KATHMANDU: Ambassador of Norway to Nepal, Thor Gislesen today signed an agreement with the government of Nepal pledging support to the School Sector Reform Plan (SSRP) for the next five years. The Royal Norwegian Embassy, in a press release said that signing an agreement implied that Norway saw the role of education to be pertinent for Nepal’s development. The statement said, “Education is a pre-condition for the success of any other kind of intervention aimed at reducing poverty and improving living condition of the people in the country.” The statement further said that the programme would be supported by development partners. They, together, would pool funds with the government to support the program through a sector-wide approach It also said that the cooperation would contribute to efficient and effective implementation of Nepal’s SSRP with special emphasis on gender, inclusion of disadvantaged groups and quality of service delivery in the education sector. According to the statement, the planned support of USD 30 million from Norway was presented with a finance plan, which will require a steady increase of funding over the next five year period.