40pc were out of school last year

Almost 41 percent of the population aged between five and 24 years were not in educational institutions last year, says a report of Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics.

Since 2019, the out-of-education population rose by 11.45 percentage points, according to Bangladesh Sample Vital Statistics 2023 released by the BBS yesterday.

On July 1 last year, there were 6.43 crore people aged between five and 24, as per the BBS data. This means almost 2.57 crore children and young adults were not in educational institutions last year.

The survey for the report was done on more than 3.08 lakh households.

The people not in educational institutions either had not enrolled in one or dropped out of one, said Alamgir Hossen, director of Sample Vital Registration System project.

"This study did not try to find out why this had happened. But it is highly likely that Covid-19 pandemic forced people out of educational institutions," he told this correspondent yesterday.

Prof Siddiqur Rahman, former director of the Institute of Education and Research at the Dhaka University, said as people were financially hit by coronavirus restrictions, many people dropped out of educational institutions. Besides, child marriage forced many girls out of schools.

Multiple surveys conducted earlier concluded that the pandemic hit the education in Bangladesh hard.

Compared to 2020, the number of university students fell by 2,49,159 the following year, according to a University Grants Commission report.

Manzoor Ahmed, professor emeritus and founding director of the Institute of Educational Development at BRAC University, said, the enrolments in the secondary and higher secondary levels are low. That's why so many people are out of education.

Besides, 62,104 secondary school students and 14,50,719 primary school-level students dropped out in the same period, according to data from Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistics (Banbeis) and the Directorate of Primary Education.

In 2022, enrolment in secondary level institutions was 76 percent, higher secondary institutions was 47.70 percent, technical institutions was 2.48 percent and universities was 18.66 percent, according to Banbeis data.

Manzoor said, "We need to increase the number of post-primary educational institutions. An assessment should be done to know where they are needed."

Siddiqur said that the government should take steps to bring back the students who left educational institutions amid the pandemic.

Both Siddiqur and Manzoor said that the government should put more emphasis on technical education.

The BBS report released yesterday also said 18 percent males and 60.85 percent females aged between 15 to 24 were out of education, work or training in 2023. In other words, 39.88 percent of the people in the age group were out of education, work or training.

The literacy rate among people aged seven and above increased to 77.9 percent in 2023 up from 76.8 percent in 2022.

In 2023, the literacy rate was 80.1 percent among males and 75.8 percent among females.