Education
ANNUAL THEMATIC PERFORMANCE REPORT 2006–07


FEBRUARY 2008








© Commonwealth of Australia 2008
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Published by the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID),
Canberra, February 2008.
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2 AUSAID EDUCATION: ANNUAL THEMATIC PERFORMANCE REPORT 2006–07

Contents
PREFACE
4
SUMMARY
5
1 THE STATE OF THE EDUCATION SECTOR IN THE ASIA–PACIFIC
7
2 PROGRESS AGAINST AUSTRALIA’S POLICY OBJECTIVES
11
2.1 Australia’s aid expenditure in the education sector
11
2.2 Achievements 13
2.3 Increasing aid effectiveness
17
3 KEY LESSONS
20
3.1 Performance orientation
20
3.2 Aid delivery mechanisms
20
3.3 Information systems
20
3.4 AusAID capacity development
22
ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS
23
BOXES
1 International education goals
9
2 Lessons learned from sectoral programs in education
21
FIGURES
1 Growth in literacy across the Asia–Pacific region, 1990 to 2004
8
2 Progress towards education goals (Education Development Index)
10
3 Estimated Australian education ODA by country
11
4 Estimated expenditure per student
12
TABLE
1 Major education activities assessed, 2006–07
14


AUSAID EDUCATION: ANNUAL THEMATIC PERFORMANCE REPORT 2006–07
3

Preface
Annual thematic performance reports are among the major new performance
assessment mechanisms introduced by AusAID.
Starting in 2007, AusAID will produce an Annual review of development effectiveness,
informed by annual program performance updates for country and regional
programs, and for key sectors and themes.
The purpose of the annual thematic performance reports is to describe progress
against The Australian aid program’s policy objectives (including regional progress on
the Millennium Development Goals), to identify current challenges in aid delivery
and to highlight lessons to inform future investments.
The annual thematic performance reports aim to highlight key issues in aid delivery,
focusing on the past 12–18 months, rather than to present a comprehensive analysis
of all activities.
Four annual thematic performance reports were produced for 2006–07: on health,
education, gender equality and economic governance. As this year was a pilot, these
four reports are all structured slightly differently.
The four reports were prepared by the relevant thematic group within AusAID,
under the leadership of the relevant adviser for that thematic area. The reports were
all peer reviewed by a combination of internal and external experts.
This report outlines the performance of Australian official development assistance in
the education sector. It aims to evaluate progress towards key education policy
objectives, particularly improving access to quality basic education across Asia and the
Pacific. It also reports on progress in the region towards achieving the Education for all
goals and improving education service delivery and governance. More effective ways
of delivering education assistance and key lessons to inform future investments are
highlighted. The Education annual thematic performance report is primarily concerned with
aid targeted at improving education, particularly schooling, in partner countries. It
does not include an assessment of Australian Scholarships or the new Australia–
Pacific Technical College.
4 AUSAID EDUCATION: ANNUAL THEMATIC PERFORMANCE REPORT 2006–07

Summary
Despite considerable progress over recent years, many countries in the Asia–Pacific
face significant challenges in achieving global Education for all goals, including the
Millennium Development Goals of universal primary education and gender equity in
schooling. While most children in the region enrol in primary school, children with
disabilities and those from minority and remote communities are typically poorly
served, progression to higher levels of education is often low, and the quality of
education provided is sometimes extremely weak.
In 2006–07, Australian official development assistance to education in partner
countries in the region totalled around $200 million. While aid from Australia and
other donors is typically only a small proportion of the resources available to
education in each country, Australia’s investment can help to stimulate key reforms
that will enable more children to attend school and will improve the quality of
education that they receive. Australian aid is therefore allocated strategically to meet
the immediate need in the country and to use opportunities for Australia to make an
effective contribution, taking into account how well foreign assistance can be
absorbed, assistance from other donors and Australian comparative advantages.
Australian aid to education is targeted to improve both the delivery of education
services and the governance of the education sector. Training teachers, reforming the
school curriculum, building infrastructure and improving school management all
make immediate improvements to the delivery of education services, and Australian
activities in these areas have delivered impressive results. But the greatest long-term
impact comes from systemic improvements in the governance of education systems –
ensuring that teachers are effectively deployed, that curriculum materials are made
available to all students every year, that infrastructure is maintained, and that schools
are able to respond to changing circumstances. Improvements in governance are
inevitably slow and incremental; it is often difficult to identify demonstrable impacts
from AusAID programs to build the capacity of partner governments in education.
Drawing on AusAID country program reports, it is estimated that in 2006–07
Australian education programs across the region helped to increase the number of
children in school by a total of around 0.6 million, and to improve the quality of
education for almost 5.5 million children. While improvements in aid effectiveness
will be required in future years to meet Australia’s aims of increasing access for an
additional 10 million children and improving quality for 50 million children, the
results from 2006–07 suggest that these aims will be testing but achievable.


