Education Development Board
Monday 11 January, 2010
9:15 – 12:00
Venue: Ministry of Education
Draft Minutes
Co-Chair: Steering Committee: Ministry of Education
Dr. Attaullah Wahidyar, MOE
Ms. Heather Cruden, CIDA Denmark Mr. Poul Erik Rasmussen Mr. Mirwais Masood (recording secretary)
CIDA Ms. Lara Babbie/Mr. Chris Braeuel Mr. Abdul Wassay Arian
France Ms. Marie Caillat Ms. Susan Wardak
JICA Mr. Takumi Koide Mr. Samir Amiri
Netherlands Ms. Janneke Vrijland Mr. Abdul Rashid Hamza
Norway Ms. Kristin Hauge Mr. Hamid Askarzada
Observers: PACE-A Mr. Hafizullah Nazarwall Mr. Habib-ur Rehman
LTC Andrii BABAK, ISAF HQ SCA Mr. Amin Mayel Mr. Subhan
Alisa Stack, ISAF Joint Command Sweden Ms. Marianne Von Malmborg
Major Dennis Howell, ISAF Joint Command UNESCO Ms. Marina Patrier
Ms. Renu Jain, USAID UNICEF Ms. Calister Mtalo
Mr. Farid Tanai, DANIDA USAID MS. Grace Lang
Mr. Javad Ahmadi, World Bank World Bank Mr. Mostaeen Jouya
Ms. Celina Jensen, UNESCO Chamber of Commerce Absent
UNAMA Absent
India Mr. T.S. Kanaka Sabesan
ANCB Absent GTZ (on Behalf of Mr. Michael Hirth
German Embassy)
No. / Item / Discussion / Responsible / Action Points1. / Welcome and Introduction / · The meeting started with welcoming and introduction of participants since some participants were new to the meeting.
· In the inaugural remarks the chair and co-chair welcomed membership of GTZ (represented by Michael Hirth) on behalf of German Embassy as well as Alisa Stack and Dennis Howell from ISAF Joint Chief of Command and Andrii BABAKfrom ISAF Headquarter as observers to the board.
· The Chair and Co-Chair praising outstanding contributions of Lara Babbie of the Canadian Embassy thanked her for her extensive support for EDB since its inception in December 2008. It was last meeting of Ms. Babbie at the EDB as she is leaving the country after completion of her mission in early February 2010. The Chair and Co-Chair also welcomed Mr. Christopher Braeuel, replacement of Ms. Babbie, for joining the team and wished him all the best for his new assignment. / No Action
2. / Approval of the Agenda. / · The meeting agenda was approved with following additions under AOB:
1. Update on Infrastructure Working Group by DANIDA
2. Update on Agricultural Education and Urozgan Mission by the Netherlands
3. Update on Advanced Child Right in School training program by the Swedish Embassy.
4. ISAF update on its support to education
5. Brief Presentation on reform of Monitoring system by MoE
6.
For better planning of the meetings the EDB Secretariat requested members to send their request for inclusion of any issue to agenda at least one week before the set date of the meeting. / EDB Secretariat / Amend the agenda accordingly
3. / Approval of the Minutes / · Minutes of the 02 November meeting was approved without any further changes. The Chair requested the members to read minutes of previous meeting before attending the meeting. / EDB Members / To read minutes of pervious meeting ahead of new eeting.
4. / EDB Evaluation and Way Forward
4.1 / Evaluation of EDB—Presentation of the Survey Data / Key findings of the EDB performance survey was presented by Mr. Masood. The data shows a good level of EDB members’ satisfaction about the EDB achievements since its inception in December 2008; however, members also have expressed desires for some reforms that the EDB should introduce. The desired changes include focused prioritization of policy discussions; better management of meetings; size and composition; and, the board linkages between MoE senior management and the technical working groups. (for more details see the attached presentation) / The EDB Secretariat / No Action
4.2 / Open Discussion-- to Discuss the Way Forward for EDB Including to Agree on key policy Focus Areas / · EDB members expressed their views about the way forward for EDB as following:
o EDB meetings should transform to more focused policy discussions on issue of high priority for education. In addition to the NESP, the day to day issues of financial and program implementation and the field case studies the following should become the source of policy discussion.
§ The technical working group list of priorities and action plans;
§ Two semi annual meetings of EDB with larger participation of education partners including Ministry of Higher Education, Ministry of Women Affairs and Ministry Labor and Social Affairs. The first meeting should be used as a planning session for implementation of the NESP II probably in May or June and the second one by the end of the year to measure the progress of NESP II.
§ Members should also send their list of priority issues to the EDB Secretariat.
o The linkage between the technical working groups and EDB steering committee (SC) should be strengthened which should allow easy flow of policy issues from technical working groups to the EDB SC. / Technical Working Groups
The Members / To send list of their group policy priority issues and action plans for 2010 to the EDB Secretariat before 31st January 2010.
Revise ToR of the EDB and share it in the next meeting of EDB.
The EDB members to send their list of policy priority issues to the EDB Secretariat by end January.
4.3 / Co-Chair Selection for EDB / · The proposed process for selection of the co-chair was shared with the EDB members and it was accepted by the members as a mechanism for selection of the co-chair which should replace CIDA in May 2010. According to the process members were requested that any member of the EDB can nominate their agency or nominate a member of the EDB member as the co-chair. All the information should be sent to the EDB Secretariat. The Secretariat will present the information in the February meeting of EDB.
· If there is only one nomination automatically, it becomes the new co-chair and if there were more than one nomination, members can vote for their choice.
· The new co-chair can negotiate with CIDA in case it needs financial support of CIDA to continue to the EDB Secretariat.
