Recession puts progress in primary education in Bangladesh at risk
Saturday, 26 September 2009
A Z M anas
The country's progress in primary education faces the risk of being stalled as the global recession has limited its scope for expanding fiscal space, warns the UN's education agency.
Categorising Bangladesh as "at-risk" group, the Paris-based UN Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has said there is a real danger that the country would now suffer setbacks, despite its marked advancement in universal primary education.
The UN agency's dire warning coincides with an assessment of the country's education for all development index, putting Bangladesh on the lower rung.
The UNESCO, in its 2009 global monitoring report, said Bangladesh is the only Asian nation to be included in the risk group, while all the rest five are from Africa. Mozambique, Ethiopia and Rwanda are among the group.
The index focusses on four critical goals out of six: universal primary education, adult literacy, quality of education and gender parity.
Bangladesh ranks 109 out of 129 nations in the education for all development index devised by the UN agency, behind India and Bhutan in the region.
It was also at the bottom rung of the adult literacy index, with ranking going as down as 120. The adult literacy rate is the proportion of the adult population with at least a complete primary education.
The country, however, managed to move up the ladder, leaving behind only Nepal and Pakistan in South Asia where only the Maldives is close to achieving the UNESCO index.
Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Pakistan -- are far from achieving education for all as the index values are below 0.80.
The UNESCO report said 43 out of 48 low-income countries lack the capacity to provide a pro-poor fiscal stimulus.
"Weak fiscal capacity will limit the scope for the world's poorest countries to insulate their citizens from the crisis," the report said.
It said that fiscal constraints are especially marked in many of the countries furthest from the internationally agreed human development goals.
In an assessment of 43 countries categorised by the World Bank as facing extreme vulnerability, 27 of those most distant from the goal of universal primary education lack fiscal space, the UNESCO report said.
In the region, there were 192 million children enrolled in primary education in 2006, 35 million more than in 1999.
The net enrolment ratio (NER) in primary education increased steadily from 75 per cent to 86 per cent.
The report said the region halved its number of out-of-school children between 1999 and 2006 from 37 million to around 18 million.
But South Asia is still home to about one-quarter of the world's out-of-school population. India and Pakistan together count 14 million out of-school children, with another 2 million in Bangladesh and Nepal.
The absolute numbers of adult illiterates are highest in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan.
Adult literacy rates vary from less than 30 per cent in Afghanistan to about 50-55 per cent in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and Pakistan, to 65 per cent in India and more than 90 per cent in Sri Lanka and the Maldives.
Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, however, made good progress towards gender parity in primary and secondary education in 2006.
The country's progress in primary education faces the risk of being stalled as the global recession has limited its scope for expanding fiscal space, warns the UN's education agency.
Categorising Bangladesh as "at-risk" group, the Paris-based UN Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has said there is a real danger that the country would now suffer setbacks, despite its marked advancement in universal primary education.
The UN agency's dire warning coincides with an assessment of the country's education for all development index, putting Bangladesh on the lower rung.
The UNESCO, in its 2009 global monitoring report, said Bangladesh is the only Asian nation to be included in the risk group, while all the rest five are from Africa. Mozambique, Ethiopia and Rwanda are among the group.
The index focusses on four critical goals out of six: universal primary education, adult literacy, quality of education and gender parity.
Bangladesh ranks 109 out of 129 nations in the education for all development index devised by the UN agency, behind India and Bhutan in the region.
It was also at the bottom rung of the adult literacy index, with ranking going as down as 120. The adult literacy rate is the proportion of the adult population with at least a complete primary education.
The country, however, managed to move up the ladder, leaving behind only Nepal and Pakistan in South Asia where only the Maldives is close to achieving the UNESCO index.
Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Pakistan -- are far from achieving education for all as the index values are below 0.80.
The UNESCO report said 43 out of 48 low-income countries lack the capacity to provide a pro-poor fiscal stimulus.
"Weak fiscal capacity will limit the scope for the world's poorest countries to insulate their citizens from the crisis," the report said.
It said that fiscal constraints are especially marked in many of the countries furthest from the internationally agreed human development goals.
In an assessment of 43 countries categorised by the World Bank as facing extreme vulnerability, 27 of those most distant from the goal of universal primary education lack fiscal space, the UNESCO report said.
In the region, there were 192 million children enrolled in primary education in 2006, 35 million more than in 1999.
The net enrolment ratio (NER) in primary education increased steadily from 75 per cent to 86 per cent.
The report said the region halved its number of out-of-school children between 1999 and 2006 from 37 million to around 18 million.
But South Asia is still home to about one-quarter of the world's out-of-school population. India and Pakistan together count 14 million out of-school children, with another 2 million in Bangladesh and Nepal.
The absolute numbers of adult illiterates are highest in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan.
Adult literacy rates vary from less than 30 per cent in Afghanistan to about 50-55 per cent in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and Pakistan, to 65 per cent in India and more than 90 per cent in Sri Lanka and the Maldives.
Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, however, made good progress towards gender parity in primary and secondary education in 2006.