication teams has continued to

provide updates and in-depth stories by publish-

ing EQUIP Newsletter, every two-months. Public

awareness activities in the past six months includ-

ed development of variety of materials for a public educa-

tion campaign, preparation of scripts for radio and TV spots

and dramas, preparations of newspaper articles, editorials,

and talking-points for media-round tables and standard

speeches for awareness gatherings. The campaign will fo-

cus on a) increasing enrollment especially for girls, b) reduc-

ing absenteeism and drop outs, and c) reducing violence in

schools.

77

#10[Com

munication]

• Raise awareness regarding major challenges related to access and quality in the province (provincial education profiles with basic data were prepared in easy-to-understand languages of Dari and Pashto)

• Encourage and facilitate people’s monitoring of school grants (one page budget for each provinces prepared in simple language and disseminated through local media);

• Promote public participation in schools Shuras

• Invite public support to increase enrolment of children, particularly of girls, in pub-lic and community-based schools and reduce drop outs and absenteeism;

• Raise awareness about the benefits of maintaining a clean and green environment;

• Encourage inter-sectoral cooperation in the province for addressing school related issues;

• Highlight the importance of new teaching methods and instructional leadership (addressed to teachers and school administrators);

• Discuss options for schools without land and without building (including inter-link-ing various SMSs);

• Create good relationship with the District Development Assembly (DDA) and Com-munity Development Council (CDC) for Education Quality Enhancement;

• Encourage local, national and private media outlets (TV, radio, daily papers, etc) to broadcast/publish awareness messages to promote education.

These messages would be integrated into speeches of the governor, MPs, Ulema, Provincial Education Director, Provincial Council members, and others. The typical audience would be officials, education personnel from provincial center as well as districts, SMS members, school principals, women activists, community elders, etc.

Events in each province are planned with Kabul-based MPs, elites, activists, business people and youth of a certain province. The events are organized by the Provincial Education Director-ates and province-based media is invited.

78

#10[

Com

mun

icat

ion]

10.2. Key Activities and Progress

10.2.1. Printing and Publishing

• Published 3 editions (2000 copies each edition) of the EQUIP two-monthly Newsletter in English, Dari and Pashtu;

• Published information about budget and profile of provinces in various audio-visual and print media;

• Published education related articles in different papers and magazines;

• Prepared media reports of all EQUIP workshops/seminars/conferences;

• Composed, edited, designed and printed materials for all units of EQUIP and EQUIP related workshops, seminars, conferences;

10.2.2. Public Education Activities

• Prepared script for 12 episodes of drama about eradicating violence, reducing drop outs and increasing enrolment;

• Prepared speeches and developed messages for Public Awareness and Public Education events;

• Held regular meetings with Information and Publication Department of MoE, Education Radio Television and Kabul Education University lecturers about Pub-lic Education activities.

• Created directory of journalists from across the country for sharing EQUIP sto-ries and budgeting information;

• Created directory of Provincial Education Directors and District Education Direc-tors;

• 10.2.3. Public Awareness Activities

• Organized Public Awareness Events in Jawzjan, Samangan, Baghlan, Kapisa, Wardak, Laghman and Parwan, which where attended by scholars, tribal elders,

79

#10[Com

munication]

people’s representatives, and education workers;

• Held meetings with MPs and influential figures from Khost, Takhar, Helmand, Kandahar and Daikundi about improving quality of education in the mentioned provinces;

• Held meeting with Ministry of Women Affairs about increasing girls’ participa-tion in education;

10.2.4. Improving Transparency

People monitoring has been tested by providing detailed budgetary information to the public in each province.

In 2013, all provinces received five types of grants:

• Quality Enhancement Grant (up to 23 per province)

• Infrastructure Enhancement Grant (up to 7 per province)

• Model School Grant (up to 3 per province)

• TTC and Gender Grant (at least one per province)

To inform the people of each province, a simple table was created to list projects in three cat-egories (TTC Grant will be included in the next exercise). Information on each project entails the amount of money and the name and location of school (see Annex 5) on the head of the one pager. There is an invitation, in bold letters, to monitor and make sure the funds are not misused. This exercise will be turned into a bi-annual routine.

10.2.5. Conflict resolution

• Resolved the conflict between Engineers and Provincial Education Director in Badakhshan;

• Resolved a conflict between EQUIP Officer and Provincial Education Director of Sar-e-Pul in consultation with the parties and Governor of the province;

• Resolved a conflict between EQUIP Officer and Kabul City Education Director;

• Resolved a conflict between people and PED over the land of Senjid Dara

80

#10[

Com

mun

icat

ion]

School in Parwan;

• Resolved a conflict between SMSs and PED over Shura trainings

10.2.6. Other activities

• Conducted reporting and photography trainings for EQUIP Officers of all prov-inces;

• Gave presentations to Model Schools principals;

• Designed database for Shura Picture Book.

