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Armenia Karine Harutyunan Armenia is a small, landlocked, Eastern European country situated in the southern part of the Caucasus and with a population of 3.7 million spread over a territory of approximately 30,000 square kilometres. It is a presidential democracy, a part of CIS, and regained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. The country is divided into 10 administrative regions, called “Marsis” and its gross domestic product is approximately USD 1.66 billion. It is a relatively homogenous country as 96% of the population is Armenian alongside small Kurdish and Russian minority groups. The official language is Armenian but Russian is also spoken along with other less widespread languages. Armenia is an ancient nation with a long cultural and educational tradition based on 1,600 years of literary heritage. Education has long been regarded as the key factor in maintaining national identity, especially during the past 6 centuries when Armenia was not an independent state. The Armenian alphabet is unique to the Armenian language and its script was invented in 405, the year in which the first school was opened in the country. The first scholarly textbook was written in the 7th century on Mathematics. Currently 15,000 examples of ancient manuscripts are stored in the Matenadaran Museum in the capital Yerevan. The history of the Armenian educational system can be divided into three main phases. In the 4th century Armenia adopted Christianity as the state religion and became the first officially Christian country in the world. All schools were officially supported by the Church, although they were not religious schools, until 1920 when the Soviet Socialist Republic of Armenia was established and the whole system of Christian schools was overhauled and reformed according to socialist principles. The current system is essentially that inherited from the Soviet era and there are a large number of educational institutions of varying types. Although these were previously centralised under Moscow, Armenian has remained the principle language of instruction in schools. At the time of the break-up of the Soviet Union, Armenia was considered to have one of the best educational systems in the Soviet bloc and its main achievements included: 10 years of basic compulsory education; complete enrolment of the school age population in schools; free education at all levels from pre-school to higher grades; universal access; negligible dropout and repetition rates and a high completion rate; gender equity; co-educational and unstreamed classes; and a well qualified teaching force. The adult population is bilingual and literate with 25% achieving university graduation. In spite of its successes the system had shortcomings. It was highly centralised and had an excessively strong focus on ideology, to the exclusion of Armenian history and culture. The curriculum was rigid, overly academic and there was no interactive teaching in schools or any individualisation in approach to the children at all. Parental participation was, and remains, limited. All education was state initiated with a total absence of shared decision making or, of course, democracy within the school system. The project design for the rental scheme began in 1995 with visits to Armenia from the World Bank and International Book Development Ltd. The implementation plan and overall development of the project took place in 1996. It was piloted in 1997 and began full-scale operation in 1998. It will close in 2001. Project funding comes from World Bank credit. The total cost of the education project is USD 15 million, out of which approximately USD 8-9 million will be spent on textbook production. After this initial investment the country will be able to finance textbooks through the revolving fund created by the project. It is crucial here to note the importance of planning. The initial phase involved intensive consultation on the project design. Head teachers, school teachers and parents from approximately 1000 of the 1,400 state schools operating in Armenia were involved in discussions concerning the project, as were ministries, publishers and printers in the country, and it was out of all this that the projects' design emerged. When the discussions were over it was clear that the ideas of a rental scheme and revolving fund were well understood, accepted and would be supported by the population. This was in part due to the fact that this was not an entirely new idea in Armenia and partially because it provided a solution to many problems. In the Soviet era there had been a tradition of donating books to schools, of storing them in school libraries as stock, and of loaning them to children to be returned by the end of the school year. This was very popular in the 60’s and 70’s, but in the 80’s the lending program began to decline as more and more textbooks (paid for out of the state budget) were given free to the children with no requirement to return them to libraries. When Armenia became independent in 1991, it was clear that the government would not be able to finance textbook publishing in Armenia as its budget was so low it barely covered the teachers' salaries (USD 7-8 per month). Furthermore, a large number of old, soviet textbooks were rejected by schools, especially in humanities subjects, because of their ideological content, as well as a perceived need for new more nationally-oriented textbooks. History and geography textbooks were rejected by both parents and teachers. Textbooks in mathematics and core sciences such as biology and physics were less in need of replacement, but there were in fact few textbooks in the schools because the government was not funding their purchase, they had last been printed at the end of the 80’s and they were completely worn out. The only publisher of textbooks in Armenia was publishing for the market, their print runs were very low and their prices were so high that only a small minority were able to afford the books. The project was designed to overcome these problems. Currently, textbooks that are printed using World Bank credit are supplied to all children and the cost of textbooks has been reduced for parents. Furthermore the monopoly in publishing, printing and distribution has been ended and competition introduced. This will in turn provide further opportunities and encourage the development of local publishing and printing capacity, as well as raising standards to an international level. The ultimate objective was to make the project self-sustainable because it was clear that the government would not be able to fund further textbook production, or be interested in borrowing money whenever textbooks were needed, so some sort of facilitative mechanism was required. The best solution appeared to be a revolving fund where textbooks would be rented out. This was not an original concept but it did require adaptation to work in the Armenian context. The principle mechanism was clear, textbooks would be procured centrally through national or international competitive tendering. They would then be delivered to schools and kept in the libraries as school property to be loaned to the children to use for one year and return by the end of each school year. The children would be asked to pay rental fees. This was the central structure of this rental scheme, but there was a need to develop the details. After consultation, several decisions were made centrally by the Minister of Education, with the general agreement of the main stakeholders. It was decided that the rental scheme would be applied at all 10 grades of basic education (8 of which are compulsory). 115 titles would be printed to cover the core compulsory curriculum. It was decided that while all 115 titles would be included in the rental scheme, they would be introduced gradually over 4 years with approximately 30-35 new titles printed each year using the loaned money. By the end of the project all the textbooks would be in the revolving fund and rental scheme. It was also decided that after the textbooks had entered the school no changes should occur in the curriculum for 4 years so that the books would remain usable for the whole period. The key policy decisions were: to include all state schools in the rental scheme; to offer no choice, at least in the initial phase of the project, and only one textbook per subject for each grade. Gradually, over the life of the project, a system of textbook choice should be developed in Armenia. In the second phase when the advance ordering system will be introduced, the schools will be able to choose the textbooks themselves according to their preferences. Only compulsory subjects will be provided with textbooks to rent and no optional subjects will be included in the rental scheme. Implementation of the plan encountered a number of difficulties. The first was that initially schools were not legal entities and could not hold private school accounts. There were several possible ways around this problem. All schools hold an account in the treasury as budgetary institutions and the government thought it would be possible to open another account for the school in the treasury system. However, it was not thought advisable for parents and schools to place their money in the treasury as Armenian schools had previously had a very negative experience of this. In 1996, when the government had allowed them to open non-budgetary accounts in the treasury system, some schools had done so with funds they had raised independently. These accounts were then frozen and the money sent to the central budget to be used for essential costs such as paying salaries to civil servants. There was a risk that the same thing might happen again because nobody can guarantee that, were the country to face such urgent financial difficulties once more, a government might consider the rental scheme's funds as expendable. Consequently, the idea of keeping the money in the treasury, or even in a non-budgetary treasury account was rejected. It was also suggested that the ministry or another state agency open an account and all the money be gathered in this central account and managed by one of the ministries or another state agency. However this would reduce incentives for schools because the whole idea was that the schools should manage their own accounts and make their own decisions about their own money. Eventually, another solution was found: a separate, non-governmental entity would manage the money. The decision to establish a non-governmental organisation (NGO) which would be in charge of the whole financial operation was taken and in 1997 and the Textbook Revolving Fund (TRF) was created in Armenia and registered with the Ministry of Justice as a separate, independent NGO. According to the law of Armenia the government has no right to interfere in the affairs of an NGO. According to its charter the members of the TRF are the school principals on behalf of their schools and the parent’s communities. The supreme body of this NGO is the General Meeting of School Principals where all designated core decisions are made. It is managed by a Board of fifteen members who are selected at that meeting and should comprise of one member from each 'Marz' (region). The representative can really facilitate the work of the rental scheme on a Marz level and is selected by the school principals of that region. There are 10 regional representatives and 5 government representatives. It was suggested that they should be candidates approved at the general meeting. The aim of having government employees on the board was to engage people who could facilitate the work of the NGO in the government and help to solve the main issues that come up with regard to the ministries. Thus, two people from the Ministry of Finance and three people from the Ministry of Education who are responsible for the textbook project were included on the board. The board of the NGO decided to keep the money in a commercial bank and although there were