June 24, 2006	Saturday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 27, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, June 23: The World Bank on Friday announced a $22 million credit for Balochistan to improve access to and quality of primary education with special focus on girls literacy.

The credit from the International Development Association, the World Bank’s concessionary lending arm, carries a 0.75 per cent service fee, a 10-year grace period, and a maturity of 35 years, a press release said.

The Balochistan Education Support Project, approved on Friday by the World Bank, seeks to establish new community schools in rural areas where the community is able to enrol at least 20 students in a school, and there is no girls school within a 2-km radius. The credit will also support setting up private schools in semi-urban and urban areas. The project will be implemented through the Balochistan Education Foundation (BEF), an apex financing body with the mandate of supporting public-private and community partnerships in education.

The project will help children in Balochistan fulfil their dreams, said John Wall, World Bank country director for Pakistan. Once asked an eight-year-old girl in a remote part of Balochistan what she wants to be when she grows up. An airline pilot, she said. Allowing children to fulfil their dreams is what makes a nation great, he observed.

Balochistan is the poorest of Pakistan’s four provinces, with standards of living and social indicators lagging substantially behind the rest of the country. Education achievement in Balochistan reflects the province’s over all low development indicators. Literacy levels at 37 per cent lag far behind those of other provinces, and the national average of 53 per cent.

Enrolment of girls in schools, meanwhile, is constrained by insufficient women teachers, lack of qualified local women who could potentially become teachers, long distances affecting mobility, and cultural and social issues in rural areas which hinder girls education.

Some districts in Balochistan have the lowest enrolment and literacy rates in the world, with one district recording only two per cent enrolment at the primary level, said Naveed Hassan Naqvi, World Bank education economist and project team leader.

The province requires both financial and technical support to improve primary enrolment and completion rates, reduce gender disparities, and encourage the non-government and private sector to participate in provision of education.