Press Release

5 July 2004

UK announces £32 million for rural education in Bangladesh

The UK is to provide £32 million over 5 years to help provide primary education for 1.5 million children in rural areas of Bangladesh, said international development minister Gareth Thomas at a meeting with Bangladeshi Diaspora groups in London today. 

Gareth Thomas pledged £32 million to support BRAC Education Programmes that make a significant contribution to primary education in Bangladesh. BRAC, formerly known as Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee, was established as a relief and rehabilitation organisation in 1972 and is the largest non-governmental organisation (NGO) in Bangladesh. The funding will help support 40,000 schools with 1.5 million pupils. The funding is in addition to £100 million pledged by DFID in January 2004 to support formal primary education in Bangladesh.

Gareth Thomas, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, said:

"Reducing poverty is the priority for all DFID work in Bangladesh as elsewhere and education is vital to achieving that goal.

"The UK is now providing £32 million to help provide primary education to rural children who would not otherwise have access to education. This is part of our overall programme of supporting primary education, which is a vital aspect of our work in Bangladesh. 

"Earlier this year I announced £100m support for the formal primary education system in Bangladesh - now with this extra £32 million we are backing the complementary system which BRAC provides to meet the needs of children who would otherwise miss out."

"The Department for International Development programme in Bangladesh is our second largest in Asia and one of our largest anywhere. This year we are making £100m available. This will make the UK the second largest bilateral donor to Bangladesh."

Bangladesh has 17 million children of primary age, but the formal primary education system is incomplete, especially in hard to reach remote regions among ethnic minorities. While the government of Bangladesh, supported by DFID and other international donors, is taking steps to address this through the Primary Education Development Programme II (PEDP II), the efforts of NGOs such as BRAC are required to fill the gap. 

Notes to Editors

1. DFID is contributing up to £32 m over five years (2004 - 2009) in the form of a grant to support Phase IV of BRAC's Education Programme (BEP). DFID's allocation will represent 43% of the total funding (£74m), provided through a donor consortium. Other development partners include: the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the Royal Netherlands Embassy (RNE), the Norwegian Agency for Development (NORAD) and the Netherlands Organisation for International Development Cooperation (NOVIB). 

2. The BEP offers education that is typically described as non-formal in government terms. This is considered to be distinct from the formal education provided by government through its primary schools and registered non-government primary schools that use the government curriculum and text-books. BEP, however, does use an adaptation of the government curriculum and supplements government textbooks to better support the teaching learning process. Its students are those children who have either never enrolled or drop out of mainstream schools and often represent the poorest. They are also to be found in the remotest areas where government provision cannot reach. 

3. On 20 January 2003, DFID announced £100 million from the UK government to the Primary Education Development Programme (PEDP II). The funding will be delivered over the six-year life of the programme. PEDP II aims to raise the quality of primary education by developing the teaching profession, improving access to teaching materials, recruiting and training more teachers and increasing numbers of classrooms. The Government of Bangladesh will fund 67 per cent of the $1.86 billion programme with development partners providing the remaining 33 per cent.

4. The Primary Education Development Programme II, which achieved effectiveness in April 2004, aims to improve government's ability to deliver quality education over the next five years. However, it is acknowledged that even with PEDPII achieving its goals there will still be 1.8 million children out of school in 2009. BEP's role is to continue working to cater for such children, particularly in those areas that are most difficult, such as districts with a high proportion of ethnic minorities, inclusive education, and in very remote areas.

5. Gareth Thomas, MP is the minister with special responsibility for Asia at the Department for International Development. 

6. The Department for International Development's programme for Bangladesh is run out of its offices in Dhaka. Since 1996 DFID has provided over £500 million in development assistance to Bangladesh.

7. Further information on the work of DFID in Bangladesh is available from Milon Khan, DFID Bangladesh, Tel: +880 8810800, +880 8810904, +880 8820204, E-mail: AM-Khan@dfid.gov.uk 

For further information please contact the DFID press office on 020 7023 0600 or e-mail pressofffice@dfid.gov.uk