a number of local banks who could provide higher interest rates, the final decision was to use the Midland Armenia Bank, a branch of the Midland Corporation. It was chosen because it was considered a safe bank, the safest bank in Armenia at the time, rather than on the basis of the interest rates. The Bank has helped in developing the details of the project. Each school has opened two bank accounts and two people from the school (the school principal and the school accountant) are responsible for all transactions with their school account. The Project Management Unit (PMU) staff members travelled throughout the country in 1997, visiting each school and helping the school principals to fill in the form and attach all the documentation required by the bank to open the school account. With each state school holding two accounts the NGO now has 2,800 accounts in the bank. One account contains 'hard' currency in US dollars and the other holds local currency (the Armenian Dram ( AMD)). All these accounts are actually sub-accounts of the main account which is called an “interest generating account” but which is not really a bank account in the common sense because no transactions can be made from it, it is simply a mechanism from which the balance of all 2,800 accounts can be seen. It also generates a higher rate of interest on all the accounts. Interest is paid by the bank to the account on the total balance and the interest is redistributed to the individual schools in proportion to the money they have collected. It was considered both legal and prudent, given the difficulties of the country, for the schools to hold two separate accounts. Under Armenian law the only official currency is the Armenian Dram and schools are not permitted to make transactions in dollars. They collect money in Drams which they then transfer from the nearest local branch of the bank to the Dram account in Midland. By the end of the same day the money is converted to US dollars and is kept in the dollar account as a hedge against inflation and to protect it from devaluation. The system is locally administered, which means that the revolving fund really belongs to the school. Nobody can make any transactions with the account apart from the school principal and the school accountant. In line with the underlying principle of the concept of sustainability, nobody at the school level receives any additional salary in order to preserve the revolving fund. The idea was to convince the school that this is part of their regular job. The incentive for the school is that they collect the money for themselves and they keep it in their individual school account and only they can withdraw any money from their account at the completion of the first phase of the project. Currently all these old accounts are deposit accounts which just earn interest. By the time the textbooks need replacing these accounts will be converted into current accounts so that money can be withdran and books ordered to replace the old ones. As well as the main “interest earning account” there is also a “donation account” for the fund although unfortunately, up to now there have not been any donations. Still, it is now a priority to seek out donors who can give money to the fund to subsidise those who cannot pay the rental fees and also to administer the fund, because currently the fund does not have any money to cover administration costs and it is administered completely by the PMU and by the “Marz” employees from the regional education departments. With a work load that increases each year along with an increased number of titles, this issue urgently needs to be addressed. The most common problem faced by the schools was that because they had never been a legal entity the school accountants were consequently not used to making bank transactions or using banks. They filled in forms incorrectly and failed to provide the bank account number, consequently the money did not reach the account. Sometimes there was confusion among local banks. Often the bank employees at these banks were surprised to see that the same revolving fund could have several accounts. They told the school principals that they had filled in the account number incorrectly and as a result one lucky school in the region received all the money from that region into their bank account. Together with the Midland Bank we developed special account reconciliation forms for the school accounts. These are filled in when the schools receive their bank statements twice a year. Other report forms were also introduced, although there were efforts to minimise the paperwork as much as possible because if there are too many forms to fill out and too much paperwork, the school administration won't support the scheme especially as they are not being paid any additional money for their work. Some forms, however, are very important, for example the contract between the students' parents and the school. The idea was to make the parents responsible for returning the books they were renting from the school at the end of the year and to help the child look after the textbook. From the school library the textbooks are given to the class teacher. There is also a report on the school in general which is submitted to the regional education department and yet another form that summarises the textbooks that the region has received and which is submitted to the Ministry as well as the revolving fund managers. There is also a advance-order form and the school textbook requirement forms. Setting the rental fee is interrelated with the issues of curriculum and textbook life. When discussions were held on this the Ministry decided that the optimum period for a book's life in the schools would be four years to be in line with the curriculum, a more frequent revision of which would not make sense. In addition to this it was thought that the textbooks would not be likely to survive for more than four years. Thus the rental fee was calculated on the basis of a four year life for the textbook. It is now produced using a formula which also includes the inflation rate, annual loss and damage at approximately 5% of value per year, thus enabling replacement at the end of four years, as well as the cost of one free textbook and a teachers' guide per teacher. All in all, it comes to somewhat more than 25% of the textbook's real cost but it ensures the possibility of replacing the books when the time comes. Another issue raised was as to whether there should be a different rental fee for each textbook, and if it should differ from year to year. At first glance it seemed unfair that the parents and students should pay the same amount for a book that has already been used for 3 years and is no longer new. Consequently some of the parents and teachers wanted to have a differentiated approach, i.e. to have higher rental fees in the first year and to decrease it by year 4, but there were arguments against this as it was also considered unfair to the parents who would pay more for the textbook in the first year. There is also the psychological aspect in that the parent who has already paid less one year might question whether they really need to pay more for a new book. All these things were taken into account and it was decided to have the same rental fee price for the same textbooks accross all four years. Different rental fees for each year would also have been difficult to manage. There are 460 titles (115x4) which would men that if there were 115 rental fees that differed annually there would be 460 different rental fees in all which would be unmanageable for teachers, school principals as well as the people at the central or regional level. Thus it was decided that the simpler the rental scheme the better as it is easier to explain to the parents and is more likely to be successful. The rental fee in the first year was different for each title but it was then decided that even this would be the same and now there is now one rental fee per grade, the mathematical average of all the textbooks for each grade is calculated, meaning that there are only ten rental fees. One does not need to explain to the parents why one textbook fee is 200 AMD and another is more. They just know that if they take one textbook they need to pay once and if they take 10 textbooks they pay ten times the rental fee. It is very easy to manage and control. Although the rental fee is low in Armenia, it is still unaffordable for some people. Currently 30% of the school population in Armenia is considered to be poor, but the government is not able to pay for all of them. As a result, it was decided that only the very poorest students would receive free textbooks and the government agreed to pay for 10% of the children enrolled in schools. The distribution of the government allocation among the schools and the children was also a very involved process. It was particularly difficult in Armenia because there is no official way of registering the real income of a family, and until now there has been no official data on the poverty level of communities. The Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Education have jointly issued a special decree which contains the guidelines for allocating the government subsidies for free textbooks to socially unprotected children. 20% of money contributed for these children will go to those in special institutions and orphanages because they form an exceptionally poor part of the population and all such children receive free textbooks. The remaining 80% of the government contribution is allocated to general schools and approximately 8% of children in each school receive free textbooks. Penalties are applied if a child does not return a book to the school by the end of the school year and there are two options to remedy the situation. Parents can either purchase the textbooks and give them to the school library, or they can pay the replacement cost which is actually the commercial price of these textbooks. So this penalty is actually higher than the original cost of the textbook to the project. The management of the scheme is a part of the regular job of the school principal, the school accountant, the school librarians and also the school head teacher. The librarian receives the books and gives them to the head teacher and everyone in the school is actually involved in running the rental scheme. At a regional level there is one representative selected by the general meeting of the principals who voluntarily does this unpaid work. At the central level it is managed by ministerial and NGO staff. In order to help in the management and running of the project a special booklet has been produced. It is widely distributed and has really helped everyone to understand the details of the scheme. It has special sections for parents, teachers, principals and Marz Officials. An intense information campaign has always been carried out where not only has the booklet been circulated and given to all the schools, but there have also been regular announcements on T.V and in local newspapers. A short film was transmitted on national T.V as well as local T.V stations in the regions to explain the aims and details of this fund. The establishment of our rental scheme and revolving fund was designed to achieve a reasonable mixture of central and local management by the schools. The schools manage their own revolving funds. Central supervision and overseeing of what happens helps to overcome any difficulties, to assess, to evaluate and to make corrections when required as well as to help solve problems. With this kind of structure for the rental scheme, and with the planned introduction of a computerised advance ordering system in the near future, by the completion of the project each school will know exactly how much money they have in their revolving funds, what textbooks they need, how many books and the amount of money required. The revolving fund will collate all the advance orders from all individual schools and there will be central procurement of textbooks once more.
