The World Bank has slightly downgraded to “moderately satisfactory” from “satisfactory” previously the overall implementation progress of a loan it extended for a joint project of the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) supporting the resilient recovery of disaster-affected schools in nine Philippine regions.

“The project development objective (PDO) is achievable, but implementation delays increase the risk of not having enough time for the full conclusion of all the works by the closing date, especially on component two” of the Infrastructure for Safer and Resilient Schools (ISRS) project, the Washington-based multilateral lender said in a Jan. 19 implementation status and results report.

To date, all of the $500-million investment project financing (IPF) approved by the World Bank in June 2024 remains unspent. This concessional loan, which took effect in February last year, will close in December 2029.

The project’s second component, identified by the lender as a potential bottleneck toward completion, covers relatively complex works for school infrastructure recovery.

“The terms of reference (TOR) for DAED [detailed architectural and engineering design] and PMC [project management consultant] firms were submitted by the DPWH’s PMO [project management office] to the World Bank. However, the TOR are being revised since not all works under component two are likely to be completed as part of the ISRS,” the report explained.

The World Bank nonetheless pointed to progress in ISRS’s first and third components, which cover relatively simple works for school infrastructure recovery and operations and maintenance (O&M), as well as project management, monitoring, and evaluation, respectively.

For instance, DepEd’s PMO has completed a pre-qualification survey and pilot validation showing that schools needing only simple repairs can have design and supervision delegated to schools division office (SDO) engineers, including the management of environmental and social risks, the World Bank said.

More pilot validation exercises are planned in the coming weeks to refine the process, it added.

Also, the DepEd and the DPWH have set up their respective PMOs to oversee project implementation, with additional staff hiring expected in early 2026, the lender noted.

Field findings further recommend more flexible funding for functional improvements and confirm that the project’s emergency response component can be activated to support urgent needs such as temporary classrooms, according to the World Bank, citing an implementation support mission that visited project sites last November.

The project is focusing on the following regions where school infrastructure damage and risks are the greatest: Bicol, Caraga, Central Luzon, Central Visayas, Cordillera Administrative Region, Davao Region, Eastern Visayas, Soccsksargen, and Western Visayas.

According to a World Bank statement in 2024, the project will fund the repair, rehabilitation, and reconstruction of disaster-affected schools, improving learning environments for more than 700,000 students, about half of whom are girls.

It will also help upgrade DepEd’s O&M systems, so education authorities have updated protocols and tools to better manage and sustain school facilities after disasters.