Public-private co-op stressed to attain MDG on edn

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FE Report
Advisor to the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education Rasheda K Chowdhury said Wednesday achieving the country's Millenium Development Goal (MDG) on universal primary education (UPE) is possible with proper collaboration between the public and private sectors.
Her remark came at a roundtable on "Achieving Universal Primary Education with Quality and Equity" at the BRAC Centre Inn in the city. Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) and Campaign for Popular Education (CAMPE) jointly organised the meeting.
Focusing on the positive aspects of the country's primary education sector, the Adviser said that gender disparity in the number of students as well as in the number of teachers had been removed. At the same time, the ratio of the number of teachers and the number of students have been brought down to 1:49 from 1:70 what it was a few years ago.
However, pointing to the shortcomings, she admitted that there were still issues to look after in the sector that was vital to the country's long-term development.
Addressing various issues concerning the primary education sector of the country; Rasheda K Chowdhury said that there were still an inequity in the progress made in this sector between different districts and regions. There is also the need to assure more competency and adequate payment and salary for the primary school teachers.
She stressed on the need to introduce various standardised testing and examination systems at various levels to evaluate the competency of the primary school teachers.
"Assuring and raising the quality of the education provided at the primary schools is the biggest issue to address," Rasheda said.
"Lowering the number of dropouts at the primary level is a concern for the government. In the long term, we may have to look at the issue of merging the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Primary Education," she said.
Secretary in-Charge of the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education Badrul Alam Tarafdar also spoke on the occasion. Eminent economist Rehman Sobhan presided over the meeting.
Earlier two presentations showcased the state and the quality of primary education and the issues concerning the dropout at the primary level.
Only six per cent of the boys and three per cent of the girls in the age group 9-11 did not attend school in 2008, the reports said.
The only groups who were now left out were the ones with extreme poverty like landless people or the ones with special needs, they observed.