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Nonformal Education Programmes in Bangladesh : An Overview

The 21st century is knocking at our doors with its focus on knowledge-based production methods and life styles. If we are not ready to mold ourselves in the light of the changing circumstances, we may miss the civilisation which is moving towards information age. It is the responsibility of the literate society to prepare the illiterate masses of the world for facing the challenges of the 21st century.

by M Habibur Rahman
E Bangladesh the literary ite of the population aged even years and above stands at 43 3 per rent Illiteracy is considered to be one of the important causing socioeconomic backwardness Virtually, literacy is of paramount importance in reducing mortality, and fertility. Increasing lob opportunity and improving health status of the population The fact of high correlation between female ba sic education and enhancement in the status and well-being of women as well as in better child care has also been established Education can contribute significantly to aggregate output and it is revealed that an increase of one year in average years of education may lead to a 3 per cent rise in GDP. Against this background, the Government desires to eradicate the illiteracy problem within the year 2005 by reaching out-ofschool children and young adults below 35 years of age.
The Concept
In general, all educational efforts taken and initiated outside the formal educational process are known as Nonformal Education (NFE) It does not mean that nonformal education is an unorganised and unstructured learning process. It is a combination of formal and informal education and alternative to formal system having more flexibility and open endedness. It is an intentional learning mechanism guided by predetermined goals which seeks to bring about changes in knowledge. attitudes, values and skills regarding both literacy and communication. So, non formal education is a matter of knowing how to read, write, calculate. analyse and empower in daily life. Ine NFE programme is need-based and functional in nature. It is not only cost effective but also innovative and goal oriented. Its effects are both short-term as well as long-term.
NFE helps learners to improve his/her quality of life. So, NFEs scope is too wide which includes literacy education awareness education, alternative primary schooling' vocational education, entrepreneurship development education, professional career development and continuing education. Since NFE promotes qual-
ity of life and has positive correlation with development so. it has great impact on sustainable human development. Finally. NFE is regarded as an instrument of development which is not only economic, but also cul tural in nature.
The Actors
Government and NGOs are the two most important NFE providers involved at different levels. Such as Ministry of Edu-
cation. Primary and Mass Education Division. Universities and other research organisations of both public and private sectors are contributing in the policy level for policy research and preparing options. Likewise. Directorates of Agriculture. Livestock and Fisheries, Directorate of Nonformal Education. Bangladesh Open University. Directorate of Technical Education. Directorate of Primary Education. Bangladesh Rural Development Board. Directorate of Women s Affairs. Department of Social Welfare. Directorate of Health Education. Family Planning, Islamic Foundation and NGOs are involved at operation level for action research, programme development and capacity development. On the other hand, members of the civil society, political parties. GOs and NGOs are working at the dissemination level for advocacy and campaign and are building opinions. At the participation level, grassroots people's organisations. union councils and thana administrations are also involved in strengthening community participation, empowering people's organisation and ensuring people's ownership in the programmes.
The Nature
The NFE providers usually adopt different types of NFE programmes in order to eradicate prevailing . illiteracy throughout the country. These may be mainly divided into two. viz.. expansion programme and support programme.
Expansion Programme : Through expansion programmes usually basic literacy education is provided to different age groups of illiterate people. Tnere age groups are normally identified in this context as : (A) child literacy (4-10). (b) adolescent literacy (11-17) and
(c) adult literacy (15-35*)
(A) CHILD LITERACY : This activity covers different pro grammes undertaken by various organisations which are as follow :
(a) Pre-Primary Education : This kind of education programme is undertaken in order to prepare the children (of age group 4-5 years) for going to school. The purpose is to prepare the children for formal education through delightful games and sports. The time span is usually 6-12 months for these programmes. The course curriculum is developed by the organisations concerned.
(b) Nonformal Primary Education Class I-1I : The duration of this education programme is two-year. The purpose is to prepare the children aged-6-7 years for formal education at class III in the primary schools. Organisations like Esho KaJ Kori. Bangladesh Literacy Society. Manob Kallyan Parishad etc. have this kind of pro-Sammes. The curriculum of is programme is equivalent to that of National Curriculum and Text Book Board (NCTB) of the Government of Bangladesh.
