| Project Detail |
The Fourth Primary Education Development Program (PEDP4) is the governments flagship initiative in the education sector aiming to provide quality education to all children. To support this program, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) approved a concessional loan of $500 million from ADBs ordinary capital resources on 27 September 2018. The loan closing date is 31 January 2024. The Government of Bangladesh, ADB, and five other development partners jointly finance the program via a sector-wide approach. The impact of the results-based lending (RBL) program is strengthened human capital formation. The outcome is improved quality and equity of primary education for all children from pre-primary to grade 5. The outputs are (i) improved quality of primary education, (ii) enhanced access and participation to primary education, and (iii) improved governance and management of primary education system. Project Name Supporting Fourth Primary Education Development Program-Additional Financing Project Number 50192-004 Country / Economy Bangladesh Project Status Approved Project Type / Modality of Assistance Grant Source of Funding / Amount Grant 0891-BAN: Supporting Fourth Primary Education Development Program-Additional Financing Education Above All Foundation US$ 12.40 million Operational Priorities OP1: Addressing remaining poverty and reducing inequalities OP2: Accelerating progress in gender equality OP6: Strengthening governance and institutional capacity Sector / Subsector Education / Education sector development - Pre-primary and primary Gender Effective gender mainstreaming Description The Fourth Primary Education Development Program (PEDP4) is the governments flagship initiative in the education sector aiming to provide quality education to all children. To support this program, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) approved a concessional loan of $500 million from ADBs ordinary capital resources on 27 September 2018. The loan closing date is 31 January 2024. The Government of Bangladesh, ADB, and five other development partners jointly finance the program via a sector-wide approach. The impact of the results-based lending (RBL) program is strengthened human capital formation. The outcome is improved quality and equity of primary education for all children from pre-primary to grade 5. The outputs are (i) improved quality of primary education, (ii) enhanced access and participation to primary education, and (iii) improved governance and management of primary education system. The ongoing program is performing well. Despite the challenges of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic and the closure of primary schools for over 18 months, the program is on track with solid progress to meet its outcome and outputs. As of 31 December 2022, 22 out of 39 sub-indicators of disbursement-linked indicators (DLIs) have been achieved. This will increase the ongoing program cumulative disbursement to 65%, while program time lapsed is at 70%. The PEDP4 midterm review conducted jointly by government and development partners assessed that the remaining sub-indicators of DLIs have progressed well and are on track to be achieved before the program completion date despite the impact of COVID-19. The government remains committed to accelerating efforts for achieving all program results with continued supports by development partners. Compliance with fiduciary and safeguard policy requirements for the ongoing program is satisfactory. The risk management plan is being complied with and has been successful. The project performance rating has been on track throughout implementation of the program. Project Rationale and Linkage to Country/Regional Strategy The additional financing is to reduce financing cost for out-of-school children (OOSC) by replacing part of ADB funding by Education Above All Foundation, Qatar (EAA) grant funds to achieve the same results previously planned (DLI 6). This will allow reallocating the corresponding ADB funding for additional scope of support to strengthen teacher training in response to the unanticipated impacts of COVID-19 (DLI 3). Bangladesh is among the countries with long school closures due to COVID-19. Primary schools of Bangladesh were closed from 17 March 2020 to 12 September 2021. The pandemic is likely to increase poverty due to significant reduction of household income from loss of formal and informal jobs, which is a major cause for children to discontinue enrollment to schools. The primary school dropout is expected to increase, which will increase the number of OOSC. The COVID-19 safety requirements, such as social distancing and hygiene protocols, further increase the cost of educating OOSC in learning centers. Given the governments limited fiscal space being affected by COVID-19 and economic recovery needs, grant financing will help reduce the cost of financing. During the school closure, teachers received little training because physical meetings were restricted. As a result, students enrolled in primary schools received limited support from teachers, aggravating their learning loss from the school closure. This requires strengthening the resilience and inclusiveness of teacher training through blended delivery modalities. Impact Human capital formation strengthened (Bangladesh Seventh-Five Year Plan FY2016-FY2020) |
