September 6: The Government of Nepal and the World Bank recently signed a financing agreement for an additional grant of US$10.85 million to the School Sector Development Program (SSDP) to maintain access to basic education and continued learning  for children amid the COVID-19 crisis.

According to a statement issued by the World Bank, the program aims to improve the quality, equitable access, and efficiency of basic and secondary education in Nepal.

 The World Bank says that the additional grant from the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) COVID-19 Accelerated Funds will contribute to the implementation of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology’s COVID-19 contingency plan to mitigate and respond to the potential impacts of the pandemic on the education sector.

 The agreement was signed by the Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Finance, Shree Krishna Nepal on behalf of the Government of Nepal and by the World Bank Country Director for the Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka, Faris Hadad-Zervos amid a function on September 4.

 “We are thankful to the World Bank and GPE for the additional grant that will help mitigate learning loss for children due to the impact of COVID-19,” the statement quoted Joint Secretary Nepal as saying.

“The grant provides much needed support to the government to respond to the impacts of the pandemic to enable continuity of learning during school closures, enable schools to safely resume and mitigate the impacts on students and teachers, including loss of learning time and psychosocial impacts.”

 The additional grant will finance activities to support remote learning programs through television, radio and the learning portal as well as printed learning packs for children who do not have access to media or internet, the statement further said.

The grant will support communication campaigns and teacher professional development programs and help strengthen the Education Management Information Systems. The grant will also support provincial and local governments to support safe reopening of schools and continued learning of children.

 “The education sector in Nepal and across the world has been one of the hardest hit owing to the pandemic which has deeply affected learning outcomes for children,” stated  Hadad-Zervos, World Bank Country Director for the Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

 “While supporting the immediate needs for safeguarding access and learning for children, especially girls, the additional grant will support the broader resilient recovery efforts of the government and help build back better the education sector in Nepal.”

The SSDP is a sector-wide program supported by IDA credit of US$185 million, together with support from Asian Development Bank, European Union, Finland, Global Partnership for Education (GPE), Japan International Cooperation Agency, Norway, USAID, UNICEF and REACH Multi-Donor Trust Fund administered by the World Bank.

 Source: World Bank