Steps needed for promoting education in remote areas

Many children in inaccessible Sulla upazila of Sunamganj district have been deprived of receiving education mainly due to lack of awareness of their parents. The parents, who are mostly illiterate and poor, remain indifferent to education of their children. Though some of the parents are aware of the necessity of sending their children to schools, however, they cannot send them to schools for poverty. Minor children are used in helping their fathers earning the family's livelihood.           
Syed Ali Hossain, a day labourer of Mahmudnagar village in Sulla upazila, has two sons and a daughter. His children were not sent to school because of their father's poverty and awareness. "Children support us in earning the family's livelihood. If they are sent to school, they cannot help their father in earning the livelihood," said the man.
Parents want education of their children because they know it is beneficial for the nation and the family, but they cannot do it due to poverty, he said.
Superstition prevailing among the parents about education especially for girl children is also another cause of not sending children to school.  There are many children in Sulla who were enrolled to schools, but they later are dropped out. Most of the people are farmers and fishermen by profession in Sulla upazila.     
During the visit to the upazila by this writer, it was found that many children were engaged in works along with their fathers in order to provide support in earning their family's livelihood.
Besides, a number of children were seen going to their schools crossing river by boat and risky wooden bridge. Local people said the situation turned worse during the rainy season when the children faced much difficulty in going to their schools, because the area remained under flood water at that time. So, we can say that social barrier and sometimes natural calamity put a damper on education of children in the area.     
According to BRAC Education Programme (BEP) that is working in the area many children in the hard-to-reach area have not been enrolled to primary schools mainly due to lack of social awareness and poverty.
Bangladesh is on track in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) target two (98.7%). It has made a good progress nationally but still there are some challenges in achieving this target which has regional like geographical and environmental characteristics. There are some areas which are lagging behind of national rate like haor and char areas, CHT regions and among some ethnic and socially excluded groups.
Different research revealed that the causes of lower rate of enrollment in primary education are poverty of their parents, school distance, gender, regional topography, ethnicity and exclusion of different cultural entities, parents' education and perception of child capability of attending school (CAMPE, 2011). It is necessary to create a conducive environment for promoting primary enrollment in the hard-to-reach areas by removing obstacles.
Bangladesh has made significant progress in increasing the Net Enrolment Rate (NER) of primary school children to 98.7% (2011, DPE), very close to attaining MDG two and successfully achieved the Gender Parity Index. Literacy rate also increased to about 51% in the year 2011.
While the enrollment has improved significantly, some parts of the country such as Sylhet and Chittagong divisions are lagging behind. 32.8% never enrolled in schools in the Sylhet division and even in some sub-districts the rate is lower compared to the divisional status.
Education Watch-2009-10 identified six major and nine minor reasons for drop outs of the children aged 6-15 years. 24.6% of the parents reported scarcity of money as the main reason followed by 24.3% parents considered their children to be 'too young for schooling' at primary level. However, those children were already six years of age. However, among the 6-10 years enrolment more girls are enrolled than boys, but among the adult it shows that men are more literate than women in the division, according to HH census report.
In order to ensure citizens fundamental right to education, Bangladesh government has enacted the Primary Schools Act 1974, Primary Education Compulsory Act 1990 and in 2010 Government of Bangladesh approved a Comprehensive National Education Policy.
The Compulsory Primary Education Act was passed in 1990 but a large number of people are unaware about the law. There are some articles assigning responsibilities to the Local Government representatives. A few of these are: forming ward level education committee to promote the law, listing eligible children for enrollment into primary school each year, and failing to enroll an eligible child is considered as a punishable act.
NGOs have made significant contribution in the education sector in the country through over 500 NGOs. They are currently running 48,855 learning centres for providing primary education to 10,24,495 females and 6,06,802 males in the country (CAMPE 2007).
Approximately, 4-8% of the primary school aged children in Bangladesh receive Non-formal Primary Education (NFPE) run by different NGOs. In December 2011, BRAC alone has operated 24,398 primary schools (including 4,263 schools operated by local partner NGOs) with 748,175 students and 13,054 pre-primary schools with 362,466 students.
BEP said it has been working in the far-off areas to increase primary enrolment and reduce dropout. BRAC has taken up a project titled 'Reducing Social obstacles for hard-to-reach Areas of Primary School Enrollment (RESHAPE)' with a goal to promote primary school enrollment in Hard-to-Reach (HtR) areas. Advocacy for social change is needed for creating an enabling environment in the HtR areas to attain the goals of MDGs 2.
Advocacy and social communication can play a significant role to change the perception of the people in HtR areas regarding enrolment of their children to school. Different motivational activities such as Inter Personal Communication (IPC) training, staging drama, community meeting, day observation (first day at my school), upazila education committee meeting, district meeting and different cultural activities at the grassroots level can motivate people about the increased enrolment to primary school.     
Robust actions are needed for implementing existing Compulsory Primary Education Act 1990 in the far-off areas. Since there is no silver bullet or one size fits all solution for this problem, we need comprehensive action research to identify the primary areas for intervention that would mitigate the gaps and improve overall situation.
According to BEP, a close camaraderie among the government, non-government sector, development agencies and media can create mass awareness about the issue and help mitigate the problem. It is imperative to create a conducive environment that will nurture higher enrollment at the primary level.
The government should take steps for eradicating all the obstacles on way to increasing primary enrolment of children in inaccessible areas. NGOs also should supplement the government's efforts in this regard.
Parents should be motivated about the necessity of education of their children and, if necessary, the poor people in far-off area should be provided with necessary financial support so that they can send their children to schools.
Promoting education in the far-off area is imperative as we cannot achieve the goals of our development keeping a large number of children out of education.

The writer is a journalist