(c) Nonformal Primary Education Class I-III : The children (6-8 years) who are deprived from admission in formal primary schools are admitted in this type of schools. Those passing from here are admitted to Class-IV in regular primary schools. Friends in Village Development Bangladesh (FTVDB), Gono Shahajjo Sangstha (GSS), Dhaka Ahsania Mission (DAM) and also other organisations have such programmes.
(d) Nonformal Primary Education Class I-III : There are some development organisations which enroll those students (8-10 years) who did not get chance in nonformal primary schools or were once dropped out from these schools at the very beginning. After completion of 3-year course in these schools, they can get admission to Class-IV in the for-
ma) primary schools. BRAC. Rangpur Dinajpur Rural Services (RDRS), Assistance for Social Organisation and Development (ASOD), Esho Desh Gori. Samata SamaJ Kallyan Samity etc. have such education programmes. Some of the NGOs are maintaining the same curriculum as discussed above but the course duration is only 27 months instead of 36 months.
(e) Nonformal Primary Education Class 1-V : Organisations like CARITAS. GSS. RDRS. BRAC, Swanirvar Bangladesh. Palll Progotl Shahayak Samity and Church of Bangladesh etc. have five-year term education programmes parallel to the main stream primary schools in the country. The age of the learners of these schools is 6 to 10 years like those of regular primary schools. PROSHIKA is also designed a curriculum of 5 years' primary schooling, but the duration is only of 36 months.
(f) Technology Related Primary Education : There are some nonformal primary education programmes where necessary popular science and appropriate technology considered useful in the real life have been incorporated. An example of such programmes is the Basic School of the Centre for Mass Education in Science (CMES). In these schools, after basic education in Class I-II, skills development education is included for Class 11I-V in the technology centre. Other examples of such education include programmes undertaken by Underprivileged Children's Education Programme-UCEP (for Class l-VIl) and Terre Des Hommes-TDH (for Class I-V) for certain skill development.
(B) ADOLESCENTS LITERACY : There are a number of different programmes within the ambit of this adolescent literacy sector. These may be classified as under :
(a) Nonformal Adolescent's Schooling : In this activity a 1 -
3 years education programme is undertaken for the learners within the age group II to 16 years. This, however, varies among organisations. At the end of this programme, the learners acquire the skills equivalent to Class III of the formal schools. Most of the NGOs who are running DNFE's (Directorate of Nonformal Education) programme have 1-year course. Dhaka Ahsania Mission is running adolescent's course of seven months duration. BRAC has a full-fledged 2-year course for the adolescent girls.
(b) Marriageable Girls' Literacy Programme : In this educational programme, the girls within the age group 12-17 are imparted with legal literacy along with the general education. RDRS carries out such programmes. But recently USC-Bangladesh has developed a one-year education programme package for the marriageable girls which includes enlightenment against six social vices such as illiteracy, early marriage. dowry and divorce, polygamy, sexual harassment and physical torture.
(c) Health Literacy : In BRAC's Health Education Programme, this health literacy project has been introduced for the girls within the age group 15-20 years. In this activity, health education has been included along with the general education programme. A female trainer gives practical training to other learners on different health issues for at least three years.
(C) ADULT LITERACY : Adult literacy is one of the important aspects of the overall literacy programmes implemented by the government and NGOs. Two types of courses are offered under adult education. These are : i) Literacy Education and ii) Awareness Education. The duration of these courses varies from organisation to organisation and normally extend from 3-12 months. The skills or competencies acquired by the adults seem to vary depending on the duration of the programme.
Generally, men and women within the age group 15-35 years are included in these programmes and the cost of the programmes is virtually borne by the sponsoring organisations. In case of some organisations (e g. Proshika) their grassroots level organisations bear the cost of materials for their members. While other expenses are borne by the sponsoring organisations. Saptagram Nari Swanirvar Parishad (fully run by women) also carry on activities related to literacy. Besides. Dhaka Ahsania Mission is Implementing programmes on skills development for the women side by side its general education programme. A good number of NGOs also have undertaken awareness development programmes for the adults instead of direct literacy programmes. Organisations like BRAC. GSS. RDRS etc have such programmes.
