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Country Updates 2007 - Bangladesh


Country Contacts:
Rasheda Choudhury rasheda@campebd.org
Sayed-Ul-Alam Kazal sua@campebd.org


Summary:

First Planning Meeting on GCE’s Global Action Week (21-27 April) 2008 held

As part of GCE’s worldwide activities underlining the issue of Education for All, CAMPE organized the 1st Planning Meeting on observing Global Action Week (GAW)-2008 in Bangladesh, at Dhaka on Tuesday, 16 January 2008 at 3:00 pm. The meeting was presided over by Mr. Muhammad Azizul Haque, Director-in-Charge, CAMPE. About 180 persons representing CAMPE partner NGOs, civil society groups, government departments, teachers’ association, women and children focused organizations, organizations working with disability issues, members of MDG journalist forums and research organizations attended the meeting.

Mr. Sayed-Ul-Alam Kazal read out some excerpts from GCE’s Planning Pack for observance of GAW 2008. He mentioned some possible activities to observe GAW 2008 in Bangladesh and also asked the participants to undertake some innovative programs to highlight the theme ‘Quality Education to End Exclusion’. Mr. Kazal also informed that as an important activity of the worldwide observance of GAW 2008 a World’s Biggest Lesson will be held on 23 April 2008 at 10:00 am, Bangladesh time where politicians, policy makers and representatives from the civil society groups will be present. And it will be an important task for the GAW partners to count the number of the participating people and send to GCE through fax and e-mail. If successfully done, this can have room in the Guinness Book of Records as a New World Record, he added.

Apart from the World’s Biggest Lesson, the following activities can be carried out in Bangladesh as the GAW partners did in the previous years: discussion session on the GAW 2008 theme, courtyard meeting, cultural programs, street play, art competition, hand-writing competition, essay competition, rally, human chain and some other motivational/awareness raising innovative programs and/or campaign that partners are capable to do.

Finalization of GAW 2008 theme in Bangla

Mr. Sayed-Ul-Alam Kazal on behalf of the Secretariat proposed some themes in Bangla
well-fitting to the global theme of this year—‘Quality Education to End Exclusion’. The participants reviewed the themes and finally set the Bangla theme Ôev` cov wbim‡b gvbm¤§Z wk¶vÕ (Bad Pora Niroshone Man Shommoto Shikkha).

Preliminary outline of the activities to mark GAW 2008

Some of the GAW partners informed that including the World’s Biggest Lesson they would be interested to undertake the following other activities to mark the action week in Bangladesh for 2008:
  1. A civil society representative from Rajshahi told that they would hold an assembly of the girl students at a local primary school to put importance on retaining enrolment rate that the school achieved in the previous year;
  2. TSP (Pabna), a local NGO, will arrange a rally and discussion session with adibasi children and guardians;
  3. Karok (Pabna), a local NGO, wants to arrange art competition, rally, discussion session and press conference for the disadvantaged children;
  4. Polli Sahitya Sangstha (Panchgarh), a local NGO, will hold a meeting with local people to stop hazardous child labours. Kobi gan and jari gan (indigenous form of performance) will also be arranged.
  5. CARE, an international organization, will extend education facilities to the excluded children in 30 areas in the country and undertake some supplementary programs to prevent dropping out;
  6. IDEA (Sylhet), a local NGO, will hold a discussion meeting with the Deputy Commissioner and some other programs for the street children in Sunamganj;
  7. Udayan Shabalombi Sangstha (Gaibandha), a local NGO, will take measures for enrolment of the excluded children;
  8. MUF (Faridpur), a local NGO, wants to organize rally with disabled children and stage street plays in the action week;
  9. ISOL (Jamalpur), a local NGO, proposed that a proposition should be placed to the government to take measures for preventing hazardous child labours;
  10. VPKA (Rajbari), a local NGO, proposed that some activities could be carried out at the Union and Upozila level jointly by a group of organizations;
  11. Protibandhi Kalyan Samiti, a local NGO working with the disabled, proposed to hold programs for the children in the chitmahal areas.
Date of Next Planning Meeting: 27 February 2008 at Dhaka


