Course Title: Composition and Communication Skills 

Course Code: ENG 102 

Section:28

Term Paper on “Education of Street Children in Bangladesh “ 

Date: May 23,2021

Name: MD. Yeasin Arafath Emon

ID:2020-2-60-182

Name: MD: Al Habib

ID:2020-2-10-226

Name: MD: Subbir Hossain

ID:2020-2-10-155

Name: Shahnaz Ameer 

Designation: Lecturer 

Department of English 

East West University

Table of contents: 

Content  Page
No.
Abstract  1
Acknowledgment  2
Introduction  3
Educational condition of street children in Bangladesh  4
Reasons behind the obstacles in the education of street 5
children 
Importance and impact of ensuring education in street 6
children
Conclusion 
7
References 
8
Appendix 9
 Abstract
A street child is someone who live in the street and it’s the source of their livelihood. Street
children are poorly protected and they are controlled by adults. Street children don’t go to school
because they have to earn their livelihood for the sake of their family. Some governmental and
non- governmental organizations have taken some steps to ensure a quality education for street
children. But it isn’t enough as the education rate of Bangladesh has only increased around
1.81% from last five years. Those steps aren’t being effective because street children are
involved in earning money by doing both good and bad works. Also, they are involved in drug
addiction, rape, murder and many big crimes. So, we have to bring back our street children to the
mainstream population with proper care, nurture, safe shelter and mainly with quality education.

Page 1
 Acknowledgement

We couldn’t able to complete the term paper without the help of our honorable instructor
Shahnaz Ameer. We are very much thankful to her for her guideline. Above all, we are thankful
to the almighty for giving us enough strength, patience and protecting us from COVID-19.
We, hereby, declare that nothing in this term paper is plagiarized.

Page 2
 Introduction
Street children constitute one of the most vulnerable and marginal groups in Bangladesh. They
live in extreme poverty and they are deprived from the fundamental rights such as education,
housing, healthcare and protection. It’s estimated that there are 1.5 million street children in
Bangladesh. But they cannot go to proper school and miss out on a proper education. A proper
education can move them away from various social crime like stealing, hijacking, gambling,
child sexual abuse etc. So, a proper education should be ensured to the street children by
considering the socioeconomic status, providing safe night, fulfilling basic needs, protection
from physical, mental and sexual abuse and exploitation. Ensuring the rights of education of the
street children in Bangladesh, the attempts taken by government are so far beyond. But both
governmental and non-governmental organizations will have to make improvement in their
process to have a great impact on educating the street children in Bangladesh.

Page 3
 Educational condition and background of street children in Bangladesh 

The street children of Bangladesh are too huge. BIDS projects say the number of street children
at 1.5 million. We know that children are great assets for any nation. But we don’t care about
these assets. because all the street children are illiterate of our country. Bangladesh doesn’t have
a proper education system for street children. They learn from a teacher who is not highly
educated. And the teacher teaches the students by the side of the road. They can’t read a good
school because they don’t have enough money. through the research, we know that 53% of Street
children are boys and 47%, girls of the total population. Most of the street children age is 9-17
years. The overall percentage is 44.18%. For these reasons Bangladesh lag behind the other
countries. So, Bangladesh government has taken some steps. First education and rehabilitation
should be ensuring of the Street Children so that to help children become ideal citizens. To reach
this goal, the primary role of the government should be to make a system on ensuring their
education at least up to secondary level and afterwards ensuring them job security. Secondly,
they often have no other choice but to be part of criminal networks, smuggling, stealing, and
engaging in commercial sex work due to the dismal condition of their lives. Critics may argue
that the government is playing their role in bettering the situation, and this may be true.
However, the steps are not up to the required standard. street children would be greatly
beneficial, where the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs may play a vital role.

