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Education - a simple word that is one of the major drivers of our planet earth. Through education people get to know who they are, where they came from and where they will be heading in the near future. Education is the spearhead of a society. It is because of proper education that people get to know about the diversity of this unpredictable world. Education forges the lives of those who get it. Education is one of the important factors that affect the quality and the means of leading a prosperous life.
Bangladesh was described as one of the poorest countries of this world after the liberation war in 1971. It had gone through harsh phases of floods, droughts, cyclones, famines and other natural calamities and at present one of the world’s most crowded countries still remains well below the poverty line and as a result most of the population is still illiterate.
Education still and always will remain an important form of social capital in this world.
Education fosters innovation, contributes to the economic growth of a country and also increases the efficiency, effectivity and productivity of all the individuals who get the light of education.
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The World Bank (WB) approved generous amount of loans in the recent past to promote and improve the education sector of Bangladesh. However, the government and the NGOs are playing an active role in the development process by educating the mass population of Bangladesh and the whole course of action mainly focus their vision on the children and women.
In Bangladesh the educational process is so slow and weak that the development process has become sluggish.
Education system in Bangladesh is three-tiered and highly subsidized and the Bangladesh government operates many education institution in the primary, secondary and higher secondary levels.
Through the University Grants Commission, the government funds more than 35 state universities in the tertiary education sector. Bangladesh emphasizes on the education For All (EFA) objectives, Millennium Development Goal (MDG) and the International Declarations.
According to the articles 15 and 17 of the Constitution of Bangladesh, every citizen has the right to education and all children between the ages of 6-18 should receive primary and secondary education free of charge. The government should provide the underprivileged children with free books and education free of cost.
As we are the students of RS, we were unable to go outside to meet with people and conduct interviews with them. So, to gather our information and data, we had to go though different forums, journals, books and different websites.
From 1971 our education system started officially. At the beginning of the education system in Bangladesh the number of schools and universities were very poor. There were only 6 public universities in 1971. But now the numbers of universities are increasing. Now the numbers of primary schools are near about 76000. The great point system started from 2000 and the JSC and JDC education system was started from 2010. In recent years Bangladesh has adopted various strategies to educate the general people mainly the children. In education sector BRAC’s contribution is bigger. Sir Fazle Hassan Abed founded BRAC School at 1972. In the history of education BRAC played an important role.
After the liberation war of Bangladesh in 1971, the People's Republic of Bangladesh became an independent nation free to choose its own educational destiny. As Bangladesh was, and still is, a secular state, many forms of education were permitted to co-exist. The formidable British system was, and still is, largely practiced. In fact, presently, the Bangladeshi system of education is divided into three different branches. Students are free to choose anyone of them provided that they have the means.
These branches are: The English Medium - English medium schools are mainly private and thus reserved for the wealthy class. After three years of pre-school, students must successfully pass through ten grades to be eligible for writing the Ordinary Level Exams, also called the O-Levels. Then after one more year of studies, students can write the Advanced Level (A-Level) Exams. The Bengali Medium - the Bengali Medium, which is offered by the government. In the Bengali Medium, all the courses are offered in Bengali with the exception of English courses and the Religious course.
The tuition fee is minimal compared to English schools but they still vary largely between schools. After three years of pre-school, students in the Bengali medium do five years of primary school. Then they move to high school for grade five to grade ten. At the end of the tenth grade, they appear for their SSC (Secondary School Certificate) exam. Afterwards, they move on to two years of college following which they have to write for the HSC (Higher School Certificate) exam. The Religious Branch - Bangladesh is a very poor country with millions of homeless children.
To educate these children, there are religious institutions called "Madrashas" where these children are sheltered, fed and taught the ways of Islam by priests. These children learn the scripts from the Koran and the regular prayers. Literacy situation in Bangladesh Period Census - The 1974 census defined literacy as the ability to read and write in any language. This definition was in conformity with the UNESCO; one accepted throughout the world. The definition of literacy used in the 1981 census covered only persons of age 5 years and above and included those who could write a letter in any language.
The 1991 census also defined literacy as the ability to write a letter in any language but covered persons of age 7 years and above. The effect of change in definition of literate has been reflected in the literacy rates of different census years. Increase in Literacy - Literacy rate among people of all ages rose from 17% in 1961 to 24. 9% in census year 1991. For the 7 years and above age group, the literacy rate increased from 26. 8% in 1974 to 32. 4% in 1991. In all census periods, the literacy rates were higher among the males than among the females.
