Education: imminent release of funds

« Donors have noticed a positive step in the implementation of the Program ‘Education for All’ in Madagascar. However, the release of the 25 million US Dollars-funds from the donors depends on the release of the report from the Ministry of Education, » affirmed Daniel Timme, head of communications inside UNICEF yesterday after the meeting between ministry officials and donors, including the French Development Agency (AFD), the International Labour Office, the Norwegian Funds, the World Bank and UNICEF, as part of the Review of the program Education for All, at the Panorama hotel.

From the meeting, the Secretary General of the Ministry of Education, Pierrot Rabetahina Pascal, expressed his pride in the effort of his department in schooling many Malagasy children, even if the former UNICEF Representative in Madagascar, Bruno Maes, still lamented, at the beginning of the year, about the great number of unschooled children, reaching more than 900 000. He also discussed the restoration of the 4×4 vehicles which were poorly maintained by other institutions. The negative point in the program concerns the construction of classrooms. Actually, according to Pierrot Pascal Rabetahina, « Of the 4000 classrooms to be built, only 1000 have been accomplished so far. And the 2009 crisis was the main cause of this delay”.