About Primary and Mass Education
Bangladesh has been trying relentlessly to uphold the cause of education for all since its emergence as an independent country. Article 17 of the Constitution of Bangladesh stipulates that primary education shall be the responsibility of the State. To bear this responsibility primary education in Bangladesh underwent a great deal of changes and development during the last few years. Bangladesh is a signatory to the world declaration on education for all held at Jomtien, Thailand in March 1990. Bangladesh is also a signatory to the summit of 9 high populous countries held on 16 December 1993 in Delhi. To facilitate and formulate planned programme for universal primary education and to remove illiteracy from the country, Government had created a separate division named Primary and Mass Education Division (PMED) in 1992. PMED was made a Ministry in 2003. Hon’ble Prime Minister is also the Minister of this Ministry. All these steps reflect the commitment and determination of the government to improve primary education in the country both in terms of quality and quantity. The Government of Bangladesh (GOB) has allocated nearly 14 percent of the national budget to the education sector of which the share of primary and mass education is nearly 43 per cent.
· The government has undertaken various measures to increase access, reduce dropout rate, increase completion rate, improve quality of education and increase literacy rate, and help bringing quality of life. Access to primary education has increased steadily over the last two decades. The total number of primary level education institutions is now over 76,000 out of which the number of full-fledged primary schools is more than 60,000.
· The gross enrolment rate has increased from 73 percent in 1990 to 97 percent in 2003. The current net enrolment rate is estimated at 86.6 per cent. Student-teacher ratio is about 55:1 and completion rate is around 67 percent. The dropout rate has gone down from 35 percent in 2000 to 33 percent in 2002. Implementation of the Compulsory Primary Education Programme in 1992 backed by social mobilization activities increased enrolment from 12.6 million in 1991 to 17.48 million in 2004. The literacy rate (7+ years) has reached to 63 per cent.
· The government has given top most priority to ensure quality education to all children. The government undertook different types of programmes in the field of primary and mass education and successfully implemented these programmes. Considering global perspective, the government laid special emphasis on English, mathematics and science in every grades of primary education cycle.
· For proper functioning of the primary schools all committees in the primary education sub-sector have been reviewed and reconstituted. School Management Committees, Upazila Education Committees and National Committee for formulation of National Plan of Action for Education for All (EFA) in the light of Dakar Framework have been made more functional.
Reconstruction, renovation and refurbishment works of government primary schools and registered non-government primary schools are being implemented in full swing under different projects. Under this initiative, government primary schools and registered non-government primary schools have been reconstructed and refurbished.
National Academy for Primary Education (NAPE) is an apex training institution for primary education. For proper functioning this institution has been converted into an autonomous body under Ministry of Primary and Mass Education (MOPME).
To free the country from the curse of illiteracy, the govt. introduced Integrated Non-Formal Education Programme (INFEP) in the year 1991. Under this programme, about 2.5 million illiterate people have been made literate. To accomplish the different activities under this programme 7.5 million books, teachers’ guide, teachers’ training manual and other related teaching materials were distributed. At the same time, some more additional interventions were identified and successfully implemented. In continuation of those steps, about 18 million more illiterate people were made literate under non-formal education projects.
Epoch making steps were undertaken to develop overall primary and mass education of the country by the government which include the following:
Distribution of Textbooks:
Textbooks are distributed among the primary school students free of cost. From 2002–2004, about 182 million textbooks on various subjects were distributed free of cost among the students of primary schools. About 66.3 million textbooks have been printed and distributed to the children of the academic year 2005.
Stipend Project of Primary Schools Students:
Government financed Food for Education Programme was introduced in 1993 to compensate opportunity cost of poor parents for sending their children to school. This helped increase the enrolment, attendance in schools and prevent child labour. About 27% area of the country covering about 2.2 million disadvantaged students were under “Food for Education Programme”. From financial year 2002-2003 a special programme for providing cash support to poor primary school children has been launched by transforming Food for Education Programme into Stipend Programme. Under this programme, parents of poor students of the primary schools in the rural areas are given monthly stipend at the rate of Tk.100 per month for sending one child to school and Tk. 125 for sending more than one child. From July 2002 to January 2005 Government spent about Tk. 12.93 billion (US$ 0.22 billion) from its own resources for giving stipend to the children. The number of benefited children under this intervention is about 6 million. The programme is continuing with an allocation of Tk. 5,200 million (US$ 86 million) for the financial year 2004-2005.
Curriculum Revision:
A competence based and life skill oriented curriculum has been developed. Textbooks for grades1 to 4 were revised accordingly. These revised books for grade-I and grade - 2 have been supplied to the children in the academic year 2003. Revised books for grades - 3 & 4 were distributed in 2004 and 2005 respectively. Textbooks for grade 5 will be revised and distributed to the children in the academic year 2006. In order to address the discrepancy prevailing in the curriculum of Certificate-in-Education (C-in-Ed) and its realistic application, C-in-Ed curriculum has been revised.