The
Gambia Background The Republic of the Gambia has a total area of approximately 10,400 square kilometers and is situated on the West Coast of Africa facing the Atlantic Ocean. It is surrounded on three sides by Senegal and bordered on the West by the Atlantic Ocean. The country consists essentially of a narrow strip of land about 10 kilometers wide on either bank of the river, stretching from the mouth inland and eastwards for about 400 kilometers. Population The population is 1,025,867 (1993 Census) with a growth rate of 4.1%. The Gambia has a population density of 96 persons per square kilometer. The majority are farmers and 60% of the population live in rural areas. The current unemployed rate of 26% is particularly high in a country which is ranked among the poorest and least developed in the world (UNDP, Human Resources Development Report 1997). The total income of the average rural family is about USD 25 per month (Household Education and Health Survey 1993 – 1994). The government has put in place a comprehensive program for poverty alleviation. In spite of this there has been a decline in the economic situation of the country. Donor withdrawal after 1994, the devaluation of the CFA franc in 1994, the reduction of the re-export trade and a decline in agricultural production have all contributed to the deteriorating economic conditions which is adversely affecting the living standards of the people. The government has had to cut back on expenditures particularly in the social services and currently an economic recovery program is being worked on with the IMF and World Bank. Education A 6-3-3 system of school education was introduced in the Gambia in 1990 in response to a decision contained in the Education Policy Proposal 1988 – 2003. The first nine years of which are conceived as a broad and basic education which ideally in the long term should be accessible to all Gambian children. For the present and immediate future resource constraints do not allow it to be operational. The Revised Education Policy (1988 – 2003) targets as its number one priority – “Illiterate” girls and women in rural and urban areas with an emphasis on a renewed focus on the provision of nine years of basic education. This priority takes into consideration formal and non formal linkages for the promotion of low cost quality education which is gender sensitive and balanced and seeks to:
The education policy aims at improving:
Administration The textbook revolving fund was originally intended to be administered at three levels. National, regional and school levels. At the national level, the key administrators are supposed to be the Permanent Secretary of the Department of State for Education, the Chief Education Officer, the Deputy Chief Education Officer – services and the Textbook Administrative Officer who deals with daily administrative responsibility. The Textbook Administrative Officer This officer is responsible for all administrative duties relating to the operation of the scheme, which includes the following:
The Textbook Administrative Officer is required to liaise with these officers on a regular basis – Deputy Chief Education Officer (services), Principal Education Officers, Principal Book Production Officer and the Principal Accountant at the Department of State for Education. Regional The Principal Education Officers play a very important role in the management of the textbook revolving fund scheme. At the regional level they:
The School Level In most cases if not all, the task of managing the program is delegated to either a deputy head or a senior teacher as the textbook fund administrator and is held accountable by the head for the scheme’s day to day running at the school level. The duties include the following:
The senior management team is responsible for the proper administration and management of the fund (see flow chart in appendix to this chapter). Distribution Staff members of the Book Production and Material Resources Unit (BPMRU) played a key role in the distribution of the textbooks to the schools. This was due to the fact that the then Deputy Chief Education Officer whose brief it was to administer the scheme, had his office in the premises of the BPMRU. The first set of books which comprised pupils textbooks and teachers guides for grade 1 & 2 & 7 were distributed to the schools in every region on the basis of a list prepared from 1993/1993 enrollment statistics. Movement of the books from BPMRU to the regions was effected with trucks hired from the Gambia Co-operative Union whose vehicles were also used for the distribution of food supplies for the School Feeding Program. The distribution exercise commenced on the 6th of January 1993 and was completed twelve days later. A total of 86,000 books were distributed to the regions. The first attempt at making textbooks available to schools on a rental basis was carried out successfully, with very few difficulties or problems. Finance With the co-operation of the World Bank which funded the initial textbook project; new textbooks in the core subject areas of English, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, Islamic and Arabic Studies and Agricultural Science for all students in grades 1-9 have now been introduced. These books have been newly written or adapted from existing textbooks by subject panels at the Curriculum Research and Development Division and are designed to match the new education syllabi. Currently the pupils’ books are being printed in Hong Kong by Macmillan Education Publishers while the teachers’ guides are being printed at Book Production and Material Resources Unit in Kanifing. Eventually it is hoped that all books will be printed at BPMRU. The Department of State for Education does not have sufficient funds to provide books free of cost to all students. Hence, to ensure a sustainable supply of funds, students are required to pay an annual rental fee for the use of the books. This money is held in an account and is used to order replacement copies as books wear out (every three years) and as student enrollment increases. The rental fees have been the same since 1992 and they are as follows:
The textbook plan was phased in over a three-year period. At the end of the third year a total of 400,000 pupils and teachers’ books at a total cost of $900,000 were available for use in primary and junior secondary schools (Book Development Council 1989). The Gambia Education Sector Credit Textbook Component. 1992/1993 books for grades 1,
2 & 7 were introduced During the three-year implementation period from 1992 – 1995 the Textbook Revolving Fund Scheme was hailed by international observers as one of the best in Africa. This initial success was due largely to the support given by parents and teachers to make the scheme work. In 1992/1993 a total of about D939,506 was collected and in 1993/1994 the total sum collected was D1,991,086 or $199,108. This momentum was maintained in 1994/1995 when the total sum of D2,895,251 or $289,525. However like many development projects that started off well, success or failure will depend largely on whether the scheme can be effectively sustained after the implementation period. The Book How the books are used during school hours depends to a large extent on how classes are scheduled, and also the available storage facilities. In some schools where storage facilities do not exist in each classroom, the books are kept in the headmaster’s office. Each day a teacher or class prefect retrieves the books for the entire class. During each class the teacher asks all the students who have rented books to hold their books up for a quick visual inspection to make certain that all books are accounted for and covered. At the end of each day the books are collected, counted, and returned to the headmasters’ office. In schools with storage facilities in each class, the class teacher supervises the distribution and collection of books each day. The class prefect may be required to count the books after each class or day to make certain all books are accounted for. If a book is missing, the textbook ledger is consulted to find out which student is missing a book. In junior secondary schools, students are often allowed to take their books home on a regular basis. However each morning students are asked to hold up their books for a quick visual inspection by the form master. If books are missing, not covered, or otherwise damaged, the student would be required to give full explanation. Serious problems are reported to the textbook fund administrator. At the end of term the form master inspects each student’s book and records the condition in the textbook ledger. Because books are a scarce commodity in many Gambian homes, it should not be assumed that our students will know how to take proper care of their books. Hence the Textbook Fund Administrator or class teachers must give a lesson on textbook care during the first term. The class teacher should be certain to mention the following points to the students.
