Bangladesh

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Bangladesh

• An emerging nation

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(No Transcript)
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Constitution and Governmenta unitary republic
with a president elected by a one-chamber
parliament of 300 membersMinister of Education,
Science Technology Mr A S SadequeBangladesh
has been classified as one of the Least Developed
Countries (LDC) by the United Nations and is one
of the poorest countries in the world.
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• Some Statistics
• - total population 124.4m (est) (2xUK)
• - area 144,000 sq km (EW 151,000)
• - pop density 864 per sq km (EW 343)
• - most people live in rural areas
• - Dhaka (cap) over 10,000,000, Chittagong
  2,041,000, Khulna 878,000.
• - 15 other cities with population gt100,000

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• Education System
• - 12.2 current govt. expenditure on development
  in education sector
• - literacy rate low (40 of over 15 yr olds)
• - Universal Primary Education programme (free
  Grades 1 - 5)
• - grades 6 - 10 and 11/12 - parental contribution

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• Educational Statistics
• - 96,000 primary schools with 16.7m pupils
  (enrolment 63) and 312,000 teachers
• - 11,400 secondary schools with 4.7m pupils
  (enrolment 20) and 130,000 teachers
• - secondary school certificate examination at end
  of Grade 10
• - higher secondary school examination at end of
  Grade 12
• - 35 English medium schools

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• The Curriculum
• - National guidelines
• - Textbooks provided by National Board (but not
  always free)
• - Bengali (Bangla) language of instruction
• - English taught as second language in Secondary
  schools
• - Technical capability for translating English to
  Bengali

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• ICT in schools
• - only privately funded schools have any
  computers at primary and post-primary level
• - Computing is taught as an option in some
  Government secondary schools. Textbooks for
  teachers and students are available.
• - Computer Science has been made a compulsory
  paper of the S.S.C. Vocational Course under
  Technical Education Board.
• - Government has provided computers in 317
  schools to promote computer literacy

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• Other Factors
• - telephone network limited
• - terrestrial broadcasting established
• - limited access to Internet (only in large
  cities - intermittent service)
• - State religion is Islam (86.7) with 12.1
  Hindu
• - existence of BRAC - worlds largest NGO
  (objectives Alleviation of Poverty and
  Empowerment of the Poor)

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• Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC)
• - Non-Formal Primary Education Programme (NFPE)
  since 1985 (strong commitment to girls
  education)
• - runs 34,500 schools (1.1m students/70 girls)
• - 400 community-based libraries and 7,169 school
  libraries

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• Possible Ways Forward
• thro BRAC develop community ICT centres in rural
  libraries
• National Board develop an ICT curriculum for
  Grades 1 - 5, with strong emphasis on literacy
• Train teachers in basic ICT skills at City and
  Rural ICT Centres
• Use TV broadcasting for raising awareness of ICT
  in the community

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• Mike Aston
• Consultant
• UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in
  Education
• mike_at_kcited.demon.co.uk