Universal primary education and Bangladesh

The concept of universal education dates back to 2000 when UNESCO hosted Dakar summit which was participated in by 180 countries. They committed to the simple but profound goal of achieving universal basic education by 2015. It actually involves entering school at an appropriate age, progressing through the system and completing a full cycle. It later became Millennium Development Goal ensuring universal basic education by mobilizing the developing countries' own national education plans-based on political will, domestic resource mobilization, and accountability. Now out of eight MDGs 'achieving universal primary education' occupies second position. The very position proclaims its significance.
Its significance
In eradicating global poverty the role of education is very crucial. With education, employment opportunities unfold, income levels get increased and maternal and child health improves. In areas where access, attendance and quality of education have seen improvements, there has also been slow spread of HIV/AIDS. Not only education improves individual and familial health, but it also improves the health of a community. In countries with solid education systems in place, there are lower crime rate, greater economic growth and improved social services. Of all the goals, educating children-particularly girls-has the greatest impact on eliminating poverty. Studies show that an extra year of secondary schooling for girls can increase their future wages by 10 to 20 percent.
Reasons for lagging behind
 Costs contribute to a child's lack of access and attendance to primary education. High opportunity costs are often influential in the decision to attend school. According to UNICEF, an estimated 121 million children of primary-school age are being kept out of school to work in the fields or at home. Sometimes, the cost gets too expensive and families can't support their children's education anymore. In developing countries throughout the world the educational contexts are characterized not by monolingual settings, but rather multilingual situations. In primary schools where the medium of instruction is not the home language of the learners, but rather the language of the state see poorer performance and high drop outs. If the medium of instruction in school is a language that is not spoken at home the problems of learning in an environment characterized by poverty are compounded, and the chances of drop-out increase correspondingly.  Research shows that students learn to read more quickly when taught in their mother tongue. Location also contributes to a child's lack of access and attendance to primary education.  In certain areas of the world it is more difficult for children to get to school. In Bangladesh distance from home to schools in char, haor and hilly areas stands as a barrier for primary level students, here girls are more affected.
Achievements  
Enrolment in primary education in developing regions reached 90 per cent in 2010, up from 82 per cent in 1999, which means more kids than ever are attending primary school. Number of children enrolled in primary schools worldwide rose by more than 40 million between 1999 and 2007. Net primary enrolment in sub-Saharan Africa rose from 58% to 74% over the same period. International aid commitments to basic education almost doubled from $2.1 billion in 2002 to $4.1 billion in 2007. In 2011, 57 million children of primary school age were out of school. Even as countries with the toughest challenges have made large strides, progress on primary school enrolment has slowed.
Challenges
However, despite all these important achievements, the world is currently not on course to achieve its target of universal primary education by 2015. There are approximately 300 million chronically hungry children in the world. One hundred million of them do not attend school, and two thirds of those not attending school are girls. Between 2008 and 2011, the number of out-of-school children of primary age fell by only 3 million. Globally, 123 million youth (aged 15 to 24) lack basic reading and writing skills. 61 per cent of them are young. Currently, 120 million children could still be out of school in 2015 and girls will still lag behind boys in school enrollment and attendance. In 25 countries the proportion of boys enrolling in secondary school is higher than girls by 10% or more, and in five India, Nepal, Togo, Turkey and Yemen the gap exceeds 20%.
The World Bank has placed education at the forefront of its poverty-fighting mission since 1962, and is the largest external financier of education in the developing world. Support for primary education has been a priority over the past decade for the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank's fund for the poorest countries. IDA integrates education into national economic strategies, and creates education systems that empower children to become productive citizens by (i) measuring  education outcomes, especially for poor people and disadvantaged communities (ii) offering  innovative incentives, like cash for attendance, to keep kids in school (iii) ensuring  that education leads to learning skills, and that it is relevant and of good quality (iv) establishing standards for teachers and schools (v) giving training to teachers, especially those who serve disadvantaged communities.
Encouraging news
Girls' education attaches significant importance in developing countries. Bangladesh is no exception in this regard. The following things should be taken into consideration to make it a success:
(i) While sending girls to school may be clearly beneficial both for the girls themselves and for their countries, in most poor nations it is the parents who make the ultimate choice on schooling, and for them this calculation may not seem so clear. Rightly or wrongly, such extremely impoverished parents often feel they need their girls' labour for extra income or, more frequently, just to help with the grueling requirements of life, such as the long hours spent collecting water or firewood or caring for the younger children in the family.
(ii) We should work to reduce per-child school fees and other educational expenses-- of course, Bangladesh provides free primary education to both boys and girls. We know this strategy works because countries that have reduced or eliminated school fees have seen enrollment skyrocket overnight. Though the educational gaps for girls are especially large, the problems for boys-particularly poor, rural boys-are also dramatic. Furthermore, efforts to get girls into schools will never be successful unless there is a decent quality of education-respectable class sizes, trained teachers, quality instructional materials-for both girls and boys.
Finally it can be said that developing countries have made impressive advance toward universal primary education in spite of some imbalanced progress in some regions. Now we need to work on (i) improving  the quality of education and promoting learning achievement with a special focus on teachers and teacher training, a relevant curriculum, and teaching/learning materials; (ii) increasing  access to learning opportunities for youth in and out of school (iii) ensuring  the fact that children attend school on a regular basis through school feeding programmes.  School feeding programmes have been successful because not only the attendance rates increase, but in areas where food is scarce and malnutrition is extensive, the food that children are receiving at school can prove to be a critical source of nutrition. School meals have led to improved concentration and performance of children in school.  We must reach the children who are being left behind, otherwise the goal of education for all children will not be fulfilled.
The writer is Programme Manager and Team Leader (English) at BRAC Education Programme and Vice-president, Bangladesh English Language Teachers Association ( BELTA), email: [email protected]