The meaning of compulsory primary education is that all the children upto the age of 10 must complete education upto the level of class v. Its purpose is to impart knowledge of reading, writing and simple Arithmetic.
Education is the backbone of a nation. It removes darkness and enlightens mind. It develops mental and moral faculties of human beings. Proper education makes a man realise his ultimate aim in life. the citizens of a country are given right type of education, they will be able to solve the economic, social and political problems of their country. Moreover, it will not be easy for the opportunist self-seekers to exploit them. Hence all the children of a country like ours must be giver education upto certain level. Therefore, universal primary education has become a vital national issue.
Bangladesh is beset with many problems. So it is very difficult to educate all the people within a short time. A large portion of the children have not yet got the opportunity to go to primary schools. There are about 44000 primary schools in our country which are not sufficient to provide accommodation for all the children. Moreover, the poor and illiterate parents do not realise the importance of education. They think that it is better to keep their children at home than to send them to schools. They engage their children in different work to earn money to support their family. Considering all these problems, primary education has been made free and compulsory.
In order to make the compulsory. free primary education programme successful we have to eradicate the problems that stand in the way of it. Firstly the parents should be made to realise the importance of education. More schools should be established so that no student is deprived of having primary education. Poor students should be provided with books, pens, dresses etc free of cost. In order to build up good and efficient teachers, training facilities should be arranged.
The government of our our country has taken some steps to remove illiteracy from the society. All the children between ages from 5 to 7 must go to school, they are taught free there. All other thanas will be brought under this programme by phases. The government has also taken vigorous campaign programme to motivate (T) parents to send their children to schools. The government has also launched food for education programme to inspire the poor parents to send their children to schools. Text books are also supplied to the students free of cost. Again UNSECSO, ASHA and many other organizations have come forward to wipe out illiteracy from the country.
The prosperity and progress of our nation depends upon the complete removal of illiteracy. For that implementation (1) of compulsory free primary education has become a crying need. If we are to take a rightful place in the world, we have to bend all our resources and energies to this great purpose without wasting time any more.