AUSAID EDUCATION: ANNUAL THEMATIC PERFORMANCE REPORT 2006–07
5

Australian education programs in partner countries are making considerable progress
in improving aid effectiveness through greater harmonisation with other donors and
alignment with partner government systems. In a number of partner countries
AusAID is taking a leading role in the establishment of improved ways of working.
In future years, AusAID will continue to strengthen aid effectiveness in education by
focusing on the performance orientation of education programs, aid delivery
mechanisms, information systems, and AusAID capacity development. These
changes are expected to lead to greater impact, especially in the area of improving
education governance.
6 AUSAID EDUCATION: ANNUAL THEMATIC PERFORMANCE REPORT 2006–07

1 The state of the education sector in the Asia–Pacific
Obtaining a clear picture of progress in education in Asia and the Pacific is hindered
by the limited availability of reliable data for many countries in the region. Except
where otherwise stated, all data in this report are drawn from UNESCO’s 2007
Education for all – global monitoring report or AusAID program reports. Both sources rely
on data provided by national governments, which can be inaccurate, incomplete or
out of date. For this reason, it is important that all figures presented in this report be
treated as indicative only and interpreted with caution.
Over the past few decades, most countries in Asia and the Pacific have made
substantial progress on their commitments to provide all children with at least a basic
education. Governments have invested increasing resources in education,
acknowledging the fundamental role that an educated population plays in long-term
economic growth and poverty reduction and in improvements in such areas as health,
including in the fight against HIV/AIDS. The impact of these efforts is illustrated in
Figure 1 (p 8) by the increase in literacy rates across the region.
Most children in the region now have the opportunity to go to school, at least at the
primary level. With the exception of Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Solomon
Islands, primary enrolment rates are well over 90 per cent in East Asia and the
Pacific, and around 82 per cent in South and West Asia. National averages can mask
significant inequalities within countries, however, and children with disabilities and
those from minority ethnic groups and remote communities usually have less access
to school. Opportunities to advance to higher levels of education are often also
limited. Progression rates from primary to secondary school are 68 per cent in the
Pacific and only 45 per cent in South and West Asia.
Many children who enrol in school drop out In Bangladesh, around 13 per cent of children
before completing their education. In PNG
never enrol in school, another 37 per cent drop out
and Pakistan, around half of all children fail
before completing their studies and, of those who
to complete primary school; in Laos and
complete Grade 5, fewer than half reach their
expected standards of achievement.
Burma the attrition rate is one-third. Across
This means that less than one-quarter of all
the region, non-enrolments and dropouts
children in the country complete primary school
combined leave 16 million girls and
with the competencies that they should have
10 million boys out of school.
gained.
A substantial proportion of children in school receive poor quality education and fail
to acquire essential skills. In some countries, even completion of primary school does
not guarantee that a child can read and write. In the Philippines, of the 94 per cent
of children who attend primary school, only 57 per cent master basic literacy
and numeracy.


AUSAID EDUCATION: ANNUAL THEMATIC PERFORMANCE REPORT 2006–07
7

Although the Millennium Development Goal of gender equity in education by 2005
was not achieved, there has been an improvement in gender parity in school
enrolments, with the ratio of girls to boys increasing from 86 per cent in 1991 to
95 per cent in 2004. Some progress has also been made towards broader gender
Figure 1 Growth in literacy across the Asia–Pacific region, 1990 to 2004
8 AUSAID EDUCATION: ANNUAL THEMATIC PERFORMANCE REPORT 2006–07

equality, although in some countries textbooks still promote negative gender
stereotypes, poor infrastructure discourages girls from attending school, and women
are still underrepresented in education management and administration.
Disease and malnutrition reduce the availability of education and the ability of
children to learn while at school. The HIV/AIDS epidemic poses an extremely
serious threat to education both through its impact on teaching workforces and
because it forces large numbers of children, most often girls, to drop out of school to
care for family members. In Asia and the Pacific, countries at particular risk include
Cambodia, PNG and Indonesia.
Countries across Asia and the Pacific are committed to achieving the six
internationally agreed Education for all goals, which include the two Millennium
Development Goals of universal primary education and gender equity in schooling, as
shown in Box 1.

