The situation of primary education in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh

ZabarangKalyan Samity

grassroots voiceThe situation of primary education in the Chittagong Hill

Tracts of Bangladesh

Supported by

ISBN 978-984-33-8159-0

grassroots voiceThe situation of primary education in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh

Zabarang Kalyan SamityKhagrapur, Khagrachari sadar, Khagrachari hill districtChittagong Hill Tracts, BangladeshPhone: 0088 0371 61708/62006Email: info@zks-bd.orgWebsite: www.zks-bd.org

Explored inFebruary 2014

Supported by

OXFAMHouse-4, Road-3, Block-I BananiDhaka-1213, Bangladesh Tel: +880-2-8813607-9, 8824440 Fax: +880-2-8817402 Web: www.oxfam.org/bangladesh www.oxfamblogs.org/bangladesh www.twitter.com/oxfaminBD

PriceBDT 300.00 (USD 5.00)

ISBN 978-984-33-8159-0

grassroots voiceThe situation of primary education in the Chittagong Hill

Tracts of Bangladesh

The Story Gathering Team Mathura Bikash Tripura, Team Leader

Kaingwai Mro, Research Officer, Bandarban

Jagadish Roaza, Research Officer, Khagrachari

Ivan Tripura, Research Officer, Rangamati

Story Gathered in Cooperation WithZabarang Kalyan Samity

EditorsMathura Bikash TripuraAshok Kumar Chakma

Editoral AssociatesDayananda Tripura

Binodan Tripura

Acronyms and Abbreviations

ADB AOC AUEO BANBEIS

BBS CHT CHTDBCHTDFCHTRCDPE DPEOEC EFA GoB HDCICDPILOJSSKHDCKII MDGMoCHTAMoPME NGO PEDPPRSPPTAPTI SMCUEOUN CRCUNDPUNESCO

UNICEF

URCZKS

Asian Development BankAmar Odhikar Campaign Assistant Upazila Education Officer Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistics Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics Chittagong Hill TractsChittagong Hill Tract Development BoardChittagong Hill Tracts Development FacilityChittagong Hill Tracts Regional CouncilDirectorate of Primary EducationDistrict Primary Education OfficerEuropean CommissionEducation for AllGovernment of BangladeshHill District CouncilIntegrated Community Development ProjectInternational Labour OrganizationJana Samhati SamitiKhagrachari Hill District CouncilKey Informant InterviewsMillennium Development GoalMinistry of Chittagong Hill Tracts AffairsMinistry of Primary and Mass EducationNon Government OrganizationPrimary Education Development ProgramPoverty Reduction Strategic PlanParents-Teachers AssociationPrimary Teachers Training InstituteSchool Management CommitteeUpazila Education OfficerUnited Nations Convention on the Rights of ChildrenUnited Nations Development ProgrammeUnited Nations Education Scientific and Cultural OrganizationUnited Nation International Children Emergency FundUpazilla Resource Center

Bir Bahadur U Shwe Sing, M.PState Minister

Ministry of Chittagong Hill Tracts Affairs

Govt. of the People's Republic of Bangladesh

Message

This is my pleasure to learn that Zabarang Kalyan Samity has carried out 'a story gathering mission' on education issues in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. Education is a fundamental right of all citizens of the country. The Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh is very much committed to achieving the Millennium Development Goals through its various programs. We have already met several targets of MDGs including the goal 2 through attaining gender parity at primary and secondary education on the whole. The government is proactively undertaking different interventions to ensure the right to education for different ethnic groups of the country. It has already reviewed NCTB textbooks in order to incorporate the positive information into textbooks regarding the culture and livelihood of ethnic communities of the country. However, still there remain various difficulties in the education sector of CHT, to which we need more attention both from the government and non-government agencies including communities, donors and development partners. I am thankful to the investigators of this study for collecting the stories on the situation of education on the ground in CHT. I am happy to learn that the output of this study is being published in the title Grassroots Voice.

I hope this book will be useful for all relevant actors both in the government and non-government sectors, policy-makers, campaigners, donors, researchers, and development practitioners who take keen interest in education in CHT.

joy Bangla,Joy Bangabandhu

(Bir Bahadur U Shwe Sing, M.P)v

Preface

There are more than 45 indigenous groups living across Bangladesh with major concentration in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. The major indigenous communities of CHTs are Chakma, Marma, Tripura, Tanchangya, Mro, Lusai, Pangkhua, Bawm, Khyang, Khumi and Chak. Historically, the Chittagong Hill Tracts is one of the most deprived regions in many aspects of economic, social, cultural and political rights. The evidences show that the indigenous peoples of CHT have very limited access to basic human rights including the right to education.

Following several policy initiatives at the national level and signing of the Chittagong Hill Tracts peace accord in 1997, some improvements have been observed in primary education. However, the factors of access to education such as lack of schools within the reach of the community, non-contextualized holidays* and the right to education in their own mother tongue have not been addressed yet. The distinctive nature of the hilly region coupled with inaccessible roads, poor transports and communication system, poor infrastructures and lack of qualified teachers, hostels and teaching-learning materials, language barrier and unavailability of text books in their own language made the situation worse. Moreover, the rates of literacy and dropout from schools are significantly high compared to the national level.

Oxfam has a long history of involvement with civil society organizations and alliances in the field of research, policy advocacy and campaign to ensure quality education for all with a special focus on girl's education in Bangladesh. Global Campaign for Education for All, Support Change: linking local to global campaigns is joint initiatives of the Oxfam affiliates. Besides other campaigns in country, Oxfam has been working with Amar Odhikar Campaign (AOC) which is an alliance of Bangladeshi NGOs,

*

* Non-contextualized holidays: The school calendar of Bangladesh is usually set for all over the country where local festival, season, livelihood and cultural events of indigenous peoples are not taken in to account. This has an impact on the attendance and total school days of the indigenous children to the schools.

Arie Schuurmans Associate Country DirectorOXFAM Bangladesh

vi

CBOs and influential individuals since 2008. AOC's formation was facilitated by the Southern Campaign Group of Oxfam Novib (ON) at the end of 2007. The purpose of Amar Odhikar Campaign (AOC) is to mobilize the civil society of Bangladesh to facilitate government to ensure the essential basic services to all. The purpose of AOC is to influence Government of Bangladesh (GoB) to significantly improving access and quality of education for all children. AOC has been actively involved in championing the issues of education in 27 different districts of the country including the Chittagong Hill Tracts region.

In order to connect the national campaign of AOC with the global, Oxfam's quality education campaign has commissioned a mission led by Mr. Mathura Bikash Tripura, Executive Director of Zabarang Kalyan Samity to harvest stories on the issues of primary education in three hill districts of the Chittagong Hill Tracts region. The mission has produced a considerable number of case stories accompanied by an insightful and analytical report on the basis of first-hand data.

I convey my sincere thanks to the research team members for their hard work to accomplish the story gathering process on behalf of Oxfam. This report has been published to make the education related information available to the relevant campaigners, researchers and scholars. I hope and believe that this publication will provide an insight into the issues of education situation in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh. This report is accompanied by a set of recommendations which the campaigners, particularly AOC and OXFAM's other partners can use as a tool during their policy advocacy works.

Oxfam is grateful to all relevant actors including the leaders and officials of Hill District Councils, government officials, educationists, teachers, leaders of different School Management Committees and mother groups, social leaders, researchers and many others who have actively participated during the course of story gathering process.

Arie Schuurmans

vii

This report is produced as an output of a study commissioned by Oxfam Bangladesh in order to identify the issues of education in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. The study also aims to connect the national campaign of AOC with the Oxfam's global campaign for quality education. This report includes the overall findings of the stories gathered from a number of primary schools and relevant stakeholders.

We would like to extend our sincere appreciation and acknowledgement to the honorable chairman, councilors and officials of the three Hill District Councils, District Primary Education Officer(s), Upazilla Education Officers, Assistant Upazilla Education Officers, URC instructors, other officials of primary education departments, teachers, students, members of different committees relevant to the concerned schools like School Management Committees, mothers' groups, PTAs, social leaders, scholars, NGO representatives and many others for devoting their time and knowledge in the story gathering process.

The story gathering process would have not been possible without the continuous and relentless support of the relevant staff members of Oxfam Bangladesh. We are especially thankful to Arie Schuurmans, the Associate Country Director of OXFAM Bangladesh for assigning us to conduct the study and bringing out this publication. We are also thankful to Mr. Dhana Ranjan Tripura, Policy and Campaign Officer of Oxfam Novib and his team for providing us necessary support throughout the story gathering mission. Eventually, we would like to thank all relevant colleagues, officials and staff members of Zabarang Kalyan Samity for providing supports in organizing local level events which were essesntial for making the story gathering a success. We are thankful to Mr. Ashok Kumar Chakma and his team for supporting us in editing the final materials of the publication. We also acknowledge the cooperation of SAS, GRAUS and BNKS in organising district level events in the respective districts.

Mathura Bikash TripuraOn behalf of the study team

Acknowledgement

viii

education situation. One of the most difficult obstacles to educational access faced by the CHT indigenous children is that of language diversity. The CHT children, especially those living in the most remote locations, cannot speak or understand Bangla, yet, within the schools both the textbooks and the medium of instruction are in Bangla. As a result, their school performance is hampered in many ways: enrolment is reduced, attendance is irregular, the dropout rate is high, and achievement is extremely low. Under these conditions the natural mental growth and creativity of the children are also greatly constrained (Durnnian, 2007)

In the CHT it is particularly important for learning to be relevant to the local context. Where this is not the case, experience has shown that parents do not value the learning at school, and the children themselves are unable to relate to the learning, and apply what they have learnt in to practice. The schools of Bangladesh use a centralized school calendar. The school calendar does not reflect local conditions.

Remoteness is also one of the most crucial barriers to access to education in CHT. Due to difficult geographical terrains many para communities remain out of school catchment areas.

To cope with the difficulties in education in CHT, the GO-NGO actors have taken different initiatives. The government of Bangladesh has

Executive SummaryBangladesh is a culturally, ethnically, religiously and linguistically diverse country. There are more than 45 ethnic groups living in Bangladesh. The rich tapestry of indigenous peoples makes up approximately 2 percent of the population of the country. Though these groups identify themselves as 'Adivasi' or 'indigenous', the terms 'ethnic minority', 'Adivasi', 'indigenous' and 'tribal' are used interchangeably in various documents and literature in Bangladesh. In the PRSP document they are mentioned as 'Indigenous Peoples', whereas 'Tribal' in the PEDPII documents.

The Chittagong Hill Tracts is a unique area in many respects from the rest of the country. The geographical terrain, environment, colourful culture and ethnic diversity, governance and administrative structures of the area form the characteristics of its own, which are dissimilar from the rest of the country. Due to decades-long political instability, the facilities of development in the region were limited. The CHT region remained virtually isolated from the rest parts of the country and the inhabitants were deprived from the benefits of development. The historical CHT Accord of 1997 has opened up the opportunities for developmental in the region.

This report intends to provide a snapshot on the issues of education in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. It also aims to provide an alternative ways and means to cope with the identified difficulties in order to improve the

ix

facilities, and stories of dropped out children. In the end of the report, we have proposed some recommendations, which may be used for advocacy at different levels of policy-making.

and other legal arrangements.

The National Strategy for Accelerated Poverty Reduction (PRSP) identifies the child right and quality education as the key issues in building strategies for accelerated poverty reduction.

The Second Primary Education Development Programme (PEDP II & III) aims to increase access to primary schools in accordance with the Government's EFA, Poverty Reduction Strategy, Millennium Development Goals and other policy commitments and improve the quality of student's learning and achievement outcomes, and decentralise the decision making process down to the school and upazila levels.

The most recent progress in the government initiative is the National Education Policy and initiatives for implementation of MLE in primary schools. Despite this progress, still there are challenges in primary education in CHT, such as lack of or slow implementation of government rules, regulations, acts and policies; no accessibility to schools by the remote communities, absence of any initiative to bring the excluded children into education and so on.

In this report we have collected some 'case stories' from different GO-NGO sources. , For instance, in one section a case story has been included, where MTBMLE implemented by NGOs, while hostel facilities provided by GO and individuals. We also have included stories on challenges, such

Recommendations in brief

1. Recruit community based teachers2. Strengthen the Primary Teachers' Training

Institutes in CHTs 3. Develop school-based Infrastructures4 Provide water and sanitation facilities5. Strengthen CHT institutions6. Introduce mother-tongue based multilingual

education in formal primary schools7. Continue the review of curriculum and

textbooks8. Strengthen the supervision and monitoring

system 9. Strengthen the School-based committees

(SMCs, PTAs and MGs) 10. Establish new primary schools and nationalize

all primary schools in CHTs11. Restructure education administration as per

the situation of CHT12. Formulate local specific policies13. Provide supports in community mobilisation

and education14. Provide stipends15. Provide supports for lobby and advocacy

works16. Provide supports for research, advocacy and

publications17. Create Special arrangement for out-of-school

children18. Provide hostel facilities19. Introduce flexible school calendar 20. Policy advocacy led by MoCHTA and CHTRC21. Continue Research on education22. Lobbying for school establishment and

nationalisation23. Allow for flexibility for CHTs24. Showcasing of good practices25. Conduct Evidence-based advocacy26. Play watch-dog role at local level27. Involve CHT institutions in the policy making

process

x

conten

tscon

tents

iv

v

Acronyms

Message from the State Minister of the Ministry of Chittagong Hill Tracts Affairs

vi Preface by the Associate Country Director of OXFAM Bangladesh

viii Aknowledgement

ix Executive Summary

1. Remoteness2. Cultural Incongruity3. Poverty of Parents4. Absence of Mother based

Multilingual Education 5. Issues of Teachers

recruitment and placements

6. Issues of Quality Teachers 7. Poor infrastructure 8. Weak Monitoring System 9. Inflexibility in School

Calendar 10. Participation in

management of schools

53-8

6

33-52

Ch

alle

nge

s in

Pri

mar

y E

du

cati

on in

CH

Ts

Chapter 3

A. Progress of NCTB to address the issues of Indigenous Peoples in the text books

B. Mother Tongue Based Multilingual Education (MTBMLE) : community based initiatives to national program

C. Hostel Facilities : ensuring right to education for the Indigenous Children from remotest villages

D. The Inspiring Leaders in Education

Chapter 4 The stories from CHTs

13-1

819

-32

Chapter 5 Recommendations and Conclusion

A. Recommendations B. Conclusion87

-96

Chapter 2 Overview on Primary Education

A. An overview of primary education in Bangladesh

B. The situation of primary education in CHT

Chapter 1 IntroductionA. Background of story gatheringB. Objectives of story gatheringC. Methodologies used in story

gathering

11

gras

sroo

ts v

oice

12

Chapter 1

Introduction

13

inadequate access to education due to few schools in the hills, non-contextualized holidays in practice in schools that invariably contradict with local festivals and seasons. Consequently those factors have a negative impact on attendance. Furthermore, absence of education in own mother tongue affects the quality of education for indigenous children.

Global Campaigning for Education for All, Support Change: linking local to global campaigns is joint initiatives of the Oxfam affiliates. In Bangladesh, Oxfam has a long history of involvement with civil society organizations/alliances in the field of research, policy advocacy and campaigning to ensure quality education for all with a particular focus on girl's education.

Besides other campaigns in country, Oxfam has been working with Amar Odhikar Campaign (AOC) which is an alliance of Bangladeshi NGOs/ CBOs/ influential individuals since 2008. AOC's formation was facilitated by the Southern Campaign Group of Oxfam Novib (ON) at the end of 2007. The initiative was followed by a series of practical actions which successfully involved review of the existing literature observing real case scenario at the grassroots level, organizing dialogues with prominent political leaders and key informants such as educationist, academics, CSO leaders,

14

A. Background

Bangladesh is a State of multi-culture, multi-ethnicity, multi-religion and multlingual diversity. Apart from the Bengalis, more than 45 ethnic groups live in different parts of Bangladesh. The rich tapestry of indigenous peoples makes up approximately 2 percent of the total population of the country. Though, these groups identify themselves as 'adivasi' or 'indigenous', other terms like 'ethnic minority', 'Adivasi', 'indigenous' and 'tribal' are used interchangeably in government documents and literature in Bangladesh. The term 'indigenous peoples' appears in the PRSP and 'tribal' in PEDP-II. The National Education Policy 2010 used 'ethnic minorities' to refer to 'indigenous peoples' in Bangladesh.

The CHT Accord of 1997 promised, among others, continued social and political stability necessary to sustain peace and development in the once conflict-stricken region. The government of Bangladesh has initiated different development interventions regarding primary education in CHT in line with this accord. But it is still a long way to go to reach a 'take-off stage' to ensure quality of education and its efficient management in this region. Despite some nominal changes in the overall education system in CHT, the indigenous peoples here continue to face an

researchers as far as the stated issues are concerned.

The purpose of Amar Odhikar Campaign (AOC) is to mobilize the civil society of Bangladesh to facilitate government to ensure the essential basic services to all. The purpose of AOC is to influence Government of Bangladesh (GoB) to significantly improve access and quality of education for all children.

Amar Odhikar Campaign (AOC) is now stepped into the second phase, and it is for a period of 4 years, from 01.05.2011 to 30.04.2015. The general objective is to ensure essential services for all, especially for the poor, marginalized and vulnerable section of the society. Initially this focuses on basic education. Now the enrollment rates for Bangladesh are quite good, the strategic priority for AOC phase II is to achieve that children actually learn well in school (with quality). The three strategic objectives are:

Schools are held accountable for their learning services through the government system. Communities hold schools (and therewith teachers) accountable for the quality of their learning services.

Quality teacher training is ensured, so that child-centred, gender sensitive methods are used that stimulate analytical thinking and also help the pupils to develop their

life skills.

