ISLAMABAD: World Bank will provide 19.85 million dollars to Pakistan for Covid-19 response, recovery and resilience in education project.

An agreement to this effect was signed in Islamabad on Wednesday by Secretary Ministry of Economic Affairs Noor Ahmed and Country Director World Bank Najy Benhassine in presence of Minister for Economic Affairs Makhdum Khusro Bakhtiyar.

The project is aimed to strengthen and support federal and provincial actions in the education sector to better respond to and recover from the COVID-19 crises in the short term; and to lay the foundation for resilience to face future crisis, with a focus on disadvantage areas and vulnerable populations, said a press release issued by Ministry of Economic Affairs here.

The project interventions will help the government to ensure learning continuity in the country through expansion of national distance learning content and distribution of learning material in lagging areas, protect the students’ and teachers’ health safety and well being, designing and implementing distance learning competency standards, promote safe schools, support teachers and students to prepare for the recovery through delivery of teacher training and better coordination across provinces.

The Federal secretary, Ministry of Economic Affairs Mr. Noor Ahmed signed the Grant Agreement on behalf of the Government of Pakistan while Country Director, World Bank, Mr. Najy Benhassine, signed the grant agreement on behalf of the World Bank.

The Minister for Economic Affairs, Makhdum Khusro Bakhtyar, thanked the World Bank Country Management for extending their continuous support to the Government of Pakistan in its efforts to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic issue; particularly learning continuity in the country.

The Country Director, World Bank assured their continuous support to Government of Pakistan in achieving the priority development objectives. NNI