Publication: Pre-Primary Education in South Sudan: Current Opportunities and Challenges
Loading...
Published
2019-07-31
ISSN
Date
2019-12-03
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
The objective of this report is to support evidence-based decision making for the pre-primary education system in South Sudan, and to identify critical bottlenecks and potential pathways for further engagement aimed at improving and rebuilding the subsector. To understand the current landscape of pre-primary education in South Sudan, this report draws on findings from three key sources: (i) review of early childhood education in contexts of fragility, conflict and violence; (ii) situation analysis of pre-primary education in South Sudan; and (iii) findings from the pre-primary Stakeholder Diagnostic Workshop held in Juba, South Sudan on February 11-14, 2019 facilitated by UNICEF and the World Bank. Findings from a review of all available policy documents and outcomes of the stakeholder diagnostic workshop are organized in this report by the five action areas specified in UNICEF’s pre-primary education diagnostic toolkit: (i) effective planning and use of resources; (ii) curriculum development and implementation; (iii) teachers and other personnel; (iv) families and communities; and (v) monitoring, regulation and quality assurance. The report ends with stakeholder recommendations for creating an enabling environment for pre-primary education in South Sudan.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank Group; UNICEF. 2019. Pre-Primary Education in South Sudan: Current Opportunities and Challenges. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/32759 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Access to Pre-Primary Education and Progression in Primary School(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2016-02)Evidence on the impacts of a large-scale expansion in pre-primary education is limited and mostly circumscribed to high- and middle-income nations. This study estimates the effects of such an expansion on progression in primary school in rural communities in Guatemala, where the number of pre-primary schools increased from about 5,300 to 11,500 between 1998 and 2005. Combining administrative and population census data in a difference-in-differences framework, the analysis finds that access to pre-primary education increased by 2.4 percentage points the proportion of students that progress adequately and attend sixth grade by age 12. These positive although limited effects suggest the need for complementary actions to produce substantial improvements in adequate progression.Publication Education in the Republic of South Sudan : Status and Challenges for a New System(Washington, DC, 2012-06-22)This education status report (ESR), prepared at the request of the Government of South Sudan (GoSS), provides a comprehensive snapshot of an education sector that is emerging from a long period of civil strife. It confirms the strong appetite among the people for education; in turn, more educated citizens are needed to provide the bedrock of the new country and its prospects. The purpose of this report is to enhance the knowledge base for policy development in the education sector and, more broadly, create a platform for engaging a diverse audience in dialogue on education policies in the new country. The ultimate aim is to help develop a shared vision for the future of the education system among government, citizens, and partners in Africa's newest nation. The report clearly shows that the education system in South Sudan faces all the challenges of a new nation that is making a visible effort to catch up quickly from a very low base by rapidly increasing student enrollment. These challenges include a concentration of students in the early grades; a high proportion of overage students, repetition, and dropout; and weak levels of student learning. Further, the report indicates that South Sudan is beginning to feel the effects of its success at increasing enrollment at the primary level with growing demand for secondary and higher education. The report also highlights the low overall quality of education, and emphasizes that quality of education and accountability of the education sector should become central considerations early on in the development of the education system. Finally, the report emphasizes the importance of South Sudan's unique Alternative Education System (AES), which will continue to play a central part in the education system for years to come. The majority of youth and adults in the country today may never benefit from formal basic education, but their learning needs must be met if South Sudan is to build a solid state and society. The AES is currently offering accelerated learning programs to more than 200,000 youth and adults and holds significant promise.Publication Supporting Preprimary Parent Engagement in South Sudan(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-06-29)This literature review aims to understand the design and content of successful preprimary parenting programs specifically those implemented in fragile, conflict, and violent contexts. This document serves as a resource guide for the creation of a preprimary parenting program for the South Sudanese context, to enhance school readiness of children between the ages of 3 to 5 years through basic literacy, numeracy, and socio emotional