& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Poverty continues to push children out of schools

Mahbubur Rahman Khan
SULTAN Ahmed, 13, collects plastic bottles littered on the streets. His earning at the end of the day stands at Tk 70-30. Sultan can write some names including his parents' both in Bengali and English and has a little knowledge of counting as he studied up to class four in a primary school.
"I went to school regularly. When I was in Class IV, my father (who was a rickshaw puller) died in a road accident. I'm the eldest son of my mother who works as a domestic help. Now, 1 don't find any importance of going to school. If 1 go to school, my little brother and sisters will have to starve," Sultan said.
He then disappeared with other scavengers in search of 'goods.'
Primary school dropout rates in Bangladesh though have come down, a significant proportion of children still remains out of school.
According to Bangladesh Primary Education Sector Performance Report (ASPR-2012) over 18 million student are enrolled in all types of formal school 89,712 schools. About 2.6 million children are still being deprived of the light of education who are aged between 6 and 10. (Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2006)
The Net Enrollment Rate (NER) for boys is 10 percent less than girls, while the Net Attendance Rate (NAR) for six year olds is 15 percent below than national average at 81 percent. The NAR, however, varies from one region to another of the country. (MICS 2009) Rakhi Aktar Swarna lives in a slum at the Kathalpotti of capital's Jatrabari area with her parents. She went to the Jatrabari Primary School until last year.
"I am 13 years old now. My father asked my mother not to let me go to school,” she added.
Swarna's father Boshir Ahmed, who works in a rice warehouse, told that his daughter is grown-up. "Now, if I continue to send her to school, she may become target of local goons who would harass her. That would be humiliating for us. Besides, my wife is pregnant and badly needs her attendance".
There is no single cause of dropout rather children leave school for multifaceted reasons. Experts opine that poverty influences the decision. Poor parents find it more beneficial sending children to work rather than school.
Dr Siddiqur Rahman, consultant at National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB), blamed unattractive learning method as one of the prime causes for the dropout of children from school.
"Children learn their lessons without understanding it. As a result, they don't find interest in school", he said.
Distance is another factor; experts believe it is a strong ground for dropping out of female children from primary education. Poor facilities, overloaded classrooms, inappropriate language of instruction and security are other common causes for school dropout.
According to Dr. Rahman, the high proportion of dropout of children from school is not only causing huge resource loss but also hindering the progress in achieving educational goal or MDG.
RTM (Research Training and Management International) conducted a study "Participatory Evaluation: Causes of Primary School Dropout” in 2009 on behalf of Directorate of Primary Education where some recommendations were
ing of SMC on role and responsibilities, strengthening of monitoring and supervision, award to meritorious students and improved teacher-parent-conununity relationship can also contribute a great deal in preventing drop-
It also recommended for the improvement of infrastructure, and road communication, supply materials for children for games and sports, timely distribution of text books, and
Children programme in high dropout areas, identifying poor infrastructure of school buildings and prioritise establishment of school buildings, external evaluation to assess the quality of teachers' training, upgradation of teachers' qualification at entry level, ensuring participation of local government, ensuring regular and timely attendance and departure of teachers, strengthening monitoring and supervision and building school-community-family
made.
The recommendations include 100 percent stipend, sensitization of parents about the need for education and criteria of stipend, introduction of tiffin, supply of free stationery, stopping of child labour, social mobilization, increased number of trained teachers, and effective home visits by teachers.
The study recommended that the participation of local government, proactive SMC, train-
teachers residing in or near the catchments.
On the above recommendations, suggested actions include gradual increase in coverage of stipend especially increasing the proportion in poverty-prone areas, undertaking social mobilization programmes to increase awareness of parents in remote and hard to reach areas, enhance inter-ministerial cooperation to minimise child labour by enforcing child labour laws, extending the Reaching Out-of-School
partnership.
To address the situation, the government with the help of development partners including UNICEF adopted Primary Education Development Programme- PEDP 111 for five years from July 2011.
PEDP III encompasses all interventions and funding that support pre-primary and primary education up to Grade-5. It has four components — quality learning and teaching, partici-
pation and disparity reduction, decentralisation and effectiveness and sector planning and management.
The above components are exposed to address the objective of an efficient, inclusive and equitable primary education system delivering effective and relevant child-friendly learning to all children from pre-primary through to Grade V of primary education.
The PEDP III will give special attention to support equitable outcomes for all school children irrespective of gender and physical and mental ability, socio-economic conditions, geographical location and ethnicity.
According to PEDP III, Directorate of Primary Education (DPE) and the Bureau of Non-Formal Education (BNFE), under the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education, will share the responsibility of reaching out to the out-of-school-children with alternative or second chance education of quality through partnership with NGOs for gradual reduction in their number.
BNFE, as a part of PEDP III. is planning to cover 93 percent of the total urban out of school children aged 10-14 years which is approximately 1.5 million children in urban areas of 64 district and six divisional cities of the country.
NGOs are also playing important roles in delivering pre-primary and primary education, especially among the poor. NGOs such as BRAC, Save the Children, Plan Bangladesh, Phulki, Jagoroni Chakra, Dhaka Ahsania Mission are providing pre-primary education.
BRAC operates more than 38,000 non-formal primary schools covering 1.2 million students. It is expanding its intervention to urban areas
Under the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education's (MoPME) leadership Reaching out of School Children (ROSC) project is providing non-formal primary education to out of school children in rural areas while the Basic Education for Hard-to-Reach Urban Working Children (BEHTRUWC) project is providing non-formal primary education to out of school children in urban areas.
UNICEF is providing technical support to the government in its different programmes on reducing out of school children in urban areas. From 2004-2012. UNICEF gave non-formal education for 3.4 year to 166,000 children aged between 10 and 14 years under the BEHTRUWC project.
Several programmes are currently going on to address the problem of dropout. The programmes include continuing pre-primary education course, following-up the attendance, continuing involvement and participation of school management committee and providing incentive.
If the quality of education could be enriched, students will show interest in schooling, said Siddiqur Rahman.
He, however, observed that quality could not be changed overnight.