BOYS GIRLS

9-11 12-14 15-17 9-11 12-14 15-17

Pie: Percentage of age limit of the street children

Page 4
 Reasons behind the obstacles in the education of street children 

Street children deserve a decent education to upgrade their knowledge and time to play and
gather around with their friends, but due to financial concern, they could not obtain what they are
supposed to get. Instead, they are more concerned about earning money to meet their family
needs. Some street children make a living by working as Newspaper/flowers sellers, occasional
workers, informal sectors and even tokai, beggars and sex exploitation. Beside the above
phenomenon, lack of knowledge about a significance of an education in their life is also one of
the reasons for the lack of awareness to attain a decent education. One way to resolve this
problem is to approach them personally. Personal approach can be initiated from social
communities existing in Bangladesh. As street children are the same as other children, they also
have the right to obtain a decent education to get knowledge and to play around. However, street
children are used to working rather than studying. Education has been given a special status in
our constitution. Article 17 of the constitution speaks of education. There are basically three
issues mentioned in this paragraph. First, there is talk of universal, people-oriented, unpaid and
compulsory education by law. Deputy Speaker Fazel Rabbi Miah said, "there was no chance of
amending the constitution by recognizing education as a right. The constitution recognizes
education as a basic need of the people". The National Education Policy of Bangladesh speaks of
education suitable for the physical and mental development of children in a joyous environment.
But in reality, the pressure of books and reading on children in schools is increasing. That is why
street children are moving away from school. Because of the lack of people to give them
guidelines. Besides street children are unable to carry the materials they need to study. Many
face obstacles in their studies due to lack of legal identity and permanent address.

Working rate(BOYS) Sales

14.72
29.41
11.76
33.33 33.33

17.64 26.47

News paper /flowers Occasional wrokers

Tokai Informal sectors News paper/flower Tokai
Coolies Sexually exploitation
33.33 4th Qtr

Pie: Percentage of profession of street children

page 5
.

Importance and impact of ensuring education in street children

Education is the basic tools to develop a human. In Bangladesh, the disadvantage and vulnerable
street children have little access of education throughout the existing educational system. Some
of NGOs and governmental organizations take initiatives to provide education through non-
formal education which is very little in comparison to the quantity of the street children in
Bangladesh. But the street children have acknowledged the importance of education in their
future life. They have acknowledged that without education they could not changes their present
ruthless condition. By education they can achieve their rights, fulfill their parent’s expectations,
get a good job, do good deeds for country and become an ideal citizen of tomorrow. Also, the
impact margin of educating street children in Bangladesh will be huge. Bangladesh education
rate will increase dramatically from 74.7% (2021). The rate of various crime, child labors, drag
addiction will decrease. Bangladesh will have a large group of youth who can lead the country to
prosperity.
Graph: Literacy rate of Bangladesh

Page 6
Conclusion

Based on the above discussion, it can be concluded that:

Every child deserves a decent education to upgrade their knowledge and time to play and gather
around with their friends. As street children are the same as other children, they also have the
right to obtain a decent education to get knowledge and to play around. But due to some
problem, they could not obtain what they are supposed to get. Like; financial problem, instead of
education, they are more concerned about earning money to meet their family needs. Don't get
Proper guide line that's why they are not Awareness to attend the education. And they are not
able to education cost.
For solve this problem we have some recommendation.
1, Giving them books instead of working.
2, Arrange for stipends and scholarships beside education.
3, They need to be given proper guidelines so that they are aware of education.
4, The "Education for All" dialogue must be 100% ensured with legal assistance, government
support, and government and non-government organizations.

By this recommendation,
 Education rate will increase.
 Child labor will be reduced.

Page 7
 References

1, Educational Condition of the Street Children in Dhaka City.

(https://www.assignmentpoint.com/arts/social-science/educational-condition-street-children-
dhaka-city.html?
fbclid=IwAR0Ja0MCgGxx3MTH4ooKd1Q1Z1BCaZSz4_giUzfaEGmHcivkFP7y_K8GJ1c )
2, Street children in Bangladesh.
(https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_children_in_Bangladesh?
fbclid=IwAR3QDci9eOFDwbGclL_JLzbGWx5nwdMZKzoE88gPjfkLBXy-
lYLNcEpbbzg#:~:text=of%20street%20children.-,Education,with%20training%20in%20basic
%20subjects )
3, Act of education right. (Bangla news 24.com)
(https://www.banglanews24.com/law-court/news/bd/459042.details?
fbclid=IwAR3E8N4pgnDP2zDr1ytIuLqH4jIAAjypuk0YNI1QZ3sUsSK-1BfoknxagfU )
4, Realizing the right of street children to education.

(https://www.streetchildren.org/news-and-updates/realising-street-childrens-right-to-education/?
lang=bn&fbclid=IwAR3XfLEnMyY_MYo_HwVPrIIjeukctGCSYUQLqT5B27magoFzWvHfV
meevTs )

5. Graph of literacy rate of Bangladesh.

<a href='https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/BGD/bangladesh/literacy-rate'>Bangladesh
Literacy Rate 1981-2021</a>

Page 8
 Appendix

Survey question: https://forms.gle/7wsmwuWYk8d9cPEUA

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