$35m WB help to bring more children to school

The World Bank (WB) will give US$ 35 million for the project titled 'Reaching Out-of-School Children (ROSC)' to enroll more children in poverty-stricken districts for education, reports BSS. Encouraged by the success of the project, the WB has agreed to provide the financial support to expand the implementing areas to 90 upazilas from the existing 60, a WB spokesman told the news agency Thursday. More than 0.25 million disadvantaged children, who had missed out schooling at the right age or had been forced to drop out mainly because of poverty, went to 15,000 'Ananda Schools' (happy learning centres) in the last six years under the project. Being implemented by the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education the main objective, of the project is to cut the number of out-of-school children through access to quality primary education. Social awareness conferences in the upazila and union levels in 28 upazilas have made progress under the project.