CHILD RIGHTS UNIT (CRU)

What does the Child Rights Unit do?
The CRU offers health, educational support and legal protection to working children, by registering them for different educational activities in seven drop-in-centres in Dhaka City.

CRU’S objectives
It aims to increase education levels of working children between the ages of 9 to 15 years, facilitate their social and emotional well-being and develop an awareness of their rights. Through this interaction working children acquire a confidence to defend their rights.

Strategies
Working children registered at the Drop-in-Centres are first introduced to new, tested methodologies for rapid learning. The education programme for working children is especially designed for those who work irregular hours.

Health services are provided through the Dhaka Community Hospital or other medical facilities, while the cost of prescribed medicines or surgery is borne by ASK. All children who visit DIC’s are given a noontime meal. Educators' forums are held periodically to promote quality education.

Legal protection is often a far cry for working children, who are exposed to exploitation at work, sexual abuse and violence, and are deprived of their rights to basic needs. Their complaints are referred to the Legal Aid Unit for settlement or further investigation by the Investigation Unit.

Liaison with the employers, parents, guardians and educators is a crucial component of CRU’s advocacy. Meetings are arranged with employers and with mothers to raise their awareness of child rights.

More about DIC’s
The Drop-in-Centre (DIC) offers a unique service for children whose life-style not only brutalizes them, but also deprives them of entry into formally established institutions. The DIC offers a flexible hours learning between 9 am to 5 p.m., five days a week. This system of non-formal education, literally, jokhon tokhon shikha or ‘any-time school’ has proved to be appropriate for working children. Here is a place where children can rest, play, learn; where they can express their feelings, and receive emotional counseling and legal attention.

In 2002, there were six DICs in the working-sites of Goran, Bashabo, Shantibagh, Mohammadpur, and Mirpur. They served a mixed occupational group of rag pickers, domestic helpers, tempo workers, hawkers, loaders, etc. Recently, Ekota an NGO in old Dhaka, offered its premises for the seventh DIC by ASK. At two DIC's, legal clinics are held once a week, where the children and their mothers can consult with ASK lawyers on any legal problems.

What are CRU’s long-term plans?
To continue our support for working children, and to involve concerned members of the public in supporting working children. This can be done by raising child rights issues in the public arena, by arranging workshops and street theatres, etc. for interaction with working children. By seeing them at close quarters as hard-working, responsible members of society, support can be built up to protect these children from exploitation and abuse. We can campaign for laws that address the issue of child rights and to motivate the public against prevailing notions that ignore inequality and discrimination against poor, working children.

What future plans do we have for DIC’s?
We are studying the impact of the DIC’s in the areas where they are located. While we believe that they have been successful in fulfilling most of their objectives we will constantly try to raise the quality of professional help and support at all fronts. We hope that national, private and Government institutions will find the DIC model useful for replication.

How Can You Help?
Most children are creative. Children at DICs are encouraged to make paper machine products, cards, calendars, etc. You can help by buying the children's creative products. The sale proceeds from these cards goes to the child artist. This helps in raising the child’s self-esteem, as well as giving the child some pocket money.

You can be a sponsor. In best-case scenarios, keen students need to find financial support to study in regular schools. Sponsors may support children in private or residential institutions, with funds going towards fees, tuition, books and other necessities. Sponsors are advised to fill the sponsorship form if interested, and post it to ASK. Sponsorship may be received one time or regularly to cover annual costs for the contracted period of study. Profiles of children are maintained at ASK and regular reports are sent to the sponsors on the progress of each child.

MY WORLD

Khursheed Erfan Ahmed *

Introduction

My World is a compilation of texts, modules and materials on general education for adolescent children. It shares experience of child centered learning with educators. My World has evolved from a series of workshops into a twelve unit syllabi on humanities facilitated by trained educators for working children at Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK), Dhaka.
The objective of this publication is to: -

Project innovative and contemporary ways of learning for adolescent children in non- formal and formal schools.
Provide modular structures with illustrated teaching material as a guide for educators.
Share successful participatory approaches that encourage independent learning as against learning by rote.
Share ASK’s educational expertise with other organisations, professionals and interested individuals.