The general objective of AOC phase II is that the quality of primary teaching has improved significantly by mid-2015. More specifically, by mid-2014 AOC has effectively influenced that:

- proper accountability mechanisms on the quality of primary teaching exist and

- these are validated and - they are effectively

operationalised at national level and in 21 districts.

B. Objectives of story gathering

In order to connect the national campaign of AOC with the global, Oxfam's quality education campaign has set very specific objectives that focus more strongly than ever on through story gathering:

National change in education policies/acts are implemented.

Supportive policy change among International Funding Institutes (IFIs), donors and other global actors and opinion leaders particularly on girl's education and teacher policies.

Sufficient financial resources at national level (including more tax justice) and effective global financing mechanisms (such as a

15

strong well functioning FTI and innovative financing tools such as the FTT).

This focus has translated in the following objectives for Oxfam's education campaign 2011-2015:

On national level: By 2015, to see a better implementation of comprehensive education policies leading to an increase in allocation and transparency in planning and spending of resources to the most marginalised regions and groups (including girls and women) in Bangladesh and improved capacity of civil society to monitor it.

By 2015, to see the quality of basic education is improved by proper implementation of policy/acts and budget allocation and transparency to recruit an increased number of qualified teachers in Bangladesh.

On international level: By end of 2014/15 two major Education donors/ IFIs have improved their policies and secured implementation to promote a stronger focus on access for marginalised regions and groups (including girls and women) and the quality of teachers.

Potential actors at international level to improve policies are

Germany, Australia (as two donors who have made a focus on Education explicit in their aid policies), US (as a potential new donor) and World Bank (as a major donor and opinion leader at international and national level). For a more detailed power analysis see the attached Oxfam Education campaign strategy.

C. Methodologies used in story gathering

The stories have been collected through using various methodologies which includes literature review, case study, key informant interview, focus group discussion and so on. The case study, focus group discussion and key informant interviews have been conducted through making field visits in the targeted areas in three hill districts of the Chittagong Hill Tracts.

Case studyThe research officers have conducted case studies visiting respective spots through conducting interviews with the concerned people. Dropout children, MLE students, MLE school teachers, hostel facilities, successful teachers, successful schools and community based education facilities are included in the case studies. Study on 6 residential facilities, 1 successful school, 3 successful teachers, 6 MLE students, 6 MLE

16

Programme (PEDP) II & III4. Primary Education Situational

Analysis, Strategies and Action Plan for Mainstreaming Tribal Children 2006

5. UNESCO, Education in a Multilingual World 2003

6. Mother Language First, Save the Children, Zabarang Kalyan Samity, Hill District Council, Khagrachari, 21 February 2007.

7. Perspective Plan of Bangladesh 2010-2021 (Making vision 2021 a reality), June 2010, General Economics Division

8. Sixth Five Year Plan FY2011-FY2015, Accelerating Growth and Reducing Poverty (Part-1 Strategic Directions and Policy Framework).

9. National Education Policy 201010. Socio-economic Baseline

Survey in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, UNDP-CHTDF, 2009- Dr. Abul Barakat et al.

11. Situation of Primary and Secondary Education in the Chittagong Hill Tracts- Professor Mongshanue Choudhury and Senjuti Khisa.

12. Annex 3 : PEDP III Gender and Inclusive Education Action Plan, June 2011

13. Relevant national and international policy and strategy documents

and 6 drop-out children are conducted under this mission.

FGDThe study team has conducted sevral Focus Group Discussions to collect the relevant information on different education related interventions. The team has conducted 6 FGDs with Hostel management committees, 6 with School Management Committees, 6 with Hostel Students, 3 with MLE Students, 3 with MLE Teachers in the whole course of the mission. Interview Key Informant Interviews were conducted with the Chairman of Hill District Council, Executive Officer of Hill District Council, NGO chiefs providing education in mother tongue, the best teachers, SMC members, teachers providing MLE in schools, MLE students, dropped out children and their parents.

Literature ReviewThe team has also reviewed the secondary information, stories, cases, research documents and other relevant literature available to have better idea on the selected topics and to use necessary information for this study. Secondary literature reviewed during the study included the followings-

1. Chittagong Hill Tracts Agreement 1997

2. Hill District Council Acts 1998

17

18

Chapter 2

Overview on Primary Education

19

Commissions/Committees on National Education Development

Commission/ Committee

Year of formation

Government in power

Dr. Qudrat E Khuda Commission

1972 Awami League

National Education Advisory Committee (Qazi Jafar and Abdul Baten)

1978 BNP

Majid Khan Education Reform Committee

1983 Jatiya Party

Mafiz uddin Commission

1988 Jatiya Party

Shamsul Haque Education Committee

1997 Awami League

Abdul Bari Education Commission

2002 BNP

Manirujjaman Mia Commission

2003 BNP

2009 Awami League

Education Policy Formultion Committee (Prof. Kabir Choudhury)

A. An overview of primary education in Bangladesh

The history of institutionalisation of primary education in the Indian sub-continent is not that much old in terms of time. In 1910 Mr. Gopal Krishna Gokhle had submitted a bill to the Legislative Council for compulsory primary education.After 2 years, effectiveness of the bill was cancelled except in the municipaility areas in 1912. In 1930 the bill was passed within a limited autonomous system and under this act some initiatives were taken including establishment of district school board, management of education affairs, achieve universal education, making education free and compulsory, and so on. During the end of the World War II, the Surgent Commission Report was published in 1944. Pre-primary education system had been recognised in this report for the first time. But the recommendations of this commission were not implemented as the British Government left Indian sub-continent just after few years of publication of the report.

The Bengal (Rural) Primary Education Act had been

year course of primary education was adopted instead of compulsory primary education. In 1952, the course of primary school was made as a five year education cycle again.

20

In 1957, after the partition of India and Pakistan, the government of Pakistan had issued an office order to handover the district education board and management, and control and administration of education to the district education office. Responsibilities were given to the Deputy Commissioner of the respective district.

In 1959, the first education commission was formed under the first Five Year Plan, where compulsory primary education was given priority. This education commission had recommended introducing 8-year primary education course within 15 years. In the second and third Five Year Plan, some provisions such as increasing the student's enrolment rate, all types of facilities in the schools and sufficient budget allocation in education sector were included.

After the independence of Bangladesh, the constitution of the country made the primary education as one of the fundamental responsibilities of the State.

In Bangladesh, there are a few strategies, plans, frameworks and agreement with regards to ensuring quality education to indigenous children within the formal primary education system. But the government of Bangladesh has not acted upon its obligations under these strategies, plans, frameworks and agreements concerning the

children. If the government is serious about achieving EFA for all Bangladeshi children including indigenous children, it needs to take action through special strategies and plans.

The Ministry of Primary and Mass Education (MoPME) responsible for the issues of primary education in Bangladesh. Since the independence of the country, all governments have given the highest priority to the primary education in their development plans. Most of government have tried to keep maximum allocation for education. The most of significant interventions of Bangladesh government among others are introduction of free and Compulsory Eduction for all children and free education for girls up to secondary level. These initiatives have contributed to the progress of increasing the rate of education in the country.

Despite the fact that education has always got the highest priority since indepedence, the irony is that no government could formulate a full-fledged education policy until 2000. In 2000, the government formulated a national education policy, which was revised later and approved in 2010 titled as 'National Education Policy 2010'.

The national education policy has been formulated based on the three sources of principles: 1) the

21

The constitution of Bangladesh (clause 17- Free and compulsory education, October 2011)

1

2 Ibid (clause 28(3)- Discrimination on ground of religion etc., October 2011)

recommendations of various education commissions and committees, and 3) legal and administrative steps. However, the constitution of Bangladesg is the main source of the education policy and education structures in Bangldesh. At the same time, international instruments also do have implications for making policy and legal frameworks for education systems in Bangladesh. The declaration of education for all (EFA) framework and United Nations Convention on the Right of Children (UNCRC) are some of such internatonal instruments, which have directly influenced the education policy and porgrams in Bangladesh.

The constitution of Bangladesh has laid down the fundamental legal and policy measures in the country. By the constitution, the State has the obligation to adopt effective measures for the purpose of - (a) establishing a uniform, mass-oriented and universal system of education and extending free and compulsory education to all children to such stage as may be determined by law; (b) relating education to the needs of society and producing properly trained and motivated citizens to serve those needs; (c) removing illiteracy within such time as may be determined by law1.

The constitution has also guaranteed that no citizen shall, on

sex or place of birth, be ineligible for, or discriminated against in respect of, any employment or office in the service of the Republic2. The provisions, which provide equal treatment to all citizens of the country, are the legal safeguards for the indigenous peoples of Bangladesh to claim their rights within the existing legal frameworks of the country.

The government of Bangladesh has nationalized 36,165 primary schools and jobs of 157,724 teachers through formulating the Primary Education (nationalisation). In 1981, the government has launched Education for All program in order to introduce universal primary education under the Primary Education Department.

Bangladsh government has formed the Primary Education (compulsory) Act 1990 to ensure education for all school-going children from 6 to 10 years old across the country. This act was formed in line with EFA and MDG declarations. This law became effective from 1991.

In 2003, the government has established a separate ministry for primary and mass education in order to ensure free and compulsory primry education for all and to decrease illiteracy in the country.

The government has also launched two national programs- 'food for

22

3

4

Unlocking the Potential - National Strategy for Accelerated Poverty Reduction (PRS), 2005, p. 152-153

Ministry of Primary and Mass Education; 2006 : 8-9

secondary schools' in order to ensure education for the poor children and girls.

Because of the aforementioned measures undertaken by the government, the net enrolment rate increased up to 90.80% in 2008, whereas this rate was only 50% in 1971. This achievement of Bangladesh became a role model for other countries of the region.

During the liberation of Bangladesh hardly 80 percent of the citizens could read and write. For this reason, the Qudarat-E-Khuda Commission has given priority to remove illiteracy through setting up two specific objectives: first, to decrease illiteracy through transforming the population into resources, and the second, to decrease illiteracy in order to orient the citizens on the fundamental principles of the new State- nationalism, socialism, secularism and democracy. All other successive committees and commissions have agreed and supported these objectives.

To achive the social progress and to ensure participation of women in economic activities Dr. Khuda has given emphasis on women's education. In order to spread education among women he suggested for establishment of separate educational institution if deemed necessary. Besides, he has

also recommended giving priority to women candidates during recruitment of teachers. It is observed that all other education committees and commissions have supported this recommendation too. Consequently 60 percent quotas are reserved for women while recruiting teachers. The Five-year plans and PRSP have also given priority to increase education among girls. Hence, affirmative actions have been taken by the successive governments of Bangladesh.

The PRSP of Bangladesh has recommended for a special curriculum to provide education to the indigenous children in their mother tongues at primary level3.

"5.408 The following actions have to be taken in improving the situation of adivasi/ethnic minority people:

- It is necessary to provide education to adivasi/ethnic minority people with a curriculum that allows learning in their own language at primary level".

The government has formed a Primary Education Situational Analysis, Strategies and Action Plan under the PEDP-II in order to ensure education for the indigenous children. This plan formed in 2006, has recommended4-

23

5 Program Document of Primary Education Development Program II

6 Achievements of Primary Education in four years (2009-2012)

3

- to appoint teachers for the indigenous children from indigenous localities who know indigenous languages

- to provide training and orientation to the teachers on this special education system

- to introduce pre-primary education including education in mother tongue

- to include indigenous culture and values through reviewing existing curriculum and textbooks

- to develop infrastructure of schools

- to arrange stipend - to improve supervision and

monitoring system- to strengthen school

management committees through inclusion of indigenous parents in the school management system

- to establish new primary schools

- to create flexibility in the education system (including academic calendars and use of language in education etc.)

The objectives of PEDP II were (1) to increase the rate of enrolment in primary schools and the rate of completion of primary educaton cycle, and (2) to achieve quality in education and positive results of such education5.

The government has commenced the Primary Education Developent Program (PEDP) in 1997, which has

continued up to 2003. The objectives of this PEDP were to increase enrolment rate, increase the rate of completion in primary education cycle, ensure quality education and strengthen monitoring process. The second phase of the primary education development program (PEDP II) was launched from 2004 to 2011 with an objective to institutionalise primary education and strengthen skills, improve the quality of schools and class rooms and create equal opportunities in schools for all children.

The Ministry of Primary and Mass Education in its booklet 'Achievements Primary Education in four Years (2009-2012)' has statedthat infrastructure development, distribution of free textbooks, teachers' training, teachers' recruitment, decrease of drop-out rate, increase of enrolment rate, decrease of the rate of absenteeism are the significant achievements of the PEDPs6.

The third program or PEDP III has started in 2011 and will continue until 2016. The aim of this PEDP III is to achieve learning outcomes, equal participating opportunities for all, decrease discrimination between regions and other levels, and decentralisation and increase budget allocations. The government has been implementing this PEDP III setting out the following 5 achievable results:

24

7 Primary Education Development Program III8 Primary Education Development Program III

(PEDP III, Annexes, P: 45-46)

1. All students will achieve class-wise and subject-wise expected learning outcomes and marginal competencies within the class rooms.

2. All learners will receive pre-primary and primary education from all types of education institutes.

3. Regional and other discriminations will be eliminated or decrease in order to achieve participation of all in the primary education, completion of primary education cycle and earning outcomes

4. Decentralise the planning activities in upazila and school level.

5. Increase budget allocation in primary education sector and increase its effectiveness7.

The PEDP III has also a special arrangement for indigenous children called Framework for Indigenous Peoples Plan. In this special arrangement it is stated that the PEDP III component on Universal Access that aims to promote inclusive primary education has a particular focus on CHT. As in the plains districts, many schools in the region will see improvements in the form of additional classrooms, separate toilets for boys and girls, clean water supply and those needed for a quality learning environment. To address the current accessibility constraints, especially in the remote areas of the region, DPE plans to

children and teachers. Depending on location and need, dormitories for students and teachers are likely to be added to some of the existing schools, and new schools will be built with the same facilities. It is expected that dormitories alone could be a major factor encouraging parents to send their children to schools which could in turn effect improvements in enrolment, attendance and perhaps completion rate of primary education by indigenous peoples' children. Moreover, this could also facilitate teacher recruitment and retention for schools in the remote areas (PEDP III, Annexes, P: 45-46)8.

The plan is attached with the main document of the PEDP III as Annex 3 'Gender and Inclusive Education Plan'. The goal of the IE and Gender Action Plan under PEDPIII is to improve student learning outcomes and completion rate. A suitable education system for the indigenous children is determined in this which will be achieved through- 1) reviwing and refining of textbooks, 2) review and refining of teachers' training manual, 3) formulation of teaching system for education in mother for children in pre-primary and primary education, 4) appoint class room assistants to describe the contents of textbooks in children's own mother tongues where teachers do not speak the language of students, 5) replicate the MLE teaching-learning materials of various NGOs and CHTDF through necessary adjustments and

25

9 Primary Education Development Program III10 National Education Policy 2010

6) Children to be included in mainstream schools wherever possible, 7) identify such children who are presently not covered under any education system because of living in remote areas, disables, domestic workers, street children and other children from deprived populations, 8) Hostels to be handed over to HDC on completion of construction, 9) Resources to be targeted to counter disadvantage through SLIP and UPEP, 10) Routine data collection formats used in schools to be modified to record language groups of enrolled tribal children, 11) Collaboration with MoCHTA to ensure HDC responsibility for education in CHT9.

As a whole, the national education policy 2010 is a milestone in the history of education development in the country. There are various positive recommendations in the policy from the perspectives of indigenous peoples in the country. Relevant recommendations on the issues of education for indigenous children include but not limit to- (a) promote and develop the languages and cultures of the indigenous and small ethnic groups; (b) facilitate learning in the mother languages of the indigenous peoples and small ethnic groups at the primary level of education; (c) give special attention to create residential facilities in the schools of hilly and remote areas; (d) take measures to ensure the availability of teachers from ethnic groups and to prepare texts in their

own languages so that they can learn (in) their own indigenous languages. In these initiatives, especially in preparing textbooks the inclusion of respective indigenous communities will be ensured; (e) provide special assistance to the marginalized indigenous children; (f) establish primary schools in indigenous areas both in hilly or plain lands where no primary school exists; (g) create opportunities of enrollment of sufficient number of children through providing residential facilities for teachers and learners in Indigenous inhabited areas with a thin population to cope with dearth of children10.

The recommendations of national education policy are relevant to the needs of indigenous peoples of the country. But there is no specific implementation plan to translate the recommendations into actions. There is also no specific direction to harmonise the mandates of different actors specifically among the MoCHTA, MoPME, DPE, NCTB, CHTRC, HDC etc. Proper coordination among these actors is essential to fully realise the recommendations of national education policy 2010.

Most of the five year plans of Bangadesh usually focus on leading more resources to education, especially to the primary education. The Fourth Five Year Plan (1990-1995) focused on compulsory attendance through the intervention

26

11 Outline Perspective Plan of Bangladesh 2010-2021 (Making vision 2021 a reality), June 2010, General Economics Division

12Sixth Five Year Plan FY2011-FY2015, Accelerating Growth and Reducing Poverty (Part-1 Strategic Directions and Policy Framework)

Act in order to ensure Education for All. In 1988 the allocation of GDP in education sector was only 1.6%, which became 2.4% in 2000 and currenty fluctuating around 2.2%.

The issues of education of indigenous peoples are considered by the perspective plan 2021 of Bangladesh in order to cope with the long-term development challenges faced by the country, including substantial poverty, inequality and deprivation. Achievement of universal primary education, extending this stage upto grade 8; elimination of illiteracy; removing the education gap between the poor and rich, creating a new generation equipped with technical skills and scientific knowledge; better remunerations for teachers; and overall improvement of quality and equity in education are key education goals of Vision 202111.

