1.7. PROJECT FOR RECONSTRUCTION OF PRIMARY EDUCATION SCHOOLS

For the reconstruction of primary education schools that were damaged in the earthquake, Islam Development Bank (İDB) and Republic of Turkey implemented “ Reconstruction of Primary Education Schools Project”. The agreements for İDB to provided US$ 23 million as an “exception” (“istisna’a”) and US$ 17 million as “loan” were signed on 8.11.2000.

Table 23. Primary Education Schools to be constructed in Earthquake Zone though IDB Loans

* On 15.10.2000, 1 $ accepted as 672.000 TL

* The estimated bidding cost of the package on m2 price
** On 15.10.2000, 1 $ accepted as 672.000 TL

2. BASIC EDUCATION PROGRAM

Basic Education Program is an action program emerging with the Law No: 4306 through which the Government intends to implement its new basic education strategy. The targets of Basic Education Program is to extend eight-year primary education to a universal context, to increase the quality of primary education and to increase the demand for primary education schools turning them into learning sources for the society.

The Basic Education Project Loan Agreement has been signed between the Government of Republic of Turkey and the World Bank on June 25, 1998. In the first stage, the Loan agreement provides USD 300 million for the Program. Agreement has been reached that a second stage with additional USD 300 million in loans would follow successful utilization of the first-stage loan funds.

The resource necessitated for the Basic Education Program’s success is determined as US$ 11.3 billion.

2.1. TARGETS OF BASIC EDUCATION PROGRAM

The main targets of Basic Education Program, which has a wide spectrum of activities supporting the increase of interest in primary education and primary education schools to be public training centers, are as follows:

• To raise the enrolment ratio in primary education to 100 %,
• To raise the enrolment ratio in preschool education to 16 %,
• To increase the capacity of schools through additional classrooms,
• To decrease the population in classrooms to 30,
• To decrease multi-grade implementation and double session education,
• To make the teachers and students computer literate,
• To provide bussed primary education where necessary,
• To make each student learn at least one foreign language,
• To provide continuous in service training to teachers, inspectors and managers,

The activities planned within Basic Education Program are as follows:

• Classrooms for 3 million 500.000 students,
• Rehabilitation of 35.000 existing schools in rural areas,
• Annual in service training for teachers, managers, inspectors,
• Appointment of 1.500 primary education inspectors,
• Free textbooks for children of poor families,
• Establishment of information technology classrooms in 15.000 schools,
• Training of 18.000 information technology coordinators,
• To provide computer literacy for 200.000 education personnel and computer aided education training,
• To strengthen monitoring and evaluation capacity,
• To provide social support to low income students,
• To assess the student achievement,
• To make the school cultural and education center for people.

The activities planned to be realized through US$ 300 million World Bank loan for the First Stage of Basic Education Program;

• In order to establish information technology classes in 2.451 primary education schools; purchasing of computer hardware (computers, printers, scanners) and education software (office software, education software, educational games, electronic references) and video, overhead projector, television and educational videos and slides,
• Purchasing of education materials for schools at rural areas throughout the country (student source books, stationery for schools and students) and establishment of libraries,
• To provide continuous in service training to teachers, managers and inspectors for computer aided education,
• To provide financial support for school based projects in School Improvement Fund established to answer the developments and necessities emerging during the implementation of Basic Education Project,
• Rehabilitation and construction of additional facilities in 105 central villages’ primary education schools at 5 provinces, construction and renovation of additional facilities in 44 primary education schools with high student potential and low physical capacity in Ankara, renovation of 178 village primary schools,
• Within monitoring and evaluation studies, monitoring of performance indicators of Basic Education Program, to evaluate its outputs, to provide continuous feedback in order to reach targets,
• To undertake promotional works of Basic Education Project in order to have the support of public and media.

2.2. EXTENDING THE SIZE OF BASIC EDUCATION PROGRAM

2.2.1. Renovation and Construction of Additional Facilities

During the program, it is planned to build 121.500 classrooms for 3.650.000 students, pensions of 110.000 capacity, 7.200 teacher lodgings and renovation of 39.400 primary education schools of 30.700 being in rural areas.

1.000 primary education schools to be taken out of bussed education and necessitating immediate renovation were determined and submitted for approval within the First Stage of Basic Education Project.

2.2.1.1. Renovation of Village Schools

The standard bidding documents were prepared for renovation of 178 primary education schools in Şırnak, Mardin, Van, Bitlis and Hakkâri, the bids were undertaken by relevant governor offices and renovation works were completed.

2.2.1.2. Rehabilitation of Central Village Primary Education Schools and Construction of Additional Facilities

Rehabilitation and additional facility construction biddings of 105 central village primary education schools in Kocaeli, Yalova, Batman, Iğdır, Bartın and Şırnak were completed except for Kocaeli and Yalova.

2.2.1.3. Rehabilitation and Additional Facility Construction of 44 Primary Education Schools in Ankara

The standard bidding documents for realizing the rehabilitation and additional facility construction of 44 primary schools in Ankara were prepared.

2.3. INCREASING THE QUALITY OF BASIC EDUCATION

2.3.1. Teaching Materials

It is well known that the students in rural areas suffer from lack of sufficient materials and tools and many families have difficulty in providing such tools for their children. According to several researches on success of learning, the learning success of students is affected adversely due to lack of sufficient tools and equipment.

