The Board of Directors of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a $500 million loan to support Bangladesh’s Fourth Primary Education Development Programme that aims to provide quality education to all children from pre-primary to grade 5.

“Despite a series of investments, Bangladesh’s primary education system has not been able to keep pace with the rapid increase in student enrolment,” ADB Senior Social Sector Specialist Xin Long said in a press statement.

“ADB’s results-based lending programme supports the government’s initiatives- in coordination with other development partners—to tackle the challenges and lift the overall performance of primary education,” said Xin Long.

The program aims to reduce double-shift operations at schools by recruiting more teachers and building more classrooms, step up teacher education and provide needs-based training for teachers and teacher educators, reform examinations and assessments, as well as enrich teaching and learning resources such as with digital materials.

It will also expand education services for out-of-school children through learning centres, bring more children with special education needs and disabilities to schools, improve school-level performance and management, and strengthen institutions.

To improve the learning environment, the programme will provide gender-segregated and disability-accessible sanitation and safe water in almost all schools. New construction and major retrofitting will meet disaster risk resilience requirements, especially in disaster-prone areas.

To support decentralisation, the program will strengthen the capacities of institutions at all levels of primary education offices and increase the support for schools and upazilas with more resources linked to their needs and performance.

The program is expected to directly benefit 18.6 million students, about 340,000 teachers, and more than 65,000 schools that are under the management of the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education.