The Sixth Five Year plan focused on developing strategies, policies and institutions to help Bangladesh accelerate growth and reduce poverty. The main objective for education under the plan is to increase the rate of school age children going to schools by focusing on both new enrolment and completion rates. The plan also aims to address the low access and low quality of education by developing and implementing a well organized education and training strategy. The Sixth Five Year plan has several objectives for "Human Resource Development" to achieve by 2015

including the following on education: (1) Achieving a 100% net enrollment rate for primary education by 2015, from 91% in 2011, (2) Ensuring that 100% of a cohort reaches grade V, to be increased from 55% in 2011 to 100% by 201512.

The government through its Primary Education Department and National Curriculum and Textbooks Board (NCTB), has started the process of implementation of the Mother Tongue Based Multilingual Education (MTBMLE) program in the primary schools of the government. In order to implement the MTBMLE in line with the national eduction policy 2010, a steering committee and the technical committee are already formed ensuring participation of representatives from relevant actors both from government, non-government and civil society organizations including indigenous peoples' organizations. A group of writers and illustrators are also selected from respective indigenous groups to prepare textbooks as per the NCTB curriculum and textbooks. The education in indigenous chidren's mother tongue was supposed to be started in early 2014. The initiative did not see any light in 2014 because of different hindering factors. It is expected that the MTBMLE will be implemented in primary schools of the country in January 2015 if all the preparatory works are properly accomplished by 2014.

27

13 Social Inclusion and Safeguard Framework (SISF) - Reaching Out-of School Children Project - II

28

The government of Bangladesh has launched an education project Reaching out of School Children (ROSC) in 2004, which has played a key role in providing second chance primary education to the out-of-school children in targeted rural upazilas. The ROSC project complements the efforts of the PEDPIII in improving access, quality and strengthening education management at all levels. The ROSC has a specific strategy for indigenous children along with others. The ROSC II project upazilas include CHT areas. About 58% indigenous peoples live outside CHT in a scattered manner. It is estimated that about half of the indigenous children in the primary school age group are out of school. The indigenous strategy of ROSC proposes to improve access of indigenous children in universal primary education. The Plan for Expanding Primary Education of Indigenous Children adopted under the PEDPII was followed for the first ROSC project and the same is followed for

social inclusion of Indigenous children in ROSC II as well. The indigenous peoples are targeted to be specially consulted for selection of Learning Center (LC) venue, curriculum development, and recruitment and training of teachers where the catchment area includes indigenous population13.

14The Chittagong Hill Tracts district was eastablished in 1860, by Act XXII, as a separate district, with its headquarters located in Chandraghona. Captain Magrath was appointed as the first District Superintendent of the district.

15Bandarban hill district was established in 1981 and Khagrachari hill district in 1983.

16 National Population Census 2011, Bangladesh Bureu of Statistics.17 Dr. Abul Barakat et al; Socio-economic Baseline Survey in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, UNDP-CHTDF,

2009.

B. The situation of primary education in the Chittagong Hill Tracts

political authority to the hill district councils so that the development interventions can be carried out under these councils. Since their establishment, these councils, as mandated by relevant laws, have been implementing activities related to primary education.

According to the Population Census report of 2011, the average literacy rate in the Chittagong Hill Tracts is 43.90%, out of which 46.10% in Khagrachari, 35.90% in Bandarban and 49.70% in Rangamati Hill Districts. Literacy rates between female and male in CHTs are 37.76% and 49.53% respectively. The average literacy rate in Bangladesh is 51.80% as per the census report16. The literacy rate in CHT is well behind (about 7.90%) of the national rate.. Over the last 10 years (2001 to 2011) the discripency between the literacy rate of CHT and Bangladesh as a whole increased by 2.28%, whereas it was 5.62% in 2001.

The children of CHT face various challenges in education. For instance, a recent socio-economic study commissioned by CHTDF17- UNDP shows that out of the total enrolled indigenous children in CHT region, more than half of them drop

Before 1862, there was no institutional arrangement for formal education in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. In 1862, formal education was commenced through establishing a primary school in Chandraghona, the headquarters of the newly formed Chittagong Hill Tracts district14. In 1870, a primary school was established in Manikchari of Ramgarh sub-division and another one in the sub-divisional headquarters of Bandarban. After some time, the primary school in Bandarban sub-division had been closed down because of unavailability of enough students.

A separate education board was established in the Chittagong Hill Tracts district in 1938 considering the special characteristics of the region. In 1947-48, 144 primary schools had been established under this education board. In the end of Pakistan regime, the number of school had increased up to 351. After the independence of Bangadesh, most of the primary schools of the region had been nationalised in 1973.

In 1989, local government council was introduced in each of the three hill districts15. This special government system aims to devolve

29

18 Professor Mongshanue Choudhury and Senjuti Khisa, Situation of Primary and Secondary Education in the Chittagong Hill Tracts

schools usually stay in upazilla and district town centers who can rarely reach to their schools the desired time and leave schools early as they have to reach home before becoming dark.

The Hill District Councils are not involved in the activities PEDP II and PEDP III. Most of the activities of this education development program are directly implemented by central ministries and line departments without significant involvement of HDCs. For instance, the schools constructed under PEDP funds are directly implemented by LGED.

To address the above-stated issues of education in CHT, the government of Bangladesh has undertaken different policy measures and programs.

Some of such important policy documents and programs undertaken by the government concerning CHT are-

1. Chittagong Hill Tracts Accord 1997

2. Hill District Council (amendment) Acts 1998

3. Ministry of Hill Tracts Affairs Act 1998

4. Chittagong Hill Tracts Regional Council Act 1998

5. National Education Policy 2010

6. PEDP II & III7. PRSP8. ROSC II

-out in early years of their education life. Accordig to this study about 65% of indigenous children drop out from primary level, while theeverage rate in the whole country is only 30%. Language barriers, low quality of teachers, inappropriate curriculum and contents of education mmterials, poverty of parents, distance between school and localities, insufficient infrastructure, difficult geographical terrain are the most crucial issues in the eduction of CHT region. The schools also do not have facilities. According to a study conducted by the Manusher Jonno Foundation in 2011, about 26% schools in the CHT region do not have toilet facilities, and 30% do not have safe drinking water. Most of the schools are situated in high hills, for which they do not have sufficient space for a playground within the school campus. As per the research report, only 41% schools in CHT have sufficient open space to be used as a playground for the children18.

About 90% of the CHT population, who live in rural areas, are deprived of government and non-governmental development facilities. Some of the teachers remain regularly absent from the school and some irregularly attend the schools for a very short period of time. Duration of contact hours between teachers and students in this region is very low. Students of the schools located at remote villages are always deprived from having opportunity to attend classes regularly and with sufficient duration

30

primary education in CHT, HDCs cannot effectively play roles in development of primary education other than recruting teachers. HDCs are highly dependent on the line ministry, MoPME for budget allocation in primary education.

After signing of Chittagong Hill Tracts Accord on the 2nd December of 1997, these local government councils were reformed and remaned as Hill District Councils (HDCs). These HDCs were given more responsibilities for primary education; they were entrusted with the authority to recruit and transfer of primary school teachers including their promotion. The Ministry of Chittagong Hill Tracts Affairs and the Chittagong Hill Tracts Regional Council are responsible for overall development of the region. Among the responsibilities of these two specialised institutions, monitoring, supervision and providing policy and mentoring support to primary education and education in mother tongue sectors are included as the most crucial key areas.

The education policy 2010 has described the education as universal, free and secular, which has aimed to take necessary steps to introduce education in mother tongue of IP children, and preserve the ethnic and cultural diversity of the country. The government of Bangladesh has started formulating an education act in 2013 which is now due to be produced in the parliament. This law has recognized the special needs of

The CHT Accord 1997 has recognised the primary education in own mother tongue and devolution of authority of primary education to the Hill District Councils (HDCs). HDCs have been entrusted with the authority to recruit, appoint and transfer local teachers within the respective district. With decentralisation of authority from the central government to HDCs, it has created an opportunity to recruit teachers from the respective learners' communities in CHT. By the HDC Acts, each HDC is expected to ensure primary education to children in own mother tongue. Despite this policy progress for primary education in CHT, HDCs cannot effectively play roles in development of primary education other than recruting teachers. HDCs are highly dependent on the line ministry, MoPME for budget allocation in primary education.

The CHT Accord 1997 has recognised the primary education in own mother tongue and devolution of authority of primary education to the Hill District Councils (HDCs). HDCs have been entrusted with the authority to recruit, appoint and transfer local teachers within the respective district. With decentralisation of authrotiy from the central government to HDCs, it has created an opportunity to recruit teachers from the respective learners' communities in CHT. By the HDC Acts, each HDC is expected to ensure primary education to children in own mother tongue.

31

because of living in remote areas, disables, domestic workers, street children and other children from deprived populations, 8) Hostels to be handed over to HDC on completion of construction, 9) Resources to be targeted to counter disadvantage through SLIP and UPEP, 10) Routine data collection formats used in schools to be modified to record language groups of enrolled tribal children, 11) Collaboration with MoCHTA to ensure HDC responsibility for education in CHT .

Bangladesh government has initiated its education project Reaching out of School Children (ROSC) in the Chittagong Hill Tracts region recently. The ROSC project complements the efforts of the PEDP III in improving access, quality and strengthening education management at all levels. The ROSC has a specific strategy for indigenous children along with others. The Chittagong Hill Tracts region is included in the ROSC II project upazilas. The indigenous strategy of ROSC proposes to improve access of indigenous children in universal primary education.

education in the mother tongue of indigenous children, establishing hostels, introducing flexible school calendars, keeping probition to establish schools, recognising the HDCs as local level authority in school estbalishment and other education activities, and keeping probition for formulating and education materials in participation with the indigenous peoples are included in this law along with others.

The 'Gender and Inclusive Education Plan' of PEDP III set some targeted activities which directly implicate to the issues of education of the indigenous children. This plan is designed to achieve inclusive quality education for the indigenous children among others through- 1) reviwing and refining of textbooks, 2) review and refining of teachers' training manual, 3) formulation of teaching system for education in mother for children in pre-primary and primary education, 4) appoint class room assistants to describe the contents of textbooks in children's own mother tongues where teachers do not speak the language of students, 5) replicate the MLE teaching-learning materials of various NGOs and CHTDF through necessary adjustments and reviewing such materials, 6) Children to be included in mainstream schools wherever possible, 7) identify such children who are presently not covered

32

Chapter 3

Challenges in Primary Education in the Chittagong Hill Tracts

33

Students from remote villages have to cross the rough geographical terrain to reach their school

In many cases, the government policies cannot properly address the issue of remoteness in CHT. As per the conditions of the government policy, a primary school will be set up within a two-mile radius i.e. within a catchment area of two miles, no other school will be allowed by the government. However, this condition is relaxed for town areas, if the total

population size is higher. This condition is also not applicable for the private schools financed by individuals or private organisations. To get an idea about the number of school going children, usually the

1. Remoteness

One of the main problems associated with access to primary education is the remoteness of communities and schools in CHT. Most of the teachers, who are recruited from outside, stay in the town area, and from there they try to attend the schools. Due to the difficult terrains of the hills, they cannot attend the schools regularly. The access to education is equally

exacerbated by the fact that most of the school buildings in remote areas tend to remain in poor condition due to lack of government support and community participation (MoPME,

34

primary schools are responsible for doing survey on the school going children aged from 6+ to 10+ every year within the respective catchment area. This survey also aims at identifying the number of stydents who have enrolled in the school, and how many children are attending the outside schools. In the hilly areas of CHT the two mile distance may take well over one hour to make up and down on foot from home to school. Distances are often much longer than two miles. Due to the difficult geographical terrains and the streams with heavy current during the rainy seasons, it becomes dangerous for kids to go to schools.

The criteria of the government on setting up a school and its registration are not suitable for the CHT region. Of these conditions, registration of land, area coverage of the catchment areas, and the number of children required are not flexible. Due to remoteness, these criteria are not easy to fulfill for a school in CHT.

The physical infrastructures such as limited number of schools and poor road communication in the rural CHTs are also not supportive for the children's access to education.

For all these reasons, the government education system is able to cover less than 60% (ADB, 2001).

The excluded villages : Shadow under the Candle

Access to primary schools remains a big challenge for many para communities in the CHT. In remote villages all children have not enrolled in the schools. The villages in CHT have low access to education compared to the rest of the country. Difficult geographical terrains coupled with protracted conflict have impacted the access to education in the CHT region. Given the hilly geographical terrains, 2 km distance (as defined by the government policy) from home to school is still burdensome for the students in CHT. To commute a long distance (say, 4 km up and down) takes much time and potentially not secure, particularly for girls.

In Chittagong Hill Tracts there are still a considerable number of villages which are not covered under catchments area of any school. The participants of different consultation meetings and focus group discussions have informed that in Bandarban Hill District, more than 40 percent villages (out of 1554 para communities) are not covered under any catchments area and more than 200 para paras in Khagrachari Hill District also do not have any schooling facilities.

To understand the situation of the 'out-of-school villages', the research associates of this study have visited several villages. For instance, in 1 no. ward of Bhaibonchara Union at least 5 villages are not covered under any catchment areas of the schools.

story-1

35

The education system of the country has failed to recognize the specific learning needs of indigenous children, especially the need of education in their own mother tongue. As such, the schools are providing education, which is neither relevant, appropriate, flexible nor inclusive. Recognising the need of primary education

shadow under the candle

The Paras are Shib Mandir Para, Rabidhan Para, Almoni Para, Shiam Bari and Nabakumar Para (marked as 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6). The nearest primary school to these five villages is Laxmimura Government Primary School (marked as 1 in the map), which was nationalised recently. This school is 3 miles away from Shib Mandir Para and Rabidhan Para, 5 miles from Almoni Para, 6 miles from Shiam Bari and about 10 miles from Nabakumar Para. Nearby Nabakumar Para there is another primary school called Haja Para Government Primary School (marked as 7 in the map), which is about 5 miles away from the village located in the border of Dighinala Upazila. But children from Nabakumar Para attend this school by passingthrough a rain forest and crossing several streams with strong current during the rainy season. This path to the school is potentially risky for the school going children. In the nearby villages, there are about 200 households with 1000 population who are deprived from education facilities.

Legend

1. Laxmimura Govt. Pry School2. Shib Mandir Para3. Rabidhan Para4. Almoni Para5. Shiam Bari6. Nabakumar Para7. Haza Para Govt. Pry School

12 3

45

6

7

The CHT region is different from other parts of the country in terms of social, political, ethnic, cultural, and religious systems and linguistic aspects. Life and livelihood of the people are also different from other parts of the country.

2. Cultural Incongruity

36

in own mother tongues for indigenous children, the government has taken several measures. The National Education Policy 2010 has recognized the need for an area-based school calendar, which is essential for the CHT region and for other areas where natural calamities are common phenomena. The policy states, "in the schools located in the wetlands and areas prone to frequent natural calamities, provisions will be there to change the timing of the school hours and to reschedule the holidays according to their needs. In this regard, decisions can be taken at the local level on the basis of c o m m u n i t y - b a s e d

recommendations.' Despite this policy change, the school calendars for the CHT region still have not been reviewed on the basis of c o m m u n i t y - b a s e d recommendations. During the caretaker government in 2008, MoPME has issued a letter to the district offices of education departments in the three hill districts. Among the 3 HDCs, Bandarban Hill District Council has initiated to issue an office order to the primary schools in Bandarban. Other 2 districts did not have any such initiative yet. If this decision is implemented in 3 hill districts, the jumia children will get an opportunity to stay in the schools.

Local specific school

calendar formulated

by the RHDC and DPE

Rangamati, which is

an example for

creating scope for

positive change

37

Contents and contexts of the curriculum and education materials have to be relevant to the culture, life and livelihood of the learners

As the government schools and their curriculum do not reflect cultural values and livelihood practices of the indigenous peoples, parents do not find it relevant to their communities or livelihoods. This was identified in the government strategy for indigenous children (MoPME, 2006). Often when the reports state that parents are not aware of the importance of education; in reality, parents lack confidence in the education system and the quality and value of the lessons. Parents are less likely to feel the school is important and send their children to school if the school is conducted in a language that the child and parents do not understand, the contents of curriculum are not relevant to their life and livelihood.

The National Curriculum and Textbooks Board (NCTB) has initiated to review the contents of textbooks written on the issues of indigenous peoples, culture and livelihood in 2013. The NCTB has made significant changes in the textbooks of class III to class X especially. 'tribal' words and other mis-interpretations on the issues of indigenous peoples are removed from the said textbooks. A separate textbook is also introduced in class VI from 2013. This can be replicated to other classes so that all leanrers of the country can be able to learn about the culture, life and livelihood of indigenous peoples in Bangladesh.

38

Most of the parents are still engaged in jum and other natural resource-related livelihood

3. Poverty of Parents

Poverty is very widespread among the parents across CHT. Due to poverty, they cannot provide necessary supports to their children such as food, clothes and education materials. Equally the rate of literacy among communities is very low, and they are not aware of their rights and responsibility for improving access to education.

Communities are deprived of all sorts of development services such as the medical service, access to education and so on. According to the 'Food Security Mapping', the CHT has been identified as one of

the most insecure areas of the country. Most of indigenous families in CHTs still depend on jum cultivation and natural resources. It is not possible for the parents to bear the cost of education for their children. Although the primary education is free and compulsory, they are to bear the costs of school dresses, daily food, conveyances, and the relevant education materials like pencil, note book etc. Poverty of parents is also one of the hindering factors to improving access to education for their children.

39

As the government schools and their curriculum do not reflect cultural values and livelihood practices of the indigenous peoples, parents do not find it relevant to their communities or livelihoods. This was identified in the government strategy for indigenous children (MoPME, 2006). Often when the reports state that parents are not aware of the importance of education; in reality, parents lack confidence in the education system and the quality and value of the lessons. Parents are less likely to feel the school is important and send their children to school if the school is conducted in a language that the child and parents do not understand, the contents of curriculum are not relevant to their life and livelihood.

