Promoting women in education

The EC-supported project is an important element of the overall strategy for eliminating gender disparity in education. The UN Millennium Development Goals for 2015, to which Bangladesh is committed, require countries to remove disparity in primary and secondary education opportunities for boys and girls by 2005 and to eliminate gender discrimination at all levels of education by 2015.

Bangladesh has earned international plaudits for its progress towards equal opportunities for boys and girls in primary and secondary education. It is the only South Asian and one of a handful of developing countries in the world which has removed a wide gender gap at the basic level of education in the course of a decade. An array of policy measures including stipends for primary school children, stipends and tuition waivers for girls in high school in rural areas, quota for recruitment of female teachers at the primary level and incentives for raising the proportion of women teachers in high schools have contributed to increased girls' participation in education.

Equal participation of girls in education is a key element of a broader process of social change in Bangladesh. These include the increased economic opportunities for women through the expansion of micro-credit in rural areas and employment of young women in large numbers in the ready-made garment industries, non-formal basic education opportunities offered by NGOs, and awareness-raising about women's education and human rights promoted by the civil society organisations. In a scenario of gloom about many aspects of development in Bangladesh, girls' education and increased participation of women in the economy represent a ray of hope for the future. It is vitally important that the gains made in this area is consolidated and supported further.

While progress has been made in bringing the level of girls' enrolment at par with boys in primary and lower secondary levels, the quality of teaching and learning, preventing dropout and ensuring completion of the respective cycle of education, and above all, improving learning performance and achievement of students remain very serious problems for both girls and boys. This is why recruitment of qualified teachers, especially women teachers, assisting them to improve their skills, and providing appropriate incentives to meet performance standards as teachers becomes a critical concern.

The proactive policy for recruiting women teachers in primary schools and encouraging women to become secondary school teachers have helped to increase the number of women in teaching positions, but the proportions of women still remains low at all stages and types of education.

Data from the Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistics (BANBEIS ) shows that in 2002, 37.9 percent of the teachers in the primary schools were women, and at the lower secondary level the proportion was only 16.7 percent.

The Promote project was aimed at addressing the problems of incentives and support for qualified women to become secondary school teachers. Its achievements so far include:

• One hundred thirty-three hostels in Upazila headquarters, where non-local women teachers can have residential accommodation, have been constructed and handed over to the Ministry of Education. The problem of accommodation was identified as a major disincentive for women in taking up teaching in small towns. Forty-six other hostels are under construction and may not be completed unless EC reconsiders its decision.
• Promote has paid for the training of 6,797 female secondary teachers in Teacher Training Colleges (TTCs), offering the new recruits the chance to acquire professional B.Ed. qualification. Promote has helped 1,325 teachers find permanent teaching posts in secondary schools in rural Bangladesh between December 2003 and March 2005. Salary subventions were given for new teachers, which will cease with the removal of funds for Promote activities.
• Promote also supported 3,400 temporary posts for female teachers in rural high schools.
• Promote assisted TTCs to reconnect with secondary schools. This included:
  1. TTC trainers to have the opportunity to take part in classroom observations of rural secondary schools,
  2. Math, Science and English curriculum materials were developed for the new B.Ed programme for the benefit of all teachers - women and men.
  3. Gender awareness programmes for TTCs, schools, teachers and education administrators were developed and implemented. Learning kits and materials (videos, multimedia) were developed for teachers and classrooms.

The EC delegation in Bangladesh, in agreement with the Ministry of Education, can reconsider the decision to withhold committed funds and support to Promote and allow the project to complete its important mission. It would even make good sense to extend the life of Promote, given the project's achievements, the unfinished tasks that remain, and its relevance to fulfilling the Mds in education to which both Bangladesh and EC are committed.

Dr. Ahmed is Director of Institute of Educational Development, BRAC University. Ms. Chowdhury is Executive Director of Campaign for Popular Education (CAMPE).