AKIPRESS.COM - On June 26, the Parliament adopted in the third reading the draft law ratifying the agreements between Kyrgyzstan and the Islamic Development Bank on the project "Joint IDB/IFSD/GPE Smart-Ed project to improve access to inclusive education and its quality for all children", signed in Washington on April 22, 2025.

The Ministry of Education earlier reported that the joint Smart-Ed project is aimed at improving access to inclusive education, strengthening the system's capacity, training and retraining teachers and providing them with personal laptops, as well as updating the teaching and methodological complexes.

As the part of the first component, $9,620,000 will be spent on improving access to inclusive quality education infrastructure, $5,030,000 on reconstruction and construction of 7 boarding schools, $2,700,000 on restoration of 2 educational institutions, $920,000 on restoration of kindergartens, $150,000 on equipping media studios, and $100,000 on equipping schools.

As second component, the quality of inclusive teaching and learning, including curricula and teaching and methodological complexes, textbooks, teacher training and purchase of laptops, will be improved for $2,661,553.

As the third component, the system's capacity to implement inclusive education will be strengthened for $957,495. This includes review of the Ministry of Education and Science's policies, processes and tools on inclusive education and creation of model schools to demonstrate inclusive education practices.

The fourth component includes project implementation support ($940,000), e.g. detailed design and supervision ($400,000), project implementation department ($500,000), and project launch seminars ($40,000).

The fifth component is financial audit services ($50,000), and the sixth component is unforeseen circumstances ($640,000). Total project cost reaches $25,250,000.