Loan Will Help Country to Get Closer to Achieving Universal Secondary Education Goal The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) will provide a loan of USD13.4 million to the Government of Antigua and Barbuda to assist that country's efforts at providing more capacity at the secondary level, a necessity for achieving its goal of Universal Secondary Education. The loan will also finance the consultancy services for the design of an Early Childhood Model Centre and a new secondary school. And, the Bank will provide a grant of USD114,000 to assist with the financing of a citizens' security intervention. Expansion and rehabilitation works will also be carried out on three secondary schools; St. Mary's and Irene B. Williams on Antigua and Sir McChesney George secondary on Barbuda. These works will provide additional classrooms as well as specialist rooms and administrative spaces as well as furniture and equipment. Special attention will be paid to accessibility and also gender specific design requirements. Along with the physical works the project also provides for the evaluation and reform of the teacher education programme in Antigua and Barbuda, the strengthening of resource allocation capacity, and a review and evaluation of technical vocational, education and training (TVET) capacity. The proposed interventions covered under this latest loan were determined during a series of studies, financed by a USD400,000 grant from CDB, which were held to assist the planning process for the continued development of the education sector in Antigua and Barbuda.