The Reaching Out-of-School Children Project in Bangladesh aims to supplement the Primary Education Development Program (PEDP) II by developing demand-side interventions to encourage out-of-school children to attend non-formal institutions and improve the quality of education in these centers. The over-all goal is to reduce the number of out-of-school youth significantly. In consonance with PEDP II, the key objective of this project is to use demand-side mechanisms to support the Government of Bangladesh (GOB) towards achieving its National Plan of Action for Education for All (EFA) goals. In particular the project aims to: - expand access to quality primary education especially for the disadvantaged; - increase completion and transition rates for students enrolled in non-formal centers; - create classroom conditions for students in non-formal centers comparable to formal schools; - ensure unit costs are not higher than in formal primary institutions; and - evaluate the impact of a well-defined intervention to address specific problems.

There are 4 proposed components to address the above mentioned objectives: 1. Improving Access to Quality Education for Out-of-School Children; 2. Project Management and Institutional Strengthening; 3. Monitoring, Evaluation and Research; and 4. Communications and Social Awareness. The WB estimates the project to cost a total of US$ 50,000,000 which will be entirely financed by the IDA. However, potential co-financiers may include the DFID, the EU, and CIDA.

UPDATE:

17 October 2005

The total project cost is US$ 62.80 million. The IDA will finance US$ 51 million, SIDA will provide the US$ 6 million and the Government of Bangladesh will finance the remaining US$ 5.80 million.