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ACHIEVEMENTS IN DIFFERENT FIVE- YEAR PLAN

First Five-Year Plan (1973-78)

The First Five-Year Plan proposed projects to develop Primary Training Institutes (PTIs), reconstruction of schools, establishment of 5,000 new schools, increase enrollment in the primary schools from 58% to 73%, revision of curriculum, introduction of staggered system in existing schools, reduction of dropout rate in schools from 63% to 52%, etc.

Two-Year Plan (1978-80)

The significant aspects of the Two-Year Plan were the establishment of a National Academy for Primary Education in Mymensingh and development and reconstruction of 51 PTIs. During this period, a National Advisory Committee was formed which formulated an Interim Education Policy (1979). Since most of the recommendations of the Bangladesh Education Commission were not implemented, the Committee advised the Government on the following issues.

• Primary education should be free, compulsory and accessible to all. It should be made compulsory in phases, starting from 1979.
• An additional 1,50,000 teachers would be needed to ensure implementation of the compulsory primary education programme. The number of teachers was 1,75,000. 30,000 new teachers would be appointed annually.
• Schools would be established with a school and student ratio of 1:250.
• Primary education would be developed through local government.
• A separate Directorate of Primary Education should be created under the Ministry of Education.

Second Five-Year Plan (1980-85)

A significant aspect of the Second Five-Year Plan was foreign investments in primary education. During this period two important projects were undertaken. The two major projects were: Universal Primary Education (UPE) under IDA assistance, and Universal Primary Education (National), funded by GOB. Forty-four Upazilas came under the Universal Primary Education Project with assistance from IDA. UNDP/UNESCO also provided financial achievement of the two projects were:

• Establishment of the Directorate of Primary Education in 1981.
• Creation of 1836 Posts of Assistant Upazila Education Officers to strengthen field level supervision and inspection.
• Free supply of textbooks in phases and free distribution of textbooks among students by 1985.
• Supply of furniture and educational materials.
• Management training for teachers and staff.
• Free distribution of uniforms among students.
• Creation of 5000 posts of female teachers (education up to class eight).
• Completion of school mapping programme across the country.
• Creation infrastructural facilities for schools; construction of 11, 274 classrooms, repair work of 9,421 schools, installation of 6,242 tube wells and construction of 5,745 toilets.
• Implementation of innovative programmes: The “Instructional Management by Parents, Community and Teachers (IMPACT)” programme was undertaken in Tangail district. Subsequently, it was expanded to 10 other districts. Another educational programme called the Community Learning Centre (CLC) was implemented with assistance from UNICEF. These two projects involved local people in school and classroom management. Experience gained from these projects helped the planning of future projects.

Third Five-Year Plan (1985-90)

Several projects were implemented during the Third Five-Year Plan. Among these, the most significant was the implementation of the revised Universal Primary Education Project (National) funded by GOB, UNICEF /Norway and IDA. During this plan period, two flood rehabilitation projects entitle `Second Flood Rehabilitation Project under IDA Assistance’ and Post Flood Rehabilitation project under EEC Assistance were also implemented. The aims of the Third Five-Year Plan included:

• Raising student enrolment from 60%to 70%.
• Ensuring retention of the enrolled students.
• Free distribution of textbooks to all primary school children.
• Enhancing the quality of education through advanced training, inspection and management.
• Reviewing, restructuring and revising curricula and syllabuses.
• Developing physical infrastructure: reconstruction of 9,285 schools, repair of 16,257 schools, and other works.
• Supplying of limited quantity of furniture and educational materials.
• Nationalization of 1,000 schools and appointment of additional 4,000 teachers.
• Establishing Management Information System (MIS).

The objectives and targets of this Plan were only partially achieved due to a number of constrains. During the period 8,519 schools were constructed and 5,000 schools were nationalized and additional 4,000 teachers appointed.

Fourth Five-Year Plan (1990-95)

The Fourth Five-Year Plan gave importance to the primary and mass education. Education was identified as a vehicle for the development of human resources. A new decision (Ministry entitled ‘Primary and Mass Education Division’ was created in August 1992, through bifurcation of the Ministry of Education for strengthening the primary education structure keeping it in tune with the requirement of modern times, and for eradication of illiteracy. A significant policy undertaken in the Fourth Plan was to make primary education compulsory. The other important goals were:

• Ensuring efficient use of existing facilities and safeguarding regional parity while creating new opportunities in primary education.
• Increasing participation of girls at the primary level.
• Ensuring improved in-service training for primary school teachers.
• Reforming primary level curriculum.
• Introducing academic supervision and administrative inspection.
• Filling up sixty percent vacant teacher’s position from among women and relaxation of qualification for the women candidates.

