Ahamad, Shihab Uddin. Non-formal primary education in Bangladesh : an examination of its compliance with the right to education . Master's Degree(Human Rights). Mahidol University. : Mahidol University, 2003.
Non-formal primary education in Bangladesh : an examination of its compliance with the right to education
Abstract:
For more than two decades non-formal primary education (NFPE) has been
provided to poor and marginalized children in Bangladesh who have dropped out of or
failed to enter formal primary education. Since the declaration of Education for All
(EFA) in 1990, NFPE has become an important supplementary approach to providing
primary education throughout Bangladesh. Currently 1.4 million children are enrolled
in the NFPE system. The purpose of this research is to examine the compliance of
NFPE in Bangladesh with the Right to Education. Four criteria associated with
governments’ responsibilities recognized in the international conventions, that is
availability, accessibility, acceptability, and adaptability, are used to examine the issue
of compliance.
Documentary research, semi-structured in-depth interviews, and nonparticipant
observation methods were used in this research. Eighty-four persons from
16 families and four NGO officials, all from Noakhali rural area, Chittagong urban
slum, and Chittagong urban-sweeper communities participated in the study.
NFPE schools studied were found to be flexible and easily adaptable in all
circumstances, but in the rush to meet quantitative targets in primary enrollment as an
EFA obligation, the Government of Bangladesh has failed to ensure minimum
standards in these schools. The poor quality of NFPE and the unavailability of link
programs for continuing primary education results in most of the NFPE graduate
studied being functionally illiterate. Thus, this research suggests that since NFPE fails
to ensure minimum standards in education and fails to ensure that NFPE graduates can
complete compulsory primary education it does not comply with the Right to
Education