Primary Education

Although primary education is free and mandatory in Bangladesh, inaccessibility prevents many children from coming under mainstream education programmes.  In the char and riverbank areas there are only a few primary schools that are fully functional. Most children have either never been to any school or have had to drop out.

In July 2005, Friendship commenced an education programme aimed at increasing literacy of the children of char dwellers as well as increasing literacy awareness among the char populace.  Based on the existing model being used, ultimately our project aims to not only continue to provide educational services in the areas where we work, but to develop a sustainable and replicable model of primary and vocational education designed with the reality of our beneficiaries in mind. The target beneficiaries of our work are the poorest of the poor living in hard-to-reach areas, especially the chars on the Jamuna River.

Friendship’s schools have certain characteristics which makes them different from other primary schools.  Not only are they set up on remote chars the children of which do not have access to schools, but before setting up, a survey of the area and the school-going children are carried out to ensure there are enough children of school-going age in order for the service provided to be useful.  School Management Committees (SMCs) are formed with consultation with the local people before schools are started in a particular area.  Friendship schools are all housed in pre-fabricated buildings which can be easily dismantled in the event of a natural crisis which forces the community to move elsewhere.  The lands on which schools stand are all donated by people of the area.  The donated land, the SMC, the annual stakeholders meeting (SMC, parents, teachers, and students) and the training on dismantling buildings in the event of a natural calamity like a char breaking causing forced displacement, all contribute to making Friendship schools an integral part of the char communities.    

The activities of the schools are managed by School Management Committees (SMCs) and Friendship staff with active involvement of local community members including parents as well as local government body members.  Active involvement of the community has made the school management smooth as well as effective.  To run schools which are well-functioning, strategies employed is to recruit teachers from the local community, implement active learning methods, and regularly carry out monitoring activities and follow-up trainings.  Active involvement of the community has made the school management smooth as well as effective.

The primary education programme – formal and non-formal – is based on active learning method.  The teachers, who are locally recruited, go through basic 1-month training and then monthly follow-up training. The follow-up trainings are residential in nature, where teachers and supervisors develop monthly lesson plans, go through orientation on new ideas, report to the supervisor on the work in schools and do exercises to improve their teaching skills, among others.  

Currently in the 58 schools, there are about 3000 students from Play Group (Shishu class) to Class 4, with 30 students in each batch and female to male student ratio of 55:45. These students in Class 1 will be provided education for the next six years. Students are taught English, Bengali, mathematics and receive civil education as well as vocational training with the vision to create conscious and self-dependent citizens.  Centre-based learning method is implemented so that children do not need to study after school hours. After completion of primary education they are expected to be prepared to join the mainstream schooling system.

The difference between Friendship primary schools and our satellite schools are that the latter is batch-based, i.e.; one batch attends the school for five years rather than there being fresh intake each year.     

The students at Friendship schools are performing very well and the community plays a proactive role in managing the schools. There is already a demand for more schools in other chars.  With the progress of the project, Friendship plans to annexe two more rooms to the existing school buildings in order to accommodate more students.