In Bangladesh, education among indigenous communities is still a big concern with low participation rates and higher dropout rates beyond the primary level. Despite the constitutional commitment of education for all, the children of indigenous groups, especially in the Chittagong Hill Tracts and other subregional areas, face huge barriers to quality education.
The Chittagong Hill Tracts and other remote areas are home to the indigenous children of Bangladesh, who participate very poorly in secondary and higher education. Even at the primary level, where enrollment rates have recently been improving throughout the country, the indigenous peoples are far behind. According to one estimate, only about 35% of indigenous students progress onto secondary school from primary school, in comparison with the overall national rate of more than 60%. The gap is much higher at the tertiary level, as only a few indigenous students pursue higher education.
The indigenous communities are in remote villages, and the schools are usually kept far from their dwelling. It is hard to travel daily from home to school in areas with geography like that of the CHT, and so it is unsafe, thus contributing to high dropout rates after being enrolled in primary school. The fact that schools are very far away discourages parents from sending children, especially girls, to such schools. Most of the schools use Bengali as their medium of instruction, which is not the mother tongue of most indigenous children. This language barrier perpetuates low academic performance and a lack of respect toward school, which culminates in higher dropout rates. Some initiatives have introduced bilingual education, but these are too few and far between to make a significant impact. Poverty pervades most indigenous communities. Cost of uniforms, books, and transport to school are costs a lot of families can ill afford, and children are often expected to help augment the family income by labor. The mainstream educational institutions discriminate against and exclude indigenous students. The curriculum is culturally insensitive and very little recognition is given to indigenous history and traditions. This is an exclusivist policy that alienates the indigenous children from the process of education in which they should be made to feel valuable and attached. Most schools in the indigenous areas are poorly equipped in terms of infrastructure, teaching materials, and qualified teachers. More often than not, the schools are ill-equipped to handle the special needs of indigenous students due to which the quality of education is low.
A community leader of the Chakma tribe identified, in an interview, that one of the major challenges of the indigenous students in CHT was that: Most indigenous families cannot afford to send their children to schools that might be several kilometres away from their home. Furthermore, he said that the irrelevant education system in this contemporary world has hindered the possibility of keeping indigenous children at school. Even when they do, he said, children often are confused by a school curriculum that doesn't relate to their history, language or cultural identity. A teacher from the remote school in Rangamati district explained some daily challenges faced by indigenous students:. She said that after the primary level, the school experiences a number of dropouts because many students are from the deeper interior parts of the district, with access to secondary schools quite difficult. The teacher expressed concern on the shortage of qualified teachers who have been trained to address the unique needs of indigenous children, specifically on bilingual education. According to a report by the World Bank, an NGO worker working on education projects in the CHT described efforts to increase access to education for indigenous children. According to him, though community-based schools have been opened in locations closer to indigenous villages, it is very difficult to ensure their continuation for lack of funds and government assistance. He also said another big problem lies in the language barrier: many children in his area stop coming to school due to not being able to understand the lessons provided in Bengali, which is not their mother tongue. In this connection, a parent from the Marma community was interviewed, talking about her child's education:. She said her village only has a primary school, while the nearest secondary school is over 10 kilometers away from where she resides. Such a distance practically means that it will be impossible for her child to pursue education beyond the primary level. The parent also complained of poor infrastructure coupled with a lack of transportation, which keeps the children away from pursuing education. An education department official in-charge of tribal areas told The Financial Express that he is aware of the predicament that faces the indigenous people in pursuing education. The government has started various programs to establish more schools in far-flung areas and give stipends to the indigenous students there, he said. He however acknowledged that these attempts are still inadequate and that much more needs to be done in terms of meeting particular needs of indigenous children, especially regarding language and cultural relevance in the curriculum.
Despite all this, efforts have been made to increase access and improve educational outcomes for indigenous peoples. Various organizations such as NGOs, and international agencies have been involved in implementing different programs with the intention of improving educational opportunities available for indigenous children. These below-mentioned initiatives, therefore, are taken forward: Some NGOs have initiated bilingual education programs whereby children in the early years receive schooling in their mother tongue. This helps in reducing the gap in language barriers and improves learning outcomes. In far-flung areas, community schools have been opened to bring schools nearer home. Many of these schools are assisted by NGOs and community organizations, which apart from being located nearer to home become an available option to the sometimes very distant government schools. There are various scholarship programs that have been instituted, which act as motivation to encourage higher learning amongst the indigenous students. These scholarships help reduce the financial burdens on families besides motivating and offering incentives for the students to strive further beyond the primary level of education. Some teachers have been trained in culturally sensitive teaching methods and to increase their level of competence in the indigenous language and its traditions. Such training will eventually equip teachers with the skills needed to establish a more welcoming and supportive learning environment for indigenous students. While more schools are desperately needed in indigenous areas, equally significant is the upgrade of the existing infrastructure to facilitate quality education in those schools. Physical infrastructure development should focus on easy access to schools through road and transportation development. The national curriculum needs revision and should contain the history, culture, and languages of the indigenous people. Besides, bilingual education programs development shall help an indigenous child transcend barriers in communications and get better grades due to less linguistic complexity. Scholarship and subsidy financial support needs to be expanded in order to reach as many indigenous students as possible. Policies tackling child labor and providing economic support to families would decrease the necessity for them to work and hence be able to attend school. It is of great importance to engage indigenous communities in the education process. The community leaders and parents should be consulted and take part in the management and decision-making practices in the school to ensure that the initiatives in education are appropriate for the culture of the indigenous children and respond to their needs. Programs in education will surely need regular monitoring and evaluation of their effectiveness in indigenous areas to generally allow room for necessary adjustments. Education data needs to be strengthened at the level of indigenous groups so that a clearer picture may be attained about the progress and challenges.
Sheikh Mehzabin Chitra is a University Correspondent of Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST), Bangladesh Post, and a final year honours student of the Anthropology Department of the institution.
