World Bank to grant $19.85 million for Covid

ISLAMABAD: The government signed a grant agreement worth $19.85 million with the World Bank on Wednesday for Covid-19 Response, Recovery and Resilience in Education Project, a statement said.

Minister for Economic Affairs, Makhdum Khusro Bakhtyar witnessed the signing ceremony held at the Ministry of Economic Affairs.

Noor Ahmed, secretary, Ministry of Economic Affairs signed the grant agreement on behalf of the government of Pakistan, while Najy Benhassine, country director, World Bank signed the grant agreement on behalf of the World Bank.

Bakhtyar thanked the World Bank Country Management for extending their continuous support to the government in its efforts to overcome the Covid-19 pandemic; particularly learning continuity in the country.

World Bank country director assured of continuous support to the government of Pakistan in achieving the priority development objectives.

The project aimed to strengthen and support federal and provincial actions in the education sector to better respond to and recover from the Covid-19 crises in the short-term and to lay the foundation for resilience to face future crisis, with a focus on disadvantaged areas and vulnerable populations. The project interventions would help the government ensure learning continuity in the country through expansion of national distance learning content and distribution of learning material in lagging areas. It would also allow protecting students and teachers in terms of health and wellbeing. Further, it would enable to design and implement distance learning competency standards, promote safe schools, support teachers and students to prepare for the recovery through delivery of teacher training and better coordination across provinces.