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How Literacy Lose Grounds

by Nliratan Halder
***The ILY considered to be a Summons to Action', a launch ing pad for efforts specifically devoted to drastically reducing illiteracy has evidently not got off to a particularly flying start. After two years — a fifth of the total period — Bangladesh has not really much tangible to show on the literacy front, much less in education.
THE United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 1990 as the Int creational Literacy Year (ll.V) Worldwide the number of the Illiterate, however is ex Unrated at some 900 million notwithstanding the fact Ural the overall illiteracy is continuing to fail. In countries like Bangladesh the picture Is gloomier still with the tilth t acy rate showing just the re verse trend.
The ILY considered to be a Summons to Action , a launch tng pad for efforts specifically devoted to drastically reducing Illiteracy has evidently not got off to a particularly thing start After two years — a fifth of the total period - Bangladesh has not really much tangible to show on the literacy front, much leas in education
The hard fact is that the population growth which is at the rate of 2.18 officially (although thought to be much higher) is racing far ahead of the supporting means and measures to curb the country's illiteracy. At the present rate of population growth rate vis-a-vis the gain in literacy, the country simply requires no less than 200 new schools to maintain the status quo relation between them. But pri mary schools are not at all coming up.
Consequently, the number of Illiterate is on the rise. The current budget has allocated a higher percentage of the ONP than before for education but not enough to tackle the Rigan tic problem facing the education arena. Even the problem at the primary level remains as yet the most acute. People however neem to be more con-cemed about development* In the higher education, particularly that of universities.'than the primary education.
And it Is not for nothing , that primary schools have to take classes in the open, under trees or tn school houses or buildings with the potential risks of tragedies involving human lives. In 1983. according to a government-sponsored "school mapping exercise". 87 per cent of the country's school children lived within two miles of a primary school That situation Iras not perhaps changed much tn the Interven Ing period.
Similarly, the absolute number of the illiterate in the population over five years old was 45 million, and in the population over fifteen 27 million By the year 1981 these
fig- tvs went up to 56 and 33 million respectively. There is no knowing that the trend has been offset by any rcmarkabk-Improvement tn the primary education, rather, tn all likelt hood, it has gained momentum One stiver-lining however la that both literacy and school attendance for women have
grown far faster than for women. In 1981 the literacy rate for men and women were 39 7 and 18.8 per cent Uris gap seems to have bridged a little.
About 60 per cent of all primary bchool-age children were enrolled, according to 1985 enrolment figure. Another distressing figure is Uiat at the time only 22 per cent schools could be used
round the year. 70 per cent only during the dry season. Add to this l he number of drop-outs and the gloomy picture just becomes gloomier.
'I lie students stay out of scIhkiI for various reasons. The poor state of schools is only inn lire education at the primary level in the primary m IkmiIs and kindergarten ones. Even in villages there are still
one. However the overriding < .impulsion for them to drop out Is purely economic They need food and clothes to meet u certain standard. And free textbooks are not an adequate answer to the problem of drop-outs. That the poor parents need their childrens helping hands tn household
chores and cultivation ts not helping the cause. A 1982 study showed that only 17 per cent of children from families with less than five blghas of land (1.85 acres) attended school compared to 62 per cent of children from families with more than five blghas
Apart from such discriminations. there are also another kind of discrimination Involv some considerably standard
secondary schools bul the sumc cannot be said about the primary schools. How the students studying In those primary schools arc discriminated against can hardly be imagined. But the truth Is that the students so left to suffer early In life can never hope to effectively compete with their more privileged brothers and sisters.
Infrastructure wise facilities and quality wise teachers In urban schools are Immensely superior to those of rural ones. That disadvantage has its life long effects on die village slu dents. The Irony Is that the majority of the students come from villages And keeping the majority at constant dlsadvan lagc no country can expect to make much of a hcarlwuy
That precisely is the prob lem with us Keeping the whole country In the dark we/ have set ourselves the task of lighting the houses that are al ready illuminated Primary teachers have moreover devel oped a nagging habit of taking care of their family matters to the neglect of their duty as teachers. Even the quality of a substantial number of them are suspect One good thing how ever ever to happen is the in duction of more female teach ers majority of whom are more caring than their male counterparts.
Coming back to the national budget allocation for primary education, it must be recorded that the paucity of fund Is a major obstacle to raising the standard of primary education Let there be a crash pro gramme — that hopefully in volves both formal and non
formal education — to expand and improve the primary education. Literacy after all Is divided In functional and non functional forms. And the stress should be on the func tional education. We ought to recognise that primary education Is the ground work, the base, and it certainly deserves a better.deal. The question Is: are we ready to give it Its due?