ASA's education loan programme
Sunday, 28 December 2008
Md. Mahbubur Rahman Bulbul
'Education is the backbone of the nation'. This is the universal truth. But the education policy of our government is very weak. For this reason, the quality of our education is not that satisfactory. Most of the people of our country are poor. They live in rural areas. So, their financial condition is very poor.
The quality of primary education in Bangladesh is very weak. Because, the supervision and monitoring system of government has not been strong enough. Accountability of teachers at primary education level is absent in many cases. But every government says that they strong initiative to implement all programmes of primary education in Bangladesh every year. But they fail in many cases. Huge number of primary students have dropped-out . The financial crisis is main factor in this case. The financial support from government sector for regular students to continue their study has not been sufficient.
Misappropriation and corruption are the prime reasons for failure to implement the programme. This is the report of transparency International of Bangladesh. The TIB report says that education sector obtained first position for corruption in Bangladesh among all departments of government. So, all donation and financial support from foreign donors, NGOs and others financial Institutions are not necessarily received by needy students. For the financial crisis most of the students after passing their primary education cannot take admission in high school level.
Huge numbers of NGOs and foreign donors have come to solve this problem and they are contributing to a great extent. BRAC is a big NGO in Bangladesh. In 2008, BRAC took a major responsibility to implement the primary education system in Bangladesh. The implementation system of BRAC is very strong and acceptable to all.
Like BRAC, the world-class microfinance institution, (MFI) ASA, is playing a vital role by providing financial support for education to the children of their women loan members for a long time. Everybody knows very well that ASA is a specialist organisation on microfinance. But besides this programme, ASA is implementing different types of supplementary programmes for the development and positive change of their loan members and their family members. Education loan of ASA is one of them. It's a totally supplementary programme. This loan product is only for the children of women loan members. It's not for others member.
A woman loan member can get this loan for two times in her total loan period. A loan member gets maximum 6000 taka for education loan. This loan product is sanctioned only for class seven to master degree level. A loan member can repay the loan in 50 instalments. Normally, the month of November and December are perfect time to get this loan. Because, most of the students attend their annual examination and they need money to complete their all formalities of examination. So, in this time, most of the loan members want to get education loan for their children to solve the financial crisis.
Every member is highly benefited by the financial support of education loan from ASA. Actually, children of poor families generally fall in a severe problem at the time of paying their admission, examination and other fees. It has also been observed that some poor students could not sit for the final examination for falling to submit the fees. ASA has come forward to save these students and introduced this programme for the children of the group members. It is designed with a view to helping the group members in continuing their children's education. TK. 36.92 million was distributed among 18,876 members children as education loan in 2007 and the outstanding amount of this programme was Tk. 15.37 million. The recovery rate was 99.80 in this programme.
If the non-government sector comes forward to help the education programmes of the government, we hope we can ensure education for all the citizens in Bangladesh.
The writer is serving in ASA
'Education is the backbone of the nation'. This is the universal truth. But the education policy of our government is very weak. For this reason, the quality of our education is not that satisfactory. Most of the people of our country are poor. They live in rural areas. So, their financial condition is very poor.
The quality of primary education in Bangladesh is very weak. Because, the supervision and monitoring system of government has not been strong enough. Accountability of teachers at primary education level is absent in many cases. But every government says that they strong initiative to implement all programmes of primary education in Bangladesh every year. But they fail in many cases. Huge number of primary students have dropped-out . The financial crisis is main factor in this case. The financial support from government sector for regular students to continue their study has not been sufficient.
Misappropriation and corruption are the prime reasons for failure to implement the programme. This is the report of transparency International of Bangladesh. The TIB report says that education sector obtained first position for corruption in Bangladesh among all departments of government. So, all donation and financial support from foreign donors, NGOs and others financial Institutions are not necessarily received by needy students. For the financial crisis most of the students after passing their primary education cannot take admission in high school level.
Huge numbers of NGOs and foreign donors have come to solve this problem and they are contributing to a great extent. BRAC is a big NGO in Bangladesh. In 2008, BRAC took a major responsibility to implement the primary education system in Bangladesh. The implementation system of BRAC is very strong and acceptable to all.
Like BRAC, the world-class microfinance institution, (MFI) ASA, is playing a vital role by providing financial support for education to the children of their women loan members for a long time. Everybody knows very well that ASA is a specialist organisation on microfinance. But besides this programme, ASA is implementing different types of supplementary programmes for the development and positive change of their loan members and their family members. Education loan of ASA is one of them. It's a totally supplementary programme. This loan product is only for the children of women loan members. It's not for others member.
A woman loan member can get this loan for two times in her total loan period. A loan member gets maximum 6000 taka for education loan. This loan product is sanctioned only for class seven to master degree level. A loan member can repay the loan in 50 instalments. Normally, the month of November and December are perfect time to get this loan. Because, most of the students attend their annual examination and they need money to complete their all formalities of examination. So, in this time, most of the loan members want to get education loan for their children to solve the financial crisis.
Every member is highly benefited by the financial support of education loan from ASA. Actually, children of poor families generally fall in a severe problem at the time of paying their admission, examination and other fees. It has also been observed that some poor students could not sit for the final examination for falling to submit the fees. ASA has come forward to save these students and introduced this programme for the children of the group members. It is designed with a view to helping the group members in continuing their children's education. TK. 36.92 million was distributed among 18,876 members children as education loan in 2007 and the outstanding amount of this programme was Tk. 15.37 million. The recovery rate was 99.80 in this programme.
If the non-government sector comes forward to help the education programmes of the government, we hope we can ensure education for all the citizens in Bangladesh.
The writer is serving in ASA