Minsk, February 2013

 Strong and robust economic growth and development will necessarily have to rely on the country's human capital Challenges:  Demographic situation: shrinking school age population ⇒ efficiency agenda (maintaining an oversized school network is wasteful and takes away much needed resources that could be used for quality improvements)  Quality and relevance of the education PISA 2009 Plus results: 57% of Moldova’s 15 year-olds remain functionally illiterate: lack the basic levels of proficiency in reading literacy needed to participate effectively and productively in the society. Similar results for mathematics (61%). By age 15, kids in Moldova are behind their OECD peers by 2 years of education.

 The Project Development Objective is to strengthen the quality of education while supporting the efficiency reforms being implemented in the education sector  Results-Based Specific Investment Loan, which disburses against actions, outputs, and outcomes  Disbursement Linked Indicators (DLIs) against which disbursements will take place  Components: 1: Strengthening the Quality of Education 2: Improving the Efficiency of the Education Sector  3: Improving the Ministry of Education's Capacity to Monitor the Reform (this component which finances technical assistance  will follow traditional disbursement methods)

 Implementation of quality assurance standards for receiving schools (in total of 70 percent of receiving schools);  New remuneration program of school directors and teachers;  Updated program for training of school directors and teachers (30 percent of school directors and 10 percent of teachers trained based on the updated program for training of school directors and teachers);  Improvement in student assessment systems (revising national testing for 4th and 9t grade students and ensuring Moldova's participation in PISA 2015 with feedback into education policy design); Improvement in the quality of data and management systems (establishment of a consolidated EMIS able to produce school report cards to all schools with comparative performance outcomes and performance trends on regional and country level).

 80 percent of primary and general secondary schools have their budgets approved according to the new per student formula methodology  980 classes reorganized in primary and secondary schools from the baseline in 2011/2012 school year  Student-teacher ratio for grades 1-12 is increased from 10.5:1 to 11.5:1  System in place to closely monitor and mitigate drop outs (by gender) in General Education (using EMIS) Component 3 ‘Improving the Ministry of Education's Capacity to Monitor the Reform”: the objective of this component is to finance technical assistance (TA) for the MoE to support the implementation, monitoring and measurement of the education reform program.

Projects:  Moldova Education Reform Project (US$ 40 mln) – waiting for effectiveness  Quality Education in the Rural Areas of Moldova AF (US$ 1 mln) – ongoing (has made a significant contribution to jump-starting education reforms; contributed to revisions of the lyceum curricula and the development of associated guides; providing teaching/learning materials; equipping schools with equity and quality grants benefiting students in poor rural schools; and supporting participation in international assessments)  Integration of Children with Disabilities into Mainstream Schools PHRD grant (US$ 2.86 mln) – expected  Moldova EFA FTI 3 Grant (US$ 4.4 mln) – ongoing [aimed to improve access, quality and inclusiveness of preschool education in Moldova] through premises renovation for delivery of preschool education services; provision of furniture, equipment and materials to renovated preschools; promoting integrated inclusive ECD services; improving the quality of preschool education.

Programmatic Technical Assistance:  ECCU2 Regional Labor Market TA (just-in-time support to the GoM, informal employment and challenges posed by the demographic transition and increased longevity)  Moldova HD TA: Systems Approach for Better Education Results (SABER) – Workforce Development (a diagnostic tool, developed on the basis of currently available knowledge of global good practices in enhancing linkages between skills supply and demand, aimed to inform policy dialogue on strategies for workforce development)