Elimination of Gender Disparity:
To eliminate gender disparity and ensure wide participation of women in development activities, 60 per cent posts of teachers have been reserved for female teachers. As a result, percentage of female teachers at present has reached 37.6 per cent. The policy to appoint more women as officials at various levels of the management of primary education has been implemented. More opportunities of admission of girls in schools are being created. Separate toilets are also being constructed in primary schools for girls. To encourage more women to join primary schools as teachers, steps have been taken to raise the residential capacity of the women’s hostels at the Primary Training Institutes (PTIs). While students are enrolled the names of both mother and father are being registered. For payment of stipend money to the students provision has been made to open the bank account in mother’s name. Massive social mobilization programmes have been undertaken to encourage guardians to send girl child to schools. These steps have contributed to the increase of girl enrolment bringing gender parity. Present boys and girls ratio is 51:49.
Human Resource Development & Training Programme:
Various in-country training was imparted to the officials on academic supervision, financial management, computer management, planning, policy and research. Subject based training in Upazila Resource Centers (URCs), Multiple Ways of Teaching and Learning (MWTL), sub-cluster training, C-in-Ed training course were also imparted under different projects. The in-service training span varies from one-day to 30 days and for initial training of teachers (C-in-Ed) it is one academic year. 700,000 such officials and teachers were trained in total. Training was also imparted to the officials and the teachers abroad under different programmes. Orientation training for School Management Committees’ (SMCs) chairman and members' was also imparted.
Expansion of Physical Facilities:
Physical facilities play a dominant role to ensure quality education. In this perspective, special emphasis was accorded to the construction, reconstruction and refurbishment of schools, and education offices. Government primary schools, registered non-government primary schools and community schools were constructed/re-constructed/repaired. Upazila Resource Centres (URCs) were constructed. Besides, development works are being carried out in other primary schools.
For ensuring safe drinking water about 14,000 arsenic free tube-wells were sunk in schools. Also separate toilets for boys and girls were constructed in schools. Requisite number of furniture was also supplied to the schools earlier. Moreover, repair and renovation works of 53 Primary Training Institutes (PTIs) were completed. One new PTI was established at Borguna district.
Cub-Scouts network is being formed in the primary schools for developing discipline, honesty, charity, and respect for labour among the students. At least one teacher from each school is being given necessary training to implement the scout movement.
Primary Education Fortnight is observed every year in all the primary schools of the country to socialize the movement for primary education.
School Tiffin Programme:
A special School Tiffin Programme has been introduced with the support of World Food Programme (WFP). Under this programme a child is provided with 75 grams of fortified biscuits as mid-day food. Initially the programme was introduced in Kurigram and Lalmonirhat districts and in some slums of the Dhaka city. This programme had been expanded in another six districts Jessore, Kustia, Panchagar, Chuadanga, Meherpur and Satkhira. The first phase of this programme will be completed in December 2005. Expansion of this programme to other parts of the country under the next country programme is now being worked out with WFP. The next phase is likely to continue up to 2010. In addition to this, an NGO is working in Tiffin programme on experimental basis in four upazilas (Melandah, Madargonj, Jamalpur, Sarishabari) of Jamalpur district. About 1 million students in 4,755 schools are being benefited through both the programmes.
Reaching Out of Schools Children (ROSC) Project:
In order to take care of the primary school dropouts and children missing the opportunity to go to the primary schools this project has been undertaken by the government. Under the project, education centers will be established on need basis throughout the country in collaboration with NGOs. About 500,000 children will get education opportunity during the project period (2004-2010). The project will cover only 60 upazilas. Out of them 60% upazila centers will be given financial assistance for the children to compensate the wages of the working students and grant for the learning center while the remaining 40% upazila centers will be provided with only grant for learning centers.
GO-NGO Co-operation for Primary Education Development:
The government realizes that without integration of civil society into primary education development activities, targeted goal of overall primary development cannot be achieved. To this end, some community schools established by the government are decided to be run by NGOs. On the other hand, some schools of unserved and under served areas have been given to NGOs for construction with GOB’s own resources. Accordingly, 188 schools have already been set up by the NGOs with GOB’s own resources.
BRAC is implementing pre-primary education programme to complement the government efforts.
· Measures have also been taken to enroll the floating poor children specially of the sub-urban and slum areas of 6 divisional cities in the “Basic Education for Hard to Reach Urban Children Project” which will help to reduce child labour in the country.
· In non-formal education side projects on Post Literacy and Continuing Education is under implementation to help reduce rural poverty through investments in human development. These projects will help reduce illiteracy and empowering the rural people by providing life skills and income generating skills. Provision has also been made to include 50 per cent female learners in these literacy centers. A good number of NGOs are collaborating with GOB under these projects.
· Massive social motivational programmes have been included in all the projects.
Source: http://www.dpe.gov.bd/ and http://www.mopme.gov.bd/
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