Module for My World Unit 01. My Self Unit 02. My Body Unit 03. My Health Unit 04. My Food Unit 05. My Environment Unit 06. My Country Unit 07. My Neighbours Unit 08. My History Unit 09. My Culture Unit 10. My Beliefs Unit 11. My Reproduction & Gender Unit 12. My Rights

This publication is available at ASK. Please send requests to Zafreen Sattar at ask@citechco.net

Prior to formulating a project for working children, ASK researched and compiled case studies on working children (K.Ahmed. "Where children are Adults" 1990). Although ASK’s main aim was to access children to legal services on request, it seemed apparent from the responses of children at workshops and quoted in our study, that one of their immediate demands included education on flexible terms. These terms implied facilities for Drop in Centres where education for working children could be planned in a way to combine education with work.
From this experience ASK developed a three-phased plan for education of working children viz.

Basic, Continued and General Education

Basic Education consists of skills in literacy and numeracy. The educators receive training in these skills from Gono Shahajjo Shangshta (GSS). GSS method is adapted from the modern theories and techniques of learning. ASK has arranged flexible hours for the convenience and voluntary choice of the working child. The literacy learning centres at each drop in centre are known as Jokhon Tokhon School (Any time school). For the literate or semi-literate child, ASK provides libraries in each centre, a choice of films on special days and periodical workshops on general subjects.

Continued Education is provided both to educators and children. Libraries and locally made learning games are provided for children to access learning. Music, art and drama classes are also included as an outlet for creativity. Eminent educators and subject specialists are invited each week to share their knowledge with ASK educators.
Refresher training in module design and material development is planned for educators on weekly resource sessions.

General Education is an important subject at ASK's Child Right Unit. Syllabi of 12 topics have been designed in the belief that all children have a right to knowledge as well as to survival skills. We believe workshops on these units can be held in any non-formal setting. Some of the methods elaborated here are flexible enough to be utilized in formal settings as well. Facilitator learner ratio is recommended not to exceed 1:25. In crowded classes, the management could use the assistance of team teachers. The classroom or teaching area should allow for mobility if possible. It would be difficult to conduct group exercises on fixed benches and desks usually found in government primary schools. Fixtures need to be light and mobile. Workshops at ASK are held mostly on carpeted floors or under trees in good weather.
Literacy is not an essential condition for a child’s participation in the workshops. The moduled structures of the workshops are intended to enable the non-literate as well, in grasping the curriculum of the units in the My World module.

My World Workshops

The 12 unit module presented here, is titled My World because the contents relate to the world of the growing child. Each of the 12 units of learning focuses on a topic in humanities. Facilitators are trained to conduct workshops and adapt their techniques to the response of the children. Each session of a workshop is to be completed within a maximum time of one and a half-hour. Intervals are recommended between sessions for warm up games or songs, a list of which is annexed for the facilitators' choice.
Four to six sessions are required to complete the monthly workshop series after which the topic is carried forward through project task. Sessions can be reduced in contact time or increased depending on the level of understanding of the target. It would take twelve months to complete 12 units with assistance of two facilitators.
Materials, are an essential part of learning process, and should be made by facilitators and educators at the planning phase. One set of materials can be kept for all classes. Lamination will help preserve them.
At each workshop, children were given a My World Diary for creative work and for keeping notes on various topics. Pages in the diary would be titled according to each unit topic separately. The diaries could also be used for “project task” in class as a follow up on each unit topic.
Project work in class would mean a continuation of study, survey or discussion on any one of the units. For example, if children wish to continue the unit 'My Environment` through project assignment, they might choose to survey the physical and social well being of the community they live in or they might want to study ways of removing pollution from their locality or to recycle waste products. The educators can follow up with a comprehensive project task on immediate needs of improving their environment.
Most learning sessions are a demonstration of a lesson plan structured into pre-learning, while learning and learning reinforcements.

Pre learning is mainly to introduce the topic, to create a warm up atmosphere and to prepare children for the unit. Stories, songs and games are recommended as attractive starters.

While learning forms the main body of learning or topic contents. Creative materials and group exercises are used to facilitate the learning objective.

Learning reinforcement is the informal test on topics learnt through group exercise or games. Illustrated exercises or games are explained in the annex.
Each of these three learning phases is divided into sessions that encourage active and independent learning. Strategies used for achieving a stated learning (or recreation) objective consist of different techniques. However, educators must realise the importance of predictability in each method or technique to reach an intended objective.