The female literacy rate, however, rose significantly in the 1991 census. It was 16. 4% in 1974 and 25. 5% in 1991. Urban rural variation in literacy rate is also quite evident in all census periods. Literacy rates in urban areas are higher than in rural areas in all census periods. Adult literacy Adult literacy rate for population 15 and above is defined as the ratio between the literate population of the age 15 years and over to the total population of the same age expressed in percentage. This rate for both sexes was 25. 9% in the 1974 census and 29.2% in the 1981 census. In the 1991 census the rate was 35. 3%. In all census periods, male adult literacy rate was higher than the female. Educated adults come to the urban areas for better employment and education. As a result, the adult literacy level of urban population is much higher than that of their rural counterparts in all census years. However, the gap between urban-rural literacy rate narrowed in 1991, as did the gap between the male and female population. This is due to rural people's increasing participation in education in recent times.
Steps of Bangladesh after Liberation towards development of education The independence of Bangladesh generated a new enthusiasm in both government and private level in efforts to expand literacy and remove illiteracy. The Bangladesh Constitution of 1972 provides the basis for a policy on universal primary education. The policy has three components: establishing a uniform mass oriented and universal system of education; extending free and compulsory education to all children; and relating education to the needs of society and removing illiteracy.
Keeping in view the constitutional directives, Bangladesh committed itself to implement the recommendations of - The World Conference on Education for All (1990), The World Summit on Children (1990) and The Summit Declaration on Education for All (1993). Primary Education of Bangladesh Primary education was recognised as the foundation of preparing literate citizens of the country in all national documents, reports of the commissions, and committees on education. But this stage of education got a momentum only after the enactment of the Compulsory Primary Education Law of 1990.
Compulsory primary education under this Act was introduced in 1992 in 68 thanas, and all over the country in 1993. Measures such as satellite schools, community schools, and Food for Education Programme were taken up to increase enrolment and decrease dropout. The new primary curriculum based on terminal competencies was implemented in 1992. These steps resulted in some improvements in various efficiency indicators of primary education such as in gross enrolment ratio and the completion rate and raised the participation of girls in primary education.
In addition to state intervention, from the second half of 1980's, the government allowed NGOs to experiment with a variety of delivery mechanisms to cater to the basic educational needs of the disadvantaged population. Role of BRAC BRAC launched its education programme in 1985 with 22 one-room primary schools following non-formal approach. The goal of the BRAC Education Programme is to make a significant contribution to the achievement of education for all in Bangladesh.
The BRAC Education Programme is mainly focusing on - increase access of basic education in unreached and underserved population improve quality in formal education system support the government in achieving Millennium Development Goal 2 - Education for All by 2015 ? In sheer size, BRAC operates the largest private school system in the world: 1. 1 million students (70% of them are girls) are enrolled at present in 37,000 BRAC schools that provide four years of non formal primary education. So far, almost 5 million children have already graduated from primary school and got their basic education from these schools and close to 95% enrol to secondary schools.
Education Programme - Primary School Operations Primary Schools Currently running24,398 Current Students0. 75 mil Graduates4. 95 mil Cost per Child per YearUSD 32 Schools for Indigenous Children2,441 Pre-Primary Schools Currently Running13,054 Current Students0. 36 mil Graduates4. 33 mil The Five Year Plan(s) According to the Report of Bangladesh Education Commission of 1974, the number of adult men and women illiterates in the country at the time of independence was 35 million. The Report recommended adoption of non-formal and mass education programmes for them.
Accordingly, the First Five-Year Plan (1973-78) launched a massive functional literacy programme through non-formal education and allocated Tk 400 million for this subsector. The Second Five-Year Plan (1980-85) attached high priority to eradication of mass illiteracy. In the Third Five-Year Plan (1985-90) the programme was revived with an allocation of Tk 250 million and a modest target of making 2. 4 million adults literate by June 1990. Information from the office of the Integrated Non-Formal Education (INFE) project (former MEP Office) show that only 27 upazilas were covered in this project out of a target of 71 upazilas.
A total of 291,600 adults were made literate in five years. In the Fourth Five-Year Plan (1990-95) Tk 235. 70 million was allocated. During the Plan period MEP was continued as a spillover under the project and total of 367,660 adult illiterates of 11-45 years age were made literate. The programme was implemented in 68 thanas of the country. Moreover, under the aegis of the district administration a programme named Total Literacy Movement (TLM) was started in 1995 in Lalmonirhat and Bhola districts. It was later extended to 15 other districts. Preparatory work is now under way to extend TLM to 22 more districts.
The Fifth Five-Year Plan (1997-2002) adopted an ambitious objective to achieve the goal of Education for All (EFA) by the end of Plan period 2002. The major objectives are to increase gross enrolment in primary schools to 110 percent (net 95%) with particular emphasis on enrolment of girls and on increasing completion rate of primary education to at least 75 percent by the year 2002. The Fifth Plan also set up some important objectives of mass education consistent with the overall objectives of achieving the goal of EFA and fulfilling the educational needs of 30 million adult illiterates.
These objectives are to increase literacy rate of adults (15 years and above) to 80% by the year 2002, to empower learners with technical skills, entrepreneurial traits and leadership skills, to empower skills related to literacy, numeracy and communication, to reduce gender gap in literacy rates in both rural and urban areas, and to develop continuing education programme for neo-literates.
BASIC EDUCATION STATISTICS, 2010 Number of Institution, Enrolment and Teacher in Post-Primary and Primary by management and sex, 2010 Type of SchoolManage.
mentInstitutionTeacherStudentIndicators TotalTotalFem. % FemTotalGirl% GirlTSRSPITPI Primary School EducationPublic3767218145510543158. 109885697506116551. 20542625 Private450021995026812834. 157018849347542149. 52351564 Total8267438095717355945. 5616904546853658650. 50442045 Secondary School EducationPrivate187232107804791722. 737240497387315753. 493438711 Public3177231241733. 4322527710651947. 283171123 Total190402180115033423. 097465774397967653. 313439211 College EducationPrivate3068773201626521. 04150516671642347. 601949125 Public2569900231023. 3388910935852340. 3290347339.
Total3324872201857521. 302394275107494644. 902772026 Madrasah EducationPublic310400. 0060642313. 8158202135 Private93581077431091110. 132194863116742753. 192023512 TOTAL93611078471091110. 122200927116765853. 052023512 University EducationPublic319163165618. 072629418198831. 18298482296 Private515710170129. 792009394912524. 45353940112 Total8214873335722. 5746388013111328. 26315657181 Technical & Vocational EduPublic251401554213. 501338971799913. 443353316 Private259711286270823. 993140307052122. 46281214 Total284822455461120. 5344792710258122. 90201578 ProfessionalPublic70179548627.
0819120935748. 941127326 Private214312345014. 41508231451628. 561623715 Total284491893619. 03699432387334. 131424617 Teacher EducationPublic90103927526. 47176631005856. 941719612 Private9283025530. 728613243728. 2910949 Total182186953028. 36262761249547. 551414410 All (Post-primary)Public101833247768623. 12155407158467537. 6247152733 Private341034167928020719. 2411514931589360651. 182833812 Total351214500398789319. 5313069002647828149. 572937213 All (Primary + Post-primary)Public3869021470211311752. 6911439768564584049. 35532966 Private7910561629414833524. 0718533780936902750. 55302348
Total11779583099626145231. 46299735481501486750. 09362547 COMPARISON OF EDUCATION AID AND SPENDING OVER THE PERIOD 1980-2008 Figure 5 shows the increasing gap between education aid and government spending. The 1980s illustrate the small gap between aid and spending, which began to increase over time. From 2006 onwards, education aid began to decline and government spending increased. This reflects the relatively low and declining proportion of aid in total education spending. ? TOTAL PRIMARY STUDENT ENROLMENT (1985-2005) Fiscal Year Primary student enrolment (millions) 1985 10. 08 1986 10.
78 1987 11. 26 1988 11. 76 1989 11. 77 1990 12. 34 1991 13. 03 1992 13. 72 1993 14. 2 1994 15. 19 1995 16. 43 1996 17. 07 1997 17. 32 1998 17. 63 1999 19. 61 2000 17. 67 2001 17. 66 2002 17. 56 2003 18. 43 2004 17. 95 2005 16. 23 PRIMARY ENROLMENT Source: Ministry of Education, Bangladesh PROGRESS IN PRIMARY SCHOOL ENROLLMENT RATE SINCE 2000 One of the key EFA goals is to ensure gender parity in education by 2015 – Unlike most South Asian neighboring countries, Bangladesh has already achieved gender parity in primary and secondary education. The GER and NER for girls have increased from 87.
