World Bank approved $400 million for Bangladesh Education Program Education

The Government of Bangladesh signed a $400 million financing agreement with the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank’s concessional arm, for additional financing of the ongoing Third Primary Education Development Program (PEDP3). The loan will benefit 19.5 million children in primary school by ensuring quality learning and completion of the primary school cycle.

Under the additional financing, the World Bank will scale up support for improving primary education from grades 1 to 5. PEDP3 will also continue the rollout of one year of pre-primary education with trained teachers and quality materials, with a focus on public primary schools in disadvantaged areas. Additionally, the program will expand efforts to bring out-of-school children into the school system.

The program has been supporting merit-based recruitment of teachers for reducing teacher-students ratio. PEDP 3 also supports the development and expansion of an 18 month Diploma for primary school teachers. Facilitated by the program, the Primary Education Completion Exam has been reformed to address testing competencies instead of rote learning. The additional financing will continue to enhance the quality of school facilities and infrastructure, including use of Information Communications Technology.

PEDP3 is a government-led program, supported by nine development partners. The program has introduced the use of country systems for financial management and audit, and harmonized external financing to primary education in Bangladesh under a single program.

The financing agreement was signed by Mohammad Mejbahuddin and Johannes Zutt, on behalf of the Government of Bangladesh and the World Bank, respectively, at the Economic Relations Division.

The World Bank is the largest external funder in the education sector in Bangladesh. Its current commitment in the education sector is over $ 1.5 billion, which spans primary, secondary, tertiary, vocational education and also includes programs for out-of school-children.

The credits from the International Development Association (IDA) have a 38-year maturity with a 6-year grace period and a service charge of 0.75 percent.