The National Curriculum and Textbooks Board (NCTB) has initiated to review the contents of textbooks written on the issues of indigenous peoples, culture and livelihood in 2013. The NCTB has made significant changes in the textbooks of class III to class X especially. 'tribal' words and other mis-interpretations on the issues of indigenous peoples are removed from the said textbooks. A separate textbook is also introduced in class VI from 2013. This can be replicated to other classes so that all leanrers of the country can be able to learn about the culture, life and livelihood of indigenous peoples in Bangladesh.

Menroy Mro Stopped Going to School

dropped out or pushed out?

Menroy Mro is a 13 years old boyfrom Dewai Para under Chambi Mouza, Aziznagar Union, Lama Upazilla of Bandarban Hill District. He has studied up to grade VI. Because of the poverty, his parents could not afford his educational expenses. Then Menroy had to join his parents to assist them in household works. When asked Menroy about what could be done for continuation of his education, he said, "perhaps if I were given residential facilities along with education material support, it would have been possible for me to continue my education".

His father Rengle Mro said that Menroy was not that much interested to continue his studies. If he were properly looked after by his teacher, he could continue his studies. The co-learners of Menroy said that he should continue his studies for his better future. Mr. Abul Hasan Choudhury, a teacher of Menroy says, "awareness of parents is the most crucial thing for education of children. They will continue their education if parents encourage and supervise their studies even they are illiterate". According to Md. Dulal Hosen, another teacher of Menroy,"a social initiative should be undertaken by the community leaders, youth and conscious people and they can set up a sort of community monitoring system to

40

Story 2

Bandana Triura, a 15 years old girl from Rabidhan Karbari Para, a remote village in Bhaibonchara Union of Khagrachari sadar upazilla. The village is almost isolated from modern world as there is no communication system both in the infrastructural condition and information technology. Bandana has stopped goingto school while she was reading in class VII in Bhaibonchara Millennium High School. The head teacher of this school Mr. Tatumoni Chakma says, 'Bandana was reading in this school in grade VII. In 2013 she has suddenly stopped attending classes. Her name is now already included in the list of dropped-out children of the school. So far my knowledge she has stopped coming to school as she has to walk around 10 kilometers to reach to school. I think the distance of school from her home is the most hindering factors for her. This is also same problem for other children too who are coming from similar localities. Most of such students come to school after taking breakfast in early morning and have to keep on attending classes with empty stomach up to evening when they reach to their home everyday.'

Bandana says, 'the school is located at 10 kilometers away from our village. It was not possible for me to attend school walking on foot alone for every day. Because of insufficient income my father also could not afford school dress, books and lodging costs to stay in the nearby school. I had to start from my home early in the morning towards my school and used to arrive home in the evening. Walking alone in early morning and in the dark to get home back was too scary for me. So eventually I stopped going to school and started helping my parents like any other girls of the village.'

Ruhin Kumar Tripura father of Bandana says, 'I could not afford for the school dress of my daughter. I could not pay for her lodging cost to keep her nearby the school. So it was not possibe to push her to go back to school. Now she is working with us in Jum and helping us in other household works.'

Hopina Tripura one of the class-mates of Bandana is now studying in grade VIII. She says, 'Bandana was my class mate. We have studied in grade VI and VII together. Their village was too far from our school. Every day she had to struggle to reach to school and to get back home.'

Bandana Wanted to Be a Teacher

'I had a dream to be a school teacher. There are many children in my village who do not have any opportunity to go to school. My dream is teach such deprived children. But a dream is always 'a dream' it cannot come into reality'.

- Bandana Tripura 41

Story 3

Language is the most important driving force in learning process. Interactions and communication between teachers and students become difficult if there is a language barrier.

In CHT, the language barrier affects education of indigenous children in a number of ways. For example, Bangla is not their mother tongue, for which Bangla is completely a foreign language to them. Therefore, it is expected that the teachers should be recruited from the respective learners' community. But it was observed that the problems arose when the teachers were recruited from one community and posted to a school where the students from another community were studying. The children faced the problems in two ways: first, Bangla, for not being mother tongue, is difficult to udnerstand, and second, the teachers, being 'non-native speakers', cannot explain the lessions to the children. Consequently the children find it difficult to learn in Bangla other than their mother tongue. (CARE, 1999 in AITPN, 2003:36).

Generally teachers are obligated to use Bangla in the classrooms since it is the official language in the country; however, they can use the children's mother tongue to explain ideas or instruction (Islam,

2006:25). In practice, someteachers are trying to use the children's mother tongue in the classrooms, but the use of 'learners' language' in the classrooms is also very limited. One of the reasons is that the teachers do not have sufficient skills and confidence in this regard.

As such, due to lack of opportunity to develop literacy in own mother tongues, indigenous children face a big difficulty to learn, read and write Bangla from the very beginning of their schooling. The lack of education in own mother tongue affects to achieve the expected level of competencies by indigenous children. On the use of language as medium of instruction, the Manusher Jonno Foundation carried out a study, which shows that 72% teachers in CHT formally used Bangla to teach children, while only 15% teachers informally used indigenous languages followed by 13% teachers who used both languages to explain the contents of books to the students .

Among the respondents of this study, 81% believe that primary education in mother tongues has multidimensional effects on education of their children. Among the respondent teachers, 70% said

42

4. Absence of Mother Tongue based Multilingual Education

students, because most of the students did not understand Bangla.

According to the student respondents, their teachers taught them in Bangla (63% of their time) and indigneous language (about 18% of their time) to explain the contents of the books. Language being a big barrier to learning, 72% of the student respondents believe that they would be benefitted if education were imparted in own mother tongues, and the contents of the curriculum were culturally relevant.

Chhotobari is a village under Bhaibonchhara Union in Khagrachari sadar Upazilla of Khagrachari hill district. Mohini Ranjan Tripura is a 14 years old boy, son of late Beer Mohan Tripura and Janika Tripura of this village. Chhotobari Para Registered Primary school is situated at only 50 mitre distance from the home of Mohini. He has left school in 2012 while he was studying in class four. 'I had school dress, books, pens everything. My mother had arranged all these for me. Sometimes we have to go to bed with empty stomach'- Mohini explains the situation of his family. He does not understand why he should go to school! He does not have any interest to the lessons of his books. His mother used to tell him to go to school initially. Not seeing any interest she has stopped pushing Mohini to go to school. 'I have started looking after my sibling, going to Jum with my mother and helping her in household works'- Mohini added.

Mohini's mother Janika Tripura says, 'when Mohini's father was alive he used to forcefully bring his son to school. The school is very close to our home. Mohini's father has passed away four years back'. Being asked if she has any knowledge on the causes of Mohini's dropping out from school, she said, 'I heard that once Mohini had a misunderstanding with his teacher while he was playing football. Since that day he has started avoiding school. Now he is going to jum with me and helping me in household works'.

Mrs. Joy Tripura a student of class six- one of the classmates of Mohini says, 'he was my classmate. He had the most attractive handwriting among our friends. Unfortunately he has dropped out from school'.

Ms. Shyuli Chakma, one of the teachers of Mohini says, 'Mohini Ranjan was one of my students. He has left school in 2012. We have tried bringing him back through the School Management Committee. He did not come back to school'.

Mohini Ranjan Tripura - who does not find any cause to go to school

Story 4

43

Transparency and accountability in recruitment of primary teachers is always questioned by the citizens of the region. Placement of teachers is also influenced by political consideration. The teachers, who got recruited, were expected to serve in their respective places. But later it became a trendy fashion for many teachers that they tried to get a transfer from a remote school to a 'better place', say, in urban areas by using political power or personal relations with the poltical leaders or high officials.

Due to various resons, indigenous children do not have access to quality education compared to other parts of Bangladesh. First, very few teachers are recruited from the learners' language community in the formal primary education system. Second, the qualified teachers do not want to be posted in the remote areas, where usually indigenous communities live in. If they are posted in the remote areas, many of them rent out their teaching position to proxy teachers,

who may or may not show up at theschool. Third, teachers also do not speak the same languages of students and host communities, so they cannot communicate with indigenous children in the classrooms properly.

The HDCs have tried recruiting teachers from the same Upazillas, which should be continued and teachers should be recruited from the same Union if possible. This will increase the contact hours in school. The HDCs should formulate its own 'Teachers recruitment, placement and transfer policy' to run such activities smoothly.

The statistical data show that the ratio between the teachers and school is well enough compared to the number of schools in CHT. But the flipside of the coin is that still there are a considerable number of schools in CHT where only 2 to 3 teachers have been placed. In those schools, the students do not receive quality education, because one teacher, primarily the head teacher

5. Issues of Teachers recruitment and placements

44

another one or two teachers have to deal with all the five classes including the pre-primary classes. Moreover, there are a considerable number of teachers who are deputed to other schools which are usually situated in the road side, or nearby market places or in union, upazilla or district headquarters. There is no alternative arrangement for temporary replacement of the female teachers during their maternity leave. These factors also hamper to provide education to indigenous children in CHT.

6. Issues of Quality Teachers

Quality education depends on the quality of tachers. The Hill District Councils (HDCs) are responsible for recruitment, placement and transfer of teachers in the primary schools in the respective district. But current recruitment system of the HDCs is very much contested and not favourable to selecting qualified teachers. There are huge allegations from the common people about the recruitment system under HDCs that final selection of teachers is influenced by political consideration and the amounts of bribes. Even the minimum criteria set out for selection of teachers are not followed properly. Quality education can only be achieved with qualified teachers. But such teachers should receive high level initial training, have access to adequate in-service training and have at their disposal pedagogical means to enable them to act as professionals in education .

The fundamental weakness of the recruitment system for primary teachers in CHT relates to the fact that HDCs are not formed through the direct election. Chairmen and members of HDCs are selected by the ruling party, for which they are not accountable to the people. Due to the corrupt system of recruitment, the qualified candidates are unlikely to be selected as teachers in CHT. Eventually this factor results in

Hanchyong Mro is a 13 years old boy who lives with parents in Menroy Para under Alikhyong Mouza of Ruangchari Upazilla in Bandarban Hill District. He has completed his education up to grade VI. He dropped out from the school because of his irregular attendance in the school. Moreover, his parents also had difficulty to pay for his food, clothes and education materials. If these supports were provided to Hanchyong, he could continue his studies.

Hanchyong Mrois he going to make the list

of dropped out children longer?

Story 5

45

7. Poor infrastructure

The infrastructural conditions of the primary schools in CHT are very much deplorable. There are many schools in the region, where children are learning within the highly risky environment because of the poor infrastructural conditons. There are many government schools in the remote villages in CHT, where the construction companies usually do not respond to the 'tender notice' for construction of school building. Existing schools also do not have sufficient and wide classrooms, enough furniture, enough learning materials, sufficient number of teachers, sufficient sports materials and clean and useable toilets. There are even such schools in CHT which do not have any toilet facility. Due to lack of infrastructural facilities, children lose their interest to stay in the school or they are not regular in their schools.

poor education to the children across the CHT region.

PTIs are expected to train up the teachers, but there is no PTI in Bandarban and Khagrachari hill district except one in Rangamati. In both districts PTIs are under construction. On the other hand, it was also observed that most of the teachers who received training from PTI are very much reluctant to apply the knowledge gained from training in their practical classrooms.

In order to recruit the qualified teachers, the recruitment process must be transparent. To this effect, the teachers' recruitment policy of HDCs should be reviewed and revised to meet the present needs in primary education. Equally the recruitment criteria such as flexibility in age limit, education qualification and so on should be reviewed, as the present policies have been now at least 10 years old. Over the last 10 years, many graduates have come out, so the educational qualification should be reconsidered. The educational qualification also should be adjusted if the present primary education system is upgraded to 8 years from the present 5 year system.

Poor infrastructure is one of the most significant hindering factors in achieving EFA goals

46

Regular monitoring of the schools is impacted in a number of ways. First, there are many positions which lie vacant in the Department of education for a long time. Of these positions, some important positions are Assistant District Primary Education Officer, Monitoring Officer, Assistant Monitoring Officer, Upazilla Primary Education Officer, Assistnat Upzilla Primary Education Officer etc. Second, there is no specific desk for monitoring and supervision and human resources within HDCs. Due to absence of proper monitoring system, many schools especially in the remote areas do not start on time and break up before the office hour. For this reason interactions between teachers and students or the contact hours of classes are too short to provide quality education.

On the other hand, most of the teachers are not from the same localities of the schools. They usually stay away from the schools. Sometimes, all teachers do not attend the schools together. Instead they conduct classes by rotation through mutual understanding among themselves (one/two teacher/s attend school in a day).

As per the charter of duties, UEOs and AUEOs are assigned to pay monitoring visits to certain number of schools every month. In practice, given the difficult geo-physical terrains in CHT, UEO or AUEOs cannot pay monitoring visits as per the plan. The numbers of schools assigned on them are also not feasible, as one person hardly can cover only one school in a day.

School calendar is neither flexible nor reflective of local conditions of the host communities. The existing school calendar does not consider the local environment, culture and livelihood practices of the learners communities. Local communities do not have any opportunity to participate in the process of formulating the school calendar. For this reason, there are discrepancies between the period of vacation at school and the livelihood activities of the local communities. During the jum season jumia children stay away from the schools accompanying their parents in the jum field, while other

children continue their schooling . In contrast to this scenario, during the normal school vacations such as the Ramadan or summer vacations, the jumia children stay in the village, when they do nothing but playing with dusts.

About 78% children stay out of school during their social and religious festivals, and the jum cultivation period . For this reason, most of the respondents said that the school calendar should be flexible and relevant to the local social, cultural and livelihood practices of local communities.

9. Inflexibility in School Calendar

8. Weak Monitoring System

47

Before nationalization of schools community people used to finance and manage schools in rural areas. A school was really a social resource, which belonged to the community members. Establishment of school houses and their maintenance and paying teachers' honourarium/ salaries - all were done by by the community members on the basis of social value- none owns school but all community members own this as a community resource. After nationalization of the primary schools, government has taken over all relevant responsibilities and participation of local communities

became less important or the community people started withdrawing themselves from the management of schools. They started perceiving the school as the the asset of government, and that does not belong to the community. All responsibilities including coordination of SMCs became the sole duty of the head teacher. The head teacher calls meetings of SMC as the member secretary of the committee. As most of the SMC members do not take part in the activities of school management, the head teacher started managing the SMC alone. This tendency led the head teacher to become autocratic

10. Participation in management of schools

Shiuly Khyang, a 10 years old girl from Dhanuchari of Ghilachari union in Rajasthali Upazila of Rangamati. She studied up to grade V in Dhanuchari Non-Government Primary School. After passing Primary School Certificate (PSC) examination she had to stop her studies in this year. A few factors can be attributed to her drop-out from the school. There is no high school nearby their village. It was not possible for her to attend a high school far from her village too. Recently her mother passed away. After passing of her mother, her father also is not taking care of her. Shiuly's brother is studying in grade I. She is worried about her brother's studies.

Shiuly now lives with her aunt, who is a widow. Her aunt ekes out her living by doing jum cultivation. Her aunt also cannot afford to pay educational expenses for Shiuly. She is now joining her aunt in jum cultivation. Mauching Khyang, Shiuly's aunt said, "it is not possible for me to earn enough money to afford the costs of food, clothes and education of Shiuly".

According to Babul Khyang, Shiuly's teacher, the school teachers were helpful with her. In 2013 when Shiuly was struggling to attend the PSC examination, (as she did not have any school dress), he collected a set of school dress for her. He thinks that if Shiuly is provided with proper support and guidance, she can surely continue her education.

Who is responsible for dropping out of Shiuly Khyang from school?

I have passed PSC examination. So there is no barrier for me to get admission in class VI. If the government or anyone can take the responsibility for my food and educational expenses, I would continue my studies. - Shiuly Khyang

Story 6

48

Tosha Rani Tripura is a 17 years old girl from Sahadev Writer Para of Perachara Union in Khagrachari sadar Upazila. Her father Anil Kumar Tripura is a day-labourer. Among the three children, Tosha Rani is the eldest child to her parents. One brother of Tosha Rani is studying in grade V and the youngest brother is in grade I. Tosha Rani studied up to grade III in Khagrachari Government Primary School. She failed in the final examination of grade III. After leaving this primary school she took admission into the T&T Gate Non-government Primary School. From this non-government school she completed her Primary School Certificate (PSC) examination in 2009. After PSC, her father could not afford the costs for her studies in high school. Her father Anil Kumar Tripura said, "I do not have any other income sources except working as daily wage labourer. Sometimes I work as an assistant to mason in construction works. Whatever an amount I earn, with that I

cannot afford to pay the relevant costs for education of my daughter...I could send her to a primary school, because it was free".

Tosha says, "I had to stop my education because of the financial problem of my parents. After completing my primary education, I did a training course on sewing at Anando, an NGO. But I could not utilize my skills gained from this training course, because of necessary income generating facilities were not there". She is worried about her future. "Now I am in a dilemma of what to do for my future. I want to assist my parents to increase our household income".

Story 7

I had to stop my education because of the financial problem of my parents. After completing my primary education, I did a training course on sewing at Anando, an NGO. But I could not utilize my skills gained from this training course, because of necessary income generating facilities were not there". She is worried about her future. "Now I am in a dilemma of what to do for my future. I want to assist my parents to increase our household income.

