The report carried by daily sun yesterday saying that one in every four children in Bangladesh is still out of school, is quite frustrating as all the successive governments including the incumbent one, focused heavily on ‘Education for All’ program with a view to ensuring universal primary education in the country. The report based on a UNICEF supported study styled ‘Child Equity Atlas: Pockets of Social Deprivation’ said, the progress in attaining equity is uneven in Bangladesh despite impressive trends observed in reaching general parity in education, school enrolment and youth literacy. Earlier, another study carried by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) revealed that nine percent girls in Bangladesh, aged between seven and sixteen years, of the extreme poor families comprising about one-third of the total population have no access to school. This figure is higher than those in Bhutan and the Maldives but lower than those in India and Pakistan.

It gives us cold comfort to know that the government has launched a project to create equal opportunity in primary education for 7.20 lakh reaching out of school children (ROSC) in the 52 districts in the country. The children belonging to under-privileged families and living in the under-developed upazilas, were targeted for bringing under the primary education to attain equity in primary education. Besides, the project aimed to bring the primary school children, who were never admitted to school or dropped out before completing primary education, as the government is determined to complete the primary education cycle for the reaching out of school children in the next five years. The government has also planned to reduce the number of reaching out of school children at zero percent in the next five years. On the other hand, it would also establish a social safety net through providing monthly education stipends for the children to check the dropout.

The finding of the UNICEF report reinforces the need for removing inequalities in education to ensure that not a single child is left out of school enrolment. Education has a vital bearing on socio-economic development. Literacy brings into existence a population with an understanding of public responsibilities. That one in four children is still out of school, poses a huge challenge to the government, as it is committed to provide ‘Education for All’ by 2015. The issue in question is not only drop-out but total lack of access to school. The government, removing the inequalities in education, should put in place a system under which not a single child would grow without education at least up to the primary level.