$500m World Bank loan to support education in Egypt

The Egyptian Minister of Education, Tarek Shawki, yesterday announced the approval of a $500 million loan from the World Bank to support education development in the country. The loan will be disbursed in batches over five years.

“The loan’s yearly payment instalments will be granted while the bank monitors and ensures that the agreed work is completed,” Shawki said in a statement.

The fund will focus on developing the early childhood education system, the skills and abilities of teachers, and teaching methods for students. The ministry is also planning to intensify the use of modern technology in education to ensure a sustainable development to the education system in Egypt.

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The loan’s approval, Shawki explained, came following a recent visit by a team from the World Bank who scrutinised the ministry’s education reform strategy.

“The World Bank loan comes at a critical time,” the minister stressed. “It directly supports the country’s education development strategy, which aims to achieve a qualitative and comprehensive transition to the national education system in line with the international education standards.”

“Our goal is to provide our students with the competencies they need to create a society that learns, thinks and innovates,” Shawki said.

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The World Bank plans to fund 16 projects in Egypt with total investments of $6.69 billion.

Egypt has been negotiating billions of dollars in aid from various lenders to help revive an economy battered by political upheaval since the 2011 revolution, and to ease a dollar shortage that has crippled imports and hampered recovery.

In November 2016, Egypt won a $12 billion IMF loan for a three-year bailout programme that aimed to revive the struggling economy, bring down public debt and control inflation while seeking to protect the poor.