The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a loan amounting to: $68.9 million to reform the country's teachers’ training system.

ADB’s loan, which covers 63 percent of the total project cost of $108.7 million, comes from its concessional Asian Development Fund, said an ADB release yesterday.

The loan carries a 32-year term, including a grace period of eight years. Interest is set at 1 percent per annum during the grace period and 1.5 percent per annum thereafter.

The Canadian International Development Agency intends to provide joint grant co-financing of $18 million under ADB administration, and the government of Bangladesh will contribute $21.7 million.

The Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education under the Ministry of Education will execute the project, which is due for completion in March 2011.

An acute shortage of trained secondary school teachers is hampering the provision of quality secondary education in Bangladesh. As a result, dropout rates are high and students who manage to complete secondary education arc unprepared to enter the workforce or to continue with their education.

Dropout rates average 44 percent for secondary grades 6-10, and 38 percent for higher secondary grades 11-12.

Jouko Sarvi, an ADB senior education specialist, said: "The high failure rates together with high dropout rates represent a huge wastage of resources-financial and human." The project will improve the quality of initial and in-service training, including professional development, of all eligible teachers of grades 6-10 in government and privatesecondary schools.

It will assist in establishing an integrated training system by restructuring the National Academy of Educational Management (Naem) to become the institutional home of excellence for secondary school teachers’ training, and by improving the coordination and performance standards of teachers’ training colleges and training institutions.

The project will also upgrade the facilities of Naem and government teachers' trainingcolleges and institutions, renovating classrooms and libraries and providing audiovisual and computer laboratories.

A non-governmental teachers' registration and certification agency (NTRCA) will be established to make sure that secondary school teachers are certified and qualified. The accreditation system will also be reviewed and improved.

Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education and Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistics will also be strengthened.

To emphasise the importance of Improving education in remote and under-served areas, the project will prioritise giving initial and in-service training to teachers from those areas, including ethnic minorities. Also training of female teachers will be prioritised.

About 100,000 currently serving untrained teachers will be trained up under the project, while 50,000 new teachers will be Imparted training at teachers training colleges and institutions. All 17,000 head teachers will benefit from the upgraded training.

Professional development programs to be introduced by the project will also benefit more than 200,000 serving teachers and 700 trainers.

"The ultimate beneficiaries are the pupils, who will receive better education, produce better results, and perform better in die labour market," saidSarvi.

"Secondary education of good quality is of utmost importance in creating a basis for competitiveness and economic development, which arc necessary for successfully tackling the challenges of globalisation."