The money will be provided under the third instalment of the Third Education Sector Development Support Credit (ESDSC-III).

Economic Relations Division (ERD) Secretary Aminul Islam Bhuiyan and WB Country Director Xian Zhu signed an agreement in this regard yesterday at the National Economic Council (NEC) office.

The credit would largely focus on reforms to increase the accountability of the secondary schools to the government, community and relevant stakeholders, handing out funds to the institutions that performed better, improve teacher recruitment and training and enhance textbook and curriculum quality.

"The basic principle of the whole reform programme is to introduce stronger incentives for the institutions to perform better," Subrata S Dhar, a WB senior operations officer and task leader for the programme, said. "Many of the systemic hindrances are being removed," he added.

Sources said that under the two previous instalments of ESDSCs, the past governments failed to implement the criterion that suspends the Monthly Payment Order (MPO) to private schools, if they perform poorly twice in a row.

A large chunk from the third instalment would go towards stricter monitoring and execution of this particular criterion.

For new schools, the MPO system would be replaced by a grant-based programme, whereby schools will get a grant-package, including 'full wages' for the teachers, teaching materials and other operational expenses. However, the grant-based programme would also be subjected to the strict performance-based criteria.

Some 84 new schools have already been earmarked by the government for the grant-based programme.

However, educational institutions in disadvantaged and remote areas would be exempted from this criterion so that the students, especially the first generation learners, are not punished under the tight new performance standards. A mobile resource team would regularly visit schools and colleges in these areas to train the teachers and run programmes for the students.

The government would also let the private publishers to bring out the textbooks, so that the schools can choose the best manuscripts.

Under the reforms, School Management Committees must hire teachers certified by the government's new Non-Government Teachers' Registration and Certification Authority, to remove favouritism and eliminate unqualified teachers from the system.