Education Research Ideas

Dhaka May 26, 2015

Bangladesh PrioritiesWORKING WITH 30-50 economists including Nobel Laureates, 100+ sector experts engaging major development organizations, NGOs, government, businesses, youths, rural and urban Bangladeshis to identify, analyze and prioritize interventions that will deliver greater benefit per taka spent, helping move Bangladesh towards Vision 2021 and a more prosperous long term future.

In cooperation with the Research and Evaluation Division of BRAC,

Copenhagen Consensus Center organized roundtable discussions with

an aim to figure out smarter solutions to the most problematic issues facing

Bangladesh.

These roundtables are one of several sources

for research ideas.

Sourcing ideas and solutions

Smarter solutions for Bangladesh

Complete set of papers on 30-50 solutions

PRIORITIZATION

Government NGOs

Academia Pvt sector

Think tanks Developmentorganizations

Eminent Panel Assessment

Government and donor seminars

Rural polls Newspaper pollsamong readers

Youth forums across the

countryPrivate sector

meetings

Social, economic and environmental benefit-cost

research by top Bangladeshi, and

international economistsExtensive peer review by

sector experts and academics

100+ ideas on policies & investments

2016

2015

Continuous engagement

with the public via electronic,

print and social media

Working with civil society, government and sector

experts

Widely advocating results of

prioritization exercises

OUTREACH

Research ideas

Education;(1 of 9)

• Eliminate rote memorization practices by limiting use of exam guidebooks.

• Increase teacher-student contact hours to global standards.

• Prioritize technical, mathematical and scientific education.

• Conduct annual primary school census and biennial national assessment of G-3 and G-5 students.

• Support Teach for Bangladesh initiative.• Opportunities for public sector teachers for upward

mobility to other government departments.

Education;(2 of 9)

• Increase teachers’ wages to match South Asian/global standards.

• Using the national Poverty Map, introduce targeted school feeding programs and health checkup facilities in poverty-stricken areas.

• Introduce TVET in madrasas.• Update and modify madrasa text materials on Islamic

and Arabic subjects.• Mainstreaming of madrasa education to the national

curriculum. • Protect children from drowning - a major cause of high

dropout rate.

Education; (3 of 9)

• Co-locate schools with RMG factories.• Stipends at the secondary level to poor families’ male

members.• Scale up pre-primary education facilities under the

PEDP-III.• Provide stipends to 80% of primary school children.• Increase the number of sub-district level supervisors by

25-30%.• Decentralize monthly pay order (MPO) to cover all

schools.

Education; (4 of 9)

• Establish three new women’s Polytechnic Institutes at Barisal, Sylhet and Rangpur divisional headquarters.

• Stipends and other financial support for female members in training programs.

• Establish 100 Technical Schools (TSs) at Upazila level.• Training for less-skilled migrant workers through 22 new

District Employment and Manpower Offices (DEMO).• Create GPA (grade point average) maps to pinpoint

underperforming areas.• Support “second chance schooling” for workers in the

garments sector.

Education; (5 of 9)

• Playground should be a mandatory condition for primary and secondary schools.

• Provide female-friendly accommodation and sanitary facilities in madrasas.

• Enhance teachers training through Teachers Portal.• Targeted scholarships for children of extreme poor

families. • Construction of charter / private schools. • Continue the government and ADB supported Primary

Education Development Project (PEDP-III).

Education; (6 of 9)

• Establishment of more universities in science and technology fields, more planetariums, libraries, laboratories, and scientific equipment.

• Establish multi-media classrooms (MMC) across all primary and secondary schools.

• Introduce ICT courses in all post-graduate colleges of Bangladesh.

• Fully implement Bangladesh Research Network (Bdren).• Link national curriculum to global standards like PISA.• Use of multimedia classroom (MMC) Dashboard for

monitoring teachers.

Education; (7 of 9)

• Review education quality in terms of learning and relevance to markets.

• Expand National Technical and Vocational Qualifications Framework (NTVQF).

• Introduce TVET courses in secondary and higher secondary levels.

• Implement the National Skills Development Policy (NSDP 2011).

• Design and implement a ‘Life Skills Program’. • A ‘Catering Institute’ to provide market-oriented skill

training for less-skilled, overseas, migrant workers. • Raise awareness about the importance of female education.

Education; (8 of 9)

• Provide special financial support to female students.• More pre-primary schools for early childhood care and

development. • Teach mothers how to build cognitive skills in 0-4 year

old children. • Strengthen the National University and Bangladesh

Open University (BOU). • Implement more initiatives under Higher Education

Quality Enhancement Project (HEQEP) (2009-2018).

Education; (9 of 9)

• Assign education experts for director posts at the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Financial.

• Administrative scrutiny of universities’ activities by the University Grants Commission (UGC) and relevant Parliamentary Committees.

Full List of Attendees and IntervieweesAbul Kalam Azad, Joint Secretary, Primary Teachers’ Association.Md. Afzal Hossain Sarwar, Policy Expert (Education), Prime Minister’s office, Access to Information (a2i) Program.Arthur Earl Shears, Senior Skills Specialist, ILO.Ali Md. Shahiduzzaman, Education Advisor, CIDA.Mahfuzar Rahman, Program Head, RED, BRAC.Monwer Hossain, Program Coordinator Education, BRAC Education Program.Safiqul Islam, Director, BRAC Education Programme Ameena Ahmed, Program Coordinator Education, BRAC Education Program.Profulla Chandra Barman, Program Head, BRAC Education Program.Md. Mahbubal Kabir, Senior Research Fellow, RED, BRAC.Md. Shahidul Islam, Team Learder, Education, DAM.Altaf Hossain , Senior Research Fellow and Team Leader, Institute of Education Development, BRAC University.

Laila Baqee, Education Advisor, European Union, Delegation to Bangladesh.Erin Nickerson, Program Economist, USAID.Md. Nurunnabi, Manager-Education, ActionAid Bangladesh.Manzoor Ahmed, Senior Advisor, Institute of Educational Development, BRAC University.Atonu Rabbani, Assistant Professor, Economics Department, University of Dhaka.Samir Ranjan Nath, Program Head, RED, BRAC.Md. Quamrul Islam, Director, Research Evaluation and Documentation, Village Education Resource Center.Md. Rajibul Alam, Coordinator, Dnet.S.M. Hadiuzzaman, DPC, CMES.Dr. M Wahiduzzaman, Professor, IER, University of Dhaka.Hosne Ara Begum, Professor, IER, University of Dhaka.Dr. Sajjad Zohir, Executive Director, Economic Research Group.