Second Education Project in Bhutan Supports Government's Drive to Enroll All School-Age Children

Contacts:  Kruti Kapadia (202) 458-9031
Rebeca Robboy (202) 473-0699 
To obtain project documents please contact the World Bank's Public Information Center (PIC)
at tel: 202-458-5454, fax: 202-522-1500, email: pic@worldbank.org

Washington, March 3, 1998 The World Bank today announced the approval of a US$13.7 million equivalent credit for a Second Education Project in Bhutan that will provide high quality basic education grades pre-primary through eight to a larger number of the countrys children.

The project will focus on children from rural areas, where access to higher grade levels is highly constrained. It will construct and upgrade schools, improve teacher training, and strengthen management support for the system. The credit is provided by the International Development Association (IDA), the World Banks concessionary lending affiliate.

"The Government of Bhutan has a deep commitment to providing its children access to quality education as its development keystone and has made 8 years of universal basic education its next major goal," says Grant Sinclair, World Bank Senior Implementation Specialist in the South Asia Education Unit.

Education in Bhutan In 1961 the tiny, sparsely populated, mountainous Kingdom of Bhutan opened its doors to the modern world with a far-reaching development strategy which included a strong commitment to improve education. Since then, the government has built an educational delivery system providing largely free primary, secondary, and limited tertiary level schooling. This system consists of a year of pre-primary school, followed by six years of primary school, four years secondary school, and two years of junior college. Altogether, approximately 92,000 students are enrolled in 312 schools and institutions. Today, nearly three-quarters of primary school-age children are enrolled and, in contrast to neighboring countries, nearly half are girls. The government expects to achieve universal primary education by 2007.

The project will substantially improve the physical infrastructure available to basic education by building or substantially upgrading 12 schools with a net additional enrollment capacity of about 5,000 students, primarily at the junior secondary level.

The Second Education Project will also provide considerable support to the institutional and qualitative improvement of basic education through professional development; in-service training; curriculum development; school guidance and support; and management strengthening at the central, district, and school levels.

The total cost of the project is estimated at US$21.2 million, of which US$13.7 million will be provided by IDA, US$5.5 million by the Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC), and US$2.0 million by the government. The credit portion will be on standard IDA terms with a maturity of 40 years, including a grace period of 10 years.

Other ongoing World Bank activities in Bhutan include the Third Forestry Project approved in 1993.