Building Community Support for Proper Care of the Books The textbook Fund Administrator and the headteacher should also make every effort to arrange a meeting with parents and village leaders to discuss the need for proper textbook care and use. The only way the books will be properly treated in compounds is if parents are willing to provide a proper place to store books in the house, help keep younger children from damaging the books. Unless these textbooks have the support of families and the community, we may find them to be only temporary assets of the schools. Book Inspections A critical component of any new project is careful monitoring. Inspections should serve a dual purpose, (1) to find out how teachers and students like the textbooks and recommend changes to either the content or management policies and (2) to ensure that schools are complying with the textbook regulations. Monitoring for the textbooks needs to be done at three levels. The Inspectorate Unit of the Department of State for Education has not been performing its role and responsibility of inspecting the books, monitoring and evaluating the schemes operations as envisaged. The reports of the Unit on the scheme in general, and the textbooks in particular have not been systematic, regular or thorough enough in scope. HISTORY OF THE SCHEME The establishment of a Textbook Revolving Fund in The Gambia was based on a study made by John Mace - a consultant from Great Britain between the 12th June and 31st July 1991. Whilst in the Gambia, he visited primary, junior and senior secondary schools. He interviewed several principals, headteachers, parents, and staff of the Inspectorate Division, several government and non-government officials. At the end of the study he recommended to the government of the Gambia, the establishment of a Textbook Revolving Fund under the full direction of the director of services. The director of services in turn will seek the assistance of the regional education officers who will be directly responsible for distributing the course books to individual schools as well as collecting all rental fees. The Textbook Revolving Fund Scheme which was established in 1992, has four main objectives:
On Wednesday 27th May, 1998 the Secretary of State for Education announced at the National Assembly that the book rental scheme for the lower part of the basic education cycle grades 1-6 (the primary level) is to be abolished. This is in line with the UNESCO Declaration for free and universal primary education and with the policy of the Department of State for Education to reduce costs of schooling and to increase access to education. However the implications for the school system and the sustainability of the strategy are yet to be determined especially in light of the fact that in the recent past, books have been ordered only through the revolving fund and through external aid. At the upper half of the basic cycle that is grades 7-9, the book rental scheme will continue. There is need however to re-visit the scheme and come up with fundamental changes in its implementation. Impact Generally, students, especially those in primary school, felt that the textbooks are useful – 98% of primary school students and 86% of junior secondary school students stated that they found the textbooks to be useful to them. The main reason primary school students gave for the usefulness of the books were:
Among junior secondary school students 42% felt that the books were easy to understand.
Regarding their level of satisfaction with the time that they have access to the textbooks.
The main complaints that primary school students had about their level of access to books were:
For junior secondary school, their complaints were:
The teachers’ perspectives on the usefulness and adequacy of the books were quite different from that expressed by the students. Regarding the time that students have access to the books, 71% of primary school teachers and 40% of junior secondary school teachers felt that this was not adequate. Regarding the usefulness of the books however; almost all teachers felt that the books were very useful (94% of primary school teachers and 100% of junior secondary school teachers). The main reason given by primary school teachers was that the books dealt with local places and issues that students were familiar with, whilst junior secondary school teachers felt that the contents of the textbooks were quite suitable for the syllabuses. A few primary school teachers however complained that the science syllabus was quite complicating for the students and therefore above their standards. The book rental scheme greatly reduced disparities in access to school and education materials between boys and girls and the haves and have nots. Parents who could not previously afford US$25 (D250) to buy a set of 4 books found it easier to pay US$2 (D20) or US$3 (30) at the primary level. However while the poorer families would rent the core books, only children from wealthier families would buy other texts recommended by the school thus enriching their won experiences. The book rental scheme has recorded several successes in that the availability of textbooks in schools has greatly improved teaching and learning. The pupil book ratio now stands at 2:1 in the basic education cycle. The cost of schooling has been reduced through the lower costs of the schoolbooks and this has helped to increase enrollments particularly that of girls. Constraints Some of the constraints experienced since the inception of the scheme could be listed as follows: 1. Lack of funds for the administration of the textbook scheme Some of the administrative costs were supported by the Project Implementation Unit (PIU) and others were not and had to be obtained on an ad hoc basis. It is imperative therefore that all expenses be cost and built into the budget of the Department of State if the scheme is to succeed. The recurring annual expenses that are directly related to the administration of the textbook rental scheme are:
2. Rental Fees Collection Despite the confusion over how rental fees were collected, the record keeping over the years has been fairly satisfactory. However the following constraints were observed.
3. Payment of commission to TFAS The original project document called for the Textbook Fund Administrator (TFA) at each school to be paid a commission to compensate for the additional work in managing the Textbooks. In a recent evaluation on the Textbook Revolving Fund Scheme, it was discovered that the Administration has not been paying commissions to TFAs as regularly and promptly as expected (Gorre Associates – Oct. 1997). Distribution Some of the distribution problems encountered during the early days of the scheme were as follows:
Privately owned trucks are still hired for transporting the books to the schools. These are not always readily available and can delay the process. It is unreasonable to expect headteachers to use their own money to transport government books from schools to regional offices. If this requirement is to continue the Department of State for Education must provide either reimbursement for transport to pick up un-rented books. Monitoring and evaluation If the textbook policy is to succeed there must be vigilant monitoring at all levels. Even the best policies are useless they are implemented, monitored, evaluated and changed as needed. Monitoring will take place at three levels. It will however be necessary to draw up monitoring indicators and all users should be familiar with how these indicators are to be used. At the school level The textbook fund administrator should closely monitor, demand, supply and alert Principal Education Officers through their heads about shortages, surpluses and usage or non-usage of the scheme and reasons for these. At the regional level The Principal Education Officer would monitor supply and demand based on information received from the schools. In addition the PEO would also monitor the status of fee collections and investigate in the event that there are any shortfalls to determine the reasons for the shortfalls and find solutions to the problems. The PEO will also monitor and inspect the book stock at each region and report on its status. At the national level The Deputy Chief Education Officer – services will through reports received from the textbook fund administrators and the Regional Education Officers monitor the status of the textbook fund. Orders for supply will be based on information received from the schools and from data received from the Planning Department. Evaluation The fund will be evaluated annually to determine impact, constraints, and workability. All stake holders will be involved in this exercise, that is parents, district education committees, regional education officers and the services division findings from the evaluation will be disseminated. Lessons Learnt
On the whole the rental fee collection has been far from satisfactory. Some textbook fund administrators have been travelling from the provinces to Banjul with large sums of money to be deposited into the main revolving fund account. In so far as the sustainability of the entire book scheme hinges solely on the rental fee collection; more attention needs to be given to its administration on the part of the government. This should include allocating and improving access to funds for necessary expenditures. The problems over the years highlight the need for closer co-operation between the regional offices, book production and material resources unit, and the division of services. Transport should always be made available for personnel from the division of services and book production and material resources unit to visit the regional offices to discuss and monitor the operation of the scheme at regional levels. Judging from the amount of confusion and reluctance displayed and demonstrated since the inception of the textbook scheme, it is apparent that sending letters and administration forms to the regional office without follow up instructions is not good enough for the success of the newly initiated book scheme. If the state department is going to use the regional office to re-distribute unused books, then the necessary workshops must be budgeted, planned and held. It is unreasonable to expect headteachers to use their own money to transport government books from schools to regional offices. If this requirement is to continue the Department of State for Education must provide either reimbursement for transport or arrange to pick up unrented books.
Moldova is a small country, a little bit bigger than Armenia. It is located between Romania and Ukraine and it has a population of approximately 4.5 million. The main part of the population are ethnically Romanians, we also call them Moldavians. The state language is Romanian and other people are usually Russian speaking. Russian, Ukrainian and others create some additional difficulties because in a small country we have education in two languages. This reduces the number of textbooks printed in one language.