Box 1
International education goals
Millennium Development Goals
> Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to
complete a full course of primary schooling.
> Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by
2005, and in all levels of education no later than 2015.
Education for al goals
> Expand and improve comprehensive early childhood care and education,
especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children.
> Ensure that by 2015 all children, particularly girls, children in difficult
circumstances and those belonging to ethnic minorities, have access to and
complete, free and compulsory primary education of good quality.
> Ensure that the learning needs of all young people and adults are met through
equitable access to appropriate learning and life-skills programs.
> Achieve a 50 per cent improvement in levels of adult literacy by 2015,
especially for women, and equitable access to basic and continuing education
for all adults.
> Eliminate gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005, and
achieve gender equality in education by 2015, with a focus on ensuring girls’
full and equal access to and achievement in basic education of good quality.
> Improve all aspects of the quality of education and ensure excellence of all so
that recognized and measurable learning outcomes are achieved by all,
especially in literacy, numeracy and essential life skills.


AUSAID EDUCATION: ANNUAL THEMATIC PERFORMANCE REPORT 2006–07
9

Progress towards the Education for all goals can be roughly assessed using an
Education Development Index. The values of this index for a selection of countries
in Asia and the Pacific are shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2 Progress towards education goals (Education Development Index)
1998
2002
2004
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Note: The Education Development Index is a measure of progress towards the international Education for all goals, and is a composite indicator
based on the net enrolment rate, adult literacy rate, gender parity indices and survival rate to Grade 5.
Source: Based on research commissioned by AusAID, drawing on UNESCO’s 2006 and 2007 Education for all – global monitoring report and
containing some estimates derived from trend data.
While these figures are based on relatively unreliable data and need to be treated with
caution, they largely confirm more detailed assessments of progress across the region.
Countries such as Indonesia, the Philippines and Samoa have made the greatest
advances in education, although progress has tended to stall in recent years, often as a
result of the greater cost and complexity of extending schooling to the final 5–10 per
cent of hard-to-reach children. Countries such as PNG and Pakistan face the greatest
challenges and have made more limited progress. Serious weaknesses in several of
Australia’s partner countries, particularly in the Pacific, are also revealed by their
inability to provide even the basic data for this index.
10 AUSAID EDUCATION: ANNUAL THEMATIC PERFORMANCE REPORT 2006–07

2 Progress against Australia’s policy objectives
2.1 AUSTRALIA’S AID EXPENDITURE IN THE EDUCATION SECTOR
AusAID’s objective for the education sector is to assist developing Asia–Pacific
countries to reduce poverty and achieve sustainable development by giving more girls
and boys in Asia and the Pacific a better education.
The priorities for the Australian aid program are to:
> improve the functioning of national education systems to enable more girls and
boys to complete primary school and progress to higher levels of education
> improve the relevance and quality of education, including in vocational and
technical education, so that students acquire the knowledge and skills necessary
for life and productive employment.
In 2006–07 Australian official development assistance to education in partner
countries totalled around $190 million.1 An estimated 24 per cent was spent on
strengthening education governance and sector-wide activities; around 28 per cent
was targeted to basic education; 4 per cent to secondary education; and 19 per cent to
vocational education and training.2
Australia’s largest aid partner in the sector was Indonesia, receiving over $100 million
in education assistance. Around $82 million of this was for new activities under the
Australia–Indonesia Program for Reconstruction and Development following the
2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, including significant school construction. The
distribution of Australian aid for
education is shown in shown in
Figure 3 Estimated Australian education ODA
Figure 3. PNG receives $29 million
by country
and the Philippines $16 million.
2006-2007
Australia also provided $8 million for
Pacific
8% Other
the Australia–Pacific Technical College
3%
South Asia
and around 1900 scholarships for
8%
tertiary students in the region.
Philippines
9%
Technical assistance constituted a
Indo nesia
significant proportion of aid to
56%
education in some countries: 65 per
PNG
cent in Fiji; and over 25 per cent in
16%

Source: AusAID Statistics Unit, 2007.