- Tosha Rani TripuraTosha Rani Tripura with her parents

Tosha Rani is now in a dilemma of what to do for her future

Tosha Rani Tripura a dropped-out girl

49

Mayung Twiklu Para is a disadvantaged village of Perachara union in Khagrachari sadar Upazila of Khagrachari district. Most of the households of this village are living under poverty line. Most of the children from this village drop out from schools because of poverty. Priya Triura, 16 year old, is one of them. She had to give up her education in grade VII. Her father Sanjib Tripura is a truck driver, and her mother Ujjwala Tripura is a housewife. She is the eldest among the 3 children to her parents. Priya says, "my father could not continue paying my monthly school fees, examination fees, school dress and education materials like books and pens. They [parents] do not have any interest in my education. They never encouraged me to continue my studies. I had to stop my education, because I did not get education materials and other essential things like school dress and school fees from my parents". Priya Tripura was reading in grade VII in 2012. Now all of her classmates are in grade IX. Of the two younger brothers - one brother is helping her father as a truck assistant, and the youngest brother is just staying at home; he is not going to school at this moment". About her future, Priya says, "I do not have any dream now. However I would like to go back to school if my parents can support my education".

Joy Tripura son of Sumon Tripura and Kolinshri Tripura is a 17 years old boy who has never been to school. The nearby school is only one and half kilometres far from his village Mayung Twiklu para of Perachara union under Khagrachari sadar Upazila. When asked why he did not go to school, Joy Tripura replied, "I did not find any interest to go to school. I have never thought of going to school. I see, my childhood friends are going to school regularly, but I have never tried to follow them".

The parents of Joy Tripura are also not that much aware that they have to send their kids to school. Joy Tripura is the eldest son among 6 children to his parents. None of his brothers goes to school. Joy is now an assistant to a mason. "I am earning 300 taka per day, with which I am able to support my family. So I am happy with this" - Joy Tripura added.

Story 8Priya likes to go back to school

Priya Tripura does not have any dream

I do not have any dream now. However I would like to go back to school if my parents can support my education.

- Priya Tripura

- Joy Tripura

Joy has never been to school

50

Story 9

My parents never told me about going to school. But I shall send my children to school to build their better future

51

Rabidhan Karbari Para in Bhaibonchara union of Khagrachari Sadar Upazila is an old village established about 250 years back. There are about 60 households in the village with a population of 340, of them 165 are women. Among the villagers, about 190 elders have never been to school. The number of school going age children in the village is 60. So long, nobody from this village could cross HSC yet, let alone Bachelor or post-graduate degree. Currently only one student is studying in HSC. So long, only 30 have completed primary level (grade V) of education, and one passed SSC. The nearest primary school of this village is 10 No. Laxmimura Government Primary school located in 6 km. far from the village. The children of this village are deprived of education because of the inaccessibility of the village. The elders explain their situation, "chwng poremaya, suimaya, koktunrokni kokno bijiya, sakni bumungnobo suimaya. Lekha phareyathani chwng chakribo

maya. Parani borokrok joto machaya-malwngya. Lekha phareyathani ma-pharok bokni basanobo iskulo holya. Ok thaisani bagwi mai jugamanibai sal thango" (we do not know how to read and write. We cannot even put on our own signatures. Most of the households of the village are living from hand to mouth). As the parents are not literate they do not value the importance of education. They do not feel encouraged to send their children to the school. The school being located in a faraway place, children of early classes struggle to go to school by passing through the difficult geographical terrain and crossing over dangerous streams of the hills. During the rainy season, children cannot go to school regularly. All these factors contribute to the drop-out of children from the school in their early ages. The parents also cannot afford the expenses to send their children to a school in the nearby town. The situation is worse for girls due to insecurity to commute through the hills and jungles where

Rabidhan Para, an old village without a school for more than 2 hundred years since its establishment

52

there is no human habitat. Early marriage is a common phenomenon in this village. Most of the young people in the village get married in their early age, say 13 to 14 years of age. The villagers are so disenfranchised that they cannot demand for a school from the government authority. Mr. Arun Bikash Tripura, Karbari of the village said, "the age of our village is already 250. But we still could not establish a school in the village. Our fore-parents did not have any chance for education; so they did not have any idea of establishing a school in the village. Now we are trying to lobby with the district level authority, but we need support from the educated people of society to press for our demand.Kids of the village spend their time by playing with dusts during the day time. Very few people of the village have completed the primary level of education. The mortality rates of

child and mother are high in this village. Due to early marriage, abortion cases of the first mothers are very common here. In the village there was a pre-primary centre run by an NGO until 2011. In this pre-primary centre, children were allowed to learn in own mother tongue. They could easily understand the lessons, as they studied in their own mother tongue. Now this pre-primary school has been stopped as the project period is finished. Now to set up a school is an urgent need for the villagers. The village Karbari said that they had placed a demand to the Khagrachari Hill District for a school. He also adds that they do have a plan to send a delegation to GO-NGO agencies including Hill District Council, Chittagong Hill Tracts Development Board, and District and Upazilla Education Department of the government. They also do have a plan to form an

Chapter 4

The stories from the Chittagong Hill Tracts

53

Social science books of class IV & V where the issues of indigenous peoples were mostly written

A. Progress of NCTB to address the issues of Indigenous Peoples in the text books

Bangladesh is a rich country with its cultural, ethnic, religious and linguistic diversity. There are more than 45 Indigenous Peoples living in Bangladesh. The rich tapestry of indigenous peoples makes up approximately 2 percent of the population of the country. Though they identify themselves as 'Adivasi' or 'indigenous peoples', the terms 'ethnic minority', 'Adivasi', 'Indigenous' and 'tribal' are used interchangeably in different documents and literature in Bangladesh. It is estimated that the total indigenous population in the country is 2,500,000. They mainly live in some areas of the country including Rangamati, Bandarban, Khagrachari, Sylhet, Cox's Bazar, Moulvibazar, Sunamgonj, Habigonj, Barguna, Patuakhali, Rajshahi, Chapainawabgonj, Rangpur, Dinajpur, Panchagarh, Bagra, Satkhira, Mymensingh, Netrakona, Tangail, Sherpur, Jamalpur, Gajipur, Rajbari,C o m i l l a , Chandpur and C h i t t a g o n g district. Each of the indigenous groups has its o w n s o c i o - c u l t u r a l and ethnic identity, distinct dress and rich culture. The colourful cultural and livelihood

practices are part of their cultural diversity and the symbol of unity of the country.

It is observed that the textbooks published by the National Curriculum and Textbooks Board (NCTB) fail to reflect appropriate identity and the real cultural values and livelihood practices of the indigenous peoples of the country. Experience shows that parents find the lessons in the textbooks are not relevant to their communities or life and livelihood, thus they do not value the learning in the school. The children themselves are also unable to relate their lessons to their learning in the practical life. For instance, costumes, food habit and many other cultural and livelihood practices are not properly included in the textbooks. Rather these are mentioned negatively which may harm the co-existence and intercultural relationship between the children of different indigenous

54

Language and culture of small ethnic groups : a special textbook introduced for class VI

communities and the mainstream Bengali students.

Considering this situation, since 2003 Zabarang Kalyan Samity in coopration with different development agencies has been conducting participatory action research in different pockets of the country where there is a concentrated presence of indigenous peoples. ActionAid Bangladesh, Bangladesh Adivasi Forum, Save the Children, ILO, Development Initiative for Inclusive People- DIIP, Shishuk, Manusher Jonno Foundation (MJF) and different community-based organizations have provided supports and participated in the process. Because of the demands raised through different local, regional and national consultations conducted in 2009, there have been remarkable changes in the textbooks recently published by NCTB in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013. For example, the derogatory word 'Tribal' or 'Upazati' has been replaced with 'Indigenous' or 'Adivasi' or 'Small Ethnic Groups'. This is an indication of positive attitudinal change of the government that NCTB has started giving an attention to the identity of indigenous peoples.

A recent review of the NCTB textbooks has identified that still there are many areas in the textbooks which require more refinement and review; for instance, the word 'Adivasi' is used

'khudra nri-gosthi', 'upajati' have been interchangeably used in the texts. The names of 'Tripura', 'Mro', 'Marma' and many other communities are incorrectly spelled in the textbooks as 'Tipra', 'Murong', 'Mog' etc. The contents about food habit and many other aspects of socio-cultural life and livelihood of indigenous peoples still remain unchanged which is not appropriate for the primary school children.

Zabarang has been working closely with the relevant indigenous groups of the country to harvest their feedbacks and suggestions on the

55

Costume of Chakmas introduced in the textbook up to 2011

This sample picture of Chakmas was proposed in the roundtable meeting in 2011

New illustration has been introduced in the textbook in 2012

NCTB and other government and non-governmental publications about the socio-cultural life and livelihood of the respective community. A series of regional and community-based consultations were conducted to collect instant feedbacks and suggestions from the concerned people, where intellectuals, writers, journalists, researchers, government and people's representatives, community representatives, practitioners and other opinion leaders were present.

In order to share the instant feedbacks and recommendations of the regional consultations, Zabarang has organized at least 3 national Round Table Discussion on the misinterpretation of the textbooks of NCTB and other publications on the socio-cultural life and livelihood of the indigenous peoples from 2009 to 2013 in Dhaka.

Honourable ministers of the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education (MoPME) and MoCHTA, Chairman of NCTB, scholars from different universities, renowned media personnels, researchers, IP experts, leaders and intellectuals, IP rights advocates, student leaders, women leaders, government representatives, representatives from Chakma, Marma, Tripura, Mro, Santal, Oraon, Tanchangya, Manipuri, Garo, Hajong, Bawm, Khasi, Khumi, Rakhain, Munda, Mahali and many others had participated in these events.

The objective of organizing such events was to create an avenue for participatory interaction between grassroots practitioners, IP and non-IP intellectuals, education and curriculum experts, government line agencies, line ministries and policy makers so that the voice of grassroots communities could be

56

Changes made in the textbooks (2013)

1) In the textbooks Bangadesh and World Studies (Bangladesh o Bishwa Porichoy) of Class IV, V, VIII and IX/X a specific section has been included under the title 'Bangladesher Khudra Jatiswatta or Small Ethnic Groups of Bangladesh'.

2) In the subject of Bangadesh and World Studies (Bangladesh o Bishwa Porichoy) of class III, a lesson titled 'Mile-mishe Thaki' has been inserted on the existence of indigenous peoples in the country.

3) For class VI a separate book called Bangladesher Khudra Nrigothir Bhasha o Songskriti (Language and Culture of Small Ethnic Groups of Bangladesh) is introduced.

4) Positive information on the Chittagong Hill Tracts is included in the lesson- Bishwa Bhougolik Porimondole Bangladesh (Bangladesh in World's Geographical Circle) of Bangadesh and World Studies (Bangladesh o Bishwa Porichoy) textbook.

5) One chapter called Bangladesher Khudra Jatiswatta (Small Ethnic Groups of Bangladesh) is included in Soptoborna bangla book of class VII.

6) Information on Santal Revolution is included in a chapter of Bangadesh and World Studies (Bangladesh o Bishwa Porichoy) book.

7) One of the most significant positive changes in textbooks is that the derogatory term 'Upojati' or 'Tribal' has been removed.

8) There are also some texts in Geography and English about indigenous peoples and Chittagong Hill Tracts, although no particular chapter is included.

9) All photos used are appropriate except for some mismatch with Tripura and Marma (e.g. Tripura photos were captioned as Marma etc.)

raised to the concerned policy makers and the government line ministries and respective departments so that they would be motivated to review the textbooks of NCTB. It was expected that following a thorough review, the appropriate information and images would be inserted into the textbooks according to the suggestions made by representatives of indigenous peoples and experts and thus that would strengthen social harmony

and national unity and integrity in the long run.

Taking the recommendations of IP representatives, researchers, scholars and education experts into account, the National Curriculum and Textbooks Board (NCTB) has started addressing the issues raised in the consultation workshops. In the last versions of NCTB textbooks in 2013, some significant changes have been observed

57

B. Mother Tongue Based Multilingual Education (MTBMLE) : community based initiatives to national program

Teacher and student busy in MLE class

The CHT region is rich in cultural diversity and ethnic mosaic. Its administrative structures are different from the rest of the country. Until 1997the CHT region remains almost isolated from other parts of the country due to decade-long political unrest. More than half of the total population in the region belongs to various indigenous communities. Historically, indigenous communities did not have opportunities to receive education in own mother tongues, as Bengali

In 2006, Zabarang Kalyan Samity (ZKS), a local NGO in Khagrachari , initiated a project called 'Shishur Khamatayan' (Children's Action Through Education) with support of the Save the Children Alliance. The project aims to ensure indigenous children receive a quality, inclusive education and participate in decision making that affects them, supported by national, regional and local policy and practice. The project was implemented in three sub-districts - Khagrachari Sadar, Panchari and Dighinala covering

58

Part

icip

atio

n of

com

mun

ity

elde

rs in

the

com

mun

ity

even

t org

aniz

ed fo

r th

e ch

ildre

n

indigenous children, of whom 631 (50%) are girls. The government department of education and the local government authority were closely involved in this project.

The project promotes indigenous children's education by first developing a strong foundation in their own mother tongue, through the multilingual pre-primary centres. They then gradually learn the national language as they make the transition to the mainstream schools. This approach allows children to progress well through the school, maintaining their own language, culture and identity but ultimately still gaining access to the official language.

There are two main areas of work within the project - education and child participation.

The project introduces a two-year multilingual pre-primary programme in target communities, with children enrolling at the age of four. The students are taught entirely in their mother tongue in the first year to build their

confidence. Preparation for literacy through oral practices is introduced. Gradually students enter into pre-reading, pre-writing and subsequently pre-maths activities. In the second year, children begin to read and write in their mother tongue and continue with oral mother tongue. In the second half of the year they also begin to learn oral Bangla.

As multilingual education is a new concept in Bangladesh, Zabarang started the process with community involvement, for which consultations and awareness-raising activities were carried out. We involved community leaders in all activities. People initially had varying perceptions about multilingual education. One community leader says, "…the concept of mother tongue based education is a great idea for the betterment of indigenous children's education, but it may take as long as fifty years to make this dream a reality".

Zabarang involves and respects the leaders of each language

community we work with. For the Chakma l a n g u a g e d e v e l o p m e n t , Zabarang established working relations with the Changma Academy, an organisation of Chakma language practitioners. For

59

Children enjoying in MLE classroom

'Kokborok' - the Tripura language - we involved the Bangladesh Tripura Kalyan Sangsad, a national organisation of Tripura people. And for the activities relevant to the Marma language, Zabarang involved the Marma Unnayan Sangsad as well as a number of Buddhist monks who practise both reading and writing of Marma language regularly.

There is no alternative to education in mother tongue. It is the only means of ensuring good quality primary school education.

- Indira Chakma, a woman leader in Khagrachari District

Zabarang prepares the drafts of education materials, and then organises community reviews, workshops and exhibitions. A broad cross-section of the c o m m u n i t y members reviews the materials and suggests changes and/or additions, e.g., decisions on the issues of spelling, standard uses of scripts, themes for the teaching/learning materials for m u l t i l i n g u a l pre-schooling, etc. C o m m u n i t y members oversee each level of activities. Each community has a

entrusted with overall responsibility for the management and monitoring of the pre-primary centres. They also encourage parents to send their children to school regularly, oversee the construction of centres, appoint teachers and monitor their attendance, inform the parents about the monthly parents meeting, visit the centres at least three times a week, and maintain the building.

The component of child participation was started in 2008, and focuses on active learning and citizenship. Quality, inclusive education emphasises the active participation of all children in the classroom and school, helping them to participate in decision making that affects their education and issues within the community and wider society, thus creating an

environment where their voices are heard. The project aims to achieve

60

Beauty Dreams To Be A Police Officer

The village Birashimura Para is situated in 4 no ward, under Bhaibonchara Union, Khagrachari Sadar Upazilla , quite far from the upazila headquarter. Thirty two (32) families are living in this village and all of them are farmers. The village people live on by selling bamboo, tree, and different kinds of green plants from the forest. Not only drinking but also for various daily uses, the stream is the only source for water.

Beauty Tripura is a little kid who lives in this village. Among three sisters, she is the eldest. There is a mother tongue based non formal school organized by Zabarang Kalyan Samity and supported by Save the Children. Beauty is a student of class ii (two) in this school. After completing her 2 years pre-primary education in mother tongue, Beauty took part in the final evaluation examination of class two in December 2013. She did a very good result in the final evaluation. When we went to meet her, she shared her feelings with us. She said, "I am very happy because I got the chance to study in my mother tongue. I want to study more but there is no primary school in our village. We have to go to another village, which is very far from my village. I want to study in my village and I want to be a Police officer in future."

Beauty Tripura in MLE class

this objective through awareness-raising and capacity-building, involving children, school teachers, parents, and community members. We have facilitated the formation of 60 child's organisations, and 10 'community learning circles' to ensure child's participation in the decision-making processes of their communities. Children are receiving training on leadership.

Kyaw Shwe Hla, Chairman of Hill District Council, Bandarban said that 'introducing education in mother tongue is the mandate of

The government has a positive willingness to implement education in the mother tongues of the indigenous communities of CHT. Bandarban Hill District Council in cooperation with different NGOs and language experts has already developed some textbooks, which are under the process of approval from NCTB. Initially BHDC has developed textbooks in Chakma, Marma and Tripura, which will be initially introduced in 125 primary schools next year. BHDC is processing placement of teachers in the same language speaking people's area. The process of

61

story-10

Edu

cati

on m

ater

ials

use

d in

MLE

cla

sses

Md. Abdur Rahman Tarafder, Executive Officer of Hill District Council, Khagrachari said: KHDC has been implementing MLE program with the support of UNDP CHTDF in Khagrachari hill district since 2008. Mahalchari, Panchari, Matiranga Laxmichari are the targeted Upazillas for the program. HDC does not undertake any separate project although this is an autonomous body. This council rather implements its activities under the government systems and mechanisms and in collaboration with the government line ministries. The government of Bangladesh has started preparatory works for implementation of MLE in its primary schools. We are participating in such initiatives from our side and trying to put the local specific issues to the national policy making level. This is not possible to start in all indigenous languages at a time. So the government has rightly started working on three major languages

62

teachers transfer is due to be approved by MoPME. Eco-Development has published the textbooks developed by relevant language committees. BHDC has also provided training to the teachers on MLE so that they can teach the textbooks after approval from the ministry of Primary and Mass Education and NCTB. BHDC is implementing these activities through the instructions and guidance from the government. Due to the positive initiatives of the

If the educated people do not practice their language and culture it will in a certain time be disappeared.

