Central African Republic: EFA-FTI Catalytic Fund Preparation

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The Education For All - Fast Track Initiative Education Sector Development Project for Central African Republic grant will contribute to the implementation of first phase of the Government's national education strategy (2008-2011), and aims to improve access to better quality primary education. There are three components to the project, the first component being access (school construction, rehabilitation, and furniture). This component will build 568 and rehabilitate 417 classrooms. Taking into account expected increases in the number of primary school pupils (from 527,035 in the school year 2007-08 to 612,806 in 2011-12) the increase in classrooms will help reduce the pupil: classroom ratio from an expected 116 (in 2008-09) to 111 (in 2011-2012). Without the additional classrooms that are provided by the project, the pupil: classroom ratio will be expected to rise to 129 by 2011 according to projections. The second component is the quality (teacher training and textbooks). To increase the number of trained teachers, this component will: a) train community teachers to meet minimum qualification criteria. Taking into account training capacity in the country, the first cohort of 365 teachers will complete their training, which includes a year of apprenticeship in 2010-2011; and b) construct and rehabilitate pre-service and in-service teacher institutes. Finally, the third component is the management and efficiency. This component aims to address both immediate management challenges associated with the implementation, as well as create the basis for future phases of the program.