All money raised in memory of Myles will support Concern’s Amader School Project in Bangladesh

Education in Bangladesh

Bangladesh’s primary education system is one of the largest centralized systems of primary education in the world. There are 80,000 primary schools for over 17 million children. One in five children does not enrol and 56% do not benefit from a full cycle of primary education (Millennium Development Goals: Bangladesh Progress Report, February 2005).  The poorest children have a 30% less chance of even being enrolled and a 5-fold increased chance of dropping out compared to children from well-off families. Results from a national survey showed that fully 1/3 of children who do complete the full primary cycle remain semi- or non-literate (Education Watch, 2004). The government does not currently allow NGOs to train teachers in government (formal) primary schools.

Concern Initiative

The Community Participation in Education Action Research project was implemented in 30 remote, low performing primary schools with poorly functioning SMCs in the district of Shariatpur. The goal was to find ways to improve access to and quality of education for the poorest children. The project was built on existing foundations from the significant government and NGO investment in primary education in Bangladesh. It focused on achieving its objectives through capacity building of the SMCs with no material input other than training. Concern’s role was that of facilitator.

This initiative was a successful first step with most outputs exceeding expectations in terms of improving both quality and access for extremely poor children despite initial skepticism by SMC members about being able to improve the school without government funding and by upazilla education officers about the ability of SMC members to manage the school. This project demonstrates that there is enormous untapped potential in the communities for bringing significant improvements to primary schools. 
School Management Committees were successful in mobilizing the communities. Strong relationships were built with upazilla education officers, mothers, youth and teachers, resulting in increased demand for quality education. Innovation was evident in the pictorial training modules and activities developed to reach non-literate SMC members and non-literate mothers. Training modules were developed to facilitate replication and expansion. Other achievements included:

• Enrolling 206 of the 363 out-of-school children over the age of six.
• An average of 6% increase in attendance for all 30 schools from 2004 to 2005.
• Reallocation of stipends and free learning materials to poorest in 20 of 30 schools.
• Increase in completion rate for grade 5 students from 43% to 50.5% from 2004 to 2005.
• Of 15 project schools assessed by government, 8 moved to a higher level from 2003 to 2005.
• An average of 6% increase in grade 1 exam scores from 2004 to 2005.
• The number of female SMC members increased from 17 (15 are compulsory) to 29 in 15 SMCs from 2003 to 2005. Similar results are expected for the other 15 SMCs in 2006.

Next Steps:

Under the government initiative, the District education office is expected to be the focal point for primary education by supporting school planning, school management, school monitoring and evaluation for quality measured by attendance, enrolment, attainment of minimum standards, etc. It is also charged with providing professional development for teachers, and training and support for SMC members. That support includes helping the School Management Committee to develop the School Level Improvement Plans, which themselves will be incorporated into the District Primary Education Plans. For this reason, we will also explore the possibility of working directly with District education officers, rather than School Management Committees.

Goal:

To contribute to pragmatic approaches to improve access to and quality of formal primary education in Bangladesh ensuring full participation of the poorest children.

Purpose:

To develop an approach that strengthens quality and increases access for participation of the poorest sectors of the population, with a focus on mothers, by developing the capacity of the School Management Committees / or District Education Officers for all 113 formal primary schools in the two through partner NGOs.

Activities:

• Continue to monitor and develop the 30 School Management Committees including focusing on addressing obstacles for the 6 slow advancing School Management Committees through more advanced School Management Committees
• Focus on teaching School Management Committees their roles and responsibilities and classroom observation skills (through existing training modules);
• Facilitate implementation of Open School Day by School Management Committees (through existing training module);
• Work with School Management Committees on the development of the 5-year detailed School Level improvement Plans following the government guidelines including the interactive, bottom-up approach and leading to application for funding for prioritized activities to improve access and quality of education;
• Facilitate development of School Management Committees forum to allow School Management Committees to support one another;
  Explore working directly with Upazilla Education Officers rather than with School Management Committees
• Advocate with government at central level for a stronger link to the government working group responsible for development of school and upazilla level plans.