Côte d’Ivoire: Secondary Education Activity for Employability and Production Project

The Millennium Challenge Corporation and the Government of Côte d’Ivoire are addressing these education shortfalls and other challenges through a Compact signed in November 2017. The Compact is composed of two projects, including the $157 million Skills for Employability and Productivity Project. The Secondary Education Activity, which falls under the Skills Project, is intended to improve education access and quality at the lower secondary level through four sub-activities:

1. The Equitable Access sub-activity seeks to construct, equip, and provide support for 30 new lower secondary schools known as collèges de proximité (CDPs) in rural and peri-urban communities in the Gbêkê and San Pedro regions. 
2. The Teacher Training sub-activity aims to enhance the Government of Côte d’Ivoire’s pre-service and in-service teacher training and support through an improved curriculum, improved supervision, and new training facilities, with the goal of improving the quality of lower secondary education. 
3. The Gender Policy sub-activity seeks to reduce gender disparities in access to education through a new national Gender Policy and accompanying gender priority action activities in Gbêkê and San Pedro to increase girls’ enrollment, transition, and completion rates for lower secondary school.
4. The Management Systems sub-activity seeks to improve the gathering, management, analysis, and use of information to promote data-informed decision making in the Ivorian education sector. This includes developing an integrated education management information system (EMIS), developing and administering national student assessments for lower secondary students, participating in international testing programs, and providing technical assistance to the Ministry of Education to build capacity on using the information generated from the EMIS and student assessments to make data-driven decisions.

Mathematica will use a mixed-methods approach comprised of a performance evaluation to assess the implementation and outcomes of all four sub-activities, as well as an impact evaluation of the Teacher Training sub-activity.