REACHING OUT-OF-SCHOOL CHILDREN II PROJECT A SECOND CHANCE TO EDUCATION APPROVAL DATE: END DATE: TOTAL COMMITMENT: IMPLEMENTING AGENCY: BASIC INFORMATION October 2 December 31 $155 million Ministry of Primary and Mass Education 2012 2020 OVERVIEW Bangladesh has achieved near universal access to primary education and gender equity at the primary and secondary school enrolments. Yet, many school-aged children, from the poorest families, either do not enrol in or discontinue school, due to poverty. Following the Government’s vision of ‘education for all’, the Reaching Out- of- School Children (ROSC) II project provides a VOICES second-chance education to out-of-school children in targeted rural upazilas (sub-districts) My daughter now goes to the and urban slums. The project builds upon the experiences of both public schools and Ananda School. I am happy, we the women, NGO education, blending formal education with non-formal means of delivery have a say in our children’s education. for young learners. It gives them an opportunity to complete grade five and transition to secondary school and provides pre-vocational skills Nazma training to youth who have dropped out. a proud mother 16 CHALLENGE TOWARDS THE In 2010, nearly 5.6 million children aged 6 to13 were out of school in Bangladesh. These children missed out FUTURE schooling at the “right age” or were forced to drop out, mainly for poverty. Many of them could not afford uniforms, Built on the predecessor project, books, or transportation to go to school, or had to earn a living for the family. These children were deprived of ROSC II covers additional 100 more education, which reduces their chances of finding higher-paid jobs that could lift them and their families out of poverty. upazilas and aims to bring 720,000 out-of-school children to school in 148 most disadvantaged remote upazilas. The project has rolled out four pilot APPROACH programs—scaling up of second chance ROSC II allows the poorest children, who otherwise may miss education, to study in learning centres, called Ananda education for children from urban slums Schools (‘schools of joy’). These schools provide stipends to eligible children to ease the burden on their families, and and pre-vocational skills training for provides free books, stationeries and uniforms. The Ananda schools are established in upazilas with high poverty and low older students, while evaluating pilot enrolment and completion rates. interventions targeting child domestic workers, and developing early reading Ananda Schools are different from normal primary schools: here, the students are older (between 8- to 14-year olds); habits for ROSC students. ROSC II will school timing is flexible; and a single class teacher teaches the students until they are ready for the Grade 5 examination, strengthen the internal monitoring allowing the poor children to join the secondary schools. The local communities establish, own and manage Ananda capacity of the ROSCU through a revised Schools with support from the government and the local NGOs. The Centre Management Committees (CMC) are field level management structure. Through accountable to parents and students and the ROSC Unit (ROSCU), the Directorate of Primary Education. Since January an additional financing grant, ROSC II 2017, ROSC-II has been expanded to cover the poorest children in slums in 11 City Corporations. It pilots a Pre-Vocational aims to help Bangladesh provide learning Skills Training program, for adolescents who have completed at least grade 3 but are aged 15 and above and not enrolled opportunities to Rohingya children and in regular schools. They receive allowance and tuition vouchers to participate in market-responsive skills training provide pre-vocational training to affected programs. With technical assistance from Save the Children, ROSC II deploys service providers (NGOs) to provide training— youth and adolescents. in selected trades and enterprise development—who establish industry linkage with potential employers. RESULTS 690,000 out-of-school children—half of them are girls—enrolled 48,000 children enrolled 16,500 ROSC graduates in 20,400 Ananda Schools in 148 most disadvantaged upazilas, in 1,600 Learning Centres in received skills training for covering about one- third of the country urban slum areas self-employment 86% of the 80% of all ROSC schoolteachers are 12,277 teachers 4,000 CMC members classes attended women and nearly 90% of all school received foundation trained for the operation and by students management committee heads are women training management of LCs THE WORLD BANK IN BANGLADESH | 17