ISLAMABAD, May 1: The World Bank (WB) would provide $800 million to the Punjab to support its ongoing three-year educational reforms programme, official documents available with Dawn reveal.

The World Bank’s board is scheduled to approve the loan in its meeting by the end of this month.

The Punjab Education Development Policy Credit-III (PEDPC- III) would be the last of a series of three development policy loans being provided by the WB to support the Punjab Education Sector Reforms Programme (PESRP) to enhance access to quality education and improve gender parity in the province.

The purpose of the third development policy credit is to extend budget support to the province, which is implementing a wide-ranging sector reforms agenda backed by fiscal and fiduciary reforms.

The programme would help the Punjab move towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of the United Nations (UN) related to poverty reduction, achieving gender parity and universal primary enrolment.

“Improvements in education outcomes in Punjab, the largest province of Pakistan, have a countrywide impact, and could improve Pakistan’s chances of moving towards achievement of the MDGs. Initial success in Punjab is already motivating other provinces to follow a similar path for educational reforms”, the bank observed.

It said Pakistan’s educational indicators compared poorly with those of other countries of similar economic standing. Therefore, improving human development outcomes was a key priority for Pakistan, and formed a core objective of the national Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP), which recognised that the responsibility for service delivery implementation rested with the districts.

The WB has also indicated some risks. It said the rapid expansion in public sector enrolments could pose a major risk if quality improvements did not keep pace with the increase in enrolment.

“There is also an inherent political risk relating to continued ownership of the programme by the district governments and in any changes in provincial leadership. Weak institutional and technical capacity to implement and monitor the programme poses another risk,” the documents said.

The bank is helping Punjab to bring about improvements in education outcomes by supporting system-wide reforms. It’s continued involvement through the District Peace Committees (DPCs) has enabled the provincial government’s educational reforms efforts to remain on track.

The WB is also providing incentives to the province to continue implementing these reforms through a second phase that is under preparation and would be supported by a follow-on DPC series by the bank.