10.3. Future Plans

• Continue Publishing 3 editions of EQUIP bi-monthly Newsletter in three lan-guages;

• Publishing special editions of EQUIP Newsletter on Model Schools, public monitoring of school graduates;

• Updating the EQUIP brochure;

• Publishing the first edition of Shura Picture Book;

• Translation of the scripted episodes of drama into Dari;

• Recording at least 10 episodes of drama, with technical support from the Edu-cation Radio Television;

• Designing and printing Public Education messages for provinces across the country;

• Conducting Public Education events/campaigns in centre and provinces;

• Holding meetings with scholars, tribal leaders, civil society, media representa-tives and education activist about importance of public education and improv-

81

#10[Com

munication]

ing people’s participation and ownership and increasing enrolment;

• Preparing media reports of key EQUIP seminars/workshops/conference;

• Publishing reports and articles about education in general and EQUIP activities in particular in local and national media;

• Preparing the EQUIP Semi-Annual Report;

• Composing, editing and designing of other EQUIP materials.

#10[

Com

mun

icat

ion]

83

Independence Evaluation of EQU

IP

#11[Independence]

11.1. Independent Evaluation of EQUIP II

An evaluation of EQUIP as a program is ex-pected to examine effectiveness and cost-benefit and identify what worked and what did not and why. Three international consult-

ing agencies are being hired to undertake this important evaluation in three parts: 1) EQUIP-II overall program evaluation, 2) sector analysis, and cost-benefit analysis, and 3) Teacher Education impact assessment.

For the first two parts, separate review committees com-pleted proposals from over ten national and internation-al bidders and contracts shall be awarded in early 2014. Each of the two assignments is for eight months while the duration of the third assignment will be four months.

The Evaluation Unit of the General Directorate of Planning has been facilitating the process of hiring and will work as counterpart with consultants. The evaluation, though independent, will offer a valuable capacity enhancement opportunity for the Ministry’s evaluation team.

Evaluation of EQUIP

#11[

Inde

pend

ence

]

85

Design of EQ

UIP III

#12[Design of EQUIP

12.1. EQUIP-III Design

As EQUIP II was approaching its last year, Depart-ment of Planning and Evaluation and EQUIP Coor-dination Unit has initiated the process of designing EQUIP III in mid-2013. Wide consultations with a variety of stakeholder from both within and out-side MoE will be organized and results of third-party evaluation incorporated.

Thus far, structural arrangement (e.g., a Steering Committee and Working Groups) has been made; one round of intra-MoE consultation completed and internal self-led review by departments and programs is underway.

Given the MoE’s request for a one year extension of EQUIP II until August 2015, design of EQUIP III will be completed by the spring of 2015.

Ann

exes

Annexes

87

Annexes

Annex One: Tables

Table 1: The remaining incomplete components of CC projects

Summary of CC Projects

No

Proj

ect S

tatu

s

(Pro

gres

s (as

of D

ecem

ber 3

1,20

13

Proj

ects

nee

ds e

xtra

mon

ey fo

r com

ple-

# tio

n

Proj

ects

cov

erin

g by

DAN

IDA#

(Pha

se 1

(alre

ady

subm

itted

to P

D/PE

D

Pro

ject

s cov

erin

g by

DAN

IDA

pha

se 2

((A

lread

y su

bmitt

ed to

PD

Pro

ject

s will

be

cove

red

by W

B (a

lread

y(s

ubm

itted

to P

D

Proj

ects

will

be

cove

red

from

MoE

dis-

# c

retio

nary

bud

get

( alre

ady

subm

itted

to

Pro

ject

s will

be

cove

red

from

O&

M(b

udge

t pha

se 1

( alre

ady

subm

itted

to P

D

Proj

ects

will

be

cove

red

from

O&

M b

udg-

(et p

hase

2 (

Alre

ady

subm

itted

to P

D

Prob

lem

atic

/ Dem

olish

ed P

roje

cts

1 Fully Com-pleted

355

2 Going to beFully Com-pleted

35

3 PartiallyCompleted

796

4 Ongoingbut go-

ing to be Partiallycompleted

106 902 (I)59 (II)197 (III)115 (IV)142 (V)160 (VI)225 (VII)4

5 Not StartedYet

25

6 Damaged 307 Total8 Balance of

Incomplete1347 902 843 646 531 389 229 4 0

88

Ann

exes

Explanation for highlighted cells:

I. The number was 115 from January 01 to June 30, 2013 from which 56 projects have been completed during the last six months and 59 are currently ongoing.

