National Education Dialogue arranged in order to share the CLA survey findings with the national level policy makers to meet Government’s commitment to ensure SDGs Goal 4 ‘Ensure Quality Education’ for all. In this education dialogue the present situation of the students’ education level and how to minimize the existing gap of the policy and resolve it for the ensuring quality education have been discussed. Under the South Asian Assessment Alliance: Communicating and Collaborating for Change project, implemented with the support of Street Child UK and Global Partnership for Education (GPE) WAVE Foundation organized day long National Education Dialogue titled on ‘Present Status of Students’ Learning Level and Achieving Quality of Education’ on 14 June 2023 at UCEP Bangladesh Dhaka. Rasheda K Chowdhury, Former Adviser of Caretaker Government and Executive Director, CAMPE, presided over the dialogue where Mr. Shah Rezwan Hayat, Director General, Directorate of Primary Education, Ministry of Primary and Mass Education was present as the Chief Guest, Imtiaz Ridoy, Program Manager of Street Child-UK presented as guest of honor and Mr Mohsin Ali, Executive Director of WAVE Foundation spoke on behalf of the organizers. Ms. Lipi Amena, Program Manager and Tulika Sarkar, Project Officer of the EOL project uphold the result of the CLA findings before the audience. Ms Kaniz Fatima, Deputy Director and Aniruddho Roy, Assistant Director, WAVE foundation conducted dialogue session-1 and 2 respectively. Moreover, representatives from Khulna and Rajshahi network partners, civil society organizations, IID, CAMPE, Loak Morcha, Governance Advocacy Forum (GAF), journalists, and Youth were also present there.
In the speech of the chief guest, Shah Rezwan Hayat said “We are working on other issues except the increase in budget allocation. The government is sincerely trying to promote quality education. That is why there is a need to emphasize the commitment of teachers as well as combined efforts of all, we can build our desired Bangladesh.” Rasheda K Chowdhury said “In order to ensure quality education, the importance of CLA cannot be ignored. Everyone has the right to education. Our constitution mentioned education not only as a right but also as a state duty. The new education curriculum is progressive, it has to be taken forward. Along with monitoring of teachers, mentoring is also necessary. Education should be seen as an independent sector.”
WAVE EOL team successfully conducted Citizen Led Assessment (CLA) of 1760 household both at Khulna and Rajshahi district. Among 1760 households, 71 government primary schools out of 88 villages. Total 1533 children aged 5 to 16 were assessed among them 782 were girls and 751 were boys.
The major findings from Bangladesh CLA were; 10.28% of boys and 8.71% of girls could not even identify one Bengali letter. Only 18.04% of the children could identify at least 4 words out of 5. On the other hand, 61.95% of boy children and 53.14% of girl children could not read a story fluently with less than 3 pronunciations error. For English assessments, 15.98% children couldn’t identify a single English letter. Whereas 31.05% children could identify 4 English letters out of 5. Only 16.50% children could read an English story fluently with less than three (3) pronunciation error. Based on the learning outcomes of the children assessed in mathematics, it can be seen that 13.62% children couldn’t identify any single digit. 14.02% children could identify double- numbered digit from the academic text books of class 1 & Class 2. Only 23.54% children could solve two addition problems correctly. And only 20.47% & 3.46% children could solve two subtraction & division problems respectively.
Through this dialogue some important recommendations were taken place for the policy makers to improve quality education for all, which were:
• Increase allocation in education sector and ensure proper utilization of allocated funds;
• To achieve the quality of education, taking the initiative to complete everyday lesson in the classroom;
• Infrastructural development including provision of adequate classrooms and sanitation;
• Provide training for teachers to improve the quality of education;
• Increase the payment structure and other benefits of teachers;
• Prepare and distribute textbooks and other educational materials timely;
• Initiate school feeding program in remote areas especially in disaster prone areas;
• Last but not the least, adopting action plans in the light of the opinions of all stakeholders including policy makers, teachers and parents to improve the quality of education.
