SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION POST-BASIC PROJECT (STEP-B)

1. SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION POST-BASIC PROJECT (STEP-B) Implementation Guidelines Oluwaseyi Agunbiade

2. Presentation Outline • Background • STEP B PDO • Project Components • Eligible Institutions • Selection Criteria • Overall Impact • Evaluation System Design • Institutional Monitoring arrangement • Indicators/Baseline Data • Result Monitoring Framework • Application- Impact Evaluation • Challenges/Constraints • Next Steps/Action plan for Impact Evaluation

3. Background Information $180m catalytic funding from the World Bank to address areas of priority in the education sector • S&T recognised as the bedrock to national development especially in attaining the vision 20 2020 • Policy achievement-60:40/70:30 admission ratio in favor of S&T • Mismatch in school production and labour market requirements (skills gap) • Inadequate research activities and academic publications

4. STEP –B PDO The Project’s Development Objective (PDO) is for Nigerian federal post-basic education and research sub-sector to produce more and better qualified Science & Technology graduates, and higher quality and more relevant research.

5. Project components The STEP-B Project has three components. Component One: Competitive Fund for Quality Enhancement and Innovation (US$81 million; 45% of total Credit). • Component 1 comprises two sub-components: 1A supporting research and development; and 1B supporting teaching and learning. • Sub-component 1A(US$54 million; 30% of total Credit) will disburse through three windows A, B and C: • Institutional grants of up to US$250,000 to support S&T research and capacity building within individual PBEIsand other federal S&T agencies. (18% of total Credit; US$32 m) • Partnership grants up to US$800,000 to support partnerships between two or more PBEIs and other federal S&T agencies (or such groups) and industry. (10% of total credit; US$18 m) • Innovator grants of up to US$20,000 to individual S&T graduates (Bachelor, Masters and PhD) from PBEIs in their final year to encourage “Nigerian innovators of tomorrow”. (2% of total credit; US$4 m)

6. Sub-component 1B(US$27 million; 15% of total Credit) • provides competitive grants for improving S&T teaching and learning development to raise quality and relevance, efficiency and equity within participating PBEIs. • support mechanisms that promote greater access to S&T programs at tertiary level, particularly for women. • aims to raise the quality and efficiency of S&T teaching and learning through awards to around 9 to 12 PBEIs. Competitive grants of up to US$3 million equivalent per proposal will be awarded. Examples of activities that will be supported by sub-component 1B are: • learning and training opportunities related to identified regional skills needs, • teacher and lecturer development and support programs; • programs for improving the public understanding of science and technology and for attracting more students, particularly females, to chose a career path in the sector; • mechanisms for improving the quality of intake into tertiary S&T programs and reducing failure and drop-out rates; • strategies for using ICT to improve STEP-B teaching and learning and; • cooperation between PBEIs and private sector institutions that lead to more relevant teaching, research and development activities (such as industry internships for students and lecturers, “industrialist in the classroom” programs, mentorship programs with leaders in business for S&T students)

7. Project Components (Cont’d) Component Two: • Support for the emergence of Centers of Excellence in post-basic S&T. (US$54 million; 30% of total Credit): Grants to 7-10 emerging Centers of Excellence will be made of up to a maximum of US$7 million per selected proposal through a competitive selection process. Selection criteria for funding eligibility of emerging Centers of Excellence would include at least the following criteria: • their potential for conducting world class scientific research and technology development; • capacity and willingness to form effective partnerships with international S&T research institutions from abroad and support this in the proposal; • the relevance of its research area to Nigerian industry and economic development; • potential for teaching graduates and researchers in the specialty S&T areas; • potential for and interest in conducting multidisciplinary research; • adequate capacity for implementation and monitoring (this includes procurement and financial management arrangements) as required by the NPS; and • potential for outreach activities to other public and private institutions in Nigeria.

8. Project Components (Cont’d) Component Three: Support for strengthening strategic planning, management, and M&E in post-basic S&T education. (US$27 million; 15% of total Credit) • Component 3 will support complementary initiatives that aim to have a sub-sector-wide impact on quality, relevance, and access to federal S&T education at the post-basic level and • it will support project implementation and management. Component 3 will consist of two sub-components, 3A and 3B: Sub-component 3A: sub-sector-wide improvements of quality, relevance and access to S&T education at federal post-basic education level (US$18 million; 10% of total Credit). Support for the development and implementation of S&T policy and planning initiatives as well as sub-sector-wide institutional strengthening activities that address identified systemic shortcomings. To help improve data collection and analysis, this sub-component will also finance specific studies, data collection and analysis. These activities will provide opportunities to scale-up innovative developments of national significance in post-basic S&T education. Grant proposals will be peer reviewed. Eligible institutions for support under sub-component 3A are PBEIs, including FME or FMST agencies and other federal S&T research parastatals.