II. These 197 projects have received budget, but these projects are under con-tracting process.

III. These 115 projects have been submitted to PD for procurement process.

IV. IV.V.VI (the total of these selected numbers was 582 under O&M budget for incomplete components of which 55 projects have been completed and the remaining projects will be completed in case of sufficiency of fund).

V. Included in IV

VI. Included in IV

VII. Included in IV

These four projects had technical problems therefore the budget was not allocated for them.

Annexes89

Annexes

Table 2: The details of Quality Enhancement Grant for each province including the amount allocated, transferred, disbursed, liquidated and un-liquidated

S.No Province Total planned Total Transferred

Total Un Trans-ferred in Afs

Total Amount Dis-bursed in Afs

Total Amount Liq-uidated in AFS

Total un-liquidat-ed Amount in AFS Remarks Amount in

AFS School Amount in AFS School

1 Kunar 3,445,000 25 3,445,000 25 0 3,445,000 975,000 2,470,000

2 Laghman 4,004,000 25 4,004,000 25 0 4,004,000 4,004,000 0

3 Nooristan 1,352,000 5 0 1,352,000 0 0

4 Helmand 1,157,000 8 1,157,000 8 0 1,157,000 1,157,000 0

5 Nangarhar 1,950,000 10 1,950,000 10 0 1,950,000 1,950,000 0

6 Farah 2,041,000 15 2,041,000 15 0 2,041,000 2,041,000 0

7 Ghor 3,432,000 19 3,432,000 19 0 3,432,000 3,432,000 0

8 Heart 2,925,000 15 2,925,000 15 0 2,925,000 2,925,000 0

9 Badghis 494,000 3 494,000 3 0 494,000 494,000 0

10 Nemroz 2,496,000 8 1,801,800 8 694200 1,801,800 1,801,800 0

11 Paktya 4,602,000 23 4,602,000 23 0 4,602,000 4,602,000 0

12 Khost 1,313,000 9 1,313,000 9 0 1,313,000 1,313,000 0

13 Urozgan 1,131,000 5 1,131,000 5 0 1,131,000 1,131,000 0

14 Logar 390,000 5 390,000 5 0 390,000 390,000 0

15 Samangan 2,106,000 7 2,106,000 7 0 2,106,000 2,106,000 0

16 Balkh 8,190,000 25 8,190,000 25 0 8,190,000 8,190,000 0

17 Saripul 4,719,000 25 4,719,000 25 0 4,719,000 4,719,000 0

18 Bamayan 4,602,000 25 4,602,000 25 0 4,602,000 4,290,000 312,000

19 Jawzjan 5,187,000 25 5,187,000 25 0 5,187,000 5,187,000 0

20 Faryab 1,326,000 4 1,326,000 4 0 1,326,000 1,326,000 0

21 Kapisa 5,070,000 25 5,070,000 25 0 5,070,000 5,070,000 0

22 Pawan 6,981,000 25 6,981,000 25 0 6,981,000 6,981,000 0

23 Badakhshan 1,170,000 8 1,170,000 8 0 1,170,000 1,170,000 0

24 Takhar 6,552,000 17 6,552,000 17 0 6,552,000 6,552,000 0

25 Kunduz 2,002,000 11 2,002,000 11 0 2,002,000 2,002,000 0

26 Baghlan 5,863,000 25 5,863,000 25 0 5,863,000 3,315,000 2,548,000

27 Panjshir 1,508,000 5 1,508,000 5 0 1,508,000 1,508,000 0

28 Daikondi 4,641,000 25 0 4,641,000 0 0

29 Kabul Province 4,472,000 19 3,536,000 19 936000 3,536,000 3,536,000 0

30 Kabul City 8,593,000 35 8,593,000 35 0 8,593,000 8,593,000 0

31 MaidanWardak 4,056,000 17 4,056,000 17 0 4,056,000 4,056,000 0

32 Ghazni 4,602,000 25 4,602,000 25 0 4,602,000 2,925,000 1,677,000

33 Zabul 1,248,000 5 1,248,000 5 0 1,248,000 1,248,000 0

34 Kandahar 975,000 5 975,000 5 0 975,000 975,000 0

35 Paktika 975,000 5 975,000 5 0 975,000 975,000 0

Total 115,570,000 538 107,946,800 508 7623200 107,946,800 100939800 7,007,000

Ann

exes

90

Ann

exes

Table 3: A detailed breakdown of the Model School Grant for each province including the amount allocated, transferred, disbursed and refunded

