The main objective of the project, with an investment of 48.62 million USD consisting of the World Bank fund of 27 million USD and Chinese government counterpart fund of 21.62 million USD, is to increase access to quality basic education for children in three poor western provinces of China. Our experts participated in the project activities design and implementation management. In more than 90 counties with a population of 28.6 million in a five-year project period, various activities were innovatively designed and implemented: introducing advanced management concepts, strengthening planning capacity for education administration departments in three levels of province, city and county, development and promotion of school development plan(SDP), application of result-based management system, facilitating all stakeholders in terms of teachers, parents, students, communities and government participating in process of school development plan(SDP), teaching and affair management and evaluation on the performance of principals and teachers, etc., and rapidly improved the planning capacity of educational administrative departments, increased the school management and teaching quality, promoted the popularity of basic education, enhanced relevance of education and needs of society and communities, and finally increased the return on education investment.

Meanwhile, 297 primary schools and 97 secondary schools were newly constructed. Our experts were responsible for the whole process of school planning including master plan and implementation plan, architectural design (drawings, norms and standards, bill of quantities, etc.), procedure management, construction bidding, supervision and verification (completion approval, effectiveness evaluation and engineering settlement, etc.) and maintenance     etc.

The project conducted the school development plan (SDP) and Participatory Teacher Training (PPT) and evaluated the situation for nearly 100,000 students in 30 counties. It also introduced new teaching concepts, improved teacher’s training methods and technologies, established "learner-centered" teaching and research approach, and effectively improved the quality of teaching and learning.