Thus pry schools in C'nawabganj 'extort' guardians

24 December 2009, 17:00 PM

Rabiul Hasan, C'Nawabganj

Majority of the class-V passed students have to pay money to their schools under Chapainawabganj municipality area for obtaining certificates. "Some guardians give money willingly while others are forced to pay as school authorities have made it obligatory for students to get their certificates," said a report of Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB). Youth Engagement and Support (YES) Group and Chapainawabganj Conscious Citizens' Committee, a unit of TIB, released the survey report at Chapainawabganj Club auditorium recently. As they conducted the survey among 242 class-VI students of 17 high schools in the municipality area, 201 students said they paid money to the school authorities for getting certificates while 37 others said they did not pay for it. Four students could not say anything clearly about giving money for the purpose. However, those who did not pay money are the children of the members of school managing committee or local influential people. Twelve members of YES Group collected information of the survey from the class-VI students during February 1 to 15 this year. Corruption and irregularities have worked as major obstacles to achieving expected success in education, the report said, adding that headmasters have to face different types of harassment for getting fund for development activities in schools. Even they have to give bribes to the offices of upazila engineer and accountant for releasing fund in favour of their schools, it added. The schools find it difficult to maintain different costs due to poor allocation of fund and in many cases, teachers and students have to contribute money for keeping aya, it said. Farhad Ahmad, member of YES Group, read out the survey report that also made a set of recommendations for solving the problem. Chapainawabganj Citizens' Committee convener Mahbubur Rahman presided over the meeting. District Education Officer Nafisa Begum, assistant education officer Siddique Mohammad Yousuf, Habibur Rahman of TIB, Sarwar Kaonain of Model Government Primary School and Shafiqul Alam were present, among others.