Friday, December 01, 2006
World Bank extends $100 million loan for Iraq's education system
Finance
The World Bank agreed to extend a $100 million loan to Iraq to help boost education there, the first loan to Iraq in over 30 years. “The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors today approved the first loan to Iraq in over thirty years. The $100 million Third Emergency Education Project (TEEP) will help the Government of Iraq alleviate school overcrowding and lay the groundwork for educational reform,” the bank said in a statement posted on its website on Wednesday.
Since 2003, Iraqi authorities have successfully maintained a functioning school system. Nevertheless, the educational system faces challenges caused by massive backlogs in school construction and maintenance, human resource development, and policy and system development, the World Bank said. “School overcrowding is a main contributor to low school enrollment rates,” said commented Peter Buckland, the project’s Task Team Leader. “There are twice as many teachers as classrooms and nearly 20 percent of primary and secondary schools operate in double or even triple shifts,” he added.
The TEEP will finance the construction and furnishing of about 82 new primary and secondary schools in 15 governorates, directly benefiting about 57,000 students. The project will also introduce new design standards for schools, help the Iraqi authorities formulate and introduce a national program for school construction and maintenance, and finance a comprehensive program to support educational system reform. The Iraqi ministry or education will implement the project and it will contract Iraqi construction companies using internationally accepted competitive procurement procedures. The US$100 million credit will be provided by the International Development Association (IDA), an arm of the World Bank that provides financing on concessional terms to eligible countries. The credit has 35 years maturity including 10 years grace period.
