The World Bank has approved a loan worth USD 300 million to help expand and improve the quality of education in government-run schools in Chhattisgarh.

The loan has a maturity of 18.5 years with a grace period of 5 years. In a World Bank press release on Tuesday, the global financial institution said the project aims to benefit about four million students, mostly from poor and vulnerable communities in the state.

“Almost 86 per cent of schools in the state are run by the government. While enrolment at the elementary school level is 95 per cent, it is only 57.6 per cent at the senior secondary level and the enrolment for boys is 10.8 per cent lower than that for girls,” World Bank said, attributing it to be due to the non-availability of science and commerce education across many senior secondary schools and a shortage of trained science and mathematics teachers.

Lack of necessary infrastructure like laboratories and facilities was also attributed to be the reason for low enrolments. Students from remote locations also face a problem with accommodation.

World Bank said while girls have residential school facilities under the centrally sponsored Samagra Shiksha program, there is no such scheme for boys.

The project will help develop and operate around 600 model composite schools – from Grades 1 to 12 – and offer science and commerce at the senior secondary level. These schools will provide a quality education through trained teachers, strong school leadership and management, and adequate infrastructure facilities for learning.

“The project will help expand the network of government-managed schools offering science and commerce education at the senior secondary level,” said Auguste Tano Kouame, World Bank Country Director in India.

“This will help prepare students to benefit from the emerging employment opportunities in the fast-growing manufacturing and services sectors in Chhattisgarh,” Kouame added.

More than 175,000 teachers are expected to receive professional development support under the project.

“Building on a strong government program that is making credible gains towards recovering from learning losses due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the project will provide teachers and school management with access to professional development support. It will also strengthen the existing system of school-based assessments to enable remedial education support to students,” said Kartik Pental, Shobhana Sosale, and Supriti Dua, team leaders for the project.