PORT LOUIS, September 27, 2017 – Today, the Government of Mauritius, represented by the Ministry of Education, and Human Resources, Tertiary Education and Scientific Research, and the World Bank have signed a Reimbursable Advisory Services (RAS) agreement, based on which the World Bank will provide technical assistance in support of the country’s education sector until 2020.
“The Government of Mauritius is pleased with this collaboration with the World Bank. We are engaged today in another type of partnership with the Bank as we gear up to full-scale implementation of the education reform. The kind of support needed during the implementation phase is to improve our analytical capabilities,” said the Honourable Leela Devi Dookun-Luchoomun, Minister of Education and Human Resources, Tertiary Education and Scientific Research of Mauritius.
Throughout the implementation of the RAS, the World Bank will provide international expertise to the Government of Mauritius as it implements its Nine-Year Continuous Basic Education (NYCBE) program, which aims for all students to successfully complete nine years of basic schooling and the secondary education cycle.
“It is an honor the World Bank to support the implementation of such a major reform agenda put in place by the Government of Mauritius,” said Mark Lundell, World Bank Country Director for Mauritius, Seychelles, Madagascar, Mozambique, and Comoros. “I am sure other countries are watching what Mauritius is trying to achieve to see how they can learn lessons from this country.”
The NYCBE is a comprehensive reform program of primary and secondary education under which all children will follow the same curriculum for nine years. Elements of the reform include: a number of initiatives to improve the professional development of teachers and their pre-service training; the Early Digital Learning Program – which will provide schools teaching grades 1 and 2 with tablets to be used on school premises; and an enhanced connectivity initiative, which aims to provide every secondary school with Internet connectivity by 2018; creating a new set of institutions, including 12 academies (converted from national colleges) which starting in 2021 will run classes from Grades 10 to 13 while regional secondary schools will enroll students from Grades 7 to 13. These academies will be given additional autonomy relative to other schools; and an Early Support Program to assist young learners in Grades 1 and 2 to make a successful start in school.
In each of these areas, through the RAS agreement, the World Bank will be working closely with the relevant institutions to ensure that the design of the different elements of the NYCBE changes
The RAS programs are offered by the World Bank to its clients in middle and high-income countries. Under RAS programs, the World Bank works with countries at their request, providing technical advice, analytical services, and implementation support. The Bank is then reimbursed for the costs of delivering these advisory services. The total cost for the current RAS agreement with the Republic of Mauritius is estimated at $985,000.
