MONGOLIA:

RURAL AND URBAN ISSUES IN EDUCATION SECTOR PLANNING

A Case Study from the 2007 Program Performance Evaluation Report for the Education Sector Development Program in Mongolia

February 2008

Jocelyn Tubadeza Penelope Schoeffel

Operations Evaluation Department

Abbreviations
ADB ESDP OEM Asian Development Bank Education Sector Development Program operations evaluation mission

Glossary
aimag bag soum province subdistrict district

NOTE
In this report, $ refers to US dollars.

Contents
Page I. II. III. IV. Historical Trends Perspectives on Future Priorities for Education Case Study of a Subdistrict School A Future-Oriented Strategy 1 2 3 5

1. The following discussion contextualizes issues in relation to the future of rural and urban education sector planning in Mongolia.

I. Historical Trends
2. The pastoral industry constitutes Mongolias economic base. In the pre-Soviet era, Mongolia was divided into defined territories under semi-feudal and Buddhist ecclesiastical control. Aristocratic clans owned large herds and were served by poorer herding families, but most of those who so served also owned small herds. Monasteries, aristocrats, and state officials extracted rents but did not control production. The organizational basis of the subsistence pastoral economy was herding camps (khot ail) of varying sizes, comprising groups of households, who were often but not necessarily related by marriage or blood, and who acknowledged a common leader. Each member household within this loose territorial corporation owned their own livestock, with herds typically comprising sheep, goats, cattle (including yaks in some areas), camels, and horses. The basis of inter-household cooperation within herding camps was to achieve an economy of scale in labor-intensive activities. 3. Collectivization was enforced during the Soviet era (19291991), with early attempts ending in disaster and a huge loss of livestock. From 1932 onwards, the approach was more gradual, with the establishment of voluntary, territory-based collectives. Over time these became more dependent on the state for technical, economic, and social services, with risk transferred from families to the state. Over the same period, industrial manufacturing and mining towns were established in most provinces (aimag) in various parts of the country, all linked to a Soviet-wide system of production. 4. District (soum) centers functioned as centers for the provision of education and other services for the collectives at brigade or subdistrict (bag) level. As was the case in some of the smaller United States-administered island states of the north Pacific, Mongolias economy, and the provision of education and health services to the whole population, was heavily subsidized because of its strategic importance to the Soviet Union. 5. Following 1991, the collective model was abandoned. Individuals were permitted to buy animals via a coupon system and large numbers of families returned to small-scale subsistence herding, some by choice and preference, and others because they had no other means of supporting themselves. Although many rural people had lost skills as a result of collectivization, herding camps reemerged as a basis of organization, although the traditional solidarity and leadership of these units was weaker than in the past. 1 6. Without Soviet subsidies, poverty has become widespread, both in the countryside and in those towns that now lack an economic basis for their existence. Many small-scale herders found it hard to survive, and there have been episodes of drought and severe storms leading to large losses of livestock. The more entrepreneurial herders or those with capital, access to better land resources, and larger herds have formed private corporations, often specializing in particular products (such as dairy products, meat, cashmere wool, and leather) and employing wage labor. Others have formed companies specializing in growing summer crops of grain, vegetables, and stock feed. It is evident that small-scale subsistence pastoralism is declining and a large-scale commercial grazing industry is

Mearns, Robin. 1995. Community, Collective Action and Common Grazing: the Case of Post-Socialist Mongolia. Brighton, UK: University of Sussex Institute of Development Studies.

RURAL AND URBAN ISSUES IN EDUCATION SECTOR PLANNING

beginning to develop, requiring new land policies, clarification of land rights, and land management policies and practices. 2 7. When the Education Sector Development Program (ESDP) 3 was designed in 19931996, more than half of the population was living outside urban centers. Between 1990 and 2000, the population of Ulaanbaatar increased by 27%. The 2000 census showed that the rural proportion had declined to 43% and that rural to urban migration was increasing, particularly in Ulaanbaatar. Now at least one third of the population in Ulaanbaatar and the smaller cities of Darhan and Erdenet are migrants from rural areas.

