Only 18.7% kids attend remote learning

Less than one in five children, accounting for only 18.7 per cent of school students in the country, participated in remote learning during school closures due to the Covid-19 pandemic, a new survey has found.

The extraordinary scale of the impact of school closures on children was found in a joint survey titled ‘National Survey on Children’s Education in Bangladesh 2021’ conducted by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Publishing the findings on Thursday, UNICEF said in a press statement that the most vulnerable children with limited access to the internet and TV were the worst victims of the school closure. Also, children who lacked supportive devices such as computers or smartphones at home were also hit hard.

Speaking on the occasion, Planning Minister Mohammad Abdul Mannan, MP said, “The survey on children’s education in Bangladesh 2021 would help to understand the extent of the impact of the prolonged school closure during Covid-19 pandemic on attendances, drop-out, and learning loss of children along with other education outcomes and support the government to take steps for improving the quality and standard of education.”

According to the survey report, rural children suffered more than children living in urban areas. Only 15.9 per cent of rural children participated in remote learning, compared to 29 per cent of urban children.

Significant geographical disparities also come to the fore with the highest percentage of students remotely participating in classes in Khulna and Dhaka – 23.4 per cent and 23.1 per cent respectively. The lowest participation rate of only 5.7 per cent was found in Mymensingh.

Meanwhile, the survey found, younger children in primary schools faced more disparity in remote learning compared to their seniors in secondary schools.

The rate of participation among primary school children was 13.1 per cent, compared to 20.3 per cent and 23.7 participation rates among lower and upper secondary school students respectively.

Sheldon Yett, UNICEF Representative to Bangladesh said, “The pandemic’s impact on children is still reverberating throughout the country. It is critical to close the digital divide and to make the education system more shock responsive.”

The survey also includes preliminary post-pandemic data on child marriage. The data indicates a downward trend, giving cause for cautious optimism.

According to the Bangladesh 2019 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) – the country’s largest-scale and most authoritative survey on the situation of children – 51.4 per cent of girls are married before turning 18.