The World Bank yesterday approved $510 million to improve secondary education system and student performance in Bangladesh. The ‘Transforming Secondary Education for Results’ program will benefit 13 million students in grade 6-12. The program is also aimed at enhancing quality of teaching and learning as well as improving access and retention of students, especially girls and children from poor households.

To improve quality of education, the program will support modernisation of curriculum and ensure professional development, management, and accountability of teachers. It will also support learning assessments and reform examinations.

“In 1993, the World Bank started supporting the secondary education sector through an innovative and a globally renowned stipend project that dramatically increased girls’ enrollment,” said said Qimiao Fan, World Bank Country Director for Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal.

He said today, Bangladesh is among a few low and low middle-income countries to achieve gender parity in secondary education.

“The next challenge is to improve quality of education and to ensure that poor children, both boys and girls, complete grade 12,”

The secondary education sector faces several challenges. Less than 70 percent children in primary schools continue to secondary level, and below 60 percent complete grade 10.

The programme will support the government’s Secondary Education Development Programme. It will implement a system of accountability for teachers as well as for school management committees.

The programme also has a technical assistance facility, which is partially supported by a grant from the Global Financing Facility.

“The rural schools often suffer from a shortage of qualified teachers, particularly in English, Mathematics, and Science subjects,” said Saurav Dev Bhatta, World Bank Co-Team Leader for the project.