Media contact:
Angela Bekkers, EFA FTI Secretariat
Tel: +1 202 458 8831 Abekkers@educationfasttrack.org
 
Madrid, 10 November, 2010 – The Education for All - Fast Track Initiative (EFA FTI) today announced almost US$ 180 million in grants to Mozambique, Rwanda and Papua New Guinea.
 
This money will help put one-million out-of-school children into classrooms, support programs to improve learning quality, enable pupils to complete a full cycle of basic education, and, in addition, transition them into secondary schools.
 
The EFA FTI, a global partnership dedicated to ensuring that all children receive quality basic education, decided at a summit in Madrid to issue grants to three member countries to support their national education strategies.
 
Mozambique qualified for a grant of US$ 90 Million to build more classrooms, earmark direct support to schools and provide many more text books. Mozambique greatly expanded its education system since joining EFA FTI in 2003 with primary school enrolment soaring from 3.3 million to 5.3 million. The three-year FTI grant will also be used to raise the overall quality of education by financing teacher training, HIV/AIDS prevention and decentralized school management and supervision.
 
The new FTI financing for Mozambique will be pooled among bilateral donors and includes a US$ 41 million credit from the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA). The new World Bank funding for Mozambique is part of a pledge made last September to support basic education by an additional $750 million from IDA in FTI-endorsed countries. “We heartily congratulate Mozambique on this new financing which will allow the government to build on the real progress of the last few years”, said Bob Prouty, Head of the EFA FTI Secretariat. “This latest FTI grant together with major new World Bank funding, comes at a crucial moment for Mozambique. Without it, the country would have faced an even more serious financing gap for its basic education sector”.
 
Rwanda – allocated a three-year grant of US$ 70 million – has made tremendous progress in its education sector. The number of children enrolled in primary school increased by 4% per annum and average school completion rates rose from 53% in 2000 to 75% in 2008. The new FTI grant will help implement the government’s vision of ensuring that every child is guaranteed nine years of quality education by 2015, including three years of lower secondary education. Following strong growth in enrolment over the past decade, Rwanda is now focused on reducing drop-out and repetition rates, particularly for girls. Rwanda wants to improve the quality of learning by training and hiring more teachers, providing new materials, strengthening education in science and technology and improving school management systems. "FTI support has empowered us immensely. No Rwandan children of school age are now left behind, and out of school," said Sharon Haba, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education: "Yes, we had the political will to do this -- but we did not have the money. Today, Rwanda has one qualified teacher to 63 children. This new FTI funding will allow us to reduce that ratio to one teacher teaching 47 children. And we want to reduce those numbers further year by year so all children receive a really quality education”.
 
Papua New Guinea was allocated a grant of US$ 19.2 million to be used mainly to advance the reading skills of children of elementary and primary-school age. The funds will go to classroom libraries and educational material, and more teacher training. Improvements in reading skills will also be rigorously assessed as part of the project. A baseline of data about children’s reading abilities is being assembled this year and will be monitored biannually. "This grant is special. It will help make reading fun for our younger children" said Joseph Pagelio, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education of Papua New Guinea. "Until now, the children only had textbooks to read; from here on they can feed their passion for stories, not just facts. They will be able to go to the library now and take out books which stimulate their imagination, broaden the world they live in, and show them other worlds and ideas. This is a transformative initiative indeed."
 
The grant decisions were made at the EFA FTI meetings taking place this week in Madrid, Spain.  By allocating a total of US$ 179.2 million, the EFA FTI has reached its budget limit of supporting developing countries requesting financial aid in the short run. The coming months will be crucial to EFA FTI as it continues an ambitious effort to replenish its multi-donor trust fund. The immediate financing needs of the FTI trust fund are estimated at a minimum of US$ 1 billion a year.
 
“Many partner countries told us that they will request funding in 2011. These are the financing needs of countries with ambitious, but credible national education plans that have received the international ‘seal of approval’ through EFA FTI” says Carol Bellamy, Chair of FTI’s Board of Directors. “We are already working with FTI donors to raise the funds essential to provide meaningful financing to these countries. Going forward, we are confident that joining the EFA FTI Partnership and receiving FTI financing – even at lower levels - will help countries reach the 2015 MDG education goals”.
 
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About the Education for All Fast Track Initiative (EFA FTI):
 
The EFA FTI is a global partnership of donor and developing countries, multilateral institutions and civil society organizations, dedicated to ensuring that all children receive quality basic education. It currently endorses the education plans of 43 developing countries around the world, including 25 in Sub-Saharan Africa and has allocated around US$ 2.2 billion in financial aid.  These funds have helped to train around 330,000 teachers, construct 29,000 classrooms, and distribute more than 200 million text books.