M Humayun Kabir: The government yesterday signed a $225 million loan agreement with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for overhauling secondary education and boosting education quality, access, and relevance in the country.
This is the third and final tranche of the $500 million Secondary Education Sector Investment Program (SESIP) approved by the ADB in 2013, reports UNB.
Economic Relations Division (ERD) Secretary Kazi Shofiqul Azam and ADB Country Director Manmohan Parkash signed the agreement on behalf of Bangladesh and ADB respectively.
“The assistance will further support government’s secondary education reform to prepare youths to meet the requirements of a rapidly developing economy,” said Country Director Manmohan Parkash.
The government envisages an increase of about 3.5 million secondary school students by 2023, requiring an additional 145,000 teachers and 10,000 more schools.
The $225 million ADB assistance will develop a competency-based curriculum; improve teaching, especially in science, math, English, and Bangla; promote the use of ICT in teaching; strengthen classroom assessment; reform national examination; and pilot pre-vocational and vocational subjects in secondary schools and madrasahs.
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