World Bank slates Sh150bn for education sector uplift

By Amina Yahya

Global Partnership for Education (GPE)

The Ministry of Education and Vocational Training is expecting to receive Sh150 billion from the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) under the World Bank in an effort to improve the quality of education and training in primary schools in tandem with the Big Results Now (BRN) program.

Prof Sifuni Mchome, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training, said yesterday that the government applied for financial support from the institution, where the institution’s board agreed to give the amount to Tanzania Mainland.

The money will be used in improving reading skills, writing and numeracy in primary education, improve formal education as well as strengthen coordination, planning and management of education, he said.
The support has been announced by the GPE chief executive officer Alice Albright at a meeting of the institute held November 19 in Addis Ababa, where Tanzania was among 14 countries that will receive a total of $ 549 million for three years from GPE.

Dr Shukuru Kawambwa, the Minister for Education and Vocational Training thanked the GPE board for accepting to offer this support, saying it will help to improve the quality of education in the country, especially in this period of Big Results Now (BRN).

“We are happy to receive this information of getting that support because it has come on time where it will help us in effectively implementing the Plan of Big Results Now (BRN) in the education sector, "said Dr Kawambwa.

About 13 other countries benefited from that assistance, namely Cambodia, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Niger, Sao Tome and Principe, Sierra Leone, Somalia and Uganda.

According to the Tanzania Development Vision (TDV) 2025, education should be treated as a strategic agent for mindset transformation and for the creation of a well-educated nation, sufficiently equipped with the knowledge needed to competently and competitively solve the development challenges which face the nation.

Recently, as part of a process of implementing TDV 2025, the government analyzed sectors which need adequate investment to bring quick, improved results in a few years. The government came up with the Big Results Now (BRN) project covering six sectors - energy, water, infrastructure, agriculture, education and resource mobilization, identified and targeted for BRN.

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN