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Kick poverty to bring education

Schoolchildren ask legislators in Q-A session

STAFF CO..ESPONDENT
Schoolchildren yesterday identified poverty as the main roadblock to education and called on legislators to take measures to bring all children to school.
The demand came up at a ques-tion-and-answer session with the legislators at the LD hall of the Jatiya Sangsad, co-organised by the Campaign for Popular Education (CAMPE) and the Peoples Empowerment Trust (PET) to mark the Global Action Week 2004.
The number of children who have never attended school in Bangladesh is over half a million and 100 million children are unable to attend school globally -- 60 million of them girls.
The children also demanded playgrounds and libraries in schools, timely distribution of stipend to enable them to buy books and learning material.
They called for security of schoolchildren, an end to political manipulation of students, stipend for poor students and rehabilitation of
evicted slum children.
Deputy Speaker Akhtar Hamid Siddiqui, attending the session, said the government was working for education for all and added: "We will take steps for betterment of students.
Faruk Khan, opposition lawmaker, said: "We may differ on political agenda, but we all united for education."
The children demanded security to girl students especially from teasing on their way to school and
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back home and ruling and opposition legislators assured them of support.
According to a United Nations estimate, $5.6 billion in additional donor fund a year will enable all children to go to school -- the equivalent to just three days of global military spending.
Abdus Shahid, opposition chief whip, Nurul Islam Moni, chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on science and ICT ministry, Ashraf Hossain, BNP whip, and lawmakers GM Kader and Rashiduzzaman Millat attended the session.
Economist Hossain Zillur Rahman and CAMPE Director Rasheda K Chowdhury were also present at the event where representatives of Underprivileged Children Education Programme (UCEP), Dhaka Ahsania Mission, Brac, Proshika, Nari Moitry, Aparajeyo Bangla, Surivi and SWID BD asked questions and sought solution to the problems.
Under the "World's biggest lobby", part of the GCE's (Global
Campaign for Education) annual Action Week from April 19-25, thousands of children add to the voice of millions in 100 countries across the globe.
Many of them have never seen the inside of a classroom and will simultaneously give their leaders a simple message -- help ensure basic education for all.
The event is taking place four years after 182 countries met in Dakar, the capital of Senegal, in April 2000 promising education for all.
The GCE, a broad coalition of development and education research agencies and unions active in over 100 countries, calls for action from governments of developing countries.
Two million people including several thousands in Bangladesh took part in the World's Biggest Ever Lesson organised by the GCE in April 2003. Not only did they set a new world record for the largest lesson in a single undertaking, but they made a strong demand that girls must get the same chances to learn as boys.