S.N Province

No o

f Sch

ools

Name of Schools School Loca-tion

Total Allotment in(AFS Code 25 (AFS

Total Allotment in AFS Code 22

((AFS

Wor

k Pr

og-

(%) r

ess

Tota

l Am

ount

Tra

nsfe

rred

((AFS Total Amount

(Refunded(AFS

1 Kabul City 4 Alfatah Girls High School Mocrayan 390,000 390,000 % 80 780000 BibiAyshaSeddiqa Girls High

SchoolKabul City 390,000 390,000 % 90 780000

Asif Mayel Girls MiddleSchool

Kabul City 390,000 390,000 % 40 780000

SidalNasiri Girls High School KhirKhana 390,000 390,000 % 70 7800002 Kabul Prov-

ince2 Tara Khail Girls High School DehSabz 390,000 390,000 % 40 780000

Dawoodzai Boys HighSchool

QaraBagh 390,000 390,000 % 20 780000

3 Kundoz 2 Bibi Amina Girls HighSchool

Center 390,000 390,000 65% 780000

Ghazni Khan Boys HighSchool

Center 390,000 390,000 % 70 780000

4 Hirat 4 Meeri Girls High School Center 390,000 390,000 % 70 780000Experimental Girls School Center 390,000 390,000 % 70 780000

MahjoobaHirawi Girls HighSchool

Center 390,000 390,000 70% 780000

Sultan Ghayasuddin BoysHigh School

Center 390,000 390,000 % 70 780000

5 Kunar 2 Bibi Fatima Girls HighSchool

Center 390,000 390,000 % 80 780000

Umra Khan Boys HighSchool

Center 390,000 390,000 % 80 780000

Annexes91

Annexes

S.N Province

No o

f Sch

ools

Name of Schools School Loca-tion

Total Allotment in(AFS Code 25 (AFS

Total Allotment in AFS Code 22

((AFS

Wor

k Pr

og-

(%) r

ess

Tota

l Am

ount

Tra

nsfe

rred

((AFS Total Amount

(Refunded(AFS

6 Khost 2 Gharkhat Girls High School Center 390,000 390,000 % 80 780000Sarban Boys High School Center 390,000 390,000 % 70 780000

7 Kandahar 3 SafiaAhmadi Girls HighSchool

Center 390,000 390,000 % 50 780000

Ahmad Shah Baba BoysHigh School

Center 390,000 390,000 % 50 780000

ZahirShahi Boys HighSchool

Center 390,000 390,000 % 50 780000

8 Nangarhar 3 Estiqlal Boys High School Center 390,000 390,000 100% 780000Alayee Girls High School Center 390,000 390,000 100% 780000

BibiHawa Girls High School Center 390,000 390,000 % 100 7800009 MaidanWar-

dak3 Sayed Abad Boys High

SchoolSayed Abad 390,000 390,000 % 75 780000

DashtToap Boys HighSchool

Sayed Abad 390,000 390,000 % 75 780000

Khalid Bin Walid Boys HighSchool

Narkh 390,000 390,000 % 75 780000

10

Logar

2 Surkh Abad Girls HighSchool

MohammadAgha

390,000 390,000 % 10 780000

JahadiKolangar Boys HighSchool

Center 390,000 390,000 % 10 780000

11 Paktia 2 Shahri Girls High School Center 390,000 390,000 % 55 780000Taira Boys High School Center 390,000 390,000 % 55 780000

Ann

exes

92

Ann

exes

S.N Province

No o

f Sch

ools

Name of Schools School Loca-tion

Total Allotment in(AFS Code 25 (AFS

Total Allotment in AFS Code 22

((AFS

Wor

k Pr

og-

(%) r

ess

Tota

l Am

ount

Tra

nsfe

rred

((AFS Total Amount

(Refunded(AFS

12 Balkh 2 Umul Banat Girls HighSchool

Center 390,000 390,000 % 100 780000

Sultan Ghayasuddin BoysHigh School

Center 390,000 390,000 % 100 780000

13 Jovzjan 2 YakaBagh Girls High School Center 390,000 390,000 100% 780000Qazanchi Boys High School Center 390,000 390,000 100% 780000

14 Bamyan 2 Markazi Girls High School Center 390,000 390,000 % 30 780000 ShirenHarzara Girl High

SchoolCenter 390,000 390,000 % 30 780000

15 Badakhshan 2 Kokcha Boys High School Center 390,000 390,000 % 25 780000Makhfi Girls High School Center 390,000 390,000 % 30 780000

