Non-formal primary education in Bangladesh : an examination of its compliance with the right to education

Abstract

For more than two decades non-formal primary education (NFPE) has been provided to poor and marginalized children in Bangladesh who have dropped out of or failed to enter formal primary education. Since the declaration of Education for All (EFA) in 1990, NFPE has become an important supplementary approach to providing primary education throughout Bangladesh. Currently 1.4 million children are enrolled in the NFPE system. The purpose of this research is to examine the compliance of NFPE in Bangladesh with the Right to Education. Four criteria associated with governments' responsibilities recognized in the international conventions, that is availability, accessibility, acceptability, and adaptability, are used to examine the issue of compliance. Documentary research, semi-structured in-depth interviews, and non-participant observation methods were used in this research. Eighty-four persons from 16 familiesand four NGO officials, all from Noakhali rural area, Chittagong urban slum, and Chittagong urban-sweeper communities participated in the study. NFPE schools studied were found to be flexible and easily adaptable in all circumstances, but in the rush to meet quantitative targets in primary enrollment as an EFA obligation, the Government of Bangladesh has failed to ensure minimum standards in these schools. The poor quality of NFPE and the unavailability of link programs for continuing primary education results in most of the NFPE graduate studied being functionally illiterate. Thus, this research suggests that since NFPE fails to ensure minimum standards in education and fails to ensure that NFPE graduates can complete compulsory primary education it does not comply with the Right to Education.