The World Bank approved another $600-million loan for the Philippines last Good Friday, April 3—this time to fund efforts to improve the country’s education system.

In a statement published on Monday, April 6, the Washington-based multilateral lender said over 21 million K-10 students and roughly 770,000 teachers across the country are set to benefit from a new government initiative aimed at improving learning outcomes in primary and lower secondary education.

The World Bank’s board of executive directors last week approved the $600-million loan financing for the Project for Learning Upgrade Support and Decentralization (PLUS-D), which will be implemented through the Department of Education (DepEd) to enhance foundational literacy, numeracy, and mathematics in public schools nationwide.

According to the World Bank, despite significant progress in expanding access to basic education, the Philippines faces a severe learning crisis, worsened by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The lender said studies indicate that 91 percent of 10-year-olds cannot read and comprehend age-appropriate texts, a phenomenon known as “learning poverty.” Low learning outcomes are linked to inadequate teaching and learning conditions, including limited teacher capacity, suboptimal school leadership, insufficient infrastructure, and low-quality learning materials, it explained.

The World Bank said PLUS-D will support the DepEd’s learning acceleration and recovery program by improving classroom assessments, strengthening teaching and leadership through evidence-based training and coaching, expanding access to inclusive teaching–learning materials—including resources for learners with disabilities and indigenous peoples (IPs)—and advancing the agency’s digitalization and decentralization efforts.

PLUS-D will finance grants and tailored support for 10 selected DepEd regional offices and over 11,100 schools, in line with the agency’s five-point reform agenda, the lender added.

In addition to K-10 learners, the project will also support participants in the Alternative Learning System (ALS), about 59,000 school leaders, and 300 DepEd staff through capacity-building initiatives, helping expand access to quality education for out-of-school youth (OSY) and adults who could not complete basic education, according to the World Bank.

“For the Philippines, sustaining growth and creating more jobs will depend on strong human capital—a workforce with solid foundational skills in literacy and numeracy. This effort is about giving every Filipino child a fair start, ensuring they can build the skills that underpin lifelong learning and future success in the labor market,” World Bank division director for the Philippines, Malaysia, and Brunei Zafer Mustafaoğlu said.

“PLUS-D is about combating learning poverty nationwide by equipping teachers with evidence-based support, promoting school autonomy and accountability, and helping Filipino learners become independent, confident readers. We have seen this work in countries around the world, and the Philippines will be no exception. Help is on the way,” World Bank senior education specialist and project leader Janssen Edelweiss Teixeira added.

This is the third consecutive loan greenlit by the World Bank for the Philippines in the past two months, after the $1-billion financing—the country’s largest-ever from the lender—approved last March 27 and the $800-million Philippines Growth and Jobs Development Policy Loan (DPL) 1 greenlit on March 12.