EU's support to primary education in Bangladesh
Around three million children miss out on state primary education as a result of poverty in Bangladesh. Girls in particular lose out as they are often the first to be called on to get a job. The EU contributes about 130 million Euros to support primary education in this country. This includes 105 million going to the Bangladeshi government to support the formal education 
sector over seven years (2004-2010) and 27 million going to support over four years (2006-2010) learning centres which enables the desperately poor children to learn.
Thanks to the EU funding, three NGO, Dhaka Ahsania Mission, BRAC, and Save the Children USA are providing education to around 320000 children in approximately 10000 schools. Given that the girls are a particularly disadvantaged group, they are particularly favoured to benefit from this project.
Life in the schools of hope- the story of Jannatul Akter
A maths class is in full swing inside a Child Learning Centre in a slum area of Sheorapara, Dhaka City. There are four tables where students, aged eight to twelve, sit immersed in their work. Jannatul Akter is a round-faced girl, who works twice as hard as many children and had to fight to come to school.
Jannatul gets up at dawn and works before going to school at nine, returning to the stall after school and finishing around 9pm. “I like everything about school”, she says, “the dancing, poetry, singing. Madam [the tutor] also teaches us how to stay clean and comb our hair”.
Dark circles under her eyes betray the long days she puts in carrying the heavy crates of fruit. For all her hours, she takes home only 20 Taka a day, [less than 17 eurocents]. Jannatul’s tutor first saw her working on the fruit stall when she was ten and asked her mother to send her back to primary school.
Offering job opportunities to girls
Initially her mother, Tajmohal Begum, was reluctant, fearing her daughter would lose her job. “Then Madam (the school's teacher) came and convinced me,” she says. With her husband dead, and six children, Tajmohal’s daily concerns are getting a decent meal for the family and how to provide for the future. "I have to save, and I have to give dowry for their marriages”, she says.
Part-time attendance at the centres gives children a fighting chance of staying in school. Professor Rezina Sultana, says the scheme is likely to provide new opportunities for girls. “Families still have high hopes for their boys, but don’t expect so much for their daughters, so if they see something is more flexible they are willing to give their girls a chance”.
A flexible learning system
The centre in West Sheorapara runs from 9 to 12, while another in nearby Ibrahimpur runs from 11 to 2pm where Helena, a teacher with the project works. "Sometimes the students have to leave in the middle of the class, but we always finish the lesson the same day, so they don't have to study at home".
"It is a multi-grade system", explains G. F. Hamim, the coordinator of this project (called UNIQUE) run by Dhaka Ahsania Mission. “It allows each child to be assessed and taught according to his or her proficiency”, he says. The project aims to help these children to continue their education by enrolling them into regular primary schools after they complete the course.