The World Bank is providing $300 million in financing to Bangladesh to improve the quality of primary education, with a focus on strengthening basic reading, writing and mathematics skills among 26 million children from pre-primary to Grade Five.

The funding will also support the implementation of the government’s Fifth Primary Education Development Programme.

The World Bank Group’s Board of Executive Directors approved the financing on November 6 in Washington.

Although Bangladesh has achieved near-universal access to primary education, the quality of learning remains a major challenge. According to World Bank data, nearly 50 per cent of 10-year-old children in Bangladesh cannot read and understand a simple text appropriate for their age. The corresponding rates are 42 per cent in upper-middle-income Malaysia and 47 per cent in Brazil.

Jean Pesme, World Bank Division Director for Bangladesh and Bhutan, said quality primary education was a key foundation for developing a workforce capable of competing globally.

He noted that the World Bank Group had helped Bangladesh ensure access to schooling for nearly all children over the past two decades. The new financing, he said, would improve learning outcomes and help children remain in school, laying the groundwork for better employment opportunities in the future.

Bangladesh has one of the largest primary education systems in the world, with more than 20 million children enrolled in government schools, non-governmental organisation (NGO)-run institutions, kindergartens and madrasas.

Under the World Bank-supported programme, specialised learning packages will be introduced to strengthen children’s foundational literacy and numeracy skills. These will include teaching materials, structured lesson plans and teacher training.

The initiative will also provide leadership training to 90 per cent of headteachers at government primary schools and strengthen school management systems.

Tashmina Rahman, the World Bank’s Senior Education Specialist and Task Team Leader for the programme, said strengthening foundational learning was the first step towards acquiring the skills needed for better employment.

She said the programme would provide additional educational support to disadvantaged students to ensure that no child was left behind. Districts where students face the greatest learning gaps will receive priority.

Rahman added that the initiative would also help improve teachers’ skills and school leadership, ensure greater accountability in budget utilisation and promote the effective use of data in decision-making.

The programme will provide training and necessary support to government primary school teachers so they can more effectively develop children’s basic reading, writing and mathematics skills in classrooms.

It will also seek to improve the quality of pre-primary education in government schools, helping children become better prepared for formal schooling before enrolment.

The World Bank expects the programme to create 843,000 new and relatively better-paid employment opportunities in government primary schools.

The financing is being provided through the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank Group institution that supports low-income countries.

The loan has a 25-year maturity period, including a five-year grace period before repayment begins.