• Access to education: who goes to school and who is excluded

Access to education: who goes to school and who is excluded

This document is a review of access to and participation in primary and secondary education in Bangladesh. It outlines types of educational provision and provides statistics on access, vulnerability and exclusion, as well as insights into the characteristics of those denied access.

Statistics show that while the majority of children in Bangladesh do receive some education, drop out rates from schooling are substantial. Quality problems mean many children remain silently excluded from meaningful access, with low rates of achievement and high risks of dropping out. While transition rates to secondary are relatively high, the high drop out rate in previous years means low numbers are accessing secondary.

The report finds that progress has been made, however. In particular, the gender gap in both primary and secondary school enrolments, while significant, has diminished rapidly over the last decade. Nevertheless, much more needs to be done.

The review highlights the need for research to focus on the following:

• an expanded notion of access which incorporates meaningful and sustained access to education
• patterns of access and factors affecting dropping out from school
• further understandings of children ‘at risk’ of dropping out, and those silently excluded within schools
• a dynamic and longitudinal look at access, in particular through tracking of cohorts of children in different communities
• a greater understanding of how multiple forms of provision interact to affect access
• more insight into links between poverty and exclusion, why some children from the extremely poor category enrol and others do not; and how such children progress
• the modalities of government education financing which may reinforce social divisions between rich and poor and urban and rural especially when linked to private expenditure patterns
• other issues include: decentralisation and accountability, corruption, resource mobilisation and utilisation, teachers’ remuneration and incentives, and educational management
• more data is needed on educational access, children with special needs, children in female-headed households, children of ethnic/language minorities, and children living in remote and inaccessible areas.

The review also highlights the following potential areas for policy focus:

• reorientation of public sector service provision to address access and equity issues more effectively. Collaboration and partnership between government and other actors, especially NGOs and community-based organisations to enhance synergies and complementarity
• redirection of resource gains from falling population growth towards quality improvements Development of quality standards and criteria for learning facilities and other provision
• area-based planning to ensure access to facilities of acceptable standards
• mandatory birth registration and provision of school facilities of acceptable quality within easy access for young children, and awareness-raising of primary education entry age-regulations
• multilateral and bilateral external donor modalities of support to both government and non government actors to increase aid effectiveness and support more universal access.

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