In Bangladesh, primary level education is provided under two major institutional arrangements like general and madrasha. The secondary level education has three major streams: general, technical/vocational and Madrasha. Moreover, in the urban and some selected areas cadet and English medium schooling are available. In general, quality of government primary school in rural area has no standard while 70% students depend on it. Some time there is no physical infrastructure for schooling as a result students do not feel any attraction to attend the class regularly. Moreover quality of teacher is not up to the mark as a whole rural education system is deprive of quality so the student from rural area mostly unable to compete any national level competition.
Under the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education (MoPME) there are mainly four types of primary schools: Government Primary School (GPS), Experimental School (EXP) attached to Primary Training Institute (PTI), Registered Non-Government Primary School (RNGPS), and Community School (COM). In addition, there are Satellite Schools (SAT) or Non-formal schools, comprising Grades 1 and 2 for the children, in un-served areas.
Government Primary School and Experimental schools are fully financed by the Government, while teachers of RNGPS receive salary support from the Government (GOB). The community schools are also primary educational institutions having a fixed salary from GOB. Satellite schools are housed in rented houses and the teachers have a fixed honorarium paid by GOB.
Besides these types of primary level institutions, there are unregistered non-government primary school (NGPS), Secondary School-attached primary section and the Kindergarten (KG). Some of the NGOs also run primary schools.
In addition to these institutions, NGOs offer basic non-formal education for the children. Besides these nine types of schools, the nation inherits a traditional system of Islamic education known as the Madrasah System and controlled by the Madrasah Board. Similar facilities are also available, to a certain degree, for Buddhists and Hindus, but these are very small in number. Ebtedayee Madrasah is a free standing five-year primary level educational institution, which is parallel to the primary school. They are, therefore, incorporated in primary education statistics. Moreover, there are also some Ibtedayee Madrasah attached to High Madrasah (H/A MAD).
Most of the orphanages of the country provide education to the inmates in the form of memorizing Holy Qur’an (Hifzul Qur’an) supporting by one or two teachers. After completion of Hifzul Qur’an the future potential of most of the student has become uncertain. They face difficulties in getting admission in the main stream schools or even madrashas. As a result the future career of these children has become limited to only masjid and madrashas. Since the Hafeze Qur’an are
8
highly meritorious and valuable resources of the nation, needs special care so that they would be able to build themselves with expected educational excellence in the advance level.
Most of the primary and secondary schools lack quality education. It is more so for the underprivileged children. The children of the affluent families can afford expensive English medium and high quality reputed schools, but the poor parents cannot afford to send their children to quality schools. With a view to ensure quality education with healthy environment for underprivileged children, Center for Zakat Management (CZM) has taken initiatives to establish separate schools for them. The Granada School (TGS) is a milestone for achieving the purpose.