Raising Basic Education Levels in Rural Bangladesh: The Impact of a Non-formal Education Programme

Based on the concept of "basic education" from the Declaration of the World Conference on Education for All (WCEFA, Jomtien 1990), this paper explores the impact of the non-formal education programme (NFPE) of the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) in the achievement of basic education for rural Bangladeshi children. Using an instrument developed previously in Bangladesh, three groups with different educational experiences were assessed: (1) children who attended BRAC's NFPE; (2) those attending formal school; (3) children who had never attended school. A total of 720 randomly selected children, who live in five rural areas of Bangladesh were assessed in this study. Of the four components of basic education, BRAC children did significantly better in life skills and writing than their peers in formal schools. Equal performance was observed in reading and numeracy. Although the children who had never attended school in general did poorly, some had developed life skills knowledge and more than half had acquired numeracy skills. This study concludes that BRAC's education programme has a positive impact on basic education in rural Bangladesh.     

Level and Trend of Basic Education of Children in Bangladesh: 1993-1998

Using data generated through two nationally representative sample surveys, this paper explores the trends in the level of basic education of Bangladeshi children. The instrument used for the purpose was based on the Declaration of the World Conference on Education for All (WCEFA, Jomtien, 1990). The findings reveal that the level of 'basic education' increased very slowly, 26.7% in 1993 to 29.6% in 1998, less than one percentage point per year. Statistically significant improvement was observed in 'life skills knowledge' and 'writing skills', but not in 'reading' or 'numeracy'. Girls progressed in 'reading', 'writing' and 'life skills', while the boys in 'writing' and 'life skills'. Over the period, the level improved for rural children but decreased for urban children. Bangladesh falls much behind the targets of the Jomtien Conference in 1990; it will have to wait until 2093 AD to reach the WCEFA goal. The country has made good progress in increasing the access to primary education, but a massive drive is necessary to improve the quality of education.     

Spatial Metaphor Facilitates Word Learning

Why are spatial metaphors, like the use of “high” to describe a musical pitch, so common? This study tested one hundred and fifty-four 3- to 5-year-old English-learning children on their ability to learn a novel adjective in the domain of space or pitch and to extend this adjective to the untrained dimension. Children were more proficient at learning the word when it described a spatial attribute compared to pitch. However, once children learned the word, they extended it to the untrained dimension without feedback. Thus, children leveraged preexisting associations between space and pitch to spontaneously understand new metaphors. These results suggest that spatial metaphors may be common across languages in part because they scaffold children’s acquisition of word meanings that are otherwise difficult to learn.     

Effect of vitamin E on platelet enzymatic anti-oxidants in the patients of myocardial infarction

Effect of administration of 600 mg. vitamin E each day, for six days, was observed on activity of some of the anti-oxidant enzymes and levels of malondialdehyde (as an index of free radical mediated damage) in the platelets of patients reperfused after myocardial infarction. It has been found that vitamin E administration significantly lowers the level of malondialdehyde in the patients. Vitamin E administration increases the activities of anti oxidant enzymes (viz. superoxide dismutase, glutathione reductase and catalase) tested both in the patients and healthy controls. Vitamin E administration causes general stimulation of anti-oxidant enzyme activities both in healthy persons and the patients, however, lowering of lipid per-oxidation upon administration of vitamin E is specific for patients. These findings exhibit beneficial role of vitamin E administration in the management of the patients reperfused after myocardial infarction.