DHAKA: Use of different delivery approaches including reading materials and curricula were affecting the progress of Non-Formal Education (NFE) which may also delay Bangladesh achieving universal literacy by 2015.

The government and NGOs of the country have been working in the NFE sector for the last 35 years, but they are yet to use a uniform mechanism.

“We need to establish a uniform mechanism and institutional set up so that the government, NGOs and others can work in a more coordinated and coherent manner in the NFE sector,” said Abu Alam Md Shahid Khan Secretary of Primary and Mass Education ministry.

According to the NFE Mapping Report 2009, there are 36.86 million illiterate adolescents and adults of 11-45 age group in Bangladesh.

“BNFE with support from Ministry of Primary and Mass Education has been working on a project called Basic Literacy & Continuing Education Project-1 to provide basic literacy and life skills to this group of people,” said Rezaul Quader, director general of the Bureau of Non-Formal Education.

Quader also mentioned three other major government programmes -- Reaching Out of School Children (ROSC), Basic Education for Hard to Reach Urban Children  (BEHRUC) and Post-literacy and Continuing Education for Human Development (PLCE-HD) -- in the NFE sector to address the challenge of eradicating illiteracy from the country.

The Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2010 ranks Bangladesh in a group of countries, which are unlikely to achieve universal education by 2015. It sets a huge challenge Bangladesh is facing.

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation or UNESCO has been promoting the issue of NFE who organised a two-day workshop along with JICA and Bureau of Non-formal Education. The workshop emphasised on the need for a uniform mechanism for delivering non-formal education.

BDST: 11: 20 HRS, JULY 29, 2010.