1 From provisional data provided by AusAID Statistics Unit.
2 AusAID 2006/07 Budget Statement analysis across DAC codes in line with the strategic framework of the White Paper.


AUSAID EDUCATION: ANNUAL THEMATIC PERFORMANCE REPORT 2006–07
11

Indonesia and the Philippines. Much of this technical assistance followed a short-
term model with many advisers spending less than a year in country.
Support for education will be expanded across the Asia–Pacific region. The 2007−08
budget announced an additional $540.3 million over four years for education, starting
with $43.2 million in 2007–08. This additional funding will triple support for the
education sector by 2010 from around $100 million annually. New assistance will be
provided to the education sectors of East Timor and South Asia. Major existing
programs will be strengthened in Indonesia, the Philippines, PNG and the Pacific.
This support will help to strengthen national education systems in terms of better
governance and improved service delivery, as well as targeting specific education
needs such as extended support for Islamic schooling, vocational education and
training and development of English language skills.
Australian aid is usually a small proportion of the total financing for education in
partner countries. Total expenditure per student (including contributions from public
funds, private payments and foreign assistance) are shown in Figure 4 for a selection
of countries in Asia and the Pacific. The limited correlation between expenditure per
student and progress towards the Education for all goals (Figure 1) indicates that many
countries are spending money ineffectively and that significant reforms of the
education system will be necessary to improve service delivery.
Figure 4 Estimated expenditure per student
Public funds
Private funds (including fees)
Other ODA
Australian ODA
Nepal
Laos
Afghanistan
Bangladesh
Pakistan
Philippines
Vietnam
Indonesia
PNG
Vanuatu
$0
$50
$100
$150
$200
$250
$300
$350
$400
$450
$500


Since the vast majority of partner government resources (sometimes over 95 per cent)
are assigned to teacher salaries, even relatively small volumes of aid from Australia
and other donors can often help to leverage key reforms in the delivery of education.
Australian aid is allocated strategically to meet immediate needs in the country and to
12 AUSAID EDUCATION: ANNUAL THEMATIC PERFORMANCE REPORT 2006–07

maximise the opportunities for Australia to make an effective contribution, taking
into account how well foreign assistance can be absorbed, support from other donors
and Australian comparative advantages.
> Indonesia, the Philippines, Samoa and, until recently, Fiji are not dependent on foreign
assistance and have made good progress in education. In these countries, Australian
aid is a small proportion of the total envelope of resources available in the education
sector, and is most effectively used to support critical improvements, such as
promoting a fair allocation of resources to disadvantaged regions (for example, Nusa
Tenggara Timur in Indonesia and Mindanao in the Philippines).
> Vanuatu, Nepal and Bangladesh still require continuing foreign assistance but have
been making fair progress in education. Education system reforms are already
underway in these countries, and the most effective use of Australian aid is to
provide additional resources to increase the speed and scale of planned
improvements.
> Kiribati, Nauru, PNG, East Timor, Pakistan and Laos have been making only moderate
progress in education, despite in many cases receiving substantial foreign aid. In
these countries, Australian aid is most effectively used to prompt essential reforms
in the education system and provide the resources required to carry them through.
> Sri Lanka and Afghanistan are suffering serious internal conflicts or political
instability. In these countries, Australia provides humanitarian assistance in
education through respected international agencies such as UNICEF and CARE.
> Vietnam, Cambodia, the Maldives, Tuvalu, Tonga, the Cook Islands and Solomon Islands
receive foreign aid for education from other donor agencies but not currently from
Australia. The situation in these countries is kept under constant review, and there
may be the need and opportunity for Australia to make a contribution in future.
As AusAID triples its official development assistance for education over the next
four years, levels of support to individual partner countries will need to be carefully
adjusted to reflect changes in needs and opportunities for Australian aid
2.2 ACHIEVEMENTS
Drawing on AusAID country program reports, broad estimates have been derived for
Australia’s contributions to increasing the number of children in school and
improving the quality of education delivered over the past year. Although these
figures must be treated with considerable caution, according to this analysis
Australian education programs across the region have contributed in 2006−07 to
increasing the number of children in school by a total of around 0.6 million, and to
improving the quality of education for almost 5.5 million children. The limited data
available do not allow these results to be disaggregated by gender in this first year of
thematic performance reporting.


