DUSHANBE, 14 December 2009 – On November 5, 2009, the Education for All Fast Track Initiative (EFA FTI) Catalytic Fund has allocated a grant of US$13.5 million for Tajikistan to support the National Strategy for Education Development (NSED) over an 18-months period in 2010-2011.
The EFA FTI is a global partnership to assist low-income countries in meeting Education for All (EFA) and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for education and providing additional funding for the implementation of the Education Strategies. The grant to support the Tajikistan’s NSED comes from the EFA FTI Catalytic Fund (FTI CF), a multilateral fund sponsored by 18 donors.
The World Bank and UNICEF, co-lead donor coordination agencies for FTI in Tajikistan, jointly with the Local Education Donor Group (LEDG) supported the Ministry of Education with technical assistance to develop the National Strategy for Education Development and application package for the FTI CF funding, which enabled the Government of Tajikistan to receive three grant allocations from the FTI CF totaling in US$ 31.9 million since 2005 including the recently approved allocation of US$ 13.5 million.
“Investment in basic education is the best investment in the country’s human capital and its future,” said Ms. Hongwei Gao, UNICEF Country Representative in Tajikistan. “The additional funding from the FTI CF will enable Tajikistan to speed up its education sector reform and improve the access and quality of basic education for all.”
The World Bank Country Manager for Tajikistan, Ms. Chiara Bronchi, also said: “With the new grant from the FTI CF, Tajikistan will continue building on the success of the previous two grants preserving achievements in the education area during the crisis and moving forward in bringing up well educated citizens”.
By 2012, with the financial support from the FTI CF, the following results are expected: 37,000 pupils study in 75 renovated and newly built schools, school furniture shortage is alleviated affecting 110,000 pupils, over 1.6 million textbooks in 27 titles are published, 4,300 teachers and methodologists and 1,100 school directors have upgraded their knowledge and skills through the retraining courses, all schools in the country receive public funds based on the per capita principle and education data collection and analysis is improved due to functioning of the EMIS.
The FTI CF grants for Tajikistan are being administered by the World Bank, and will be implemented by the Ministry of Education with technical support from the LEDG.
For more information, please contact:
Education for All Fast Track Initiative in Washington, DC:
Aby Toure, Communications Associate
Tel : +1 (202) 473 8302
Email : akonate@worldbank.org
UNICEF in Tajikistan:
Alexander Sodiqov, Communication Officer
Tel.: +992 (48) 701 14 89, 701 14 90
Email: asodiqov@unicef.org
The World Bank in Tajikistan:
Mukaddas Kurbanova, Communication Officer
Tel.: +992 (37) 221 15 18, 221 03 81
Email: mkurbanova@worldbank.org