The Inter-American Development Bank today announced the approval of a $105 million loan to Trinidad and Tobago to help reform and expand secondary education.
The resources will enable the Ministry of Education* to undertake a program designed to create a base of skills that are essential to sustaining the country's economic growth in the next century by enhancing the population's technical and managerial capacity.
Among the investments will be the introduction of a more modern curriculum and new instructional resources, establishment of a magnet school program to promote excellence and innovation, professional development of teachers and other staff, the rehabilitation and upgrading of school infrastructure, and institutional strengthening of the Ministry of Education.
A goal of the project is to provide greater access, quality, and coverage of the secondary education system for low-income groups, and advance toward achieving universal secondary coverage from its current rate of 69 percent.
Components of the program include the installation of computer laboratories in all 100 existing secondary schools and the construction of 20 new schools.
The total cost of the program is $150 million. The IDB loan is for a 25-year term, with a seven-year grace period, at the variable interest rate, now 6.98 percent. Local counterpart funds total $45 million.