Public Representatives and Civil Society Leaders
Joining Hands for Education Rights
  • Ex Education Ministers, representing the two major political parties (who were at the helm of affairs during the last ten years), current Secretary, Ministry of Primary and Mass Education, Ex Cabinet Secretary and a number of former advisers from the Caretaker Governments of Bangladesh who played active role in taking decisions related to EFA (during different periods) joined hands with a number of opinion leaders, media personalities, teachers, human rights activists and other civil society leaders for promoting “Education as a Human Right” at a policy roundtable held on 28 April 2007 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The event was jointly organized by CAMPE, BU-IED, UNESCO and the Daily Star (the widely acclaimed English daily in Bangladesh), to mark the GCE Global Action Week 2007. All the high profile participants of the roundtable raised their hands together to express their firm commitment to promote and achieve EFA despite socio-political and economic challenges being faced by an LDC like Bangladesh. They also demanded adequate flow of resources, both from the government and the donors, to make EFA happen.
  • While the Roundtable was going on, the news came that the Council of Advisors (Ministers) of the Interim Caretaker Government of Bangladesh, had approved the ratification of the ‘UN Convention on the Rights of the Disabled’, 2007. It instantly gave a real impetus to the education rights campaign in Bangladesh.

  • The policy roundtable was a culmination of 2-day thematic forums focusing on ‘Education as a Human Right’ in the perspective of EFA. It is one of the hundreds of programs being carried out by CAMPE and more than 700 of its partner organizations to promote the theme of GAW 2007 all over the country. Major activities include rallies and gathering of learners, teachers, parents and local communities in schools and other public institutions, lobby meetings with public representatives and education administrators, interaction with the media and weeklong discussion sessions, talk shows etc. in the electronic media.
  • Although a ‘State of Emergency’ is in place in Bangladesh and despite the fact that huge, big rallies or public meetings are difficult to organize at this point of time, qualitative difference has been observed in all the grassroot and national level programs with the active participation of local and national public representatives and concerned government officials, representatives from marginalized groups like the disabled and ethnic minorities. Everywhere people have expressed their firm commitment to education as human right and vowed to follow-up and monitor progress of the EFA goals.

The final planning meeting on Global Action Week was held at Dhaka on 15 April 2007. 150 participants from different parts of the country including 50 females attended and shared the countrywide programs. GAW poster, sticker and leaflets have been distributed to the participating organizations. A format has been given for reporting from the field level. CAMPE will prepare a compiled report on the countrywide programs which will be disseminated to the concerned authorities, development partners, government agencies and GCE.

Programs planned to be organized in Bangladesh include:
At National Level (at Dhaka):
A series of  thematic forums are planned to be jointly organized by Campaign for Popular Education (CAMPE), BRAC University Institute of Educational Development (BU-IED) and UNESCO, Bangladesh on 25-26 April, 2007 at the Spectra Centre, House-19, Road-7, Gulshan-1, as noted below.

Forum 1.  Preschool and Primary Education
Wednesday, 25 April, 2:00 - 5:00 pm

Forum 2. Secondary and Technical/Vocational Education
Thursday, 26 April, 10:00 am - 1:00 pm

Forum 3.  Literacy, Non-formal Education and Life-long Learning
Thursday, 26 April, 2:00 - 5:00 pm

At the beginning of Forum 1, the Bangladesh launch of the EFA Global Monitoring Report 2007 which focuses on Early Childhood Care and Education will be held.

Our aim is to have a wide spectrum of civil society opinion leaders, education experts, decision makers and practitioners consider the situation and point out the way forward to achieving the EFA goals and fulfilling the right to education. A panel of leading figures in education will speak and explore the issues with the participants in each forum.

The highlights of outcomes of the three forums will be presented in a Policy Roundtable on “Education as a Human Right: Where are We” of government and civil society leaders and education experts to be hosted by CAMPE, BU-IED, UNESCO and The Daily Star (A leading national English daily) on Saturday 28 April, 2007 from 10:30 to 1:30 pm at Hotel Sheraton, Dhaka.

The roundtable is being organized with the following objectives:
  • To review where we are in achieving the major EFA goals (The Dakar Declaration 2000) and in fulfilling the right to education
  • To identify policy directions and action points to move forward with the agenda for right to quality education.
Civil Society opinion leaders, education experts and policy and decision makers will participate in the roundtable.

