Announcement of Five Million Eight Hundred Thousand Dollars for Education in Guyana on January 29, 1969

INTERNATIONAL BANK FOR RECONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT • 1818 H INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION STREET, N.W. WASHINGTON D.C.20433 TELEPHONE: EXECUTIVE 3-6360 Bank Press Release No. 69/7 Subject: $5.8 million for education IDA Press Release No. 69/5 in Guyana January 29, 1969 The International Development Association (IDA) and the World Bank are lend- ing $5.8 million to Guyana for the first stage of a long-term educational plan which will bring about a major and essential restructuring of the education system below the university level. In particular the quality and efficiency of secondary education will be improved and oriented toward meeting the country's manpower requirements for industry, agriculture and commerce. The IDA credit, of $2.9 million, will be for a term of 50 years, including • 10 years of grace. It will be free of interest but a service charge of 3/4 of 1% will be made to cover IDA's administrative costs. The Bank loan, also for $2.9 million, will be for a term of 30 years, including a 10-year grace period, with interest at 6-1/2%. Guyana has a very high literacy rate -- estimated at 831. in 1960 -- but education is deficient in terms of quality of primary school teaching and relevance of curricula and physical facilities at the secondary level. Largely as a result of this, there is an acute shortage of prof~ssional, technical, skilled and semi-skilled workers. The project now being financed will be a long step in overcoming these deficiencies. A primary teacher training college. with a capacity for 660 students, will be built and equipped. The output from this college, together • /more Bank P.R. No. 69n-Guyana • Education • IDA P.R. No. 69/5 - 2 - with in-service training, will raise the proportion of trained primary school teachers from leas than 401 to more than 6Qt of the teaching force by 1975. A multilateral system of secondary education will be introduced which will provide students with a common basis of general studies and then screen them according to aptitude and interest for further schooling in distinct curriculum streams such as humanities, science, technology, agriculture and commerce, thus producing the versatile school leavers needed by the develo~ing economy. Five n~w multilateral secondary schools will be built and equipped and two existing schoels will be converted to the multilateral type. They will have a combined enrollment of about 5, 700 students and will also be used part•.ttme for adult vocational training. Same fellowships will be provided to train essen- tial staff for the college and schools, as well as for the Ministry of Bducation • To ensure efficient execution of the project, a Project Implementation Unit will be established within the Ministry of Education. The Director of the Unit will be assisted by an architect, procurement, educational and other necessary specialists. Consultants will undertake site surveys, design the schools, and make an analytical study of the economics of the use of building • materials and techniques for school buildings especially suited to Guyana. Specialists from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) assisted in the preparation of the project under the Bank/Unesco Cooperative Program. The total coat of the project is estimated at the equivalent of $10 mil• lion. The Bank loan and IDA credit will cover the estimated foreign exchange cos ts, and the remaining cos ts wil 1 be met by the Go·vernment. Contracts for civil works, instructional equipment, books and furniture will be let on the basis of international competitive bidding. - 0 - •