role of civil society on national eduaction policy 2010

National Education Policy 2010 (Role of Civil Society)

Submitted To :

Dr. Ferdous Arfina OsmanProfessor,Dept. of Public AdministrationUniversity of Dhaka

Submitted By :

Md. Ahasan Uddin Bhuiyan Session : 2008-2009Dept. of Public AdministrationUniversity of Dhaka

Submission Date : 19 December 2012

Department of Public Administration University of Dhaka

Education Policy (Role of Civil Society)

Introduction : Bangladesh civil society is internationally recognized for its effort for poverty alleviation and social development. They always play an important influential role in national policy process. In this assignment , the role of Civil Society and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in influencing The National Education Policy (NEP) 2010 are illustrated.

Background: The National Education Policy (NEP) 2010 (“the Policy”) comes in a series of education policies dating back to the very inception of the country in 17577. The review process for the National Education Policy 1998-2010 was initiated in 2005 and the first document, the White Paper was finalized in March 2007. The White Paper became the basis for development of the Policy document. Before it’s independence , Bangladesh got about 14 commissions regarding education which includes 9 in British period and other 5 in Pakistan Period Which mentioned below :

Nine education commissions of British period (1757 - 1947) are : Charles Grant education commissions (1792), Company charter (1813), Lord Macaulay committee (1835), William Adams committee (1838) , Woods education dispatch (1854), W W Hanter education commission (1882), M E Sadlar education commission (1919), Sa Pru education commission (1934) and John Sargent education commission (1944).

Five commissions of Pakistan period (1947 - 1971) are : Maulana Mohammad Akram Khan education committee (1949), Ataur Rahman khan education reform commission (1957), S M Sharif education commission (1959), Judge Hamoodur Rahman education commission (1964) and Air Marshal Nur Khan education commission (1969).

After independence, the government of Bangladesh has also formed several education commissions (10 commissions) and task forces in different times to recommend for the improvement of education system of Bangladesh which include , Qudrat-e-Khuda education commission (1974), Kazi Zafar Ahmad/Abdul Baten, interim policy (1979), Abdul Mazid Khan commission (1983), Mafiz Uddin Khan education commission (1986), Abdullah Al-Muti Sharfuddin, task force for PMED (1993), Shamsul Haque education commission (1997), National education committee (2000), M. A. Bari commission (2002), Mohammad Moniruzzaman Mia commission (2003) and Kabir Chowdhury education committee (2009).

Besides these commissions and committees, Bangladesh adapted National Plan of Action-1991 (NPA-I) was also prepared to meet the goals set by the World Conference on Education for All(EFA).In this action plan, the government fixed Bangladesh’s target towards education for all by 2000 AD. The government has prepared the post-Dakar National Plan of Action (NPA-II) for ‘Education for All’ (2003-2015). PRSP and Five year plans are also mentioned several clauses and issues regarding the promotion of education in the country.


The national education policy-2000 which was formulated in 1997, and which recommended compulsory education for children between grades 1 to 8 grades has not been approved nor implemented. Finally, the National Education Policy 2010 which is the latest initiative came into existence in the year 2010.

Conceptualization :

Public Policy : There are numerous definitions of public policy. Following are some examples:

Whatever governments choose to do or not to do.. (Dye, 1972)

A proposed course of action of a person, group or government within a given environment providing obstacles and opportunities which the policy was proposed to utilize and overcome in an effort to reach a goal or realize an objective or purpose.. (Frederich, 1963)

Commitment to a course or plan of action agreed to by a group of people with the power to carry it out.. (Dodd et al., nd)

According to Stephen Brooks: .Public policy is the broad framework of ideas and values within which decisions are taken and action, or inaction, is pursued by governments in relation to some issue or problem.. (Brooks, 1989, p. 16)

Briefly stated, public policy is a choice or decision made by government that guides subsequent actions in similar circumstances.

Civil Society and Civil Society Organizations : Contemporary definition of civil society by Susan Pharr (2004), referring to that section of the society consisting of sustained, organized social activity that occurs in groups that are formed outside the state, the market and the family. However, civil society is not confined within a non-political, non-market, non-family atmosphere; rather, a constant interaction between the state, market and civil society is taken for granted. That is a sort of function within the political system which is at the same time separate as well as interrelated with the different sectors of the system.

Civil Society Organizations are considered as the basic units of civil society. The definition used for the present research includes a variety of organizations as civil society organizations (CSOs), such as, clubs, local cooperatives, labor unions, sports associations, trade organizations, business groups, charity groups, social welfare groups, religious groups, citizens’ organizations, professional groups etc. Civil society organizations are considered active in both types of functions—service providing and advocacy.


Civil society in Bangladesh consists of elite and non-elite civil society groups. Naturally, intellectuals, large development NGOs, apex organizations and their leaders form the elite section of civil society. At national level, active civil society elites are group of intellectuals related to the think tanks and citizens groups– like, Centre for Policy Dialogue or shujon, democracy watch, FEMA; different advocacy organizations like human rights groups, environment groups formed mainly by lawyers practicing at the capital and divisional towns; leaders or chairman of the Large NGOs like Grameen Bank, BRAC, Proshika.