16 Farah 2 Abo Nasr Farahi Boys HighSchool

Center 390,000 390,000 % 70 780000

NafisaTawfiqMirzayee GirlsHigh School

Center 390,000 390,000 % 40 780000

17 Helmand 2 ShaheedEng Abdul MateenCentral Boys High School

Center 390,000 390,000 780000

Kart-e-Lagan Malali GirlsHigh School

Center 390,000 390,000 780000

18 Laghman 2 GulPachaUlfat Boys HighSchool

Center 390,000 390,000 % 100 780000

GulPachaUlfat Girls HighSchool

Center 390,000 390,000 % 100 780000

19 Faryab 2 Sitara Girls High School Center 390,000 390,000 % 50 780000 Arabkhana Boys High

SchoolCenter 390,000 390,000 % 60 780000

Annexes93

Annexes

S.N Province

No o

f Sch

ools

Name of Schools School Loca-tion

Total Allotment in(AFS Code 25 (AFS

Total Allotment in AFS Code 22

((AFS

Wor

k Pr

og-

(%) r

ess

Tota

l Am

ount

Tra

nsfe

rred

((AFS Total Amount

(Refunded(AFS

20 Sar-e-Pol 2 Imam Yahya Girls HighSchool

Center 390,000 390,000 % 65 780000

Minhaaju-seraj Girls HighSchool

Center 390,000 390,000 % 50 780000

21 Baghlan 2 FatimatuZuhra Girls HighSchool

Center 390,000 390,000 % 30 780000

SayedJamaluddin Girls HighSchool

Center 390,000 390,000 % 90 780000

22 Takhar 2 Dr.SayedHasan Boys HighSchool

Center 390,000 390,000 % 40 780000

BibiHawa Girls High School Center 390,000 390,000 % 40 78000023 Ghazni 2 JahanMalika Girls High

SchoolCenter 390,000 390,000 % 10 780000

Sanayee Boys High School Center 390,000 390,000 % 25 78000024 Parwan 2 Numan Boys High School Center 390,000 390,000 % 50 780000

HoriaJalali Girls High School Center 390,000 390,000 % 60 78000025 Kapisa 2 Jamal Agha Girls High

SchoolHisa-e-Do 390,000 390,000 % 60 780000

MahmoodRaqi Boys HighSchool

Center 390,000 390,000 % 50 780000

26 Nooristan 1 Nangraj Girls High School Nangraj 390,000 390,000 % 50 78000027 Paktika 1 Hazrat Bilal Boys High

SchoolSharana 390,000 390,000 % 75 780000

28 Zabul 1 Sheikh Mati Boys HighSchool

Center 390,000 390,000 % 85 780000

29 Urozgan 1 Malalai Boys High School Center 390,000 390,000 % 60 780000

Ann

exes

94

Ann

exes

S.N Province

No o

f Sch

ools

Name of Schools School Loca-tion

Total Allotment in(AFS Code 25 (AFS

Total Allotment in AFS Code 22

((AFS

Wor

k Pr

og-

(%) r

ess

Tota

l Am

ount

Tra

nsfe

rred

((AFS Total Amount

(Refunded(AFS

30 Badghis 2 Qala-e- Girl High School Center 390,000 390,000 780000Hanzala Girls High School Center 390,000 390,000 780000

31 Daikundi 2 SangmomBiys High School Center 390,000 390,000 % 50 780000Sangmom Girls High School Center 390,000 390,000 % 10 780000

32 Samangan 2 Kar-e-Sulha Girls HighSchool

Center 390,000 390,000 % 70 780000

Experimental Boys HighSchool

Center 390,000 390,000 % 70 780000

33 Nimroz 2 Sistan Boys High School Center 390,000 390,000 % 70 780000Zaranj Girls High School Center 390,000 390,000 % 70 780000

34 Panjshir 2 Bibi Amina Girl High School Unaba 390,000 390,000 % 40 780000Bazarak Boys High School Dara 390,000 390,000 % 40 780000

35 Ghor 2 Sultan RaziaGhori Girls HighSchool

Center 390,000 390,000 % 70 780000

AlawuddinGhori Boys HighSchool

Center 390,000 390,000 % 70 780000

TOTAL 73 8,470,0002 28,470,000 % 61.6 55380000 1560000

Annexes95

Annexes

Table 4: Summary of SMU ToTs with respect to the total number of participants along with their designationsS.

N

Roun

ds

Even

ts

Provinces Covered During the Training

Venu

e

Designation of Trainees

Participated in the Training

Total No of Trainees Trained

Tota

lExp

endi

ture

inAF

S

Rem

arks

M F

Tota

l

Tota

lNO

.

