Slum pre primary graduates in primary education a tracer study on BEHTRUWC sibling project

Abstract

The importance of early childhood care and education in life is well documented. Education during early-years has been emphasised in many international documents. The second target of the fourth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) called for ensuring quality early-years care and education for preparing children for primary education. Literature shows that a large proportion of the children in developing countries including slums are exposed to multiple risks, which detrimentally affect their cognitive, motor and socio-emotional development. Therefore, high quality early-years care, education and development is suggested for them. With a few exceptions, the duration of pre-primary education (PPE) is one year in Bangladesh, which is provided by the government and nongovernment schools and NGOs. A national curriculum has been prepared to implement such education. Slums are common in the low-and-middle income countries (LMICs), along with growing urbanisation. In Bangladesh, the number of slums are increasing over time, along with the inhabitants. Slum dwellers in Bangladesh are lagging much behind the non-slum urban dwellers with regard to housing structure, toilet facilities and availability of pure drinking water; however, they are still more likely to get better facilities than their rural counterparts. In terms of access to education and achieving literacy, the slum population is lagging behind both their urban and rural counterparts.