Kathmandu:The Asian Development Bank Board of Directors has approved a grant finance totalling $65 million (Rs 5.46 billion) from the Asian Development Fund and Technical Assistance Special Fund grant of $500,000 (Rs 42.2 million) for the School Sector Reform Programme.

The support comes as a policy-based grant for the programme which supports the government’s ongoing education reform initiatives with stronger focus on gender, social inclusion, and quality. According to a statement issued by the ADB on Thursday, the support will go beyond providing critical inputs like school buildings and textbooks to addressing all the various components that make an education system work such as quality, policy reforms, incentives, safety issues, management and governance.

“The programme will also strongly focus on equitable access and quality education, and make a concerted effort to reach out-of-school children, especially girls, from vulnerable and disadvantaged groups,” said Sungsup Ra, Director of ADB’s South Asia Human and Social Development Division.

source: The Kathmandu Post, 25 Nov 2011