The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
unusual charge described as “entertaining government officers” was also
levied. These findings have been confirmed by the Campaign for Popular
Education- CAMPE (Source: Education Watch 2003/4, CAMPE, Dhaka,
February 2005. Campaign for Popular Education in its annual reports
on the state of primary education in Bangladesh). School fees are levied
for school repairs, purchases of supplies and entertaining visitors, while
textbooks which should be distributed free of charge are actually sold.
CAMPE has explained the unusual ‘entertainment fees’ as a facet of
institutionalized political interference in education, which facilitates
“shoddy work, waste and corruption”. That school children ought to pay
the cost of decorating schools and providing refreshments for visiting
dignitaries is perhaps the most striking example of reverse subsidies,
where poor families subsidize the government which does not provide
free public services in breach of the law of the land. This expression of
enforced gratitude for possible increases of public funding for schools
may cost the families more than such public funds are worth.
As per the statistics of UNESCO (UIS Database 2011) 18,35000 ??school
age children who should be at school are not, hence there is a long way to
go to universalize education in Bangladesh. There is uncertainty as to how
many children are at school now, and such statistical discrepancies which
hamper the education services, have not yet been eliminated.
LITERACY RATE IN BANGLADESH
Sl.
Literacy rate by age group
Both gender (%)
Male (%)
Female (%)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
05-09
10-14
15-19
20-24
15-24
25+
15+
15-24
16.43
67.38
82.17
75.09
78.63
52.75
59.82
78.58
15.78
64.51
80.57
76.77
78.67
58.47
63.89
78.81
17.10
70.57
83.98
73.73
78.86
46.84
55.71
78.36
Source: Report on the Bangladesh Literacy Survey 2010, Industry and labor wing, BBS, Statistics Division,
Ministry of Planning, June 2011
Following the guidance provided by the MDGs, the government has
focused its funding on primary schools. Secondary education, starting
66
when children are 10 years old, is provided mostly by religious communities,
private schools or NGOs and it is mostly ‘for-fee’. Although the precise ratio
of governmental, non-governmental and religious schools (madrasas) is
not known, a rough estimate is that even in primary education about half
of schools are governmental with the other half divided between NGO-run
schools and madrasas.
The World Bank in “Attaining the Sania belongs to a poor family consisting of five
members in galachipa upazila of Patuakhali district.
Millennium Development Goals in Mr Fakhrul Islam, Sania’s father, is a fisherman but
the off season, he works as a day labour and
Bangladesh: How Likely and What in
her mother, Ms. Rashida Begum, works in the brick
Will It Take To Reduce Poverty, Child breaking field. Sania was a student of class II in
Galachipa Model Primary School during 2007. Even
Mortality and Malnutrition, Gender though the family was in a poor condition, Sania’s
Disparities, and to Increase School parents had never stopped her schooling.
Since 2007 after the massive destruction caused
Enrolment
and
Completion?” by cyclone Sidr and Aila, the whole community
scarcity of food, resources and
(Washington D.C., February 2005, experienced
employment. Sania’s family was also not an exception
p. 53) noted that “the problem of of this devastation. On one hand, they lost their
house and other resources; on the other hand they
children not attending school is lost their source of income. The extreme vulnerability
the family could not help them afford their daily
largely a problem of the poor” but of
needs. Consequently, Sania had to discontinue her
added that “as in other developing school, instead she engaged herself to take care of
her siblings whie her parents were craving to find out
countries, the direct costs of a means for livelihood.
attending primary school are Sania states, “what my parents earn now, is not
sufficient to run the family, how would they be able
typically quite low in Bangladesh”. to afford my educational expenses”? “I wish to go
to school to continue my education when my
This may well be true when the back
family finds a means of earning” she added.
charges levied in primary school Mr. Abul Kashem, the Head Teacher of Galachipa
Model Primary School shared, “one of the main
are compared with the salaries of reasons of her drop out from school was, because
had to take care of her family since her parents
World Bank officials, but they are she
were struggling hard to earn a square meal for the
a huge obstacle for the third of family. Besides, it often goes beyond the capacity
of a family like hers to afford the educational costs
Bangladeshi school children both like pen, paper, notebook, uniform, exam fees etc, he
of whose parents had no education. added”. Although it has been promised in the national
education policy (2010) and Primary Education Act
Thus they have minuscule incomes. 1990 that primary education will be compulsory and
of coasts but its implementation in the ground
Moreover, children who are the free
is still not happening and a right quality public
first in their family to go to school education for all is still far beyond reach.
Source: Right to Education Team, ActionAid
obviously have no support at Bangladesh
home to facilitate their learning.
Schools should – but do not – offer compensatory programmes for such
children. CAMPE, as part of its commitment to effective implementation
of EFA, works as a national coalition of NGOs working towards the
67