We welcome the call from BRAC founder, Sir Fazle Hasan Abed to the Bangladesh Development Forum 2015, for a comprehensive 10-year program to attract more talented graduates into the teaching profession to improve the quality of education.
His suggestion to offer stipends to graduate students to attract more talented people into the teaching profession is a promising one. Other nations which have invested in improving the quality of new teachers have shown this is a constructive way to help transform classrooms.
The forum which brought together ministers, officials, development partners, and civil society organisations highlighted education along with health as key areas where improvement is needed if Bangladesh is to progress further in establishing itself as a middle-income economy.
Improving education is the best investment Bangladesh can make to develop the considerable human capital latent in our demographic dividend.
Despite the good progress achieved in increasing primary school enrollment over the past decade, both dropout rates are high and concerns about the quality of teaching remain unacceptably high.
We recognise that resources alone are not the only problem. Attitudes which encourage early marriage and cause many girl students to prematurely leave education must be changed as well.
However, funding still matters, as can be seen from successful initiatives to increase enrollment and retention of poorer students through the provision of free breakfasts and lunches by communities and schools.
Increasing investment in education is imperative if we are to train and retain the greater number of good quality teachers for our nation’s schools.
Bangladesh’s budgetary allocation of 1.8% of GDP falls below the target of 4%, which experts advise we should reach, and is far behind the target set by Brazil to double education spending to 10% of GDP by 2020.
The government must increase funding for education to help ensure every child receives a good education. Giving every child a chance is the best way to maximise the potential of our population and improve economic prospects.
Source: Dhaka Tribune