Support Programme: Apart from expansion programme, the second important direction of the literacy related activities of the NGOs has been geared to their support programme. These activities are also manifold. as. for example :
(a) Education Materials Development : Different NGOs have developed materials for basic education (primer or learner s book), ancillary materials (chart, picture card, poster etc ) and teacher's guide The
organisations that have developed education materials of outstanding quality include BRAC, RDRS, FIVDB, MASS Education-DANIDA. GSS, Saptagram Nari Swanirvar Parishad and Dhaka Ahsania Mission. Besides, the organisations which have been successful as pioneers in the development of education materials for the children include BRAC, GSS. Proshika and Dhaka Ahsania Mission. In addition, a good number of organisations have developed education materials and learners-generated materials for the adolescents. Among them BRAC. FIVDB. Dhaka Ahsania Mission and VERC are worth mentioning.
(b) Literacy Training : There are many NGOs in Bangladesh which have literacy training activities with their literacy programmes. They conduct training for their own staff as well as train other organisations on request. Their number is above 50. Different training centers administered by them would be about 150. Other organisations may utilise their physical or technical facilities for training. The types of training that are usually given include : grassroots workers' training, supervisory workers' training, technical workers' training, etc.
(c) Materials Support : The purpose of this programme is to assist relatively new organisations with education materials towards expansion of literacy programmes. CAMPE. FIVDB and Proshika have this kind of programmes. DNFE has also such kind of programme through which this organisation is providing literacy materials free of cost to the community based organisations as well as other social organisations.
(d) Financial Support: Some NGOs provide financial assistance to other local NGOs at grassroots level to carry out non-formal primary and adult literacy programmes. ACTIONAID Bangladesh. CAMPE and BRAC have such programmes. Now a days DNFE is the main financial provider In the NFE sector. This agency is now providing funds to about 200 NGOs.
(e) Technical Support Technical support is provided for literacy activity for formulation of specific curriculum, acquiring efficiency in management. financial monitoring and programme auditing and evaluation in respect of an organisation. BRAC. ACTIONAID Bangladesh and CAMPE have such programmes, among others.
(f) Individual Assistance : The objective of such support is to grant stipends/scholarships or educational loans to those who are interested in taking part in the literacy programme BACE has a pioneering role in this regard. Among other NGOs For Those Who Have Less' and ACTIONAID Bangladesh are two important organisations.
(g) Continuing Education Support : This kind of programme is necessary to sustain the outcome of the NFE programmes and to lead them towards the avowed goals. The NGOs and the government have undertaken such programmes through setting up of Lokok-endra (people's learning centre) and developing the local reading circlesllbraries Other major programmes include democracy awareness education, eouiva-lency education, technical education and improvement of life quality education.
(h) Supporting higher educa-
tion : Some NGOs have started to set up private universities to provide special education to the NGO practitioners as well as other Interested audiences. BRAC. DAM and GK are some of such initiators.
Distribution of NFE-oriented NGOs and their Coverage
A total of 414 NGOs now are working in the NFE sector. The NFE NGOs are more or less evenly distributed throughout the country with a few exceptions. These NGOs are working in 454 thanas out of 491 (92.46%). Networking of NFE-oriented NGOs has not yet been established in 37 (7.54%) thanas. These thanas are mainly from the greater Chittagong. Chittagong Hill Tracts and Sylhet districts. Other districts are Kishoregonj, Shariat-pur, Plroipur, Chandpur. Comilla. Rajshahi and Naogaon. It is important to mention here that DNFE is mainly working in a partnership basis with the NGOs. So the geographical coverage of NGOs as also the coverage of government organisations.
NGOs in Bangladesh have been active in the field of nonformal education since 1972. A survey of CAMPE in 1992 reveals that the total coverage of NFE was 2.7 million people during 1972-92. Recently, it has been found that the coverage of NFE in the year 1994-95 was 2.6 million persons. DNFE has also provided literacy to the 2.5 million people till June 1997. At present government has taken a massive plan for eradicating illiteracy from the country by the year 2005.