Media coverage
  • Special Supplement on GAW 2007
  • Wake Up Calls in 4 national dailies
  • A 4-page special supplement on the Policy Roundtable
Publication and dissemination of materials
  • Poster, sticker and leaflet
  • Bengali New Year Calendar 1414
  • Booklet on the findings from the Thematic Forum and Roundtable
Programs planned to be organized by PNGOs at local level
  • Discussion meeting on Education As a Human Right
  • Human chain
  • Meeting with Union Parishad members and civil society representatives
  • Meeting guardians and parents
  • Courtyard meeting with mothers and children
  • Discussion meeting with indigenous people, disabled people and ethnic minorities
  • Essay competition
  • Wall Magazine
  • Art competition for children
  • Sports competition
  • Cultural events including drama, street plays and folk songs on GAW themes
  • Special envelop on GAW-2007
  • Press conference.
CAMPE is storming ahead with their Action Week plans with 30 partner organizations already organizing  loads of exciting activities locally including open meetings, JOIN UP events with photo petitions, street drama, painting competitions and the list goes on. CAMPE is also publishing wake up calls to Bangladeshi leaders on the right to education in the major daily newpapers !"
The Visiting President of GCE, Mr. Kailash Satyarthi, Meets GAW Partners  
in Bangladesh 
A Special Planning Meeting of the Global Action Week (23-29 April) 2007 of Global Campaign for Education (GCE) was held on Thursday, 22 February at 3:00 pm at CAMPE, Dhaka. Around 80 participants from different coalition NGOs, teachers' federations, journalist forums and civil society attended the meeting.  

The meeting was chaired by Ms. Tasneem Athar, Deputy Director of CAMPE. Mr. Kailash Satyarthi, the visiting President of GCE, graced the occasion as Chief Guest, while Mr. Kazi Rafiqul Alam, President and Chief Executive of Dhaka Ahsania Mission (DAM) was present as Special Guest. Among others, Mr. Majid Mollik, Director, DEEDs Program of CARITAS, Mr. Sayed-Ul-Alam Kazal, Program Manager of CAMPE and many other old friends of Mr. Kailash were also present.  

Mr. Kailash Satyarthi told that Education should be used as a weapon to establish human dignity. He referred to many success stories of some Asian and African countries like India, the Philippines, Indonesia, China, Bangladesh, Peru, Kenya, Ethiopia etc. He expressed his great satisfaction at the achievements of Bangladesh notably attendance rate of girls in primary and secondary education, dropping down the number of child labor, very strong lobbying tendency with government etc. Asked by some of the participants, Mr. Kailash told that no man and woman in the world is helpless; God has given us voice, strength and knowledge that all people can use to protect and develop themselves. He mentioned that World Bank, ADB, UNICEF, UNESCO, ILO have many programs on the elimination of Child Labor, Domestic Violence, Violence in Education, Gender Biasness etc. Also mass media can help focus on the actions taken against adversities.  

Mr. Sayed-Ul-Alam Kazal described the planning process of Bangladesh country programs for Global Action Week-2007. He also gave a brief description of elaborate programs chalked out for GAW-2007 in Bangladesh.

In her concluding remarks, Ms. Tasneem Athar, Chair of the meeting, thanked Mr. Kailash for coming to Bangladesh and giving opportunity of a courtesy meeting with the GAW partners in Bangladesh. She thanked all participants for their contribution to the meeting with greater enthusiasm. 

CAMPE have already selected 30 partner NGOs (PNGOs) to ensure Global action week is observed across Bangladesh. They are storming ahead with their plans with loads of exciting activities happening locally.

There will be local discussion groups on ‘Education is our Right’ involving everyone in the community from the Local education authority, to ,teachers and students,  to the guardians and  school management committees. Participants will JOIN UP their hands and collect photographs. They will express their solidarity with the people who still are deprived of the right for education. Also in each locality, there will be at least one of the following taking place: a courtyard meeting with mothers, cultural concert, a street drama, a painting competition, a hand-writing competition or an essay-writing competition.  CAMPE will gather the results of all these and take the concerns and recommendations to their local authorities and government.

What’s more is that CAMPE will publish Wake Up Calls in the major daily newspapers. Two or three roundtables will also be organized with policy-makers during the Global Action Week at Dhaka. The findings of the roundtables will also be published in major the national newspapers.

CAMPE has already distributed these fantastic GAW materials some of which you can downloads from this page.

 If you have any questions regarding CAMPE’s plans for GAW in Bangladesh please contact Sayed-Ul-Alam Kazal

Photos:
GAW First Planning Meeting held in Bangladesh - 2008
 
Public Representatives and Civil Society Leaders - Joining Hands for Education Rights
 
Public Representatives and Civil Society Leaders - Joining Hands for Education Rights
 
The final planning meeting on Global Action Week
   



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