According to the Bank’s website, the objective of this project is to increase participation in preprimary and senior secondary education and improve learning conditions in supported schools, particularly at the junior secondary level.

The proposed PROPEL Botswana (Promoting Participation And Enhancing Learning) project will support the Government of Botswana (GoB) to increase participation in preprimary and senior secondary education and improve learning conditions in supported schools, particularly at the junior secondary level.

To achieve this objective, four components are envisaged:
* Component 1. Increasing participation in education. Given Botswana's near-universal primary enrollment and high participation and completion rates at the junior secondary level, this component will strengthen participation at the two ends of the basic education cycle--preprimary and senior secondary--where access and progression gaps remain. It will support the development of national strategies to guide the cost-effective expansion of services in both subsectors, while financing targeted investments to operationalize these strategies and expand participation in a fiscally sustainable manner.
* Component 2. Enhancing the learning environment. This component will improve the learning environment at both ends of the system--reception classrooms and secondary schools--by addressing deteriorating physical infrastructure and critical shortages of teaching and learning resources in existing facilities, while ensuring that newly constructed or expanded facilities are adequately resourced.
* Component 3. Expanding access and improving the learning environment, as supported under Components 1 and 2, will not translate into better learning outcomes without teachers who are well-prepared and supported, and an assessment system that generates actionable information for improvement. Through a hybrid modality combining performance-based conditions (PBCs) and IPF financing, this component will strengthen initial teacher education, professional development, and workforce policies, and supporting school-based student assessment and system-level monitoring and benchmarking of educational achievement.
*Component 4: Project Management and Implementation Support. This component will support the Ministry of Child Welfare and Basic Education's (MCWBE) Project Delivery Unit (PDU) in coordinating the efficient implementation of project activities. To this end, the subcomponent would finance: (a) staffing that may be needed, including technical coordinators for relevant components; (b) costs associated with data collection, aggregation, and periodic reporting of the project's implementation progress; (c) communication and dissemination activities to facilitate adequate stakeholder engagement on the project activities; (d) costs to monitor and ensure compliance with the Environmental and Social Commitment Plan (ESCP) under the project; and (e) overall project operating and audit costs.

The Environmental and Social risk is rated Moderate, reflecting the small to medium-scale civil works associated with the construction of new classrooms and the rehabilitation of existing school infrastructure. The anticipated environmental and social risks and impacts are largely associated with Subcomponents 1.1, 1.2 and 2.1, which support construction of new reception and senior secondary classrooms and rehabilitation of approximately 66 junior secondary schools. Impacts are considered typical of civil works in institutional settings and include generation of noise and dust, general and hazardous waste, limited vegetation clearance and soil disturbance, and localized demand for water and energy. All works are confined to existing government-owned school compounds; no land acquisition is required and no impacts on sensitive habitats or protected areas are anticipated. The potential presence of asbestos-containing materials (ACMs) in older school buildings requires mandatory pre-works screening and safe handling and disposal in accordance with national regulations and the World Bank Group Environmental, Health and Safety (WBG EHS) Guidelines. The rehabilitation of deteriorated sanitation systems will require safe management of sewage sludge, excavation near existing water infrastructure, and confined space entry with associated risk of exposure to toxic and asphyxiating gases, particularly hydrogen sulfide and methane. These hazards are compounded by Botswana’s extreme climate conditions: temperatures regularly exceeding 40 degrees Celsius elevate heat stress risks for outdoor workers, while recurrent flooding increases the probability of trench collapse during excavation and heightens confined space risks from water ingress into underground sanitation infrastructure being rehabilitated. Community workers engaged under the participatory maintenance model under Subcomponent 2.1 present additional Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) considerations given their likely limited awareness of construction hazards. Community health and safety (CHS) risks include disruption to teaching and learning, dust and noise impacts on students and teachers in adjacent classrooms, traffic management near school sites, and provision of safe egress for students during construction.

Total Project Cost: US$ 104.00 million
Loan Commitment (IBRD): US$ 104.00 million

CONTACT POINT - World Bank

Task Team Leader: Samira Nikaein Towfighian
Title: Senior Education Specialist
Email: snikaein@worldbank.org

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