RURAL BANGLADESH - PreventionWeb

Socioeconomic Profiles of WFP Operational Areas and Beneficiaries
1.3 EDUCATION
Fewer than half of the adults in the entire survey area are literate. Approximately 15 percent
of all adults can read and write or have completed preparatory education; another 16 percent
have completed their primary education. The study, however, revealed a regional dimension
to illiteracy. Literacy rates are lowest in the haor and char zones, where 56 and 55 percent of
the adult population respectively are unable to read or write. On the other hand, more than
half of the adult population living in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, the Coastal zone and
Northwest region have literacy skills. Approximately 57 percent of females and 47 percent
of males can neither read nor write -- a difference that is statistically significant. These
results are comparable to the national level results reported by UNICEF (2000-2004).
Among household heads, the difference is even more significant; approximately three out of
every four female household heads are illiterate.
The regional variation in grade achievement is significant. Approximately 17 percent of
adults in the Drought and Northwest regions have completed their primary education. More
than seven percent of the adults living in the Chittagong Hill Tracts and Northwest region
have completed their higher secondary education, compared to four other regions where the
completion rate is not more than 5.5 percent. Similarly, approximately six percent of adults
in the Northwest region have obtained university degrees while only three percent of adults
in the Coastal zone reported the same level of education. Educational achievement appears
to be highest in the Northwest.
Figure 6 reveals a significant difference in literacy status and access to primary and
secondary education by sex across the six regions. Access to education for girl students is
significantly lower in Chittagong Hill Tracts compared to the other five study regions.
Although the gender gap in terms of primary school attendance is close to zero in all of the
other five regions – attendance rates for girls are in fact higher than boys at the primary
school level in three of the regions – the gender gap has been significantly large (more than
six percent) in the CHT. Socioeconomic factors as well as prevailing attitudes towards girls’
education discourage girls from attending school. In the CHT, where distances from schools
tend to be greater than in other regions of the country, parents do not feel secure sending
their girls to a school located away from the village.
Figure 6: Illiteracy, Primary and Secondary Education by Region by Sex
% of adult
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Illiteracy by Region by Sex
CHT Coastal Drought N/W Char Haor
WFP priority region
32
Male
Female