Cover(final) - United Nations Girls' Education Initiative

COUNTRY REPORT CARDS 13
Two of every three girls in Bangladesh are
married below the age of 18 years. 31 While the
nation has made spectacular strides in the
nineties to increase primary enrolments and
attain gender parity, most women are still
unable to achieve their full educational potential.
The primary education system has expanded
considerably, but its quality and accountability
are weak. Quality deficits range from the lack
of trained teachers to the widespread use of
corporal punishment. The deprivation of preprimary
education to 91 per cent of children,
both boys and girls, also implies that they enrol
unprepared into primary education and are more
likely to drop out − a rate which currently stands
at 32 per cent. 32
The Female Secondary Stipend Programme has
been a path-breaker to attract and retain girls
in schools and attain gender parity. 33 However,
gender parity per se often proves to be an
illusion as it is attributable to the increased
dropout of boys rather than enhancement in
girls’ participation at the secondary level.
There is undoubtedly a need for many more
complementary interventions to enrol and
retain the 57 per cent of girls who do not have
access to secondary education. Providing
all children with nutritious, cooked school
meals could potentially make a huge impact
not only to serve as an incentive for poor
families to enrol both boys and girls, but
also to potentially address widespread
malnutrition and improve classroom
learning achievements.
Despite being a low-income country, over the
decades Bangladesh has shown substantial
political will to put girls’ education at the
forefront of national education development.
While enrolments in primary education have
substantially improved, pre-primary and
secondary education and women’s literacy are
in urgent need of attention.
31
DHS (2009). Declines in fertility and childhood mortality: Good news from the 2007 Bangladesh DHS. http://
www.measuredhs.com/pr1/post.cfm?id=47EAC2CB-5056-9F36-DC9B0F805D5CE50F (last retrieved November 2008).
32
UNESCO (2008). EFA Global Monitoring Report 2009, Overcoming Inequality: Why Governance Matters. Paris and Oxford.
33
JBIC (2002). Bangladesh: Education Sector Overview. Japan Bank of International Cooperation Sector Study, March.