The Education Watch Report 2008 titled "State of Primary Education in Bangladesh: Progress Made, Challenges Remained" has recently been published by CAMPE. The Report was formally launched by Mr. Abul Mal Abdul Muhith, Hon’ble Minister, Ministry of Finance, Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh on 2nd December 2007 in a Launching Ceremony organized at the LGED-RDEC Auditorium (Level-12), Agargaon, Dhaka. Mr. Nurul Islam Nahid, Hon’ble Minister for Education, Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh, was present as Special Guest. Mr. Samir Ranjan Nath, Researcher & Member, Education Watch Group presented the Major Findings of the Study and Policy Implications. The function was presided by Mr. Kazi Fazlur Rahman, Chairperson, Education Watch and Advisor, Former Caretaker Government . The launching ceremony was attended by more than 250 representatives from Government Agencies, National & International NGOs, Development Partners and Civil Society Groups. The program started with a welcome address by Ms. Rasheda K. Choudhury, Executive Director, CAMPE and Member Secretary, Education Watch.

Key Messages from the Study

Following are the key messages emanating from the findings of the present study:
 

The first message is that there is a huge wastage taking place in our primary education system. Half of the enrolled children drop out before completing the full five-year cycle. Owing to increase in dropout and repetition rates across all the primary classes, there is a visible drop in the retention and survival rates in recent years, which resulted in the shrinking of primary completion rate. Such high dropout indicates lack of quality provisions, loss of secure resources and thus inefficiency in the system.
 

The second message is that there is an indication of stagnation in enrolment since 2005. Improvement in primary enrolment was evident up to 2005 which stagnated afterwards due to a significant fall in enrolment in some areas and among the children aged six years. Parents of half of such children thought that their wards were too young to enrol in school. Refusal of admission by the school authority, children losing interest in education, scarcity of money to meet the private cost of education, and disability were some of the major reasons for such a stagnant situation. Distance between home and school in some areas is another reason for the stagnation. This low net intake rate is a serious obstacle to achieving the second MDG.
 

The third message is that students’ achievement of nationally determined competencies improved but it is far from expectation. Low achievements in the ‘understanding level’ items and inequities in terms of gender, school type and residence are some related issues linked to the quality of the system. Students’ learning achievement depended much on their background characteristics and private tutoring than on the school related factors, which should be a wake-up call for the schools.
 

The fourth message is that the girls are ahead of the boys in terms of enrolment, attendance, survival up to class V and completion of the full cycle of primary education but are significantly behind when the question of learning achievement comes. This is true irrespective of school type. Females’ participation in teaching profession increased significantly but their numbers are still low in the leadership of the institutions and participation in school managing committees.
 

The fifth message is that the madrasas are lagging behind in most of the quality indicators. Poor educational provision in these institutions is partly to blame for this. The ebtedayee madrasas which are basically independent institutions providing primary education is at the bottom of the league table. These institutions use separate textbooks and a majority do not have basic minimum infrastructure and learning facilities. Lack of trained teachers is a serious problem in the madrasas. Women’s participation in teaching, school leadership and SMC is the lowest in madrasas.
 

The sixth message is that owing to continuous push for school enrolment, level of education and literacy status of the population increased over time. However, increase of ever schooled population and those who completed primary education was modest with a rate of 1.4 percentage points per year. Although the literacy situation made important strides in recent times, it is yet to cross the 50% mark.
 

The seventh message is that the non-formal primary schools have been contributing significantly to achieving EFA. As supplementary and complementary to the mainstream education provision, it caters for 9.6% of total primary enrolments in 2008. Although these schools do not have enough physical facilities like the mainstream schools they are sometimes better endowed than other types in terms of educational software such as teacher training, teaching-learning provisions, child-friendly environment, teacher attendance and parental participation leading to better outcomes such as student attendance, cycle completion and learning achievements.
 

The eighth message is that physical facilities, teachers’ education and training and learning provisions for the primary education system in Bangladesh have improved as a whole during the past decade. However, the improvement has been uneven. Madrasas and the non-government primary schools often lack basic minimum standards of enabling condition. There are shortcomings in the teachers’ subject based training, management training of the heads of the institutions and effective functioning of the school managing committees. Dependence on private tutoring has increased over time.

