I would like to convey message on children dropout and community engagement, one of the major problem of Primary education in Bangladesh. Bangladesh has improved its remarkable success in every aspects of primary education like access, performance, even in dropout rate also improved comparing last five years. The target audience of this resource is for general people especially- Education line department and NGOs because dropout rate is 20.9% that means huge number of students do not complete the primary cycle. This rate is not a good sign for our next generation.this problem needs to be reduced as soon as possible.

1. FINAL PROJECT
Proposed financing solution to children dropout and community engagement in primary
education in Bangladesh

2. The Government of Bangladesh has taken many
initiatives to achieve Education for All (EFA) by 2015.
Education institutions have managed to bring down
gender disparity in classrooms, but “student’s
dropout and community engagement” still be a
major challenges in Bangladesh among others like
ensuring 100% net enrollment, 100% net intake etc.
The first level of education is comprised of 5 years of
formal schooling (class / grades I - V). The primary
education (Grade I-V) managed by the Ministry of
Primary and Mass Education (MOPME).
Reasons that the government, official aid provider or
private sector would want to participate in this issue
because the Bangladesh government has already
declared primary education free for all and government
planned to expend 11.3% budget in education and technology of its planned budget in 2015-16
fiscal year, on the other hand different organizations or private sectors or NGOs are also working
to mitigate the problems of primary education issues.
The National documents which support the primary education are-
 National Children Policy 2011
 The Children Act 2013
 National Education Policy 2010
 Primary Education Development Plan (PEDP)
 Reaching out of school age children (Rosc) etc.

3. At a glance as per annual primary school census (APSC- 2014) Bangladesh
Indicators Gender 2014
No. of schools
covered 108537
Teachers
Male 203779
Female 279105
Total 482884
Students Boys 9639095
Girls 9913884
Total
1955297
9
Pre-Primary
Enrolment
Boys 1581605
Girls 1506855
Total 3088460
Gross Intake Rate
– GIR (%)
Boys 109.1
Girls 108.3
Total 108.7
Net Intake Rate-
NIR (%)
Boys 97.6
Girls 98.1
Total 97.9
Gross Enrolment
Rate- GER (%)
Boys 104.6
Girls 112.3
Total 108.4
Net Enrolment
Rate – NER (%)
Boys 96.6
Girls 98.8
Total 97.7
Dropout rate (%) Boys 24.3
Girls 17.5
Total 20.9
Survival rate (%) Boys 77.6
Girls 84.4
Total 81
Completion rate (%) Boys 75.7
Girls 82.5
Total 79.1
Coefficient of efficiency Boys 77.3
Girls 82.7
Total 80
Year inputs per graduate Boys 6.5
Girls 6
Total 6.2
Absenteeism rate (%) Boys 13.4
Girls 13.2
Total 13.3
Attendance rate (%) Boys 86.6
Girls 86.8
Total 86.7
Repetition rate (%) Boys 6.9
Girls 6
Total 6.4
PECE pass rate (%) Boys 97.9
Girls 97.88
Total 97.93

4. As per APSC-2014 data shows the dropout rate in 2014 is 20.9% where boys are 24.3% and girls
is 17.5%. The reason behind the dropout is interrelated to each other. I think the main obstacles
currently standing in the way of solving the dropout and community engagement problem or
issue are-
 Community engagement- due to illiteracy- very poor community engagement or parent’s
involvement in children school activities causes the dropout.
 Hostel facilities- many children from rural area, hilly area and coastal area children stays
at hostel or relatives house for their primary education. They face their hard time to
complete their primary education cycle and dropout take place.
 Separate toilet facilities and its proper uses- maximum girl students hesitate to use
unhygienic toilet at school, this cause absenteeism and dropout.
 Insufficient stipend for students and parent illiteracy- stipend encourage parents to send
their children to school but the stipend is only for selected rural schools and selected poor
meritorious children, which discourage other parent due to illiteracy.
 Limited coverage of biscuit or mid-day meal facilities- Ensure school feeding program to
all the schools of Bangladesh covering all the students in the primary schools for better
health and nutrition, increases attendance and reduce dropout.
 Child friendly environment-Teacher’s leadership- success of school depend on teachers
leadership qualities such as student teachers relationship, student-student relationship,
teacher parent relationship and decrease dropout.
In my opinion considering the context of the Bangladesh the following financing solution may
be considered
 Domestic resource mobilization in which countries transparently raise and spend their
own funds to provide for their people – is the long-term path to sustainable development
finance.
 Government must allocate at least 25% of total budget for primary education sector.
 Government of Bangladesh can expand biscuit program, stipend program and introduce
mid-day meal program, tiffin system.

5.  Government invite donor spending in education that can be public and private financing
in primary education
 GO-NGO collaboration and utilize fund in highest dropout rate districts for mobilization.
 Channelize the financial flow to local government with prior activity and budget plan and
ensure transparency and accountability.
 NGOs can take many projects on community engagement and school environment
improvement to reduce dropout rate and ensure individual participation and 100%
completion in primary education.
 Ensuring community contribution and participation cash or kind and involving local
leaders for ownership building.
 Upazila (sub-district) Education Committee have monitoring plan on children dropout
 Continuous support to teachers, parents and students at school level.
Thank you