National Education Policy (NEP) 2010 at a glance : The Government of Bangladesh published its national Education Policy in 2010 with ambitious goals for the benefit of human development. Among the commitments are to increase posts for teachers and number of classrooms in every school to facilitate pre-primary schooling, to extend the duration of primary education from five to eight grades nationwide while achieving a 1:30 teacher-pupil ratio by 2018, to make all the adult citizens of the country literate through adult and nonformal education by 2014, to ensure adequate training for all teachers in secondary education, to establish a minimum of one technical education institute per Upazila (subdistrict) for the expansion of the TVET sector, to ensure equivalency between different streams, gradually redesign madrasah courses so that their duration corresponds with those in other streams and to award scholarships to students in higher education according to their merit and the financial means of their families.

In order to finalize the NEP 2010, an 18-member Education Policy formulation committee started working with National Professor Kabir Chowdhury and Dr. Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad as the chair and co-chair respectively which was responsible for reviewing education commission reports (1974, 1997) and education policy (2000). Duration of the committee activities include May – September 2009 who hold 23 Committee meetings and 56 stakeholders meetings.

The new policy paper includes 29 chapters with total 24 goals and objectives including :– morality, creativity and production oriented education– technical and vocational education– inequity regarding gender, religion and ethnicity– ICT and math-science– same curriculum and syllabus for all streams– environmental education and research– importance on disabled, street-children and extreme-poor children’s

education

The salient features of this new education policy which is set to be enacted this December:

Increase primary education from 5th to 8th class.


It will integrate Madras education and vocational education into the general education

It will establish mandatory core subjects for primary-level education: Bangla, English, mathematics, Bangladesh Studies, social environment and climate change, and information technology and science.

Every School will have a mandatory library equipped with necessary books More scholarships for the poor No physical punishments Arrangement of lunch for the students Education for indigenous students in their mother tongues Facilities for the disabled Standardization of teachers qualifications More training for the teachers and promotion will be connected with experience

and training and many more

Role of Civil Society in influencing public policy process : Policy does not just magically happen. We can state five stages that a policy goes through before it is enacted. These stages include problem formation, agenda setting, policy formulation, legitimating and adoption, implementation and administration, and policy evaluation. Civil society is deeply involved in each of these policy stages.

First of all, Civil society influence in the problem formulation stage is enormous. The media brings many types of issues to the forefront of the Bangladeshi conscious by various meetings, seminar and conferences . This is crucial because when the Civil society began talking on the issues of importance to Bangladeshi people the policy makers tend to start listening. This is what starts the ball rolling, so to speak.

We are standing at agenda setting and formulation stage. In this stage now and the policy makers are trying to appeal to the people through the media. This relationship is crucial in the process because it is how politicians tell if their policies are being well accepted by the people or if they are ineffective or if they make them look bad.

Next is the legitimation and adoption stage of the policy making process. This stage mainly happens in the legislature and determines what will happen to a proposed policy. Naturally, what happens to a policy is greatly determined by what kind of intellectual support, relevant documents and researches are available .To get so policy makers have to depend on civil societies.

This step is the implementation and administration stage of the policy making process. This is the stage in which policies are put in to effect and used. For effective implementation tools and trainings policy elites has to relay on CSOs.


The final stage in the policy making process is the evaluation stage. During this stage feedback is sought to determine the overall effectiveness of newly enacted policies from research based CSOs .

CSOs engage with policy processes in many different ways. They can:• Identify the political constraints and opportunities and develop a strategy for engagement.• Inspire support for an issue or action; raise new ideas or question old ones; create new ways of framing an issue or ‘policy narrative’.• Inform the views of others; share expertise and experience; put forward new approaches.• Improve, add, correct or change policy issues; hold policymakers accountable; evaluate and improve their own activities, particularly regarding service provision.

Analysis of Role of Civil Society in influencing National Education Policy (NEP) 2010:

Civil society has been described by political theorists as playing a key role within the democratic polity, primarily by representing citizen interests, enhancing civility and trust, acting as a government watchdog, and introducing transformative, oppositional, or innovative ideas and models. Civil society organizations have also long been the direct providers of social services within communities, and especially of education.

National Education Policy (NEP) 2010 is the fruit of enormous struggle and initiative taken by Civil Society. Different influential roles of Civil Society in NEP are described below :

Reengineering education system : As educationist and other civil society organizations continuously highlighted that the existing education system should be modified, which they identified as the main reason of educational inefficiency in Bangladesh. Their demand is fulfilled with NEP 2010. In accordance with the new policy , Compulsory primary education extended up to class-VIII from class-V and secondary education to class-XII with uniform curriculum and syllabus will be followed in general, madrasa and vocational levels. At the higher-level studies, duration of all degree courses has been made four years instead of the previous three years.

Announcing “Secular” policy : In consistent with the demand of various CSOs , the policy dropped the word “secular” from its draft to make it acceptable to all segments of the society. It also ensured Religious and moral education, Value education from religious centers Building morale/good character Upgrade curriculum of Islam, Hindu, Christian and Buddhist religion subject new curriculum for indigenous religions is also proposed (Ibid).


