Contacts: In Washington: Stevan Jackson (202) 458 5054 sjackson@worldbank.org  WASHINGTON, August 2, 2007—The World Bank today approved additional financing in the amount of US$5 million to improve the quality of basic education in the poorest rural and urban communities of Panama.  The loan will support the rehabilitation of schools, the expansion of early childhood education programs and the strengthening of the Ministry of Education managerial capacity. The objective of the additional loan will finance the costs associated with continued activities of this well-performing project.  “This project will benefit children attending primary and secondary school, particularly those living in poor and remote areas,†said Jane Armitage, the World Bank’s Director for Central America.  The project provides for upgrading, expansion, and renovation of run-down or inadequate school buildings to accommodate a growing number of students in primary and lower secondary schools. The loan will also finance school libraries, learning guides, bilingual textbooks for 37,000 indigenous children, and teacher training materials.  In addition to expanding primary and secondary schools, the loan will also support increased pre-school services in disadvantaged rural communities. It will also support a Pilot Project of Distance Basic Education, which will provide lower-level secondary school instruction to students who currently leave school after primary school, because no secondary school is available to them.  This US$5 million additional financing World Bank loan is an IBRD fixed-spread loan, with a maturity of 15 years and a five-year grace period and builds upon support approved by the Bank’s Board of Directors in September 2000.  | 
