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At present, about 80 million people in Bangladesh are at risk of losing their health and having a sharply reduced life expectancy as a result of exposure to excessive arsenic through drinking water from tube wells. In this article, we build a multi-objective mixed-integer optimisation model, which we can simulate. We identify efficient loci of the trade-off between the several competing objectives in order to provide safe water to the affected people. Three types of simulation cases are discussed. For each case, a different type of safe water was chosen as optimal. Copyright (c) 2007 the author(s). Journal compilation (c) 2007 RSAI.

Despite the burgeoning quantitative progress in tertiary and pre-tertiary levels, popular discourses render a growing concern that the quality of education has deteriorated over the years in Bangladesh. In identifying problems of the educational system in Bangladesh, a majority of previous macro-level studies adopted the approaches of policy-makers, NGOs, international organizations, and other intervening authorities. This study, in distinction, tries to explore the issue from a micro-perspective – students’ views regarding the quality of educational services they received in colleges and high schools, which makes it unique. Using a cross-sectional survey research design, data were collected from 114 first-year students from the University of Rajshahi, Bangladesh. Findings show that regardless of having good teachers, classrooms, and other facilities, students were heavily dependent on private tuition at the pre-tertiary education level. The services and facilities offered by the colleges of the respondents were of better quality than that of their high schools. Schools/colleges in district towns/divisional cities offer better quality services/facilities than those located at the union/village level. Respondents’ SSC result was significantly associated with the locality and quality of classrooms whereas HSC result was significantly affected by computer and internet facilities as well as the overall quality of services/facilities they enjoyed in their colleges.

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