Chapter 5

Outlining NPA II 2003-2015

 5. A     Vision of Basic and Primary Education by 2015

5.1       The basic goal of NPA II is to establish a knowledge-based and technologically-oriented competent society to ensure that every school-age child has access to primary level institutions that provide all necessary facilities, continue in school to receive and achieve quality education, and provide opportunities to pre-school children, young persons and adults to meet their learning needs in a competitive world, both in the formal and non-formal sub-sectors of basic education without any discrimination.

5.2       It is envisaged that through successful execution of NPA II, the educational scenario by 2015 will encompass the following:

(i)                 An informed, knowledge-based and learning society for all has taken firm roots – facilities are available for enhancing learning and gaining appropriate employable and life skills through formal, non-formal and informal education mechanisms;

(ii)               All pre-school children, 3-5 years of age, are attending ECCE programs of some kind and have access to programmes of health, nutrition, social, physical and intellectual development, and being initiated into formal education;

(iii)             All primary school-age children (6-10 years), boys and girls, including all ethnic groups, disadvantaged and disabled, are enrolled and successfully completing the primary cycle and achieving quality education;

(iv)             Adequate scope exists for primary level graduates to go on to secondary education and beyond; children can plan and pursue their career path and switch from one stream of education to another of their choice at any level;

(v)               All primary level institutions, formal and non-formal, offer standardized and quality basic education, providing a strong foundation which prepares children and others to face challenges in higher education, training and broader life with confidence and success; equivalence between formal and non-formal basic education and between different streams within each firmly established at all levels;

(vi)             All residual illiterate and semi-literate young persons and adults have access to learning opportunities – basic education, adult literacy, post-literacy, continuing education and life-long leaning, including skills development for gainful wage or self-employment;

(vii)           Gender equality in basic and primary education, for teachers as well as learners, is a normal phenomenon, both in the institutions and homes of children as well as the broader society;

(viii)         All children enrolled in basic and primary education level institutions have access to health, nutrition, water and sanitation, cultural, social development and similar other services and activities, which ensure a healthy learning and living environment for better life; are involved in school management and decision-making processes; and they are all aware of the dangers of and ways of dealing with HIV/AIDS, arsenic contamination and such others;

(ix)              Poverty is substantially reduced in line with PRSP and MDG targets through and as a result of quality basic education and selective skills development training, in conjunction with and measures taken for eradication of poverty in other sectors of development, both public and private, particularly NGOs;

(x)                The government, NGOs, broader civil society, the community and other stakeholders share the responsibility and work in conjunction to achieve the EFA national goals and also share and exchange information on their respective programmes through MIS and GIS systems established in the government and non-government sectors via computer-based wide area network (WAN); and the database are updated at given intervals and freely and easily accessible to all through websites;

(xi)              There is transparency and accountability in program development, organization and management, financial transactions, and in activities of managers, supervisors and teachers as well as the SMC members and all others involved, both in the government and non-government education sectors; and

(xii)            Community cohesion and democratic practices and norms are visible features of all institutions in the society, both at the local and national levels; people enjoying the fundamental human rights (UDHR, CEDAW and CRC); participating in local level planning, organizing and managing as well as ensuring quality of basic and primary education; and training and other development efforts of the government, NGOs, private sector and the civil society providing a minimum acceptable level of quality of life for all.

5. B     Issues and Challenges in achieving the Vision

5.3       The pursuit of NPA II towards achieving the above vision requires careful consideration and effective engagement on the following priority issues:

o       The manifold efforts through NPA I have propelled Bangladesh into the medium human development league of countries as per UNDP’s ranking. Though access challenges remain, the priority task for the NPA II period is to bring the multiple issues of quality at the centre of the policy vision;

o       While the quality agenda will be an evolving one, immediate priorities are a threefold one: i) significantly reducing the drop-out rates of both boys and girls so that enrolment achievements translate into comparable completion rates, ii) introducing an effective and scaled-up programme of Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) using community approaches where meaningful, and iii) improving teaching quality through better recruitment, incentives and training on the one hand and effective performance monitoring on the other;

o       Notwithstanding access gains, specific sub-groups remain at a disadvantage. An inclusive policy has to be pursued to take care of the physically and/or mentally challenged, ethnically disadvantaged, geographically, socially or economically hard to reach children in cooperation with the  NGOs and CBOs where relevant;

o       Appropriate school infrastructure with availability of school within the reach of each and every child throughout the country while school environment and contact hours would have to be sufficiently improved and standardized;

o       Child-friendly pedagogic approaches with emphasis on life-skills, awareness of social environments and appreciation of global knowledge resources have to be prioritized in the development of curriculum and textbooks;

o       A key challenge will be to identify and implement incremental and realistic steps to improve school governance on a sustainable basis with more effective community participation and meaningful oversight by sector administration;

o       Parallel to improving school governance, realistic strategies to improve sector governance is a priority with particular focus on i) meaningful decentralization in relevant areas of decision-making, ii) R&D on improving the system of primary education, and, iii) capacity development of the Upazila Resource Centres (URCs);

