Free School Dress Pledge Made for July Still Uncertain in Late October for Primary Students

The government had announced free school dresses, shoes and jute bags for government primary school students. Prime Minister Tarique Rahman told the Jatiya Sangsad in April that school dresses would be given to 200,000 students.

On 8 April, answering a supplementary question in the 13th Jatiya Sangsad, the Prime Minister gave that figure. On 22 April he told parliament again that work was under way on initiatives announced in the election manifesto, including free dresses for 200,000 children in the current fiscal year.

The same day, a meeting chaired by the Prime Minister at the Secretariat discussed jute bag distribution, attended by officials of the primary and mass education, textiles and jute, and local government ministries. It decided that, on a pilot basis, students of two primary schools in every upazila would receive jute bags and school dresses, with a target of reaching 100,000 students in the first month.

The Prime Minister's additional press secretary Atikur Rahman Rumon and Prime Minister's Office spokesperson Mahdi Amin briefed reporters that day. The announcement emphasised increasing use of domestic products, encouraging the jute industry and creating equality among students.

A week later, on 29 April, after an inter-ministerial meeting at the Secretariat, Education and Primary and Mass Education Minister Dr A N M Ehsanul Hoque Milon said the pilot programme for free dresses, shoes and jute bags would start in July. Initially, first-grade students of two government primary schools in each upazila would each receive one set of dress, shoes and a bag, with visible progress expected within 180 days. Garment industry organisations assured cooperation in supplying clothing.

On 4 June, State Minister for Primary and Mass Education Bobby Hajjaj said the government wanted to show visible progress in the distribution by August. He also spoke of a plan to supply clothing and shoes in phases to about 10.7 million government primary students.

Four days later, on 8 June, at a meeting at the Textiles and Jute Ministry, the state minister gave a fuller timetable: the pilot would start in July-August, beginning with at least 100,000 students and reaching more than 350,000 with uniforms, bags, shoes and socks across August, September and October. The Textiles and Jute Ministry would help supply 500,000 jute school bags and the Local Government Ministry would assist implementation at upazila and local level, he said.

According to a notice dated 20 September signed by Directorate of Primary Education assistant director (general administration) Md Sajjad Hossain, the directorate then held 205,000 sets of school dresses, 67,900 pairs of shoes and 115,216 school bags.

The notice told district primary education officers to collect the materials from the directorate on set dates: 20-22 September for Dhaka and Mymensingh divisions, 22-23 September for Rajshahi and Rangpur, 23-24 September for Chattogram and Sylhet, and 27-28 September for Khulna and Barishal. The materials were to be stored safely at district offices and sent to schools on later instructions.

The materials are being collected through the corporate social responsibility funds of various institutions and organisations. The Textiles and Jute Ministry has given about 100,000 jute bags; more than 200,000 garments have come from BGMEA, BKMEA and BTMA; and about 65,000 pairs of shoes were reported from Bata, Bashundhara Group, Apex, Jump Keds and RFL.

Yet in the last week of October there is still no confirmed timetable for the materials to reach students. Whether they have reached the selected schools from the districts, how many students have received them and when the programme will be formally inaugurated remain uncertain.

The initiative is included for longer-term expansion in the proposed Fifth Primary Education Development Programme (PEDP-5) of the Primary and Mass Education Ministry. The proposed programme runs from July 2026 to June 2031 with an estimated cost of Tk 41,761 crore; that cost is for the whole programme, not only for dresses, shoes and bags.