Socio-economic Impact on Schooling of Urban Slum Children: AStudy of Rayer Bazaar Slum in Dhaka City

The number of slum has been increasing gradually in the urban areas of Bangladesh since its independence. Bangladesh has the highest number of slum dwellers – 60% of the urban population – in the South Asian region. Very recent study shows that slum dwellers constitute 6.33% of the country's urban population. Slum dwellers are probably under-served by both government and non-government organisations (NGOs), whose focus has traditionally been on rural development. Slum dwellers are to struggle every moment to survive with their families. This paper mainly concentrates on slum children. This paper seeks to understand the socio-economic impact on schooling of urban slum children. Education and income of the parents of the slum children are the main determinants of their schooling. There is a relationship between education and awareness, income and ability of sending the children to school. The illiterate people are not conscious about schooling of their children, but the literate are conscious though many of them are not able to send their children to school. Cost of schooling determines whether the slum children will go to private school, NGO-driven school or government primary school (GPS). GPS and NGO-driven school require little expenses, whereas private school requires more expenses but the education quality is better in private school. This study shows that awareness of the parents about schooling of their children increases with the increase of education level. The number of dropout and non-school going children is higher where the income level of the parents is low, and this number gradually decreases with the increase of earnings. However, there is a hope for the better education of urban slum children. The government has different plans for providing quality education to the children. More pro-poor policies can be undertaken for addressing the core problems of urban slum dwellers.