19-07-2025
- Business
- Business Recorder
World Bank extends ASPIRE programme by 3 years
ISLAMABAD: The World Bank (WB) has extended the Actions to Strengthen Performance for Inclusive and Responsive Education (ASPIRE) Program by three years with an additional financing of $33 million to support the government to respond to school disruptions caused by various crises, expand access and improve education quality; and enhance sector resilience and management through better coordination, with focus on lagging districts.
Official documents revealed that the new closing date for the programme is set to be June 30, 2028. The progress towards achievement of project development objective, as well as, overall implementation progress has been rated satisfactory.
The ASPIRE programme has been successfully completed and verified. Key achievements under this reporting period include completion of 2,094 classrooms under DLI 7 (Number of classrooms for grades 6–8 built or rehabilitated in lagging districts) and construction of 1,000 improved school WASH facilities under DLI 8 (Number of schools in lagging areas with improved WASH facilities). Comprehensive teacher training programs on distance learning, foundational literacy, accelerated learning programs, and formative assessment have been delivered under DLI 9 (Implementation of teacher training programs). The Federal Finance Department released US$30 million for FY25 ASPIRE implementation under DLR 10.5 (NEEP budget allocation and release).
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The National Online Data Portal has been made operational in June 2025 under DLR 11.1 (Implementation of a functional national open-source data platform), while DLR 11.2 (Standardized data collection, analysis, and public release) has been completed with results from the 2023/24 Annual School Census publicly released in May 2025. Participation in the international Literacy and Numeracy Assessment has been achieved under DLR 12.3 (Participation in an international assessment covering math and language competencies), and foundational learning policies have been notified across provinces under DLR 13 (Notification of foundational learning policies in provinces). All completed DLIs and DLRs have been verified by the Independent Verification Agent (IVA).
ASPIRE has been extended by three years with an additional financing of US$33 million, of which US$3 million is under the IPF. The new closing date is June 30, 2028. The proposed additional financing builds on the accomplishments of ASPIRE by: (i) expanding the program's scope and scaling up interventions that have demonstrated positive impact; and (ii) piloting a time bound performance-based transfer mechanism between the federal, provincial, and district governments. Six new DLRs have been introduced to ensure continued impact under the ASPIRE program, these include: i) DLR 1.2: Well-being and nutrition plans/ policies are developed and approved, ii) DLR 13.2: FLN policies implemented in 25 percent of primary schools in lagging districts, iii) DLR 11.3: Horizontal integration of all education data at the provincial level is completed and reported in NODP, iv) DLR 12.4 Provincial assessment frameworks are aligned with NAT and approved by the IPEMC, v) DLR 14.1 OOSC CF design is approved, vi) DLR 14.2 OOSC CF is established.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
