High rate of dropouts at primary level is top challenge

Increasing the public literacy level is an important goal for the growth of any country in the world. However, a developing country like Bangladesh usually faces several challenges in achieving that goal. One such challenge is the high rate of primary school dropout. Primary school dropout is when a child enrolls in school but fails to complete the minimum expected amount of schooling of the education cycle. Primary school dropouts belong to the population that is considered illiterate from educational perspective. Hence, it is imperative to identify the key reasons behind primary school dropouts and resolve them accordingly in order to increase the literacy rate among adolescent, and overall population.

It is said that Education is the backbone of the nation. And the basic foundation of this education is primary education. The next level of education depends on primary education. Therefore, if primary education is not improved, no matter how much effort is made for secondary or higher education, it will not be fruitful. In developed countries, primary education is given utmost importance.

In our country, the primary education level is up to the fifth grade. Since the beginning of the nineties, education has been made free and compulsory in the country. In addition, various types of facilities have also been increased. There are various educational institutions including government primary schools, kindergarten schools, Ibtedayi madrasahs to complete primary education.
If a child drops out of school at any time from entering school to the fifth grade, it is called primary dropout. Although the primary dropout rate in Bangladesh is lower than in the past, it is still alarming.
According to the 2022 data of the Directorate of Primary Education, there are a total of 1 lakh 14 thousand 539 educational institutions for primary education in the country. Out of which there are only 65,566 primary schools and 28,193 kindergartens. According to the statistics of 2022, the total number of primary students is 2,05,46,091. In 2021, this number was 2,00,90,057. According to the data of 2021, the dropout rate was 14.15 percent. Which in 2020 was 17.20 percent. This shows that the primary dropout rate in the country has decreased somewhat. However, this rate is still alarming.

A number of factors have emerged as reasons for dropout at the primary stage. Among them, poverty is the biggest factor. According to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) 2022 survey, 18.7 percent of poverty in the country. In the past years, 17 students drop out before completing primary education. Poverty is the main reason behind this. Boy students do not complete primary education due to poverty and resort to child labour. And many girl students drop out due to early marriage. Many family parents think that if the child goes to work instead of going to school, the family income will increase. As a result, they consider the child's education as a waste of money. Also. Superstitions, male-dominated social system, hope of immediate profit, language problems, distance from school etc. also cause students to drop out in primary school.

Some key reasons behind the primary school dropout in Bangladesh are mentioned below:

 Early marriage, child slavery, child fostering, trafficking, and multiple household duties for girls are some of the reasons behind the higher likelihood that girls leave the educational system before boys in societies where girls' rights are not secured and where social norms undervalue girls' education .

Recent price hike of essential commodities (especially, food prices) makes it difficult to maintain their livelihood. People (especially poor) spend a large part of their expenditure on food and cut off expenditure from other basic necessities like education for their children. Price hike of essential commodities during current regime has defeated all records. General peoples are spending 80 percent of their income on food and savings are falling . So both male and female children of poor households are forced to various income generating activities and popularly known as "child labor".

The government has taken several steps to solve this problem. One of them is the system of providing stipend. The condition of getting this stipend is that the student should have 85 percent attendance in the total school days. And a student of 3rd to 5th class should get minimum 40 percent marks in each subject in the annual examination. Also, in backward, backward areas, parent assembly, exchange meeting, yard meeting or this problem is also being addressed through home visits. Also, through the implementation of Prevention of Child Marriage Act, Prevention of Child Labour Act, it is playing an important role in preventing dropout at primary level. Also, to make the primary education system more dynamic, the government has started distribution of free books, school feeding program, mid day meal.

All of the aforementioned reasons are currently contributing to the lower literacy rate in Bangladesh. If the country wants to increase the education level among its population, then effective polices need to designed and implemented to reduce the primary school dropout rate. The continuous development of Bangladesh will never be fully achieved without resolving the crippling issues like primary school dropout.

The writer is a student, International Relation (Post Graduation Diploma), University of  Dhaka