92557
                                                                                                                       May 3, 2004
Bangladesh: School Girls Hold Power and Promise
                      Girls from desperately poor families in rural Bangladesh are having their
                                                                                                             -- Resources --
                      secondary education funded through an innovative stipend program
                      funded by the government and the World Bank allowing students like                     Full Story (PDF)
                                                                                                             English | Bangali
                      Mussamad Akhtar, age 13, to receive an education.
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                                                                                                             Project

                                                                                                             The World Bank in
                                                                                                             Bangladesh

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                                     “If my parents had educated me, I would not be where I am.”
                                                                            --Zohra Khatun Akhtar
Girls like Musammad Akhtar, 13, are helping transform Bangladesh as they study their way through
high school. Musammad is one of a million girls from desperately poor families being supported by a
stipend program, funded by the Bangladesh government and the World Bank, that aims to keep them
in secondary school. Improving education for girls does more than just create opportunities for them.
It slows the rate of teen marriage, births, and infant mortality. “I tell our daughter, ‘Go ahead and
study. We are with you,’” Musammad’s mother Zohra says. “I want her to stand on her own feet. God
willing, she will get a good job one day, a qualified husband, and will look after her aged parents.”


                       “Too many qualifications can make it difficult for her in the marriage market.”
                       --Krishna Chandra Ghosh
                       Despite the push to get more girls into secondary education in Bangladesh, they still face significant
                       social hurdles. And it can be a complex calculation for parents. Krishna Chandra Ghosh, whose 14-
                       year-old daughter Deepa is in grade 7, weighs the competing considerations. “It is not only a
                       woman’s responsibility to look after her home. Increasingly, she needs to be able to fend for herself
                       on the street. An educated girl is less likely to be tricked or duped, though I realize that too many
                       qualifications can make it difficult for her in the marriage market.”


 “In many instances...girls drop out in grades 9 and 10 because they have been offered jobs in
                                                                           garment factories.”
                                                                              --Nayaar Sultana
Despite the success of the stipend program in driving up the number of girls attending school, it still
faces challenges from the lure of jobs in Bangladesh’s booming garment industry. Jobs for sewing
and cutting can fetch significantly more than the stipend paid to families to keep their daughters in
school. Another issue is the stipend’s eligibility criteria, which requires attendance, minimum grades,
and a girl’s remaining unmarried. “In many instances, we have found that the girls drop out in grades
9 and 10 because they have been offered jobs in garment factories,” says Nayaar Sultana, a project
officer with the Female Secondary School Assistance Project.


                       “I know what life is like for people who did not go to school. They have no future, no
                       possibilities. I do not want that life.”
                       --Tasleema Akhtar
                       The stipend program that has boosted the number of girls in Bangladesh’s schools faces significant
                       pressure to lower its eligibility criteria. “If we lower the criteria for stipends, after a decade, the quality
                       will dip. If we do not, many girls will be dropping out, at least in the near future,” says Dr. Gholam
                       Rasul Miah, the project’s director. But he remains optimistic, because of the hunger for knowledge
                       that has been ignited in the schoolgirls. “I know what life is like for people who did not go to school,”
                       says 13-year-old Tasleema Akhtar. “They have no future, no possibilities. I do not want that life. In
                       my village, I have seen many people die for the lack of health care. I want to be a doctor to help
                       them.”


Updated May, 2004