9. ELIGIBLE INSTITUTIONS All Federal Education Post Basic Institutions (PBEIs):-187 across board • 26 Federal Universities • 21 Polytechnics • 22 Colleges of Education • 102 Federal Unity Colleges/Federal Science and Technical Colleges • 4 Regulatory Agencies for these Institutions • 2 Supervisory Ministries: Education and Science & Technology • 10 Research Institutions

10. SELECTION CRITERIA Project is demand driven and competitively processed by the Technical Review Committees. Most of the grants currently awarded were less than requested amount based on the workplan. • 1St set of 56 benefiting institutions were selected through a competitive process • As a result of knowledge acquired at this workshop, it would be proposed that the next set of beneficiaries be randomly selected through a stratified process that will accommodate peculiarities in terms of: • Geographical location • Educational level – to meet different needs( feeder, human capital) • Age of institutions – old, medium and new generation

11. Overall Impact The STEP-B project would be able to build capacity within the participating federal Post Basic Education Institutions (PBEIs) to • manage, • monitor and • evaluate merit-based S&T funding according to international best practices. The project would be a first phase (of a longer-term program) of making it possible for Nigeria to produce an increasing percentage of SSCE, OND, NCE, HND, Bachelors, Masters, and Ph.Ds with relevant skills and qualifications, of international standards, in S&T areas relevant for sustained economic growth in Nigeria. For immediate result, concentration will be on the SSCE component who will write school certificate examination by July 2009 and yearly subsequently (alternate to practical)

12. Evaluation System Design The design has five components: 1. Clear statements of measurable objectives for the project and its components, for which indicators can be defined.2. A structured set of indicators, covering outputs of goods and services generated by the project and their impact on beneficiaries.3. Provisions for collecting data and managing project records so that the data required for indicators are compatible with existing statistics, and are available at reasonable cost.4. Institutional arrangements for gathering, analyzing, and reporting project data, and for investing in capacity building, to sustain the M&E service.5. Identified medium in which findings will be fed back into decision making/inform policy.

13. Institutional Monitoring Arrangements Four levels of Monitoring and Evaluation /Impact Assessment: • Local – School Based • Community • National- NPS and School • International- World Bank,NPS and School

14. Indicators Increases in the number of human resources trained would be measured by • increases in numbers of • programs, • enrollment, • graduates in science and technology, and • labor market utilization of these skills. (through tracers studies) • Improvements in quality would be measured through • user surveys, • growth in total number of S&T-related publications, and • increased collaboration with regional and international research public and private partners in S&T areas. 3. Improvements in teaching and learning of S&T would be measured by • assessments of knowledge and skills • and the increases in the percentage of grade B and above graduates in examinations in S&T areas. 4. Additional assessment tools for S&T would be developed during the first three years of the project life and then applied at the senior secondary and tertiary levels. 5. Improved relevance would be indicated by • increased labor market utilization of S&T skills, and • increased partnerships with the private (industry) sector.

15. Baseline Data Data showing where we are now! and the trend for three years preceding the intervention in all the sciences and mathematics • Enrolment 2006-2008(by gender) • Performance 2006-2008 • Facilities 2006-2008 • Number of Teachers etc. • Number of publications in S&T

16. Result Monitoring Framework • Number of re-equipped/refurbished facilities • Number of S&T students enrolled by sector and by gender • Number of peer reviewed publications based on STEP-B intervention • Number of new and strengthened collaboration/Partnership/cooperation (in participating institutions) within and between : • PBEIs ( universities, polytechnic , COEs, research institutes and Senior secondary school) • Professional Associations • International institutions • Private Sectors

17. Application – Impact Evaluation The initial design of the project did not cater for Impact Evaluation as currently deliberated during this workshop. It was extensively discussed that both treatment and control groups should at a point in time be on the same platform, this will subsequently be taken care of by: • Identifying 3 categories of Institutions within the beneficiaries: • Treatment Group 1: Those currently funded and will receive additional funding to the level originally requested, and further prodding to deliver • Treatment Group 2: Those currently funded and will receive additional funding to the level originally requested • Control Group: Those currently funded and will not receive further funding to the level of request 2. Conduct assessment at regular intervals for Impact Evaluation

18. Challenges/Constraints • Nigeria is a data poor country, Baseline data take time generate • Pockets of uncoordinated research efforts leading to duplication and dissipation of human and material resources

19. Next Steps/Action Plan for Impact Evaluation • Six monthly reporting system built into the Project: - June • December 2009 • Intensive activities to generate baseline data within 3 month dateline • Technical assistance to institutionalize Impact Evaluation

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