ASSRJ-11905.pdf

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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal – Vol. 9, No. 3

Publication Date: March 25, 2022

DOI:10.14738/assrj.93.11905. Mallick, B., Popy, F. B., & Yesmin, F. (2022). Awareness of Tribal Parents for Enrolling Their Children in Primary Education: Chittagong

Hill Tracks. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 9(3). 101-109.

Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom

Awareness of Tribal Parents for Enrolling Their Children in

Primary Education: Chittagong Hill Tracks

Biplob Mallick

Associate Professor & Chairman, Department of Education

Noakhali Science and Technology University, Noakhali

Fatema Begum Popy

Assistant Professor, Department of Education

Noakhali Science and Technology University, Noakhali

Most. Fatema Yesmin

Assistant Professor, Department of Bangla

Noakhali Govt. College, Noakhali

ABSTRACT

Primary education is the constitutional right in Bangladesh and one of the most

basic needs on which the nation is built. Nailing this point the paper is aimed to

investigate the awareness level of tribal parents to let their children admission in

primary schools. The study sets three research questions focusing the awareness of

parents and intends to explore the obstacles in path of education. There are 250

tribal parents selected purposively from Khagrachari district of Bangladesh. The

sample size consists two areas of tribal parents urban and rural, both areas are

entailed literate and illiterate parents of primary school student. The primary data

has been collected based on questionnaire survey. The study selects the variables

regarding awareness enrollment initiatives while statistical tool (t-test) is used to

know awareness level of tribal parents about enrollment of primary education.

Finally, the important thing in all scenarios that the researchers have found

significant differences in awareness between rural compare to urban as well as

literate and illiterate tribal parents about enrollment on primary education of their

children. The identified major challenges are the poverty, insufficient

infrastructure, unskilled teacher, lack of awareness and proper monitoring for

bridging the gap between home and school through mother tongue-based bi or

multilingual education in primary school.

Key Words: Awareness, Enrollment, Primary Education and Tribal parents.

INTRODUCTION

Primary education works as the foundation of nations, while the people have been considered

as the main agent of development. However, they need to be resourceful, empowering

themselves to participate in the progress in their society where they live in. Consequently, the

societal development process and education provisions together are the means of producing

resourceful human beings. These are very much linked with the overall nation building process

which is manifested in the Constitution as the fundamental principle of State policy said by Nath

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& Chowdhury [4], In case of Bangladesh, the state is committed to the provision of basic

necessities including adoption of uniform but mass-oriented; free and compulsory education

through which an equitable society can be created through which all kinds of exploitation can

be removed (Articles 15, 17, 19 of the Constitution). Primary education is the foundation for

human development on which the nation is built. Additionally, the fulfilment of human life's

potential and individual's pursuit of education, the ground is laid through primary education. A

strong together with broad foundation is necessary for creating a capable and meaningful

human resource. On the other hand, higher education (secondary and tertiary) can flourish and

strengthen based on strong basic together with quality primary education. Thus, Bangladesh is

committed to provide full five years of primary education to all of its children aged 6-10 years.

The primary education cycle of Bangladesh usually is five years: from class I to class V. There is

also a provision of a year-long pre-primary education which began in the public sector from

2001 [9]. Primary education is compulsory by law but pre-primary education is not mandatory

for children. However, Bangladesh government introduced universal primary education for all

just after the independence. The constitution of 1972 stated the importance of education in

national development. Therefore, the article 17 of Bangladesh constitution stated that –

“The state shall adopt effective measures for the purpose of establishing a uniform, mass

oriented and universal system of education and extending free and compulsory education to all

children to such stage as may be determined by law” (Constitution of Bangladesh).”

This article clearly expresses the motto of the public regarding primary education of mass

people. The constitution of the people’s republic of Bangladesh enjoins upon the government

of Bangladesh to make sure “literacy for all the citizens” of the country within the short possible

time. The constitution also mandates the state for adopting effective measures for establishing

a uniform, mass-oriented and universal system of education through extending free and

compulsory education to all children as stated in article 17. The most important role of primary

education is to ensure the holistic development of children. This means that children are able

to develop their social, cognitive, emotional, physical and cultural skills according to the best of

their abilities. Despite having the several benefits, the enrollment rate of tribal children in

primary school is not found satisfactory. Moreover, the low enrolment of tribal children in

primary education is a major concerning issue in hill tracts. Government of Bangladesh has

taken number of initiatives to increase enrollment rate and different schemes have been

launched to motivate students for admission on government schools. However, there are many

problems have been noticed both in accessibility and their survival process in schools. The form

of improving infrastructure, proving mid-day meal, uniform and books have been addressed as

main problems for tribal students in education. Even though have taken different schemes and

programs to make appeal toward schools for students, the student enrolment did not increase

expectedly. Against this backdrop, the present study attempts to find out the awareness among

tribal parents about the enrollment of their children in primary education and intends to

identify challenges of primary education in The Chittagong Hill Tracts.