Mr. Kyaw Shwe Hla, Honorable chairman of Bandarban Hill District Council

government, the languages of IPs will be properly preserved. I am thankful to the government for taking positive steps to preserve and promote the indigenous languages. The literate people of different languages groups should come forward to preserve their own languages. If the educated people do not practise their languages and culture, after a certain period of time, they will be disappeared. The young generation should also practise their own languages so that the languages are preserved

Cultural-friendly learning materials prepared by community volunteers

of the region - Chakma, Marma and Tripura. There are education committees in each of the three hill districts coordinated and managed by respective HDC. There is also a committee at national level where HDCs are participating as members to it. Selection of writers also has been completed to accomplish the textbook development/adaptation process. Initially, the MLE classes will be introduced in monolingual areas.

Recently, MoPME has drafted education act and collected people's views and recommendations through its website. It is good news that MLE is included in this act. KHDC in consultation with the local civic actors and education experts has provided its recommendations on the draft act. We hope, the government will take our recommendations into account. I hope the education system of Bangladesh will be strengthened if the government continues implementing their activities ensuring people's participation. We have proposed to establish an Indigenous Language Academy following the model of Bangla Academy. This academy can take

lead in making decisions on the issues of indigenous languages. Each of the languages can also have their own language committees under this academy. Research and other developmental works can be implemented by these structures. Publication of regular magazine, research reports, primers etc. can be part of its activities. We are always ready to support and provide inputs to any actors including GO-NGO agencies in education programs.

Government is very much positive in implementing education in mother tongues of the ethnic peoples. For this reason this issue is recognized in the relevant policies of the government of Bangladesh.

Md. Abdur Rahman Tarafder, Executive Officer of Khagrachari Hill District Council, There are some constraints in implementing the MLE program in CHT. There are now many multilingual communities in a school. So it will be difficult to introduce MLE in such classrooms. The demography of the localities in this region is very much scattered with 10 to 15 households in a Para or village. Sometimes it is difficult to establish a school for a few households. On the other hand there are some localities which are situated in 3-5 kilometers away from the schools. Children in such localities cannot go to the schools.

63

Community volunteers busy in preparing cultural-friendly learning materials

The government is very much positive to implementing education in mother tongues of the indigenous peoples. For this reason this issue is recognized in the relevant policies of the government of Bangladesh. It is decided that initially the MLE will be implemented in 6 languages- 3 from CHTs and other 3 from the pain land areas. The government is trying its best within its limited resources. Now foreign donors and NGOs should come forward to facilitate implementation of the policies and strategies. We should also be aware of overlapping of mandates and activities. Any program implemented in the CHTs should be undertaken in a coordinated way. HDC is also very much careful on this issue and always willing to work in cooperation with the relevant actors as required.

MoPME and NCTB have formed a writers' committee taking representatives from the relevant language communities. The

committee in an integrated way. They have also asked for suggestions from HDCs on the selection of writers. I hope this committee will be able to develop or adapt the textbooks for MLE in primary schools. HDC cannot form the language committee alone. It should be coordinated centrally by MoPME and NCTB. Experts in respective languages

should also be part of this committee. This is a time consuming process to implement education in indigenous languages. First of all, there should be a specific curriculum for this type of education, then textbooks should be developed through a participatory way. After the development of textbooks, manuals for teacher's training should be developed and the teachers should be provided with proper in-house and practical trainings. After all these preparatory stages, the education will be started in the preprimary classes, then gradually to higher classes. After the MLE classes a language subject can be introduced in higher classes like class four, five, six and up to SSC as an additional subject. In this way the languages of indigenous peoples will be developed. After about 50 years people will be able to study in Masters level in their own languages. This is a gradual process, which cannot be done at a time. People will also do PhD on indigenous languages. The

64

Joyful moment of indigenous children in MLE classroom

developed curriculum in 20 languages. They have a committee, which usually recruits language experts as consultants through open advertisement. They have already developed curriculum in 4 languages. A language committee should also be formed in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. They will decide on the orthography, spelling system and standardization of languages of the region.

Binodan Tripura, Programme Coordinator of Shishur Khamatayan, a Mother Tongue Based Multilingual Education implemented in Khagrachari Hill District by Zabarang Kalyan Samity, supported by Save the Children, said that the government has planned to

preprimary up to class three in three major indigenous languages- Chakma, Marma and Tripura (Kokborok) initially. The government and non-government actors including MoPME, MoCHTA, NCTB, DPE, DEPOs, HDCs and different international and UN agencies have recognized the MTBMLE model intervention initiated by Zabarang and Save the Children. These organizations are included in the steering committee and technical committee formed by MoPME and NCTB in order to mainstreaming the MTBMLE in formal primary schools of the country. In last seven years, Zabarang has covered more than 6 thousand indigenous children under the MLE pre-primary and early

65

About 200 teachers and MLE center facilitators have gained knowledge and skills of teaching methods in mother tongue. SMC members of 40 school catchment areas and councilors of 12 Union Parishads are oriented on and aware of the needs of mother based multilingual education for early childhood development. 359 out of school children were brought under

This education system is started in children's mother tongue and gradually bridged to the national and internal languages using internally recognized bridging strategies, methods and processes.

Mr. Binodan Tripura, Programme Coordinator of Shishur Khamatayan, a Mother Tongue Based Multilingual Education project

mainstream schooling opportunities through MLE based non-formal education process. MLE is included in National Education Policy 2010 because of continuous advocacy and lobby activities. Government officials are well-oriented on the MTBMLE through different field trips and learning visits.

The positive aspects of MTBMLE as per Binodan Tripura are the classes in such schools are fully conducted in the mother tongue of respective students in initial stages, education materials are prepared with the local cultural resources, which are developed by the local resources persons and experts of the respective

linguistic groups. This education system is started in children's mother tongue and gradually bridged to the national and internal languages using internally recognized bridging strategies, methods and processes. The teachers of preprimary centers are essentially from the same locality and same linguistic group of pupils. So they are very much careful and friendly to the students. The project staff members are also recruited from the local areas, who consider their job as a social service rather than a job for money earning.

The teachers are provided with basic training on ECD, orthography of own language and methods for class conduction. A standard module has been prepared to conduct teachers' training. A rewarding process is integrated within the project activities, which contributes to the improvement of teachers' performance through a competitive process. There is a special care system to support building skills and capacity of Grade I and II children through Community Learning Circle (CLC). Special coaching on mathematics and language is given to improve the capacity of comparatively weak children. The SMC members are aware on the formation of SMCs, their roles and responsibilities and the characteristics of an ideal SMC. This process also helps improving relationship between teachers and SMC members. The school

66

Cultivation of dreams among the indigenous children through MTBMLE

Happy mother with happy kids

Happy kids in MLE center

- Somapti Chakma

Banchara Uttar Pukurghat para, a well known village of Babuchara Union under Dighinala Upazila. It is about 8 km far from the Dighinala upazila town. There are 46 households with about 300 population in this village. There is a Government Primary School name Banchara Government Primary School, in this village. According to the villagers, there was no any other activity of Pre Primary education in this village. Consequently, 4-5 aged children do not get any pre primary education. Taking this need into account, Zabarang Kalyan Samity has started MLE programme with 16 children in mid 2010. The community established Jhokjhokye Pre-primary centre with the support from ZKS and Save the Children. 6 more children have enrolled in K-1 class this year and now it becomes a multi grade class.

Rusha Chakma and Rekha Chakma are parents of this school. They are happy after

getting

this school. Rumia Chakma daughter of Rusha used to express to her mother, "iskulot gele mui hara heli pang, pori pang, git gei pang (If I go to school, I can play, read and sing). All these activities make her so happy)".

Ms. Rekha Chakma, the mother of two kids - Somapti Chakma and Baina Chakma, says about the pre-school, "It is the first school in our village where, children can learn both Chakma language and Bangla. So I had decided to send my children to this school".

Along with own mother tongue, children also learn Bangla rhymes. Rumia and Somapti - two kids of this pre-school want to be teacher to teach the kids to good citizens.

Mui dangor ole mastor om, chagori gorim, guro phorem,

67

story-11

facilitated to develop School Development Plans (SDP). Zabarang has developed a module on Oral L-1 Instruction and Active Learning and Positive Discipline. Zabarang has introduced a Child Reception process in the formal primary schools in its working areas, where they schools welcome the graduated children of the SK project through a formal event. This event became a regular practice in some schools, where the schools are organizing a child reception program to welcome all newly enrolled students to their schools every year. This reception process contributes to the development of children's mindset and attraction to their schools. Due to this process, 100% enrollment is ensured and children became regular in their schools.

Zabarang has developed Bangla primer, story book (80% MT), and math book (80% MT) for Grade-I, which are sufficiently printed. The Bangla primer is developed following scientific teaching and learning process and in line with the national curriculum where local cultures are also taken in to account. There are also book of anthology of Indigenous stories and math for grade-I in Mother Tongue.

MTBMLE is a new intervention in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. So there might be many learning issues in the implementation of such program. Many NGOs are implementing mother tongue based education programs including teaching of

writing systems, formal classes in pre-primary and primary schools, using indigenous languages as language of instruction and so on. The level of understanding on the MTBMLE is not yet same among the implementing agencies. A coordinated effort is required to implement a real MTBMLE program in the Chittagong Hill Tracts.

All relevant actors should run their MLE activities in a coordinated way, education should not be a project rather be a program so that the children get real benefits of such program. Participation of local entities in the planning process of any project is very much essential to make the project successful. HDCs and KNSI should be involved in the process so that they can contribute in creating skilled writers and teachers in the IP languages. An MLE model school should be established in the town centres of CHT so that the parents are motivated on the importance of MLE.

Sing Yong Mro, Executive Director of Mrochet said 'Mrochet in cooperation in Ganaswasthya Kendra has implemented education in Mro language from 2003 to 2009. At present this organization is running some formal schools in mother tongue supported by Manusher Jonno Foundation. There is a Mro Bhasha Songrokhon Komiti (Committee for Mro Language Preservation), which has provided

68

Children become interested to learn if the contexts and contents of their education are relevant to their life

technical supports in developing manuscripts of primers in mother tongue in 1997-98. In 2003 GK has started supporting Mroceht to develop education materials and publish them. Currently 20 schools are being operated by Mrochet through the supports of MJF. National education policy 2010, Hill District Council Act, Chittagong Hill Tracts Regional Council Act, ILO convention and many other legal documents have recognised the importance of education in mother tongue.

The benefits of education in mother tongue to me are children can easily bridge their thoughts from mother tongue to national languages and gradually to international language, say English, for Mro children. Education in mother tongue also increases knowledge on own language, attracts the children to

and increases the rate of literacy. Mro people are 60% literate in their own mother tongue. There is no teachers' training institute to train teachers on teaching in mother tongue. The indigenous peoples also lack of sufficient number of published materials as most of their cultural practices are not written but practiced orally.

The benefits of education in mother tongue to me are children can easily bridge their thoughts from mother tongue to national languages and gradually to international language.

- Sing Yong MroExecutive Director of Mrochet

The indigenous peoples should establish own funding system to run education in their mother tongue. There should be a process of skill

69

MLE removes the fear of children on school as this special education system allows education in mother tongue and they learn own culture. This also increases the rate of enrolment, attendance and decreases the rate of drop out from schools. It is important to involve community people in the entire activities of MLE in order to successfully implement such program.

- Md. Iqbal BaharManager of Learning

Reflection and Resource Mobilization of SAS

Children are very enthusiastic to learn and understand the lessons. They do not hesitate to respond any question asked to them.

- Mr. Kajal Kumar TanchangyaMLE teacher

Due to teaching the student in their own mother tongue they found the education is relevant to their life, which has deepened the attraction and interest of children in the contents of education in the school.

- Mr. Rubel TanchangyaMLE teacher

Students learn in a very easy way. The environment of classroom and education materials are very familiar to them. They learn their own rhymes, songs and stories in the school. They also participate in the competitions of songs and rhymes in the school. Through this process creativity is development among the children.

- Ms. Satyabi Tanchangya, MLE teacher

I love to attend the MLE classes as I can easily understand the lessons.

- Pumeching Marma, MLE student

sharing and exchange of knowledge. A social process should also be in place to revitalize the practices of culture and language. Necessary infrastructure should also be developed to smoothly operate development activities in rural areas of CHT.

There should be an indigenous mother language institute to facilitate language development process of indigenous peoples. This institute can take lead to conduct research and publication of indigenous languages. All teachers in CHT should be trained on their own languages. The social values of indigenous peoples of CHT should be reflected in the textbooks of the schools. Scholars of respective indigenous peoples should be involved in the curriculum and textbook development process.

70

Students Assembly in Moanoghar School

C. Hostel Facilities : ensuring the right to education for the Indigenous Children from the remotest villages

Barkat, Abul PhD et al- Socio-economic Household Survey of Chittagong Hill Tracts; Chittagong Hill Tracts Development Facility (CHTDF), April 2009

Durnnian, Terry- Mother Language First, Save the Children, Khagrachari Hill District Council and Zabarang Kalyan Samity, 2007.

National Education Policy 2010 (English Version P14 'solution to drop-out')

The indigenous peoples of Chittagong Hill Tracts have lower enrolment rates, receive fewer years of schooling. Comparatively a small number of students can complete schooling than the majority Bengali children. The enrolment rates for indigenous children are well below the estimated national average of 80 percent. The recent socio-economic household survey of CHTDF UNDP shows that more than half of the household members aged 5 years and above are illiterate or no education. 54% of the indigenous peoples belong to this category of illiterate or no education. Among indigenous peoples of CHT, the highest proportion of population is illiterate or with no education from

Mro with 87% and Khyang with 74%. One of the most contributing factors to such situation is remoteness of indigenous localities. Most indigenous Paras or villages are located in remote areas, which remain out of the reach from the government schools and other education services. As a result a large percentage of indigenous children (more than half) can never enrol due to a lack of availability of schools within appropriate walking distance. An appropriate distance (2 km) in the plains areas is different from the very hilly or risky terrains. This difficult terrain makes the journey to schools much longer and potentially unsafe . Considering this difficulty, the government has planned to give

71

19

19

20

20

21

21

Students participating in extra-curricular activities

residential facilities in the schools of hilly and remote areas . Following are a few case examples of residential facilities for students in CHT.

1. Moanoghar - the light house of education in CHTsMoanoghar, a non-political, non-profit and voluntary socio-educational organisation, was established in 1974 by a group of socially engaged Buddhist monks and laypersons with the objectives of providing shelter and education to the poor and destitute children in the CHT region. The two historically important events - the Kaptai hydroelectric dam in 1960s and the Liberation War of Bangladesh in 1971, had adversely affected indigenous people. Among them, children suffered most from the worst situation. In fact, these two events shaped the idea of Moanoghar to provide protection to the affected children.

When the construction of the Kaptai hydroelectric dam was completed in 1962, one-third of the total arable land of the CHT went under water by displacing more than hundred thousand indigenous people, mostly the Chakmas from their ancestral

lands. The u p r o o t e d families did not r e c e i v e compensation from the

for which they were in severe distress. Seeing their plight, the then head priest of Boalkhali Dashabal Raj Vihar (Buddhist Temple) in Dighinala opened a shelter home in 1963, called Parbatya Chattal Boudha Anath Ashram, a precursor to Moanoghar, where he started to provide shelter, food and education to the children of the victims of the dam.

Then in 1971 Bangladesh became independent from Pakistan through a sanguinary war for nine months. But during the war, thousands of thousand people fled away from their hearth and home to become refugees, in addition to a significant number of internally displaced people across the whole CHT. Under these circumstances, Moanoghar was founded in 1974 by individuals associated with the Parbatya Chattal Boudha Anath Ashram. Moanoghar was founded on a simple basis. Buddhist temples receive donations from the devotees. The monks at that time, decided to spend these donations for the education of the poor orphan children, rather than spending for other purposes such, construction and/or renovation of temples. Indeed, throughout its

72

Classes in mother tongue conducted by an honorable Monk

existence, Moanoghar is run by public donations, government grants and occasionally, support from abroad.

From the mid 70s, the situation of the CHT further deteriorated due to continued fighting between the government forces and the armed cadres of the Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti (PCJSS), the latter waged a guerilla war for autonomy of the CHT region. During this turbulent period, Moanoghar turned out to be only safe place for hundreds of children affected by the conflict. To-date Moanoghar has been playing a vital role to provide shelter and education to thousands of poor and orphan children from the remote and marginalized indigenous families across the CHT.

