<i>Haor</i> education: Should distance be the barrier?

STAR

ALTHOUGH the government of Bangladesh has achieved significant progress in enrolling and completion rate of children in primary education the rate of school dropout is still high in the country's Haor region. A study reveals that about 86 percent of children enroll in primary education every year while 11 percent of them drop out of school due to various reasons including poverty, lack of parental awareness, impact of flood, insufficient numbers of schools in marginalized areas, communication difficulties, etc. (PPRC, 2012). Although our national policies have pledged special attention to the disadvantaged community including Haor people they are yet to enjoy the full access to the essential services by the government including education.
Haor is a wetland ecosystem or a very low lying river basin area covered by water almost six months in a year starting from the monsoon. In the Haor areaa, there are estimated to be 165 Unions with a total population of 3.8 million. Extreme poor communication is the major reason for economic deprivation and social inequalities. Due to geographical isolation, many children remain away from school. On the other hand, the number of educational institutions is much lower than other regions of the country, with only 7.8% of the primary level institutions and 3.9% of the secondary level institutions clearly showing the shortage of educational institutions. Due to inadequate number of schools, in most cases children have to attend school outside of their settlement. Like other parts of Bangladesh, the Haor areas suffer from the lower institutional investment in education, lack of education supplies including lack of electricity, drinking water and sanitation facility crisis, inadequate infrastructure, cleanliness of walls and floors and quality education materials.
Number of girls' school is lower than the boys or general school in Haor areas. As a result, girl's enrolment rate shows lower and drop-out rate is high. Lack of transportation and communication hinder access to schools, particularly prohibits girl education significantly. In many villages, there are no primary or high schools (For example: only 75 Primary Schools and 10 Secondary Schools in 180 villages in Bishwamvarpur Upazilla) although National Education Policy 2010 commits to ensure schools in every village. In addition, lack of qualified teachers, pupil-teacher ratio, lack of female teachers are the obstacles for ensuring quality education, while lack of recreational facilities in the schools makes students find these an uninteresting place.
In Haor areas, shortage of teachers in both primary and secondary levels is also lower than the average number of teachers of the country. The average number of teachers in the primary and secondary schools in this region is 4.4 and 12.8 against the national figures of 5.1 and 14.3 respectively. Due to communication vulnerabilities, major numbers of teachers live in urban areas instead of living adjacent to the schools. Thus, absenteeism and late arrival in and early departure from school are significantly higher in the Haor areas that ultimately affects the contact hour of the learners.
Due to communication barrier, Uapzilla Education Officials are not willing to visit schools on a regular basis and are less proactive in addressing the key issues of school operation in terms of ensuring access and quality. Some schools are not visited at all throughout a year by the local education administration. It was found in the study (Education Watch) that 72.5% of the primary schools did not see any visitor in a particular year.
Considering all these, children are among the most vulnerable population groups during rainy season, especially those attending schools. During monsoon, school buildings are destroyed, taking away the precious lives of children and teachers and stalling education in the aftermath of heavy monsoon. If any medium scale disaster occurs, around 30% of schools become shelter center that affect their academic calendar. In addition, economic condition of many families in post-monsoon situation does not allow many students to attend school. A significant number of students are displaced and migrate with their families to long distances due to loss of their dwelling and homestead. Many families cannot afford the expenses for boat or any other extra transportation to send children to schools due to inundation, destruction of bridges, roads, and culverts. These are nothing but cost barriers for the children from poor families and families without work. Another added access-barrier is experienced by the children with disability as their special needs are addressed indifferently.
Despite a number of challenges the government planned to take significant initiatives to ensure primary education though still it is lying at the policy level. Though nature causes immense crisis in transportation and communication but in this "digital" era, distance/poor communication/unavailability of transportation should not be an excuse in terms of ensuring education for all.
National Education Policy 2010 stated that for the schools located in the wetlands and areas prone to frequent natural calamities, provisions will be made to change the timing of the school hours and to reschedule the holidays according to their needs using the flexible school calendar. Decisions can be taken at the local level on the basis of community-based recommendations. It is evident that alternatives are already introduced but not implemented.
Another innovative approach is initiated by the NGOs is the floating education boats travelling down the Haor areas, from village to village, offering children their first lesson. Since government primary schools of these areas are still sorely inadequate and set up in remote areas to meet the needs of the children, these boats facilitate educational support for the Haor children. But quality and standard of education cannot be assured.
As per the National Education Policy, adequate number of schools are needed to be set up in Haor areas. Citizen participation is another important concern and community agencies like School Management Committee/Parents Teachers Association need to be truly inclusive and representative so that they can speak on the communities' behalf, and where decisions can be taken in a democratic and participatory process. Thus the actual situation and contextual issue will come up with effective solutions.
Hiring local teachers and providing opportunities for training and professional career growth is critical to ensuring the demand of quality education by quality teachers. Further, it will help to reduce the absenteeism. Though at the primary level it is really difficult to run successful distance education program, but it can be done for particular subjects that needs less "one to one guidance" by establishing portable resource centre. Consequently, about six million children are out of school and engaged in income generating activities or supporting their families in household work. So, no wonder that the parents of Haor areas in Bangladesh find less value in investing in education, particularly for the girl child.
Finally, it can be said that in this technologically advanced era, while we are arguing for digitalization and globalization, distance and geographical barriers cannot be an excuse for not ensuring quality education for all children. There is possibilities for alternatives, technology based intervention and need based solutions.

The writer is Programme Officer, Urban DRR, Oxfam.
Email: [email protected]