7 percent and 63. 9 percent to about 88. 4 percent and 67. 4 percent respectively within 2000-05. About 16. 2 million students are currently enrolled in primary schools in Bangladesh, of which about 8 million are girls In an effort to promote the education of the poor, the GoB has been engaged over the past ten years into demand side interventions such as the Food for Education Program (FFE) and the primary stipend program.
According to HIES 2005, Bangladesh is estimated to have about 41. 5 million people aged 15 or more who are illiterate.
Considering the extent of poverty and the prevailing high illiteracy rate (about 54 percent in 2000), the GoB gives high priority to non-formal education through basic and post-literacy programs and continuing education. The government also recognizes that the literacy and numeracy skills can help improve the income and welfare status of the poor. Literacy and social mobilization programs have contributed to raising the national literacy rate from 45. 6% to 52. 7% between 2000 and 2005. Bangladesh is likely to meet the EFA target of a 50 percent increase in adult literacy by 2015 if the annual growth rate of literacy rate exceeds 4 percent.
The literacy and social mobilization programs are likely to have contributed to raising the national literacy rate from 45. 6 percent to 52. 7 percent between 2000 and 2005 (cf. HIES 2000 & 2005). In particular female literacy rate has gone up by almost 9 percentage points compared to male literacy rate which only records a 5 percentage point increase. Furthermore, the number of illiterates aged 15 to 30 has decreased from about 15 million to 11. 8 million between 2000 and 2005. Although Rural areas appear to be still lagging behind urban areas.
Bangladesh sustains one of the largest primary education systems in the world with as many as 80,401 primary institutions of 10 different kinds namely, GPS, RNGPS, NRNGPS, experimental schools, community schools, kindergartens, NGO schools, ebtedaee madrashas, primary sections of high madrashas, primary sections of high schools. According to the School Survey Report 2008, GPS, RNGPS, Experimental and community schools constitute 75% of the total institutions. These four categories of institutions are providing primary education to 81.9% of the total primary school enrolled children of over 16. 3 million. The proportions of boys and girls enrolled at the primary level are 49. 3% and 50. 7% respectively. A total of 364494 teachers are engaged in primary teaching in all the ten categories of institutions comprising 40. 4% female and 59. 6% male. The proportion of female teachers in GPS, RNGPS, PTI and community schools is 50. 2%, 32. 2%, 39. 0% and 73. 6% respectively and the pupilteacher ratio is 51. 4, 44. 7, 48. 1 and 43. 35 respectively. NGOs in the country have been making significant contribution to the education sector.
About 500 NGOs are currently running 48,855 learning centers for providing primary education to 10,24,495 females and 6,06,802 males in the country (CAMPE, 2007). A total of 518 NGOs have been engaged in education programs of which more than 450 have adult literacy programs integrated into NFE. The NGOs are providing adult education to 1,19,277 females and 26,193 males through 6,574 learning centers (CAMPE, 2007). However, some of the major NGOs in the country offering adult education are BRAC, Proshika, Dhaka Ahsania Mission, FIVDB, Action Aid, Swanirvar Bangladesh.
BRAC has been the largest NGO in the country operating the largest non-formal education program. It runs 34000 NFPE schools serving 1. 02 million un-enrolled and drop out children of the marginal families. RELATE WITH MDG The Government of Bangladesh has made commitment in the World Education Forum held at Dakar, Senegal in April 2000, towards achievement of Education for All goals and every citizen by the year 2015. The World Education Forum adopted six major goals for education, two of which also became Millennium Development Goals later in the same year.
The Dakar goals covered the attainment of Universal Primary Education (UPE) and gender equality, improving literacy and educational quality, and increasing life-skills and early childhood education programs, and were to be achieved within 15 years (EFA Global Monitoring Report, 2005:28) However, the gender goal was judged to be particularly urgent – requiring the achievement of parity in enrolments for girls and boys at primary and secondary levels by 2005, and of full equality throughout education by 2015.
