WASHINGTON: The World Bank (WB) has approved an assistance package worth $400 million to help Pakistan improve access, quality, and relevance of education at every level.
The project is aimed at improving conditions for teaching, learning, and research at the tertiary level while continuing to increase enrollment rates and reduce gender and rural-urban disparities in primary education in Punjab and Sindh Provinces.
"Pakistan's transition to a middle-income country in the global knowledge economy of the 21st century will depend critically on the country's intellectual and human capital," said Rachid Benmessaoud, World Bank Country Director for Pakistan.
"To achieve this objective, Pakistan needs to upscale its entire education system so it can produce skilled, innovative and enterprising graduates, as well as research and innovation capacity, capable of promoting dynamic economic development," he added.
A sum of $300 million will be aimed at financing the government's tertiary education development program, and will leverage an estimated investment of approximately $1.7 billion in additional resources from the government.
The project will support implementation of the government's Medium Term Development Program for tertiary education aimed at mitigating weaknesses, while ensuring fiscal sustainability and effectiveness of expenditure in the tertiary education sector.
In primary education, Pakistan has made significant gains in the past decade, with net national primary school enrollment jumping from 42 per cent to 56 per cent between 2001 and 2007.
Punjab has seen a 17 per cent increase while enrollment in Sindh has increased by 10 per cent.
The additional financing for the Punjab Education Sector Project, that is $50 million, will continue to build upon both projects’ success through attracting more children to schools by providing free textbooks, stipends to secondary school girls, and subsidies to low-cost private schools.
The additional financing for the Sindh Education Sector Reform Project, which also $50million, will target improvements in service delivery and system performance by supporting government efforts in three areas: preparation of school-specific non-salary budgets, teacher rationalisation across schools and the allocation of teaching posts to schools, and expansion of district education management reforms.
"We anticipate that around 1.2 million students and approximately 20,000 academic staff in 73 public and 24 private universities and about 800 affiliated colleges across the country will benefit from specific interventions under the project,” said Amit Dar, South Asia Education Sector Manager.
The credits for the Punjab and Sindh Education projects are from the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank's concessionary lending arm, and carry a 0.75 per cent service fee, a 10-year grace period, and a maturity of 35 years.
For the Tertiary Education Project, $110 million of the IDA credit will carry a 0.75 per cent service charge fee, maximum commitment charge at 0.5 per cent, a 10-year grace period, and a maturity of 35 years. $190 million of the IDA credit will also include a fixed interest charge of 3.20 per cent.
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