Basic Education Infrastructure & Curriculum Materials Program (BEICMP) (1998-2003), Basic Education Development Project (BEDP) (2004-2008)
The aim of BEICMP was to upgrade existing infrastructure and provide new infrastructure for elementary, primary and community schools in 5 PNG provinces to facilitate the inclusion of years 7 and 8 into primary schools in accordance with the PNG education reform agenda. Infrastructure was one component of this large institutional strengthening program. A$13 million was provided over 2½ years using local architectural consultants (managed by A&L) and local construction subcontractors. BEDP was the second phase of the project, rolling out basic education infrastructure to the remaining 14 PNG provinces over 4 years.
Using a community partnership contracting model, building maintenance and infrastructure grants (A$3-6M annually) are available for distribution to various schools who met specified criteria. The community partnership contracting model ensured that services to deliver infrastructure are provided by small local building contractors and businesses. It is expected that once BEDP is complete over 1000 infrastructure subcontracts will have been executed. A key objective of the project is to encourage a culture of maintenance among the School Boards of Management who are responsible for maintaining the Schools.
A&L provided technical support and infrastructure management to the BEICMP and BEDP Projects.
Specific infrastructure activities included developing of a School Infrastructure Management Manual, Infrastructure Resource Book and National Infrastructure Guidelines. These resources have been targeted at communities and utilised the community partnership contracting model.
A&L developed guidelines that recognised the limited resources that are available to most communities to procure and maintain school infrastructure and recommended practical and sustainable methods of maintaining school buildings that involved the local community and provided incentives to the local School Boards of Management. The guidelines were used to conduct awareness workshops throughout PNG.
A& L was responsible for major challenge of managing logistics associated with procuring and delivering building materials to remote sites.