Non-formal Education (NFE) organised educational activity outside the formal system of education. It is simple and flexible and can be delivered at any place convenient to the learners. It is generally designed to meet the basic learning needs of disadvantaged groups and can be availed of at any age. NFE is provided to those sections of the community who have no access to or are dropped out from formal education.

Non-formal education was formally launched in this country in 1918 when an attempt was made to start adult education in night schools. By 1926, over a thousand night schools were functioning. Several attempts had been initiated from 1935 onwards at the central, community and individual levels for adult literacy and universal primary education. In 1939, Frank Luebac's campaign of 'Each One Teach One' gained popularity among the masses. Adult education programme was brought under the newly formed rural development department of the provincial government. But the programme approached a closure due to the Second World War.

After 1947, it was revived through individual initiatives. In 1956, HGS Beaver, a bureaucrat of government established a 'Literacy Centre' at Dhaka and his associates developed a primer and some charts as learning materials. Inspired and encouraged by Beaver, the East Pakistan Adult Education Cooperative Society came into existence. It produced 24 books for adult learning including 12 for neo-literates. After the death of Beaver in 1962, the programme stagnated. In 1963, an adult education section was opened at Comilla BARD campus under a pilot project of the directorate of public instruction. This project continued even after independence of Bangladesh.

The country has a very high level of illiteracy although its constitution recognises basic education as a fundamental right and the universal primary education as a basic state policy. But it is not possible to bring all sections of the people under the formal education system. A large number of children cannot enter the formal education system due to various reasons. A substantial number of dropouts also cannot get back to school. A non-formal basic education programme is necessary to address their needs. Imparting non-formal education at hours suitable for them is therefore, the only practical way of making them functionally literate.

NFE is an attractive system for the under-privileged groups in terms of accessibility, duration, curriculum and teaching-learning environment. NFE schools are located near learners' homes. This reduces the time spent on going to and returning from school. Teachers and students live in the same community. Most NFE schoolteachers are women. Teachers and students feel close to each other. Teacher-student ratio is satisfactory, usually between 1:30 and 1:40.

NFE is school based but there is no pressure of homework. NFE curriculum reflects the special needs of the children and adolescents and empowers them to cope with life. NFE teaching-learning method is participatory. Learners are attracted to this type of education because it puts emphasis on songs, dance, physical exercise, drawing and other co-curricular activities. The school supplies all education kits free of charge. As this education is continuous, it eliminates any fear of examination. Assessment is done on a regular basis. The school system is regularly supervised. Monthly consultation meetings are held with parents and community leaders.

non-government organisations and the government of Bangladesh operate five types of non-formal education: pre-primary, primary, NFE for adolescents, adult literacy and continuing education.

Continuing education is an important need at all levels so that the neo-literates do not relapse into illiteracy. It can be a life-long process to keep pace with ever-expanding boundaries of knowledge and changes in technologies. Several initiatives are being undertaken in this area to produce post-literacy materials carrying messages relating to life skills and matters of interest to the adults. Attempts have been made by the government and the NGOs to make these materials available to the neo-literate learners through rural libraries, box libraries or mobile libraries and continuing education centres.

NFE is essentially a community-based programme. It is the uniqueness of this system that enables illiterate poor and deprived people to get involved in the planning, management and supervision of local learning centres. They help select school premises, students and teachers, determine school hours and holidays. Moreover, they pledge to send their children to school, attend monthly parents' meetings and provide support where needed.

The lack of basic education amongst the majority of the population, especially the rural poor, is a major hindrance to the progress of human development. At this backdrop, the NGOs started programmes of non-formal education in addition to poverty alleviation and other development activities. brac, caritas, ccdb, DANIDA, CONCERN, Gonoswasthya Kendra (GK), Gono Unnayan Prochesta (GUP), Swanirvar Bangladesh (SB), Rangpur Dinajpur Rural Services (rdrs), and Village Education Resource Centre (VERC) played the pioneering role in introducing NFE for the disadvantaged people of the country. They were followed by Dhaka Ahsania Mission (DAM), Gonoshahajjo Sangstha (GSS), Saptagram Nari Swanirvar Parishad (SNSP), proshika, Jagarani Chakra, CMES, and many other NGOs. Initially, the emphasis was on adult literary programmes and eventually, they introduced pre-primary, primary, adolescent, adult and continuing education. Over the last three decades, NGOs acquired considerable experience and expertise in NFE sector by working at the grassroots level. They also initiated some innovative programmes in this area.

In 1996, the number of NGOs involved in education programmes increased to around 435 and they had 2.5 million learners. In 1994, the Campaign for Popular Education (CAMPE) installed a comprehensive database of the NGOs that had NFE programmes. At the initial stage, information was collected from around 435 NGOs regarding their NFE coverage, types of programmes, number of centres and students, enrolment status, materials production, curriculum/ primers used by them and other activities. According to CAMPE, 4.8% NGOs had pre-primary education programmes, 72.2% had primary, 41.8% had adolescent programmes, and 79.8% operated adult education programmes. A total of 86,929 centres were organised: 917 pre-primary centres, 38,413 primary, 11,907 adolescent and 35,692 adult centres. Out of the total learners, 68.25% were female and the rest 31.75% were male. The major NGOs such as BRAC, PROSHIKA, Ahsania Mission, FIVDB, VERC, CONCERN, GSS, and RDRS produce learning materials for NFE. The smaller NGOs adopt the curriculum/primers developed by the well-established NGOs. BRAC, which has been running a large non-formal primary education programme since the mid-1980s, is wellknown for its own materials.