The students of Moanoghar are

results of the Moanaghar students in the last Secondary School Certificates (SSC) examination, published in May 2011, were inspiring, although a further improvement is necessary. A total of 138 students from Moanoghar took part in the examination. Among them 107 students passed which amounts to a pass rate of 79% higher than the national average and even surpassed Moanoghar School's own previous records. Of the 107 students who passed, one student obtained grade 'A+', 11 students obtained grade 'A' and another 20 students received grade 'A-' (source: Moanoghar news bulletin April-June 2011). In Bangladesh national education system 'A+' is the highest grade for SSC examination, 'A' is the second highest and 'A-' is the third highest grade. Passing rate in JSC examination is more than 90 percent

73

Moanoghar bread- an income generating intervention

There are 12 residential hostel houses and one school for primary and secondary education in the Moanoghar campus. This is now one of the biggest education institutes in the Chittagong Hill Tracts region. About 1400 students study in this institute in every academic year. Among them some 800 children are given with residential facilities, out of them more than 40 percent are girls. Moanoghar is not only an education institute, it is also an institute which promotes cultural diversity in the region. Students from all indigenous communities in CHT are benefitted from this institute. There are a considerable number of scholars currently working in different organisation at home and abroad who were the former students from this institute. In total 36 teachers are teaching in the Moanoghar residential school, out of them only 17 receive MPO facilities of the government. Other than the teachers, there are about 50 employees serving in this institute. Presently Moanoghar is providing services to the students through Moanoghar Children's Home, Moanoghar Residential School, Residential Hostel, Moanoghar Mini Hospital, Moanoghar Computer Training center, Moanoghar Resource Center, Moanoghar Vocational School, Moanoghar Pali College, Moanoghar Bakery and so on. To promote co-curricular activities in the education system, Moanoghar has established Moanoghar Sangeet Bidyalaya (Moanoghar Cultural School),

Moanoghar Fine Arts Department, Moanoghar Adivasi Shikhya Kendra (Moanoghar Indigenous Education Center), Physical Education and Sports Department, Wall Magazines, Debating Club etc. Moanoghar has a library with a considerable number of books, periodicals, research journals, newspapers and manuscripts.

The Executive Director of Moanoghar Ashok Kumar Chakma said, "the social welfare department provides 80,000 taka in every month. There are also some non-governmental and individual donors who provide grants for running the activities of Moanoghar. But these supports are not sufficient to ensure education for the deprived children of the region. We have a plan to introduce vocational education, establish a printing press, produce cultural products and ensure quality education for the students. He hopes the government, non-government and individual donors will come forward to make the dream of Moanoghar into a reality and in this way Moanoghar will be able to continue spreading its light of education to every corner of the hills in CHTs.

74

2. Hostel facilities in Bandarban : promoting to realise education for all

There are a considerable number of hostels in Bandarban hill district estabilhsed by various individuals and organisations. These hostels have significant contribution to the realisation of education for by the country.

Ashar Alo Children's Home is located in Chakku Para of Kuaikhyong Mouza under Thanchi Upazilla of Bandarban Hill District. A total of 110 students are studying from this hostel, among them are 82 boys and 28 girls. This hostel has stated in 1999 by a group of social workers including Khamlai Mro, Mangsar Mro, Ying Young Mro, Reng Et Mro and Augprue Mro. The students who reside here come from 20 to 25 kilometres remote villages. Most of the boarders are Mro, Khyang and Khumi.

Mr. Aungprue Mro one of the founders and present advisor of the hostel said, 'this hostel facility is given to the girls and boys from remote communities so that they can avail education from here. They are provided with food, medical and other essential facilities. There is also an initiative to preserve the indigenous culture of respective students who reside here. Regular cultural practices are allowed by the hostel authority so that the children do not become isolated from their communities. Since its

provided services to more than 400 students. Every year, 3-5 students pass SSC examination from this hostel.

As per the opinion of Mr. Aungprue it is not possible to run a hostel, if the community people do not participate in the process. There should also be proper management system for smooth management of such hostel. Assistance from GO-NGO agencies and individuals are also useful for running the hostel for the interest of the poor and deprived communities. Hostels should be established in every corner of CHT as the largest of number of people live in rural areas which are far from town centres.

Chywai Mro, a student of Ashar Alo Shishu Sadan of Renghin Para said, 'I would have been doing household works, making throng (mro baskets), animal husbandrying and would surely have gotten married in the village. I even would have been doing day labouring and other hard work in the village if I were not offered to reside in this hostel. My childhood friends are now doing these sorts of works in our village.'

Ma Elizabeth Hostel is located at Ujani Para of Bandarban sadar under Bandarban Hill District. Children from Marma, Mro, Khumi and Tripura indigenous peoples are residing in this hostel since 2012. A total of 119 children (59 girls and 60 boys) stay in this hostel. Father Admon, Jendio Tripura, Larchar

75

Tripura, Ujjwal Tripura, Anjali Tripura, Rafael Tripura and Bhagabati Tripura are the main founders of this hostel.

Mr. Jendio Tripura, Hostel Supervisor said 'most of the children residing here are from the most remote villages of the district. We are trying to provide favourable environment for education of the students. The parents of each student contribute 4,000 taka as annual hostel fees. The committee raises funds from their own poeckets and other individual donors to run the activities of the hostel. Students from class I to X are enrolled in this hostel, 2 students have already graduated from this hostel after passing SSC successfully. Mr. Tripura asked for supports from GO-NGO and individuals so that they can ensure education for the deprived children from remote villages of Bandarban.

Mr. Larchar Tripura, Hostel-in-charge said, 'establishing a hostel and running such inititive smoothly is not that much easy. Community participation is the first pre-condition for such initiative. A support sytem should also be developed from the government and corporate agencies. NGOs can also chanel funds for such initiatives.'

Nantraha Tripura is a rescued child. He was abducted by some child

Madrasah (learning centre of Muslim children) in Chittagong called Poschim Madarbari Madrasah. The Hostel Committee has rescued him from the Madrasah and brought here to restart his life with new hope. He is from Durnendu Para of Ruangchari Upazilla under Bandarban Hill District. He said, 'hostel committee provides my admission fees, school fees, basic clothes like dresses and beddings, fooding and treatment facilities. Before being rescued by the hostel committee I was compelled to learn Arabic in the Madrasah. Now I am studying in the formal school of general education.' He added, there are many other children in our villages who did not get any chance to go to school, some had to give up their education on their halfway, who are now involved in household works with their parents or doing job as daylabourer.' He urged the government to take initiative for such children.

76

Mahalchari Chatrabas is established within the compound of Mahalchari Residential Government Primary School in 1986. At present 100 students are staying in this hostel, 60 boys and 40 girls. Among the students 12 Chakma, 36 Marma and 52 from Tripura community. The students come from the remote villages. There are some students even from the remotest villages of Sajek union of Rangamati hill district. Mr. Dhana Mani Chakma the Head teacher of Mahalchari Residential Government Primary School is the superintendent of this hostel at present. Mr. Dhana Mani says, 'this hostel has created opportunities for the deprived children to access to education. They are provided with free food and lodging facilities. Children even from most remote villages including Sajek union of Rangamati hill district where they do not have any schooling facility.'

If the students were not given this opportunity they would have been deprived from education. Now they are getting all facilities required for their education. Everyone of the children are given with school dresses, pens, note pads, chair, tables everything whatever they need for carrying out their study. Regular food, electricity and water facilities are also given to them.

Most of the student admitted to this hostel do not drop out from school. Some students also get stipend from different sources for their outstanding results. Every year 30 students are enrolled in this hostel. There are still demands for hostel facilities as we received 2 to 3 applications against 1 seat. Looking after the children is very much difficult. Children regularly face different health related problems in the hostel. Sometimes they fall in sickness like diarrhea, malaria and many others. Most of the parents live in the remote villages. So it is difficult to communicate with them for any essential information in regard to their children. The managing committee of the hostel in consisted of 1) chairperson - 01 (representative of HDC), 2) members- 03 (representative of Upazilla Parishad 01, Upazilla Education Officer 01, SMC chairperson 01) and 3) member secretary - 01 (head teacher). Initially there was only 75 seats which is now increased in to 100 by the Khagrachari hill district council.

Another residential facility of KHDC was established in Kathaltali Government Primary School of Dighinala in 1995. At present 100 students are enrolled in this hostel, 63 boys and 37 girls. There are 43

77

3. Residential facilities of KHDC in Mahalchari and Dighinala : homes for deprived children from remote villages

students, 18 Bengali students and 1 Marma student from 8 to 10 years old age group. Around 225 students have already graduated from this hostel till this year as the operations of this hostel has been started in 2009. Two students have already received stipend in 2009 to 2013 for their outstanding results.

Mamoni Chakma is studying in grave V who is staying in Kathaltali hostel of Dighinala. She has studied in Karalyachari Non-government Primary School in Baghaihat. Kabita Tripura, student of grade IV has studied in Chinaltali Non-government Primary School. Their village Betbunia Para is located in Sajek union of Rangamati hill district. Sunayan Tripura, a student reading in grade III is from Sinalchari para of Baghaichari upazilla in Rangamati hill district. The students have expressed in a focus group discussion that they came from different remote village of Khagrachari and Rangamati hill districts. Most of their parents are too poor to afford the costs of their education. After coming to the hostel they are now getting regular food, school dresses, bedding materials, toiletries, oil and fuel for their education. The students staying in the hostel are studying in grade III to V. There was no educational opportunity in their villages which they now provided by the government here. Lalan Bikash Tripura, Dijendra Tripura and Bishal Chakma said, 'it was quietly impossible

schools. If we were not provided with this special facility we would have been working in Jum with our parents. Our names would have been included in the list of dropped out children.'

Kanthap Tripura, Khanika Tripura, Sanakti Chakma, Britto Rani Tripura and Kukila Tripura said, 'our friends who we have left in our villages do not get any educational opportunity. Most of them have either never been to school or have dropped their education in the early primary classes. Schools are too far from our villages which have hindered our education. Parents are also too poor to afford the costs of their children's education. If all children are given same facilities they will also have the same right to education which we are enjoying here.'

Both of these hostels are providing supports to the students from grade III to grade V. The hostel management committees have raised a demand to extend this opportunity up to grade VIII so that the poor children are provided with education support up to their ability to decide about their future life. There should be a lodging facility for the teachers and hostel workers adjacent to the hostel.

78

Noi mile Tripura Para Government Primary School is located in the centre of a hill in Khagrachari. The school is beautifully decorated by nature and enchanted with the children's prattle. Community people do have a lot of dreams and plans for the school. Behind all these dreams and plans, there is a man Mr. Chandra Kishore Tripura, Head Teacher (in-charge), who has a dream to make the school one of the best model primary schools in the country. He says confidently about his continuous effort and future plan of the school, "To spread the light of education, I want to establish the school in my own village, which will be a model not only at the district but also at the national level".

Mr. Cahandra Kishore Tripura, a dedicated person for education was born on 28th of August, 1969 in Korko Mohajan Para of Perachara Union in Khagrachari Sadar Upazila. His father Mr. Jomdhor Tripura was a jum-farmer and mother Mrs. Rajib Lochon Tripura was a housewife. He is the sixth child of their parents among ten children. In 1970 their family shifted to Betchari Madan Karbari Para of Merung union, Dighinala. In this village he spent his childhood and he is well-known as 'Kishore'.

When he started his schooling in 1974, his father could afford his school dress. On the first day of his

a handmade gamcha. In his school life he was a very brilliant student; he always obtained the first position in all examinations. From his reminiscence of his early days in the school he said, "in childhood my handwritings were very beautiful; my friends were fond of my handwritings. Painting was my hobby. In my early days, I used to play games besides my study. My favourite sport was 'sukui'. Whenever the 'Bwisu', the traditional festival drew near, I used to play it with my friends. Football is also my another favourite sport."

D. The Inspiring Leaders in Education

Chandra Kishore Tripura - an ideal teacher and a successful organiser

Mr. Chandra Kishore Tripura receiving award from the honourabl Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina

79

In his high school life, he was involved in different cultural activities of the school. When he was a student of class IX, one day for the first time he got the chance to run the school assembly. Since then he had a determination to practice leadership skills. He passed S.S.C examination in 1986 and HSC in 2008 as his study had been interrupted due to the prevailing political unrest in CHT. At present he is studying B.S.S in Matiranga College under Bangladesh Open University. In his family life he is married to Juborani Tripura. To them, there are two children - one boy and one girl.

"I hold the school for so long. Many of my colleagues left the school after getting government jobs, but I never applied for any other jobs except for this school".

- Chandra Kishore Tripura

Being asked about the motivation of choosing teaching profession, he said, "I had a dream to be a teacher. So I have chosen it". After a long wait, the school had been included under MPO (monthly payment order) of the government in March, 1994 and finally was declared as a government primary school on 13 January 2013.

In 2001-2002, he received teacher's training from PTI, Rangamati and successfully completed by securing the 5th

teachers. Returning to the school, he started special coaching classes to provide quality education to the students. In the meantime, on a study tour organised by Zabarang he visited Shibrampur Government Primary School in Gaibandha district. From this study tour and PTI training, he had been able to broaden his outlook and experience for teaching the students.

About the success of his school he said, "I tried everything that I needed to do. Through encouraging both the students and guardians, the attendance of the students had been increased remarkably. In 2011, this school had the highest record of students' attendance in Khagrachari. Currently we have 205 students (from play group to class V) and the attendance rate is 93%." He further adds, "in 2009, 2010, and 2013, 100% of the students passed in the PSC examination, while this rate was 95.65% in 2012. Mr. Tripura has been awarded as the best teacher at Upazila, district and national level for his outstanding performance. In 2004 and 2011 he was selected as the 'best assistant teacher' of the Non-governmental School respectively at upazila and Mr. Chandra Kishore Tripura in his fruit garden

80

district level. In recognition of his performance, in 2012 he was awarded as the 'best assistant teacher' at the national level. He received an award from the honourable Prime Minister of Bangladesh.

As to his future plan, Mr. Chandra Kishore Tripura said, "the school will be a model not only at the district but also at the national level. Like the Shibram School, our school also has much possibility. Beside the school, there is an orphanage. If proper accommodation facilities can be provided, many students will be benefited. I want to do my best for this school, and for quality education."

Apart from being an ideal teacher, Mr. Kishore is a physician, organizer and entrepreneur. He received a training course on 'Primary Health Treatment' under the Food and Nutrition Institute of Dhaka University. Being trained as health practitioner he serves the villagers

w i t h primary treatment. As a n organiser he h a s b e e n involved with m a n y s o c i a l organis

For the interest of the teachers, he played vital role in Khagrachari district as the general secretary and president of the Non-govt Teachers Association in 1996 and 2012 tenure.

About his social work he said, "During the holidays I do my social work and I do not sit idle during my leisure time". He also raises orchards of different fruits like pine-apple, litchi and so on. Being inspired by his fruits orchards, many villagers started doing fruits garden in the village. Mr. Tripura provides them technical support for raising gardens.

Behind his success Mr. Chandra Kishore said, "self-determination, self-abnegation, hard work, confidence, and positive attitude towards work are very much essential... The works of different wise people touches me always. The renunciation of Dodhichi Muni inspires me". For social change, he emphasised to have an enlightened society, for which there is no alternative to education.

Mr. Chandra Kishore Tripura receiving crest from honourable MoCHTA secretary Mr. Naba Bikram Kishore Tripura

Note: Dodhichi muni is considered in the Puranas as the illustrious example of sacrifice for the sake of the liberation of the suffering from distress. During Krutayuga, there was a daitya (demon) named Vrutrasura. He, associated by Kalakeyas, was attacking Devataas (demi gods) and people were made to suffer a lot. Devatas were losing their battle against Daityaas. At that time they went to the Lord Vishnu, who recommended them to make a weapon to destroy Vrutrasura, with the help of bones of Dodhichi muni. Dodhichi muni's bones were very powerful, hard and unbreakable. In response to the request of the Devatas, Dodhichi muni by his powers of Yoga gave up his life so that his backbone might be utilized for making the mighty bow. After his death, the Devatas made a weapon with his bones named "Vajrayudha" and gave it to Indra. With the help of Vajrayudha, Devraj Indra killed Vrutraasura.

81

Lata Pahar village is a remote village in Bilaichari Upazila of Rangamati district. This is a Pangkhua village. The only way to go the village is by boat. The villagers mainly depend jum farming, timber collection and cattle rearing. Being a remote village, for long they have been deprived of education and other basic services.

There was a non-government primary school in Lata Pahar village. After the village, the school is named 'Lata Pahar Non-Government Primary School'. For a long time this school remains neglected. Although the Pangkhua and Marma communities live together adjacent to each other, none of them comes ahead to revive the school. On the other hand, the number of children was increasing, and the villagers also felt need of education to their children. Finally the Pangkhua community took initiative to run the school. They received a small grant support from Rangamati Hill District Council (RHDC). With that grant, they reconstructed their school.

By this time, considering the language problem, RHDC recruited one teacher from the Panghkua community named Mr. Lalbiyak Pangkhua, who had been posted in Lata Pahar Non-government Primary School. Due to appointment of a Pangkhua teacher, the language barrier of the children has been resolved. Being a teacher, Mr. Lalbiyak undertook a few

commendable measures to ensure quality education to the children. He mobilised the guardians to send their children to school. Equally he shouldered extra responsibility beyond his school hours. After the school hours, in the evening he arranged special classes for the students, who eagerly come to study with him in the village. This way he has been promoting quality education to the remote Lata Pahar village in Bilaichari. Mr. Lalbiyak has taken another commedable initiative to establish a community savings funds for the future sustainability of the school. Community people contribute to this fund, and in some cases this amount is Tk. 5500.

In essence, the Lata Pahar School is now functioning due to a few affirmative actions such as appointment of a language based teacher and the teacher's initiative to mobilise the community people. Joint action both by the teacher and guardians can make a difference for the future of the children.

As a teacher it is my duty to look after the issues of education of children. For the interest of the children I am ready to run extra miles.

- Lalbiyak Pankhua

Lalbiyak Pankhua - an ideal teacher who is always ready to run extra miles

82

The best school in the CountryKhedachara DP Para Government Primary School

Head Teacher of Khedachara DP Para Government Primary School receiving the Country's Best School Award from the honourable

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina

Khedachara DP Para is an old village in 5 no. Belchari union, u n d e r M a t i r a n g a upazila, in Khagrachari hill district. This village with approximately 605 families is situated in 7 k.m. far from M a t i r a n g a Bazar. In 60's following the Kaptai dam, this village was established by the displaced people, and hence the village was named as Khedachara DP Para (displaced people's village).

