A week after the Ministry of Education endorsed multi-billion School Sector Development Plan (SSDP), the Asian Development Bank has approved Rs 12.81 billion ($120 million) loan and Rs 534 million ($500,000) in grant for the implementation of the project aimed at enhancing the quality of education.

Confirming its support to Rs 1.1 trillion project , the bank said in a statement on Wednesday that the government’s main education initiative for 2017-2023 includes setting up of 200 model schools with disaster risk resilient infrastructure, improved education facilities, a full complement of teachers and quality improvements to enhance student learning. The government will bear 88.8 percent of the total cost, while donor agencies have confirmed to provide 6.8 percent of the total budget in support. The government is negotiating with donors to arrange the remaining funding. Currently, 17 bilateral and multilateral donors are supporting the education sector. 

“Continued investment in education, particularly secondary education, is critical for Nepal to achieve its goal of becoming an inclusive and prosperous middle-income country by 2030,” said Sungsup Ra, director, Human and Social Development Division in ADB’s South Asia Regional Department. “The project will support government efforts to increase the number of secondary school graduates, who will earn higher wages than non-graduates, and boost the efficiency of the country’s education system,” the statement reads.

Although enrolment in basic education is high, few students, especially among marginalized groups such as Dalits and poor girls, progress to secondary education in Nepal. The quality of learning is hampered by a lack of teachers and scarce opportunities for teachers’ professional development. Average achievement scores are particularly low in key subjects like Maths and Science, and only 47 percent of students passed the grade 10 examinations in 2015, adds the statement.

As part of the School Sector Development Plan, the ADB loan will boost quality education by introducing and expanding ICT in classrooms, boosting teachers’ professional development, and promoting activity-based pedagogy for Maths, Science and English. The model schools will have a separate head teacher, a full complement of subject teachers, disaster risk-resilient infrastructure, water and sanitation facilities, a library, a science laboratory, ICT facilities, internet connectivity, and e-resources.