II. Perspectives on Future Priorities for Education

8. The Operations Evaluation Mission (OEM) discerned two points of view among Mongolians and aid agencies with respect to the needs of the education sector in relation to demographic trends. The first emphasizes the need to invest in more and better quality rural services to encourage Mongolians to remain within the traditional nomadic pastoral economy. This strategy, it is assumed, would reduce unemployment, encourage self-reliance, and preserve traditional Mongolian cultures. It is based on the underlying assumption that rural to urban migration is more related to pull factors, such as gaining access to better urban education (and health) services. In this view, policy should not encourage investment in more high-quality urban school buildings, and resources should be spread more equally between rural and urban areas. 9. The second point of view holds that Mongolia cannot afford to spread its investment in education too widely or thinly, while still maintaining good-quality educational outcomes. Instead, investment should be in the larger, better-quality schools in urban centers, selected because of their long-term economic growth prospects. This perspective is based on the assumption that rural to urban migration is more related to push factors (e.g., rural poverty, lack of opportunity, and economic insecurity). It also assumes that small-scale subsistence pastoralism increased in the 1990s in response to short-term economic transition shocks, and is likely to continue to decline as the agricultural economy becomes more commercialized and specialized, and as the national economy moves to more solid policy foundations.

Hanstad, Tim and Jennifer Duncan. 2001. Land Reform in Mongolia: Observations and Recommendations. Seattle, Washington: Rural Development Institute. Asian Development Bank (ADB). 1996. Report and Recommendation of the President to the Board of Directors on Proposed Loans and a Technical Assistance Grant to Mongolia for the Education Sector Development Program. Manila. (Loans 1507-MON[SF] and 1508-MON[SF], for a total of $15.5 million, approved on 19 December 1996).

RURAL AND URBAN ISSUES IN EDUCATION SECTOR PLANNING

10. Based on its observations, the OEM is inclined to the second viewpoint, but recognizes that there are difficult issues to be addressed. The social trend is from a rural to an urban way of life, as well as the (now well advanced) transition from a centrally planned to a market economy. 11. Table 1 (at the end of this case study) shows the financing of schools by region and aimag. The proportion of students per school is highest (with lower costs per pupil) in Ulaanbaatar and the northern region, which includes the major towns of Darhan and Erdenet. The central (excluding Ulaanbaatar), southern, and western regions, which have higher costs per pupil, encompass predominantly rural provinces. These figures suggest that the allocation of resources favors rural regions, although these figures do not indicate the quality of school buildings and services in the different regions. 12. According to the 2000 census, enrollment in urban areas is higher (96%) than in rural areas (85%), but urban growth has continued to increase over the past 6 years. Most urban schools are severely overcrowded due to rural-urban migration; their boarding dormitories operate at overcapacity and must turn away rural children because of a lack of space. Most schools teach two shifts, and in Ulaanbaatar, three shifts are typical. In many instances primary, secondary, and senior secondary students must use the same classrooms in different shifts. The rooms tend to be set up for the secondary rather than primary students, and often do not provide a suitable learning environment for younger childrenfor example, desks are too big for junior primary students and sometimes too small for senior secondary students. 13. The definitions of rural and urban are also unclear in national statistics (Table 2). Most nomadic herders move seasonally within a defined area and can therefore be associated with bag, soum and aimag, and counted as a member of their resident populations. 4 The rural population appears to include the populations of small district towns as well as those living in the countryside, and refers to both sedentary and non-sedentary population groups. Further, in most small district towns, the sedentary population is there to provide services for both the townspeople and the larger nonsedentary population of the countryside. 14. Now that urban children may commence grade 1 at 6 or 7 years of age, 5 the question will arise as to how rural children will be served in an equal, socially-effective and cost-effective manner. In the past, rural kindergarten education was linked to collectives at subdistrict (bag or brigade) level, and some children wereand still are, although in declining numberstaken as weekly boarders at age 4 in kindergartens. Throughout the country, children entered grade 1 at age 8; presumably because this was the youngest age at which children could be separated from their families for long periods, and it is still the age at which most rural children start primary school. Education services at bag level are declining. 15. At schools with attached boarding facilities visited by the OEM, managers said that overcrowding was a major problem. The managers of provincial and district schools serving rural populations said that they now allocate dormitories to children on the basis of kinship and common locality rather than by sex and age, to reduce the impact of boarding on young children. But even this strategy is unlikely to meet the psychological needs of children under the 9 years of age.

