Hiroyasu Izumi, Ambassador of Japan to Bangladesh, and Monowar Ahmed, Secretary of ERD signed exchange of notes representing respective governments at Economic Relations Division (ERD) of Ministry of Finance here on Monday.

Hitoshi Hirata, Chief Representative of JICA Bangladesh Office, also attended the ceremony and signed the grant agreement for the programme, said the Japanese Embassy in Dhaka on Tuesday.

The amount of grant assistance is around 500 million Japanese Yen which is equivalent to US$ 4,419,362.00.

Since 2000, Bangladesh has achieved impressive results toward the Education for All targets. 

PEDP is the singular national development strategic plan for primary education in Bangladesh. 

Japan has been supporting PEDP in cooperation with other development partners since 2011 under the Sector Wide Approaches (SWAPs). 

Under PEDP3, a number of activities have been implemented. For example, the refined textbooks have been distributed to about 25 million students in primary schools. 

Approximately five hundred thousand teachers have been empowered. More than twenty five thousand classrooms have been built. Regarding PEDP4, it aims to improve the quality of education like improvement of learning achievement.

Japan has provided support with a focus on improving the quality of primary education for all. 

For more than a decade, various approaches composed of policy strengthening, development of textbook and teaching materials, strengthening school management and improvement of teacher’s training, as well as this financing support have been taken. 

Japan’s approach with a focus on the quality assurance through technical cooperation, Japanese volunteers and policy advisors, makes a good synergy with SWAPs and financing support because those who have been working in the field can provide feedback to policy decision making at national level.