The World Bank on Friday approved two projects worth $1.05 billion (over Rs 4,800 crore) for India to expand the reach of primary schools and the quality of engineering education in the country. ?The World Bank on Friday approved two education projects worth $1.05 billion for India, designed to boost the number of children enrolling in and completing elementary school, and to improve quality of engineering education across the country,? it said in a statement. It also acknowledged that India has made significant progress in meeting its education goals, especially at the primary level.

Through its 86th constitutional amendment in 2002, India mandated elementary education as a fundamental right of every child. The same year, the government also launched the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), a nationwide programme to take quality elementary education to all children. The Bank has supported the SSA with total grants of $1.1 billion since 2003. ?SSA?now the largest ongoing education for all (EFA) programme in the world?has been remarkably successful, particularly in achieving greater access to elementary education,? said Roberto Zagha, World Bank country director for India.

Between 2003 and 2009, the number of children reportedly enrolled in elementary education in India increased by 57 million to 192million. More than two-thirds of this increase took place in government schools. The number of children out of school declined from 25 million to 8.1 million during the same period. Enrollment gains were especially strong among girls and children from socially disadvantaged households.

The programme now aims to expand its efforts to enable the hardest-to-reach children to attend school. These include provision of teachers and the establishment, construction and extension of primary and upper primary schools and classrooms in districts where access is still an issue.

?We expect that these activities will lead to a greater percentage of children attending and completing elementary education,? said Sam Carlson, World Bank lead education specialist and project team leader for SSA. ?But the real focus of this additional financing is on improving quality.

More than 50% of SSA resources will be allocated over the next three years for activities to improve student learning, such as teacher training, remedial education, provision of free textbooks and other learning materials to enable more activity-based learning,? he added.