Teacher training for universal primary education in Bangladesh, 1981 ? 1986

Abstract

Between 1981 and 1986, the government of Bangladesh aims to enrol up to 70% of its 12 million five- to nine-year-olds in school, a programme which involves the training or retraining of 156,000 teachers. To achieve this ambitious target demands great quantitative expansion but also requires a rethinking of what schools teach and the relations between schools and the communities they serve. An IDA-UPE project in forty thanas (10% of the country) aims to pilot the way towards achieving these linked qualitative and quantitative targets. Central to the project is the improvement of teacher quality both through regenerating the Primary Training Institutes and, in schools, through the appointment of a new category of supervisory officer, the Assistant Thana Education Officer. These ATEO's will each supervise a small number of schools and will be key figures in the organisation of school-based in-service training and supervision, without which the quality of teaching and learning in the schools may not improve.