Human Rights and Democracy Partnership
Project Partners
IDEA Onlus- International Development and Education Action
Project Background
Education is the backbone of any nation. Without education, it is difficult for anyone, anywhere, to make the best of their abilities and prosper in life. But in Bangladesh the literacy rate is extremely poor. Most adults in rural villages are illiterate and thus live in an environment, which for them must be like living in darkness.
Poverty as a complex phenomenon caused and reinforced by a number of factors e.g. lack of access to resources and socio-political process. This represents a move away from a predominantly economic focus and recognition of interrelated and reinforcing forces of education, economic, social, cultural, political and other factors. On the other words, poverty is the inability to provide minimum nutrition, health, education, shelter, security, leisure and other aspects of life.
Access to education is, one of the most fundamental rights of any person, living in any country in the world. The Constitution of the Peoples Republic of Bangladesh (in Article 17) suggests that Bangladesh needs to initiate a need based compulsory and free education with necessary legal basement. The Constitution offers a uniform, mass oriented and universal system of education, extending free and compulsory education to all children. Education is a fundamental human right for all children. It has been more than a decade since the United Nations declared the “Education for All” in 1990; Bangladesh government also conforms fully to the Education For All (EFA) objectives, the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and international declarations. Article 17 of the Bangladesh Constitution provides that all children between the ages of six and ten years receive a basic education free of charge.
It is estimated that, out of a net enrolment rate of 72 percent, 60 percent attend classes regularly. Out of this 60 percent, only 45 percent go on to complete five years of primary education. Of these, almost half leave without learning to read or write. In effect, out of 100 children enrolled into primary school (at the appropriate school going age), poor attendance and high drop-out mean that only 20 complete the whole five years, and as few as ten may be able read and write. (An alternative report to UNCRC). This is the picture of primary education sector, in higher education sector the percentage of enrolment is low and number of dropout is very high.
Poverty-hunger-child works are intimately related to dropout and why an attempt at improving quality of education has failed. Many other reasons have been identified but they will always remain secondary reasons, the primary being lack of food. Incidentally, the right to food is a basic human right which more than 40% of the population are denied.
There is another issue to be considered. Education in a poor country like Bangladesh involves a number of private costs, some explicit. BIDS (Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies) in its survey of institutions found that a significant percent of pupil’s are involved in child labour also devoted to 2/3 hours on income earning activities outside his/her home. In our study found that non-school going working children worked from 8am to 8pm. The costs for exercise book, pen, uniform, transport and other materials for their ‘free school’ come to almost 800tk to 2,500tk per month.
Project Description
BS works for the integral development of the whole person, which includes education and formation of children and youth, especially those in need. According to the demand and needs of education, BS provides education support to the underprivileged students.
In the course of its work over many years, BS has observed that the literacy rate among the target community is even lower than that of the rural poor as a whole. The cause of this is due to the dropout rate.
Most children drop out in the first 2 years. Not only are the first two years the most difficult for the children, but there is lack of motivation and encouragement by the parents and their communities, to ensure that the children keep going to school. The tradition has always been for children to be put to work, just as soon as they are big enough. Anything that prevents this, such as regular attendance at school, is viewed with hostility and suspicion by parents.
This situation applied to the villages surrounding BS working area, and, initially, parents had to be motivated to send their children to the School. This problem, however, was much more acute in the rural villages. In order to alleviate the rural problem, BS decided on a two pronged approach: first, to provide basic support to students by education, nutrition materials & health support, so that the children will encourage get to school. Secondly, to motivate the parents and the communities by awareness sessions, in which they tried to instil the long-term benefits of having children, who could read and write.
The Project was established in 2009, and the basic purpose of the Education for All is to eliminate illiteracy from among those who are poor and in the lowest castes in society, and to radiate education to them.
The Education for All project is determined to show light to those who are in darkness, through ignorance.
Project Objectives
To places special emphasis on helping to provide children with the chance to go to school and learn.
Creating equal education opportunities for people living in distance/remote areas and under development areas.
To increase enrolment of students in the school.
To help increase basic education competencies among vulnerable and excluded children.
To motivate the guardians about health, hygiene & saving issues in order to make them awareness and self-reliance for the future.
To contribute to government efforts to raise the national rate of literacy.
Project Duration & Target Student
Till December 2012, BS intends to provide the Sponsorship support to 140 students.
Project Beneficiaries & Area
The underprivileged students & the community are the targeted beneficiaries of Jessore area.
Project issue/opportunity
To ensure the school attendance & scholastic development; each enrolled student receives the following supplies through the year;
Nutrition Materials- for daily nutrition student receive Rice, Potato, Soybean Oil, Salt etc.
Education Materials- for fulfilling the fundamental requirements of the study; student receive Uniform, School Bag, Shoe, Umbrella, Copy Books, Lantern, Pencil, Pen, Sharpener, Eraser etc.
Hygiene Materials- for cleanliness & hygiene student receive the Body Soap & Washing Soap.
Tuition Support- to meet up the extra cost of the study.
Medical Check-up- regular medical check-up support for healthy living and well being.
Also, following activities are going on to involve the parents & community for the project betterment;
Tuition Support: To develop the scholastic improvement tuition support are providing to students.
Guardian’s Meeting: To follow-up student progress at home guardian’s meetings are regularly arranged. The guardians meetings are an effective and valuable way of changing the social status of the villagers. Also help to interact between the parents-children with the project.
Awareness & Motivation Sessions: To aware and motivate the community people and children regarding the cleanliness, health & hygiene, kitchen/yard gardening, dangers of early marriage, malnutrition and other issues meetings are also conduct regular basis.
School Visits: To follow-up the attendance in school and check the progress of the study; community motivator visiting the schools regularly.
Project Impact and Sustainability
Education is the vital factor for the future success of Bangladesh. However, more than 45% of children drop out of primary schooling before reaching Class 5. BS has helped to reduce that dropout rate by providing education, nutrition & hygiene materials and awareness & motivation session to the 140 students and parents.
The BS Pre-primary School are successfully giving education to more than 42 students in the targeted community. It is vital that these children continue their education without interruption.
The qualities of the education in rural schools are not in up to the mark. The after school tuition support will help to understanding the daily class lessons and preparing the home work accordingly. It will help also the daily school attendance rate.
The parents of the student have been encouraged and motivated by the staff of BS to send their children to school. This is a very positive change in the prevailing culture and attitudes, in which children have been put out to work as soon as they are big enough.
The parents are now involved in the education of their children and participate with the community motivator in evaluating their education.
A spin-off of the involvement of the parents is the opportunity it gives for awareness sessions and training in practical aspects of healthy living, such as hygiene and nutrition. BS policy is to widen education to encompass the quality of the children’s and the families’ lives.
The students are deliberately selected from the poorest, the most neglected and the most disadvantaged families in the community.
Apart from the intrinsic value of the education for all project given, the children are developed personally by the other things that they experience by the activities, like the benefits of hygiene and cleanliness, the healthiness of good nutrition and the evils of superstition. In turn, the children pass this on to their parents, thus supplementing the awareness training, which the CM gives to the parents.
The education for all project, which BS offers to many children over a very small area, have a valuable effect in improving the quality of life – not only for the children themselves, but also for their families and the community as a whole. Education is combined with social training – a first time for most people.
Contact for more information
Omar Ansari Shourove
Co-ordinator
Cell: +88 017 15684374; E-mail: Shourove@gmail.com
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