People related to mass education campaigns under government and non-government entities on Thursday said that checking sexual harassment at schools, child marriage and corruption in the education sector were crucial to protecting investments against dropouts.
At a roundtable discussion in the capital Dhaka, they also recommended strong political will, coordinated efforts, incentivising teachers with adequate training and salaries and social awareness to keep the students in classrooms.聽
The Bengali translation of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation鈥檚 2024 report titled 鈥楾he Price of Inaction鈥� was also unveiled at the discussion.
Jointly organised by the primary and mass education ministry, the National Academy for Educational Management and UNESCO, the discussion also highlighted the barriers to disseminating quality education.聽
Following the welcome speech by Norihide Furukawa, UNESCO Dhaka鈥檚 head of education, UNESCO headquarters-based programme specialist, Matthias Eck, presented the keynote.聽
Mattias said that school dropout and educational gaps cost the global economy $10,000 billion a year.聽
In the keynote, he said that Bangladesh would see reduced gross domestic product in 2030 due to school dropout.聽
Citing the non-monetary losses in Bangladesh, Matthias said that early pregnancy and homicides could rise to 69 per cent and 57 per cent, respectively, due to school dropout.聽聽聽
He also said that 1-2 per cent of GDP could be increased if Bangladesh reduces 10 per cent of school dropouts of the current trend.聽
According to UNESCO estimation in 2023, Bangladesh spent 2.1 per cent of its GDP in education.聽
Discussing the UNESCO report, primary and mass education ministry鈥檚 additional secretary, Noorjahan Khatun, said that the country struggled to coordinate government services in 17 different types of education systems.
鈥業n the absence of a universal system, focusing on inclusive education becomes a big challenge. Failures in this task make the underprivileged students more marginalised,鈥� Noorjahan said.
She urged the media and educationists to contribute more to policy advocacy for minimising the challenges.聽
She also stressed increasing budgetary allocation in education, incentivising school teachers, checking drug addiction and child marriage for controlling school dropouts.聽
Non-government organisation Institute of Informatics and Development鈥檚 senior joint director Sunjida Rahman said that sexual harassment must be stopped to check girls鈥� dropout.
Probin Tripura from the same organisation said availability of schools and mother tongue-based textbooks were necessary for checking dropouts at the remote areas like in Chittagong Hill Tracts.聽聽
Brac University emeritus professor Manzoor Ahmed, NAEM director general Zulfeqar Haider and researcher Musharraf Tansen, among others, also spoke at the event.