5 years in school, still non-literate

The standard of primary education is so poor that even after the five-year schooling one in every three children remains 'non-literate' or 'semi-literate', according to the findings of a survey.

The survey, Education Watch 2003-04, conducted by Campaign for Popular Education (Campe) in 10 upazilas also found one out of five children cannot enrol in primary schooling while one in every three of those enrolled drops out before completing the five-year course.

"The large majority of children, two out of three, mostly poor and disadvantaged in other ways, grow up without basic skills and preparation for life," read the survey report released at a press conference yesterday.

Education Watch Chairperson ANM Eusuf, Campe Director Rasheda K Choudhury and Education Watch Convenor Manzoor Ahmed addressed the conference, after which Education Minister Dr Osman Farruk lunched the report formally.

Farruk said, "Everybody should agree with me that we have achieved commendable progress in education in terms of primary enrolment, but one point of my concern is quality in both primary and secondary levels." "The problem we have also persists in many other countries," the minister noted.

The survey was conducted on the households and selected government, registered non-government and non-formal primary schools and Ebtedayee madrasas in 10 randomly selected upazilas. Those are Madhupur, Nageswari, Tanor, Lohagara, Chandina, Jessore Sadar, Tala, Patharghata, Bakerganj and Goplaganj.

The study findings provide a gloomy insight into the nature of children's deprivation of primary education that suffers from inadequate infrastructure and teaching faculty, poverty and mismanagement, among other things.

"Studies of the category labelled as ultra poor, which consists of 20 percent to one-third of the population depending on criteria, showed [a] net enrolment of 65 percent compared to around 80 percent nationally," according to the key findings of the study.

In the surveyed upazilas, a child from an 'always in deficit' family had a 30 percent less chance of being enrolled at a school and five times more chance of dropping out from school compared to a child from a 'surplus' family.

The survey found poverty and disadvantage as the major causes of deprivation of primary education. A quarter of the non-enrolled children cited poverty as the reason for non-enrolment and over 40 percent who dropped out indicated poverty as the reason for dropping out.

"It was not one or another cause that could be identified and fixed, but a syndrome of poverty and disadvantage including child labour, first generation learner, inability to afford private tutors, and causes related to children's absenteeism that need to be addressed," the report observed.

In the 6-14 years age group of the poorest section of the people, one-third of the children did not go to school. They worked or remained unemployed, while another 30 percent studied and worked at the same time.

It was found that some 47 percent of the mothers and 43 percent of the fathers of primary school students were without any schooling. Over 40 percent of the children were 'first generation learners', as both of their parents had no education.

The survey revealed, "Private tutors for primary school children have become a norm. Forty-three percent of the children had private tutors; they paid an average of Tk 152 per month for eight months in a year. Children who needed extra help with their studies most, [the] first generation learners, could afford it the least."

Low average school attendance, about 60 percent, was linked with factors related to both the operation of the school and the family situation of the child. Children not 'liking school' were an important cause for not enrolling and the most important reason for dropping out. This indicates problems about how the school functions.

Children with special needs, especially those with disabilities, and children of ethnic minorities, whose mother tongues were not Bangla, were special dimensions in the picture of deprivation in primary education.

Serious anomalies in stipend distribution were also detected in the household studies. Forty percent of the stipend recipients were paid Tk 200 or less, instead of Tk 300 as a quarterly payment. Students from 'rich' households received Tk 260 on average and those from 'poor' households Tk 225.

The principal rationale of the stipend programme -- targeting the poor -- does not appear to be working, at least in the upazilas studied, the report said.

Despite major government investments since 1990, primary school facilities remained far from satisfactory both in quality and number of classrooms and schools. Some 35 percent of the schools in the surveyed areas were rated as 'poor' in term of safety and cleanliness.

Insufficient number of teachers was a common problem in most schools. Eighty percent of the schools had four or fewer teachers while 21 percent had three or less.

On an average, 30 percent schools had more than 60 students and over two-thirds more than 40 students per teacher. The average teacher-student ratio in the upzilas was 1:53, which is better than the national average of 1:61.

Campe urged to recognise inequality and deprivation of primary education as a serious problem and to build a commitment to deal with it, and recommended seven steps to correct the situation.

It suggested allocation of resources and budgets for education programmes with equity and in favour of the disadvantaged as the key criteria. It particularly stressed on identifying the disadvantaged children and their particular difficulties, providing them with learning materials and effective implementation of competency-based primary education.