14,200 pry teachers to be appointed by June

Officials said the scheme, titled 'Primary Education Development Program II (PEDP)', will create 35,000 jobs for teachers within 2009.

The recruitment plan was disclosed at a press briefing arranged by the Asian Development Bank yesterday at its office, detailing the objectives of the comprehensive programme, undertaken in 2004.

The government is spending 1,161 million US dollar while the 11 development partners are funding 654 million US dollar. Of the 654 million US dollar, the donors are giving 250 million US dollar in credit.

In the donor consortium are the Asian Development Bank, CIDA (Canada), DFID (UK), EC, Norway, the Netherlands, SIDA (Sweden), the World Bank, JICA (Japan), UNICEF and AusAid (Australia).

The six-year-long programme got off in September 2004 with Prime Minister Khaleda Zia inaugurating it.

PEDP II Programme Manager Brajesh P Nath gave a PowerPoint presentation at the press conference. ADB country director Hua Du, DFID country Director David Wood, ADB senior country specialist Putu Kamayan and DFID senior education advisor Barbara Payne also spoke.

Brajesh P Nath in his presentation stated that the goal of this programme is to reduce poverty through universal primary education and sustainable and equitable socio-economic development as envisaged in the MDGs as well as providing quality primary education to all

eligible children in Bangladesh.

Under this programme, 11,000 staff (including 9,000 teachers) have been transferred to revenue budget and about 14,000 new classrooms (out of 30,000 under PEDP II) are being constructed, he said.

With these new teachers and new classrooms, it is expected that pupil-teacher ratio would improve, more schools would be converted to single shift from double shifts and overcrowding in classrooms reduce, Brajesh P Nath hoped.

He also said that under the programme, necessary reforms, including enhancing good governance with a focus on ensuring fund flow into transparent and accountable manner, are under way.

"In addition, there is also focus on accountability and service delivery (in teacher recruitment), quality construction by LGED, social auditing, and prevention of, and responses to, corruption as part of a coherent strategy for good governance," he added.

ADB country director Hua Du said only 10 percent schools in the country are single-shift and this "should be increased for better schooling".