***"The situation is painful and hopeless." says another parent. For our children, education has ceased to be a right. It is now a privilege

It is the same story in many villages across the country, where only one per cent of GNP is channelled to the primary education sector, less than any other nation tn Asia.

THE first thing that ca tehee the eye on entering the village of Ghagot is a ravaged seml-pucca building. Destroyed by lack of maintenance to the roof and other parts of the structure. It is the local school

Owing to the lack of logistical support Incentives and su pervision teachers "have taken teaching at the school as secondary. being busy pursuing some other profession that secures a better livelihood." explains a village elder Hamid All

The school, built by the local people, was nationalised in 1^72 along with 36,164 pri mary schools

The teachers hold rudimen tary classes In the less-de stroyed room, which is left to the mercy of goats and cows during long school vacations and floods

"Our agony is that a lot of us now have the painful duty of finding schools for our children In neighbouring villages which are at great distances from here." says one relatively better off parent. Abbas Khon doker

Children In Ghagot. a village of about 400 houses, most of which have thatched roofs, now either accompany theis parents to the farm or stay tn the village to tend the goats and cows or leave the village to hawk in the nearer river port.

The situation Is painful and hopeless." says another parent "For our children, education has ceased to be a right It is now a privilege "

It Is the same story tn many villages across the country, where only one per cent of GNP Is channelled to the primary education sector, less than any other nation Is Asia

According to available sta tlstlcs. there are 17,356.000 school-age children In 1992.

So. an additional 19.832 schools are needed to fill the present requirement.

On an average, there is one teacher for sixty-one students. Moreover, there are three or fewer teachers in 39 per cent primary schools.

In Kamarjani. the village near Ghagot. virtually 90 per cent are Illiterate Like In Ghagot. most men. women and children In Kamarjani have never had any formal education. Many are married by the time they are 14

A few youths learned to read and write, but most of them finally dropped out of school

Nationally according to an-

other statistics out of the 16 7 million 6-10 year-old children. 6 9 million are not enrolled in primary schools and 5 9 mil lion of the total enrolled chil dren drop out of primary schools.

Teachers as well as pupils decline to concentrate In teaching for economic reasons Ghagot villager Abu Bakar has been teaching In the primary schools for 10 years

But when his father died In 1989. Bakar, as the only educated child among 9 brothers and sisters, was bound to take over the management of the family's rice fields

"I moved over to my father's compound after he died to

keep the family alive. " says 42 year old Bakar

When his father was in farming, labour and capital were relatively easy to secure, but over the years this has be come so expensive that Bakar found it diffiuM to hire people to irrigate land, weed, plant and cultivate land.

'Income generated from IRRI rice is far more than a teacher's salary '

But he complains that his progress Is blocked because there is no help for small-scale farmers

The prices of agricultural inputs (fertiliser, seed, water) have risen manifold.' says Bakar, because of the withdrawal of the subsidies

'Finally, the price of the produce Is less than the pro ductton costs." he adds.

Now he is searching for assistance from the government as well as from non govern jnent organisations

But he informs that the institutional reality of the state power and Its mechanisms are so coercive that those do not allow people to borrow money and help people to be self reliant

1 have this fear that if 1 do not move quickly to make myself financially strong to sup port my five children, they will grow up to see me as an Irresponsible father who did not care for their needs.' says Bakar, who Is trying all around to pull out resources.

"Also. I have a burning desire to give them the quality education. I did not receive as a child

1 want to move them away from the village school they now attends, to the city, though the education in this country Is getting more expen slve every day,' concludes Bakar