First a little bit about the background situation in Moldova under which we have implemented the rental scheme. There is a chronically under-developed banking sector. We have a large number of banks in the capital but in the country side there are only two banks which are developed to the necessary standard. It was quite a difficult problem to select a bank for our rental scheme and it was agreed the money should be kept in Chisanau (the capital) in one account.
The next restraint is high currency risks. The Moldovan lev was quite stable during the first five to seven years of independence but after the Russian crisis in August 1998, the lev depreciated almost as much as the ruble and this created huge difficulties for the rental scheme. The money collected in September 1998 depreciated twice. Therefore the money which was meant to reprint a certain number of books will not be enough. Funds available from the rental scheme will cover only half of these textbooks.
Another issue is the restrictive currency regulation of the national bank. We are not allowed to exchange our accumulated national funds into hard currency. This is understandable from the point of view of the national bank as they are trying to protect the national currency and to keep it stable but this also caused many problems for the rental scheme.
Another issue is low income. Research from the World Bank shows that 80% of the population earns less than $2 per day.
Short print runs are another issue of concern. Due to the fact that it is a bilingual country even this small amount is divided into two, about 60% Romanian schools and 40% other schools. There are also other minorities who require additional textbooks in their language, for instance Bulgarians want to have Bulgarian language textbooks; Ukrainians want theirs and so forth. These print runs are very small which results in very high unit costs.
The Armenian rental scheme model was implemented in Moldova. The structure is similar - we have a bank account that is separated into sub-accounts for each individual school. These schools are collecting money and transferring it into the main bank account and it arrives into the sub-account of each individual school. We managed to create an NGO as an affiliate to the Ministry of Education. This required extra budgetary fund which creates a tremendous problem. Due to the fact that this is an affiliated fund to the Ministry, this textbook fund account was integrated to the treasury system of Moldova, and thus into the Ministry of Finance.
We made some efforts to solve this problem and we managed to convince the Ministries of Finance and the Treasury to keep this money separated from all other funds. We have a physically separate bank account and the Ministry of Finance does not have access to it so the Treasury is just supervising this account and I think this is a more or less satisfactory solution.
With regard to the money collection system, it is similar to Armenia except that each individual school does not have real access to its sub-accounts so payments cannot be made from these accounts. There is one bank account for all schools but the fund manager keeps records of each sub-account and at the end of the year if there is any accumulated interest, it is allocated to each school account based on the amount collected in this sub-account and the time this money has resided in this account.
This textbook fund was created by a governmental decree affiliated to the Ministry of Education so the same government decree established how this rental scheme should operate. It recommended that books are used for 4-5 years. Projections are made without any idea of what the actual macroeconomic situation might be.
Nonetheless we first tried to analyse the existing situation and created a cash flow model linking up reprints with revenues. A small number of textbooks were introduced into the scheme initially and it is increasing gradually. In the last year, a large number of textbooks were introduced into the rental scheme. About 60 titles were meant to be printed last year.
We have a huge amount of money exposed to currency risk which is the major disadvantage of this set-up.
It was decided that money would be invested in Treasury bills to make sure that by taking it out of the Treasury bank account nobody can put their hands on this money. Treasury bills in Moldova often earn good interest. In the first half a year, however, the scheme they did not earn interest because no fund manager could put a signature on the bank order to transfer money to buy Treasury bills.
Even to invest in treasury bills was still quite risky after the Russian crisis. The Moldovan government promises that nothing will happen to Treasury bills but we still had some doubts. We therefore recommended that this money be reinvested in textbooks right away. Of course this meant producing textbooks before they actually were needed; one or two years early. This required revision of the production plan of textbooks. One benefit is that this actually gives us a smooth production plan over the year.
Many textbooks are replaced in the last year of the cycle so those books that are printed one or two years ahead are actually around for six years. This creates some additional problems for curriculum revision and to making changes to the textbooks. So financially it is prudent but educationally it reduces flexibility. There are also storage facility requirements. We recommend that textbooks not be printed more than two years ahead of usage and that these are re-introduced into the rental scheme.
While a difficult process to implement from a financial point of view there are some distinct advantages. We do not have a big cash balance in the bank which means low currency risk, low investment risk and textbooks never disappear. In case the financial system of Moldova collapses again it would be easy to revive the rental scheme because we still have books in the warehouse that can be rented rent out again. Of course, all the above applies to a country with an unstable currency and exchange restrictions.
This World Bank project is printing about 130% of the demand; 100% going to the schools and about 30% remaining in the warehouse as a reserve. This is required to replace damaged textbooks at the end of the year. Parents have to pay the full cost of replacing the textbook if it is lost or damaged. Parents are paying so as to enable the reprinting of reserve textbooks.
Textbooks are printed in Moldova by local publishers. As in Armenia, this rental scheme gave a strong push to the Moldovan printing industry as well as the publishing industry. Publishers, together with authors, are developing new textbooks and it seems to be working well. A few textbooks are printed outside the country but these are mostly English, French and other foreign language textbooks. However, Romanian and Russian textbooks are printed in Moldova. The government policy is to create Romanian textbooks first and then translated into Russian.
In secondary schools and advanced education there is more freedom for using alternative textbooks; however, poor countries do not have a lot of choice primarily due to lack of alternative materials. In wealthier schools parents pay the teachers’ salaries because the government is unable to pay the monthly salary. Parents pay for books which are not textbooks and not necessarily linked to the curricula of the Ministry of Education in Moldova. All such books are invariably imported from Romania. Few if any are part of the rental scheme.
On the question of partial introduction of a rental scheme, imagine that you are in a country where there are two schools that can introduce it and people are used to buying books for the children so half the parents would say no that they want to buy as they want the best education for their children and the best textbooks and they can afford. So you have half the class buying. Next time it will be 30% then 60% and the finance of the scheme will become very shaky indeed. You would have to set a higher rental fee to allow for this fluctuation so this is a little bit difficult in this respect.
Comparisons of the five case studies show differences in industry context. In Armenia a publishing industry as such did not actually exist and the books are being developed now the same is true in Moldova. You could go out and buy a book from a Romanian publisher but it would not match the Moldovan curriculum. In our two African countries the comparison is very different. In Lesotho the books are being bought from foreign publishers and they are books which already exist. The Gambian books are books that have been specially developed for the Gambia. In Barbados these are books which are available throughout the West Indies and beyond. Are we talking about creating a rental scheme or are we talking about creating first of all the publishing industry on which the rental scheme can live. The bulk of the Eastern European and Central Asian countries which we are thinking about there is no publishing infrastructure so that while we are talking about rental scheme we are talking about building a publishing industry which eventually should provide a choice of books and will enable schools to operate their own individual school rental schemes. But to jump from a single monopoly state publishing house which is producing books that are absolutely rigid and are used throughout the system to book choice from a book trade where the books can be purchased by schools holding their own funds and bringing money in from parental contributions and running their own rental schemes. We are talking about a quantum leap.
Frances Pinter: - Is there any precedent where these fiscal and legal issues have been addressed, that is where a World Bank project comes along and it is very clear that there is a particular law that makes it impossible to safeguard the financial health of the project, for example this issue of not being allowed to hold the funds in hard currency, that would so easily eliminate a large part of the risk at no real cost to the government. There are all sorts of reasons why the government would not wish to make such an exception but is there any precedent of having persuaded the government to break its own laws or change them to make it possible?
Theo George - In the Gambia the bank was able to come to terms with the government and for the textbook reporting fund to have access to hard currency any time we need. All we would need to do is approach the central bank and they would make the currency available, if the commercial bank had it. But it was more or less a condition for the effectiveness of the loan.
Frances Pinter - Yes it was a condition, but did it require a change in the law? I am looking for a precedent where it was possible to actually change the law or create an exception to the law.
