The mid-term review of the much-hyped $74.83 million Secondary Education Support Programme (SESP) reveals that the ADB and DANIDA-supported project is moving at a snail’s pace. This only goes to reflect the policy-makers’ scant concern as the project has miserably failed to make the best use of foreign funds. Regrettably, only 18 per cent of the total programme budget has been spent, or only 22 per cent ($13.47 million) of the total allocated funds was disbursed by the end of 2004-05 when nearly half of the budget should have been utilised so far. Though the project intends to focus on four major sectors such as learning environment, curriculum development, assessment and instructional material, teachers’ training, and development and institutional management, along with capacity building, it has produced hardly any tangible results.

Under spending in teachers’ training and other development components have also been responsible for poor performance. If the Department of Education (DoE) — the monitoring and implementing body — cannot repose trust on its teachers’ integrity while on foreign training then it should create such facilities within the country itself. But the moot point is: does the DoE have the capacity to do so? More importantly, the delayed submission of statements of expenditure by those actually implementing the programme has also been instrumental in slowing the disbursement process. It makes more sense for the government to take immediate steps to discard red-tapism and run the education ministry more efficiently through a one-window policy or minimum hassles perhaps. Merely creating bureaucratic hurdles like excessive and time-consuming paperwork will only lead to policy failures. The key to the success of this important project, therefore, lies in simplifying the funding modalities. Realising this commitment can only bolster the government intent of making available quality education in the country itself.