EQUITY WITH QUALITY AND LEARNING AT SECONDARY (EQUALS) PROJECT
The EQUALS Project is a Ministry of Education intervention which seeks to improve the quality of mathematics and science instruction in CDSSs and increase access to secondary education in remote areas. The Project emanates from a background of acute secondary education subsector’s challenges such as: persistently low learner achievement levels in Mathematics and Science subjects; inadequate enabling strategic policy reform agenda; low primary to secondary learner transition rate; inadequate and underqualified teachers; inadequate purposely built and resourced science learning space; unavailability or inadequate quantities of learner core textbooks, Teachers’ Guides, supplementary reading materials; and disparities in resource allocation.
The EQUALS Project is funded by the World Bank through an initial $90million credit facility and later an Additional Financing (AF) through a Grant of $5.0million for mitigating the impact the COVID-19 pandemic. The total financing is therefore $95.0 million with a life span of six years running from October, 2019 to December, 2025.
The EQUALs project has a primary objective of improving the quality of mathematics and science instruction in CDSS and increase access to secondary education in selected remote areas.
Start date: 2019-10-01
Due date:
2026-12-31
Approval date: 2019-10-24
Absence of a clear feasibility study
Unrealistic budgets
Limited assessment of environmental impacts
Limited assessment of social impacts
Limited assessment of economic impacts
Weak stakeholder engagement
Change of scope
Cost overruns and budget inflation
Lack of transparency in procurement processes
Limited competition
Favoritism in bidding processes
Political interference
Weak accountability mechanisms
Frequent project delays (time overruns)
Environmental violations
Social violations
Lack of maintenance plans
Under-utilization of project
Abandonment of project