Migrants' children are hardly receiving stipends from the welfare board's scholarship programme mainly due to a lack of publicity campaign, experts and workers said.
They think if the workers get financial support for their children's education, it will help them cut expenditures as the majority of them are low-paid workers.
On the other hand, they said, children also will feel encouraged in their educational development by such support.
Wage Earners' Welfare Board (WEWB) introduced the scholarship programme for the children of migrant workers in 2012.
Only 12,324 children received scholarship under such arrangements in last nine years from 2012 to 2020.
A recent study conducted by Bangladeshi Ovibashi Mohila Sramik Association (BOMSA) showed that 44 per cent of migrant workers own one or more school and college-going children.
But only 2.0 per cent of them received stipends from the WEWB programme.
A total of 350 returnee migrant workers and left-behind families of current migrant workers took part in the survey which was carried out during the period between March and December 2020.
The findings of the study released on Tuesday last also found that their monthly wages range between Tk 16,000 and Tk 30,000 as the majority of them migrated as low-skill workers.
According to sector insiders, more than 10 million Bangladeshi workers are staying abroad with jobs. Most of them are working in Middle Eastern countries with low-paid wages.
Rabiul Islam, a returnee migrant worker, said he did not know about scholarships, especially for migrant workers' children.
He returned home on vacation from Malaysia immediately before the outbreak of coronavirus in Bangladesh. But he could not go back to Malaysia to join his work because of the travel ban by the Southeast Asian country.
Rabiul, the father of a daughter, a ninth-grade student, said if his daughter gets financial support, it will help her continue education smoothly.
"Such support is now crucial for the migrant workers like him who is almost penniless," said Rabiul who hails from Jashore.
Md Farid Ali, another migrant worker, said even he did not have any idea where will he go for information about the scholarship programme.
He has a son who is reading in class IV. Farid also wants to receive such financial support so that his son can continue his education.
According to Aminul Hoque Tushar, adviser at the BOMSA, the workers and left behind families who were interviewed in the survey said they need such a stipend for their children. But they do not have an idea of how and where to apply for it.
Actually, there is no publicity campaign about the programme, he observed.
It needs to disseminate information at the doorstep of migrant workers if the government wants to provide such support to the workers, he added.
However, the WEWB operates a fund that has been set up with migrant workers' welfare fees. Workers pay Tk 3,500 as a welfare fee while getting immigration clearance.
The board provides stipends to the students of PSC, JSC, SSC, and HSC levels. They get monthly Tk 1000, Tk1500, Tk2000, and Tk2500 respectively.
The students also receive Tk 2000, Tk2500, Tk 3500, and Tk 4000 for education materials per year, according to the WEWB data.
The required result varies from GPA3.8 to GPA 5 considering grade and workers' present status.
When asked, officials at the WEWB said there are 3000 quotas under the scholarship programme.
But so far the quota was not fulfilled as they did not get the required applications from the beneficiaries. Besides, a significant number of applications are rejected each year because of insufficient documents.
Mandatory documents include immigration clearance certificates from the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET) or membership certificates of WEWB.
Ovibashi Karmi Unnayan Program (OKUP) chairman Shakirul Islam said a large number of Bangladeshi migrants are working abroad. But an insignificant number of migrants' children are receiving scholarships.
The government should increase the coverage of the stipend programme. If necessary, it can make the terms and conditions easier and lower the result criteria of candidates.
Zahid Anwar, deputy director (Information and Public Relations) of the WEWB, said they had set up a campaign cell to provide necessary information to migrant workers.
They will start campaigning about their services including children's scholarships in migrant-prone areas soon.
arafataradhaka@gmail.com