European Union (EU) will finance schooling for 400,000 poor children, who are hardest to reach, with an indicative budget of € 48.5 million.
This was disclosed at a consultation workshop yesterday organised by the EU delegation at the Lakeshore Hotel in the city to publicise a call for proposals from non-government organisations (NGOs) in the area of non-formal primary education.
Head of Cooperation Milko Van Gool, during the event, said, “I am proud that we will be able to reach out to about 400,000 children in this country with this budget.
“These children would otherwise most probably never have had the chance to learn how to read and write.
“We highly value our constructive partnership with government and the NGO sector and hope that together we will achieve the best results.”
According to a press release of EU here yesterday, the EU and the government of Bangladesh have committed a package of € 48.5 million, under their Action Programme 2010, in support of non-formal primary education.
The objective of the call for proposals is to provide basic and quality education opportunities for the hardest to reach children, also involving their parents and guardians.
The regional outreach will cover up to all six divisions in Bangladesh. The programme will also provide a variety of approaches that yields lessons about what works best and why.
Bangladesh has often been praised for its achievement of gender parity in primary and secondary education and has achieved a dramatic increase in net enrolment in primary education from 74 percent in 1999 to 94 percent in 2009.
An estimated 1.5 to 2 million of these children are currently enrolled at non-formal primary schools run by NGOs.
However, despite all these efforts, another 1.37 million children (842,000 boys and 529,000 girls) at primary-school age are still reported to have never enrolled at any primary school in Bangladesh.
