Although Bangladesh has made huge progress in terms of ensuring access to education for all, the lack of quality is causing the loss of four and a half years in learning, for students in their first 11 years of schooling.
The observation was made at a launching ceremony for the “World Development Report 2018: Learning to Realize Education’s Promise,” organized by the World Bank at Hotel Le Meridien on Wednesday.
World Bank Group Practice Manager for Global Practice Education, Cristian Aedo, said in his presentation that ensuring access to “schooling and learning is not the same thing.”
“There is a huge learning gap with schooling in Bangladesh. Students lose about 4.5 years of learning due to the poor quality of education provided in schools here,” he said.
“Thirty five percent of students who passed grade three, could not even read Bangla comprehensively, whereas only 25% of grade 5 completed students pass the minimum threshold in the country,” Aedo said, quoting the “Annual Primary School Census 2016” and “Bangladesh Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2012-13.”
He also pointed out the lack of access to early childhood development programs, the low quality of teaching practices, poor school management, and lower levels of overall spending for public education.
Aedo further said: “Bangladesh needs to invest early and has to provide required and qualitative teachers, develop the workforce with market relevant skills, promoting research and higher education with equal participation from all.”
“If Bangladesh wants to capitalize on the demographic dividend which they want to achieve by the year 2030, the country needs to take a long term skill development program for strengthening human capital in the country,” he added.
World Bank Country Director for Bangladesh and Bhutan, Robert J Saum, said Bangladesh has the potential to create a globally competitive workforce by investing in education.
Emphasizing spending more on education, he said: “Bangladesh’s share of public spending on education is lower than the South Asian average and about half that of Malaysia's share of public spending on education. But it is not all about the overall spending but also about how the spending is utilized.”
State Minister Shahriar says govt prioritizes education for all
At the program, State Minister for Foreign Affairs, Shahriar Alam, said: “Bangladesh government has prioritized education for all. The government has built or renovated some 4,000 school buildings in the last few years and has recruited some 200,000 teachers last year.”
In response to the call for increase public spending in education, he said: “It would not be wise to say the government has poor public spending. In terms of numbers, it might seem little, at just over 2% of the budget. But if you see the total amount, it has increased five times in the last eight years.”
In the current budget, the government has increased the spending on education to 12% of its previous budgets.
Additional Secretary of Ministry of Primary and Mass Education, Gias Uddin Ahmed, Halsey Rogers, lead Economist with the Education Global Practice of the World Bank Group, Jaime Saavedra, senior director of Education Global Practice of the Group, and LEGO Foundation Vice President, Sarah Bouchie, were present at the program, among others.
