Young people's informal learning in nonformal school: experience from Bangladesh

The well-established nonformal education sector which thrives alongside formal schools in Bangladesh has the effect of positioning teaching and learning in a very distinctive way. In this chapter, what will emerge from the analysis will be concrete explanations of the way in which the informality of nonformal education is highly valued and meaningful to pupils, providing them with an effective context for making sense of themselves and their environment. The flexible environment of nonformal primary schools in a community context in Bangladesh facilitates the individual development of young people who would otherwise be excluded from the school system. The chapter has explored the features of institutional and wider context which support this nonformal learning environment, as well as contrasting it with those features which create a very different and far less flexible environment in formal high schools