Teaching materials aids and techniques are used to facilitate strategies. By teaching material we mean texts, curriculum, games or handouts. Techniques include various ways of learning such as games, role play, question answers, problem solving, group exercises, etc. Learning aids refer to equipment like the writing board, the flip chart, the audiocassette, the television, the video, slides etc. In a way the facilitator or the educator is the most important learning aid!
Educators are advised to use locally available low-cost resources as teaching aids.

Most units in the book are standardized with the three phased steps. However, a few units are not structured into three phased learning steps but contain active sessions that educators can module into steps.
This is to allow flexibility to the educators who have become familiar with the structures and may like to use an outlet for their own creativity.

My World can be used by a target of educators with adolescent children in non-formal centres in the upper primary level. The educators' level of education could be in the range of undergraduate or graduate level with an enthusiasm to improve subject competency. Each of the units in the book contains a relevant text for the purpose of orientation to consult further reading given in the annex.Educators are expected to go through the relevant GOB curriculum, consult books for extra reading to gain subject competency in the unit topic.
The need for training in the skill to facilitate or deliver child centered learning is indispensable. As we read more about the background of primary education in Bangladesh we will understand the importance of quality education and training of educators.

Education in Bangladesh

The population of Bangladesh is largely young. 40 per cent of its population is below eighteen years of age.
Education of the youth is essential for a productive citizenship conscious of its rights and responsibilities in a democratic society. Visionary statements such as these have been reiterated from time to time. Article 17 of the Constitution of Bangladesh states in summary: - "The state shall adopt effective measures for the purpose of relating education to the needs of society and producing properly trained and motivated citizens to serve those needs."
A brief look at some commissioned reports over the years suggests a reiteration of this concern: -
Excerpts from the Qudrat-E-Khuda Education Commission report of 1974:-

An education system is a weapon for implementation of a nation's hopes and aspirations and for building a new society. The main responsibility and goal of our education system is to create an awareness among all sections of people about the requirements of life, to help develop an ability to solve various problems and to create an urge to establish a new socialistic society in consonance with the desires of the people.
“The formation of a pupil's character and personality is of central importance in every educational scheme. Therefore the academic atmosphere, syllabuses and textbooks, methods of teaching and provision for sports and games at all levels of education must be such as to encourage the favourable development of a pupil's character and personality. The pupils must be made to realise the importance of and follow truthfulness, honesty, fair play, impartiality, orderly conduct, duty and disinterested work for the country's welfare."
As far back as 1854, an enquiry into educational development in India led to the Education Dispatch of 1854 by Charles Woodⁱ . An extract from the Woods Education Dispatch reflects views of foreign rulers: "Among many subjects of importance, none can have a stronger claim to our attention than that of education. It is one of our most sacred duties to be the means, as far as in us lies, of conferring upon the natives of India, those vast moral and material blessings which flow from the general diffusion of useful knowledge, and which India may, under Providence, desire from her connection with the English".
Commissioned reports in recent years also emphasise the need for re-planning education priorities. The Mofizuddin Ahmed Education Commission Report 1988 in its goals and objectives includes among other ideals, the eradication of illiteracy, converting our human resource into a national asset, uplifting standard of living, increasing religious aptitude, inspiring original thinking and arousing peoples love for country and respect for its freedom and sovereignty.
The task force set up in 1993 by the Bangladesh Planning Commission was perhaps the first to recommend a strong review into the quality of education. Greater importance was to be given to teaching-learning materials and proper training of teachers. Excerpts from this recommendation are summarised: - "There are inadequacies in the existing teacher training outfits: these need to be reviewed immediately to determine appropriate training packages with due consideration to various skills, making PTI's and NAPE professionally competent organisations ... The teaching aids should be modernised. An interfacing between government teacher training programmes and NGOs teacher training and orientation courses could be helpful in developing a more capable systems suited to our needs."