For this reason, not only the building and teacher, elements enriching the environment of the child (teaching materials, education program, in grade education) must be invested in as well.

With this support provided to rural areas, increasing the success of the children of low-income families, making schools more attractive for children and increasing the interest of society in schools are targeted.

To 2.993.692 students in 22.276 primary education schools, 4.401 being bussed education centers within Basic Education Program; the following teaching materials shall be provided.

With this purpose, bidding document preparation commission was established, the school lists taken as basis for distribution lists of such materials and bidding documents were completed. The bid was opened on October 2, 2000 and the evaluation is continuing.

2.3.2. In Service Training

With the purpose of increasing the quality in primary education, in service training courses are being organized. Within Basic Education Project, in service training activities for teachers, managers and inspectors are ongoing. Continuous in service training is provided for the teachers, managers and inspectors of primary education so that they develop and gain experience professionally..

2.3.2.1. In Service Training for Teachers

For nearly 300.000 teachers at primary education schools;

• Education Management, Effective Teaching (1998/1999 academic year),

• Active Learning and Teaching Strategies and Material Utilization (1999/2000 academic year),

• Computer Course (June 1998),

• Computer Course for the teachers of primary education schools in which BT classes were established in provinces April – June 2000.

2.3.2.2. In Service Training for Primary Education Inspectors

For 1.000 inspectors, in the fields of Turkish, Maths, Social Sciences and Science, in service training courses were organized between 17 - 22 July 2000 and 24 - 29 July 2000.

Teaching Strategies and Material Utilization Course Evaluation Seminar was held between 17-29 July 2000.

For 3.000 primary education inspectors; in service training was organized in;

• Education Management (July 1998),
• Computer Literacy (March 1999),
• Active Learning and Teaching Strategies and Utilization of Materials (July 1999)

2.3.2.3. In Service Training for Information Technology Coordinators

For 2.296 IT Coordinators, in July of 1998, in service training in the field of “Information Technology Coordination” was provided. 250 trainer computer formatter teacher training was provided between 31 July – 25 August 2000 in Ankara. This training aims to train the existing computer formatters as training formatters so that they can train IT Coordinators in future and continuous training of coordinators could be reached in this way.

2.3.2.4. In Service Training for Managers

For the directors of regional boarding primary schools (YİBO) and boarding primary education schools (PİO), an in service training about “Health, Nutrition and Hygiene” was arranged between 1–5 May 2000 and 8–12 May 2000. Between 8-12 May 2000, an in service training seminar for bussed primary education schools was held. Between 3–21 July 2000, in service training of 4.000 candidate education managers was completed.

2.4. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY CLASSES

One of the activities to increase the quality of primary education is inclusion o information technology in the education program. Within these activities, in the First Stage of Basic Education Program, in 80 provinces and every district, in at least 2 primary education schools, information technology classes are planned to be established. With this purpose, 2.837 IT classes were to be established in 2.451 primary education schools. Together with the newly established 351 schools, this number increased to 2.802. Establishment of IT classes in these schools was completed except for Marmara Region. The distribution of educational software programs purchased for these schools was also completed. Installation of software programs is ongoing.

3.000 schools in the second group in which IT classes shall be established were determined as well and works for purchasing “computer hardware and office software, educational software programs” are still going on. On the other hand, “Information technology Classes Utilization Guide” which is being prepared for efficient utilization of information technology classes at schools is about to be completed.

For the IT classes in 2.802 primary education schools, through international bidding, 3.041 TV sets and 4.740 overhead projectors were purchased and distributed to schools. These schools shall have video player installation in future and 3.000 primary education schools throughout the country shall have TV sets and overhead projectors as well. The purchasing of educational videos and slides for such schools is also at the last stage. Furthermore, distribution of “Handbooks for Slide Preparation” was also completed.

At the Information Technology classes in primary education schools, the following shall exist;

2.5. IMPROVEMENT FUND

Within the improvement fund of Basic Education project, the primary education schools convey their needs other than the ones met by BEP as projects, these projects are evaluated and financial support is provided if they are found suitable.

With this purpose, within the First Stage of the Program, in 8 provinces, in poor regions of Ankara, İstanbul and İzmir full of “gecekondu” and projects prepared by rural sector primary education schools in Hakkari, Mardin, Şırnak, Bitlis, Van) pilot work shall be undertaken. The projects from primary education schools in accordance with the pre-determined criteria are evaluated by evaluation commissions formed within the MONE and the province. In accordance with the agreement concluded with the World Bank, the first three projects were submitted to the Bank. These projects were re-evaluated and approved by the World Bank.

2.6. MONITORING AND EVALUATION

All the activities undertaken by related units of MONE within the Basic Education Project are evaluated annually and statistically in accordance with the performance indicators determined in the project; monitoring of input, output, process and impact indicators, reporting of the results of monitoring, submission of these reports to public institutions and organizations periodically and targeting level of outputs of program.

Table 24. Activities Planned Within Basic Education Project and Estimated Costs ($)

Source : MONE Project Coordination Board
Note: 2^nd Stage planning within the Program is still ongoing.

Table 25. Basic Education Project 4355-TU, Allocations from the Project Loan between 01.08.1998 and 30.09.2000

Source : MONE Project Coordination Center

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Ministry Of National Education
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