Brief

Equity and Access to Education in Bangladesh

Abstract

CREATE’s nationwide community and school survey (ComSS) confirms that poverty remains a key barrier to access to education in Bangladesh. ComSS data show a series of overlapping correlations between poverty, poor health, lack of school materials and exclusion from education. Policies that have been introduced to enable the poor to attend school include free schooling, subsidised schoolbooks, and stipends for the poor to attend school. However these are not accurately targeted or effective. Targeted assistance for social groups who are denied access to education is needed which reach the excluded and provide more equal opportunities to participate and subsidies to contribute to greater social justice for children who fail to complete basic education. This policy brief is based on the CREATE Pathways to Access Research Monograph, Poverty and Equity: Access to Education in Bangladesh (Hossain and Zeitlyn, 2010) and the research it presents