Following a grant signing on January 5th, the government of Bangladesh will soon receive $100 million from the Global Partnership for Education to help 19.5 million children in primary school to receive primary education and complete grade 5.
The grant will be pooled with the government’s own funding as well as funding from nine development partners and support the implementation of the ongoing Third Primary Education Development Program (PEDP3). The GPE grant is overseen by the World Bank.
A government-led initiative, the PEDP3 aims to establish an efficient, inclusive, and equitable primary education system helping all Bangladesh’s children learn, from pre-primary through Grade 5.
The Bangladeshi education system is one of the largest in the world. Today, over 97% Bangladeshi children are enrolled in primary schools and nearly 80% of these children complete their primary education.
The project also helped mainstream one year of pre-primary education in public schools. Nearly 2 million poor children attended pre-primary education in 2014.
“Pre-primary and early primary education are key to getting children ready for a successful school life,” said Global Partnership CEO Alice Albright. “Our $100 million grant will help strengthen Bangladesh’s education system and support the Government to ensure equal access and learning for all children and reduce the number of out-of-school children. In this context, it will also be important to strengthen the collaboration with civil society organizations,” she added.