Names

1

1st R

ound

Trai

ning

1st 10 1. Nangarhar2. Kunar3. Khost4. Baghlan5. Balkh6. Takhar7. Jawzjan8. Kabul9. Province10. Herat

Aria

naHo

tel,

Balk

h

1.SocialMobilizationOfficers(SMUCore Team)

2.SocialMobilizationAssistants(SMUCore Team)

3.ProvincialSocialMobilizationSupervisors

16 7 24 1500000 ToT1

2

2nd R

ound

Trai

ning

2nd 5 1. Ghor2. Badghis3. Heart4. Farah5. Kabul

Mar

copo

loHo

tel,

Hera

tProvincial Social

MobilizationSupervisors

13 3 16 794200

Ann

exes

96

Ann

exes

S.N

Roun

ds

Even

ts

Provinces Covered During the Training

Venu

e

Designation of Trainees

Participated in the Training

Total No of Trainees Trained

Tota

lExp

endi

ture

inAF

S

Rem

arks

M F

Tota

l

Tota

lNO

.

Names

1

1st R

ound

Trai

ning

1st 10 1. Nangarhar2. Kunar3. Khost4. Baghlan5. Balkh6. Takhar7. Jawzjan8. Kabul9. Province10. Herat

Aria

naHo

tel,

Balk

h

1.SocialMobilizationOfficers(SMUCore Team)

2.SocialMobilizationAssistants(SMUCore Team)

3.ProvincialSocialMobilizationSupervisors

16 7 24 1500000 ToT1

2

2nd R

ound

Trai

ning

2nd 5 1. Ghor2. Badghis3. Heart4. Farah5. Kabul

Mar

copo

loHo

tel,

Hera

tProvincial Social

MobilizationSupervisors

13 3 16 794200

Annexes97

Annexes

S.N

Roun

ds

Even

ts

Provinces Covered During the Training

Venu

e

Designation of Trainees

Participated in the Training

Total No of Trainees Trained

Tota

lExp

endi

ture

inAF

S

Rem

arks

M F

Tota

l

Tota

lNO

.

Names

1

1st R

ound

Trai

ning

1st 10 1. Nangarhar2. Kunar3. Khost4. Baghlan5. Balkh6. Takhar7. Jawzjan8. Kabul9. Province10. Herat

Aria

naHo

tel,

Balk

h

1.SocialMobilizationOfficers(SMUCore Team)

2.SocialMobilizationAssistants(SMUCore Team)

3.ProvincialSocialMobilizationSupervisors

16 7 24 1500000 ToT1

2

2nd R

ound

Trai

ning

2nd 5 1. Ghor2. Badghis3. Heart4. Farah5. Kabul

Mar

copo

loHo

tel,

Hera

tProvincial Social

MobilizationSupervisors

13 3 16 794200

Ann

exes

98

Ann

exes

Table 5: Summary of EMIS activities and progress.Summary of Planned Activities/work progress

S.No Task Name % of completion Status Responsible Title Supportingproject

A. Requirement collection and Analysis

1 Updating the school questionnaires and

Renormalizing the School Management system

100% completed MirwaisAhmadzai System Analyst

World Bank

2 Changes in the requirements as per the needs

of ISD department for ISD-MISsystem

80% In progress Noor Ahmad Firozi System

Developer

3 Analysis of the gathered requirements for

textbook distribution system

60% Pending MirwaisAhmadzai System Analyst

5 Extra requirement collection and analysis for

students' certification system

100% completed MirwaisAhmadzai System Analyst

6 Consolidating provincial 1391 statistical data

with the main EMIS server.

100% completed MirwaisAhmadzai System Analyst

Annexes99

Annexes

7 Requirement collection and analysis for procurement tracking system

100% Completed MirwaisAhmadzai System Analyst

8 Requirement collection and analysis for

community based educations

100% completed Irfanullah Safi Programmer

9 Development of ToR for network intranet

installation in PEDs to hire a consultant.

100% completed Irfanullah Safi Programmer

10 Development of ToR for Asset Management

Information system

100% waiting for the

inputs of MoF

MirwaisAhmadzai System Analyst

B. Developed Systems

1 New updates in School Management system

(SMIS)

