Access to education as 'rights' and 'ability'. A case study of access to basic education in Bangladesh

Master's Thesis from the year 2015 in the subject Pedagogy - School System, Educational and School Politics, grade: 71, The Australian National University (Crawford School of Public Policy), course: POGO8035, language: English, abstract: Education is a catalyst for human development. Considering this fact access to basic education is made free and compulsory for all citizens in Bangladesh. Government has been taking numerous policy measures and programmatic interventions to enhance the access to education and thus to achieve the target of 100 per cent access to education by 2015. However this study using secondary research method reveals that despite of achievements in some areas there are still notable gaps between achievements and targets. This study uses an analytical lens constructed with rights and ability notions of access. It analyses the present scenario in access to education to explore to what extent the education system is providing rights of access to education. At the same time it examines the efficiency of the education system and policies to what extent those are able to empower the students with ability to enter, sustain and succeed in basic education. The study has found commendable achievement in enrollment and gender disparity. However, from the ability perspective the education system is still not enough inclusive with ethnic and socio-economic disparity. Special measures need to be taken in the area of access to education of children with special needs, access to education of indigenous peoples and more investments in infrastructure.

Asim Dio is a development professional working with ADD International Bangladesh Programme as Programme Officer for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Mr. Dio has recently graduated from the Crawford School of Public Policy of Australian National University with a master's degree in Economic Policy. He was granted Australia Awards Scholarship in order to pursue postgraduate study in Australia. Before that he studied Master of Development Studies from East West University Bangladesh in 2013. Earlier, he graduated from the University of Dhaka with MA and BA in Information Science and Library Management in 2006 and 2005. Asim Dio has more than six years of professional experience in information and knowledge management, development administration and communication. His fields of research interest are public policy, human rights, indigenous people, public finance, tax expenditure, climate change and education.