Allocate one fifth of budget for edn to ensure EFA by 2015

Tasneem Athar speaks at a press briefing at the National Press Club in the city yesterday. On her right is Muhammad Azizul Haque and on her left is Rajasri Gayen.
Photo: STAR

Speakers at a press conference yesterday demanded the government allocate one fifth of the fixed budget for education sector in order to keep its promise to ensure education for all (EFA) by 2015.
Despite interventions of different government and non-government organisations, the current literacy rate of the country is 49.7 percent, they said, urging the government to take sector-wise planning for increasing literacy rate and standard education.
Campaign for Popular Education (CAMPE) organised the press conference at the National Press Club in the city to highlight the events it is going to organise in observance of the Global Action Week (GAW) 2009.
Every year the Global Campaign for Education (GEC) marks the week in April across the world. CAMPE in collaboration with its partners is organising different events to observe GAW 2009 (20-26 April) at national and local levels.
The theme of GAW this year is “Youth and adult literacy and lifelong learning.”
Adult literacy gets less importance though it is very important for a country's overall development, the speakers said, adding that according to the Unesco report the number of adult illiterate across the globe is around 774 million and 64 percent of them are women.
Citing statistics from Literacy Assessment Survey 2008, KM Enamul Hoque, programme manager of CAMPE, said though the net enrolment rate in the primary school is 98 percent, 48 percent of them drop out before completing primary education.
The main reasons behind the dropout rate are social and financial constraints, he said, adding that the government has to play a vital role in ensuring quality education and completing the education cycle for poor people.
“It is not possible to increase literacy rate without ensuring participation in the primary education,” he said.
Tasneem Athar, deputy director of CAMPE, said education and literacy widen potential of the people and also increase the ability to take decisions.
Mentioning the week-long programmes, she said they would organise a big reading programme at Central Shaheed Minar tomorrow where thousands of people will read an inspirational story.
“Millions of people across the globe will read the same story at the same time to move forward the education and literacy programme further,” she said, adding that women activist Rokeya Rafiq will read out the story.
Muhammad Azizul Haque, acting director of CAMPE, said it is important to increase budgetary allocation for education sector and ensure its proper utilisation at the same time.
The demands placed by CAMPE include formulation and implementation of the National Education Policy with the participation of all, giving importance on informal education, ensuring modern and effective training for teachers, creating opportunities for the deprived and underprivileged children.
CAMPE also demanded the developed countries and international organisations spend $16 billion for achieving the EFA target and billion dollars for adult literacy.