LITERATURE REVIEW

The Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) covers three diverse districts named Khagrachari, Rangamati

and Bandarban with an area of 13,294 square kilometer. The estimated population in the CHT

is approximately 1.7 million estimated by a report of UNICEF [10], which is about 1% of the

population of Bangladesh. The people of this region are diverse in terms of geography, ethnicity,

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Mallick, B., Popy, F. B., & Yesmin, F. (2022). Awareness of Tribal Parents for Enrolling Their Children in Primary Education: Chittagong Hill Tracks.

Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 9(3). 101-109.

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.93.11905

culture and tradition as well as justice systems of the peoples. CHT belongs eleven major ethnic

groups (defined as ‘tribes’ as per CHT Peace Accord), those are-Bawm, Chak and Chakma;

Khyang and Khumi, Lushai; Marma and Mro; others are Pangkhua, Tangchangya and Tripura.

Each tribe practices their own distinctive language, culture, and tradition. Around half of the

people of the CHT are from various ethnic communities, while the rest are Bengali said by

Rashid [5]. The majority of the CHT population lives in rural areas uttered by Chakma &

Rahman [1]. However, the children from ethnic communities of this area faced much harder

than the people of the plain land in terms of accessibility in schools expressed by Rashid [5].

Moreover, the access of education is limited in the CHT villages compared to the rest of the

country. Furthermore, the primary school going children face difficulties to walk through the

hilly terrain for reaching the schools. Due to facing several types of barriers such as deficiency

of physical infrastructure, school distance, relocation of schools and displacement of elements

of the population those are the major reasons behind low enrollment rate of children in

education. The personal and livelihood insecurity also have negative effect on enrollment.

Similarly, literacy and completion of children of the indigenous minority population is much

lower than the national averages in Bangladesh reported by UNDP-Bangladesh [8]. However,

the average dropout rate is approximately 59% in CHT was found in 2012 by Manusher Jonno

Foundation expressed by Riyasad, [6]. Moreover, the shortage of educational facilities and

inadequate learning opportunities in their mother language are the major difficulties with

school attendance along with participation in lesson and achievement rate which have been

resulting a significant backwardness for tribal children said by Rashid [5]. It is also a burning

issue for the tribal children who are being left behind learners from other part of the country.

On the other hand, UNDP implemented a basic education project in Phase-I through the

Chittagong Hill Tracts Development Facility (CHTDF). It was run from January 2008 to 2009 for

supporting and complementing the government’s plans as described in the Poverty Reduction

Strategy Papers (PRSPs) (2005 and 2008). Moreover, the CHTDF had been implemented

"Strengthening Basic Education in the Chittagong Hill Tracts-Phase II” -from December 2009,

for supporting the government in realizing its commitments to basic education in the same

area. The project was scheduled to end on 30 September 2013. The European Union was the

main donor with CIDA and UNDP by sharing some of the important costs in both phases.

Hence the present study attempts to find out the awareness among parents about different

enrollment drives initiated by the government to increase enrollment in schools.

RATIONALE OF THE STUDY

In the society, schooling process helps to adapt socialization of children beside family. Children

usually pass a long time with their friends at school or playground. They naturally interact, play

and learn from different backgrounds of students as well as friends and coopt the environment

to behave with others. However, the family is known as the primary agent of socialization for

children and plays a significant role in this process. The most important relationship in a family

is stability and healthy parent-child relationship that facilitates effective socialization and

proper adaptation of a child in future. Normally, on the one end of parent-child interaction is

parental acceptance and on the other end is parental rejection. It is found that parents’

acceptance or rejection behaviors have an important impact on children’s overall sphere of

lives especially in their academic pursuits said by Uddin [7]. Therefore, both schooling and

parental relationship with children are too much important factor of child socialization process.