AUSAID EDUCATION: ANNUAL THEMATIC PERFORMANCE REPORT 2006–07
13

Table 1 summarises the quality ratings of major education aid activities in the
implementation stage during 2006–07 in seven key aid partner countries using the
AusAID Quality Reporting Tool, which captures information regarding achievement
of objectives, implementation progress, monitoring and evaluation and sustainability.
According to these management reports, overall quality scores achieved across the
education sector show activities are tracking well, with 95 per cent of activities scoring
satisfactorily in terms of achieving objectives and implementation progress, 90 per cent
scoring satisfactorily in terms of sustainability, and 70 per cent scoring satisfactorily in
terms of monitoring and evaluation. Key findings are summarised in Table 1.
Table 1
Major education activities assessed, 2006–07
Achieving
Implementation Monitoring and
Sustainability
objectives
progress
evaluation
% of activities rated satisfactory
95%
95%
70%
90%
Source: AusAID Quality Reporting System, 2007.
The consistency of scores using the Quality Reporting System across different
programs is improving, although further progress is required. There still appear to be
noticeable discrepancies between the scores provided by different country programs.
The scores for activities that more closely resemble traditional stand-alone projects
are also appreciably higher than those for activities that are closer to sectoral
programs. As AusAID engages in more education sectoral programs, greater efforts
will be required to ensure that these meet expected quality standards.
The Australian aid program’s education policy commits to ‘a dual emphasis on
improving the governance of the systems and on strengthening the quality and
efficiency of service delivery’ (p. 1). The following subsections look at the extent of the
achievements of the Australian education aid program in relation to these two goals of
improving service delivery and enhancing governance of the education sector.
2.2.1 IMPROVING SERVICE DELIVERY
Australian support for improving the delivery of education services is designed to
enhance partner governments’ own efforts, and is usually aimed at four key areas:
teacher training; curriculum and materials; infrastructure; and school operations.
> Supporting teacher training: properly trained teachers can have an enormous
impact on the quality of education, and AusAID has a long history of supporting
teacher training. For example, in the Philippines during 2006–07, AusAID
provided in-service training for close to 9000 teachers, including 350 Muslim
teachers, in the key subject areas of English, mathematics and science, as well as in
multigrade teaching. In Laos, AusAID has provided in-service training to over
4000 teachers and pre-service training to nearly 400 ethnic minority teachers, over
half of whom are women.
14 AUSAID EDUCATION: ANNUAL THEMATIC PERFORMANCE REPORT 2006–07

> Curriculum and materials: good textbooks based on a rigorous school
curriculum also contribute to improving the quality of education. AusAID
provides significant support for curriculum reform and the production of related
materials. For example, in PNG AusAID recently helped to complete the reform
of the school curriculum and in 2006–07 distributed learning materials to all 4531
elementary, 3273 primary and 183 lower secondary schools in the country, directly
benefiting over 1 million students.
> School operations: well-functioning schools increase participation and provide
children with a better education. A number of AusAID programs are focused on
improving the operation of schools, often within particular localities. For example,
in Mindanao and the Visayas in the Philippines, AusAID has been supporting the
rollout of school-based management. In 2006, more than 5600 school heads and
district supervisors were provided with training that enabled their schools to
implement their plans within the allocated resources. In Indonesia’s East Nusa
Tenggara province, Australia has helped to improve school administration and
management through developing district school handbooks, which have allowed
over two-thirds of schools in target regions to produce their first school
development plans.
> Infrastructure: adequate classroom places and other facilities are essential to
increase participation in education. AusAID has supported a wide range of
projects to improve essential school infrastructure. For example, in Indonesia,
access to school has been increased through the construction of 380 junior
secondary schools, including 46 Islamic schools, over the past year – creating an
additional 70 000 new school places ready for the 2007 school year. In Kiribati,
around 4000 new school places have been added through the construction of
seven junior secondary schools.
> Re-establishing schools after natural disasters: Australia has provided rapid
support for re-establishing education services after natural disasters, often working
with communities, non-government agencies and partner governments. After the
Pakistan earthquake, 4800 transitional tent schools were set up to cater for over
427 000 children. Following the Indian Ocean tsunami, as part of the Australia–
Indonesia Partnership for Reconstruction and Development, Australia rebuilt
2840 school places in nine schools in Aceh. In response to the 2006 typhoons in
the Philippines, AusAID contributed to emergency repair works in the 10 worst-
affected schools, benefiting more than 11 000 students.
> The promotion of gender equality: has been successfully integrated into most
of AusAID’s education activities. Teacher training programs have helped to
improve the gender balance in teaching workforces. Curriculum reforms have
redressed gender stereotypes in learning materials. Infrastructure programs have
helped to encourage more girls into school, for example by providing separate
toilet facilities. Women have also been empowered to play a greater role in the
management of education, particularly as members of school boards.


