Advocacy Material #2: Policy Brief
Advocacy Target
A fully developed version of this policy brief is intended to be presented and distributed to the Bangladesh Ministry of Education, International Development Association, Asian Development Bank, and Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation during a policy meeting regarding COVID-19 and gender equality in schools in Bangladesh. This group of NGOs and the Ministry worked together previously to fund the original FSSAP in 1994, and later the World Bank returned to fund the SEDP (Rahman Khandker et al., 2021). These actors have the knowledge and funding ability necessary to support the restructuring of the FSSAP. This advocacy material was developed to analyze and recommend gender-specific policy directions for the government of Bangladesh to consider as it begins to reopen schools in the wake of COVID-19. Alternatively, this policy brief could be adopted and developed by an NGO like the World Bank.
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Back to the Future: Adapting the FSSAP Program to Combat Gender-Specific Enrollment Fallout during COVID-19
Introduction
- Introduce the FSSAP program, provide brief history of its creation and success at reducing gender disparity in female secondary school enrollment in Bangladesh- Introduce SEDP program, explain transition from FSSAP to SEDP programs as gender parity was achieved in Bangladesh secondary schools pre-pandemic
- Outline the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on learners, especially girls, in Bangladesh
- Introduce the idea of returning to the FSSAP and expanding stipends as a way to keep marginalized girls in school after COVID-19
Context and Scope of Problem
- Detail the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on students in Bangladesh, highlighting the exacerbation of pre-existing inequalities in girls’ education caused by distance learning and quarantine- Emphasize that the most marginalized populations are the most vulnerable to learning loss during COVID-19, focusing on young mothers and pregnant girls
- Provide statistics and examples from the 2014 Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone Case Study (summarized in a graphic sidebar) to explain gender-specific trends in school enrollment following nationwide school closures in Low/Middle Income countries.
Policy Responses/Alternatives
- Outline advantages/disadvantages of the four current approaches at securing distance learning for students in Bangladesh:1. By the Ministry of Education: free educational television and radio programs
2. By the Ministry of Education: Education Unit Platform providing free educational services over toll-free telephone calls
3. By grassroots community groups like BRAC’s Polli Shomaj: community-based education and remote learning pilot programs, awareness campaigns, supporting government initiatives, gender-balanced classrooms
4. By the World Bank: financing of TSER, restructuring of Transforming Secondary Education for Results Operation (TSERO) to allocate funds to COVID-19 response and recovery plans, disbursement of stipends and tuition fees to secondary students
Policy Recommendations
- In government’s design of a recovery plan for education post-COVID-19, benefits of FSSAP must be protected and sustained-Reallocating resources back into FSSAP must be a priority to ensure that the gender-specific enrollment fallout caused by COVID-19 is addressed
- Additional financial incentives must be built into recovery packages, focus must be on the provision of stipends and tuition money to marginalized girls in rural communities
Sources: (Rahman Khandker et al., 2021)