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In multiethnic culture of Bangladesh, it is deeply observed that there also remain various socio- cultural aspects believed to create differences among the ethnic communities (Chakma, Marma,

Santal etc.) and also within the country in a sense of residential diversities. The set-up of socio- economic status, customs and rituals, life styles and habits, language, school discipline,

parenting styles and attitudes towards children, parental attachment and bonding, parental

monitoring, education, social and academic feedbacks differ greatly among tribal and non-tribal

children of Bangladesh expressed by Kazmi [2]. It is also surprising that parental attitudes and

attachment, parenting styles in a cultural setting of one group seems to be evaluated negatively

by members of another group. For the reason that these attitudes or behaviors are regarded as

may negative in latter group’s cultural & societal codes-norms and vice versa said by Kordi &

Baharudin [3]. The acceptance attitudes of parents may determine children’s high or low

commitment to school; high or low academic performance; school dropout rates; high or low

self-regard and self-esteem, self-efficacy and obviously for their good or poor mental wellbeing.

By considering these factors, this study anticipates to explore the consciousness among tribal

parents to send their children in primary education. Similarly, this study will be made beneficial

for different children welfare-based NGOs to play vital role in awaking illiterate parents about

the importance of parent-child interaction and in arranging important programs and steps for

preventing school failure and dropout rates of children for ensuring a better future.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The study has been conducted about the tribal area’s primary education on the following

objectives.

o What extent awareness is exposed by urban and rural tribal parents to let enrollment of

their children in primary schools?

o What are the differences about level of awareness between literate and illiterate tribal

parents to let enrollment their children in primary schools?

o How the challenges will explore to overcome the identified challenges of primary

education in tribal area?

METHODOLOGY

This study aims to explore the awareness of tribal parents about the education of their children.

It was followed by descriptive survey method based on semi structured questionnaire survey.

The study population covers three hill tract districts (Rangamati, Khagrachari and Bandarban)

in Bangladesh while the sample is collected from Khagrachari district. The sample size is

entailed with 250 parents of tribal students those have purposively been selected. Among the

sample, there are 137 (54.8%) males and 113 (45.2%) females in this study. However, the

primary school going children was the criteria for selecting sample from parents. The urban

and rural together with literate and illiterate parents are also considered in this study during

sample selection. The data type is primary which has been collected by questionnaire survey.

The study has selected variable in awareness enrollment initiatives. Statistical analysis e.g.,

frequency, mean, standard deviation and t-test have been used to know the awareness level of

tribal parents about enrollment of their children in primary education. Authors frequently

visited the field and interacted with the respondents so as to establish relationship for

collecting the positive and honest responses.

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Mallick, B., Popy, F. B., & Yesmin, F. (2022). Awareness of Tribal Parents for Enrolling Their Children in Primary Education: Chittagong Hill Tracks.

Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 9(3). 101-109.

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.93.11905

HYPOTHESES

The study has developed the following two null hypotheses to know the awareness level of

tribal parents to send their children in primary education.

H01There is no significant difference in awareness on enrollment initiatives between urban and

rural tribal parents.

H02 There is no significant difference in awareness on enrollment initiatives between literate and

illiterate parents.

DATA ANALYSIS

The study has distributed 250 questionnaires to the urban and rural areas’ literate and illiterate

parents of primary school students. The study has collected 250 respondents’ questionnaires

whereby 115 urban and 135 rural tribal parents. Whereas, there are 72 literate and 178

illiterate tribal parents participated in this study. The listed below two pie charts state the

demographic representation of the sample.

Figure. I: Urban and rural parents Figure. II: Literate and Illiterate parents

The above two pie charts explain that more than half (54%) of the parents have come from

rural while three fourth of the parents (71%) are illiterate who participated in this study. The

urban (46%) and literate participants (29%) are lower compare to rural and illiterate tribal

parents. However, the tribal parents were asked about the enrollment initiative for primary

education especially for CHT. However, there are mixed pictures found regarding their answers.

From the perspective of a study done by Chakma & Rahman [1], it is already established that

majority of the CHT people lives in rural areas. So, for this study we also purposively selected

our major participants from rural areas.

AGE OF THE RESPONDENTS

Table 1. Age of the Respondents

Age of respondents No. of respondents Percentage (%)

26-35 140 56

36-45 75 30

46-55 35 14

Total 250 100.0

The table-1 reveals the age of the respondents. It is evident from the Table 1 that the majority

(56%) of the respondents were in the age group of 26-35 years followed by (30%) were in

urban

rural 46%

54%

urban rural

literate

29%

illiterate

71%

literate illiterate

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between the age group of 36-45 and very less (14%) of them were in the age group of 46-55

years. It is concluded from the Table-1, that the majority of the respondents belongs to the

young age of 26-35 years.

