Bangladesh gets $510m in World Bank funds to improve education

Bangladesh has signed a $510 million financing agreement with the World Bank to enhance the quality and effectiveness of the secondary education system.

“This will benefit 13 million students studying in grades 6-12,” the World Bank said in a statement on Monday.

Kazi Shofiqul Azam, secretary of Economic Relations Division, and Rajashree Paralkar, acting WB country director for Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Nepal, signed the agreement in Dhaka on Monday. 

The project will focus on improving education quality and access, and help students, especially girls and children from low-income households, complete secondary education.

For this, the programme will support stipends and school grants.

“Bangladesh has made remarkable progress in advancing access to education, and has achieved gender parity in secondary education,” said Paralkar.

“Continuing to invest in quality education is critical for Bangladesh to achieve its vision of becoming a middle-income country.”

The programme will provide training for 500,000 school teachers and principals to enhance the quality of secondary education.

It will also support learning assessments of students in grades 6, 8 and 10 to identify learning gaps and suggest policy actions.

The Global Financing Facility will provide a $10 million grant, which is aimed at improving adolescent health and school retention.

The programme will construct separate toilets for girls and support incorporating topics on general health and hygiene in the curriculum.