Implementing Support Agency (ISA) for out of School Children Education Program sub-component 2.5, PEDP4

Bangladesh has one of the largest primary education systems in the world, with more than 18 million children enrolled in more than 120,000 schools. It covers 1-year free pre-primary education and 5-year free compulsory primary education through a largely centralized system as it is technically a constitutional right (Asia Info Bangladesh Education, 2011). According to Bangladesh Literacy Survey 2010 of Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), the literacy rate among people (aged 7 and above) who can write a letter for communication is 54.19 percent in rural areas and 68.4 percent in urban areas. So, there is a 14.21 percent gap between rural and urban literacy rates. Despite a series of investments, the system has not been able to match the rapid increase in student enrollment. Consequently, there are 32.5 million illiterate people while the number of school dropouts ranging from 8-14 years (constituting around 36.5 % of the total population) is one million [Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics]. Most experts in the education sector claim that poverty is the most reasonable cause behind dropouts in primary education. Now it is imperative to improve school-specific quality and participation indicators through community involvement.

‘Out of School Children’ Program as Second Chance Education (SCE) Program under the sub-component 2.5 of Component-2 ‘Equitable Access and Participation’ of PEDP-4 aims to provide primary education through a flexible non-formal education system to 1 million out of school children of this age group. The Second Chance Education program will be operated under the overall structure of BNFE.