The resident population is defined as the number of population living in the current place of residence within 6 months. National Statistic Office of Mongolia. 2006. Mongolian Statistical Year Book 2005. Ulaanbaatar. Children in grades 1 and 2 must be provided with lunch by their school.

RURAL AND URBAN ISSUES IN EDUCATION SECTOR PLANNING

III. Case Study of a Subdistrict School

16. The situation of bag-level education is illustrated by a functioning bag school visited by the OEM in November 2006. The school had one dilapidated building divided into four classrooms and four dormitories, serving 75 children enrolled in grades 15, as well as a separate kitchen, and a dormitory for the teachers. The school had a small generator and a solar panel allowing electric lights, as well as a television set, DVD player, and a computer (gifts to the school) to be used for a few hours each evening. 6 It had no piped water or indoor toilets. 17. About 45 children were boarders, housed in four rooms each designed to accommodate four children, but instead accommodating 810 children each. The non-boarding children lived with their families in or near the bag center, or were educated by non-formal or distance education means. The latter groups of children attended school when their families were within traveling distance, and otherwise studied at home, following lessons and exercises set by the teachers. 18. The school is the mainstay of the bag economy, employing five teachers (including the school principal), one bookkeeper, three heating workers, two dormitory supervisors, one cook and two cleanersa total of 14 people with a teacherpupil ratio of 1:15, and an overall staff-student ratio of close to 1:5. The annual cost per student was T84,000 (approximately $75) according to the principal, which means that the schools recurrent annual operating cost was around $5,550, which appears too low for the situation observed, and is assumed therefore to be exclusive of wages and salaries. The Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science has a complicated system of funding primary and secondary education servicesfinancial allocation to each province is based on staff, wages, and enrolments. 7 19. The teachers considered themselves, the students, and the school comparatively fortunate. Most similar bag schools have closed. Their school had survived because of the strong support of the local community, and because it was only about 50 kilometers from the aimag town center. The oldest teacher said that conditions at the school in the past 8 years had been better than anything she had experienced in 20 years of teaching. The school indirectly supported about 10 households in the bag center. If there was no local community in the sub-center, no teachers would serve there.

6 7

The school also had a two-way radio, but there was no radio to communicate with in another location. Batchimeg, et. al. 2004. Analysis Made with Respect to the Management, Financing and Budget Performance in the Area of Education. Study Report 20002004. Ulaanbaatar (translated from Mongolian).

RURAL AND URBAN ISSUES IN EDUCATION SECTOR PLANNING

IV. A Future-Oriented Strategy

20. The strategies underlying the ESDP and the Second Education Development Project 8 (addressing urgent short-term physical needs through school renovations) and the Third Education Development Project 9 (improving the quality of instruction) are important. The question is how the Asian Development Bank and other aid agencies might best assist the Government to effectively serve the large numbers of people experiencing these socially painful changes. 10 Aid agency and government consensus, and aid agency coordination and harmonization of assistance programs are needed to develop and support distinct future-oriented urban and rural education strategies 21. The strategy for urban educational development should focus on the replacement of old school buildings with large durable, modern, energy-efficient new school buildings, on the understanding that there will be further consolidation of school management (following the ESDP complex school model). The development focus should be on Ulaanbaatar and selected aimag canters where the population and economy is growing and is likely to continue to grow long term. 22. In rural aimag, soum, and bag, future investment should be on the provision of high-quality kindergarten and primary education, distance education and improved communication technology, teacher-manager incentives, and supportive mobile services, with less emphasis on school buildings and more emphasis on home-based education. This would provide the flexibility needed in a rapidly changing pastoral economy, and would avoid the psychologically undesirable necessity of sending the children of nomadic herders aged less than 9 years to boarding schools. Schools and boarding dormitories for secondary students should be selectively renovated depending on the cost efficiency of the educational services in relation to current and projected population trends.

