Govt to extend pre-primary education
The government has decided to extend pre-primary education to two years from the existing one year.
Primary and mass education secretary Akram-Al-Hossain said they received approval from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for the extension yesterday.
He said with the decision, pre-primary learning would start at the age of four rather than five.
Primary and mass education ministry officials said the government took the decision to achieve target 4.2 of Sustainable Development Goal, that calls for ensuring that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care and pre-primary education so that they are ready for primary education by 2030.
The ruling party, before the last general election, promised in its election manifesto to extend pre-primary education to two years.
Director General of the Directorate of Primary Education Md Fashiullah said pre-primary education was introduced in 2010 and now, all primary educational institutions, both government, non-government, and kindergartens offer one year of pre-primary education.
He said they would have a pilot programme from next January to introduce two-year long primary education, and after reviewing the results, they would expand it to all primary schools.
Primary and mass education ministry officials said they plan to introduce the two-year pre-primary education at 2,583 institutions withing the next two years, and it can be expanded to all government schools by the next four years.
Akram said all 65,620 government primary schools are offering one year pre-primary education. Some 34,799 government primary schools have separate classroom for pre-primary education, and there are assistant teachers at 37,672 government schools.
According to a unesco report in 2016, at least 52 percent of developed countries have three-year pre-primary education, and 33 percent countries have two-year pre-primary education, said primary and mass education ministry officials.
Officials say pre-primary education is really important, as it is during the first five years that around 90 percent of a child's brain development takes place.
Global and national evidence strongly emphasises that children who attend quality pre-primary education have better chances for a smoother transition to primary school, leading to significant improvement in school retention and lowering dropout rates, they said.
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