This report is based on a review of BRAC’s program on education specifically examining the challenges, coping strategies, and existing barriers to implementation of the BRAC Program in eight marginalized Upazilas of Sylhet Division. In 2011, BRAC selected these Upazilas for extensive educational intervention because these consistently performed poorly in various development indicators, particularly in education. Also, the socio-ecological characteristics of this region greatly hinder education progress. To get an in-depth understanding, the study employed a purely qualitative approach selecting five of the eight marginalized Upazilas purposively where information was collected from multiple stakeholders. The study revealed that finding proper school rooms as per preferred size, infrastructure and maintenance was a major challenge that directly influenced classroom teaching and learning. Finding educated and good quality teachers and low retention because of marriage, childbirth, migration, low incentives, etc. were another huge challenge in both haor and tea garden areas. Providing proper training to teachers was also difficult for communication, financial, and security-related problems. The main reasons behind student absenteeism and dropout were seasonal work, extreme weather conditions, cultural festivities, and household chores. Time lags and inefficiency due to poor communication systems, and very little time for educational monitoring greatly hampered the quality of teaching-learning in schools. Recommendations for improvement of the existing situation included increased expenditure on school rooms, teachers’ salaries, and in-service teacher training. To ensure proper, timely, and adequate educational monitoring, reconsidering the workload per staff and deployment of a greater number of qualified, trained, and better remuneration are recommended.
Authors: Mehrin, Nawra; Chowdhury, Tanjeeba; Nath, Samir Ranjan
Type: Working Paper
Year: 2016