skills. This paper provides a brief overview of the benefits of parent engagement early in life and explores eight parenting programs whose design and implementation can be useful to increase the engagement of parents in preprimary skill development in South Sudan. Bearing in mind the context of South Sudan, five key criteria that guided selection of the programs included: (i) low cost of implementation, (ii) use of local resources, (iii) creation of contextually relevant curriculum, (iv) supporting parents who do not know how to read and write, and (v) evidence of benefits following empirical testing. It is important to have a clear picture of the lived experience of young children, their families and communities in South Sudan prior to designing a program that is relevant and appropriately meets their needs. This paper provides a brief overview of existing literature on the benefits of parent engagement early in life and explores eight parenting programs that have been designed and implemented in Ghana, Chad, Cameroon, Rwanda, Liberia, Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon to boost parent engagement in the lives of their young children. By doing this, the paper aims to create a resource document that can inform the development of a context-specific parenting program model for South Sudan.Publication Pre-Primary Education in Mongolia(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-03)Sustaining in recent years expenditure on early childhood education (ECE) at over a fifth of its education budget, Mongolia is a relatively high spender on pre-primary education. This report examines structural and process aspects of quality in Mongolian kindergartens, along with early development outcomes among children enrolled in these kindergartens, to assess the effectiveness and equity of the country's public investments in ECE. The analysis shows that while the last decade saw tremendous progress in improving access to preschool overall, the most disadvantaged and vulnerable are still excluded from the system. Further, an assessment of child development outcomes shows that even after significant exposure to formal preschool services in the public sector, socioeconomic gaps in outcomes remain large. At the same time, potential areas where relatively low-cost investments could reap significant gains remain unexploited. Key among these is use of home- or community-based ECE interventions that could improve school preparedness among children in rural areas not enrolled in preschools. Another is the potential for an expanded role for the private sector in urban areas.Publication Strengthening Kazakhstan's Education Systems : An Analysis of PISA 2009 and 2012(Washington, DC, 2014-12-03)Kazakhstan's Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2012 performance improved markedly compared to 2009, and indicated a narrowing achievement gap among students. Math and science performance improvements equivalent to more than half a year of schooling were achieved. According to the OECD, 40 points in PISA is equivalent to what students learn in one year of schooling. The improvements reduced the gap with other countries in Europe and Central Asia (ECA) by almost half. Moreover, the performance improvements of the lowest achievers in 2009 and 2012 outpaced those of their higher achieving peers at a rate that compares favorably against OECD countries. However, performance on reading improved only marginally and overall reading achievement remained low, with some groups of students actually performing worse in 2012. Kazakhstan's PISA performance places it significantly behind other countries, especially in reading. Countries with income per capita levels similar to Kazakhstan's (namely Turkey and Russia) performed significantly better in math, science, and reading. Most importantly, Kazakh reading scores still lag about one year of schooling behind the ECA average and almost two years of schooling behind OECD. Public expenditures on education are lowest in Kazakhstan compared with other PISA 2012 participating countries, which likely hampers the country's ability to ensure effective learning for all. Any increase in public spending on education will have to be aligned with careful policy reform decision making, since resources alone do not guarantee attainment of desired education outcomes.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Republic of Madagascar : Tourism Sector Study(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2003-11)Madagascar has an impressive array of biodiversity, natural beauty and cultural resources to support tourism. Surprisingly, of the 200,000 visitors the island per year, only about 60,000 come expressly for tourism, the rest traveling for other reasons but which could include some tourism activity. Madagascar has the potential to welcome many more tourists if the sector's growth is well planned in a broad, multi-sectoral way - focusing on economic aspects, infrastructure and environmental and social concerns, particularly for community participation. This report sets outs a program for equitable development of the sector and evaluates the opportunities for growth and the barriers that currently block progress. The report features a survey of hotels and other tourism establishments. The report recommends a comprehensive master planning program and action program.Publication State and Trends of Carbon