JAPAN PRIZE International Contest For Educational Media

JAPAN PRIZE 2006 : Program Details

Children in Bangladesh

In Bangladesh, parents who are poor as well as illiterate are not conscious of the benefits of education, and they usually send their children to work instead of to school. Although the government provides free education for elementary students, a large number of children do not attend classes. This proposal is attentive to such problems and teaches the importance of educating children who drop out or tend to skip classes.

Naughty fifth grade schoolboy Ali does not like to study. He usually skips classes and wanders here and there behind his parents’ backs. One day, he meets a poor old woman selling vegetables. They become good friends. The old lady notices Ali’s tendency to refuse school and tells him about her father Abu’s big mistake. Because he was illiterate, Abu was cheated and lost his farmland. This story teaches Ali the importance of education, and Ali finally goes back to school for the sake of his own future.

The Bangladesh proposal has an appropriate plotline where two stories are developed: a naughty boy as the future and an old woman who brings him experience and the wisdom to avoid being defrauded because of illiteracy.

In order to impress the target audience (children up to 12), the central motivation of Study for Yourself, Study for Your Future is fear, but confidence too: the conclusion of the story could be that dropping out from school is not a good idea, despite the fun of roaming around.

A bit of fear for provoking awareness in children is not so bad in a “small country with a huge population (where) most of the people…are living under the curse of poverty” (quoted from the proposal). In Bangladesh, a large number of students (aged 9 to 12) drop out of school. If children can be made aware of their probable futures of poorly paid labor and being easily fooled, this program could serve as a warning, and is as necessary as being attentive in a forest filled with poisonous snakes. And school can coexist with leisure, of course.