Project activities will be largely centred in the country’s urban slums and hard-to-reach locations where the dropout rate amongst class 2 through 4 students is especially pronounced. To realise the project's goal, BRAC has articulated three principal focus areas:
1) Enrolling OOSC who have dropped out of formal primary school;
2) Ensuring retention and the completion of the primary cycle of enrolled students; and
3) Providing quality primary education that engenders holistic development.
The BRAC initiative operates according to two functions: i) enrolling students with minimum competencies into Bridge School class 2 and ii) admitting students with class 2 proficiency into Bridge School class 3. Bridge School curriculum is learner-centred, builds reading skills and proffers a combination of basic mathematics, Bangla, English and social science to stimulate holistic development. The project will establish 2,500 schools in 36 districts across seven of Bangladesh’s Divisions. Each Bridge School will be comprised of one locally-recruited teacher and no more than 24 students.
Community involvement and mobilisation are at the centre of the Bridge School’s sustainability strategy. Through the participation of parents and community members in SMCs and monthly parent meetings, taking part in school-related decisions, a sense of ownership will be instilled in target communities over the education of their children and project interventions. Moreover, the sustainability strategy calls on parents and community members to provide support for school renovations and supply additional learning materials.
Partners
BRAC
Through the use of boat schools and single classroom urban schools, BRAC is working in partnership with EAC to increase access to education for children living in hard to reach areas of Bangladesh’s Haor flood plain, and in the slums of Bangladesh’s cities.Countries
