Staff of five prominent education NGOS - BRAC, Concern Worldwide, Dhaka Ahsania Mission, FIVDB, and Plan Bangladesh - and of BU-IED joined in a day-long workshop on February 17, 2007 to plan and design a research project for investigating various dimensions of access and participation in primary and secondary education. The project, under the sponsorship of the international Consortium for Research on Educational Access, Transitions and Equity (CREATE), involving eight institutions from Bangladesh, Ghana, India, South Africa and UK, will track for four years a sample of children from age 4 to 15 years in communities and schools in six "sentinel" sites in the country. The aim of the study is to gain insight into the dynamics of inclusion and exclusion in education and influence policies in this regard. The five education NGOs are partners in the participatory research project. Similar studies are being carried out in India, Ghana and South Africa.