Pricing(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-12-08)As developing nations grapple with the largefinancing needs required to achieve our climate goals, the urgency to mobilize sub stantial capital towards communities, nature, and broader developmental efforts is resoundingly clear. In this context, carbon markets, both under the Paris Agreement and the voluntary carbon market (VCM), can channel much-needed finance towards climate action. In all, 120 nations have considered the role of international carbon markets to support mitigation action and achievement of their nationally determined contribution (NDC) targets, and many corporations are seeking high-quality carbon credits to meet their voluntary climate commitments. Done right, carbon markets can help us get the resources we need now, at scale, and accelerate action by providing much needed source of finance. They can also encourage accelerated action to meet NDCs, providing financing needed to implement them. In its annual State and Trends of Carbon Pricing Report, the World Bank has been tracking domestic carbon pricing policies, such as carbon taxes and emissions trading systems, that are critical to incentivize action to reduce emissions. With the growing potential for carbon markets as a means to increase climate finance under both the Paris Agreement and VCM, there is a renewed interest in understanding carbon market developments. This report aims to supplement the annual State and Trends report and contribute to the global effort to promote market transparency and trust by providing digestible insights into the state of play of international carbon markets.Publication Bangladesh National Nutrition Services(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2015-08-11)This report presents the findings of an operations research study conducted to assess the implementation of the Government of Bangladesh’s National Nutrition Services Program (NNS) and to identify the achievements, determine the bottlenecks that adversely impact these achievements, and highlight potential solutions to ensure smooth delivery of the program. A mixed methods research approach was used to evaluate five major domains of the program: management and support services; training and capacity development; service delivery; monitoring and evaluation, and; exposure to interventions. The study found that the overall NNS effort is an ambitious, but valuable approach to support nutrition actions through an existing health system with diverse platforms. The results indicate that although the maintenance of strong and stable leadership of NNS is an essential element to ensure integrated and well-coordinated comprehensive service delivery for the line directorate, the current arrangement is unable to ensure effective implementation and coordination of NNS. Focusing on some of the critical challenges related to leadership and coordination in the first instance, and on embedding a small core set of interventions into well-matched (for scale, target populations, and potential for impact) health system delivery platforms is most likely to help achieve scale and impact. Strategic investments in ensuring transparency, engaging available technical partners for monitoring and implementation support, and not shying away from other potential high coverage outreach platforms like some NGO platforms also could prove fruitful. Moreover, although the Government of Bangladesh, and the health system in particular, must lead the effort to deliver for nutrition, it is clear that development partners who have expressed a commitment to nutrition must coordinate their own activities and provide the support that can deliver on nutrition’s potential for Bangladesh.Publication Institutional Elements of Tax Design and Reform(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2003-01)This is a collection of papers that study the constraints on fiscal systems, imposed by problems of institutions, administration, and incentives in developing, and post-Socialist economies. Chapter two focuses on the administration of indirect taxation, and provides a case study of indirect taxation in Tanzania. This shows how evasion can be documented, and quantified, through a case study that looks at a particular type of reform, aimed at curbing evasion: franchising, or privatizing the right to tax, which has been tried in several Tanzanian towns as a way of collecting vendor fees, for access to a public market. Chapter three is a theoretical study of evasion under a value-added tax (VAT), and the inefficiencies it can create. Chapter four studies the fiscal constraints within the federal politics of Russia, while Chapters five and six examine case studies (India) in fiscal federalism, in which the determination of fiscal outcomes is - to a considerable degree - a matter of bargaining between political entities in the center, and in the periphery. In both cases, it appears that large-scale distortions, away from an ideal tax system, emerge as a result, suggesting corruption can be fought by increasing functional specialization within a tax bureaucracy. The last chapter looks at the problem of opportunistic taxation, particularly regarding the African context, and studies various ways in which the problem can be alleviated.Publication Digital Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13)All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.