100% Functional Hashmatullah Programmer Civil Servant

and WB

2 Procurement Tracking System 100% Functional Shakir and

Irfanullah

Programmers

3 None-Formal Educations management system 100% Functional Zabih Khan Database

Developer

UNICEF

Ann

exes

100

Ann

exes

4 Community Based schools management system 100% Testing ToryaliHellali System

Developer

World Bank

5 Students certification management system 100% Data Entry Hashmatullah&Saf

iullah

Programmer GPE, WB &

Civil Servant

6 Evaluation management system 100% Data Entry Shakir Programmer

7 Mobile Application for Monitoring and data

verification

100% Functional ARTS Consultant

8 HR-MIS for contract staff 100% Functional ToryaliHellali System

Developer

World Bank

9 Operational plan management system 100% functional Zahir Jan Database

developer

C. Proposed Systems' to be developed

1 Development of Admin Finance management

system for projects’ tracking

20% In progress Irfanullah and

Shakir

Programmer World Bank

2 Payroll management System 0% Pending MirwaisAhmadzai

and Toryali

System Analyst

and developer

Annexes101

Annexes

3 Thashkil management system 0% Pending MirwaisAhmadzai

and Toryali

System Analyst

and developer

4 Contract management System for procurement

and logistic

0% Pending Irfanullah and

shakir

Programmer

5 Automated Planning Decision Support System

for Planning department of MoE

0% Pending Mirwais and

Irfanullah

System Analyst

and programmer

6 Asset Management System 10% In Progress Consultant

7 Human Resource Management Information

System (HR-MIS) for civil servants

15% In Progress MirwaisAhamdzai,

Toryali and Zahir

System Analyst,

developer and

programmer

World Bank

8 Budget management system 0% Pending Hashmatullah Programmer GPE & World

Bank9 Curriculum development management system 0% Pending Shakir and Zahir Programmer

10 Development of GIS online interface 0% Pending Consultancy

11 Development of EMIS system development

policies and strategies.

0% Pending MirwaisAhmadzai

andIrfanullah Safi

System Analyst,

programmerWorld Bank

Ann

exes

102

Ann

exes

D. Data Analysis and Reporting

1 Contribution in 1391 Data collection, entry,

cleaning, verification and reportingwith civil

servants

100% Completed InayatullahAmini Data Analyst World Bank

2 Follow up of missing schools' data entry with

provinces

100% Completed InayatullahAmini Data Analyst

3 Contribution in 1391 data cleaning and

reporting process

100% Completed InayatullahAmini Data Analyst

4 Preparing analytical reports useful for different

internal and external organizations

In progress InayatullahAmini Data Analyst

5 Finding out problems with 4,000 schools'

coordinates are outside of country from 16,000

registered schools in the system, and collecting

school coordinates for Kabul city

100% completed RafiqTotakhail GIS Specialist

6 Visualizing MoE 1390 and 1391 statistical

indicators through GIS maps.

100% completed RafiqTotakhail GIS Specialist World Bank

103

Creating EMIS map booklet for 1391. 100% Completed RafiqTotakhail GIS Specialist

E. Capacity Building and technical consultation

1 Providing technical trainings at central

provincial and district level

100% Completed for

year 2013

System

development

department team

2 Installing and maintaining of EMIS servers in

provincial EMIS offices.

100% Completed System

development

department team

3 Providing Provincial EMIS offices training in

terms of usage the GPS device.

100% completed RafiqTotakhail GIS Specialist

4 Technical Training to three technical staff in

India, Ahmedabad.

In progress Mirwais, Irfanulla,

Toryalai

System Analyst,

ProgrammerandS

ystem developerWorld Bank

5 Any other technical consultations Continue process System

development

department team

104

Annexes

Annex Two: Details of SMU basic training missionsOn the 22th of June, 2013 a team from the SMU was assigned to conduct the training in Kabul City at. The duration of this training was three days and the trainees for this training were invited from 34 provinces including Kabul city. Basically, this training was designed only for provincial EQUIP officers but as it was felt necessary that provincial Finance Officers and Se-nior Engineers of all 34 provinces and Kabul city also took part in this training. The participants included 35 EQUIP Officers, 35 provincial Senior Engineers and 35 provincial Finance Officers.

On the 7th of September, 2013, a basic training was launched by SMU in Parwan province. The training continued for 3 days and a total of 30 trainees were trained including 7 females. The trainees included 1 EQUIP Officer, 3 SM Supervisors, 26 DSMs.

On the 13th of September, 2013, another mission was assigned to conduct the training in Log-ar province. where a total of 21 trainees are trained out of which 8 were females. The duration of this training was three days and the trainees, included 1 EQUIP Officer, 3 SM Supervisors, 17 DSMs.

On the 13th of September, 2013, another mission was assigned to conduct the training in Takhar province. where a total of 34 participants were trained out of which 8 were females. The duration of this training was three days and the trainees included 1 EQUIP Officer, 4 SM Supervisors, 29 DSMs.

On the 14th of September, 2013, a basic training was launched by SMU members to DSMs of Balkh province. A total of 28 trainees, including 7 females, were trained in the 3 day training. The trainees included 1 EQUIP Officer, 4 SM Supervisors, 23 District Social Mobilizers.

On the 14th of September, 2013, another mission was assigned to conduct the training to DSMs in Jawzjan province. The trainig took place at Shabarghan Hotel and continued for 3 days where 21 trainees were trained out of which 8 were females. The trainees were invited from Saripul province and the trainees included 1 EQUIP Officer, 3 SM Supervisors, 17 DSMs.