AUSAID EDUCATION: ANNUAL THEMATIC PERFORMANCE REPORT 2006–07
15

AusAID also addresses specific regional needs, including English language education,
Islamic schooling and vocational education.
> English is the foremost language for international communication, trade and
higher education. Many of AusAID’s education programs include activities to
improve English teaching in schools, for example by training English language
teachers and producing English language textbooks. In Indonesia, AusAID has
also supported the popular Radio Kang Guru English program, which broadcasts
via 130 radio stations across the nation each week and reaches over 17 000 people
through print and electronic media each quarter.
> Islamic schools, including schools in Indonesia, the Philippines, Pakistan and
Bangladesh, provide both general and religious education for large numbers of
children, and are an important part of national education systems. In Indonesia and
the Philippines, AusAID has been supporting Islamic schools to improve the quality
of secular subjects in the curriculum. In the Philippines, an AusAID training
program in English language, lesson planning and teaching skills for Islamic schools
has been adopted as a national prototype by the Department of Education.
> Improving vocational and technical training for young people is essential to
improve employment and productivity. AusAID’s vocational education programs
have focused on adapting and transferring the essential elements of Australia’s
world-leading system based on demonstrable competencies and led by demand from
industry. While these programs have made valuable incremental improvements in
the past, broader system reforms have been more elusive and there have been few
demonstrable gains in employment or productivity. The lessons learned from earlier
activities have been applied in a new vocational education program in Pakistan. By
linking support to progress against an agreed set of reforms, AusAID is helping to
drive essential changes in the vocational education system while ensuring that
Australian aid is only used when it will be effective.
2.2.2 BUILDING GOVERNMENT CAPACITY
AusAID’s long-term ambition is for countries in Asia and the Pacific to be able to
sustain well-functioning and affordable education systems. While inputs to service
delivery produce immediate and often significant benefits, the greatest long-term
impact is from systemic improvements in the governance of education – ensuring
that teachers are effectively deployed, that curriculum materials are made available to
all students every year, that infrastructure is maintained, and that schools are able to
respond to changing circumstances, such as population growth and urban migration.
Most AusAID education programs include significant components to build the
capacity of partner governments alongside inputs to service delivery. Although
ministries of education are typically only one of a number of public and private sector
agencies that contribute to education, they are responsible both for establishing the
16 AUSAID EDUCATION: ANNUAL THEMATIC PERFORMANCE REPORT 2006–07

regulatory environment (such as teacher qualifications) and for the allocation of most
of the resources available to the sector. Improvements in governance are inevitably
slow and incremental, and primarily rely on partner government commitment and
capacity. Accordingly, it is often difficult to identify demonstrable impacts from
AusAID programs to build capacity in education.
While most countries in the Pacific allocate well above the international benchmark
of 20 per cent of their national budgets to education, allocations across Asia are often
much lower. There is little evidence that aid from Australia or other donors has had
an influence on partner governments’ allocations to education. In the past few years,
few of AusAID’s partner countries have made any significant change to overall levels
of public funding for education, or to the allocation of resources within the sector. In
Laos, despite very high levels of foreign assistance, government salaries are still so
low and infrequently paid that teachers often cannot afford to be in the classroom. In
the Philippines, while AusAID’s model for supporting Islamic schools has been
officially adopted as a national prototype, this has yet to translate into a change in
levels or forms of government support.
Education systems in the Asia–Pacific are encumbered by a variety of inefficiencies,
such as large class sizes, low contact hours, delays in disbursements and inequitable
distribution of resources. Australian aid has had mixed results in improving the
efficiency of partner governments’ education systems. Teacher training programs
have undoubtedly enhanced the quality of education in many classrooms but have
had a negligible influence on teacher deployment. Curriculum reform programs have
improved textbooks but have not helped to ensure that they are routinely delivered to
students. New schools have been constructed but are often not maintained. School
operation programs have made demonstrable enhancements in the way that schools
in the target localities are run; however, because of their limited influence on national
policy and practices they have rarely had a broader or longer term impact. Even
capacity-building programs, which have often made significant improvements in
individual work practices, have rarely had demonstrable impacts on the efficiency of
education systems. One exception has been an AusAID initiative to cleanse the
teacher payroll in PNG, which has resulted in savings of up to $4 million in public
funds every year.
2.3 INCREASING AID EFFECTIVENESS
As AusAID triples its support for education over the next four years, an additional
$540 million will be allocated to supporting education in partner countries. While
considerable improvements in aid effectiveness will be required over future years to
meet AusAID’s aims of increasing access for an additional 10 million children and
improving quality for 50 million children, the results from 2006–07 suggest that these
aims will be testing but achievable. Annual program monitoring will continue and be


