BSS, Dhaka :
The goal of Universal Primary Education (UPE) is likely to be missed by a wide margin as nearly 57 million children around the world are still out of school. With the deadline for the Education for All goals less than two years away, not a single goal will be achieved globally by 2015, according to a report titled ‘Education For All (EFA) Global Monitoring Report-2013-14 released here on Sunday. Bangladesh National Commission for UNESCO (BNCU), Save the Children and UNESCO Dhaka jointly organized the launching ceremony of EFA Global Monitoring Report in the conference hall of BNCU.
Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid, Primary and Mass Education Secretary Quazi Akhtar Hossain, educationists, teachers and representatives of international organizations, among others, addressed the function with Education Secretary Dr Muhammad Sadique in the chair.
Bangladesh has achieved a significant progress in the education sector, Nahid said adding, “We are ahead in different indicators of education compared to many developing countries.” Referring to the EFA Global Monitoring Report, he said 50 percent children around the globe are out of school. Enrolment of students at primary schools in our country is now 99.47 percent, the minister said adding the student enrolment has been increased significantly, but dropout rate of students is still a challenge for Bangladesh.
“Despite resources limitation, we are trying to increase budgetary allocation for the education sector as the existing allocation is not sufficient to improve overall quality of education,” he added.
This year’s EFA Global Monitoring Report vividly underlines the fact that people in the most marginalized groups have continued to be denied opportunities for education over the decade.
The report said one third of primary school age children are not learning the basics, whether they have been to school or not. The governments of countries concerned must take steps to recruit an additional 1.6 million teachers to achieve universal primary education by 2015, it added.