AWARENESS ABOUT THE FACILITIES OF PRIMARY EDUCATION PROVIDE BY

GOVERNMENT

Table-02: Awareness about the facilities of primary education provide by government

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Mallick, B., Popy, F. B., & Yesmin, F. (2022). Awareness of Tribal Parents for Enrolling Their Children in Primary Education: Chittagong Hill Tracks.

Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 9(3). 101-109.

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.93.11905

significant difference in awareness on enrollment initiatives between urban and rural tribal

parents, is rejected. It implies that the urban tribal parents are more conscious compare to rural

parents about the different enrollment initiatives in CHT for development of primary school

education which is also supported by Rashid, [5].

While the data from table-03 explain the literate and illiterate parental awareness about their

children enrollment in primary schools and examined the null hypothesis (H02) that there is no

significant difference in awareness on enrollment initiatives between literate and illiterate

parents.

RELATIONSHIP ON ENROLLMENT INITIATIVES BETWEEN LITERATE AND ILLITERATE

TRIBAL PARENTS

Table-04: Relationship on enrollment initiatives between literate and illiterate tribal parents

Variable Group n Mean SD df t-test Schedule

t-value Remarks

Consciousness of

Enrollment

initiatives

Literate 72 4.45 .57 249 2.35 1.97 P<.05

P=0.020

Illiterate 178 4.11 .66

* 5% level of Significance. (SD= standard deviation, df. =degrees of freedom)

The above data from table-02 reveal that there have been differences found based on mean and

t-test results between literate and illiterate tribal parents to let their children enrollment

toward primary school. The data demonstrate that the mean score of literates are more

(M=4.45; SD=.57; n=72) than illiterate (M=4.11; SD=.66; n=178) parents on awareness about

enrollment initiatives. The study also discloses that t-value is 2.35 and schedule t-value 1.97

with a p=.020 of df-249 and significant level is 5% or .05. The calculated t-value is greater than

schedule t-value which confirms that there are significant differences in awareness between

literate and illiterate tribal parents about enrollment initiatives [t (248) =2.35, < .05].

Therefore, the pre-specified null hypothesis (H02) is rejected. It implies that the literate parents

are more aware than illiterate parents about enrollment initiatives of tribal children in primary

education.

MAJOR CHALLENGES OF PRIMARY EDUCATION IN TRIBAL AREAS

The major challenges are identified on the basis of survey questionnaire where the tribal

parents were asked about the challenges of primary education in their area. According to the

answer the listed below challenges are recognized:

o Poverty: Poverty has been disclosed as main challenge (n=233; 93%) for enrollment of

students in primary school in hill tracts. Most of the parents of this area those are hard- core poor people, prefer their children to help them in their work rather going to school

due to serve poverty. Because of limited income source, the tribal parents are not

interested about their children schooling. Uddin, [7] in his study also uttered the same

view. From the focusing light of our literature part, it is also emerged that Government

of Bangladesh with some NGOs are also working for reducing poverty in this regards

(PRSPs, 2008).

o Inadequate infrastructure: The inadequate and poor infrastructure facilities in hill

tracts are considered (n= 195; 78%) as 2nd most challenges about enrollment of students

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in primary education. Although the primary school infrastructure is comparatively well

than past but the communication infrastructure is not sufficient especially for rural

areas. This issue is also elaborately explained by the recent study of Rashid [5] too.

Therefore, the most of the parents are not interested to send their children in primary

school.

o Lack of awareness of parents: More than half of the people in rural areas of Hill tract

are illiterate. They are very reluctant (n= 194; 78%) about primary education and do not

know about the importance of primary education.

o Dropout: Dropout (n=188; 75%) is another important challenge for primary education

in tribal areas of Bangladesh. Most of the children cannot complete primary education

cycle due to school distance, bad communication, shortage of transportation,

transportation cost, proper educational materials and more many things that negatively

impact on enrollment as well as dropout. Moreover, the lack of awareness of parents

about primary education is another reason of dropping out from education in tribal

areas. Same scenario is also available in the valuable report of UNDP-Bangladesh, [8]

and Manusher Jonno Foundation (2012).

o Unskilled teachers and High teachers’ turnover: There are many tribal parents

(n=165; 66%) mentioned that the most of the primary school teachers of tribal areas are

unskilled and have little awareness about the art of teaching children. Rashid [5] also

express the same opinion that, they have little skill on teaching pedagogy and could not

attract students in classroom teaching-learning activities. In contrast, the facilities for

teachers are not sufficient in this area. Therefore, they are not stay long time in this

schools.

o Lack of proper monitoring: Proper monitoring (n=138; 55%) can increase the

awareness of teachers toward their teaching and reduce the dropout rate. Similarly the

attendance and enrollment rate would be increased. Lack of proper monitoring and

feedback measures are the other perennial problems of hill areas primary education in

our country. For lack of available infrastructure of local administration restrains from

school monitoring.

o The other problems: Shortage of tribal language teachers (n=72; 28%), security

problem of students (n=65; 26%), poor sanitation (n=48; 19%), shortage of own

language text books (n=43; 17%) are the other notable problems identified by the tribal

parents. Rashid [5] also agreed in his study that, these challenges are also decrease the

enrollment rate of tribal students in primary education.

