[ALOCHONA] Why does Sylhet lag behind in education?

Why does Sylhet lag behind in education?

by Samir Ranjan Nath and Rasheda K Choudhury

Courtesy New Age 30/5/11

THE Sylhet division is rich in terms of natural resources and general economic capability of its population, albeit worsening social indicators. This is clearly a paradoxical situation. Education is a key to address the challenges of development. The country has improved much in various aspects of educational attainment. Major improvement has taken place during the past two decades. An unfortunate feature of educational development in the country, however, is the inequity. Research shows that Sylhet lags behind the national statistics as well as the other divisions in almost all indicators of education. Eradication of inequity from education is strongly iterated in our constitution and in the new Education Policy 2010. The latest research of Education Watch explored the reasons behind the slow progress of Sylhet division in school education, from a broader perspective of educational deprivation in the country. Fieldwork for this was done during March-April 2010. This article is based on some major findings of this research.

Haor and tea estates are two significantly different geographical locations in the Sylhet division where housing, transportation and livelihoods are significantly worse than other parts of the division and the country. Seasonal variations also exist in these. Overall, living in these areas is poor and risky. Economic deprivation due to geographical difference and isolation creates social inequity. The children in these areas are unable to continue education smoothly mainly due to economic deprivation and social inequalities arising from their geographical isolation. The research reveals that except the urban part of the Sylhet division, school enrolment rate was behind the national average in all the rural districts and locations of the Sylhet division. The rate was far behind in the districts of Sunamganj and Moulvibazar and in the haor areas and tea estates. Compared to 38.5 per cent overall in the Sylhet division, more than half of the haor communities (54 per cent) under the study, had only dirt roads. The head teachers reported that over a fifth of the students had to face `bad' transportation during dry season which doubled in the wet season. The children lose interest in education owing to such reality.

Children of the Sylhet division, in general, start school late compared to other parts of the country; they also drop out earlier than others. The age-specific enrolment rates in the Sylhet division were found to be lower for all ages compared to the national averages. Whereas at the national level 65 per cent of the children of age six were found enrolled in schools, it was 52 per cent in the Sylhet division. A portion of the parents reported that they were not aware about the age of admission to schools and a portion could not mention any reason for this. Schools also refused admission to some children. By the age of 15 years, half of the children of the plain lands, 60 per cent of those of haor areas and 73 per cent of those in the tea estates/hills/forests were out of school. The comparative national figure was less than 40 per cent. A portion of them were simply unable to bear the cost of education and others engaged in income generation activities too early. Poor teaching-learning provision and lack of care in schools were identified as important reasons for leaving school.

The parents were found appreciating the value of education but when they, particularly if poor, weighed it against economic opportunity costs, the latter prevailed in many cases. We thus found a high incidence of child labour, both paid and unpaid. Added to this is the lure of migrating to a foreign country, especially UK, for better livelihood. The heads of the educational institutions also identified `lack of awareness' of the parents as a barrier to educational progress in the Sylhet division.

Compared to the other parts of the country, per capita availability of primary level educational institutions in the Sylhet division was not less, but that was not the case for secondary education. This clearly shows inadequacy of secondary education provision in Sylhet, which indicates lower institutional investments. Whether it is a primary or a secondary school, shortage of teacher was a common phenomenon in the schools of the Sylhet division. However, the teachers in Sylhet were comparable to the other parts of the country in terms of educational qualification and training. The proportion of female teachers was also better in Sylhet. A quarter of the rural school teachers lived in urban areas.

Absenteeism, and late arrival in and early departure from school – all are significantly higher among the school teachers in Sylhet division. The situation was found at its worst at the primary level, especially in the rural Sunamganj, Habiganj and Moulvibazar districts. Over a quarter of these teachers were found absent. Females and teachers in the schools of haor areas were more likely to be absent.

Very few of the teachers who attended school on the counting day were punctual, as a good number of them attended school late and/or departed early. The problem was more serious at the primary level. The average loss of time for this was 56 minutes per day for primary teachers and 48 minutes for secondary teachers. Primary school teachers in the haor areas and in the Sunamganj district were the least punctual. The male teachers were ahead of their female counterparts in terms of loss of time. A good amount of contact-hours is lost due to this, which affects classroom teaching, co-curricular activities and students' behaviour.

School managing committees and the upazila education officials were less pro-active in addressing the key issues of school operation. Some educational institutions were not visited at all throughout a year or visited once or twice, which is inadequate to meet the needs of the institutions. Visit from the upazila resource centres was also very limited. Scanning the meeting minutes of the school managing committees, we did not find any record of discussion of teachers' discipline. The upazila education officials put it on their agenda but could not track it or take any effective actions. School visits were mostly superficial. Issues discussed in those visits were not directly linked to identification of practical barriers related to the quality of education or how to overcome those barriers. Shortage of officials was found a major constraint in school supervision.

Non-resident Bangladeshis are an important source of earning in the Sylhet division. Majority of them sent remittances to their kith and kin back home during the year prior to the survey. More than half of the remittance was used to meet day-to-day family expenses and construction and reconstruction of houses. A part of the remittance also went to fund madrassahs, mosques and schools. A very small portion of the donation was for general education. It can thus be said that the remittance could be better utilised for the education of the children of NRB households as well as for educational development of the common people.

Now the question comes how Sylhet division can overcome the above mentioned constraints and progress faster. It is understood that a general principle of educational development strategy would possibly not fit for the whole region. Recognising the fact and the principle of equity mentioned in the Education Policy 2010, it is important to flag on decentralised educational planning and implementation. Involvement of tea-estate management in the planning process is important for the tea estates. Special water bus services for the students and teachers can be introduced specifically during the wet seasons in haor areas. Various affirmative actions that the government and the NGOs have undertaken already can be expanded in an extensive way in some parts of the Sylhet division. These include stipend and cash for education programmes of the government and non-formal education provision of the NGOs. Volume of upabritti and secondary school stipend programme can be expanded in those communities where enrolment rate is poor and early dropout is high. The number of teachers at the school level and number of assistant upazila education officers need to be increased. At the same time, it is important to increase accountability and quality of school supervision. The government can provide financial support to the experienced local and national NGOs and the private initiators to provide such facilities. A mechanism can be found out to encourage the non-resident Bangladeshis to contribute more for the educational development of the Sylhet division.

Finally, it is important to uphold the present gender parity in student participation at primary and secondary education and the progress made in recruiting female teachers. Strong political commitment, proper implementation strategy and adequate investment are very much required to eliminate regional disparity.

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