Non formal process in learning

Education is acquired through formal and non-formal processes. The family and the community could be considered the first step in non-formal education, since they shape the child's personality.
Traditional knowledge in artisan skills, dance and music, farming systems, health care were imbibed through a non-formal process of learning with the family, the caste and the community.
Non-formal learning had been in practice in earlier civilizations. It has created to this day excellence in artisan crafts, classical dance form, music and even farming skills. The rituals of learning involved a special paternalistic relationship between the teacher and the pupil. Learning was practical within the cultural ethos of excellence in production.
The relationship between the knowledge giver and the recipient was that of a disciplined respect. Educators endowed with unquestionable subject competency earned the title of 'Gurus', 'Maestros' or ' wise elders'. There is no doubt that in this traditional communication from 'Gurus' to disciples, learning was transmitted to produce a generation of skilled artisans and experts who were also taught to follow norms of a socially accepted behavior.
Numerous religious institutes like madrassahs flourished to mould children's personality according to the tenets of prescribed religions. These provided non-formal basic education for the majority of the people.
Colonial rule introduced an institutionalized graded formal system of schooling to prepare graduates to meet the ruler’s need for administrative and management expertise. Formal education system with to a more formalized system. Given a group of dedicated teachers, a manageable teacher student ratio and an effective supervisory system, the primary schools were able to bring forth a good standard of literate and well informed primary graduates although the class atmosphere was teacher dominated and learning processed mostly through lectures.
Over decades this formal system has succumbed to a host of limitations, such as disadvantages of crowded classes, untrained and insufficient teachers, that have inevitably resulted in rote learning with little or no scope for developing children to their best possible potential.
After liberation, GOB plans have adopted incremental strategies to address mass based universal access to primary schooling. All primary schools (36,165) were nationalized in 1973. A programme to universalize primary education was launched in 1981. The Primary Education (Compulsory) Act was passed in 1990.
At present there is a total of 66,944 primary education institutes in Bangladesh. These institutes include 37,710 government primary schools and other education centres such as kindergartens, community schools, madrassahs, unregistered schools etc. A recent output of the General Education Program (GEP) resulted in adding 200 Satellite schools nearer children's homes. Other incremental factors include food incentives, increase in female teachers and improvement in the infrastructure of school buildings
It has been assessed that due to these efforts 18.5 million primary school aged children are enrolled in schools and the completion rate is reported at 61 per cent.
While efforts to increase access to learning continues there is today a legitimate enquiry into the absence of quality education for the young learners. There are many reasons for these apprehensions about the effectiveness of education in terms of children's emotional, affective and cognitive development. There is also a serious concern with the impact of outmoded methods of learning on children’s achievements and behavior.

The national pre-occupation with quantitative goals in primary schooling has probably neglected the qualitative aspect of child education. This latter aspect is studied to be equally important for higher completion rates in schools. We have noted a strong correlation between a low dropout rate and conditions of quality schooling in the non-formal NGO centres where relevance in curriculum & effectiveness of methods is maintained to attract more learners. These conditions should induce planners to address factors determining quality education such as a liberal and a relevant curriculum, training of teachers in facilitation, education of "facilitators" in subject competency, a manageable teacher student ratio, use of learning material and other techniques to make learning possible in a conducive atmosphere.
Today we are grappling with techniques for learning literacy or to understand alternate ways for qualitative education where as pedagogic research in developed countries since the 17th century brought about a revolution in primary education through learner centered processes.

