News Desk :
About 18 percent of the primary students drop out in Bangladesh with boys accounting for most of it, despite different efforts by the government, reports bdnews24.com.
The number of female students is higher in primary schools, but the dropout rate is higher for male students, according to the Directorate of Primary Education and Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistics.
Government stipends awarded to female students have prevented them from dropping out, said Rasheda K Choudhury, executive director of Campaign for Popular Education, or CAMPE.
Primary and Mass Education Secretary Akram-Al-Hossain, however, said the real rate of dropout is much lower, thanks to different initiatives taken by the government.
The government and private primary schools counted more than 20 million students in 2019, with girls accounting for 51.08 percent of the total.
At least 2.8 million students were admitted to the first grade in primary schools in 2019. Among them, 1.43 million were boys and 1.37 million were girls.
In 2005, 47.2 percent of primary students dropped out. The dropout rate narrowed to 39.8 percent in 2010 with more boys abandoning schools than girls.
According to the latest survey of the Directorate of Primary Education, 17.9 percent of primary students dropped out in 2019. The dropout rate for boys was 3.5 percentage points higher than girls.
Earlier only the girls in the government primary schools used to receive government stipends. Since 2015, boys have also been receiving it. At least 14 million primary students are now receiving government stipends. Since January last year, a pre-primary student has been receiving Tk 75 a month and first to fifth graders Tk 150. For students from grade six to eight, the monthly stipend amount is Tk 200. It will take some time to reap the benefits of boys receiving stipends, Rasheda Choudhury told bdnews24.com.
About 18 percent of the primary students drop out in Bangladesh with boys accounting for most of it, despite different efforts by the government, reports bdnews24.com.
The number of female students is higher in primary schools, but the dropout rate is higher for male students, according to the Directorate of Primary Education and Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistics.
Government stipends awarded to female students have prevented them from dropping out, said Rasheda K Choudhury, executive director of Campaign for Popular Education, or CAMPE.
Primary and Mass Education Secretary Akram-Al-Hossain, however, said the real rate of dropout is much lower, thanks to different initiatives taken by the government.
The government and private primary schools counted more than 20 million students in 2019, with girls accounting for 51.08 percent of the total.
At least 2.8 million students were admitted to the first grade in primary schools in 2019. Among them, 1.43 million were boys and 1.37 million were girls.
In 2005, 47.2 percent of primary students dropped out. The dropout rate narrowed to 39.8 percent in 2010 with more boys abandoning schools than girls.
According to the latest survey of the Directorate of Primary Education, 17.9 percent of primary students dropped out in 2019. The dropout rate for boys was 3.5 percentage points higher than girls.
Earlier only the girls in the government primary schools used to receive government stipends. Since 2015, boys have also been receiving it. At least 14 million primary students are now receiving government stipends. Since January last year, a pre-primary student has been receiving Tk 75 a month and first to fifth graders Tk 150. For students from grade six to eight, the monthly stipend amount is Tk 200. It will take some time to reap the benefits of boys receiving stipends, Rasheda Choudhury told bdnews24.com.
