News from OfP

Bluebell School is experiencing growing pains. Total student enrolment is now 109 with 16 new students joining last year. As the student numbers increase, the teachers have recommended changes to make the building more functional. One extra-large room has now been divided into two classrooms. The outdoor toilet was also recently rebuilt at the request of the teachers. It had previously been repaired several times but with increased demand needed a new design. 

Outdoor toilet under construction at Bluebell School

Textbook distribution is always an exciting event at Bluebell School. Books are published and freely supplied by the government through the Upazila Education Office. As a registered school, Bluebell makes the necessary arrangements to secure enough books for all the students. BHP pays for many other books and learning materials supplied to students by OfP.

Students from OfP Institute of Science and Technology participated in area-wide sports programs, competing against students from other post-secondary institutes. The OIST team did well all the way to the semi-finals but did not win in the final round of competition.

Educating the future workforce

IUBAT nursing students with visiting faculty volunteers

In a recent article in Foreign Affairs, Nicholas Eberstadt writes, “In the foreseeable future, many poorer countries will have to contend with the needs of an aged society even though their workers are far less productive than those in wealthier countries. Consider Bangladesh: a poor country today that will be an elderly society tomorrow, with over 13 percent of its 2050 population projected to be seniors. The backbone of the Bangladeshi labor force in 2050 will be today’s youth. But standardized tests show that five in six members of this group fail to meet even the very lowest international skill standards deemed necessary for participation in a modern economy: the overwhelming majority of this rising cohort cannot ‘read and answer basic questions’ or ‘add, subtract, and round whole numbers and decimals.’”

We have written frequently about BHP efforts to tackle this problem, including our delivery of free pre-school and primary education in a rural village; advocacy for meaningful, national-level student assessments, and BHP Director John Richards’ book on education in South Asia. As a tiny organization, however, BHP has only limited impact. We are hopeful that the education reform group now making recommendations to the interim government in Bangladesh will be able to achieve more substantial change.

Caring about the “care economy”

Sajida HCW training - "What does it feel like to be fed by someone else?"

“Care is what makes all other jobs possible, as it encompasses relationships, services and both paid and unpaid work that make lives possible,” according to a recent report by the World Economic Forum. “Individual employees can work because children, older adults and their loved ones in need of care are being cared for. If this care work did not take place, it would be virtually impossible to be employed outside the home. Not only is care indispensable for the rest of the economy to work, care work in and of itself is an untapped source of employment which is growing. Investing in care creates jobs.”

A major focus of BHP activities is education of health care workers [HCW] in Bangladesh. HCW shortage is a problem locally and globally, but an even greater problem is the shortage of educators. From our initial work to help develop the College of Nursing at IUBAT, we now focus on training of trainers. This includes developing open education resources in collaboration with Nurses International, training trainers of care aides for the elder care program at Sajida Foundation, supporting IUBAT alumni for higher education, developing a Master of Public Health program at IUBAT as a career pathway for HCW, and most recently, recruiting volunteer trainers for Sajida Foundation mental health programs.