Bring closed schools back to life

We are alarmed to learn of the number of non-government primary schools that have been closed in the last two years. Reportedly, some 18,465 schools closed their doors for good in 2021 and 2022 because their owners could not bear the cost of running them. With the shutting down of these institutions, thousands of teachers lost their jobs, while lakhs of students had to drop out or go through other challenges. Data from the Directorate of Primary Education (DPE) shows that a total of 1,14,429 teachers of non-government primary schools left the profession since 2020, while a staggering 14.5 lakh students left primary schools – a large number of them privately run – between 2020 and 2021. This needs urgent attention from the authorities.

While educationists have long been asking the government to take remedial actions and invest more in education to recover from the pandemic-induced learning loss – which has affected an entire generation of students – there has been little indication that it took those suggestions seriously. Its education budgets of the last few fiscal years made it very clear. And it has disappointed us again this year by proposing a record-low allocation of Tk 88,000 crore for education, which is only 1.76 percent of the GDP.

At a time when the government should have made desperate attempts to bring the missing students back to schools – by providing them stipends, mid-day meals, financial incentives for poorer households, etc. – we have not seen much effort in this regard. Moreover, struggling non-government primary schools also didn't get the help they deserved. Reportedly, the owners of these schools – NGO-run, kindergartens, etc. – sought financial assistance, soft loans, and waiver of utility charges during the pandemic, which they were denied.

Needless to say, such schools have been playing a significant role in ensuring education at the primary level. The government, therefore, must come up with proper incentives and plans to help them reopen and also to bring their teachers – many of whom may have remained unemployed till now – and students back to the classrooms.