In most cases the revolving fund itself does not require a change of the legislation. But certainly issues were raised at appraisal stage and recognized that there was a need for a change in the law which triggered the creation of the NGO to manage the fund. In nearly every country a change in the law effecting import duties or taxes is essential because the difference in imported paper is often up to 40%. Therefore it is a big issue and one would have to go right to the top of the Ministry of Finance with the World Bank people and with their help in order to get the right decision. The success rate is probably about 25%. Certainly other countries have waived taxation and import duties on paper. During the execution of the World Bank project we have made some changes to the law, specifically on value added tax matters.
Now the question of the ‘gold mine’. People want to take money out of the rental scheme. In Moldova this is true even though the money is in the state treasury. As the money is in a separate bank account we are sure that the government will not be able to get its hands on it. The weakness of the system is that it is an affiliated fund to the Ministry of Education and they have a lot of influence. For this reason we have recommended that the administration, supervision and control system of the textbook rental scheme is independent. While money is kept in the central account, the rental scheme itself is decentralized. All the major decisions are made in schools. The school is the body that manages the rental scheme. We also propose that commitment by the school should actively be promoted. It is the school’s business to collect the necessary funds and ensure that the correct number of books is ordered. And later on it will be the school’s business which textbooks to buy although at the initial stage only those textbooks which were printed within the framework of the World Bank project will be used and included in the rental scheme.
A decentralized textbook rental scheme has the following major advantages: more parents are involved in the decision making process which is very likely to increase people’s confidence in the rental scheme which is very important also. Also the textbook rental scheme is more orientated to specific needs of each individual school because the school is taking decisions for itself. And having more confidence in the rental scheme, parents are more likely to actively to contribute to rental fees.
We have proposed that parents decide the amount of rental fees to collect. The fund manager together with the supervisory board of the textbook fund develop and recommend the minimum level of rental fees based on calculations and forecasts and projections. But the school knows that they have to collect a certain amount of money. We look at the school as a small community of people which have common interests, to give their people an education.
The next issue is subsidies. When we started working on this rental scheme there was an assessment of the poverty level in Moldova that said that about 20% of people in Moldova are below the poverty line. The government decided to provide subsidies to 20% of pupils. These were to be paid by regional governments. We recommended that a special committee be created at the regional level who will distribute these subsidies because this poverty analysis has shown that in rural areas people have lower incomes than those in towns or cities.
In the initial stage we did not allow alternative textbooks. Later on alternatives should be allowed by the Ministry of Education. Our major argument with our government was that to select only one textbook by an evaluation committee inevitably introduces a certain amount of subjectivity. It may happen that a very good book may not be accepted into the rental scheme and in that case the publisher can take the risk to print just sell them on the market. This has already happened in Moldova where one publisher considered his book to be much better and they have all been sold. So in the end the government was left with a lot of unwanted textbooks in stock. This formed the basis of our argument in favour of alternative books in the scheme.
Poverty assessment in Moldova has shown that most of the population was really limited in their ability to afford rental fees and therefore we had to stick to core textbooks which means that some major subjects listed here, like mathematics, literature, language, physics, chemistry and so forth, rather than music or arts.
Another issue that arouse was the sharing of textbooks amongst children. We found real opposition from the government on political grounds. The aim of the rental scheme is to provide each individual pupil with a set of textbooks. However, if this is unaffordable then this can be a solution. Nonetheless, it must be remembered that this will generate less funds for future printing.
An interesting issue is the life of the textbook, which we covered in our research. We noticed that some textbooks are very intensively used and others less so. Pupils have lessons in maths and language every day and they take the books home and back to school every day. Other textbooks might be used once or twice a week so this led us to conclude that these textbooks should have a different useful life span in the rental scheme. It was recommended that we reduce the life expectancy of language and maths textbooks. While they might be intended for use over four or five years they normally do not look very good after two or three. In the latter years printers tend to reprint new textbooks which parents can then always buy on the market. This is not good for the rental scheme. So we recommended to reduce the expected life span of these heavily used textbooks.
Regarding technical specification, our aim was to reduce cost or to increase the useful life of the book. All the textbook experts told us that we would never increase the life of the textbook in the specification so we have recommended that in the higher grades we keep the textbook simple by reducing colour textbooks or black and white and using lighter paper.
Motsi
J. Mokhokhoba Introduction Before the inception of the current textbook rental scheme, parents bought books from only two retail book stores, both situated in the lowlands city of Maseru. The interest in profitability of the retail book stores and their uneven geographical distribution forced them to charge high prices which were unaffordable to the majority of the parents. As a result of this lack of equitable distribution of textbooks among children of different socio-economic backgrounds, it became inevitable that the Lesotho Government sought ways of addressing this problem. A 1977 Consultancy Report by Mr Hugh Hawes, a British consultant recommended that the government formulate a policy on providing affordable textbooks and other instructional materials. The issue of provision of textbooks led to the key question of how to find a reliable source of funding of a sustainable scheme. Establishment of the Textbook Rental Scheme It is because of the above-mentioned state of affairs that the Lesotho’s Textbook Rental Scheme initially known as Book Supply Unit, was officially launched in 1982. The scheme was financially supported by the World Bank credit agreement with the Government of Lesotho. The scheme fell under the authority of the Training for Self-Reliance Project (T.R.S.P.) In 1983 the Lesotho Government issued a policy directive that reserved the right of the Ministry of Education to prescribe and approve the textbooks used in primary schools. The Ministry also undertook to prescribe the textbook rental structure. The Textbook Rental Scheme started as a pilot project in the Thaba-Tseka district and was successful. The project was then expanded in 1984 to the other nine districts of the country. Initially the scheme provided textbooks for three core subjects namely, Sesotho, English and Mathematics in all the classes of the primary school level (Standards 1 to 7). The textbook rental fee structure from 1983 until its revision seven years later is shown in Table 1. Table 1. Book Rental Fee Structure from 1983 to 1989
(*The currency of Lesotho is Maloti (M) ) The Book Supply Unit was later assimilated into the Ministry of Education in 1987 and became known as the School Supply Unit, a governmental organisation which is under the control of the Ministry of Education-Lesotho. It is responsible for overseeing a revolving fund, whose main purpose is to help every child irrespective of geographical location, race or colour, religious affiliation and cultural or family background to obtain textbooks prescribed for Lesotho’s primary schools. Major Changes and Challenges that the scheme is faced with Since its inception in 1982, a number of challenges that necessitated changes were encountered by the School Supply Unit:
Table 2: Book Rental Fees increase from the year 1983 to the years 1989, 1993, 1996 and 1997
In 1983, the combined fee rates for all grades was M26.00. In 1989, that was increased by approximately 90% to M49.00 per annum. A further increase was authorised in 1993 bringing the unit annual fees up to M79.00 – an increase over the 1983 collection of 204%. Table 3 shows the number of textbook titles financed by the revolving fund.
Table 3: Cost of Provision of Required Pupil’s Textbooks in 1986, 1995 and 1997
According to a report by International Book Development (IBD) (1995) in 1986 the unit cost for the provision of a complete set of books for grades 1 to 7 was M37.26. By 1995, the cost had risen to M315.11, an increase of 746%. In 1997 the cost rose to M484.68, an increase of M1,200% over 1986 unit cost. The causes of the dramatic percentage cost increases appear to be:
Table 4: Number of Textbook Titles Financed by Revolving Fund: 1986 & 1998
In 1986, the revolving fund financed the supply of 29 textbook titles for pupils in grades 1 to 7. In 1998 the number of titles increased to 59 – an increase of 103%. This increase is a direct reflection of the increase and revised curriculum requirement of the National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC). The requirement to fund considerably increased quantities of textbooks obviously requires an increase in the current level of textbook fees from parents. To avert this danger of incessant curriculum expansion without parallel injection of funds, the School Supply Unit and the Ministry of Education’s curriculum designing and developing arm - National Curriculum Development Centre have regular planning and assessment meetings under the chairmanship of the Chief Education Officer – Curriculum Services.
