The UK government has pledged to disburse 38.5 million pounds to provide education to 360,000 marginalised children, including over 210,000 girls through 1300 learning centres across Bangladesh in eight years.
The fund is being channeled by the British High Commission in Dhaka while the endeavor has been implemented by UNICEF under a project named Educate the Most Disadvantaged Children (EMDC) that is scheduled to be completed by 2028.
“Education is a fundamental human right and critical for the development of a country,” said British High Commissioner to Bangladesh Robert Chatterton Dickson while inaugurating two learning centres in Narsingdi under the EMDC project on Wednesday, a press release issued by the British High Commission said here Thursday .
The envoy said his government is pleased to be able to provide these flexible learning opportunities for out-of-school children to minimise the learning gap and help build back after the COVID-19 pandemic.
At the end of their course these children will be integrated into mainstream government schools to continue their education, he added.
UNICEF Representative to Bangladesh Sheldon Yett, who also visited the learning centres, said:
“This partnership with the UK Government is a boost to UNICEF’s efforts to bring quality education to children who would otherwise be missing out,” said UNICEF Representative to Bangladesh Sheldon Yett who also visited the learning centres.
The objective of the EMDC is to provide increased opportunities for education to some of the most disadvantaged children, especially girls, and to enhance their foundational learning.
The project is directly helping to overcome education challenges in Bangladesh by supporting out-of-school children living in hard-to-reach areas such as urban slums, coastal areas, hill tracts and wetlands
The imitative is also providing catch-up education to children who dropped out or are at risk of dropping out due to the COVID pandemic.
