Over the last 20 years, Bangladesh has made a significant progress in education. Primary school
enrollment increased from 12 million to over 18 million during 1990-1998. Other parts of the education
system also made an expansion. However, still one out of every five primary school-age children is out of
school, nearly a half of new entrants to primary first grade are not of the official entrance age and of those
enrolled, drop-out rate is high. Regional and gender equity issues and educational outcome problems
(such as still high illiteracy) add to the challenge. The government, local community and nongovernmental
organizations are striving to improve the education sector performance with support from
external agencies.
This