Third and Fourth Periodic Report on CRC - Unicef

<strong>Third</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Fourth</strong> <strong>Periodic</strong> <strong>Report</strong>
below-poverty level families which account for about 40 percent, remain excluded from primary education.
Although primary education is officially free <strong>and</strong> universal, there are other direct costs i.e., admission fee,
examination fee, day observation fee, peon fee, utility fees etc. Besides, there are incidental costs, e.g.
transport, dress etc.
Table 7.2: Gross Enrolment Status by Poverty <strong>and</strong> Location, 2000 (% of age cohort)
Group Urban Rural National
Boys Girls Total Boys Girls Total Boys Girls Total
Poor 81. 2 88. 8 84. 9 82. 1 87. 3 84. 6 82. 0 87. 5 84. 6
Non-poor 104. 8 97. 3 101. 1 99. 1 101. 8 100. 4 100. 3 100. 8 100. 5
Total 93. 5 93. 3 93. 4 88. 6 92. 7 92. 7 90. 6 92. 8 91. 1
Source: World Bank: 2002 World Development Indicators, Washington D.C <strong>and</strong> Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics: Population Census
2001, Preliminary <strong>Report</strong>, Dhaka.
The Government is committed to achieve total enrolment by 2015 with maintaining quality. The Government
under the multi year <strong>and</strong> multi component PEDP-II has adopted a programme approach to address the
concerns of primary education with many-fold focus: increasing number of teachers, class room <strong>and</strong>
infrastructure; improving class room environment; enhancing training <strong>and</strong> other incentives for teacher as well as
systemizing teacher recruit procedure <strong>and</strong> strengthening management practices in the schools.
One of the important initiatives of the State Party is development of Grade-I level books in two tribal languages,
namely Murma <strong>and</strong> Bom, in cooperation with a national NGO. As a pilot project, local languages would be the
medium of instructions for Grade-I students of these tribal groups in B<strong>and</strong>arban district in CHT from next
academic session (2008). Government has already decided to exp<strong>and</strong> the programme incorporating other tribal
languages by phases. Research to this effect is being conducted
7.2.4 Non-formal education
The Government has been implementing massive Non-formal Education (NFE) programme since 1990s,
focusing on basic literacy in achieving universal coverage. The Bureau of Non-Formal Education (BNFE) was
established by the Government during the <strong>Report</strong>ing period, <strong>and</strong> a national non-formal education policy
framework has been prepared <strong>and</strong> approved in January 2006.
The Government <strong>and</strong> over a thous<strong>and</strong> NGOs, a large number of CBOs <strong>and</strong> religious institutions provide nonformal
education to children. There are several target groups for non-formal approach, i.e. (a) early child
education; (b) basic literacy to targeted groups; (c) adult literacy for male <strong>and</strong> females; (d) continuing education
for neo-literates <strong>and</strong> (e) skill development for income generation, promotion of quality of life <strong>and</strong> living <strong>and</strong>
creating civic awareness.
The non-formal education that NGOs have generally provided incorporates basic literacy <strong>and</strong> numeracy for the
dropouts or the disadvantaged <strong>and</strong> adolescents. Some large NGOs have progressed to provide core primary
education besides the learning materials <strong>and</strong> pedagogy they use as supplementary learning materials. The
adolescent programme is designed to give the dropouts <strong>and</strong> disadvantaged a second programme. As
mentioned earlier, the cooperation between NGO, CBO <strong>and</strong> Government has been strengthened to implement
<strong>and</strong> promote the non-formal educational activities. Under an agreement between the MoPME <strong>and</strong> BRAC, the
latter has been operating around 25,000 non-formal schools.
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