Closure to cause significant school dropout, child marriage: study
Amid closure of educational institutions due to the coronavirus pandemic, dropout rates will increase significantly at schools which will subsequently cause a rise in child marriage, early pregnancy and child labour, according to a study.
Education rights activists attending a webinar organised by Campaign for Popular Education (CAMPE) yesterday demanded increased allocation for education sector in the upcoming budget as part of two/three-year-long Covid-19 response and recovery plan for the sector.
CAMPE shared a rapid survey with journalists from the webinar on impact of Covid-19 on education sector.
In the questionnaire survey -- 115 representatives from 115 NGOs working in the education sector and 11 representatives from 11 teachers' associations gave their feedback.
Of the respondents, 84 percent said dropouts will increase at schools, while 80 percent warned of increased absenteeism and irregular attendance in school.
Seventy-two percent said malnutrition will impact on learning ability, 71 percent said child labour will increase and 58 percent said early marriage will increase.
Thirty percent of them warned of increased early pregnancy, 88 percent believe that syllabus lessons may not be covered on time and 72 percent believe many teachers lack expertise to use ICT and not willing or able to teach online.
Of them, 70 percent said teachers may not receive salary on time, particularly the non-government teachers and same number of respondents were concerned that non-government teachers might lose their job.
CAMPE executive director Rasheda K Choudhury said, "This is high time to change the priorities of budget; and health and education sector should get more priorities," she said, stressing upazila-based recovery and rescue plan.
Brac University Professor Emeritus Manzoor Ahmed proposed that the government should make special allocation of Tk 5,000 crore for upazila-based recovery and rescue plan from coronavirus crisis beside 15 percent allocation for education sector in the next budget.
He also called for transparency, accountability and proper use of money while expending the allocated money.
Director of education at Brac, Safiqul Islam, said efforts will be needed to recover the loss of momentum of success in the education sector.
Centre for Policy Dialogue Research Director Khondaker Golam Moazzem proposed that the government can cut down allocation from large project that will not complete by next year.
He said there should be some separate allocation for increasing sanitation and wash facilities at school.
Lawmaker Aroma Datta and CAMPE deputy director KM Enamul Hoque also spoke at the webinar.
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