AUSAID EDUCATION: ANNUAL THEMATIC PERFORMANCE REPORT 2006–07
17

enhanced to track and report progress against these criteria, and will ensure that all
data are disaggregated by gender.
In line with the Paris declaration on aid effectiveness, AusAID is committed to
strengthening harmonisation and alignment by continuing the shift towards broader
sectoral programs. The key features of sectoral programs are that they are led by
partner governments, inputs from all donors are made against a single prioritised and
costed education sector plans, and donors move to greater reliance on partner
government systems.
The move to more effective ways of working is strongly influenced by the situation in
individual partner countries (especially by the levels of partner government
commitment and capacity) and by the policies and practices of other donors.
In countries with strong government-led education programs already underway, such
as Indonesia and the Philippines, AusAID has moved quickly over the past year to
align support with critical reforms, including a fairer allocation of resources to
historically disadvantaged regions.
> In Indonesia, the school building program under the Australia–Indonesia
Partnership for Reconstruction and Development is based on Indonesian
Government plans and uses existing processes for contracting. In 2006 a total of
$57 million in grants for school building was disbursed through the Indonesian
Treasury, incorporating appropriate safeguards against corruption.
> In the Philippines, a major new investment in the Philippines Government’s
reform program alongside the World Bank has been agreed to build on existing
AusAID programs in Mindanao and the Visayas. Australia will put additional
effort into ensuring that national and subnational elements of its basic education
assistance are mutually reinforcing, so that reforms at the national level are well
implemented locally, and successful approaches to implementing change locally
are better integrated into improvements to the national system.
In some countries with existing sectoral programs, concerns about financial
management and institutional capacity have led Australia to develop complementary
strategies for engagement. In Bangladesh, AusAID is currently providing parallel
support to the sectoral program through UNICEF and the Bangladesh Rural
Advancement Committee (BRAC), a local non-government organisation.
Many of AusAID’s partner countries in the Asia–Pacific region are developing new
sectoral programs in education.
> In Vanuatu and PNG, AusAID played a crucial role in gaining initial government
commitments to this new way of working. Officers at post are leading efforts
within local donor groups to improve coordination and provide effective support
for the establishment of these programs.
18 AUSAID EDUCATION: ANNUAL THEMATIC PERFORMANCE REPORT 2006–07

> In East Timor, we have recently formed a partnership with the World Bank to
support vocational education and training in line with government plans.
> In Laos, AusAID is driving an initiative to start to bring donors and the
government together to develop a shared plan for supporting education.
Nauru, Kiribati and Pakistan have severe capacity constraints and are not yet in a
position to set up harmonised and aligned sectoral programs. Even in these countries,
AusAID has made significant advances in coordinating donor assistance. In Kiribati,
AusAID and NZAID have been working on a joint program of support.
Following the military coup in Fiji in December 2006, planned moves to a sectoral
program in Fiji were put on hold. To avoid hurting the people of Fiji, it is proposed
to extend the existing AusAID education program for an additional year at current
funding levels.


