EXECUTIVE SUMMARY :

Bangladesh has achieved significant progress in enrolment in primary schools
including gender parity. Currently, two major problems are dropout before
completing primary education and poor quality of education with low attainment of
basic competencies. These problems are especially acute among children of poor
families. While the government of Bangladesh has the major responsibility of primary
education, and it aims at universal access to education through government schools,
the needs of the very poor are largely catered by non-formal and religious schools.
BRAC has, in the past two decades, made significant progress in providing primary
education to poor children through targeted interventions. The type of education
provided by diverse actors is likely to have different impact on individuals and society.
There are, however, very few studies on economic and social analysis of primary
education in Bangladesh, especially with respect to education provided by different
types of schools. There is also a lack of cost-benefit analysis of primary education,
and cost-effectiveness study of specific interventions. This study focuses on the
diverse outcomes of primary education, and private and social costs of providing
primary education by BRAC and mainstream providers in rural Bangladesh. The
study is based on school and household level primary data collected during
December 2009 to February 2010. Specifically, it addresses the following aspects:
1. Performance of schools in terms of dropout, repetition and completion rates of
children (internal efficiency)
2. Factors associated with internal efficiency
3. Effects of BRAC pre-primary education on the performance of poor children in
formal schools
4. The role of BRAC non-formal schools in enhancing completion of primary level
education among poor children in rural areas
5. School participation pattern and educational achievement of children in rural
Bangladesh from household-level data
6. Effects of education on occupational pattern and income
7. Assessing private and social benefits and costs of primary education
8. Estimating private and social rates of returns to education and comparing the
cost-effectiveness of different interventions
Household level longitudinal data, school level data and data on socioeconomic
background of selected poor students are used in the study.

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