ADB. 2002. Report and Recommendation of the President to the Board of Directors on a Proposed Loan to Mongolia for the Second Education Development Project. Manila (Loan 1908-MON(SF), for $14 million, approved on 6 August 2002). 9 ADB. 2006. Report and Recommendation of the President to the Board of Directors on a Proposed Loan and Technical Assistance Grant to Mongolia for the Third Education Development Project. Manila (Loan 2238MON(SF), for $13 million, approved on 21 June 2006). 10 An additional challenge is helping Mongolians adjust to the inevitable transition from a system of social relations produced by the conditions of small-scale herding to an urban way of life based on large-scale production and publicly trusted but impersonal institutions. In classical sociological theory, the symptoms of such transition are termed anomie, a distressing break-down in normative values and social relations, typical of societies undergoing mass transition to from small- to large-scale organization. These symptoms are very evident in Mongolia today.

6 RURAL AND URBAN ISSUES IN EDUCATION SECTOR PLANNING

Table 1: Resident Population, Number of Households, Schools, Students, and Cost By Education Administration Region, 2004 Average Number of School Students 649 685 579 643 865 1,121 790 Current Costs Per Pupil (MNT) 130.6 124.3 140.8 129.8 120.2 101.2 119.0 Number of Boarding School Children 16,815 3,459 3,370 9,222 5,720 1,105 39,691 Cost of Boarders per School (MNT) 77.7 102.0 112.1 97.0 96.3 35.6 88.7

Education Administration Region Western Region Eastern Region Southern Region Central Region Northern Region Ulaanbaatar Total

Resident Population 495,400 201,500 161,500 357,800 388,400 928,500 2,533,100

% Urban 28.0 39.2 35.8 18.9 58.3 100.0 59.1

Number of Students 116,193 45,189 34,726 74,613 93,398 182,725 546,844

Number of Schools 179 66 60 116 108 163 692

Total Current Costs (MNT) 15,170,074 5,615,088 4,890,259 9,686,181 11,225,663 18,487,777 65,075,042

Source: Summarized from data provided by the Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science. 2005.

Table 2: Resident Population, Number of Households, Schools, Students, and Cost by Province, 2004
Average Number Number Number of of Resident % of Students School Population Urban Schools or Pupils Children 101,200 30.2 37 23,019 622 83,800 60,900 80,700 81,000 87,800 495,400 73,700 71,200 56,600 201,500 12,300 52,500 49,900 46,800 161,500 94,900 60,800 113,200 88,900 357,800 100,800 121,400 27.6 29.5 19.9 27.6 32.6 28.0 50.5 42.3 20.7 39.2 58.5 52.3 19.9 28.4 35.8 18.6 26.3 18.3 15.1 18.9 49.3 28.7 28 28 33 30 23 179 25 26 15 66 5 19 19 17 60 34 24 28 30 116 34 32 19,293 14,342 18,015 20,258 21,266 116,193 16,983 15,814 12,392 45,189 2,898 11,140 10,109 10,579 34,726 20,435 12,499 23,384 18,295 74,613 22,777 26,535 689 512 546 675 925 649 679 608 826 685 580 586 532 622 579 601 521 835 610 643 670 829 Number of Boarding School Children 4,044 2,141 3,153 3,057 2,703 1,717 Current Total Costs Current Per Costs Pupil 2,957,737 128.5 2,300,221 2,296,816 2,506,684 2,561,716 2,546,899 119.2 160.1 139.1 126.5 119.8 130.6 116.0 119.5 141.8 124.3 149.9 136.7 127.8 155.1 140.8 122.2 146.9 116.5 143.6 129.8 139.2 120.1 Fixed Costs Fixed Per School Costs 554,799 14,995 437,599 696,650 393,488 461,491 569,332 15,629 24,880 11,924 15,383 24,754 Costs of Children Per Meals Boarding Cost School 292,396 72 213,128 266,393 151,242 237,380 145,572 100 85 50 88 85 78 124 84 107 102 131 123 98 116 112 110 103 87 88 97 98 97

