Child labourers, child marriage and malnutrition will increase across the country

REHENNUMA TARANNUM:

Country’s education sector among others is the worst affected as it has incurred huge losses due to clutch of corona pandemic and ongoing lockdown.

If this situation is prolonged, huge number of students will drop out of school in future, educationists fear.

Besides, child labour, child marriage and malnutrition will increase across the country.

Educators said, millions of day laborers have been laid off during the country’s lockdown to prevent coronavirus infection. Unemployed poor people have doubts about whether they will send their children to school in the future. Therefore, they have suggested for keeping a maximum percent allocation in the coming budget along with integrated initiatives to sustain the achievements of the education sector.

It is estimated that about 1 crore students of the world will never return to school due to onslaught of virus. Families of about 12 crore children will be victims of poverty. Educational condition of many countries especially Pakistan, Afghanistan, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Yemen, Guinea, Mauritania, Liberia and Chad have been worsened in the history.

Earlier on April in the last year, around 160 crore students were cut off from school, college and university education. In addition, the educational situation in low and middle income countries is not good now due to the virus infection.

A report by Save the Children said, the allocation from the education sector of such countries will be reduced by 7,700 crore dollar. This is the first time in human history that the education system has suffered such a major blow.

According to the sources of Department of Primary and Mass Education and Department of Secondary Higher Secondary, the number of students in the country from pre-primary to university is about 5 crore.

Of them, around 2,19,32,638 students are in the government primary schools. The total number of students in the secondary schools is around 75.10 lakh and 29.15 lakh at the higher secondary level. The total number of students in Madrasa education is around 70,998. About 38,691 students are studying in Teacher Education, while about 5,06,558 students are studying in technical education. The rest are at the university level. When coronavirus infection was detected in the country on March 8, educational institutions at all levels of the country were declared closed from March 17, which is still in force.

It is known that, if all the levels of education are not combined in one day, 160 million hours are lost. As of last March, the damage was innumerable. To overcome this loss, however, the Ministry of Education started academic activities through online and electronics media like television and radio. But experts say that’s not enough. The teaching must reach the students in any way.

Rasheda K Chowdhury, Executive Eirector of the mass literacy campaign told The Future Bangladesh that, the effect of coronavirus will increase student dropout, child marriage, premature pregnancy, child labour and malnutrition. The future will see risks at different stages of education.

She further said, there would be risks at various levels of educations in the future. It is keeping in mind that the allocation in the education sector will have to be increased in the budget of FY 2021-2022

Mahibul Haque Chowdhury, Deputy Minister of Education told The Future Bangladesh that, “Corona situation has now taken serious turn across the country. In this situation, it is not possible to open the educational institutions now. The government will take steps to make it easier for all students to study. All necessary measures are being taken to sustain the achievements of the education sector.”