The World Bank has agreed to loan the government of Nepal Rs19 billion for increasing the quality of education.

An agreement to this effect was signed between Finance Secretary Shanta Raj Subedi and World Bank Nepal Country Manager Takuya Kamata at the Finance Ministry on Thursday.

The amount to be paid back in five years would be used for expanding access to primary and secondary education, improving teaching and learning activities and building a reformed educational system.

Kamata expressed his hope that the initiative would contribute to the School Sector Reform Plan of the government. Some 7 million students and 180,000 teachers would benefit from the programme.

Secretary Subedi urged the ministry and its subordinate bodies to work seriously for implementing the programme.

He also requested the bank to provide additional support to the government’s initiatives to ensure sustainable social services, manage human resources and to build infrastructure.