Province, Capital City Bayan-Ulgii Bayanhongor Gobi-Altai Zavhan Uvs Hovd Western Region Dornod Hentiy Suhbaatar Eastern Region Govisumber Dornogobi Dundgovi Umnugobi Southern Region Arhangay Bulgan Uvurkhangai Tuv Central Region Selenge Khuvsgul

Unit Variable Variable Cost Costs 2,110,542 92 1,649,494 1,333,773 1,961,954 1,862,845 1,831,995 10,750,603 1,542,941 1,338,236 1,114,793 3,995,970 286,491 972,334 932,511 1,091,275 3,282,611 1,696,590 1,208,022 1,983,593 1,663,781 6,551,986 2,066,529 2,310,444 86 93 109 92 86 93 91 85 90 88 99 87 92 103 95 83 97 85 91 88 91 87

RURAL AND URBAN ISSUES IN EDUCATION SECGTOR PLANNING

16,815 15,170,074 885 1,375 1,199 3,459 43 709 1,059 1,559 3,370 2,627 1,878 2,943 1,774 9,222 1,019 3,979 1,969,202 1,889,155 1,756,730 5,615,088 434,385 1,523,050 1,292,111 1,640,713 4,890,259 2,498,121 1,835,567 2,724,664 2,627,830 9,686,181 3,171,337 3,186,065

3,113,359 17,393 1,306,111 316,830 436,027 513,406 12,673 16,770 34,227 109,431 114,892 128,531 352,855 5,642 87,462 104,202 180,307 377,612 288,771 193,863 255,634 156,308 894,575 99,532 384,630

1,266,263 19,186 142,253 463,255 255,399 369,131 28,451 24,382 13,442 21,714

1,230,036 20,501 512,761 433,682 485,437 807,740 15,081 18,070 17,337 26,925

2,239,620 19,307 1,005,276 490,991 29,567 15,344

Province, Capital City Darhan-Uul Orhon Northern Region Ulaanbaatar Total

Average Number Number Number of of of Resident % Students School Population Urban Schools or Pupils Children 87,800 80.1 25 22,161 886 78,400 388,400 91.3 58.3 17 108 163 692 21,925 93,398 182,725 546,844 1,290 865 1,121 790

Number of Boarding School Children 531 191

Current Total Costs Current Per Costs Pupil 2,435,454 109.9 2,432,808 111.0 120.2 101.2

Fixed Costs Fixed Per Costs School 445,313 17,813 415,371 24,434 2,356,950 21,824 3,077,643 18,881

Costs of Children Per Meals Boarding Cost School 48,101 91 18,583 550,847 39,367 97 96 36 89

8
Unit Variable Variable Costs Cost 1,942,040 88 1,998,853 8,317,866 15,370,767 48,269,803 91 89 84 88

RURAL AND URBAN ISSUES IN EDUCATION SECTOR PLANNING

5,720 11,225,663 1,105 18,487,777 39,691 65,075,042

928,500 100.0 2,533,100 59.1

119.0 13,283,872 19,196 3,521,367

Source: Batchimeg, et. al. 2004. Analysis Made with Respect to the Management, Financing and Budget Performance in the Area of Education. Study Report 2000 2004. Ulaanbaatar (translated from Mongolian).