DUSHANBE, June 6, Asia-Plus -- The World Bank Vice President for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Shigeo Katsu is arriving in Dushanbe tomorrow morning for a short visit.  

According to the WB Dushanbe office, during his stay in Dushanbe, the WB vice-president is scheduled to hold talks with President Emomali Rahmon and Tajikistan’s economic team.  The talks are expected to focus on the results of a development forum that was held in Dushanbe on June 2, as well as a progress implementation of economic reforms, development of energy, agriculture, and private sector, as well as general aspects of activity of the World Bank in Tajikistan.  

Shigeo Katsu will also visit school # 10 in the Vahdat district, near Dushanbe, tomorrow.  The school has been renovated and provided with equipment as part of the education modernization support project funded by the Word Bank. 

 Launched in 2003, the Education Modernization Project in Tajikistan, seeks to avoid further decline in the education system, to instead support the rebuilding process, through improved learning conditions, school enrollment, and educational completion through grade 5.  Specifically, the project components: 1) provide school grants to improve the quality of education, the student enrollment rates, and the schools'' infrastructure; 2) build capacity, and support the design of an education system, focused on learning outcomes, know-how and attitudes, emphasizing the skill needs for the new economy; and, 3) strengthen service delivery, through credit financing of physical infrastructure, equipment supply, and textbooks development and distribution.

In Vahdat, the WB vice-president will meet with teachers at the school and parent association to discuss the issue of introduction of mechanism of per capital financing in the secondary education system.