Strengthening Quality Education for Children in Cox’s Bazar Bangladesh - Response to COVID-19

This component of a larger project contributes additional funding to help to mitigate the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic as nationwide school closures have interrupted education for more than 39.9 million children in Bangladesh since March 16 2020. This project aims to improve learning for pre-primary primary-aged and out-of-school girls and boys in the Cox's Bazar district of Bangladesh through gender-equitable quality education. The additional funds support the safe reopening of more than 657 primary schools and 800 Learning Centers (LC) allowing over 376 271 children (50% of which are girls) in Cox’s Bazar district including 64 000 Rohingya refugee children and 312 271 Bangladeshi children from the host community to continue their education. Activities for this component include: (1) undertaking schools and LCs’ rehabilitation and disinfection and restocking them of learning and sanitation supplies to ensure children’s return to safe and protective learning environments; (2) strengthening partners’ engagement to ensure children’s protection in their learning environments and access to psychosocial services through School and Learning Management Committee and other referral services; and (3) providing support to School and Learning Management Committee to ensure an adequate number of teachers are available especially in the Rohingya refugee camps.

The expected outcomes for this project include: (1) improved gender-sensitive teaching and assessment practices adopted by trained teachers in targeted schools in host communities; (2) increased access to equitable education and learning opportunities by early learners and girls and boys in Cox's Bazar District including by those affected by emergencies; and (3) improved district and sub-district level systems for planning supervision and monitoring of gender-sensitive education.