Panama: World Bank
Supports Better
Education for Rural and
Indigenous Children
The World Bank has
approved additional
financing in the amount
of US$5 million to
improve the quality of
basic education in the
poorest rural and urban
communities of Panama.
The loan will support
the rehabilitation of
schools, the expansion
of early childhood
education programs and
the strengthening of the
Ministry of Education
managerial capacity. The
objective of the
additional loan will
finance the costs
associated with
continued activities of
this well-performing
project.
“This project will
benefit children
attending primary and
secondary school,
particularly those
living in poor and
remote areas,” said Jane
Armitage, the World
Bank’s Director for
Central America.
The project provides for
upgrading, expansion,
and renovation of
run-down or inadequate
school buildings to
accommodate a growing
number of students in
primary and lower
secondary schools. The
loan will also finance
school libraries,
learning guides,
bilingual textbooks for
37,000 indigenous
children, and teacher
training materials.
In addition to expanding
primary and secondary
schools, the loan will
also support increased
pre-school services in
disadvantaged rural
communities. It will
also support a Pilot
Project of Distance
Basic Education, which
will provide lower-level
secondary school
instruction to students
who currently leave
school after primary
school, because no
secondary school is
available to them.
This US$5 million
additional financing
World Bank loan is an
IBRD fixed-spread loan,
with a maturity of 15
years and a five-year
grace period and builds
upon support approved by
the Bank’s Board of
Directors in September
2000. |
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