The New Nation - Internet Edition

BSS, Rajshahi

The government has been implementing a special education programme for the urban working children to making them self-reliant in respective fields.

The main objective of the five-year programme titled "Basic Education for the Urban Working Children" is to ensure their access to various nation-building activities in all key areas by the year 2011.

A non-government organisation, Assistance for Slum Dwellers (ASD), has been implementing the programme at the grassroots level on behalf of the Non Formal Education Bureau (NFEB) under the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education. UNICEF, Swedish SIDA and Canadian CIDA are jointly extending financial supports for implementing the Taka 206-crore project in the country's six divisional cities including Rajshahi.

It is being executed through four major components like basic quality education; livelihood skilled education; advocacy, social mobilisation, programme communication and skill enhancement and experience sharing. Talking to BSS here on Sunday, Project Coordinator of ASD Hasibul Hassan said 200,000 of 10-14 age group working children, 60 percent of them girls, would be given quality and vocational education in 8,000 learning centres under the project.

Of them, 20,000 children aged 13-plus years would enjoy the education facilities of livelihood skill development like photography, tailoring, handicrafts, leather industry, job searching, marketing and business. The learners are being selected on the basis of base-line survey and mapping methods.

The project has a provision for arranging advocacy at local and national levels aimed at protecting the children from health hazardous working atmosphere along with formulating education, social and economic policy in favour of the working children and their families.

Apart from this, Hasibul Hassan said, awareness would be created at all levels to child labour, particularly from the risky sectors, in phases under the project.