Education Group Gives $170 Million to 7 Countries

21 December 2011

Partnership's Board of Directors visits school in Kigali, Rwanda

This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

A three-year effort in developing countries will seek to put twenty-five million children in school for the first time. Another goal of the Global Partnership for Education is to train six hundred thousand teachers.

The partnership recently awarded nearly one hundred seventy million dollars in grants to seven countries. These were the first grants since the organization changed its name a few months ago from the Fast Track Initiative. Fast Track was founded in two thousand two.

Charles Tapp is an adviser to the partnership.

CHARLES TAPP: "There had been a lot of evolution of the old Fast Track Initiative, which was essentially something of a donors club, I think. And what was clear from our perspective [was] that we were not just a funding entity. This was indeed a partnership."

The partnership includes almost fifty developing countries, as well as donors, civil society groups and teacher organizations. It also includes private companies, international development banks and United Nations agencies.

The latest grants were awarded to Afghanistan, Ivory Coast, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Moldova, Mongolia and Timor-Leste. Mr. Tapp says the grant to Afghanistan is worth almost fifty-six million dollars.