41pc girls drop out at secondary school level

Despite stipends, free textbooks and other incentives being implemented by the government, 41.52 per cent of the post primary level girl students do not eventually reach the Secondary School Certificate examination, says the BANBEIS (Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistics) annual education survey-2017.

This dropout rate for the girl students is 8.90 per cent higher than that of boys, while the total dropout rate is 37.80 per cent.

The annual report summary, presented to the media by the BANBEIS statistics division head Md. Shamsul Alam on Tuesday in the BANBEIS building says, though, the dropout rate has been decreasing over the last 10 years.

According to the report, there are 20,467 secondary educational institutions with 10,330,695 students, 54.20 per cent of them being girls.

The major contributors for the girls’ dropout, as pointed by a BANBEIS report in 2011, are low family income, child marriage, and poverty. This was highlighted again at the programme both by the education minister Nurul Islam Nahid and the BANBEIS director Md. Fashiullah.

BANBEIS also states that, there is one teacher per 42 secondary level students on average, lagging far behind the 1:30 ratio recommended in the country’s education policy.

*This report, originally published in Prothom Alo print edition, has been rewritten in English by Nusrat Nowrin.