o       Beyond sector governance per se, there is also a critical challenge of ensuring inter-ministerial coordination and cooperation as basic education covers a diverse range of needs including health, nutrition, water and sanitation, recreation and culture.  A priority task for MOPME is to ensure improved linkages with and coordination of activities of relevant ministries for the benefit of participants of basic education programmes, schools and learning centres;

o       A comprehensive strategy has to be developed to address the teaching of English as a second language more seriously, including the challenge of preparing teachers for English teaching;

o       A school meal programme for primary schools carry potential benefits for both educational and nutritional aspects of MDGs. Developing an effective programme based on nutritionally-relevant meal content, cost-effectiveness, decentralized supply chains and a management strategy, which avoids vesting responsibilities on teachers will be a key PRSP-relevant challenge for the sector;

o       Ensuring sustainability of learning skills of both non-continuing primary school leavers and graduates of various non-formal streams is a key EFA priority.  Given the overarching challenge of poverty reduction, the necessary focus here has to be on developing and implementing a comprehensive policy vision on skill education utilizing public sector, private sector and NGO expertise to enable a significantly scaled-up exploitation of global and local livelihood opportunities;

o       The current state of educational statistics is a critical drawback on efforts to strengthen sector planning and coordination.  Investing policy priority on improved statistics is a key challenge.  Two immediate priorities here are i) establishment of comprehensive benchmarks through a professionally credible and competent process of data collection, and, ii) developing a system of regular updating of management-relevant core statistics; and

o       Achievement of NPA II goals, in particular the goals of quality education, will require substantial resources. While the responsibility of the public sector to mobilize the required resources domestically and internationally is pre-eminent here, opportunities for public-private partnership have to be pursued wherever meaningful. The responsibility of the international community as mandated in DFA and MDG 8 also needs to be kept sharply in focus here.  It must, however, be borne in mind that not all entry points for reform are resource-intensive. The importance of innovations and procedural reforms are additional considerations to be highlighted here.

5. C     Guiding Principles

5.4       Following are the guiding principles for programme formulation under NPA II:

·        Formulation and implementation of all policies relating to basic education - covering primary[1] and non-formal education - will be guided by the Constitutional provision of ensuring free and compulsory education to all children and removal of adult illiteracy, and UDHR, UNCRC, UNCEDAW, WDEFA, DFA, MDG, UN Decade of Literacy and other international instruments to which Bangladesh is a signatory. National Education Policy will be reviewed and updated as necessary;

·        Ensuring equal opportunity for all school age children (6-10 years) to have free access to an agreed minimum quality of education, regardless of the stream followed (mainstream primary schools, madrasah, others) or by management (government, non-government, private, local government) of the institution attended;

·        Bangladesh has already made substantial progress on gender parity goals in education.  NPA II will continue relevant affirmative actions in this regard not only with regard to girl students but also other disadvantaged children and female teachers;

·        Making available textbooks and other relevant education materials and aids free of cost to all children enrolled in primary school, whether government or non-government as it is the responsibility of the State/Government to ensure free and compulsory primary education to all children, without discrimination;

·        NPA II will emphasize a convergence of services and community through bringing together relevant services at the primary schools/community learning centres and transforming these as outreach points for community awareness on health, nutrition, water and sanitation, and environmental sustainability;

·        Introducing a public examination at the end of Grade V of primary school to ensure a basic minimum level of competence for the children graduating and entering secondary school and also to give them a certificate of accomplishment (the examinations can be set nationally, conducted locally and assessed regionally to avoid any underhand interference). Wherever possible half-yearly and annual school examination will also be introduced;

·        Institute an agreed core of equivalence between formal and non-formal basic education sub-sectors and between/among different streams of formal sub-sector and between public and NGO and private programmes to ensure comparable standard of quality of education across the board and transferability from non-formal to formal and between streams to enable those who want to join the mainstream and continue further education or switch from one stream to another to pursue a chosen career path;

·        Ensuring adequate budget allocation for basic education to cover the cost of required physical facilities, secure environment, books and educational accessories to guarantee minimum agreed quality in light of vision and goals;

·        Aligning NPA II to other key national strategies in particular the PRSP;

·        Ensure that no corporal punishment, abuses, maltreatment or offensive language is used in dealing with children in schools or learners under NFE;

·        Emphasize meaningful community participation including that of parents/guardians, local communities, local governments, civil society, NGOs, in all aspects of planning, implementation, monitoring and assessment of basic education programmes and projects.  Appropriate opportunities need to be developed for children to be active participants in all relevant aspects of school activities and management;

·        Emphasize transparency and accountability in all matters relating to financial management, personnel policy, supervision, programme development, and procurement of goods and services pertaining to formal and non-formal basic education; and

·        Make use of relevant lessons from earlier initiatives, including NPA I towards achievement of NPA II goals.

5.5       MOPME has formed a committee comprising representatives of all relevant Ministries and NGOs to develop a policy Framework for pre-primary education. This committee has already drafted a Policy Framework.

5. D     Targets

5.5       A summary of NPA II targets to achieve EFA is given in Table 5.1 below:

Table 5.1

Summary of Targets of EFA NPA II, 2001-2015

                                                                                                                         (In Percent)

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