The New Nation - Internet Edition

Amit Imran

From the birth of Bangladesh, the lawmakers and the elite society along with the bureaucrats has initiated and implemented many policies to upgrade the education system and its quality and has tried to increase the literacy rate of the country. The various policies have widely differed under the leadership and supervision of different governments which have made the education system itself vulnerable to drastic and unpredictable changes. In addition to this, changes in the education system have been initiated not only on the banner of development but also based on emotional values. All these cumulatively have fortified the quality of education from growing, restricting the socio-economic development, economic development and expansion of strong culture.

After the liberation war of Bangladesh, the medium of teaching or transmitting education was being changed from English to Bengali. If we ask ourselves, was it a correct decision, then I think the answer will be a straight NO. Although it might sound very harsh and odious, but this policy has actually created a base for us to be isolated from the world. This resulted in additional documentation needed for trade and business, increased distance with other countries, increased cost of doing business both in terms of money and time and in having a smooth bilateral relation with the developed world. The students taught under Bengali medium face tremendous trouble while coping up with the pace of the world. A student who works hard for four years to achieve a Bachelors degree in Bengali - does this actually help him to become established compared to another student who achieves a Bachelors degree in Business Administration or any other market oriented discipline. In addition, people graduated under Bengali medium face an unimaginable adaptability problem when they resume their education or work in any organisation where the medium of communication is English. Therefore, this policy has made our human resource inferior and the policy makers should be blamed for it.

Every year after the publication of SSC result and HSC result, getting admitted to renown educational institutions become the hot topic to be discussed everywhere. In an recent interview in a private television channel (October 11, 2008), the education secretary commented that they have adequate seats for all students to get admission but the students show reluctance to admit themselves in the regional educational institutions.

Probably his comment is true but did he ever think that why these students skip or waste a year rather than getting themselves being admitted?

Educational institutions established outside the metropolitan cities do not possess the necessary infrastructure and the logistical support which the students require. I believe, no student is ready or eager to leave his family and study in a new environment which he can easily get in a nearby place.

Recently the issue of the closure of many private universities have come up because of their poor performance. In this context, I would like to say that, YES; to some extend it is true but does all the failure is to be blamed on these universities. When a university starts its operation, it searches for students, which is the main source of revenue for the institution.

Students who are being admitted in these universities are already being screened out from various universities or other educational institutions. This categorically means that these students are already far behind than others and it would be very optimistic to expect an outstanding result from them. For example, if the foundation of a building is for two-storied, you cannot expect a twenty-storied building to stand on it. Obviously the performance of the universities should be judged but not based on the initial statistics of four or five years.

Another problem that persists in the society is the following of the unidentical syllabus that is being followed in different institutions. Since the syllabus is different which is widely seen between Bengali medium schools and English medium schools, the students merit level will varies widely. The students are not only going to be different in their educational skills but also in their attitude and the way they carry and present themselves to the society.

All these, cumulatively suggests that the education of Bangladesh in terms of quality is very vulnerable and the measures taken by the government or by the government authorities are not adequate or simply ineffective.

In order to improve the quality of education in the primary level, the government through the Primary & Mass Education Division had taken various steps and had allotted huge funds. Although as per the documents the primary schools do have a pool of qualified teachers and adequate logistical support but reality reflects a different scenario. Many posts of teachers are vacant, many teachers do not receive their salary on time and the school buildings need urgent renovation.

In this context, the government should create a strict cross-functional monitoring cell whose task would be to monitor the performance of the different educational institution and the progress of the projects initiated by the governments. If we can improve the quality of education in the primary level, then automatically the quality of education in secondary and higher level will improve.

In addition, the government should also impose a strict unified syllabus and curriculum which the institutions would follow because we do not have further time for experimenting. And I would request the lawmakers not to experiment with our education system anymore because a proper education can contribute to the prospering of the country.

They should not take any policies based on emotions rather the education quality and the system to be used to deliver it should be modern, market & work oriented, easily adaptable and hassle free. Only then we can truly see our Bangladesh having high literacy level that would lead to socio-economic and economic growth.