The Impact of Nutrition in the Academic Performance of Primary School Graduates in Bangladesh

Abstract

This study was carried out to find out the impact of nutritional status on the academic performance of primary school graduates (completers of 5-year schooling) in Bangladesh. The study mainly examines the relationship between nutritional status and academic performance of grade V students. Along with that, the study also tried to link the relationship between nutritional knowledge and socio-economic factors such as parents‟ education, family income and mothers‟ occupation and academic performance of the students. In the methodology of the study, two stages of sampling techniques were chosen. One is purposive and another is random sampling. Out of eight divisions of Bangladesh, four were selected purposively considering geographical location of the country. These are Dhaka, Rajshahi, Chattogram and Barishal division. One district was chosen randomly from one division and thus, the selected districts were Tangail from Dhaka division, Natore from Rajshahi division, Feni from Chattogram division and Pirojpur from Barishal division. For selection of student sample, 08 primary schools were selected randomly from the four districts of Tangail, Natore, Feni and Pirojpur under Dhaka, Rajshahi, Chattogram and Barishal divisions of Bangladesh. From these primary schools, a total of 392 students who had already completed all the academic activities of five years of schooling and were ready to sit for the PECE examination of 2018 were chosen randomly. Socio-demographic variables such as age, parents‟ occupation, family income etc. and anthropometry (height, weight) of students were taken. Academic performance is dependent variables and nutritional status and nutritional knowledge of the students and some of the selected socio-economic variables are the independent variables. As the academic performance are dependent with many factors, it is important to consider some of those relevant factors along with nutritional status. Therefore, measuring the nutritional effects on academic performance properly, the other factors were considered. Nutritional status was represented by the measurement of height for age (HAZ) and BMI for age (BAZ) which means stunting and thinness of the students respectively. Nutritional status was calculated by individuals‟ height for age (HAZ) and BMI for age (BAZ). The academic performance was measured by a set of standardized achievement test developed and used recently by CAMPE, a reputed NGO of Bangladesh. However, the qualitative data were collected from primary school teachers, parents and the education experts to supplement the quantitative data as well as to understand the importance of nutrition on academic performance profoundly. Qualitative data were obtained through interviews and focus group discussion (FGD) of teachers and parents. The in-depth interviews were taken from 08 teachers of 08 schools. A total of four focus group discussion (FGD) consisting of 28 parents was conducted. Besides these, expert opinion was taken from 10 education experts of different organization like UNICEF, World Bank, NCTB, NAPE and IER. The findings of the study showed that nutrition is one of the major factors which are very important in the academic performance of primary school graduates in Bangladesh. The overall nutritional status was low among the primary school students studied. Around 47 percent to 55 percent of the primary school students in Bangladesh are suffering from different categories of malnutrition. The academic performance of these students was not very satisfactory. Only 10 percent of the students scored 80 percent and above marks in the performance test. On the other hand, around 30 percent of the students obtained less than 50 percent marks. While measuring the nutritional effects on academic performance, it was revealed that students with good nutritional status had performed much better carrying good marks whilst malnourished students did not achieve good marks in the performance test Most of the teachers and parents agreed that nutrition plays a vital role regarding the academic performance of the students. However, a notable number of malnourished students had done well in the performance test. In that case, some school and socio-economic variables (individual students‟ initiatives and concentration, teacher‟s good care, better teaching-learning environment, parental education, family income etc.) influenced students‟ performance. In this study, the nutritional effect was mainly focused along with the other selected variables on the academic performance. Stunting and thinness is a major problem among the students of primary school graduates in Bangladesh. Stunting hampers the academic performance of the students significantly. To overcome these problems, the government should take measures to address how to prevent stunting and thinness effectively. Although these issues are well known in other parts of the world, this study is the first attempt to examine and analyze the impact of nutrition in the fifth grade pupil performance in Bangladesh. The study also recommends that to overcome these problems, the government should develop a proper nutrition policy for primary education and implement it thoroughly.