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'Initiatives have been taken to address the dropout problem'

Shyamal Kanti Ghosh, Director General, Directorate of Primary Education, talks to Daily Star
TO ensure primary education for every child and prevent dropout all the stakeholders should perform well from their respective positions, said Director General of Directorate of Primary Education (DPE) Shyamal Kanti Ghosh.
"The government alone cannot be able to reduce the number of dropout children”, he said adding, there are many factors which propel school drop-
The child dropout rate was 45.1 percent in 2008. The rate stood at 29.7 percent in 2011.
"The dropout rate has been reduced by about 20 percent in the last three years. I hope it will be reduced more in the coming days”, Shyamal Kanti said.
"Whenever a student leaves school, it is counted as dropout. But that boy or girl may join a madrassa or any other type of school. This possibility remains out of our consideration”, he said claiming, the dropout rate would be lesser if this factor is counted.
Stressing the necessity of primary education, the DPE DG said that primary education is a rudimentary stage which creates skill among children.
"It is the stage where a child learns how to count or how to write or sign. It helps them to become self-dependent in their next stage of life”, Shyamal Kanti maintained.
He said the problem of dropout is common in remote, inaccessible and poverty prone areas.
The DPE DG also held lack of consciousness, parents' immediate expectation for financial gain and nonavailability of books responsible for
children's inclination for dropping out from school.
He said that the government is committed to ensure the rights of basic education for the children.
"To fulfil this commitment the DPE is implementing a sector-wide approach — Primary Education Development Programme (PEDP-III) — for the purpose of improving the quality of primary education in the country”, he added.
Several initiatives including improvement of education quality and teaching quality have been taken under PEDP- III to address the child dropout problem, he said.
"When a student remains absent from school at a stretch for three days, teachers are sent to the respective child's resident to bring him/her back to school”, said Shyamal Kanti.
Parents, especially mothers, are encouraged to send their children to school through motivating rallies for mothers, the DPE DG said in response
to another question.
"To draw and retain children's attraction, new books are supplied to every child from class I to V Teachers are given training so that they can make lesson attractive to the children as a part of the PEDP-IH”, said Shyamal
Mentioning that earlier only handful of students got scholarship, the DPE DG said about 50-90 percent student at primary level are now being given scholarship considering their family condition.
People should consider it as their moral responsibility to send children to school, he observed. “A neighbour or relative should push a child if he stops going to school. They should try to find out the reasons why the child stops going to school and solve that. In the process, the dropout problem will be resolved", said Shyamal Kanti.
"I will be the happiest man on the day the dropout rate drops to zero”, he added.