Not only students are dropping out, number of schools is also decreasing

IN a very worrying development, due to the impact of Covid-19 pandemic, it is not only students who dropped out, even the number of schools also decreased across the country.
Quoting a high official of the Education Ministry, a newspaper yesterday reported the number of government primary, primary-level private, and non-government schools and educational institutions decreased from 1.18 lakh in 2020 to 1.15 lakh in 2021, that is, three thousands educational institutions are now no more.
As the country is going through a deep economic crisis when it is difficult for a great number of families to manage two square meals a day, there is little hope that these institutions, or other new schools, would come into existence any time soon. Or, students who dropped out would be able to come back to school.
Still, due to dire economic situations schools students switched into Qawmi madrasas as they provide free food and lodging facilities. The Education Ministry is thinking of stipend to bring back students from Qawmi madrasas and former dropouts into schools. This may be all of little help if the overall economic condition of the country improves.
Moreover, stipends, free meals, etc. are not permanent solutions. Unless people themselves are able to provide for themselves, availing education to them will remain a matter of luxury. Poor economic condition not only creates dropouts, other evils like child labour and child marriage creep up in society, these twin problems the country is already grappling with.
Bangladesh’s education system has been in a shambles since the country achieved independence in 1971. Often referring to the poor quality of education, many say that the country’s education system has been destroyed. To some extent, this seems to be true.
But the greater truth is successive governments failed to establish a system in the first place. In a country where corruption and mismanagement of government affairs is so rampant, it is futile to expect that there would be a better education system following the country’s education policy that recommends a unified system of education.