Burden of costly children’s education on families

News Desk :
That Bangladeshi households spend more money on children’s education compared to those of the neighbouring countries may apparently give the impression of good parental attention. The reality, however, is that it is the reliance on private education system that rips apart the parents’/guardian’s pocket. The UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report 2022, released recently, says Bangladeshi households bear the lion’s share (71 per cent) of the total education-related spending of their children. The report, referring to the preference of households for private schools to government schools, states that the fees and expenses of the private sector-run schools  
are three times higher than those of the government schools. The expenditure is almost nine times higher in the private kindergartens. The UNESCO, in association with BRAC launched a national programme to study private sector’s role in education in South Asia.
 According to the report, Bangladesh has the largest number of students in the private sector in South Asia. Some 94 per cent of the country’s secondary school students are from private institutions. Sri Lanka has the highest number of private school students in pre-primary education (80 per cent), followed by Bangladesh (55 per cent). On an average, Bangladesh has the most private sector dependence in the education sector.