Collection Rates The IBD report (1995) explicitly indicated that a major part of the School Supply Unit’s success in maintaining the fund has been the sustainability of a high level of fee collection. It pointed out that one of the major reasons for the failure of revolving funds elsewhere in the world was attributable to the inability to collect contributions consistently and adequately. Table 5 below illustrates collection rates of School Supply Unit since 1983. Table 5: Collection Rates
In 1988 a campaign was launched to recover the debt. The campaign resulted in a very good level of collection in 1989. In 1991 collection rates dropped to 79.6% and to correct the situation field officers were appointed in 1992. The success of this action is demonstrated by the immediate increase in the collection rate by 10%. The level of collection continued to be sustained in 1993. Therefore, it is proper to indicate that collection rates need to be maintained and intensified within reasonable operational budgetary limits. The Lesotho Government, in responding to this concern increased the number of field officers from two to ten in 1998. The Operation of the Current Textbook Rental Scheme The headteacher, as from 1989, was given the responsibility of being the agent of the School Supply Unit. He or she is responsible for the collection and depositing of the textbook rental fee into the School Supply Unit’s bank account or paying it directly at the School Supply Unit. The headteacher and the School Supply Unit teacher coordinator keep a register of pupils and then reconcile the number of pupils with the textbook rental fees paid at the school. The headteacher and the teacher coordinator are not specifically rewarded for accomplishing this responsibility, however, when the Ministry of Education designed the salary of the headteacher, it took into consideration the various duties which also entail the collection of school related fees. The Ministry of Education’s Statistics and Planning Department track the number of pupils in schools by requiring an annual statistical form to be filled and returned to the Statistics and Planning Department before the end of March. This information is the basis on which the School Supply Unit compiles its annual records. The district Ministry of Education’s Inspectorate checks on the availability and the number of books at schools. In order to deal with the increasing number of pupils, the School Supply Unit sends Textbook Requisition Forms (order form) to headteachers to fill in order to replenish existing stock or those books whose life-span has expired. The School Supply Unit has designed a simplified Prediction Model which helps in ordering textbooks in the year preceding the intended year of delivery of textbooks. Sometimes predictions may fall short of the exact number of pupils who enroll at the beginning of the following year. Such a shortfall happens in few cases only. Then the headteacher is required to order the few textbooks that are needed to top-up the shortfall. When numbers constantly decrease the stocks of books are left with schools but when storage space (lockers) is limited the School Supply Unit may take the books back and this is acknowledged in the inventory record of the school. In some cases one school may have excess textbooks which it may want to transfer to a neighbouring school. This is allowed only when the School Supply Unit has been notified in order to make the necessary adjustments in the two schools’ inventory records. Transfer from one school to another by pupils is rare. However, when it occurs the headteacher of the school from where the pupil transfers notifies both the school to which the child transfers and the School Supply Unit about the transfer, stating whether the child has paid the textbook rental fee and if paid will attach the relevant receipt. The Financial Aspects and Documentation of the Textbook Rental Scheme When the Lesotho Government obtained a loan from the World Bank, the revolving fund was immediately started and provided the capital for buying textbooks. The scheme has been operating successfully for a period of sixteen years without any need for financial topping-up from the government or any other form of private funding. The funds paid by parents are deposited by the schools’ headteachers into the School Supply Unit’s current accounts that have been opened in the branches of Lesotho’s banks in the ten districts of Lesotho. The Ministry of Education of Lesotho has made standing agreements with Lesotho’s banks to transfer the School Supply Unit’s funds from the current account to the 24 Hours Call Account. The latter account generates interest that serves as a vital cushion to the revolving fund’s sustainability. The revolving fund operates by way of purchasing textbooks in large numbers from both local and international textbook suppliers. When purchasing textbooks, international suppliers charge prices in the currencies of the countries from which they originate. The majority of the books from international suppliers come from Britain. Although there are constant fluctuations, Lesotho’s Loti exchange rate with the British Pound is approximately Ml.00 to 10.00 British Pounds. This puts a strain on the scheme’s finances because it makes the textbooks very expensive. These textbooks are procured a year prior to their delivery to schools. The textbooks are then received and stored in warehouses. Normally a consignment of textbooks arrives at warehouses in November of each year. The headteachers of schools are responsible for placing their textbook requirements using requisition (order) forms, which they hand in to the School Supply Unit in September each year. The textbooks are processed, sorted, packed and placed in their appropriate delivery routes by storekeepers according to the requisition (order) forms and inventory forms. The replenishment of textbooks depends on the life-span of the book which is three years and also on whether a school has specific problems that may have shortened the life-span of the books. When the textbooks are ready for dispatch, the School Supply Unit delivers them to schools using its own vehicles and occasionally privately hired vehicles. The drivers deliver the textbooks to each and every school in each of Lesotho’s ten districts. The personnel delivering the textbooks have to board and lodge at each district to complete their work quickly and successfully. The responsibility of receiving textbooks lies with the headteachers of schools who then keep the textbooks in the booklockers supplied by the School Supply Unit. When books are damaged there is no repairing service. However, parents and teachers rebind the books by using needle and thread and other materials. In cases of damage or loss, whether willfully or through negligence, the parent of such a child is required to replace the book by buying it at market price in retail stores. Concerning the disasters that may befall books, the School Supply Unit investigates and obtains evidence of such a disaster. When the evidence shows that the disaster was unavoidable, schools are supplied with relevant replacement copies. Field officers and storekeepers are jointly responsible for looking into and reconciling the number of physical books present at the school with the School Supply Unit’s inventory and also inspecting the conditions under which textbooks are kept. Handling of Money and the Sustainability of the Textbook Rental Scheme The whole sustainability of the scheme lies with the yearly contributions of parents in the form of the textbook rental fee. Parents pay the textbook rental fees to headteachers who are the School Supply Unit’s official textbook rental fee collectors. This is done at the beginning of each school calendar year which starts in January of each year. The headteachers then issue receipts of payments and either deposit the textbook rental fee in our bank current accounts available in all districts or pay the said fee at the School Supply Unit offices located in Maseru. Upon receiving the money from the headteachers our accounts section keeps records to provide debtor and creditor information. In the process they use the following documents:
By tracking the debtors the accounts section provides a very valuable foundation for the debt-collecting section. The School Supply Unit has one field officer per district who monitors and activates the payments of overdue textbook rental fees which are under the custody of headteachers. The two sections mentioned above, contribute to sustainability of the fund. Textbook Rental Scheme and How it Addresses Important Equity Issues The textbooks remain the property of the Ministry of Education at all times and are under the custody of its agent, the headteacher. The parents are required to rent the textbooks used by their children. The Ministry of Education’s curriculum designing and developing arm - the National Curriculum Development Centre - is charged with the task of choosing the content of education and the only textbooks to be used at each class in the primary schools. Lesotho has few problems concerning minorities. Those schools which have been selected to cater for minorities in a multi-cultural context are allowed to apply to the Ministry of Education for procuring textbooks that suit their conditions. So far, the School Supply Unit supplies all the books for the subjects prescribed for the primary schools. The subjects are: Sesotho, English, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies and Agriculture. In cases where pupils cannot pay, the headteacher has been instructed to enforce the rules by disallowing such a child to attend school. This is a very difficult decision since it seems to discriminate against those coming from poor families. However any form of leniency in the payment of the textbook rental fee would lead to a spiral of non-payment that would eventually lead to the collapse of the scheme. People from needy families are referred to and helped by headteachers to obtain funding from the Ministry of Education’s arm of - National Manpower Development Secretariat and other charitable organizations. In the case of those who do not pay but have the means, the school committees that are administrative structures at school level can help by lodging a case with the local Chief and Village Development Council. In most cases the money is retrieved. The Contribution of the Lesotho Government in the Success of the Textbook Rental Scheme The Lesotho Government has been and will remain the pillar of strength to the Textbook Rental Scheme. All the operational, administrative, warehousing and distribution costs are borne by the Lesotho Government through the funds provided under the Ministry of Education’s recurrent budget. This vital contribution remains a meaningful subsidy to the fund as well as to the parents. Textbook Rental Fee Collections and its Relationship with Book Replacement Costs Table 6: Indicates textbook rental fee collections and its relationship with book replacement costs 1996 - 1998
