A credit agreement of $600 million equivalent, for second elementary education project, was signed on Thursday between the government of India and the World Bank.
This credit will support the government of India?s ongoing Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) to provide access to quality education for children aged 6 to 14 years. The project aims to promote equity by enabling hard-to-reach children to attend school. It will create better learning conditions for all children and provide capacity building and academic support to state and sub-state education structures. In the area of oversight, the project will help monitor learning outcomes and support research and evaluation of quality initiatives.
Total cost of the SSA II is estimated at $10.7 billion, of which the government of India will contribute around 55%, the states will contribute about 35% and the development partners (including the World Bank) approximately 10%.
The credit, provided by the International Development Association, the World Bank?s concessionary lending arm, carries a 0.75% service fee and has 35 years to maturity and a 10-year grace period during which no repayment is required. In 2002, India made elementary education a fundamental right of every child through its 86th constitutional amendment.
According to the government of India figures, between 2003 and 2008, the number of out-of-school children was reduced from 25 million to about 4.5 million. The transition rates from primary to upper primary also improved, from 75% in 2002 to 83% in 2006. Over 2,00,000 new schools were set up during this period and over 21 million more children attended school. This represents about 6% of the total number of children previously out of school, globally. Access for children from marginalised groups, minorities, extremely poor households, and educationally and economically lagging states has increased.
?The SSA has served as a powerful vehicle to mobilize stakeholders at all community, district, state, and national levels around the objective of ensuring that every child from 6 to 14 years is included in the education system,? said Rachid Benmessaoud, director for India, Acting World Bank Country. ?The challenge now is to include those hardest to reach and to ensure that children get the quality education they deserve to succeed at higher levels of education and subsequently in the labor market, thereby contributing to the country?s overall social and economic development.?