| Résumé: | BRAC, one of the largest NGOs in Bangladesh, stru1ed the Non-formal Primary Education
(NFPE) programme to help achieve its twin objectives of poverty alleviation and empowerment
of the poor. BRAC firmly believes that the raising of the education standard is one of the most
effective ways to improve the country's human development records. Many children are
deprived of education because of poverty and gender. BRAC developed NFPE programme for
those children who had no access to schooling or for those who dropped out. It was expected that
NFPE will help them participate effectively in their own socio-economic development by
increasing their literacy, numeracy and required life skills. The NFPE programme was started in
1985 with 22 non-formal schools for children aged 8-10 and 11-16 years and by the end of 1999,
the total number of schools reached 34,000 and children graduating over 1.5 million. This clearly
shows the success of the programme. Recent studies have observed that children of BRAC
schools perform better than their counterparts in formal schools in attaining basic education in
general and life skills knowledge and writing in particular. However, a very limited attempt has
been made to explore the socio-economic effects of NFPE. Therefore it was important to assess
the extent to which NFPE contributes to such changes in the desired direction.
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