WB gives $715m for primary education, statistics
Bangladesh will receive $715 million as concessional loan from World Bank (WB) to improve its primary education and produce quality statistics timely.
Shofiqul Azam, secretary to Economic Relations Division (ERD), and Qimiao Fan, WB country director, signed two deals in this regard at the ERD in the capital's Sher-e-Bangla Nagar yesterday.
A WB statement said one deal comprised a $700 million "Quality learning for all programme", which would improve quality and access to primary education, benefitting over 18 million children, from pre-primary level to class five.
Briefing journalists afterwards, Azam said the financing would directly contribute to the government's Fourth Primary Education Development Programme to ensure that every child receives quality education by 2030.
He said the project would enroll one million out-of-school children in learning centres and ensure that disadvantaged children were not left out.
Besides, over 100,000 teachers will be recruited to join the existing 400,000 primary school teachers to attain the global teacher-student ratio standard. Further, around 100,000 teachers will receive improved training, including Diploma in Education under the University of Dhaka.
"Quality education is the key to development. Bangladesh has made remarkable progress in improving access to education and is among a few developing countries to achieve gender parity in school enrollment," said Fan.
The other deal, encompassing a $15 million National Strategy for Development of Statistics Implementation Support Project, will help improve the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics' capacity to produce quality core statistics, timely accessible to policymakers and the public.
"Statistics is at the heart of evidence-based policymaking. Data collection is critical for resource allocation, monitoring and evaluation as well as for effective management of human capital," added Fan.
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