MANILA (AFP) - Australia has approved a 41 million Australian dollar (35.137 million US) grant to support a World Bank project to improve basic education in the Philippines, the Australian embassy said Monday.
The assistance will go to a trust fund managed by the World Bank, according to an Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) statement issued by the embassy.
The amount is "anticipated to increase further in the next four years building on the progress of the Philippine education department's basic education sector reform programmes," AusAID counsellor Sam Zappia said.
More than half of 1.3 million students set to graduate in public and private high schools in the Philippines are unfit for college, according to the results of a study issued by the Philippines education department earlier this year.