Strength and Weakness
The major strengths of the NFE programmes are : i) A good number of experienced NGOs: ii) NGOs are evenly distributed all over the country; ill) The country has two NFE database organs which are maintained by the DNFE and CAMPE; tv) A country with one language; v) Government has commitment and it already has taken a positive initiative in formulating a pragmatic NFE policy and plan: vi) A good number of methods in the areas of child, adolescent and adult literacy; vii) A plain land and fare accessibility, etc.
The major weaknesses of the NFE programmes are : i) Low initial enrollment; ii) High dropout rate; iii) Low performance: tv) Relapse into illiteracy; v) People’s ownership on the programme not found; vi) Absence of linking literacy with the mainstream development initiatives; vii) Career development opportunity of the facillta-tors/teachers is very little: vfti) Use of less participatory techniques; vlii) Teacher oriented education, etc.
Methods
In Bangladesh, NGOs and the government are working together in the NFE sector since its independence. Illiteracy is one of the prime concerns of the country. So. research on it has started from the early part of 70 s. Now 21 methods are being practiced In Bangladesh. However, only nine methods have been found suitable and effective. These methods are of BRAC. FIVDB. RDRS. MEP/DANIDA, SNSP. DAM. DNFE. GSS and REFLECT of ACTIONAID Bangladesh. In the adolescent literacy area, there are seven methods in operation These are of DAM. DNFE. USC-Bangladesh. JC. CMES. GSS and BRAC On the other hand, in child literacy, there are nine methods developed so far till to date. These are of GSS. BRAC. CMES, PROSHIKA, DAM. UCEP. Concern Bangladesh. FIVDB and SCF (USA). But
here, we present only one method which is known as REFLECT as this method is a novel one equally used in child, adolescent and adult literacy programmes with considerable success.
Reflect — a Radical
Approach to Literacy towards Sustainable
Livelihood
REFLECT as It is called, has been developed through an action research in Bangladesh, Uganda and El Salvador. The REFLECT approach seeks to build on the theoretical framework developed by the Brazilian educationist Paulo Freire. It provides a practical methodology by drawing on Participatory Rural Appraisal techniques. REFLECT is an abbreviation of Regenerated Freirean Literacy through Empowering Community Techniques.
Basics of REFLECT and its Objective : The REFLECT programme is based on few basics which are : I) it is not based on primer like general literacy programmes: ii) it does not maintain hierarchy between facilitator and participants; iii) it is based on local needs, people's knowledge, reality and perspective: tv) it follows participatory learning process. The general objective of this programme is to provide visual learning, literacy and empowering skill to the target audience within a year.
Method : In a REFLECT programme, there is no literacy primer other than the facilitator’s guide. The guide is developed locally by the facilitators. However, in some places, the facilitators do not use the guide.
Each literacy circle develops its own learning materials through the construction of maps, matrices, calendars and diagrams that represent local reality.
Each graphic is initially constructed on the ground using - locally available materials. Subsequently. the participants transfer the graphics from ground to a large piece of paper. They select an issue from the graphics for discussion which leads to achieve the empowerment skill. After the discussion a key word is introduced for practicing 3Rs.
As the REFLECT process progresses, so the range of graphics produce a wider range of vocabulary and learner-generated writing is promoted.
A range of other participatory approaches are Integrated into REFLECT programme.
By the end of the literacy course, a series of literacy and planning documents win have ,. produced,,,These become .a permanent record for communities, give them a basis .on which their own development plans can be worked out.
As participants construct their own materials, so they take ownership of the issues that come up as well. And actionpoints that are being im-Klemented change their be-aviour as well as their atti-
Conclusion
The 21st century is knocking at our doors with its focus on knowledge-based production methods and life styles. If we are not ready to mold ourselves in the light of the changing circumstances. we may miss the civilisation which is moving towards Information age. It is the responsibility of the literate society to prepare the Illiterate masses of the world for facing the challenges of the 21st century.
The author is Head, REFLECT Coordination Unit. ACTIONAID Bangladesh.