Around six million primary and secondary school-going children, especially the ones from the poorer section of the society, are at risk of dropping out of schools because of the social and psychological impact of the pandemic, a recent survey has revealed.
The survey titled "Covid Impact on Education Life of Children" was conducted in three phases by the Power and Participation Research Center and BRAC Institute of Governance and Development from April 2020 to March 2021 to assess the impact of Covid-19 on the students.
The findings of the survey were jointly presented by Hossain Zillur Rahman, executive chairman of PPRC and Imran Matin, executive director of BIGD at a webinar on Monday.
The survey, conducted on 6,099 households with school-going students also found that around 19 per cent of primary and 25 per cent of secondary students were at risk of dropping out or were facing loss of learning, psychological and economic losses.
Only 10 per cent of students had access to distance learning through public and private channels, the survey found.
During the period of the survey, enrollment in madrasah rose to four times higher than the school enrollment, the survey further said.
Also, during this period, the out-of-pocket expenditure for education increased 12 times.
The survey also revealed that the psychological toll of the pandemic among the children aged between 10 and 20 in urban slums was twice as much than rural areas.
Forty-eight per cent of guardians were concerned about the loss of motivation in studies of their children, while 59 per cent were worried about the extra burden of educational expense, while only 14 per cent were concerned about being infected by Covid-19, according to the survey.
However, the report found that 95 per cent of guardians were eager to send their children back to schools once it is reopened.
Addressing the webinar, PPRC executive chairman Hossain Zillur Rahman said that there should be a discussion on the loss of learning, burden of education cost, and multidimensional social alienation to address the impending crisis in education.
“A big policy move is needed to recover from the loss of learning in the post-Covid period. The existing primary and secondary stipend programmes should be used to redress the out-of-pocket education cost burdens,” he said.
“Using the established database, the government can quickly provide a cash boost by allocating Tk 2,960 crore in the 2021-22 budget” he further said.
Imran Matin, executive director of BIGD, said, "School reopening must be coupled with a set of remedial measures to recover from the learning loss and help children to cope up."
