ISLAMABAD: The government of Pakistan and the World Bank Wednesday signed grant agreement “Covid-19 Response, Recovery and Resilience in Education Project” worth $19.85 million.

Noor Ahmed, secretary, Ministry of Economic Affairs signed the grant agreement on behalf of the government of Pakistan, while Najy Benhassine, country director, World Bank signed the grant agreement on behalf of the World Bank.

Minister for Economic Affairs Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtyar witnessed the signing ceremony of grant agreement.

The project is aimed at strengthening and supporting federal and provincial actions in the education sector to better: (i) respond to and recover from the Covid-19 crises in the short term; and; ii) to lay the foundation for resilience to face future crisis, with a focus on disadvantage areas and vulnerable populations.

The project interventions will help the government to ensure learning continuity in the country through expansion of national distance learning content and distribution of learning material in lagging areas, protect the students’ and teachers’ health safety and wellbeing, designing and implementing distance learning competency standards, promote safe schools, support teachers and students to prepare for the recovery through delivery of teacher training and better coordination across provinces.

The Minister for Economic Affairs, Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtyar, thanked the World Bank country management for extending their continuous support to the Government of Pakistan in its efforts to overcome the Covid-19 pandemic issue; particularly learning continuity in the country.

The country director, World Bank assured their continuous support to government of Pakistan in achieving the priority development objectives.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020