Expanding Informal Sector Activities in Dhaka City. A Case Study of Education Coaching

The study of urban informal sector education has gained importance and expanded the scope and contents of the study in the last thirty years. One of the major challenges for geographers is finding the dynamics of this sector, as it is expanding gradually and a huge number of students are related to this activities. This research examines the role of education coaching as an urban informal activity. Dhaka city as a center of education has been experiencing the proliferation of coaching centers for the last twenty years. The mushrooming of coaching centers is symptomatic of the failure of Bangladesh's education system as a whole. Formal education institutions are failing to provide students with necessary instructions in the classrooms. This is why the guardians and their wards are making a beeline for education coaching. This research aims to describe the process of growth of coaching centers as an informal sector activity with a special emphasis on students' involvement in this process. As an empirical research, it follows a detailed questionnaire survey and direct interview method. This study discusses the size of economy controlled by the coaching centers, students' dependency on coaching and the impact of these phenomena.

Sifat Ara Siddique has completed honours and masters degree with first class position from the Department of Geography and Environment, University of Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh. As a part of fulfillment of her post-graduation, she completed this dissertation.