AUSAID EDUCATION: ANNUAL THEMATIC PERFORMANCE REPORT 2006–07
19

3 Key lessons
The effectiveness of aid for education needs to improve over the next four years to
achieve AusAID’s aim of increasing the number of children in school by 10 million
and improving the quality of education for 50 million children.
Strengthening aid effectiveness will require a greater focus on the performance
orientation of education programs, aid delivery mechanisms and information systems,
and on capacity development within AusAID. These changes are expected to lead to
greater impact, especially in the area of improving education governance.
3.1 PERFORMANCE ORIENTATION
AusAID education programs must be more tightly focused on achieving clear,
measurable and realistic objectives. While activities to improve service delivery have
generally achieved their expected outputs, more attention must be paid to achieving
tangible impacts, such as increased participation and learning in schools. Similarly,
activities to enhance governance through capacity building will need to be able to
show that they are delivering demonstrably better functioning national education
systems (evidenced, for example, by improvements in resource allocations or
efficiency measures such as improved class sizes).
3.2 AID DELIVERY MECHANISMS
Aid effectiveness will be improved by the adoption of a range of delivery mechanisms
tailored to country contexts. Sectoral programs are generally the most effective means
for supporting public education systems in partner countries, since aid is aligned with
partner government plans, coordinated with other foreign assistance and efficiently
targeted. Also, the partnership arrangements within sectoral programs provide
leverage for donors to influence policies and stimulate systemic reform (see Box 2).
3.3 INFORMATION SYSTEMS
In 2006–07 AusAID made significant advances in the monitoring and evaluation of
education programs. For example, AusAID’s Philippines Program developed a new
performance framework, closely aligned with the Philippines Government’s own
framework, indicators and data collection systems, to monitor progress against
specific and measurable objectives. In addition to ensuring that all of AusAID’s
education programs adopt a similarly robust approach, two key issues will need to be
addressed in future years.
20 AUSAID EDUCATION: ANNUAL THEMATIC PERFORMANCE REPORT 2006–07


Box 2
Lessons learned from sectoral programs in education
Support for sectoral programs needs to be responsive and flexible, particularly
during the early stages. Partner governments that have been accustomed to
receiving foreign aid in the form of discrete projects often need time to develop
transparent and comprehensive plans covering all investments in the education
sector. AusAID must be ready to respond to partner government needs as they
emerge during this process, and must avoid pre-empting partner government plans
by ‘locking in’ long-term commitments too early.
AusAID needs to continue building relationships with other bilateral agencies and the
development banks. A lack of coordination and competing priorities among donor
agencies have often been the greatest obstacles to the development of effective
programs of support. In the past year there has been good progress both at the
country level, where AusAID posted officers have forged close relationships with
other agencies, and at the institutional level, where AusAID was a founding member
of a series of regular meetings between education donors in the Pacific. In addition to
the new commitment to the Education for All Fast Track Initiative under the World
Bank, AusAID must make additional efforts to harmonise assistance with
organisations such as the European Union and the Asian Development Bank, which
have in practice adopted the most dissimilar approaches in their country programs.
Sectoral programs need to involve all levels of government in partner countries,
especially where responsibility for service delivery is devolved to subnational
administrations. While AusAID has in the past worked at both national and
subnational levels in many country education programs, those activities have rarely
led to improved links within the partner government system. AusAID will need to
intensify its efforts to build such links in future years.

> As countries across the region move to education sector programs, AusAID will
increasingly rely on partner governments’ information systems to monitor some of
the essential education system data, such as the number of children in school and
financial flows within the sector. Few partner governments have robust education
information management systems, despite many activities by Australia and other
donors. AusAID needs to work closely with partner governments and other
agencies to provide coordinated support to develop such systems.
> AusAID will also need to place a higher priority on evaluating the impact of aid
and on learning lessons from past activities. In the past, evaluation was sometimes
seen as a long-term endeavour beyond the scope of the activity. Although some
evaluation has been conducted through routine activity completion reporting, of
more than 1000 education programs supported by AusAID over the past 10 years,


AUSAID EDUCATION: ANNUAL THEMATIC PERFORMANCE REPORT 2006–07
21

fewer than 20 have been scrutinised through independent ex-post evaluations. To
address this weakness, a major evaluation of AusAID’s education programs has
recently been launched, with support from the Australian Research Council.
3.4 AUSAID CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT
AusAID needs to accelerate the professional development of its own staff.
Increasingly, AusAID officers are called on to make technical policy judgements
about partner governments’ education plans and strategies, in addition to their
routine work managing Australian assistance. A recent corporate restructure of
AusAID resulted in the establishment of the Education Thematic Group, which is
charged with, among other things, staff development and knowledge management.
22 AUSAID EDUCATION: ANNUAL THEMATIC PERFORMANCE REPORT 2006–07

Acronyms and abbreviations
AusAID
Australian Agency for International Development
BRAC
Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee
CARE
humanitarian organisation fighting global poverty
DAC
Development Assistance Committee
NZAID
New Zealand’s International Aid & Development Agency
ODA
official development assistance
PNG Papua
New
Guinea
UNESCO
United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation
UNICEF
United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund



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