· DANIDA announced its nomination in the meeting by stating that the Embassy of Denmark after its internal consultation on the issue is willing to undertake the role of next EDB co-chair and also commits financial support the EDB Secretariat. / Members / EDB members to send to the EDB Secretariat their agency nomination or their support for nomination of another member.
5. / Working Groups Reports
5.1 / Tec Voc— UNAMA / · The group is going to meet on Tuesday 12 January in UNAMA. EDB members are invited to attend the meeting.
· Mr. Sarwar Azizi has been appointed as the acting Deputy Minister for TEVE after resignation of Mr. Salim Qaueem.
/ UNAMA / To share the group action plan for 2010 with the EDB Secretariat.
5.2 / Teacher Education—TED and WB / · The main focus of the Teacher Education Working has been on competency test result analysis and accelerating the pay & grade reform. So far 17,000 teachers have already been placed on pay & grade. Out of the 45,254 teachers who attended the first phase of the test, 43,187 have passed the test. There will be a teacher training program for the remaining 2,067 teachers who have failed the test to upgrade their knowledge and teaching proficiency so that they can sit for a second round of the test.
· The teacher education accelerated program is another area of focus. The concept paper of it is pending which will be shared with members.
· The group will revise its priority list for 2010 and work on its action plan and share them with the EDB Secretariat. / The TED / To share the group action plan for 2010 with the EDB Secretariat.
5.3 / General Education / · The group met on 04 January 2010 and the main issue of discussion was draft of an action plan for the group. The group is going to hold a workshop probably on 27 January to review and finalize the draft action plan and submit it to H.E DM for Academic Affairs for his endorsement. / The Group Chair/Co-Chair / Share the Action Plan for 2010 with the EDB Secretariat after finalization.
5.4 / Literacy Education (LIFE Group) / · The Literacy Action Plan has been finalized and the group in its last meeting discussed integration of literacy into FTI process. On behalf of the group AfghanistanCoordinationGerman Adult Education Association (dvv International) has sent a letter to the EDB SC expressing their concern that literacy education should be included in the FTI assessment.
· The group discussed the way forward to establish itself at the provincial level with support of partner agencies.
· LEAF-2 project (supported by JICA) will start with the objective of supporting the Literacy Department in establishment of literacy monitoring and evaluation system. / The Group Chair/Co-Chair / Share action plan of the group for 2010 with the EDB Secretariat.
6 / Business Arising From the Minutes
6.1 / Fast Track Initiative Update—MoE and CIDA / · Due to a series of administrative issues still the contract has not been issued for Adam Smith International to start the FTI assessment. The issue of corporation agreements between DANIDA, USAID and CIDA and a MoU between the three donors and MoE should be placed before. / No Action
6.2 / Brief on NESP Progress—MoE / · The final version of NESP has been shared with EDB members. In the revised version some policy change issues have been inserted e.g. For some other policy issues, research and pilots are considered as follows:
o Developing bilingual teaching skills of teachers;
o starting teaching of Pashtu and Dari as a second language from first grade; and
o Under General Education some model schools have been included;
· The final version includes costing as well which totals up to 8 billion dollars. 50 % is operating cost which 25 of the operating cost is non-salary cost and 91 percent of the operating budget is for general education. Of the total development budget 61 percent is construction and 8 percent is for ICT development. 7 percent of the development overall budget is for literacy and 16 percent is for curriculum and teacher education.
· Mr. Amir from MoE GMU requested those donors who have not provided their data on their contribution to education based on the distributed form should immediately send their information. This information will complete the NESP donor commitment section. / Donors / Donors to fill the form on financial contributions and send it to MoE GMU.
7. / AOB
7.1 / Update on Advanced Child Right in School training program by the Sweden Embassy / SIDA is supporting participation of three Afghans, presenting MoE and civil society to attend a training on child rights in school training in Sweden. All the documents should be finalized by February. / No Action
7.2 / Infrastructure Group / · DANIDA is still in the process of drafting a concept paper for the Infrastructure Group which will be shared with the EDB Secretariat. / DANIDA / To share the concept paper with the EDB Secretariat
7.3 / ISAF update on its support to education / ISAF at two level is involved in supporting the education:
1. Through the ISAF Headquarter Chief of Command—Education is one of the main priorities for social projects of ISAF. MoE was visited by Deputy Chief of Staff of ISAF.
2. Through the Joint Chief of Command at the provincial level—a lot of school construction projects are implemented through the Joint Chief of Command.
ISAF is very pleased to be part of the EDB as an observer and the team will make a presentation to the board in the next meeting of EDB on ISAF education activities. / ISAF / A presentation on ISAF education activities.
7.4 / Update on Agricultural Education and Urozgan Mission by the Netherlands / · The Agricultural education project is moving well and there have been some good progress.
· A team of the Netherlands embassy visited Urozgan and they have good discussion at the field level for improving of the activities. It is very important that such visits should be made to the field. / No Action
7.5 / Brief Presentation on Monitoring system reform by MoE / World Bank is closely working with MoE on revision and reform of the M&E system with focused intervention on:
· Decentralization of M&E system and its expansion to the province and district level.
· Establishing a tracking system as well as an accountable reporting mechanism
The system will be piloted with a small scale before wide implementation. (For more details see attached Presentation)
DANIDA has committed to support the provincial monitoring system. / No Action
7.5 / Meeting of MoE Provincial Directors / MoE is in the process of organizing a meeting of provincial directors in Kabul. One day of the program can be allocated for EDB members to meet with the directors. The Netherlands Embassy suggested that they can host a session for the donors to meet with the directors. / No Action
Next Meeting: Monday 08 February 2010
3