Theories on Child Centered Learning

A brief glimpse into the education theories during the European Enlightenment will be of interest for educators in understanding that creation of successful education systems need nurturing with incentives from the state and the public. Continuous research on different ways of education and its dissemination within a discerning community of educators is necessary to rid ourselves of unsuccessful strategies in learning. In fact it was in a liberal atmosphere of the enlightenment and with such incentives that the developed countries were able to produce famous pioneers in the field of child education.
In 1762, Jean Jacques Rousseau, a Swiss educationist published Emile. The beginnings of the theory of child centered learning were articulated in this book. He is known for advocating stages of development in a child's capacity to learn. Bookish knowledge and rote learning of abstract concepts such as religion or morals was prohibited by him at the pre-adolescent stage. Physical activities, out-door games and songs were recommended as learning supports. He believed, like most child-centered educationists, in the innate goodness of human beings, rejecting moral commandments and punishments. Piaget a Swiss educationist of the modern era followed his example in re-emphasizing the levels of development in children. He believed that most children will begin to understand abstractions in adolescence. Today learner-centered education for children has advanced in developed countries to have produced a sizable repertoire of books and films specially meant for different stages of childhood. Rousseau spoke in an era where books were published only for adults
Froebel introduced the idea of kindergarten's or pre-primary learning. Provision of suitable toys and games was recommended by him as methods of early childhood development. Froebel likened the teacher to a gardener who would nurture his/her 'plants' to grow freely rather than to a moulder of clay who could shape forms to his/her desire. He was against the extreme behaviorist theorists who believed that circumstances and situations could condition human development: That teachers or educators could mould students in a 'desirable' way. Froebel believed in the natural goodness of human beings. He attributed anti-social and delinquent behavior to the fact that inherent good impulses of children when thwarted by adults may lead to frustration and undesirable behavior. He cites an example (Sutherland) of children's desire to join parents in work. Their unskillful attempts are rejected by parents who later term children's unhelpful attitude as 'selfish'.
Montessori, a name familiar to most educators in Bangladesh worked with children in slums and pioneered the famous Montessori method for early childhood development. Educational resources and materials, for the first time gained importance through the Montessori method in creating independent learning and spontaneous discovery of facts without the teachers' domineering guidance. Alphabets mounted on cardboard and other materials were devised to make children discover words or learn ordinary functions. Maria Montessori’s education philosophy emphasized the need for children to learn independently.
Most of us may have heard of the Dalton Plan. Dalton introduced the concept of independent study on a 'project task` assigned to learners or selected by learners to be completed within a certain time. This method underlines a belief that enthusiasm for learning is a natural characteristics of human beings. The Dalton Plan for group tasks would be suitable with NGO target learners who have a concern for the conditions they live in. They would be interested to survey, and analyze problems in their surroundings that need to be solved. It is a process of learning that gives the child a mechanism for understanding his/her world with freedom to choose h/her ways of study. Project task is now commonly used in primary schools in developed countries and has a positive effect in encouraging independent thought.
I recall a personal experience of a professional visit to London in 1987, where I was to learn about primary schooling in England. On visiting one such school, I observed adolescent children of 12 to 13 years preoccupied in group tasks to study the life in the Victorian age. This meant, as one of the girl students told me "visiting museums, collecting appropriate bibliography and may be interviewing people for the final report". This little girl was particularly engrossed with the concept of gender as conceived in the Victorian era.
I was very impressed although I know the project task was perhaps assigned by the teacher. Yet, I thought to myself, leave alone schools, in how many universities in our country would we find students applying analytical skills to such scholarly pursuits!

Controversial issues in Child Centered learning

As we glimpse some child centered theories we must also understand the extreme forms some of these have taken and the controversial issues raised.
There are controversial views regarding the way we propose to teach religion, sex or child rights. Some of us may not want to teach these subjects to adolescent children. There are others who may decide to communicate this information through a child-centered way or by indoctrinating children with moral codes. This would depend on the ideology of education planners. Currently neither of these subjects is included in the GOB curriculum although some NGOs do impart education on reproductive health and child rights. Should religion be taught as tenets of divine commands or should children also be encouraged to study all religions as a source of social change and inspiration to good conduct with tolerance for different beliefs?
Most child centered educationists, although religious themselves, were of the view that religious concepts cannot be absorbed by children before adolescence.
With the increase in AID, sex disease and sexual violence, reproductive health, sexuality and gender are now considered to be useful topics. Gender equality and respect for opposite sex need to be ingrained at an early age especially by children who have to face the hazards of street life.
Child Rights is a topic that might cause distress amongst the deprived children. Education on Child Rights may also alarm the parents and guardians who have so far felt no reason to feel their authority questioned. On the other hand leaving children uninformed of their rights will be a further deprivation of child rights. A good facilitator/educator will know how to strike the right balance between imparting information and resolving the child's reaction to a new sense of empowerment.
The concept of compulsory education although a recommended national policy in the third world is nevertheless questioned by some child centered educationists. They feel that an attractive and relevant learning should need no compulsion. These thoughts originate in highly developed societies where literacy and education have reached an appreciable standard. It is perhaps not applicable in our societies where parents need to be compelled to send their children to school instead of work.
In the 1970's Ivan Illich in his book "De-Schooling Society" deflates the formal school system with its horror of examinations, boredom of routine attendance and the irrelevance of the curriculum. In place of these uninspiring schools, Illich suggested "learning webs" or an arrangement for skills and intellectual learning provided by experts to those who wish to learn.
On the same note Philip Aries in 'Centuries of Childhood' argued that by segregating children in schools, adults were protecting them from real life experiences. Development stages of childhood as distinct from adulthood according to this educationist are subtle ways of keeping the younger generation in a state of subjugation to its elders.
Designing curriculum is another issue on which child centered educators may differ with conventional teachers. Should curriculum be designed to fit a child in a given social order or should it be designed as a strategy to instill in children a spirit to change a given social order?
Should training in music, dance, sports and vocation be an integral part of a child’s development? Questions such as these can only be clearly answered in a forum where educationists and students have the freedom to dialogue the issues.
Understanding the latter theories as interesting but extreme, the educators of children can glean from these views, the complexities of planning children's education where it is desirable to achieve a balance between freedom and growth of personality in a given society.
Different child centered initiatives strengthened the early pioneerism in different ways. Most of these are participatory methods applied in modern schools in developed countries although one is not certain as to how fully children centered they are. It is probably a norm even in developed countries to expect a system, which through trial and error methods has now adapted a mixed position between child, centered and teacher guided learning.
Educationists and their theories on child centered learning will have a significant influence on curriculum or what should be included in our schoolbooks. Children at an impressionable age tend to believe what they read. Educationists caution us to avoid using materials that could indoctrinate children to racism, sexism or religious intolerance. The subject of gender, race and religion has a context in the world of violence in which the children live today. The curriculum should leave the child's mind open, enquiring and sensitized but not closed with fundamental dogmas.

