UK to help improve quality of primary education
The United Kingdom will help improve the quality of education of 16.5 million children, recruit and train 35,000 new teachers and construct 30,000 new classrooms in Bangladesh, UK's Secretary of State for International Development Andrew Mitchell announced yesterday. The support will be provided over a period of 5 years up to 2016. “I am delighted to announce today Britain's support for the Bangladesh government's third Primary Education Development Programme, which will deliver effective and relevant child-friendly learning to 16.5 million girls and boys in Bangladesh,” he said after a meeting with Finance Minister AMA Muhith at the secretariat in Dhaka. He added that this support will improve the quality of education in Bangladesh and bring long-term economic benefits. Mitchell, who is now on a three-day official visit to Bangladesh, also re-affirmed Britain's support to the health sector programme in Bangladesh that will help over 6 million women to give birth safely, 2.4 million pregnant women to have access to antenatal care and over 16 million children to be immunised. He appreciated Bangladesh's progress on the Millennium Development Goals including the achievement of 96% enrolment in primary education and gender parity. “These are fantastic results. But learning efficiency, quality and achievement in schools remain low. Only 60% of the children who enroll complete primary education,” he observed. Meanwhile, Mitchell at a meeting with Foreign Minister Dipu Moni at the latter's office lauded Bangladesh for her leadership in global climate change negotiations and assured Bangladesh of development cooperation expansion from the next year. Acknowledging the UK as one of the key bilateral development and trade partners, Dipu said the government had taken numerous steps, including operationalisation of the National Human Rights Commission and the Right to Information Commission aiming to strengthen democracy and rule of the law in the country.
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