Suriname’s Minister of Finance Humphrey Stanley Hildenberg and Inter-American Development Bank President Enrique V. Iglesias today signed documents for two loans totaling $17.5 million to support the modernization of the country’s basic education system and a health reform program that will support the implementation of institutional reforms to increase the efficiency, equity and quality of health services, particularly those directed to the poor.
Education reform
A loan of $12.5 million will assist the Ministry of Education and Community Development in reorganizing the present primary and junior secondary education system into a single 10-year basic education cycle. To accomplish this task, the ministry will adopt a new curriculum, redesign textbooks, undertake new techniques of teacher training, reform the existing examination system and acquire new teaching materials.
As part of the program primary and junior secondary schools now in poor condition will be rehabilitated, and the management capacity and autonomy of schools will be enhanced.
The Ministry of Education and Community Development* will be strengthened and equipped with instruments and tools to conduct more effective evaluations.
By the end of the program, dropout and repetition rates are expected to be reduced by 20 percent while the percentage of students completing 6th grade is expected to increase by 10 percent.
Health reforms
A $5 million loan will support the implementation of institutional reforms to increase the efficiency, equity and quality of health services, particularly those directed to the poor.
The resources will finance technical assistance, training, and team incentives to improve the delivery of primary health care services in the coastal region through increased focus on preventive care and quality assurance mechanisms.
The program will improve the monitoring and supervision capacity of the institutions responsible for financing health care: the Ministry of Health, the State Health Insurance Fund and the Ministry of Social Affairs.
In addition, the resources will support activities directed to the development of quality assurance mechanisms and improvements in the availability and affordability of essential medicines.
A new mechanism for targeting health subsidies to the poor will be introduced to improve equity, and the extension of the health insurance program (with a card) will be extended to include all of the extreme poor.