The Learner Centered Way

Learner centered methods of education rely upon the belief that every human being has an innate ability to learn at different levels. The experiential context of a person is the starting point, which can be stimulated with teaching materials for elicitation and discovery of new learning. Given a process of communicative participation, the learner is to be helped to discourse the subject in an environment that is free from teacher indoctrination or social dogmas.
In the participatory approach of learning, communication is not a one way process but a three way interactive learning between the facilitator (teacher), the learners and the designed teaching materials.
As the readers will learn in the unit lesson plans, techniques of learning whether they be visuals, role play or group exercise, they are indispensable support for the educator who need not dominate the class with monologues, lectures and dictation. Neither would the children need to learn by rote. An interactive process between the Facilitator and learner and the methods will have predictability in achieving objective outputs.
The process of participatory communicative learning requires: -
A teacher trained to facilitate and with subject competency.
Methods that activate learners to independent learning.
Teaching materials, aids and techniques that stimulate participatory learning.
Learner centered learning is a technology that needs skills for successful delivery. Training is implied. This book is merely a guide for most educators of children helping to facilitate adaptation of new techniques.
Tips for facilitators are a useful guide for the educator who must keep the child in the centre of all learning objectives.

Evaluation is a tool to improve our own performance and that of the children. An evaluation format is annexed but it is advisable for all facilitators and educators to make their own evaluation formats for each session or for the whole unit. Children’s views and responses should be considered an important part of evaluatory comments. Learner centered education is a progressive approach which places the “teacher” in the position of a guide/facilitator and the pupil in the active role. Intrinsic motivation, inner discipline and independent deductions replace conventional standards of achievements such as examinations, competition & classroom scores. Child centered methods, fully so or in a mixed form are used in most developed countries but now also in some developing countries with its application to literacy learning, to survival skills and to human rights awareness. The techniques used by facilitators range from role-play, music, group exercise, brain storming to the use of audiovisuals etc.

Tips for Facilitators The facilitator should:-Acquire subject competency by reading texts and reference reading on each topic.Design lesson plans on each session of the unit.Structure lesson plans into. Pre-learning. While learning and learning reinforcement sessions.Prepare warm up games and introductory openings for each unit sessionPrepare songs, entertaining quiz/games to retain children's attention.Be sensitive to children's attention span and any sign of fatigue Prepare materials/ for different techniques Listen to children carefully. Avoid interrupting children. Learn to evaluate own performance and the realization of workshop objective . Avoid punishments or threat of examinations.Make workshops a joyful experience of interactive learning.Take suggestions for new topics from children.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Bangladesh, in the last decade or so, non- formal teaching has been institutionalized by some reputable NGOs such as Gano Shahajjo Shangshtha and BRAC through short-term teacher training in child centered learning. There may be a few other organizations as well trying out successful learner centered media to improve quality of education.
It is heartening to note that at GOB, a separate department for non-formal education has been set up, known as DNFE (Directorate Non formal Education) with an objective to expand literacy through non-formal techniques.
However, there is no significant dissemination to expose the educators to the contemporary modular forms of learning. Where as developed countries provide resource centres and bibliography for potential facilitators, this is not so in our country. Anyone desirous of learning child centered ways of education through literature or publications might find this an impossible task in Bangladesh.
This is one of the major reasons for presenting My World for educators.

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