Covid triggered school closure, yet literacy rate rises

The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) says the country's literacy rate improved significantly last year though educational institutions were open for only two and a half months due to Covid-19.

In its Bangladesh Sample Vital Statistics 2020 report published on Monday, it said the literacy rate among people over the age of seven stood at 75.2%, up from 74.4% in the previous year.

On the other hand, the adult literacy rate rose by 0.9 percentage points in a year, reaching 75.6%. In 2019, this rate increased by 0.8 percentage points compared to 2018.

Experts are sceptical about this increase during the pandemic year. They also questioned the quality of the survey.

Former director of the Institute of Education and Research at the University of Dhaka Dr Siddiqur Rahman told The Business Standard the education sector was hit the hardest by the pandemic.

It is quite unusual that the literacy rate increased during the crisis compared to other times, he said.

He also said most of the BBS surveys do not provide complete information due to problems in sampling.

That is why there is a wide gap between the results of their education survey and that carried out by the Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistics or other organisations, he added.

The report said the crude death rate last year rose to 5.1 per 1,000 people from 4.9 in the previous year, and average life expectancy also increased.

Last year, life expectancy at birth stood at 72.8 years, up from 72.6 years a year earlier.

Mohammad Mainul Islam, a population science professor at the University of Dhaka, said the average life expectancy is mostly associated with children.

If the infant mortality rate decreases, average life expectancy rises, he said.

He also said there was no change in the infant mortality rate last year.

"The crude death rate also increased. Considering that, the increase in average life expectancy can be questioned."

He added, "There is a low risk of infant mortality during the pandemic. We will have to wait for a few more years to find out Covid-19 impacts on the average life expectancy."

AKM Ashraful Haque, director of the Monitoring the Situation of Vital Statistics of Bangladesh project, presented the results of the survey at a programme at the BBS auditorium in the capital. 

He said women's average life expectancy is 3.3 years longer than that of men.

Last year, women's average life expectancy stood at 74.5 years, which was 71.2 years for men, he said.

Bangladesh has made remarkable progress in population control, he also said.

"A woman now gives birth to two children on average, which was six 50 years ago. This is the evidence that people are now more educated and aware."

The country's population till January this year was 16.91 crore. Of them, 8.46 crore are men and 8.44 crore are women.

Planning Minister MA Mannan told the programme, "Our average life expectancy is growing rapidly. If we can maintain this, we will soon surpass Japan in life expectancy."

He said BBS data is not beyond errors, adding everyone has the right to do research based on this.

Mannan also called on private research institutes to point out the errors in the data.

Abul Bashar Mohammad Khurshid Alam, director general of the health directorate, said the number of people who die of tuberculosis in the country in a year is three times higher than Covid-19 deaths recorded in a year.

Mohammad Yamin Chowdhury, secretary to the Statistics and Informatics Division, and BBS Director General Mohammad Tajul Islam addressed the programme among others.