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afrol News, 11 September - The government of The Gambia has taken a credit of US$ 13 million to finance a major education project within the country. With only 37 percent of adults being literate and 45 percent enrolled in the school system, The Gambia desperately needs to reform its educational sector. The African Development Fund (ADF) today announces it had approved a loan of US$ 13.22 million to finance the so-called Education III Project in The Gambia. The ADF loan would finance the entire foreign exchange cost the project whose total cost was estimated at US$ 14.67 million. According to the Fund, this Gambian government project was in keeping with the national Education Master Plan (1998-2006). The master plan seeks to provide quality education, particularly to young girls in the poorest and most remote regions of the country. The new project is set to involve the rehabilitation and construction of classrooms for primary and secondary schools as well as the construction of a Teacher Resource Centre in the Central River Division. It further was to "support in-service teacher training, establish a fund for school maintenance and provide primary pupils with health inputs." The project would also finance studies to improve technical education, vocational training and non-formal education sectors. According to the ADF, this project would contribute to poverty reduction in The Gambia "through the creation of schools in the poorest rural communities in order to increase access of the populations to basic education." Poverty reduction is a prerequisite to obtain such credits from the ADF. - The construction of classrooms by the project will improve the school enrolment rate of young girls who will have the opportunity to attend school closer to home, ADF explains. "Furthermore, the project will provide the government with a framework for designing and implementing activities in technical education, vocational training and non-formal education."
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