In February 1990 the Primary Education (Compulsory) Act was passed. In 1992, sixty eight Upazilas were brought under this programme. The success achieved in these Upazilas inspired the Government to bring the whole country within the ambit of this programme. Compulsory Primary Education Implementation Monitoring Unit (CPEIMU) was established at the end of 1990 to ensure implementation of the programme. To make equitable access to primary schooling, to increase enrolment in the schools, to improve quality of primary education and to strengthen management system, the following three major projects under the General Education Project (GEP) were undertaken:

1. Development of Primary Education in Dhaka, Rajshahi and Khulna Divisions.
2. Development of Primary Education in Chittagong Division, and
3. Development of Curriculum and Textbook at the Primary Stage.

Apart from these, other projects including the Cyclone and Flood Rehabilitation Projects were also implemented. The result, achieved under the General Education Project and other projects taken up in the Fourth Plan was:

• Construction of 1,134 low-cost schools, with community participation in areas without a school.
• Reconstruction of 7,675 government primary schools, and repair of 9,335 government primary schools.
• Development of 7,812 registered non-government primary schools (reconstruction -7,232 and repair-580)
• Supply of furniture to existing constructed, reconstructed and repaired schools.
• Establishment of 200 satellite schools for grade-I and II students.
• Expansion of National Academy for Primary Education (NAPE); development of physical facilities of Primary Training Institutes; construction of the District Primary Education Offices; construction of Chittagong Divisional Primary Education Office Complex.
• Imparting non-formal primary education to 4,97,358 children under NGO programme.
• Implementation of School Attractiveness Programme in 689 schools in 10 Upazilas. Under this programme 400,000 students were benefited.
• Imparting in-service training to enhance the professional skills of teachers.
• Distribution of 7,72,90,000 textbooks free of cost to the students.
• Preparation of realistic life-oriented curriculum; renewal of textbooks and introduction up to Class-IV during the Plan period.
• Introduction of Food for Education Programme. This programme was introduced in 4,914 schoool in 460 Unions in the country during the fiscal year 1993-94. This Programme was extended to 12,182 schools in 1,000 Unions in fiscal year 1994-95. 16,28,659 students and 14,16,932 families were benefited.

The measures undertaken for the improvement of primary education succeeded in fulfilling the objectives of the Fourth Five-Year Plan. The number of enrolled students increased to 17.2 million in 1995, this number was 12million in 1990. The rate of dropouts decreased to 38% in 1995 from 59.30% in 1991. Female participation increased at the primary level. The ratio of boy and girl children in primary schools was 55.28:44.72 in 1990, this ratio improved to 52.62:4738 in 1995. Percentage of female teachers in schools increased to 26.92 in 1995 from 20.57 in 1990.This was due to the introduction of the policy to recruit 60% female teachers in the vacant posts of teachers in primary schools. Of course, the situation has further improved in the subsequent stage. This is depicted in the following table:

The Programme for Two Years (1995-97) between the 4th and 5th Plans

The achievements in the fiscal years 1995 -96 and 1996-97 between the Fourth and Fifth Five-Year Plans were as follows:

• Construction of 2c281 low cost schools in areas without any schools was completed.
• Reconstruction of 5,646 government non-government primary schools and repair of 8901 schools was completed.
• Reconstruction of 542 registered non-government primary schools, and repair of 292 such schools was completed.
• Contraction of 13 District Primary Education Officers and 5 Upazilla Education Offices.
• Supply of office equipment, tools and instruments was completed.
• Appropriate training was imparted to the teachers and the officials to increase their professional skills.
• Distribution of books free of cost to all students of primary schools : 5,33,00,000 books in 1996 and 8,23,00,000 books in 1997 were supplied.
• 1,046 satellite schools in the academic year 1997.
• 10,000 new Cub Scout groups in the primary schools.
• Educational materials as supplied to 26,837 schools.
• Food for education programme was extended to 1,243 Unions in 460 Upazilas of the country. A total of 2,37,273 metric tons of wheat and 3,897 metric tons of rice were distributed in 1995-96 fiscal year. The number of students benefited was 22,39,805 and the number of families was 19,62,496. In 1996-97, fiscal year 67,760 metric tons of wheat and 2,09,625 metric tons of rice were distributed. Total number of students benefited was 22.80,467 and number of families benefited was 21,74,503.

Fifth Five- Year Plan (1997-2002)

There is no alternative to education for development of human resources. Development begins from the classroom. This fact is now universally recognized. More investment in education means moving ahead in development. In the Fifth Plan, the Government accorded high primary education. So the Government took up a massive programme for rapid expansion of primary education. The objectives of the plan period (1997-2002) were:

• increase gross enrolment rate to around 110 per cent (net 95 per cent) with particular emphasis on girl enrolment,
• increase primary education completion rate to at least 75 per cent.
• improve the quality of teacher training, supervision, management and monitoring system.
• revise and update curricula with a view to making them relevant to the needs,
• set up an effective Resource Centre as information base at the thana (upazila) level,
• undertake innovative programmes and conduct research and evaluation,
• strengthen capability of National Academy for Primary Education, Directorate of Primary Education and Primary and Mass Education Division (PMED),
• reduce gender gap and regional imbalances and
• inculcate social consciousness among the children about their duties and responsibilities and good citizen.