According to Table 6, intensive efforts were made by way of visits to schools hence substantial amounts were collected in 1998. Furthermore, expenditures were not incurred in 1996 and in 1997 a large amount of money was used for the purchase of textbooks. Deliberate efforts have always been made to buy large quantities of textbooks in order to take advantage of good discounts (in some cases the discounts are as high as 50%). Perceptions of Teacher, Parents, and the General Public on the Textbook Rental Scheme The School Supply Unit’s field officers hold, on a frequent basis, workshops and meetings with teachers, school committees and parents to address issues concerning the running of the scheme. During these people express their views. In the majority of instances they value and appreciate the contribution the scheme is making towards making textbooks available and affordable. The views of the general public are periodically expressed in the local radio stations talk-shows. Generally the participants in these shows are supportive of the scheme. Lessons to be Learned by Countries Wishing to Establish a Textbook Rental Scheme Before a scheme of this nature is embarked upon there should be a feasibility study so as to ascertain whether and how the scheme will relate to its clientele and to establish whether the people of the country have the right attitude and willingness to accept change in the system of book provision. Prior relevant training and study tours to countries running successful schemes should be given to those who will be entrusted in running their proposed schemes. During the inception of the scheme, community members should be urged to contribute a certain amount of money as capital and be declared co-owners of the scheme. The people will regard the scheme as their own rather than an external initiative imposed upon them. When a scheme is established there should be a period of at least three years to put to trial this kind of project. The pilot project should take place in one region or district. The introduction of the scheme should be carried out in three phases. The first phase being the implementation in the first grade (Standard 1) and in the following year, the second phase to be introduced in grade two and so on and so forth. At the end of the three years of the pilot project there should be an evaluation by an independent and experienced team of experts. If the scheme’s problems are minor, remedying of problems should be made. It is after these actions that the scheme can be taken to other classes, in phases as shown above and expanded to other regions or districts. Governments should provide subsidies by absorbing administrative and operational costs. There should be regulations that restrict the governments’ use of the revolving fund for activities other than that which it was intended for. Establishing a legal framework to deal with defaulters is another requirement. Conclusion The Lesotho Textbook Rental Scheme
is playing a vital role in providing equity, quality and access
to education in the primary school level. We therefore envisage the
scheme extended to the secondary and high school level where at present
the parents buy textbooks from retail bookshops at very high prices.
The fact that we act as the ‘wholesaler’ can help us in cutting down
the costs of textbooks in secondary and high schools of Lesotho.
Giorgi Gabashvili
In 1999 the World Bank was engaged in the planning stages for an education loan to Georgia. At the same time the Open Society Georgia Foundation (OSGF) was running a number of initiatives both in education and publishing. After discussions the two bodies, along with the Ministry of Education, decided it would be sensible to launch a small scale experimental textbook rental scheme, referred to as a pre-pilot. This was to begin at the start of the 1999-2000 academic year.
The objectives were to establish:
Tbilisi School N18 - 2nd
grade
The Pre-pilot Coordination Group which included representatives of the MOE and OSGF met with school directors, teachers and parents to explain the purpose and methods of operating the textbook rental scheme.
The specific responsibilities were allocated.
School Directors were to provide information on the quantity of textbooks required to Regional Departments of Education (RDG), collect rental fees from parents, pay this money into designated bank accounts and keep accurate records of transactions.
Parents were asked to pay the rental fees immediately upon receipt of the textbooks.
The Pre-pilot Coordination Group negotiated with publishers on price and delivery dates of the textbooks which were to be sent to the Regional Departments of Education.
Information obtained from the Pre-pilot included: Speed of information flow concerning numbers of textbooks required for each school.
On the whole this went well. The requests for books were submitted in a timely manner to regions from schools, but there were cases when orders included books which were not approved by the Ministry. The mistakes in numbers of books matching up with numbers of pupils were minimal and were easily corrected.
Upon supply of the books the schools collected the fees. The directors of all nine schools confirmed that the fees had been collected, but funds had not been transferred yet to the project account from seven schools three months after collection. This was part due to bank operators failing to assist the directors in identifying banking account numbers, correspondent accounts and other details.
This problem can
be sorted out by providing specially developed simple guidelines, devising
a simplified format and running programs for the training of school
directors and bank officials. Speed of delivery of textbooks to Regional Departments of Education
One third of the books approved by the Ministry of Education are self-published by the authors using the services of various publishing houses and negotiations on buying these textbooks had to be held not with the publishers but with the authors. The authors do not keep records and in most cases do not have information regarding the number of books available. In most cases the authors suggested approaching bookstores and buying books at retail prices. Most of these bookstores would not agree to payment by bank transfers. There are cases when the books are stored at the private flats of the authors, or garages and purchase of the books is possible only by payment in cash.
There were 3 cases when the textbook had been approved by the Ministry of Education, but the publishing house, or the author had not yet published the book. Such situations were unresolvable as there were no other endorsed books available, and the prescribed title was not on sale.
The quality of existing books is so low that they are unlikely to last for more than two years. The quality of paper and binding in most cases is very low.
The publishing houses “Ganatleba” and “Lampari” supplied the books on time and were willing to give discounts. They delivered the books themselves to the regions. One third of the books were delivered to the regions by OSGF which would be an inappropriate method of distribution for any large scale project.
A larger project will face significant problems, if:
Delivery of books to the schools from Regional Departments of Education.
Here no problems were experienced. Rental payments and tracking
Most parents were willing and able to pay the rental charges.
The primary problem is that schools cannot open accounts in Georgia. Opening of the required account for the pre-pilot project was complicated due to the fact that the Ministry of Education was unable to open its special account for this purpose (permission for opening of an account requires a special decree of the Ministry of Finance and arrangement of many other legislative issues), or use of the existing account. It was also impossible to open an account for this project and to provide schools with sub-accounts. Finally, following the offer of the Ministry of Education the account of an NGO exiting at the Ministry, which serves the World Bank Educational Project, was used.
As we used the existing account, there was no opportunity to go through the process of selecting the bank. The bank did not have subsidiaries either in Telavi, or in Rustavi. The school directors had to transfer funds from other local banks or post offices. As the directors had no experience in dealing with accounts and banking operations, (in most cases) they failed to manage it effectively.
It must be taken into account that this situation will cause too many problems in the implementation of the big project if:
Conclusion
The Pre-pilot project demonstrated that even a small-scale examination of the system is enough to reveal the major block of problems, which, if not resolved, will put at risk the very notion of a rental scheme. Legal and executive governmental bodies must be interested in the implementation of the system if they are to execute the changes in the legal and administrative environments needed. In our view the rental scheme should be managed by an NGO.
Commencement of a larger project, without resolving the banking, managerial and other obstacles would be quite risky. All problems should be resolved before the commencement of the project.
A series of brainstorming meetings is necessary to plan possible solutions together with the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Finance, National Bank, Parliamentary Committee for Education and Donor experts.
Before the commencement of the project and during the whole implementation period, it is necessary to have a sensible plan for public relations, which, in our opinion, if not carried out well would result in difficulties in convincing the public of the merits of the “renting” idea.
As a whole, the pre-pilot project gave us opportunity to vividly see the problems, which we may face while implementing a similar system on the national level.
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