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Education for All

Plan to set up national body

By Sohel Manzur
The government plans to set up a National Council for Education for All (NCEFA) to help Implement the programmes of providing basic education to the targeted population.
The council proposed by the Joint Government-UNICEF Advisory Group (JGUAG) will be headed by the Minister of Education and will comprise representatives from various ministries and agencies of the government. The council will also Include representatives from outside and will provide facilities to deal with multisectoral activities to promote and advance the causes for basic education for all.
The NCEFA will act as the central clearing house for pro ject proposals before their submission to the ECNEC for formal approval. It will also
monitor and review the overall progress towards realisation of the goal of Education For All (EFA) adopted under the National Plan of Action (NPA) and give appropriate policy dt rections as needed.
The NCEFA will take all initiatives it considers necessary for successful implementation of the NPA and will be authorised to submit direct proposals for approval by the Minister for Planning. Finance. Establishment and others as well as by the Prime Minister or the cabinet.
The JGUAG also proposed an implementation committee for EFA headed by .the Secretary. Ministry of Education to get the decisions of the NCEFA Implemented.
It also proposed that a suitably staffed NPA project for-mulatton group be set up specially for this purpose to work with the Planning Cell of the Ministry of Education bi order to expedite the process of working out the details of the projects and draw up the formal proposals.
The JGUAO also proposed that an independent division In charge of basic education be created under the Ministry of Education to control and coordinate the works of the existing departments. It felt that the four divisional Directorate of Primary Education (DPE) offices needed restructuring to accommodate appropriate units to plan. Implement and monitor basic education programme components
It also advised for strengthening the district and upazlla education offices with adequate decentralisation of functions
The government has In the meantime drawn up a project to fulfil certain objectives In the field of education. The objectives are: Increasing equitable access to primary and secondary schooling, improving the quality of education at the primary and secondary levels, strengthening the management capacity of the primary and secondary sub-sectors and preparing future policies and programmes to reform the structure and financing of higher secondary and post secondary levels.
The cost of the project titled 'General Education Project was estimated at 310 million US dollars. The government will contribute 42 million US dollars in the protect while the rest is expected by the government to come from eight co financiers.
The International Development Agency (IDA) Is likely to contribute the largest amount: 159 million dollars. The other co-flnanctern are Asian Development Bank (ADB) (57.5 million), the Netherlands (14 million). Sweden (14 million), UNICEF (10 million), UK (5.7
million). UNDP (5 million) and UNFPA (2.4 million).
Under the project, the government has decided to construct 10.000 conventional and 12.000 low-cost classrooms. throughout the country and 200 low-cost satellite schools In about 10 upazilas with at least two classrooms
The components of the project also Include, funding of limited non-formal primary education programmes with the cooperation of selected NGOs, pre-service training of the teachers and others involved in management, development and introduction of revised curriculum and associated teaching materials, development of textbooks, strengthening of National Academy of Education Management (NAEM) and National Academy of Primary Education (NAPE), establishment of a sectoral education management system and strengthening of Bangladesh Bureau of Education Information and Statistics (BANBEIS). strengthening the management and educational audit capacity and supporting teachers and other categories of staff, special scholarships for female students at the secondary level, researchers and studies of different description.