ADB, Bangladeshi gov’t sign 90 mln USD loan agreement for education project

DHAKA, Nov. 21 (ADB Press Release) — The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Government of Bangladesh today signed a loan agreement for $90 million for overhauling secondary education and to build the foundation for developing a skilled labor force.

The assistance is the first tranche of the $500 million Secondary Education Sector Investment Program (SESIP) approved by ADB in September this year.

Md. Abul Kalam Azad, Secretary, Economic Relations Division (ERD) and M. Teresa Kho, Country Director for ADB’s Bangladesh Resident Mission, signed the loan agreement on behalf of Bangladesh and ADB respectively, at a ceremony at the Ministry of Education, Bangladesh Secretariat, Dhaka.

“Skills shortage is a key challenge Bangladesh is facing to graduate to the next orbit of development,” said Country Director M. Teresa Kho. “Bangladesh has great potentials for rapid development if it can improve skills of the huge working-age population in the next decade.”

The SESIP, scheduled to be completed in 2023, will support the Government of Bangladesh’s 10-year secondary education reform plan. This plan projects an increase of about 3.5 million students by 2023, requiring an additional 145,000 teachers and 10,000 more schools.

The $90 million ADB assistance under the first tranche of the SESIP will help make teaching and learning more market relevant. Teaching equipment, laboratories, tools, and teacher training will be provided to improve and expand Science, Mathematics, and English teaching. Supplementary reading materials will be provided to school libraries under a reading habit promotion program. Laboratory-based practical science teaching and school information hubs will be developed to enable students and teachers to access information communication and technology-based teaching and learning resources and modules.

To increase equitable access and retention, the assistance will support development and implementation of a more efficient, equitable and harmonized stipend program. Selected schools will be physically upgraded in accordance with a need-based infrastructure development plan.

To strengthen education management and governance, additional staffing and capacity development of Directorate of Secondary Higher Education (DSHE) central and field offices will be supported. As a step to promote decentralized education management, Monthly Pay Order management will be devolved to zonal offices in a phased-manner.

About 2 million youths are now entering the Bangladesh job market annually but nearly 90% of them end up in poorly paid informal work that requires few skills. The low skills base of the workforce is undermining productivity and weighing on attempts to diversify the economy. While Bangladesh has made great strides in improving enrolment rates among girls and boys, secondary schools still suffer from outdated courses and teaching materials, a lack of common school standards, poor teaching, and weak management. Dropout rates are high, with only 46% of students completing the full five-year secondary school cycle.

Over the coming decade, the ADB funds will finance new equipment, laboratories, classrooms and teacher training, and scale up information and communications technology-based learning in schools, including madrasahs. Exams will be reformed and curricula overhauled to make them more relevant to the needs of employers. Capacity building support will be given to agencies overseeing secondary education, and common school standards will be established. Student stipends will also be assessed to ensure the monies go to those who need them most, the poorer students and girls in particular, to encourage them to attend and, importantly, to stay in school. Recent data show 37% of children from poor households enroll in secondary schools compared with 59% from better-off households. Girls meanwhile, although outnumbering boys in secondary enrolment, have higher dropout rates and poorer exam results.

ADB, based in Manila, is dedicated to reducing poverty in Asia and the Pacific through inclusive economic growth, environmentally sustainable growth, and regional integration. Established in 1966, it is owned by 67 members – 48 from the region.