These learning centres officially opened in Dhaka, Chittagong, Barisal and Sylhet as part of the government's second phase of the 'Basic Education for Hard to Reach Urban Working Children' (BEHTRUWC) Project, says a UNICEF press release.

The project in this phase will offer skill-based non-formal education to 200,000 urban working children between the age of 10 and 14, including 60 per cent girls.

The second phase is being implemented by the Bureau of Non-Formal Education (BNFE) through 20 NGO partners under the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education (MOPME).

UNICEF, Swedish International Development Agency (Sida) and Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) are supporting the government to implement the project.

A total of 8,000 learning centres will eventually be set up in 2006 and 2007 in six divisional cities to reach the targeted 200,000 urban working children with a 40-month long skill-based non-formal education course.

UNICEF Representative in Bangladesh Louis-Georges Arsenault welcomed the second phase of the project as a timely response to the much-needed education and livelihood skills for urban working children.

"Some 1.5 million of the estimated 7.9 million working children in Bangladesh live in urban areas and 850,000 of them are aged between 10 and 14 years. Many of them work with little or no pay and under hazardous conditions such as brick chippers, industrial and transport sector workers, domestic helps and so on," said Arsenault.

"We greatly appreciate the support of Swedish Sida, Canadian CIDA and the Bangladesh government in implementing the project that reaches urban working children with important services and has a long-term goal to reduce child labour," he added.

It is expected that 20,000 working children out of 200,000 will be selected for training.