World Bank approves $300 million loan for Bangladesh

The World Bank has approved a 300-million-dollar loan for education in Bangladesh, the bank said Saturday. The loan was aimed at reducing school dropouts, improving teaching quality and building more infrastructure in impoverished Bangladesh, the bank said.
"The World Bank has been a longstanding partner of Bangladesh in taking forward the government's 'Education for all' agenda," Ellen Goldstein, the bank's country director for Bangladesh, said in a statement. Around 16.5 million children are enrolled in the country's primary schools. But only 60 percent of children enrolled complete grades 1-5 in five years and only 44 percent of these go onto secondary school, the bank said.