DHAKA: The World Bank (WB) will provide a loan of 400 million US dollars to an ongoing primary education development project in the country.

Economic Relations Division (ERD) secretary Mohammad Mesbah Uddin and World Bank country director in Bangladesh Johannes Zutt signed the agreement on Sunday afternoon.

According to the ERD sources, the amount would be spent for improving the quality of primary education under the Third Primary Education Development Program (PEDP-3) of primary and mass education ministry.

On January 13, the project was approved by WB authorities in a program chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in city’s Sher-e-Bangla Nagar area.

The sources said that objectives of the PEDP-3 include increasing participation and reducing social disparities in primary education, increasing the number of children to complete primary education and improve the quality of the learning environment and measurement of student learning, and improve effectiveness of resource to be used for primary education in Bangladesh.

In addition, to bring more children into the primary cycle, the program would continue the introduction of pre-primary education, especially in disadvantaged areas and enhance quality of the school facilities and infrastructure.

However, the project was first approved on August 25 in 2011 with a commitment of $300 million. Later, it was revised and additional $100 million was included with the amount to implement the project properly.

The incumbent government has introduced pre-primary education by nationalizing 26,193 primary schools.

According to the ERD sources, laptops, sound systems and multimedia projectors will also be available in each classroom of the schools to ensure the quality of primary education.

BDST: 2052 HRS, JAN 18, 2015