How does a branch experience during the transition? A case study of cost recovery approach in BRAC education programme

Abstract

BRAC initiated Education programme in 1985 to provide free primary education opportunity to the disadvantage children of the poor community through its non-formal primary education intervention. Various development partners generously donated in this great effort which enabled BRAC to operate the education programme in a philanthropic approach for long thirty-one years. In 2015, Bangladesh achieved ‘lower middle-income country’ status which caused a shrink in receiving the foreign donations. BRAC therefore adopted cost recovery approach in 2016. The parents now pay a lump sum tuition fee for educating their children in BRAC’s primary schools. A year of cost recovery has already passed. To adapt with the strategic transformation of the organisation BRAC Education programme (BEP) developed their Annual Operating Plan (AOP) and Implementation Plan (IP). A need for documenting BEP’s massive transformation process has been realized by the higher management of BRAC. As part of the process documentation exercise, the current study had been initiated. The research question of this study was- how a branch office at field level experienced the overall transition process while operating BRAC Primary School (BPS) through cost recovery approach? To answer this question four areas such as (1) the dissemination process of cost recovery model to the project stakeholders, (2) the operational and financial management process of the model, (3) the beneficiaries’ perception towards cost recovery and (4) the updated status of BEP’s implementation plan-2017 during cost recovery approach were explored.