DHAKA, Sept 27, 2018 (BSS) – 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.
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, said an
ADB media release today.
The release said 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.
“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 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.” added
the ADB official.
The media release said 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 percent and Bangladesh reach lower
middle-income status.
Bangladesh achieved almost universal access to primary education by
2016 with a 98 percent 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. For example, a 2015 national student
assessment indicated that 35 percent of students at grade 3 had yet to
achieve the grade-level competencies for Bangla and even 61 percent for
mathematics.
The assessment results were even worse for grade 5 students.
Moreover, many school-age children are still out of school (about 2.5
million). This is more prevalent in poor families and in disadvantaged
locations such as city slums.
More than three-quarters of schools are running double shifts,
therefore limiting teacher-student contact hours, which results in a
lower level of learning. Teachers lack adequate skills and mostly focus
on rote learning, while there is also a shortage of teaching and learning
material. Moreover, frequent disasters triggered by natural hazards
curtail student attendance in affected schools.
Under the program, 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.
To support decentralization, the program will strengthen the capacities
of institutions at all levels of primary education offices and increase the
support for schools and upazilas with more resources linked to their
needs and performance.