'One of every five children has no access to pry edn'

This means about 47 percent of children cannot complete five years of primary education, they said and called for collaborative efforts of the government and non-government organisations to ensure access for all to primary education.

The Campaign for Popular Education (Campe) organised the national workshop on 'GO-NGO Collaboration on Education for All' at Biam auditorium in the city.

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The gross enrolment rate in primary education is 97.5 percent while net enrolment rate is 86.5 percent, said Dr Manzoor Ahmed, director of Education Development Institute at the Brac University, quoting the Global Monitoring Report 2005 on the progress of Education for All in Bangladesh.

Out of 18.1 million children, according to the report, 65.5 percent continue up to class five while 34.5 percent drop out. Bangladesh ranks 107th among 127 countries in the Education Development Index, while India ranks 106th, Nepal 110th and Pakistan 123.

None of the South Asian countries will achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals in education by 2015 unless they expedite the pace of progress of their programme, the report said.

To address this situation, Dr Ahmed said, "Both the government and non-government organisations must recognise the existing problems in the field of primary education to forge an effective collective cooperation."

Collaborative efforts are a must to ensure education for all as there are 37,000 government primary schools and 40,000 non-government ones in the country, said Prof Muhammad Shafiul Alam, former director of Bangladesh Bureau of Education Information and Statistics.

Although Bangladesh has achieved an enviable enrolment rate in the primary education, the country lags far behind in universal primary education, literacy rate and quality education, said Campe Director Rasheda K Choudhury.

Advisor to the Campe ANM Eusuf said the existing educational infrastructure can provide access for only 60 to 62 percent students although enrolment rate is 86 percent.

He also called for achieving both qualitative and quantitative goals in the universal primary education.

Deputy Director of Primary Education Abdul Mannan Mia claimed that the literacy rate in the country is 62 percent.

The Bureau of Statistics reported 47 percent literacy rate in its population census in 2001 while the Education Watch survey of the Campe puts the figure at 42 percent.