The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

The government has initiated to distribute new books of all subjects from the next year among the primary level students where currently 50 per cent books are distributed by re-circling, said Rasheda K Chowdhury, Adviser Ministry of Primary Education and Women, Child and cultural affairs to the caretaker government.

She made this comments at the launching ceremony of "Asia-South Pacific Education Watch Report" organised by Campaign For Popular Education (CAMPE) at LGED auditorium yesterday.

The Government has planned to set up at least one disabled school at every district with a view to enlightening them as the disabled are the part of the society and they have the right to learn. Some more schools would be set up in public-private partnership as the students and guardians faces the shortage of quality schools in the rural areas. It is a major responsibility of the government to provide education to all to achieve the goal of 2015, she added.

The CAMPE initiated to sketch a report titled "Education Watch" in 1999 to publish the entire development of the education sector. This initiative spread out to the other countries of Asia and South-Pacific region and the policy makers of these countries showed keen interest to publish report in their respective countries. Ten countries of this region had already drafted the report.

The Bangladesh report is a status report in relation to the level and pattern of financing of primary and secondary education in Bangladesh by types and location of institutions and in relation to the economic condition of students' families.

The public funding per student in government school at primary level is Tk 138 per month and at secondary level is Tk318. this is too much low. But the expenditure of primary and secondary education requires more.

the report showed that the quality of primary and secondary education is not satisfactory and the drop out rate of students due to financial crisis is increasing day by day.

The report proposals: increasing public expenditure on primary and secondary education, improving the quality of education in both primary and secondary level, providing special support to the students coming from the unprivileged families, raising awareness among the masses about the importance of education and so on.

The programme was presided over by Kazi Fazlur Rahman, Former Adviser to the Caretaker Government while Tasneem Athar, Deputy Director of CAMPE; Rene Raya, lead policy analyst of Asia Pacific Bureau of Adult Education; Raquel D Castillo, Campaign Coordinator of Real World Strategies for Education for All, were present at the launching ceremony.