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The BRAC Experience: Inclusive Education in

Bangladesh

A presentation made in the Round Table 1 in E9 Meeting held in New Delhi on 9 November 2012 By

Dr. Safiqul Islam

Director, Education, BRAC

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Presentation structure

3 Units

Background: Bangladesh and BRAC as an organisation

BRAC Education :An Inclusive Approach

Results, Lessons & challenges

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Bangladesh and BRAC as an organisation

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Context: Contd.Bangladesh made significant progress in basic education: Net enrollment in primary is >93% and girls represent 51% of student body both in primary & secondary

Number of-out-of-school children is on decline but still high

Difficulties in measuring progress: Most household surveys suggest lower level of achievement than most school data(c.f.BBS 2011)

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Context: contd.Progress has been uneven: rural-urban; rural-rural; rich-poor; girls-boys, etc.(WB 2010)

Even more uneven in terms teaching learning and quality

Strongly associated with factors related to teacher; contact hours; spending pattern and poverty. Requires special arrangements

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BRAC: OrganisationEstablished in 1972 in Bangladesh

Operates multi-dimensional programmes including education; health; micro-finance; WASH, Gender; in partnership with the Govt through a network of more than 2,500 branch offices

Now operates in another 10 countries: Afghanistan; Pakistan; Sri Lanka; Philippines; Sierra Leone; Liberia; Southern Sudan; Tanzania; Uganda and Haiti

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BRAC Education: Bangladesh

Pre-Primary Schools

Primary Schools

Adolescent Development Programme

Support to Mainstream Rural Secondary Schools

Multipurpose Community Learning Centres

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Current ReachProgramme Current learners/

schools/ centresGraduates/ completed

Total % Female

Pre-Primary Schools 433,658 students(15164 schools)

4.35 million 62%

Non-Formal Primary Schools

670,815 students(22,618 schools)

4.95 million 65%

Adolescent Development

202,251 members(8016 centres)

NA NA

Support to Mainstream Secondary Schools

1.34 mil students(3,689 schools)

39,472 teachers

trained

12%

Multipurpose Community Learning Centres

1,060,356 members(2,489 centres)

NA NA

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BRAC Non-Formal Primary Education: An Inclusive approach

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Inclusive: Concept

A constantly evolving process of change

within the education system to make

education more welcoming, learner-

friendly, and beneficial for ……male and

female; disabled and non-disabled; from different ethnic, language, religious or

financial backgrounds…(source: EENET

website).

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Non-Formal PrimaryA 4-years, 2nd chance, programme to complete a 5 year primary cycle for children 9 years to 13 years

Delivery : 1 room 1 teacher school/centre with a maximum of 33 children

Teacher: Local lady with SSC/HSC. Teacher stays with the class for the entire 4 years

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ChildrenOut of school children with majority girls and are first-generation learners

Children from urban slums and relatively remote/ difficult locations (e.g. north; north-east and south east)

From ethnic communities, and with mild & moderate disability

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Children …Separate schools for ethnic children Teacher is from the same community

For students of mixed communities there are 2 teachers from 2 different community

Separate schools for urban slums children

Do not differentiate schools by religion, however,there are schools where all students are from one religion

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Children …

At least 1 disable/differently able child in each school, or seek special permission

Blackboard is properly placed and coloured so that children with moderate eye-site problem can see

Each class is divided into 5 small groups and initially all group leaders are girls but rotate later on

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School/Classroom

1 room with at least 336 sft and 250 sft for school-boat

Calendar, world map, alphabet, number table and other charts displayed

Various class formations including U &O shaped

Class decorated by student artwork and stories

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Curriculum: Values & skillsValues:

Respecting othersSuccess through hard work Social awareness - health and environment

Skills:Cooperative learningLeadership skills (e.g. small group)Public speaking – comfortable speaking in front of strangersLife skills, including how to deal with oneself, others and relationships, and work in an effective manner (Social and Emotional Learning)

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Curriculum: contd

National curriculum as core

BRAC-wide special supplements, mostly story books(total 94), both for general and special situations (e.g. remote, ethnic): Language is fundamentally important for all subjects

Situation/community specific materials

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Special materials for ethnic population

Local rhymes in local languages but in Bangla script for 14 communities

Local stories in Bangla for 18 communities which are delivered in local language

Chakma language in all subjects in grade 1 & 2 and language primer grades 3 to 5 (pilot intervention)

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MLE for ChakmaAll primers and classroom communication in Chakma language in

preprimary, Bangla as a 2nd language in class 1 and English in class 2

Mother Tounge

Language Progression

Bangla

English

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Teachers developmentContinuous and rigorous process

Foundation training to change attitude and develop child-friendly delivery skills

Monthly in-service-problem solving refreshers

Peer-learning and reflective pedagogy in refreshers training session

Independent monitoring of training quality and post-training classroom application (at 2 levels: programme and central)

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Cost structureCore common with need-based cost

in view of teachers honorarium (urban higher) and per student allocation

Teachers development; monitoring and research are organic part of cost

Common strategy (at least once a week visit) but situation specific supervision structure: lower number of schools in remote areas

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Results, lessons and challenges

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Year 1992 Year 1996 Year 1999 Year 2003 Year 2006 Year 2009 Year 20120%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

91%

76%

71%68%

62%58%

49%

0%2% 4% 4%

4% 7%9%

9%

22%

25% 26% 27% 28% 31%

0% 0% 0% 2%

7% 7%11%

Plain Land Area Urban Area Remote Area Ethnic Area

Urban AreaEthnic

Area

Primary Schools in Urban, Remote and Ethnic Areas (% of total)

Plain Land Area

Remote Area

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Christian Buddist Hindu Muslim0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

1%1%

11%

87%

1% 3%

20%

77%

Students (%) by religious statusTeachers (%) by religious status

BRAC Primary Schools

Religious status of students-teachers

Physical, 20%

Visual, 18%

Speech, 44%

Hear-ing, 9%

Intelectual; 8%

Multiple, 0.4%

CSN Students (%) by type

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Learning achievementLearning assessment represents one of the least researched areas. Grade 5 completion tests needs research and comparing those to competency studies.

Available results indicate that in general urban children do slightly better than rural children and similarly in most situations boys do better than girls. However, there are rare exceptions (c.f. EFAMR 2010; BRAC RED, Nath 2011)

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Learning achievementSimilar differences have been recorded between ethnic and non-ethnic children (c.f.op.cit).

The mean number of competencies achieved by ethnic students (20 of 27) was marginally lower compared to their counterparts (22 competencies) (c.f. op.cit)

Subject-wise results suggest that ethnic boys are ahead of their Bangalee counterparts in geometric figures( op.cit. annex 56)

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Learning achievement: contd

Reasons for the above indicated achievement gaps are unclear and worth studying

Experiences indicate that speaking a minority language is often associated with low levels of achievement as the tests are taken in a language that they do not speak at home (c.f. EFA GMR 2010, pp 159)

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Lessons and challengesTypical arrangements (e.g. strategy or school architecture) are unlikely to work in most difficult- to-reach-situation both in terms of population and location. A targeted approach with appropriate incentives deliver results

An inclusive approach may incorporate slum children besides commonly agreed population

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Lessons & challenges: contd.

Children are spontaneous in classroom and feel encouraged to attend school when delivery is in their own language

Preparing materials based on local culture pose a challenge due to limited expertise on those areas/communities

A differentiated per child cost policy is essential to address the need of inclusive approach

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End

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