The Millennium declaration of the United Nations adopted on 8 September 2000 by all member states in the millennium Summit gave birth to eight goals to be achieved by 2015 (UN, 2005:3). Besides the eight goals, there are 18 targets and 48 indicators in the MDGs. All these Aaspects are pertinent to combat poverty, hunger, illiteracy, diseases, inequality between man and woman, infant mortality, maternal mortality, environmental degradation and improving global partnership for development.
The second Goal has designated universal primary education that emphasizes the implicit objective of equal education for boys and girls alike and to be able to complete a full course of primary schooling. Bangladesh is committed to achieve the MDGs and the goals are included in the countries first Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper. By May 2005, the government developed Unlocking the Potential: National Strategy for Accelerated Poverty Reduction (PRSP).
It takes a rights-based approach and identifies four strategic objectives: creating opportunity towards realizing the full potential of children i. e. access to health, nutrition, education, water and sanitation; ensuring the best interests of children in national, social, family and personal situations i. e. empowerment of children; ensuring safety and security at home and in the public space i. e. protection against abuse, exploitation and violence and establishing and protecting children’s rights i. e. social inclusion, decent work and livelihood.
PRSP goal is to introduce and strengthen early childhood and pre-school education; introduce a unified and common primary education opportunity for all children; improve quality of primary education; 100% enrolment, and raise all other targets to achieve quality and completion in primary education; increase literacy rate to 80% and expand the scope of NFE beyond the literacy to reach out to the extreme poor and in remote areas (PRSP, 2005:50-51). In summing up the discussion it can be said that Bangladesh has been improving in primary education significantly since independence.
Though primary education has been given priority from the emergence of the country but some dramatic changes has been noticed in the 1990s. This decade saw a renewed dedication to the expansion of primary education, and consequently primary education experienced significant enhancement during the period. In 1990, in a major policy direction Bangladesh made commitment to international compliance and as a result WCEFA came into being. Similar major international initiatives were taken in 2000.
World Education Forum at Dakar and the UN Millennium conference at New York, fixed various targets and goals, named as MDGs. As a signatory country, Bangladesh is now committed to attain these targets by 2015. Currently primary education in Bangladesh is on target of achieving the second MDGs phase and it is a matter of concern Number of Students Enrolled in Primary Schools and Percentage of Boys and Girls *percentage of boys and girls students in primary schiools (1991-2009)
GPS- Government Primary School, RNGPS- Registered Non Government Primary School, NGPS- Non Government Primary School, EXP- PTI attached Experimental School, KG- Kinder Garden, HSAPS- High School Attached Primary Schools, HMAPS- High Madrasa Attached Primary School, * SATT - Sattilite Schools which are closed from 2004 . CHALLENGES •Quality of teachers : Teacher’s poor academic quality and low competency is a serious problem for student’s educational attainment. Rahman attempted to establish a profile of the primary school teachers by interviewing some 500 teachers.
He found that most of the teachers have only the SSC/HSC examination in the third division (Rahman, 1986:32). This poor quality of teacher’s academic competencies results in ineffective teaching. •Fund : Lack of funding is a big problem. The government and donors try to invest more in education sector to achieve the goals of education for all. •Quality of education : Bangladesh has a significant progress in achieving some goals of education for all but it needs to focus on the quality of education and early childhood development. •Coaching centers : some coaching centers are very much expensive.
It helps to decrease child’s creativity because students found readymade notes there and they don’t need to work for it. •Students politics : when students participate in politics, they can not concentrate their studies. They will very much busy with political activities rather than their study because they are given money to do this. •Lack of consistency: Dhaka, Jan 2 (BDNEWS) – Countries leading educationists Monday demanded cancellation of the proposed 'unified education', which was postponed earlier, and introduction of a genuine unified education based on equality, and scientific and secular thinking at secondary level.
Bangladesh's education system has deeply entrenched links to the English language over many centuries. This has made English the de facto second language.
What's more important though, English is the primary language of trade and commerce here, which makes Bangladesh a very attractive destination for software and IT services off shoring. And now the government also has been taking some steps for the betterment of the educational system of Bangladesh. People are also concerned now unlike the previous dates. The people and the young generations should come forward along with the government on this purpose. We should remember one thing that we need to change for the development.
Bangladesh and Education Essay. (2016, Oct 15). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/bangladesh-and-education-essay
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