<i>Pre-primary education helps children's transition to formal schooling</i>
Learning is the birth right of every human being. The period from birth to the entry to primary education is a critical formative stage for the growth and development of children. But in rural areas, especially in underprivileged families, parents may not have the education necessary to teach their children foundational literacy, reading and mathematical skills, nor have the same kind of enthusiasm for the demands of formal schooling that is common to better-off, educated patents.
Pre-primary education is a critical strategic intervention, which started in 1997 for promoting the quality of primary schooling especially for children whose parents are illiterate. It helps children's transition from home to formal schooling. The main objective of pre-primary school programme is to prepare underprivileged children for mainstream primary school entry.
The operational framework is developed by a working group comprising members from MoPME, MoWCA, NCTB, DEP, IER of DU, DAM, ECDRC of BU- IED and Unicef. Brac University and Unicef Bangladesh provide their technical and logistic support to the formulation process.
Available data shows that only 14.6 per cent of the children aged 3 - 6 years are attending pre-primary education. Currently there are 'Baby Classes' in 26,300 primary schools under the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education. In addition to, the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, the Ministry of Chittagong Hill Tracts Affairs and the Ministry of Religious Affairs are operating pre-primary classes under development projects. Besides, many private kindergarten schools and more than 150 NGOs are operating pre-primary education throughout the country.
At present, over 25,000 pre-primary classes are serving 1.1 million children. There is also large number of private kindergartens which approximately 20,000 have pre-primary education system.
Brac, the largest NGO in the country and one of the largest in the world, is providing more than 590,000 children ( female 61.27per cent including more than 15329 children with special needs) with pre-primary education in 22,250 new classes.
In Bangladesh, household level national surveys revealed that the net enrolment rate is nearly 13.5per cent for pre- primary and at primary level is 87per cent only. The dropout rate is decreased from 35 per cent to 33 per cent.
Rasheda K Chowdhury, Advisor, Ministry of Primary and Mass Education, says that “The children are expert in transferring their physical experiences into higher order of thinking. For this, they need many different avenues and media to express their thoughts and ideas. Their immediate experience with physical objects around them can be a bridge between their inner thoughts and the outside world.”
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