ADB, EAA Foundation collaborates to work for quality primary education for out of school children

Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Qatar-based Education Above All (EAA) have signed an agreement to carry out 100 million dollars in joint projects to put at-risk and out of school children into quality primary education.

India will be among the few countries that will benefit from the following agreement. The five-year agreement was signed by Tomoyuki Kimura Director General of ADB’s Strategy, Policy and Partnership Department, and Fahad Al Sulaiti Foundation Chief Executive Officer at a side event to the United Nations High-Level Political Forum 2020.

The side event was organised by ADB, EAA, Qatar Fund for Development, the State of Qatar and the Islamic Solidarity Fund for Development and brought together experts from around the world to discuss the impact of COVID-19 on education.

Focusing on education amid pandemic:

The side event to the United Nations High-Level Political Forum 2020 brought the experts together to discuss the impact of the ongoing pandemic on education as well as to reflect how they can exchange critical information, exchange ideas, mitigate the impact of the pandemic, collaborate and address the financial requirement to build resilience in the education system for future shocks.

As many countries in Asia and the Pacific region have remarkably improved the access to schooling but students learning achievements are still lagging behind. Just attending school does not guarantee learning.

When children are not able to learn at the desired place, they are at a high risk of dropping out and those who continue may leave school without learning adequately.

Brajesh Panth, Chief of ADB’s Education Sector Group stated that it is not only important to bring school-age children especially from disadvantaged groups to school but it is also important to ensure that they complete school education with foundational skills.

Project Funding by ADB and EAA:

The two organisations will make the financing options available for the specific projects on the basis of joint co-financing which will be administered by ADB or parallel co-financing where the organisations will separately administer their funds in accordance with their own policies and procedures.

Countries selected for the project are:

•  Afghanistan

•  Bangladesh

•  India

•  Indonesia

•  Myanmar

•  Nepal

•  Pakistan

•  Papua New Guinea

•  Philippines

•  Sri Lanka