On the 21th of September, 2013, a mission was assigned to conduct basic training in Baghlan province for DSMs. The training was conducted in 3 days. The total number of participants was 30 including one female. The trainees included 1 EQUIP Officer, 3 SM Supervisors, 26 District Social Mobilizers.

On the 22th of September, 2013, another mission was assigned to conduct the training in Ba-dakhshan province. The training was conducted where a total of 30 trainees were trained out of which 9 were females. The trainees of the 3 day training, included 1 EQUIP Officer, 3 SM Supervisors, 26 DSMs.

On the 28th of September, 2013 a team from the SMU traveled to conduct the training in Kun-duz province. The number of participants in this 3 day training were 38 out of which 6 were females and the trainees, included 1 EQUIP Officer, 4 SM Supervisors, 33 DSMs.

On the 20th of October, 2013 a team from the SMU traveled to conduct the training in Kapisa province. The training happened in 3 days. The total number of trainees was 19 out of which 5 were females. The trainees included 1 EQUIP Officer, 3 SM Supervisors, 15 DSMs.

105

Annexes

On the 21th of October, 2013, a mission was assigned to conduct the training in Kabul . where a total of 29 trainees were trained. The trainees were invited from Maidan Wardak province and the duration of this training was three days. The trainees included 1 EQUIP Officer, 3 SM Supervisors, 25 DSMs.

Annex Three: Details of SMU ToT MissionsRound 1

Balkh ToT Mission:

To improve the capacity building skills of Social Mobilization Unit experts and develop the cadre of Master Trainers through cascade approach, a rigorous and intensive ToT was carried out from October 25th to October 30th, 2013 at Mazar-e-Sharif at Aryana Hotel as a first step.

The ToT was designed for 20 to 25 participants from different tiers of SMU with special focus of women participation.

Twenty three participants from 5 Regions or 9 provinces (Nangarhar, Khost, Baghlan, Heart, Jawzjan, Balkh, Takhar, Kunar and Kabul) along with SMU core team including 7 females at-tended this 5 day training. The training helped in identification and selection of 5 teams (2 to 3 persons in every team) with a combination of strong and weak participants. The selected teams will transmit the gained knowledge and skills to implement the cascade covering all SM Supervisors and DSMs in two rounds of ToT rollout.

Round 2

Herat ToT Mission:

The second ToT is conducted on November 9, 2013 and ended on November 13, 2013 in Herat province at Marco Polo Hotel. The target trainees were SM Supervisors. Participants from Ghor, Badghis, Herat, Farah and Kabul attended this 5 day training. A total of 16 trainees in-cluding 1 DSM had attended this training out of which 3 participants were female.

Round 3

Kabul City ToT Mission:

The third ToT is conducted on November 9, 2013 and ended on November 13, 2013 in Ka-bul city at Metropol Hotel. The target trainees were SM Supervisors. The provinces which at-tended this 5 day training included Paktya, Logar, Parwan, Kapisa, Kabul, Daikondi and Zabul. A total of 20 trainees including 1 female participated in this training.

The forth ToT is also conducted on November 9, 2013 and ended on November 13, 2013 in Kabul city at Aryana Hotel. The target trainees were SM Supervisors. The provinces which at-tended this 5 day training included Ghazni, Wardag, Paktika, Kandarahar, Uruzgan and Khost. A total of 24 trainees had attended this training.

106

Ann

exes

Annex Four: Mobile Application in Urozgan

Afghanistan Reliable Technology Services (ARTS) was awarded a contract to facilitate the mo-bile phone data collection pilot phase in Uruzgan. Initial steps were taken in this direction; ARTS designed a mobile phone data collection system including mobile application, web ap-plication and SMS services.

Negotiations were held with the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology re-garding specific technical issues, ARTS was introduced to MoCIT to handle the technical and financial aspects of the project. A server was assigned to the project and stationed in ANDC at MoCIT.

EMIS developed required questionnaires based on basic data needs, prepared training mate-rial and action plans, which were shared with ARTS. It was decided that an orientation work-shop will be provided to the central departments by ARTS in order to finalize the pilot phase in Uruzgan Province. Smart phone mobiles were procured; the pilot phase was conducted in Tarinkot district of Uruzgan province, around 56 schools were visited and the rest of 40 schools are planned to be visited in next month.

Likewise, this application would be implemented for strengthening the monitoring, reporting and data verification activates in EQUIP and TED, this activity is already started, application would be piloted into two or three provinces.

107

Annexes

Annex Five: Budgetary Information of Provinces

108

Ann

exes

109

Annexes