Since its inception in 1985, the unique selling point (USP) of the BRAC Education Programme (BEP) has been quality of education for the expansion of primary education. The mode of operation of the programme was mostly philanthropic till the end of 2015, the final year of the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) era. Since 2016, some parts of BEP activities have taken a cost recovery approach and others run as a social enterprise. The USP has gained more importance as a result of this transition. BEP charged BDT 100 per student as monthly tuition fees for BRAC Primary Schools (BPS). This study mainly aims to examine whether the learning achievement of the students of BRAC non-formal education provisions called BRAC Primary Schools or BPSs has been hampered during this transitional period. Hence, the students’ learning achievements, along with their background characteristics, school-related factors, and teachers’ and Program Organisers’ (POs) assessment of student/school quality, were examined. A number of issues related to the quality of education were also analysed, including the use of guidebooks, private supplementary tutoring, and recovery of cost. A sample of 800 students from 41 BPSs who started their primary education course in 2014 and completed it in 2017 were brought under a Competency-based Learning Achievement Test developed for Education Watch 2000. The learning achievement of these students was compared with those of previous years. Factors affecting learning achievement and other related issues were also explored.
Author: Nath, Samir Ranjan
Type: Monograph
Year: 2018