In 1968, Khedachara DP para Primary school was established to spread the light of education in the village. In 1973 the school was nationalized. About the history of the school Mr. Shamsu Mia, the present president of SMC said, "the school was established before we came here. We do not know the exact information about who took the initiatives to establish this school. In 1980-81, the government rehabilitated us in this place. Before we moved in here, it was a tribal village. The village was known as Khedachara

DP para, because the then villagers moved in here being displaced from Rangamati. The school was named after the village".

At present Khedachara DP Para Governmental Primary School is one of the best primary schools in the country. In 2011 for achieving 100% enrolment and remarkably reducing the drop-out rate, this school stood first in the 'national primary school education award 2011 competition' organized by the Ministry of primary and mass education (MoPME). In the 'national education week 2012 program', the honourable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina awarded the Khedachara DP Para Government Primary School with Tk. 25,000 along with a crest and a certificate in recognition of the

83

school's performance. Before this, on 28th September 2011 the school obtained the 'national primary education award 2011' in Chittagong Division. Ms. Amena Begum Majumdar, the present head teacher of Khedachara DP Para government primary school, says about the success of 100% enrolment, "in December- January we do survey of 6+ school going-age children in the school catchment areas. We do courtyard meetings with the help of SMC, and PTA. We also do home visits, parent's meeting, and mother's gathering to increase awareness among them. We request the parents to send their children to the school. The teachers from the school catchment area are asked to collect the information so that no child is excluded from enrolment. If any child, who got admitted, remains absent from the school, then a teacher or SMC members go to the child's house to talk with his or her parents and to know about the reason or problem for being absent from the school. If any children become irregular at school for not having khata-pen; they are given away khata-pen through the SMC members. The students should also come to school regularly to get stipend. So, there is no scope for drop out and irregularity of the student".

In the school there are 380 students, among them 170 are

boys and 210 are girls. At present the rate of student's attendance is 96%. In the last 2010-2013 the average rate of the student's attendance was 90% . From 1990 to 2013, 58 students got stipend; out of them 14 got the talent full scholarships.

At present there are 9 teachers in the school. It is mandatory for the teachers to attend and take the classes regularly. According to the school time schedule, the classes happen from 9.00 am to 4.00 pm. Even during the road strikes, the school remains open and the classes are held as usual. The weak students are sorted out in the classes to give them special care by the teachers.

Being recognised as the best school, the Khedachara DP Para

Ms. Amena Begum Majumdar, head teacher of Khedachara DP Para government

primary school

84

Primary school received a laptop and a projector from the Prime Minister to do 'digital classes' in 2011. Through the digital classes the students can easily understand the lessons. The teachers of the school said, "In the past, the teachers had to work hard to make the students understand about any topic by showing them pictures from the textbooks or by giving

lectures. But now through digital medium we can make them understand the lessons by showing live pictures of any animal or things. The digital classes are attracting the students and class-centric attention has increased. From 2013, we have started the digital classes. We have the lesson plans. We verify the progress of the

students and keep an eye on them so that they can achieve class wise desired ability according to the lesson plans. In 2013, 99% students passed the primary school certificate examination".

To attract the students to the school, various co-curricular activities are oraganised, such study tour, New Year program, national day celebration e.g. painting competition on the national children day, essay and cultural competition and annual sports. All these programs attract children to the school and thereby decrease the dropout rate. The school has a students' council and student's brigade. In any program of the school they are entrusted with some duties and responsibilities. The students are allowed to take decisions in their own assembly and do their duty. The students have 7 main duties as below:

Teachers of Khedachara DP Para government primary school

Crest awarded to DP Para Government primary school 85

Crest awarded by Matiranga Upazilla Administration

Students in daily assembly

- environment ( school yard, toilet cleaning/ dust management)

- welcome & service- tree plantation- health- book and education stuffs- games & culture- water resource

The school has gained well reputation in sports and games. It has a spacious playground for the children. In 2012, the school became champion in the Bangabandhu Gold Cup and Bangamata Gold Cup football tournament. In 2014, the school was selected as the best school in

the education fairs held at upazila and district level. SMC plays a very important role in school management. Mr. Shamsu Mia, SMC president and Ms. Sabina Yasmin, an SMC member said, "the teachers are really working hard to make the students attend the school regularly and teach them with sincerity. 11 members of SMC, 9 members of PTA including the village people are helping to do courtyard meetings, home visits, parent's meetings, and mother's gathering to increase awareness among the parents. They also help the poor students by giving away khata, and pen to them. SMC has an active contribution to providing furniture for the school".

86

Recommendations

Conclusion

Ensuring education for all children in the Chittagong Hill Tracts

requires proactive interventions both in policy and practices in the

education sector of Bangladesh. Given the present supportive policy

scenario there is a need for a more flexible mechanism to implement

the provisions of the present policy, strategy and other legal

frameworks related to education in CHT. Political commitment from

the government to translate the strategy, policy and programmes

into action is essential to ensure the right to education for all children

in CHT. Taking all these into account following recommendations are

made for inclusive quality education in the CHT region.

Chapter 5

&

87

1. Recruit community based teachers: The government of Bangladesh should instruct the local authorities i.e. HDCs to recruit Upazila-wise and Union-wise teachers so that the recruited teachers can use local language to explain the lessons to the students.

2. Strengthen the Primary Teachers' Training Institutes: To start the PTIs in Bandarban and Khagrachari as immediately as possible. The Primary Teachers Training Institute in Rangamati should include a training course on teaching-learning mechanisms in mother tongue based multilingual education, where Bangla will also be considered as a second language. The said training course should include a specific chapter/subject on the bridging process by using MLE methods and pedagogies. The pedagogies shall include but not limit to the issues of child-friendly learning and inclusive education. Locally available education materials and cultural tools should be used in teaching process.

3. Infrastructure development: Provide enough classrooms with sufficient spaces for 30 students in a room, at least 5 rooms in every school building excluding the office room. Improve rural infrastructures to make access to the schools. Old school buildings should be renovated as per the needs of each school.

4 Water and sanitation facilities: Provide sufficient wash blocks in each school so that children can have water and sanitation facilities in their schools. Locally available technologies can be used in the construction of water and sanitation facilities.

5. Strengthen CHT institutions: Strengthen the role of Hill District Councils in implementing education services in the respective district. Delegate authority to the HDCs including the financial authority to establish and take necessary measures for nationalization of primary schools in the respective district. While making any policy on education at national level, e.g, PEDP-III, involve the CHT Regional Council, Hill District Councils, local civic actors and practitioners as far as the matter it is concerned with CHT affairs.

Recommendations

A. To the government of Bangladesh

88

6. Introduce mother-tongue based multilingual education in formal primary schools: Primary education in mother tongue of indigenous children may help reducing some of the obstacles they face. Mother-tongue based multilingual education will attract the children to the school by creating conducive learning environment for them. This system will also offer an opportunity to gradually introduce to Bangla and other languages to the students. The government should undertake a program to pilot this special education system through providing sufficient budget to HDCs.

7. Continue the review of curriculum and textbooks: The

government should continue the current process of reviewing the national curriculum and textbooks in order to enhance understanding and knowledge on the indigenous cultures. While designing and developing the teaching materials and methods, indigenous experts must be involved.

8. Strengthen the supervision and monitoring system: Monitoring and supervision of the schools should be ensured to support the teachers in improving their teaching practice and create a child-friendly and inclusive environment. HDCs can mobilize indigenous community organizations and traditional social institutions to monitor the educational services for their children alongside the government agencies, which are responsible for regular monitoring and supervision. The number of Assistant Upazilla Education Officers should be increased in the Upazilla level considering the geophysical conditions of CHT.

9. Strengthen the School-based committees: Establish effective arrangements to ensure active participation of parents and community members in decisions making process regarding the planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of education services. Regular training and refresher courses are needed for the members of SMCs, PTAs and MGs.

89

Recomm

endations

10. Establish new primary schools and nationalize all primary schools of CHT: New schools need to be established in such areas where there are no schools. Identify the villages out of coverage under any school. To undertake special measures to nationalise all those primary schools, which have not been brought under the nationalisation process yet. To this effect, the criteria for registration of a school, such as minimum land area, number of students and population etc. should be relaxed considering the geographical location of the CHT region.

11. Restructuring education administration: Rearrange the structure (organogram) of human resources in education department at Union, Upazila and District level. Number of Assistant Upazilla Education Officers should be increased considering the geophysical conditions of CHT.

B. To the CHT Institutions (MoCHTA, CHTRC and HDCs)

1. Formulate local specific policies: HDCs should formulate specific policies on teacher's recruitment, placement and transfer, and operational manuals for implementation of mother tongue based multilingual education and guideline for teacher's training and skill development process.

2. Strengthen Primary Teachers' Training Institutes: MoCHTA and CHTRC should take the lead for advocacy or dialogue with the line ministry and relevant actors to start operation of the PTIs in Bandarban and Khagrachari. The PTIs of three hill districts should establish a training course on teaching-learning mechanisms in mother tongue based multilingual education, where Bangla and English will also be considered as second and third languages and proper bridging process will be followed through introducing specific training subjects in PTIs on MLE methods and pedagogies. The pedagogies shall include but not limit to the issues of child-friendly learning and inclusive education. Locally available education materials and cultural tools should be used in teaching process.

90

Reco

mm

enda

tions

3. Provide stipends: Provision of stipends and other incentives, such as tiffin or mid-day should be createdmeals for students which may be helpful to overcome their difficulties, and encourage them to enroll and retain them in schools.

4. Strengthen the supervision and monitoring: HDCs can establish an education desk in their offices to supervise and monitor the education activities in respective district. DPEO and concerned Upazilla level officials shall be included in the supervision and monitoring process led by HDC. Teachers should be provided with necessary technical and incentive supports to improve their teaching practice and create a child-friendly and inclusive environment in the classrooms. Indigenous community organizations and traditional social institutions should be strengthened and encouraged to participate in the monitoring of educational services for their children.

5. Establish new primary schools: HDCs should take effective measures to establish new schools in the areas where there are no schools, following relevant criteria and procedures of the government. If the criteria and procedures of government do not match with the local realities, the HDCs should negotiate with the government for relaxing those criteria and procedures for the CHT region.

6. Special arrangement for out-of-school children: HDCs should take special measures to provide education to out-of school children through establishing non-formal, satellite and pre-schooling facilities.

7. Provide hostel facilities: HDCs should undertake measures to establish and run hostels in every Upazila and gradually in Union in CHT. A policy must be developed for the management of hostels, where the disadvantaged students from the remote villages should get preference for admission.

8. Introduce flexible school calendar: HDCs should take effective measures to formulate local context specific school calendars for respective districts considering local traditions, religion, livelihood and cultural events. For example, BOI-SA-BI festival and jum season should be considered for preparing this local context specific school calendar. While preparing the school calendar, DPEOs and UEOs should take the lead under the overall guidance of HDCs.

91

Recomm

endations

92

9. Policy advocacy led by MoCHTA and CHTRC: The CHT institutions should continue regular advocacy works led by MoCHTA and CHTRC. The CHT institutions should advise the government to make amendments to the relevant government rules and regulations which have implications for the life and livelihood (including education, health and agriculture) of indigenous peoples.

C. To Civil Society Organizations, education campaign networks and local Development

Organizations

1. Continue Research on education: Conduct research on education, Mother Tongue Based Multilingual Education, quality education, attitude to the use of language, education financing, state-community interface on education services and a comprehensive survey on school catchments area.

2. Lobbying for school establishment and nationalisation: Civil society organizations and local development organizati0ns should take measures for lobby works both at local and national levels to influence the government: i) to establish new schools in the indigenous peoples' inhabited areas where there is no school; ii) to nationalize the existing non-government primary schools by relaxing criteria given the difficult geo-physical setting of the Chittagong Hill Tracts region.

3. Community mobilization and education: Civil society organizations and local development organizations should take measures for building capacity and raising awareness of the community people on the importance of quality education, education in mother tongue and other services related to education. To this effect, training, exposures visits, orientation, community conference, linkage building workshops with the service providers and so on can be organised.

4. Showcasing of good practices: Small scale initiatives on quality education, community participations, education in mother tongue and other issues related to education can be implemented by the civil society organizations and local development organizations to showcase the evidences of good practices.

Reco

mm

enda

tions

5. Evidence-based advocacy: Civic actors and local development organizations should organize advocacy works on basis of the evidences they have created through different small scale initiatives.

6. Play watch-dog role at local level: Civic actors and local development organizations should play the watch-dog role to lead the community monitoring on education services at the grassroots level. Community mobilization, participatory action research, publishing community reports on education services etc. can be done by civic actors and local development organisations.

D. To development partners and donors

1. Involve CHT institutions in the policy making process: Development partners and donor community should make sure that CHT institutions can actively participate in the decision making process concerning development in CHT. Participation should be ensured in all stages - from preparation, and implementation to evaluation of any development intervention in CHT.

2. Allow for flexibility: The CHT region being different from the rest parts of the country in terms of geo-physical settings, political and socio-economic conditions, ethnic and cultural diversity, development partners and donor community should consider these distinctive specificities and conditions while making any plan for development intervention in the CHT region.

3. School-based Infrastructure development: Most of the schools in CHT have either poor or insufficient number of class rooms, and poor or insufficient water and toilet facilities. Development partners and donor community should consider these issues while making plans so that effective measures can be taken to ensure sufficient water and toilet facilities along with enough classrooms with sufficient space for 30 students in a room, at least 5 rooms in every school building excluding the office room. Allocations for rural infrastructure e.g. connecting roads, culverts and small bridges also should be considered at the planning stage.

93

Recomm

endations

4. Strengthen CHT institutions: Development partners and donor community should give due importance to strengthening the role of Hill District Councils in implementation of education services in the respective district. Capacity development, fund allocation and technical supports may be considered in this regard.

5. Provide supports for research, advocacy and publications: Development partners and donor community should consider allocating funds for research on education, Mother Tongue Based Multilingual Education, quality education, attitude to the use of language, education financing, state-community interface on education services and a comprehensive survey on school catchments area.

6. Provide supports for lobby and advocacy works: Development partners and donor community should provide funds to civil society organizations and local development organizati0ns to conduct lobby works to influence the government: i) to establish new schools in the indigenous peoples' inhabited areas where there is no school; ii) to nationalize the existing non-government primary schools by relaxing criteria given the difficult geo-physical setting of the Chittagong Hill Tracts region.

7. Provide supports in community mobilisation and education: Development partners and donor community should provide supports to civil society organisations and local development organisations to build capacity and raise awareness of the community people on the importance of quality education, education in mother tongue and other services related to education. To this effect, training, exposure visits, orientation, community conference, linkage building workshops with the service providers and community consultations can be supported.

94

Reco

mm

enda

tions

95

Bangladesh has a significant number of policies, strategies and legal frameworks to support the education of indigenous peoples. Apart from national laws and policies, the government of Bangladesh is also a signatory to numerous international conventions and initiatives which are favourable to increase access to and quality of primary education to its citizens. The government is also pledge-bound to provide education in the mother tongue of the indigenous peoples under its different policy documents like CHT Accord 1997, PEDPII & III, PRSP and National Education Policy 2010. But the present education system of the country cannot fully address the local specific contexts of the indigenous peoples. Political commitment of the government and political parties to translate the strategy and programmes into action is essential to ensure the right to education, including the provision of education in mother tongue for indigenous children. In order to achieve the goal of 'education for all' by 2015, there must be affirmative action by the state to bring all indigenous children into schools. Introduction of mother tongue based multilingual education, establishment of schools and lodging facilities for teachers and students in remote villages, nationalisation of all schools established in indigenous peoples' territories and other relevant measures must be taken in order to achieve the goals of PEDPs, PRSP, vision 2021, EFA and eventually the goals of Millennium Declaration. To advance the country, there is no alternative to inclusive development, where indigenous issues must be considered with due importance. To achieve the government's commitment to "make primary education compulsory and available free to all", the government must ensure that all indigenous children receive education in their own mother tongue and within their own cultural environment.

conclu

sioncon

clusion

96

1. The Constitution of Bangladesh, October 20112. Unlocking Potential - National Strategy for Accelerated Poverty Reduction, 20053. Achievements of Primary Education in four years (2009-2012), Ministry of

Education4. Perspective Plan of Bangladesh 2010-2021 (Making Vision 2021 a reality), General

Economics Division, Planning Commission, Ministry of Planning, Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh

5. Sixth Five Year Plan FY 2011-FY 2015, General Economics Division, Planning Commission, Ministry of Planning, Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh

6. Social Inclusion and Safeguard Framework, Reaching Out-of School Children II7. National Population Census 2011, Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics8. Durnnian, Terry- Mother Language First, Save the Children, Zabarang Kalyan

Samity, Hill District Council, Khagrachari, 21 February 2007.9. Professor Mongshanue Choudhury and Senjuti Khisa, Situation of Primary and

Secondary Education in CHT10. Sourav Sikder and Mathura Tripura, Anlysing Education Situation in CHT, MJF11. DPE, the second Primary Education Development Programme (PEDPII)12. DPE, Primary Education Situational Analysis, Strategies and Action Plan for

Mainstreaming Tribal Children" (2006)13. DPE, PEDP3 Gender and Inclusive Education Action Plan (ANNEX 3)14. United Nations Convention on the Rights of Child (UNCRC) 198915. Hill District Council Acts 199816. Chittagong Hill Tracts Regional Council (CHTRC act 199817. UNESCO, Education in a Multilingual World (2003)18. UNDP- Component Document on Support to Basic Education in CHT19. National Education Policy 2010

refe

ren

cere

fere

nce

Supported by

ISBN 978-984-33-8159-0