Education Watch Bangladesh was set up in 1998 by a group of like-minded individuals and organizations concerned about educational development in the country.

1. Conduct periodic independent review of the state of primary and basic education through research, surveys and studies and publish annually a report on aspects of basic and primary education.
2. Disseminate the findings of the research to all stakeholders at various levels in order to enhance public awareness about education and promote public participation in educational policy dialogue.
3. Engage in advocacy in support of quality Education for All in the country.

How it works:

Yearly selection of an issue: A new theme related to primary and basic education is selected for each year’s Education Watch research. An extensive participatory process is followed to get comments and feedback from concerned individuals and agencies on the selected issue. The Working Group is responsible for identifying the research questions, selecting the indicators, and finalizing the instruments. A Research Team is formed taking people from the Working Group and outside. This team is responsible for carrying out the fieldwork and writing the report. The Technical Team provides technical support to the Research Team.

Effectivness:

1. Education Watch has established itself as an independent, alternative and complementary system of monitoring EFA.
2. A large number of national experts, practitioners in education and civil society representatives has actively participated in every step of Education Watch studies.
3. Although competency-based education was introduced at primary level in 1992, Education Watch first initiated competency-based assessment of learning achievement.
4. EW established a benchmark for literacy status of the population through an in-depth exploration. For the first time, test-based literacy assessment with nation-wide samples was undertaken in Bangladesh.
5. Media provided good coverage of the findings which helped in dissemination of findings and raising awareness of the people.
6. Despite the government reservation on the existing scenario presented in the Education Watch report on the existing status of primary education, the government has not fully rejected its validity. This is quite apparent in the government initiatives as reflected in the PEDP II, the macro framework for primary education development that has addressed many of the concerns raised in the Education Watch reports.
7. From the donors side, it is more often than not referred to and treated as a reliable database. As such they are always keen to know the latest updates.
8. The Education Watch reports are used as reliable database by researchers, educators and other members of the civil society.
9. CAMPE in many cases uses the Education Watch groups and other stakeholders to lobby with the government in favor of a gender sensitive approach in the policy framework. In this context women leadership at the highest level, have to some extent served useful to gain access and affirmative decision.