The World Bank has approved $700 million to improve primary education in Bangladesh.
The programme known as Quality Learning for All will benefit more than 18 million children studying in pre-primary level to Grade V, the World Bank said in a statement on Friday.
It said the project will help improve quality and equitable access to primary education. It will help assess and improve learning outcomes for Bangla and mathematics for Grade III students.
For this, the programme will develop a stronger curriculum and exam system as well as textbooks and supplementary learning materials, including digital materials, according to the statement, reports bdnews24.com.
The programme will help expansion of one-year quality pre-primary education in all government schools.
“At birth in 1971, Bangladesh had a very low education base. From there, the country has made remarkable progress in improving access to education. Today almost every child steps into a classroom and 8 out of 10 children complete primary education,” said Qimiao Fan, the World Bank’s country director for Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Nepal.
According to the statement, the project will bring about one million out-of-school children to learning centres that would follow national curriculum, and thus help them integrate with the formal education system.
The project will also build about 95,000 classrooms, teachers’ rooms, and multipurpose rooms to ensure international standard students-to-classroom ratio. It will also build 80,000 water and sanitations blocks and 15,000 safe water sources with special emphasis on facilities for girl students and female teachers. It will also recruit and provide training to about 100,000 teachers.
