The Board of Directors of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a $500 million loan to support Bangladesh’s Fourth Primary Education Development Program that aims to provide quality education to all children from pre-primary to grade 5.
“Despite a series of investments, Bangladesh’s primary education system has not been able to keep pace with the rapid increase in student enrollment,” said ADB Senior Social Sector Specialist Ms. Xin Long. “ADB’s results-based lending program supports the government’s initiatives—in coordination with other development partners—to tackle the challenges and lift the overall performance of primary education.”
Rapid expansion of primary education has been at the heart of the country’s economic development, which has seen poverty halved since 2000 to 24.3% and Bangladesh reach lower middle-income status. Bangladesh achieved almost universal access to primary education by 2016 with a 98% net enrollment rate. The efficiency of primary education has also improved. Despite this progress, Bangladesh still has to improve the quality and equity of primary education.
ADB will help the government to improve the quality and equity of primary education through the Fourth Primary Education Development Program. The program aims to reduce double-shift operations at schools by recruiting more teachers and building more classrooms, step up teacher education and provide needs-based training for teachers and teacher educators, reform examinations and assessments, as well as enrich teaching and learning resources such as with digital materials. It will also expand education services for out-of-school children through learning centers, bring more children with special education needs and disabilities to schools, improve school-level performance and management, and strengthen institutions. To improve the learning environment, the program will provide gender-segregated and disability-accessible sanitation and safe water in almost all schools. New construction and major retrofitting will meet disaster risk resilience requirements, especially in disaster-prone areas.
The program is expected to directly benefit 18.6 million students, about 340,000 teachers, and more than 65,000 schools that are under the management of the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education.
The government will provide $13.2 billion of the total $14.7 billion program cost, while joint financing development partners, who, besides ADB, include the World Bank, United Nations Children’s Fund, and European Union, will contribute $1.38 billion. ADB’s loan will be disbursed over 5 years to 2023.
Original source: ADB
Published on 27 September 2018
