The government has approved a proposal to procure education services through Unicef aimed at strengthening pre-primary and primary education for forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals (Rohingyas) residing in Cox’s Bazar, Bandarban, and Bhasan Char in Noakhali.
The initiative carries a budget of Tk203.87 crore, financed jointly by the Government of Bangladesh and a World Bank grant. The approval came on Tuesday during a meeting of Advisers Council Committee on Government Purchase at the Secretariat.
The Ministry of Primary and Mass Education submitted the proposal, which falls under the SD-4 package of the project titled “ISO Component-One: Pre-Primary and Primary Education Improvement Project in Cox’s Bazar and Bandarban Districts and Bhasan Char of Noakhali.”
Meeting sources said the programme under Component-1 is designed to involve Rohingyas in structured learning activities, enabling them to gain skills in their mother tongue while engaging in productive education services.
Unicef was invited to take part under a single-source procurement method. Its proposal was jointly reviewed, assessed, and negotiated by the Directorate of Primary Education (DPE) and the World Bank’s education team.
Following negotiations, the committee approved awarding the package to Unicef at a cost of $18.45 million (Tk203.87 crore), calculated at the Development Project Proforma (DPP) exchange rate of Tk110.502 per US dollar.
The project had earlier been cleared by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) on 28 May 2024, with an implementation timeline set from 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2027.
Under the arrangement, the World Bank will directly disburse the full $18.45 million to Unicef in US dollars. Although the original DPP called for open tendering, Unicef was engaged in line with the World Bank’s grant and loan conditions.
The package will provide education support in the Myanmar language to 256,490 Rohingya children. To run the programme, 4,106 volunteer teachers will be recruited in the first year, followed by another 3,700 volunteers within the next six months. Teachers will be paid honorariums as specified in the project framework.
