Bangladeshi Rural Advancement Committee

Introduction

The Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) is a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) established by Fazle Ahmad Hasan in 1972 just after Bangladesh broke away from Pakistan in 1971. The NGO evolved as a panacea to the many problems faced by the country just emerging from war with Pakistan, requiring human capital, social mobilization and emancipation from extreme poverty. Its main objective is the improvement of quality of life for the poor people in Bangladesh especially women and girls through secular education, micro-finance and health programmes. It is also involved in the promotion of human rights and gender equity through human, political, economic and social capacity building programmes (BRAC, 2014). It has recorded many successes in Bangladesh which have enabled it to expand to ten other countries in Asia and Africa and is reputed to be the largest NGO in the world (Talapatro, 2012). He continues that BRAC has built over 38,000 non-formal primary schools, has over 7 million micro-finance groups and over 70,000 health volunteers in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Philippines in Asia; Liberia, Sierra Leone, South-Sudan, Uganda and Tanzania in Africa and Haiti in the Caribbean.

Working based on the philosophy that global experiences demonstrate that early childhood education has many benefits for cognitive, psychomotor and social development of children; BRAC operates non-formal pre-primary, primary and secondary schools in remote communities, providing these levels of education for children excluded from formal education systems. BRAC thereby gives a chance to disadvantaged pupils by bringing learning to victims of extreme poverty, displacement, violence and discrimination (BRAC, 2014). BRAC explains further that it has developed very effective and efficient strategies for solving problems encountered by poor households, particularly targeting girls and proving that poverty and gender should not be obstacles to getting a sound primary education. According to Haiplik, (2002, pg. 5) BRAC's work is "based on the thoughts of Paul Freire intended to raise social awareness and provide literacy and numeracy to rural Bangladeshis". She added that the strategies used by the NGO include an emphasis on girls' education, flexible hours, intensive community participation, local recruitment of teachers, cost effectiveness, development of a relevant curriculum and good management. Its aim was to develop a replicable primary education model which in three years can give basic literacy to remote rural children unreached by the formal education system; with girls identified as being the most vulnerable and most in need. Haiplik, (2002) also reports that more than 90% of pupils who attend BRAC non-formal primary schools eventually graduated and progressed to the 4th grade in formal government owned primary schools.

BRAC's Educational Programmes

The focus of this essay will be on BRAC's educational programmes in Bangladesh as well as how it has been able to expand these programmes to other countries. The NGO has educational operations in six countries namely, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Philippines, Uganda, South Sudan and Haiti (BRAC, 2014). For instance, Afghanistan has similar situations with Bangladesh of conflicts, displacement, child soldiers and exclusion of girls from educational opportunities. Mushtaque, Chowdhury, Alam and Ahmed (2006) report that BRAC expanded to Afghanistan in May 2002 in order to transfer its development knowledge and successes in Bangladesh; they continue that when the NGO came to Afghanistan, net enrolment into primary schools was 15% for girls and 42% for boys; but by April 2006 BRAC has in operation 629 schools in 13 Afghan provinces with 18,155 pupils out of which 98% were girls.

BRAC also expanded its activities to Pakistan (from which Bangladesh seceded) in 2007 in recognition of the similar developmental needs of the country. According to BRAC, (2012) Pakistan has a reputation of extensive gender discrimination where more that 7 million children of school age are out of school, out of which 60% are girls and where boys attend an average 3.8 years of schooling, while girls attend an average 1.3 years of schooling. The NGO has now been able to operate over one hundred schools spread into four remote districts in two out the six provinces in Pakistan. Similarly, BRAC (2012) reports that it started operations 2007 in South Sudan when the country was still fighting a civil war with northern Sudan and has in operation 115 schools, most of which are community girls' schools spread into eight counties in four out of the ten states in the country. The community girls' schools provide an educational alternative and opportunity for girls disadvantaged by lack of formal schools nearby and also provides vocational training for youths. BRAC, (2012) also reports that in the Philippines, its educational activities are concentrated in the Muslim dominated Mindanao region that is embroiled in a civil war of trying to secede from the Philippines. With financial assistance from AUS-AID, it is operating an alternative basic education delivery model project targeting thousands of underprivileged children in the area.

Another dimension to BRAC's educational operations is youth development and capacity building. A good example of this is its educational programmes in Haiti and Uganda. According to BRAC, (2012) it began operations 2005 in Haiti after decades of political turmoil, natural disasters and economic instability. It initiated the Youth Enterprise Schools (YES) targeting over 4.5 million youths in the country to address the economic and social challenges bedeviling them by teaching them critical life enhancing, financial and business skills. Under this programme, youths aged 14 - 25 years old are trained in goat rearing, poultry keeping, nursery and vegetable production after which they are given input supplies and facilitating access to markets. In Uganda, the NGO in partnership with Mastercard Foundation assists young Ugandans to access quality secondary education through provision of scholarships. This became necessary because Uganda has a peculiar problem of children transiting from primary to secondary schools due to their parents requiring them to assist with farming and other income generating activities occasioned by the prevalent high level of poverty. The programme targets 5,000 talented yet financially disadvantaged children and plans to provide them with quality secondary and university education.

BRAC Schools Structure and Funding

BRAC maintains over 38,000 schools worldwide under its Non Formal Primary Education Programme (NFEP), although a few proportions of these schools also give non-formal pre-primary and secondary