 

Policy recommendations

The findings and the main messages of the Education Watch 2008 study on the quality of primary education raise the following policy issues:

1. Primary education, wherever provided should, in principle, be linked with the Directorate of Primary Education (DPE) – the government’s key authority to implement primary education. Upazila Education Offices, on behalf of DPE should play the principal role in coordinating primary education, of all types, at the upazila level. This implies decentralization of authority to the upazila level and making them accountable for access, equity and quality of education to the people of the respective upazilas and the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education.
    

2. There should be a ‘minimum’ provision of physical and learning facilities, qualified and trained teachers, co-curricular activities and functioning school managing committee. All existing formal educational institutions including the madrasas should be judged on the basis of this standard and those not meeting the standards should receive direct support through government subvention. A yearly survey (like the Education Watch) should be carried out by the DPE to monitor improvements over time. Phase-wise five-year development plans may be considered. The learning process should take place in classrooms not private tutors’ homes.
    

3. Pre-primary education should be confined for the children below age six. To ensure admission of children of age six in class I, campaigns of various forms should be considered, which, at the school level, can include school-catchment area based survey, meeting with the parents of non-enrolled children and community level campaigns. National and district level campaigns through all types of media such as radio, television, newspapers, mobile phones, bill boards, Internet as well as folk media may be utilized. Some of these are already being used in some places; however, these need to be strengthened throughout the country for immediate action. The civil society should be utilized more in such campaigns.
    

4. In order to reduce distance/communication related barriers to school enrolment, non-formal primary schools should be promoted in the short run. Such provisions should be continued for those who missed primary education at age six and for the dropouts. The quality assuring mechanisms as practiced in non-formal schools, such as continuous training of teachers, supportive academic supervision, provision of co-curricular activities, community monitoring and special support to the disadvantaged and disabled students, can be adapted in the formal schools. Collaboration between DPE and the agencies implementing non-formal programmes through a task force could be considered as a public-private partnership (PPP) which is being promoted by the newly elected government.
    

5. We have reasons to be happy about the achievement of gender parity at participation level but there is no need to be complacent about it. Gender related issues should be addressed in teacher training, school management and day-to-day school operation. Additional care, attention and encouragement can improve girls’ competency achievements. More policy action is needed through affirmative actions to put more females as heads of the educational institutions including the madrasas and in the school managing committees.
    

6. Recognizing the contribution of Madrasas in enhancing access to education, necessary facilities including unified and common set of standards for learning provisions, teaching personnel and core curriculum objectives and contents is a need of the hour. Additional support is needed for their improvement with adequate supervision and monitoring for the best use of the support.
   
    

7. The Compulsory Primary Education Act 1990 need to be revisited as it is inadequate to meeting modern day requirements. The Act is faulty as there is scope for the heads of the educational institutions to refuse admission without showing any reason; especially the disabled could be subjected to discriminations due to this. It is necessary to amend the Act towards achieving ‘quality primary education for all’ and vesting greater role, responsibility and authority to the upazila education offices.
   
    

8. In order to come out of the ‘business as usual’ approach, strong political commitment for a major overhaul in the education sector is required. ‘Vision 2021’ or the ‘Digital Bangladesh’ or any other developmental goals would be difficult to achieve without proper development of our human resources.
   
    

9. A large portion of the provision of ‘block allocation’ in the national budget 2009-10 can be utilized for education in addition to its usual allocation. Massive change in teacher education capable of impacting in classroom culture and school discipline, subvention to the schools and madrasas to create minimum standard of educational facilities towards reducing inequity among the educational institutions and establishing a strong monitoring mechanism should be the priority activities with this allocation.
    

For further information or to get a copy of the report, please contact:

K. M. Enamul Hoque
Program Manager, RMED Unit, CAMPE

Campaign for Popular Education (CAMPE)
5/14, Humayun Road, Mohammadpur, Dhaka- 1207, Bangladesh
Tel: (8802) 9130427, 8115769, 8155031-2, Fax:(8802) 8118342
E-mail: info@campebd.org