A recent study showed that NGOs' NFE programme covered about 8% of the total enrolment in 1998. They play a complementary role alongside the main stream primary schools of the country and about 8% of primary schools are run by the NGOs (Education Watch Report, 1999).

As a signatory to the world declaration on 'Education for All by 2000' and the 'World Summit on Children', Bangladesh is committed to expanding learning opportunities for children, youth and adults. A nationwide programme of mass literacy-cum-adult education was launched in February 1980 and with various programmes taken at different times basic structure of Non Formal Education was formed by introducing the project Integrated Non Formal Education Programme (INFEP) in 1991 with a view to achieving the long-term objective of making NFE a complementary process in the strategy of human resources development. The principal objective of the project was to introduce a NFE system supplementary and complementary to the formal education system.

A separate ministry level division named Primary and Mass Education Division (PMED) was established in August 1992 to strengthen the primary and mass education activities. The Primary Education (Compulsory) Act was passed in 1990. The compulsory primary education was introduced under the Act for the first time in 1992 in 68 thanas of the country. It has been implemented all over the country since 1993.

The success of INFEP and the experience thus gained contributed to the eventual setting up of a Directorate of Non-formal Education (DNFE) as an effective agency of Primary and Mass Education Division (PMED). The DNFE headquarters is based in Dhaka. It is headed by a director general. DNFE set up an office in each of 64 districts to look after the programme at local level. The district offices are run by district co-ordinators. DNFE intends to cover 34.4 million non-literate people of 8-45 years. The primary emphasis is on rural population while the focus group is women. The target population includes out-of-school and school drop-out adolescents, young adults and adults; urban slum dwelling children and adolescents involved in hazardous professions and disadvantageous groups like prisoners, tribal and shifting people etc. DNFE is implementing its programme using a variety of approaches of which the major approaches are: Centre-Based Approach (CBA), Campaign-Based Approach (Total Literacy Movement-TLM) and Primer Distribution Approach. At present, around 500 NGOs and local bodies have been implementing NFE programme in Bangladesh. Of these, around 250 also work as partners to the government. To encourage and help develop the capacity and experience of these organisations and to ensure a countrywide NFE network, DNFE provides free primers, guide books and training package for the literacy personnel of these organisations

At present, DNFE is managing four NFE projects for adolescents, young adult and adult non-literate population. Each project has its own speciality in terms of area coverage, programme delivery approach, duration of literacy course and target population etc. A number of international voluntary organisations such as ACTIONAID, CARE, CONCERN, Save the Children, and World Vision International undertook specific programmes on child education in addition to programmes on nutrition, and maternal and child health. Some NGOs developed innovative models of children education and adult literacy. A few organisations implement NFE programme directly while the others extend funding and technical assistance to the local grassroots NGOs.

Signing the memorandum of understanding on 4 July 1995 between ILO, UNICEF and the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers' and Exporters' Association (bgmea) regarding the placement of child workers in school programmes and the elimination of child labour under 14 years was the outcome of a long negotiating process. It was facilitated by the participation of the US Embassy in Dhaka. The school programme was arranged by UNICEF and ILO in Cooperation with GOB and the NGOs.

On 31 October 1996, the BGMEA declared the garment sector free from child labour. By May 1997, some 318 schools were established for children who were former garment industry workers in Dhaka, Narayanganj and Chittagong. The total enrolment of these schools was about 8,200 children. The terminated child workers attending school programmes are provided with stipends at a rate of Tk 300 a month as partial substitution of lost wages and to keep them learning.

Basic Education for Hard to Reach Urban Children (BEHTRUC), a joint project of UNICEF and GOB, was designed to meet the educational needs of working children (8-14 years) living in urban slums. The project started in 1999, aims at providing non-formal basic education to the working children in six urban areas of Bangladesh - Dhaka, Chittagong, Rajshahi, Khulna, Barisal and Sylhet divisional headquarters with a view to protect them form exploitative and hazardous working conditions. The learning centres of the project are managed by some 150 NGOs through DNFE. In this project the local government bodies, city and municipal authorities also collaborate to ensure effective management of project activities.

The literacy rate of the population (15+) of Bangladesh in 2001 was 58%. The government set the goal of EFA by 2000 and also expressed a commitment to attain a total literacy by the year 2006. Formal education is not enough to reach this goal covering all sections of the population. So NFE is considered to be a priority area and the government extended more resource allocation and policy support to NFE sector. The co-operation and collaboration between the government and the NGOs on NFE expansion in Bangladesh resulted in increased enrolment in primary schools and ever increasing adult literacy rate. Also there is a great need of post literacy and life-long continuing education for the neo-literates. The neo-literate learners need to read books, instructional materials, newspapers, flip charts etc so that they cannot relapse into illiteracy. Electronic media like radio and television can be used as tools for carrying messages to mass people. [Shahida Akhter]