The following strategies were taken to ensure quality of education:

• Decentralization of the management of primary education
• Initiation of child-centred teaching methods, and
• Initiation of appropriate education system for the disabled and the retarded.

PMED prepared a comprehensive Primary Education Development Programme (PEDP) involving a total investment cost of US$ 1600 million over a period of 5 years (1997-2002), excluding revenue expenditure, Primary Education Development Programme(PEDP) (1997-2002) was dwsigned as a follow on project to the General Education Project (GEP) (1991-1996). Actual implementation of the PEDP began in 1998 and scheduled for completion by June 2003. The POEDP followed the same objectives that were successfully pursued in the GEP, Infect, the PEDP with its 26 desecrate projects contributed to translating the objectives of the Fifth Five-Year Plan. The broad objectives of PEDP were:

• The quality improvement in primary education
• enhancement of the educational planning and management capacity and
• increasing equitable access to primary schooling
  
  However, the GOB and the Development Partners agreed that the priority is quality improvement in primary education and other two objectives were complementary to it.

Along these lines the following specific objectives were identified.

i.                        increase net enrolment from 85% to 95%

       ii.            increase primary school completion rate from 60% to 70%

     iii.            raise learning achievement so that 85% of completing students will achieve at least grade 4 level competencies in literacy, numeracy and life skills compared to 40% in 1996.

    iv.            improve school management and academic supervision.

      v.            reduce recurrent cost per primary school graduate by increasing instruction time and teacher productivity, and reducing grade repetition and dropout.

    vi.            allocate education resources more efficiently through textbook reuse, provision of additional classrooms rather than building new schools, highly regretted new school construction based on demographic criteria, and targeted subsidies to increase enrolment and attendance of girls and the poor selected urban areas and underserved rural communities, and

   vii.            improve institutional capacity at national , district, Upazila and school levels in management planning, implementation monitoring and information analysis.

Achievements during the Fifth Five Year Plan are as follows

Because of the adoption of many pragmatic steps most of the objectives of this Five Year Plan have been achieved. The achievements are as follows.

1. Construction of 354 schools in unschooled areas was completed while construction work of 778 schools are in progress.
2. Reconstruction work of 9,778 schools was completed.
3. Repair work of 5,674 schools was completed.
4. Construction of 6,108 additional classrooms in 3,054 schools was completed.
5. A total of 7,942 registered non-government primary schools were reconstructed and 73 schools were repaired.
6. After the devastating flood of 1998, a total of nearly 16,000 damaged primary schools were renovated/repaired under the emergency renovation program Under the revenue budget, a total of 1,332 flood damaged primary schools were also repaired/renovated.
7. A total of 4,420 satellite schools were established. Teachers of those schools were imparted training. Teaching-aids, some stationary materials and schools furniture were also supplied to these schools.
8. A total of 267.30 million new textbook were distributed free of cost to the primary school children.
9. Unschooled villages have been identified for establishing new primary schools. NGOs were provided grant to establish schools in the unnerved villages. During this time, a total of 37 NGOs utilized money for establishing 97 primary schools.
10. Twenty three thousand cub groups were formed. A total of 34,000 teachers were imparted scout training.
11. To expedite the training of the teachers of registered non government primary schools, two shifts of training (C-in-Ed) in Primary Training Institute have been initiated. A total of 30,000 teachers have got C-in –Ed training.
12. The Intensive District Approach to Education for All (EDEAL), a project with innovative approach has been introduced in 36 districts. This project aimed at addressing quality issues through interventions designed to enhance teaching learning methods the school environment, children learning achievement and making the local community active in and responsible for the school and its environment. The activities of the project were organized under four major components viz ; (i) Improvement of Teaching-Learning Quality (ii) Learning Monitoring (iii) Local Level Planning and Management (iv) Social Mobilization and Communication. Under the IDEAL Project, and innovative teaching learning approach known as Multiple Ways to Teaching Learning (MWTL) and Safe Learning Environment (SLE) was applied to make teaching learning more child-centered, participatory and joyful to the children. About 35,000 teachers were trained under this programme. Heat Teachers and Assistant Upazila Education Officers of 36 IDEAL districts were provided training on School Management and Academic Supervision Teachers kits were supplied to the teachers to support them in the preparation of teaching aid and use them in the classroom. School kits consisting of sports materials and additional reading materials were also supplied to the schools to create a create a conducive learning environment. One of the main themes running through IDEAL project is the decentralization of school planning, management and monitoring in order to make these processes more responsive to local conditions, concerns and needs, In all IDEAL districts, every school prepare its annual development plan to cater for its individual school needs. Similarly, every school prepare school Catchments Area Map and update every year to ensure enrollment of all school age children as well as their regular attendance. Under Social Mobilization and Communication Component, a communication strategy was developed with the objective of increasing demand for quality education, enhancing community participation and promoting creation of child friendly school environment especially for girls. Activities like development and production of target specific communication materials and dissemination of communication messages using multi-media were implemented. Meena Communication materials such as story books, poster, sticker, audio cassettes and video films were also developed to enhance awareness on girls education and other related issues.
    
