Child Equity Atlas - BIDS

Literacy, School Attendance and Educational Attainment
Table 3.3: School attendance rate at
5 years of age: Highest and lowest districts,
Bangladesh 2011
Srl.
Highest districts
Lowest districts
District % District %
1. Dhaka 38.8 Kurigram 9.4
2. Rangamati 34.1 Lalmonirhat 12.3
3. Chittagong 33.7 Chuadanga 12.6
4. Gazipur 30.6 Gaibandha 12.7
5. Barguna 29.8 Panchagarh 12.8
Bangladesh: 21.6%
3.7 Out of School Children
3.7.1 As observed from the analysis of the census
data, out of school children (OOSC) aged 6-10 years
is also fairly high in Bangladesh with Government
applying social protection means such as the
Primary Education Stipend Programme (PESP) to
address opportunity costs to schooling. Over onefifth
of the children aged 6-10 years (23.0 per cent)
are out of school with little difference between
boys and girls. However, the OOSC rates differ
significantly among districts and upazilas (Maps
3.10 and 3.11), revealing higher OOSC rates in
remote upazilas as compared to those which are
relatively accessible.
3.7.2 The indicator on OOSC measures children
aged 6-10 years who are ‘not in school’, but it does
not mean that these children have ‘never been to
school’ as some children enroll in school at higher
ages. The age specific data clearly shows that
the OOSC problem is concentrated in the group
of children aged six years old. It is alarming to
note that, even in the best upazilas 13 out of 100
children are out of school. The worst upazila has as
high as 45 of 100 children are out of school, a very
alarming number that calls for appropriate policy
review and actions to reverse this trend. The OOSC
Map shows similar pattern with the deprivation
Map with respect to the spatial concentration,
with a correlation of 0.9 between the two. The
association between out of school children and
child labour is not that strong (correlation of 0.57),
as child labour is more of an urban issue, fed by
internal migrants seeking work opportunities.
Photo : Ibrahim Khan Moni
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