by Wang Xuemei DHAKA, Dec. 22 (Xinhua) -- Bangladesh has made remarkable achievement in increasing girls enrollment in primary level since early 1990s with the ratio of girls and boys at schools standing at 1:1 currently, a senior official said. Secretary of Ministry of Primary and Mass Education M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told Xinhua recently in an exclusive interview that "The Bangladesh government has made tremendous efforts in getting more girls to schools and successfully achieved gender parity." Now the net enrollment rate at the primary level in the country is 91.1 percent, of which male is 87.8 percent and female is 94.7 percent, while percentage of girls at schools is 50.7 among total 16.3 million students, he said. Musharraf said, various measures have been taken to increase girls enrollment since the Compulsory Primary Education Program, covering grade 1-5, was implemented all over the country in 1993 after the Compulsory Primary Education Act was passed in 1990. Under the program, tuition and textbooks are free of cost for all the students. The government also gives stipend to poor schoolchildren including both girls and boys. However, for grade 6-10 only girls are given stipend as the dropout rate of girls is much higher after grade 5. There are also provisions for certain schools to attain gender parity. According to the Primary and Mass Education Ministry, the total number of the primary-level educational institutions in the country is about 81,000, among which 46.2 percent are government schools, 24.7 percent are Registered Non-Government Primary School(RNGPS) and 19 percent are religion schools. For private-initiated RNGPS, the government extends 85-95 percent salary support to the teachers there. However, they must attain the gender parity with number of girl students accounting for 50 percent. Besides, to eliminate gender disparity and ensure wide participation of women in development activities, 60 percent of new teachers post have been reserved for female teachers. As a result, the percentage of female teachers in the government primary schools has already reached 50.2 percent. Massive social mobilization programs, including some initiated by teachers' associations, have been undertaken to encourage guardians to send the girl child to schools. Meanwhile, when enrolling the student, the names of both the mother and the father are registered. For payment of stipend money to the students, the bank account has to be opened in the mother's name. "These steps have contributed to the increase of the girl enrollment and the attainment of gender parity," Musharraf said. "Girls' education has very positive impacts. For example, an increase in the education of girls decreases the rate of early marriage," he said. |