Bhutan - Education Development Project

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The project will support Bhutan's education development program under its 9th Five-Year Plan (2002-2007) to expand access to primary and secondary education, and improve educational quality at all levels. This program is underpinned by the education sector strategy for achieving Bhutan's Vision 20/20, which provides a framework of development principles to improve quality of life of its citizens, and is the result of an extensive nationwide consultative process. There are three components to the project: Component 1. Expand access to primary and secondary education. This component will finance the capital costs of a school construction program to meet the projected demand for primary and secondary school places arising from rapid expansion of the education system in the past decade. The program, which will increase physical capacity to accommodate an additional 3,000 students at the primary level and another 7,000 in secondary education, is expected to have a two-fold impact. First, it will support the national objective of expanding basic education to grade 10 that, in turn, will help realize the education master plan for achieving Education ford All (EFA) goals. Second, it will relieve some of the pressure on incremental student places needed at grades 11-12. Component 2. Improve quality and relevance of education at all levels This component will have four main thrusts. First, it will support more effective teaching and learning at the primary and secondary levels. Second, an innovation grants scheme will be implemented to encourage primary and secondary schools to come up with locally developed approaches for improving school quality. Third, it will support the introduction of IT education in secondary schools, which is a key goal of the 9th Plan. Fourth, it will help the Government lay the foundation for the Royal University of Bhutan. Component 3. Institutional Strengthening. This component will help the Government implement it s education Human Resource Development (HRD) plan to strengthen capacities at the center, dzongkhag and school levels for more effective planning, management, monitoring and evaluation of the education system. A primary thrust will be to improve the professional knowledge and leadership skills of Ministry of Education MOE, dzongkhag and school staff, and provide the new ministry with needed physical capacity enhancements for increasing it s operational efficiency. A second thrust concerns strengthening of the MOE's monitoring and evaluation systems to inform policy and planning.