Unitary education system : As a result of various seminars and conferences where Civic population asked for a unipolar and equal education for all citizens of all classes, races and casts, the new policy announced that “The policy seeks to bring all students of the country, irrespective of their religions, genders, and physical limitations, socio-economic and geographic locations under one system. ”

Advocacy : Various civil society organizations provided government with consultancy facilities regarding a education policy

Ensure techno-based education system : To comply with it’s election manifesto Awami League oriented civil society influenced policy makers to ensure a technology based education policy. That’s why the NEP claims that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and Bangladesh Studies have been introduced to primary and secondary levels.

Poverty reduction friendly education policy: With the influence of civil society the present policy mentions that free education should be provided up to class-VIII from the previous class-V in phases at government and government-funded institutions. Besides, The policy says technical education institutions would be established in every upazila and the number of educational institutions on polytechnic, textile and leather will be increased.

Revised higher education system : With suggestion of Civil society, new policy advised turning all three-year graduation courses into four-years honors courses in phases. A student completing a four-year honors course will be entitled to all professions in his field. It alsoproposed decentralization of the National University with centers in all divisions. These centers will later turn into universities and colleges in its jurisdiction will be affiliated to it.

Some important influential initiatives taken by CSOs :

The Campaign for Popular Education (CAMPE) : conducts research on basic education issues in Bangladesh, and is active in public engagement and policy dialogue. Its annual Education Watch reports have at times been controversial when they highlight government failure or contradict official statistics, but the reports are widely circulated and cited by donors and viewed by NGOs in other countries as a model for education NGO advocacy work. They were demanding for a compact education policy for a long time which finally brought to light.

Dhaka University : As a CSO, the University of Dhaka through it’s administration process drew back attention of policy makers regarding Madrasha Education system in Bangladesh. Which is reengineered through the newly adapted education Policy. In the


NEP we can see “On Madrasa education, it said the students of primary and secondary level must study uniform curriculum and syllabus of general education (NEP, 2010)”

BRAC : BRAC itself has begun to focus more of its energies on changing its relationship with the ministries of education, moving away from primary service provision and direct advocacy and seeking towards greater influence through new initiatives on the margins of the formal school system such as the opening of preschools and the development of in service teacher training programs. It is also ensured through NEP 2010.

TIB: One advocacy strategy which has been successful is the “Report Card” of the formal primary education system undertaken by Transparency International Bangladesh. Based on this process, new marking and result system is introduced.

CPD : arranged several conferences and dialogue regarding a sound education policy.

Teachers Union : Different teacher organization were demanding various facilities including training. In NEP 2010 it is clearly mentioned that “Teachers will be given more facilities alongside more and modern training, the policy said. It said steps would be taken to frame an integrated education law and form a permanent education commission.”

Bangladesh Protibondhi Kalyan Shangstha (BPKS) and other organizations working for People with disabilities : They demanded a special provision for people with disabilities (PWDs). The new policy conform with their demand ensuring special facilities for disabled.

Besides above CSOs, A donor consortium led by the Asian Development Bank and including the World Bank, NORAD, SIDA, CIDA, the European Council, DFID, the Netherlands, UNICEF, Aus-Aid and JICA has played a part in the evolution of the sub-sector program that strongly emphasizes the enhancement of government ownership and capacity to deliver universal quality education.

Conclusion : Civil Society includes NGOs and as well as a larger number of important players of vital importance in the implementation of public policies. New efforts to revitalize and expand basic education systems have become central to the national development plans of Bangladesh over the past decade. These new education sector plans now routinely recognize an important role for civil society in the realization of Civil society organizations (CSOs) are increasingly expected to be partners in the formulation, implementation and monitoring of national educational plans and policies. In the formulation process of NEP 2010, Civil Society in Bangladesh potential influenced it’s different clauses including reforming education structure, secular education system, restructuring madrasha education, right based education for marginal and minority ethnic groups etc..


References :

Ahmed, M., (edited), 2011. Education in Bangladesh : Overcoming Hurdles to Equity with Quality. Dhaka: pulished by BRAC University.

Hoque, N. M. Sajjadul, 2012 , Reviewing Education Policy of Bangladesh: Is the Present Education Policy Adequate for Countering Terrorism, Religious and thnic Intolerance?, South Asia Democratic Forum (SADF), Belgium

Khan, Mr. Nayeemul Islam, 2012, The Role of Media in Influencing Education Policy in Bangladesh, Dhaka

Ministry of Education , 2010,National Education Policy 2010, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, Dhaka

Khatun, Mahmuda,2012 , Higher education and civil society: Compatibility re-examined, Educational Research and Review Vol. 7(5), pp. 121-126, 5 February, 2012

Poulson, Natalie, Civil Society Participation and the Governance of Educational Systems in the Context of Sector-Wide Approaches To Basic Education Report of the UNRISD Geneva 2000 Seminar,

Newspapers :

9 June 2012. The Bangladesh Pratidin. Dhaka7 May 2011, The Independent, Dhaka


role of civil society on national eduaction policy 2010

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