RECOMMENDATIONS

On the basis of the findings, it is suggested that primary education is the pillar for getting next

stage of education. Therefore, all students should get education to protect their constitutional

right through enrollment campaign. According to the findings especially addressed to the

challenges, government and others stakeholders need to take necessary measures overcoming

those challenges for increasing enrollment of the children from tribal areas that makes change

the education system of CHT. It has been known that the tribal community is dependent mostly

on farming and business but some of them are day-laborers in the farm. They have no more

satisfactory income generating opportunities. Social exclusion and marginalization of the tribal

community from the mainstream is directly or indirectly liable for enrollment problem of

primary education. Due to marginalization and negligence from the mainstream, the problems

of lack behind from education need to properly address. Because tribal do not speak Bangla at

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Mallick, B., Popy, F. B., & Yesmin, F. (2022). Awareness of Tribal Parents for Enrolling Their Children in Primary Education: Chittagong Hill Tracks.

Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 9(3). 101-109.

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.93.11905

home or in their community, it is essential to bridge the gap between home and school through

mother tongue-based bi/multilingual education in primary school. Therefore, the government

and development partners need to consider necessary steps for enabling tribal children to

access primary education.

CONCLUSION

The study found that the parents have a significant role to increase the enrollment of the

children in primary schools. The findings of this study reveal that rural tribal parents are less

aware about the enrollment drive about student’s education compare to urban tribal parents.

So, the enrollment initiative should be reached to the rural people also. Additionally, the

illiterate parents are slightly aware about the different enrollment schemes of the government,

so the knowledge and the way of propagating enrollment in schools should be in the form of

drama and music through mass media such as television and radio, then it would be reached to

the tribal parents. Moreover, the illiterate parents hardly have information about different

enrollment drives of their children in schools, so the administrator, community people, teaches

and educated people should provide information about the enrollment in schools. The

government, civil society and international agencies all have a role to play to promote and

support necessary policy, objectives, priorities and programs in primary education, skill

development and creating a favorable environment for these efforts, as discussed above, to

succeed. A better future for the tribal parents are an inalienable part of building a better life for

all children and youth in Bangladesh.

References

[1]. Chakma , A. K., & Rahman , H. (2012). Strengthening Basic Education in the Chittagong Hill Tracts Phase II .

[2]. Kazmi. (2015). Parental style and academic achievement among the students. International Journal of

Academic Research, Vol.3, No.2; pp 582-588.

[3]. Kordi, A., & Baharudin, R. (2010). Parenting Attitude and Style and Its Effect on Children’s School

Achievements. International Journal of Psychological Studies, Vol. 2, No.2; pp 217-222.

[4]. Nath , S. R., & Chowdhury, M. (2008). State of Primary Education in Bangladesh : Progress Made, Challenges

Remained. Dhaka: Campaign for Popular Education.

[5]. Rashid, S. (2020). Ethnic Education, Language and Cultural Diversity in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHTs) of

Bangladesh: An Analysis of the Role of NGO's from SDG4 Perspective,

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341494300

[6].Riyasad, N. (2019), February 17). Road to Education, The Daily New Age,

http://www.newagebd.net/article/65015/road-to-education.

[7]. Uddin, S. (2011). Role of Parents for Primary Education. Journal of Education, Vol.06, No.02, pp:50-62.

[8]. UNDP-Bangladesh. (2014). Progress Report on Strengthening Basic Education in the Chittagong Hill Tracts -

Phase II, Prepared for The European Union. https://info.undp.org

[9] UNESCO. (2014). Promising EFA practices in the Asia-Pacific Region, Bangladesh Pre-primary Education and

the School Learning Improvement Plan, https://bit.ly/3b8Vw6q

[10]. UNICEF. (2019). Many tracts- One community: UNICEF’s work in the Chittagong hill tracts,

https://www.unicef.org/bangladesh/sites/unicef.org.bangladesh