The current literacy rate of Bangladesh is about 35 percent. This is astonishingly low compared to other low-income countries where the literacy rate is about 60 percent. Bangladesh spends only 2 percent of its GNP on education where as an average income country spends about 3.2 percent on education and high-income countries spend 6 percent on education.
Children's school performance in rural Bangladesh is extremely poor. About 40 percent of children never show up at school. Among those who enter primary school, only 40 percent complete it. A meager seven percent complete secondary school.
To develop education in Bangladesh, some projects were recently undertaken by a few agencies with funds from the World Bank. These agencies include General Education Project (GEP) initiated in 1990, and the Female Secondary School Assistance Project (FSSAP) started in 1992. GEP's main goal is to improve overall efficiency in schools and to give children easier access to education. Both the agencies work mainly in rural areas to build and maintain educational institutions where the population is exceptionally poor. Other goals, according to a 1990 World Bank report, are to recruit more female teachers, improve school management and curriculum, improve training for teachers and expand the existing scholarship program.
The following is a table comparing Bangladesh with other South Asian countries in terms of economic and social development. The data presented is from 1990.