M M Jasim :
There are 500 students at Dholapara Bazar Government Primary School in Mymensingh district. The teachers are compelled to take classes under the open sky. The management committee of the school applied for a new building three years ago, but it is yet to be materialized.
Another Bondekhali Primary School building in Soilokupa upazila of Jhenaidah district is in a danger stage and the Upazila Engineering Department had already declared building abandoned. The students are taking part in the classes in a lichi garden.
The teachers of Bhabanipur Government Primary School in Horinakunda upazila of the same district have been taking classes in a hazardous building for long period. Fatal incident may occur any time.
There is no environment of primary education in these schools. The scenario is almost the same in many other primary schools across the country. Most of the schools are lacking academic buildings.
Bangladesh Bureau of Education Information and Statistics (BANBEIS) sources said that 90 percent of the budgetary fund of the primary education is spent for the salary of the teachers and employees. Only 3.37 percent of the fund is spent for the infrastructure development of the schools, which is very meager amount.
The government spent Tk 13,754 crore for the primary education in 2015-16 financial year. Of them, only Tk 512 crore was spent for construction of new buildings and renovation of the existing buildings.
Not only that the primary schools are suffering from scarcity of adequate manpower, furniture and even pure drinking water and sanitation.
An official of the Primary and Mass Education Ministry wishing anonymity told The New Nation that most of the primary schools out of 56,000 schools are running their academic activities with many basic problems.
Salam Uddin, headmaster of Bhabanipur Government Primary School said that it is very difficult to express the problem of our school. “We are taking classes in a risky atmosphere. Accident can be occurred any time. Sanitation and pure water are also challenges for the teachers and students.”
Secretary of Primary and Mass Education Ministry Md Asaf-uz-Zaman said, they are trying their best to utilize the allocated fund. But more allocation are needed for the ministry to overcome all these problems, he said.
“We have taken initiative to establish new schools in the areas where no school yet to be built. The ministry also launched project to renovate the problematic buildings across the country,” the secretary said.
Ministry officials said that the budgetary allocation in the education sector is less than the other countries of the South East Asia. It should be increased in Bangladesh to build skilled educated manpower and to prosperous the country’s overall development.
