Considering the present scenario in terms of quality of education and drop-out rates at primary levels in Bangladesh, LEADS has started its education support program known as EQUIP, which stands for Education Quality Improvement Project. Under this project, LEADS supports children coming from poor families and enrolled in different government primary schools by assisting their education in existing government curriculum of the country.
With major government effort in the last few years aimed at increasing primary school enrolment and gender equality in education, the quantitative aspect for primary education has achieved considerable success. However, the qualitative aspect has not developed simultaneously and students lack basic levels of competency. “National Assessment of Pupils of Grades three and five 2006”, published in the Daily Star on February 7, 2009, reveals that around 70% of students cannot even read or write even after completing five years’ of primary education. Moreover, although students enroll for school, majority do not even complete their primary education.
Public resources for improving quality of education at primary and secondary levels are still inadequate to meet the growing demand. Even conditional stipends offered to selective students based on their attendance and examination results are failing to bring the desired outcome.
Poverty in Bangladesh has been identified as the most pervasive factor for poor performance of children in primary schools. The poor account for about 50 percent of Bangladesh's total population, and 37 percent are counted among the "hard-core" poor, who live in the direst circumstances (Bangladesh Human Development Report 2000, BIDS).
However, to bring some change in face of all these adversaries, the government is now focusing on improvement of the quality of education. In this line, the National Education Policy 2000 states that primary education will in future aim at imparting necessary knowledge, ability, outlook, values and social awareness among the children and equip them in basic functional education to prepare them for future life.
To augment this effort, LEADS aims to support poor children enrolled in different government primary schools with better and more effective learning process in existing government curriculum, while developing their social awareness and basic moral values. It is to be noted that LEADS only supports children who continue their education in government primary schools, instead of taking them away. They are provided academic supports after school hours only to help them complete their primary education with good results, while allowing them to reflect upon their learning to enable them to apply the knowledge from textbooks in their real lives.
True to its name, EQUIP also equips these children not only with better learning, but also with other essential skills to help them have equal access and opportunity in the society.
