Announcement of Benin to Receive Fourteen Million US Dollars IDA Credit for Education on May 17, 1982

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE World Bank 1818 H Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20433, U.S.A. @Telephone: (202) 477-1234 IDA NEWS RELEASE NO. 82/72 Contact: Pamela Brennan May 17, 1982 (202) 477-5344 BENIN TO RECEIVE $14 MILLION IDA CREDIT FOR EDUCATION The quality of primary and lower secondary education in Benin will be improved with the assistance of an SDR 12.2 million ($14 million) credit from the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank's affiliate for concessionary lending. Despite increased allocations for education by the Benin government over the past ten years, large numbers of untrained t-achers are now employed in the system and the quality of education is being adversely affected. To increase the number of trained Beninese teachers, the government will under- take a $25.64 million project, the second education project in Benin to be supported by IDA. The project will provide for the construction of three teacher training colleges in Lokossa, Parakou, and Natitingou, towns in the northern and central parts of the country where there are few qualified teachers. Equipment and staff training for the colleges, which will replace six temporary colleges, will be included in the project. Curriculum changes at the colleges will consolidate the one-year training program of primary teachers and add technical, agricultural, and home economics subjects for the lower secondary school teachers. A new program of textbook production and distribution will be financed by the project as well, resulting in the preparation and distribution of some 470,000 text- books and teaching guides per year. Specialists provided through the technical assistance component of the project will assist in project planning and management.. The project will receive co-financing from the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation ($3.5 million) and from the German Agency for Technical Cooperation ($4.7 million). To date $139.2 million hcs been provided to Benin from IDA. The $14 million credit for education is for 50 years, including 10 years of grace; it carries no interest but bears a small annual service charge of 0.5% on the undisbursed balances of the credit, and 0.75% on the disbursed balances. NOTE: IDA credits are denominated in SDRs (Special Drawing Rights), which are valued on the basis of a "basket" of currencies. The U.S. dollar equivalent of the SDR amount of the IDA credit reflects the exchange rates existing at the time of negotiation of the credit.