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'Government should increase stipend for the underprivileged children ’

Rasheda K Choudhury, Executive Director, Campaign for Popular Education (CAMPE), talks to W-Daily Star
BANGLADESH has achieved significant progress in terms of enrolment in primary schools, but retaining them in
schools to complete the primary cycle remains a major challenge, said child education rights activist Rasheda K Choudhury.
Apart from four exceptional
groups of pupils, almost cent percent enrolment of children has been ensured in Bangladesh currently, she
The exceptional four groups — include children from hardcore poor families, children with disabilities, children of some special communities like gipsy, fisherman or sex workers and last one group is children of remote geographical locations or hard-to-reach areas.
"Around one-third of the total children, who enrolled in class one, dropped out before they completed their primary education.
"We do not know that in which class -- two or three or four -- they dropped out, but we cannot find them in the final stage of primary education," said Rasheda K Choudhury, executive director of Campaign for Popular Education (CAMPE), the coalition of more than a thousand education NGOs, researchers and educators.
Enrolment rate of children is lower in different special geographical areas compared to national enrolment rate. The special areas include char and haor areas, tea gardens and hill districts, she said.
Due to long distance of schools, children and their parents often not get interested to enroll in schools.
"In many areas, children have to reach school after walking around two hours. How can the parents become interested to send their little ones to school,” argued Choudhury.
So, it is very important to increase the proximity of schools, she said, adding, "There are still around 2,000 villages in the country without schools.”
The rate of enrolment in slum areas is also lower compared to national average. There are many floating children in urban areas. They move from one slum to another causing a major hindrance to their receiving basic education, she said.
Talking about non-formal education system, Rasheda said, "It is the government's responsibility to provide basic education for all
children. Whenever the government fails to do it properly, it is necessary to have non-formal education."
Citing examples, she said, suppose a government-run formal primary school will not allow any child, who has become eight or nine years old, to enroll in class one. Then, how the child will get education? That’s why non-formal education is so important, she said.
She also stressed the need for better coordination and effective equivalency framework between formal and non-formal education streams.
Talking about the policy gaps of the government, she said, "The primary education system is very much centralized in Bangladesh. The whole system is governed from Dhaka. I would like to request the government to decentralise education management and use the local government division for better functioning of the system."
The government should formulate policy targeting the really underprivileged children and should increase facilities like stipend for them.
She also urged on commitment of all political parties for improvement of primary education.
"There is a culture in Bangladesh that a political government abandon different initiatives of the previous government. We want the culture be avoided in the education sector for the development of basic education," she said.
Asked about the role of civil society members, she said they also can play important role to ensure cent percent enrolment, attendance and retention of children in schools. They can act a pressure group for ensuring effective measures and community participation in development.
Rasheda K Choudhury also recommended ensuring child-friendly classrooms, developmentally appropriate reading contents, and childfriendly teachers for raising and retaining interest among the children to attend schools.