Bangladesh: Education For All
MDGs & Beyond | Can Bangladesh Achieve EFA? | Recommendations | Resources Education for All
October 1, 2008 - Bangladesh has made tremendous progress towards increasing both primary and secondary school enrollment. This progress has been achieved in spite of high poverty and its vulnerability to natural calamities. The Government of Bangladesh has recognized that primary education is critical to reduce poverty. Public spending has continued to give priority to education. Total spending on education sector is about 2.2 percent of GDP.
MDGs and Beyond
Bangladesh has already achieved one of the key Millennium Development Goals (MDG) - gender parity in primary and secondary schooling. Bangladesh’s success in female secondary school education is now well established and the success has brought a revolution to women’s status in the society.
Can Bangladesh achieve universal primary education?
Education for All (EFA) is an international commitment that called for all children to be able to complete primary school. EFA was subsequently adopted as the MDG for Achieving universal primary education.
The Bangladesh Government’s National Plan of Action for Education for All (EFA) subscribed to all the EFA goals of making education compulsory, accessible and inclusive by 2015.
While the country made considerable progress in the last decade, primary education still faces a number of serious challenges. Bangladesh is unlikely to achieve universal primary enrollment and completion by 2015, if the current trends in access and completion do not improve. Progress has been slower than what would be required to achieve universal access and completion as well improved school quality.
A recently released World Bank report, “Education for All in Bangladesh - Where does Bangladesh stand in achieving the EFA Goals by 2015?,” discusses some of the key challenges faced by Bangladesh in achieving the EFA goals and propose policy recommendations that could help towards meeting the goals by 2015.
Issues and Policy Recommendations
Access to Schooling for the Disadvantaged Groups
A more progressive redistribution of government primary education spending to the children from poorest and disadvantaged groups and a better targeting of the primary stipend program to the poorest students, are likely to help Bangladesh achieve its EFA targets.
Metropolitan Areas
The pervasive poverty in Metropolitan areas and the lack of access to education for many children, including those from indigenous groups, signal the pressing need to tailor the stipend program to the most needy and meritorious students.
Quality of Primary Schooling
Improving the overall quality of schooling is a pressing task in order to substantially raise enrollment and help more children complete primary school with the appropriate skills in literacy and numeracy.
- Improve Facilities
Despite decades of infrastructure development, a large number of classrooms and local administrative facilities need to be repaired and/or renovated.
- Improve Teacher Quality and Incentive
Hiring local teachers and providing opportunities for training and professional career growth is critical. Further, building an internal incentive structure within the school system to reward performing teachers is likely to be sustainable.
- Improving Governance in the Bangladesh Education System
Transparency teacher recruitment, teacher training and deployment procedures would also be crucial in improving the overall governance of the education system.
- Curriculum and Textbooks
Improving the quality of textbooks and transparency in the distribution of textbooks is likely to help the learning environment.
- Decentralize the school system
Developing information campaigns on the delivery of services and resources from the Central Government to local schools to empower local communities would be instrumental in improving the quality of schooling and learning outcomes.
Additional Resources
- Bangladesh Education Brief
Large strides towards universal primary enrolment for both girls and boys has been taken. (Read More »)
- Bangladesh: Development Data
A wide range of social and economic measures on Bangladesh, including links to the World Bank's most important online development databases. (Read More »)
- Bangladesh: Analysis and Research
Compilation of all the World Bank's publications on Bangladesh, with 'search' options and links to analysis and research. (Read More »)
- World Bank Program in Bangladesh
Launching pad to all information on World Bank activities in Bangladesh.(Read More »)
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