8,000 pry schools closed in a year

14 lakh students decreased

Zarif Mahmud: In the span of one year, about 8,000 primary level educational institutions have been closed in Bangladesh. These are all private educational institutions. Besides, there is a decrease of 1.4 million students at the primary level.
The Secretary of the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education, Farid Ahmed, said that these data have emerged in the Annual Primary School Census (APSC) conducted by the Directorate of Primary Education in 2022. The report will be released on May 23.
Farid Ahmed said, this is actually a picture of Corona times. At that time there were no students in kindergarten type schools. These educational institutions were run in rented houses. As there were no students, they had no income. As a result, they could not run educational institutions. Now that the situation is normal, some things are starting. However, no government educational institution was closed during this time.
He said, we got two years of stipend together. The ‘Mid-Day Meal’ program has been launched. It is not the case that the student has dropped out. Due to the closure, many primary students moved to Qaumi Madrasa. Now some students are returning from there.
According to the Department of Primary Education, there are 65,566 government primary schools in the country.
Apart from this there are many other educational institutions at the primary level. Primary school census is conducted every year. Accordingly, in 2021, there were around 1 lakh 18 thousand primary level educational institutions. In the 2022 census, this number has come down below 100,000, which means there are no more 8,000 educational institutions.
According to the 2021 annual primary school census data, a total of 14,111 primary schools, including kindergartens, decreased in the country that year. Kindergarten national schools are largely closed.
According to the census data, the total number of primary students has decreased by more than 14.5 lakh in a span of one year during the Corona period. Of this, over 8 lakh students have fallen at the pre-primary level. But every year there is a trend of increase in students. The number of schools at the primary level across the country has also declined.
According to the census, the dropout rate has decreased by 3 percent. The dropout rate is now 14.15 percent, which was 17.20 percent in 2020.
Earlier, Bangladesh Bureau of Education Information and Statistics (BANBAIS) preliminary report on 2021 data showed that the total number of secondary school students in 2021 decreased by 62,104 compared to the previous year. Currently there are 20,294 secondary schools in the country.
According to the data of the Directorate of Primary Education, the total number of students at the primary level in 2019 was more than 2 crore 1 lakh. In 2018, it was 2 crore 9 lakh 16 thousand.