World Bank aid for elementary education to be effective Aug 27

A $1,006.2 million financial agreement between the World Bank's concessionary lending arm, the International Development Association (IDA), and the Indian government for the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) programme will be effective Aug 27, the parliament was told Wednesday.

The IDA credit will be effective Aug 27, 2014 till Sep 30, 2017, Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

Under the agreement, which intends to improve India's elementary education outcomes, the credit will be available in two portions.

"Funding from the World Bank will form a part of the central share of funds under the SSA and will constitute only 3.37 percent of the total central funding for SSA.

"The funding of states under the SSA will continue on extent terms centre-state sharing - 65:35 for all states except the northeastern states where it is 90:10.

"As the SSA assists all government schools, children therein will benefit under the programme," she added.

The project is likely to benefit about 200 million children enrolled in elementary schools and 4.5 million teachers in the sector.