    
13. Under the project 'Improving the Capability of the PMED a series of study visits were completed for increasing the professional skills of the officers. Computers and printers along with accessories were procured for establishing a MIS unit in the PMED.
14. ‘Food for Education Prgramme’ was continued in 1,255 Unions of all Upazilas of the country, During 1997-98, 2,69,624 metric tons of wheat and 71,039 metric tons of rice were distributed among 2,295,956 students of 2,18,2215 families. In the year 1998-99, a total of 2,27,026 metric tons of wheat and 59,639 metric tons of rice were distributed among 22,95,956 students of 21,82,215 families. In the year 1999-2000, a total of 173,915 metric tons of wheat and 112,058 metric tons of rice were distributed among 20,75,021 students of 20,20,660 families. In the year 2001-2002, a total of 25,40,744 metric tons of wheat were distributed among 21,12,686 students of 20,77,438 families.
15. Under different projects a number of workshops/ seminars were held both at local as well as at central level for discussion of local as well as national issues related to primary education and for reaching national consensus.
16. Social mobilization activities were geared up to create awareness among the women for increased enrolment of 6-10 years age group children in school.
17. Supervision and monitoring system have been strengthened. New and more targeted inspection formats have been developed for inspection of schools and offices at Upazilla and district levels for bringing qualitative improvement in management at school, Upazila and district levels.
18. For increasing contact hour single shift schooling system has been introduced in 3,300 schools. In these schools class starts for children of grades 3-5 at 9:30 am instead of 12:15 p.m and continues up to 4:15 p.m everyday except Thursday.
19. Home visit programmes for teachers and AUEOs have been made compulsory as a part of social mobilization dreve. Under the system a teacher is to visit at least one home and an AUEo is to visit three homes in a month.
20. Massive orientation programmes were taken up to train the members of SMC and PTA to make them aware about their duties and responsibilities.
21. In order to ensure community participation schools have been instructed to constitute a "School Welfare Trust"" to mobilize local resource and to use these locally.
22. Schools have been graded according to their performances.
23. In order to compensate the opportunity costs of the poor parents to send their children to schools, stipend programme has been introduced. In addition to ' Food for Education Progrmme', Stipend Programme was introduced in non-FFE areas, in April 2000. since July a new stipend programme has been introduced for poor children of the country. To cover the whole rural area both the Food for Education and Stipend Programme were in operation up to June,2002.

During this period, Bangladesh has achieved commendable success in increasing enrolment and attendance and reducing dropout rates. The gross enrolment rate at the primary school increased to 97 percent in 2001. Primary education cycle completion rate increased from 62 percent in 1995 to 68 percent in 2002. The enrolment at the primary level of education stood at 17.6 million in 2002, while it was 12.05 million in 1990 and 17.28 million in 1995. The ratio of boys and girls has reached to parity. The enrolment and boy-girl ratio may be observed from the following table:

International Commitment

In pursuance of its constitutional obligations and commitments made in respect of primary education in the international forums, the government is determined to ensure Education for All within shortest possible time. Bangladesh was a signatory to the Declaration at the World Conference on Education for All (WCEFA) held in March 1990 in Jomtein, Thailand. The Government reiterated its commitments in the World Summit for Children held in New York in September 1990, and in the Summit of the Nine High Population Countries held in Delhi in December 1993. The same commitment was reiterated in the EFA ministerial review meeting of Indonesia held in September 1995, Pakistan in September 1997, and China in August 2001. Bangladesh also participated in the World Education Forum meeting held in Senegal in April 2000, where 182 UNESCO member countries attended. Besides, Bangladesh has participated in almost all seminars and workshops held on Education for All (EFA).

As a follow up of WCFEA Bangladesh prepared a realistic National Plan of Action for EFA by 2000. The Government Commitments for EFA by 2000 were:

• Increase gross enrolment at the primary level to 95% by the year 2000.
• Increase completion rate at the primary level to 70% by 2000.
• Increase the rate of literacy to 62% by 2000.